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Could Ff7 Have Survived?; the game itself and characters...
Topic Started: May 10 2011, 09:48 PM (585 Views)
Vanelo
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One Emerged From Shadows Into Light
I'm going to do this based solely on FFVII itself, NOT the compilation at large.

- Cloud, Aeris, and Sephiroth are 100% mandatory, and the most important characters to the entire plot. Without them, you have no FFVII. PERIOD. Sephiroth is the single most vital aspect of the entire game, he essentially drives everything since he causes the overarching conflict of planet vs. Meteor. And Cloud and Aeris, regardless of your stance on the LTD, are the most important characters after him because they have knowledge and connections to him the other characters lack that are 100% necessary to defeat him and save the world. Cloud instantly recognizes that Sephiroth is alive upon seeing President Shinra's corpse, and is the only one who actually actively pursues Sephiroth (everyone else is just along for the ride really, and none of them would've recognized Sephiroth's existence or the threat he posed without Cloud's knowledge), and Sephiroth MUST summon him to the Jenova reunion anyways (more on that in a bit). And Aeris is the only one who can summon Holy and stop Meteor. Without her, the planet dies, because the rest of the characters, even Cloud himself, are unable to prevent Sephiroth from summoning Meteor. Furthermore, Cloud and Aeris meeting and developing a close relationship, romantic or not, is very important too. Think about it... would Aeris be so willing to sacrifice herself for the planet if she didn't want to protect Cloud? And likewise, would Cloud have ever stopped being as cold and callous if Aeris hadn't made him care about her? This motivates him to save her at many points throughout the first disc, taking the initiative where he used to just let money dictate his actions. And would Aeris' death have been the shocking blow that it was if she and Cloud weren't close in at least SOME way? At that point, you might as well just make them lovers for crying out loud... :plot:

- Tifa is, unfortunately, very necessary for the whole Cloud's mind thing. She also triggers all of Cloud and Aeris' actions from the Wall Market to leaving Midgar, and acts as a "plot anchor" of sorts for them... though ironically, these events not happening would NOT affect the overarching plot very much. The party rescues Red XIII, who they otherwise would've never come into contact with, but considering how Red XIII's usefulness to the plot could go either way (I'll get to that in a bit)... Tifa might actually just be entirely useless aside from restoring Cloud's mind. After all, Sephiroth MUST summon Cloud to the Jenova reunion as part of his plans. So even if Tifa didn't keep Cloud and Aeris anchored into the main narrative, Sephiroth eventually would have in her place. On top of which, while plot important characters like the Avalanche members and President Shinra do die during the Midgar portion of the game, Cloud and Aeris' presence has zero impact on these events. It is also interesting to note by comparison... it is NOT necessary for Cloud and Tifa to have any sort of relationship beyond Cloud caring enough about Tifa to not leave her to her own devices in Wall Market (which unlike Aeris is neither motivated by, nor causes any notable character development on Cloud's part, and that whole event isn't even all that necessary to the plot anyways), and Tifa caring enough about Cloud to want to save his mind (and that in itself doesn't really approach love). I should add, I don't think rewrites should be considered, because that would add all kinds of crap into the mix, allowing you to mess with the plot and structure, and you could at that point say ANYONE is expendable. We're only talking about what would happen if certain characters were removed entirely, not if the actual plot was reorganized outside of that.

- Vincent is an awesome and interesting character, but sadly expendable. He's optional for a reason.

- Ditto for Yuffie. Including the awesome and interesting part Yuffie haters :P

- Barret and Marlene are necessary because he had the funds to both hire Cloud AND get him to stay in Midgar in the first place. Plus Barret helps steal the Highwind. In addition, Marlene provides motivation for Barret, and indirectly triggers the whole infiltration of the Shinra HQ incident since Aeris agrees to surrender in exchange for her safety.

- Cait Sith/Reeve is absolutely mandatory in order to rescue Barret and Tifa when Rufus tries to execute them on national television. From what I remember, he also sets up a glossed over event where the party kicks Shinra's butt off of the Highwind and steals it from them. Ironically, he's useless for obtaining the Black Materia, Sephiroth pretty much owns the thing no matter what the party tries.

- Cid is 99% expendable... however, he personally built the Highwind. Without him, the party never finds veggie Cloud, parachutes into Midgar to stop Hojo, or descends the Northern Cave to defeat Sephiroth.

- Red XIII was necessary for plot exposition and detailing how a lot of the mechanics of the plot work. Without him, the party is never led to Bugenhagen, who explains virtually EVERYTHING about the game's world. ... That said, it would be far from impossible to make FFVII work without all this information about the world, and neither Red XIII nor Bugenhagen ever do anything that affects other characters' lives or motivations. Cloud ultimately decides to stop Sephiroth regardless of the conflict's impact on the world, and even forces everyone else to realize that they're not doing this for the glory of saving the planet. So this one could go either way. To sum up: Red XIII is necessary to fill in plot holes and ensure the audience stays informed. He does very little to actually affect the plot. Whether this is truly necessary or not varies from person to person.

- The Shinra corp. is absolutely necessary in order to provide an origin for Sephiroth, and motivation for just about everything that happens in the first eight hours of the game. At the absolute bare minimum, you MUST have Rufus and Hojo. Rufus is necessary to provide a leader for the company, and Hojo is necessary for so many reasons, he needs no defense. In fact, despite his relatively low amount of screentime compared to other characters, Hojo is probably the most necessary character in the game aside from Cloud, Aeris, and Sephiroth simply because his experiments put so many things into motion.

- The Turks do provide some nice characterization to the monolithic company, but honestly, they're expendable. They mostly go around doing crap that high level soldiers could've done, and the majority of encounters with them are both optional and pointless in the grand scheme of things.

TL;DR Cloud, Aeris, and Sephiroth are MANDATORY; Yuffie, Vincent, and the Turks are EXPENDABLE, and everyone else serves moderately important plot functions.
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