REBUTTAL TO: Head Games
In her recent editorial "Head Games", Ellie Degeneffe proposes that FF7 may in some way be prophetic to the events of 9/11. This is absurd. To think that the writers of FF7 somehow predicted or helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center five years before 9/11 is ridiculous. This is the stuff of conspiracy theorists, the mind boggle of a whimsical "What if...," our over-inactive consumer imaginations trying to discipline us. Not that conspiracies don't run rampant through the media theses days, especially concerning our dear GWB - the perfect scapegoat for whatever may (not) be wrong with America - but since we're on the topic of prophets, let us dally here and examine why (not).
To begin, prophets have both historically and traditionally been far from normal. Usually they are oddballs whose flights of fancy are dismissed as outlandish or just plain insane. These rare breeds seem to be hardwired to another dimension or being from which they receive extra-sensory data. Square and its employees are just not this. They don't fit the bill for what or who a prophet should be. No matter how odd or inspired Square's RPGs may seem, they are still the product of human thought, and nowhere near the incoherence or madness of a prophet.
Secondly, if the writers of FF7 were truly cognizant of 9/11, why would they wrap their prophecies in the looseness of fiction and metaphor? If they wanted us to know of the future, why not just come out and say it? Of course, some poor soul may suggest that the writers of FF7 had a malicious intent in combination with a superiority complex that would allow them to laugh themselves silly on America's behalf and then later point out that Midgard is American and that they've known all along about America's downfall. But this too is absurd, since FF7's story is too vague to generate such a firm meaning and nothing exists to suggest that Square would ever attempt something like this. One last possibility is that the writers want to create some secret prophecy or code through FF7's story that only they would understand a la the Da Vinci Code. But this is contrary to what it means to write and to be human, since our overwhelming urge is to communicate and to make ourselves known.
Thirdly, prophecy, or the resonance we often feel between our lives and something we read (or RPG we play), is no accident. Any historian will tell you that history repeats itself in patterns. For instance, many of the same problems that plagued the Greeks and the Romans plague us anew today. It is quite probable that a writer who wrote many years ago was in a similar situation to what you are today. Thus, when you read that writer, hindsight occurs and together with the striking similarities (between the writer's world and our world) molds it into what is normally, though erroneously, called prophecy. It is also important to note that the seeds of change are present several years before change occurs. For example, the French Revolution just didn't happen in and of itself. Rather it was a pot full of peoples and ideas of the entire 18th century (and even before) that boiled over viciously in 1789.
In the same way 9/11 is a fruit of this past century. Terrorism had been on the rise for several decades. Opposition towards government, which has always been present, was trendy. To top things off, America had stuck its nose into one too many places. 9/11 was a gradual buildup of anti-American sentiment that quite literally exploded in violence. It was the manifestation of the times. FF7's story about corrupt governments, worldwide doom, and impending invasion is just another manifestation of these same patterns that have spun across the 20th century. These earlier manifestations (FF7) often get confused as prophetic (Degeneffe's article), but in reality they are just road signs we erect after having taken the turns of history far to sharp. They are nothing more than hindsight.
Finally, why can't FF7's story be taken at face value? Does it unsettle us too much? Have we lost the darker side of ourselves? Cloud remains one of the most realistic and complex RPG characters ever fashioned, because he functions like we do. He doesn't care about what's going on in the world, just like we didn't care about terrorism before 9/11. Like so many of us, he cares only for himself and the people around him. Killing Sephiroth was Cloud's personal vendetta, a common Eastern motif considered a worthy pursuit. While Cloud's disregard for Midgard certainly unsettles, this is good. It shows that we have a conscience and are actively engaging FF7 instead of being passive consumers or RPGamers. It also points to Cloud's need to discard Midgard, placing it aside and moving away from that which was home. To stay at Midgard would have been suicide for Cloud. both for his past with ShinRa and for his fragile self that could no longer thrive within the confines of the city. He had to leave Midgard behind just like any youth who leaves home and venture out to be his or her own person.
In ending, I leave you with this: Midgard was destroyed because of its evil. While many innocents perished in the destruction of Midgard, perhaps it was necessary for their demise. This unsettles, but what if Midgard was so polluted that even the good in it was tainted as well? What if it were better to destroy everything and start anew, than to allow Midgard to continue to exist and slowly rot away, extending its decay to other places? What if innocence itself was a disease? What if it signified a rooted apathy and complacency? Shouldn't the people of Midgard have stood up and stopped the evil of ShinRa? Or do they continue to live their innocent lives letting each other waste away?
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