omgggg ok category 5 autism moment incoming i just feel CRAZED like omg. voice direction is something i feel i care perhaps an above average amount about so of course i'm like paying super attention to all that but also i'm just so confused like the way in which caleb performs as zack is so. not zack. like i'll disregard the pitch thing for right now even if they were trying to get someone that hit closer to zack's japanese voice actor's range why wouldn't they get. a Voice actor? like caleb pierce has had a number of on camera rolls but this was his first voice acting roll. and sure like aerith's new va hadn't done voice acting either but she's like. good at it? i don't know how to say this lightly but he's bad. or at least for the character he's bad. there are plenty PLENTY of voice actors in that mid high range with all the levels of nasal and scratch you could ever dream of that can give you the emotional range and growth zack goes through. caleb just doesn't perform that. we see this in scenes where he's meant to be yelling yet he puts no strain in his voice or in scenes where he's meant to be calm and understanding where he still has a snarky bite.

another thing that comes to mind for me to show just how different they play the character is the scene where zack meets aerith for the first time. once he collects himself, rick has zack deepen his voice a bit to put up a sort of bravado, he's just met this cute girl you see, zack is something of a flirt, he's just made a fool of himself falling through her roof and he's compensating. what a nice moment of ACTING!!!!! that is TONE that is ALL rick and/or the director. that wasn't the script. caleb reads those lines the same way he reads everything else. there isn't the same nuance and intrigue in performance, to me anyway. i find watching caleb perform boring to listen to honestly. like he's too afraid to get a little silly or a little ugly. no mess. all snark. and sure up to a point you can get away with that i Guess but it's not a terribly long time. once angeal starts pulling away zack gets more serious. he's still goofy and silly but he's also angry and loud and confused and he doesn't know how to deal with any of it. caleb not getting more rough with his voice takes the emotion out of these scenes. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO ANGEAL?" stops sounding like an angry and horrified boy who thinks his mentor just killed his mom, and starts sounding like someone scolding their dog or something. like this was a failing of the director if nothing else.

but let's get back to the pitch because i am so serious it makes a difference!!!!!! even if caleb had STARTED at the same place he should have ENDED putting on at least a Little bit of a deeper voice? like am i supposed to assume this man has No range? i don't wanna assume that i don't fucking know this guy!!!! but like man. angeal is Such an important person to zack. zack sees angeal in EVERYTHING. one of the first scenes is angeal saving zack and grabbing his hand to pull him up. zack is the one who ends up killing angeal. angeal chose him because he knew he was going to die anyway and he didn't want it to be at the hands of shinra by any means. zack is not shinra to him. zack is his cherished friend and mentee. zack kills angeal and is gifted his sword. zack mourns angeal. cissnei tells him wings don't signify a monster, they symbolize freedom. zack looks up to the sky as white feathers fall around him. he catches one in his hand and says, "those wings, i want them too." when zack dies it's angeal we hear his final message to, and we see him reach his hand out to be pulled up by angeal. he smiles as he goes. the main theme of crisis core is dreams and honor. dreams and honor is angeal's theme, angeal's leitmotif. we hear dreams and honor in nearly every song in the soundtrack, even including cloud's. most importantly zack's theme, the actual main character of this video game, is dreams and honor with an electric guitar. zack sees angeal in EVERYTHING. zack thinks the entire world of angeal. in nibelheim he tries to fulfill a similar role in that moment that he had with cloud. he tries to be the rock. when cloud shifts the conversation to be about zack, zack breaks. he lets out a bit of that frustration and confusion at what shinra is forcing him to do. when cloud brings up his sword he suddenly remembers angeal again. not just that he was his mentor and he was grounding, but his strong sense of morals and ideals. his dreams and honor. it is in this moment i believe zack stops seeing "SOLDIER" as SHINRA and starts seeing it as angeal. angeal stopped seeing zack as shinra long ago. before zack kills all those infantrymen he repeats angeal's mantra. embrace your dreams and whatever you do, protect your honor, as SOLDIER. zack is not still attached to the military he's currently slaughtering the lowest members of. he's not desperately clinging to a title of power he once held. he's reclaimed it and given it to angeal.

ALL THIS TO SAY I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT HE CHANGES HIS VOICE TO SOUND MORE LIKE ANGEAL'S AS HE GETS OLDER. like from a character perspective it makes no sense he wouldn't have a vocal change At All after so much has happened like that's a super easy thing you can give to a character to show growth. AND ZACK HAD THAT. BEFORE. i'm running out of steam. it's just kind of crazy to me like even separating rick gomez from the equation caleb pierce plays zack in such a boring unnuanced way. but anyway. heart<3