It's Still the Word

Today I had a rather interesting brainstorm, and decided to kind of change a plot aesthetic of Final Fantasy VII in order to get this new idea.  It'd be a kind of "quasi-opening number" following the bombing mission and some generic Cloud/Aerith song.  Have you guessed what I'm talking about yet?

Yes, indeed, the characters I'm going to give a song to are the Slum Residents of Sector 7.  That's new, huh?

Basically, Barret and the AV ALANCE crew just successfully blew up a Mako reactor with the immense help to "Ex-SOLDIER" Cloud Strife.  However, Cloud is likely new to the slums.  I don't know if this would be his first time in the slums, but definitely his first time after the energy of a successful bombing mission, so adrenaline has to be pumping.  Keep this kind of sound in your head as I go on...

(And I'm secretly sorry for posting a song from Grease, but I like this one, and it's the closest thing I could think of for the sound I'm aiming for.)

I see this song beginning on the train in the way back.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there some kind of siren they pass through in a security checkpoint?  This isn't the time they get caught with the fake IDs, but there's still a siren, I think.  I want that to begin the song, just a pulsing siren beat to start off the tempo of the song, then the introduction of guitar and drums as the siren fuels Barret's adrenaline and energy, from his already amped state of blowing up the reactor, and he begins to, for lack of a better term, rally the slums into song.  He's got a lot to say about Midgar's current state, and others begin to join him: Jessie, Biggs and Wedge at first, followed eventually by the entirety of Sector 7's inhabitants.

Barret would start the song out with this siren beat, followed by the instrument lead-in, and have a verse to himself talking about how the slums are a mess, leading Cloud through the Sector 7 area from the train station, and other slum residents would begin to follow suit, answering Barret's anger with anger of their own.  No one is satisfied with their condition, and rather than have a quiet opening following the bombing mission, I think this is the perfect way to really get the audience ingrained in the world of Midgar after a somewhat confusing and muddled opening with the bombing and meeting Aerith.

This can be seen somewhat as Cloud's "induction" to the slum society.  He hasn't been around for too long, and this event is probably somewhat common, while being new to the "inexperienced" Cloud.  It would be a very driving beat like the song above with everyone kind of "rocking out" to how much they hate the current social establishment, Shinra, and their economic condition.  So, led by Barret, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge, Cloud is swept into this grungy world of the Sector 7 slums, after his initiation of his first successful mercenary mission, greeted with this song of invoked induction.

Yikes.  I hope you guys followed all that, haha.  It's ultimately a way to grasp the audience by the face and drag them into the dirt and grime of the slums.  Agree?  Disagree?

(Also, don't forget to scroll down to see yesterday's lost post.)