- If Nibelheim did indeed burn down (and that wasn't a dream/illusion/whatever), then what's the deal with it being there and all the residents seemingly oblivious?
It's a Shinra cover up. The fact that they were creating monsters/mutants was supposed to be a secret, and a huge catastrophe like Nibelheim burning down would be detrimental. Its plausible that Shinra simply blamed it all on some natural disaster, paid for the whole town to be be rebuilt, and told everyone to keep quiet about it.
- If I understand it correctly, 7 years before the game Cloud left to join Soldier, failed, and became a grunt - then 2 years later (5 before the game) the Nibelheim massacre occurred. What the hell did he do in the interim?
There's an optional scene in the game, I'm not sure how its accessed, but it shows what happens after the massacre. Sephiroth goes into the reactor to free Jenovah, and Zack, Cloud, and Tifa all follow after him. Zack gets nearly killed trying to kill Sephiroth, Tifa gets wounded, but Cloud manages to kill him (fucking epic scene!!). Sephiroth had almost eviscerated him though, so he's really fucked up -- Enter Hojo. Hojo keeps him and Zack alive and treats him with mako, which is why he's able to pass as SOLDIER. Cloud gets mako poisoning, I think, which is why he has a hard time remembering things, and is sort of blacking out for this period. Somehow they escape and get back to Midgar, and something happens to Zack (can't remember what?), but when Cloud regains his senses and joins Avalanche, the game begins.
- Also, I'm still not entirely certain about the whole Jenova/Sephiroth/Cloud thing, and how they relate to one another - I guess every time we see him before the end it's actually either a big gooey malformed alien thing (Jenova) or an ex-member of SOLDIER (those cloaked dudes) somehow taking on his form and being controlled by him? Seems a little thin to me (and also, why did Elena think Cloud killed Tseng?)
1) Jenova is the ancient catastrophe who totally fucked over the Ancients. Shinra found Jenova, and used its DNA to make the monsters, and then did human experiments which yielded Sephiroth #1 (who was Vincent and Lucretia's son, and actually born/had the DNA injected as a fetus).
2) Sephiroth #1 was killed by Cloud in the Nibelheim reactor.
3) The other Sephiroth is a clone, a "perfect" clone, with the other guys being imperfect clones. As far as I understand, anyway?
- Cait Sith - is he a sentient robot with free will that just reports to Reeve, or is he simply remote controlled by Reeve? I'm guessing the former, but it's a little unclear (and if it were the latter, pretty much all emotional impact from his "self-sacrifice" in the Temple of the Ancients is gone)
That's a good question! I'd always kind of assumed that he was simply remotely controlled by Reeve. The emotional impact of the TotA scene was pretty much ruined to me the second the second Cait Sith showed up, but at the same time, I think it was significant that Reeve, the guy working for Shinra, was finally able to give a real, meaningful contribution to saving the planet that he had for so long been destroying.
With that said, I almost have to think that you're right about Cait Sith being a sentient being, if only because it'd be impractical for Reeve to control him after he was found out to be helping the party by Shinra.
(damn I'm such a nerd
)
), but at least it's a minor plot point!
