Questions regarding FFVII's plot [SPOILER]

[Doctor Obviously]

Hi everybody

This thread will probably be full of spoilers so for the people that have not fully experienced FFVII, please get out now.

For the people who can sing the story in their sleep, this thread is for you. I just beaten FF VII, for what must be the fifth time, I think. I always leave a lot of time between playing really good games. I have a couple of questions that in my mindset don't really make a whole lot of sense story-wise. Here they are:

-How does Cloud survive his fall at Sector 5?

-How does Cloud get to the events which will lead to the beginning of the game? I read some stuff on Final Fantasy wikia and it shows screenshots of Cloud leaving some sort of test tube with Zack and also a screenshot of him lying on the top of a hill overlooking Midgar but I have never seen these scenes in my entire life in the game. Is it because I'm playing the PAL version?

-How does Sephiroth enter Jenova's Room in Mt. Nibel during Cloud's False Flashback? I bring this up because I cannot enter Jenova's Room later in the game. When Sephiroth stood there saying: "I'm here to see you, Mother." was she like "'Sup, brah, you're totally not my kid but I'm gonna let you in anyway."? Or did the what was left of Jenova let Sephiroth in because he was injected with Jenova's Cells? If that's true, why can't Cloud enter this Room? Or is it a flaw overseen by the part of the development team?

-Was Jenova being an Ancient/Sephiroth's biological mother a lie or a misunderstanding by Professor Gast? Is the plot of the game based on a gargantuan misunderstanding by Sephiroth?

-How come Tifa doesn't bring up Zack much more often in the game or do I have to play Crisis Core to understand this? It's especially jarring when I go to visit Zack's parents in a small village and Tifa kinda sorta shrugs it off.

-If Sephiroth was thrown into the workings of Mt. Nibel's reactor during Cloud's Real Flashback, and ended up sleeping in some sort of crystal in the far north to recover (?), who was the Sephiroth that the party saw on the boat trip, Aeris' killing and in the Whirlwind Maze?

-After Sephiroth got owned by LV 1 Cloud, did Sephiroth drag his ass to the far north, and put himself in a crystal to recover, or am I missing something in between?

And, most puzzling for me:

-Why does the party so desperately want to stop Shinra from using the Huge Materia that could potentially save the planet?

Any help in understanding these would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[The Witch]

-How does Cloud get to the events which will lead to the beginning of the game? I read some stuff on Final Fantasy wikia and it shows screenshots of Cloud leaving some sort of test tube with Zack and also a screenshot of him lying on the top of a hill overlooking Midgar but I have never seen these scenes in my entire life in the game. Is it because I'm playing the PAL version?

That's a short hidden scene in VII. I believe this is what you're looking for.

But it was also redone in CRISIS CORE.

-How come Tifa doesn't bring up Zack much more often in the game or do I have to play Crisis Core to understand this? It's especially jarring when I go to visit Zack's parents in a small village and Tifa kinda sorta shrugs it off.

Tifa/Zack don't really know each other that well. She just sorta kinda knew him briefly.

-If Sephiroth was thrown into the workings of Mt. Nibel's reactor during Cloud's Real Flashback, and ended up sleeping in some sort of crystal in the far north to recover (?), who was the Sephiroth that the party saw on the boat trip, Aeris' killing and in the Whirlwind Maze?

It was a piece of Jenova, basically.

I'd like to help with the rest but I don't have time to write down the tl;dr that is VII's story.

 

[Doctor Obviously]

Snip.

That's alright, thanks for replying to some of my questions, though!

 

[Dragon Mage]

Read the thread here: http://www.finalfantasyforums.net/t...eaks-Down-The-FF7-Plot-(So-You-Don-t-Have-To)

It should answer all your questions.

As for the Huge Materia, all of mako (and thus materia) are crystallized memory, since it's made of the life-essence of all living things. A normal materia is just big enough to hold one spell, but this spell is actually a lot of knowledge on how to summon up the magic. Let's say it's Fire. Then the knowledge in that one little materia is all about fire, how it works, how to summon it in a spell, and so on. Think of it as an entire encylopedia of knowledge just about fire and the physics of it. That's a lot of knowledge.

Huge Materia are big enough to hold entire libraries worth of knowledge and may hold keys to very advanced magics or technologies. That is why Avalanche wants to save them.

The reason Shinra was using them as a bomb is because mako is memory AND energy. And though energy in your computer can be used to save data (like the materia) that same energy could be used in an H-bomb.

 

[Artemisia]

How does Cloud survive his fall at Sector 5?

Aerith says the roof and flower bed broke his fall. Jessie mentions on the train in the beginning of the game that the top plate of Midgar is about 50m above ground. That's approximately 15 stories if I'm not mistaken. Bear in mind this is a fantasy game and Cloud is also genetically modified with Mako cells so he is tougher than a normal human.

-Was Jenova being an Ancient/Sephiroth's biological mother a lie or a misunderstanding by Professor Gast? Is the plot of the game based on a gargantuan misunderstanding by Sephiroth?

Yes. Jenova is a viral being from space that landed with a meteorite into the Northern Crater. It began to spread a disease among the Cetra who turned into monsters and killed each other. The remaining Cetra escaped but their numbers were so whittled down by then that they had no choice but to breed with the ordinary humans and gradually died out. It's never stated what the difference between Cetra and ordinary humans are biologically, except that Cetra could "speak with the planet" and use magic naturally without materia - to an extent. Professor Gast incorrectly identified Jenova as a Cetra, and only realised the truth after meeting Aerith's mother Ifalna. Go to the Icicle Inn during Disc 3 and select the video system in Professor Gast's house (can't remember which one it is but it's on the left, you'll see cameras and other recording equipment inside and a downstairs area with a bedroom).
Sephiroth believes he is the chosen one because of Gast's mistake, and goes crazy after he realises he was simply bred as a genetic experiment.

-How come Tifa doesn't bring up Zack much more often in the game or do I have to play Crisis Core to understand this? It's especially jarring when I go to visit Zack's parents in a small village and Tifa kinda sorta shrugs it off.

Tifa states a couple of times in the game that she realised something was wrong with Cloud's recollection, but kept quiet because she also doubted her own memories of the incident. Obviously she remembered a person named Zack, but she only knew him for a couple of days at most. Bear in mind that Tifa was almost fatally injured during the Nibelheim incident and only regained full consciousness in Midgar some time later; it's likely her memories were clouded (excuse the pun) by the trauma of the event and how long ago it was. Her reaction after meeting Zack's parents is one of uncertainty, if you talk to her outside Cloud asks her if she knows him and she fervently replies "N-No, I don't!". She is not even certain if her memories are real or not.

-If Sephiroth was thrown into the workings of Mt. Nibel's reactor during Cloud's Real Flashback, and ended up sleeping in some sort of crystal in the far north to recover (?), who was the Sephiroth that the party saw on the boat trip, Aeris' killing and in the Whirlwind Maze?

Sephiroth clone #1 . Remember the clones in Nibelheim who all had numbers on them? A man in North Corel and Dio from Gold Saucer mention that the Sephiroth they met had a "1" tattooed on his arm or hand.

-After Sephiroth got owned by LV 1 Cloud, did Sephiroth drag his ass to the far north, and put himself in a crystal to recover, or am I missing something in between?

He got swept into the flow of the Lifestream, and ended up absorbing a lot of the power of knowledge contained therein. His consciousness grew in strength and merged with the will of Jenova to gather the Black Materia using the bodies of the Sephiroth clones.