The smell of mako

[The Twilight Mexican]

I don't know what it should smell like, but I do know the combination of the game's fantastic art design and that immersive music make it impossible to not imagine some kind of smell.

 

[Torrie]

I'm currently reading some fanfiction where the author mentions the smell in the Nibelheim reactor:

It was mostly large pipes and tubes, which twisted and dropped their way down the cliff side. Large steel scaffolding held it all together, while at the bottom of the machinery—some four stories beneath them—gaping holes that had been drilled through the rock pulsated with the green glow of raw mako. They were so close to the lifestream that Cloud could smell it, the mako in his own body buzzing as the minty-bleach smell came to line his nostrils.

Personally, I've always imagined it should smell like... either coins, like Celes said, or tarnished silver. Very tarnished silver.

 

[Octo]

Top notes of windex
Heart of antifreeze/de-icer
Drydown has a hint of WD40

 

[Rankles]

Wet dog?

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Always headcannoned mako to smell like... a really strong eucalyptus tree mixed with pine. It's liquid life energy so it's probably a lot less chemical in nature and a lot more organic.

 

[Cat on Mars]

I always thought it would smell like ammonia or paint remover. Something like "mint" or "eucaliptus" is more a visual association than anything, Mako is used as fuel so it should smell like one, or a similar chemical at least.
Gasoline, paint remover, ammonia have a strong and unpleasant smell and I don't think Mako would smell even remotely nice.

 

[Clement Rage]

I agree with past me. Some kind of burny smoky smell.

 

[Cat on Mars]

After giving this more thought that was needed, I've made my decision: it has to smell like turpentine. Originally it was made from living terebinth trees's resin.
In other words, it's made of tree sweat.
Turpentine creates some foul smelling fumes so that settles it for me.

 

[Fade]

I don't imagine the Lifestream or spirit energy itself to have much of a smell, but I could see the "mako smell" of reactor emissions being something like that really gross, stick-in-your-nose smell of burning plastic/electrical fires. The kind that makes you feel physically sick.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Something like "mint" or "eucaliptus" is more a visual association than anything

If you've ever smelled pine or eucalyptus, then you'd know they aren't just a visual association. Eucalyptus sap has a very strong smell to it that is almost chemical in nature, but not quite. The leaves also taste similar to how the sap smells and are used in some locations to make teas, essential oils, etc. Pine has a more earthy smell to it, but it's still really strong, especially if you're burning green pine wood or pine needles. You can easily find scented candles with a Pine scent. Or run your tounge over some pine needles and that's the taste/smell.

 

[Cat on Mars]

If you've ever smelled pine or eucalyptus, then you'd know they aren't just a visual association.

The terebinth tree is from the same family.

 

[BlueCollarNerd]

Great topic I'm glad it was brought back to life a few times. I would agree with most that the lifestream in its natural state would have a very organic odor. I think it would be a very strong odor like tea tree oil.

QUOTE="X-SOLDIER, post: 151917, member: 3"]I always imagined that it had that electrical ozone smell, kinda like when a transformer, or a capacitor explodes (dunno if anyone here can relate to that). As far as the inside of the Reactors themselves, there's a lot of oil & mechanics on top of that, that I think would add in to everything.

X[/QUOTE]


I can relate X I work in the electrical field.

Now I would assume the inside of the reactors would smell a little different. You would have all the smells of the machinery like X stated. So I think you would get the Tea Tree odor mixed with gear oil and metallic smell like coins.

If you are talking about the smell outside a reactor like when sephiroth makes his comment. That my friends, would have to smell completely different and awful. Sulfur comes to mind.

 

[Erotic Materia]

I can't begin to guess at what it would smell like, but I have doubts it would have much of a strong smell regardless. No one ever wrinkles their nose at it, despite the numerous occasions when characters are literally above a pit of the stuff. In my mind, I've always looked at mako as basically a green-tinted, warm water. Not sea water, mind you. Just water. That's glowy. Maybe it tastes a bit like minerals, I dunno.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It's nice to see this thread being revived.

 

[Odysseus]

I can't begin to guess at what it would smell like, but I have doubts it would have much of a strong smell regardless. No one ever wrinkles their nose at it, despite the numerous occasions when characters are literally above a pit of the stuff. In my mind, I've always looked at mako at basically a green-tinted, warm water. Not sea water, mind you. Just water. That's glowy. Maybe it tastes a bit like minerals, I dunno.

There are at least two occassions where the smell of Mako is commented on, so it has to have some kind of recognizable odor. I agree that it probably isn't so disgusting that people would be revolted by it, otherwise Midgar would have a reputation of being a city that stinks, and the characters would have to plug their noses in the reactor.
I don't really have a guess at to what it actually does smell like though.

 

[Erotic Materia]

There are at least two occassions where the smell of Mako is commented on, so it has to have some kind of recognizable odor. I agree that it probably isn't so disgusting that people would be revolted by it, otherwise Midgar would have a reputation of being a city that stinks, and the characters would have to plug their noses in the reactor.
I don't really have a guess at to what it actually does smell like though.

I kind of like @Rankles idea of "wet dog". Musty, organic, noticeable without being pungent.

 

[Cat on Mars]

If you are talking about the smell outside a reactor like when sephiroth makes his comment. That my friends, would have to smell completely different and awful. Sulfur comes to mind.

Sulfur absolutely stinks. It smells like rotten eggs and the characters would descibe it as such, so I don't think it smells like that even if sulfur can release fumes too.

 

[Fade]

I can't begin to guess at what it would smell like, but I have doubts it would have much of a strong smell regardless. No one ever wrinkles their nose at it, despite the numerous occasions when characters are literally above a pit of the stuff. In my mind, I've always looked at mako at basically a green-tinted, warm water. Not sea water, mind you. Just water. That's glowy. Maybe it tastes a bit like minerals, I dunno.

At least in English, Sephiroth's line has a kind of weird amount of context implied even by a surface reading. Like, I always took these things from it without having ever really stopped to think about it before:
-That mako has a smell, but not necessarily an inherently bad one
-That Nibelheim's smell was notably worse than the average reactor, to the point of being bad
-That the "mako" smell probably has more to do with mako reactor emissions than anything else

Of course, I've no idea how much of that is an accident of the translation's choice of grammar. But that aside, I'd agree that Midgar probably doesn't stink in the same way Nibel did. Midgar probably has more of a general, background kind of smell that you can get used to. The reactors of Midgar were comparatively cutting edge, after all.

Still, I'd imagine that Midgar's air was pretty gross on the whole. Kinda like how you start finding black stuff in your snot after a couple days in London.

 

[Odysseus]

Still, I'd imagine that Midgar's air was pretty gross on the whole. Kinda like how you start finding black stuff in your snot after a couple days in London.

Barret does mention polluted air being a problem in the slums on the train ride:

Barret
“All the pollution from Mako energy above
falls down on the world below.”

Barret
“The world below's now swamped in pollution.” <---Unused line

Barret
“On top'a that,
the Reactor keeps drainin' up
all the energy.”

“Thanks to them,
the land's wastin' away.
It's even lost the ability to
clean up the air.”

 

[Erotic Materia]

Barret does mention polluted air being a problem in the slums on the train ride:

Barret
“All the pollution from Mako energy above
falls down on the world below.”

Barret
“The world below's now swamped in pollution.” <---Unused line

Barret
“On top'a that,
the Reactor keeps drainin' up
all the energy.”

“Thanks to them,
the land's wastin' away.
It's even lost the ability to
clean up the air.”

Right, but I think we're talking about two different things: The smell of mako vs the smell of mako being converted into electricity.

Like gasoline versus gasoline burning. 2 very different smells.

 

[BlueCollarNerd]

Sulfur absolutely stinks. It smells like rotten eggs and the characters would descibe it as such, so I don't think it smells like that even if sulfur can release fumes too.

Was thinking more of a lingering scent of sulfur seeing how the town was so far away from the reactor.

I can't begin to guess at what it would smell like, but I have doubts it would have much of a strong smell regardless. No one ever wrinkles their nose at it, despite the numerous occasions when characters are literally above a pit of the stuff. In my mind, I've always looked at mako at basically a green-tinted, warm water. Not sea water, mind you. Just water. That's glowy. Maybe it tastes a bit like minerals, I dunno.

You guys bring up a good point about midgar and how it has 8 reactors surrounding the city. I havent played the remake so i havent seen any facial reactions only the few comments from the OG which had no description. They just mentioned it smelled.

Guess im a little miss informed due to the new information / new facial reactions

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I imagine mako feels more unctuous than water. It seems you can't swim in it; people who fall into it, sink. So it must be less dense than water. However, like water it has solid, liquid, and vapour forms.

Don't forget that if you live surrounded by a smell, you soon lose the ability to smell it. The people of Midgar are surrounded by the smell of mako, so they'd only notice it if they went into an area where the smell was really concentrated.

 

[kathy202]

I like how despite all the technology in the world today, we don't have a means to emulate smell in something like this. Personally, I've never really thought about it despite the number of times they've mentioned the smell of mako. Thinking about it now, maybe the raw lifestream smells like nature and mako smells like unburnt hydrocarbons?

 

[Ryushikaze]

I suspect that while Lifestream smells of biological things, Mako smells a bit chemically and rotted, as a result of being processed

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

At what point does Lifestream become mako, then?