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I'm currently playing VII for the first time since 2004 or so and have picked up on something that I consider to be a pretty large flaw in the story.

During the flashback where Cloud and Sephiroth venture to Nibelheim together there is a point where Sephiroth locks himself in the library of the Shinra Mansion to study the history of Jenova. When Cloud returns to the library to try and reason with Sephiroth, Seph begins telling Cloud that Jenova was part of a race that traveled through the cosmos en-route to The Promised Land and that the presence of the humans on their planet was due to the fact that some of the Cetra got "lazy" and decided to stay while stopping briefly to cultivate the planet on their journey. He tells Cloud "Those are YOUR ancestors".

All this silly feuding of clans aside there really isn't much reason to claim that Aeris is the "last" of the Cetra, as the entire humanoid inhabitants of the planet originated from the Cetra who journeyed past their planet, Gaea.

Am I missing or forgetting something crucial or is this just a really big hole in the plot?

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 9th May 2012 09:34

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

I think it's a technicality thing. Technically, Aeris is the last of the true Cetra - those who can hear the planet. The ones who chose to settle gave up that ability in the process. That's how I interpret it.

Also, I believe that Sephiroth's understanding was flawed; I understood it as the Cetra always having lived on the planet, and only Jenova came from another world. Jenova was misidentified as an Ancient by Shinra, and it was their material that Sephiroth was studying.

I should replay it and see if I can't garner a more complete understanding.

This post has been edited by Suunok on 8th May 2012 18:24

Quote (Suunok @ 8th May 2012 13:24)

I should replay it and see if I can't garner a more complete understanding.

That's what I'm doing currently. The last time I played it was the same year I made my account here (about 8 years ago) and I was 17.

Now that I'm older I find myself understanding a lot of things in games from my childhood that I didn't before, so I decided to play through FFVII, considering the difficulty of the plot.

This post has been edited by Sephiroth on 9th May 2012 09:33

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Sephiroth was reading about the theories of the Cetra written by Shinra scientists. As you know theories are not perfect understanding. Combined with what I interpret as Sephiroth's desperation to discover his identity led him to his ill-fated conclusion.

As players we have the advantage of viewing a story through multiple points of view, characters in a story can only see that they experience and what they think.

Therefore we have a clearer understanding than the characters, in this case Sephiroth.

This post has been edited by MorgueN on 10th May 2012 15:20

Thanks for your input, Suunok and MorgueN. I'll keep all of that in mind as I progress. Maybe something will happen that will jog my memory. It's been a long time so.. it could happen.

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Just an update on this. I got an answer for this question after I progressed another ten hours or so. You guys were right.. Sephiroth's understanding was flawed because he was reading inaccurate, Shinra documents. Turns out

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Jenova wasn't related to the Cetra. She was just a "calamity from the sky". Just an... alien?

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Climhazzard is the timeless evil robot who runs some of the cool stuff at CoN (mostly logging chat, since there are no quizzes at the moment), all the while watching and waiting for his moment to take over the world. -Tiddles

Yes. The fact that Jenova was not an Ancient is a pretty important factor in the overall setting and a big reason why things turned out the way they did. You can get more of an elaboration on the matter when you get to Icicle Inn.

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