The Soldier Program Was Started Because Of Sephiroth

[jazzflower92]

I don't know if anyone focuses on this tidbit as much, but SOLDIER only became what it is because Sephiroth didn't gain the powers of a Cetra. If he did (which would have been impossible), then that would mean that SOLDIER would have never existed. It's an interesting thing to think about that Sephiroth wasn't originally trained to be a warrior, but someone who could lead them to the Promised Land. In a way, it shows that Shinra even in failing in their original intentions were always going to find a way to make him into being a tool.

 

[Ariga]

I thought that was canon? That The Soldier Program was started because of Sephiroth.

 

[jazzflower92]

I just wanted to discuss the idea further. I know it's canon.

 

[Ariga]

Oh, okay. Yeah, I agree with you. Shinra would have used Sephiroth like a tool whatever happened. He was born as an experiment, after all.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

You're right, Jazz, and it's one of the things I love about Sephiroth's story. He was 100% conceived, designed, and made to be a corporate asset of the Shinra company.

Gast: President Shinra, I found a frozen Ancient!
Prez Shinra: Marvellous. Make me some new ones so we can find an inexhaustible supply of mako.

A little later
Gast: Oops, it's not an Ancient, it's a space alien. Time to run away....

Some months later
Prez Shinra: If it can't find me mako what the fuck is it good for? I spent a bloody fortune on that thing. And it's funny looking.
Hojo: Well, President, the infant appears to be quite strong. And we do also make weapons.....

 

[Shademp]

@The Twilight Mexican once wrote an article on the topic.

- Was Sephiroth the first SOLDIER?

Though it's not in the current version of the article, I noted to Tres that in the Dirge of Cerberus tutorial you fight against SOLDIER robots. The tutorial takes place when Vincent was still a Turk, most certainly taking place before Sephiroth's birth. It makes sense to think that the SOLDIER robots were inspired by human SOLDIER, which add credence to the idea that Sephiroth was NOT the first SOLDIER, as far as Compilation canon is concerned.

Of course one could still discuss the differences between pre-Sephiroth SOLDIER and post-Sephiroth SOLDIER from various angles.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I always reckoned that when they realised he wasn't what they'd bred him to be, i.e. an Ancient, they stuck him in the SOLDIER program because he was prodigiously strong and they didn't know what else to do with him.

 

[Lestat]

I always assumed that sephiroth, genesis & AngeAL were merely the first of the first class SOLDIER and they paved the way for the superpowered mako soldiers.

Never once thought that shinra didn't have soldier as a generic army fighting its own wars prior to the jenova project kicking off.

 

[jazzflower92]

I always reckoned that when they realised he wasn't what they'd bred him to be, i.e. an Ancient, they stuck him in the SOLDIER program because he was prodigiously strong and they didn't know what else to do with him.

I could imagine that he would have no where else to go to if they didn't repurpose him.

 

[Odysseus]

I was going through FFVII's script and realized something related to this. When Cloud introduces himself to Vincent, He says that he's “Cloud, formerly of SOLDIER.” to which Vincent responds “You were also with Shinra…? Then do you know Lucrecia?” Which implies that Vincent knew what SOLDIER was already, meaning it existed before Sephiroth was born. So even before DoC, it was implied to be around in Vincent's time.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

That is some good thinking.

 

[jazzflower92]

I was going through FFVII's script and realized something related to this. When Cloud introduces himself to Vincent, He says that he's “Cloud, formerly of SOLDIER.” to which Vincent responds “You were also with Shinra…? Then do you know Lucrecia?” Which implies that Vincent knew what SOLDIER was already, meaning it existed before Sephiroth was born. So even before DoC, it was implied to be around in Vincent's time.

Maybe from his coffin he heard of SOLDIER. Or if you take into consideration Before Crisis, then he would know about SOLDIER. He could have possibly thought that maybe Lucrecia being Sephiroth's mother was common knowledge.