ladykf | FF7 Meta: Materia Growth

[Tumblr post] There is a long discussion at the Tumblr post, discussing the size of materia and how one might be able to reconcile various canons. My two cents is copied over below:

Okay, first off, let me say this: I do not personally know of anywhere that canonically addresses size in this precise manner. Here’s what canon does say: it fits in slots for weapons, accessories, etc.

Canon also says this: it grows.

Materia, with enough use, will grow and split off a second version of itself. One can assume, then, that happens via size - it gets bigger. Now, animation probably plays a big part in appearances, yes, but let’s also consider that in Advent Children you actually see two sizes of materia - the white materia, seen briefly falling after Aerith’s death - is about the size of a marble. Compare that to the chest of glowy tennis balls and you can tell there’s something going on. So here’s my thought on the matter.

All that materia in that chest? The materia that Yuffie claims as hers, in fact? (”Who’s been touchin’ my materia?” - did she recognize the summon? there can’t be a lot of them) I would say that’s from the year spent chasing Sephiroth.

A year of at least eight people constantly using that materia. Materia that may have once been the same size as the white materia/Holy, but after a year of spammed usage every day, got so large that they wouldn’t even fit in a standard slot.

Looking back to Crisis Core, assuming that the slots on the Buster Sword were designed for mastered materia only while Zack still has a bracer on his wrist and can get a special ribbon for Aerith for other materia, supports the same concept.

Crisis Core also presents the unique natural vs. manufactured materia argument, so here’s my take on trying to make the game mechanics add up to a plausible “real life” headcanon that can be used - naturally formed materia, the way it’s “meant” to be, is what you get in OG. As you level it up, you slowly unlock greater abilities - can be used more, can use stronger spells. This isn’t the case in Crisis Core. A mastered Cure materia will never be able to cast Curaga in CC, so my determination is this: while they’re able to mimic the knowledge of the ancients, enough to capture A spell, the false nature of the materia prevents a good connection to the lifestream and therefore can’t continue to “learn” more spells with experience.

At no point can you buy Summons in CC, so I’m going to say that they can’t be manufactured. Depending on your personal beliefs about the nature and origin of summons ~~such as my own as memories of beings who once walked the Planet~~ it probably makes perfect sense.