𝐉𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬 · @FF7Novels
11th Feb 2022 from TwitLonger
A few thoughts about the Nojima incident
While the disturbance I caused on Nojima's page was wrong, the fandom's reaction to it was no better and was very likely just as much to blame for him clamming up as what I did. And I'm not the only one. Others have called out the fandom for their behavior about this situation as well. Although it wasn't what I intended, much of the FF7 fandom (and the Cloti sect in particular) has basically proven my point about its ugly nature through their own actions—hate, dogpiling, recrimination, and participation in an online witch hunt and lynch mob. I doubt anyone involved would like it if the same were to be done to them. Yet they had no qualms about doing it to me. That's called hypocrisy and a double standard. I think Nojima took one look at the fandom showing its true nasty nature and decided he wasn't going to feed that monster any further.
Also, simply calling something harassment doesn't necessarily make it so no matter how much one might believe it is. The term "harass" is broad, non-specific, and easily abused. And the inherent biases of the ones claiming it can't be ignored—I specifically called out the Cloti ship to Nojima, which means that any Clotis that have come out against me have an inherent conflict of interest in doing so for that very reason and thus, their claims and motives are suspect and questionable at best. But even so, for the sake of hopefully calming things down in the fandom, I'll accept the term to describe what I did.
I don't think it's a good idea for any of the three ships to made the official one, not even my own. SE is well aware that not everyone agrees on who Cloud favors and that people are very invested in their choice. Also that many now like Cloud and Jessie together, as proven by them getting a PAK set together (something neither Aerith nor Tifa have ever had), enough that SE felt that making such a set would be profitable. And also by the fact that it's Jessie who's featured on remake Cloud's vision card in FF: Brave Exvius and not Aerith or Tifa.
Making any ship official will only amplify the FF7 fandom's worse tendencies and behaviors, especially amongst the Cloti sect, many of whom will say or do anything, no matter how wrong or hurtful and far worse than anything I've ever done, for the sake of Tifa. But because it's for her, it's often excused and overlooked, even if the very same behavior would be (and often is) condemned when it's used against them. I have to wonder if those Clotis would still have said anything if I'd done what I did on Nojima's page for Tifa instead of Jessie.
What I feel SE should do, and what I think is the most likely outcome, is for them to leave the love situation unresolved, not favor any side more than the others, and leave it to us to decide for ourselves in our own minds how Cloud feels, with each of the three girls (Jessie's very likely to return, alive, and for more than a cameo because you don't bring a character back from the dead just for that) being presented as equally viable possibilities. While SE said there'd be less left to interpretation in the remake, they never specified which parts, or how much. Which still allows for the approach I outlined above, one which respects all three sides and their fans and acknowledges them. Which I believe is the fairest way.
FFVII is unique in the main series in having a true love square (formerly love triangle) where each girl has been given time and interactions with the hero, enough to build up substantial followings for each pairing. Thus, forcing one choice over the others isn't a good fit here. The story can be successfully told without doing so. Plus, thanks to the way Part 1 ended, the remake series is no longer bound by the constraints of the OG. There's nothing left in-game to keep the story on that path with the whispers gone.
Another possible approach that respects fans of all three ships would be to provide love paths in the series for each of the three girls, with unique scenes and rewards for each one, thus increasing replayability and allowing all three pairings to have a voice and place in the series, thus removing the entire reason for people to argue about the love dynamic. Because with this approach, everyone is right, because everyone can experience this aspect of the series in the way they prefer.
And this does not cause Cloud to lose any of his agency because it would only be this one aspect of himself that the player would have any control over, not everything like with the protagonists of games like Dragon Quest. So it wouldn't be the same thing. Anyone with a strong investment in any ship who objects to this idea has an inherent conflict of interest (much like Clotis lashing out at me) and thus, their arguments are flawed because of how of their own inherent biases influence them.
SE said they're not closely following the original story. Only in the most basic, barebones sense, which can be seen as it simply having the same world, characters, locations, and basic quest, but no more. Much the way the Mortal Kombat series diverged further and further from its original timeline in MK9 and MKX and then completely left it in MK11, I think FF7R is very likely to follow a similar path as it goes on. Which makes relying too much on the OG to figure out what's ahead for the remake series risky at best.
Anyway, that's about all I wanted to say. It's easy to hate and tear down, but hard to do the opposite. I wonder what the FF7 fandom will do? Those who lashed out at me need to look at themselves as well and wonder if it's really such a good thing that they seem to hate so readily and so easily. And maybe acknowledge that they're not as innocent as they might think. Engaging in behavior they'd never want done to themselves (looking at you, SlayerSantiago, and your willingness to spam my creative works for the sake of your own anger) or condemning me for what I did while ignoring their own history of bad behavior (hypocrisy, thy name is Silverwield and your 20+ page anti-Clerith rants) isn't the way for people to make their point and have any credibility. At least I apologized and admitted I was wrong. They have yet to do so.
Oh, and in response to those told that told me to simply be better instead of sorry, one can't do that without first being sorry and acknowledging where one was wrong, which I have done. I do intend to be better, but as I said, that requires the previous step of admitting to one's mistakes and apologizing for them. I don't have any intention of causing any further disruption. While I feel much of the FF7 fandom, at least on Twitter, still vastly underappreciates Jessie and that it's wrong to think less of a character and arbitrarily dismiss her simply because she's not "main" or currently playable, I don't want to go pressing the issue on other people's pages anymore.
There's a very simple way for the FF7 fandom to prove my assertion about Jessie wrong, if it has the daring and initiative to do so—give her just as much attention, promotion, content, and respect as Aerith and Tifa and abolish the unwritten rule that says significant NPC's must never be treated the same as PC's. Be willing to think in a new way. How many of you can do that, I wonder?