Were Cloud and Co famous for saving the Planet?

[LicoriceAllsorts]

After Meteor, did Cloud and his party become famous as 'Saviours of the Planet' or something like that? I have a feeling this is mentioned somewhere, and yet in most of the post-OG material that I'm familiar with, they seem to go about their daily lives quite anonymously.

Also where was Reeve at the end of FFVII? Do we know?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

After Meteor, did Cloud and his party become famous as 'Saviours of the Planet' or something like that?

Yeah, it's mentioned in Dirge and a couple of the books that they're known as "the heroes of the Jenova War." Of course, we don't see any recognition of this in the On the Way to A Smile stories, and it barely gets lip service in Dirge.

Also where was Reeve at the end of FFVII? Do we know?

Somewhere in Midgar, presumably. He mentions through Cait Sith that he had people taking refuge in the slums.

Of course, he seems to have overlooked rounding up his mother.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

He mentions this in DoC presumably?

 

[CrashOuch]

I feel like I remember talk of Reeve setting up the WRO pretty immediately, like while everyone else was still taking refuge from Midgar in Kalm. Which makes me think I must have read it in Rufus's on the way to a smile or maybe the Turk's novel.

Everyone seems pretty able to fly under the radar despite any fame they may have racked up.

 

[ForceStealer]

He mentions this in DoC presumably?

No he says it through Cait Sith in the ending scene of FFVII.

But yeah, I could see word spreading that there were people involved in stopping the Meteor crisis. And maybe some people might know some of them (Reeve being from Shinra and his WRO is probably the most famous, and then he probably tells the story at least to members of his organization, given that they recognize Vincent.) And former Shinra employees or troopers could be familiar with what AVALANCHE looked like. But I could see that most people might not actually know WHO did it, or really what they did.

They're certainly not famous the way Yuna and her Guardians were.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Actually it's not in either of those novels. I was re-reading them earlier. And watching the DoC cut-scenes, I'm now wondering, how does Vincent even know what Reeve looks like? Has he ever met him before?

Thanks, Tres, I double-checked that and he says he "had everyone take refuge in the slums", but he doesn't say that he was personally there organising it (although he probably was).

 

[Clement Rage]

We last see Reeve being arrested in the Shinra building, so he'd end up wherever Scarlet and Heidegger put him. I think he'd pretty much have to be on site organising evacuation, really.

Most of the world saving stuff happens outside public view, and the party can go most places in the game without drawing attention. There isn't journalists camping outside 7th heaven in AC. Could be more famous for saving Edge from Bahamut.

Tifa and Barret were scheduled to be executed on live TV, so their faces would be known at least to some people.

Reeve says 'I am supposed to be one of the heroes of the Jenova War', but that doesn't mean the others have the same recognition. He might have got most of the credit, being visible helping refugees. Yuffie also helps with the evacuation.

They'd only be famous if Reeve or Rufus spread the story somehow. The only party member that I could see actually wanting fame is Yuffie, the others would just prefer to be left alone, so would those two respect that?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I can see Reeve wanting the fame as it would help to counteract the bad rep of having been a Shinra exec. Being visible helping refugees would make him a hero of the Metor Crisis rather than 'the Jenova War', don't you think? Canon itself seems unclear as to whether the general public know about 'the Jenova War' or not. Do they know that Jenova was an alien, do they know the role played by Sephiroth in summoning Meteor, or by Aerith in summoning Holy, do they know Cloud and Co battled with Sephiroth in the Crater? They don't really seem to know about any of these things. Maybe it's a bit of secret history Reeve shared with all his fourteen year old WRO recruits.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

If it helps anyone, the 10th Anniversary Ultimania says this:

"Word spread of Cloud’s group protecting the planet against Sephiroth and his Jenova-kind. After Sephiroth’s defeat they became known as the 「Heroes of the Jenova War」."

Again, though, we don't really see any of this sort of recognition until Dirge.

 

[Ite]

Piping in to say “the Jenova War” is 100% not what the common folk would logically call it. In the OG, even those oppressed by Shinra bought the line that AVALANCHE was responsible for Sector 7, Meteor, and Weapon. Most people in FFVII’s world are fast asleep, and wouldn’t question what they’re told. Even if the WRO released a press statement exonerating AVALANCHE, and people were able to be convinced by it, they would still probably call the events of the OG “The AVALANCHE War” ———— if they called it a war at all. Three city bombings, a handful of kaiju attacks, and a near miss by Meteor doesn’t sound like a war. They don’t even seem like connected events.

Furthermore, if the WRO dished that there exists at least one hostile eldritch horror from space who can read minds, shapeshift, and eat the souls of the dead, I imagine that would hurt the credibility of their assertion that the terrorists were the good guys all along. And if people believed it, it would cause mass panic. If the WRO did that, they are more foolish than I originally thought.

Even if people bought the whole story, weren’t freaked out by it, and “word spread” I find it extremely implausible that they would a) call it a war b) name it “the Jenova War” instead of “the AVALANCHE War” or “The Meteor Crisis” or something that common folk would actually be able to point to and say “oh yeah that.”

 

[ForceStealer]

I always figured the 'Heroes of the Jenova War' thing was a branding effort by Reeve to give credence to the WRO. And this is why he becomes disillusioned when he fails to live up to it. But I agree that's a bizarre term to choose for your brand

 

[Clement Rage]

This is one of those things we can't know, because AVALANCHE didn't take straw polls of passersby to ascertain public opinion. What did Shinra tell the world about the source of Meteor, etc. We dunno. What were they expecting when they were preparing to go into the North Cave? What did they say about where the Weapons and Meteor came from? AVALANCHE was blamed initially, for 'causing this situation', but how and why? We don't know enough.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Come to think of it, what did Shin-Ra tell the public happened on those upper floors of their HQ the night President Shinra died? What did they say happened on the cargo ship? What did the survivors say they saw (e.g. the soldier on the cargo ship who said "That thing's not human")? What would a public face like Dio say after meeting Sephiroth face to face?

There's actually a lot of room for the public to have been hearing about horror film attacks by "Sephiroth and his Jenova kind." And if his thoughts at this time were in line with those at the time of Advent Children, then he was thinking "I want the humans to know this is my doing," as he would with geostigma later.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I find the whole 'heroes of the jenova war' difficult to reconcile with everything else that's canon. Force, when does Reeve become disillusioned? He barely even gets a mention in any post-OG material except for Dirge of Cerberus, which isn't a game I know well at all.

 

[ForceStealer]

Well, I'm referring specifically to Dirge After the WRO Headquarters are attacked and destroyed by Deepground, you as Vincent find him wallowing in the command center, saying that "I'm supposed to be a hero of the Jenova War..." Vincent cheers him up by saying Reeve and the rest of AVALANCHE convinced him to start moving and effect his own destiny again.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It's so nice to see 'effect' used properly as a verb. It made my day, which admittedly has just started.

 

[ForceStealer]

Vincent doesn't say that exactly, so I'll happily take the credit for that one

 

[Clement Rage]

All the time you're chasing Sephiroth, he's described by NPCs only as 'The Man in the Black Cape'. (Ironically, he's actually just wearing a long black coat.) He kills some soldiers in Junon, but there's at best 'a rumour' that it might be Sephiroth.

My understanding was that no one had any idea what Geostigma was, they thought it was the Planet's revenge.

Re Reeve, the one line could be his personal view for all we know.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

All the time you're chasing Sephiroth, he's described by NPCs only as 'The Man in the Black Cape'. (Ironically, he's actually just wearing a long black coat.) He kills some soldiers in Junon, but there's at best 'a rumour' that it might be Sephiroth.

Dio says he met Sephiroth, though, in the letter Cloud receives from him after the chocobo race.

My understanding was that no one had any idea what Geostigma was, they thought it was the Planet's revenge.

Sephiroth intended to make sure everyone knew it was him once he had his body back. He says this in the final Lifestream Black segment from the OtWtAS novel.

Re Reeve, the one line could be his personal view for all we know.

At least one WRO soldier (in Kalm) refers to him as "Jenova War hero Reeve Tuesti," and quite a few WRO soldiers know who Vincent is without needing an introduction.

To say nothing of all the cavorting Cid, Yuffie, etc. do with the WRO, so ...

 

[S.L.Kerrigan]

I noticed a giant poster of Cloud in a quite heroic pose (or someone resembling him with a buster sword) in Dirge of Cerberus, located on a building in the scene where Vincent meet a little slum boy, early in the game (31:17 in a youtube video). But it is difficult to decipher the text below, it may be just an advertisement for Final Fantasy VII.

 

[Makoeyes987]

The WRO NPCs are literal fanboys and girls aware of what Cloud and Vincent did in FFVII. Reeve definitely dropped their names to the public at large over time to give them credit *and* bolster the mandate of the WRO. One of the WRO members is a relative of Biggs or Wedge too, and they definitely was aware of the truth.

Between Reeve, Johnny and word of mouth travel, it definitely becomes known that Cloud and the others were responsible for saving the Planet.