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2:02:56 my mind was fucking blown u are a goat 🐐 so glad I made up my mind to watch a 3hour long ff7rb theory video literally had go get up out my bed for this one

Hey man wanted to say congratualations on this epic! To be honest im not sure how i feel about Aerith being a manipulator as such, it's clear to see from remake and rebirth she withholds information, but i feel she does so out of necessity. Maybe she feels oversharing would lead to a "bad end", this all cycles around to the discovery of Jenova and what Shinra decided to do with her. Jenova and Sephi are the arch enemy to the cetra so i think a lot of what Aerith does is out of fear of something not happening. I love how you have put all this together and a lot of the logic is sound, i just think the whole situation is far more complex because of Jenova's influence and everything that came after her discovery. On top of this we have 'fate' or opposing fates fighting against each other to either make OG happen or to stop it from happening. Its a massive oversimplification, but i really do feel like the emphasis on perspective is so important in the retrilogy. We see almost everything from Cloud's perspective and he is unreliable at the best of times, he is severely unwell throughout remake and rebirth. By the end of Rebirth he is so unravelled that i think he needs to see her alive, he needs to believe he is capable of saving her. As much as i want Aerith to live i dont see it going any other way than OG because her death is too important, even Aerith knows that. I loved Rebirth so much, my one gripe with it though is after her "death". Cloud's inability to see the reality of what happened took away from the rest the group, I feel we needed more time to see the rest of the party morn for her but because the focus was so mcuh on Cloud a lot of that was missing. We get so many moments throughout rebirth to take a pauses and reflect, to me the ending went by too quickly. Anyway i went off on a bit of tangent there 😂. Regardless of an individuals theories, your video was really well presented, thought provoking and well evidenced. So again excellent work man! Thank you for putting this out there! Looking forward to part 3 so much!

Not a big fan of theories and I hate them with a passion, it discourages me from playing and completing the game if everybody is throwing their two cents to try make efn sense of wtf is happening in this convoluted fan fict trilogy. If part 3 is called any of the following such as, Retribution, Requiem, Redemption, Reboot or Reborn, then I know that certain content creators have had some influrence on Square Enix decision making and direction of the trilogy, and the ending. Only thing we're all certain of is that they are changing certain events that occurred in the original and the original spinoff titles from happening, and it was pretty much obvious from the start of Remake that Cloud is the key to either the success of either Aerith or Sephiroth, who wins? Cloud choice or rather the players, as the trilogy reeks of multiple endings, not one ending will be the end conclusion, because we now have bubble universes bs! and that opens the door for Square Enix to milk FFVII franchise for the forceable future. What bubble universe will we be playing in the next expansion to the FFVII franchise. I can't wait to play it on the PS6.

I've seen almost every theory video out there, and I have to be extremely honest when I say this is top tier. This is so well done and for the first time has me thinking to myself "oh wow, i never even th9ught of THAT", on so many of these points! Great job and I look forward to more videos from you!

The Gi and Sephiroth are not working together. The Gi want death and they created the black materia/meteor to annihilate themselves without any thought for the planet or other life on Gaia so the Cetra stole it and Seto reneged on his promise to the Gi once he realised that. Sephiroth's goal to wound the planet is just coincednetal.

I think the idea that Aerith is manipulating events is interesting and on some level I agree. I have always thought as much, Aerith and Sephiroth are playing 4D chess and the truth and morality of things might be more compex than it appears. BUT, I think you yourself have clouded eyes. Suggesting the Citra were outright evil, that Aerith is basically a villain, and that the whole plot is an analogy for a conflict in the middle east is all some very specific and out there stuff. I really dont think anyone at Square wrote that on the ground level and then it got approved sll the way up the chain.

Here I thought I would enjoy the games not playing the original… curse young me for being too dumb to finish it!

Oh my god your point about Rufus being manipulated just totally clicked with me. I thought it was a weird writing error for New President of Shinra Rufus to be like "screw my dad's plans, I hav ebigger aspiratoins" only to then by the end of the game decide that he should hunt down Aerith/Promoised Land afterall. It also makes a bit more sense why we see Rufus seeing the whispers at the end of Remake as well. Great points!

Something that's been in my head since the ending of Rebirth is that Aerith and Sephiroth have sort of swapped methods. The two both know how the original story ends with Sephiroth's failure subconsciously. Sephiroth wants to make Cloud stronger so he can defy fate, creating a new world where Aerith lives and he has another chance to succeed at reclaiming the planet for Jenova. Aerith is sabotaging Cloud to make sure he's weak and can't change fate so that Sephiroth doesn't get that chance - Aerith has to die for the world to be saved.

Loved the analysis and how you explained everything. Keep it up! Love your videos.

I think Sephiroth put Black Materia in Cloud's pocket. He even said to Cloud "I give you, my blessing." Also Zack wasn't saved by Black Whispers. He was saved by Grey Whispers. If you compare Remake's Whispers' 3D model with Rebirth's, you can clearly see they're different. Black Whispers have purple glowing orbs under their hood. So the Sephiroth controlled Whispers in Remake were purple ones. They were the ones who were gathering grey ones and forcing them under their influence. In Rebirth, they're completely turned & under Sephiroth's whim, represented by their black color and purple orb. Biggs was also saved by Grey Whispers. Not White Whispers. Grey Whispers basically represent struggle between Aerith/White and Sephiroth/Black. Thus they're Grey.

Bro this video is EXACTLY for what I was searching. THANK YOU! I cannot imagine the time it took to make a 3:51:07 video that’s this detailed The first fortune is also literally what Cait does to the group 😂 I also like the notion that cloud is basically still a kid doing all of this 😂 Yuffie is 16

almost 4 hours, LET'S GO!

Was not expecting Aerith to be Netanyahu 😂

too convoluted

I really don't get the vibe from the Gi that they would destroy the world. While it's curious that the Gi say the materia existed but did not stir until they were alerted to it, I don't see a reason why they would want to destroy the planet unless it really was the only way to totally eradicate their lingering souls. And seeing cloud equip the materia to his sword at the end is really curious because I never thought about the black materia being equipped would do anything except, you know, cast meteor. But he doesn't slot it in, it's almost disappearing like holograms would

This was really well done, however I will say that you made Aerith sound like a moron, which is kinda messed up xD

amazing

Fuck. The whispers saving Wedge as a pawn to correct deviations and then disposing of him in a manner similiar to his OG fate hits hard and makes so much sense. In the grand scheme of things, the planet is just doing what it must to preserve itself. Which is why it fights so hard to preserve the way things were meant to go. Cuz the planet lives. Even if humanity dies out 500 years after the events of FF7 og and ac. The only reason the planet fights but also saves our protags is cuz they are the best hope of self preservation but also acting intentionally against the planet's will at times.

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I always wonder why Cloud is special, why was he able to defeat sephiroth, why he is also able to see the fissure in the sky now. why can he still see aerith. My theory is that Cloud is also decend of cetra knight, it whould explain why he can see life stream persons. He is basically a cetra with jenova cells What do you guys think?

Phenom analysis, explanation and video overall! Thank you.

This is a pretty interesting theory. We'll see how right you are in a few years I suppose.

Bro ply the game. Video is cool but just play it 😅😅

Getting real tired of overly long video essay slop, but this one probably takes the cake. Incessant long clips breaking the pace despite acknowledging people watching are familiar with theories and therefore the story, weird to follow structure, couldn't pass the 1h10 hour mark and still didn't feel like an overall point was made. Script needed more drafts, and editing more time in the oven to support the script and not mess with the pace. Long ≠ good.

I have no idea if this helps or not, but in Japanese the line Sephiroth says on the expressway to Aerith is “you won’t be able to see anything with eyes clouded by sentimentality” 「感傷で曇って目には　何も見えまい」

Let's not forget that quadra magic (blue) and KOTR (red) is the most powerful combo haha

Great vid! Max needs to get on this, so many opposing ideas, would be a good discussion / collab. The observation about Cloud crying when she is "alive" and serious/vacant when she is "dead" is really interesting. OG, Sephiroth never mentions him crying, just says that he's acting sad or angry, so entirely possible this is the new mega-punished Cloud totally breaking down, then Seph/Jeni takes it one step further by having Aerith "wake up", OR it's Omni-Aerith's last push to try to get him to hold it together...

Hey, it’s the guy who made the video talking about Aerith’s death in Rebirth like half a year ago if you remember that video at all. I remember seeing your comment saying you were working on what I now believe to be this video and WOW you weren’t kidding. Congrats on getting this video done!

I came here after your short form summary. Even though i beat remake for a second time as a refresher before rebirth, i still missed a lot of these connections. Bravo

Subbed. I liked your take. Finally finished the game last weekend and i have gone deep down the rabbit hole with whats going on. Nicely done!

Very detailed and digestible information 😮 I think your on point with this

I've been absolutely enthralled by this essay so far. But at the 2:20:00 mark I finally realized what's been bothering me about all of Square's new VII lore. The decision to fill in every single gap in the VII timeline takes a lot of the mystique out of its various elements. Like this whole subtext in Compilation's lore, of colored energies mixing to create different types of Lifestream, and how the Planet sustains its own life indifferently with cosmic timeline cannibalism, it turns all the mysticism of VII's lore into hard, decidedly *non-spiritual* science. If things work as you describe here, then not only are the Cetra being posers, but the Planet doesn't give a toss about its own settlers or anything, as it will consume the offshoot timelines of fate-defiers for energy. The Cosmo Canyon chapter of Rebirth also especially gave me a strong anti-religious vibe; Bugenhagen does ecological field surveys to measure the health of the Planet, and the 'cry' is heard through an amplification device rigged to a speaker, Tifa's legitimate spirit vision of the Planet's struggle is scoffed at as ridiculous, even by BH himself! The Gi's new backstory, while it does tie into the rest of the narrative better, it turns a mythical item from OG into simple leftovers of an ancient tribal conflict that is still unresolved. Rebirth's Cosmo Canyon is more of a tourist retreat for casual enthusiasts of Planetology, in extreme contrast to OG Canyon, where the Native American influence of living as one with the land, and general mysticism, was very strong. And to even go a step further, the inclusion of Shinra's founder being a descendant of Spira's Shinra from FFX-2, as shown in the company photo, revealing that Shinra EPC runs on tech they got from pseudo-advanced Spiran astronauts, settling on the Planet due to its Lifestream being similar to their Farplane / Fayth. All this felt, to me at least, in service of erasing any mystic aspects of the lore and giving them firm, logical explanations with in-universe science. Anyway I just had to get this out of my system and thought you might get where I'm coming from. I'm not against where they're going with this story, as it's gotten me reinvested in VII as a series, but it's sad that The Planet, itself, seems to have become so abstract that it almost feels reductive now to think of Minerva as a noble, protective entity as She seemed in Crisis Core. Fantastic video man, can't wait to see your analysis for Pt3 someday.

This theory is really cool. It's definitely something i never thought about before. Looking forward to seeing any other FF videos you make in the future.

Aerith isn’t being tricked, Jenova is tricking Cloud. They metaphorically and literally beat that narrative point into you, especially in the Queens Blood finale.

This the type of ff7 content I been feigning for 😭😭🫶🏾

So, as time passed, ive been recapping other ff7 universe stuff. Some things hint and add to your theory. Some things detract. I didnt realize that this theory doesnt touch on anything but ac and og. I found a website that compiled all of this stuff if you want it

you should have really checked the music balance throughout the video. but very good video regardless

So you believe aerith is malevolent in the remake? Trying to control cloud? Idk if control is the word i'd use. Maybe guide. Personally think her end goal is to stop sephiroth once and for all, as in no more Advent children as its ending implies he can come back which he does in the remake trilogy. To me, the manipulation, or rather withholding of information, is about her death. She believes she must die in order to achieve this goal. If the cloud knew about this, he wouldn't agree, he'd try to find another way but aerith simply wont risk sephiroth destroying the world. The song NPTK even says this. She talks about hating this burden she has but that she must bear it to save cloud, the party, and the world. I dont really think aerith is the "end justify the means" kind of person you're kinda paintin in the theory, but it's just my opinion. I just don't see them completely changing her character like that. They already made her more complex by showing how she has much darker thoughts bout hojo in contrast to the OG in which she definitely felt like a paragon of good. I don't really see the game being a more nuanced, "no one is really bad" thing. I do think jenova and seph are just flat out evil and aerith is good. The conflict between the Gi and Cetra is interesting though. I can't really argue that the Cetra were no self-righteous. I do think that smt prob had to be done with the Gi but I dont think they were necessarily pure evil like jenova. They are definitely bad, but the remake does paint them as more nuanced as well as the Cetra. However, it should be noted that the Gi are fundamentally settlers and really don't belong there. The kind of mess stuff up just by being there. Still an amazing video essay though, you clearly put in a lot of work. We'll just have to wait and see what happens

This was great! Cannot wait for Restore/Return to hand the conclusions 😊🎉

Wtf You have an incredible attention to detail and insight and absolutely nobody is watching this video. I'm sharing this.

Why it's a nice theory, I find it a little too convoluted. For one thing, if the Gi could've incorporated into the life stream, why not just tell the party? Gi Nattak is the one who says their only salvation is oblivion. He's been around for thousands of years, so he's speaking from experience. Also, using The Spirits Within as evidence when the world is not connected to FF7 is suspect. The Black Materia summons a Meteor that can destroy the planet. I don't believe it's ever been demonstrated you could use it in such a localized way to destroy a single being. I also don't think Aerith would approve of its use. The reason why the black materia can erase the souls of the Gi is because it can destroy the planet. No planet=No Lifestream=No Souls. In the OG, Sephiroth didn't want to destroy the planet. He wanted to become a God-like being by absorbing the Lifestream. He was using Meteor to wound the planet so he could absorb the energy when it attempted to repair itself. His dialogue in the Remake series doesn't show much deviation from that plan. Still, there are mysteries surrounding Aerith's death, why Sephiroth let Cloud in, why he smiles when Cloud is clashing blades with him. It seems like Sephiroth wants Cloud to save Aerith. I think the reason will be revealed in part 3.

No one has an explanation for the Zack scene at the end of Intergrade.

"1:45" - "i have not played rebirth". I stopped watching right there.

I am now 33 and a half minutes in. Sephiroth is a good guy now? Is that where this is going? Jenov is the enemy. Thats jenova aerith in rebirth end. In the fight in that... liminal (sounds right?) space too maybe. Sephiroth is doing his best to get cloud to see that jenova is in control

Im watching and going back a lot, so before i forget, i think it was the whispers that tried to kill the president and it makes sense because sephiroth wasnt killing him. He wanted to watch the conversation. Sephiroth stopped the whispers from killing him as he shrugged them off so easily. The president probably wasnt directly controlled, maybe just onfluenced, but i dont have a sense of conviction in that take. I thank you for this video, i dodnt relize how much i had forgotten. I only played through once forever ago

I've been thinking alot about this and wanted to add: Aerith isn't being hypocritical at all. On the beach she and at the nibelheim water tower she makes it out how bad she feels about the negative thoughts she's having. Which means she isn't saying any of this from a place of nievety, she wrestlers with these thoughts of anger, regret, and sadness too. But just because you're aware of them and know what you're supposed to do, doesn't make it easy to do. Changing is difficult and takes active work which is what she's clearly trying to do for herself even if she hasn't fully succeeded. But it's clearly not in her overall nature and beliefs to hate people. It's also not being intolerant to fear and be upset with someone who is currently causing mass malicious acts beyond the scope of the universe lol. Whether she's forgiven Sephiroth or not isn't what's being said. She may feel pity for him, she even asks him in the final fight of Rebirth if this is truly what he wants and tries to wrap her head around why he wants this and he refuses to answer his question. That doesn't sound like being intolerant. Also "everyone lies" 1. Theres no such thing as forvever We dont know exactly what that means but we do know that when she says that Aerith isnt fully herself. She speaks in two voices and a green aura is around her. Its likley her future self talking. You cant say shes lying when her past self is talking about her current beliefs about time. And honestly, the past is more or less forever. The past events only seem to be able to be changed to the extent Sephiroth can control Cloud which is only a few weeks before the games story begins. The stuff thats happened in their lives prior? Unchanged. Remake seems to have new events happen to the characters but the core events are the same. So this can't be a lie. 2. Tifa & Aeriths girltalk and post girltalk Tifa is dealing with someone with a clearly delicate psyche. She knows something is wrong and doesnt know what it is. If youve ever been around someone in such a delicate sitiation, you DO need to be careful of what you say and do around them. All Aerith did was try to check up on Cloud necause she knows he and Tifa are in a bad place. Thats omission, sure but its being done in empathy and the fact that Tifa told Aerith this stuff in confidence. Lumping this into "everyone sucks" because theyre looking out for a mentally ill friend is kind of.... nuts.

What is your hatred for Aerith coming from. Are you seeing her through clouded eyes? She knows the evil of Hojo. She does have compassion for the Turks, they have a shitty job and do bad things for the shitty job, so yeah they're complicit, but they are inherently evil people. When Aerith was still young but living with Elmyra, Tseng looked after her. Whenever she was out and about in the slums, Tseng always watched out of sight, but she knew he was there. There is an unspoken bond between them.

The theory really helps makes sense for why they spent so much time explaining the Gi and the Cetra

No no no, okay, no you can't say Aerith's forgiveness is selective. No. Hojo killed her Mom. That is an exception and there's no argument or debate. This is your only point that is not valid. other than that, masterpiece. Thank you.