>>527076798
>I think I would’ve liked the plot more if it’d turned out Cloud really was a mass of Jenova cells instead of a real person. It could’ve led to an interesting exploration of concepts like biological destiny vs free will.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but was that not precisely what was explored? From a certain point of view?

Cloud was a nobody. His "biological destiny" as you put it, was basically a dead end. Not good enough to be a SOLDIER at all. But he still defeated Sephiroth, the GOAT, with nothing but magical friendship, "free will". His brain becoming liquid scrambled eggs by Hojo and reforming itself with JENOVA was actually super easy for him to get over, barely an inconvenience. Body pumped full of Mako and JENOVA? No sweat, he was ready to do backflips as soon as he saw Tifa. Suddenly he's capable of wielding a massive buster sword effortlessly and pulling off insane 1st Class moves he had never ever trained before once his boo thing finally notices him.

Otherwise, great post and I agree with basically everything. It has some problems but overall it's an obvious 9/10 even 30 years later.