Geddie Bach

Geddie Bach
(ゲディ・バック, Gedi Bakku?)
Biographical information
Affiliation	Shinra Electric Power Company (former)
Occupation	Clerical worker (former)
Physical description
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Gameplay details

Geddie Bach is a character in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Picturing the Past. He was a clerical worker for the Research and Development division of Shinra Electric Power Company, who worked on the case involving Ifalna and Aerith Gainsborough in the Shinra Building. Bach knew Lonny during this time, and fifteen years after Aerith's escape, Lonny looked into Geddie's whereabouts.

History

Geddie Bach grew up in the slums of Midgar, as neighbors with Glen Reiner. When Glen Reiner enlisted in Shinra's military, he befriended Lilisa Meg and Joann Liu, and invited Bach to hang out with his new friends, making him a regular fourth in their trio despite working in Shinra's Research and Development. The group would spend nights and weekends together, cooking meals, drinking, and talking about their ambitions.

Bach's job in Shinra was in the labs under Professor Hojo when Ifalna was studied by him due to her Cetra heritage, to experiments. Bach escorted Ifalna to experiments daily at 10AM every morning. Aerith Gainsborough, Ifalna's daughter, blamed him for her mother's injuries. Geddie was present for Aerith's awakening, when Aerith's Cetra powers caused images to appear in her head which she began drawing.

Liu and Reiner's ambitions led them to join Shinra's Special Geological Survey Initiative, where geological surveyors were sent around the planet looking to find the promised land based on Aerith's drawings. After Lonny instructed Aerith to draw Mideel, based on seeing it in a magazine, to reduce the pressure on her, Bach saw it, recognized Mideel, and took the image himself.

Having taken Aerith's image of Mideel and believed it to be the location of the promised land, Bach slipped mako into the casserole his friends Meg and Reiner ate, giving them mako poisoning, framing Lilisa for doing so as he faked his own poisoning and claimed to have mild symptoms later. The night after, Bach told Liu he did not want Reiner to lose his shot and offered to take up the Special Geological Survey Initiative in Reiner's place and come back successful, slipping into Reiner's hospital room to take the dog tags from his neck; Liu at the time thought this was noble and selfless for doing so.

Liu and Bach embarked together and were taken aboard Jack Klein's helicopter, Liu attempting to teach Bach how to use a parachute. After Liu was dropped off at Fort Condor, Bach, who was supposed to be taken to Cosmo Canyon, instead paid the pilot Jack Klein 10,000 gil to change course to Mideel. Instead, Bach was admitted to the clinic for a torn ligament in his right ankle and Type III mako poisoning, but his records were listed under Glen Reiner's name. Bach was later recovered by Klein after Klein found him on one of his normal journies flying cargo over the world, and Klein sold him to Research and Development.

Geddie Bach, along with Lilisa Meg and Glen Reiner, later returned to Midgar gathering in groups at the train graveyard, where they wore black robes, and were tattooed with numbers. Shinra's claim for non-combatants who ended up mako poisoned and wearing black robes that they had been undergoing long-term treatment at Shinra facilities, and they were released after a policy change that those who did not wish to continue could ask to be discharged. On one occasion, fifteen years after the survey incident, Lonny went with Joann Liu and saw Geddie Bach there, trying to apologize to him, but Bach in his state could not respond.

Etymology

It is possible that Geddie Bach's name is derived from Geddy Lee and Sebastian Bach, lead vocalists of the rock bands Rush and Skid Row, respectively. Kazushige Nojima, author of Traces of Two Pasts and a prominent writer of Final Fantasy VII projects, is famously an avid fan of rock and heavy metal music.