Crescent

"I'm so sorry... But I'm so happy you survived."

I was originally going to give the lovely Lucrecia her own mini-tribute, but after some reflection I decided that it would be difficult to write both Even in Distance and a Lucrecia site without repeating a lot of the content. After all, what little we know of Lucrecia is tightly intertwined with her relationship with Vincent; it's hard to separate the two.

Lucrecia was and still is the most important person in Vincent's life. She changed him -- for better or for worse -- and nearly everything we know about him can be traced back to her, or his relationship with her. Whether she loved him is debatable, but it's clear that he adored her, to the point he'd give his life and more for her sake.

Who is Lucrecia? Although she first appeared in FFVII, we never found out much about her, save that she was a Shinra scientist working on the Jenova Project, the mother of Sephiroth, and the object of Vincent's affections. We never even learned what she looked like, beyond that blocky little PSX model. Thankfully, Dirge of Cerberus shed a lot of light on these mysteries.

Lucrecia was extremely dedicated to her scientific studies, but her intelligence and passion for discovery was offset by her recklessness. She was enthusiastic to a fault -- when her colleagues shot down her thesis, all it did was make her want to do was prove them wrong at all costs. As a result, she indirectly caused Grimoire Valentine's death, an event which would come to have a catastrophic impact on her relationship with Vincent. Her guilt overwhelmed her; she cut off Vincent from her life and ran to Hojo, hoping to ease her bruised conscience. Her reckless, emotionally-driven decision cost her heavily.

When her personal tragedies were too much for her to handle, she gave up. Believing herself to be absolutely worthless, she sealed herself away from the world -- her alternative to the suicide she could not commit. She lived flawed, she died flawed. Only many years later did she finally try to seek forgiveness from Vincent in order to bring peace to both their hearts.

Lucrecia, quite bluntly, was not a strong female character. Fans tend to favor certain female characters because they embody some kind of positive trait, whether that is a kickass 'tude, an independent personality, or a caring spirit. And why not? A strong female character is a refreshing change from the damsel-in-distress norm. Even if said female character is a damsel-in-distress, she usually makes up for it by having some other kind of admirable quality. Aerith is a perfect example.

On the other hand, Lucrecia never had an obvious redeeming characteristic; she didn't even let Vincent save her because she was so afraid of her mistakes. She didn't find salvation at the last moment, deus ex machina. She made bad decisions in her life, ran away from them, and took the easy way out when she saw no more hope. Unlike the majority of tragic video game characters, male or female, she had a bad ending and that's all there was to it. No last-minute confessions of love, no showy display of martyrdom. Ultimately, it was all for herself.

Maybe that's why I happen to find her and her relationship with Vincent so interesting. Lucrecia was far from being a saint in any sense of the word, and I say that with all due respect. She was much like a real person in that she had her downfalls, and like many real people, suffered from them.

It saddens me to see the legions of FFVII fans bash her. It's probably for the same reasons that many female fans have for bashing female characters in games/anime, especially if those ladies are the love interests of attractive male characters. A real shame, since DoC did such a wonderful job of fleshing out the complexities in Lucrecia's character. She was made a tragic and beautiful woman, full of flaws that I can safely assume would not be so hated in a male character. She isn't a skank or whore just because she dumped Vincent. He did love her for a reason, after all.

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