AVALANCHE members selfish?

Daenerys

Daenerys

The Last Dragon
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So its occured to me recently that in AVALANCHE perhaps only three members - Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki - joined it for non-selfish reasons, while the others all joined it for selfish reasons -

Cloud - Joins because he needs money, and he has a score to settle with Sephiroth.
Barret - Pissed with Shinra for destroying Corel
Cait Sith - Spy
Cid - Pissed with Shinra for cancelling his space program
Vincent - Personal issues with Hojo
Yuffie - She wants to steal the materia.

while the reasons the others join -

Tifa - She wants to save the planet
Aerith - She wants to save the planet / find out more about the ancients
Nanaki - He wants to save the planet / fufil the wishes of his grandfather.

which characters motivations do you think are stronger? Can you think of anymore reasons why they joined AVALANCHE / expand on my reasons?
 
Did they really consider themselves AVALANCHE after the Sector 7 Slums was destroyed? Remember when the party went to the Shinra building to save Aerith and Rufus stopped them. He asked them who do they think they were, and only two of them (Barret and Tifa) replied, "I'm in AVALANCHE". Cloud replied, "Ex-SOLDIER, First class..." and Aerith replied something I can't remember, it wasn't saying anything about AVALANCHE though.
 
Yes they did consider themselves members of AVALANCHE - because outside of Midgar they say that they need a leader and Clouds elected, and in Cosmo Canyon you see Barret go "AVALANCHE IS REBORN!" it was their name for the party.
 
I wouldn't say that Yuffie joined for the sole purpose of stealing materia. In fact...there's a lot more to it than that. I think she belongs in that second group. Yuffie only wants materia so she can use it to protect/bring peace back to Wutai.
 
Yes there are two dimensions to Yuffie. You can say she was selfish because she only wanted to join AVALANCHE to get the materia, however her desire to get the materia wasn't selfish - she wanted it to make her hometown strong again.

I think Yuffies intentions weren't selfish, but her actions were.
 
Every member of Avalanche had selfish motives. Some were just less (or far less) selfish than others.

Aeris' motive was the least selfish, wanting to truly save the planet and everyone on it. She also did it to find out more about the ancients, herself, and her mother and whatnot, which we've already established. But that is still a selfish motive.

Same thing with Nanaki. He did want to save the planet, but (especially in the beginning), went along to see the world, especially while having people to travel with. Obviously a selfish motive.

Tifa? Please, once again, especially in the beginning, she goes along because she wants to be with Cloud, and because she wants to help him and support him. Both due to her loving him, and because of the guilt she feels.


The rest you mentioned are pretty much it.
 
What do you mean selfish reasons!?

Cloud joined Avalanche because he wanted money which is fine you have to make a living somehow.

Tifa i don´t know why she joined and the others aren´t real members of Avalanche.

But if you say Aeris joined Avalanche for no selfish reasons like i expected...then let me tell you why she joined. She joined because if she did not tag along with Cloud she would have been captured by the Shinra so she joined so she could hav protection.

Plus at the end of the Midgar segment they have no idea that they have to safe the planet, Cloud just decides to go after Sephiroth and the others join him.
 
Jimmy said:
What do you mean selfish reasons!?

Cloud joined Avalanche because he wanted money which is fine you have to make a living somehow.
Click to expand...

You misunderstand, Cloud needs money to live and all but is that his sole incentive to join AVALANCHE? Does he care about the planet? No. All he wants is the money.

Jimmy said:
Tifa i don´t know why she joined and the others aren´t real members of Avalanche.
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Of course the others are real members of AVALANCHE, Barret was its leader.

Jimmy said:
But if you say Aeris joined Avalanche for no selfish reasons like i expected...then let me tell you why she joined. She joined because if she did not tag along with Cloud she would have been captured by the Shinra so she joined so she could hav protection.
Click to expand...

Wrong again, Aerith grew up for years in the slums without being captured, the only reason she got captured was in exchange for Marlene's safety.

Jimmy said:
Plus at the end of the Midgar segment they have no idea that they have to safe the planet, Cloud just decides to go after Sephiroth and the others join him.
Click to expand...

They were trying to save the planet from the beginning of the game, hence the blowing up of the Mako reactors. And they know Sephiroths going to try and destroy the world because at the top of the Shinra building Cloud says "this is the real crises for the planet"
 
Here we go again, the Shinra did not capture Aeris when she was younger because they did not want too, they could have captured her whenever they wanted, Aeris was just a girl while the Shinra had the top elite spionage, kidnapping group the TURKS i´m sure that catching a little girl would be the easiest thing they ever did in their profissional careers.

Plus Aeris was in Midgar which is controled by the Shinra so they got her precisely where they wanted.

And Cloud said "this is the real crisis of the planet" because he knew how powerful and evil Sephiroth was not because he knew he was thinking of destroying the world.

And Aeris did join the Avalance in order to protect herself from Shinra and keep having Cloud as her bodyguard so she did it for protection, she never knew she had to safe the world at that moment.
 
Cloud was never joining for selfish reasons. what's to stop a person who hates animal testing to join a company that supports it? and also, after all hes been through at Shinra (Zack Dieing etc..) I think he would want revenge. and blowing up Mako reactors is a perfect job for revenge.
 
I wouldn't say Barret joining to get revenge on the ShinRa was selfish at all. Like you said, he joined to get revenge for Corel being destroyed, and by extent, for the lives lost there. He also joined to save the planet too though.
 
Well, rather than selfish reasons I would call them personal reasons. Shinra affected each of the main characters in a different way. However, they all ended up wanting to save the planet. Plus it wasn't like they were expecting a medal or anything for saving the planet. They did it out of moral conviction. At least, that's the impression I got from playing the game.
 
Characters can get boring if they're all goody two shoes. Joining just for "Wanting to save the planet" is pretty cliche and bland. With FFVII, they may join for "self-served" reasons, but they eventually become more passionate about the threat than their own needs.
 
Aerith Gainsborough said:
So its occured to me recently that in AVALANCHE perhaps only three members - Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki - joined it for non-selfish reasons, while the others all joined it for selfish reasons -
Click to expand...
Aerith Gainsborough said:
Cloud - Joins because he needs money, and he has a score to settle with Sephiroth.
Barret - Pissed with Shinra for destroying Corel
Cait Sith - Spy
Cid - Pissed with Shinra for cancelling his space program
Vincent - Personal issues with Hojo
Yuffie - She wants to steal the materia.

while the reasons the others join -

Tifa - She wants to save the planet
Aerith - She wants to save the planet / find out more about the ancients
Nanaki - He wants to save the planet / fufil the wishes of his grandfather.

which characters motivations do you think are stronger? Can you think of anymore reasons why they joined AVALANCHE / expand on my reasons?
Click to expand...


Dont try to justify the others actions. They all knew what they were getting into, theyre all a bunch of terrorist. Saving the world the only way they know how, by blowing up things.

Couldnt Tifas reason be a little more towards finding whatever happened to Cloud, or getting revenge on Shinra for making Sephiroth, the girl stabber? *SLASH* Remember? I bet she does, why doesnt she have a giant scar across her chest hm?

Nanakis is more guilt then anything, trying to make up for past mistakes, and thinking his father a bum.
 
It's an interesting question, while at the begining of the game every one was doing it for their own reason or boredom........After cloud was brought back from the lifestream and whatnot (towards the end of the second disk,) everyone is unified to save the planet. Then cloud does something very strange, he tells everyone to leave, go find out what it is they are fighting for, and really doesnt expect them to return, even barret leaves and goes to find marlene, leaving only cloud and tifa, they had no where to go and nothing to fight for but the planet itself. I cant say who joined the least selfishly, but they stayed for the least selfish reasons.....
 
Everyones reasons for joining can be interpreted as selfish if you dig deep enough, but what's most important is that they all wanted to save the planet. At the end of the day, isn't that all that really matters?
 
well i wouldn't really call some of those reasons selfish.

i would say that cloud's issue with sephiroth, barrett's issue with his hometown being destroyed, and cid's dreams of space travel being spoiled, and vincent's issues with hojo...are all valid reasons to want to stop something. i wouldn't call it selfish though, more like a reason to fight for a greater result.

but yes, id agree that yuffie and cait sith were both selfish, even though cait sith was being controlled by shinra.
 
AVALANCHE is just basically a rebellion against ShinRa

the AVALANCHE members
made up of at first Tifa and Barret

Cloud joins because he needs money and wants to settle a score with Sephiroth

Barret hates ShinRa because of what they did to Midgar and wants to get even or seeks revenge for a more likely event.

Tifa however (as far as I know) has no problems with ShinRa (unless someone else can convince me)

Cid just hates ShinRa for canceling the finds to his "space program"

As far as I know ShinRa are just a greedy company just seeking money.
 
If you think about it, all of the members of AVALANCHE had selfish motives in joining the movement. For that reason, they became, in my eyes at least, more human-esque characters.

In any normal group, there is always power play relationships going on, and every member, wether they admit it or not, are out to get something for thier own personal gain. By being part of the group, they can acheive thier own personal goals, but also further the goals of the group, in this case, saving the planet.

By giving the characters a selfish reason in aiding AVALANCHE, the creators came closer to the truth of human relationships and groups than any other game did. For example, Aeries joins the group because of Cloud, but her original selfish desires are transformed into something more mature - it's this transformation that makes her character intresting.

So in the end, all the characters have selfish purposes, just like people in real life, but it's not something to be ashamed of. In fact, such selfish notions in the end helped save the world of FFVII.

Anyhoo...
 
I think this really can only be defined on a personal basis. Especially because it seems like they all can be said to have dual motives.

Cloud - Joins because he needs money, and he has a score to settle with Sephiroth.

I agree with one. I honestly cannot believe that Cloud really had every intention of saving the planet, right from the beginning. He may have had the idea of it, but his character hadn't developed enough at that point.

Barret - Pissed with Shinra for destroying Corel

Yes... that is true, but I think he also is shown the truth about Mako through the events that happened with Corel, and especially Dyne (sp?). He is, after all, the one member who is continually spouting off the same speach all the time about the reactors sucking life from the planet. Stopping ShinRa meant protecting Marlene's future, and I cannot call that selfish.

Cait Sith - Spy

At the start, yes. So, I guess the answer for him joining can be seen as nothing short of selfish.

Cid - Pissed with Shinra for cancelling his space program

My memory is fuzzy on this one... From what I do remember, Cid wasn't aware of the major struggle that would effect the entire Planet in the moments leading up to his turning against ShinRa. But I do not doubt that we he learned the true purpose of the group existing, he was quick to jump on board. Cid has a rough exterior, yet he does have that soft side. I think his joining AVALANCE specifically wasn't selfish.

Vincent - Personal issues with Hojo

I honestly never cared enough to explore his backstory. I still am only 20% of the way through DoC.

Yuffie - She wants to steal the materia.

This one was well explained when Rhea pointed out that she stole Materia to save her town. Selfish action, pure motive.

Tifa - She wants to save the planet

Did they really go enough into her character, early on, to make a judgement call like this? When did she ever talk about anything other than her relationship with Cloud? Unless there were bits of conversation that definitively point towards the non-selfish mindset, I think Tifa is more a mystery.

Aerith - She wants to save the planet / find out more about the ancients

There is a good chance she wanted to save the planet... Being a Cetra herself, she had a... closer bond, I guess, to the planet.

Nanaki - He wants to save the planet / fufil the wishes of his grandfather.

I agree with this. When he made the decision to officially join the team, he had every intention of saving the planet. When he began traveling with them it was almost certainly only to get back home.
 
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