Zack's journey to Midgar

[Roger]

Cloud went from Edge to the city of the ancients in a DAY. If anything going from Nibelheim to Midgar in two days would be less ridiculous.

How?

Cloud getting to the forgotten City requires two, three pretty big bridges, which CC and AC clearly asks us to believe are there LO Zack rode his bike over mountains and oceans by comparison.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

According to the scene-by-scene times given in the Reunion Files, Cloud woke up at home around 5:30 p.m., talked to the Turks, talked to Tifa after she woke up, and made the journey from Edge to the Ancients' city by 9:30 p.m. He then fought the silver-haired trio, met up with Marlene in the woods hours later at 3:30 in the morning, took her back to Edge, and met up with his friends to battle Bahamut by 2:00 in the afternoon.

Considering Cloud made the trip from Edge to the City of the Ancients in what must have been far less than four hours (time for talking to the Turks, waiting for Tifa to awaken, and then talking to Tifa), a trip from Nibelheim to Midgar in two or three days' time seems infinitely more sober by comparison.

As for Zack riding that bike over mountains and oceans, Force made a great point a few posts ago indicating why it's more likely he only ever rode that bike in LO on the Midgar continent. He and Cloud had escaped some 72 hours prior, but they weren't using that bike the whole way. They were apparently footing it most of the way.

 

[Roger]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

You're forgetting he was a SOLDIER - 1st Class. Nothing was impossible to them.

 

[Lord Noctis]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

Well, he could've used a boat. Its not entirely out of the question. We've been shown that they exist in the FFVII world. Just saying. And walking over mountains is doable. You walk over and through several of them in FFVII.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

I'm missing whatever point you're going for here. The original game, BC, CC and LO all have it that they traveled from Nibelheim to Midgar, and the necessity of crossing an ocean is in there regardless of how long it should have taken, and regardless of differences in travel time across titles.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

What about chocobos? Still, scale in FFVII never made any sense.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

So he waked over oceans and mountains, well never mind then.

there's these things called boats, right

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Boats? What nonsense is this, there be no boats anyhere on The Planet.

...wait what? Cargo ship that goes back and forth between Junon and Costa del Sol? HERESY!

 

[S and G]

There's a weird thing that I thought of a while back while we're on the subject of boats. In CC, Zack arrives at Banora with the motorbike. Given that motorbikes are generally not that easy to sneak onto a ship, even for SOLDIERs, it would suggest ones of two things. Either Banora is on the Western Continent and no ship was needed, or whoever was sailing the vessel/operating the hold knew that Zack was there. The latter seems a bit strange given all the stealth involved.

 

[ForceStealer]

When I was playing Crisis Core, I figured that the bike Cissnei gives him (the one with the sidecar) he uses on the western continent. They he takes a boat across, and uses a different means of travel (such as the sidecar-less bike from LO) on the other continent until it ran out of fuel, at which point he hitched a ride with the yellow truck. Now I don't know if I was ever aware that Banora was in Mideel...which throws a wrench in that theory.

But even with what I was picturing, I just figured it was nine months because...I dunno, they were hiding. They'd probably lay low in a couple locations sometimes, if they happened upon a place that was safe with a reliable source of food. Maybe they had to take long detours to avoid Shinra patrols or blockades, etc.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

As you said, they were on the run for a long time. More than enough time to save up money by hunting monsters, used the money to buy a boat big enough to hold both Cloud and the motorbike, and sail it to Mideel from some small fishing village on the coast south of Gongaga. I mean. does the entire population of their world live only in the locations named on the map? Or can we imagine a more realistic world with many small scattered towns, hamlets, farms and fishing villages? I don't think it's a huge stretch to pretend that there's more to their world than the places shown on the map; we are shown the locations that crop up in the story, but there's no reason why there might not be all kinds of other towns and villages which are neither named nor shown. Obviously it's not going to be hard for Shinra to police the ocean crossing when there's only one ferry plying back and forth between Junon and Costa del Sol - but if we can imagine more ports and more ferries, then Zack's ongoing ability to elude Shinra's detection becomes much more plausible.

 

[S and G]

LA, you have missed one vital point. Nothing that ever happens in FF makes sense. Therefore our logical and well-thought-out approach is not appropriate. As is often the case, it is infinitely more probable that they teleported using a brew of chocobo droppings, tissue won from the Battle Square, and the head of a razor weed.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

They met the Cheese Sage in the mountains in South Wutai, went on the mini-quest which required them to collect the sixteen ingredients needed to make the First Class Cheese, took the cheese to the agricultural show at Cosmo Canyon and won the Key item "Cheese Cup" from President Shinra, who didn't recognise Zack because he never remembers anyone unless they're as great as Sephiroth; they then traded the Cheese Cup with one of the bar-flies in Costa del Sol in return for a used hot air balloon in which they flew to Mideel.

If you are playing the PC version of FFVII and you have completed the Cheese Cup mission in Crisis Core and you upload your saved game into your PC, this enables you to fight the secret FFVII Final Boss, Cheese Weapon, which can only be defeated if you have Rufus Shinra in your party using his ultimate weapon, the Memorial Inauguration Cup (see my previous posting on this topic). If you defeat thew Cheese Weapon you bring Aerith back to life and it also solves the Euro crisis and keeps Greece from going bankrupt and is proof that Square planned to make Crisis Core all along.

Is that better?

It's always such a pleasure to see you coming out of the woodwork, Mo - or maybe you're coming in from the sun? Are you still writing your novelisation?

 

[penandpaper]

It's interesting to think about what might have happened during that period. I actually wish that Crisis Core had covered that period more then it did.

In particular, I do wonder precisely how he took care of Cloud over that time given that it isn't as though he'd have easy access to the kind of supplies that he might need to meet basic needs. I presume that he'd have to visit towns from time to time at least, although I assume that he'd try to limit how often he did so given the risk of being caught.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

As you said, they were on the run for a long time. More than enough time to save up money by hunting monsters, used the money to buy a boat big enough to hold both Cloud and the motorbike, and sail it to Mideel from some small fishing village on the coast south of Gongaga. I mean. does the entire population of their world live only in the locations named on the map? Or can we imagine a more realistic world with many small scattered towns, hamlets, farms and fishing villages? I don't think it's a huge stretch to pretend that there's more to their world than the places shown on the map; we are shown the locations that crop up in the story, but there's no reason why there might not be all kinds of other towns and villages which are neither named nor shown. Obviously it's not going to be hard for Shinra to police the ocean crossing when there's only one ferry plying back and forth between Junon and Costa del Sol - but if we can imagine more ports and more ferries, then Zack's ongoing ability to elude Shinra's detection becomes much more plausible.

This is absolutely the best way to look at it.

 

[Roger]

I'm missing whatever point you're going for here. The original game, BC, CC and LO all have it that they traveled from Nibelheim to Midgar, and the necessity of crossing an ocean is in there regardless of how long it should have taken, and regardless of differences in travel time across titles.

My point is that he probably didn't go in a straight line. He had go find chocobo fields/ranches, find towns, wait for ships to leave, find caves and roads to take through the mountains. Feel like a longer journey to me then Cloud going to the Forgotten City on his motorbike