To see a full director's commentary on this video, including some infuriatingly relevant studies that came out after finishing it, join my Patreon at www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
While the English westernization of Kurosawa's film may be "High and Low," I think the original Japanese is a bit more telling of just how big the difference between the two parties portrayed is: "Heaven and Hell."
@Gabriel Fidelio Eick Brække Technically no; Norse cosmology has 9 worlds though elements of a "middle ground" do exist. Namely the first two worlds: Muspelsheim, a place of primal heat and fire; and Niflheim, a place of ice and mist. The rest of the seven worlds were created by the interaction between these two places, among which, Midgard, or the middle garden, became the natural home of mortals.
It is a seriously underrated movie. One could argue that it deliberately undermines it's own wealth/poverty contrast at the end, but that is besides the point. It is a well chosen reference for this video.
The best part? As someone who is a die-hard fan of the original game, I can testify that even though the message isn't as clear-cut in the rest of Final Fantasy VII's original version, it's still there. It's there in Kalm, the first village you come across, a solidly middle-class town where people swallow Shinra's propaganda like so much Kool-Aid, calling Midgar things like "The Floating City"...a name which in and of itself speaks volumes about Shinra. It's there in Fort Condor, a Mako Reactor that the residents of the surrounding area have to constantly defend against full-scale military assaults...simply because an endangered bird is perched atop the Reactor, incubating her egg. It's there in Junon, a coastal fishing village that can't fish anymore because Shinra built a military complex and city over it, a kind of 'Midgar, Jr.", and the Mako runoff has mutated the fish into terrifying creatures. It also has a massive cannon on the front of the city, because Shinra has to be the biggest dick. It's there in the Gold Saucer, the FF7 world's equivalent to Disneyland, being built on the ruins of a town Shinra themselves burnt to the ground (and now uses as a prison), and the only way to get to the Gold Saucer being to go through the literal tent city that the survivors now call home. It's there in Gongaga, a small town that reaped the benefits of a Mako Reactor until it exploded violently (and not due to an ecoterrorism), and now lives in a perpetual state of mourning for those who were lost while Shinra makes no attempt at recompense. It's there in Nibelheim...but to say more about that would be giving away a story element that I feel people need to experience for themselves. You see the effects of this inequality in Wutai, in Icicle Inn. In fact, the only places where Shinra's corrupting influence isn't felt are Cosmo Canyon (the place for which Tifa's oddly-colored drink is named) because they never gained a foothold there. For obvious reasons, I cannot wait to play the rest of this Remake. They hit it so far out of the park in regards to the game's core theme that it's given me hope that each and every one of thee scenarios will be played to the hilt...if not to the letter of the old game, then at least in spirit, which arguably matters more.
Exactly so. Moreso the Junon cannon, literally faces Wutai. The area Shinra was at war with only a few years before the start of the game and when they won they made it into a holiday resort and force the locals to deal with them and sell their heritage. It is an active threat to the people of Wutai, they know that the cannon is always on them, ready to put them in place if they put a foot out of line. Shinra rules everything. The original game tells you everything you need to know about them.
One thing i think you missed and I'll be going into a minor plot point. Shinra is looking for a place called The Promised Land which they believe will be overflowing with an abundance of Mako and plan to build Neo-Midgar there. Midgar isn't even finished being built but they're ready to pack up and move on to the next thing. You also forgot to mention Rocket Town, a small town built around Shinra's last space rocket because they were interested and heavily invested in space exploration until they discovered they could profit off of Mako. It isn't just their greed or disregard for the planet that's a running theme, it's also how wasteful Shinra is. Wall Market under the plate has a massive pile of trash and junk the comes from up above and a lot of it isn't broken or beyond repair, one guy makes a living gathering the trash and selling it in town because it's still useful. Shinra doesn't care about the world or the people or anything except their own profits.
It's the same philosophy as "Black Mirror" cutting to black at the end, which is where the name comes from. Although I will say, it doesn't actually work that well when your screen isn't very reflective.
Ah that's clever, my screen didn't reflect me but very smart. I'll be honest people could definitely argue that i dont know what it's like. My parents are struggling, but they're still middle class, I, on the other hand, am disabled, unable to work, mentally ill, and have plenty of medical bills. If they weren't helping me pay for those . . . i wouldn't be alive right now. And i know that's privilege but it sucks being in a spot then that you can't be like "hey, uhh this thing you did was abusive and awful" because my literally could just cause me to be unable to get healthcare that i need to live so :/ hot take: maybe things like food, water, and safety (which should include housing and healthcare) should be human rights
This is the closest I've come to crying at one of your videos since the beauty of Shadow of Colossus. I've been homeless twice, and even before that I lived in Poland with the rest of my poor farming family in our poor farming village. I've learned that poverty doesn't make people lively, its literally something we do out of necessity, as a fight for our right to survive and exist. It's our own way of throwing oppression and life a big middle finger and making us at least feel a bit better about all the shit everywhere else. All the beauty from meager livings may be nice and quaint to look upon, especially for people who have never experienced the sort of closeness that hardship brings, but all it does is make people bitter. Id know, I'm probably the angriest person I know outside of my grandmother, who lived through the German occupation, and my now deceased grandfather, who fought in the war. The only thing I learned from my family was "Survival of the Fittest." You step on everyone just for a breath of fresh air, a moment away from the crushing weight of every other societal responsibility put before your survival. Family is no exception. It was succinctly said, like animals in a zoo. Let me tell you a story. My grandfather left a considerable amount of land, once he died, to my mother and her siblings. My mother was discontent to continue living in her village, marrying some guy she might be distantly related to and having 6 kids, so she left to go get an education and a life in the city. Didn't really work, since most colleges wouldn't let her attain her dream of being a nurse because she was from said poor farming village. Because her family was poor, regardless of her intelligence or grades. She ended up going somewhere absolutely unmemorable and got a degree in business. She had me, a literal birthday present, an object to remind her that something was worth fighting for, and won a lotto, only then considering maybe she should leave the country. For my sake, she said. When she did, her youngest sister, who had been exported from the US and was angry that my mother was successful, took the remaining land and sold it for her own sums of money. While one of her siblings was still living in the house on the property. She also married and divorced several men for their money and properties as well. Poverty doesn't teach people to enjoy what they have. It teaches people to be bitter about it. Only the best of people will realize that its no way to live life and maybe throw a considerable enough fuss to actually change something. Most of the time, we sit and fester like a rotting carcass on the side of the road, forgotten and only remembered with distaste when the smell wafts over.
"Poverty doesn't teach people to enjoy what they have. It teaches people to be bitter about it." That hit hard. I struggle with being a very angry person from my life of poverty and homelessness. People don't realize what an exhausting strain it is to just... never have something. Even something as simple as eating your favorite meal becomes an unattainable luxury. It's maddening, and after a lifetime of it I've grown insanely resentful of too many people. Mainly my family, who live very very comfortably in big properties and regularly go on vacations, and have had many opportunities to lend a helping hand but don't.
You know im not really that poor in semi poor like i live in a apartment but i have a xbox 1 and wifi like my dad dosen't have a good job and yet finds a way to get what he gets and thats what i love about my dad he dosen't give up
@@blankieplays1350 Thanks man, I'm trying to work through it. It sucks, but moving forward is the healthiest thing to try to do, and I guess there's always the chance things will improve someday. I'm glad your dad is able to achieve a pretty good life despite his circumstances! That's definitely not easy, but it's a good trait.
I want to add a small point about Midgar’s etymology, as it’s named after the realm of Midgard from Norse Mythology. Midgard was created from the slain corpse of the first being in existence, the giant Ymir. The gods killed him, and Midgard’s inhabitants live off his remains. Not that different from Midgar ripping energy from a dying planet.
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.“ -Herman Melville
This is quite ironic, viewing poverty as a zoo. It’s happening now, in South Korea. When Parasite came out, tourists came to gawk at the sub-basement apartments used in the movie on official tours. The people who were and are still living there resented being treated by these tours as zoo animals, without even benefiting from the capital generated from them.
@@joaovitor9673 In Colombia, in Medellin, we have the exact same thing. I had an enormous fight with my parents when I tried to explain to them that going on a tour to see the graffities at those neighbourhoods had certain implications that were, morally speaking, sickening
People used to come to NYC for "ghetto tours" as well. It's beyond disrespectful how society treats the poor and working class that hold everything up on their shoulders.
The picture shown at 5:34 is from São Paulo Brasil, a neihborhood called "Paraisópolis" known as "the most unequal neighborhood in the world" Less than a year ago, In 2019, a funk music festival gathered over 5000 people. The poor cant have their own culture and festivals, so of course, the police made a move. Using war tactics against their own people, they surrounded the event, caused panic, and funneled 5000 people out of there. 9 people were stomped in the chaos and died. Their excuse was that 2 drug dealers moved into the crowd fleeing from the police. there are videos of the sheer panic and screams that sends shivers down my spine. Any attempt from the poor to show that they are alive is met with military grade repression from the estate. There are also news coverage of the policeman right after this event, and you can see their disgust for their own people. As you masterfully said, we really cant goodwill out of it Ill leave you with one example of cowardice: th-cam.com/video/SSK0Cm7nGMk/w-d-xo.html
It’s always a special kind of awful when you see that picture and suddenly realize, I live fairly nearby. I myself live in a COHAB, which, for the foreigners, is basically public housing, not quite a Favela, but stuff is hard. And curiously enough, side by side with my downtrodden building, there is a luxury condo. And if you are Brazilian and are wondering how can I be poor and be so eloquent in a foreign language, it is fairly rare, I was just fortunate enough to have had a good education early in life - even among the poor, there are layers of privilege. I am pretty fucked, but honestly, could be worse, could be way worse. Point is, there is an inherent difficulty of expression by those who are oppressed, so if you all ever see Brazilians defending our current fascist administration in English, or talking about anything else at all, they are more often than not from a reasonably wealthy background. Doesn’t mean their voices don’t matter, and it certainly doesn’t mean that every wealthy Brazilian online is some sort of reactionary, but always keep in mind that most people here don’t speak much English, and the perspectives on issues such as social inequality are somewhat limited in the anglophone sphere of the internet.
"Could you imagine being poor?" is honestly a hard question for me, because... I don't know. Not only am I not poor by any real standart, but I live in Denmark, where we have a giant middle class, and very little poverty. There is an under class and some people living on the street, but we don't have any slums or any real visual way to see or understand them. All that is great - don't get me wrong. If the rest of the world was like here, that would be amazing... but it isn't. Just because we can't see crushing poverty outside our doors, doesn't mean our society isn't build on top of it. It's just very far away. I mean... who makes our clothes, and our phones, and our tons of plastic - not anyone near Denmark that's for sure. We are just build so far over and on top of the slums of our making, that we litterally can't see that we have any connection to them at all... It's pretty terrifying.
Also the fact that Europe's riches were built on top of colonialism, sucking out from other places. "Could you imagine living in a poor country?" would be a better question there. You might not have as terrible as a problem around you, but the same problem is around you on a bigger scale.
Well, most European countries work for their people. Governments are not *entirely* owned by businesses, poor people have access to affordable (even if lower quality) education and healthcare. The problem is not with poverty itself. I'm from Bulgaria (poorest country in EU) but even we have opportunity to escape it through hard work. In Europe it is possible (unless you are not a refugee). In US it used to be much easier, but is almost impossible now.
@@nikolatasev4948 It's not about possible though. It was possible to scape slavery under feudalism, but that doesn't make it a good system. Only a small proportion of people move up the socio-economic ladder, no matter how much they work (because both entrepeneurship and qualified work literally can't be profitable for most of the population, by definition, and unqualified work pays for barely enough to survive), while most people born into millionaire/billionaire families don't end up poor, no matter how incapable they might be. It's not fair, and that's the problem.
I’m so glad you started to go into the issues with environmental racism with Port Arthur. Once you start realizing where all of these power plants and factories and refineries that produce so much pollution are - next to or in low-income black/brown communities - it’s so hard to ignore that environmentalism and institutional racism are so connected. No social issue exists in a vacuum!
Most gamers: here's why FF's gameplay is great isn't it so great? Jacob Geller: here's the message of the story, why it's important, what it makes me feel, and why it's actual art
Even more damningly, most gamers don't stop at "here's why FF's gameplay is great". No: Most gamers feel the need to go further, to "FF's story SUCKS and is TERRIBLE and HERE'S WHY" before listing out some surface level nonsense ("it changed!", "this character was stupid!", "plot holes!"). Videos like this are important, because they examine narrative on a level deeper than surface-level examination so common in gaming communities.
Elspeth You can’t just disqualify criticism of a game's story because you would rather watch a video praising its themes. Literal story analysis and criticism is just as valid as interpretations of what the world represents, and trying to act like it isn’t valid is the height of intellectual elitism. Talking about characters and plot points is not surface level and it’s definitely not “nonsense.” It’s so ridiculous to call them that, that I truly believe you are only doing it because you disagree with those criticisms. That’s fine, disagree as much as you want, or don’t even engage in that discussion, but you chose the only bad option - trying to make that discussion seem stupid.
@@stevelarry3870 It's okay to have discourse on the plot and its weirder elements, but I personally take issue with people who use that to defame the entire game and ignore the themes presented altogether in favor of clinging to their nostalgia, thus missing the forest for the trees. I say this as someone who has played the original FF7 through multiple times since 1997. It's my favorite game of all time, and yes, I did tihnk the Remake's ending came out of left field, but I don't hate it, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the more relevant discussion that both games were intended to provoke.
Great production my guy. The most refreshing part of the analysis was pointing out how the tone of midgar's poor doesn't sentimentalize their struggle, but confronts the shocking reality of class oppression. It seems to me that most popular expression of class consciousness these days is too ironic and fatalist to actually galvanize the appropriate anger to fight back
Ah, that bit about your favourite moment being the emergence into the slums hits hard. In the five years between reveal and release, it didn't set in for me that 7 Remake was actually A Thing That Was Coming Out until I saw some preview footage that was just Tifa and Cloud in the slums, the gargantuan plate overhead, other people milling about their daily lives beneath it. That was when I finally understood. Jason Schreier's on a similar page too; all he's said about it on twitter since his review went up was just sharing two clips of people-watching in the slums. And this, this is why I'm excited for the rest of the remake. They wrote this game with so much reverence for the themes and characters that I have some pretty strong faith they're going to continue on with the rest of them, instead of put it all aside for what people have (quite fairly, I concede) called 'Kingdom Hearts Bullshit'. I want to see the effect Shinra have had on Wutai and Cosmo Canyon fleshed out. And...well, yeah. I want to experience some hope in this crapsack world that's becoming more and more like the one Shinra wants to see.
This is absolutely some of Geller's best work, it's paced so intentionally and contextualized so concretely! I can't wait for the next one but I'll return to this in the meantime.
I love how this video veers from a nice video essay about a video game to "the upper class is literally murdering us in our sleep with toxic waste," and it's scary how true it is...
Yes, Geller's finally getting into class commentary! Everyone always does here on TH-cam, and I'm here for it. Also, yeah, this was my first experience with Midgar too and it was breathtaking.
My city here in Brazil is very poor and LITERALLY built in a giant depression, and to the rich districts you have to climb out of the hole, with a highway, of course I live in the fucken capital of Brazil btw
@@jakobesparza Not only during the olympics, that's a common urban segregation tactic since forever. Here's a music video. look closely at the 20 second mark. th-cam.com/video/KEB0D_f4gNA/w-d-xo.html
I knew where this would go and I'm still pissed about it. No one should ever choose their livelihood over their health, and yet here we are. FF7, and the remake, are more relevant than ever.
Every time I watch one of your videos I feel like I'm hitting the jackpot yet again. I've been devouring your content since the Super Mario Galaxy video you put out, and you have hit each and every video before and since then out of the park!
FF7: Corporations and the state work together to crush both the planet and the working class. The only ethical response to such oppression is doing everything necessary to overthrow those in power, as well as the institutions that perpetuate and legitimize that power Me: FF7 is about the consequences of capitalism My friends: whY aRE YoU lEfTIstS ALwaYs mAKiNg EVerYthING sO pOLiTicaL
people think that it's not political as long as you don't fucking spell out "capitalism" DESPITE the remake having people call Shinra employees fascists directly in cutscenes
@@georgekostaras FACTS. I would argue even that calling a game 'non-political' is in itself a political statement on the way politics in games is perceived rn
I've lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for many years. It's so much worse than what's reported. Mississippi Phosphorous was a company that committed many, many atrocities. Our cancer rates are so high.
I feel like this game has a lot in common with the 1927 movie "Metropolis." The wealthy live above ground in an electric-light filled utopia, while the workers making all that electricity possible live underground and in poverty.
it's probably the ur example, at least when it comes to science fiction cinema. "Slightly" undermined when it is said that just a nice rich boy could breach the divide between the workers and the owners.
I've lived my life. Going back and forth between Two Reservations. One of them, is Pine Ridge. The difference between the rich ranchers, and my poor aunties. Was quite, quite stark. My aunties houses were barely held together, by constant maintenance, and hard work she and her children would put into it. But if a Tornado ever went through town? That would be the end of that The rancher? Six cars, seven million different types of trucks and equipment. With a nice yard, and plenty of guns to "keep the drunk injuns out" But yet. That land, my families land. I absolutely breath taking. It's pure, untouched prairie. That's never been developed, never been lived on in the whytte man's way. It's a dream, of a long forgotten life. That my people once had But all people will respond with, is: "you've lost, get over it" At least my people weren't the ones destroying the planet soooooo
There's a moment about half way through Parasite that perfectly accentuates just how wide the divide is between rich and poor. When the Kim family are fleeing the Parks' house and they descend flight of steps after flight of steps in the pouring rain, sinking deeper and deeper into the city.
I just want to make a small appreciation comment about 3:17 I usually have long essay vids in the background so I often miss little references because I'm not looking at the screen. But even without looking at it, the music cue let me know what game you were talking about without you having to mention Mirror's Edge by name. It's a small detail, but us alt-tabbers really appreciate it!!
I live off the gulf coast of Texas, not far from Arthur, and to never realize they've a production plant placed right on top of their livelihoods is infuriating. Down where I live, all plants are tossed off towards the far side of the city, towards open area and state roads, well known to be a hazard for a number of reasons - benzene included. It seemed so impossible to have such an obvious danger placed right in the way of people's lives, it's a shell shock to see it so close to home. Hopefully time will bring positive change towards them with this spotlight and more understanding on the terrors it brings, I know I'll seek to make what change I can for the future. Thank you lots, Jacob, you do amazing work.
The rich's height may have them looking down upon you, but it also gives them a vantage point of all the pain and suffering. It seems to me the refusal to look down is the biggest crime they commit.
@@chellshock: Yeah, their metaphorical refusal to look down won't stop them from knowing of the problem; it's more a refusal of acknowledgement, or any level of potential responsibility.
Depends on how far up they are. If we're talking men like Jeff Bezos, a man well on his way to be the first TRILLIONAIRE in history, then everything below him would lose detail. The dots of people replaced with the dots of homes. We'd be so far below them that they eventually lose sight of us. Out of sight, out of mind.
"And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human." Willian Gibson; Count Zero
The people on the surface in Fallout actually have a functioning economic system (or at least as functional as one can be in what is basically the nuclear wild west). Furthermore, the denizens of the vaults aren't all from when the bombs dropped. Most of them grew up in the vaults due to the actions of those who came before them (given that people lived in the vaults in Fallout for around a minimum of 50 years), and a good amount of the vault dwellers ultimately became unwilling test subjects. You could say the concept of commercial vaults speaks to the dark reality of class though if you wanted to go there, but that only really applies to the Pre-War Americans in Fallout. It also doesnt make for very good like-baiting, lol.
@@four-en-tee The people who live in the vaults (that weren't subjected to the more horrible experiments) still often participate in the surface economy. Furthermore, they are largely without scarcity, as they have all their food and lodging seen to. They are also generally far healthier than the surfacers, having been exposed to far less radiation and consuming food with fewer contaminants. It is clearly far, FAR better to be a vault dweller in one of the nicer vaults, such as vault 81, than in even the nicest conditions available up on the surface.
@@caityreads8070 bro 99% of vaults had horrible experiments happening in them, i dont think you could call that higher class living, more like lab rats.
I credit the summer I spent playing the original game at 15 with saving me from becoming a 4chan libertarian. Not actually because of the explicit anti-capitalist politics of the game (I was already kinda there for a wide variety of reasons), but because the inhabitants of Midgar and especially Cloud's personal journey made me realize I shouldn't continue the absurd power fantasy of the Just World Fallacy and of humans each having total, perfect sovereignty over our own lives and the course we can steer them on. My mom had kept trying to get me to understand this but it didn't sink in until I had to actively engage with such a story and see it demonstrated in front of me by characters I was invested in, and in a way that made recognition of that kind of inherent human vulnerability seem cool and admirable instead of "for the weak." (I know what you're thinking, but ironically this was not toxic masculinity as it was actually coded as a departure from and rejection of conventional machismo-It's complicated, my upbringing was weird, it's why I needed a dang video game to show me how to be normal). After that summer, when 10th grade started, I began going to parties & dances and playing sports, and working on being a better friend and not being so alienating and weird, consciously aspiring to the kind of healed and transformed relationships with others and himself Cloud had at the end of the story. Now 20 years later I have a wide, fulfilling, and supportive network of friends and am engaged in all kinds of creative enterprises with them that we love doing together. I want to believe some other experience would have come along shortly and performed the same function, and it's possible I was already evolving and am just attributing extra significance to this because it's a concrete thing to point at, but there's a terrifying possibility that if I hadn't played this game as a teenager, I'd have continued down the arrogantly alienated and deluded emotional path I was on and today would be a friendless reactionary virgin seething in some low-level STEM job, wondering why my chance to be a Radian master of my existence never comes and heaping scorn on anyone who has an unlucky break for not being prepared. It turns out that sometimes you really _can_ get off of the train you're on.
Wow. I love that games can have such an effect on people. I've heard similar stories of Life is Strange and Night in the Woods saving people, in different ways. Thanks for sharing.
It's amazing how a story from the 90's and what it was trying to say, has a lot more relavence today, some 20 years later...and is...depressingly accurate to real life.
Superb writing. From the story taking place in Edinburgh that's finally over, to the story in America, the richest country in the world, that's still ongoing. To take the metaphor of the game and show us exactly how relevant it is was fantastic- sickening, but necessary. I think you might be my favourite TH-camr right now, I've noticed I make your videos a priority every time I see an upload, and for good reason. I'm sure whatever you try to tackle next will be fantastic, but I love these heavy hitting topics, and would love for you to share more of your knowledge and insights with us.
@@tomsmith8245 As a Brit, I am honestly ashamed I fucked that up. Didn't remember he said Edinburgh and just presumed it happened in England somewhere, ty for the comment so I can edit this and hide my shame
This is one of the best game commentaries I've ever seen. I adore the fact that you brought up real world environmental issues in order to draw parallels to Midgar. Fucking phenomenal
Golly Gee man. Your essays are among my all time favorites. I joined Nebula because of YOU. I want to say that your ability to use accessible and moving language and story telling to tell me the way it feels to have these experiences(playing these games). You convey the vibe. I want to say, that I'm doing a lot of therapy to learn to feel my body and emotions, and watching your videos supports that journey into myself. You touch depths with your composition, pace and delivery. Thank you!
You've exactly captured everything I love about this game and have loved about this game since I first played it many years ago now. I hope more people playing the Remake will see the game for exactly what it is, I've had too many conversations with gross people who have flat out denied and rejected any and all analysis about the politics and social commentary within the game and written off people talking about it as "SJW leftists". They're always like "Shut up have you even played the game?" Yes, like, my guy, have YOU played the game???? AVALANCHE is LITERALLY an eco-terrorist group. I swear. Watching new people find love in the series and all it stands for gives me so much absolute fucking joy.
I am in the exact same boat. The fact that more and more people are grasping the concepts that have been built into the game *for 23 years* is one of the few things remaining that gives me hope for the future.
ive grown up in a small house with only one parent after our dad left us, we've struggled to make ends meet and ive lived in fear that my basic human needs may not be met, i worry for my future and my ability just to survive despite clawing my way through a general biology 4 year college course, which im now on the last semester of, and i know there are many worse off than i could ever imagine, and its scary more than anything, to become a footnote, a "can you imagine being this?" to others, to others who will claim that level of poverty doesnt exist in their rich beautiful state, and its scary. This video despite being about a game ive never played, a story i dont really care about, hit notes that scare me more than anything, and yet im so thankful it exists, thank you for showing a reality i fear people are forgetting, it means alot
Yeah, replaying the original many years later (because my laptop could never run the remake xD) reminded me how environmentalist it really was. It reminds me so much of the present-day climate crisis.
Great video! Glad you recommended it in the 2020 games of the year video the comments here offer things i didnt know and discussion as well i think ill be visiting weeks after i finish fully watching as well
I remember driving home from kemah boardwalk with some friends a few year ago. We passed through pasadena, TX and the first thing you notice is the smell, second is the oil refineries that look like absolute nightmares in the middle of the night on the right and third thing is just nothing but houses to the left. I remember thinking "this is what death looks like" so yup ff7r has really struck a chord for me
Your video has actually pointed me to a really good case study (i.e Port Arthur Texas) for my socioeconomics essay! Turns out hours of watching video essays helps with academics as well, haha. Thanks man :)
I purposely avoided this when I first saw it because I had just finished the FF7 Remake. The game really connected with me, but a lot of the videos I saw from other creators were negative and they didn’t seem to be interested in talking about anything beyond surface level details. Now that I’ve finally watched this, I’m so glad that I did! I really appreciate all the work that you put into this!
A beautiful video essay about living in the shadows of Midgar. The undercity forgotten, half the resident of the city just “invisible”. Wow, that gave me chills.
Awww, it's such a joy to devour your videos. It's more comprehensive talk than most educational videos and since it using pop cultures and history i loved it more.
Great video, just want to say I really appreciate the rigor put in to make a video essay about games that doesn't only cite games but pulls in other media from other mediums, history, and of course, brutal truths from real life. Keep up the excellent work!
those packed-in shacks in midgar reminded me viscerally of the rowhouses i grew up in. sometimes they're called trinity houses-- three rooms stacked on top of each other, sharing walls and stoops with the neighbors. they're almost universally rotting, foundations sinking into the ground and the colorful paint on the facades chipping off. the tourists like to take pictures of them, because they're pretty, brightly colored and decorated with wooden molding. both of my siblings and i had lead poisoning as babies and ongoing respiratory issues from black mold.
Your channel is the most fascinating random channel I've ever stumbled across. This is largely in part to your fascination with the depths and caves and how it that fascination seemingly suffuses all the videos you produce. Thanks for teaching me about the underground town.
I was so glad to see your spoiler free analysis pop up today! (I have 5 chapters to go before I'm done with Remake and never played the original either.) I love how you pointed out those two girls dancing on the roof. I kept waiting for them to be part of a side quest, but they're just there for flavor. Such detail just to enrich our experience with the game.
I noticed this was the first time that you didn't have a title card until the very end of the video, I think anyway. Makes sense too, the video had a lot of momentum to it after all. I really need to watch an LP of the game soon! Finding out about Edinborough's basement streets was fasinating too - certainly something new I learnt today. And of course I should have expected a video on Midgar to show up at some point - it's one of gaming's most well known architectural structures, and resurrected for the current year too! (Incidentally, I would love a video on the Combine structures and the Citadel of Half-Life 2 for the same reason)
this is an amazing video. your ability to find humanity, resonance, and meaning in so many disparate things is truly incredible. the bits about eco-terrorism were especially stunning, and the eloquence with which you describe the complexity of the relationship between the truth of opression and the spirit of resistance is magnificent. rock on man.
jacob you're my favorite youtuber. this video legitimately brought me to tears. it was so powerful! i make music on my channel, but honestly you've really been inspiring me to also make content like yours as well.
I absolutely trusted your no spoilers notice at the beginning, but I've put of watching this video until I'd played through most of the remake myself. I really wanted to form my own opinions before jumping into this beautifully paced, writer and presented video essay.
There is something so acutely energizing and emotional to when you start swearing in this. I love it so much and the rage it inspired in me was strangely cathartic and motivating.
this will probably be lost in the comments but dude you are fucking amazing, your videos just bring me to tears all the time and the ways that you make these essay to contextualise the games beyond their mechanics and story and fit them into a grander narrative is just...I have no words but you are my favourite TH-camr
Your roller coaster video showed up in my recommended feed, and you earned my interest. This video was suggested at the end, and after watching it, you've earned my subscription. My dude, you are an INCREDIBLE documentarian, and I am going to bomb your entire back catlogue. I am so legitimately impressed.
1 - it was illegal to throw chamber pots out the window in Scotland and was often fined - because major cities had surprisingly sophisticated waste management systems that went way back to their foundation (on the surface anyway) 2 - Edinburgh is so strange. Like, the outward facing buildings are essentially a building that is also a cliff face with multiple stories.
Legit goosebumps when you pan out from the oil refinery to show the town of Port Arthur. Amazing video dude, the way your content intertwines gaming with informative research on topics like history, society, etc. is perfect. The choice of music and visuals paired with the editing always complementing the discussion as well. I look forward to even more!!
I’m from Texas City, TX which is on that list you shared. We call it Toxic Shitty and I have left that town. There are people who work at the refineries their whole lives and never leave. Surprise surprise a ton of those people have major health problems later in life. It’s scary to think that so many people from that area feel like they can never leave and have to work there. The idea of being trapped under Midgar reminds me of what I see in that town.
These essays are the kind of thing I want to watch with people and talk about but everybody I see on a regular basis are nowhere near enough into games to even watch past 2 minutes Been binging this stuff for the past 2 weeks, and I look forward to more!
Your writing is remarkable. It gives such a great take on videogame and how they make you feel besides just how the gameplay and overall story. You go deeper. You go to the meat of things and show us what we might not have seen or know we had felt. Thank you for this
I live in Groves, Texas (next to Port Arthur) and decided to try to find which plant was being shown at 15:50. I realized when you zoomed out I lived so close that you could see my house. The worst part is that the plant is in the backyard of the elementary school I went to, Taft Elementary. 3 out of the 5 schools I have attended have been within walking distance of one of those plants, and yes they are all pumping noxious fumes into children's lungs. A part of me wishes this video was released after TPC's Port Neches wing exploded, because it works even better to illustrate just how little they care about our health. When I heard TPC port neches exploded I was genuinely afraid that my grandparents were dead because they weren't answering their phones after the blast. Unfortunately one man actually did die, and who knows how many were poisoned, and driving past those fallen, blackened towers every day is a painful reminder of how little I can do about it.
It's worth noting that although they lived, my grandparents suffered irreparable damage to their house, my best friend developed ptsd from hearing the blast, the chemicals forced mass evacuation, and we all silently worry it will happen again.
I live in Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco. The northern coast of the county is home to several oil refineries. The cancer rate in the county is significantly higher than the national average. The areas near the refineries are poorer, and often browner/blacker than the rest of the county. Meanwhile, more and more people move out here as they get priced out of living in San Francisco proper. The whole section on Port Arthur sounded *really familiar*. It's not a giant metal mushroom. But it sure feels like Midgar.
I live in Groves, Texas, and i live in a house a literal street away from Port Arthur.... Man was that bit accurate. When i was younger, i was never allowed to go to the Port Arthur side of the street because of the far worse conditions due to crime rate and just pure lack of income it experienced compared to the Groves side. Not that Groves is a rich town by any means but it is way better off than Port Arthur is. With that said however, my high school is neighbors to a very large refinery. A refinery that blew up, spewing dangerous chemicals into the air last Thanksgiving. Twice. So yeah, this area isnt in the best spot.
I enjoyed hearing about Mary King's Close - as a Scotland native with a dad from Edinburgh's, im well aware of their existrnce but never knew just how deep their inherent cruelty ran. My class visited it when i was 11, and i barely remember it, but my dad says he used to play down there as a kid back in the 70s. Certainly food for thought, and fuel for a story ive been writing on and off set partly in mary king's close and its adjoining warrens.
I love your content Jacob. Some of the best video essays I’ve ever seen on youtube, and they just seem to be getting better and better the more of them you do. One of my favorites channels right now, kudos to you!
Hey, just want you to know you're my favorite TH-cam person right now, I love how you're able to weave together art critique and political analysis in such a gripping way. Thanks for what you do
I don't even play video games but your channel is one of my favorites. Your analysis are so thoughtful and relevant, it's hard not to relate to the themes you talk about. I also love the way you phrase your sentences, literally could listen to you talk all day. Thank you for the awesome work!
I don't know how it took me this long to watch this video, but I really want to say that it was a deeply beautiful and touching watch. Just amazing work as always, jacob!
this is legitematialy the most moving informative entertaining and schocking video i've ssen on youtube. this might so9uond really selfsih but i man it as a compliment: i hope you never stop because i wanna watch your content until im dead lmao
Benzene is really cool from a chemistry perspective. We use it for *everything* because it's a *really* rigid circle of carbon. This structure makes it a really useful base from which we can build more complex molecules, such as plastics. Keep it out of your body, because it's quite toxic. I don't know why I'm saying this stuff. I'm doing organic chemistry right now and I'm really enjoying it. I hope you enjoyed my info dump.
To see a full director's commentary on this video, including some infuriatingly relevant studies that came out after finishing it, join my Patreon at www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
.. you'll get me eventually Jacob. Till then, keep up the great content, you're the next David Attenborough
Don't forget to add this to your "My Essays" playlist.
@@Lunam_D._Roger thank you! haha
@@JacobGeller No worries.
Love your stuff so much man (your Outer Wilds video is probably my favourite of all time). Hope I can one day support you :)
While the English westernization of Kurosawa's film may be "High and Low," I think the original Japanese is a bit more telling of just how big the difference between the two parties portrayed is: "Heaven and Hell."
Oh I didn't know that! Really interesting and totally fitting.
The title that flashes on the screen is indeed in Japanese "Heaven and Hell."
That's a good point. I'm too secular/non-religious to have thought of that, but that's a better interpretation.
@Gabriel Fidelio Eick Brække Technically no; Norse cosmology has 9 worlds though elements of a "middle ground" do exist. Namely the first two worlds: Muspelsheim, a place of primal heat and fire; and Niflheim, a place of ice and mist. The rest of the seven worlds were created by the interaction between these two places, among which, Midgard, or the middle garden, became the natural home of mortals.
It is a seriously underrated movie. One could argue that it deliberately undermines it's own wealth/poverty contrast at the end, but that is besides the point. It is a well chosen reference for this video.
The best part?
As someone who is a die-hard fan of the original game, I can testify that even though the message isn't as clear-cut in the rest of Final Fantasy VII's original version, it's still there.
It's there in Kalm, the first village you come across, a solidly middle-class town where people swallow Shinra's propaganda like so much Kool-Aid, calling Midgar things like "The Floating City"...a name which in and of itself speaks volumes about Shinra.
It's there in Fort Condor, a Mako Reactor that the residents of the surrounding area have to constantly defend against full-scale military assaults...simply because an endangered bird is perched atop the Reactor, incubating her egg.
It's there in Junon, a coastal fishing village that can't fish anymore because Shinra built a military complex and city over it, a kind of 'Midgar, Jr.", and the Mako runoff has mutated the fish into terrifying creatures. It also has a massive cannon on the front of the city, because Shinra has to be the biggest dick.
It's there in the Gold Saucer, the FF7 world's equivalent to Disneyland, being built on the ruins of a town Shinra themselves burnt to the ground (and now uses as a prison), and the only way to get to the Gold Saucer being to go through the literal tent city that the survivors now call home.
It's there in Gongaga, a small town that reaped the benefits of a Mako Reactor until it exploded violently (and not due to an ecoterrorism), and now lives in a perpetual state of mourning for those who were lost while Shinra makes no attempt at recompense.
It's there in Nibelheim...but to say more about that would be giving away a story element that I feel people need to experience for themselves.
You see the effects of this inequality in Wutai, in Icicle Inn. In fact, the only places where Shinra's corrupting influence isn't felt are Cosmo Canyon (the place for which Tifa's oddly-colored drink is named) because they never gained a foothold there.
For obvious reasons, I cannot wait to play the rest of this Remake. They hit it so far out of the park in regards to the game's core theme that it's given me hope that each and every one of thee scenarios will be played to the hilt...if not to the letter of the old game, then at least in spirit, which arguably matters more.
Exactly so. Moreso the Junon cannon, literally faces Wutai. The area Shinra was at war with only a few years before the start of the game and when they won they made it into a holiday resort and force the locals to deal with them and sell their heritage. It is an active threat to the people of Wutai, they know that the cannon is always on them, ready to put them in place if they put a foot out of line. Shinra rules everything. The original game tells you everything you need to know about them.
One thing i think you missed and I'll be going into a minor plot point.
Shinra is looking for a place called The Promised Land which they believe will be overflowing with an abundance of Mako and plan to build Neo-Midgar there. Midgar isn't even finished being built but they're ready to pack up and move on to the next thing.
You also forgot to mention Rocket Town, a small town built around Shinra's last space rocket because they were interested and heavily invested in space exploration until they discovered they could profit off of Mako.
It isn't just their greed or disregard for the planet that's a running theme, it's also how wasteful Shinra is.
Wall Market under the plate has a massive pile of trash and junk the comes from up above and a lot of it isn't broken or beyond repair, one guy makes a living gathering the trash and selling it in town because it's still useful.
Shinra doesn't care about the world or the people or anything except their own profits.
That's way too much shit to read.
@@fredo3161 go play Final Fantasy VII with your eyes open then, your brain might eventually pick some of this up anyway.
I like how at 11:17 Jacob says “Could you imagine being poor?” and cuts to a black screen to show your reflection
I didn't. Next week is the last time I can afford rent if something doesn't come up.
@@KnjazNazrath Good luck man
@@KnjazNazrath Also desperately poor due to medical bills. Things are pretty dark, honestly.
It's the same philosophy as "Black Mirror" cutting to black at the end, which is where the name comes from. Although I will say, it doesn't actually work that well when your screen isn't very reflective.
Ah that's clever, my screen didn't reflect me but very smart.
I'll be honest people could definitely argue that i dont know what it's like. My parents are struggling, but they're still middle class, I, on the other hand, am disabled, unable to work, mentally ill, and have plenty of medical bills. If they weren't helping me pay for those . . . i wouldn't be alive right now. And i know that's privilege but it sucks being in a spot then that you can't be like "hey, uhh this thing you did was abusive and awful" because my literally could just cause me to be unable to get healthcare that i need to live so :/
hot take: maybe things like food, water, and safety (which should include housing and healthcare) should be human rights
the glass ceiling becoming steel and concrete
When the disparity between Haves and Have-Nots grows wide enough, the Haves don't even need to maintain the illusion that it can ever be bridged.
@@Bluecho4 Damn.
And every year, we just get closer to that.
When you showed the area surrounding the plant in Port Arthur I got literal fucking chills that was such a hard hitting moment in the video
Same, it hit me hard too
Same here...
I want to help. I don't know how.
Yeah. Jacob really has a way with cinematography, huh?
Thats home ...
This is the closest I've come to crying at one of your videos since the beauty of Shadow of Colossus.
I've been homeless twice, and even before that I lived in Poland with the rest of my poor farming family in our poor farming village. I've learned that poverty doesn't make people lively, its literally something we do out of necessity, as a fight for our right to survive and exist. It's our own way of throwing oppression and life a big middle finger and making us at least feel a bit better about all the shit everywhere else.
All the beauty from meager livings may be nice and quaint to look upon, especially for people who have never experienced the sort of closeness that hardship brings, but all it does is make people bitter. Id know, I'm probably the angriest person I know outside of my grandmother, who lived through the German occupation, and my now deceased grandfather, who fought in the war.
The only thing I learned from my family was "Survival of the Fittest." You step on everyone just for a breath of fresh air, a moment away from the crushing weight of every other societal responsibility put before your survival. Family is no exception. It was succinctly said, like animals in a zoo.
Let me tell you a story. My grandfather left a considerable amount of land, once he died, to my mother and her siblings. My mother was discontent to continue living in her village, marrying some guy she might be distantly related to and having 6 kids, so she left to go get an education and a life in the city.
Didn't really work, since most colleges wouldn't let her attain her dream of being a nurse because she was from said poor farming village. Because her family was poor, regardless of her intelligence or grades. She ended up going somewhere absolutely unmemorable and got a degree in business. She had me, a literal birthday present, an object to remind her that something was worth fighting for, and won a lotto, only then considering maybe she should leave the country. For my sake, she said.
When she did, her youngest sister, who had been exported from the US and was angry that my mother was successful, took the remaining land and sold it for her own sums of money. While one of her siblings was still living in the house on the property. She also married and divorced several men for their money and properties as well.
Poverty doesn't teach people to enjoy what they have. It teaches people to be bitter about it. Only the best of people will realize that its no way to live life and maybe throw a considerable enough fuss to actually change something.
Most of the time, we sit and fester like a rotting carcass on the side of the road, forgotten and only remembered with distaste when the smell wafts over.
"Poverty doesn't teach people to enjoy what they have. It teaches people to be bitter about it." That hit hard. I struggle with being a very angry person from my life of poverty and homelessness. People don't realize what an exhausting strain it is to just... never have something. Even something as simple as eating your favorite meal becomes an unattainable luxury. It's maddening, and after a lifetime of it I've grown insanely resentful of too many people. Mainly my family, who live very very comfortably in big properties and regularly go on vacations, and have had many opportunities to lend a helping hand but don't.
@@littlekitsune1 that fucking sucks dude im sorry you had to go through that
You know im not really that poor in semi poor like i live in a apartment but i have a xbox 1 and wifi like my dad dosen't have a good job and yet finds a way to get what he gets and thats what i love about my dad he dosen't give up
@@blankieplays1350 Thanks man, I'm trying to work through it. It sucks, but moving forward is the healthiest thing to try to do, and I guess there's always the chance things will improve someday. I'm glad your dad is able to achieve a pretty good life despite his circumstances! That's definitely not easy, but it's a good trait.
@@littlekitsune1 yea
I want to add a small point about Midgar’s etymology, as it’s named after the realm of Midgard from Norse Mythology. Midgard was created from the slain corpse of the first being in existence, the giant Ymir. The gods killed him, and Midgard’s inhabitants live off his remains. Not that different from Midgar ripping energy from a dying planet.
Oh man I knew about the Norse etymology but didn't make that connection, that's a *great* point.
“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.“ -Herman Melville
This is quite ironic, viewing poverty as a zoo. It’s happening now, in South Korea. When Parasite came out, tourists came to gawk at the sub-basement apartments used in the movie on official tours. The people who were and are still living there resented being treated by these tours as zoo animals, without even benefiting from the capital generated from them.
This happens everyday in brazilian favelas, tourists come here to visit and take photos of the depressive and inhumane situation that our people live
@@joaovitor9673 In Colombia, in Medellin, we have the exact same thing. I had an enormous fight with my parents when I tried to explain to them that going on a tour to see the graffities at those neighbourhoods had certain implications that were, morally speaking, sickening
People used to come to NYC for "ghetto tours" as well. It's beyond disrespectful how society treats the poor and working class that hold everything up on their shoulders.
Same thing happened when Joker came out. People flocked to that staircase in the Bronx like the place was a fucking zoo.
@@loubloom1941 no, it’s true: www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/16/parasite-film-oscars-bong-joon-ho-seoul-rich-poor-south-korea
That zoom out to the neighborhoods in Port Arthur filled me with more dread and horror than just about any horror game/movie I've ever seen. Christ.
I'm not sleeping well after that
It'a an excellent way of making you want to get to work and change the system.
The picture shown at 5:34 is from São Paulo Brasil, a neihborhood called "Paraisópolis" known as "the most unequal neighborhood in the world"
Less than a year ago, In 2019, a funk music festival gathered over 5000 people. The poor cant have their own culture and festivals, so of course, the police made a move.
Using war tactics against their own people, they surrounded the event, caused panic, and funneled 5000 people out of there. 9 people were stomped in the chaos and died.
Their excuse was that 2 drug dealers moved into the crowd fleeing from the police.
there are videos of the sheer panic and screams that sends shivers down my spine. Any attempt from the poor to show that they are alive is met with military grade repression from the estate.
There are also news coverage of the policeman right after this event, and you can see their disgust for their own people.
As you masterfully said, we really cant goodwill out of it
Ill leave you with one example of cowardice: th-cam.com/video/SSK0Cm7nGMk/w-d-xo.html
Also, the moment you showed a place from my country as a real world example sent chills down my whole being
Good shit... as always
❤✊
Not only are the poor poor, they are hated. God.
Well said, parça
It’s always a special kind of awful when you see that picture and suddenly realize, I live fairly nearby. I myself live in a COHAB, which, for the foreigners, is basically public housing, not quite a Favela, but stuff is hard. And curiously enough, side by side with my downtrodden building, there is a luxury condo. And if you are Brazilian and are wondering how can I be poor and be so eloquent in a foreign language, it is fairly rare, I was just fortunate enough to have had a good education early in life - even among the poor, there are layers of privilege. I am pretty fucked, but honestly, could be worse, could be way worse. Point is, there is an inherent difficulty of expression by those who are oppressed, so if you all ever see Brazilians defending our current fascist administration in English, or talking about anything else at all, they are more often than not from a reasonably wealthy background. Doesn’t mean their voices don’t matter, and it certainly doesn’t mean that every wealthy Brazilian online is some sort of reactionary, but always keep in mind that most people here don’t speak much English, and the perspectives on issues such as social inequality are somewhat limited in the anglophone sphere of the internet.
"Could you imagine being poor?" is honestly a hard question for me, because... I don't know. Not only am I not poor by any real standart, but I live in Denmark, where we have a giant middle class, and very little poverty. There is an under class and some people living on the street, but we don't have any slums or any real visual way to see or understand them.
All that is great - don't get me wrong. If the rest of the world was like here, that would be amazing... but it isn't.
Just because we can't see crushing poverty outside our doors, doesn't mean our society isn't build on top of it. It's just very far away. I mean... who makes our clothes, and our phones, and our tons of plastic - not anyone near Denmark that's for sure. We are just build so far over and on top of the slums of our making, that we litterally can't see that we have any connection to them at all... It's pretty terrifying.
Well put
Also the fact that Europe's riches were built on top of colonialism, sucking out from other places. "Could you imagine living in a poor country?" would be a better question there. You might not have as terrible as a problem around you, but the same problem is around you on a bigger scale.
Well, most European countries work for their people. Governments are not *entirely* owned by businesses, poor people have access to affordable (even if lower quality) education and healthcare.
The problem is not with poverty itself. I'm from Bulgaria (poorest country in EU) but even we have opportunity to escape it through hard work. In Europe it is possible (unless you are not a refugee). In US it used to be much easier, but is almost impossible now.
@@nikolatasev4948 It's not about possible though. It was possible to scape slavery under feudalism, but that doesn't make it a good system.
Only a small proportion of people move up the socio-economic ladder, no matter how much they work (because both entrepeneurship and qualified work literally can't be profitable for most of the population, by definition, and unqualified work pays for barely enough to survive), while most people born into millionaire/billionaire families don't end up poor, no matter how incapable they might be. It's not fair, and that's the problem.
You have the permission to don't care , to be ignorant. It's not your problem.
I’m so glad you started to go into the issues with environmental racism with Port Arthur. Once you start realizing where all of these power plants and factories and refineries that produce so much pollution are - next to or in low-income black/brown communities - it’s so hard to ignore that environmentalism and institutional racism are so connected. No social issue exists in a vacuum!
Most gamers: here's why FF's gameplay is great isn't it so great?
Jacob Geller: here's the message of the story, why it's important, what it makes me feel, and why it's actual art
This video should be longer :(
Sometimes, you just have to put your pearls before swine
Even more damningly, most gamers don't stop at "here's why FF's gameplay is great". No: Most gamers feel the need to go further, to "FF's story SUCKS and is TERRIBLE and HERE'S WHY" before listing out some surface level nonsense ("it changed!", "this character was stupid!", "plot holes!").
Videos like this are important, because they examine narrative on a level deeper than surface-level examination so common in gaming communities.
Elspeth You can’t just disqualify criticism of a game's story because you would rather watch a video praising its themes. Literal story analysis and criticism is just as valid as interpretations of what the world represents, and trying to act like it isn’t valid is the height of intellectual elitism.
Talking about characters and plot points is not surface level and it’s definitely not “nonsense.” It’s so ridiculous to call them that, that I truly believe you are only doing it because you disagree with those criticisms. That’s fine, disagree as much as you want, or don’t even engage in that discussion, but you chose the only bad option - trying to make that discussion seem stupid.
@@stevelarry3870 It's okay to have discourse on the plot and its weirder elements, but I personally take issue with people who use that to defame the entire game and ignore the themes presented altogether in favor of clinging to their nostalgia, thus missing the forest for the trees.
I say this as someone who has played the original FF7 through multiple times since 1997. It's my favorite game of all time, and yes, I did tihnk the Remake's ending came out of left field, but I don't hate it, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the more relevant discussion that both games were intended to provoke.
Great production my guy. The most refreshing part of the analysis was pointing out how the tone of midgar's poor doesn't sentimentalize their struggle, but confronts the shocking reality of class oppression. It seems to me that most popular expression of class consciousness these days is too ironic and fatalist to actually galvanize the appropriate anger to fight back
Well because most people are moderates. There is progressivism if you look in the right places and organise.
Ah, that bit about your favourite moment being the emergence into the slums hits hard. In the five years between reveal and release, it didn't set in for me that 7 Remake was actually A Thing That Was Coming Out until I saw some preview footage that was just Tifa and Cloud in the slums, the gargantuan plate overhead, other people milling about their daily lives beneath it. That was when I finally understood. Jason Schreier's on a similar page too; all he's said about it on twitter since his review went up was just sharing two clips of people-watching in the slums.
And this, this is why I'm excited for the rest of the remake. They wrote this game with so much reverence for the themes and characters that I have some pretty strong faith they're going to continue on with the rest of them, instead of put it all aside for what people have (quite fairly, I concede) called 'Kingdom Hearts Bullshit'. I want to see the effect Shinra have had on Wutai and Cosmo Canyon fleshed out. And...well, yeah. I want to experience some hope in this crapsack world that's becoming more and more like the one Shinra wants to see.
This is absolutely some of Geller's best work, it's paced so intentionally and contextualized so concretely! I can't wait for the next one but I'll return to this in the meantime.
I love how Jacob rarely swears, so when he does, it HITS. The line at 16:13 sent chills through my whole body.
The one that always gets me is 16:50. Genuine, powerful and excruciatingly true.
I love how this video veers from a nice video essay about a video game to "the upper class is literally murdering us in our sleep with toxic waste," and it's scary how true it is...
Yes, Geller's finally getting into class commentary! Everyone always does here on TH-cam, and I'm here for it. Also, yeah, this was my first experience with Midgar too and it was breathtaking.
My city here in Brazil is very poor and LITERALLY built in a giant depression, and to the rich districts you have to climb out of the hole, with a highway, of course
I live in the fucken capital of Brazil btw
Didn’t they block the poor areas away with highways and stuff for the olympics? Brazil seems crazy corrupt
A city built in the middle of the fucking desert. Tough break
:(
Did it hit you as hard as it hit me when he showed Paraisópolis as a real world example at 5:33 ?
Cheers from a fellow Brazilian
@@jakobesparza Not only during the olympics, that's a common urban segregation tactic since forever.
Here's a music video. look closely at the 20 second mark. th-cam.com/video/KEB0D_f4gNA/w-d-xo.html
I knew where this would go and I'm still pissed about it. No one should ever choose their livelihood over their health, and yet here we are. FF7, and the remake, are more relevant than ever.
I agree, but the problem is they do get a CHOICE. Other people shouldn't be making that choice for them
Every time I watch one of your videos I feel like I'm hitting the jackpot yet again. I've been devouring your content since the Super Mario Galaxy video you put out, and you have hit each and every video before and since then out of the park!
There is an art to critique and critique in art and you've struck a wonderful balance with your videos
FF7: Corporations and the state work together to crush both the planet and the working class. The only ethical response to such oppression is doing everything necessary to overthrow those in power, as well as the institutions that perpetuate and legitimize that power
Me: FF7 is about the consequences of capitalism
My friends: whY aRE YoU lEfTIstS ALwaYs mAKiNg EVerYthING sO pOLiTicaL
this hit too hard damn. ur right and u should say it
people think that it's not political as long as you don't fucking spell out "capitalism" DESPITE the remake having people call Shinra employees fascists directly in cutscenes
What can I say, all art is political and anyone who wants “non political “ art is just asking for the status quo
@@georgekostaras FACTS. I would argue even that calling a game 'non-political' is in itself a political statement on the way politics in games is perceived rn
When you agree with something, it's common sense. When you disagree with something, it's political.
I've lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for many years. It's so much worse than what's reported. Mississippi Phosphorous was a company that committed many, many atrocities. Our cancer rates are so high.
Here in Texas we call it the Carcinogenic Coast
When I saw it my first idea was "And they said Prypyat is bad".
yeehaw
I feel like this game has a lot in common with the 1927 movie "Metropolis." The wealthy live above ground in an electric-light filled utopia, while the workers making all that electricity possible live underground and in poverty.
it's probably the ur example, at least when it comes to science fiction cinema. "Slightly" undermined when it is said that just a nice rich boy could breach the divide between the workers and the owners.
That was exactly what I was thinking! I came across the movie in English Class once but never made the time to watch it. Did you like it?
I've lived my life. Going back and forth between Two Reservations.
One of them, is Pine Ridge.
The difference between the rich ranchers, and my poor aunties. Was quite, quite stark.
My aunties houses were barely held together, by constant maintenance, and hard work she and her children would put into it.
But if a Tornado ever went through town? That would be the end of that
The rancher? Six cars, seven million different types of trucks and equipment. With a nice yard, and plenty of guns to "keep the drunk injuns out"
But yet.
That land, my families land. I absolutely breath taking.
It's pure, untouched prairie. That's never been developed, never been lived on in the whytte man's way.
It's a dream, of a long forgotten life. That my people once had
But all people will respond with, is: "you've lost, get over it"
At least my people weren't the ones destroying the planet soooooo
There's a moment about half way through Parasite that perfectly accentuates just how wide the divide is between rich and poor. When the Kim family are fleeing the Parks' house and they descend flight of steps after flight of steps in the pouring rain, sinking deeper and deeper into the city.
I just want to make a small appreciation comment about 3:17
I usually have long essay vids in the background so I often miss little references because I'm not looking at the screen. But even without looking at it, the music cue let me know what game you were talking about without you having to mention Mirror's Edge by name. It's a small detail, but us alt-tabbers really appreciate it!!
Also, great use of concrete for miles at 5:18 (from The new order's OST)
Jacob is a Tifa man, confirmed. A man of culture
I mean it's either Tifa or necrophilia. Seems like an easy choice to me but apparently people somehow struggle with it.
A man is a tifa man if not he is no man
@@Toksyuryel maybe, in remake, it will no longer be necrophilia :)
@@Toksyuryel Yuffie: Am I a joke to you?
@@lolstalgic9602 Yes Yuffie, you are. You always have been, and you always will be.
That's why we love you
Yuh Yuh something to listen to while I paint let's get it
And while I knit!
@@grammarjedi And MY AXE!
Esketit
YUHH GET INTO IT
Yo-please watch it when you can! Visuals are crucial!
Thank you for putting to words what I've struggled to for over 20 FREAKING years
It's incredibly cathartic seeing it so perfectly articulated.
I live off the gulf coast of Texas, not far from Arthur, and to never realize they've a production plant placed right on top of their livelihoods is infuriating. Down where I live, all plants are tossed off towards the far side of the city, towards open area and state roads, well known to be a hazard for a number of reasons - benzene included. It seemed so impossible to have such an obvious danger placed right in the way of people's lives, it's a shell shock to see it so close to home. Hopefully time will bring positive change towards them with this spotlight and more understanding on the terrors it brings, I know I'll seek to make what change I can for the future. Thank you lots, Jacob, you do amazing work.
Your best of 2020 video was right. This is one of your best works and it's criminally unnoticed.
I've never played Final Fantasy but the SECOND you talked about a town on top of a town I thought of Edinburgh and I am so glad you did not disapoint
The rich's height may have them looking down upon you, but it also gives them a vantage point of all the pain and suffering. It seems to me the refusal to look down is the biggest crime they commit.
A refusal to look down because it would impede their view doesn't mean they don't know. It is an active choice to not care.
@@chellshock: Yeah, their metaphorical refusal to look down won't stop them from knowing of the problem; it's more a refusal of acknowledgement, or any level of potential responsibility.
Depends on how far up they are. If we're talking men like Jeff Bezos, a man well on his way to be the first TRILLIONAIRE in history, then everything below him would lose detail. The dots of people replaced with the dots of homes. We'd be so far below them that they eventually lose sight of us. Out of sight, out of mind.
@@SicklyOlive darn you're absolutely right
"And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human."
Willian Gibson; Count Zero
Jacob, you are exactly what the video essay community needs - a honest and personal insight into one's own experience with art.
*Jacob:* Could you imagine being poor?
*Characters:* Wait, poor people exist?
"The rich live up, the poor live down"
like the opposite of Fallout
The people on the surface in Fallout actually have a functioning economic system (or at least as functional as one can be in what is basically the nuclear wild west). Furthermore, the denizens of the vaults aren't all from when the bombs dropped. Most of them grew up in the vaults due to the actions of those who came before them (given that people lived in the vaults in Fallout for around a minimum of 50 years), and a good amount of the vault dwellers ultimately became unwilling test subjects.
You could say the concept of commercial vaults speaks to the dark reality of class though if you wanted to go there, but that only really applies to the Pre-War Americans in Fallout. It also doesnt make for very good like-baiting, lol.
@@four-en-tee The people who live in the vaults (that weren't subjected to the more horrible experiments) still often participate in the surface economy. Furthermore, they are largely without scarcity, as they have all their food and lodging seen to.
They are also generally far healthier than the surfacers, having been exposed to far less radiation and consuming food with fewer contaminants.
It is clearly far, FAR better to be a vault dweller in one of the nicer vaults, such as vault 81, than in even the nicest conditions available up on the surface.
@@caityreads8070 bro 99% of vaults had horrible experiments happening in them, i dont think you could call that higher class living, more like lab rats.
I credit the summer I spent playing the original game at 15 with saving me from becoming a 4chan libertarian.
Not actually because of the explicit anti-capitalist politics of the game (I was already kinda there for a wide variety of reasons), but because the inhabitants of Midgar and especially Cloud's personal journey made me realize I shouldn't continue the absurd power fantasy of the Just World Fallacy and of humans each having total, perfect sovereignty over our own lives and the course we can steer them on. My mom had kept trying to get me to understand this but it didn't sink in until I had to actively engage with such a story and see it demonstrated in front of me by characters I was invested in, and in a way that made recognition of that kind of inherent human vulnerability seem cool and admirable instead of "for the weak." (I know what you're thinking, but ironically this was not toxic masculinity as it was actually coded as a departure from and rejection of conventional machismo-It's complicated, my upbringing was weird, it's why I needed a dang video game to show me how to be normal).
After that summer, when 10th grade started, I began going to parties & dances and playing sports, and working on being a better friend and not being so alienating and weird, consciously aspiring to the kind of healed and transformed relationships with others and himself Cloud had at the end of the story. Now 20 years later I have a wide, fulfilling, and supportive network of friends and am engaged in all kinds of creative enterprises with them that we love doing together.
I want to believe some other experience would have come along shortly and performed the same function, and it's possible I was already evolving and am just attributing extra significance to this because it's a concrete thing to point at, but there's a terrifying possibility that if I hadn't played this game as a teenager, I'd have continued down the arrogantly alienated and deluded emotional path I was on and today would be a friendless reactionary virgin seething in some low-level STEM job, wondering why my chance to be a Radian master of my existence never comes and heaping scorn on anyone who has an unlucky break for not being prepared.
It turns out that sometimes you really _can_ get off of the train you're on.
Wow. I love that games can have such an effect on people. I've heard similar stories of Life is Strange and Night in the Woods saving people, in different ways. Thanks for sharing.
It's amazing how a story from the 90's and what it was trying to say, has a lot more relavence today, some 20 years later...and is...depressingly accurate to real life.
Superb writing. From the story taking place in Edinburgh that's finally over, to the story in America, the richest country in the world, that's still ongoing. To take the metaphor of the game and show us exactly how relevant it is was fantastic- sickening, but necessary.
I think you might be my favourite TH-camr right now, I've noticed I make your videos a priority every time I see an upload, and for good reason. I'm sure whatever you try to tackle next will be fantastic, but I love these heavy hitting topics, and would love for you to share more of your knowledge and insights with us.
Edinburghs not in England mate, cmon
@@tomsmith8245 As a Brit, I am honestly ashamed I fucked that up. Didn't remember he said Edinburgh and just presumed it happened in England somewhere, ty for the comment so I can edit this and hide my shame
@@cheesypoohalo hahaha no worries
This is one of the best game commentaries I've ever seen. I adore the fact that you brought up real world environmental issues in order to draw parallels to Midgar. Fucking phenomenal
Golly Gee man. Your essays are among my all time favorites. I joined Nebula because of YOU. I want to say that your ability to use accessible and moving language and story telling to tell me the way it feels to have these experiences(playing these games). You convey the vibe. I want to say, that I'm doing a lot of therapy to learn to feel my body and emotions, and watching your videos supports that journey into myself. You touch depths with your composition, pace and delivery.
Thank you!
You've exactly captured everything I love about this game and have loved about this game since I first played it many years ago now. I hope more people playing the Remake will see the game for exactly what it is, I've had too many conversations with gross people who have flat out denied and rejected any and all analysis about the politics and social commentary within the game and written off people talking about it as "SJW leftists". They're always like "Shut up have you even played the game?" Yes, like, my guy, have YOU played the game???? AVALANCHE is LITERALLY an eco-terrorist group. I swear. Watching new people find love in the series and all it stands for gives me so much absolute fucking joy.
I am in the exact same boat. The fact that more and more people are grasping the concepts that have been built into the game *for 23 years* is one of the few things remaining that gives me hope for the future.
ive grown up in a small house with only one parent after our dad left us, we've struggled to make ends meet and ive lived in fear that my basic human needs may not be met, i worry for my future and my ability just to survive despite clawing my way through a general biology 4 year college course, which im now on the last semester of, and i know there are many worse off than i could ever imagine, and its scary more than anything, to become a footnote, a "can you imagine being this?" to others, to others who will claim that level of poverty doesnt exist in their rich beautiful state, and its scary.
This video despite being about a game ive never played, a story i dont really care about, hit notes that scare me more than anything, and yet im so thankful it exists, thank you for showing a reality i fear people are forgetting, it means alot
FFVII turned a lot of people onto ecology. I kinda hope this remake will make people look further than Extinction Rebellion.
Yeah, replaying the original many years later (because my laptop could never run the remake xD) reminded me how environmentalist it really was. It reminds me so much of the present-day climate crisis.
Great video! Glad you recommended it in the 2020 games of the year video the comments here offer things i didnt know and discussion as well i think ill be visiting weeks after i finish fully watching as well
I remember driving home from kemah boardwalk with some friends a few year ago. We passed through pasadena, TX and the first thing you notice is the smell, second is the oil refineries that look like absolute nightmares in the middle of the night on the right and third thing is just nothing but houses to the left. I remember thinking "this is what death looks like" so yup ff7r has really struck a chord for me
To me FF7 always had a cyberpunk feeling. You have a megacorporation that has became it's own goverment and people use materia to augment themselves.
Your video has actually pointed me to a really good case study (i.e Port Arthur Texas) for my socioeconomics essay! Turns out hours of watching video essays helps with academics as well, haha. Thanks man :)
who tf disliking the video before it even starts :L
Some people just dislike because of the "Premiere" style posting
Actual reason? People want to be the first to do something, even if it means being the first to be an asshole.
Why even dislike such good videos
@@YOEL_44 I don't see anything wrong with the premiere style tho. It gives viewers something to anticipate
@@shivadhhunsraj1296 Some people don't like waiting, TBH the original implementation was horrible
I purposely avoided this when I first saw it because I had just finished the FF7 Remake. The game really connected with me, but a lot of the videos I saw from other creators were negative and they didn’t seem to be interested in talking about anything beyond surface level details. Now that I’ve finally watched this, I’m so glad that I did! I really appreciate all the work that you put into this!
A beautiful video essay about living in the shadows of Midgar. The undercity forgotten, half the resident of the city just “invisible”. Wow, that gave me chills.
Awww, it's such a joy to devour your videos. It's more comprehensive talk than most educational videos and since it using pop cultures and history i loved it more.
Some how every one of your videos make me cry and smile and feel so much. Sometimes it's all the emotion I get in a day. Thank you
Great video, just want to say I really appreciate the rigor put in to make a video essay about games that doesn't only cite games but pulls in other media from other mediums, history, and of course, brutal truths from real life. Keep up the excellent work!
those packed-in shacks in midgar reminded me viscerally of the rowhouses i grew up in. sometimes they're called trinity houses-- three rooms stacked on top of each other, sharing walls and stoops with the neighbors. they're almost universally rotting, foundations sinking into the ground and the colorful paint on the facades chipping off. the tourists like to take pictures of them, because they're pretty, brightly colored and decorated with wooden molding. both of my siblings and i had lead poisoning as babies and ongoing respiratory issues from black mold.
Your channel is the most fascinating random channel I've ever stumbled across. This is largely in part to your fascination with the depths and caves and how it that fascination seemingly suffuses all the videos you produce.
Thanks for teaching me about the underground town.
I was so glad to see your spoiler free analysis pop up today! (I have 5 chapters to go before I'm done with Remake and never played the original either.)
I love how you pointed out those two girls dancing on the roof. I kept waiting for them to be part of a side quest, but they're just there for flavor. Such detail just to enrich our experience with the game.
for a recent fan you speak so beautifully and fondly of this game, a joy to watch, for an old fan
I noticed this was the first time that you didn't have a title card until the very end of the video, I think anyway. Makes sense too, the video had a lot of momentum to it after all. I really need to watch an LP of the game soon!
Finding out about Edinborough's basement streets was fasinating too - certainly something new I learnt today.
And of course I should have expected a video on Midgar to show up at some point - it's one of gaming's most well known architectural structures, and resurrected for the current year too! (Incidentally, I would love a video on the Combine structures and the Citadel of Half-Life 2 for the same reason)
@@hypernovab2254 Yes.
this is an amazing video. your ability to find humanity, resonance, and meaning in so many disparate things is truly incredible. the bits about eco-terrorism were especially stunning, and the eloquence with which you describe the complexity of the relationship between the truth of opression and the spirit of resistance is magnificent. rock on man.
jacob you're my favorite youtuber.
this video legitimately brought me to tears. it was so powerful!
i make music on my channel, but honestly you've really been inspiring me to also make content like yours as well.
I absolutely trusted your no spoilers notice at the beginning, but I've put of watching this video until I'd played through most of the remake myself. I really wanted to form my own opinions before jumping into this beautifully paced, writer and presented video essay.
There is something so acutely energizing and emotional to when you start swearing in this. I love it so much and the rage it inspired in me was strangely cathartic and motivating.
As a resident of Edinburgh and a fan of the Witcher games, I just loved that bit on Mary King's close !!!
this will probably be lost in the comments but dude you are fucking amazing, your videos just bring me to tears all the time and the ways that you make these essay to contextualise the games beyond their mechanics and story and fit them into a grander narrative is just...I have no words but you are my favourite TH-camr
Jacob geller at it again creating some of the best content on youtube
Your roller coaster video showed up in my recommended feed, and you earned my interest. This video was suggested at the end, and after watching it, you've earned my subscription. My dude, you are an INCREDIBLE documentarian, and I am going to bomb your entire back catlogue. I am so legitimately impressed.
This video is criminally under viewed.
1 - it was illegal to throw chamber pots out the window in Scotland and was often fined - because major cities had surprisingly sophisticated waste management systems that went way back to their foundation (on the surface anyway)
2 - Edinburgh is so strange. Like, the outward facing buildings are essentially a building that is also a cliff face with multiple stories.
You’re videos are so put together and shows that you like sharing you’re passion with others.
Legit goosebumps when you pan out from the oil refinery to show the town of Port Arthur.
Amazing video dude, the way your content intertwines gaming with informative research on topics like history, society, etc. is perfect. The choice of music and visuals paired with the editing always complementing the discussion as well.
I look forward to even more!!
I’m from Texas City, TX which is on that list you shared. We call it Toxic Shitty and I have left that town. There are people who work at the refineries their whole lives and never leave. Surprise surprise a ton of those people have major health problems later in life. It’s scary to think that so many people from that area feel like they can never leave and have to work there. The idea of being trapped under Midgar reminds me of what I see in that town.
These essays are the kind of thing I want to watch with people and talk about but everybody I see on a regular basis are nowhere near enough into games to even watch past 2 minutes
Been binging this stuff for the past 2 weeks, and I look forward to more!
Your writing is remarkable. It gives such a great take on videogame and how they make you feel besides just how the gameplay and overall story. You go deeper. You go to the meat of things and show us what we might not have seen or know we had felt. Thank you for this
I live in Groves, Texas (next to Port Arthur) and decided to try to find which plant was being shown at 15:50. I realized when you zoomed out I lived so close that you could see my house.
The worst part is that the plant is in the backyard of the elementary school I went to, Taft Elementary. 3 out of the 5 schools I have attended have been within walking distance of one of those plants, and yes they are all pumping noxious fumes into children's lungs.
A part of me wishes this video was released after TPC's Port Neches wing exploded, because it works even better to illustrate just how little they care about our health. When I heard TPC port neches exploded I was genuinely afraid that my grandparents were dead because they weren't answering their phones after the blast. Unfortunately one man actually did die, and who knows how many were poisoned, and driving past those fallen, blackened towers every day is a painful reminder of how little I can do about it.
It's worth noting that although they lived, my grandparents suffered irreparable damage to their house, my best friend developed ptsd from hearing the blast, the chemicals forced mass evacuation, and we all silently worry it will happen again.
Working through your catalog now and this is definitely your most underappreciated video
Yeah, this one deserves way more views and likes.
I live in Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco.
The northern coast of the county is home to several oil refineries. The cancer rate in the county is significantly higher than the national average. The areas near the refineries are poorer, and often browner/blacker than the rest of the county. Meanwhile, more and more people move out here as they get priced out of living in San Francisco proper. The whole section on Port Arthur sounded *really familiar*.
It's not a giant metal mushroom. But it sure feels like Midgar.
I live in Groves, Texas, and i live in a house a literal street away from Port Arthur.... Man was that bit accurate. When i was younger, i was never allowed to go to the Port Arthur side of the street because of the far worse conditions due to crime rate and just pure lack of income it experienced compared to the Groves side. Not that Groves is a rich town by any means but it is way better off than Port Arthur is. With that said however, my high school is neighbors to a very large refinery. A refinery that blew up, spewing dangerous chemicals into the air last Thanksgiving. Twice. So yeah, this area isnt in the best spot.
Wish I had known that you were in Edinburgh, would have bought you a beer to say thanks for all the insightful videos over the years.
I enjoyed hearing about Mary King's Close - as a Scotland native with a dad from Edinburgh's, im well aware of their existrnce but never knew just how deep their inherent cruelty ran. My class visited it when i was 11, and i barely remember it, but my dad says he used to play down there as a kid back in the 70s.
Certainly food for thought, and fuel for a story ive been writing on and off set partly in mary king's close and its adjoining warrens.
“There are some ways that being poor is just a fucking death sentence”
I’m crying thank u
Just discovered this channel. Honestly one of my best youtube discoveries in a long time
I can't explain how your videos make me feel, but I can't help but watch them as soon as I see them pop up.
Please never stop making content sir
I love your content Jacob. Some of the best video essays I’ve ever seen on youtube, and they just seem to be getting better and better the more of them you do. One of my favorites channels right now, kudos to you!
Hey, just want you to know you're my favorite TH-cam person right now, I love how you're able to weave together art critique and political analysis in such a gripping way. Thanks for what you do
I don't even play video games but your channel is one of my favorites. Your analysis are so thoughtful and relevant, it's hard not to relate to the themes you talk about. I also love the way you phrase your sentences, literally could listen to you talk all day. Thank you for the awesome work!
This video is one of your most under rated, thank you Geller.
I don't know how it took me this long to watch this video, but I really want to say that it was a deeply beautiful and touching watch. Just amazing work as always, jacob!
Every single video on this channel is amazing. With ADD it's not many videos this long that can keep my focus, but this sure does. wow.
this is legitematialy the most moving informative entertaining and schocking video i've ssen on youtube. this might so9uond really selfsih but i man it as a compliment: i hope you never stop because i wanna watch your content until im dead lmao
I'm from Port Arthur and have worked in the very plant as a contractor. And allot of other plants in the area.
Your videos are criminally underrated! Keep making videos!!
Man, your writing is emotive, informative, and inspiring. Love what you do, keep it up.
Benzene is really cool from a chemistry perspective. We use it for *everything* because it's a *really* rigid circle of carbon. This structure makes it a really useful base from which we can build more complex molecules, such as plastics.
Keep it out of your body, because it's quite toxic.
I don't know why I'm saying this stuff. I'm doing organic chemistry right now and I'm really enjoying it. I hope you enjoyed my info dump.