Final Fantasy VII’s Remake series, the further I get into Rebirth, reminds me of the phrase, “History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes“. The last time I’ve seen an instance like this is in the Japanese anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion, where you had the original anime itself, followed by End of Evangelion and concluded with the Rebuild films. Neither EoE or the Rebuild films were made to scrub the reality of how the original anime ended but rather consisted of the time loop the story had due to the Instrumentality happening. EoE had a scenario where everything was rendered to destruction, leaving Shinji and Asuka alone and somehow that triggered the Rebuild timeline where things are similar yet different with references of EoE in the 1st film with the bloody sea. Eventually the Rebuild films see what is eventually a definitive conclusion — no more time loops or inconclusive endings; a true ending if you will. I see the same thing happening with FF7 when Revelation releases in the Spring. We had the original game, the Advent Children film, Crisis Core which expands on the journey of Zack & Sephiroth and finally this game trilogy. The key ingredient to this is the conclusion of Cloud & Sephiroth’s fight in Advent Children when Sephiroth said, “I will never be a memory”. When you see how the Whispers emerge (three of them represent the Sephiroth clones from Advent Children), they represent points in the story where a divergence from the original timeline happens. Similar to the Evangelion Rebuild films, I believe FF7 Revelation will help conclude everything so that many of us can ultimately close the book.
Speaking of books, I managed to take the time to write out the Acknowledgment section of FireFrei. It felt nice to finally get it done and write it in a way that helps me remind the readers of my gratitude for just being present in this part of my life as a writer. Writing it was definitely trickier for me than writing the story itself. The next step is art, the boring bit of inserting the ISBN and all the usual copyright info and finally just…publish the damn thing.
Lastly, I just got started editing the 1st chapter of Drafts on my Mac. I feel giddy in knowing that upon edit, this 1st chapter alone is close to 20 pages. Bear in mind, that’s 1 out of 12 chapters and I’m currently writing chapter 11. You can say I am getting ahead in my editing while still writing the latest chapter. At this rate, I can confidently say that if the writing reveals itself the way I think it might, Drafts will be my 3rd novel. Without spoiling anything major, whatever happens in Drafts will be very important to remember. I also managed to find the font that’s used in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’m glad I found it as it will be the font type I’ll use for this novel’s reading. It feels so right, given the novel’s title and the game references in a few characters and in key moments in this story.