TFS' Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged

At the end of the day they were abridging VII, and that was exactly how VII ended. But given that Red survived for another 500 years it's safe to say they're not going with the "everyone died" idea. Also yeah I had forgotten that was how VII ended and we had to deal with that for like a decade until Advent Children released.

This abridged series made me take a harder look at the cast of VII:

• Cloud and Tifa both lost their home and family to Shinra's top secret experiment
• Barrett's entire town and family got wiped out by Shinra's negligence
• Vincent got stabbed in the back and cuckolded by Hojo
• Nanaki was captured (and tortured?) by Hojo
• Yuffie's entire country got annexed by Shinra
• Reeve is Shinra, but clearly disagrees with their methods
• Cid lost his career dream because Shinra didn't want to back it

If I'm remembering all of that correctly, it's sort of neat how the group ties together in their shared bad history with a freaking electric company. Except Cid, he's probably got the least emotional baggage related to Shinra and, yet, he ends up leading the group for a time. Ironic.

Given that this is how VII ended, I've actually always wondered if that was the intent. The ending shows that Red XIII is out there and doing well, but it also shows us that Midgar has been destroyed and abandoned, and there's no trace of human life. It makes me wonder if the original ending really was supposed to be the extinction of the human race, allowing nature to reclaim the world. If it was supposed to be a "hopeful" apocalypse where we see that life goes on after the end, but then Advent Children quietly retconned that because it's actually super depressing.

EDIT: Depressing and Midgar-centric, no less. Reminds me of a meme I once saw about, "Humanity are parasites who do nothing but consume and destroy!" "Speak for yourself, colonialist! We were just minding our business over here!" Like, it might seem poetic for Gaea's Vengeance to end humanity at the end of all this but I don't think Wutai would appreciate being punished for Shinra's sins.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 14th 2020 at 11:44:48 AM

Why do you think I hate ecofascists so much? Self centered bastards who think the extermination of humanity would equal a better world instantaneously when the reality is we need to fix this world because it is our world to live on.

Also G Gundam did the whole humanity and the ecosystem better by stating that humanity is part of the ecosystem thus we should fix it instead of wiping everyone out.

I wouldn't mind seeing a story where someone succeeds in wiping out humanity and it doesn't really improve anything. Like, we're putting out our share of Co 2 aren't we? That's kinda important.

I highly doubt that the original intention for the ending was “hopeful apocalypse” considering the game treats the idea of Gaia's Vengeance potentially targeting all of humanity as a bad thing. Odds are they wanted to keep it vague in order to have people talk and speculate on what happened.

I was actually curious to see if any developers had talked about it. Director Yoshinori Kitase actually gave an interview for EGM back in 2005, where he talks a bit about the sequels to FFVII as well as VII itself, but also had this to say.

So. Uh. Yeah. That about settles it. The epilogue is implying that humanity has been wiped from existence, but the Planet has survived and nature now thrives in the ruins of what was once human civilization.

This is no longer canon, but it was the original intent. An appropriately myopic conclusion to a story about heroic ecoterrorists trying to save the world from human greed by bombing nuclear reactors. Its heart was in the right place (climate change is a serious existential threat), but it was a bit 90's edgelordy in how it went about it.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 14th 2020 at 1:37:07 AM

Let's hope the Remake doesn't do with that utterly depressing ending.

There's enough ambiguity in the ending to Final Fantasy 7 that it's very easy to read it as "Midgar is abandoned but humanity lives on".

Does the ecoterrorism thing even matter after Midgar?

Ecoterrorism? No. The idea that the planet see all of humanity as a threat to it? Yep.

Not really no. Outside of Cait Sith (who comes off as a little hypocritical) pointing out how many people their actions killed, it's not really a thing ever again.

That being said, the fact that they were essentially Eco-Terrorists in the original game probably plays a big role in why they deliberately reveal the bomb was less powerful than we thought in R (and why they have Shinra deliberately cause a bigger explosion to frame the heroes).

You want your heroes to still be heroes and all that.

(8) I mean, Far Cry New Dawn is kind of like that but YMMV.

You also get stories that are After the End like Nier.

I mean, in a way, isn't Sephiroth just an Eco-terrorist himself?

I like the idea that the story is ecoterrorists realizing how much damage they're causing in their crusade, especially when compared to someone even worse.

Huh, so this is a thing.

Here's part 2:

Edited by jouXIII on Dec 16th 2020 at 11:34:33 AM

Was the finale kind of a let down to anyone else?

No, it ended pretty much exactly like I expected it would.

I thought it was maybe a tad short, but I liked it. Had all the character bits we needed to see it through. It's either tell the game as it is, or rewrite the ending. I like they drew from Sephiroth's beta dialogue in the speech.

Now to wait for someone to make machinima remake using Super Smash Bros Ultimate as we got the Mii Costumes for Tifa, Barret, and Aerith.

I guess I was alone in that. Still, I guess it changed my mind a bit.

Edited by FOFD on Feb 6th 2021 at 9:57:11 AM

Edited by FOFD on Feb 6th 2021 at 10:15:16 AM

The Zack scene at the end highlights the emphasis on personal responsibility the series adds. Not doing heroics for the glory, or the recognition, or trying to find something within you you've already had. It's only when Cloud and Tifa especially stop projecting their brave faces to the world and admit their personal failures that they can overcome them. Tifa's now an active part of Cloud's arc and character theming, whereas in the original game she was the last party member to be written so that Cloud could have moral support.

If anything the 500 years later thing is good because it shows Midgard abandoned, and being reclaimed by nature. Just because no humans are in sight doesn't mean humanity is gone.