Nibelheim?
-…
-Yeah. We’re in Nibelheim. This must be an illusion.
-And then the past merges with the present. Sort of? We see Sephiroth walk in with two Shinra soldiers and a dude with Cloud’s starting sword and black spikey hair. Not Cloud, so it’s some manipulation of the past, but why?
Cloud sees Not!Cloud.
-Sephiroth laughs, and then he and the rest of his party blink out, leaving Cloud, Tifa, and Red.
-Tifa…? She seems to know more than she’s letting on. “It’s an illusion, Cloud. Don’t worry about it.” What do you know?
---
Burning Nibelheim?
-The next illusion is burning Nibelheim. The black-haired dude emerges from the mansion, but in reality Cloud was the one who emerged. Working theory: he’s replacing Cloud in the illusion with someone Tifa knows to fuck with her head in some way.
-Zangan (Tifa’s master iirc) talks to Not!Cloud. Tifa’s seeing this and starting to freak out, telling Cloud to not believe it. Cloud tries to get her to chill (“As long as we know it’s just an illusion, there’s no need to be scared,”) but it’s not helping Tifa.
-We flash to a burning house, and Cloud gets that Sephiroth’s saying he wasn’t in Nibelheim 5 years ago. But he was. We saw Cloud’s flashback.
Wait
Wait
SEPHIROTH: “You are just a puppet… you have no heart… and cannot feel any pain.”
WAIT WAIT WIAT
He said this puppet thing before back with the Black Materia. Are these implanted memories? Was Cloud one of the cloned monster things we saw five years ago when he went with Sephiroth to the Mt. Nibel Reactor??
SEPHIROTH: “What I have shown you is reality, what you remember is the illusion.”
AND TIFA KNOWS IT, THAT’S WHY SHE WAS FREAKING OUT
If that’s true, and the jury’s still out on that, then what’s the point of all this?
Cloud asks, and Sephiroth answers: “I want to take you back to your real self.” I’m kind of freaked to see Cloud’s real self, since this must be Sephiroth’s term for the part of him he and Jenova mind-controlled. “The one who gave me the Black Materia that day. Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would be so useful? Hojo would die if he knew.”
Hojo?
FDHJKLFHDSKLDSL!R#!F!
Nibelheim burned, and Hojo constructed Cloud out of Jenova’s cells.
-Tifa persists consoling Cloud, saying they have memories of growing up together. Whose memories are those?
-This is kind of wonderful and kind of terrifying. Sephiroth vanished, and Cloud’s talking to Tifa. Telling her that no matter what jumbled memories he has, he’s supported by her belief in him, her faith in their past.
SEPHIROTH: “The ability to change one’s looks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova. Inside of you, Jenova has merged with Tifa’s memories, creating you.”
-There’s a lot to unpack with this statement. (Again, assuming I believe him, which is very much up in the air.)
#1 - He’s talking to Cloud, and saying that his look was altered from its original state by Jenova. This could mean that during Cloud’s time in the Nibel Reactor, Hojo dosed him somehow with Jenova’s cells. And now that Sephiroth and Jenova are teamed up, Sephiroth is working with Jenova to control those cells and thus control Cloud directly.
#2 – That just speaks to that Cloud is influenced by the power of Jenova, not how it manifests. I don’t understand at all how Cloud’s voice and looks were altered.
#3 – How does Tifa factor into this? Jenova merged with Tifa’s memories of WHAT? Of WHO? What possible role could Tifa have in these shenanigans?
-We see the photo they took in Cloud’s flashback, with Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth. But this time, it’s Not!Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth.
Who is that dude?
-Cloud then remembers the details of his mission with Sephiroth to the Mt. Nibel Reactor. It was his first as a SOLDIER, first class. But this detail, about when he joined SOLDIER, trips him up for some reason.
He doesn’t remember joining SOLDIER at all.
---
Caverns
-Perspective switch. Rufus is walking in some caves, Scarlet and Hojo in tow. They see a nest-tree-thing made of Mako and materia it seems.
Rufus and Scarlet think this is the Promised Land. Hojo says there’s no such thing.
-AAAAAAAAAAARGH A MASSIVE CARVING ON THE WALL OPENED ITS EYE
IS THE MOUNTAIN ALIVE?
Hojo says this is actually a monster created by the planet to defend it when it was in danger.
---
Next time: All parties meet.
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