Lucrecia Crescent



Lucrecia Crescent is a non-playable character from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. She is Sephiroth's birth mother.

Lucrecia initially appeared briefly in Final Fantasy VII in optional scenes, but her role was expanded in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, giving her a larger role within the Shinra Electric Power Company Science Department and crediting her with research into Chaos. More details of her became available in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, such as her surname, her birthday (July 22), and her bloodtype (B).

Appearance and Personality
In Final Fantasy VII Lucrecia wears a closed lab coat over a red shirt and yellow tie. She wears black boots, red earrings, and has her long brown hair pulled into a high ponytail with a full, straight fringe.

Lucrecia's appearance changes for Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- where she still wears a ponytail but with bangs partly covering her left eye. The top of the ponytail is wrapped in a strip of deteriorating yellow cloth. Her eyes are chocolate brown. She wears a white, open lab coat, light blue blouse, asymmetrical dark blue skirt and red kitten heels with a silver anklet on her left ankle. When encased in crystal she is dressed in a sleeveless white dress cut off diagonally at her stomach, with asymmetrical skirts similar to her previously worn outfit, and a shawl around her lower arms.

If one looks closely in some of the Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- cutscenes, one can spot Lucrecia wears a pair of silver dagger earrings, similar to those of musician Gackt, who contributed "Longing" and "Redemption' to the game's soundtrack and served as a model for Genesis Rhapsodos.

Lucrecia suffers from a guilt complex, but has a kind and caring soul although she tends to ignore the realities of he life and convince herself to believe only what she wants to believe. Being a scientist, she is prepared to take risks for her research, something she, albeit to a lesser extent, shares with her colleague Professor Hojo.

Story
Lucrecia, once a Shinra scientist, worked as an assistant to Vincent's father, Grimoire Valentine. They discovered two Weapons developed by the Planet used as part of the Lifestream's emergency function. Together, Grimoire and Lucrecia discovered the cave where it was thought Chaos would awaken at the appointed time. The newly-discovered Chaos killed Grimoire and Lucrecia's research was discarded as nonsense.

Lucrecia was appointed to work on the Jenova Project along with Gast Faremis and Professor Hojo and Vincent Valentine, a member of the Department of Administrative Research (which would later be known as the Turks), was assigned to supervise the project. Lucrecia recognized Vincent as Grimoire's son and was shocked Shinra would assign the son of her deceased mentor to supervise her. As time wore on she began spending time with him when the two were off work, although she concealed having known his father, and the two grew close.

When Vincent found a document pulled up on Lucrecia's computer telling of her time working with Grimoire he confronted her and she revealed her culpability for his death. Vincent — not seeming to think Lucrecia was responsible as much as she does — attempted to counsel her, but Lucrecia's feelings of guilt only intensified straining their relationship, and she sought Hojo for comfort.

Lucrecia became romantically involved with Hojo and married him. She became pregnant and agreed to use their unborn child as a test subject for the Jenova Project. Hojo injected both the pregnant Lucrecia and her fetus with Jenova cells, but the cells had an unexpected side effect: Lucrecia would have visions of her son, Sephiroth, and of the future atrocities he would commit. The visions were so painful she often collapsed.

When Vincent confronted Hojo about Lucrecia's condition, Hojo shot him and used his corpse as an experiment, only to label him a failure and discard him. Lucrecia, devastated with Vincent's death, used her knowledge about Chaos to resuscitate him by infusing pure Mako into his body. Vincent's body, due to Hojo's previous experiments, was strong enough to become a Chaos vessel, but Chaos was out of control and only stopped when the Protomateria reacted to it.

The Protomateria, which Grimoire had discovered and which Lucrecia theorized to have been created by the Planet "out of necessity as a means to control Chaos and prolong its own inevitable fate", had been in Lucrecia's laboratory. She put it inside Vincent's chest, and thus Vincent was able to control Chaos to a degree, but while it halted Vincent's decay, it did not resuscitate him.

Lucrecia gave birth to Sephiroth, but he was taken away without Lucrecia even being allowed to hold him. Hojo either left her, or she left him shortly afterward. Overcome with self-loathing and sorrow Lucrecia tried to kill herself, but not before leaving her thesis about Chaos and Omega for the still unconscious Vincent. Due to the Jenova cells in her body Lucrecia was unable to die and left her old life behind, vanishing without a trace eventually ending up in the Crystal Cave where she and Grimoire had discovered Chaos.

Years later, when the Planet is faced with destruction at the hands of her son, Lucrecia is found by Vincent when he is traveling with Cloud's party. Attempting to approach her, Lucrecia warns Vincent to stay away. The events of what had happened with Vincent and Lucrecia are recounted for the rest of the party and Lucrecia says she felt such guilt she had wanted to disappear. Lucrecia tells Vincent she has been dreaming about Sephiroth a lot lately, and asks if her son is still alive. Vincent, who does not have the heart to tell her of the horrible things Sephiroth has done — and is planning to do — tells Lucrecia Sephiroth is dead. But even though she never says it, she knows Vincent is lying.

Lucrecia remains in the cave and becomes encased in a crystal of Mako. Following Omega's destruction Vincent returns to the Crystal Cave and thanks Lucrecia, telling her she was the reason he survived. As he leaves the cave a tear rolls down her cheek.

Sidequest
Lucrecia is briefly seen in a sidequest in Final Fantasy VII where the player can recruit the optional Vincent to the party. He must be present when the player visits her cave after Cloud returns to the party following the Mideel events.

Following the flashbacks she conjures for them, Lucrecia explains she isolated herself, wanting to die, but was unable to due to the Jenova cells inside her. After the scenes are over the player must leave the cave and fight ten random encounters. Returning again with Vincent in the party, his Limit Break manual and his ultimate weapon, Chaos and Death Penalty respectively, can be found at the back of the cave.

Creation and Development
Lucrecia was designed by Tetsuya Nomura and initially had a minor role in Vincent's backstory, an optional character, but as Vincent became the main protagonist of Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- her role was expanded upon. Her character model was redesigned and she was given a backstory to tie her with Vincent's past in explaining she'd known his father, and was the one to have studied Chaos, a form Vincent can assume as a Limit Break in Final Fantasy VII.

Though made clear in Final Fantasy VII Vincent had feelings for her, her side of the romance was left ambiguous until Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, where it is implied she returned his feelings. During the seemingly random words flashing across a computer screen during the reunification of her data, she says "Vincent" and "I loved..."

In the Early Material Files included with the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide (scenes and ideas cut or changed in the final game), Vincent's section mentions Lucrecia was originally "on Vincent's side", drugged by Hojo, and forced into experimentation against her will. However, in the game's final version (and Compilation canon), she was a willing participant, though she is conflicted over her choice. The Early Material Files also mention that she was considered an "idol" in the lab, and was the only female on Hojo's team.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- contains some concept artwork for the picnic basket she carries to Vincent in a flashback, and the concept artwork shows the basket has a bottle of red wine. The opening FMV sequence shows a wine glass in Vincent's room containing a red liquid some decades later.

Voice
Lucrecia shares her Japanese voice actress with Lulu from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. She shares her English voice actress with Mjrn from Final Fantasy XII.

Etymology
is a Spanish name referring to the mythical Roman figure Lucretia, who was infamously raped by Sextus Tarquinius. It is possible this hints that Lucrecia's relationship with Hojo was less consensual than it appeared, or it could be meant to emphasize the perverse nature of Sephiroth's conception.

The katakana for Lucrecia's name is read as Rukuritsia, suggesting her name may have been intended to be either or.

The name Lucretia comes from lucrum, meaning "wealth".

The word "crescent" derives from the Latin word that means "to grow". One of her key plot points was Sephiroth's growth in her womb.

Trivia

 * "Lucretia" can be the name of a viera character in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Names for most characters are chosen at random from a pool of names.
 * Crescent was previously the surname of Freya Crescent from Final Fantasy IX.

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