Sector 5 slums church

The Sector 5 slums church is a location in the Final Fantasy VII series. A deserted church located in Sanctuary Way of the Sector 5 slums, Aerith Gainsborough has succeeded in growing flowers here, a remarkable feat considering the local mako reactors leave the soil barren. Flowers also grow near Aerith's house, so the church is not the only place in the slums where soil is fertile.
== History ==
=== Before Final Fantasy VII ===
==== Early history ====
The origins and history of the Sector 5 slums church are largely unknown. At one point, people would come to the church to pray to God, when religion was popular, but the church became abandoned after they lost faith.
An early test model for Shinra's space rocket, the Shinra No. 26, crashed into the church. Cid Highwind was relieved to hear later that it had not blown up.
==== Zack's arrival ====
In April 0001, depicted in chapter 4 of Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Zack Fair fell through the roof of the church from Mako Reactor 5 on the upper plate. He awoke and met Aerith, asking to repay her with one date for saving him, although Aerith was puzzled as she had done nothing but call out to him until he came to.
Zack continued to come to visit Aerith in the church to spend time with her; in chapter 5, Zack returned himself to find Tseng waiting for him there, telling him that he was watching Aerith also, and recruiting Zack for a mission in Modeoheim. After Zack's mentor, Angeal Hewley, passed away, a devastated Zack is comforted by Aerith in the church.
During chapter 7, Zack and Aerith witnessed an Angeal copy, a winged wolf-creature, in the church defending the duo from Shinra Electric Power Company's battle robots. Deeming the creature not dangerous, Aerith and Zack let it rest in the church.
==== Kidnapping Aerith ====
In August 9 0002, depicted in "The Dash to Freedom" in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, Avalanche attempted to kidnap Aerith after learning she was a Cetra descendant, causing the Turks to send the Player Turk to protect her.
The Avalanche commander, Shears took Aerith to the church where Fuhito and Elfe awaited, and they attempted to convince Aerith to divulge the location of the promised land. After Shears noticed the player Turk eavesdropping, Aerith prevented Shears from killing the Turk, wanting to defend her flower bed from harm. As the Player Turk and Aerith left the church, Tseng arrived in another attempt to convince her to work with Shinra. Misunderstanding, the Player Turk prevented Tseng from seeing Aerith as she ran back home.
=== Original continuity ===
==== Cloud's arrival ====
In 0007, depicted in "The Woman at the Church" in Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife fell from Mako Reactor 5 down into the church and was found by Aerith, who noted on Cloud's similarities with Zack. When Reno, a member of the Turks leading a group of Shinra soldiers, attempted to kidnap Aerith, she requested Cloud be her bodyguard, in exchange for one date with her. The pair exited through the roof as Reno failed to capture Aerith.
In Aerith's absence, two children took care of the flowers. Upon the party's return to Midgar following finding the key to Sector 5 at the Bone Village, a "ghost" of Aerith was present, but disappeared when approached.
==== Geostigma crisis ====
In 0009, in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the church served a pivotal role in curing the Geostigma disease. Even after Aerith's death, the flowers continued blooming thanks to the lifestream flowing beneath the flower bed. Cloud stayed at the church during his exile to search for forgiveness, and stored materia in a chest in the church for some time before this.
Tifa Lockhart engaged Loz in the church when she and Marlene Wallace encountered him there, looking for Cloud. Tifa is defeated, and Cloud later found her lying unconscious on the flower bed. Later, Aerith's Great Gospel was activated in the church during Cloud's battle with Kadaj, curing Cloud's geostigma.
Cloud demonstrated the healing powers of the water pooled in the church by curing Denzel of his Geostigma in a baptismal-like ceremony, after which several other children jump into the pool. Cloud saw a vision of Aerith crouching by some other children, similar to the aforementioned ghost. As she walked to the doorway, she turned back to Cloud, and stepped into a white light with Zack.
=== Remake continuity ===
In "Budding Bodyguard" in Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cloud awoke in the Sector 5 slums church around six hours after he had fallen from the reactor. He was awoken by Aerith as the two spoke briefly, only to be interrupted by Reno. There, Aerith asked Cloud to be her bodyguard, offering one date in return. Cloud fought Reno and attempted to kill him, but he and Aerith were whisked away from the church by Whispers. They then left through the rooftops.
Later, in "In Search of Hope", Cloud, Tifa, and Barret Wallace came to the church for odd jobs. In "Tomboy Bandit", they found Kyrie Canaan there, who confessed she was in trouble at the Corneo Colosseum. After the three fought Kyrie's fight for her, they returned to the church as her grandmother, Mireille returned to thank them for protecting Kyrie.
== Geography==
The Sector 5 church is located in Sanctuary Way of the Sector 5 slums, in an area surrounded by rubble, construction material, and apparently abandoned shanty houses. It resembles a Catholic church, and—unusually for Midgar—flowers grow under the broken floorboards in the chapel thanks to a hole in the roof that lets in light and rain.
The chapel, the main room of the church, has rows of benches leading towards the flowers in the center. At the back of the church is a staircase up to the pillars by the ceiling, though the back is also largely in ruin due to a crash of what appears to be a rocket through the ceiling. The attic has several pillars at the top, with a path through the hole in the roof. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, the attic is filled with stockpiles of items: boxes, plastic containers, and bottles.
In an optional dialogue sequence with Cid in Final Fantasy VII (if spoken to onboard the Highwind after Diamond Weapon emerges and begins charging toward Midgar), he says, "That reminds me of a test rocket that landed in the Midgar Slums long ago. I remember how relieved I was when I heard it never blew up." The crashed rocket in the church is most likely the rocket that Cid was referring to.
In both the original Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, the church appears to be built near Midgar's exterior walls, facing the center of the city, but doesn't seem to be anywhere near the base of mako reactor 5 though Cloud falls into the church from there. Furthermore, in Crisis Core and Final Fantasy VII Remake, the church faces away from the center of Midgar, and appears to be located even farther from the reactor, since the Sector 5 plate's pillar can be clearly seen from the outside.
==Religion==
Though it is not known which religion the church is part of, the church is known to be dedicated to God. Believers prayed to and worshipped God there. Believers used prayer as a way of letting the dead know they were thinking of them, and sometimes believers would feel a surge of strength after prayer. One believer was Faz Hicks, who prayed at the church after losing Ifalna and Aerith hoping to find them again.
Though the religion's affinity to planetology and the Cetra is unclear, Ifalna, a Cetra, once stated that God exists for "those who believe", and compared those who prayed at the church with how the Cetra communicated with the planet. Similarly, believers using prayer as a means of communicating with the dead is similar to planetology's belief that people's spirits returned to the planet after death.
The architecture's resemblance, and the fact that the church is devoted to a monotheistic religion with a deity simply named God, suggests the church is based on Christian churches. In addition to the religion that the Sector 5 slums church belongs to, prior to Shinra's rise, a polytheistic religion existed that believed gods judged people on how they lived their life and that they went to heaven and hell after death; though heaven and hell are also core tenants of Christianity, the polytheism suggests that this is a different religion from the one the Sector 5 slums church belongs to.
==Gameplay==
===Final Fantasy VII===
The Church in the Slums area is visited during the chapter "The Woman at the Church" after Cloud crashes in from the No. 5 Reactor. Here, Cloud meets Aeris, and the two must escape from the Turks. The quest to escape involves a minigame in which Cloud must push barrels to defeat enemies, or Aeris must fight them.
===Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-===
A boss battle is fought in the church during the episode.
BCAVALANCHEChurch.jpg|Avalanche commanders talk to Aerith in Before Crisis.
VIIBC Sector 5 Church 1.png|Church rafters in Before Crisis.
VIIBC Sector 5 Church 2.png|The church in Before Crisis.
VIIBC Sector 5 Church Battle.png|Sector 5 Church battle in Before Crisis.
VIIBC Sector 5 Church Battle 2.png|Sector 5 Church battle in Before Crisis.
===Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-===
The Sector 5 slums church is first visited in chapter 5. It can be revisited from then on, and in chapter 7, Zack can return to complete an optional quest for Aerith to build flower carts for her.
Sector5Church-ccvii.png|The church in Crisis Core.
VIICC Sector 5 Slums Church.jpg|The church in Crisis Core.
Sector 5 Slums - Church Entrance from CCVIIR.png|The exterior in Crisis Core Reunion.
===Final Fantasy VII Remake===
The Sector 5 Slums - Church area is part of the Sector 5 Slums field, and is first visited in "Second Chance Meeting" during Chapter 8, "Budding Bodyguard." It is later visited during a few sidequests in Chapter 14, "In Search of Hope."
During "Budding Bodyguard," the gameplay is slightly different from the original Final Fantasy VII in that a Reno boss battle with only Cloud Strife takes place. After this, gameplay to escape the church is similar, and Cloud is able to cut down a chandelier from the ceiling in reference to the barrel minigame from the original, though Aerith Gainsborough does not yet join the party. The player can find a when returning here, and Medicinal Flowers for a quest in Chapter 14.
==Musical themes==
The music that plays in Final Fantasy VII is titled "Flowers Blooming in the Church" , and is an arrangement of "Aerith's Theme". Both the original and Remake versions of this theme are included on the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Vinyl.
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- has an entirely new arrangement, titled "Burden to Bear".
During the ending of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which takes place in the church, the song "Cloud Smiles" plays.
==Other appearances==
===Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call===
The church's flower field from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children appears as a background in a Field Music Sequence for "Cloud Smiles" from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and "A Flower Blooming in the Slums (from FFVII "Aerith's Theme")" for Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
It also appears as a battle background in a Battle Music Sequence.
Aerith's Flower Field.png|Field Music Sequence.
Sector 5 Church.png|Battle Music Sequence.
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
FFAB Church FFVII.png|
FFAB Sector 5 Church FFVII.png|
==Behind the scenes==
===Development===
In Final Fantasy VII Remake, before talking to Aerith and triggering Reno to appear, it is possible to hear a line from Reno by moving near the church exit. The line is a reference to the original game, and its inclusion was proposed by developers working on the location as a nod to the originalShanley, Wigler 2020 In "Episode INTERmission", when Zack visits the church to find it filled with refugees, the people in the church appear to be the same topside dwellers who appeared in the main game's opening cinematic.
The reason why flowers grow in Aerith's garden and the church despite Midgar being considered barren is because a river runs through the outskirts of Sector 5 undercity, bringing fresh nutrient-rich water from the lifestream to both Aerith's house and the dilapidated church. Aerith uses this water to tend to her flowers. Another reason Aerith is so successful in cultivating flowers is her heritage as an Ancient.Romano 2020
Wall VII 03.jpg|Official wallpaper of Barret and Marlene in the church for Final Fantasy VII.
FFVIIAC-AerithChurch-Artwork.jpg|Concept art for Advent Children.
Tifa3.jpg|Key art for Advent Children.
Barret and Marlene key art from FFVII Remake.jpg|Barret & Marlene key art for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Sector 5 Church artwork for FFVII Remake.png|Artwork for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Sector 5 Church crashed rocket artwork for FFVII Remake.png|Artwork for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Sector 5 Slums Church pews artwork for FFVII Remake.png|Artwork for Final Fantasy VII Remake.
===In popular culture===
The church interior and its flowerbed were recreated for the Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary exhibition in Japan in January 2018.
The fight sequence in the church between Loz and Tifa in Advent Children was duplicated in the music video for the Korean pop singer Ivy MV's "Temptation of Sonata", albeit with minor changes, such as small parts of the fighting choreography being altered due to the absence of Loz's Dual Hound, and Tifa's victory by snapping Loz's neck at the end. The music video was banned on TV and singer Ivy was sued by Square Enix.
===Symbolism and allusion===
The symbol in the chapel appears to be a IX monogram, one of the earliest Christian symbols. In Greek it says "Jesus Christ", Iota for Jesus and X or Chi for Christ. The picture with the circle over the symbol makes it resemble the Chi Rho, also known as the "Constantine Cross". It was used by the Roman Emperor "Saint Constantine".
A possible real-world Christian inspiration for the church is the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which was built after Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego nearby in December 1531 and led him to the top of Tepeyac Hill, where he found Castilian roses, which were blooming in spite of them not being native to Mexico and out of season, to take to the area's Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, as proof.
The church flowers were initially portrayed as yellow, but from Advent Children onwards white flowers have been mixed into the flowerbed. The flowers resemble real world Lilium genus of flowers (true lilies), important in culture and literature in much of the world. In the Victorian language of flowers lilies portray love, ardor, and affection for loved ones. Lilies are commonly used at funerals where they signify the soul has been restored to the state of innocence. The Taiwanese lily grows near bodies of clean water, leading to beliefs that harming them damages the environment. Easter lily is a plant endemic to Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands of Japan known as such for symbolizing of the resurrection of Christ.
==Notes==
===Citations===
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de:Kirche in Sektor 5
ru:Церковь Сектора 5
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII Remake
Category:Locations in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Category:Locations in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII Remake Trace of Two Pasts