''Embrace your dreams. And whatever happens, protect your honor as SOLDIER''


One of the most interesting premises a story can have is building a main character with heroic ideals & righteous beliefs in an environment that downright rejects, denies & is thoroughly incompatible with said ideals due to its cruel, unforgiving nature & that being Crisis Core's premise & main theme communicated through Zack's character is what makes it so poetically beautiful especially with the symbolism behind the concept of wings in this game & how it ties to its theme of freedom & heroism where Zack is forced to undergo challenges that make him question the crux of his ideals so much so he begins to doubt himself.



Now to focus on the symbolism behind wings for a bit, wings are defined differently by Crisis Core's cast, Genesis and Angeal believe them to symbolize monstrosity, Cissnei believes they're a sign of freedom, & Zack's own personal discovery of what wings mean is his entire character arc. From time and time again, Zack constantly gets betrayed by what he believed in, whether it be Angeal, the cruel reality of what SOLDIER really is about, or the dark side of Shinra & what always brings him back on his feet & keeps him going is his sense of honor & ideals that are shaped by his relationship with the cast. When his sense of honor was breaking apart & he pleaded to Angeal for help, what brought him back to his senses & reminded him to stay loyal to his honor even if the crux of what he was fighting for turned out to be worthless, was Cloud's words & the reason why that moment stood out to me so much, is that when both Zack and Cloud were wavering in their respective games, what brought them back on their feet were their memories & love for the people dear to them. The emphasis on bonds & their importance to who you are as a person in both games was tied perfectly, all while pushing the main idea of Crisis Core, & it's that freedom & honor is something you decide yourself & define on your own terms instead of letting external factors shackle you down. Whatever your environment tells you, protect your beliefs & fight for them for a brighter tomorrow.



"If you want to be a Hero, you need to have dreams... and honor''


If there was a moment that ever strongly expressed the notion I just mentioned, it's Zack's sacrafice & what it meant for him to go against Shinra, the company he dedicated his entire life to serving & dreaming of saving to become like his ideal hero Sephiroth. To fight the physical manifestation of everything that rejects his ideals, to fight the crux of what he previously admired, & to break through the cage & shackles holding his wings back for a tomorrow with no regrets, Zack defined his own personal belief of what wings are & instead of fearing them & viewing them with resentment, he used them as a way to empower himself, pay his price of freedom to become an unspoken hero & entrust his legacy to Cloud.