Snowflake Challenge - Day 3: Canon Faves (FFXII, FFVI & DoC, P5)

[sarasa_cat]

Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.


Final Fantasy FFXII:  The beautifully designed cities and architecture: The game's art team took influence from Art Deco architecture of New York City, Istanbul’s cultural and architecture, plus many locations, cities, and cultures from North India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. My response? Thank you for a rich, imaginative, diverse fantasy world that feels like a network of living, breathing cultures, nation-states, and empires based on these oft neglected neighboring and historically interlocking places of the real world. So much appreciated and enjoyed. Let me roll around in it and just breath a giant sigh of capital R Relief. MORE PLZ!!!

Final Fantasy VII's thematic message: The way the canon positions specific misguided corporatist visions driving specific outcomes of corporatist applied science as the chief enemy threatening the Planetary Lifestream -- the life-giving qualities within all things on the planet. Every time I return to FFVII, the older I get (and the longer my professional CV gets), this theme resonates louder and louder. It is so damn cathartic.

The subtle gender flip in Dirge of Cerberus (Compilation of FFVII): Vincent repeatedly is placed in the role of "the Damsel in Distress" trope, repeatedly requires rescue, and nearly all of the characters who rescue him are women. Even better: the story makes clear that despite his hyped up fighting skills, he is essentially a Glass Cannon who is fighting for control by other forces inside his body, and he repeatedly passes out or comes close to passing out at very key moment which makes him very physically vulnerable. It is unclear if any of these rescuer women who save the day and drag his unconscious body out of disaster have any romantic interest in him -- at least one clearly does not. Also, this particular male-bodied damsel in distress is not offered up in the story as a prize to be won by the rescuer. Why I love it? There are so many things I hate about the ways in which women are often shown in media and the damsel in distress is one of my least favorite tropes. The story of Dirge of Cerberus, despite being an RPG 1st person shooter from a male POV, heavily revolves around the stories of an ensemble cast of women, each with their own lives and professional goals. This gender flip of the damsel in distress blatantly plays with one of my least favorite tropes -- a trope used to justify that women are weak and/or immature, and require of a male savior. Extra bonus: there is a line in Dirge where one of the female characters -- a hyper-intelligent 9 year old girl -- discusses (to herself and, thus, with the player-viewer) how another woman found Vincent to be immature: "acts like a helpless child."  Who was that other woman? Lucrecia, the first of Vincent's many female saviors who is also a woman he had epic unrequited feelings for.  ... I get why so many male players hate this game's story and hate how Vincent is depicted (some even gameblogging or gamevidding with endless sexist misogynist slurs at Vincent) and I just love it to bits for what it is, including all of the cheeeeeese because the villains are so cheeeeeesetastic and Vincent himself has moments of epic cheeeeese as does his occasional partner-in-crime Yuffie (because without the cheeeeeese this story would be so depressing I just don't even know how one would make it through hours of brutal darkness. the cheese is necessary.).

Persona 5:  All of it? The complete feeling of catharsis in ever palace? The music? Oh the music. The music................ kdjfaljfakldfjakljalkfjalf.  Wandering around Tokyo in the late evening in the rain and the soundtrack that plays for that.  Working at Crossroads Bar. The complete outcast feeling that the main character experiences. All of the scenes with Protagonist and Morgana (the main character and the cat) as BFFs.  .... 
but if I had to pick one scene, for some reason the scene in which they form the Phantom Thieves -- the Going Out For A Fancy All You Can Eat Lunch with Protag + Ryuji + Ann + Morgana scene and everything that happens during that scene is a fave. Watching these four character bonding and against the backdrop of the environment they are in (the fancy restaurant) and the comments that people make around them that reinforce how society has rejected them but as far as they are concerned, they have each other ... the scene works so well. Also: the comedy of bringing a talking cat to an all you can eat buffet lunch.  ;)

Comments

[owlmoose]

I agree entirely with everything you say about Persona 5. It was such an amazing game on every level. I want to go back and play the rest of the series now.

[sarasa_cat]

I have only played the very first Persona game plus one of the early shin megami tensei games, but I own the whole Persona series plus a handful of SMT games ... time to start playing the rest of them once I finish P5.

Honestly, I haven't love a game as much as I love P5 since a very long time.

Here for Day 4 Challenge...

[ama_ranth_827]

Cool, that I found out another Final Fantasy post was posted just before I posted mine. I have not played or watched anything of FFXII but after I saw your post I decided to look up the full movie gameplay of it on youtube and it is now in my list of things to watch. I don't own the game so it is the next best thing LOL.

I love your take on FFVII. I love Vincent Valentine so much LOL <3.

Which of the games is your favorite?

Re: Here for Day 4 Challenge...

[sarasa_cat]

FFXII is so much fun. If you can somehow get your hands on it (or play it through an emulator) it is so worth it.

I have a hard time deciding which FF is my favorite. FFVII (plus all of the additional media in that universe) and FFXII (plus all of the additional Ivalice games) probably tie for my most loved FF universes.

FFVIII is another favorite, although mostly because I love the characters and playing triple triad.

FFXV leaves me with mixed feelings. I love the characters and the world is beautiful but the story? idk.

(I'll check out your FF posts soon -- sorry for delays at my end, life is really busy this week!)

Re: Here for Day 4 Challenge...

[ama_ranth_827]

I will try to get my hands on it at some point :D

Awesome. FFVIII and FFX are my favorites by far but that is probably only because those are the ones that I have played the most LOL. The characters in FFVIII are amazing. I actually haven't mastered Triple Triad yet LOL.

I will have to watch all the videos on Youtube so I can learn about all the worlds :D

(It's okay no worries! :D)

[fragilespark]

FFVII ♥

Diiiiiirge. I remember playing this at uni with my ps2 hooked up to my laptop as a monitor, and therefore getting many lovely screenshots and cutscenes saved. I know at the time I was very focused on certain cameos but I don't remember much else about it apart from the interesting new characters so it might merit a replay after all these years.

[sarasa_cat]

I *still* need to do my epic screencap/vidcap playthrough of Dirge so I can finally finally finalllllllly write that epic series of posts for Dirgepalooza.

This is very high on my list. I need to get my brain back into Vincent's canonical 1st POV headspace and Dirge is so much lololuolololololololol fun.