The ProfNoctis Weekly Show

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:11:27
Evan
Hey, everyone, I'm Evan, and welcome to another episode of the Night to Show. Thanks for joining us. This week we are joined by the amazing Philip Hartshorn and Alia Will Wade. What can we expect?

00:00:11:29 - 00:00:34:20
Wade
This episode is wholesome and inspiring in a lot of different ways. In addition to just geeking out of her Final Fantasy seven rebirth, so open a have an amazing love story and we get to hear about it and all of the ways that it has come to where it is today. And, then we get to hear about their shared passion for Final Fantasy seven, as well as getting into some really cool theories.

00:00:34:20 - 00:00:43:18
Wade
You're going to love this episode. so make sure you like and subscribe. And with that, let's get it going and let's mosey.

00:01:10:04 - 00:01:41:09
Wade
Hey everybody welcome back. And today we are with two of my favorite people in the whole world. we are with, shoot. Where do I even begin? Cosplayers, actors, social media sensations, guests on morning talk shows. just like international superstars. Just generally great, great people. Phil Hartshorn and Alia will welcome to the show, you guys.

00:01:41:10 - 00:01:42:28
Philip
Thank you guys. Great to be here.

00:01:42:28 - 00:01:43:27
Aliya
So happy to be here.

00:01:43:27 - 00:01:45:03
Philip
Yeah. We're excited.

00:01:45:05 - 00:02:01:12
Wade
I'll be honest. I have been looking forward to this interview for months now. Like we talked and we were like, we got to get you on the show. Like, I'm doing this lecture series. Let's find a time, all this kind of stuff, and then your world has just exploded with all of these opportunities and all of these cool things.

00:02:01:12 - 00:02:17:22
Wade
Now it's like, oh no, we're going to miss them. And so but we are so glad that you were able to to find the time to be here. Because honestly, like, I am so excited to talk to you not just about rebirth, but just to hang out with you guys. So thank you so much for being here.

00:02:17:24 - 00:02:18:26
Philip
to thank you so much.

00:02:19:01 - 00:02:21:01
Aliya
We are so excited. We couldn't miss.

00:02:21:01 - 00:02:33:07
Wade
This. Yeah. Oh, man. So just a little bit of background. we met back in L.A. for the Final Fantasy 610 event, is that right? That was the first night.

00:02:33:09 - 00:02:34:02
Aliya
Yeah.

00:02:34:04 - 00:02:35:27
Philip
I believe so. Yeah. And like.

00:02:36:00 - 00:02:55:27
Wade
We were like ships passing in the night. We had a couple of really good conversations, but we kept getting pulled away by different things. And then we found each other a few other times it like Pax, Pax East and then just randomly online, at different ventures and stuff. But this is the first time that we've actually had like a real conversation.

00:02:55:27 - 00:02:57:04
Philip
Real sit down conversation.

00:02:57:04 - 00:02:58:00
Wade
Like this.

00:02:58:02 - 00:02:58:20
Philip
This is great.

00:02:58:20 - 00:03:08:03
Wade
Yeah, just incredible stuff. So for it, for all of our viewers that I can't imagine. But if they haven't ever heard of you, who are you and what do you do?

00:03:08:06 - 00:03:09:22
Philip
You want to start?

00:03:09:24 - 00:03:31:00
Aliya
Okay, sure. I'm Aliyah, I am a cosplayer and a lover of storytelling. So I'm super excited to get to talk to you all because we all love stories. We all love good stories, which is, I think, what Final Fantasy is the total greatest of all time when it comes to storytelling. So I'm very happy to be here.

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:33:20
Aliya
and yeah, that's that's me.

00:03:33:22 - 00:03:56:20
Philip
Thanks. I am Phillip Hartshorn. I am a filmmaker. I live out of fantasy, lifelong fan and, voice actor, as you may have seen some of our clips or I, you know, break the microphone by screaming very loud. It's a lot of fun. but, yeah, lifelong fan of Final Fantasy and storytelling and myth. so I'm really excited to talk to you guys today about all the stuff that I know.

00:03:56:20 - 00:03:57:26
Philip
You're big fans as well. Yeah.

00:03:57:26 - 00:03:58:13
Evan
Yes.

00:03:58:13 - 00:04:26:17
Speaker 1
So that's a great transition into something we wanted to ask is a little bit about the stories that have inspired you, maybe some ones that you grew up with. One is it made you kind of fall in love with storytelling and kind of helped you connect with each other. So what are some of those stories that have been meaningful to you and tell us a little bit more about kind of how you got to be the person that you are today and maybe kind of some of how that got you guys connected.

00:04:28:23 - 00:04:28:28
Philip
great.

00:04:29:03 - 00:04:48:29
Aliya
I don't think anyone's asked that in an interview. So such a good question. Yeah, we always talk about that. the fact that books have really shaped us and, and have filled our childhood with so much wonder and whimsy, and just sort of shaped so much love for a good story and good characters. would you like to start this time?

00:04:49:00 - 00:05:08:02
Philip
Yeah. I mean, I would say right away, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, Lord of the rings, I mean, these are things that, especially the Lord of the rings accessing it through film. And then, I mean, as I'm watching it, like a little kid, in my mom and dad being like, oh, yeah, Lord of the rings. Like, I remember, like, reading this in school and I'm like, this is a book.

00:05:08:04 - 00:05:08:25
Evan
We're.

00:05:08:27 - 00:05:34:19
Philip
Taking out of the billions, just like devouring everything, talking and kind of getting lost in the idea that somebody can create. I mean, really, Tolkien's the LG fantasy creator. It's our modern fantasy that we consider, and, you know, to that someone to create their own whole entire universe language, myths, religion in this, in this place and have so many people engage with it and, and find joy in it.

00:05:34:21 - 00:05:56:20
Philip
It was just so inspiring to me. And then, of course, Final Fantasy as a little kid, I remember playing Final Fantasy one, just Final Fantasy at my grandmother's house. I'm like an NES and just being like, what is this mass and, you know, inducing game? And why is it so hard? And my brother not understanding, grinding and getting girl and stuff was just dying over and over again, restarting again, so much more.

00:05:56:23 - 00:06:17:29
Philip
again, just getting lost in this world, you know, in this place and and then from there, yeah, just discovering a lifelong enjoyment of of exploring stories, creating stories. And, you know, whether it's from our cosplay we do together our acting, our, you know, engaging with our and our sort of art analysis that we do just just love it from day one.

00:06:18:02 - 00:06:44:13
Aliya
Yeah. For me as a kid, I was totally absorbed by books. I love The Odyssey. I loved, as you said, I loved Lord of the rings. The Hobbit is obviously just a classic. You know, the perfect story, in my opinion, is is something like The Hobbit where it is wonder this characters that are rich. It's like a a great story.

00:06:44:15 - 00:07:08:15
Aliya
it's it's not super complicated, but it, it hits home every time. There's something for everybody. I think there and I think that's, that's why I was drawn to Final Fantasy. I was actually not, I didn't even know about Final Fantasy, really, until I met Philip. And he got me into this. he got me into this world, and it's like, I thank him for it, but I'm also like, why did you do this?

00:07:08:15 - 00:07:10:15
Aliya
Because I know we're completely obsessed.

00:07:10:15 - 00:07:15:10
Speaker 1
Well, we're glad you're here.

00:07:15:10 - 00:07:34:26
Aliya
full of of, just Final Fantasy notes and theories and. Yeah, just just needing to scribble something down because I don't I need to process what I just witnessed. but, yeah, it's it's been fantastic as as a story lover. to dive into the world of Final Fantasy because, yeah, nobody does characters

00:07:34:26 - 00:07:52:20
Speaker 1
Oh, little Patrick Rothfuss. Oh, okay. We'll talk. Yeah.

00:07:52:20 - 00:08:14:23
Aliya
another book with strong character. So I've always really been drawn to stories where characters, are really well thought, well fleshed out. meaningful, relatable. I've always really enjoyed that. So Final Fantasy was a super easy. Yeah, no brainer. But how about you? What kind of stories

00:08:14:23 - 00:08:44:15
Speaker 1
well, I'm a lot like Phil. I read a lot of sci fi growing up. Star Wars books. I really enjoyed those. And I also really like these books. I don't know if you've heard of the Red wall books. They're about little. Oh, yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. You guys, you guys like this? Yeah, they were great. This idea that there was this mystical medieval battle and struggle and story happening outside in my yard and my lawn was really great for my imagination.

00:08:44:15 - 00:09:19:09
Speaker 1
When I was a little kid. I really, really enjoyed those books. But I've noticed that a lot of the stories that you're talking about are stories about friendship and relationship and connection and overcoming challenges kind of together. It seems like something that you had in The Princess Bride and obviously in Final Fantasy and in Lord of the rings, and I wonder what impact you see those having on your connection when you've gotten together, where those stories and values, things that you were able to pull from kind of richly as you were dating and getting to know each other, and some of the impact that having those similar values and stories have on your ability to

00:09:19:09 - 00:09:26:20
Speaker 1
connect and how close you got.

00:09:32:07 - 00:09:51:27
Speaker 1
You caught. Oh, yeah.

00:09:52:00 - 00:10:01:02
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:10:01:04 - 00:10:12:24
Speaker 1
And Herbert is a really romantic name. Like. Yeah, let's. Hey. Let's Dune.

00:10:12:26 - 00:10:31:01
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:10:31:03 - 00:10:43:07
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:10:43:10 - 00:11:09:00
Speaker 1
Are you. Are you. Are you just cosplaying Florida? Man, at that point is I. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm. I just come out of the swamp. This is it's perfect. Yeah.

00:11:09:03 - 00:11:39:13
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah. It seems like more of a, like a GTA style game. It could be that. It could be like, swamp, like Okefenokee. We've already had that. We had that with my Miami Vice. Yeah. And then now we we need it back.

00:11:40:15 - 00:12:02:07
Speaker 1
isn't that just Final Fantasy 15?

00:12:02:09 - 00:12:36:15
Speaker 1
Oh, wow. It wouldn't be.

00:12:36:17 - 00:13:00:19
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:13:00:19 - 00:13:11:00
Philip
IPS and everything. So I decided to go to Comic-Con. Just got back from the Shaolin Temple in China. I was feeling a little crazy, as you might suspect, and I was cosplaying as tingle from The Legend of Zelda.

00:13:11:00 - 00:13:28:22
Philip
If you don't know, it's probably the most ridiculous character in Zelda. Possibly in gaming ever. and it's kind like this middle aged man who, like, decided he wants to be like a young man and just make maps and, like, it's really interesting, but I was like, I'm gonna go around in a skintight green suit. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

00:13:28:22 - 00:13:31:05
Evan
And yeah, that's that's a.

00:13:31:05 - 00:13:33:29
Wade
Very charitable description of tingle, by the way. That's.

00:13:33:29 - 00:13:38:02
Evan
Yeah, I was very charitable. Like the best description.

00:13:38:05 - 00:13:39:14
Philip
He doesn't deserve it. Yeah.

00:13:39:16 - 00:13:41:05
Evan
Wow.

00:13:41:08 - 00:13:43:21
Aliya
Yeah. And I was an elf.

00:13:43:24 - 00:13:44:10
Evan
Yeah.

00:13:44:12 - 00:14:02:23
Philip
You like jaw dropping awesome elf with, like, furs and a bow and all. Armed to the teeth. She looks awesome. And and we have a picture. It's hysterical. Oh, this of you want to hear? It was unbelievable. So anyways, I'm back with my friends. It's time to go to lunch. It takes like two hours to leave Comic-Con when you want to go to lunch.

00:14:02:23 - 00:14:21:12
Philip
There's 100,000 people, walking. And, I said, this is a proposal. But out of a room of literally thousands of people, her smile stood out to me like sunlight, just as if it was blinding in the dark, like, because there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of weird energy and there's getting wrecked. There's a lot of nervousness.

00:14:21:12 - 00:14:31:15
Philip
There's a lot of, like, claustrophobic, kind of, crowded energy. Yeah. And a lot of kind of, vagueness. I don't know, that's the word fakeness. sort of.

00:14:31:15 - 00:14:51:04
Philip
I see her smile. it's in a room with thousands of people. Her smile stands out to me, and it's. It's just this smile, genuine nature, kind and present energy. I've never seen anything like it in my life. And I know I have to meet this person. It's like my destiny. So I start pushing through the crowd.

00:14:51:07 - 00:14:52:06
Evan
Dressed up as tingle.

00:14:52:06 - 00:15:05:13
Philip
And my friends are like, what's he doing here? I'm in him. I'm going through the crowd with Majora's Mask, and people are like, get out of the way because they're just scared. It's it looks like a lunatic coming to one of the scariest designs ever. Have you seen Majora's Mask? So I finally get there, and I'm kind of.

00:15:05:15 - 00:15:10:00
Philip
I come out of the crowd and I get to leer. And what do you see? I don't know, you.

00:15:10:00 - 00:15:14:07
Philip
Did not like you. Majora's Mask puppet.

00:15:14:09 - 00:15:17:12
Aliya
Yeah, well, I was I think I was equally scared.

00:15:17:13 - 00:15:21:00
Philip
And there's this moment where we just look at each other.

00:15:21:02 - 00:15:26:27
Aliya
Yeah. And I so I was, I was pretty scared because Missouri's mask is hot is terror.

00:15:26:27 - 00:15:28:12
Wade
It's menacing. Yeah.

00:15:28:15 - 00:15:37:10
Aliya
This is all I was like, oh yeah. Oh my gosh. What's happening? Help! Everybody takes off the mask and I see fields. They say.

00:15:37:10 - 00:15:38:01
Philip
Oh.

00:15:38:03 - 00:15:41:23
Aliya
You like, you know, the the what do you call it?

00:15:41:25 - 00:15:48:07
Philip
Jaw line at first sight. This show.

00:15:48:10 - 00:15:49:15
Evan
You know what?

00:15:49:17 - 00:15:53:03
Philip
The jaw line. It was that jaw line as I'm. I'm gonna hear him.

00:15:53:03 - 00:15:55:22
Aliya
Out, actually. Yeah.

00:15:55:25 - 00:15:56:13
Philip
I have a question.

00:15:56:13 - 00:16:02:02
Evan
Was his hair sticking out under the mask? So it was or was it tucked back, or did he have short hair at that point?

00:16:02:04 - 00:16:03:18
Aliya
He actually had short ish.

00:16:03:19 - 00:16:05:20
Philip
It was in between this and short.

00:16:05:22 - 00:16:06:01
Philip
Yeah.

00:16:06:01 - 00:16:07:08
Evan
Yeah, it's an important detail.

00:16:07:08 - 00:16:10:26
Philip
And this was just one of them mask covered with the mask obviously a little bit.

00:16:11:02 - 00:16:16:06
Aliya
Yeah. So I was like oh my god. This is like in a trance. And so.

00:16:16:06 - 00:16:16:16
Philip
No we.

00:16:16:16 - 00:16:17:04
Philip
Had this. Yeah.

00:16:17:04 - 00:16:17:27
Aliya
We had a like a.

00:16:17:28 - 00:16:19:11
Philip
Strange feeling like.

00:16:19:16 - 00:16:20:23
Aliya
Butterflies.

00:16:20:25 - 00:16:35:25
Philip
Yeah. I don't know how to describe it again. yeah. And again I said it in The proposal, but it's like I was trying to figure out what it meant for years when I met her, and I finally did with the proposal, it's like, it really felt like I had known her and loved her already. Forever.

00:16:35:27 - 00:16:44:05
Philip
That makes sense. Oh, we get into our Final Fantasy conversation kind of like. Oh, yeah, like the kind of idea. I had already loved her forever.

00:16:44:07 - 00:16:46:17
Evan
After the show. First. Congratulations.

00:16:46:19 - 00:16:48:13
Philip
Yeah. Thank you. Did you.

00:16:48:13 - 00:16:53:15
Wade
All. Did you believe in love at first sight before this?

00:16:53:17 - 00:16:53:22
Philip
it's.

00:16:53:22 - 00:16:56:08
Philip
Like I would have liked to believe in it, but I've never felt it. Oh, you.

00:16:56:08 - 00:16:56:22
Evan
Wanted to.

00:16:56:22 - 00:16:57:04
Philip
Believe?

00:16:57:05 - 00:17:07:14
Aliya
Yes. Like hell, I guess. How can you believe it until it happens to you? I suppose like I there is. I'm sure I would have liked to believe it, but I never had it, so. All right.

00:17:07:20 - 00:17:08:16
Philip
Well, you.

00:17:08:16 - 00:17:09:24
Aliya
Know what I mean. And it also happens.

00:17:10:00 - 00:17:16:18
Philip
It also sounds kind of shallow, doesn't it? Like, love it for sure. It's like, wow, she's pretty, I love her. It's like.

00:17:16:20 - 00:17:17:09
Philip
It's like you.

00:17:17:09 - 00:17:41:01
Philip
Just see her and you it. But like I said, what we felt was this kind of cosmic feeling, and and we tried to express it. Like I said, it took me until it proposal really thinking about what the true meaning was to get it, because it was just like this gravitation that like, I understand I am going to be with this person in some extreme capacity and I like need to see them again.

00:17:41:01 - 00:18:04:24
Philip
And then and this feeling of comfort, of belonging, of home, it was a powerful, powerful feeling, you know, joking. Part of the story side. And then, yeah, we met for maybe five minutes. It's 100,000 people crowded. I, I somehow, like, made space in the in the swarms of people to get a little video together, make a fun little thing where I was posing with the mask, and she had the bow and everything and a couple of her friends.

00:18:04:26 - 00:18:08:19
Philip
And then, yeah, I we got Instagram exchanges.

00:18:08:24 - 00:18:12:21
Evan
This was my question. What? Why did you connect on an Instagram? Yeah, yeah.

00:18:12:21 - 00:18:27:07
Philip
And then I was like, instantly I have to see her again for those reasons. I talked about this kind of cosmic connection. I have to see her again. So I initially, you know, we started talking and chatting. I said, oh, so are you going to be at anime? NYC was another big, US convention that comes up.

00:18:27:10 - 00:18:33:25
Philip
Are you going to be there? And she's like, no, I was like, all right, I guess I won't see her again. Yeah, that was, you know.

00:18:33:28 - 00:18:34:15
Aliya
I mean, I wasn't.

00:18:34:15 - 00:18:35:09
Philip
Going to go.

00:18:35:12 - 00:18:50:24
Philip
She wasn't going. So I was like, okay. And then Covid hit. And then because of this, a lot of people were stuck inside with a lot of time, couldn't really go a lot of places. So we just kept talking and we realized we both were fencers.

00:18:50:26 - 00:18:51:16
Philip
Yeah.

00:18:51:19 - 00:19:08:09
Philip
We both love swordplay. We both love drawing. We both love art. We both love reading. We both love stories, we both love music and play piano. And the list goes on and on and on. And I'm just like, what is this connection? I just kept expanding, expanding and.

00:19:08:12 - 00:19:12:01
Aliya
Yeah, yeah, if you know fencing, there are three weapon types.

00:19:12:01 - 00:19:13:00
Philip
And this is funny.

00:19:13:07 - 00:19:19:14
Aliya
And I immediately knew he was a saber fencer because they're like the most, you know, the craziest, if that makes.

00:19:19:14 - 00:19:43:00
Evan
Sense. Could you just for for those who don't know, obviously we're not, very well-versed in the three fencing types. What are the three fencing types? What are their personalities? Our viewers reiterate and tell us a little bit more about how you knew, the cosmically, say, saber Li saber save. I don't I can't make a plan on this because I don't know I don't know a different word for a sword device.

00:19:43:02 - 00:19:44:03
Philip
Yeah.

00:19:44:05 - 00:19:58:08
Aliya
Oh, so there's there's foil and then there's AP and then there's saber. And foil is like a light weapon. you have the torso as the target. Yeah. And it's very much like, classic fencing.

00:19:58:10 - 00:20:01:10
Philip
Yeah, it's a little more elegant. You've seen the Olympics use that.

00:20:01:12 - 00:20:03:28
Aliya
You use the end of the the weapon. Okay.

00:20:03:28 - 00:20:04:12
Philip
It's thrusting.

00:20:04:15 - 00:20:05:05
Evan
It's a stabby.

00:20:05:06 - 00:20:07:10
Philip
Oh, you're thrusting clinical terms.

00:20:07:16 - 00:20:08:28
Evan
The stabby.

00:20:09:01 - 00:20:16:09
Aliya
Stabby. Yeah, yeah. f a is little heavier of a weapon, but the whole body's the target. It's a little more like chess. It's. Yeah.

00:20:16:10 - 00:20:17:01
Philip
Very strategic.

00:20:17:04 - 00:20:22:05
Aliya
More strategic. Now and then. Saber is like, if you think of pirate, that's saber.

00:20:22:09 - 00:20:28:21
Philip
It's literally just slashing. And yeah, it's just chaos. It's savage.

00:20:28:24 - 00:20:30:10
Philip
Chaos.

00:20:30:12 - 00:20:32:19
Philip
So she maybe she's like you're saber.

00:20:32:22 - 00:20:35:22
Philip
Like yeah, yeah.

00:20:35:24 - 00:20:38:08
Aliya
I love it. I think saber fencers are also fencing.

00:20:38:08 - 00:20:44:29
Evan
YouTube is loving this. This is a great yeah it's fencing YouTube thing. Is that a big community on YouTube.

00:20:45:01 - 00:21:02:18
Philip
You know I would say European or French Canadian fencing more focused, versus Hema, which is like all historical European martial arts. This is specific, which you'll see in the Olympics. This is fencing. so, yeah. very, very cool. But yeah, we just like connecting on all these levels. And it was it was surreal, honestly.

00:21:02:18 - 00:21:03:10
Aliya
Yeah, I was.

00:21:03:12 - 00:21:14:12
Philip
Like I said, we started talking on the phone. It's Covid and not doing too much. And then it became five hours on a day, maybe eight hours a day. And it's just like they can't stop talking to each other and have we still are.

00:21:14:12 - 00:21:16:25
Evan
Now a little bit oh, sorry. Good.

00:21:16:27 - 00:21:20:25
Wade
I was learning to bake bread like what the rest of the world.

00:21:20:25 - 00:21:22:02
Evan
And Covid.

00:21:22:05 - 00:21:23:11
Philip
And,

00:21:23:13 - 00:21:25:01
Philip
You saying that as some sort.

00:21:25:01 - 00:21:27:13
Philip
Of, like iconic them, you know,

00:21:27:15 - 00:21:30:04
Philip
Like, what's the word. They knew more here.

00:21:30:07 - 00:21:32:18
Philip
But yeah, I did a few.

00:21:32:18 - 00:21:33:26
Wade
Things, but.

00:21:33:28 - 00:21:39:08
Philip
I love bread. So to me that's says Oprah. Yeah, yeah, I, I'm obsessed with bread for dessert.

00:21:39:14 - 00:21:41:17
Philip
Sometimes it's like bread.

00:21:41:20 - 00:21:44:06
Aliya
What kind of bread? What's your favorite bread.

00:21:44:08 - 00:21:47:29
Evan
What. Answer the question.

00:21:48:01 - 00:21:51:27
Philip
I was not prepared for types of bread or fencing it.

00:21:51:29 - 00:21:52:13
Wade
This is the.

00:21:52:13 - 00:21:54:03
Evan
Basket. Them.

00:21:54:05 - 00:22:01:02
Philip
Oh no. That's bad I don't know. Give me wheat bread I don't know. It's great. Great choice.

00:22:01:04 - 00:22:28:24
Evan
Really great job, great choice. Great. Just wheat bread. Bread draft. That was great Alicia. So what is it like from your perspective as, Majora's Mask Tingle has approached you, you've exchanged Instagram information, and I'm curious about the first, two months. Like, you start to bridge that connection, you start to feel that connection. We talked about what Phil was experiencing, but was your experience a little bit different and maybe from your past?

00:22:28:24 - 00:22:34:00
Evan
How did that inform how that connection started and how quickly it grew?

00:22:34:02 - 00:22:50:14
Aliya
Yeah. So like to be honest, the first few months it was what I liked about it was, was the feeling of any friendship because I, I felt like we had so much in common. So we always talked about this like we have a very strong foundation of friendship.

00:22:50:16 - 00:22:52:29
Philip
I think that's why our relationship is strong, honestly. Like a.

00:22:52:29 - 00:22:54:01
Philip
Strong.

00:22:54:04 - 00:22:54:28
Aliya
Right, deep.

00:22:54:28 - 00:22:55:19
Philip
Friendship.

00:22:55:22 - 00:23:05:13
Aliya
Yeah, yeah. We had so much time to develop, develop that friendship that like, we already knew these secretly had feelings for each other, isn't there was that. We never talked about it.

00:23:05:16 - 00:23:06:13
Philip
Wow.

00:23:06:15 - 00:23:26:01
Aliya
But we we had the time to to really deepen our friendship and get to know each other. and form that foundation. So for me, it was just like, wonderful to have somebody I could confide in or talk to and learn about because there's there's a lot to learn about here.

00:23:26:04 - 00:23:26:27
Philip
Like, it's, I.

00:23:26:27 - 00:23:32:28
Philip
Mean, these things, these things that we met. I remember checking your Instagram because you meet somebody in cosplay, you don't really know who they are.

00:23:33:00 - 00:23:35:24
Evan
It's like they realize you look like a warrior.

00:23:35:26 - 00:23:50:26
Philip
So like I saw I got her Instagram and I look at I'm like, whoa. Like, first of all, she's really beautiful. But second of all, like, this is her, you know, this is her energy. This is who she is, like outside of cosplay. And I distinctly remember you saying, you check my Instagram and you're like, oh, he's crazy.

00:23:50:26 - 00:23:55:02
Philip
Yeah. and temple like, what is going on? Yeah. He's insane.

00:23:55:04 - 00:23:56:02
Philip
Yeah. Cool.

00:23:56:03 - 00:24:05:29
Aliya
Like, you know, he's he's fighting people, which I think is really cool, but I'm like, this is this is crazy. Yeah, I get what you mean. You're telling temple when you're tingle today.

00:24:05:29 - 00:24:06:18
Philip
And a saber.

00:24:06:19 - 00:24:08:15
Aliya
What does it mean again?

00:24:08:17 - 00:24:10:24
Philip
Now I've been through that.

00:24:10:26 - 00:24:26:26
Aliya
But it was exciting for sure. And oh, there's always ways he he still excites me. And like, there's there's just so much about him that is so cool. And he's always doing cool stuff. I mean, he, he forged my ring, which I think is completely metal. And then super cool.

00:24:26:29 - 00:24:28:01
Wade
Like when you go, oh, and there it.

00:24:28:01 - 00:24:30:01
Evan
Is. It's amazing.

00:24:30:03 - 00:24:31:28
Aliya
What did a job like? What is it called?

00:24:31:29 - 00:24:33:26
Philip
I, I did a job class switch.

00:24:33:26 - 00:24:36:09
Philip
Yeah I really did. Wow.

00:24:36:10 - 00:24:38:14
Philip
After I did that, I'd never touched a jeweler in my.

00:24:38:14 - 00:24:39:07
Philip
Life.

00:24:39:10 - 00:24:59:23
Philip
And did that. Now listen, I, you know, talk about my documentaries. I've made my whatever stuff I've done. This is my proudest piece that I've ever done in my life right here. it is like the culmination of of a life of everything, you know. And I am so, so happy, like, down to the moment. This is part of the piece.

00:24:59:23 - 00:25:05:18
Philip
And then her wearing it finishes the piece. Yeah. It's just I'm so, so proud of it.

00:25:05:18 - 00:25:31:20
Evan
So sweet. Wade, you probably want to know more about the the details of everything. I need to slip in. Have you both always been so multidisciplinary as, like, when you grew up? And how has being multidisciplinary informed? Kind of the people you are today and your kind of professional aspirations? Because it's not common to focus on so many things and be successful at them all.

00:25:31:23 - 00:25:33:21
Evan
You jerks.

00:25:33:23 - 00:25:40:06
Philip
Right? Yeah.

00:25:40:08 - 00:25:42:11
Philip
It's funny.

00:25:42:13 - 00:25:44:08
Philip
Thank you.

00:25:44:11 - 00:25:45:20
Aliya
That's the really kind.

00:25:45:22 - 00:26:13:02
Philip
Yeah, it's incredibly kind. Listen, for me, I've always loved art. daydreamer, man. I'm a daydreamer. I spent all day drawing, you know, classic math class. Couldn't tell you anything about it, but my notebook was full of ideas and drawings and everything, since I was a kid. And that's really all the training that I've had. Same with film, which I got into film by being inspired by, you know, Final Fantasy and all these awesome kind of, you know, cinematic stories.

00:26:13:05 - 00:26:34:01
Philip
Just do it. Just get out and grab a camera, get out and shoot. And then you learn the fundamentals by doing, I eventually started my own film business, art business by being like, I have gathered a lot of skills during my life. I've spent thousands of hours honing. If I can't make some money to survive with these skills, the world is broken straight up.

00:26:34:04 - 00:26:49:16
Philip
Like the world. The world. There's nothing, you know? So yeah, I was like, I'm going to try and do this. It's not advised at all. My friends told me I was insane, but I'm gonna try and do it. And, yeah, that's kind of just always have live my life. I want to do art, tell stories, kind of exist in that energy.

00:26:49:18 - 00:27:08:21
Philip
And being multidisciplinary is pretty much just a symptom of, you know, loving so many different art pieces and want to explore playing piano. Same thing I taught myself. I had, I had a situation where I thought I might die when I was around 20 years old, had a tumor. They weren't sure if it was going to be bad or good one.

00:27:08:21 - 00:27:25:00
Philip
Oh, and there's a few days where, like. So you might die soon. Good. Good luck. And I was like, whoa. And I have this kind of whole shift in mentality. It's like, what have I been doing with my life? Like, why am I wasting time? I always wanted to learn piano. I didn't do that. So I just started learning piano when I was 20 years old.

00:27:25:00 - 00:27:43:27
Philip
And, you know, numerous other things, martial arts and everything else, eradicating toxic relationships from my life, friendships and, you know, stuff to kind of, what am I doing with my life? What's let's focus on the good stuff, you know? So again, just a symptom of wanting to be in the moment, love art in many different ways.

00:27:43:29 - 00:27:46:14
Evan
Multidisciplinary. Just a reminder.

00:27:46:16 - 00:28:10:17
Aliya
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. yeah, I will throw throughout life things that I found were sort of like everything's connected in a way. And that's also what I love about Final Fantasy. I'm sure you relate to that. You love mythology, but there's so much, there's so much tied with mythology and art and art and religion, religion and science, science and technology.

00:28:10:17 - 00:28:24:28
Aliya
So throughout my life, I've always had a very deep hunger for just learning and exploring. And I'm deeply curious as a person, which means that sometimes I can, you know, maybe get a little bit,

00:28:25:00 - 00:28:26:03
Philip
I don't know, distract it.

00:28:26:07 - 00:28:48:28
Aliya
You may just start by just learning things, but, you know, I've I've always loved art. I found that because I loved art, I would also like, you know, science. I, I've played piano my whole life. You can learn a lot about music through mathematics. I really like mathematics as well. but I also found that video games took all that part of my brain that loves all those things.

00:28:48:28 - 00:29:16:10
Aliya
Like art, music. you know, we were just playing Dragon Quest. it's it's visually stunning. They, you know, they pay a lot of attention to the audio and the music. they're there's just like poetry as well. We can talk about name of the wind is all true, of course, but like, insights. so I've always just been really interested about taking it all in.

00:29:16:12 - 00:29:25:16
Aliya
all at once. Yeah. And so that's that's just how I've lived my life, I guess. But but y'all can relate to. Y'all can relate.

00:29:25:19 - 00:29:25:27
Philip
Yeah.

00:29:26:02 - 00:29:56:15
Wade
We can. And it's so interesting to hear this from the two of you because, you know, at least from the outside perspective, the two of you, it's obvious you love life. You cherish life. And to hear some of this background is, is really important because again, I know that Instagram and everything that we just kind of scroll through isn't telling the full story, but to hear from the two of you, you really are just, you know, you found things that you cherish, you love.

00:29:56:22 - 00:30:17:12
Wade
And more than that, you found the lenses through which you can enjoy the world around you. And so, it's interesting to hear you, Aliyah, talk about, you know, this mathematical aspect of music that kind of tickles that part of your brain. And, the way that Final Fantasy speaks to to each of you individually. Phil, you said something particularly insightful.

00:30:17:13 - 00:30:43:04
Wade
You said when you had this moment where you weren't sure if you were going to live or not, like how much longer you had left. You had to get rid of certain things in your life you felt compelled to, whether it was relationships or things like that. In a world where there are as many options as there are, and you can do everything from learning piano to martial arts at, Shaolin Temple and all of this kind of stuff.

00:30:43:06 - 00:30:55:18
Wade
And even in a loving relationship with all of the options out there, how do you know the thing that you are spending time on is right or best for you? Do you have a way of.

00:30:55:18 - 00:30:56:27
Evan
Choosing like.

00:30:57:00 - 00:30:57:20
Wade
Those things?

00:30:57:20 - 00:31:15:16
Philip
I mean, I would say no, is it I? For me, it's all about how do you feel? Okay. Right. It's kind of like the simplest answer is best in this case, I spent times of the year. How do I feel with her? I feel like I love life, I feel like I feel like I'm cloud. There isn't a thing I don't cherish.

00:31:15:21 - 00:31:36:22
Philip
All right? Having children do you see what I mean? Like like when I'm with Olivia, I see, like, more of the good in everything. I feel more enjoyment with the most minute, minute details of life. You know, cooking eggs this morning for Elliot, I felt amazing focusing on these. Okay. And this is this is getting to some Buddhist stuff, you know, picked up.

00:31:36:22 - 00:31:56:00
Philip
Not this year, but, the idea of, action meditation. And we can talk about this more in relation to Final Fantasy, but also, an idea I learned from Jalen Temple is when you walk, walk when you sleep, sleep when you eat, eat. That's it. All right. So it's like focusing on the moment. But how do those moments make you feel.

00:31:56:01 - 00:32:13:29
Philip
So if you're with a friend and this friend is like insulting you kind of poking fun at you, does that feel good. You know, are you laughing because you're trying to appear a certain way and it hurts inside your heart. You know what I mean. How does it make you feel that career choice that you're doing pays the bills.

00:32:13:29 - 00:32:31:09
Philip
Sure. You need to survive. Well got to survive I understand that. Yeah. But how does it make you feel. Do you want to start to explore maybe on that little free time, you got something else that might make you feel a little better? You see what I mean? Like, what do you want to do? the paths in life all, you know, it's kind of like the multiple worlds that Saphira talks about, right?

00:32:31:09 - 00:32:56:00
Philip
Like, yeah, there's all different paths we could go on. but I have never felt so good then when I was pursuing this career path, doing exactly what I want and spending time with someone who makes me feel good and loved and valued and cherished. That's it. I've spent time with people who don't make me feel any of those things, but maybe society told me I should anyway, right?

00:32:56:03 - 00:33:15:06
Philip
Or something like that. So we do things of that nature, but it's like, how do you want to do this? How does it make you feel? You know, so it's an interesting conversation, but I think a lot of it boils down to be in touch with how you feel, your emotions. And when you walk, walk when you eat, eat.

00:33:15:09 - 00:33:32:27
Wade
It I love that because it's a sense of present in mindfulness, not future ideation, which is helpful at times or overall flexible in the past, which can also be helpful. But it is an embrace of this moment and saying, I'm grateful, a mindful I'm here.

00:33:33:00 - 00:33:34:11
Philip
And gratitude.

00:33:34:13 - 00:33:51:04
Philip
Is everything. And I just said pretty much right. Like we are very grateful people. we're grateful for this talk with you guys. We're having a great time. We're trying to like, enjoy the moment. But, I mean, something we do constantly is, you know, we'll we'll talk about sometimes at the end of the day, like what we enjoyed about the day.

00:33:51:06 - 00:34:04:13
Philip
What was your favorite part of the day? And just in every moment, just try to be present and try to enjoy it because, you know, it's very easy to be like, you know, we're doing whatever task and you're worrying about 90 other things that you have to do later in the day, tomorrow, the week after.

00:34:04:16 - 00:34:05:03
Wade
Yeah.

00:34:05:05 - 00:34:24:22
Philip
Worried about the past? that person made me feel so bad back then. I can still feel terrible thinking about it. Is it? That's over now. where are you right now? Right. Like that's over. That's never going to happen again. It's a that's not a thing right now. Like you are here. You're existing in another world that's gone and you're suffering from a thing that is that is over.

00:34:24:29 - 00:34:39:22
Philip
Right? So this has to do with a lot of self-healing, obviously too. But I mean, it's very blunt and sort of a Buddhist way. It's like that's over now. So yeah, forget about that. We're in the we're here now and like don't worry about the future. What am I gonna do tomorrow is like, I'm talking professor night is right now.

00:34:39:23 - 00:34:53:14
Philip
It's all I gotta worry about. You all right? I'm living the dream, so it almost feels oversimplified. Like I remember the first time I heard it. I'm, like, easy for you to say. Yeah, just that thing about the past, like it's over. Why would you think about that? It actually kind of is a wake up call.

00:34:53:16 - 00:34:54:25
Philip
Sure. So simple.

00:34:54:27 - 00:35:02:09
Aliya
We still struggle to to. Oh, yeah. Like, because it's it's a lot to ask of someone to sort of. Hey it's okay.

00:35:02:15 - 00:35:02:24
Philip
Yeah.

00:35:02:25 - 00:35:07:10
Aliya
You're living you know, it takes practice. And,

00:35:07:13 - 00:35:15:00
Philip
And I think it takes affliction, spending time with people who make you feel good because I've gotten better at that. As I spend more time of the year.

00:35:15:07 - 00:35:19:09
Aliya
And there's less I mean, there's less instances where I need to.

00:35:19:11 - 00:35:22:02
Philip
Yeah. Right. you know, of.

00:35:22:03 - 00:35:25:11
Philip
Engage with old things that made you feel not so.

00:35:25:11 - 00:35:26:04
Aliya
Good. Yeah, exactly.

00:35:26:04 - 00:35:41:23
Philip
It's like, well, I'm with this person and that kind of reassurance of like, oh, yeah, I've had this many days where I feel good, so, like, why would I be as worried of that? That's not going to happen this year. I mean, like, you trust in the person, you trust in their ability to to cherish you and heal you as well.

00:35:41:25 - 00:35:50:26
Philip
And I think that's that's the most important thing is you got to be in touch. How are you feeling if you're feeling bad every single day? Maybe, maybe the exam was going on right?

00:35:51:02 - 00:36:11:18
Evan
Sounds a lot like a lot of boundaries management too. These are the ways that I'm going to intentionally allow these things to impact my life, my future, my decisions, and they're allowed to exist in their space, and I'm allowed to choose how much they're they impact me. which is, you know, I think some active language, at least for you, as you develop professionally and as you kind of grew up, how did you make decisions?

00:36:11:18 - 00:36:24:28
Evan
How did you end up where you are now? And maybe what were some of those critical junctures where you could have gone on some other paths, but you ended up here today with us? How do you process that, and what was that journey like for you?

00:36:25:00 - 00:36:54:15
Aliya
That's a great question. I don't know. Now. I well, basically it's filled us, helped me a lot with this because I find my I used to find myself getting really caught up in what society or like what's what. I'm used to dictate where I should go instead of how I feel inside. so he's very receptive and perceptive of of me as a how what level I'm at or how I am emotionally.

00:36:54:15 - 00:37:11:20
Aliya
So he'll let me know you know, ask me if I'm all right if something's off. And he's really helped me, pursue what I really love, even though it's scary sometimes especially, you know, something in the arts, it's not easy to just go. I'm just gonna do this now. Yeah. What she did, he.

00:37:11:26 - 00:37:12:16
Philip
I'm very proud of you.

00:37:12:16 - 00:37:30:28
Aliya
Yeah, well, I I I, my professional career is in Stem fields. So, as I said, I think everything is connected in some way, but it's still felt like a big jump to go from that to a more art focused.

00:37:31:00 - 00:37:37:19
Evan
Did you study that in college? In school. And you worked in a career doing something with Stem or what did that look like?

00:37:37:21 - 00:37:59:09
Aliya
yeah. And and it was it was totally fine. And I learned a lot and I enjoyed it, but I didn't feel totally, totally satisfied or happy. and he noticed that he's like, you. This something isn't right here. I don't I don't think you're enjoying. And he was right.

00:37:59:12 - 00:38:19:18
Philip
Yeah. I mean, I saw I have said this since almost the moment I met you and we started talking. He's like you if you decide to stream, if you decide to do this. And he said, do that, you will conquer the field. Be at the top. No question. There's there's an energy about you and there's a sort of, draw to you that is so genuine, so, so engaging.

00:38:19:20 - 00:38:40:24
Philip
you have a great voice. you're so kind, and you're going to be the top. So it depends on it's what you want to do. And then later. Yeah, I would sit here, like, very stressed about her work. And I remember just saying, like, I feel like you can offer the world like, so much if you kind of allow yourself to share your artwork more and kind of share the energy that you possess with people and make them feel better about life, maybe.

00:38:40:26 - 00:38:46:28
Philip
And, I'm proud of it. I was like, I'm crazy. So I would, you know, very quickly be like, yeah, that's quite the job. I've done it.

00:38:47:01 - 00:38:47:16
Philip
So.

00:38:47:19 - 00:38:58:05
Philip
Many times. And today I'm gonna start my art business and film business. I'll just literally quit this high paying, amazing, job. And. But I was like, that's me. Make sure you want to do it. And she came to.

00:38:58:05 - 00:38:58:22
Philip
The.

00:38:58:25 - 00:39:01:14
Philip
Decision. I think right in that moment, she's. Yeah. Done right now.

00:39:01:16 - 00:39:23:04
Aliya
Yeah. Well, and I and I also think that it didn't quite allow me and also I just felt like I needed more time with my family, which I. Yeah, really didn't get to have, which is very important to me. I wasn't given I didn't have enough time to spend with my family, with my loved ones, which I value quite a bit.

00:39:23:06 - 00:39:44:27
Aliya
and so all of that combined, I just found that I wanted to have a life that I could sort of bring together all of the disciplines that I love, instead of just maybe tying myself to to one of those things and not have time for all the other things that I truly love. So I think that was one of the best decisions for sure.

00:39:44:27 - 00:40:09:04
Aliya
And, and now we're here and I get to pursue what I love and I am successful at it, thankfully, and I really enjoy what I do and I get really excited about it. and I wake up every day really excited to pursue it more or dig deeper into it and see what I can find them.

00:40:09:06 - 00:40:12:20
Aliya
But yeah, I, I appreciate the question. Thank you for asking it.

00:40:12:22 - 00:40:33:18
Wade
It's such a great answer. Right. Because, you know, you're able to share not only your experience, but also some real life lessons for for our viewers. here is one of the most common conversations I have with my students is them asking, how do you know what you're doing is right? like my major or the person that I want to marry and all of this kind of stuff.

00:40:33:18 - 00:40:54:09
Wade
And so we begin to ask questions, and you've kind of answered them for yourselves here. I try to ask in three different fields, what's the rhythm of life that you want? And sometimes that's economic. Sometimes that's time. What, And who are the people you want to be a part of that life? That's number two. And number three, where do you want to do it?

00:40:54:16 - 00:41:19:12
Wade
So it's kind of like the the rhythm, the people, the place. And if you can get two out of three of those, you're going to be pretty good. But if you get three out of three of those, oh man. Like you're going to be living the dream. But it sounds like you have been able to answer those questions for years yourselves at every point of the journey, simply not because you were thinking of the future of the past, but in this moment.

00:41:19:12 - 00:41:36:07
Wade
This is the right decision. and I'm feeling it intrinsically. This is the life that I'm envisioning for myself. I'm saying yes now, and sometimes it's a risk. But for you, it sounds to be worth the risk. Would you say that's accurate? Is that kind of the thought process? What might you add to that?

00:41:36:09 - 00:41:54:03
Philip
Listen, I've had a life, I don't know, say riddled with uncertainty, but there's been a lot of tough decisions have had to make a lot of kind of like winding paths, you know, that have taken me all over the world. Yeah. Ended up in China, like I said. And, you know, living as a warrior monk and everything, there's there's a lot of different choices that you have to make.

00:41:54:03 - 00:42:15:10
Philip
And never in my life have I ever felt this level of certainty with clear things. At the moment, I'm just like, this person makes me feel good. This person, makes me feel a sense of belonging at home and valued. And I guess my only point with that is a lot of people might just be like, oh, this feels good enough.

00:42:16:09 - 00:42:41:08
Philip
So I guess I have to have a significant other. So I guess I'll just do this. You know I'm feeling a bit lonely. So I'm going to do this because I have an option, you know. Is this an okay. How should we do it. the make me feel kind of bad, but there's other benefits, you know, and I guess I'll just, I don't know, I think it's really worth waiting for that feeling of of, you know, belonging and value and kind of self value.

00:42:41:08 - 00:42:59:25
Philip
And it all comes down to self-love. I hate to say it, but like, you know, you are only going to attract someone or be kind of a palatable option to someone. I feel if if you have figured yourself out, if you've learned to love yourself, or at least you're working on it like nobody's perfect. in that kind of energy.

00:42:59:28 - 00:43:18:03
Philip
Because if you feel extremely lonely, extremely desperate, you're going to possibly make decisions that aren't in your best interest and just kind of like maybe spend time with careers and people that don't make you feel the best. So is worth waiting for a good feeling, you know, try your options and career, you know, test out the waters.

00:43:18:03 - 00:43:36:20
Philip
How do you feel and also another thing with Career Path is like, you know, a lot of people will say, oh, I just got laid off from my job that I thought I would have, you know, forever or I just got, you know, pay cuts and disrespected and literally just fired, you know, that that job that makes you feel bad every day is not even guaranteed.

00:43:36:23 - 00:43:47:04
Philip
So you and life is life is not guaranteed. You know, I was given some a meteor tomorrow, right? And then the no more planet, like, seriously. And. Well, that's not for seriously.

00:43:47:06 - 00:43:57:21
Evan
We sent a space probe and deflected a meteor. We practiced. Yeah. All right, we did it. We darted it. Okay, that's. We did it. We could save it. So Armageddon is real.

00:43:57:21 - 00:43:59:29
Philip
The movie. Yeah, yeah. And you, you.

00:43:59:29 - 00:44:17:03
Philip
Should spend your life, which could end in five minutes meaningfully, and find some peace and find some enjoyment. And maybe it's that job that's a little bit scary, but you love maybe do that because you'd be like, you might get fired from this cushy job anyway in today's world. So. Yeah. And that's that's my thoughts on it.

00:44:17:03 - 00:44:23:02
Evan
Yeah. Well, I'm going to push a quick pause because wait, I think it's frozen for me on one smiley face. Is he moving for you guys.

00:44:23:08 - 00:44:24:24
Philip
Oh yeah I thought he was just like this.

00:44:24:29 - 00:44:29:22
Philip
Yeah, really? It's a beautiful. That's such a it's a great.

00:44:29:22 - 00:44:39:10
Evan
It's a great frame that the internet company was doing work in his neighborhood, and we had deep fears that this could happen. So let me see if he has.

00:44:39:12 - 00:44:41:25
Philip
That is the perfect frame. It's a perfect frame.

00:44:41:28 - 00:44:50:09
Evan
I'm honestly probably just going to keep this rolling because this is this is good content. This is also where we would transition anyways to start talking about Final Fantasy. So,

00:44:50:09 - 00:44:56:19
Evan
all right, everybody, it's that time of the episode where we get to know each other a little bit better for our mini game stretch break. But before.

00:44:56:19 - 00:44:57:15
Wade
We.

00:44:57:17 - 00:45:15:28
Evan
Do, we should get a little stretch in and then we'll hit our music. So, Phil, this is our mindfulness. This is actually a great tie into a lot of what we've been talking about so much. Do you want to just give us a little of like mindfulness 32nd mindfulness exercise where we start. Oh yeah. Yeah. What have you learned at the temple?

00:45:16:00 - 00:45:35:11
Philip
Yeah. Try to try to try to sit down or do something that you find meaningful. Maybe drawing, maybe, walking. You don't have to sit down. But if you're comfortable sitting down and it's not uncomfortable for you, try to just focus on your breathing. And if your mind starts to wander, catch yourself. So I know I'm breathing right now and I'm sitting or I'm walking.

00:45:35:13 - 00:45:54:10
Philip
And as you're doing this, just try to exist in the moment. Just try to focus on your breathing, on your breath. And if you're walking, how does the airfield, how did the leaves feel under you? how does it feel to sit where you are? You outside? Are you inside? Just observe what's happening to you. You start to think about that thing you're worrying about.

00:45:54:10 - 00:46:11:08
Philip
Just catch yourself. Let's come back. Don't be. Don't be mad at yourself. Don't be guilty. Just come back. Let's focus on the moment and just try to empty your thoughts. And how does the wind feel again? How does your breath feel? There's a feel refreshing to breathe through your nose versus your mouth. Deep breaths through your nose. You feel revitalized.

00:46:11:08 - 00:46:29:20
Philip
Don't you feel a lot of energy? Let's focus on that. Don't let your mind wander again. I know you're worried about that thing you got to do. Don't worry about it. You can spare. You deserve a couple seconds to rest and just exist and be you. Then once you think about some stuff you're grateful for what happened today, that was.

00:46:29:28 - 00:46:53:23
Philip
I know it was a tough day. We all got them. But what happened to your grateful for? What are you looking forward to? Did you get to eat today? Do you have a roof over your head and you're doing pretty good. Some people don't have that. Let's focus on what we're grateful for. Do a couple more breaths and just remember that everything's going to be okay.

00:46:53:26 - 00:47:02:12
Philip
Where are you right now? That's all you got to worry about.

00:47:02:14 - 00:47:10:22
Wade
good. So good. So you are like a warm hug. I. I just loved what just happened.

00:47:10:23 - 00:47:18:25
Evan
Thank you. That was amazing. I'll see you, tomorrow when you are a voice in my head for talking me through.

00:47:18:25 - 00:47:20:23
Wade
Yeah.

00:47:20:25 - 00:47:21:13
Evan
Well, it's.

00:47:21:13 - 00:47:24:19
Philip
Either I'm holding a deadly weapon, or they say.

00:47:24:21 - 00:47:30:02
Wade
Yeah, it's it's menacing to be like the mind full like, stare with the blade up.

00:47:30:05 - 00:47:32:07
Philip
You failed.

00:47:32:10 - 00:47:33:12
Wade
No limit.

00:47:33:12 - 00:47:37:23
Philip
Break your mind. What? I want you many times now. You will.

00:47:37:25 - 00:47:50:05
Evan
Suffer. I think the only way to end that actual nice, mindful moment would probably be to perform a sonic assault, which would be our theme music for the suing it. Wait. You ready? What to.

00:47:50:05 - 00:47:58:08
Wade
Do? Let's do it by up up up up up. I know that this is the.

00:47:58:11 - 00:47:59:05
Philip
Oh okay.

00:47:59:07 - 00:48:06:03
Wade
Yeah. Oh, that is basically even the most chaotic one. This because it was the whiplash. It was like.

00:48:06:06 - 00:48:22:24
Evan
The archery thing. Ladies and gentlemen, is that time of the episode. It's our mini game stretch break. I'm here with Phil and our bingo wheel of vulnerability. This has numbers one through 50. In it we ask a get to know you question based on what number comes out of the bingo. We'll wait. What question Decker we pulling from today?

00:48:23:02 - 00:48:34:17
Wade
Today we are going back to our friends at Geek Therapy card deck. this is the this a card deck for clients and therapist. 87 Practices to improve thoughts, build insight, take action in your life and de-stress.

00:48:34:17 - 00:48:40:17
Evan
All right, big thanks to geek therapy. Now let's get our numbers and one through 50 Phil as our guest. You get to pick your number first.

00:48:40:20 - 00:48:41:05
Philip
37.

00:48:41:07 - 00:48:57:08
Evan
37. Good guess. All right. What you got weighed 41. All right, I'm going to go seven. All right. The number seven. So Phil here we go. Listener. You can hear it spinning. Phil, you just tell me when and I will grab a bingo ball. Here.

00:48:57:10 - 00:49:17:02
Evan
You clipped, but I heard you say stop. So where are you going? Okay, there it is. There's a ball coming out, and that number is 11 today. 11 so, listener, if you said 11, let us know. When we do the live streams we do mini game stretch for games and we sign the name of the person who gets the number right.

00:49:17:02 - 00:49:24:23
Evan
So if you get the number right, you let us know. I'll write your name on it in Sharpie and we'll put it in there. So wait, give us the 11th question here as we get to know, okay.

00:49:24:26 - 00:49:53:28
Wade
Here it is again from the Geek Therapy card deck for clients and therapists. The topic is from comics. Your mind is your superhero stronghold, where all of your superheroes come together to solve life's problems. It is your impenetrable fortress. So talk about your stronghold defenses that protect you from evil forces, and relate these defenses to the coping skills that you use every day to protect yourself.

00:49:53:28 - 00:50:02:11
Evan
Okay, so my mind is a special fortress and it is has superhero powers to protect me. And I'm describing the powers of my mind.

00:50:02:13 - 00:50:04:08
Wade
Yes. That's it.

00:50:04:11 - 00:50:07:20
Evan
Okay, not sarcastically.

00:50:07:23 - 00:50:09:00
Wade
no. So seriously.

00:50:09:06 - 00:50:13:17
Evan
Okay. Because self-deprecation is a superpower.

00:50:13:19 - 00:50:16:25
Wade
Because it is a superpower. You make fun. Maybe your defense, but.

00:50:16:29 - 00:50:34:13
Evan
Other people can make fun of you. Then you can't be hurt, which we talk to you about in the show. That's that's healthy way to live. That's a that's a good way to go through your life constantly, isn't it? Yeah. That's great. Okay. Superhero powers. Well, I actually need a minute to think about this one. If anybody's ready to go.

00:50:34:15 - 00:50:35:26
Wade
To see my ready.

00:50:35:28 - 00:50:51:02
Philip
I'm taking set for all the actor slash. Right. Several other actor slash is out front on mine. Nobody's monster. He's fully power, man. He's got to know that he rebuilt his body. He's bizarro separated. He's got two heads. He's got the massive moon. It's not an easy feat to get through him. Man. Behind him, we got cloud with full armor.

00:50:51:02 - 00:50:57:02
Philip
Break. This is adventure children club, level 99. He's not playing around. It's going to be dangerous.

00:50:57:04 - 00:50:59:23
Evan
Yeah. What are they defending you from in your mind?

00:50:59:25 - 00:51:01:05
Wade
Yeah.

00:51:01:07 - 00:51:25:26
Philip
Just nonsense. Just. Just waste of time. Stuff like negativity, getting angry. not forgiving yourself for your past mistakes. as in the past. Forget about it. they're just they're just defending. have you guys ever heard of the evil Eye, which is, really big angry. We were just in Greece. This is Blue Eye. The idea of it is that, it just doesn't allow any evil thoughts to get to you.

00:51:25:26 - 00:51:42:06
Philip
Just deflect them as they come to you. So if people would say maybe a mean comment to you, just some sort of negativity, some sort of evil, like maybe they're having a bad day. So I'm going to hurt this person because I feel bad. I'm going to spread my suffering. So just think about it like that. So that's what my superheroes are protecting me from.

00:51:42:06 - 00:51:59:22
Philip
Set for us is cutting down, those past. So even my own past self who maybe would have been a little more harsh on myself, not forgive myself for mistake. It was stuff I wish I'd done better today or yesterday on my work. stuff like that. Yeah. Just just let's focus on the good. Let's move forward to effective.

00:51:59:24 - 00:52:16:19
Evan
yeah. That's a powerful superhero also, too. I realize we haven't explained why your camera's probably different at this point because of where they said Wade's internet went down. So if you're wondering why we're having a different version of Wade. So those of you who were like, what's been going on for the last five minutes, that's all it is not about you.

00:52:16:22 - 00:52:22:24
Wade
That's my superpower. just take forever changing camera. You never know. This is this is remake.

00:52:22:26 - 00:52:24:22
Philip
Wade. After the.

00:52:24:25 - 00:52:51:28
Wade
Remake. Rebirth is right after this segment, and their, return is our next episode. that's that's my bet. so I think that my superpower, would be, or at least my, my mind had gotten similar to films, but it's like that idea of X ray vision. And I would love to be able to defend myself against like, imposters.

00:52:52:00 - 00:53:10:01
Wade
whether that's a thought or whether that's something that's just like, let's see the value in the worth of this thing before I let it into my mind space. And so to be able to see through the facade and to be like, okay, you get entry into this fortress and everything like that. yeah. A bouncer, oh, a bouncer.

00:53:10:01 - 00:53:11:19
Wade
Super power like you don't belong here.

00:53:11:19 - 00:53:12:19
Philip
What are you doing? Like you're just.

00:53:12:26 - 00:53:13:09
Evan
Like, really.

00:53:13:09 - 00:53:15:04
Philip
Good. Causing bad thoughts in my head, like, leave.

00:53:15:04 - 00:53:18:22
Wade
Yeah. No, we all need, like, a mind bouncer. yes. So.

00:53:18:22 - 00:53:41:17
Evan
Great. Well, my mind bouncer superhero is right now my dog Millie. And so I'm imagining superpowered Millie, big and fluffy, and she is distracting me from catastrophizing, about things that are outside of my control. So she's keeping me more present and engaged. And then when I need motivation and it's time to get some things done, she's always been my chore buddy, so she helps me unload the dishwasher.

00:53:41:17 - 00:53:57:07
Evan
And by that I mean she looks at the dishwasher and then looks at the cabinets while I put them away. and don't worry, she's not. I'm not. If you've come to my house for a party or something, I. The dog does not interact with the clean dishes. the dog is just an observer. She's really more of a super officer.

00:53:57:09 - 00:54:17:11
Evan
Yeah, yeah, she's really lucky. I need to go brush my teeth. and, she's keeping me engaged and peppy, while I'm doing that. So whether when I start to get distracted, like Phil mentioned in our mindfulness segment, she is reminding me of my focus and my purpose and helping me stay present in that moment. So thank you, Super Millie, for all that listener for you.

00:54:17:15 - 00:54:37:24
Evan
Whatever it is that you need, that super power, that extra feeling like you have somebody in your corner sticking up for you, protecting your mind and keeping you focused and engaged on the things that you want in your life. Just like the activity that. So let us through. We want to say we're here for you. We hope that this has been something that you feel encouraged, that the struggles and the challenges that you're dealing with your life are not insurmountable.

00:54:37:24 - 00:54:50:11
Evan
But between yourself and the support networks that you have, you have everything that you need to get through it. So thanks for taking the time to listen, Phil, thanks for taking the time to participate in our mini game Stretch Break, and we will see you on the other side of our episode. Bye bye.

00:54:50:11 - 00:55:01:25
Speaker 1
Okay, everybody, it's that time to start talking, to start talking about and get into our Final Fantasy theories. But you'll notice that we've replaced old Wade with new Wade. This is for candidate.

00:55:01:27 - 00:55:03:19
Speaker 2
2.0, baby.

00:55:03:21 - 00:55:09:23
Speaker 1
This is. They shut down the internet in his whole neighborhood. Wade. So Wade has transitioned to rebirth.

00:55:09:25 - 00:55:13:22
Speaker 2
It's the rebirth of Wade with Wade.

00:55:13:22 - 00:55:31:17
Speaker 1
Rebirth. So we get a good and unique view of the gaming room and the recording room there. Wade. So welcome back. Cause apparently we've got a few minutes here that we're going to chat about some Final Fantasy specific things. And then Leah has a few other appointments that she needs to get off to. So she's going to join us for about 20 more minutes, and then we'll let her get on.

00:55:31:17 - 00:55:43:13
Speaker 1
And we'll, keep talking with Phil a little bit. So that's kind of where we're headed everybody. So thanks for managing the transition with us. Wade, where do you want to get started in our rebirth and Final Fantasy conversation?

00:55:43:16 - 00:56:22:15
Speaker 2
Okay, so Phil, you mentioned this a little bit earlier. but I feel like this is the best transition. And I was gearing up to make it, until Comcast brought me here down upon my neighborhood. but it's that question of how cloud says there's not a thing that I don't cherish. Right? And from the two of you, you have found a way to cherish so many things in life, from the love that you have for one another, to the activity, to the rhythm of life and the people and the locations that you've been able to visit as you have gone through rebirth, how have you thought deeply about your own experience and life,

00:56:22:15 - 00:56:32:26
Speaker 2
and how has has that given you a framework for better understanding both the game as well as yourself? Maybe talk to us a little bit about assimilation of the themes of rebirth in your own life.

00:56:32:26 - 00:56:57:03
Speaker 3
It's a great question. What's what's so cool about it? Is playing Final Fantasy seven original growing up lends this whole different perspective and and kind of, you know, almost like Odysseus looking back at his journey, feeling to going back to the remake and playing it when you're an older person and just instantly has it connects you to the where you were and who you were when you were young.

00:56:57:08 - 00:57:26:13
Speaker 3
And you play it. And it's a little bit different, however, because you got into it later than me. But like this idea of being able to view it, it's this weird, kind of like transcendental feeling where you can almost like skip through time. And it's like when I first saw this scene, you know, with dye and or whatever, it's like we're kind of revisiting and rebirth, you know, I even when I first saw seven children in class at that line versus rebirth, you know, fighting suffereth whatever's happening, it's like, it's it's you kind of take a step back, almost.

00:57:26:15 - 00:57:42:01
Speaker 3
You know what I mean? You can almost look at the whole picture of your life, you know, like ten, 15, 20 years, compressed into a moment. And it's like I've changed, you know, when I when I think about it, like when I first saw adventure, I'm like, pool fight scene. Yeah, yeah, it's what I share. Yeah, yeah.

00:57:42:02 - 00:58:04:09
Speaker 3
But fights every now when I hear that, it's like, this is what I cherish. You know? My it's my life. It's it's, you know, being a different man in that, in that time frame. So it's kind of like what the game means to me shifts over the years. But those emotions almost mean more that I felt when I was a kid, because understand what I was feeling more.

00:58:04:11 - 00:58:20:07
Speaker 3
Do you know what I mean? Like, I've kind of I've kind of grown as a person. I've become kind of closer to the man that I would have wanted to be, as in when I was more of a young man. And it's like, oh, man, I wish I could, you know, do that sort of thing. You'd really not fight for all.

00:58:20:09 - 00:58:22:02
Speaker 3
That would be an interesting challenge. I think you.

00:58:22:02 - 00:58:23:02
Speaker 4
Could, I think.

00:58:23:05 - 00:58:24:19
Speaker 2
Thank you. You could probably take him film.

00:58:24:21 - 00:58:54:01
Speaker 3
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Like, you know, like, just to be that. That man that cherishes everything. And you're grown from a place of extreme. Kind of like this has been through a lot, or it's sadness and disillusionment and and in the right. Yeah. And then to become this man who has, like, found himself literally in that, in that game, found himself, and fought back against this kind of negative forces in his life and, and taken his identity back and everything.

00:58:54:01 - 00:59:14:06
Speaker 3
So long answer. Right. But that's it's it's interesting idea to kind of, the scope of the story and what it's meant to me and understanding what the story is and rebirth kind of. You guys have seen my reaction to the game. I think it's the most simple answer to all the theories and everything. it is all the original game.

00:59:14:14 - 00:59:41:24
Speaker 3
It is all, you know, even the new stuff is just kind of like an exploration of the ideas. The original game, we're seeing that many times now. Right? And, the kind of new ideas and kind of new, pathways that are growing from those original ideas still are so, like, enriched with those themes and those, those kind of like, story beats and cinematic moments and even the shots are the same and everything.

00:59:41:24 - 00:59:43:11
Speaker 2
It's,

00:59:43:13 - 00:59:46:13
Speaker 3
I feel like it's the more it changes, the more it's the same, you know what I mean?

00:59:46:14 - 00:59:59:00
Speaker 2
Oh, I definitely want to circle back to that, that idea, because that's been a big discussion in this lecture series. Leo, what about you with the things that you have cherished and found in this, retelling?

00:59:59:02 - 01:00:30:06
Speaker 4
Oh, well, first of all, just from like, a situational standpoint, we we played it together, in private. So we didn't actually stream, most of our gameplay. We sort of with each other, which was very special. and what Phillips said definitely like, resonated with me for sure. And it's, it's, you know, how he felt when he was a kid versus now it's like when you, you know, when you watch a kid's movie that you've watched when you were a kid and you're like, I see what they're saying now in a different way.

01:00:30:09 - 01:00:51:09
Speaker 4
Yeah. Like, or if you're a parent, which we are not. Yeah, but but like if you're a parent, I can imagine watching something like Finding Nemo hits you a lot differently than when you were a kid. And you're like, And I hope Nemo gets up. And when you're a parent, I'm sure that's, like, completely devastating to see a child separated from their parent.

01:00:51:09 - 01:01:19:00
Speaker 4
And it's a it's completely different. lenses that you can look into. But there's the same story. So I feel like, that's probably a little bit of what you're experiencing to, And I was lucky enough to experience the OG Final Fantasy with Phillip as well. and how I internalized rebirth and, and the original Final Fantasy and Cloud.

01:01:19:00 - 01:01:57:08
Speaker 4
It's like his power, which is which which is actively being suppressed is his care for his loved ones and the promises that he makes. And I really I mean, I think he's a lover boy, you know what I mean? I think he's a sweetie pie. Who, who, whose power is really about, his, care and and his protection over his loved ones, which is, I think, why he, I think in the the beginning of or I guess at the end of Final Fantasy original, we see, a flashback with him and Sephiroth and how he sort of overpowered several.

01:01:57:10 - 01:01:57:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:01:57:18 - 01:02:00:15
Speaker 3
Three Jenova cells. Cloud. Yeah. Overpower.

01:02:00:18 - 01:02:31:28
Speaker 4
And like, making his promise to Tifa to come rescue her and, I think Promises to keep is is a pretty fitting title for our theme for rebirth, because I think what I hope is to see cloud at his full power, which is, a friend and and someone who deeply cares about who he loves, which we're seeing his enemies trying to keep that away from him.

01:02:32:00 - 01:02:43:04
Speaker 4
They're trying to mess with his care for his loved ones, because I think deep down they know that that is his power, and that's how he can really unlock the next level.

01:02:43:07 - 01:03:05:09
Speaker 2
But what a great way of saying that earlier. oh my gosh. I just like that. That really does something in me because you you said that his strength doesn't necessarily come from his Jenova cells or that I think, if you just jumped in there to. But it doesn't come from that. But it comes from not even his friends, but his love and his bond with his friends.

01:03:05:12 - 01:03:32:25
Speaker 2
And I think that that is a really potent thing to think about when you're playing rebirth. rebirth has been knocked, for having this quote unquote bloat of mini games and, side quests and all this kind of stuff. But when you think of rebirth as this necessary binding of the player and cloud to the rest of the community, to the locales and the other party members, well, it's building up his strength.

01:03:32:25 - 01:03:44:04
Speaker 2
It's a necessary piece in this three act play, right? I think that's a really insightful thing. So, really cool. I, I'd not quite thought of it that way. Thank you.

01:03:44:06 - 01:03:45:13
Speaker 4
From,

01:03:45:15 - 01:04:07:19
Speaker 1
Yeah. I have a question about how you guys process these games together. When you play them together, it you you're content does a great job of leaving space. When things happen to process, you aren't quick to fill the space with the things that you make. You like to leave time for the viewer or the participant to process. And I've really appreciated that.

01:04:07:19 - 01:04:26:22
Speaker 1
And looking over and learning more about your content, getting ready for the interview when you're playing it together. Tell me about these big moments that happen. Do you are you immediately talking about it or are you just shocked and experiencing it together? What is it like to play that together, and how does that impact kind of the journey and the experience that you have with the game?

01:04:26:24 - 01:04:44:21
Speaker 3
Oh, it's yeah, we love I mean, we were just talking about we were playing Dragon Quest last night. We're talking about the music and how rich it is and like how this makes me feel, the shallow depth of field in the background and, like, what a great choice that was. And, you know, for for remake and rebirth, I mean, we've streamed it together multiple times.

01:04:44:21 - 01:05:08:13
Speaker 3
We've done our analysis multiple times, like, it's such a meaningful experience for us to to view it together. And we're constantly, you know, whether it's on stream or privately, and we're pausing it and, and just going, everything's done. It's like, oh, this is what you do. Then you're like, what's the deal with the people? Didn't like the post nine boss fight because, I mean, we talk for like probably 40 minutes before we, walked over there and fought.

01:05:08:17 - 01:05:26:29
Speaker 3
Palmer on the on the tank thing. So we were just like, that was one of the best things I've ever seen. Yeah, let's talk about it. And, you know, and having shown and this is this is why I know it's good and, and pretty much everybody who, who has like a kind of negative take on rebirth, you know, outside of, just kind of like vague, this game isn't for me.

01:05:26:29 - 01:05:49:08
Speaker 3
Stuff is usually fans of the OG who are way too nostalgic and way too married to like, the exact depiction of the scene, for example, like the dancing and dance depiction is better, period. Like, there's there's no question about it. If you really analyze why that is and like him as a character, he's like cardboard cartoony lunatic without even destroying my own daughter.

01:05:49:08 - 01:06:10:19
Speaker 3
Like, what's like this mustache twirling, you know, bad guy. And the new one, it's a meaningful, like, painful, tender, you know, the pain of having to see your friend like this and emphasizing the brain damage from falling down that pit, the scars on his head. And, like, just it is a it is a brutal, brutal, and I think a lot more meaningful thing.

01:06:10:21 - 01:06:26:11
Speaker 3
the music, so many things about it that we talked about, the symbolism Elliot caught when they walk outside and they're a mirror image of the life that Barrett would have had. When you see them walking hand in hand to the light, the gun arm on each end, this is what Barrett would have been. You pointed that out.

01:06:26:18 - 01:06:42:25
Speaker 4
Well, they face each other in one scene, I think, if I'm remembering correctly, and it is like how it would look to look in a mirror, which just totally that broke me down because that that is who Barrett could have been if and I think Marlene is the.

01:06:42:28 - 01:06:43:16
Speaker 3
The only.

01:06:43:16 - 01:06:44:17
Speaker 4
The centerpiece.

01:06:44:19 - 01:06:44:28
Speaker 3
Together.

01:06:44:28 - 01:06:48:06
Speaker 4
So like if he didn't find Marlene.

01:06:48:08 - 01:06:48:28
Speaker 3
He would have been dying.

01:06:48:28 - 01:06:56:02
Speaker 4
That he is dying. Yeah. And I think Marlene is, is just holding them together in that way, which, yeah, is is tragic, but.

01:06:56:02 - 01:07:15:11
Speaker 3
And the irony. Right. Like he he saved thinking Dean is dead picks up the only meaning keeping him going at all as long as everything is his fault. Right. He said, let's work dinner. Come on, baby, let's do it. He the only thing keeping alive is Marlene. And that very act of taking Marlene is what destroyed dying. He wasn't.

01:07:15:11 - 01:07:32:08
Speaker 3
Yeah. It's like it's this kind of. It's such a beautiful. And like even I said, this is why I love filmmaking so much. That's why a lot of people are just blind to this stuff. I encourage everybody to pay attention and appreciate that. And what every shot in a in a cinematic format is informing you, right? Oh, the original die.

01:07:32:11 - 01:07:48:26
Speaker 3
And then he falls in the pit like, but there's no information there. It's just a shot from both of Lego people. And then he falls in like, what about the shot where they walk outside the door and you see that mirror image? How does that make you feel? Two men who are kind of like mirrors, who have lost the opposite arm, you know, and gone down different paths and everything, like, what does that say?

01:07:48:29 - 01:08:10:20
Speaker 3
how does it make you feel? And there's so much in there. and then you have him houses, new tracks that he composed for all that. This Wall Street that takes place from the bossfight, the pre and the post, nine scenes. And it's just in the new lines that Barrett says and how that changes from this kind of like very morose, tragedy in the original where he's kind of like, all right, we ain't going to talk about that to.

01:08:10:20 - 01:08:23:18
Speaker 3
No, we're going to explore that and we're going to. How does Barrett feel after the fact? And then, you know, having to carry that weight. and it's just such a, such a beautifully done thing, you know, regardless of pace after it.

01:08:23:20 - 01:08:47:23
Speaker 2
What's an incredible moment? I think. And we, we kind of did this on one of my streams, Electric Play, where we kind of analyzed it. You're exactly right about the original, rendition of Done Right, because we we play that in 1997 and today, for that matter. And it's like, oh, Don, what a tragic story. And, he feels hopeless, takes his own life.

01:08:48:00 - 01:09:09:19
Speaker 2
And that's really sad. But here we get this fleshed out form of it, and it's like you can peek around the place where he's just been hiding out and stuff, and you see evidence of substance abuse. You see syringes, you see empty bottles. And every way that he's tried to medicate himself in that, and he is in a prison of his own.

01:09:09:21 - 01:09:39:02
Speaker 2
and I think one of the most potent, songs you mentioned, the soundtrack is, one of the themes that underlies that sequence where it's, the title is what hate does to a man. And when when you go in and saying, okay, what is hate done to Don? And how did Barrett escape that? But the thing that you just pointed out was, these are mirror images of what could happen to a person like Marlene was the catalyst.

01:09:39:09 - 01:10:02:24
Speaker 2
And Barrett kind of in some ways, not maybe not intentionally took that from Don. That offers so much more impact to when Don falls on him and says, you have to live with that weight because it's like, that could have been me. And like, this was my best friend and I inadvertently did this to him. What a what a stunner sort of thing.

01:10:02:24 - 01:10:05:18
Speaker 2
You can't even process that in the moment. no.

01:10:05:21 - 01:10:21:02
Speaker 3
And that's what I mean. Then the original, you see, just like a cartoony guy with a logo and it's like, oh, that's that's crazy. He went through that. But in the, in the new one, it's so sad. Here's a man and it's like, oh yeah, but he's he's crazy. And he actually shot some people as like, this is a man who's completely, like you said, substance abuse lost his mind.

01:10:21:03 - 01:10:26:12
Speaker 3
Why? Because he took his daughter and he lost everything. Like it's a horrible story and there's no there's.

01:10:26:12 - 01:10:27:19
Speaker 4
No, like, fell down.

01:10:27:19 - 01:10:37:19
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. And he fell down a hole and has brain damage no doubt. Yeah. Exactly. And it's like so this is a really like there's no there's no like black and white. Oh he's a bad guy. Good, good that he's gone now you feel terrible.

01:10:37:24 - 01:11:05:27
Speaker 2
No no. And that's what we see in the game time and time again. Yeah. There is suffering in the world. And how are people societies and individuals mitigating that suffering. And everybody's trying to do their very best to kind of get past the suffering that Shinra has wrought. Jenova, Sephiroth, whoever it is, and Barrett is finding my way may not be perfect, but I'm with people that I love and there's something worth fighting for.

01:11:06:00 - 01:11:26:01
Speaker 2
What a what a beautiful sentiment there. Also, I've got to ask you, did you ever go back to Diane's grave? Did you go back? I don't think we do. Yeah. Okay, listen, load up a playthrough and this is for the chat as well. Like go back and just notice when you walk in, whether he's in your party or not, Barrett will slow walk to the grave and kind of look down.

01:11:26:04 - 01:11:47:00
Speaker 2
And there's a picture of Marlene that's hung around this. It's his gun arm, Don's gun arm that's just staked in the ground. Wow. That's our processing moment that Palmer stole from us. And it is? Yeah. Beautiful. You can spend as much time as you want there. And so it gives that the player that reaction. So anyway, just. Oh Easter egg.

01:11:47:02 - 01:11:47:14
Speaker 2
Yeah.

01:11:47:16 - 01:11:49:07
Speaker 4
Let me emotionally prepare myself.

01:11:49:08 - 01:11:51:14
Speaker 2
Now for real. You will you'll need to like. And it's.

01:11:51:20 - 01:11:57:27
Speaker 1
Well yeah I know you only have a few more minutes with us. and so I don't I know it does.

01:11:57:27 - 01:11:58:18
Speaker 2
It does.

01:11:58:20 - 01:12:13:05
Speaker 1
So I wanted to give you an opportunity if there were some things that maybe stuck out for you or some impressions that you had that you would want to leave with folks, and then also, we want to get a little bit of information on what you're up to next and what people could be looking forward to for you personally for your content.

01:12:13:09 - 01:12:17:26
Speaker 1
You could leave a post-it note with Phil, and he could fill us in at the end to.

01:12:17:28 - 01:12:25:21
Speaker 3
Kind of your ending. you're not even allowed to just kind of what do you think of the game and where it's going and everything? That's that's a great way for you to. People love stuff like that out.

01:12:25:21 - 01:13:03:09
Speaker 4
Well, well, I think of the, the feeling I had ending it was, I think pretty validated not validating at all. Well, how am I going to say this. Well, I think the, the, the team, the Square Enix team really understands us as, as gamers and as just people and I think what I've really loved and what really struck me as, as someone who I or someone who played the ending of the game, we are reflected in cloud, I think, very deeply.

01:13:03:09 - 01:13:26:18
Speaker 4
At the end of the game, we see the tragedy of Aerith. And I think what you told me when you played Final Fantasy Orgy as a kid and many other whatever a lot of other kids also felt was denial. This can't be real. I'm seeing things that are not real. This is not happening. What do you mean? Like that's Aerith, like that's all.

01:13:26:20 - 01:13:28:09
Speaker 3
You know, they're going to heal her and she's going to come back.

01:13:28:10 - 01:14:02:28
Speaker 4
She's going to come back. Denial. Denial. Which I think they did so beautifully reflecting that in cloud. Because I think what they did, I think was really genius was, was really make us feel like completely in denial. What's going on? No. She's live. This is the it's a confusion. This this can't this can't be happening which I think they did an excellent job reflecting does I think that is essentially a pretty universal emotion for for witnessing that scene for the first time.

01:14:03:01 - 01:14:28:26
Speaker 4
and it really helps us empathize with cloud again. And like I said before, I think Cloud's power, hidden power is is his deep care for his friends. and so seeing that, it's like, oh, I, I couldn't save her this, this this isn't real. Like, I've got to be dreaming this and I thought that was super tragic, but also really well done.

01:14:28:26 - 01:14:40:06
Speaker 4
Just from a, an artistic lens and a human lens. I thought that was really well done. But yeah, I, I would love to see more.

01:14:40:09 - 01:14:42:28
Speaker 3
More. Where do you want to part three to go. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we need. Yeah.

01:14:42:28 - 01:14:43:26
Speaker 2
Yeah that's. Yeah.

01:14:43:29 - 01:14:47:15
Speaker 4
There's so much that I need to say post-it note because we got to talk.

01:14:47:15 - 01:14:55:05
Speaker 3
About well, I, I'm going to definitely I will credit you whereas Duke is I'll continue the conversation and we've talked a lot about this but yeah feel free to just you know, I don't.

01:14:55:05 - 01:15:17:13
Speaker 4
Want to end on a random note, but I did think about one thing that isn't really that important, but I really love also that rebirth set us up for the third game, but in ways that that weren't set up in the original. So like, okay, in an OG, we see Tifa being inadvertently saved by a weapon. Yeah, right.

01:15:17:15 - 01:15:21:12
Speaker 4
This the scene where she's, I think swallowed by a weapon doesn't.

01:15:21:12 - 01:15:29:19
Speaker 3
Yeah, she pointed this out. I don't know if anyone's ever talked this talk about this. Besides the earlier when she's in the gas chamber, you know, Scarlet puts in a weapon, saves her. Right?

01:15:29:24 - 01:15:34:21
Speaker 2
Okay. What? That is an interesting parallel. And, like, some version. Yeah.

01:15:34:24 - 01:15:37:09
Speaker 4
Yeah. And the weapon saves are in rebirth and rebirth.

01:15:37:11 - 01:15:39:00
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.

01:15:39:02 - 01:15:41:22
Speaker 4
Whoa. What? I wonder if there's got to be something.

01:15:41:23 - 01:15:45:15
Speaker 3
There might be a connection that maybe the young weapon will like, you know, talk to it.

01:15:45:15 - 01:15:48:00
Speaker 2
That or she knows Tifa.

01:15:48:03 - 01:15:48:19
Speaker 3
Yeah.

01:15:48:21 - 01:15:50:07
Speaker 2
It recognizes there.

01:15:50:09 - 01:15:50:29
Speaker 1
that's.

01:15:51:02 - 01:15:54:03
Speaker 3
Maybe have, like, a communication. Like. Who knows? That's really interesting.

01:15:54:07 - 01:15:59:21
Speaker 4
I the little things that I trust for Enix with that they added to enhance the attention.

01:15:59:21 - 01:16:00:03
Speaker 3
To detail.

01:16:00:03 - 01:16:09:24
Speaker 4
For the third game. So I'm like, I have a lot of faith in what they're doing. And yeah, how they'll treat good it. But I, I love that that was really cool.

01:16:09:26 - 01:16:14:00
Speaker 3
Oh yeah. it's the so much that's great.

01:16:14:03 - 01:16:14:16
Speaker 2
Amazing.

01:16:14:16 - 01:16:29:11
Speaker 1
In our last few moments together, we'll get all your social handles and everything. Well, we'll delegate that to Phil. But what do you have upcoming that you're excited about or looking forward to that you would want to tell people about?

01:16:29:14 - 01:16:51:02
Speaker 4
I'm excited for this coming out for sure. very happy to be here. Thank you again for having us. I truly we really appreciate the questions that you asked. Those are very, I think, well thought out and yeah, really unique. I freaking love everything you asked. what else do I have? Is I like blinking. Anyway, I have, I don't know, what am I having yet?

01:16:51:02 - 01:16:52:20
Speaker 3
I don't know, but I'm like.

01:16:52:22 - 01:16:53:11
Speaker 4
I'm breathing.

01:16:53:12 - 01:16:55:14
Speaker 3
Well, you got your stream coming up yesterday.

01:16:55:14 - 01:17:02:01
Speaker 4
It's like I got state of. I have a stream coming up. I'm really bad at self-promotion, but I swear we're going off. I don't know.

01:17:02:05 - 01:17:03:19
Speaker 3
We've got Casanova.

01:17:03:21 - 01:17:36:11
Speaker 4
More Final Fantasy cosplays, hopefully coming up. And, I'm excited to share it with the world and, excited to maybe do more of this stuff because I think there's a lot to talk about. And like, like we said before, everything's connected in a way, so to speak, to y'all who are masters in your own fields. bringing your knowledge to Final Fantasy, I think is super valuable and keeping that curiosity and creativity alive, because I do think that the world, and especially the next generations could really use something like this.

01:17:36:13 - 01:17:55:20
Speaker 4
You know, games that they love to encourage them to explore their own world and be curious about things around them. The arts, the sciences, whatever they're interested in. I think what you're doing is an excellent bridge between, video games and just the world. I don't know, but thank you for helping me appreciate that.

01:17:55:22 - 01:18:04:19
Speaker 2
Well. Thank you. Really? Absolutely amazing. DP well, in your, appointments and your streams and endeavors and, we will talk soon.

01:18:04:19 - 01:18:32:07
Evan
Okay, we have now transitioned with Aleah off to her next thing, and Phil has now replaced her or supplemented his experience with the sword. He is meditating. I have a comment. Phil. of all the kind words that you two spoke to each other and all the compliments you paid to each other. There's really only one that I think you had a bit of pause and almost were a little bashful.

01:18:32:07 - 01:18:43:09
Evan
If I can be, maybe a little overly direct about it. when she said that, she thought that you could beat Sephiroth, you got a little choked up.

01:18:43:11 - 01:18:46:14
Philip
I think I did. Yeah. You were like. That is very beautiful to hear.

01:18:46:17 - 01:18:51:09
Evan
You really think that I could beat Sephiroth? That's like the ultimate compliment.

01:18:51:12 - 01:18:57:04
Philip
It is. I think, yeah, as a martial artist, as a Final Fantasy fan, it's the best.

01:18:57:06 - 01:19:08:11
Wade
And with the Buster Sword on your shoulder, you are looking the part. let me say. Like you could take him on right now. Show off that sword for a second. Tell us about it. How did you get it? What is this?

01:19:08:12 - 01:19:13:10
Philip
This is actually a Leia cosplay cloud, if you didn't know. So we have. I don't think I've.

01:19:13:10 - 01:19:14:19
Wade
Seen that one.

01:19:14:22 - 01:19:17:15
Evan
The cameras and mics.

01:19:17:17 - 01:19:19:12
Philip
And it's just. It's so cool.

01:19:19:14 - 01:19:20:10
Wade
For you to.

01:19:21:22 - 01:19:24:17
Wade
That's stunning. Wow.

01:19:24:20 - 01:19:26:27
Philip
So it's awesome. You haven't seen her cloud cosplays.

01:19:26:27 - 01:19:36:14
Wade
You should check it out. Go look that one up. I mean, I've seen yours, Tifa and Barret, and that is like, all of your cosplays.

01:19:36:16 - 01:20:07:02
Philip
But listen, I got to give credit where it's due. Leia is a genius with these things. She was like, you should cosplay TV. And I'm like. And it's like a like a meme, kind of like, you know, and stuff. She's like, no, no, no. She's amazing. Anyway, she drew and sketched a design. She's like, no diva. If actually Tifa was masculine, not, you know, oh, I'm going to have Phillip wear a, you know, people like barmaid, you know, kind of like, no, no, I don't know what if, like, Tifa was a cool, kind of masculine martial artist.

01:20:07:04 - 01:20:14:22
Philip
And that's why that was the kicker. And she did the same thing for Barrett. What if Barrett was just feminine, right? Not only to me.

01:20:14:24 - 01:20:16:23
Wade
One of my favorite things.

01:20:16:26 - 01:20:19:09
Evan
To making in that picture.

01:20:19:09 - 01:20:23:01
Philip
And, like, recognize it. We were kind of like, is this because it's kind of where we go to,

01:20:23:03 - 01:20:24:02
Wade
Maybe it was.

01:20:24:04 - 01:20:31:04
Philip
I think it was Comic-Con. We go to Comic-Con and like, everybody was, this is the coolest thing ever. Had never seen anything like it. So.

01:20:31:06 - 01:20:51:00
Wade
Yeah. It's amazing. So kind of getting back into some rebirth stuff. You know, we talked a little bit about, Leia's thoughts on the ending and where she might go. All this kind of stuff. What about you? Where? Where is your head at? Months after you finished rebirth. What still excites you when you think about it? Go for it.

01:20:51:02 - 01:21:15:19
Philip
Let's listen. If you didn't know we had the privilege of going to Tribeca Film Festival, which is Robert De Niro's film festival, and guess what was featured there? I saw fantasy seven rebirth. had I had a presentation there where they talked about the art that featured, Hamaguchi catharsis on, who didn't was the director of the original five, seven, eight, ten, six.

01:21:15:19 - 01:21:35:17
Philip
Like, talk about a pedigree, like what in the world and how much is this, like, up and coming, awesome person who's director of rebirth and of course, worked on 13. But this is what I. This is what this has become. My, my kind of like checkmate when people kind of, get a little negative about rebirth or like, the changes at the end.

01:21:35:17 - 01:22:02:09
Philip
I wanted my exact story that they told that I want these artists to tell the exact story they told 20 years ago and make no changes. Listen, I'll take the game that was featured. I'll take the art piece that was featured at the film festival. I don't know any video games that have ever been featured at a film festival period, so I'll I'll take that art piece as opposed to the the very bashful or kind of like, for lack of a better word, cowardly.

01:22:02:09 - 01:22:20:15
Philip
No, no risk taking. Retelling of the original. Got. I gotta make sure the fans are happy. No, no, no, no, I want them to say something. I want the ending to be incredibly thought provoking, which it was for everybody who did it. A lot of people just don't like thought provoking stuff and wanted to be very, you know, easy to understand and easy to digest.

01:22:20:15 - 01:22:21:06
Philip
And not as.

01:22:21:06 - 01:22:22:29
Wade
An educator, I understand that.

01:22:22:29 - 01:22:41:08
Philip
Yes, they want it. Yeah. Exactly. Right. They don't want to have to digest it. They want to just they don't want to sit with it and think about how it makes them feel and explore what the art is saying. They just want to see it. Yeah, yeah, I know I've seen the scene just make it look better. Like when it comes out about a bang, bada boom and then it's over.

01:22:41:10 - 01:23:00:25
Philip
So yeah, that's that's kind of my, my final, stance. on the I get, I guess my thoughts in a second of why I think Final Fantasy is, is still like one of the greatest kind of like celebration of art and pushing story and is why I love Nomura. I love guitar, so I'm using all the work that they've done with with the whole Final Fantasy franchise.

01:23:00:25 - 01:23:11:03
Philip
So yeah, I think the game that was at the film festival, I'll take that, that choice, as opposed to the one that's just like, yeah, it's just, you know, good graphics version of the original.

01:23:11:05 - 01:23:42:22
Evan
Yeah, well, that would be a remaster, right? Like, I mean, we have we have a term for updating the visuals on a game and not changing anything about it. It's called a remaster. Like, it's, there's a it's called the remake for a reason. I wonder real quick if you could kind of give another through line from kind of your critical perspective where you've implied in your statement earlier that, like, you know, people who just really wanted a rehashing of the same thing and maybe really just wanted a remaster, not a remake, were unsatisfied because it was a thought provoking ending.

01:23:42:26 - 01:24:02:16
Evan
What do you think the folks who did understand that it had something to say and maybe really experienced it, and they gave it a lot of thought, right? That but they still didn't really love where we ended up. Maybe tell us a little bit about your perspective on how somebody could arrive at that lens. Because obviously if you just wanted a remaster, you're going to be disappointed that something's different.

01:24:02:22 - 01:24:18:17
Evan
But then I think there's people who had some challenges with the way that the story was told, even though it was thought provoking. What are some of those other three lines rather than just somebody? The only reason you wouldn't like it is because it's not a remaster, which isn't what you said. Right? But that's kind of the general fan perspective.

01:24:18:17 - 01:24:21:15
Evan
So speak to the other side of it a little bit for people who understood

01:24:21:15 - 01:24:23:11
Evan
it, just disliked it.

01:24:23:14 - 01:24:42:14
Philip
So for me, I think it's a it's the format change to a trilogy. Right? Okay. And when you look at it, like I said, this was the remake and people said I was crazy where I was like, you can't, you know, makes that for us. And, pretty much non-existent entity as the villain of the trilogy. because I was like, oh yeah, you got the comp flashback.

01:24:42:14 - 01:24:57:17
Philip
It's got you. Yeah. But that's in the second game now because of the parity, right? So you can't have like a set for us to be completely faithful to the original is in the background, does nothing. And then in the second one it's like, oh, this is the villain of the whole trilogy. Yeah. But he's not. He didn't even exist in the first one.

01:24:57:18 - 01:25:13:25
Philip
Yeah. So they changed the format. Let's see. Let's build them up. Let's have him kind of be in the background. You start to feel the impending threat of him more than just like a rumor here and there, like the original at that point. so I think the same thing with this, because it's a trilogy, I would encourage those who are kind of like, what was that ending?

01:25:13:25 - 01:25:30:08
Philip
Oh my goodness, I wanted the emotional scene. You're going to get it. It's going to be, you know, when cloud finally realizes what happened and because of the trilogy, you need that kind of Empire Strikes Back ending, right? For it to be a really powerful then victory at the end. and I think because it's just a symptom of the, of the format.

01:25:30:08 - 01:25:49:29
Philip
Right. You could have easily just done it and then it ends. but the questions wouldn't have been there to set up for the trilogy and the mystery as much. And those were who pretty much everybody knows that story beat. Now, what happens to errors and stuff like it's not as powerful an ending for those reasons. So I think I would just encourage people to look forward to the third one.

01:25:50:01 - 01:26:03:25
Philip
it's not like, you know, if this was one game, I think it'd be a lot more valid to be like, why did they do it like this? Right? But I still think it's a great scene and I can break down why. But yeah, I would encourage people to, you know, look at the format difference, look at remake.

01:26:03:25 - 01:26:20:06
Philip
And there was a very large percentage of people, who at the end of remake who were kind of like had a negative reaction, were like, oh, the second game is going to be completely off the rails. none of the old scenes, none of the old locations. if they do, it'll be just totally new story, totally new, like kind of fanfiction as the term they use.

01:26:20:06 - 01:26:32:29
Philip
And I was like, it's going to be the same. We're going to go all the same places. What are we talking about? And of course, it's what they did. That's what the the devs said. So I would say just have faith in the vision too. if the original is one of your favorite games, this is the same artists.

01:26:33:02 - 01:26:56:08
Philip
So just kind of trust in the vision. You know, they want to say something a little bit more with it. also it doesn't it doesn't disqualify the original. Your favorite RPG is still there, untouched and preserved. So I would say enjoy the original and kind of, with that feeling of gratitude that we talked about earlier, kind of take this as in my in my book, I'm just like, we're getting new Final Fantasy 7 in 2024, and I get to see these.

01:26:56:15 - 01:27:15:08
Philip
Like, one of the reasons I got into filmmaking is you're imagining these scenes from this kind of like theater top down view. You see cloud and the guys as Lego people, essentially, or, you know, whatever you wanna call them. You picture those scenes, you can picture how they would look and act as humans with facial expressions to finally see that and see the choices that the director made.

01:27:15:08 - 01:27:28:28
Philip
Okay, let's have the camera here. Let's have this scene. Let's have that. It's it's a dream come true for me. You know what I mean? So, like, I'm, I'm along for the ride of my favorite artists, right? It'd be like if Tolkien some somehow came back to life and wrote a new Lord of the rings book, and it was quite different.

01:27:29:00 - 01:27:47:16
Philip
I'm not going to be like Tolkien doesn't know his own stuff. Of course he does his talking. And I was really gonna question that. Yeah, that's that's kind of where I'm. I had that with it. I have full faith in the artist. I'm just grateful for getting it. and I think it's fantastic. Like, I could talk all day and I have on my channels about the level of art that's that's unfolding before us.

01:27:47:18 - 01:28:07:28
Philip
so. Yeah, don't don't let nostalgia hold you back from enjoying it is what I would say to those people. But wasn't there. Yeah. I'm not saying disqualifies your criticisms either. Yeah, I'm just saying what I think it's really special. And Final Fantasy has always been the sort of thought provoking, genre pushing stuff. I love what they did with rebirth for that reason.

01:28:07:28 - 01:28:24:04
Philip
They didn't take the safe route. So, you know, we really want to say something powerful here. We want to push the envelope of what we can achieve with a game format, mixing gameplay with visuals, with cinematics. So, that's where I'm at as someone who loves filmmaking and who makes film, let's have the one that gets in the film festival ring.

01:28:24:04 - 01:28:29:21
Philip
So right out provoking. Not the one that's just a safe retelling. You know.

01:28:29:24 - 01:28:59:06
Wade
You've mentioned on your stream several times so many different details. I think that the first time that I really noticed, oh my gosh, he really going into some, some granular stuff is the, the lengthening of several shadow in the candlelight during the flashback and where you were talking about how this is a classic sort of menacing trope and you see this expansion of several theater, that that's such a unique lens that only a filmmaker could really bring to this because, like, I see that I'm like, ooh, ominous.

01:28:59:06 - 01:29:02:02
Wade
You're like, no, no, no, this is a rooted people. Oh yeah, it's a.

01:29:02:05 - 01:29:19:16
Philip
This was it symbol symbolizing and sort of demarcating his. He's he's taking on a new identity. His shadow is changed shape in that moment, in this moment where Jenova takes over him. And it's like, this is something that we we had to guess back in the day in this debate went on for who was in control during this.

01:29:19:16 - 01:29:26:10
Philip
Well, now we know, of course, that Jenova takes control. At that moment. I feel like at every crisis she's been slowly, slowly doing that.

01:29:26:13 - 01:29:27:10
Wade
And yeah.

01:29:27:13 - 01:29:38:28
Philip
Burrowing into him for this moment. And then later, once that frost steals the power of the ancients from the live stream and has, you know, with Barry, he takes over her and that's, that's he's kind of piloting her powers, which is a very scary thing. So now I.

01:29:38:28 - 01:29:49:07
Wade
Want you to say that again for our viewers, because that's a common misconception, right? So talk to us about the moment where Sephiroth takes over. You know, this may be new for a lot of our viewers, right?

01:29:49:07 - 01:30:05:28
Philip
So this is getting to super like esoteric FF7 lore and stuff. And I think this is why a lot of people are also having trouble with rebirth. Is it finally explaining everything and it feels it has to be quite long to do that, whereas the original is incredibly vague to the point where I joke about this a lot.

01:30:06:00 - 01:30:17:07
Philip
Had you ever try explaining the plot of FF7 to someone as a kid? Absolutely impossible. Makes no sense. It's so abstract, by the way. Puts Kingdom Hearts to shame. Kingdom hearts is super simple.

01:30:17:09 - 01:30:18:26
Wade
It's super.

01:30:19:01 - 01:30:46:18
Philip
Simple story. F7 is the most like a you know. It's also the beginning and the apex of like the no more in, you know, kind of like really cool abstract stories and ideas, which I love and everybody loves it. So then why is it weird when Kingdom Hearts are similar things? Right? But yeah, so, yeah, what happens is Sephiroth gets taken over by Jenova because he has his cells and, when he was a fetus were injected into him.

01:30:46:18 - 01:31:05:19
Philip
So he has, like, the most rich, pure part of Jenova in him versus cloud. And that's just like a few Jenova cells injected into him. Right? So he's kind of grown as an entity of Jenova and, would consider himself her son for that reason, and also having to do with his delusion and confusion over, his real mother and everything.

01:31:05:25 - 01:31:24:02
Philip
He's sort of like, what do you wanna call it? The scientific version of a mother or whatever you want. So anyway, cloud kills him as elimination throws him into the live stream. He's dead. So I'd rather die. Then what happens is this is why I think rebirth is so, so genius. We actually have a hand in this happening now.

01:31:24:03 - 01:31:45:22
Philip
We see it happening. It's not just like, by the way we played it recently, the original. None of this is mentioned. This was like the fans piecing it together for for 20 years, figuring out this stuff. He falls into the live stream. He then his will is so strong he will not dissolve into the live stream, which as you know, the wills of everyone becomes this ever circling stream through the planet and it becomes the energy that makes new life.

01:31:45:24 - 01:32:10:02
Philip
He won't dissolve. He's too powerful because he has this, like, outside, entity Jenova inside his alien force. And he's also just, like, the strongest person ever. Except. Right. So what happens is his will won't dissolve. He literally steals the knowledge of the entities, which is kind of Earth's wheelhouse. Steals the life stream powers for himself, and with that power takes control of his identity again.

01:32:10:08 - 01:32:37:12
Philip
Which, if you see and Boeheim, he's like a robot. He just walks around, walks forwards, slowly. Cloud doesn't really have a grasp of himself anymore. Kind of smiles at cloud, someone who he knows and turns around unsettling and sad like which in the original we don't have any of that information. So, anyway, he takes back his identity as like Sarfaraz, who now has control of these powers, and he reconstructs his body, which you will see in the original game.

01:32:37:12 - 01:32:54:13
Philip
We'll see in part three in this crystal. But you'll notice it's like half of his body is reconstructed. And this is why I think rebirth is so genius. Five maybe realize Bizarro Sephiroth is Saffron's real body. He has no legs. You see, his torso up is in the crystal, and then that's what you find at the end of the game.

01:32:54:21 - 01:33:11:00
Philip
So everything you see is an illusion that set for all this? Anyone except for us walking around and you'll see like one. So for all the explains the worlds, the cloud, there's the nature of reality and stuff. Cloud slices him. It's just just whispers like there's nothing there, right? And his true body is what he fights. That's bizarre for us.

01:33:11:00 - 01:33:33:14
Philip
And then, you know, whatever else he'll he'll remake by the end. But he kind of sends out this avatar of his old self to walk around and like, you know, Hound cloud and and, annoy him and deceive him and everything. But anyway, that's that's the basics of what happened. He takes back his, sort of ownership of the powers as he is now walking around with, like, extreme, you know, lucidity, Zafira.

01:33:33:15 - 01:33:51:14
Philip
And this has to do with the meditation stuff we talked about earlier. If you want me to save that for later, segue into it. But, I think it's really cool that, we talk about in the Buddhist meditation, mindfulness being present, the absence of suffering is the absence of caring too much about everything. And the material.

01:33:51:14 - 01:33:52:15
Wade
Attachment. Yeah.

01:33:52:18 - 01:34:16:01
Philip
Right. And non-attachment itself, rather, is the ultimate example of non-attachment. He literally essentially sacrifices his self to be just this blank slate, almost inhuman person. He's emotionless as he talks to cloud. You know, you want to get stronger through suffering. That's what you wanted. But he is not suffering that for I was just completely like he. He reached the apex of his suffering and behind when he was struggling in the library.

01:34:16:01 - 01:34:35:24
Philip
And then we had that identity, that ogre out of him, you know? so I think it's an interesting idea, isn't it, that several authors like this meditative perfection, like it's just nothingness. It's just these present. He's he's peaceful and it's terrifying for that reason. Because all all the characters are like us. They're, you know, there's suffering in the material world and dealing with all their problems.

01:34:35:24 - 01:34:39:04
Philip
And he's just like, completely calm. And and this.

01:34:39:04 - 01:35:03:27
Wade
Is such and such a great dichotomy with, say, Aerith, who cares deeply has formed these attachments. And I think that that potent scene in the temple of the ancients around the trials where she says, you know, and all of these things that have happened to us, yes, there's no changing that past. But in this moment, the love that we have, the life that we share, all of these things are worth fighting for.

01:35:03:27 - 01:35:30:21
Wade
So attachment isn't the like severing the attachment isn't the solution here. And so that's so interesting from what Seifer out to saying like sever every attachment, none of this can faze you. We will remake the world through absolute nothingness of attachment. Yeah, we're there at is like no, no, no, it's all about connection and bonds. And and then I love that several like, well we'll see.

01:35:30:21 - 01:35:40:10
Wade
And so takes away the bond that cloud has with Aerith creating even more suffering. Is that working for you cloud? And what a, thing for part three that will be.

01:35:40:12 - 01:35:48:04
Philip
Oh man, I can't wait. It's going to be so. Yeah, yeah. And like I said, I mean the ending is just it's incredible man. I can talk about.

01:35:48:04 - 01:36:07:22
Wade
I love the ending. and, I'm excited to play through it again on the the lecture series. you mentioned something earlier. And as a, as a host, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about it because I've got to speak for the viewers. Okay? You and I agree on something. All right? I think we agree.

01:36:07:25 - 01:36:28:16
Wade
A lot of talk has been. Is this a sequel? Is this, you know, a continuation of the Final Fantasy seven story? is this or is this a true reimagining? Now, you mentioned that the developers have said we're telling the same story, like we're we're giving a lot. And I think that you and I are of that mindset that it's going to go the same way.

01:36:28:16 - 01:36:35:01
Wade
This is not necessarily a sequel, except an idea of like a live stream that is just ever flowing in a cycle.

01:36:35:02 - 01:36:38:17
Philip
Yeah. And I think it's, I'm sorry. Yeah. Anthony.

01:36:38:19 - 01:36:45:14
Wade
So with that thinking that it is more of a reimagining than a sequel.

01:36:45:16 - 01:36:48:01
Philip
I like to use the word revision. Yeah. Revision.

01:36:48:01 - 01:36:49:09
Wade
Okay, I like that. That could be.

01:36:49:09 - 01:37:02:28
Philip
The title for the third game. When an author revisions to improve their story, right as they as they go through the work until the final revision. Like first review. Okay, we got to tighten that up and everything. So it's really a revision 20 years later, the same story, same story, but it's still yeah.

01:37:03:05 - 01:37:24:12
Wade
If it is the same story, how do you count or account for the things that, don't jive with the original, like the whispers? How do you how do you explain those? Now? I did a whole video on this, but imagine people haven't seen that. What would how would you explain things like the whispers and some of those things that just are not in the original?

01:37:24:14 - 01:37:38:20
Philip
I would say it's it's the same thing, right? It's an expansion of the same story. So the whispers like Suffereth has several lines. Where are you talking about like, soon I will control the future. And I was like, what? What does it mean by that in the original? And we know the whispers, I think they said are an idea from the original.

01:37:38:20 - 01:37:41:04
Philip
They didn't really have a way to do so. They have.

01:37:41:04 - 01:37:41:18
Wade
Heard that.

01:37:41:19 - 01:38:00:06
Philip
Yeah. Now here it is. Yeah. So the whispers you have to ask yourselves, like how this new thing, it changed everything and it's like, what did it really change. Right. So the whispers also have been called in a pretty much the cries of the planet. Right. As they say, like when, when at the end of remake on the highway and you can hear them screaming and everything.

01:38:00:08 - 01:38:23:11
Philip
Yeah. It's the cries of the planets, the cries of the people who in the live stream, aren't dissipating because it's like saffron black live stream, corrupted lives might be him and rebirth underwater with Tifa. And he's like this, like corrupted, swirling whispers that he's controlling versus or it's, you know, kind of like ancient power white whispers. So to me, it's just the personification of the chess pieces.

01:38:23:11 - 01:38:40:19
Philip
Errors versus Sephiroth, the ancients versus Jenova. Right. And does it change the story as a whole? No. It's like including deep ground from there to service. It's like there is no change. The story is like, I didn't really change it. I mean, it just it works really well with the lore there expanding the lore. So I think it's really what it is.

01:38:40:19 - 01:38:58:00
Philip
The whispers are great lore expansion to personify, except for US powers, as opposed to us having to go read forums for, you know, ten hours as a kid to figure out what the heck happened to set for our body when we were kids. Like, wait to cloud kill them. And now he's just there, right? It's none of it's mentioned zip being itself.

01:38:58:01 - 01:39:18:20
Philip
Yeah, the Black Materia. Now we have an amazing lore about why that makes sense. Like the G tribe. It was like right there. The delete their consciousness because they're forever forced to exist. Like, wow, what a cool idea. Makes complete sense versus like, it's this, like really powerful thing that exists. Well, why would they make a materia that destroys the Earth?

01:39:18:21 - 01:39:34:29
Philip
Doesn't make any sense, right? So now it makes sense. That's why then it's just a lower expansion rate. Same thing with the Whisperers. And you know, a lot of people again opinions are fine to have like like, oh, I didn't think such and such scene was as effective. If you just like remove the Whisperers and stuff, which I think they were much more effective in rebirth.

01:39:35:01 - 01:39:54:26
Philip
personally, than the first one. But I have no problem with the remake. I they're really cool. I thought it was really thought provoking to be like, okay, this is clearly like fate. What's going on here? Is this the lifestream? Kind of like dictating what is supposed to happen or protecting our heroes because we need them to stop Sephiroth.

01:39:55:01 - 01:40:03:04
Philip
It's very thought provoking, so I don't think it changes anything, the original premise or the original themes personally, but a lot of people will argue that with me.

01:40:03:04 - 01:40:32:14
Wade
They will fight it. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Something you mentioned earlier, you casually mentioned something about quote, what rebirth is trying to say. what do you think that rebirth and therefore the devs behind at Hamaguchi and Catharsis? what are they trying to say to us as viewers, as, people living in today's world through the story of this game?

01:40:32:16 - 01:40:58:21
Philip
So the ending. Olya touched on it beautifully. All right. We've we've shared our thoughts on that. The idea of the original simply showing a scene with very rudimentary storytelling tools. No acting, no performance, no shot selection, just, you know, top down view loss. And now we have in rebirth, same theme, the same idea loss, and sort of a multilayered, multifaceted exploration of what we felt as kids.

01:40:58:21 - 01:41:11:09
Philip
It hit me the moment I got to see my ending playthrough, the moment that you're in shock, what's happening? And you realize, wait, Cloud's saying the speech? He's like, glitching out in his mind tonight.

01:41:11:12 - 01:41:11:25
Wade
Yeah, as it's.

01:41:11:26 - 01:41:31:16
Philip
Happening to don't hear it, don't hear it, don't hear. It's not real. And then er, it steam hits. Yeah. And it brings you back to the moment you felt that, you know, that hammer hit you as a kid and being like. Yeah, the emotion comes back and I start tearing of it. This is what I felt as a kid.

01:41:31:19 - 01:41:58:02
Philip
They did it. And again, it's very hard to like, want to see your favorite scene? I get a completely and then it's a little bit different, even though the same scene is oh, they change perspective. It's a but you know, it's unreliable. Narrator. It's cloud. Instead of just showing us instead of just saying loss very difficult. It's like, no, we're going to explore loss on a deeper level of denial and putting us in the character's perspective so deeply.

01:41:58:04 - 01:42:20:26
Philip
And again, expanding Lawrence across scales under Nova's illusions and Cloud's psyche. Right. It's all the same things that exist. Cloud was losing his mind when Eric died in the original, literally almost kills himself, just like in rebirth. Are we supposed to think that he's just. Anyway, back to normal? Let's have a very profound speech, by the way, when you know his close friend is murdered in front of you.

01:42:20:26 - 01:42:37:27
Philip
Yeah, let's just be normal now and not be kind of like, right on the edge of insanity. It doesn't make any sense. Right? So, no, let's let's explore this. Let's show Tifa his perspective with a very quick camera switch to show him. Oh, no, she's not doing this to comfort cloud. It's cloud holding her bloodied.

01:42:38:01 - 01:42:39:29
Wade
Yeah to. Oh, what is he?

01:42:40:00 - 01:43:18:17
Philip
And you said to me that's the attention to detail. If you're just consuming and not engaging with the art fully, you won't catch that. All right. Is that what's going on? Add some glitches. Whatever. Now it's Tifa perspective. That's what's actually happening. Right? So there's so many like in a shot, there's probably hundreds of shots in this ending sequence from a film perspective, to have every single one like microscopically considered and storyboarded to perfection by Nomura and the team is just you don't see stuff like this, especially in video games, unless we're talking about like, Kojima or some other, just like, you know, quintessential level artists in the filmmaking industry or in the gaming and

01:43:18:17 - 01:43:34:03
Philip
film industry, you just don't see that. So again, that's what I would encourage people. If you're having trouble with it, watch it again. Really try to watch my ending break down what professor, this is breakdowns. Really try to engage with the art and and consider how it makes you feel. And then consider that this is not the end.

01:43:34:03 - 01:43:57:14
Philip
There's a whole game coming where they're going to get that payoff of art's, passing and how it makes cloud feel and everything else. And I think it's just it's it's an a deep to come back to question deep exploration of loss. and on on many levels, loss of the planet, loss of nature. that mindfulness that we talked about that extends to being mindful of the planet.

01:43:57:16 - 01:44:17:21
Philip
It extends to being mindful of relationships. Also, I think the deepest theme of FF7 is identity for sure. Right? Cloud identity. Right. Everything about him has to do with this, you know, thinking he's someone else. the identity of I want to be hero, but I'm not. So I'm going to pretend I am. You know, there's there's a magic system involved there, too.

01:44:17:22 - 01:44:42:15
Philip
Is Jenova Zack's memories onto him? It's not just him. Severus identity. Right? It's almost a mirror image of cloud, learning his real identity and losing his mind because he realized he's not human. He's a monster. that was created to, you know, destroy this. And then, just like a super soldier with no humanity who lied to his entire life, it's terrible.

01:44:42:17 - 01:45:01:06
Philip
So this idea of identity extends to so many characters that we could talk about. Tifa as well. He talks about a lot. And rebirth. Like when you finally get to talking to her in her room, she's like, yeah, that's one of my biggest weaknesses is wanting to please people and be that person. But yeah, do you know what I mean?

01:45:01:06 - 01:45:24:03
Philip
Like, everybody's constantly dying and Barret. Right? This mirror image of their identity, there's just so much I think that's it. and then obviously the theme of nature, which I think ties to that first, and, you know, preserving the planet and that sort of like environmentalism for sure, that FF7. But yeah, I would, I would say identity and laws are for me like the, the pinnacle of it.

01:45:24:03 - 01:45:31:04
Philip
And I think the most profoundly explored. Yeah.

01:45:31:07 - 01:46:05:20
Wade
There's so many different avenues that we could go down. with all of this. I wonder, though, you mentioned, earlier in the interview, your time in a Shaolin temple. Yeah. You've talked about your, Yeah. Exploration of mindfulness, meditation practices, rituals that have helped you center yourself. How do you see these things represented in rebirth, and why do you think they would include things like this in a story about loss, identity, all that kind of stuff?

01:46:05:23 - 01:46:30:01
Philip
Well, it's it comes back to the idea we discussed of kind of, you know, the material world and, and the idea of caring so much about the future and the past and not being present is suffering. Right. And the idea of meditation, a lot of people just think of it as sitting down in a certain posture, being quiet, thinking, which is a certain form of meditation.

01:46:30:04 - 01:46:38:16
Philip
but the other form of meditation is action. Meditation is is moving is, you know, like I said, when you walk, walk, when you eat.

01:46:38:18 - 01:46:39:10
Wade
Eat.

01:46:39:13 - 01:46:56:10
Philip
Right, don't think about everything else you have to do when you're eating. And in the temple. One of the practices we did was mindful eating. there's no speaking when you eat, you sit there, there's no music, there's no, you know, YouTube video up. And I got my Twitter feed going when I'm watching YouTube.

01:46:56:10 - 01:46:57:13
Wade
But the truth was.

01:46:57:21 - 01:47:15:03
Philip
Whatever, I had them out with my friend. Well, it's all happening. And, you know, I'm getting a phone call from my mom, and, I don't know, it's just you eat. When you eat, you sit there, you can't even speak. when you're being served is like ways you can communicate with your chopsticks, how you how much portion you want and you exist.

01:47:15:08 - 01:47:22:02
Philip
And I say that being one example, it changed my life completely when I came back from the temple. How I eat.

01:47:22:02 - 01:47:23:18
Wade
I can't imagine.

01:47:23:20 - 01:47:48:12
Philip
Yeah. And you appreciate every grain of rice that you eat, and you can taste it and, you know, be mindful and present in the moment as opposed to thinking about 90 other things. And just the idea of, I went to the temple. I was going through a lot in my life, and I was able to pretty much remove all other decision making from my life are the biggest decision making I had.

01:47:48:14 - 01:48:07:14
Philip
Which shot am I going to film today for my documentary? Because it's just you wake up at 6 a.m., you get into line, you train for three hours, you go eat quietly. Like I said, after that you clean the temple, you temple duty, you serve food. After that you train for three more hours. The rest six hours of training now and you do more, temple duty.

01:48:07:19 - 01:48:31:21
Philip
And then you train for three more hours after that and meditate and study some Buddhism, if you want, and Chinese. And then you sleep. There's a curfew. There's no on your phone in bed curfew. It's lights out, a sleep curfew. So there was no it. Life was so simple, right? complete removal of all sort of decision making and suffering to the point where you are just focused on training.

01:48:31:21 - 01:48:52:00
Philip
Like when you're doing a form for three hours and you can't move your legs anymore, but you just keep going anyway. You focus only on the form and kind of like staying alive, right? And there's a beautiful simplicity to that that I'll never forget. That's one of the things I brought home with me. So like I said, the interesting thing about rebirth is that we kind of have this personified in Sephiroth.

01:48:52:02 - 01:49:21:23
Philip
Like the it pinnacle of meditation where there's no more conflict, there's no more anything. It's this godly sort of, almost, terrifying simplicity. And then there's no there's no doubt, there's no question. This is his sort of, resoluteness. And it's interesting because. But then you have the flip side, which you, you touched on, not just where you have, Aerith saying like, no, no, no, the the solution is not to destroy all bonds or at the shoreline temple.

01:49:21:28 - 01:49:24:26
Philip
I didn't feel good because I like, called my family said, never talk to me again.

01:49:25:03 - 01:49:26:08
Wade
Yeah.

01:49:26:10 - 01:49:44:07
Philip
This is the bond of suffering. No, no, no, it made me cherish my bonds more. Do you see what I mean? That that simplicity. And like I said, with my love, with Aliyah, it makes me appreciate every moment with her. Right? And, you know, like when Aliyah is, maybe she's feeling sick or something, or she's feeling under the weather.

01:49:44:07 - 01:50:02:19
Philip
I don't go, oh, God, I can make my day hard. I say, no, perfect. I can take care of her. I'm going to make her a meal. I'm going to, whatever. Bring her a tea. I'm going to do this. I'm going to put a blanket on her dessert. I mean, so just you become grateful as opposed to, I don't know, looking for the negativity, right?

01:50:02:21 - 01:50:23:02
Wade
Gosh, you're absolutely right. and I, you know, playing through rebirth and even listening to you now, I'm just reminded again and again whether it's going to Gonzaga and seeing how their kind of isolationist perspectives and returning to the land is a mitigation of suffering. But what at what cost is there? Because there's always a cost. oh yeah.

01:50:23:02 - 01:50:42:23
Wade
And so Cosmos Canyon, in the same way, this place that's the home of planets where they're so close to planet, and yet they've allowed commercialism to kind of step in. And how does that I love that exacerbate it. Right. So many lessons in all of that. But what it all strikes me as is that there's always a counter to it.

01:50:42:23 - 01:51:05:06
Wade
Sephiroth has a point. If you can't be attached to anything, then you can't suffer. But also you're sacrificing joy. You're sacrificing the heights of that. Whereas and you know and you've spoken it completely in your humanity. You've spoken this a couple of times in this interview about, you know, your relationship with Aliyah and, the things that you love in this world, right?

01:51:05:08 - 01:51:24:05
Wade
There is a potential for suffering by those, by having those bonds. And yet that's detrimental for joy far outweighs that. It's a risk reward thing, but you would get neither of them if you just pulled up and said, I'm on my own. Right? It's holding loosely in that attachment.

01:51:24:07 - 01:51:27:12
Philip
It's idea of, you know, because we're mortal.

01:51:27:14 - 01:51:28:01
Wade
Yeah.

01:51:28:03 - 01:51:46:27
Philip
That's what makes the connections meaningful, right? And the way I try to view it, you know, we all have our moments, right? Is that like because it could end literally any second. Like I said, several. Look at some immediate quote and there it could go go way. you know, you want to end every day being like, yeah, I'd be okay if it ended tomorrow.

01:51:46:27 - 01:52:08:20
Philip
Like, I wouldn't be happy about it. I want more, but like, did I take advantage of today? You know, did I cherish it? Did I spend my time meaningfully or it was just kind of going through the motions? Was, I mean, to someone that I shouldn't be someone that I should be loving to like, ask yourself those questions, you know, and really try to, you know, cherish every moment like I as closet cherish everything.

01:52:08:23 - 01:52:31:28
Wade
It's not a thing I don't cherish. I mean, we keep coming back to that. Yeah. And I just, I like I wonder one Evan like I know that you have been taking all of this in, right? Listening to these stories, but when I was in 1997 playing for seven, I'm not sure that I that that moment of. Yeah, cherish every moment in every relationship in life.

01:52:32:02 - 01:52:54:02
Wade
I don't think it hit me in the same ways that maybe it does today. Maybe that's because you too young. But today it's like, okay, if there is no tomorrow and I forget about yesterday, am I just grateful and cherishing today? What a what a powerful lesson for all of us that are always living in need, that the past or the future?

01:52:54:04 - 01:53:08:09
Philip
Yeah, I mean, you should just view it honestly as like today as an entire life. Then tomorrow's a new and like really like, am I happy with what I did today? And you know, you look at yourself sometimes you think about it being like, yeah, I just scrolled on Twitter for 20 minutes and I feel like only bad.

01:53:08:09 - 01:53:09:15
Philip
Like there's no there's no good or.

01:53:09:16 - 01:53:10:15
Wade
Bad, that's all.

01:53:10:18 - 01:53:26:06
Philip
Like really depressing stuff. I don't think it's how I want to spend my last day if this is my life, you know what I mean? So it's. You know, I'm not saying to obsess over it or kind of like, you know, worry about it constantly that the world might end, but, you know, really, really, cherish your life because we are mortal.

01:53:26:06 - 01:53:39:24
Philip
You know, there's probably going to be a time. Yeah. Hopefully not. hopefully there won't be a time where you look back and say like, oh, I wish I had you know, done more with my time or I wish I had, said I was sorry to that person or been more loving to that person or something. So it's something I think about.

01:53:39:24 - 01:54:02:02
Philip
But I mean, seven is so good because it, it, it makes you think about those things in your, your relationships and that the, the richness of, of cloud and Tifa and Barrett and Eris and, and like the scene with Eris and Cloud in the church, the final, the kind of earth goodbye which is, new, but it's the same scene from the forest.

01:54:02:04 - 01:54:05:05
Philip
Right? That's what I said. Like, yeah, it's literally the forest scene, which is a part of it.

01:54:05:05 - 01:54:05:16
Wade
Right?

01:54:05:16 - 01:54:21:04
Philip
20s long. And then Sephiroth comes out into the forest and says, I found you so you could hide here. Earth. What's that? All right, so that's why I say all these worlds are new and stuff. No, it's not I Earth created a dream world where she talked to cloud and said, like I got several. Don't worry about it.

01:54:21:04 - 01:54:50:20
Philip
I want you to. You're going to break if you push yourself anymore, okay? Don't do it. and then stuff comes into this dream creation. That air is made and says, like, hi, I found you. You know, that's exactly what happens in beautiful. Let's, let's have a day where Eris is reliving her date with Zac. It's like the saddest, most depressing thing ever that you wish you could have with cloud, in the midst of which she realizes he's not Zac and there's liking and then there's liking.

01:54:50:23 - 01:55:14:05
Philip
And I love cloud, but I have to let him go because I have to go save the world. Because I'm like this. Yeah, pinnacle character of F7 and I have the coolest first purpose ever. And then she pushes him. MJ Gallagher caught this, by the way. Am I talking with him? Loud falls into the church, to the bed of flowers when he meets Earth and through the bed of flowers in the in the sort of rainbow portal.

01:55:14:05 - 01:55:17:20
Philip
The last, their last goodbye like. Oh, man, it's such beautiful.

01:55:17:20 - 01:55:20:05
Wade
That's good, that's good parody. There. That's good.

01:55:20:08 - 01:55:26:21
Philip
You see what I mean? Like, and this is what I'm tired of the attention to detail in the film, making people watch this and just go like it was ever from the original watch.

01:55:26:22 - 01:55:28:12
Wade
That was pretty or that was different.

01:55:28:14 - 01:55:51:19
Philip
Yeah. It's like, why did they do that? It's, appreciate the if this was a new thing, it'd be a totally different conversation. It's just a comparing it so microscopically to this, to this old version. But yeah, I mean that scene man had so good and like the, the, the intricacies of the relationships between everyone cloud and Barrett more deeply explored the cloud saying, hey, man.

01:55:51:22 - 01:55:52:10
Wade
We're here for.

01:55:52:10 - 01:55:54:11
Philip
You. After dying. We're actually here.

01:55:54:11 - 01:55:55:23
Wade
For a massive.

01:55:55:23 - 01:56:00:10
Philip
Moment for cloud matters. There's not cloud from the first game. The huge character moment.

01:56:00:10 - 01:56:01:13
Wade
Leaps and bounds for him.

01:56:01:13 - 01:56:35:02
Philip
Yeah, I actually I believe you, man. I actually I believe it for once. You son of a gun. It's like this is huge stuff. And then Tifa and Cloud's relationship like the kind of thing seeing it in human performance has been. Yeah. Such, that mod. Right. And this is the kind of the kind of beautiful humanity of cloud, Tifa, Aerith and have those relationships play off of each other and like to see it come to life is like, oh, yeah, this is how humans would actually act in these scenarios where cloud is like, you know, and again, this is what I talked about and I definitely get some got some heat for this from

01:56:35:02 - 01:56:58:27
Philip
certain fans, but it's like the beauty of the Aerith cloud relationship too, is that she realizes in the church, she says, like, there's liking and liking. She doesn't say, I love you, cloud is because think about it. Cloud has Zack, her previous boyfriend, her loves memories mixed in and imprinted on him. She is kind of taking advantage of him.

01:56:58:27 - 01:57:12:01
Philip
If she's going to cash in on that little cash grab and get this, I get this man for her. So he literally thinks he's Zack because of Jenova, right? And the scene where he takes a, like, kind of an icky thing. So again, I'm going to get a lot of, you know, I guess.

01:57:12:04 - 01:57:12:25
Wade
Yeah. But.

01:57:12:27 - 01:57:30:07
Philip
You know, it's it's kind of weird. And I think it's kind of, her taking she was to be like, this is a broken man, first of all, who needs, you know, deep healing and therapy and everything for me to kind of just move in and cash in on Zack 2.0 when. And that's. And he realizes he's not cloud yet.

01:57:30:10 - 01:57:33:22
Philip
That's what he says. Like, I want to meet you. I want to meet you. I want to find you.

01:57:33:26 - 01:57:35:04
Wade
Find. Yeah.

01:57:35:07 - 01:57:50:08
Philip
But it's not there yet. I wish I could. She knows. Even the original. She knows yesterday. Yeah. I wish I could have met him for real, because I love him. But, yeah, it's not meant to be. It's not going to happen. And it's such a beautiful, tragic thing. And this is why people who see it in black and white are just.

01:57:50:08 - 01:58:15:05
Philip
They're missing out, man. Like we say. Oh yeah, cloud loves TFR. He loves Aerith. But they're humans, man. They. And then there's a deep, you know, young man experiencing kind of love for the first time and different people and how it reflects him. And then Tifa has always been there for them. And realizing what that means as a certain part three goes on, what it means to have someone always have your back and always believe in you and put your mind back together.

01:58:15:05 - 01:58:36:24
Philip
And then everything is like this kind of fire that appears in his life and is there and is meaningful. But then, you know, as the story unfolds, you realize, oh no. Zach was her love. And this is what's happening becomes very tragic and complicated. And then her calling is, I have to sacrifice myself essentially to to best Severus because he thinks he won by killing me.

01:58:37:01 - 01:58:42:04
Philip
He actually destroyed himself by killing me. And it's just such beautiful poetry. You know, you talk a lot about rules.

01:58:42:04 - 01:59:03:10
Wade
Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Well, throughout both these games, I just wanted to touch on that. Really, really quickly because, you know, Aerith, all she wants from remake to rebirth especially. She wants connection. I never grew up with friends like that. I wish that I had something like that, tried. So she sees something in cloud, whether she knows it or not.

01:59:03:16 - 01:59:25:24
Wade
Yeah. She's like, there's something about him then draws me to that and it's like, there's a lot of reasons why this isn't right and working, but I'm so glad that in rebirth, she gets that dream sequence. Oh yeah, I finally saying, I want those bonds more than anything in this world because I've never had it. This isn't it.

01:59:25:27 - 01:59:58:22
Wade
This isn't who I'm wanting. And she physically pushes him out. Yeah. And it's sometimes and mean just like I talk about a personal relationship sort of thing. Like what about those moments when what we have cherished or thought we cherished isn't what we thought it was? Yeah. And what are we what do we make? Like you mentioned earlier in the the chat that there was a time in your life when you had to push out your things, to make space to do what you needed to do.

01:59:58:22 - 02:00:02:02
Wade
And what a powerful moment. And then you had a question.

02:00:02:05 - 02:00:27:24
Evan
Well, we talk a lot about perspectives in the game. what camera and whose perspective you're viewing a scene from. Like with Tifa and Aerith, whose perspective we see the story from impacts what we think about it. You talk about perspectives in life, the perspective that you take through mindfulness can shift how you perceive a similar event in your life.

02:00:27:24 - 02:00:49:27
Evan
And so these mindfulness practices applied to our lives and applied to and shown in media, and these stories that we tell have great impact for us. That being said, as we kind of wrap up our discussion, what perspectives and what stories do you think still need to be told to feel like they kind of stick the landing on part three?

02:00:49:29 - 02:01:08:20
Philip
Oh, absolutely. So with the people criticizing, the ending with their who wanted to be more faithful to the original or I guess more exact is is still faithful to, you know, told in the exact same way, not not shifted perspective. yeah. They have to they have to do it now, right? They have to cash in on that, buildup and that suspense for a new player.

02:01:08:20 - 02:01:33:08
Philip
It's. What's going on. Is she dead for us? It's. Oh, it's so interesting that. Yeah, it's an expansion of Advent Children, right? Cloud talks to Zack and Eris in this white void and Advent Children multiple times. We know now that's because he's living in two worlds, man. he entered into that that second world and rebirth when he's talking to Earth.

02:01:33:08 - 02:01:52:28
Philip
And then he clasps his hand at the end when they fight separate. That's that's Earth from the white void. That's who was talking to. And even children. And he's not able to, you know, sort of, be mindful again and be in the present again until the end of Advent Children, when that world closes to him and Earth and Zack go way together.

02:01:53:00 - 02:02:08:17
Philip
Right? And they find peace. And it's like, what a beautiful act. So now when you watch Advent Children, even now, but after part three, like it's going to and I'm pretty sure they're going to again to come back into question, what is it going to be? Change is going to be the same. I think they're going to have that happen probably at the end of part three.

02:02:08:17 - 02:02:13:04
Philip
And I think they probably should have Zack and Iris do that. I think it'd be really nice.

02:02:13:04 - 02:02:28:12
Evan
So some resolution there would help you feel like they stuck. To what other things would help you feel like, okay, we need some resolution on this or they need to show us this or need to make us feel this, or they opened this door. Now it's responsible for them to close it, to really get some closure in this story.

02:02:28:12 - 02:02:32:28
Evan
What are those other things for you that they need to wrap up to really stick the landing?

02:02:33:00 - 02:02:42:25
Philip
I think that Frozen Genova is another big one. I've talked at many length about my several theories and ideas, and it seems like the more has been listener, somebody's been listening and something you've.

02:02:43:01 - 02:02:44:05
Wade
Nailed a lot of them.

02:02:44:07 - 02:03:01:05
Philip
With whatever crisis goes home with the mass murderer. But, and I've talked about that enough, but I think I would love to see them have a finality to set for us. We absolutely need it. otherwise, you have to kind of do a sequel after they're just Cerberus and it doesn't. Yeah, it's too much of a gap for 20 years.

02:03:01:05 - 02:03:15:16
Philip
Complicated, too much. So I would love to see. And this is what this is why I say it's the same story, but a revised story, right? I don't suspect it's going to be, you know, at the end, there's the the flash of the characters and you think the world over. I would love to see a finality, just have Ross character.

02:03:15:18 - 02:03:33:13
Philip
And for that to happen, I need several to have some character moments because as it stands now. So for us, will never appear again in part three, after the, northern crater where he's in the crystal and he kind of goes in his mind and I don't believe he speaks ever again. having played a reason that. Correct me if I'm wrong, chap.

02:03:33:15 - 02:03:51:24
Philip
until he, you see him at the end doesn't speak, just floats there. Obviously you find him. It was in the clouds. Mine doesn't speak, and then he dies. So I would love, so rather have more character turns. And every crisis is, is creating a lot of interesting opportunity for this. And I talked about this a little bit.

02:03:51:24 - 02:04:10:23
Philip
I personally would love several to have his own live stream sequence, not in the vein of cloud with healing, but kind of the opposite, where he's kind of because we've already seen him floating around the live stream is where he is actually. Yeah. And he's kind of rebuilding his body. I would love for him to kind of reflect on his life, think about Genesis, think about and let's see some meaningful stuff.

02:04:10:23 - 02:04:31:18
Philip
Use the ever present. They're amazing. Yeah, the CG ones of him. When you have the wing that's made out of clouds and stuff, right. High art stuff. Right. and then we, we, we get to the point where Jenova is complete at the end of FF7 remakes, a song called it, but all of herself, the reunion come back together and Jenova is theoretically alive again.

02:04:31:18 - 02:04:52:01
Philip
And, you know, moving around and speaking. Does she speak? We don't know. I would love to see it. Sephiroth, think of the character opportunity. What is the most compelling moments of Rosaura, in my opinion, is when he is in the behind and he sees Jenova in the room and he says, mother, what can I take back? I fly to and it's just eerie, uncomfortable.

02:04:52:01 - 02:05:12:27
Philip
But, you know, engaging things like, what is this relationship, this twisted, horrifying relationship with him and Jenova? Relationship with Jenova is complete. She wakes up and talks. All right, all right. Has an opportunity there. Does does she denounce him and say you're nothing but an insect? I you're just another garbage person from this planet. I don't care about.

02:05:13:00 - 02:05:29:09
Philip
And then he kills her. Whoa. And then takes all of her power for himself. I don't know why I'm in focus. Yeah, and then after that, Or does he. Does she wake up and say, yes, my son, embrace him. Creepy thing. Like, there's so much opportunity there. And, man, I would hate to not explore it. Right.

02:05:29:09 - 02:05:29:17
Philip
It's just.

02:05:29:17 - 02:05:49:18
Wade
Sitting there. I honestly hope that is how part three opens, that we get the flashback of Frost, and maybe in the live stream, but I like I want to know that's the making of the villain. And you can make it this tutorial, right? Like let's let's see it like that. We had clouds flashback. Let's do sapphire arts, I think.

02:05:49:24 - 02:05:50:07
Wade
Hazing.

02:05:50:11 - 02:05:52:00
Philip
Can you imagine it? Yeah, it's just so.

02:05:52:00 - 02:05:53:00
Wade
Oh man, I'm.

02:05:53:02 - 02:05:53:29
Evan
Getting excited.

02:05:53:29 - 02:05:55:03
Philip
So much.

02:05:55:05 - 02:05:56:01
Wade
It'd be awesome.

02:05:56:04 - 02:05:56:24
Evan
It's I mean.

02:05:56:25 - 02:06:03:06
Philip
It's it's just I mean, I got a million other things that I want to land up at the next time I want to land, but, I mean.

02:06:03:06 - 02:06:05:01
Wade
We have three years.

02:06:05:04 - 02:06:19:24
Philip
Yeah, there's no rush, but I guess, yeah, I gameplay. I have no worries. I get to play. I already said they got the high wind up and running. You're going to be probably, oh, hiding Shinra troops in their dogfight. I can't wait for it. I'm not worried about that at all. And they already said it's going to be one explorable world that we land anywhere.

02:06:19:24 - 02:06:21:26
Philip
Like. That's pretty much all I have gotten.

02:06:21:28 - 02:06:22:28
Evan
Crazy.

02:06:23:00 - 02:06:26:05
Philip
Yes, add a jump button or I'm going to, you know, come you though.

02:06:26:07 - 02:06:28:09
Wade
I know like I need the jump button but.

02:06:28:10 - 02:06:28:19
Philip
Yeah.

02:06:28:19 - 02:06:33:11
Wade
But as long as I don't make it, the action button as well, like they did Final Fantasy 15.

02:06:33:13 - 02:06:51:03
Philip
Exactly. Or, you know, make make the action button. The jump button. Right. It's not that big. It I just like, you know, and anyway, I could talk about it all day. The character moments. I'm not we're not there now. I after seeing, like, the church scene. What they're like the care that Nomura everything put into Eric's character.

02:06:51:03 - 02:07:08:16
Philip
Because you got to remember it. Rebirth is Eric's big moment. It's her biggest. She's going to be in it clearly, because, you know, there have been children like cloud hallucinating and seeing and subscribing. But that's her moment, man. That's her big moment until the end when she, you know, calls the live stream. That's that's her thing. And I suspect they'll expand on it.

02:07:08:16 - 02:07:25:23
Philip
But, you know, the next game is going to be very much like other characters moments. obviously different like, leads the party at one point and takes care of this huge Tifa moment, huge Sid moment. He's going to leave the party for a bit too, and it's just like there's so much that has to happen. We played it, in tandem with rebirth.

02:07:25:26 - 02:07:30:23
Philip
You know, we played the original. We're like, part three is kind of. It. Can't get you in like, it's.

02:07:30:25 - 02:07:32:04
Wade
A massive pain.

02:07:32:07 - 02:07:32:24
Philip
How much?

02:07:32:26 - 02:07:49:21
Wade
It reminds me a little bit of, It could be like us going and finding all of her friends. That is kind of tough. on the high end with Sid finding her, finding her friends and finding the world again in cloud.

02:07:49:23 - 02:08:11:00
Philip
Absolutely, man. And I mean the live stream secret, I. I believe what they did with the Earth. Farewell. What they did with some of the other scenes I think we're all going to be it's going to be like a brutal gaming what they do with the loot, because it's already like with the old graphics and emotional roller coast and just one of the most profound scenes in gaming history.

02:08:11:00 - 02:08:28:13
Philip
Everybody, you know, pretty much everybody agrees with that. it's going to be special. It's going to be really amazing. And we'll probably have, you know, I suspect we'll either have the Aerith revelation in the livestream sequence where she's like, let's let's face the reality together, cloud. We have to accept this. This is what happened. She died and you couldn't save her.

02:08:28:15 - 02:08:41:23
Philip
Or, Sephiroth fully breaks cloud with that information at the northern crater, and he says, like, that's when cloud is completely like, oh, you have. Please give me a number. You know, it's going to drive him to just lose his mind. So one of them goes.

02:08:41:23 - 02:09:02:02
Wade
Back and forth on that. And I think that the crater is probably going to be it, because it's like, yeah, it would just be sadistic to be like, you think this is what happened. And then because, like, you know, he doesn't that they do it with the photograph. Right. in the original game of like I'm not going to be in that photograph is going to be some depiction that set for all this created.

02:09:02:02 - 02:09:13:18
Wade
And Tifa has to confirm. No, that's actually what it was for Sephiroth to say. Oh, you think that's what happened with Aerith? Tifa? What happened? And then for to be able to share.

02:09:13:20 - 02:09:17:15
Philip
Like she's already shown she's just depressed to the like she's horrified.

02:09:17:17 - 02:09:25:10
Wade
Yeah, yeah, like got her. Her bloody hand was on your cheek because you were holding it there, cloud. I mean, that's the sort of.

02:09:25:12 - 02:09:31:19
Philip
Wrath cloud and remake when he first meets Aerith, he appears and he says, you can't save anyone, remember?

02:09:31:21 - 02:09:32:20
Wade
Oh, yeah.

02:09:32:27 - 02:09:48:19
Philip
He's gonna say, I told you, you can save me. Why don't you believe me? It's okay. That's why I'm here to help you. I told you, it's all right. You don't save anyone. She's dead. Oh, man. It's gonna be sadistic. And it's just set up so well. So I picture. And then still some, like, you know, sort of, revisiting of it in the livestream.

02:09:48:19 - 02:10:06:09
Philip
It's more of like I'm an acceptance standpoint, but, it's tough, though, because, you know, there's a power in Aerith not appearing until the end because the loss of her and kind of feeling that echo throughout, it's like, well, she's just gone to die. And then at the end being like, she's still well, there's a really profound thing, so I like that.

02:10:06:11 - 02:10:21:04
Philip
However, it's also really cool to have the Advent Children sort of echo with like the the dream world of seeing Zack and Aaron, so I can see either one working, but I'm telling him I trust him on the story, like whichever that is so well told from from.

02:10:21:05 - 02:10:37:15
Wade
They haven't given us a reason to not trust them, especially after rebirth. I think after remake, everybody was like, I'm not really sure about these whispers. Like, gosh, where are we going? But with rebirth, it's like, you get these characters, you get the story. And so we'll see what you do because totally.

02:10:37:15 - 02:10:45:27
Philip
And listen, I think the only criticism I have of rebirth was really just the, the, sometimes when they go wacky, they go a little bit too far, like the.

02:10:46:02 - 02:10:47:12
Wade
Wacky, but.

02:10:47:14 - 02:10:57:07
Philip
Like, I love the wacky stuff, trust me, but I do. the only time because I was just so engaged in the story was, when you fight Don Cornelia. Right? And it's like.

02:10:57:10 - 02:10:58:12
Wade
Yeah, I hate that guy.

02:10:58:13 - 02:11:16:00
Philip
Like, he's he's not even that funny because he's just like, oh, yeah. He's like, you know, an assaulter of women, like he's evil. It's not funny. Like, you know, like, I don't need to fight my phases and, you know, all this stuff. I'd rather just focus on the main story. But the good thing is, when they do Island on the serious stuff.

02:11:16:01 - 02:11:30:10
Philip
Okay, we got a four hour movie, of the last few chapters of it's Goodbye. Like they dial in on and they deliver. So it's not really something to worry about. it's not like a wacky moment is going to spoil the ending or something. So, I don't really think it's anything to worry about. I mean, I said the same thing.

02:11:30:10 - 02:11:34:23
Philip
The remake ended. I said, why are you doubting them? All the scenes were beautifully done.

02:11:34:24 - 02:11:36:03
Wade
They were amazing with just.

02:11:36:04 - 02:11:53:06
Philip
The new one that made you go, what's the next game going to be? Turns out it was the same exact story, right? So why are we questioning again? I suspect the ending will be a little bit, improved is the word I'll use, but yeah, it's not going to be like. And then, you know, Vincent, I don't know, like, married, Tifa.

02:11:53:06 - 02:11:56:25
Philip
And then that's not going to be, like, completely different. Nonsensical.

02:11:56:27 - 02:11:59:08
Evan
So that's something we've never heard before.

02:11:59:12 - 02:12:01:07
Wade
Yeah, exactly.

02:12:01:10 - 02:12:18:08
Philip
It's perfect. Yeah, I feel like that's what a lot of people are acting like. It's going to be completely chaotic, you know? nonsense. so I don't suspect it personally. I suspect they'll stick to the same. And I would also love to see them include more of the compilation, like dirge. Cerberus. We got the. We got, deep ground in there.

02:12:18:11 - 02:12:19:14
Wade
Near owned by.

02:12:19:16 - 02:12:36:03
Philip
The freaking land. War at the end was done. Bring them out. Let's bring them out and have them die. Like, whatever. It's a revision of all the compilation, not just love seven. Let's have those characters spells. Have you forget revenge on Nero? Let's have, Vincent fight. what's his name? vice. Let's have it. I'll have to do it all.

02:12:36:03 - 02:12:44:00
Philip
That is it. Let's have it all included. And then Genesis is a whole other conversation. But yeah, I love this flashback stuff.

02:12:44:05 - 02:12:48:20
Wade
So curious where Genesis is going to fit in with all of that. I said.

02:12:48:26 - 02:13:07:06
Philip
He comes in in the set for our livestream sequence that. Yeah, like he shows up and he's kind of like they're almost, Let me help you, old friend. Like, I know works for the goddess Minerva is actually, you know, I'm, Hey, why not stop this man? And then I would love it if stuff Roth like destroys him.

02:13:07:09 - 02:13:14:12
Philip
I think that'd be awesome. Like. And I think it'd be pretty cool to, like, fully sacrifice his humanity and his connections for a lot of his friendships.

02:13:14:15 - 02:13:19:28
Wade
For a lot of people, that would be a redemption arc of Sephiroth for him to do this like that.

02:13:20:00 - 02:13:35:14
Philip
And then imagine if Genesis is kind of like in and out a little bit, but then at the end is that for us, like kills him? Maybe Genesis trying to help us. There's nothing that's ever destroyed. There's a lot of cool you. But for me, I want Sephiroth character moments. I want character transform not just until the end.

02:13:35:14 - 02:13:38:06
Philip
And then at the end he goes like, yeah, you guys, that's it. Like, it's the only kind of.

02:13:38:06 - 02:14:06:05
Wade
And I think you're right. I think the only way we can get that is through flashbacks, because he is not in his faculties in that entirely, post the Jenova stuff. So what is it about him that people really cherished again, before suffering did take over and numbed them to everything? So yeah, what a conversation, Phil. I feel like we could keep going forever, and, we're going to have to go back on.

02:14:06:07 - 02:14:24:19
Wade
Yeah. Because this is this is amazing. You always bring such great insights. But the wells are deep with you. And I love for us to be able to, just kind of have some of that. That's so great. So thank you so much for sharing your time. What do you have coming up next and where can people find you?

02:14:24:22 - 02:14:25:25
Wade
Well.

02:14:25:28 - 02:14:34:23
Philip
We've been working on our couple channels a lot at the end of the year. So since we were both on, why don't you, check out our Filipino YouTube channel and our Instagram page at the same way?

02:14:34:28 - 02:14:36:29
Wade
What can we expect from the couple's channel?

02:14:36:29 - 02:14:38:21
Evan
Yeah, what is a couples channel?

02:14:38:24 - 02:14:42:07
Wade
I have a lot of friends. I get one.

02:14:42:09 - 02:14:58:01
Philip
As you know. Yeah, yeah, a good one as as we know, as you guys know, we do a lot together. we cosplay together, we travel a lot, we make art together, we draw, we write whatever it is. So we decided, why don't we just put this all in one spot instead of it being, like, randomly, I said, my channel, her channel or whatever.

02:14:58:03 - 02:15:17:21
Philip
So we just found a place where we could almost for like, keeping it organized for ourselves, idea. We could do it. We just started dumping it there and then, it's doing really well. People are enjoying it. So we have, more sort of engagement activities coming up. wedding planning leading into our, our wedding celebration.

02:15:17:21 - 02:15:29:09
Philip
So get ready for that. and of course, the proposal, if you got if you didn't get a chance to see my proposal, we were featured on Good Morning America talking about it. You can see that on our couple's, pages and channels as well. And there will be.

02:15:29:09 - 02:15:30:28
Wade
A call this.

02:15:31:01 - 02:15:45:02
Philip
Yeah. beyond that, Ellie is always doing her thing, you know, check her out on Twitch. she's she's a fantastic artist. Streamer, voice actor too. She's amazing. vocalists, which you may hear sing soon on Twitch for the first time.

02:15:45:02 - 02:15:50:29
Wade
Oh, wow. Okay, I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised because y'all do literally everything, so.

02:15:51:02 - 02:16:07:23
Philip
Yeah, you might have. Stay tuned for her promises to keep cover. but yeah. So get ready. But yeah, we're always having fun, man. as far as me, you can still listen to my my art analysis if you want about Final Fantasy another titles, over on my YouTube channels. And yeah, you can find us anywhere. We're all over the place.

02:16:07:23 - 02:16:21:07
Philip
But it's such a pleasure to be here. I really appreciate you guys having us on. Thank you. And being so kind. And it was a pleasure to get to talk to you like like this. We've we've had the chance to talk about taxes finally for a while. And it was yeah. Down again and discuss everything.

02:16:21:09 - 02:16:46:01
Wade
Absolutely. Well again that cannot thank you enough. everybody go like and subscribe to Phil and Leah and all of their channels. and you can find those in our description just below. thank you so much for watching everybody. And stay tuned because we're not done yet. We have more of the Final Fantasy seven rebirth lecture series coming up, including more interviews, as well as lecture plays and, video essays.

02:16:46:01 - 02:16:51:16
Wade
Coming soon. We'll see you soon. And until next time, tall and let's mosey.

02:16:51:18 - 02:16:52:24
Evan
Bye bye, everybody.

02:17:18:08 - 02:17:43:16
Speaker 1
Thanks to Philadelphia for that awesome interview. Thanks for taking the time to be with us. Thanks to Husky by the Geek for our theme music. We love it and thanks to Nick Smith for our graphics. Enjoy your time out there! As a single father, you're doing great and most of all thanks to you viewer. This show is brought to you by viewers like you and we really appreciate you.

02:17:43:19 - 02:17:46:22
Speaker 1
Hope everything is going great in your life. We'll see you next episode.