reasoniamalive said:
Again, good Doctor - I think that this plays to our spiritual nature. ****not necessarily religious****
Whether or not you believe in God - the Devil - or angels and demons, I am overwhelmed by the sense that there is real, profound warfare going on all around us...'Good-vs-Evil' kind-of warfare. Unless you are insane (or have just taken upon yourself a malicious, insatiable desire to show cruelty towards others) everyone would agree that destroying the planet and all the life on it is a BAD/EVIL idea or plan....this is part of the reason why those who have played FFVII - while it may not be their favorite game - can connect with the characters...including Sephiroth and Jenova in a unique ways. In the same way, Chrono Trigger also owes a lot to Lavos - the destroyer of planets.
Despite what religious values we may or may not have been exposed to, Good-VS-Evil is a reality in our day-to-day life that we should be aware of...and its this reality that draws me into the world(s) of FF.
It is not necessarily the 'good versus evil' factors in religious elements that interest me, really. It's a lot more than that...the people who created Xenosaga and the game's storyline stirred up controversy amongst other people and even themselves by putting different views on religion. Not to say that any of those views are REAL--but it upset some people overall. I'm not religious in the least bit, however, so none of it affected me, really. The only thing that I thought was surprising was their view on Mary Magdelene and Jesus Christ (who in episode three they called Yeshua, Jesus's Hebrew name.) But I'm not going to spoil anything--I would rather have everyone else play the games and see for themselves.
Now on the topic of Final Fantasy games (which I should be talking MORE about, seeing as this topic is in general Final Fantasy...) I have noticed that a few of the games have also set their own examples of religion, although somewhat subtle. FFX is a good example of this; in the world of Spira, people worship Yevon, and believers cast hate down upon the Al Behd, who are supposedly disobeying the teachings of Yevon by using forbidden Machina. And the whole Yevon thing itself has secrets, and lies in itself, made even more twisted by the high priests and whatnot...those of you who have played the game already know this. The facts are made even more apparent in FFX-2--although many people thought that game was pretty much fluff, it DOES have deeper elements that make it a good game, if you play it all the way through and pay attention to the story. FFX makes a statement that there is a higher entity out there, but not in the form that we may think it is, and that religion can corrupt our thoughts and make us believe what it only WANTS us to believe.
FF7 was interesting in a way that there is a sort of explanation in how the 'circle of life' works. When people die, they return to the earth, body AND soul, into the never ending lifestream. The lifestream in turn gives itself back to the planet, and supplies all the remaining physical life on the planet. However, there is little or no indication of how the physical life got there on the planet in the first place--unless this theory is implying that the lifestream also replenishes souls and reincarnates them. But FF7 doesn't TOTALLY point out the fact that there MAY be a God--at least in that universe.
But these are just some of the deeper elements that I'm thinking of--the main point is just most likely that there is good and there is evil, and the good exists to fight the evil, and blah blah blah blah. What Reason said. >>
To explore is only one side of the coin - everyone deep-down wants to know they aren't alone in the fight...better yet - everyone wants someone to fight besides. I would love to be partnered with X's cast of characters most of all! <3
