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Hi! I was pretty happy shipping-wise with Rebirth, though I didn’t enjoy other aspects of the game. I’m curious what they’ll do for Part 3, though I think focusing more on refining a few key elements instead of trying to be everything is what the Re- project sorely needs

@@Kabbaway For the end, I read that It was possibly showing the timeline in which he successfully blocked sephiroth and she survived. She’s alive in another timeline that cloud created when he stopped sephiroth. Our world is the OG where she died but it seems like cloud is the only one who can see and communicate with Aerith from the timeline where she’s alive. IF sephiroth wants to merge all timelines together it means we’ll see Aerith and even zack with the whole gang again in part 3 and we’ll be able to keep Aerith from dying…WITH Zack. Hopefully this theory is true!

I’m thinking along those lines too. I think all the different realities are overlapping - they’re all happening in the exact same points in space but very few can actually perceive more than their own layer of reality. We can even see in Remake’s ending with Cloud and Aerith walking past Zack and other Cloud - they don’t notice each other, though Aerith does pause before mentioning how she misses Midgar’s plate (because the sky “takes away the people she loves”) so at the very least she does seem to have sensed them in that moment. I think a lot of people forget about that shot, or more specifically the implications of that shot and how it relates to what is happening in Rebirth. In Rebirth’s ending Nanaki also senses Aerith, calling out her name when she pats him. This makes sense given his knowledge from Bugenhagen, close friendship with Aerith and the fact that they’re almost spiritually connected from her giving him visions back in Remake. I’ve seen some people dismiss this as Nanaki just sensing her spirit in the Lifestream, but a side quest where we find out that Wedge did in fact fall to his death shows what that would look like - a string of Lifestream and Wedge’s voice speaking to Barret (though Nanaki denies what happened).

@@Kabbaway​​⁠​​⁠​⁠Here’s something I’ve thought about that further disproves Cloti. Maybe you’ll agree, or not. The Ultimania states that cloud is mentally 16 years old. Cloud and Tifa were never like “high school sweethearts” it was more of a crush from Clouds side. So, cloud having a thing for Tifa is just his mentally 16 year old self talking, NOT his adult self. We all know that people get over their childhood crushes when they get older. Which means When cloud’s mental state ages up he’ll likely get over Tifa. They weren’t ever dating anyway, just a mere childhood crush. What do you think of that thought?

I think that’s more so informed by Tifa’s romanticised memories/fantasies of Cloud which his Jenova cells replicated to consolidate his persona (ie that they were close childhood friends). Zack’s chivalrous behaviour may have influenced his persona too. Personally, I think his dim crush on Tifa (as described in CC Ultimania) probably faded over the two years he was an infantry man - he was a teenager in the military, travelling the world and getting exposed to countless settings, people and situations he otherwise wouldn’t have experienced back in Nibelheim. Obviously the concept of child soldiers is TERRIBLE and should never happen, but for better or worse this time and distance away from home would’ve had a profound impact on him. Of course he still carried the shame of not fulfilling his dream or his promise to Tifa, but his experiences would’ve inevitably changed him in some way, broadening his perspective beyond the small town politics which condemned him and his mum to always be outcasts; life means more than that now Nibelheim isn’t his whole world. Between this growth and experiencing his first REAL friendship through Zack, it’d be understandable if Cloud’s feelings for Tifa (romantic and/or platonic) waned as a result; he’s had exposure to so, so many more options beyond the one female peer he had growing up, who he barely ever interacted with and is a significant subject of his ostracism and resulting trauma. He shouldn’t have to settle for that sort of strained dynamic just because they technically knew each other as kids. I don’t think his paused mental development has that much to do with disproving Cloti specifically, it’s more to emphasise the broader consequences of being in and out of a coma for the last 5 years of his life. If anything, it’s often used as an argument against ANY type of shipping for him. He’s lost that time, the critical transition from teenager to adult, time when most people consolidate their identity and life skills. He’s also deeply traumatised and has always struggled with socialisation. Realistically speaking, Cloud probably doesn’t have the capacity (mentally or emotionally speaking) to sustain an intimate relationship with ANYBODY at this point in the story, not even Aerith. That’s not to say that he can’t experience romantic feelings or that he can never pursue them in the future, but it is worth acknowledging that ideally Cloud should figure out who he is as an individual and begin healing from the worst of his trauma first, so that all his relationships (romantic, platonic and otherwise) can be healthy and sustainable 💚

Thanks! I was gonna do multiple “Editing Kabba” mini-essays in the upcoming video, but I’ve decided to cut it down to the one that’s directly relevant to the main plot, saving the other discussions for a future video. I’ve been having a lot of appointments and the weather turning cold for Winter has taken a further toll on me, but I’m striving to get the rest of Chapter 2 out as soon as I can! 😅💚

@@Kabbaway no worries! Take your time and put it out when you're ready. We have to wait til like 2027 for Part 3 ppl will be desperate for content in the meantime

@McClerith thank you 💚

Thank you, it’s a testament to how far we’ve come! 😄💚

ikr rlly living the zelda dream there kabs

I really was! 😂

Yeah… I’m avoiding spoilers for the DLC, but I’m hoping they detail Miquella’s perspective on that situation 💚

@@Kabbaway that's fair. Hope they don't condone it from a plot standpoint

Same here. I’ve seen some Mogh apologists around, arguing semantics about the situation. It’s abduction at the very least - Miquella’s wishes (according to the base game) were to remain cocooned in the Haligtree until his body became fully grown, which Mogh interrupted up ripping him out and taking him to Moghwyn’s Palace on the other side of the world. Poor Malenia, losing her brother like that 💚

Thanks! 💚

​@@Kabbawaynp

So many emotions. Season 3 is gonna be one HELL of a ride 😭💚

@@Kabbaway FR I JUST FINISHED THE SHOW AND IM STILL CRYING 😭

I’m banking on the S2 finale being the classic second act arc where everything’s at rock bottom so we can resolve everything by the end 💚

@@Kabbaway I hope so

True… not to mention I could’ve gained those 3,982 Runes just by beating two Albinaurics 🤣

​@@Kabbawaylol

Indeed it did! When I tallied up all my attempts, that obscure reference popped into my head and I knew I had to include it in the video. It was my first attempt at tracking images over moving footage like that so it’s a bit rough, but it was worth it 😂

@@Kabbaway lmao awesome

Almost, yeah! Rykard took me 18 tries, though to be fair that was me not understanding the gimmick and just being bad at dodging 😂

Same! I’m so happy they’re getting to finish it off, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Gaiman and the late Pratchett had considered continuing the story 💚

@@KabbawayYeah!

I’m coming back to Elden Ring, I promise! I’ve just been stuck with playing/recording/editing FFVII Rebirth plus real life stuff. I have recorded more ER footage and I’m very close to finishing the next Rebirth video so I’ll probably try to release the next ER video in or around the DLC release date 💚

Ideally, I’m trying to put out a video out every 3-5 weeks. I’m doing all the editing myself, and there’s a total of 65 hours (over 700GB) of footage to sift through. I’m making decent progress on the next video, so I’m hoping to release it in a week or two 😊

@@Kabbaway PEAK

Thanks a lot for attending, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s not content blindly consuming media just because I’m a fan of it 😅💚

I’m glad you appreciate the extra effort I went to to further explain my criticisms. I’ll put out the next video as soon as I can 💚

Good to see you, crystal! 💚 I definitely agree - the issues were there in Remake too (I called them out back then as well), but at least the singular setting made the plot more dense so everything felt more cohesive, making it a decently solid game even if it wasn’t amazing. Rebirth, on the other hand, suffers from trying to pad out the portion of OG with the least amount of plot and because Tifa had nothing to do in that portion that had to give her something to tick the box on giving the girls “equal screentime”, without ensuring the QUALITY of storytelling for them. And absolutely about the fact that Tifa should’ve focused on the real issue - directly asking Cloud if he remembers Zack, and questioning her own memories. The relationship between Aerith and Tifa is something I’ll discuss further in later videos, but the fact that most of their important conversations like that are offscreen is really bad storytelling too. It deprives them both of organic character development, and when most of their screentime together is them TELLING us they’re close and having Tifa uncannily copy Aerith’s anime-esque quips and gestures it makes their friendship feel unnatural and overcompensatory… like they’re saying “ooh we know we made them love rivals, but also GIRL POWER NO BOYS ALLOWED”. Women don’t act like this, they’re not a 2000’s commercial. Write them as PEOPLE first, give them the nuance the male characters are able to have.

Thank you so much, I’m really glad you enjoyed the video! 😄💚 In all fairness to you, a lot of people forget or don’t realise that side of Zack either - CC does a regrettably good job of romanticising SOLDIER by making most of its members one-dimensionally quirky. By focusing so much on them CC, however inadvertently, undermines the fact that they are very much an oppressive force that brutalises people into complicity towards Shinra. Despite seeing firsthand what Shinra did to the likes of Angeal and Genesis (the story frames them as antagonists for defecting and “betraying” Zack’s naive perception of SOLDIER values), Zack doesn’t realise how bad Shinra really is until he and Cloud are personally targeted; even then he dies swearing by his SOLDIER “dreams and honour”. He never fully recognises that he was a cog in a dangerously corrupt machine, or grapples with the atrocities he committed in the name of personal glory. He died helping Cloud which is a commendable act and a nice demonstration of their bond, but unfortunately that sacrifice is framed as him achieving his dream of becoming a hero which is ultimately shaped by the military propaganda of SOLDIER/Shinra. If I were to get extra political, I’d say it’s a very individualist, neoliberal way of ending the story - he strives to protect his personal interests (ie values and loved ones), without doing anything to meaningfully challenge the system which causes everyone and everything to suffer. To be fair, there’s not a lot a prequel can do to seek systemic change but that’s largely what makes his story fall flat for me - he died happy because one daring act made his dream come true, ignoring the years of warfare he was complicit in perpetuating.

Thanks for watching! 💚 yeah, it’s so frustrating because I can really see what they’re going for and as an Aerith fan I desperately want her to have the chance to survive and live the life she deserved, but the execution feels rushed and disconnected. I maintain that splitting up OG into three full-sized entries was a horrible idea just like it was for The Hobbit - tonally, Remake and Rebirth are day and night. Remake’s singular setting and focus on the most narratively-dense part of OG by far made it a pretty solid and consistent experience, whereas Rebirth is set in the plot-thinnest portion which is basically just going on a wild Sephiroth case while ticking off world locations and getting odd tidbits on party members, so it feels extremely episodic and meandering (especially with all the padding). Tifa definitely does exemplify many of these problems. Because she didn’t have much of a role in this portion of OG, they had to manufacture something for her in order to tick the box on that faux feminist quota of “equal screentime”. They could’ve made the conflict more compelling if they were able to accept the risk of alienating some of her fans in order to make her a more flawed, nuanced character in order to give this subplot the organic development it needed. That “I told you so” face at the end of Advent Children says it all - the narrative treats her seriously toxic behaviour as positive or just a natural part of insecurity when it should be called out; people would call it out if she was a man or more masc-presenting 😕

I would enjoy it more if they weren’t so preoccupied with making Tifa “likeable”, because it makes her niceness feel disingenuous and also undermines any intention to depict two flawed characters having flawed reactions to each other - again, to keep her likeable, her flaws are either ignored, attributed to a lack of confidence or blamed on Cloud or some other vaguely involved person or thing. It sends very mixed messages which I just can’t shake. 😅 I think a dynamic more like Zuko and Katara’s from Avatar: The Last Airbender would be awesome for them - the awkward boy dealing with cognitive dissonance about his place in the world’s dominant force, and the feisty girl who lost everything to said force and borders on being consumed by vengeance. They’re both treated as flawed, nuanced characters who aren’t very compatible at first but manage to find common ground as Zuko puts in the work to reform himself and Katara drops her overprotectiveness and forgives him when she’s ready to. On the surface, Tifa has a similar maternal nagging style as Katara does, however the show lets her be wrong and realise she’s wrong, not holding back on showing us her embarrassment and remorse as well as her efforts to make amends. Tifa, on the other hand, rarely gets that moment of “oh shit I went too far” because the devs want her to be pure enough for fans (they mostly see cishet men as their target audience) will love her. There’s so much potential there if they’d just let go of fanservice and let Tifa be an organically flawed and nuanced person 💚

I agree, it is quite sad when people are mean to Aerith. Yeah, she acts more anime-esque than some people may be used to or remember because they’ve got that sanitised martyr image in their head for her, but the devs made her with the intention that players get invested in her so that he departure left a massive impact on them. You can’t just say “don’t get attached to her cuz she dies” and then go on to rave about FFVII being a profound commentary on life and death in the next sentence - Aerith embodies most, if not all the themes of FFVII. She is the last known member of a race in tune with the Planet in an era where modern technology threatens to destroy it (she can represent the importance of preserving culture and the environment). Her and her mother (and possibly other Cetra too) were cruelly experimented on and extorted for information about the Promised Land for human greed and power, representing some of the worst aspects of life and humanity. Despite this, she is one of the most well-adjusted members in the party, always quick to boost morale and find joy in even the small things, representing the best of life and humanity. There is no FFVII without Aerith, she simply represents too much of the story’s plot and themes to not be acknowledge just because of her premature demise in OG 💚

Maybe I am a bit harsh on Tifa, but it’s from a place of knowing she could be so much better if she was allowed to learn and grow from her flaws instead of them being excused/romanticised. When people say she’s a feminist icon, I honestly don’t see it at all. Beyond her “progressive” aesthetics and fighting style, her codependence, people pleasing and tendency to be voyeuristically sexualised (by character design, NPC comments, camera angles, marketing etc) aren’t progressive at all, even by 90s’ standards. Tifa’s overreaction really annoyed me in this scene, for the many reasons I outline in the video. It makes no narrative sense, leaves little room for a gradual escalation of the conflict leading up to Chapter 9 and sends questionable messages about both characters. But hey, I guess anything would feel like a personal attack when you base your entire relationship with an acquaintance on an idealised 10 minute meeting you shared with them as teenagers 😅

Well, it didn’t give me much to work with to be honest 😂 he only had like 1 hour of screentime and 90% of it was just him being confused and/or a classic shonen hero. He’s not a terrible character, I’ve just seen his type with more well-developed/nuanced personalities before so he doesn’t impress me much… being so obsessed with dreams and honour, values instilled in him by military propaganda, doesn’t help his case either 😅

Thanks so much for attending the premiere, I appreciated all your comments! 💚 I elaborated on my thoughts a lot in the onscreen annotations, but since premieres can’t be paused they might’ve been hard to read. This scene fundamentally doesn’t work as an inciting incident for the conflict between Cloud and Tifa. Sephiroth spoils the premise of the conflict so it can’t develop naturally, Tifa immediately figuring out what Cloud’s thinking from his vague statement is way too far-fetched and contrived, their relationship hasn’t grown enough for this to feel like such a devastating betrayal, etc etc etc. definitely some of the weakest writing in the game (the whole of Chapter 9 as well). I did notice that difference between Tifa and Aerith - the latter has the emotional maturity and self-awareness to know when to remove herself from a situation in order to mitigate harm to herself and her loved ones. Despite lacking self-confidence, Tifa is very self-serving and tunnel-visioned when times get rough, often at the expense of her loved ones and associates. I’m really hoping they finally let her overcome these flaws and learn to be happy in herself in Part 3 💚

I like his design in the Re- project 😊

Editing is taking so long largely because I'm adding annotations, research and supplementary footage/screenshots to elaborate on my initial commentary. My perception was so mixed I'm taking my time to fully consolidate my opinions before sharing them with the world! 😅💚

@@Kabbawaywell if keep Kalm and carry on was any indication, we’re in for a total masterpiece of a playthrough! 😎

Aw, thanks 💚

Glad it worked out! Nothing will stop the Clerith love train you’re piloting 🔥💅

Thanks! 🚂🌍💞⛅️

I didn’t play the demos (Anxrali did, both for Remake and Rebirth) but I certainly did enjoy experiencing it with my good friend 💚 I’m glad you had fun! I absolutely maimed Aerith the entire time - with her healing and protective magic it made fights a lot easier; it also helps that elemental weaknesses make her high magic affinity almost crucial in May fights 😂