Fashion Retcon Confusion

Raspberry

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So I've had this huge fascination with how Square Enix handles Final Fantasy VII and the fashion sense.

Lets first start off with how Square Enix handles SOLDIER, specifically the SOLDIER emblem. if you followed it in that order after FF7, you notice some odd details in the fashion retcons that really make it confusing.


Final Fantasy VII:

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The only artwork that gives us a good idea of Soldier's design is Cloud's modified outfit. And as you can see, the insignia has this medieval/ancient design. it definitely contrasts the rest of the more 90s aesthetic. And With Sephiroth's design, we can make the safe conclusion that the insignia was not a modification and part of the Soldier design (at least for 1st Class).

Before Crisis:
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We can't see the insignia, but we see the helmet to be redesigned to be much more Knight-like. So based on the helmet design, its safe to assume the insignia hasn't changed.

Advent Children:
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We See Sephiroth with a new insignia. It's so hard to see, and it seems like something to ignore considering it could be a slight redesign. Cloud's outfit is also heavily modified to the point of removing the insignia, so we don't really see

Dirge of Cerberus:

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This is where things get interesting. In Dirge of Cerberus, we get to see fully modeled Soldiers and Deepground Soldiers. Once again, the original Emblem remains, and there's now more subtle features that distinguish the two. Deepground have this "Blue Eye" in the center of the emblem while SOLDIERs have an empty slot. Everything makes sense so far (except for Advent Children).
This further cements the idea this emblem has always been around.

Crisis Core:

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Crisis Core now contradicts everything we know so far. Now the logo we see in Advent children seems to be the proper logo. I'm never quite sure what the symbol is. it seems like two fists pointing upwards? And we see that the old emblem is still canon, but now only to Deepground? I just find it very confusing.
 
I'm a bit late to this thread.

The second emblem design looks like something from an Aztec codex to me.

I encountered a description of this change relatively recently on Twitter that is interesting to share (I saved it in case I needed it one day, and that might be today).

[It is worth reading the whole thread, with this tweet being the first]

To summarise, the new logo appears in Advent Children and was prominent in Crisis Core, but then they used the old logo for Deepground, pretty much like you described. But then Odysseus (in these tweets) describes other uses of the belt both within and outside of the Compilation itself, and how it hasn't remained 100% consistent.

It is perhaps one of those design changes that they expected nobody to notice. But fans being fans, of course they did.

Both emblems appear to remain canon. It would be nice for them to address this. Even if it was just something along the lines of Soldiers use one emblem during particular ceremonies or events. Or something almost ritualistic. Or coded. Something to signal something to other Soldiers what their intentions are. I don't know.
 
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