Theme Series 1/X

The driving factor behind this pastebin (series? "1/X"?) is my observation that thematic literacy has atrophied down to non-existence, even as fictional and metaphorical media has gotten more popular than ever. Maybe it's always been like this, but for whatever reason, parsing themes, interpreting messages, and digging into (non-romantic) subtext has all but dried up. So, for my own sanity at least, I want to take a look at a few works that I quite appreciate and tease out what they're actually trying to say, despite the 'discourse' around any of them. Some will be due to a particular nerve being struck, others a personal attachment, and some just because I want to try to parse them myself and haven't thought about too much before.

Let's get things started with a game that is soooo last year, but I've been thinking about a lot lately.

== Driving Theme of Final Fantasy 7 (original): Loss ==
Or: How remakes can dilute or devalue the ideas of the original work

Final Fantasy 7 is a game centered around the idea of "loss". It permeates every major set piece, every character, every plot development. These "losses" run the gamut, from the biggest spoiler of all time -- the literal loss of Aeris -- to the more thematically juicy loss of identity or purpose that runs through most major characters before the end of the game. I could run down a list here, and maybe I will, in no particular order:

* Mako Energy: Mako energy is causing the planet to slowly wither and die. There's many different aspects of loss here, but since lots of them are tied into other locations we'll say that the main component of Mako itself is siphoning life out of the planet and the loss of the ability to heal these scars we've started to inflict on the planet.

* Midgar: Again, ripe for many different interpretations here. Since I'm limiting myself to a "main" idea, I'd say Midgar most clearly represents the inherent loss in hyper-capitalism. Urbanization combined with a literal stratification leading to a lack of concern for the common man in favor of profit.

* Yuffie/Wutai in general: It's obvious that Wutai is past its peak, relegated to a tourist trap driven by its past glory. The loss of prosperity is somewhat tangible, or maybe it's loss of prestige?

* Barret: This one is pretty direct in the text, Barret has lost two major things (in the original). He lost his home and he lost his purpose. He obviously tries to cobble the latter together with AVALANCHE, which, in the original, there's very little evidence that it wasn't just something he created personally (their involvement in the Corel reactor isn't in the original's text AFAIK). But, the game makes it very clear that bombing the reactors is little more than a slapdash effort to stall things a little. AVALANCHE has no coherent long term plan to stopping ShinRa, ripples of Barret's loss just making him want to do something, anything to atone for his role in Corel.

* Red XIII: Much like Aeris, Red has lost his connection to his past, his people. All he knows is fractured, incomplete tales of who they were. And early in the story, he feels as though he's lost his honor through his father's 'cowardly' acts.

* Tifa: Tifa seems to have a reputation she didn't have in the subtext (and quite often, literal text) of the game. Tifa has lost her family, lost her home, and seemingly is losing Cloud too. She's continually scared or frightened by the things Cloud says, clearly worried she'll lose him again too. Until the real Cloud pulls together, she treats him with kid gloves, worrying and pointing out that some of the things he says couldn't possibly be true. If I had to sum up her thematic connection to loss, it'd probably fit under something like "loss of relationships".

* Aeris: Did you know she literally dies, bro? Though, if we're not counting that, she actually struggles much more on screen with her loss of connection to her culture and past. Her relationship to the Ancients is how she's introduced to the story and is all the people outside the party seem to care about. She has these feelings and intuitions that she can't quite understand, and there's no one else who can help her get a handle on it.

* Cloud: Especially with the remake this has become less common, but I always considered Cloud's personal loss the "unspoken spoiler" that carries the story of FF7 much more than it gets credit for. I know it wasn't spoiled for me or anyone else I know who played this game suuuuper late. But Cloud's loss of identity drives much of the meat of the story. It's one of the most personal threads, it's tied directly to his supposed 'rivalry' with Sephiroth...though in reality, I think their connection is more accurately summed up as one of 'shared theming'.

* Sephiroth: The shared theming I just mentioned comes from the fact that Sephiroth has the *SAME CORE CONFLICT* as Cloud does. His scenes in Nibelheim force him to confront his own lost identity. He believed he knew who he was, only to have what he's seen pull the rug of his life out from under him. After that, he basically becomes a different person, embracing his personal delusions -- his reaction to his loss is to lash out indiscriminately due to the conflict between who he thought he was and what he's decided he's become.

* Cid: His connection to loss couldn't be spelled out more clearly in the text itself. Cid's a man who believes he has lost his dreams.

* Vincent: He lost his love, and his humanity. This one is also very textual, even if Vincent doesn't really have enough dialogue in the original to make his little arc very deep.

Ok, so a deep dive into how loss affects everyone and everything in the game might be a bit outside of my capabilities, honestly. It's so pervasive, there's so many lenses that it honestly floors me that anyone could miss this connection.

But let's talk about What Really Grinds My Gears. Final Fantasy 7: Remake: Part 1.

In an ideal world, I'd have no reason to oppose the idea of a remake. But they almost never, ever work out to be 'ideal'. They dilute or distort the ideas of the original. They cut, they add, they stretch, they pad. For a story heavy game, even generally 'good' remakes will make their own alterations to suit changing tastes or give a writer a chance to put words in the mouth of those who made the original. Even when they have a lot of overlap!

But, even regardless of what a remake 'should' or 'shouldn't' be, FF7:R is hardly a remake of the original at all. And I'm not even talking (yet) about the very intentional story changes they made to attempt to drum up interest for the next 17 parts of this game.

I mean simply by taking 20+ years of 'extended universe' ideas and cramming them into the original canon, they dilute the very idea of the original work. Now OF COURSE we reference Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus, and Before Crisis and all the other drivel they made to capitalize on success. Because it's not a Remake of Final Fantasy 7 for the PS1. It's a media generation engine, a meta Mako Reactor to suck the very life out of the setting and characters without regard for the themes, intent, and scope of the original.

These changes may seem innocuous at first glance, but they start to unravel the thematic structure that makes the original game relevant and personal in the first place. It replaces the ideas, feelings, and concepts with...more references and PLOT elements. Just dump some PLOT in the middle to add some filler, it feels like they didn't consider how all these things fray the fabric of the original game. It had to be 30 hours long!! It'd be boring to spend 30 hours in a gray corporate hellscape, so now Midgar is Generic-2020-City instead of a steampunk just-barely-industrializing metropolis. The thematically relevant idea that the slums don't even get to have any natural sunlight in the original is sidestepped in favor of "well, in reality..." logical adherence that just dilutes the nature parallels. These are just a few examples, but they're just a part of the trend to not think through these "little" changes and lead to a completely different outcome.

And, since I can't resist, let's think about the deliberate, MAJOR story changes they made. The whispers, Sephiroth, some sort of...fate theme? Again, if they have *new* themes they want to introduce, that could be interesting! It doesn't really have any place in a 'Remake' though! Especially one that seems to paint the original game as antiquated and irrelevant. From the marketing and how they treat it, this is supposed to supersede the orignal PS1 FF7. But if its going to go in a completely direction, isn't that somewhat rude or downright irresponsible to the original work?!
Anyways, that's a bit of a digression. Let's look at the idea of the Whispers. They're supposed to represent the idea of "fate as its supposed to be", and the connection people make is that they're some kind of fanbois who want the Remake to play out like the original. Okay. That's pretty hamfisted in general, but ok, I guess. Sure, that's a somewhat interesting concept, maybe in isolation?

But I don't think it's really the "slam dunk" that the writers might have intended. It feels like a convenient narrative device to drum up hype more than a new thematic element and an excuse to use Sephiroth early, because no one wants to wait til part 17 comes out to fight Sephiroth!! Especially because within the concept of the first game the only actual thread to pull on is that "oh I guess you can make your own fate or something". But that doesn't address any actual ideas from the original? It's just a generic brand new one. The original doesn't have much to say about the idea of "fate". The only connection I can even think of is that Aeris does eventually realize she's going to die, and her stoic, heroic reaction to that idea. But, really, that's such a small aspect of the original compared to themes of loss I don't even see how its relevant. It's a sloppy way to defuse criticism and give the "fans" The Happy Ending where no one dies, I guess.