Joseph Campbell vs. Sephiroth

I was re-watching some of Joseph Campbell's lectures for the first time since I was thirteen or fourteen and something I'd long forgotten about kind of jumped out me: there's a sequence when Campbell compares the Native American mythological traditions (I believe the Navajo, but I could be misremembering) with the Western traditions (that is, the Abrahamic religions). Campbell argued that the Native American beliefs where very much of their place and time and expressed a relationship with world around them that stressed harmony, while the current traditions of the West where based thousands of years ago by people with very different concerns and a very different frame of reference, and which stressed mastery over nature... which can only be dangerous to the world and which ultimately, he feels, leads to a state of disengagement from mythology.

Now, Campbell pointedly uses the word mythology, not religion, stressing that a mythology speaks to the psychology of its people and does not need to be explained. And, regardless of your faith, the fact remains that modern theology in the West is based around interpretation.

Now, my initial reaction to that was to think (again, dodging the whole question of religion in favor of mythology) if I could come up with a myth that spoke to our experience the way the Native American or Greek myths spoke to their experience.

And then I remembered Squaresoft made a video game that already did it.
For those of you that aren't familiar with the game... I have no idea why you're reading this... but I'll explain my argument: Final Fantasy VII is set in a world a bit closer to our own: one of increasing globalization where the few remaining cultural differences are being steadily stamped out by the interests of megacorporations. Most of the political and military figures we encounter are either puppets or extensions of corporate influence and much of the world is in a state of economic depression. The key conflict is, fittingly, humanity's struggle to exist as a part of nature. The megacorporations have been literally syphoning the Earth's lifeforce to power their machinations and our protagonists (including two endangered species) are set against them, accessing mystic powers tied directly to the planet.

The primary antagonist represents a primal fear linked to the modern world: nature threatens to turn against humanity and destroy it for its hubris and it is only by finding a way to live with nature (and it very significantly does not include a total rejection of technology (with all its gunarms and airships, but rather a more responsible use of it), are our protagonists able to save themselves and the world.

Again, I'm certainly not telling anyone to start worshiping Cloud Strife, but you can't tell me that doesn't speak more to the world you're leaving in.

I still think Final Fantasy 6 is better, though.