Does Cloud have the Jenova gene? *Spoilers*

[Gackt Camui]

Yeah tell me about. Not to mention not everybody is has a nice car that they like to show off. I was willing to post in that thread but you told me not to because it would get to confusing because I really didn't have a car. So if you don't mind My Hero Squall if you have nothing to say about Final Fantasy because this is a section about it...please go away until you do. I did for you and you can have enough respect for me and the others that want to talk about FF to not do. THANKEY

Sephiroth wanted to become a God using Lifestream. His professed goal was to create a wound in the Planet so massive that all of the Lifestream energy would have to gather around it in order to heal it. He would then absorb the Lifestream and uses its energy to transform himself into a supreme being who had almost infinite power and energy. In this way he would be a God among men, and would be not only unstoppable but most likely immortal as well. Cloud and company soon learn that Sephiroth is planning on using the Black Materia to do this; for in the Black Materia lies the key to summoning the most powerful spell ever to be created - Meteor.

Meteor finds small drifting moonlets or asteroids and then forces them into a collision course with whatever the caster targets. Sephiroth planned on targeting the Planet with his spell and, eventually, did just that after obtaining the Black Materia in the Northern Crater. Meteor then began its collision course with the Planet, and nothing seemed to be able to stop it. This was, for all intensive purposes, the apocalypse of Final Fantasy 7’s planet.

Why is it that the Lifestream acted in this way? Was it being lead by Aeris? Was it simply acting on impulse? Was there some magnetic pull between it and Meteor that, in the end, managed to destroy the evil creation and save the day from Sephiroth’s dread destructive force?

Perhaps the most basic assumption about Lifestream is as follows: Lifestream is, essentially, the blood of the Planet. This of course makes a great deal of sense and offers a good start for beginners who wish to learn what exactly Lifestream is. While not perfect, it’s a very good approximation of the inner mechanics of both the Planet and of the green stuff itself.

This bloodstream hypothesis/explanation basically builds off of the principle that the Planet and all the things who live on it are essential constructs of earlier versions of themselves. The Planet’s Lifestream functions as a huge repository which serves basically two main functions under this theory. One, it heals the Planet’s wounds and keeps it alive. Two, it serves as an energy bank which can be utilized to give rise to new life forms.

Most of the player’s understanding of Lifestream generally stems off of this statement made by Bugenhagen when he first explains to Cloud and his party about what exactly they are fighting to protect. The Lifestream is shown as a renewable source of energy that all life requires to exist.

We also know the Planet requires it in order to exist. There are two reasons why the Planet needs its own Lifestream. One, if it is devoid of Lifestream it will wither and die. Two, if it is devoid of Lifestream it cannot heal its wounds.

We are shown in the very same scene as the quote above that the Planet will become barren and black, and, eventually, will shatter if the Lifestream is completely sapped away. This is independent of whatever wounds that the Planet may or may not have, and, as a result, Shinra’s Mako reactors are not only leaving the Planet susceptible to a major injury (due to the immunodeficiency they cause by sapping Lifestream) but are working to directly kill the Planet.

Assuming the Planet is wounded, however, before its Lifestream is reduced to zero it can still be killed. Like a living thing it requires its blood to clot and stop the bleeding around its wounds. Blood also functions by facilitating the reconstruction of damaged tissue in a biological organism. The same is true of the Planet. Not only will it be unable to stop the damage it incurred as a result of the initial injury from spreading and increasing (there will be more talk about this in part d of this very section: “Lifestream’s Role as Holy’s Replacement”), it will also be inhibited to such a degree it cannot hope to regenerate and heal itself from the initial wound.

These curative properties are evident in a number of places. Notably among them are the Mideel incident and the Northern Crater. In Mideel, Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream and, as a result of this event, Cloud’s mental confusion is finally sorted out. This, however, may not be attributable to curative properties but instead to the assimilating properties of the Lifestream (more on this in part b of this section: “Individuality”). The Northern Crater, however, provides undeniable truth to the claims made above.

When the player arrives at the peak of the Northern Crater, just outside the Whirlwind Maze, they are literally shown the Lifestream curing the wound Meteor caused when it was last summoned (over 2000 years ago, by JENOVA most likely; refer to D-II-a “Why Holy Failed” for more information).

But how then is Lifestream replenished? If it is used by each living thing as it is created shouldn’t the Planet eventually be eliminated anyway, despite AVALANCHE and no matter how many Mako Reactors are built? This is, of course, not necessarily so:

Bugenhagen: “Ho Ho Hoooo. Yes, it is something, isn't it? Well, let's get to the subject. Eventually... all humans die. What happens to them after they die? The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What
about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls? The soul too returns to the Planet. And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same. The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet. They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the ‘Lifestream’.”

Bugenhagen explains to Cloud and his friends that the Lifestream is continually being recycled and never truly leaves the system as a whole. So long as the entity does eventually die, the Lifestream will be returned to the swell, or Lifestream repository, that is housed inside the Planet’s mantle. This is of course both efficient and self-sustaining and therefore presents the player with the idea that the Planet is in perfect harmony, a common assumption when it comes to talk about nature in real-life as well.

Thus, whenever somebody is born they take a handful of Lifestream with them. When they die, they give it back. That same handful is then incorporated into the swell, and, eventually, used by another life form to facilitate its temporary existence. It is then returned and the cycle continues unto infinity, so long as this is uninterrupted.

The Lifestream, however, has other applications. Mako and Materia are two forms of refined Lifestream, which will be discussed in parts ii and iii of this same section (“Mako” and “Materia”). Barring the individual forms, raw Lifestream itself can be used to augment physical bodies. Apparently, there is no limit to how much Lifestream a life form can absorb. It is because of this that Sephiroth’s plan to become a God through using Meteor develops.
When stricken by something or hurt in some way, the Planet’s Lifestream automatically coalesces around the injury to stop the “bleeding” and begin repairing the damage. This is, as said earlier, seen in the Northern Crater. However, when this occurs it is apparently possible to draw on this energy and, in some way, use it to augment the strength and energy of an already living organism. Such is Sephiroth’s plan.

There is of course one fundamental flaw with this idea. If this is so, why does Sephiroth not simply drill into the mantle and submerge himself in the swell? What is the true need to call upon Meteor and bring the Lifestream to the surface when he could simply go to the swell itself? Would this not be both more efficient and less time consuming, not to mention being immediate and out of Cloud’s - and Holy’s - ability to prevent?

The only possible explanation (because Sephiroth obviously would have known about his ability to simply submerge himself in the swell) would be attributable to Sephiroth’s (or JENOVA’s) greed. When Meteor hit countless lives would be lost; a meteorite of that magnitude would be certain to wipe out 65-75% of all land life on the Planet, similar to the one that destroyed the dinosaurs in real-life. In this way, billions of “handfuls” would be added back to the swell as humans, trees, bugs, even blades of grass were killed. This would be a significant boost in the swell’s Lifestream energy and the amount Sephiroth would absorb would be tens or maybe even hundreds of times greater than that if he had penetrated and absorbed the swell alone.

Contrarily, however, some may argue that Sephiroth could simply have absorbed the swell first and used the power gained from that to dispatch Cloud and cohorts easily. This is flawed, however. If Sephiroth were to absorb the swell he would have eliminated the Planet’s Lifestream energy, killing it (in accordance to need one, as explained above). Therefore he needed to wait. To absorb only part of it would be dangerous as well because then the Planet may not have been able to send Lifestream to coalesce around Meteor’s impact, making the impact irrelevant (due to a general lack of Lifestream due to his absorption and Mako Reactors already depleting it to unacceptable levels). Therefore, the only way it would have worked would be for Sephiroth to do exactly as he did.

[Tifa-chan]

so were did you cutt and past that from Onee-chan?

[Gackt Camui]

Um actually I don't even remember....I just wanted to stay on topic so I just went and looked for something. Actually it was like way longer than that but the forum had me take a lot out so if it makes no sense blame it on the website not me.

Contrarily, however, some may argue that Sephiroth could simply have absorbed the swell first and used the power gained from that to dispatch Cloud and cohorts easily. This is flawed, however. If Sephiroth were to absorb the swell he would have eliminated the Planet’s Lifestream energy, killing it (in accordance to need one, as explained above). Therefore he needed to wait. To absorb only part of it would be dangerous as well because then the Planet may not have been able to send Lifestream to coalesce around Meteor’s impact, making the impact irrelevant (due to a general lack of Lifestream due to his absorption and Mako Reactors already depleting it to unacceptable levels). Therefore, the only way it would have worked would be for Sephiroth to do exactly as he did.
(lol)

[Tifa-chan]

intresting theoirs here. They do bring up some good points

[Gackt Camui]

Yeah I was thinking the samething....It was so long though So I never really got to read the whole thing..they have like 30,000 different things to read. The website was crazy I just don't remember what it was called!

[Tifa-chan]

please find it again I really want to see the site

[Phoenix Flame]

Besides that... if you cannot locate and quote an author - you'll have to remove it from this site 0.0 as it is it is plagarism... btr find it!

Oh and a couple of nitt-picks... Jenova didn't CAST meteor...she came IN a meteor. And not necessarilly a magical one. However - it is logical that Holy (if used) might have been able to have stopped the collision (such as it helped do in VII.)

[Gackt Camui]

OH YEAH I FOUND IT GUYS!

http://www.ffshrine.org/ff7/ff7_theory.php
That is the website so....yeah just click on what you want to read. I also sent them an email thanking them for their information. So enjoy!

[Tifa-chan]

incorrect in most parts though....I agree with reason.

[Gackt Camui]

What do you mean? What am I doing wrong now?

[Phoenix Flame]

Originally Posted by Gackt Camui

What do you mean? What am I doing wrong now?

Silly Kelley...she was saying she disagrees w/the info on the site.

...AND agrees with meh statement <3 XD! LOL!

[Tifa-chan]

yush! XD not picking on my poor onee-chan! *huggleskelley*

[Gackt Camui]

Ah okay now I get it lol. I just posted the stuff on here to see what you guys would think of it so we can like stay on topic seeing how I had no idea on what to post. That way we can get on a little discussion on whether or not that website is really worth it or not lol

[Tifa-chan]

hum I have been to ffshrine tons of times, but I can't say I agree with things they post, sorry to say, but they are normaly never right

[Gackt Camui]

I didn't say they were right. It was just the first website that I clicked on...lol