Cutscene Analysis - First Installment
I've long held this scene to be an indication of a past close relationship between Nero and Shelke. We're all familiar with the basic run of events -- when Cid reports that the engine levels of the Shera are dropping, Shelke volunteers to investigate. When she arrives in the engine room, Nero makes an appearance. He and Shelke exchange words, finishing with Shelke starting a fight that ends with Nero dragging her into Oblivion. At first glance, it may seem odd that this scene -- with its mockery and unfriendly speech, and the fight that ends with Shelke as Nero's captive, could be the greatest indication that these two used to be friends or more.
The first thing of note is that Shelke actually displays strong feeling when speaking to Nero -- anger. Where she is indifferent and coldly contemptuous of Azul and Rosso, and distantly respectful of Weiss, the most emotionless of the Tsviets actually gets angry with Nero. Why is that?
During the Online Mode, the player character is fed information via Usher, a projection of Shelke's. Everything that we hear from Usher comes from Shelke -- including the information about the virus that claimed Weiss's life. Rosso, during the main game, remarks that she doesn't know or care what Weiss wants with Omega. Since the army at large is completely unaware of their leader's condition, it doesn't seem a large leap of logic to think that Nero is the only one in possession of the complete picture. But Shelke, in the possession of certain information as she is, would have to be stupid not to put the pieces together. This explains why she was so stunned by Azul's revelation that Weiss had ordered her execution. This also explains why she's angry with Nero. To the best of her knowledge, Weiss is dying or dead. Therefore, logically, who gave the order to kill her off? Shelke clearly holds Nero responsible for the order of her execution. I also think that her anger is disproportionate to the action -- given the nature of Deepground, the thought of being put to death would not exactly be a new one -- unless Shelke has reason to believe that Nero won't kill her.
Now, naturally, the reasons for that belief could be myriad. The most obvious, and admittedly most likely, is the possibility that Shelke was under the impression that she was indispendsable. This is not an unreasonable belief; we see in the Battle of Midgar that, aside from the obvious uses of SND as a means of gathering information, it's are also uniquely suited to battle co-ordination. At the time of the game, the only other Tsviet capable of SND is unavailable, making Shelke's skills a valuable asset to whatever side she's on. However, despite this, I think that the fact that Shelke gets angry at Nero and shows it is telling. It suggests that she is more relaxed with him, something that one wouldn't expect, given Nero's dangerous reputation. Given Shelke's normal behaviour as seen in the game and the Online Mode, and given the nature of Deepground, the fact that she's more relaxed around Nero is a clear indication of a closer relationship that one might suspect on first glance.
The second thing of note is the fact that Nero is not present in the engine room when Shelke arrives. He makes his appearance only after Shelke speaks. When questioned as to his motives for coming to the airship, he remarks that he was short a few souls -- presumably a self-set quota of deaths to contribute to Omega. When Shelke asks him what he did with the crew, he laughs, tells her to look around and says that his mission is complete.
Something that occurred to me as I was running through the scene again prior to writing this analysis is that Nero's mission might not necessarily have been filling that quota. He could easily have filled it on the ground as up in the air, and while in an airship, there's always the risk that he could be hurt or even killed if the ground crews managed to score a direct hit (unlikely, given his ability to teleport, but not completely impossible). Why, then, is he aboard the Shera?
The answer is very simple: to finish what Azul started.
"Oh," says Shelke, looking away. For a moment, all the fight goes out of her.
Now, this next paragraph is pure speculation. We don't see a lot of Nero, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with killing by stealth. We see him operating in Edge early on, though we don't know it at the time -- one by one, he picks off WRO soldiers by taking them into Oblivion, and does this without once confronting his victims. Yet he confronts Shelke himself, rather than leaving her to die in the airship crash, shooting her from behind or taking her into Oblivion from the outset. Killing face to face may be -- for Nero -- an expression of respect, something that I don't think he gives easily.
Even if I am completely wrong in thinking that he was there to kill Shelke and Nero's mission was simply the filling of that quota, the fact that Nero hangs around to speak to Shelke is significant. She is now the enemy. She has handed over valuable information to Weiss's foes, not that it does much to help them stop him. And yet Nero drops in for a casual chat while the airship is falling out of the sky. Maybe, of course, he hates Shelke enough to rub it in her face that she's going to die. But given what comes later, I don't think that's likely.
It takes Shelke a moment to recover from the revelation that she's probably going to die, one way or another. She takes strength from the fallen form of a Cait Sith, drawing her sabres on Nero, much to his surprise. He asks her she thinks she's doing. She replies that she doesn't know, but that she doesn't want to let down those who are counting on her. Nero looks down and away, then lifts his head and pronounces this pure nonsense.
Nero looking away when Shelke said that was the thing that twigged me to the fact that something might have gone on between these two, way back when I started playing Dirge. While Shelke's line may just have been an honest expression of her feelings, for a long time I've nursed the idea that she flung those words at him deliberately -- a shot that, if we are to judge by Nero's actions, hits fairly hard. Why is that?
He could be thinking of Weiss and how his brother is counting on him (and possibly why he's wasting his valuable killing time chatting to an enemy). It might also be an expression of guilt, as Weiss is dead by this point and Nero more than likely feels that he has let his brother down on that front. It could also be an expression of guilt because of what he is doing (or seems to be doing) to Shelke -- she trusted him not to kill her, and he threw that back in her face. Whatever the reason, he dismisses it as nonsense -- more, in my opinion, because it will goad Shelke further than because he honestly believes that not letting down those who trust you to do something is unimportant.
I will end with some comments on the significance of the final part of the cutscene. The fight, which test for the presence of and reveals again the valuable power of Shelke's shield materia, ends with Nero taking Shelke into Oblivion. Now, why would he do that? If he wants her dead, all he has to do is leave. What ulterior could he have for taking Shelke with him when he leaves the Shera?
I can't promise I'll write as much for the rest of the scenes, but there we go. akaihikari, I hope this helps you.
The first thing of note is that Shelke actually displays strong feeling when speaking to Nero -- anger. Where she is indifferent and coldly contemptuous of Azul and Rosso, and distantly respectful of Weiss, the most emotionless of the Tsviets actually gets angry with Nero. Why is that?
During the Online Mode, the player character is fed information via Usher, a projection of Shelke's. Everything that we hear from Usher comes from Shelke -- including the information about the virus that claimed Weiss's life. Rosso, during the main game, remarks that she doesn't know or care what Weiss wants with Omega. Since the army at large is completely unaware of their leader's condition, it doesn't seem a large leap of logic to think that Nero is the only one in possession of the complete picture. But Shelke, in the possession of certain information as she is, would have to be stupid not to put the pieces together. This explains why she was so stunned by Azul's revelation that Weiss had ordered her execution. This also explains why she's angry with Nero. To the best of her knowledge, Weiss is dying or dead. Therefore, logically, who gave the order to kill her off? Shelke clearly holds Nero responsible for the order of her execution. I also think that her anger is disproportionate to the action -- given the nature of Deepground, the thought of being put to death would not exactly be a new one -- unless Shelke has reason to believe that Nero won't kill her.
Now, naturally, the reasons for that belief could be myriad. The most obvious, and admittedly most likely, is the possibility that Shelke was under the impression that she was indispendsable. This is not an unreasonable belief; we see in the Battle of Midgar that, aside from the obvious uses of SND as a means of gathering information, it's are also uniquely suited to battle co-ordination. At the time of the game, the only other Tsviet capable of SND is unavailable, making Shelke's skills a valuable asset to whatever side she's on. However, despite this, I think that the fact that Shelke gets angry at Nero and shows it is telling. It suggests that she is more relaxed with him, something that one wouldn't expect, given Nero's dangerous reputation. Given Shelke's normal behaviour as seen in the game and the Online Mode, and given the nature of Deepground, the fact that she's more relaxed around Nero is a clear indication of a closer relationship that one might suspect on first glance.
The second thing of note is the fact that Nero is not present in the engine room when Shelke arrives. He makes his appearance only after Shelke speaks. When questioned as to his motives for coming to the airship, he remarks that he was short a few souls -- presumably a self-set quota of deaths to contribute to Omega. When Shelke asks him what he did with the crew, he laughs, tells her to look around and says that his mission is complete.
Something that occurred to me as I was running through the scene again prior to writing this analysis is that Nero's mission might not necessarily have been filling that quota. He could easily have filled it on the ground as up in the air, and while in an airship, there's always the risk that he could be hurt or even killed if the ground crews managed to score a direct hit (unlikely, given his ability to teleport, but not completely impossible). Why, then, is he aboard the Shera?
The answer is very simple: to finish what Azul started.
"Oh," says Shelke, looking away. For a moment, all the fight goes out of her.
Now, this next paragraph is pure speculation. We don't see a lot of Nero, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with killing by stealth. We see him operating in Edge early on, though we don't know it at the time -- one by one, he picks off WRO soldiers by taking them into Oblivion, and does this without once confronting his victims. Yet he confronts Shelke himself, rather than leaving her to die in the airship crash, shooting her from behind or taking her into Oblivion from the outset. Killing face to face may be -- for Nero -- an expression of respect, something that I don't think he gives easily.
Even if I am completely wrong in thinking that he was there to kill Shelke and Nero's mission was simply the filling of that quota, the fact that Nero hangs around to speak to Shelke is significant. She is now the enemy. She has handed over valuable information to Weiss's foes, not that it does much to help them stop him. And yet Nero drops in for a casual chat while the airship is falling out of the sky. Maybe, of course, he hates Shelke enough to rub it in her face that she's going to die. But given what comes later, I don't think that's likely.
It takes Shelke a moment to recover from the revelation that she's probably going to die, one way or another. She takes strength from the fallen form of a Cait Sith, drawing her sabres on Nero, much to his surprise. He asks her she thinks she's doing. She replies that she doesn't know, but that she doesn't want to let down those who are counting on her. Nero looks down and away, then lifts his head and pronounces this pure nonsense.
Nero looking away when Shelke said that was the thing that twigged me to the fact that something might have gone on between these two, way back when I started playing Dirge. While Shelke's line may just have been an honest expression of her feelings, for a long time I've nursed the idea that she flung those words at him deliberately -- a shot that, if we are to judge by Nero's actions, hits fairly hard. Why is that?
He could be thinking of Weiss and how his brother is counting on him (and possibly why he's wasting his valuable killing time chatting to an enemy). It might also be an expression of guilt, as Weiss is dead by this point and Nero more than likely feels that he has let his brother down on that front. It could also be an expression of guilt because of what he is doing (or seems to be doing) to Shelke -- she trusted him not to kill her, and he threw that back in her face. Whatever the reason, he dismisses it as nonsense -- more, in my opinion, because it will goad Shelke further than because he honestly believes that not letting down those who trust you to do something is unimportant.
I will end with some comments on the significance of the final part of the cutscene. The fight, which test for the presence of and reveals again the valuable power of Shelke's shield materia, ends with Nero taking Shelke into Oblivion. Now, why would he do that? If he wants her dead, all he has to do is leave. What ulterior could he have for taking Shelke with him when he leaves the Shera?
I can't promise I'll write as much for the rest of the scenes, but there we go. akaihikari, I hope this helps you.