I like to start at the source...where and how I arrived at my conclusion. I'm sure some of you might find that boring and tedious, but I have always loved to read the author's note and find out whence such whimsy comes. For this I was watching Dexter season 6, which is all about Revelations and the end of the world, but instead of waiting for God to set the apocalypse in motion, the murderer(s) decipher the Bible's final chapter and comes to the conclusion that by staging tableaux inspired by Revelations he/they can bring about the end of this world and the birth of another. Like one of my previous posts (False Prophecy), this of course does not come to pass, but the season did inspire me to finally pick a Bible and read the final book. As I absorbed the apocalyptic imagery, I came to the realization that FFVII is not only a religious allegory, a fact which needs no insistence, but a metaphor for Revelations itself...
Forgive me for making such a general statement. A more accurate assertion would be to say that FFVII is a metaphor for the seven seals. I'm not going to summarize the plot of the game. Not here; not now. I'll save that for later and more involved delvings. If the title of this entry piqued your interest, than forgive me again my assumption that you already have such knowledge. I will move along with my murmurings and present the evidence in the signs.
The first Four Seals spoken of in Revelations 6:1-8 indicate the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a common motif regardless of your creed: the bowman on the white horse named for conquest, the rider of the red associated with war, the horseman of famine on his black steed, and finally Death on the pale horse, the only horseman to be named.
In Final Fantasy VII there are four weapons, which are unleashed when Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia. They are named for precious gems of the earth, but the parallel of their names to the riders should hopefully come clear. Ruby (red) and Diamond (white) are simple. Emerald is obviously green and the color of Death's horse from the Greek translation was green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid. Based on the way the word was used in Greek medical literature, scholars surmised it referred to the color of a corpse, and in many modern renditions, the horse is distinctly green as "pale" is a description of a color and not really a color itself. As for Sapphire I pondered that for a while as such gems are normally considered blue, then I noticed the very same gem on my finger was black, and there really aren't any distinctively black precious stones. The horsemen are unleashed to wreak havoc on earth and be the first signs of more terrible things to come. The weapons are guardians of the planet set forth when there is dire need, but they fulfill the same tasks of the horsemen in regards to havoc showing a glimmer of what horrors may come.
Revelations 6:9-11 presents the 5th Seal: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls who had been slain because of the word of God, and the testimony they had maintained." The fifth seals speaks of the martyrs...those who shed life's blood for what they believed in. Aeris was killed on the altar in the City of the Ancients praying for Holy to save the world. The martyrs cry out for justice and that there blood be not spilled in vain.
At the opening of the 6th Seal in Revelations 6:12-14 various disastrous events occur, but the one that stands out for my comparison is "the stars in the sky fell to earth." Meteor...which is a portend of the 7th Seal in Revelations 8:1-6 God's final judgement. The end of FFVII has Holy finally summoned come to contend with the Meteor from the sky, but this is not to save humanity but rather the planet, which we've been ravaging long before falling stars. Initially before the numerous sequels and reincarnations there was an ambiguous element to the end of VII in that it was unknown whether or not humans had survived Holy's cleansing. Were we judged worthy enough for yet another chance? In the Biblical account only a particular amount were saved, but is there truly anyone in this world so innocent as to be spared? But even if the slate were wiped cleaned who is to say the same situation will not again rise? Life or nothingness, hope or despair, cynicism/belief. It all comes back to this polarity, and the Seven Seals and Final Fantasy VII have more connection than just a number.
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