Why is Yuffie suddenly a weak little girl?

[Dark and Divine]

Yuffie sounded weak in CoY because she didn't had any materia with her.

She was feeling sad and lonely and on the brink of a depression.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Yuffie sounded weak in CoY because she didn't had any materia with her.

She was feeling sad and lonely and on the brink of a depression.

She had that one Cure materia the group let her keep. That one, single materia, a tiny collection not even including the stuff that actually, by rights, belongs to Wutai, such as Leviathan, the mighty water god of the nation. Does it seem uncool that she didn't get that one back at least?

Ok, you might actually have a point here considering how materia obsessed the chick is, plus the fact that her nation's god has been stolen.

 

[Dark and Divine]

Other thing to take in consideration is that while Yuffie is fast and agile, she seems kinda skinny, as if she wasn't particulary physically strong.

So, while Yuffie mays be fast and agile enough to climb skyscrapers and do backflips in midair, she may not have a lot of physical strength per se, this being the reason while she had dificulty to break a wooden door and such.

Ok, this might sound a bit farfetched, since she handles that big shuriken like it was nothing, but still...

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Other thing to take in consideration is that while Yuffie is fast and agile, she seems kinda skinny, as if she wasn't particulary physically strong.

So, while Yuffie mays be fast and agile enough to climb skyscrapers and do backflips in midair, she may not have a lot of physical strength per se, this being the reason while she had dificulty to break a wooden door and such.

Ok, this might sound a bit farfetched, since she handles that big shuriken like it was nothing, but still...

Dude, just no. Firstly, as you pointed out, big honkin shuriken. Secondly, skinny or no, if she has the leg strength to jump seven stories and run up the side of a building and such, she has the leg strength to kick the damn wall out, let alone the door. To be fair, she might break her own leg doing it, but door still goes kersmashedy.

 

[Noteaforre]

I once attempted to calculate how big the shuriken is (length, etc.), and how much it might weigh if made out of solid metal. I estimated that it'd be at least around 9kg, and to throw it as far, fast, and easily as she does? Yeah. Skinny or not, she's a very strong kid.

(Don't forget that part of her Advent Children routine involved pushing herself up a storey or so by her arms, too.)

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

I once attempted to calculate how big the shuriken is (length, etc.), and how much it might weigh if made out of solid metal. I estimated that it'd be at least around 9kg, and to throw it as far, fast, and easily as she does? Yeah. Skinny or not, she's a very strong kid.

(Don't forget that part of her Advent Children routine involved pushing herself up a storey or so by her arms, too.)

^This

 

[Arianna]

I could suggest (in story) that perhaps her body was finally faltering due to how much strain the entire group had been through. Still, I agree. Yuffie's no where near weak, physically or mentally.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Does CoY give us any info as to how much time passes between all the world saving shenanigans from the original game and this installment of OtWtaS? If it was very very brief, this could be a credible theory, Yuffie was dragging-ass tired, probably at least a little injured, and no doubt mentally fatigued from all the "Did Sephiroth just blow up the whole solar system?! No, wait, we aren't dead and the ground is still here. Plus we're inside the planet, so no way we could've seen a Supernova from here anyway. Still hurt a lot though!" type moments. And then, by the time AC/C comes out, she's had plenty of time to rest up and repress those fucked up hallucination-inducing attacks Sephylis uses.

So, are we looking at a few brief days, a month, what?

 

[Noteaforre]

As far as I was able to tell, they went to visit Aerith at the lake the day after Meteorfall. Yuffie left for Wutai immediately after that; she hadn't even had time to clean herself up any, since she mentioned something about wanting to give herself a wash and buy some new clothes. I'm not sure how long it'd take to get from the Northern Continent to Wutai by chocobo, but I'd say that the first section of the novella takes place within a few days to a week. The timeframe starts stretching out after Yuri gets himself Stigma'd.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Ok, this is good. It seemed like Yuffie had hardly gotten to town before she got locked in a room, and we can add fatigue from rushing home to Wutai on Chocobo (did the party give Yuffie a Gold Chocobo? Or is there some unseen bridge going to Wutai like there apparently is to the Northern Continent?) to the list of reasons as to why Yuffie is so tired and sore. This plus the emotional distress of her father blaming an enigmatic disease on her with no real proof could stop even a super-strong little chick from smashing the door. And it didn't seem like long before her little friend (wasn't his name Yuri? can I name a kid "girl/girl porn" someday?) broke her out and shortly after collapsed, prompting her to try and fail to lift him.

I think we might have solved this riddle folks.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Any explanation is still going to be bullshit because even a fatigued person who can do the stuff Yuffie does in AC/C should be able to turn a door into toothpicks.

 

[Noteaforre]

It's probably the closest in-universe explanation we're going to get, but I've gotta say I do agree with TresDias to an extent. Even mentally and physically exhausted, she shouldn't have sucked quite that badly.

As for the chocobos, I'm not entirely sure. The sea between the Rocket/Cosmo areas and the Wutai area is pretty small in some places, though… It might have been possible to cross with a black chocobo. Maybe.

(And yeah, his name is Yuri.)

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

But but... fatigued and really, really sore! They don't have Icey Hot or Bengay in Wutai, and Yuffie's just too dumb to consider that the one and only materia her supposed friends let her keep is a basic cure and... well shit when you say it like that Tres it doesn't sound quite as logical.

Ok, since we'll probably never figure out why Yuffie turned into a pathetic little bitch in CoY, aside from the obvious Creator Fuck Up, let me return to my other question that came up.

Show of hands, who thinks Cloud and the others are total dicks for not at least letting Yuffie take Leviathan back to Wutai with her? Considering it summons their protector god thinger, not to mention they'd never have gotten that one without her? Seriously uncool, imo.

My hand is up, any others?

 

[Arianna]

All I can say is think of it... Adrenaline has to calm down sometime, because if it doesn't, mental illness as well as worse physical illnesses can result. I think Yuffie was just at that breaking point, but didn't cross it. A guess, but I think a very valid one. Traversing the entire world more than once over, experiencing the death of a friend, fighting monsters released to protect the planet, fighting everyday mutant creatures due to sick scientific experimentation, doing all that could be done to save the people who would budge in Midgar... Yeah, I think it was everything just caught up to her. Still a guess, though.

EDIT:

I read up the new posts since my last.

Well, the only other thing I could think of is that when her father locked her in a room, she just mentally collapsed - again everything caught up to her. As much as she disrespected her father during the game, she holds Wutai in such high regards. She would never do anything purposely to hurt her beloved land and people.

 

[Noteaforre]

I'm inclined to hand-wave the Leviathan thing. That's one materia that Cloud has no right whatsoever to keep, and I don't think Yuffie would have ever let anybody else near it. Ever.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Yuffie had the "Sadness" status effect which lowers the gathering of spirit energy, and makes it harder to limit break. Sadly she didn't have any hypers.

 

[Arianna]

I agree that Leviathan should have been given back to Yuffie. Still, perhaps the group decided that to keep all the materia they had in one place, just for safe keeping and to prevent any confusion on the matter of such powerful objects.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

I don't care why they kept it, its straight up bullshit to withhold Leviathan from the nation that worships the summon AND provided the party with the damn thing.

Actually, I'd say "You came back without the Water God?!" is a more realistic reason for Godo to lock Yuffie in a room than "You went to Midgar and now people are getting sick, and we hear people are sick in Midgar, thusly this is entirely your fault!"

So, we're now thinking Yuffie was such a useless weakling in CoY because she was fatigued, emotionally drained, at least a little beaten up from all the fighting, sore from a very long chocobo back, in adrenaline/endorphin withdrawl, and possibly unfocused for all these reasons plus possibly wondering deep down if she DID bring the "Midgar Disease" with her? Might as well say she was, in fact, also starting her period, just so we can say "all of the above."

 

[Noteaforre]

And Cloud did such a great job of keeping the materia "safe". He left it laying around in the church where anybody could come along and mess around with it. ... Which they did. I hope he kicked himself in the face for that one, after it was all over.

 

[Arianna]

And Cloud did such a great job of keeping the materia "safe". He left it laying around in the church where anybody could come along and mess around with it. ... Which they did. I hope he kicked himself in the face for that one, after it was all over.

Well, I agree with you there. I mean... I agree with you. Wonderful job, Cloud!

 

[Makoeyes987]

Cloud was too busy dying of Super AIDs while trying to find a way to save Denzel. I guess when you're out looking to save your surrogate son's life and then end up catching a terminal disease... keeping shiny rocks safe, drops a rung or two on the ladder of priorities.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

And Cloud did such a great job of keeping the materia "safe". He left it laying around in the church where anybody could come along and mess around with it. ... Which they did. I hope he kicked himself in the face for that one, after it was all over.

Good point on Cloud's "security system" for the dangerous magic-enabling balls of crystalline dead things. Leave it in plain sight and hope for the best, not his best moment. But please, no more "Cloud kicks himself for fucking up." We've seen that one already.

This makes me wonder something else... when the Shera/Shiera/Sierra/WTF ever you call the new airship flies in with everyone onboard, Yuffie excitedly proclaims how she brought some materia to help Cloud fight Kadaj... as if he could possibly hear her in the middle of a sword-fight, through the windshield, over all the rotor noise, from that far away. But the ridiculousness of that is not my point, after all I frequently talk to video game and television characters, if only to tell them they're retarded and I hope whatever happens next hurts like hell. What I wonder is, since Cloud only let Yuffie keep the restorative, healing materia (I did exaggerate earlier, she'd have cure, full cure, esuna, and life, a whopping five matera out of all that they gathered) and what they didn't give her was stolen by the SHM (I assume what they didn't load up with was still back at the Forgotten Capital) where the fuck did she get that giant armload of materia from exactly?

If Cloud was trying to teach her a lesson by giving her just cure materia, then Yuffie fails to learn a damn thing. I guess she might have found some of it searching for materia that can cure geostigma (can Full Cure heal it? No? Duh, Yuffie...) but damn, that's a lot.

 

[Noteaforre]

It would drop in priority, but they're still shiny rocks with "immeasurable destructive power" (so says CoY). What I wanna know is, did he take them to the church before he got Geostigma, or did he move them there after?

And as for Yuffie's armfull in AC, I always thought that Cloud had brought it back with him.

Either that, or Yuffie just pulled it all out of her ass.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

It would drop in priority, but they're still shiny rocks with "immeasurable destructive power" (so says CoY). What I wanna know is, did he take them to the church before he got Geostigma, or did he move them there after?

And as for Yuffie's armfull in AC, I always thought that Cloud had brought it back with him.

Either that, or Yuffie just pulled it all out of her ass.

I didn't see Cloud hauling in any materia from the Forgotten Capital. After Vincent saves his dumb ass from the SHM and Marlene pouts till he decides to do something that makes sense for a change, I thought he pretty much just went back to Edge, with everyone else getting there before him... including Vincent. Somehow. Another mystery right there.

I still like my "Yuffie spent so much time looking for miracle materia that can cure geostigma, she must have found other materia while she was at it" idea for this one. But, she spent so many years obsessed with materia and little else, I wouldn't be surprised to learn she has a secret stash of the stuff hidden in the form of a string of magical anal-beads.

 

[ForceStealer]

I'm SURE Yuffie had her own stash. This is Yuffie.

And to be perfectly fair, Cloud didn't leave the materia in "plain sight." They certainly could have used more security of course. But keeping them in a closed chest (could have been locked too and Marlene and just knew how to open it) in the church that wasn't exactly in a high traffic area. It was in the old Sector 5 slums, recall no one lives there anymore and were in fact encouraged by the authorities to avoid Midgar in the interest of not contracting Geostigma.