*Spoilers*
Why Holy "Failed"
One thing I’d like to point out is that if there was a reason for Holy helping (or failing to stop) Meteor, I’d say the only logical thing I can think of at this time is that Holy misinterpreted the threat to the Planet. It believed that Humans were the real threat, and disreguarded Meteor’s imminent impact.
Picture this – mankind has been steadily draining your life force for some thirty years now, slowly increasing the load on you as it builds more and more Mako reactors. What’s worse, is that there’s nothing you can do about it – unlike Meteor. We know Meteor (or JENOVA, who’s impact’s effect would have the same material effect) has hit in the past – Norther Crater my friend. However, did the Planet die? No. From this past experience, Planet deduced the following:
"Meteor is coming, mankind is here. Meteor will hurt me badly, but I’ve survived it before and I can heal the wound once it’s made. Mankind is a new threat, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Mankind’s threat is continuous – Meteor hits only once. I think I should get rid of Mankind, rather than Meteor. And perhaps I can actually utilize Meteor to help accomplish that goal…"
Under this logic, it’s obvious why the Lifestream’s summoning was neccessary – Holy backstabbed those it was intended to protect – the dwellers of the Planet. Or had it? Remember the context underwhich FF7’s past is divulged – the importance of life is downplayed. It’s the life of the Planet that matters, not the lives of the plants and animals who exist on the Planet. In fact, one can even go so far as to say that the animals and plants are parasitic in nature.
But I digress – if they were unintentional, then the mere idea of the Planet’s existance would be ludicrous – Bugenhagen states quite clearly that Lifestream is made up of dead (temporarily or otherwise) lifeforms – this means if animals and plants perish, so too will the Planet. The only possible rebuttal to this would be to state that Bugenhagen was incorrect, and that the Planet exists independantly. Life didn’t exist from the beginning – when the Planet was formed from molten rock and space debris it was barren; and as such would be devoid of plants and animals. In this way, we can establish the following theory (which more accurately describes FF7’s workings than Bugenhagen’s idiot remarks):
"The Planet is a being which thrives on its own energy (dubbed "Life Stream" by humans). This energy was somehow sapped by parasites and utilized to give them energy – much in the way a tapeworm feeds off of its hosts energy and doesn’t create its own."
Life Stream isn’t created of the minds of Planet’s creatures – rather, Planet’s creatures are created of it. It’s like if I took my own blood, bones, and muscle and shaped myself a little person out of it. Multiply this several billion times and you have a real threat to the planet. Which is another reason why Holy worked to annihilate mankind – actually, Holy worked to wipe out ALL life that utilized Planet’s Life Stream. AVALANCHE was wrong – the very existance of mankind was inherently threatening to Planet – the asinine Mako reactors served only to amplify the situation and draw the life from surrounding planets and animals. Now, not only are their biological parasites drawing from Planet, but there are mechanical parasites as well – these parasites, however seem to draw from ambient biological parasites – not as threatening to the Planet as initially deemed by AVALANCHE and its rag-tag array of half-assed knowledge.
Then why does the essence of the Planet (Life Stream) work to save that which is sapping it? Well, we say that its the same as the reason our blood clots. Planet’s mind used the bandaid (Holy) to stop the parasites (animals, plants, humans, mako reactors, etc), but its body automatically worked to stop Meteor’s impact by clotting the bloodflow around the wound (using Life Force). Think of it this way:
"I have one bandaid, but I have two cuts (Meteor and Parasites [humans, animals, reactors, etc]). I’ll put the bandaid (Holy) on my knee cut (Parasites), but that doesn’t mean my elbow cut (Meteor) won’t scab by itself (through Life Stream) and stop the bleeding automatically."
And since Holy was working to hurt the Planet (unintentionally, of course) by helping Meteor destroy the parasites (which would, ironically, end up helping the Planet), the blood clotted it out (it had melded with Meteor anyway). In this way, mankind was saved. This is strengthened by the fact that we see smoke/steam rising from the ruins of Midgar 500 years later (it’s obvious that this is from a small town with decent industrial power).
Now, does this mean that Aeris didn’t lead the Life Steam? Yes it does. I can effectively state this for two reasons: One, it doesn’t make sense that she would retain individuality in the Life Stream while others (Human, Cetra, Animal, etc) do not. Two, there’s no way she would have contained enough power to redirect the internal essence of the Planet. Imagine this:
"Trains follow the tracks they are placed on. Just because there’s a conductor in the engine doesn’t mean that the train can now go off course."
Additionally, just because we see her face at the end doesn’t mean she lead the Life Stream – in fact, it’s the same scene as from the first movie in the game (a sort of closure to everything). If anything, it hints to a possibility of a post-game revival (we all know that she can’t be revived in-game). But let’s leave that for another day.
– ***
Copyright (c) 2002-2003
Please ask permission before using this theory!
[EDIT: Added Copyright information and deleted Post Script which asked if admins thought this was an OK post and if I could continue posting theories]
you a university professor?
and did you have something to do with the plot of MGS 2? :p
That’s great, where’d you get that from? It makes more sense than ever now.
Uh… I wrote it, that’s where I got it from. As you can tell by my sig and the little thing under my name, "I Am the FF7 Theory King!" Glad to see that it helps ya. 🙂
– PTM
– PTM
the end sequence is also oly a small part of the world, so the other cities could have survived.
so basicaly, holy stopped meteor and it didn’t have any side-effects (if it did then it would be very hard to tell). :notgood:
Just because they skip a couple of eons doesn’t mean Meteor wiped humans off the face of the earth; I think the game creators just leapt towards the future, that’s all. When Holy didn’t work as planned in the ending cinema, I think it was just to cause suspense; I’m assuming it was the game creator’s way of making FF7 different from your average movie with a glamourous ending. The only thing that gets me is how Red XIII had kids when he was the only one of his kind left.
but..
What exactly do you believe holy is??
A conciousness for the planet to communicate through and carry ideas on the planet and the planets "feelings" to the Cetra?
Or simply a defence mechanism.. just simply holy magic from the planet. How did Holy originate.. before or after the planet? I think that holy could be the foudings of the FF universe and the ultimate being if it is a conciousness. Could holy have created the planet and if the planet is destroyed it can create a new one?
What if Holy is a parasite in the planet??? :eye:
I did already found out for myself that holy would wanted to destroy mankind in stead of meteor, which can be easily explained by the norwegians mythology about Midgar, which is something like "Midgaard" or the middle of human existance shaped by Odin (Othan, Wodan) out of Ymir, the big twin who was thrown into "Ginugagap" the crater. As Midgar is the start of humanity so it can be the end of it.
So far so well. After that you try to explain why Bugenhagen (German Protestant Reformer) is wrong in his way to explain the planets life. I do regret I have to repel you on that topic. The thing you forgot in your theory is the Termodynamica which says as much as: An amount of ordened energy is used to create an event that causes chaotic energy. Different processes are nessescary to gain ordened energy again. I.E. you mentioned that the planet is alive, which means it is a process in the Termodynmic cycle of its own. The Chaos energy it produces has to be ordened again. In This world they are ordened by plants, animals (maybe fungi and bacteria as well). When this part of the process is done, its useless chaotic energy which it is for the organisms living on top of the world is now usable as ordened energy for the planet. Final Fantasy VII called this extended thermodynamic cycle the Lifestream.
Of course, it is only my theory but you could brainstorm your mind again about it. And oh yeah, I think it is a little bit short sited and definitely arrogant to call yourself "The King of FF7 Theory", but thats also my personal opinion.
Well enjoy,
Wise Elan
(c) 2006
A 4 year old thread reviver!
What an introduction.