damned_lounge | FF7 cast, et al!

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FF7 cast, et al!

As we all know, the FFVII canon is notoriously inconsistent. For example, there are about three ways to write 'Shin-Ra', all of which have been used within the context of the games in some way or another. While it's entirely possible that I'm the one who actually cares about this, I feel the need to bring it up in the light of the recent application cycle.

Disclaimer/s:
Most of what I'll be citing here comes directly from the Compilation, especially Crisis Core and the Ultimanias. I will endeavour to use as little fanon as possible, but if I do so, I'll label it as such.

Also, just to make sure it's totally clear, I'm not saying we have to use one or the other. I may state my preference, but the power is in your hands; I'll leave final decisions to you guys. "You guys" being canon mates, future canon mates, and people else with knowledge of the series. Furthermore, if anybody has anything they'd like to add to the agenda, feel free!

1) We're absolutely, definitely using the 'Aerith' spelling, Y/Y/N/M?

2) Hands up if you mind my usage of "Wutaian" over "Wutai"!

3) "ShinRa", "Shinra", and "Shin-Ra". The latter two are definitely used in CC; "Shinra" when talking or writing about the company in general, and "Shin-Ra" on the logo. In ACC, "Shin-Ra" is used on the news channel logo. ~~Randomly, apparently Gaia has a channel called TNN. Random fact ahoy.~~

4) "Mako" or "mako". The latter is used in CC. Not sure about the rest of the compilation.

5) "Materia" or "materia". The latter is used in CC. However, it becomes capitalized when talking about things like specific summon materia (Choco/Mog Materia, Ur Mom Materia, etc.), and the special snowflakes; the Black Materia and the White Materia.

6) The exact nature of summon attacks. One of the Ultimania books state that the summons literally do pull their victims into some parallel space, and then spit whatever's left back out afterwards. Bahamut Sin is, apparently, an exception. Buuuuut, what do you guys think?

7) The world itself is divided into the three main continents (East, West, and North), with Mideel and Wutai as large islands (unless they're continents as well). Reeve refers to "regions" in Case of Denzel (he tells Denzel to go speak to the region leader), so I'm assuming that… aside from Wutai as a possible exception, they're not separate countries, so much as city-states. Of a sort. This world map calls them 'areas', but they're pretty much the same thing. So… opinions on this?

7b) Also, languages. What would the name of the standard language be?

7c) The size of the planet. It's large enough to have timezones (Midgar Standard Time being the major example), but Cloud could get from Edge to the Forgotten city in four and a half hours (he left at 5pm and arrived at 9:30pm) on a motorcycle. Apparently he took his time along the way. AND WHAT ABOUT THAT, Y'KNOW. BODY OF WATER. And all of FF7 took place in about a month, including the seven days that Tifa was unconscious.

... Not really sure why I'm including this one, but, yeah.

Also, does anybody know what was going on with the bridge/highway scene in Crisis Core? It looked huge. There was a sign saying "86 miles to Cosmo Canyon", too, but I can't figure out where the bridge/highway thing was actually supposed to be located.

8) Date format. It is strange. For instance, according to ACC, Meteorfall occured on 0008 0121 (January 21st, 2008). The date of Jenova's discovery (I think it's the discovery date?) is written 19591010. And, in the spirit of FF7: Compilation, I have also seen things written in a date format more similar to ours, up to and including "2000" instead of "0000". EDIT Found one instance of this! Crisis Core's opening sequence puts the date as [μ]–εуλ 2000.

NOT TO MENTION THE WEIRD [μ]–εуλ 1999 vs. [ν]–εуλ 0001 date marker thingies used in the Ultimanies, as well as AC/ACC.

EDIT FOR THE WORD OF GOD, a.k.a Crisis Core Ultimania Keyword Collection tranlations

[ μ ] -εуλ is a symbol used to indicate the name of the era. [ μ ] indicates the name of the era, and the numbers following εуλ show the year. During the game, after [ μ ] -εуλ the era name changes to [ ν ] and the year is written [ ν ] -εуλ 0000.

The starting time of this game is [ μ ] -εуλ 2000, and for the other titles in the FFVII series the dates are as follows: [ ν ] -εуλ0001 for BC; [ ν ] -εуλ0007 for FFVII; [ ν ] -εуλ0009 for AC; and [ ν ] -εуλ0010 for DC.

9) Holidays and stuff. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine's, etc.?

10) The Early Materials file suggests that Midgar is big enough to encompass all 23 of Tokyo's wards. This kind of goes hand in hand with the idea that there are more towns and suchlike that we don't get to see during gameplay. Y/N/M?

Y-Yeah. Please indulge me on this one, guys, and I apologize for the unecessary nitpicking.

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Dude, I love you. I want to app a FFVII character just because you care so much.

a'ld,s;a,f /)_(\ Thank you! This has to be the one reaction I didn't expect. ~~Assuming it isn't sarcasm. It isn't, is it?~~

You're welcome! ~~I think...~~ XD; It's not sarcasm, I just... I dunno. Really like that kind of dedication and care for your series. >_>;

Ohhh, yeah. ♥ I see, I see. In that case, thanks doubly!

Ur Mom Materia

I have no idea what the rest is about, but this amuses me.

♥ Ur Mom would be the best summoned creature ever.

RE. MY DARLING. GET ON AIM I NEED YOUR HELP

HAHAHAHAHAH. Yes, this is the sort of thing that should be discussed. |D I'M KIND OF GLAD IT'S HAPPENING BEFORE I BRING SEPH IN, so I can at least give the appearance of being consistent?

1) I always used to use Aeris, since I think that's the spelling in the game...? Honestly, I can't even remember, because I've since switched over (thanks to being retrained by Tess~) and if that is how they spell it, I just change it as soon as I recruit her whenever I play. XD But in this case, I think it's something that the Aerith player should determine and the rest of the cast should just follow suit?

2) I LOVE YOU~ I thought I was the only person who ever said Wutaian. :/ Everyone else, if they do it at all, adds two i's or a's or just makes the word look really weird and unnatural, to me.

3) I've always used ShinRa - largely because the hyphenated version looks like the name's being said as two distinct parts when it's written in speech, rather than just a strong emphasis on the second syllable, and because Shin-Ra is, as you point out, pretty much just how it appears on the logo. 'Shinra' looks wrong to my brain for no particular concrete reason, but I'd be fine with switching to that if it's the more correct version. (Case in point - I was actually using the incorrect spelling (one of MANY, so I don't fault myself too much for being confused) of Schuldig's name when I first started playing him, before I ever apped him at Damned, but when I found out the correct German spelling, I switched it. If I can train myself to change the spelling of my character's name, I can handle limiting Shinra to one capital letter. :|b )

4) I've never capitalized it, because it doesn't seem like a proper noun to me, but I don't have any huge opinions on it one way or the other, so whatever the general consensus is, I'm good.

5) Ditto materia. My brain just went 'DITTO MATERIA? IS THAT LIKE A MIMIC MATERIA BUT WITH POKEMON? POKEMON CROSSED WITH FFVII, BEST SELLING FRANCHISE EVER', because I've probably had too much candy.

6) I...think it may be a situational thing? As I recall from Zack fighting Ifrit in CC, during the fight they're clearly in some sort of fire plane that has absolutely no resemblance to their actual surroundings. But after the fight, when Sephiroth takes Ifrit out, they're back in Wutai. So I think summons have the ability to do that, I guess, but they can probably also exist and fight normally.

7) No real opinion on this; I'll go with the general consensus. I haven't given it much thought. |D;

7b) Gaian, maybe? It seems like everyone speaks the same language, since even in Wutai there are no communication difficulties between characters.

7c) Re: the Edge to Forgotten City trip...depending on how the time zones work, the trip might actually have been longer and we're not actually seeing the correct number of hours as judged by local time. WHICH KIND OF TELLS US NOTHING USEFUL ABOUT DETERMINING WORLD SIZE, BUT. I admit, I don't think in-depth about this stuff too much, usually because there are lots of fandoms not really meant to be put to this level of scrutiny.

8) NOT A CLUE.

9) Generally, when I want to decide something like this that's generally not a critical detail, my method is "go with whatever's more fun to play with". So in this case, I vote yes for holidays. ♥ I won't be crushed if the rest of the cast thinks it's too out of place and vetoes the idea, though.

2. The likes of "Wutain" and "Wutainese" bug the hell outta me for no discernable reason, so. :|a It's kind of my big, irrational prejudice when it comes to FF7 stuff.

3. I've been using Shinra recently, but ShinRa looks more aesthetic.

7b. I mostly bring this up because (I'm horrible) and gave Wutai its own language. IDK, it just... fits? Since it was so removed from the rest of the world. Plus, there are a number of characters in the original game who spoke with really weird, broken accents.

9. My only issue with holidays, specifically Christmas and Easter, is the. Uh. Lack of Jesus.

-- ALSO I HAD A QUESTION/REQUEST FOR YOU.

2) They bug me because of the way they look phonetically. :| Wutai, and anything that contains the word Wutai, should not look like it rhymes with 'stain'. YUFFIE DOES NOT APPROVE.

3) It does, kind of! Which is about all the thought I really consciously put into it. It's not a spelling I'm totally committed to, though, so like I said, I'm flexible. :3

7b) No, I totally get it! I always thought Wutai had its own language, myself, but there's never really any canon evidence given to support it(THAT I KNOW OF; Compilation is huge and I have far from a comprehensive knowledge of it). The issue with regional languages existing, though, is that for places like Mideel and Wutai that are clearly separated from the rest of the world, it's pretty clear what the regions are, but for the bigger continents it's kind of hard to decide which areas would be gathered together under what language, and what that language would be called. (It wouldn't be too hard to explain people from different regions understanding each other, though; with ShinRa being such a huge company, I can see its influence on trade and commerce being big enough that whatever language is primarily used by ShinRa and Midgar to be a sort of common tongue that practically everyone knows.)

9) Good point. :/ SEPHIROTH DOESN'T SEE WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD ANYWAY, HONESTLY.

ORLY? :D FIRE AWAY BB.

2) SHE MOST CERTAINLY DOES NOT.

3) When as many people as possible have commented on this, I'll compile it all. \o/

7b) The way I'd categorize the main regions are something like this, in no specific order: Midgar (inc. Junon, Fort Condor, etc.), Mideel, Gongaga, Cosmo, Corel, Nibel, Wutai, and Icicle. Something like that. But it's definitely up to a lot of interpretation. I can see them having/having had different dialects at least, at one point. BUT YEAH THAT'S OFF TOPIC, and I agree with you. It's like how gil is the universal currency.

9) YUFFIE SAYS HE SHOULD HURRY UP AND STOP DOING IT, THEN. 8|b

Yarly. I was. Wondering. When are you planning on introing Sephimoth? Yuffie's free at lunch, and she's technically gonna be Hanna, soooo. :x If you wanna?

WELL, as for introing Seph...idk! Whenever the mods slot me in, I guess. :D I'll probably vote for as soon as possible in the intro poll, but you never know where you'll wind up.

Yep. ♥ Do lemme know, though? If you wanna, of course. She won't have a clue who he is.

Of course. :D YOU'VE BEEN MY BIGGEST SUPPORTER, BB, I WON'T FORGET YOU.

Not that I know anything about FF7, BUT:

1) My two cents on Aeris/Aerith: This is because there is no "th" sound in Japanese, so things get turned into "s" sounds, e.g., "Death Note" becomes "Desu Noto". My guess is, since FFVII was translated a looong time ago, it was just directly translated from "E-risu" or whatever it is to "Aeris"; revamps during KH or any other later materials that use "Aerith" are probably a result of better communications between Japan and the translators and conscious decisions to correct the spelling. This is mostly my hypothesis, but I think it's a fairly good reason to regard to "Aeris" spelling as a mistake. /rant

\o/ I know all of this stuff and why it was retconned; I just also know that a lot of people are still attached to the name 'Aeris'. It's in the potential!future!mun's hands more than anything, though, and I'm completely willing to follow their lead on it.

♥ Thank you for your input, though!

I assumed you knew, but I don't know if everyone else did, and since it wasn't stated, I thought I'd put it up.

Makes sense. Thanks again, then.

1) Y

2) If you mean "wutain" as in "Yuffie is Wutain", I do not mind at all.

3) I've always used Shin-Ra. ShinRa just seems...it seems odd to have a random capitalized letter in the middle of a full word. >:| And makes it look too much like some kind of fancy AIM SN, pffff. Shin-Ra or Shinra makes more sense to me, though I prefer Shin-Ra.

4) I prefer mako. Not sure why, I guess because to me it's just a thing rather than One Specific Thing.

5) "materia" for similar reasons above; capitalization when referring to specific materia names makes sense.

6) In CC, it would certainly seem that the characters are pulled into this parallel space, though it....could also be interpreted as a an illusion, too, but it seems too physical to really be an illusion since people get hurt, etc. Since it's been stated that this is the case in one of the books, I'd just go with that?

7) City-states would be my assumption, too; I almost feel like Gaia is laid out the way Ancient Greek was, with individual polies. Probably autonomic to varying degrees depending on the extent of Shin-Ra's power, but with less of a clear standard on that than might define a country today.

7b) I called it Gaiaese for the lulz in Reno's profile, but I think if we're gonna go with general language-naming patterns, Gaian would be the most fitting.

7c) I can't recall what site it was, but there is somewhere on the web that deduced that Gaia was the size of a moon (which also explains the gravity-defying moves these characters can make :| ). They worked it all out and it was a very cool theory, but dammit, I can't find it. D:

...I will have to rewatch the cutscenes to answer that second part of the question. I've only seen it through once adfdsaf

8) I AM PERSONALLY A BIT. Flaily with the dates system. I think we should pick with one and just stick with it. ;; I haven't really referred to any specific dates in the RP itself, so maybe just use whatever you've been using?

9) I've had Reno make a reference to Santa once. >>;; I would think they'd have their equivalent, though I suppose if we wanted to account for the lack of Christianity, we can draw the equivalents to the original forms of these celebrations or find an equivalent of the sort (i.e. Christmas originating from the Winter Solstice/Yule, Halloween from Samhain, Easter from the spring equinox (...or seems it could've been drawn from Eostre, too, if we're talking Old German, but. ;;; ) etc, though obviously something like Valentine's wouldn't transfer over quite as well.

The origins of said celebrations, being of a pagan root, are more spiritual rather than religious in the sense of a single powerful deity, so it might work better in the context of the FFVII world.

10) Y.

Edited 2009-11-01 02:10 (UTC)

2. Do you mean "Wutaian"? :O And yeah, that's what I mean. "Yuffie is Wutai" sounds kinda dumb.

3. -- THAT'S A GOOD POINT, I'd never thought of it like that before.

7c. You mean this one (http://beyond_a_wiki.editthis.info/wiki/Further_Reading#Distances_and_Time_on_Gaia)? 8D Yeah, I like this theory. Can't say I'm 100% in with the 'IT'S SPIRA'S MOON YAY' bits, but that's just personal preference speaking. The thing I find most interesting is how close Gaia's own moon is.

8. I try to avoid giving full dates, but if I did, I'd probably go with the canon version. 0008 0121, etc. Depends on what everyone else says.

9. I LIKE THIS IDEA. A LOT. According to the FF7 wikia, they do have a celebration during the wintertime that could be somewhat like Christmas, and Kalm has this... Revival Festival thing.

2) WUTAIAN YES. asfds lol brain fail. ;; As you can tell when I that first comment incomplete originally. DX

7c) Yes, that one! Yeah, the Spira moon thing is a bit more iffy, but if we're talking about just in terms of size, I think equating it to a moon is probably the best theory there is.

8) Same. >>; BUT YEAH I like the idea of sticking with the canon version. WHEN IN DOUBT, GO WITH CANON?

9) AWESOME. ♥ Yeah, it feels like a lot of FFVII stuff is rooted in paganism what with them being festivals (rather than holidays, which I imagine originated from "holy day" which...feels more Christian to me), down to Aerith's connection with the planet and whatnot. Plus, the name Gaia itself hearkens back to those ancient deities. :|b

...Anyway this was mostly just me agreeing with everything you said so I'm not sure why I wrote that all out but. a;lsdjf;

7c) Would they acknowledge its moonyness? They seem pretty set in calling it a planet. (Especially since they called it nothing but that for the entirety of the original game. I do agree, though. I mean... Yeah. What. INTERESTING THINGS ARE INTERESTING and now I'm wondering more stuff. Anyway.

8) YES, this is a good philosophy.

9) Yoooou wrote it out because you're indulging my bizarre love for weird details that nobody else gives a damn about, and/or possibly because you find it interesting as well? 8D; I can see Gaia having some 'holidays' as opposed to festivals, but they'd probably be rarer and more focused on commercialism - basically, Shinra propaganda and money-spinning at its finest.

7c) I don't think they'd realize it's a moon, haha, I think they'd consider themselves a planet since they do so canonically. And maybe it is a planet, just a. Moon-sized, planet. ;; LOL I guess what I mean is that strictly in terms of size, one can compare it to a moon, but what it is in and of itself is probably a planet. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

Admittedly, I'm not certain what the actual criteria for a planet vs. a moon is astronomically speaking, so.... *GOOGLES*

8) I FIND DETAILS INTERESTING, Y. That's true. Could be that Shin-Ra's got some commercial holidays going on and the festivals are more...traditional/cultural, so to speak.

Edited 2009-11-01 03:08 (UTC)

7c) I thought this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGmFIOkHjmg&feature=PlayList&p=85ABAF2B73F675AE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=34) clip might help a little, BUT I GUESS NOT MAYBE. The English version is in here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXJOpbBsrV4) somewhere.

MAYBE IT'S. YEAH. WHAT YOU SAID.

8) ME TOO ME TOO does that mean that we're, like, soul sistahs now? I think we're insane, bb. Anyway, I like that idea. It'd make sense, since Kalm is like this cute, rustic little town and Shin-Ra is. Shin-Ra. /so intelligent.

1. I tend to use 'Aerith'

2. Doesn't matter to me

3. I usually go with 'Shinra'

4. I can go with either.

5. I think I usually capitalize it, but sometimes I think I lose track and lowercase it too.

6. I tend to go with the way Advent Children depicted summoning. Then again, I think Bahaumut SIN is really the only big summon Loz has seen.

7. Doesn't matter to me

7b. No idea.

7c. Never really thought about it

8. Can go with either of those

9. Never really saw any reason or evidence that the FF7 world has Earth holidays. 'Course, Loz probably wouldn't know any of the holidays anyway, even if they existed in the FF7 world.

10. I can see the reason in that.

In BC Rude was supposed to go on a date for their version of christmas, I think? It was just about lighting up a massive tree or something? I think.

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FF7 cast, et al!

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