The cast of Final Fantasy VII are among the most beloved and iconic characters in video game history. Cloud and Sephiroth are such a legendary pair that both of them made it in Smash Bros! Zack had roughly ten minutes of screen time in the original, and he was popular enough to get his own prequel game! People who have never even played an FF game know who Aerith is and what happens to her. Tifa even made it into an Italian senate meeting!
Two years later and I still can’t believe that actually happened. What a time to be alive.
*Source: Italian Senate Accidentally Plays 30 Seconds of Inappropriate Tifa Lockhart Video (The Gamer, By Sean Murray)
But with all the badass SOLDIERs and pretty waifus and vampires, some members of the cast don’t often get the attention that they deserve. One in particular. The gun-armed leader of AVALANCHE himself: Barret Wallace.
In both the original game and Remake, Barret is the first party member to accompany Cloud. But that doesn’t mean the two are buddy-buddy. Unsurprisingly, the leader of the anti-Shinra terrorist cell doesn’t get along with the former-Shinra SOLDIER-boy.
Even if you haven’t played any FFVII game before, you can see where this is going already. The two butt heads with each other for a while, then learn to work together and respect one another. A simple arc, but not a bad one by any means. Cloud and Barret still make for a great pair; their banter is one of the best parts of Remake from beginning to end.
Little did I know at the time that this was actually clever foreshadowing for Barret’s real character arc. But we’ll get to that.
First, we gotta establish who Barret actually is. In terms of personality, he’s loud, boisterous, and easily excited. While he hates Shinra with every bone in his body, he has nothing to share with his friends and family but love and affection. Especially with his adopted daughter, Marlene. The guy is essentially one great big teddy bear.
With a gun for an arm. Because even the friendliest bears have claws.
While Barret has good intentions – protect his family, save the planet, destroy the evil megacorporation, so on and so forth – his methods leave much to be desired. There’s the obvious flaw: it’s terrorism. But then there’s the less obvious flaw: it’s makes for easy Shinra manipulation. In his efforts to destroy the megacorporation, Barret inadvertently helps them increase their power and influence. His heart is in the right place, but his fist is not.
This leads to one of the game’s most important moments: the dropping of the Sector 7 plate. In the original game, it leads to the deaths of every member of AVALANCHE. In the remake, it’s just Jesse (and Biggs, I guess, but Barret doesn’t know that), but the point of the scene is still the same. In one fell swoop, Shinra takes everything Barret has. Everything except his daughter, thanks to Aerith.
Seeing what this event does to Barret is nothing short of gut-wrenching. Up until that point in both the original and Remake, Barret has always been loud, confident, and full of life. Watching a man that large (metaphorically and literally) completely crumble into tears and despair is heartbreaking.
Having been thoroughly humbled, Barret takes a bit of a backseat for a while and lets Cloud take charge. Even so, he still gets some pretty sweet gameplay moments, like his battle with the Hundred Gunner. He even gets a little mini-arc wherein he repays Aerith for saving Marlene. Even when he’s not standing center stage, he’s great!
It isn’t until the party crosses the sea and returns to Barret’s hometown, North Corel, that the spotlight shines on him again. Here, in the ruins beneath the Gold Saucer, the boisterous bear falls strangely quiet. When the party comes across the townsfolk, Barret stands silently as they berate and degrade him. Whatever he did to earn their ire, Barret clearly believes he deserves it, and so he takes it without any complaint or objection, hanging his head in shame. In this sequence, the mysteries surrounding the character are finally unraveled. His hatred of Shinra, his family situation, even his arm.
Once, North Corel had been a coal mine. In an effort to better the lives of those around him, Barret voted in favor of Shinra building a new Mako reactor in the area. When said reactor melts down and is destroyed, the company blamed the townsfolk, suspecting foul play. And so they burned it to the ground and killed everyone inside.
During the chaos, Barret and his friend Dyne were ambushed by Shinra troopers. They’re both shot, and Dyne supposedly died while Barret lost his arm. Once the bloodshed ended, he returned to the wreckage to find Dyne’s then infant daughter, Marlene, had survived. Out of love for his friend and guilt for the town’s destruction, Barret took the girl in and raised her as his own, showering her with love while fanning his new smoldering hatred for Shinra.
Why is this important? Because when shortly after returning to Corel, Cloud and the party are thrown into Corel Prison under suspicion of murder. The true culprit: a man with a gun for an arm. Not Barret. Dyne.
Upon learning his friend was still alive, Barret was naturally eager to see him again. But the man you meet in the game is very different from the one we saw in Barret’s flashback. He doesn’t stop at hating Shinra; he hates the whole world, Barret and Marlene included. Thus, Barret has no choice but to put his oldest friend down himself.
Note how Barret’s past is a reflection of his arc at the start of the game. In both cases, Barret’s actions lead to the destruction of his home and the deaths of those close to him. His relationship with Dyne is a clever inversion of his relationship with Cloud. After losing Corel, Dyne became a monster that Barret would have to put down. After losing AVALANCHE, Cloud, the former Shinra employee, drew closer to Barret. Where once he lost a friend, he then gained one.
Final Fantasy VII is a game all about loss and grief. Each member of the party has had something precious taken away from them. For Cid, it was his dream. For Yuffie, her homeland’s freedom. For Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith, it was their parents. For Barret, it was his friend.
After the Corel section, however, Barret takes a backseat for the majority of the story. Aside from a few short sequences, like the Shinra execution, you’re never required to keep him in your party again. When Cloud is gone, he doesn’t even take charge of the party; Cid does.
Granted, considering his history with leadership, that’s probably for the best.
Barret is the complete package. A cool design. A gruff exterior concealing a gentle soul. An interesting and tragic backstory that plays spectacularly into the game’s themes of loss. I loved him from the instant I met him back in my first playthrough, and I only love him now more than ever.
Especially after Remake. Not only did they perfectly translate his arc from the Midgar section, they also gave him an extra little arc centered around Marlene. When faced with Sephiroth and his world-ending schemes, the big bear has to make a choice: does he stay with his daughter as he wants to, or does he go with Cloud and the others to do what he promised to do? That moment where he promises to come back before going after Sephiroth is one of my favorite scenes from that game!
Here’s hoping Rebirth can manage that magic again. If Corel doesn’t get the same love and care as the Nibelheim flashback inevitably will, I’m gonna be big mad. Don’t you go playing favorites with Cloud and Tifa, Square!
Also please keep the Costa del Sol scene of Barret admiring himself in the silly sailor uniform, please and thank you.
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