Political Platforms for Fictional Universes: Final Fantasy VII

Some people say there's too much politics in video games, I say there's not enough! If everybody listens to this advice, I think we can fit the whole game on one disk

Previously in this series: Political platforms for Harry Potter, the MCU and Star Wars, and for The Matrix and The Good Place.

Includes spoilers for the video game Final Fantasy VII Remake, and vague spoilers for the original Final Fantasy VII. This advice is based on the initial state of the FF7 Remake world, consider it a New Game Plus run conducted with full knowledge, or how a time-looped hero would solve the game

The world of Final Fantasy 7 is on the brink of environmental collapse, due to reckless use of Mako energy and unregulated experiments which have created literal monsters. Environmentalist groups like Avalanche should work with aligned political leaders and Shinra executives to break the effective control of Shinra’s current oligarchy, invest in rapid deployment of alternative energy sources while banning unethical experimentation, and work with the Ancient to negotiate with the planetary consciousness to agree on conditions of cohabitation. Blowing up Mako reactors is unlikely to make a difference, given public opinion and current leadership.

Speak softly, and carry a comically large sword

The world of Final Fantasy 7 faces three existential threats, brought about by short-sighted leadership willfully ignorant of the consequences of their new technologies.

1. Mako energy extraction is draining a potentially renewable resource faster than it can be replenished, causing environmental decay, and having unknown effects on living entities. The city of Midgar is addicted to an energy source that is draining the planet of its ability to sustain life, controlled by Shinra executives with no accountability to the public.

2. Reckless scientific experiments conducted by the Shinra corporation have created super-soldiers more powerful than an army, with no loyalty to human factions, with designs that could also destroy the planet’s ability to support life

3. A planetary immune system of which we know little risks being activated, as a consequence of #1 and #2. The collective consciousness of the Lifestream may decide that the survival of the human race is incompatible with its goals of sustaining life and spawn monsters to eradicate it, or it may decide that the planet is too damaged for life to continue and send the Lifestream to another world, leaving remaining humans behind on a dead rock.

Mako Energy Extraction

Barret Wallace: What is Mako? The Lifestream! The lifeblood of the planet—our planet! But Shinra keeps slurping it up like a thirsty dog! Whadda you think’s gonna happen if you don’t stop, huh!?

President Shinra: We do indeed keep on “slurping it up”, as you say… But… for whose benefit, I wonder. The true nature of Mako is known to one and all, yet the people willfully turn a blind eye to the cost.

The Lifestream manifests in the form of energy known as Mako, is renewed by the souls of dead life forms returning to it, and helps create new life. Interestingly, it is likely that the optimal rate of Mako energy harvesting is non-zero: there are naturally occurring Mako deposits in the form of Materia which enable humans to use magic, and if natural overflows are possible, it’s likely there is a safe level of Mako extraction to optimally channel that overflow for human purposes.

Some people complain about using draining souls for energy, but have you seen how fast it charges your phone?

However, the Shinra corporation has doubled down on Mako energy extraction with no concern for the overfishing problem or optimal harvesting, raising standards of living for the wealthy elite in their society, but pushing the world to the brink of environmental collapse, leading to a perverse state where human civilizations can only turn to Mako for their energy needs as traditional farming grows more difficult.

As public opinion is largely indifferent as to the long term consequences of this policy, destroying Mako reactors is unlikely to make a difference, as they will simply be repaired and rebuilt by those in power while making the public less sympathetic to the goals of violent terrorists. The best use of Avalanche’s resources would be to achieve a coup in favor of the political and corporate figures allied with their cause.

The first Domino to flip, and trigger an Avalanche!

Mayor Domino is an elected official with a public presence who secretly supports Avalanche’s cause; Avalanche should assist Domino in launching a broadcast announcing the discovery of crimes against humanity committed by the majority of the Shinra board, and declare that he is installing the sympathetic Director Reeve as the new president, who already opposes Shinra’s worst excesses. Simultaneously, Avalanche will invade a Shinra board meeting, where the executives regularly meet without weapons in a building where Mayor Domino controls security, and arrest the other board members under the authority of the Mayor. Reeve then moves to quickly take control of the company and announce that they will clear Shinra’s good name after this crisis, asserting that Shinra employees are good people who were taken advantage of by their leadership.

The new face of Shinra, who is shocked, SHOCKED to find out there are abuses of power going on here

President Shinra: Picture a world without Shinra. Without Mako energy. A stagnant, impotent world. Now picture a natural disaster. Who would help the people? Help them recover and rebuild? You? With their old world ruined, will they thank you for the new?

In our world, economists overwhelmingly support taxes on polluting energy sources that elected leaders have lacked the will to pass, to deal with the admittedly non-existential threat posed by climate change. The threat to Gaia posed by Mako harvesting is greater, but might still require a transitional period to avoid mass riots and revolution to reinstate the old Shinra regime. Reeve and Domino should revive the practice of coal mining considering the lower short-term risks, and engage in mass construction of solar panels, while taxing Mako energy to pay for the migration to those energy sources: Mako energy should be extremely expensive, and other energy sources should be cheap to motivate investment. The world of Gaia is largely undeveloped, with few urban centers between massive uninhabited plains which could be set up with solar panels to funnel energy to Midgar and other cities. This transition would still be disruptive, but enlisting the assistance of the underclass living beneath the Midgar plate by offering them good jobs and leadership positions could help address the labor shortages.

Reckless scientific experiments

Professor Hojo: This facility is home to extraordinary specimens that will change the world as we know it. Do try to be considerate.

Professor Hojo, the head of the Shinra Science and Research Division, may have done more harm than any other member of Shinra. After Reeve seizes control of the company, most of Hojo’s experiments should be ended and test subjects released, and his controversial work on the SOLDIER program should be declassified to make the extent of his manipulation clear, with counselling provided to test subjects who need support to integrate their traumatic experiences. Going forward, experiments will only be conducted with full informed consent, and subject to review from a board evaluating ethical and logistical risks, rather than simply shooting up every living creature you can find with dangerous energy sources and seeing what happens.

This is the face of a man who doesn’t preregister his experiments and probably p-hacks all his data

After installing new leadership, Avalanche will have its hands full dealing with cleaning up Hojo’s messes, the most serious of which relate to the JENOVA project, where living subjects were infected with JENOVA cells, which can allow their bodies to be taken over by a hostile alien life form whose consciousness has merged with the super-SOLDIER Sephiroth. Considering the risks, all previous test subjects will need to be quarantined and subject to observation to see if their original consciousnesses can be saved, while the remaining JENOVA cells are destroyed. Shinra’s remaining military assets including the Turks will likely need to assist Avalanche on a worldwide manhunt to contain the remaining test subjects, culminating in a battle against Sephiroth himself.

Based on his theme song, the only human language capable of expressing Sephiroth’s malevolent ethos is classical Latin

Planetary Immune System

Aerith: What you heard just now were the voices of the planet. Those born into this world. Who lived and who died. Who returned. They're howling in pain.

The Lifestream appears to form a primitive sort of planetary consciousness that can function like an immune system, capable of taking instinctive actions to protect its survival, including:

1. Spawning monsters to eliminate the human race, if the Lifestream believes humans are incompatible with its survival

2. Escaping the planet for another world, leaving humans to go extinct

3. Manipulating the flow of events to ensure a timeline where the Lifestream survives, indifferent to other more favorable outcomes

All of those actions have the potential to be detrimental to human interests, in contrast to a solution where humanity and the planetary consciousness work together to accomplish shared goals.

Imagine dumping one too many plastic straws into the ocean and then this thing shows up

The Ancient, initially guarded by Shinra, has some ability to communicate with the Lifestream and talk to the planetary consciousness to negotiate mutually acceptable terms. Based upon the actions of Shinra to drain the Lifestream’s energy and unleash a new threat from JENOVA, it might seem that the Lifestream would view humanity only as an unwelcome parasite, but there is a compelling case for collaboration.

The largest existential threat the Lifestream faces comes from JENOVA, an extra-terrestrial intelligence who seeks the destruction of the planet, and who arrived due to a meteor impact from outer space. Humans were responsible for awakening it by accident, but it’s possible the threat would have eventually arisen regardless, and humans have a logistical capacity to plan and deal with alien threats that the planetary consciousness lacks. Without the defense provided by boots on the ground in the forms of sentient allies, the Lifestream risks being eliminated by hostile alien invaders like JENOVA even if it travels to another planet.

Philosophers have pondered the big question for millennia: why are we here? Easy answer, we’re here to keep the planet from being destroyed by big rocks from space, which sometimes contain monsters like this guy

Humanity should offer a meteor defense program to provide a form of extra-terrestrial protection, eliminate the JENOVA/Sephiroth threat, and migrate to sustainable energy production while maintaining diplomatic relations with the planetary consciousness.

Conclusion

There are effectively four factions at odds with each other at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII: Avalanche, which seeks to avoid environmental catastrophe, Shinra, which seeks to maintain its hold on power, JENOVA/Sephiroth, which seeks the destruction of the planet, and the planetary consciousness, which seeks to ensure its survival.

With the exception of JENOVA/Sephiroth, it should be possible to unite the long-term interests of all the remaining factions with the right changes in leadership and outreach. Some might think of this plan as the last dream of a long-time fan hoping for a happy ending. I prefer to call it a final fantasy.