Why did Cloud's group try to stop the materia bomb from hitting Meteor? I know they wanted to preserve the "knowledge of the Ancients" (by storing it in some old guy's house apparently), but it seems rather silly to go through all that effort to save that piece when it was being used for a good cause. I suppose it would have made Shinra more popular (even though they already were).

I would've prefered that if the rocket did hit Meteor and destroy it...only for Sephiroth to recast it and have everyone panicking again. Through in some in battle mechanics to the plot. >: )

Basically, the main reason was that Cloud and his party held magic and materia in higher regard than science/Mako technology. Realizing that huge materia contained emmense magical powers, Cloud wanted to (hopefully) use those powers to defeat Sephiroth (and therefore, indirectly, the Meteor).

So, he wasn't willing to let all that power and knowledge be destroyed in a plan that was untested and only had a marginal chance of actually succeeding (remember, the Meteor is not a normal asteroid, but a magical entity).

It could also be thought that he might have also done it purely to hassle the Shinra (even Cait Sith mentions this after the rocket crashes into Meteor and Cloud returns to earth), but because it was an attempt to save the world, this seems unlikely.

I know this thread is getting a bit old, but I think what Enkidoh said is exactly right. Let's go straight to the source. Cloud says "There are generations of knowledge and wisdom inside the Materia. We're gonna borrow their powers and save the planet from Sephiroth. There's no way that we can lose the Huge Materia. You understand that, right?" So basically he did feel that getting the Huge Materia was the most important thing. He didn't think Shinra's plan really stood a shot, so he didn't want to let the Huge Materia go to waste.

Well, when you consider that the plan fails even if you leave the materia in the rocket, Cloud turned out to be right. Incidently, do any of you know which huge materia that one was?

It's the Huge Support Materia, the one that grants you Bahamut ZERO if you have Bahamut and Neo Bahamut, but only if you already have all three other Huge Materia. If you don't, you get one of the ones you missed instead.

What if the rocket blows up the meteor, losing the huge materia, and then Sephiroth does a re-cast? >_>

Bahamut Zero isn't really that important, although you need it to get the Master Summon materia.

Well, you don't need it-- you can fight the Weapons to get a Master Summon Materia, but you do need it if you ever want more than one.

What if the rocket blows up the meteor, losing the huge materia, and then Sephiroth does a re-cast? >_>

Haha, that's what I said.