h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Final Fantasy VII [Rewrite/Update A412543] - A2713556
Author: RFJS__ - I hear voices in my head. Well, where else would I hear them? - U524615

As promised in F48874?thread=415936 (and queried in F47997?thread=417988), this Entry is intended to replace A412543 and to complement LQ's FF Entries.

The Internet positively haves under the weight of FF7-related stuff, and I wasn't inclined simply to duplicate what can be found in more detail on any of numerous other sites (although I've tried to pick out some good sites to link to). Hence the discussion of name theories -- picked out from various places on the Internet (apart from some of my own stuff in the Jenova footnote) and brought together here -- along with some mildly technical stuff and various other goodies; I even managed to track down that FF6-themed SGI demo. Hopefully this drawing together of information will make the Entry more than just a replication of other sites.

As noted elsewhere, I originally intended to discuss the various theories concerning the game's plot. However, given that Advent Children will probably have a impact on many of them, I decided that now is not a good time (plus researching and writing such a section would have delayed the completion of this Entry considerably); so I haven't given up on the idea, but it isn't realised here.

I've decided to avoid possible spoilers and give very little away; consequently details of the plot are quite brief. Since it's so short, I considered putting the Story section at the top to act as an introduction, italicised and minus its header, but I was worried that this would be stylistically out of step with the other FF Entries being written.

The list of sites to link to hasn't been finalised; further searching my lead me to change it. I've tried to find high-quality character shrines to link to; shrines to Marlene, Scarlet and Reeve exist, but none of the ones I found was worth linking to. In some cases I couldn't settle on a single shrine, so currently Cloud and Tifa have two shrine links each.

One source claimed that 'Aerith' is Old Greek (whatever stage of the language that refers to) for 'divine one', but I haven't been able to corroborate this, so I haven't included it; if anyone can shed light on the matter, please do.

I found something rather interesting while looking into the etymology of Mako (or more precisely 'Makou', as it turns out). The word in FF7 is written with two kanji: a kanji dictionar gave me 'witch, demon, evil spirit' for the first, and 'clear' for the second. When I checked to see whether the word exists elsewhere in the Japanese language, the only example of it I could find in the dictionaries that wasn't the name of a person or a place was an 'environmental' term meaning 'Mara's light'. This is also written with two kanji: the first is the witch/demon/evil spirit one again, and I gather it's the standard one for referring to Mara (the Buddhist figure). The second is the kanji for 'light', which is one of the two components of the kanji for 'clear'. Consequently the two words are written very similarly, and I wondered whether there was a possible connection. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any other references to Mara's light (which appears to be a somewhat specialised term), so I don't know what in the environment it refers to. Given that, and the fact that I'm generally getting out of my depth, I decided not to note this in the Entry.

I've given only the more exotic/inobvious name sources; hence there's no discussion of what sort of clouds Square was thinking of. I didn't include anything on the name Reeve because I wanted to avoid having yet another footnote, but I may yet reconsider.

'The Internet positively haves'

I had yet to wake up fully. Please read 'heaves'.

Update:

A new paragraph in the Aeris section; mentions the Debug Rooms and 'Sumimasen!'

More on patches for the PC version; two new links.

Name theories for Palmer and Reeve; two new external links, one new internal link.

A link to the official site.

Links to RPGamers' sections on merchandise/advertising and FF7 International.

Right. I think this is ready for Peer Review now, so I'll be taking it out of the ghost town shortly.

Oh -- I forgot to mention that I've moved the story section to the top, as I suggested, and italicised it as a blockquote. It can easily enough be moved back if need be.