Shademp
420
Frontpage version of the article draft that this post holds. Open spoiler tag for initial draft.
Confusion surrounds the canon origin of the Shera airship, due to conflicting and vague statements. This thread lists the timeline of those statements, to enlighten everybody on the Shera's canon history and to hopefully shed some light on whether the Shera was built by Cid or not.
----
To start off, there is no question that the Shera has been stated as being a ship from a lost civilization (at least in the English game). This is supported by the WRO NPC in the Shera's engine room.
Further support is given by another NPC, this time on the main deck. Here only the "mysterious ancient power" is mentioned.
Albeit not directly stated, this fits like a glove with the idea that FFX and FFVII are connected, with Spirans having settled on the planet thousands of years before. We are led to assume that the Shera is a remnant of Spiran technology. If only because of the collective agreement that Cetrans were "nature hippies born with the power to commune with nature and therefore were not technologically advanced", the Spiran connection makes more sense.
Viewed through the lens of Dirge of Cerberus alone, both the shell and the technology of the Shera was not made by Cid.
Let's see what happens when we take the bigger picture of the Compilation into account.
After Cid descends to Edge and fight off Shadow Creepers, he turns to Tifa and says
In Advent Children Complete the bit with Cid fighting off Shadow Creepers was edited out, but his line remained the same.
Both the official English line and the retranslation are very curious. Calling something a "new model", implies that the appearance was conceived and/or made by Cid. If it was an ancient ship that had been found, it would simply have been a "new ship" not a "new model".
Here is where things get messy. Keep in mind that the original Japanese version of Dirge of Cerberus was released in January 2006, with the North American release happening in August the same year.
Page 46 of the Reunion Files:
This directly goes against the statements made in Dirge of Cerberus, which was released in Japan four months before the Reunion Files. Here the Shera was built by Cid. No alternative power source is specified, aside from Cid aiming for the ship to function without mako. The quote seems to say that Cid reached his goal of making the ship function with a different power source (otherwise the ship could not qualify as having been completed?).
Unfortunately this summary of Cid's time between the original game and Advent Children does not provide the name of who wrote this summary. Every character page in fact begins with this type of "OG -> AC" summary, without telling who the author of the passage is.
Moving ahead to a quote on page 86 of the same book. The first half of this quote has already been extensively debated in the argument about how magic and materia works. Now we move our attention to the second half of the quote.
This quote and the Dirge of Cerberus NPC script are the only instances where this "mysterious ancient power source" is mentioned. In the Reunion Files it is brought up by Tetsuya Nomura as though he came up with it on the spot. Even if the idea wasn't conceived during the interview from where this quote hails, the "I guess" part does give the vibe of an idea that is still an unexplored after-thought.
What do we make of all this? Taking only the Reunion Files book into consideration, the two quotes in it do not have to contradict each other. We can assume that while Cid did build the Shera, he somehow tapped into a "mysterious ancient power source". In order for it to justifiably be dubbed "ancient", he must have used some ancient device as a blueprint and then reverse engineered it. If the blueprints were entirely his own, the power source would be "mysterious and new" not "mysterious and ancient".
This all collapses with Dirge of Cerberus. The technology of the Shera is said to be something that can't be reproduced. The tapestry is inconsistent.
Although Dirge of Cerberus was originally released before the Reunion Files it is relevant to remember that the re-release, Dirge of Cerberus: International, came out in November 2008 in Japan. If the script of the original game and the International version are the same (THIS IS YET TO BE CONFIRMED), then the rule of "most recent entry is canon" can be applied if one wishes.
The Reunion Files does contain its share of outdated info, after all. The plot summary for Yuffie, on page 50, reads as follows:
- Scan for reference
With the release of Episode:Yuffie in the On the Way to a Smile novel in 2009, the summary in the Reunion Files does not apply at all. Her life was not "happy, relatively normal" and she did eventually go on a quest to find a materia that might cure Geostigma.
If we discard the Reunion Files as being outdated and retconned by Dirge of Cerberus:International, the origin of the Shera is clear. Still, both the Shera-related quotes in said book does leave an odd taste in one's mind...
In Cid's character profile on page 72-75 (page 74-77 in the 2009 release) we see that a compromise was made between the "ancient airship" and "built by Cid" origins.
This retcons what the WRO NPC in the Shera engine room stated in Dirge of Cerberus, as far as the English localization goes. The statement there was that the entire ship was not of Cid's construction. But in the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, it is clear that primarily the engine (at the very least) is the legacy of an ancient civilization. Most of it was built by Cid and his team.
It is not clear if this "legacy of an ancient civilization" is restricted to the engine, or if the "mysterious ancient power source" is still part of canon. The statement in the book is not extensive enough to read how much has been retconned from Dirge of Cerberus.
CONCLUSIONS:
Without the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, the On the Way to a Smile chapters would be very confusing. In Episode:Barret, Cid and his team are building a new airship, a new engine (one that Cid alone works on, with much frustration) and working on the oil refinement process in order to turn it into jet fuel. The airship is never named, so if we only took the NPC lines from Dirge of Cerberus into account, we'd be forced to conclude that this airship was not the Shera. Going by the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, it looks very much like the airship in OtWtaS is the Shera.
By Episode:Yuffie and Episode:Nanaki, the new airship is taken on a successful test flight, but with limited fuel.
From Episode:Yuffie, when Yuffie is near Corel and Cid arrives on his new airship.
While it is clear now that the shell of the Shera was built by Cid and his team we are still in the dark about the engine and its power source. Does the ship simply use jet fuel with higher efficiency than the airships that don't use the 'legacy of an ancient civilization' or does it run on a mysterious ancient power source as was stated in Dirge of Cerberus? Was the Shera's engine originally of Cid's making, but later replaced either before AC or between AC & DC? Is the engine Cid works on in Episode:Barret an ancient engine that he found and managed to get working through a process of trial and error?
The main question has been answered but many details remain unclear.
----
To start off, there is no question that the Shera has been stated as being a ship from a lost civilization (at least in the English game). This is supported by the WRO NPC in the Shera's engine room.
Further support is given by another NPC, this time on the main deck. Here only the "mysterious ancient power" is mentioned.
Albeit not directly stated, this fits like a glove with the idea that FFX and FFVII are connected, with Spirans having settled on the planet thousands of years before. We are led to assume that the Shera is a remnant of Spiran technology. If only because of the collective agreement that Cetrans were "nature hippies born with the power to commune with nature and therefore were not technologically advanced", the Spiran connection makes more sense.
Viewed through the lens of Dirge of Cerberus alone, both the shell and the technology of the Shera was not made by Cid.
Let's see what happens when we take the bigger picture of the Compilation into account.
---------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2005: Advent Children
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2005: Advent Children
After Cid descends to Edge and fight off Shadow Creepers, he turns to Tifa and says
Thanks to Morella for English Script
In Advent Children Complete the bit with Cid fighting off Shadow Creepers was edited out, but his line remained the same.
Both the official English line and the retranslation are very curious. Calling something a "new model", implies that the appearance was conceived and/or made by Cid. If it was an ancient ship that had been found, it would simply have been a "new ship" not a "new model".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2006: The Reunion Files
May 2006: The Reunion Files
Here is where things get messy. Keep in mind that the original Japanese version of Dirge of Cerberus was released in January 2006, with the North American release happening in August the same year.
Page 46 of the Reunion Files:
- Scan for reference
This directly goes against the statements made in Dirge of Cerberus, which was released in Japan four months before the Reunion Files. Here the Shera was built by Cid. No alternative power source is specified, aside from Cid aiming for the ship to function without mako. The quote seems to say that Cid reached his goal of making the ship function with a different power source (otherwise the ship could not qualify as having been completed?).
Unfortunately this summary of Cid's time between the original game and Advent Children does not provide the name of who wrote this summary. Every character page in fact begins with this type of "OG -> AC" summary, without telling who the author of the passage is.
Moving ahead to a quote on page 86 of the same book. The first half of this quote has already been extensively debated in the argument about how magic and materia works. Now we move our attention to the second half of the quote.
- Scan for reference
This quote and the Dirge of Cerberus NPC script are the only instances where this "mysterious ancient power source" is mentioned. In the Reunion Files it is brought up by Tetsuya Nomura as though he came up with it on the spot. Even if the idea wasn't conceived during the interview from where this quote hails, the "I guess" part does give the vibe of an idea that is still an unexplored after-thought.
What do we make of all this? Taking only the Reunion Files book into consideration, the two quotes in it do not have to contradict each other. We can assume that while Cid did build the Shera, he somehow tapped into a "mysterious ancient power source". In order for it to justifiably be dubbed "ancient", he must have used some ancient device as a blueprint and then reverse engineered it. If the blueprints were entirely his own, the power source would be "mysterious and new" not "mysterious and ancient".
This all collapses with Dirge of Cerberus. The technology of the Shera is said to be something that can't be reproduced. The tapestry is inconsistent.
Although Dirge of Cerberus was originally released before the Reunion Files it is relevant to remember that the re-release, Dirge of Cerberus: International, came out in November 2008 in Japan. If the script of the original game and the International version are the same (THIS IS YET TO BE CONFIRMED), then the rule of "most recent entry is canon" can be applied if one wishes.
The Reunion Files does contain its share of outdated info, after all. The plot summary for Yuffie, on page 50, reads as follows:
*Book's typo, not mine
- Scan for reference
With the release of Episode:Yuffie in the On the Way to a Smile novel in 2009, the summary in the Reunion Files does not apply at all. Her life was not "happy, relatively normal" and she did eventually go on a quest to find a materia that might cure Geostigma.
If we discard the Reunion Files as being outdated and retconned by Dirge of Cerberus:International, the origin of the Shera is clear. Still, both the Shera-related quotes in said book does leave an odd taste in one's mind...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2007 & 2009: FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania
2007 & 2009: FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania
In Cid's character profile on page 72-75 (page 74-77 in the 2009 release) we see that a compromise was made between the "ancient airship" and "built by Cid" origins.
This retcons what the WRO NPC in the Shera engine room stated in Dirge of Cerberus, as far as the English localization goes. The statement there was that the entire ship was not of Cid's construction. But in the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, it is clear that primarily the engine (at the very least) is the legacy of an ancient civilization. Most of it was built by Cid and his team.
It is not clear if this "legacy of an ancient civilization" is restricted to the engine, or if the "mysterious ancient power source" is still part of canon. The statement in the book is not extensive enough to read how much has been retconned from Dirge of Cerberus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONCLUSIONS:
Without the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, the On the Way to a Smile chapters would be very confusing. In Episode:Barret, Cid and his team are building a new airship, a new engine (one that Cid alone works on, with much frustration) and working on the oil refinement process in order to turn it into jet fuel. The airship is never named, so if we only took the NPC lines from Dirge of Cerberus into account, we'd be forced to conclude that this airship was not the Shera. Going by the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, it looks very much like the airship in OtWtaS is the Shera.
By Episode:Yuffie and Episode:Nanaki, the new airship is taken on a successful test flight, but with limited fuel.
From Episode:Yuffie, when Yuffie is near Corel and Cid arrives on his new airship.
While it is clear now that the shell of the Shera was built by Cid and his team we are still in the dark about the engine and its power source. Does the ship simply use jet fuel with higher efficiency than the airships that don't use the 'legacy of an ancient civilization' or does it run on a mysterious ancient power source as was stated in Dirge of Cerberus? Was the Shera's engine originally of Cid's making, but later replaced either before AC or between AC & DC? Is the engine Cid works on in Episode:Barret an ancient engine that he found and managed to get working through a process of trial and error?
The main question has been answered but many details remain unclear.
Last edited:
.
