The portrail of Avalanche

[Pixel]

It seems Avalanche will be getting a facelift in some way. In the OG they are kinda goofy, which may not match the tone of the remake. FFXIIIs NORA had the same kinda tone, but a little more fleshed out... but not much.

I'd like to see them portrayed as more of a hacker group. Well, Jessie has the speciality, but I'd like to see her portrayed as a more competent hacker. Given the advance in technology since the OG, they can show a more contemporary use of tech... though without going quite as far as DoCs neural uplink crap.

Maybe show more varied levels of radicalisation within the group, and conflict about the damage caused. A lot of the conflict is handled in OTWTAS, but I'd like to see it referenced in a more immediate way in the game.

I'm watching the TV show, Mr. Robot. The second episode is giving me some Avalanche vibes. There's a hacker group plotting to bring down an evil global corporation by blowing up a data centre via gas pipeline, killing people in the surrounding area. Thought that was kinda interesting.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I’m fine if they change the characterisation of AVALANCHE somewhat, but I don’t want their deeds whitewashed. A large part of the appeal of the original game is the moral ambiguity of playing as mercenaries, eco-terrorists, etc., against an unambiguously oppressive world-ruling corporation. Diluting that would make the game something less than the original.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

I'd like some mention of Before Crisis's AVALANCHE - maybe saying the struggle has been going on for years - and they're taking up the name AVALANCHE to show you can't kill an idea.

I want Jesse to still be an explosives expert. That made her super cool. Just a girl talking about how much she loves making bombs.

 

[Pixel]

Was she an explosives expert? I thought she just found plans for a bomb that the old Avalanche made, and misjudged the power of it.

I figured her to be sort of like Chloe from 24.

 

[Starling]

Does Cloud have any knowledge of explosives too? I never really got why he'd be the one asked to try to diffuse the one that blew sector 7 otherwise. Jessie's definitely a tech expert who knows at least the basics of bomb making, even if she did end up just following instructions on how to make it.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

I think she had a line talking about how she liked explosions - even someone who knows about explosives can make a mistake/follow a plan that was a bigger bomb than you thought - right?

I want her to be voiced by someone who sounds like Kaylee from Fire Fly

 

[Wimbly]

I can't remember if the general populace of the slums are in favor of Avalanche or not. A lot of innocents are killed in the explosions as Reeve stated at some point, so wouldn't they be hated? Doesn't that make logical sense?

If a loved one happened to be working in one of the reactors they bombed, you'd hate them. Or is it the case that the vast majority of people working at the targeted sites would be from the upper plate? Seems unlikely..

 

[CameoAmalthea]

If you take BC into account then they have lots of reason to hate/fear AVALANCHE. But then, they also have lots of reasons to dislike Shinra. Which boils down to apathetic - which seems to be about what we get in the game.

 

[Wimbly]

I see, rock and a hard place kind of deal then. I think they should definitely include some of both then. I wonder if Avalanche will have some kind of propaganda they spread to fuel the hate for Shinra, trying to get people to see its for the greater good.

Will very interesting to see the way they're handled.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I can't remember if the general populace of the slums are in favor of Avalanche or not. A lot of innocents are killed in the explosions as Reeve stated at some point, so wouldn't they be hated? Doesn't that make logical sense?

If a loved one happened to be working in one of the reactors they bombed, you'd hate them. Or is it the case that the vast majority of people working at the targeted sites would be from the upper plate? Seems unlikely..

This is the great cleverness of the writing. One of the many things the OG has always been praised for is the feeling it gives that this is a real world crammed full of people going about their own lives, each the centre of their own story. The NPCs feel like real, rounded people.

The writers took care that people of the slums did not come across as a single entity with a single mind. From the look of Midgar in the remake, it's a city whose population runs into the millions. Let's say three million in the slums. Three million individuals all with their own reasons for being there, their own hopes and dreams, their own unique attitudes towards Shinra and Avalanche. Some aspire to work for Shinra, some want to tear it down. Some are content with their lives, some are bitter. For some, Avalanche are freedom fighters, and for others they are terrorists. It's like, not all rich white people are Conservatives, and not all working class people vote Labour.

 

[AerithLives]

Yes I would like to hear a lot more about the Before Crisis as I have had to play it through watching translated Youtube videos. It might be a good chance for them to release the Before Crisis in the west too.

 

[Clement Rage]

Incompetent? She achieved more in a week with five people than the previous incarnation of AVALANCHE managed in six years with an army, an unlimited budget, at least one supersoldier to rival Sephiroth and a top level mole at the executive table.

AVALANCHE didn't begin with Fuhito either, it was always a legacy name.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

To whom are you referring, Clem? Jessie?

 

[Clement Rage]

Aye. I know it was a team effort, but still.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

Credit to original AVALANCHE in that it was there plan that Jesse and the rest carried out.

The difference between the attempts at the beginning of BC at the beginning of the OG is that the Turks caught on and actively worked to stop the reactors from being blown up. The Turks worked to counter AVALANCHE at every turn.

Versus when the bombings were carried out in the OG the majority of the Turks were gone and the remaining ones had been arrested awaiting trial for treason. So Shinra didn't have any intelligence devision at the time.

Jesse was competent and she clearly skilled to be able to do it - but I don't think Old AVALANCHE was far inferior so much as better countered since the Shinra still had the Turks as a separate, well manned department and SOLDIER.

Shinra is much weaker all ready at the start of the OG - and weakened by AVALANCHE chipping away at the moral/adding to internal pressure.

 

[Clement Rage]

The first reactor bombing wasn't stopped by Turk counterintelligence. It was pure luck that the Player Character happened to be on scene.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

Well there were on duty and spotted it - that's something. *shrugs*

 

[Clement Rage]

Y'know, I wish BC didn't try so hard to undermine every other character's achievements.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

I like that Shinra was all ready falling a part internally - that it's once mighty SOLDIER program lost everyone - that it's all ready weak. That ultimately it's Sephiroth and the planet itself through WEAPON that brought it down. I like the inevitability of it. It seems like karmic justice.

And I don't mind AVALANCHE carrying on the work of others - it sort of says that even impossible causes riddled with causes still matter, because others will carry on the fight.

But I'm all idealist and want clear happy morals mixed in with tragedy.