Loveless

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Genesis recites LOVELESS.

Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades.

Tagline, quoting LOVELESS

LOVELESS is an epic from the world of Final Fantasy VII that has made several cameo appearances in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and plays a major role in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. Originating as a book of poetry, the story has been adapted into a play and has a street named after it in Midgar. The story focuses around three men who set out on a quest to find the fabled "Gift of the Goddess". Posters and billboards for the play show a woman with the words "Open 6/25 6:00" and "18:00", and many posters also include the text "My Bloody Valentine".

Loveless poem

English

Prologue

When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end

The goddess descends from the sky

Wings of light and dark spread afar

She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting

Act I

Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess

We seek it thus, and take to the sky

Ripples form on the water's surface

The wandering soul knows no rest.

Act II

There is no hate, only joy

For you are beloved by the goddess

Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds

Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul

Pride is lost

Wings stripped away, the end is nigh

Act III

My friend, do you fly away now?

To a world that abhors you and I?

All that awaits you is a somber morrow

No matter where the winds may blow

My friend, your desire

Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess

Even if the morrow is barren of promises

Nothing shall forestall my return

Act IV

My friend, the fates are cruel

There are no dreams, no honor remains

The arrow has left the bow of the goddess

My soul, corrupted by vengeance

Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey

In my own salvation

And your eternal slumber

Legend shall speak

Of sacrifice at world's end

The wind sails over the water's surface

Quietly, but surely

Act V

Even if the morrow is barren of promises

Nothing shall forestall my return

To become the dew that quenches the land

To spare the sands, the seas, the skies

I offer thee this silent sacrifice

Japanese

Prologue

獣たちの戦いが世に終わりをもたらす時

冥き空より、女神が舞い降りる

光と闇の翼を広げ

至福へと導く『贈り物』と共に

Act I

深淵のなぞ　それは女神の贈り物

われらは求め 飛びたった

彷徨いつづける心の水面に

かすかなさざなみを立てて

三人の友は戦場へ

ひとりは捕虜となり

ひとりは飛び去り

残ったひとりは英雄となった

Act II

明日をのぞみて散る魂

誇りも潰え

飛びたとうにも　翼は折れた

惜しみない祝福とともに

君は女神に愛された

世界を癒す　英雄として

Act III

君よ、飛びたつのか？

われらを憎む世界へと

待ちうけるは　ただ過酷な明日

逆巻く風のみだとしても

約束のない明日であろうと

君の立つ場所に必ず舞い戻ろう

Act IV

君よ　因果なり

夢も誇りも すでに失い

女神ひく弓より　すでに矢は放たれて

君よ　希え

命はぐくむ 女神の贈り物を

いざ語り継がん

君の犠牲　世界の終わり

人知れず水面をわたる風のごとく

ゆるやかに 確かに

Act V

約束のない明日であろうと

君の立つ場所に必ず舞い戻ろう

星の希望の雫となりて

地の果て　空のかなた　はるかなる水面

ひそかなる牲となろう

Rōmaji

Prologue

Kemonotachi no tatakai ga yoni owari o motarasu toki,

Kuraki sora yori megami ga maioriru.

Hikari to yami no tsubasa o hiroge,

Shifuku e to michibiku "okurimono" to tomoni.

Act I

Shinen no nazo sore wa megami no okurimono.

Warera wa motome tobitatta.

Samayoitsuzukeru kokoro no minamo ni,

Kasukana sazanami o tatete.

Sannin no tomo wa senjō e,

Hitori wa horyo to nari,

Hitori wa tobisari,

Nokotta hitori wa eiyū to natta.

Act II

Asu o nozomi te chiru tamashii.

Hokori mo tsuie,

Tobita touni mo tsubasa wa oreta.

Oshiminai shukufuku to tomo ni,

Kimi wa megami ni aisareta.

Sekai o iyasu eiyū toshite.

Act III

Kimi yo tobitatsu no ka?

Warera o nikumu sekai e to.

Machiukeru wa tada kakoku na asu.

Sakamaku kaze nomi datoshitemo.

Yakusoku no nai asu dearōto,

Kimi no tatsu basho ni kanarazu mai modorou.

Act IV

Kimi yo inga nari.

Yume mo hokori mo sudeni ushinai.

Megami hiku yumi yori sude ni ya wa hanatarete.

Kimiyo koinegae.

Inochi hagukumu megami no okurimono o.

Iza katari tsugan.

Kimi no gisei sekai no owari.

Hito shirezu minamo o wataru kaze no gotoku.

Yuruyaka ni tashika ni.

Act V

Yakusoku no nai asu dearōto.

Kimi no tatsu basho ni kanarazu mai modorou.

Hoshi no kibō no shizuku to narite.

Chi no hate sora no kanata haruka naru minamo.

Hisokanaru nie to narou.

Appearances

Final Fantasy VII

LOVELESS is an album by My Bloody Valentine, which is also on the poster going down on the left-hand side.

Posters of LOVELESS are scattered around Midgar, first seen in Sector 8, and their appearance makes apparent that the name derives from the 1991 album by My Bloody Valentine, an Irish shoegaze band. Loveless is regarded as their best work, and is generally highly regarded, usually doing well in British music press polls. The woman on the LOVELESS posters resembles My Bloody Valentine's singer/guitarist Bilinda Butcher. In the PlayStation 3 technical demo, and the cutscene at the end of Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, the scene that features the poster is remade, and the poster has been changed.

When leaving the Sector 7 Slums (with Tifa in the party), Cloud can converse with a guard who mentions they have tickets to see 'Loveless'. Near the end of the game, Cloud can talk to Cid, who mentions he went to see the play and fell asleep, being awoken in time for the final act, and he quotes the following from the final scene, between a woman and her lover, who is leaving:

"Do you really have to leave?"

"I promised. The people I love, are waiting."

"...I don't understand. Not at all. But... please take care of yourself."

"Of course... I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait. I'll return knowing you'll be here."

This bears a slight resemblance to the opening lines of Final Fantasy VIII.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

LOVELESS sign falls on Rude.

In Advent Children Complete, LOVELESS is only hinted at; a poster is present in the opening before the scene cuts to Denzel and Marlene, and another poster is seen behind Rude when he and Reno appear at Edge to challenge Yazoo and Loz. A LOVELESS poster is seen when Aerith Gainsborough walks into Midgar with a flower basket. And finally, a LOVELESS billboard falls and hits Rude on the head before Reno falls on him, knocking him down momentarily. If the shot is paused at the right moment, the head of a woman can be seen on the billboard. The woman resembles Aerith's menu portrait in Final Fantasy VII.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-

Sector 8 - LOVELESS Billboard - as seen in Before Crisis.

In the beginning of Episode One, a billboard for LOVELESS can be seen while the camera pans Sector 8. It is located in multiple locations in the sector as the game unfolds.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-

LOVELESS posters can be sighted in Edge during Chapter 3. The posters are placed outside on the streets, and inside houses.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-

Genesis Rhapsodos is obsessed with the story of LOVELESS and recites quotes from it during each encounter Zack has with him. Genesis envisions himself and his two SOLDIER First Class comrades, Sephiroth and Angeal, as the three men foretold in the epic, and thus hopes to find the fabled "Gift of the Goddess". The phrase "My friend, the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains" is told to Zack early by Genesis referring to the fateful duel between the two friends in the story of LOVELESS, making a parallel to himself and Angeal.

The stage play of LOVELESS is apparently largely based on acts II and III, being told from the viewpoint of the girl who helps the male lead. To make it closer to the original context, it contains additional scenes of two friends. Kunsel emails that he has seen the stage production and quotes the last line:

Of course...I'll come back to you. Even if you don't promise to wait. I'll return knowing you'll be here.

Last line of LOVELESS

More of LOVELESS is engraved upon stone tablets within the cave in Banora Underground where Zack faces Genesis for the last time. The tablets tell a short story of a group of three friends who go in search for the "Gift of the Goddess" taking on the roles of a "Hero", a "Traveler", and a "Prisoner". The Prisoner escapes and is critically wounded, only to end up in the care of a woman from the enemy faction whom he falls in love with. He lives a peaceful life, but is tortured by the promise he made to his friends.

Artwork.

The final chapter of LOVELESS is lost, with only a single line remaining: "Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return", although there are many in-world theories on the story's denouement.

When Genesis is extracted by Deepground, the missing final act is added to the LOVELESS book, by the means of the Lifestream marking it down on paper and a black feather finishing the text. The context of this scene is enigmatic, meaning either several things; this is either a line Genesis thought up himself (making it unlikely to be the original missing act) or it is, in fact, the original missing act Genesis finally found, and wrote into his book. Further compounding this, is its significance to its appearance in Genesis's Digital Mind Wave Limit Break Apocalypse, revealed long before its recital by the end of the game and its addition to the official collection. The Crisis Core Complete Guide states the biggest mystery is what happened to the world after receiving the "Gift of the Goddess".

Behind the scenes

Official interpretation

Last lines of LOVELESS.

In the Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- The Complete Guide, the developers of Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- discuss the various interpretations of LOVELESS, acknowledging that both in-game and among real world fans it has many possible meanings.

Genesis attempts to reenact LOVELESS with him as the Hero, Zack as the Prisoner, the goddess statue as the Goddess, and the statue's Goddess Materia as the Gift of the Goddess. Genesis tells Zack that through his S-Cells and the Buster Sword, he carries the legacies of Sephiroth and Angeal with him to the duel, thus reuniting the three friends. Genesis thinks that by fighting Zack he would obtain the Gift of the Goddess, and be cured of his degradation. Zack wonders if re-creating LOVELESS in this manner was always his plan, but the developers clarify that Genesis only began working to this goal after Hollander's promises of a cure failed him.

After the battle Genesis regains his pride as a SOLDIER, and is cured from degradation by the power of the Lifestream. Genesis realizes he is not the Hero, but the Prisoner, and by accepting this receives the Gift of the Goddess—his pride as a SOLDIER—that was lost to him through his rebellion against Shinra. Because he receives the gift by battling Zack, who had inherited the will of Angeal who championed honor and pride, Zack himself is the Gift of the Goddess for Genesis for giving this chance. The guide also offers the interpretation that as Genesis is the Prisoner, Angeal is the Wanderer who took flight from Shinra, and Zack is the Hero who saves Genesis. This is reflected in Zack's words at the end of the game, "Hey... Would you say I became a hero?"

On the fifth verse that is revealed at the end of the game, the guide explains this is not the true lost verse, but a verse composed by Genesis himself that reflects his new mindset. With Angeal and Sephiroth gone, the verse symbolizes that Genesis will take up their legacy to protect the Planet himself. The verse's mention of "the sea" refers to the flooded chamber Genesis appears in at the end of Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-.

Genesis's Apocalypse

The fifth verse for LOVELESS written in the Apocalypse crest.

During the action cutscene for Genesis's Digital Mind Wave, Apocalypse, for a split-second, there is writing within the sigil, around the enemy. This is the fifth and final act of LOVELESS (except for "I offer thee this silent sacrifice", which should be written where the enemy is standing).

Merchandise

A silver pendant of the book of LOVELESS Genesis reads from in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- was released as official merchandise in December 2007. In 2012 a LOVELESS print shopping bag was released, based on the design of the billboard seen in Final Fantasy VII.

Silver pendant.

Shopping bag.

A copy of LOVELESS in Crisis Core.

Billboard poster of LOVELESS from Crisis Core.