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1!!Pages for other entries in the Compilation:
2[[index]]
3* ''YMMV/FinalFantasyVII''
4* ''YMMV/BeforeCrisis''
5* ''YMMV/DirgeOfCerberus''
6* ''YMMV/CrisisCore''
7* ''YMMV/FinalFantasyVIIRemake''
8* ''YMMV/FinalFantasyVIIEverCrisis''
9* ''YMMV/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth''
10[[/index]]
11----
12* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/FinalFantasy Here]].
13* AngstDissonance: One of the criticisms commonly thrown at the movie was Cloud's moodiness. Let's be honest: Most people wouldn't exactly be in a good mood if someone they loved was murdered and they found out they had a fatal disease. Still, the fact that angst is Cloud's personality throughout the entire movie didn't really sit well with fans.
14* AudienceAlienatingEra: As the pilot project of the "Franchise/CompilationOfFinalFantasyVII", ''Advent Children'' started one. The movie was met with highly mixed reception, and many fans were not happy with the {{Flanderization}} of various characters, particularly Cloud, who was bashed as the kind of "emo pretty-boy" stereotype that [[NeverLiveItDown eventually became a frequent point of criticism]] for ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', and Creator/SquareEnix, as a whole. As the ''Compilation'' continued to build up, ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII FFVII]]'' lost much of its prestige and recognition, and only started to see a rise again with the announcement of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' and Cloud's addition to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', both of which were driven by ShockingMoments reactions and drew heavily from the original game while ignoring developments from ''Advent Children'' and the rest of the Compilation.[[note]]However, Cloud's popular ''Advent Children'' costume is an alternate costume in ''Smash''.[[/note]]
15* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
16** "One-Winged Angel" is back (in [[ThePowerOFRock a metal version]]), and it's cooler than ever. The other Black Mages remixes are pretty awesome, too.
17** "Divinity I", complete with OminousLatinChanting, complements the impending destruction that Bahamut rains down on Edge, whilst "Divinity II" is more epic, coming to a climax as Cloud faces Bahamut with the help of his old allies. Some of Uematsu's best work with a full orchestra.
18** The ending songs: "Calling" (original) and "Safe and Sound" (''Complete'').
19** "Opening", an orchestral rearranging of the song that plays during the original game's TitleDrop.
20** "Battle in The Forgotten City" can count too. Its pace complements Cloud's arrival to The Forgotten City being attacked by Yazoo and Loz; then Kadaj walking towards him, and finally the actual fight.
21** "The Promised Land", the song that plays during Marlene's narration and after the battle with [[spoiler:Sephiroth]].
22** "Those Who Fight", an industrial metal remix of the iconic battle theme from the original game.
23*** Let's not forget the piano version that plays in Tifa's fight.
24** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUt7wcLVV50 Black Water]]"
25** "The Reunion."
26* BadassDecay: Rude and especially Reno. They were serious threats in the original game but became PluckyComicRelief in the film. Given who they were up against, though, it's somewhat understandable.
27* BaseBreakingCharacter: Cloud, infamously so and far more than in the original game. Over both versions of the film, fans argued for him either having a strong character arc and having an impressive weapon and flashy fight scenes to his name, or having a contrived character arc and spending much of the movie as unlikable, whiny emo, and being a far cry from the well-rounded and highly variable character he was in the original game.
28* BrokenBase:
29** The entire movie split the ''VII'' fanbase down the middle. Then ''Complete'' came along and split it ''again''.
30** The Fusion Swords themselves are either flat-out awesome or an overblown and impractical take on the Buster Sword that tries too hard to be cool.
31** Creator/MenaSuvari's performance as Aerith was this at the time of the film's release. It didn't help that she replaced Music/MandyMoore who had voiced the character in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' (and the other ''VII'' characters had kept their actors from that game, aside from Sephiroth whose replacement voice Creator/GeorgeNewbern was widely liked). When ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' came out, she became even more disliked and that was her last time voicing the character.
32* ContinuityLockout: Though there is a recap at the beginning, the movie really requires you to play the game if you want to make sense out of it. The DVD (and Blu-ray) come with a recap of key events, though. ''Complete'' comes with an additional feature that recaps the events of the other spin-offs, although ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' is glanced over, as it is set a year after ''Advent Children''.
33* CriticalDissonance: A mild case, because both critics and general audiences were highly divided on the film. ''Advent Children'' received mostly negative reviews from both gaming and non-gaming critics alike due to its confusing plot, along with other issues such as ContinuityLockout and {{Flanderization}} of many characters.[[note]]The latter was at least partially addressed by ''Complete''.[[/note]] However, ''Advent Children'' was very successful commercially, and as the main demographic of the film, some ''FFVII'' fans are more forgiving of it (especially ''Complete'') and argue that it works (to varying degrees) as a companion piece to the game, rather than a standalone film. It stands at a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 33%[[note]]which is lower than ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'', which is an InNameOnly adaption in contrast to this being a direct sequel[[/note]] (although most of the reviews are for the original and not ''Complete''), but has an [=IMDb=] rating of 7.3 out of 10.
34* DracoInLeatherPants: Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, who actually happen to wear full-body leather.
35* EnsembleDarkhorse: Moogle Girl, who even gets an expanded role in ''Complete''. Her voice actress, Creator/AndreaBowen, was likewise upgraded to voicing Aerith for ''VideoGame/CrisisCore''.
36* EpilepticTrees: Some of the speculation regarding the movie back in 2004, particularly regarding the identity of the man in the wheelchair, was pretty crazy, which was only spurred on by the very slow drip-feeding of information at the time.
37* FanNickname: SHM ("Silver Haired Men") for Kadaj's gang. They were called this for a long time before the official release of their names.
38* FauxSymbolism: Cloud baptizing the children'.
39* GrowingTheBeard: Prior to ''Advent Children'', ''Final Fantasy'' had solid and oftimes spectacular action, but the athletic and superhuman battles in the film took the franchise's action scenes to an entirely new level that Square Enix have explicitly tried to live up to since, as they outright described the battle systems of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' as trying to feel like playing ''Advent Children''. ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' was perhaps the epitome of this philosophy.
40* HilariousInHindsight:
41** Creator/DaveWittenberg voices Yazoo, a remnant of Sephiroth, in ''Advent Children''. Years later, in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', he voices another ''Final Fantasy'' character: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka Palazzo]], who is also one of the rivals of Sephiroth in terms of the fanbase.
42** A longstanding opinion among fans is that ''Advent Children'' would have worked better as a video game than as a movie. With ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIEverCrisis Ever Crisis]]'' adapting the entire ''Compilation'' to mobile game format, looks like that idea is coming true.
43** The film's test footage was screened at 2004 [[UsefulNotes/LeoneDOro Venice Film Festival]], the oldest and largest film festival in Italy. A year later, the complete film premiered at the same festival (in non-competitive section), with Creator/TetsuyaNomura and Tifa Lockhart's Japanese voice actress Ayumi Ito attending. Then in January 2022, an infamously NSFW animated video clip of Tifa interrupted a Zoom meeting between members of the Italian Senate, which began the "Tifa is Italian (political figure)" meme with edits of her draping Italian flag.
44* HoYay: [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Cloud with... everyone]]. Also a lot between Reno and Rude, especially in ''Complete''. As for Rufus and Kadaj, well, there's a MissingTrailerScene of Kadaj bending over and taking his hand.
45* ImprovedByTheReCut: Many in the fanbase prefer the director's cut version over the original. This because of how the director's cut improved Cloud's characterization giving him more heartwarming scenes that tried to overshadow his brooding, further flashbacks that help to understand the story to newcomers and extended fight scenes. However, the movie still has a BrokenBase, as the director's cut also undercuts Cloud's defeat of Sephiroth by adding in Zack as a factor.
46* ItWasHisSled: What, you didn't know Sephiroth was going to come back somehow? It was pretty much the selling point of the movie to build up a second confrontation between him and Cloud. ''Complete'' ditches the pretense and works it into Rufus's conversation with Cloud in the opening that Geostigma is Sephiroth's doing and is a mechanism for his resurrection. WordOfGod is also that the point of the film from conception was a second battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, everything else was wrapped around that idea and how to make it happen.
47* IconicSequelOutfit: While ''Advent Children'' debuted in 2005, eight years after the original game was released, certain redesigns for the returning cast have proven very enduring among the fanbase.
48** Cloud's all-black gear is just as popular as his original outfit. In many crossover appearances, this is Cloud's alternate outfit if it isn't already his regular one.
49** While not as popular as her original outfit, Tifa's all-black outfit is still recognizable among the fanbase. In many crossover appearances, this is Tifa's alternate outfit if it isn't already her regular one.
50* JustHereForGodzilla: There are many reasons people watch ''Advent Children'': to see the cast of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' again after eight years, to see the cast animated in (especially by 2005's standards) jaw-dropping CGI, for the fight scenes, for the fight scenes in the context that they are what it would be like if you took a JRPG boss fight and choreographed it, or you are just waiting it out until the Cloud vs. Sephiroth rematch happens. What's rare to find though is someone who appreciates the movie for itself, or likes the whole movie, including the non-action scenes. It's almost telling that when ''Advent Children'' gets referenced in any other medium, what'll end up being the reference point is Cloud and Sephiroth's duel; ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' even played it up with Sephiroth's reveal trailer containing shot-for-shot remakes of scenes including him in this movie.
51* MagnificentBastard: Rufus Shinra spends most of the film pretending to be a cripple, and has Jenova's head with him the ''entire'' time. The reveal of this comes with Rufus going full-on MagnificentBastard as he ''openly mocks Kadaj'' for never figuring it out, simply remarking "A good son would've known." Then, he jumps off a building, basically depending on the fact that the Turks will stop him hitting the ground (which of course they do).
52* MemeticMolester: Certain fans have gone on to characterize the Silver Haired Men, but especially Kadaj, as paedophiles. The sad thing is that that ''isn't'' far-off from how their mass child-kidnapping goes.
53-->'''Reno (''in-film''):''' Kadaj's gang.\
54'''Rufus (''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73RN_KBiXY watching film]]''):''' Did film Reno just say Kadaj is gay?\
55'''Tseng:''' Most likely.
56* MemeticMutation:
57** ** "Shall I give you 'dis pear?"[[labelnote:Explanation]]A mishearing of Sephiroth's line "Shall I give you despair?" The mental image of Sephiroth ominously offering Cloud fruit quickly caught on for its inherent silliness, resulting in a bevy of jokes and fan content depicting pears as Sephiroth's TrademarkFavoriteFood.[[/labelnote]]
58** "Unforgiveable!" -> "[[MoodWhiplash You meanie!]]" Because Loz apparently needed to be even ''more'' of a ManChild.
59** "[[LipLock Dilly dally shilly shally]]."
60** "There's not a thing I ''don't'' cherish!" So really Cloud, you value ''everything'' in existence? That's either {{Narm}} or a hell of a PapaWolf.
61** [[http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss280/auntiebedjo519/Banana.gif BANANA]]
62** People have also jokingly called Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo the "Jenova's Witnesses".
63* {{Narm}}: In the English dub, when Reno and Rude are taunting Loz and Yazoo during their fight by insulting Jenova. It was actually a pretty intense fight but due to the previously mentioned LipLock, the best comeback the dub team could come up with? "You meanie!"
64* NarmCharm: From the English dub, "dilly-dally, shilly-shally." It's rather silly when it's said by Tifa and Aerith, in response to Cloud isolating himself. [[{{Woolseyism}} However, its original Japanese counterpart was very hard to translate into English.]][[note]]What was said in the Japanese was "zuruzuru", an onomatopœia that mimics the sound of dragging a heavy load. "Dilly-dally" is an expression that's used when someone's wasting time focusing on unimportant things -- making this quite close to an English counterpart.[[/note]] It's so silly in the context of the scene that it becomes rather cute.
65* NeverLiveItDown:
66** You can thank this film for hogtying Cloud -- and ''Final Fantasy'' protagonists in general (particularly the Nomura-designed ones like [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning]], and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]]) -- to the term "emo", a stereotype that wasn't fully shaken off until ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXVI'' released and introduced [[DarkerAndEdgier the grittier and more hardened]] [[Characters/FinalFantasyXVICliveRosfield Clive Rosfield]] to the franchise.
67** It doesn't help that Steve Burton sounds incredibly bored when voicing Cloud -- becoming a [=NLID=] for his portrayal as Cloud too; even though he has improved since then. [[AngstWhatAngst He barely acts angry at some moments]]! On the other hand, Creator/TakahiroSakurai makes a more expressive Cloud.
68* NightmareFuel:
69** The effects of Geostigma, ''especially'' the beginning of ''Complete'' version and Denzel's OVA.
70** Denzel's OVA had NightmareFuel when he first [[spoiler:turned her over]].
71** "[[PsychoticSmirk Good to see you... Cloud]]." [[OhCrap Cue genuine terror]] in Cloud's eyes as a reborn Sephiroth begins [[CurbStompBattle thrashing him six ways from Sunday]].
72* RetroactiveRecognition:
73** A pre-''Series/ModernFamily'' Creator/ArielWinter voices Marlene Wallace. In the dub of the original, however, she's voiced by a Pre-''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' Grace Rolek.
74** Loz's voice actor, Creator/FredTatasciore, would reappear as [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake Don Corneo]], making him the only voice actor from the compilation to reappear as a named character in the remake (albeit as a [[YouSoundFamiliar different one than who he originally voiced]]).
75* {{Sequelitis}}: Regardless of one's thoughts on the movie, very few will argue that it lives up to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII the classic, universally acclaimed video game]] that it follows upon.
76* SignatureScene: The final duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, which has been referenced an astonishingly high number of times in future material about the two.
77* SubbingVersusDubbing: The English dub, while generally considered above par for an anime dub, is highly contentious. On one hand, many of the performances and memorable lines were praised, particularly with Creator/GeorgeNewbern who made his debut as Sephiroth and replaced the unpopular Lance Bass from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''. On the other hand, the LipLock is considered a consistent problem, both in terms of immersion and in terms of lines that were changed to fit (such as the infamous "dilly-dally shilly-shally"), and Steve Burton's performance as Cloud, while debated, is generally considered inferior to Creator/TakahiroSakurai's in the Japanese version.
78* TearJerker:
79** Some of Marlene's lines:
80--->"For every battle, there was more sadness. Someone I loved went back to the Lifestream too."\
81"Please don't take Denzel away..."
82** Denzel's OVA is one long TraumaCongaLine with occasional {{Hope Spot}}s. His parents are killed when Sector 7 is destroyed. His caretakers after that die from Geostigma. The others kids in the scavenger gang he joined all move on one by one, and a thoughtless comment ruins his relationship with his last remaining friend. By the end, he's teetering on the edge of the DespairEventHorizon and considering suicide until he meets Cloud.
83** The ending is made very bittersweet when it's implied that [[spoiler:Aerith and Zack]] are ''finally'' at peace, and can finally rest.
84--->"Hey, you're okay now, right?"
85** Villain or no, Kadaj's death is surprisingly moving. The GrayRainOfDepression doesn't hurt.
86** The Moogle Girl's expanded backstory in ''Complete''. She and her brother are implied to get the stigma from a man they help in an alley. She's seen trying to carry her brother on her back, while trying to hide their sickness. Her brother then is implied to have died from it before she goes with Yazoo.
87* ToyShip: Some people appear to like Denzel/Moogle Girl. Especially once ''Advent Children Complete'' came out, and they got more scenes together. There's also Denzel/Marlene for others.
88* VideoGameMoviesSuck: ''Advent Children'', particularly ''Complete'', was widely regarded as one of the better video game movies out there at the time. However, this is a case of DamnedByFaintPraise, as most fans argue that it doesn't hold up on its own as a film (with [[ContinuityLockout overreliance on the viewer's familiarity with and emotional investment in the original game]]) and that its overall setup more closely resembles a game than a movie.
89* VindicatedByHistory: Cloud's character arc in ''Complete'', mostly due to CharacterRerailment in newer appearances. With Cloud being readjusted to his old, cockier and more confident personality in TheNewTens (namely, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' and ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015'', culminating with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' showing it off in all its glory) and shaking off the "mopey emo" stigma that this movie gave him, some fans have noted when rewatching ''Complete'' that they pay more attention to the actual CharacterDevelopment he goes through in the movie ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJg21TzHANI having very good reason for his depression]] and regaining his old levels of strength and confidence), as opposed to his {{wangst}}ing overshadowing everything else and overtaking his character in general.
90* {{Wangst}}:
91** People accuse Cloud of this despite being about to die. Nevertheless, he actually gets over it about halfway through the film and ''says so''. This is one of the things most people agree ''Complete'' fixes, as [[AuthorsSavingThrow it explains that Cloud's wangst is in part a result of Geostigma's effect on the mind]].
92** ''On the Way to a Smile'' manages to do this with ''Barret'', and truthfully nearly every character the novellas focus on.

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