This has always bothered me about Yuffie.

[Ite]

Why would you put materia in a ranged weapon? It seems to me you have everything to lose and nothing to gain by hurling your valuables at your enemy.

 

[Jason Tandro]

What bothers me is the fact that she constantly jumps around but never BUTTONS HER DAMN SHORTS UP....

But seriously that's a good point. Somebody come up with a good excuse / game theory / fanfiction about why.

 

[Shademp]

Somebody come up with a good excuse / game theory / fanfiction about why.

In-universe, Yuffie might imbue her weapon with elemental- and status affinities with the help of Support materia, thus balancing out some of the risk with throwing her weapon by having at least the advantage of added weapon effects.

If I were to truly go crazy, I'd say she has linked a materia to her shuriken that somehow guarantees her weapon always returns to her. That's of course not the case, but for the sake of wild ideas...

In-universe materia does not always seem to be used by linking it to a weapon, so we can imagine that the majority of materia used by Yuffie is not linked to her shuriken.

 

[Jason Tandro]

What if she has magnets in her Shuriken and when she throws it they steal materia and the materia are equipped to it.

Screw fanfiction or theory I want that as a gameplay mechanic.

 

[ForceStealer]

If I were to truly go crazy, I'd say she has linked a materia to her shuriken that somehow guarantees her weapon always returns to her. That's of course not the case, but for the sake of wild ideas...

This was also my first wild idea. Some manner of permanently imbued 'Return' materia. Effectively enchanting it. No idea though

 

[Channy]

I dunno, if anime has taught me anything, it's that Shuriken users always have some way of having them return back to the owner, as if they're part boomerang or something.

A 'return' Materia would make sense.

I mean, by proxy though, the materia is always equipped to the weapons, and on most weapons, whoever it's for, you can see where it would be equipped and how it would work.

But what about the fucking Paper crane? What, are you gonna just jam a small orb into those folds and hope it stays?

 

[Mage]

I just figured she wouldn't be let loose with a shuriken without being confident that it would return on every throw.
The commentary does raise an interesting point about materia though, if you get more experience you can level it up to Master and then it'll reproduce, but what about dead slots? You're still using the materia and accruing experience but some weapons just don't permit growth and I can't see how that could work offhand TBH.
Also the actual slots themselves, materia seems to form nice uniform balls but some of those weapons don't have apparent materia slots (like the aforementioned paper crane) or even the depth to accommodate the materia. I know with RPGs you have to take some things for granted an' shit, but sometimes I need specifics!

 

[ChipNoir]

Tangential question: WHAT THE BLOOD FUCK IS THE SIZE OF MATERIA?

Seriously. Do they shrink/grow to fit into slots? How are they secured? And why all the sudden can people just shove them into their BODIES in AC?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

And why all the sudden can people just shove them into their BODIES in AC?

To be fair, the only people doing that weren't made of flesh and blood. =P

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Tangential question: WHAT THE BLOOD FUCK IS THE SIZE OF MATERIA?

Seriously. Do they shrink/grow to fit into slots? How are they secured? And why all the sudden can people just shove them into their BODIES in AC?

Like other crystal formations – somewhere between the size of a marble and a boulder.

But really. I think that most Market-bought Materia that are used for slots and things are some sort of a standard size, as there's an industry built around them and weapons that utilize them.





X

 

[Joker]

I have a question about why the fuck she has a second f in her name if they didn't want her called YUFFIE but hey I'm just an englishy wordmaker mouthusey

related: where is red's comb putting its materia?

 

[ForceStealer]

And why all the sudden can people just shove them into their BODIES in AC?

As Tres said, they can't. That's just the Remnants, who are simply made of spirit energy.

People really ran with that for some reason, though.


And yeah, echo what X said as well. The standardized materia made by Shinra are made to fit into slots. Wild materia like you find at the Mako fountain in Nibel is shaped like any natural crystal.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I think materia is very small, maybe the size of a marble, but if they made it that small in the OG we wouldn't be able to see it - except in the close-up of Aerith's hair shown above.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

I heard the holes in Buster Sword were originally conceptualized as materia slots, which indeed is how I always saw them? But that when they realized they couldn't put eight holes that size in the powerful weapons and have them look remotely functional they decided to just be realllllly vague about how equipping materia even works.

XD With the result that it was hard to tell that the Remnant's approach to equipping was symbolically unique, since we'd never actually seen anyone else do it.

But I mean, AC was bad about materia overall. Cloud fights Sephiroth without backup or magic, in spite of Yuufie having specifically brought him materia. (Such maturity!) The White Materia looks very clearly green despite the name in the hi-def animation of the bouncing-into-the-water sequence.

Kadaj summons Bahamut with a Support materia.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Re: The White Materia not only looking green, but actually emitting green light in the cutscenes, that used to always confuse me as well until I realized that later on, Cloud and co realize that it was glowing green to show that it was 'activated', and that Holy has been summoned...that's how they realize someone or something must be blocking it. A trait unique to this "useless" heirloom materia?? I dunno.