Thread by @ShinraArch

Greetings Everyone, this is Chief Director of the Shinra Archaeology Department, @Caeles_Lumis speaking. After seeing quite a bit of discussion and dispute regarding the previous tweet, I felt it was time that I should personally respond.

So join me, Students of Shinra Archaeology, for a bit of a history lesson: On Copies and the Jenova Project.

Let us begin with two simple questions: What is a Copy, and are they the same as Clones? The short answer is no, in terms of the lore of Final Fantasy VII, they are in fact not the same thing. A follow-up question then: Where did the idea that copies were clones come from?

Unlike a Clone, where the ultimate aim is to recreate both physically and in every possible way the donor of the genetic material, a Copy in FFVII seeks to recreate only the hallmark genetic traits and abilities of the donor. Physical alteration of the receiver is nonessential.

The idea that Copies were the same thing as Clones comes from the original localization of FFVII, where セフィロス・コピー (Sefirosu Kopī) was translated as "Sephiroth Clone". One can guess that at the time, Copy was being seen as a Loan Word replacement for Clone.

To avoid a lengthy discussion on what the term "Loan Word" means, let's stick to the subject at hand.

The Jenova Project, in turn, can be argued to have started out when Professor Gast Faremis first conceived it to have been a Cetra Copy Project, with the goal being to impart onto a new generation of people the abilities of the Cetra.

It must be noted, before we proceed any further, that the process employed to create an Artificial Copy (by which we mean a Copy created through purpose-built apparatuses, rather than naturally through contact) appears to be no different from the process used to create SOLDIERs.

The results were, as we all know, the births of Genesis and Angeal, followed shortly by Sephiroth. However, when genetic testing was done on the infant Genesis and Angeal, no obvious changes to their genetics were observed at that time, hence why Sephiroth was declared a success.

It must be understood, however, that Angeal and Genesis did possess changes to their genetics. In fact, it is the nature of these changes, combined with the nature of how G-Type SOLDIERs are created, that will form the foundation for the rest of this lesson.

The process by which G-Type SOLDIERs, who inherit the genetic material of the researcher Prof. Gillian Hewley, contains either a flaw or an inherit instability that causes degradation on the cellular and spiritual level.

It is this same instability that allows them to pass on their Genetic Material to others and convert their receivers directly into Copies. Those with extremely weak sense-of-selves are the ones who end up becoming physically altered due to the unstable nature of G-Cells.

This inherit instability is also the reason why Angeal and Genesis' Jenova-born genetic changes were latent and had instead manifested much later after their induction into SOLDIER, with Genesis' first appearing following his injury from sparring Sephiroth.

Angeal, meanwhile, had his manifest due to his personal nature of someone who had only joined SOLDIER out of his friendship with Genesis instead of any personal desire to, then following his learning of the truth broke what sense of self he had allowed those traits to take root.

As you can now gather, G-Type SOLDIERs possess an instability that S-Type SOLDIERs (those derived from Sephiroth) lack, which is both the source of their Copy Abilities and Degradation. This also means that they posses a greater ability to create copies than Sephiroth.

Sephiroth, on the other hand, gained Jenova's ability to create illusions and manipulate the minds of others to varying degrees through Mimic. Those who possess his cells, in particular, can be manipulated to a far greater degree —almost akin to puppetry if he so desired.

However, because of the stability of his cells, he cannot create his own copies. Instead, Professor Hojo artifically created them over a period of time. Through the short story "Picturing the Past", this program to create Copies of Sephiroth began as far back as the 1980s.

The ultimate goal of Hojo's Copy Project was different as well, compared to Hollander's pursuit of revenge against his colleague. Instead Hojo aimed to unravel the engima behind Jenova's Reunion Instinct, and in turn sought to somehow revive his deceased son, Sephiroth.

Using the foundation of how Copying works, one can now begin to see how this would affect Sephiroth's most famous Copy, Cloud Strife. Since he inherited the abilities of Sephiroth, he gained a mimic power similar to Sephiroth's own, which he used on Zack Fair on that fateful day.

It must be emphatically understood: it was Professor Hojo, who had a bias in the original FFVII, for determining whether or not Cloud was a successful Sephiroth Copy. In Remake, Hojo makes no such declaration and has seemed to immediate understood Cloud's potential as a Copy.

Cloud, who was formerly an ordinary Shinra Public Security Officer, gained all the abilities and power of a SOLDIER 1st Class following his torturous experiments under Prof. Hojo. Cloud further gained, through Jenova's Mimic and Mind Reading abilities Zack and Tifa's memories.

Yes, while he was unnumbered, do not mistake Hojo's statement to be the narrative fact: Due to Cloud possessing the Last True Unadulterated S-Cells, and the demonstrable abilities Cloud possessed following Nibelheim, Cloud Strife was indeed a successful Sephiroth Copy.

This concludes this lesson, brought to you by the Shinra Electric Power Company and the Shinra Archaeology Department. Sources come from the FFVII Ultimania Omega, Crisis Core Complete Guide Keyword & Character Profile Sections, and from material within the games themselves.

All of this was made possible by readers like you. Thank You.