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| Bibilical Symbolism | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 8 Jun 2014 - 02:26 (70 Views) | |
| Enigma | 8 Jun 2014 - 02:26 Post #1 |
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Elite Member
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So there's a ton of it in FF7. If you aren't religious that's fine, I will be doing another symbolic post, but for now...I noticed several things in FF7. First off, there's Aerith who can be compared to Christ. She heals not only physically, but also emotionally. Aerith also didn't really come into herself until after she died. In her death, Aerith holds a very angelic role, a symbol of a holy guardian watching over those who need help. Aerith also offers salvation to anyone, no matter who. She reaches out for Kadaj and brings him up with her. Aerith however is there waiting to welcome even remnants of Sephiroth with her, healing them, and forgiving them. She only does this when they reach out for salvation, as she said "Everyone's waiting, if you're ready" Aerith also dies for the salvation of all the souls on the planet, including even those from Shinra. She does not pick and choose who she wants to save or judge who is good or bad, she is willing to save EVERYONE if they want it. You know she would even save Sephiroth and forgive him if he wasn't so "I hate everything all the time" Sephiroth obviously represents the Anti-Christ, since he is a direct counter to Aerith. There are times where he even seems to be stronger and beat Aerith but in the end she always is able to trump him. Cloud represents the average man struggling between good and evil. Splash, feel free to add onto this. |
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| Splash | 8 Jun 2014 - 03:59 Post #2 |
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Elite Member
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...Ok. That can be done. :wave: I am going to declare something shocking. The Advent Children movie is not solely a love story. Yes this is a Cloti forum but I realize that Cloti is just one small aspect of the immense universe of FF7 and not even overtly confirmed yet (omigod is a Cloti saying that on their own forum :O !) I'm here for feels. Religious symbolism: PROMISED LAND - is there any thing more biblical than that. Let's elucidate. The biblical story of the Promised Land is not a pretty fluff story. It's about Moses fighting with the Egytian Pharoah to bring out the Israelites from slavery into a new propserous land flowing with 'milk and honey'. And they didn't just walk from point A to B. Complications caused them to wander in the desert for FORTY years, thousands of people died in the exodus, yep not a pretty story. And after reaching Canaan, actually they had to invade and destroy all the cities before claiming the land. Does that relate to FF7? Methinks so. End of FF7 Cloud gets a clue from the Planet. He can meet Aerith in the promised land, whatever that meant at the time because the concept was new to them then. Anyway my point is that reaching the promised land requires a long and arduous journey, defeating enemies and overcoming many personal hardships first. This is the pattern happening in FF7. Cloud did finally reach (read 'awakes') in his promised land but only after he defeated his demons (Seph and the renmants), saved the kids, realized he is meant to live with his family and that he can find inner strength to forgive himself. AFTER that he is finally rewarded with the opportunity to see Zack and meet Aerith. That's better than the Bible lol Moses got to glimpse at the land once than died. That's the more important underlying theme of ACC. Cloud receives his personal redemption. He is surrounded in joy and allows himself to live and move on from the horror and pain of his past. The Promised Land didn't fall into his lap. He worked off his ass to get there, so much grief and suffering ensued on the journey. And there's a reason why the last scene in the movie is so touching. We walked with Cloud through his personal hell so seeing his redemption and happiness was a big moment. :cray: -Aerith's rain is like healing holy water. Haha it has negative effect on the renmants, but heals Cloud and the children. -Having the group wear a pink band in rememberance for her sacrifice is like wearing a cross need I say more. -Cloud looks like he is baptizing Denzel in the pool healing scene. When Denzel gets healed he stares into the water for a long time and has like a revelation where he sees clearly. Also this is weird as but when he looked at his reflection in the water I thought it was Aerith's smiling face for a while. |
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| eleamaya | 8 Jun 2014 - 08:02 Post #3 |
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Crazy Zack Fangirl
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Interesting. I'm Moslem so I'm not aware of those things^^. But yeah, Aerith and Sephiroth is pure opposite like white and black, yin and yang. |
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| Enigma | 8 Jun 2014 - 19:14 Post #4 |
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Elite Member
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And the idea of the Promise Land not being an actual physical place but a state of being sounds like Buddhism. I don't know much, but I know that monks try to be enlightened and reach that state which would be like The Promised Land being that state. It is a state of supreme happiness. In Christian theology, Heaven is this place of supreme happiness. My friend describes it to me as "Think of the thing that makes you happiest, for you, video games, or ice cream (he teases me about my love for both) now imagine that feeling multiplied by 1,000" Since everyone is different, I would imagine their heaven, their promise land to be different yet all having the one thing in common...happiness. Sephiroth's promise land is great for him, but completely horrible for everyone else. Sephiroth you could say is like the devil, who promises you something, but is ultimately tricking you away from God. Aerith is shown to be the Christ figure healing poor souls in the lifestream, while Sephiroth tries to corrupt them. Oh! And the angel statue in AC. I honestly mistook that for a depiction of Aerith when I first saw the film. Also Aerith spends most of her time in a church, a place people gather in the lords name to worship. The church looks like it is Catholic, or has Catholic influence. |
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| Splash | 10 Jun 2014 - 09:14 Post #5 |
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Elite Member
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Since we are discussing religion, what do you think were the specifics of the religion or spirituality Aerith followed? Did she worship the Planet in her church or meditate about the Lifestream? She seemed to be practiced in some sort of prayer as her scene at the altar demonstrated. It's a pretty large church. Yep its model is built like an orthodox catholic church complete with wooden pews and an aisle. It's interesting who the people would have prayed to or what they meditated about. This is also considering that unless they were Cetra their communication with the Planet would probably be one sided. Edited by Splash, 10 Jun 2014 - 09:22.
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| Enigma | 10 Jun 2014 - 13:01 Post #6 |
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Elite Member
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I think that Aerith worshipped the planet. Cetra's would be like prophets who spread the word to others about the planet. Humans can't communicate with the planet but the Cetra's could, so I think they all worshipped Gaia as some god, that or perhaps Minerva? Though I would like to know why the church was built, and what not. Also, the flowers grow in there and it's shown that there's a heavy concentration of lifestream infused water under the flower bed. So perhaps it was built there because people knew the river flower beneath it? But over time shinra rose to power and the slums became...well....the slums. It's interesting to see the history there. I think what Aerith was doing was praying to the lifestream or to the planet in the scene Zack was dying. Although in AC, when the healing rain fell and healed everyone he yelled "now people will start praying to the rain!!!!" It's interesting to note that when Aerith prayed it was raining. Perhaps there is more importance placed on water in the FF7 series than we think? Even the well where Tifa grew up is infused with Materia I believe, giving it a red glow at night...and people DRINK from that well? |
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