@BLKCrystilMage:That's kind of the point though, right? Shinra eventually got so powerful that the rules didn't matter. I mean, they fought a war and won it.

But yeah, FF7 is a world with, like, two governments, and that simplification exists because it helps the story work thematically. It's meant to be a metaphor.

You can also imagine Shinra maybe they also getting some help, like politicians pushing for massive deregulation, or courts that decided corporations could pump endless amounts of money into political campaigns. Just spitballing. :)

@felipe1: Indeed. Indeed.

@jenovaschilld: What you're talking about with Cloud and Barret and the fact that there are Shinra folks who aren't straight garbage is actually why I think a game set in this period would be interesting. When I said Shinra were a bunch of cackling villains, I mean the executives --President Shinra, Heidegger, Scarlet, Palmer, and Hojo (and to some degree, Rufus, although he does get more characterization eventually) all read like Captain Planet villains. But clearly there are upsides to mako and modernization and you gotta think that if Shinra managed to wage a war against the republic and win it, they couldn't have done it all with conscripted forces. They had to have people who bought in.

I think you get a really interesting situation where you have a government that sucks and a corporation that sucks, and they're going to war, and you've got people stuck choosing sides based on that. Plus we know Shinra's pretty good about propaganda, which adds a whole other element to the whole thing. A story about being caught up in that war could have a lot of nuance, I think, not to mention the idea of seeing the effects of that war on various people, to go with your point about war orphans. I'd like to see FF7 go harder on that element, because you're right, it's a pretty pervasive theme.

@jeffallee: thanks!

@VXXXJesterXXXV: Yeah but did you watch The Terror: Infamy, because that show is excellent.

@fbplayer1086: I dunno about plans for the future, but the first season covers the first book and elements of the other two that happen in the same time period. The way they're seeding elements of the later two books, it seems like they have a plan for all of it (or most of it) mapped out.

@id0ntkn0w7: Thanks! And no prob. I was a little worried the review ended up too vague but I watched the show with my wife, who didn't read the books while I did, and it was pretty clear that the mystery was a really cool part for her having no real knowledge of the story.

@id0ntkn0w7: To be fair, this book series has an ending.

@mogan: BttF remains the undisputed king, but the Great Ones definitely deserve our respect.