Please note: This section is outdated and will be redone sometime after the release of Dirge of Cerberus. For a long time now, I couldn't really decide if Lucrecia loved Vincent. However, after watching and dissecting the flashback scene countless times, I think I've come to a decision. Lucrecia thought of Vincent as a good friend. Nothing more, nothing less. I wish I had more evidence or at least, clearer evidence. I'm still not perfectly satisfied with that answer. But let's break down the one scene we have of the two together and perhaps you'll see where I'm coming from. Upon entering the cave, we are immediately greeted by someone calling out "Vincent...". If Vincent's in the group, he'll immediately rush towards the voice and query if it's Lucrecia. She'll be equally surprised and question if it's him. Vincent realizes that it is she and makes a mad dash towards her, but she quickly halts him by telling him to "Stay back!". Regardless of everything that's happened to her, you'd think that, if she had truly loved Vincent, she would have been more excited to be reunited with him. But she wasn't. There was somebody else that she would've liked to see more--Sephiroth, as she later admits. Her telling Vincent to stay back was a very distant gesture on her part. It wasn't so much harsh as it was platonic. Years before she broke away from his grasp, and years later she still doesn't wish to be touched by him, as it seems. In the flashback sequence, we see Lucrecia and Vincent walking and talking in a friendly, casual manner. Immediately after, it cuts to a scene where he is holding hands with her. However, she breaks away from him and runs off, leaving poor Vincent reaching out for her. Flash to the next scene. Vincent spots Lucrecia in the arms of Hojo. Vincent turns away and lowers his head. He thinks to himself, "If she is happy then...I don't mind.". The way each scene quickly cuts to the next suggests that these are the most important in telling the story. Everything that happened in-between is irrelevant. If Lucrecia were involved with Vincent romantically in any way, there would have to be a filler scene that connects their friendship (them walking and talking together) to Vincent's rejection. There is no such scene for Vincent and Lucrecia, but there is one for Hojo and Lucrecia. It's nice to believe that Lucrecia ran off in "confusion" after Vincent spilled his heart out to her rather than admit that maybe she simply didn't return his feelings. Lucrecia is also not afraid of being touched lovingly, seeing as how she took comfort in Hojo's arms, so that kills all theories of her being afraid of love. Lucrecia sits in a chair as she rubs her stomach. Flash. Vincent confronts Hojo and Lucrecia in the lab and expresses his being against their experiments. Hojo argues that they are both scientists as Lucrecia lowers her head. If Lucrecia was willing to bear a child for experimental purposes, this could mean only one of two things. Either she's truly interested in the results of the tests or she's in love with Hojo and is willing to do almost anything to make him happy. When she sees Vincent's protests, it seems more like she's feeling regretful or uneasy about what she is about to do to herself and her child than any kind of longing for Vincent. Pregnant women will tell you that they feel a deep connection to their child and often times, that changes how they feel about abortion (getting one personally, not for all women in general). I think with Lucrecia, it may have been this same feeling in her that caused her to regret all the experimenting they planned. I want to skip ahead to the scene where Vincent confronts Hojo after Lucrecia's death. I can't help but find it interesting Hojo fumbles around in a distressed, almost upset way for a while before shooting and experimenting on Vincent. That action in itself almost makes me want to believe that Hojo may have actually cared for Lucrecia...just a little. Of course, we know that science is more important to him than love, but still. The final words between Lucrecia and Vincent reveal no romance at all, but rather, Lucrecia asks him, as a friend, if Sephiroth is still alive. Vincent made another attempt to go to her only a few moments before this question, but again she stopped him. It's obvious from her dialogue that Sephiroth is her only concern. If you look at the entire scene objectively, you'll see that Lucrecia never really threw any kind of signals at Vincent. In fact, every time he moved close, she'd run away or tell him to stay away. Vincent seems to understand this as well. Everything he ever said about Lucrecia is all how he felt. He never ever once said anything that might suggest she returned his feelings and I think in ways, he knows she doesn't. Way later in the game, Vincent does reveal that he now understands why Lucrecia "chose" Hojo, and that was to protect him. At first this sounds like he's saying that she gave up being with him to save Hojo, but then again, why would she want to protect Hojo if she didn't love him? Well, even after writing all that, I still hold out hope that Lucrecia did love Vincent and I'll bet you anything Square-Enix will re-work things in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus so that it's more obvious she did. Or perhaps they'll do the opposite. Either way, I hope that they'll eventually shed some light on this issue. ...unless Lucrecia and Vincent were having an affair, in which case I just wrote a whole bunch of crap for nothing. "BACK" |