So I've seen a lot of comments suggesting that Aerith did actually die in this ending. And after rewatching the cutscenes, yeah I can see that interpretation. Cloud seems to be the only one who can see her so I guess he's just coping / interacting with a ghost. Honestly, I feel like this makes the ending worse. One of the frustrating things about the reboot series is that the writers are simultaneously trying to "preserve the original" and change the story at the same time. You can't really do both without resorting to cheap tactics (*cough* multiverse *cough*). If you're going to preserve the original, then do a faithful retelling. If you're going to change the story, then change it. This fence-sitting narrative is so lame. I might do a follow up video critiquing FF7 Rebirth as a whole because there are A LOT of massive problems with this game. And it's absolutely baffling to me that anyone is calling this game a masterpiece. Thanks for all the feedback on the vid. Hope you enjoyed it.
This fence sitting narrative has sparked incredible amounts of conversation and theory crafting. In the larger scope of the ff7 games, a lot of what happened makes sense. They have been following the pre established rules of the world and forming a new experience based around them. They’ve done a great job so far. I think what could make this 3 part story worse is if Aerith must die in every timeline for it to not be doomed or something along those lines. But the writing seems very clear that that is a possibility. Before Rebirth came out, I thought we were gonna follow Cloud going through original 7s story and Zack would be the new story. This was wildly different than what I was thinking would happen in terms of new content. I was more surprised than not, and I think it’s reductive to say that the narrative is lame if it can spark such a wide array of emotions from its audience, even if it’s adjacent to a retelling. A genuine retelling couldn’t have that. And people would be upset if it was outright different. This is a nice middle ground where there is still tension around what will happen. Also remember, good or bad publicity is still publicity.
Dan this MIGHT NOT BE TRUE. The multiverse could have been created exactly for a purpose that is easy to guess: bringing Aerith back in the third game. Because the trilogy as a whole is LITERALLY a sequel to advent children. This is so obvious and makes so much sense but why is no one talking about it online? SERIOUSLY I WANT TO KNOW.
Aerith is not a ghost. I have not finished this vid but I had to check the comments as soon as you said 3 timelines. There are more. Cloud did save aerith. And he didn’t. There are more timelines That’s why we cut between scenes of her being dead and talking to cloud. Cloud was transported through worlds just as zack was, the aerith we see at the end is from the universe where cloud DID save aerith. Cloud says “You gonna have trouble getting back?” He means TO HER WORLD.Him being the only one able to see the crack in the sky confirms this, it seems Zack,cloud, aerith, and sephiroth all have the ability of KNOWING this multiverse exists and being apart of it. So I think they can see things differently, as Zack could also see that crack in the sky when you play as him in Midgar.
You missed very important detail in your DOOM timeline. There are actually at least 4 timelines. Pay close attention to the Shinra mascot, "Stamp. 1. Rebirth timeline 2. Zack survived and chose to find Hojo and try to save cloud timeline 5:07 3. Zack chose to save Biggs, and he still died timeline (Biggs was eating chips with a different looking Stamp on the bag) 7:07 4. Aerith and Cloud finally woke up, went shopping, and visited the church timeline (different looking Stamp on the Stamp's Champ at the shop) 5. Jonny walked past Zack when he was sitting in front of the church timeline (Jonny was holding a different looking Stamp plushy) I might be reaching with the last one, but there are definitely 4 different timelines that I can confirm.
There were 5 timelines at minimum, and should be another one created when Cloud 'maybe' saved Aerith in one? Beagle, Pug, Corgi, Chihuahua, Terrier, these are the 5 Stamps that I know of. As for Zack dying? In the Pug timeline with Biggs, he jumped over the railing to avoid the shootout with the Shinra soldiers, so he could be anywhere and still alive. Also what makes you think the timeline where Cloud and Aerith wake up is the same timeline where they were both out of it? If so, where was Marlene? Zack was in the Terrier timeline with Marlene, Cloud, Aerith and Elmyra, and the dream date was in the Chihuahua timeline, so it can't be the same comatose Aerith and Cloud. These are two separate timelines. So in that timeline, Aerith is alive. Maybe Aerith is moving not only Cloud through the timelines, but also Zack, this is possibly why we see Zack with the different Stamps.
@@AShroudOfTruththere are actually infinite timelines because that’s how the theory works. How many they show us is irrelevant. This is why you don’t introduce time travel into your story, especially when you’re not a good writers sadly, remake employed the creators of FFXIII trilogy and kingdom hearts, two projects that made a compete hash of the same time nonsense in this trilogy. Only SE could miss the open goal that is a FF7 remake by doing this instead
@ItsSVO please, the writing in those games is amazing, you just need to read and pay attention. Seems to me you just want a story you don't have to figure out
@@finalfantasyfordays127 The writing in FFXIII trilogy is some of the worst I’ve come across. Have you seen the dialogue about paradox’s near the end? It’s quite clear based on your opinion that some people simply have an extremely low bar for both storytelling and writing while others have a much higher standard. I don’t think the games I mentioned are poorly written because I don’t understand them, they’re poorly written because I DO understand them. You’re mistaken.
Some fans are saying Cloud is hallucinating at the end but what I got from it was that it was that Aerith gave Cloud the ability to see the timeline where she still lives Despite appearing to save Aerith at the altar, the timeline reverts back to the events of OG timeline where she dies. However, while Cloud is holding her body, Aerith reaches out and touches his face and from then on, Cloud acts like she is still alive. This is where I think Aerith gives Cloud the ability to see the other timeline, similar to how she shows visions to Marlene and Red in Remake by touching them. Therefore, despite the fact that everyone around him is seeing Aerith die like in OG, Cloud acts like she is still alive because that in that timeline she is. This can't be just a hallucination as when the rest of the gang arrive at the altar, they see Aerith's dead body with her hand on Cloud's face, so he wasn't imagining it. Also you forgot to point out the fact that Cloud repeats to the gang what Aerith told him about the rift in the sky, but only he can see it. This shows that he can see another doomed timeline unlike the others, so it's conceivable to think that he can see both the OG timeline where Aerith dies and the doomed timeline where she lives
@@godspell. yup, im still on board with og 1997 story where cloud is a schizophrenic loser who hallucinates 80% of what he sees. fk timelines and alternate dimensions.
@@JaceWD this could still be the case. I mean maybe when tifa helps cloud fix his head in mideel in part 3 he will realize everything was in his mind. Still though, hard to think this will happen since they've gone balls deep in this multiverse bs.
@ChangingTimes01 Where does he say that. How do u know he wasnt just talking to cloud. Theres no aerith. Its clouds imagination and everything sephiroth said in there, was to cloud. duh.
I think you explained the 'timelines' fairly well, but the ending section is totally incorrect. They are clearly grieving Aeriths death, all except Cloud who appears to still see a version of Aerith (presumably Rebirths version). As you explained with Sephiroths goals, he is attempting to merge the timelines, both in which he kills Aerith AND Meteor hits the planet. He asks Cloud to defy destiny(the OG story) together at the end of Remake. This is AFTER the gang purposefully DEFY destiny by entering the portal and defeating the Arbiters and allowing Sephiroths control of them (we see them now as the new whispers with the purple orbs in the face) he now clearly has some control over fate as shown in the Aeriths death scene. Cloud is able to block Sephiroths sword, but Sephiroth ultimately switches Aeriths fate to the one he needs (Aeriths dead). I think you got most of this right but if you watch the end scenes again but with the context that in the minds of our gang Aerith is dead it should be pretty clear that Aerith is not there and Cloud is seeing things. Personally I think that the first 95% of Remake IS the OG timeline and only deviates from that when they enter the portal before fighting the Arbiters.
@@godspell. In a sense yes. Its more to show the audience what's happening in Clouds mind without actually having the characters tell us through exposition.
I read it as Cloud couldn't accept Aerith died and deleted it from his memory and she's a figment of his imagination. Big thing that makes me believe this is there's no logical reason for her to stay behind and they chose not to show her funeral since to the others she died Red could sense her since shes part of the Lifestream now. Maybe that's not it and Square is trying to keep us guessing and put us in Cloud's shoes for the upcoming mindbreak in part 3.
Yeah, I'm not convinced that the Aerith from the main rebirth timeline is dead. And here's why. Aerith basically spends the entirety of chapter 13 learning how to use the lifestream. Her connection to it is further shown when she is talking to Sephiroth at the end of this chapter and she talks with several voices. Also at the end of that chapter, Aerith reminds everyone that even if fate has been decided, the future is still something they can change. This is a theme that was established in remake and has been carried over to rebirth. I think this was all to set the stage for chapter 14, where I believe we get to see Aerith's abilities on full display. After Cloud and Aerith fall. Cloud appears to wake up in his unconscious body in one the doomed timelines where Zack left to find a cure for Cloud (I think). I believe it was Aerith who brought this about. As she later opens a portal and pushes Cloud through after giving him her materia. At the same time, we hear Sephiroth enter and say, "So, this is where you were hiding." Whether this was our current Aerith or a version of Aerith that is from a different timeline that had already entered the lifestream, I can't say for certain. But I'm inclined to believe the latter. The reason for this is that our Aerith is perfectly fine after their fall, and becomes the leader of the group while Cloud remains unfunctional while he seemingly is pulled from one timeline to the next. He is only able to fully wake up after he gives the white materia to our current Aerith after she is separated from the group in the forest. Later, We clearly see flashes from from the OG timeline where Aerith dies via Tifa, but the current version of Aerith shows no signs of blood. Meaning Sephiroth's blade was in fact blocked. If anything, our Aerith looks to be in the same state of the unconscious Aerith in the doomed timeline/s. But we also see that there is a version of Aerith that only Cloud sees, which is surrounded by lifestream wisps. We also do not get to see the iconic scene where Cloud lowers Aerith's lifeless body into the lifestream... we don't see what happens to her body at all. My theory is that our Aerith's soul left her body right after Cloud blocked Sephiroth's blade and went into the lifestream. I think this was the planet's way of answering her prayer to "show her how to protect everyone". I don't believe Aerith is nessacerly dead. But that her body has been left an empty soulless husk. And that her soul has united with the other versions of her soul that were already in the lifestream. And it is here we get to see just how much of a royal pain she can be for Sephiroth. It is hinted throughout chapter 14 that she is the one pulling Zack and Cloud from one timeline to the next and protecting them between timelines before making an appearance in the final battle of the game. I think she decides not to return to her body because it is in this state that she can do the most good for everyone and be the biggest hindrance to Sephiroth. I think that the reason that Cloud is the only one who can see her spiritual form is because of his time spent between timelines in the lifestream. Now whether or not Aerith will end up reuniting with her body at the end of everything is a different question. But I think that the writers have set it up so she very well could. Of course, I could be completely wrong. Regardless, I think it's too early to say that Aerith is, for sure, 100% dead.
Really loved this assessment. No idea if its correct or not. From what im reading, nobody truely knows, but i really like your version and makes aerith seem like a total badass and would really like for her to not be dead.
Cloud doesn't cry in the original game, in fact he has no emotions, which is why he is frustrated. Now Cloud can cry, we don't know if Cloud has accepted Aerith's death, especially they have skipped the scene of her sinking body. Tifa seems visibly confused by Cloud's apathetic reaction to Aerith's death. A Cloud who can see Aerith and seems to understand that Aerith must stop Meteor is very different, which implies that he must revive Sephiroth and that is why Cloud uses the black materia to search for Sephiroth's whereabouts. I don't think we are switching between realities, we just see the characters reacting to the changes that occur between what should happen and what is happening. The change of the final line in Remake for the English dub confirms that Aerith can see the same sky as Cloud and that is why she hates looking up. Cloud says it's just an illusion, so Aerith is an illusion too. Cloud says he will stop Sephiroth, but he can't really promise that to her, because Cloud and Sephiroth are the same person, which is why he carries the black matter. But the most curious thing is that Aerith will not keep her promise either, perhaps the Aerith that we see dead is the Aerith of the Remake and this other Aerith that is a vision (Sephiroth has said that she has hidden in another reality), could be the one who gives us her white materia and it is possible that she wants to create a world where she and Cloud are both together, it would not be crazy for Aerith to change objectives to ones similar to Sephiroth's but for her own benefit, this seems to me because Aerith knows about Meteor, something that only the other Aerith could know because the remake version has lost her memories, she only knows that she must pray. The white materia turns black due to a rendering problem, in several gameplays it can be seen transparent.
So it's actually not a reboot, but rather a continuation of the FF7 extended story. This is why Aerith knows about her death, why Sephiroth knows about his loss and why the whispers exist. My theory about the final cutscene with the crew is that, in some weird way, either our Aerith died and the Aerith "in-between worlds" is the one we see at the end, but no one except Cloud can see her, or the crew is stuck in one specific timeline or world while Cloud and Aerith can freely see through every timelines
Or Cloud is crazy but also is correct like someone with mental problems given the real power to see realities yeah what he is seeing is real but no one else can see it and also his mental problems are distorting what he sees
She DIDN'T die in one universe and had to stay behind in order to protect the world. In the OG version she DID die, so Cloud is basically in between two worlds like Sephiroth said.
I think this is the most simple explanation yet and I like it. With this I’d aim to say part 3 will end with cloud and aerith saying goodbye to each other and going to their respective timelines: cloud without her in his, and aerith without cloud In hers
I think there is another timeline that both the out-of-time Sephiroth and Aerith are from, where Sephiroth realizes he's destined to lose so he uses Jenova to break the timeline. And the Aerith who is out-of-time is from his original timeline and is the only one who survived. She speaks to the Rebirth Aerith and sends her visions. After they beat the Whisper Harbinger in Rebirth, it splits into 2 timelines where Zack survives and the Rebirth timeline following the original. When Cloud blocks Sephiroth from killing Aerith, he uses Jenova's powers to correct the timeline and kill her. And all of Aerith's appearances afterwards are from the out-of-time Aerith who is still pulling strings in the background to stop the out-of-time Sephiroth. The beginning of the next game will probably be called "Reunion" and will simply follow the rest of the original game. They will travel to the Northern Crater and find the regular Sephiroth trapped in a Materia cocoon, Cloud will give him the Black Materia and he will call Meteor, which releases the Weapons and then he spends the rest of the game holding back the Holy Spell from stopping Meteor. It will just have out-of-time Sephiroth and Aerith show up along with Zack at some point.
I just audibly groaned as soon as I heard alternate timeline. There's a vague curiosity for the games solely based off the fact I was a rabid fan of the original but I think that yeah I'll be better off possibly just watching spoilers and skipping through pretty cutscenes on RUclips. I just can't get into these remakes but I'm glad so many people can and so many new fans came around. It's wild to me to think a game I was so hype on when I was 14 and dropping my jaw at the original Ifrit and Shiva summons is still going on over 2 decades later.
She’s dead AND alive my dudes it’s not that hard to get. They did the same thing with Zack, he deifed fate but is still dead in beagle universe. Cloudy defied fate (somehow, with the lifestream coming out of his sword, Y’all can’t convince me otherwise it straight up looks like it. I thought Aerith is the only one who can manipulate it cause she’s a cetra,) and saved aerith but she still died in beagle universe, so now Aerith is in another world where she is indeed alive AND survived being killed by Sephiroth. It seems in other worlds like in Zack’s she is fated to be killed by Sephiroth no matter what just like we see in her final date with Cloud she dies but not like in OG. Thanks to Cloud her fated death at the hands of Sephiroth was broken. Trust in SE y’all they threw in the multiverse plot for a reason. The devs obviously are going to follow the “og” plot to keep the fans happy but throw in new twists to it. I knew we were still going to see her die and how it went down in Rebirth makes SENSE based on what we saw back in remake
There are actually 5 timelines. 1. OG timeline 2. Current (remake/rebirth) timeline The next 3 timlines are all splintered from the doomed timeline. 3. One where Zack seeks out Hojo to cure Cloud and is met with a bunch of armed men at shinra. We don't actually see what happens to Zack or Biggs in this timeline. This also seems to be the timeline Cloud and Aerith wake up in. But I don't think it was because Zack found a cure. 4. This timeline is the one where Zack went to save Biggs. Biggs ends up dying and Zack jumps down into the reactor. Nothing else is shown from this timeline for certain. 5. This is the "main" doomed timeline that we've been following throughout most of rebirth. And in this one, Zack had yet to decide where to go. Sephiroth then shows up and Zack gets pulled in between timelines. I assume this is also the timeline he returns to at the end. I believe the 3rd and 4th timelines I listed will meet an earlier ending than the main doomed timeline.
There are more than 3 timelines and you can notice because stamp changes. One is a beagle, the OG, one is a schnauzer, zach's at shinra bld, biggs eats a bag of chips where stamp is a pug, and when aerith & cloud wake up in midgar the stamp figurine is yet another breed
So if you remember on disc 3 tifa works to unhinge Clouds mind. His memories are fractured. This will be apparent in the next game. He thinks she is alive and she possibly is in another timeline. In the next game, Tifa will work to combine all the fractured selfs of Cloud and accept her death.
Great video! Only thing I might add is that there might be 4-5 different universes (that we saw) just based on the stamp designs. Beagle (main), Terrier (Zack remake), Pug, Pomeranian (universe where Aerith gives Cloud the white Materia), and I think Shiba Inu, but it was doll and not a stamp. Either way it seems like there's more universes than we know about which is sort of the fun but also annoying part of introducing a multiverse. They're going to run out of dog breed types soon 😂
So you are saying in the final scene everyone one know aerith is alive and can see her? Tifa is crying because she is screwed as cloud’s love interest? This is the funniest interpretation i literally lmao lol-ed😂😂😂🎉
FF7 ps1 is the 1st time line, Remake & Rebirth are the 2nd timeline and this timeline Cloud has saved Aerith and she has been success to cast the white materia and able to travel to every timeline. The ending scene is the 3rd timeline that Cloud didn't give Black Materia to Sephiroth and the new journey is starting from this new timeline.
We need Sepiroth to absorb all of his variants into one, including Cloud, then trap him in the dying timeline so he cannot come return to any lifestream. Meteor has to happen sort of like Ragnarok. Now the clear materia will act like a horcrux for Cloud where he can be kept safe and seperate him from Sepiroth. Because basically everyone with S-Cells is Seph's horcrux. The remnants, kadaj and gang can't manifest anymore because meteor destroyed that planet, no planet=no lifestream, Sepiroth can't manifest his will into being.
I'm pretty much also mixed when it comes to the ending as I don't know what to feel. Mostly frustration and resignation. The worst part is the ambiguity. It feels like the devs wanted to have their cake (by showing fan-service scenes like the Zack and Cloud teamup on Sephiroth and Cloud blocking that fateful blow 27 years in the making) and eating it (by not having the guts to commit to a whole new story if this trilogy is truly a sequel to Advent Children). Basically, the writers have taken a narrative loan and showed us the flashy scenes upfront while leaving the payback up to the third game. After all, years of Marvel, Star Wars and Game of Thrones have shown us that while the audience likes the flashy scenes, every part of it must be earned in order for the work to be accepted. And the writers stuck Part 3 with a very huge narrative bill. Two games in and we still have no clue what the hell is going on. Putting that kind of burden on the third game has the huge potential for a very convoluted mess or a huge letdown. Kinda like GRRM's Winds of Winter.
Some multiverse stories do work. Star Trek has multiple stories about different universes including the 2009 one. The catch is they are painfully thought out to see if it works within the lore. Star Trek explains its lore through science and is completely forthcoming to the audience. Rebirth doesn't explain its multiverse at all and it's made worse by the fact that everything is kept ambiguous. That's why the ending sucks tonberry balls in my opinion.
They don't care about telling a good story, they only care about money. Otherwise they would only need to follow the already good story the original had. But, no... same story wouldn't sell that well.
I think quite a bit of this is wrong or off a bit...but the most notable part is that Aerith is dead again in all timelines we've seen into (died in the doomed one as well after pushing cloud), though idk how her consciousness went between them to start with...and I'm really disappointed that a "Tifa fan" thought it was a cucked situation...Tifa is sad at the end because A) her latest best friend died yet again, B) Cloud is now acting like suuuuuper WTF, and perhaps a distant C) would be cloud seemingly instantly switching over to liking Aerith majorly after very little indication of it even if you do the Aerith dates. Tifa barely had any dialogue, that is intentional and I believe Cloud's infatuation with Aerith that came out of nowhere has something to do with a certain BLESSING he got...or the reunion. Aerith is somehow alive somewhere at the end since Nanaki can sense her briefly, but in what way? Who knows, probably just some sort of lifestream mastery like her mom did with her after she died (see Tale of Two Pasts).
While that’s an interesting take on the transition between timeline, my take on it is, transition between what Cloud see and what’s reality, what Cloud can see (only him can see) is spiritual Aerith(without blood) while the actual physical body of Aerith (having blood on hands) is what everyone else see, just like at the end only Cloud can see Aerith while everyone else don’t see, now what could be the reason Aerith doing this? Maybe so Cloud won’t be as depressed as he did in Advent Children, like her fate was meant to happen
5:23 This cloud is not the cloud from Doom universo btw, is the cloud from the rebirth time line, and this happen with Zack away they never say or you get to know if Zack back or not...your explication is not correct here. I think the last part is something like this: Zack is on rebirth time. Aerith is alive on rebirth time but for some reason can travel betwin worlds in spirit mode or something like that. Cloud from rebirth is on original time, thats why hes not sad from aerith death, he didnt see that happen. All the team is from the original game sad becasue aerith die. Hey but im crazy maybe im totally wrong Great cideo men
i think ur onto something, i started to think the whispers cant actually change things but move things from one timeline to another so there is a timeline where cloud did save aerith. so i think a bunch of ppl just did swap places after the death 18:08 how do we know this is the current timeline?
You have to read Harumi Murakami's book 1Q84 to understand better the concept, in one universe is the "classic" escenario of the original game, and in "another" the altered reallity (could be a dream world) when the sky has that weird halo, in Murakami's book the altered reality has two moons. This ending of Rebirth explains better the ending of Advent children, when Cloud sees Aerith and Zack at the Church.
I don’t think tifa is upset bc cloud loves aerith. I think she’s upset aerith died. I also don’t think it’s 2 timelines going on at the end, but instead clouds messed up brain. I think aerith is dead but cloud thinks he saved her which is why he can only see her
do you think theres still a version of Biggs alive? I hope there still is, I don’t want to think that they kept him alive just to do barely anything with him before killing him off again
One big mistake. When the party i running towards aerith you can see in the distance that aeriths hand is bloody while in your video you refer to it as the Rebirth timeline while according to you theory it should habe been the OG one
I really liked your explanation of the story. Honestly the reality switching at aerith death scene makes tons of sense. That explains the different reactions and her being dead at times and then alive at others. For as to how to evaluate the story of this trilogy overall , I think it’s just too early and too hard We need to see what they do in the last one. Right now there are too many iquestions and no certainty of what just happened in this game. Maybe aerith died and she is a ghost in the livestream similarly to the original, maybe aeris is between dimensions helping the crew reach their goal. Maybe Cloud is getting crazier from mako poisoning and everything regarding Aerith is just him being delisional (that’s why the others can’t see her). Overall it’s too complicated to know for certain. 2. No Cloud x Tifa??? What? Skywheel date??? The one and only real kiss of this game… nah … cloud x tifa stocks are the highest they have been since ff7 release. 3. Really looking forward to the next game. I feel like they are going to definetly change a lot of things in comparison to the original timeline. Maybe revive Zack and Aerith? Maybe this time we get to see a time skip at the end of the game ?? Who knows . I really like the concept of the game not just being an HD upgrade and while by no means a perfect game, the story has a lot of potential to flabbergast a whole generation of people that grew up playing as the lone wolf merc Cloud and co.
The inaccuracies are crazy. Nowhere did they show the OG timeline in this game (Remake did but not Rebirth). If anything Cloud possibly split the Remake/Rebirth timeline in two but what’s shown is mostly the main Rebirth timeline with Cloud have mind breaks & Aerith using the Lifestream to contact him. Also it’s hard to say where Zack is exactly so it’s too soon to say he’s in the main Rebirth timeline. Plus Tifa is very much supported as a love interest, it just matters on what you chose as far as dialogue & quests.
Yeah they did. The cloud talking when he holds a dead Aerith, and you don’t hear it is clearly the OG cloud giving his famous speech straight after Aerith dies “Aerith is gone, Aerith will no longer, laugh, cry or get angry, what about us? What are WE suppose to do?” You clearly didn’t pay attention.
@@elowei9919 That’s still Remake/Rebirth Cloud. Aerith is clearly dead in the Rebirth timeline, he’s just getting his mind messed with and he’s also denying her death.
@@DarkMagicGamerIts so clear from how the rest of the party is reacting too. They skipped over the burial part because cloud is clearly blocking it out like he does with so much else.
Okay here me out guys. Spirit Aerith from og can open portal to different timeline. We could see that with Zack being saved in the end. What if in the rebirth timeline Aerith was actually saved. What if the rainbow color means a portal opening and and switching Aerith from OG timeline and Rebirth. This is done to fool Seph. The reason i am going this route cuz I saw that the way Speh sword landed in Rebirth after being deflected in kinda straight but when the switching happens the sword is little bit towards the side. My theory is that both his sword and Aerith was switched to make Seph believe that she died. What we see now in the rebirth time line is infact her spirit of the og timeline. The part where Cloud says to wake up what if like the youtuber said a different timeline except its not the rebirth timeline but the og version. The youtuber got that part jumbled😮. Well i haven’t played the game so I may be wrong but if I was a script writer this would be the best twist i can think off. In the final fight where Aerith joins cloud against Seph, that could either be the rebirth version which is alive or the spirit version. I m leaning towards the spirit version since seph does say he underestimated her. Meaning it was the spirit versions entire plan. Ohh well. We will find out soon
I don’t doubt cloud has saved her and she lives in one timeline. Far too much effort was taken to avoid the finality of her death as represented in the OG. The water burial being avoided wasn’t accidental for instance. Unless this is a complete trauma response from Cloud where he sees what he wants to see because he can’t cope. What I’ll say about the white material though is it didn’t come across like she “absorbed the energy” and gave him the empty orb. I think she’s swapped the materia for the empty orb she already had.
You got a lot of things wrong in this video. Aerith is not alive in rebirth timeline. Cloud is hallucinating. Also, the devs are mostly cloti shippers. There's no way they will canonize clerith.
to behonest i am really glad that i never got into the FF Games... like how are you supposed to understand anything thats happening in those games. Any Dark Souls Lore is more clear than most Final Fantasy Games lol
The director decided to remake FF7 as a Kingdom Hearts game much to people's disappointment. The original FF7 is much more straightforward and easy to understand. The only convoluted Final Fantasy is FF8 and that featured time travel.
The concept of timeline doesn't quite explain what's really happening because FF Remake is already quite different from OG in many ways, so it's its own different parallel reality or as Sephiroth says, "world". The term "world" makes a bit more sense than just timeline and it is also a classic FF term that, back in the dat, was used to denote different states of the same planet.
They really should have done the original burial like in the original for closure. They could have still shown her spirit. This just makes things confusing.
@@steffanoboin5060 me? Uhm let's see then... Obviously Cloud mind has gone down abysmal to the point where Barret and Tifa are being cautious of him, Sephiroth has been up North this whole time which has been stated, Zack may reunite with the main party of the main timeline half-way through Part 3, Cloud will soon come to the truth which will break his pysche so bad the world will stand still for him, I'm hoping Hojo gets some justice to what he has done, Shinra Wutai clashing seems to be unavoidable so the party will be in the crossfire and lastly for me the line at the end suggests that Cloud may break the promise to Aerith as he has done to Tifa in the past. So yea that's my take on it but hi it's just a theory...
The last part is incorrect. Aerith is dead. The part with the tiny bronco confirms it. No one can see Aerith! When Aerith touches Nanaki he mentions; Aerith? He faintly feels her being 'there'. Tifa isnt sad because shes cock blocked, but she mourns her friend.
right?? i mean tifa and aerith basically bff they share gossip and talked about cloud and zack both of them being their crush idk why he said tifa cuz she got cockblocked lmao dude probably skip the story
@@mysteryace2129 no. Because in every timeline she dies. Wether the doom timeline where shes braindead, or the timeline where she pushes cloud away. Seph always comes for her. Its how it should be btw. She should be in the lifestream...
@mrsgamer9218 Except that isn't what happens as Zack is clearly alive in one timeline. Although I really don't have time to argue this multiverse mumbo jumbo as that's the problem with timeline and multiverse stories as it's hard to decipher details of the story as too many plot points conflict with one another. One can argue that it makes no sense for OG Sephriroth(in this Remake its OG Sephriroth who is time traveling) to even kill Aerith as it's basically sealing his loss. This game's ending was a mess and others can't argue otherwise as I've never seen a game who spent 40 hours on a story but throw out a bunch of random ideas towards the end with no buildup and lie in its own premise of changing fate and makes this multiverse mumbo jumbo pointless. It's bad enough they retcon Cloud's past but that's another discussion for another time
Aerith, like Cloud, Sephiroth, and Zack, she can travel between timelines. She still alive in the other timelines. Zack is the one you have to keep an eye on.
this was my takeaway too. no one interacts with aerith after she dies except cloud. and it shows the same scene where aerith is there and then gone when it switches points of view. also when aerith touches red, red can sense aerith when he says "aerith?" but doesn't look at her because he's close to the life stream too. Tifa and yuffie aren't sad because they got cucked, they're mourning the loss of their friend.
I like your interpretation of different timelines. Except for aerith being alive in current timeline . You can clearly see she is dead and isnt with the party and everyone is mourning her except for cloud.
It won’t be Sora tho it will be a cutscene with wakka saying that sin destroyed Midgar and all the makina cities 1000 years ago ya. With wandering flames music playing the camera will pan out to besaid island and Tidus and Yuna will question Midgar?? Then the game ends with FF7 remake and FFx remake logos side by side. I have foreseen this. 🤣
The ending is not absolute. Meaning, the ending could be one, or a mixture of the timelines (the original+another one). There are others timelines that Aerith is alive. They just showed us one outcome
I really do hate the shippers being unable to see past the romance war crap. Tifa is upset because she has lost the one friend she had that could help her recover Clouds memories and help her not feel insane herself. Now she's facing it all on her own. All those moments where she had someone to talk to about it are now gone and she is now facing it alone with a Cloud that is further gone then we have ever seen him. Honestly when you factor in how much of a relife Aerith must've been to Tifa when talking about the past and to then lose that support she is probably just as heartbroken as Cloud.
Fr, he kinda pissed me off at 20:52 like brooo that’s her BESTIE. Forget anyone getting fucking “cucked” THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. SHE’S CRYING OVER HER BEST FRIEND ☹️
The shippers are the ones making me hate every single ship in this shit. I stopped watching the video at that part because I was more than baffled that someone could see this freaking scene with Tifa -and all the others - being sad and instead of noticing what was amiss and thinking logically about the reason why they would be sad based on the scene, they immediately thought it was because of shipping garbage! Shipping is messing with their minds more than any Jenova cells could!
Shipping is fine if its a fair & honest take on the story. But some of these shippers (it was always tifa, etc, tifa cucked, aerith living is fanservice, the fake neutrality). Yikes.. the only ppl ruining the story is you. It’s obv some of these manipulated info to influence gamers to play a certain way or to hate the game, throwing tantrums when they dont get the story they want. Supposedly hates changes except thosw they want
I like that, because I'm not interested in the acceptance part of Cloud's mourning period, where he settles to marrying Tifa and having kids and growing old and all that... That's the sad ending for me... And Tifa deserves better too, like her own story, not Cloud's.
Thank you for the analysis. Here's some more details: 3:06 By the end of the game there are at least six observable timelines (OG, Remake/Rebirth, Zack x 3, Aerith "dream date" x 1). We can track them via the Stamps (Shinra mascots). Possibly, seven (branch of Rebirth with Aerith alive), assuming it does not merge with some other. 5:24 - it is important to mention, that while this indeed doomed timeline, it has different Stamp (spitz), than the one Zack was originally in (terrier). We have no clue if it's entirely separate, or Zack's first timeline "transitioned" into this one. 7:10 - more like "after", than "instead". Previously, when Zack was at Shinra HQ, there was a sign with the terrier Stamp, saying "closed". We have no clue, if Zack's presence in it is closed, or the timeline itself is closed. 7:42 - another Stamp (shiba-inu toy), another timeline. 11:12 - the path was not carved by the White Whispers. It was carved by three Sephiroth's Whispers, who responded to Cloud calling Aerith's name. Seems like he was able to exert some measure of control over them (perhaps, without realising it). And what is missing here, it's that it's not just a small path trough the barrier, it is entrance to the "Destiny Crossroads/Singularity. Barret directly mentions, how everything is similar to the expressway in the Remake. It is important, as well as the fact, that Cloud enters it alone this time. 12:08 - color-coding (colorful light barrier) hints at Rebirth reality branching, because Cloud is defying Aerith's intended fate. 12:21 - rest of the party enters the area, but they were not at the "Destiny's Crossroads". 12:41 - the angle, at which Sephy takes his sword. Does he perceive the reality, in which he killed Aerith, and is unaware about the new one? 12:47-13:03 - color-coding suggests, that this is a branched Rebirth reality. 13:24-13:40 - again, branched Rebirth reality. When we see Cloud talking, while hugging Aerith's body, it looks like he again experiences vision of her death in the OG, but this time it's full version, not some glimpses of it. 14:38 - the party is in Rebirth non-branched reality. I think the only time we actually see the OG reality, is when we see Cloud talking over Aerith's body 17:40 - "I saw what you did there". OG Aerith (she would fit the role of the external observer)? Also would explain, why it looked like she returned to the Lifestream after the battle. 18:50 - Zack becoming full playable character is very possible, and the most obvious time to do it, is when Cloud breaks at the Northern Crater. But that's just speculation for now. 19:08 - it's Rebirth timeline. Only Cloud was at the "Destiny Crossroads" so only for him Aerith's fate was changed, and new reality exists. 19:30 - for Cloud, Aerith appears to be lying in different position. Also, dimension barrier. What I personally think, is that Cloud saved Aerith in the Rebirth timeline, but because he was the only one at the "Destiny's Crossroads", only he has access to the newly branched Rebirth timeline. The rest of the party is in the original Rebirth (not the OG) timeline, where Aerith still dies. After the final boss fight he is sent to the original Rebirth timeline (he does not see Aerith at first), but receives the ability to interact with the branched Rebirth timeline, in which Aerith is alive. State of "Coma" Aerith in different Zack's realities (if first two persist, and don't transit into the final one) is unknown, but the words "Aerith... Wake up" may hint at something.
@@netfan7117 even then, it would just be a death in one timeline, not all. And there is no reason to believe that the Rebirth timeline is any more important than any other timeline. Thats why it "means nothing" or at least looses impact even if the Aerith Cloud is able to see now dies.
Regarding 19:30, the position is the same, the angle just makes it out not to be, compare it and you will see the lines on the floor are the same ones, that is not to say it's the same timeline though
A lot of this is right but Aerith dies in the rebirth timeline. I don't know what Cloud is seeing but the group does see her body with blood on it. Tifa is sobbing over losing her not for being cucked. So is Yuffie and Barrett. The Aerith who fights with you is only her spirit. In the final scene Aerith can only be seen by Cloud. She is gone. Red feels her when she touches him but he can't see her. This raises so many questions about Clouds behavior and why he is stupidly smiling on a grass hill while everyone else is mourning. That's how they did Tifa badly. I wouldn't be surprised if Aerith will be able to be seen again by everyone sometime towards the end of the last game but she did die here.
@@AndrewMiEyeah he legit says the entire party is sad and depressed because Yuffie is thinking about Sonon and he says Tifa is crying because she got cucked by Cloud I have no idea how the hell he came to that conclusion
For me as it stands right now it's simple. There are three major worlds that need to take place in the so called 'reunion' in the third game, which will bring aerith back from the world where cloud saved her, as well as bring zack back from the world he survived in, as well as the main world in which the majority of the 3rd game will take place. Aerith is certainly coming back, I mean we haven't even seen her final limit break yet lol.
This is not a remastered game, its a remake version. Meaning, the OG still exists on its own and they can do whatever they want in this version of the story. If somebody wants to play the OG, they can buy it and play it. If somebody don't like this version, they can just not play it anymore 🤣🤣.
My theory: Sephiroth kills Aerith on all timelines except one, the one when Cloud saves her. Meanwhile, all AVALANCHE members died on other doomed timelines because they never manage to leave Midgar. She will be back when Sephiroth successfully summons Meteor and merge all realities, making this Aerith to reunite with the others. This could be Aerith's plan all this time, that is why Sephiroth says he underestimate her during the final boss fight.
I enjoyed your analysis so much, thank you. Around the end, I got the feeling that Cloud was gaining the multiple-timeline awareness as Aerith and Zack do. That was why he didn't grieve over her "death" as others did. To me, Aerith definitely lived on in a timeline, but whether it was the current timeline remained ambiguous. Also, the "No promises at the journey's end" kind of relates this part of Aerith's song, "Know that you'll find me Promises to keep We won't ever need". It suggested the level of certainty that they will meet even without having to promise. In one timeline or another...
I like this interpretation better than mine I saw it as pretty ominous since Cloud just finished promising Aerith(, whether it's actually Aerith or a figment of his imagination) he'd beat Sephiroth and then that pops up? Cloud's probably not going to be playable for a good chunk of part 3 (perfect time for Zack to show up in the party since they also play similarly.)
Remake is the OG timeline the whispers job was to make sure key events stay on track. In the beginning Aerith is harrassed by Whispers, because she hears the evacuation warnings and wants to leave and she has to meet Cloud there. When she makes contact with them "because she is an ancient" she gets knowledge of the timeline. when cloud comes into contact with the whispers he also starts getting flashes of the timeline we see the visions during his episodes throughout the game, but because cloud has Jenova cells this also gave Jenova and Sephiroth information on the timeline. This sets the stage for Sephiroth to see if he can make changes cuz you know he wants to win this time around, and he finally does it he Kills Barret in the presidents office and the Whispers need to open a door to the inbetween because they have to draw power straight from the arbitor himself to undo what has been done. Sephiroth lacks a Physical body we have yet to fight sephiroth a single time it is always one of the men in cloaks that Jenova Controls. Sephiroth's Body should still be in the Mako Crystal near the Northern Crater. Sephiroth manipulates us into crossing into the inbetween to deal with the Arbitor becuase the bodies of the cloaked men aren't strong enough vessels to deal with a being like the Arbitor. So we do and we Fracture the Arbitor's power and we get Arbitor Aerith the last Ancient, and Arbitor Sephiroth/Jenova. Aerith caught on to what Sephiroth was doing and absorbed as much of the arbitors power as she could before he got it all. Just like in Loki when they kill He Who Remains the timeline starts branching. the OG arbitor's whispers are working tirelessly to to keep the branches in check. Aerith's whispers scoured the branches for pieces she needs to defeat Jenova once and for all. which is why we get a saved Zack who if you recall said he felt the touch of a whisper when he ended up in the Doomed timeline branch. the Game starts with Aerith saying her memories are missing and she has no white materia its simply clear. Aerith Sealed her Memories in the doomed timeline which she put a saved Zack to watch over her and protect. "that's the Aerith in the coma" cut to the Temple of the Ancients Aerith knows that black materia is fake because she swapped it with the keystone she made so sealed memories Aerith could make it back to the doomed timeline with Cloud. Now we play the part of the good couple while we wait for Sephiroth to find us so Arbitor Aerith can put her full plan in motion. she gives Cloud the white materia, and the black materia(which she hides in is inventory before he wakes up in the Wheel chair) and pushes us back to the Rebirth timeline where we give Aerith the real white materia and she gives us the clear orb. Arbitor Aerith uses Coma Aerith as a body double she created a Fracture bubble right there Cloud Stops Sephiroth from killing Aerith but Sephiroth and our friends are on the outside of the bubble so they all see Sephiroth Stab Aerith clean through it switches between the scenes like that not between timelines but from Clouds perspective in the bubble and everyone elses perspective outside the bubble. In the end fight when Aerith comes to help us duel Sephiroth he comments on the fact that she fooled him. Coma Aerith just lays there as body double everyone but Cloud Watched her die. Cloud can interact with Aerith becuase he has the Clear Orb of Materia. Aerith could interact with everyone becuase SHE had the clear orb of Materia the whole game. so Aerith is Both Alive and Dead at the same time.
I should have prefaced the comment with these are just my thoughts and feelings on how i interpreted the events of both games. I don't know if any of this will be close to true but to me I'm content with thinking about the story in this way. It will be interesting to see where they take the story from here there is still a lot left to cover. I'm interested to hear what other people think I haven't had the time to watch many videos like this one.@@lukewilson624
I'm pretty sure Cloud has a hallucination of Sephiroth before he meets Aerith and sees the Whispers for the first time. I think Sephiroth from Advent Children traveled back in time which would explain his obsession with Cloud when in the original he didn't care about Cloud at that point in time.
🤦ABSOLUTE GARBAGE STORY TELLING AND CONVOLUTED WRITING! Nomura genius style crap. 😩 They still continued with the Wispers crap and the time travel crap. It seems like Nomura does not no how to tell any kind of story other than some time travel BS.
The Zack timeline diverged too I thought. One he went to Shinra and the other the reactor. He had on Aerith’s ribbon on his hand when he was at Shinra and then at the plant he didn’t . I think that shows that decision split that timeline as well.
Aerith's ribbon was one of the first things that I noticed Zack didn't have on him when he went for Biggs, all the details are sending me into a spiral
@@ryanharrison3118I think he explained it perfectly about the death, watch the death scene again, when Cloud sword hits Sephiroth it glows green, the planet heard Aerith prayers, she dies in the original timeline but lives in another.
I'm not even addressing the timeline situation here. All of saying is that the party sees that Aerith has died and Cloud sees that she has lived. @@vaasmontenegro3728
I'm sorry but you've got a lot of things wrong. Tifa isn't crying because Aerith and Cloud are a couple, she's crying because Aerith is dead (in that timeline).
what in the Spiderman multiverse was that!?! hahahah soooo glad i didnt get the game yet… but I guess would be silly to assume it would all be based on the OG game. but man…. this new story.. the writers mustve been on some good mushroom trip to come up with that lol kinda killed the game tbh >_>…
While I appreciate this video and all the others you do, I think your cynicism has clouded your outlook on this ending. Getting so many factors about it completely wrong, not even really possible misinterpretations. Big L Gaming moment here.
The ending was dog shit. An absolute abuse and disrespect of FF7's characters and the player. The fact we need to have videos that explain the ending of a 25 year old game says enough.
If you played the last 5 seconds of the scene at 21:07, you will see that Tifa CAN NOT SEE Aerith! Therefore, I believe Aerith is dead Rebirth but due to the timeline shenanigans of Aerith and Cloud, they are the only ones who can see one another.
You say that. But in 10 years the original will be a relic only played by old people, and this will be the standard. And the original will die in darkness
@toulor895 who was this game for? Fans of the original are the only ones that would understand the references and changes that were made, as they are compared to the original when discerning what happened. I frankly cannot imagine how confused a new player would be when playing this game. There are things that make absolutely no sense if you haven't played the original. The weirder the better is such a lame Nomura type mindset. This whole game is style over substance
@CDHunter345 did you put your sunglasses on after you said that? No shit it's my problem we're expressing our opinions in this comment thread. The game is a bloated, non sensical mess that tries to fanservice while making something "new" they didn't have the balls to fully change it so they made 3 different timelines and tried to have their cake and eat it too. And yeah, since they marketed the game as a remake when it's actually a reboot it is my problem. I don't live for these little marvel movie moments with Cait sith saying things like "I wish i didn't skip leg day"
The fact that i dumped 100 hours into rebirth and the og game was 40 at best says a lot I'm happy with remake and rebirth. I don't want stuff EXACTLY the same. It's boring then
@15:48 OOOOHHH How ominous and foreboding. 🙄 I think the makers of this game really think that they are genius's when in reality, they are just bad writers.
so sephiroth had the "fake" black matira turned it into the real one, dropped it then asked cloud to get it for him..... why is sephiroth a bond villain now?n or he just into domme stuff? lmao he written like a KH badguy show up every few scenes to call the mc a nerd n drop cryptic dialogue.... so tired of square, ff7 was one of my favorite games this is trash
Uhgg im sick of all this damn theory crafting...we all meed to create a timeline where we pull a heist and obtain the script for the third game so we dont have to wait 3-5 years...3-5 years!!!!
Honestly it's painful. There are scenes and aspects of the Remake that I really, really like. There are added elements that really flesh out the main characters and there are moments that hit it out of the park, especially when they stick to the writing as it was. But it doesn't make up for the sheer nonsense of the time ghosts and, just as they did in the first game, they ruin every major scene they're a part of, sapping out the impact and emotion to fill it with confusion, or in my case, annoyance. All because Nomura, Kitase, and the company can't put their egos aside to just deliver a good story as it was meant to be told. And the worst part to me is, with every entry, they just spit in Sakaguchi's eye a little more. This story about coping with loss has being polluted to where you can't be sure if anyone's dead or not, and even if they are, it doesn't matter because the scene where it happened was so confusing and unclear that it ruined all weight and feeling you might have had in that moment. Nothing matters because you don't know what the hell is going on and need an "ENDING EXPLAINED" video to make sense of it. But we all know the reality, everyone's gonna live in the end. It's gonna be a happy ending! Isn't that what 13 year olds always wanted with Aerith-- clearly that's the way to go. After all we're fighting fate and isn't that what FF is about! Sakaguchi was clearly wrong with his theme of learning to live with and accept loss. Nah, Tetsuya Nomura's here to show you how it's done, Guch! That mother you loved died? LOL what a loser, you should have fought reality itself to make it not happen. The woman you want to romance gets killed? LMFAO just keep denying the truth and switch to a timeline where she's alive. This is clearly a message that people can take away into the real world-- I mean I guess it worked for Nomura since that man seems to live in his own world at every moment so what the hell do we know right? But regardless, I just want to reiterate, even if the next or last episode somehow puts everything back to the way it was (an implication regarding fate which would also be just as ridiculous and proves why bringing destiny and time travel into this story was a dumb idea in the first place)-- Nomura's distortions have so effectively confused things that it's ultimately muddied any impact the original message was trying to convey. Death is now a fluid concept and byy the time the next game comes out, people will have had 3-4 years to justify, argue, and rationalize away any potential negative event as not having happen, including Aerith's death, so that even if they're proven wrong, the blow won't hit with any later reveal. And I just keep coming back to the question: how was this is any way better than just playing things straight without all this timeline bullshit? It's all so tiresome.
The games great but it’s not perfect the only issue is they should have really went balls to the wall with the theme of Defying Destiny/Fate thats a beautiful compliment to Life/Death. Defying your fate,making your own choices and going out on your own terms is great. But the ending isn’t bad/nor is it good because I get what they are trying to do it’s just man you could’ve just saved Aerith or let her tell the party she has to go to protect planet from metor etc etc etc story beats we get it.
Oh also before I forget, they could be cooking up because Clouds mind could be rejecting Aeriths death by assuming she is just on some “higher than life mission as a Cetra but she’ll return when they win” hence why he sees her, his mind just hasn’t realized what’s actually happening. We know Aeriths actually there in spirit because Nanaki senses her. Zacks timeline/his role might be a way in the future to help fix Cloud whenever his mind breaks so in combination with whatever Zacks doing that could help Tifa restore Clouds mind not like she needs the help that’s literally her love interest 🤦♀️🤦♀️. Idk Zack living the only thing that doesn’t make sense story wise. It’s like Bardock coming back to fight Black Frieza. Or it could be the lifestream gets so corrupted by Sephiroth that Zack is a rebound to Clouds “true self” helping Tifa restore Clouds memories??? Only time would tell.
The thing is, Nojima, Nomura, and Kitase haven't been able to write a good storyline for 20 years. The well has truly run dry. No wonder the "unknown journey" is 99% the same as the original one since deep down they knew they could never come up with story beats as good as the original. Whether Cloud is even more deranged and seeing a ghost, or he's stuck between timelines, it doesn't matter, because it's still a convoluted mess.
I see nobody really understood the ending.Aerith died ppl.Zack is dead too as Biggs too.These "worlds"are worlds of the dead,created by the memories of the spirits that have returned to the lifestream.Its portrayed is such a convoluted and idiotic way just cause Squeenix priority at this point is NOT to tell a coherent story but to keep ppl with the guessing game.Smokes and Mirrors.A shame really that such an already masterpiece of a story have been drag down to this level.Its not even good writing
Loved the game, hated the ending I’m pretty sure Aerith will still die at the end of part 3, there’s no other way (And it is still unclear if she is actually alive at the end of Rebirth by the way) I kinda like the idea of Cloud being the vilain in part 3, but that would very much kiss goodbye to the events of the original game, which I don’t like that much Also, even though I love Zack, maybe even more than Cloud actually, it really feels like he has been jammed into this story just for the sake of it, and I really don’t understand his role in Rebirth, and I would argue the story didn’t need him And my dude didn’t desserve to be cucked like that by Aerith 😢 By the way I also dislike how the game forces the Aerith love story on us, despite giving us the choice to romance who we want (meaning Tifa obviously) First because, Tifa, always Second because I actually loved how the og game never really made it clear who Cloud was into, which made that love triangle much more interesting and subtle Here I have been going Tifa all the way during the entire game, doing all the romantic bits with her and showing no interest whatsoever for Aerith, and yet we still end up with her, being a complete asshole to Tifa right in her face in the process 🤷🏻♂️ Anyway, my feelings are very much mixed after that ending I loved the game, in fact I would even say it is one of the best games I’ve played in years, and I loved every piece of it from chapter 1 to 13, but that last chapter really threw me off I guess we’ll have to wait and see, again
I understand your POV the ending is really makin everyone bamboozled at this point haha. As for how the game forces the Aerith love story on us I think it's due to the fact that Cloud memories is merged with Zack's from hojo's experiment cus throughout the game Cloud is basically sharing his POV based on Zack's memories with him as the center of attention but truth to be told it is not what happened based on what tifa told Aerith in the beginning of Rebirth. In the next game I think they will explain this more and Cloud will finally knows what really happened 5 years ago as well to find out how will they end this Remake trilogy cus the ending is so confusing as there's lots of jumping from timeline to another timeline. Until then all we can do is theorize and wait for the part 3 in 2 or 4 years xD
@@horu2344 Regarding Cloud’s memory, I still don’t understand why Tifa refuses to tell him the truth at this point, it just doesn’t make sense Even when he finally remembers Zack, but he thinks he’s the one who felt in the river at Nibelheim, why doesn’t she tell him the truth? Just because she thinks it might upset him? Come on…
@@Ed_Crane Well imo I think she's worried about his mental state cus remember the rest of the group thinks Cloud is degrading and telling him the truth right now and then will make it worst to the point they're afraid they might turn Cloud to one of those mindless black robe folks.
@@Ed_Crane In my opinion the reason why Tifa is not telling him the whole truth is due to the fact that everyone in the group thinks Cloud mental state as of now is unstable, like they're worried that he is degrading. So she's worried that if she told him the whole truth it'll fasten the degradation process thus turning him into one of them mindless black robe folks but in reality he's a special case which will be explained in part 3 that's for sure
Very strange ending. I was hoping she would live. The game title and the premise of: WE CAN CHANGE DESTINY said that to me. I am a bit disappointed. Very sour ending
This was so good...I thought the white whisper's were Aerith's but being the planet's makes alot more sense as "it" wants Aerith to use the White Materia so it blocks Cloud from helping. This game continues to hurt my soul for decades lol!
Thanks for the analysis. I’ve been watching lots of them and it’s seems like most agree on the travel between different multiverses but at the same time not everyone thinks Aerith is alive. Not sure what I think about it either. If she survived I’m super happy (not because they changed the OG plot) because I like her as a character a lot. From the perspective of a writer I would kill her off but from the perspective of a fan I want her to live so bad.
Man my biggest complaint is that they keep teasing a major change in the story, then just going through with the original story, why not just make a faithful remake instead of this dumbass plot with the black ghosts, also all of the Zack parts of the game are absolutely meaningless, take those parts out of the game and they change ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, just a big waste of time and I really don’t understand what’s the point, why not just expand on what the original couldn’t Just one last thing on the end, why have cloud “save” aerith by deflecting sephiroths sword just for her to be magically dead right after? It didn’t even touch her so wtf, this game pissed me off so much man Jesus
Personally i loved the end of Rebirth, simply doing a straight remaster of OG with better graphics wouldve been boring and doesnt expand the story since we all know how it ends. The multi-verse thing is confusing. Rebirth is bold and makes you sit on the edge for part 3 which is exactly what SquareEnix wants to sell the game 😛
13:50 Areith Died in the rebirth timeline but cloud saving cause a new timeline, just like Zack making decisions to save Cloud or Biggs created two different timelines
I got the feeling that the rebirth timeliness split Into 2 realities one where Aerith died and one where she didn't because no one apart from cloud can see her they are all mourning her when they are on the verge especially as she is there sometimes and disapiers at others in clouds view; it's like his perceptions is switching between rebirth a n b and every1 else is stuck in A where Aerith died.
They did and I think cloud is the only one who can see it, because he was the only one there when the timelines actually split. The other party members were blocked from the scene by the black whispers. I‘m pretty sure that the new timeline only cloud can see is the one Aerith is hiding in from Sephiroth until the time is right for her to merge the two branches of the Rebirth timeline back together and defeat Sephiroth. I’ pretty sure he still needs her dead to become the God he dreams to be.
@@lisaeschenbach-nd3bp It's weird, but I'm getting some Persona 5 vibes from this, where Akechi is made to believe a completely different reality from what actually happened, and the tables get turned on him. The problem I see is how Sepheroth can remain unaware of the time-split. He has to know there is an Aerith he failed to kill, because he was there when Cloud stopped him.
Lol more of an ending summary then an explanation. Though I am positive you misunderstood and interpret a lot of things wrong. Some of which has pointed out in the comments. I think the biggest issue is you're explaining to many things as different timeliness where I believe and I think they made it pretty clear that Cloud is seeing things differently. Not only does Cloud still see Aerith as Alive but he sees the tare in the sky. Tifa even gives Cloud a death glance for how callous he is acting. I disagree with a lot of other points but I think it's clear they didn't want us to have all the answers and wanted us speculating until the next part comes out.
I loved this story line. It really destroyed me emotionally lol. I love what they are doing and although I hated some parts of this game (sidequests, minigames), the game is overall really awesome. I like the analysis but agree with what others have said about there being more timelines and disagreeing with why the other party members are sad. I believe that Aerith is indeed alive in a new timeline and that it is going to be a huge part of the new direction of the story in part 3. There was just too many things said and events that would make her living in some capacity make sense. We also literally see her get saved. Cloud may be tripping and his brain scrambling to protect him from further trauma, or Aerith maybe is part of the life stream interacting with him, but I think her being alive in a timeline makes more sense, especially since we saw her get saved, Cloud asks her if she will make it back ok which I don't think you would ask a ghost, Zach says "save her" to Cloud, and on and on. None of that makes sense if she is dead dead lol. I am really excited to see how the next game plays out. I wouldn't be surprised if Cloud has to try and save Aerith in multiple timelines from Sephiroth in order to merge her back into their reality after he gets his memories back. Also maybe I am misunderstanding but I feel like the handoff of holy in one timeline and taking it back in another is somehow really significant. I feel like nobody is talking about this. What do you guys think? I am going to go take a 3 year nap now, bye.
I couldn't handle any more of that labyrinth level in chapter 13 and lost my temper!...lol. that level was so boring and long and stupid to me i just quit the game all together and started rise of ronin. i liked rebirth but after 100 hrs i lost intrest 😮💨 unfortunately
Yea...I was disappointed in that. Her death was not near as impactful as it was in OG....They showed her too much after she "died" for me to be sad. In the OG they actually showed Sephiroth's sword going through Aerith. Cloud and the party's reaction to her death was way more emotional in the OG which is crazy when you consider it was all done via text and low quality lego models.
Unfortunately we’ll get that in part 3. They really broke Cloud so badly at the end of this game and I honestly think it was because they really had to shake up Tifa’s faith in him after all the close bonding they did in this game. Notice how we didn’t get the submerging scene for her as well. It’s something that he’ll likely remember when Tifa finally doubts him at that pivotal moment. I commend them for setting this up in such a way that when Cloud breaks this time, we’re really going to feel it.
Before with the first remake I was pretty optimistic ngl. I really was curious what they were going to do next game. Next game is here and man oh man. It kinda just makes me want to join the ever growing crowd of ff fans who said we wish we got regular remake off original just done better and deeper. This direction Im starting to disagree with. It leaves countless people including myself searching for a video like this just to fucking piece together 3 different timelines and understand this confusing ass crap. I also EXTREMELY DISAGREE with making the timeline you spend all the time in and working immense effort into and what is presumed to be the main onwards into the third game to have aerith with cloud together… You teaching me that in this video crushed me now that I understand. The whole game Its been teased to get with tifa get with tifa (get with tifa) and I genuinely made an effort to make that happen. Did the kiss on the Ferris wheel and celebrated that shit because it makes sense, they grew up together, and they will live and die for eachother and me as the player fucking tried all the right moves as possible…ONLY to get fucking uno reverse carded in the fucking end. That change…is probably the worst one that really upset me. Fucking abominable. Tifa SHOULD be with cloud. Zach (who is now in our timeline we will play in the next game) SHOULD get back with aerith! That guts me as hard as they depicted it gutting tifa.
So I've seen a lot of comments suggesting that Aerith did actually die in this ending. And after rewatching the cutscenes, yeah I can see that interpretation. Cloud seems to be the only one who can see her so I guess he's just coping / interacting with a ghost.
Honestly, I feel like this makes the ending worse. One of the frustrating things about the reboot series is that the writers are simultaneously trying to "preserve the original" and change the story at the same time. You can't really do both without resorting to cheap tactics (*cough* multiverse *cough*). If you're going to preserve the original, then do a faithful retelling. If you're going to change the story, then change it. This fence-sitting narrative is so lame.
I might do a follow up video critiquing FF7 Rebirth as a whole because there are A LOT of massive problems with this game. And it's absolutely baffling to me that anyone is calling this game a masterpiece. Thanks for all the feedback on the vid. Hope you enjoyed it.
you are pretty right about the many problems this game has, sadly I am totally with you on this :(
This fence sitting narrative has sparked incredible amounts of conversation and theory crafting. In the larger scope of the ff7 games, a lot of what happened makes sense. They have been following the pre established rules of the world and forming a new experience based around them. They’ve done a great job so far. I think what could make this 3 part story worse is if Aerith must die in every timeline for it to not be doomed or something along those lines. But the writing seems very clear that that is a possibility.
Before Rebirth came out, I thought we were gonna follow Cloud going through original 7s story and Zack would be the new story. This was wildly different than what I was thinking would happen in terms of new content. I was more surprised than not, and I think it’s reductive to say that the narrative is lame if it can spark such a wide array of emotions from its audience, even if it’s adjacent to a retelling. A genuine retelling couldn’t have that. And people would be upset if it was outright different. This is a nice middle ground where there is still tension around what will happen.
Also remember, good or bad publicity is still publicity.
Dan this MIGHT NOT BE TRUE.
The multiverse could have been created exactly for a purpose that is easy to guess: bringing Aerith back in the third game.
Because the trilogy as a whole is LITERALLY a sequel to advent children.
This is so obvious and makes so much sense but why is no one talking about it online?
SERIOUSLY I WANT TO KNOW.
SPREAD THE WORD ONLINE!!! FOR REAL IT’S SO OBVIOUS!!!
Aerith is not a ghost. I have not finished this vid but I had to check the comments as soon as you said 3 timelines. There are more. Cloud did save aerith. And he didn’t. There are more timelines That’s why we cut between scenes of her being dead and talking to cloud. Cloud was transported through worlds just as zack was, the aerith we see at the end is from the universe where cloud DID save aerith. Cloud says “You gonna have trouble getting back?” He means TO HER WORLD.Him being the only one able to see the crack in the sky confirms this, it seems Zack,cloud, aerith, and sephiroth all have the ability of KNOWING this multiverse exists and being apart of it. So I think they can see things differently, as Zack could also see that crack in the sky when you play as him in Midgar.
You missed very important detail in your DOOM timeline.
There are actually at least 4 timelines. Pay close attention to the Shinra mascot, "Stamp.
1. Rebirth timeline
2. Zack survived and chose to find Hojo and try to save cloud timeline 5:07
3. Zack chose to save Biggs, and he still died timeline (Biggs was eating chips with a different looking Stamp on the bag) 7:07
4. Aerith and Cloud finally woke up, went shopping, and visited the church timeline (different looking Stamp on the Stamp's Champ at the shop)
5. Jonny walked past Zack when he was sitting in front of the church timeline (Jonny was holding a different looking Stamp plushy)
I might be reaching with the last one, but there are definitely 4 different timelines that I can confirm.
There were 5 timelines at minimum, and should be another one created when Cloud 'maybe' saved Aerith in one? Beagle, Pug, Corgi, Chihuahua, Terrier, these are the 5 Stamps that I know of. As for Zack dying? In the Pug timeline with Biggs, he jumped over the railing to avoid the shootout with the Shinra soldiers, so he could be anywhere and still alive. Also what makes you think the timeline where Cloud and Aerith wake up is the same timeline where they were both out of it? If so, where was Marlene? Zack was in the Terrier timeline with Marlene, Cloud, Aerith and Elmyra, and the dream date was in the Chihuahua timeline, so it can't be the same comatose Aerith and Cloud. These are two separate timelines. So in that timeline, Aerith is alive. Maybe Aerith is moving not only Cloud through the timelines, but also Zack, this is possibly why we see Zack with the different Stamps.
@@AShroudOfTruththere are actually infinite timelines because that’s how the theory works. How many they show us is irrelevant. This is why you don’t introduce time travel into your story, especially when you’re not a good writers sadly, remake employed the creators of FFXIII trilogy and kingdom hearts, two projects that made a compete hash of the same time nonsense in this trilogy. Only SE could miss the open goal that is a FF7 remake by doing this instead
@@ItsSVO It's a fantasy game dude, not based on reality, or science.
@ItsSVO please, the writing in those games is amazing, you just need to read and pay attention. Seems to me you just want a story you don't have to figure out
@@finalfantasyfordays127 The writing in FFXIII trilogy is some of the worst I’ve come across. Have you seen the dialogue about paradox’s near the end? It’s quite clear based on your opinion that some people simply have an extremely low bar for both storytelling and writing while others have a much higher standard.
I don’t think the games I mentioned are poorly written because I don’t understand them, they’re poorly written because I DO understand them. You’re mistaken.
Some fans are saying Cloud is hallucinating at the end but what I got from it was that it was that Aerith gave Cloud the ability to see the timeline where she still lives
Despite appearing to save Aerith at the altar, the timeline reverts back to the events of OG timeline where she dies. However, while Cloud is holding her body, Aerith reaches out and touches his face and from then on, Cloud acts like she is still alive. This is where I think Aerith gives Cloud the ability to see the other timeline, similar to how she shows visions to Marlene and Red in Remake by touching them. Therefore, despite the fact that everyone around him is seeing Aerith die like in OG, Cloud acts like she is still alive because that in that timeline she is.
This can't be just a hallucination as when the rest of the gang arrive at the altar, they see Aerith's dead body with her hand on Cloud's face, so he wasn't imagining it.
Also you forgot to point out the fact that Cloud repeats to the gang what Aerith told him about the rift in the sky, but only he can see it. This shows that he can see another doomed timeline unlike the others, so it's conceivable to think that he can see both the OG timeline where Aerith dies and the doomed timeline where she lives
Yeah cloud hallucinating is a good theory, but seeing multiverse timeline shits it just feels like it doesn't fit the narrative
@@godspell. yup, im still on board with og 1997 story where cloud is a schizophrenic loser who hallucinates 80% of what he sees.
fk timelines and alternate dimensions.
@@JaceWD this could still be the case. I mean maybe when tifa helps cloud fix his head in mideel in part 3 he will realize everything was in his mind. Still though, hard to think this will happen since they've gone balls deep in this multiverse bs.
I think you got it, I like your interpretation
@ChangingTimes01 Where does he say that. How do u know he wasnt just talking to cloud. Theres no aerith. Its clouds imagination and everything sephiroth said in there, was to cloud.
duh.
I think you explained the 'timelines' fairly well, but the ending section is totally incorrect. They are clearly grieving Aeriths death, all except Cloud who appears to still see a version of Aerith (presumably Rebirths version). As you explained with Sephiroths goals, he is attempting to merge the timelines, both in which he kills Aerith AND Meteor hits the planet. He asks Cloud to defy destiny(the OG story) together at the end of Remake. This is AFTER the gang purposefully DEFY destiny by entering the portal and defeating the Arbiters and allowing Sephiroths control of them (we see them now as the new whispers with the purple orbs in the face) he now clearly has some control over fate as shown in the Aeriths death scene. Cloud is able to block Sephiroths sword, but Sephiroth ultimately switches Aeriths fate to the one he needs (Aeriths dead). I think you got most of this right but if you watch the end scenes again but with the context that in the minds of our gang Aerith is dead it should be pretty clear that Aerith is not there and Cloud is seeing things. Personally I think that the first 95% of Remake IS the OG timeline and only deviates from that when they enter the portal before fighting the Arbiters.
Nah tifa is a cuck 😂
@@omensoffate you would know.
Basically aerith is a force ghost at this point
Red XIII can sense Aerith's presence. He is not seeing things, but he is losing his mind.
@@godspell. In a sense yes. Its more to show the audience what's happening in Clouds mind without actually having the characters tell us through exposition.
I read it as Cloud couldn't accept Aerith died and deleted it from his memory and she's a figment of his imagination. Big thing that makes me believe this is there's no logical reason for her to stay behind and they chose not to show her funeral since to the others she died Red could sense her since shes part of the Lifestream now. Maybe that's not it and Square is trying to keep us guessing and put us in Cloud's shoes for the upcoming mindbreak in part 3.
Yeah, I'm not convinced that the Aerith from the main rebirth timeline is dead. And here's why.
Aerith basically spends the entirety of chapter 13 learning how to use the lifestream. Her connection to it is further shown when she is talking to Sephiroth at the end of this chapter and she talks with several voices. Also at the end of that chapter, Aerith reminds everyone that even if fate has been decided, the future is still something they can change. This is a theme that was established in remake and has been carried over to rebirth.
I think this was all to set the stage for chapter 14, where I believe we get to see Aerith's abilities on full display.
After Cloud and Aerith fall. Cloud appears to wake up in his unconscious body in one the doomed timelines where Zack left to find a cure for Cloud (I think).
I believe it was Aerith who brought this about. As she later opens a portal and pushes Cloud through after giving him her materia. At the same time, we hear Sephiroth enter and say, "So, this is where you were hiding."
Whether this was our current Aerith or a version of Aerith that is from a different timeline that had already entered the lifestream, I can't say for certain. But I'm inclined to believe the latter.
The reason for this is that our Aerith is perfectly fine after their fall, and becomes the leader of the group while Cloud remains unfunctional while he seemingly is pulled from one timeline to the next. He is only able to fully wake up after he gives the white materia to our current Aerith after she is separated from the group in the forest.
Later, We clearly see flashes from from the OG timeline where Aerith dies via Tifa, but the current version of Aerith shows no signs of blood. Meaning Sephiroth's blade was in fact blocked. If anything, our Aerith looks to be in the same state of the unconscious Aerith in the doomed timeline/s. But we also see that there is a version of Aerith that only Cloud sees, which is surrounded by lifestream wisps.
We also do not get to see the iconic scene where Cloud lowers Aerith's lifeless body into the lifestream... we don't see what happens to her body at all.
My theory is that our Aerith's soul left her body right after Cloud blocked Sephiroth's blade and went into the lifestream. I think this was the planet's way of answering her prayer to "show her how to protect everyone".
I don't believe Aerith is nessacerly dead. But that her body has been left an empty soulless husk. And that her soul has united with the other versions of her soul that were already in the lifestream.
And it is here we get to see just how much of a royal pain she can be for Sephiroth.
It is hinted throughout chapter 14 that she is the one pulling Zack and Cloud from one timeline to the next and protecting them between timelines before making an appearance in the final battle of the game.
I think she decides not to return to her body because it is in this state that she can do the most good for everyone and be the biggest hindrance to Sephiroth.
I think that the reason that Cloud is the only one who can see her spiritual form is because of his time spent between timelines in the lifestream.
Now whether or not Aerith will end up reuniting with her body at the end of everything is a different question. But I think that the writers have set it up so she very well could.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. Regardless, I think it's too early to say that Aerith is, for sure, 100% dead.
Really loved this assessment. No idea if its correct or not. From what im reading, nobody truely knows, but i really like your version and makes aerith seem like a total badass and would really like for her to not be dead.
Cloud doesn't cry in the original game, in fact he has no emotions, which is why he is frustrated.
Now Cloud can cry, we don't know if Cloud has accepted Aerith's death, especially they have skipped the scene of her sinking body. Tifa seems visibly confused by Cloud's apathetic reaction to Aerith's death.
A Cloud who can see Aerith and seems to understand that Aerith must stop Meteor is very different, which implies that he must revive Sephiroth and that is why Cloud uses the black materia to search for Sephiroth's whereabouts.
I don't think we are switching between realities, we just see the characters reacting to the changes that occur between what should happen and what is happening.
The change of the final line in Remake for the English dub confirms that Aerith can see the same sky as Cloud and that is why she hates looking up. Cloud says it's just an illusion, so Aerith is an illusion too.
Cloud says he will stop Sephiroth, but he can't really promise that to her, because Cloud and Sephiroth are the same person, which is why he carries the black matter. But the most curious thing is that Aerith will not keep her promise either, perhaps the Aerith that we see dead is the Aerith of the Remake and this other Aerith that is a vision (Sephiroth has said that she has hidden in another reality), could be the one who gives us her white materia and it is possible that she wants to create a world where she and Cloud are both together, it would not be crazy for Aerith to change objectives to ones similar to Sephiroth's but for her own benefit, this seems to me because Aerith knows about Meteor, something that only the other Aerith could know because the remake version has lost her memories, she only knows that she must pray.
The white materia turns black due to a rendering problem, in several gameplays it can be seen transparent.
So it's actually not a reboot, but rather a continuation of the FF7 extended story.
This is why Aerith knows about her death, why Sephiroth knows about his loss and why the whispers exist.
My theory about the final cutscene with the crew is that, in some weird way, either our Aerith died and the Aerith "in-between worlds" is the one we see at the end, but no one except Cloud can see her, or the crew is stuck in one specific timeline or world while Cloud and Aerith can freely see through every timelines
Or Cloud is crazy but also is correct like someone with mental problems given the real power to see realities yeah what he is seeing is real but no one else can see it and also his mental problems are distorting what he sees
She DIDN'T die in one universe and had to stay behind in order to protect the world. In the OG version she DID die, so Cloud is basically in between two worlds like Sephiroth said.
I think this is the most simple explanation yet and I like it.
With this I’d aim to say part 3 will end with cloud and aerith saying goodbye to each other and going to their respective timelines: cloud without her in his, and aerith without cloud In hers
I think there is another timeline that both the out-of-time Sephiroth and Aerith are from, where Sephiroth realizes he's destined to lose so he uses Jenova to break the timeline. And the Aerith who is out-of-time is from his original timeline and is the only one who survived. She speaks to the Rebirth Aerith and sends her visions.
After they beat the Whisper Harbinger in Rebirth, it splits into 2 timelines where Zack survives and the Rebirth timeline following the original. When Cloud blocks Sephiroth from killing Aerith, he uses Jenova's powers to correct the timeline and kill her. And all of Aerith's appearances afterwards are from the out-of-time Aerith who is still pulling strings in the background to stop the out-of-time Sephiroth.
The beginning of the next game will probably be called "Reunion" and will simply follow the rest of the original game. They will travel to the Northern Crater and find the regular Sephiroth trapped in a Materia cocoon, Cloud will give him the Black Materia and he will call Meteor, which releases the Weapons and then he spends the rest of the game holding back the Holy Spell from stopping Meteor. It will just have out-of-time Sephiroth and Aerith show up along with Zack at some point.
I just audibly groaned as soon as I heard alternate timeline. There's a vague curiosity for the games solely based off the fact I was a rabid fan of the original but I think that yeah I'll be better off possibly just watching spoilers and skipping through pretty cutscenes on RUclips. I just can't get into these remakes but I'm glad so many people can and so many new fans came around. It's wild to me to think a game I was so hype on when I was 14 and dropping my jaw at the original Ifrit and Shiva summons is still going on over 2 decades later.
She’s dead AND alive my dudes it’s not that hard to get. They did the same thing with Zack, he deifed fate but is still dead in beagle universe. Cloudy defied fate (somehow, with the lifestream coming out of his sword, Y’all can’t convince me otherwise it straight up looks like it. I thought Aerith is the only one who can manipulate it cause she’s a cetra,) and saved aerith but she still died in beagle universe, so now Aerith is in another world where she is indeed alive AND survived being killed by Sephiroth. It seems in other worlds like in Zack’s she is fated to be killed by Sephiroth no matter what just like we see in her final date with Cloud she dies but not like in OG. Thanks to Cloud her fated death at the hands of Sephiroth was broken. Trust in SE y’all they threw in the multiverse plot for a reason. The devs obviously are going to follow the “og” plot to keep the fans happy but throw in new twists to it. I knew we were still going to see her die and how it went down in Rebirth makes SENSE based on what we saw back in remake
There are actually 5 timelines.
1. OG timeline
2. Current (remake/rebirth) timeline
The next 3 timlines are all splintered from the doomed timeline.
3. One where Zack seeks out Hojo to cure Cloud and is met with a bunch of armed men at shinra.
We don't actually see what happens to Zack or Biggs in this timeline. This also seems to be the timeline Cloud and Aerith wake up in. But I don't think it was because Zack found a cure.
4. This timeline is the one where Zack went to save Biggs. Biggs ends up dying and Zack jumps down into the reactor. Nothing else is shown from this timeline for certain.
5. This is the "main" doomed timeline that we've been following throughout most of rebirth. And in this one, Zack had yet to decide where to go. Sephiroth then shows up and Zack gets pulled in between timelines. I assume this is also the timeline he returns to at the end.
I believe the 3rd and 4th timelines I listed will meet an earlier ending than the main doomed timeline.
There are more than 3 timelines and you can notice because stamp changes. One is a beagle, the OG, one is a schnauzer, zach's at shinra bld, biggs eats a bag of chips where stamp is a pug, and when aerith & cloud wake up in midgar the stamp figurine is yet another breed
So if you remember on disc 3 tifa works to unhinge Clouds mind. His memories are fractured. This will be apparent in the next game. He thinks she is alive and she possibly is in another timeline. In the next game, Tifa will work to combine all the fractured selfs of Cloud and accept her death.
Great video! Only thing I might add is that there might be 4-5 different universes (that we saw) just based on the stamp designs. Beagle (main), Terrier (Zack remake), Pug, Pomeranian (universe where Aerith gives Cloud the white Materia), and I think Shiba Inu, but it was doll and not a stamp. Either way it seems like there's more universes than we know about which is sort of the fun but also annoying part of introducing a multiverse. They're going to run out of dog breed types soon 😂
Zack mentions nobody said timelines can’t unite again. Maybe we get an ending where everyone lives 🥲
So you are saying in the final scene everyone one know aerith is alive and can see her? Tifa is crying because she is screwed as cloud’s love interest? This is the funniest interpretation i literally lmao lol-ed😂😂😂🎉
Aerith lives on as a voice in cloud’s head
Best out of season April fools joke no 🧢
FF7 ps1 is the 1st time line, Remake & Rebirth are the 2nd timeline and this timeline Cloud has saved Aerith and she has been success to cast the white materia and able to travel to every timeline. The ending scene is the 3rd timeline that Cloud didn't give Black Materia to Sephiroth and the new journey is starting from this new timeline.
We need Sepiroth to absorb all of his variants into one, including Cloud, then trap him in the dying timeline so he cannot come return to any lifestream. Meteor has to happen sort of like Ragnarok. Now the clear materia will act like a horcrux for Cloud where he can be kept safe and seperate him from Sepiroth. Because basically everyone with S-Cells is Seph's horcrux. The remnants, kadaj and gang can't manifest anymore because meteor destroyed that planet, no planet=no lifestream, Sepiroth can't manifest his will into being.
I'm pretty much also mixed when it comes to the ending as I don't know what to feel. Mostly frustration and resignation. The worst part is the ambiguity. It feels like the devs wanted to have their cake (by showing fan-service scenes like the Zack and Cloud teamup on Sephiroth and Cloud blocking that fateful blow 27 years in the making) and eating it (by not having the guts to commit to a whole new story if this trilogy is truly a sequel to Advent Children).
Basically, the writers have taken a narrative loan and showed us the flashy scenes upfront while leaving the payback up to the third game. After all, years of Marvel, Star Wars and Game of Thrones have shown us that while the audience likes the flashy scenes, every part of it must be earned in order for the work to be accepted. And the writers stuck Part 3 with a very huge narrative bill. Two games in and we still have no clue what the hell is going on. Putting that kind of burden on the third game has the huge potential for a very convoluted mess or a huge letdown. Kinda like GRRM's Winds of Winter.
When are writers going to realise multiverse stories fucking suck? The MCU, Mortal Kombat, and now this?
Some multiverse stories do work. Star Trek has multiple stories about different universes including the 2009 one. The catch is they are painfully thought out to see if it works within the lore. Star Trek explains its lore through science and is completely forthcoming to the audience. Rebirth doesn't explain its multiverse at all and it's made worse by the fact that everything is kept ambiguous. That's why the ending sucks tonberry balls in my opinion.
Too bad uuuuuUuu…..will die 🤣
They don't care about telling a good story, they only care about money. Otherwise they would only need to follow the already good story the original had. But, no... same story wouldn't sell that well.
I think quite a bit of this is wrong or off a bit...but the most notable part is that Aerith is dead again in all timelines we've seen into (died in the doomed one as well after pushing cloud), though idk how her consciousness went between them to start with...and I'm really disappointed that a "Tifa fan" thought it was a cucked situation...Tifa is sad at the end because A) her latest best friend died yet again, B) Cloud is now acting like suuuuuper WTF, and perhaps a distant C) would be cloud seemingly instantly switching over to liking Aerith majorly after very little indication of it even if you do the Aerith dates. Tifa barely had any dialogue, that is intentional and I believe Cloud's infatuation with Aerith that came out of nowhere has something to do with a certain BLESSING he got...or the reunion. Aerith is somehow alive somewhere at the end since Nanaki can sense her briefly, but in what way? Who knows, probably just some sort of lifestream mastery like her mom did with her after she died (see Tale of Two Pasts).
While that’s an interesting take on the transition between timeline, my take on it is, transition between what Cloud see and what’s reality, what Cloud can see (only him can see) is spiritual Aerith(without blood) while the actual physical body of Aerith (having blood on hands) is what everyone else see, just like at the end only Cloud can see Aerith while everyone else don’t see, now what could be the reason Aerith doing this? Maybe so Cloud won’t be as depressed as he did in Advent Children, like her fate was meant to happen
Everything you said was perfect but until the last scene with materias switch then you cracked.
In the OG game when Cloud and Tifa are in the lifestream you can see the fractured sky scar in the background.
5:23 This cloud is not the cloud from Doom universo btw, is the cloud from the rebirth time line, and this happen with Zack away they never say or you get to know if Zack back or not...your explication is not correct here.
I think the last part is something like this:
Zack is on rebirth time.
Aerith is alive on rebirth time but for some reason can travel betwin worlds in spirit mode or something like that.
Cloud from rebirth is on original time, thats why hes not sad from aerith death, he didnt see that happen.
All the team is from the original game sad becasue aerith die.
Hey but im crazy maybe im totally wrong
Great cideo men
Video*
i think ur onto something, i started to think the whispers cant actually change things but move things from one timeline to another so there is a timeline where cloud did save aerith. so i think a bunch of ppl just did swap places after the death
18:08 how do we know this is the current timeline?
“Aerith , Everywhere, All at Once.”
You have to read Harumi Murakami's book 1Q84 to understand better the concept, in one universe is the "classic" escenario of the original game, and in "another" the altered reallity (could be a dream world) when the sky has that weird halo, in Murakami's book the altered reality has two moons. This ending of Rebirth explains better the ending of Advent children, when Cloud sees Aerith and Zack at the Church.
I just spent 3 hours on this end sequence and I have a sore head. Wtf
I don’t think tifa is upset bc cloud loves aerith. I think she’s upset aerith died. I also don’t think it’s 2 timelines going on at the end, but instead clouds messed up brain. I think aerith is dead but cloud thinks he saved her which is why he can only see her
This is scary AF 😮
You think Tifa is super depressed because she got cucked by Aerith?
This is a classic example of how Tifa fans always misinterpret the love aspect 😒
do you think theres still a version of Biggs alive? I hope there still is, I don’t want to think that they kept him alive just to do barely anything with him before killing him off again
One big mistake. When the party i running towards aerith you can see in the distance that aeriths hand is bloody while in your video you refer to it as the Rebirth timeline while according to you theory it should habe been the OG one
I really liked your explanation of the story. Honestly the reality switching at aerith death scene makes tons of sense. That explains the different reactions and her being dead at times and then alive at others.
For as to how to evaluate the story of this trilogy overall , I think it’s just too early and too hard
We need to see what they do in the last one. Right now there are too many iquestions and no certainty of what just happened in this game. Maybe aerith died and she is a ghost in the livestream similarly to the original, maybe aeris is between dimensions helping the crew reach their goal. Maybe Cloud is getting crazier from mako poisoning and everything regarding Aerith is just him being delisional (that’s why the others can’t see her). Overall it’s too complicated to know for certain.
2. No Cloud x Tifa??? What? Skywheel date??? The one and only real kiss of this game… nah … cloud x tifa stocks are the highest they have been since ff7 release.
3. Really looking forward to the next game. I feel like they are going to definetly change a lot of things in comparison to the original timeline. Maybe revive Zack and Aerith? Maybe this time we get to see a time skip at the end of the game ?? Who knows . I really like the concept of the game not just being an HD upgrade and while by no means a perfect game, the story has a lot of potential to flabbergast a whole generation of people that grew up playing as the lone wolf merc Cloud and co.
The inaccuracies are crazy. Nowhere did they show the OG timeline in this game (Remake did but not Rebirth). If anything Cloud possibly split the Remake/Rebirth timeline in two but what’s shown is mostly the main Rebirth timeline with Cloud have mind breaks & Aerith using the Lifestream to contact him. Also it’s hard to say where Zack is exactly so it’s too soon to say he’s in the main Rebirth timeline. Plus Tifa is very much supported as a love interest, it just matters on what you chose as far as dialogue & quests.
Yeah they did. The cloud talking when he holds a dead Aerith, and you don’t hear it is clearly the OG cloud giving his famous speech straight after Aerith dies “Aerith is gone, Aerith will no longer, laugh, cry or get angry, what about us? What are WE suppose to do?”
You clearly didn’t pay attention.
@@elowei9919 That’s still Remake/Rebirth Cloud. Aerith is clearly dead in the Rebirth timeline, he’s just getting his mind messed with and he’s also denying her death.
@@DarkMagicGamerIts so clear from how the rest of the party is reacting too. They skipped over the burial part because cloud is clearly blocking it out like he does with so much else.
Okay here me out guys. Spirit Aerith from og can open portal to different timeline. We could see that with Zack being saved in the end. What if in the rebirth timeline Aerith was actually saved. What if the rainbow color means a portal opening and and switching Aerith from OG timeline and Rebirth. This is done to fool Seph. The reason i am going this route cuz I saw that the way Speh sword landed in Rebirth after being deflected in kinda straight but when the switching happens the sword is little bit towards the side. My theory is that both his sword and Aerith was switched to make Seph believe that she died. What we see now in the rebirth time line is infact her spirit of the og timeline. The part where Cloud says to wake up what if like the youtuber said a different timeline except its not the rebirth timeline but the og version. The youtuber got that part jumbled😮. Well i haven’t played the game so I may be wrong but if I was a script writer this would be the best twist i can think off. In the final fight where Aerith joins cloud against Seph, that could either be the rebirth version which is alive or the spirit version. I m leaning towards the spirit version since seph does say he underestimated her. Meaning it was the spirit versions entire plan. Ohh well. We will find out soon
The gamespot explanation was more accurate
I don’t doubt cloud has saved her and she lives in one timeline. Far too much effort was taken to avoid the finality of her death as represented in the OG. The water burial being avoided wasn’t accidental for instance. Unless this is a complete trauma response from Cloud where he sees what he wants to see because he can’t cope.
What I’ll say about the white material though is it didn’t come across like she “absorbed the energy” and gave him the empty orb. I think she’s swapped the materia for the empty orb she already had.
The credits play every cutscene in the game but leaves a large gap for the water burial and other parts of the ending
You got a lot of things wrong in this video. Aerith is not alive in rebirth timeline. Cloud is hallucinating. Also, the devs are mostly cloti shippers. There's no way they will canonize clerith.
More like she is in the lifestream. Remember everything is connected But you are right about everything else
og 1997, advent children, remake, rebirth, everything points rather strongly at clearith lol.
@@JaceWD Not really. Cloud and tifa were practically married in AC.
@@drakethesnek6429 lol delusional much?
@@JaceWD no, that's the canon. Cloud and tifa are literally endgame.
to behonest i am really glad that i never got into the FF Games... like how are you supposed to understand anything thats happening in those games. Any Dark Souls Lore is more clear than most Final Fantasy Games lol
I swear to god are some of you realy this dumb,wtf did they teach you in school lmao
The director decided to remake FF7 as a Kingdom Hearts game much to people's disappointment. The original FF7 is much more straightforward and easy to understand. The only convoluted Final Fantasy is FF8 and that featured time travel.
Best explainer on RUclips. Thank you for this!
The concept of timeline doesn't quite explain what's really happening because FF Remake is already quite different from OG in many ways, so it's its own different parallel reality or as Sephiroth says, "world". The term "world" makes a bit more sense than just timeline and it is also a classic FF term that, back in the dat, was used to denote different states of the same planet.
is tifa going to save cloud from his mental state in part 3
I think u missed the fact that it's only cloud seeing Aerith, the others know she's dead
They really should have done the original burial like in the original for closure. They could have still shown her spirit. This just makes things confusing.
Game three will merge the timelines and the Aerith that survived will return with Zack as well.
*No Promises Await at Journeys End* ... If this doesn't scream foreshadowing I don't know what does at this point
Agreed
May I ask whatvyour theory is I'm curious to know what people think
@@steffanoboin5060 me? Uhm let's see then... Obviously Cloud mind has gone down abysmal to the point where Barret and Tifa are being cautious of him, Sephiroth has been up North this whole time which has been stated, Zack may reunite with the main party of the main timeline half-way through Part 3, Cloud will soon come to the truth which will break his pysche so bad the world will stand still for him, I'm hoping Hojo gets some justice to what he has done, Shinra Wutai clashing seems to be unavoidable so the party will be in the crossfire and lastly for me the line at the end suggests that Cloud may break the promise to Aerith as he has done to Tifa in the past. So yea that's my take on it but hi it's just a theory...
Part 3 cloud doesn't keep his promise and the world ends?
Wait...does that mean we might get a different ending?
Sephiroth is trying to create the Smash Bros universe
He's trying.... really hard. But he knows cloud will eventually give in.
And he does. Saphiroth is actaly a hero to this story!
Ah, yes. The reunion. Where worlds merge.. from different franchises
@@Jammineyeonlineagreed, i like him waaay better than cloud
The last part is incorrect. Aerith is dead. The part with the tiny bronco confirms it. No one can see Aerith! When Aerith touches Nanaki he mentions; Aerith? He faintly feels her being 'there'. Tifa isnt sad because shes cock blocked, but she mourns her friend.
Exactly, don’t what this dude is talking about
right?? i mean tifa and aerith basically bff they share gossip and talked about cloud and zack both of them being their crush idk why he said tifa cuz she got cockblocked lmao dude probably skip the story
Aerith is in a different timeline. She is both Alive and Dead
@@mysteryace2129 no. Because in every timeline she dies. Wether the doom timeline where shes braindead, or the timeline where she pushes cloud away. Seph always comes for her.
Its how it should be btw. She should be in the lifestream...
@mrsgamer9218
Except that isn't what happens as Zack is clearly alive in one timeline. Although I really don't have time to argue this multiverse mumbo jumbo as that's the problem with timeline and multiverse stories as it's hard to decipher details of the story as too many plot points conflict with one another.
One can argue that it makes no sense for OG Sephriroth(in this Remake its OG Sephriroth who is time traveling) to even kill Aerith as it's basically sealing his loss.
This game's ending was a mess and others can't argue otherwise as I've never seen a game who spent 40 hours on a story but throw out a bunch of random ideas towards the end with no buildup and lie in its own premise of changing fate and makes this multiverse mumbo jumbo pointless. It's bad enough they retcon Cloud's past but that's another discussion for another time
i think Aerith died as in the original, there's no reason for her not to go w/ cloud & the gang. She's a Lifestream Vision only Cloud can see
Aerith, like Cloud, Sephiroth, and Zack, she can travel between timelines. She still alive in the other timelines. Zack is the one you have to keep an eye on.
@@timothymoore6341the one that helps cloud fights Seph is OG/advent Aerith I believe. The one in white lifestream fighting Sephs black lifestream
Nope she is alive in a different timeline that’s why Sephiroth tells her I underestimated you, even Red Xiii felt her presence
Cloud can see both timelines now for some reason. It’s merged into his brain !
this was my takeaway too. no one interacts with aerith after she dies except cloud. and it shows the same scene where aerith is there and then gone when it switches points of view. also when aerith touches red, red can sense aerith when he says "aerith?" but doesn't look at her because he's close to the life stream too. Tifa and yuffie aren't sad because they got cucked, they're mourning the loss of their friend.
I like your interpretation of different timelines. Except for aerith being alive in current timeline . You can clearly see she is dead and isnt with the party and everyone is mourning her except for cloud.
Cloud can see both realities now. Which is apparent by seeing the tear in the sky and other aerith. I can’t wait for sora to join the group next game
@@omensoffate If Sora falls from the sky next game I would be so tickled and pissed all at once LMBO
@@omensoffate i hope they give us something good in the last part, to pay off this confusing ass two games which spans half a decade.
It won’t be Sora tho it will be a cutscene with wakka saying that sin destroyed Midgar and all the makina cities 1000 years ago ya. With wandering flames music playing the camera will pan out to besaid island and Tidus and Yuna will question Midgar?? Then the game ends with FF7 remake and FFx remake logos side by side. I have foreseen this. 🤣
The ending is not absolute. Meaning, the ending could be one, or a mixture of the timelines (the original+another one). There are others timelines that Aerith is alive. They just showed us one outcome
I really do hate the shippers being unable to see past the romance war crap.
Tifa is upset because she has lost the one friend she had that could help her recover Clouds memories and help her not feel insane herself. Now she's facing it all on her own. All those moments where she had someone to talk to about it are now gone and she is now facing it alone with a Cloud that is further gone then we have ever seen him. Honestly when you factor in how much of a relife Aerith must've been to Tifa when talking about the past and to then lose that support she is probably just as heartbroken as Cloud.
Fr, he kinda pissed me off at 20:52 like brooo that’s her BESTIE. Forget anyone getting fucking “cucked” THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. SHE’S CRYING OVER HER BEST FRIEND ☹️
The shippers are the ones making me hate every single ship in this shit. I stopped watching the video at that part because I was more than baffled that someone could see this freaking scene with Tifa -and all the others - being sad and instead of noticing what was amiss and thinking logically about the reason why they would be sad based on the scene, they immediately thought it was because of shipping garbage! Shipping is messing with their minds more than any Jenova cells could!
@@chibistarzzShippers are a scourge to all franchises.
Just thought also Tifa cant even see aerith when she's upset by the water lmaooo this dude def was experimented on by hojo
Shipping is fine if its a fair & honest take on the story. But some of these shippers (it was always tifa, etc, tifa cucked, aerith living is fanservice, the fake neutrality). Yikes.. the only ppl ruining the story is you. It’s obv some of these manipulated info to influence gamers to play a certain way or to hate the game, throwing tantrums when they dont get the story they want.
Supposedly hates changes except thosw they want
For 30 years I've tried to understand this story... no luck yet.
@@vjfxtheoryto be fair, the original game's English translation was pretty poor in places. At least on the Playstation version.
@@andyukmonkeytranslation was ok, the localisation was poor.
It's kingdom hearts now 💕
Did you get a masters in Final Fantasy VII Studies or something?
I like that, because I'm not interested in the acceptance part of Cloud's mourning period, where he settles to marrying Tifa and having kids and growing old and all that... That's the sad ending for me... And Tifa deserves better too, like her own story, not Cloud's.
Thank you for the analysis. Here's some more details:
3:06 By the end of the game there are at least six observable timelines (OG, Remake/Rebirth, Zack x 3, Aerith "dream date" x 1). We can track them via the Stamps (Shinra mascots). Possibly, seven (branch of Rebirth with Aerith alive), assuming it does not merge with some other.
5:24 - it is important to mention, that while this indeed doomed timeline, it has different Stamp (spitz), than the one Zack was originally in (terrier). We have no clue if it's entirely separate, or Zack's first timeline "transitioned" into this one.
7:10 - more like "after", than "instead". Previously, when Zack was at Shinra HQ, there was a sign with the terrier Stamp, saying "closed". We have no clue, if Zack's presence in it is closed, or the timeline itself is closed.
7:42 - another Stamp (shiba-inu toy), another timeline.
11:12 - the path was not carved by the White Whispers. It was carved by three Sephiroth's Whispers, who responded to Cloud calling Aerith's name. Seems like he was able to exert some measure of control over them (perhaps, without realising it). And what is missing here, it's that it's not just a small path trough the barrier, it is entrance to the "Destiny Crossroads/Singularity. Barret directly mentions, how everything is similar to the expressway in the Remake. It is important, as well as the fact, that Cloud enters it alone this time.
12:08 - color-coding (colorful light barrier) hints at Rebirth reality branching, because Cloud is defying Aerith's intended fate.
12:21 - rest of the party enters the area, but they were not at the "Destiny's Crossroads".
12:41 - the angle, at which Sephy takes his sword. Does he perceive the reality, in which he killed Aerith, and is unaware about the new one?
12:47-13:03 - color-coding suggests, that this is a branched Rebirth reality.
13:24-13:40 - again, branched Rebirth reality.
When we see Cloud talking, while hugging Aerith's body, it looks like he again experiences vision of her death in the OG, but this time it's full version, not some glimpses of it.
14:38 - the party is in Rebirth non-branched reality.
I think the only time we actually see the OG reality, is when we see Cloud talking over Aerith's body
17:40 - "I saw what you did there". OG Aerith (she would fit the role of the external observer)? Also would explain, why it looked like she returned to the Lifestream after the battle.
18:50 - Zack becoming full playable character is very possible, and the most obvious time to do it, is when Cloud breaks at the Northern Crater. But that's just speculation for now.
19:08 - it's Rebirth timeline. Only Cloud was at the "Destiny Crossroads" so only for him Aerith's fate was changed, and new reality exists.
19:30 - for Cloud, Aerith appears to be lying in different position. Also, dimension barrier.
What I personally think, is that Cloud saved Aerith in the Rebirth timeline, but because he was the only one at the "Destiny's Crossroads", only he has access to the newly branched Rebirth timeline. The rest of the party is in the original Rebirth (not the OG) timeline, where Aerith still dies. After the final boss fight he is sent to the original Rebirth timeline (he does not see Aerith at first), but receives the ability to interact with the branched Rebirth timeline, in which Aerith is alive.
State of "Coma" Aerith in different Zack's realities (if first two persist, and don't transit into the final one) is unknown, but the words "Aerith... Wake up" may hint at something.
so basically her death means nothing. cool.
@@Deimos1739 It might still happen, but it didn't happen yet.
@@netfan7117 even then, it would just be a death in one timeline, not all. And there is no reason to believe that the Rebirth timeline is any more important than any other timeline. Thats why it "means nothing" or at least looses impact even if the Aerith Cloud is able to see now dies.
ah yes pay attention to stamp
Regarding 19:30, the position is the same, the angle just makes it out not to be, compare it and you will see the lines on the floor are the same ones, that is not to say it's the same timeline though
A lot of this is right but Aerith dies in the rebirth timeline. I don't know what Cloud is seeing but the group does see her body with blood on it. Tifa is sobbing over losing her not for being cucked. So is Yuffie and Barrett. The Aerith who fights with you is only her spirit. In the final scene Aerith can only be seen by Cloud. She is gone. Red feels her when she touches him but he can't see her. This raises so many questions about Clouds behavior and why he is stupidly smiling on a grass hill while everyone else is mourning. That's how they did Tifa badly. I wouldn't be surprised if Aerith will be able to be seen again by everyone sometime towards the end of the last game but she did die here.
What do you mean tifa not being cucked in so confused lol
I just got robbed of over 20 minutes wtf
And tifa got cuckold
His video that bad?
@@AndrewMiEyeah he legit says the entire party is sad and depressed because Yuffie is thinking about Sonon and he says Tifa is crying because she got cucked by Cloud I have no idea how the hell he came to that conclusion
@@thebrigade7684 That is absolutely wild. He has to be trolling. Ima give it a watch.
I wish I live in a timeline where we got a non multiverse remake, just going deeper with lore and characters instead of the marvel avengers bullshit
Saaaame here
I absolutely love this game!
Fucking hate this kingdom hearts style story telling. I was afraid of this…
For me as it stands right now it's simple. There are three major worlds that need to take place in the so called 'reunion' in the third game, which will bring aerith back from the world where cloud saved her, as well as bring zack back from the world he survived in, as well as the main world in which the majority of the 3rd game will take place.
Aerith is certainly coming back, I mean we haven't even seen her final limit break yet lol.
It’s confirmed. Square Enix is going to revive Sakaguchi’s dead mom. Rendering the whole point of OG FF7 worthless.
Best comment lmaoo
Lmfao 😅😅😅😅
This is not a remastered game, its a remake version. Meaning, the OG still exists on its own and they can do whatever they want in this version of the story. If somebody wants to play the OG, they can buy it and play it. If somebody don't like this version, they can just not play it anymore 🤣🤣.
Good. Change it ALL. The OG ending feels like a bad ending anyway.
My theory: Sephiroth kills Aerith on all timelines except one, the one when Cloud saves her. Meanwhile, all AVALANCHE members died on other doomed timelines because they never manage to leave Midgar.
She will be back when Sephiroth successfully summons Meteor and merge all realities, making this Aerith to reunite with the others.
This could be Aerith's plan all this time, that is why Sephiroth says he underestimate her during the final boss fight.
I enjoyed your analysis so much, thank you.
Around the end, I got the feeling that Cloud was gaining the multiple-timeline awareness as Aerith and Zack do. That was why he didn't grieve over her "death" as others did. To me, Aerith definitely lived on in a timeline, but whether it was the current timeline remained ambiguous.
Also, the "No promises at the journey's end" kind of relates this part of Aerith's song, "Know that you'll find me
Promises to keep We won't ever need". It suggested the level of certainty that they will meet even without having to promise. In one timeline or another...
I like this interpretation better than mine I saw it as pretty ominous since Cloud just finished promising Aerith(, whether it's actually Aerith or a figment of his imagination) he'd beat Sephiroth and then that pops up? Cloud's probably not going to be playable for a good chunk of part 3 (perfect time for Zack to show up in the party since they also play similarly.)
Remake is the OG timeline the whispers job was to make sure key events stay on track. In the beginning Aerith is harrassed by Whispers, because she hears the evacuation warnings and wants to leave and she has to meet Cloud there. When she makes contact with them "because she is an ancient" she gets knowledge of the timeline. when cloud comes into contact with the whispers he also starts getting flashes of the timeline we see the visions during his episodes throughout the game, but because cloud has Jenova cells this also gave Jenova and Sephiroth information on the timeline. This sets the stage for Sephiroth to see if he can make changes cuz you know he wants to win this time around, and he finally does it he Kills Barret in the presidents office and the Whispers need to open a door to the inbetween because they have to draw power straight from the arbitor himself to undo what has been done. Sephiroth lacks a Physical body we have yet to fight sephiroth a single time it is always one of the men in cloaks that Jenova Controls. Sephiroth's Body should still be in the Mako Crystal near the Northern Crater. Sephiroth manipulates us into crossing into the inbetween to deal with the Arbitor becuase the bodies of the cloaked men aren't strong enough vessels to deal with a being like the Arbitor. So we do and we Fracture the Arbitor's power and we get Arbitor Aerith the last Ancient, and Arbitor Sephiroth/Jenova. Aerith caught on to what Sephiroth was doing and absorbed as much of the arbitors power as she could before he got it all. Just like in Loki when they kill He Who Remains the timeline starts branching. the OG arbitor's whispers are working tirelessly to to keep the branches in check. Aerith's whispers scoured the branches for pieces she needs to defeat Jenova once and for all. which is why we get a saved Zack who if you recall said he felt the touch of a whisper when he ended up in the Doomed timeline branch. the Game starts with Aerith saying her memories are missing and she has no white materia its simply clear. Aerith Sealed her Memories in the doomed timeline which she put a saved Zack to watch over her and protect. "that's the Aerith in the coma" cut to the Temple of the Ancients Aerith knows that black materia is fake because she swapped it with the keystone she made so sealed memories Aerith could make it back to the doomed timeline with Cloud. Now we play the part of the good couple while we wait for Sephiroth to find us so Arbitor Aerith can put her full plan in motion. she gives Cloud the white materia, and the black materia(which she hides in is inventory before he wakes up in the Wheel chair) and pushes us back to the Rebirth timeline where we give Aerith the real white materia and she gives us the clear orb. Arbitor Aerith uses Coma Aerith as a body double she created a Fracture bubble right there Cloud Stops Sephiroth from killing Aerith but Sephiroth and our friends are on the outside of the bubble so they all see Sephiroth Stab Aerith clean through it switches between the scenes like that not between timelines but from Clouds perspective in the bubble and everyone elses perspective outside the bubble. In the end fight when Aerith comes to help us duel Sephiroth he comments on the fact that she fooled him. Coma Aerith just lays there as body double everyone but Cloud Watched her die. Cloud can interact with Aerith becuase he has the Clear Orb of Materia. Aerith could interact with everyone becuase SHE had the clear orb of Materia the whole game. so Aerith is Both Alive and Dead at the same time.
Thanks for the explanation. How did you figure this out?
I should have prefaced the comment with these are just my thoughts and feelings on how i interpreted the events of both games. I don't know if any of this will be close to true but to me I'm content with thinking about the story in this way. It will be interesting to see where they take the story from here there is still a lot left to cover. I'm interested to hear what other people think I haven't had the time to watch many videos like this one.@@lukewilson624
I'm pretty sure Cloud has a hallucination of Sephiroth before he meets Aerith and sees the Whispers for the first time. I think Sephiroth from Advent Children traveled back in time which would explain his obsession with Cloud when in the original he didn't care about Cloud at that point in time.
I think you pretty much nailed it mate, great job.
🤦ABSOLUTE GARBAGE STORY TELLING AND CONVOLUTED WRITING! Nomura genius style crap. 😩 They still continued with the Wispers crap and the time travel crap. It seems like Nomura does not no how to tell any kind of story other than some time travel BS.
The Zack timeline diverged too I thought. One he went to Shinra and the other the reactor. He had on Aerith’s ribbon on his hand when he was at Shinra and then at the plant he didn’t . I think that shows that decision split that timeline as well.
Aerith's ribbon was one of the first things that I noticed Zack didn't have on him when he went for Biggs, all the details are sending me into a spiral
I’m loving all this timeline converging. Can’t wait to fight emerald weapon with Wakka and Rikku! 🤞
Don't forget Sora and Mickey too!
God, what a mess. The game was a masterpiece until the end.
Not looking forward to the Blitzball mini games 😪
Good job on the analysis but I think you mis-interpreted that the whole party except Cloud experienced Aerith' death.
Nah I think cloud can see 2 realities as one now.
Whatever the case, I don't think he understands or has processed that Aerith has died from the party's perspective.@@omensoffate
@@ryanharrison3118I think he explained it perfectly about the death, watch the death scene again, when Cloud sword hits Sephiroth it glows green, the planet heard Aerith prayers, she dies in the original timeline but lives in another.
I'm not even addressing the timeline situation here. All of saying is that the party sees that Aerith has died and Cloud sees that she has lived. @@vaasmontenegro3728
@@ryanharrison3118how can he process it when he saved aerith in one timeline ?
I'm sorry but you've got a lot of things wrong. Tifa isn't crying because Aerith and Cloud are a couple, she's crying because Aerith is dead (in that timeline).
what in the Spiderman multiverse was that!?! hahahah soooo glad i didnt get the game yet… but I guess would be silly to assume it would all be based on the OG game. but man…. this new story.. the writers mustve been on some good mushroom trip to come up with that lol kinda killed the game tbh >_>…
While I appreciate this video and all the others you do, I think your cynicism has clouded your outlook on this ending. Getting so many factors about it completely wrong, not even really possible misinterpretations. Big L Gaming moment here.
Convoluted mess
Compared to?
@@gustogusto4519 the original
The ending was dog shit. An absolute abuse and disrespect of FF7's characters and the player. The fact we need to have videos that explain the ending of a 25 year old game says enough.
If you played the last 5 seconds of the scene at 21:07, you will see that Tifa CAN NOT SEE Aerith! Therefore, I believe Aerith is dead Rebirth but due to the timeline shenanigans of Aerith and Cloud, they are the only ones who can see one another.
The original game still exists. They can do whatever they want with this one as far as I'm concerned. The more weird the better.
You say that. But in 10 years the original will be a relic only played by old people, and this will be the standard. And the original will die in darkness
@toulor895 who was this game for? Fans of the original are the only ones that would understand the references and changes that were made, as they are compared to the original when discerning what happened.
I frankly cannot imagine how confused a new player would be when playing this game. There are things that make absolutely no sense if you haven't played the original.
The weirder the better is such a lame Nomura type mindset. This whole game is style over substance
@CDHunter345 did you put your sunglasses on after you said that? No shit it's my problem we're expressing our opinions in this comment thread.
The game is a bloated, non sensical mess that tries to fanservice while making something "new" they didn't have the balls to fully change it so they made 3 different timelines and tried to have their cake and eat it too.
And yeah, since they marketed the game as a remake when it's actually a reboot it is my problem. I don't live for these little marvel movie moments with Cait sith saying things like "I wish i didn't skip leg day"
@CDHunter345 😘
The fact that i dumped 100 hours into rebirth and the og game was 40 at best says a lot
I'm happy with remake and rebirth. I don't want stuff EXACTLY the same. It's boring then
@15:48 OOOOHHH How ominous and foreboding. 🙄 I think the makers of this game really think that they are genius's when in reality, they are just bad writers.
so sephiroth had the "fake" black matira turned it into the real one, dropped it then asked cloud to get it for him..... why is sephiroth a bond villain now?n or he just into domme stuff? lmao
he written like a KH badguy show up every few scenes to call the mc a nerd n drop cryptic dialogue.... so tired of square, ff7 was one of my favorite games this is trash
Aerith dead in remake timeline my guy, she just a lifestream ghost n cloud huffin copium
Uhgg im sick of all this damn theory crafting...we all meed to create a timeline where we pull a heist and obtain the script for the third game so we dont have to wait 3-5 years...3-5 years!!!!
Honestly it's painful. There are scenes and aspects of the Remake that I really, really like. There are added elements that really flesh out the main characters and there are moments that hit it out of the park, especially when they stick to the writing as it was.
But it doesn't make up for the sheer nonsense of the time ghosts and, just as they did in the first game, they ruin every major scene they're a part of, sapping out the impact and emotion to fill it with confusion, or in my case, annoyance. All because Nomura, Kitase, and the company can't put their egos aside to just deliver a good story as it was meant to be told. And the worst part to me is, with every entry, they just spit in Sakaguchi's eye a little more. This story about coping with loss has being polluted to where you can't be sure if anyone's dead or not, and even if they are, it doesn't matter because the scene where it happened was so confusing and unclear that it ruined all weight and feeling you might have had in that moment. Nothing matters because you don't know what the hell is going on and need an "ENDING EXPLAINED" video to make sense of it. But we all know the reality, everyone's gonna live in the end. It's gonna be a happy ending! Isn't that what 13 year olds always wanted with Aerith-- clearly that's the way to go. After all we're fighting fate and isn't that what FF is about!
Sakaguchi was clearly wrong with his theme of learning to live with and accept loss. Nah, Tetsuya Nomura's here to show you how it's done, Guch! That mother you loved died? LOL what a loser, you should have fought reality itself to make it not happen. The woman you want to romance gets killed? LMFAO just keep denying the truth and switch to a timeline where she's alive. This is clearly a message that people can take away into the real world-- I mean I guess it worked for Nomura since that man seems to live in his own world at every moment so what the hell do we know right?
But regardless, I just want to reiterate, even if the next or last episode somehow puts everything back to the way it was (an implication regarding fate which would also be just as ridiculous and proves why bringing destiny and time travel into this story was a dumb idea in the first place)-- Nomura's distortions have so effectively confused things that it's ultimately muddied any impact the original message was trying to convey. Death is now a fluid concept and byy the time the next game comes out, people will have had 3-4 years to justify, argue, and rationalize away any potential negative event as not having happen, including Aerith's death, so that even if they're proven wrong, the blow won't hit with any later reveal. And I just keep coming back to the question: how was this is any way better than just playing things straight without all this timeline bullshit?
It's all so tiresome.
The games great but it’s not perfect the only issue is they should have really went balls to the wall with the theme of Defying Destiny/Fate thats a beautiful compliment to Life/Death. Defying your fate,making your own choices and going out on your own terms is great. But the ending isn’t bad/nor is it good because I get what they are trying to do it’s just man you could’ve just saved Aerith or let her tell the party she has to go to protect planet from metor etc etc etc story beats we get it.
Oh also before I forget, they could be cooking up because Clouds mind could be rejecting Aeriths death by assuming she is just on some “higher than life mission as a Cetra but she’ll return when they win” hence why he sees her, his mind just hasn’t realized what’s actually happening. We know Aeriths actually there in spirit because Nanaki senses her. Zacks timeline/his role might be a way in the future to help fix Cloud whenever his mind breaks so in combination with whatever Zacks doing that could help Tifa restore Clouds mind not like she needs the help that’s literally her love interest 🤦♀️🤦♀️. Idk Zack living the only thing that doesn’t make sense story wise. It’s like Bardock coming back to fight Black Frieza. Or it could be the lifestream gets so corrupted by Sephiroth that Zack is a rebound to Clouds “true self” helping Tifa restore Clouds memories??? Only time would tell.
The thing is, Nojima, Nomura, and Kitase haven't been able to write a good storyline for 20 years. The well has truly run dry. No wonder the "unknown journey" is 99% the same as the original one since deep down they knew they could never come up with story beats as good as the original.
Whether Cloud is even more deranged and seeing a ghost, or he's stuck between timelines, it doesn't matter, because it's still a convoluted mess.
I see nobody really understood the ending.Aerith died ppl.Zack is dead too as Biggs too.These "worlds"are worlds of the dead,created by the memories of the spirits that have returned to the lifestream.Its portrayed is such a convoluted and idiotic way just cause Squeenix priority at this point is NOT to tell a coherent story but to keep ppl with the guessing game.Smokes and Mirrors.A shame really that such an already masterpiece of a story have been drag down to this level.Its not even good writing
Almyra and Marlene arent dead yet they're in that world
So Aerith is like Shroedinger cat. Interesting
How did Tifa get cucked Aerith is dead in the main timeline . Hence why no one can see her but cloud.
Loved the game, hated the ending
I’m pretty sure Aerith will still die at the end of part 3, there’s no other way
(And it is still unclear if she is actually alive at the end of Rebirth by the way)
I kinda like the idea of Cloud being the vilain in part 3, but that would very much kiss goodbye to the events of the original game, which I don’t like that much
Also, even though I love Zack, maybe even more than Cloud actually, it really feels like he has been jammed into this story just for the sake of it, and I really don’t understand his role in Rebirth, and I would argue the story didn’t need him
And my dude didn’t desserve to be cucked like that by Aerith 😢
By the way I also dislike how the game forces the Aerith love story on us, despite giving us the choice to romance who we want (meaning Tifa obviously)
First because, Tifa, always
Second because I actually loved how the og game never really made it clear who Cloud was into, which made that love triangle much more interesting and subtle
Here I have been going Tifa all the way during the entire game, doing all the romantic bits with her and showing no interest whatsoever for Aerith, and yet we still end up with her, being a complete asshole to Tifa right in her face in the process 🤷🏻♂️
Anyway, my feelings are very much mixed after that ending
I loved the game, in fact I would even say it is one of the best games I’ve played in years, and I loved every piece of it from chapter 1 to 13, but that last chapter really threw me off
I guess we’ll have to wait and see, again
I understand your POV the ending is really makin everyone bamboozled at this point haha. As for how the game forces the Aerith love story on us I think it's due to the fact that Cloud memories is merged with Zack's from hojo's experiment cus throughout the game Cloud is basically sharing his POV based on Zack's memories with him as the center of attention but truth to be told it is not what happened based on what tifa told Aerith in the beginning of Rebirth. In the next game I think they will explain this more and Cloud will finally knows what really happened 5 years ago as well to find out how will they end this Remake trilogy cus the ending is so confusing as there's lots of jumping from timeline to another timeline. Until then all we can do is theorize and wait for the part 3 in 2 or 4 years xD
@@horu2344
Regarding Cloud’s memory, I still don’t understand why Tifa refuses to tell him the truth at this point, it just doesn’t make sense
Even when he finally remembers Zack, but he thinks he’s the one who felt in the river at Nibelheim, why doesn’t she tell him the truth?
Just because she thinks it might upset him?
Come on…
@@Ed_Crane Well imo I think she's worried about his mental state cus remember the rest of the group thinks Cloud is degrading and telling him the truth right now and then will make it worst to the point they're afraid they might turn Cloud to one of those mindless black robe folks.
@@Ed_Crane In my opinion the reason why Tifa is not telling him the whole truth is due to the fact that everyone in the group thinks Cloud mental state as of now is unstable, like they're worried that he is degrading. So she's worried that if she told him the whole truth it'll fasten the degradation process thus turning him into one of them mindless black robe folks but in reality he's a special case which will be explained in part 3 that's for sure
Amen. 🙌
Square pls explain the ending
Very strange ending. I was hoping she would live. The game title and the premise of: WE CAN CHANGE DESTINY said that to me. I am a bit disappointed. Very sour ending
This was so good...I thought the white whisper's were Aerith's but being the planet's makes alot more sense as "it" wants Aerith to use the White Materia so it blocks Cloud from helping. This game continues to hurt my soul for decades lol!
Thanks for the analysis. I’ve been watching lots of them and it’s seems like most agree on the travel between different multiverses but at the same time not everyone thinks Aerith is alive. Not sure what I think about it either. If she survived I’m super happy (not because they changed the OG plot) because I like her as a character a lot. From the perspective of a writer I would kill her off but from the perspective of a fan I want her to live so bad.
Man my biggest complaint is that they keep teasing a major change in the story, then just going through with the original story, why not just make a faithful remake instead of this dumbass plot with the black ghosts, also all of the Zack parts of the game are absolutely meaningless, take those parts out of the game and they change ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, just a big waste of time and I really don’t understand what’s the point, why not just expand on what the original couldn’t
Just one last thing on the end, why have cloud “save” aerith by deflecting sephiroths sword just for her to be magically dead right after? It didn’t even touch her so wtf, this game pissed me off so much man Jesus
Personally i loved the end of Rebirth, simply doing a straight remaster of OG with better graphics wouldve been boring and doesnt expand the story since we all know how it ends. The multi-verse thing is confusing. Rebirth is bold and makes you sit on the edge for part 3 which is exactly what SquareEnix wants to sell the game 😛
13:50 Areith Died in the rebirth timeline but cloud saving cause a new timeline, just like Zack making decisions to save Cloud or Biggs created two different timelines
I got the feeling that the rebirth timeliness split Into 2 realities one where Aerith died and one where she didn't because no one apart from cloud can see her they are all mourning her when they are on the verge especially as she is there sometimes and disapiers at others in clouds view; it's like his perceptions is switching between rebirth a n b and every1 else is stuck in A where Aerith died.
They did and I think cloud is the only one who can see it, because he was the only one there when the timelines actually split. The other party members were blocked from the scene by the black whispers. I‘m pretty sure that the new timeline only cloud can see is the one Aerith is hiding in from Sephiroth until the time is right for her to merge the two branches of the Rebirth timeline back together and defeat Sephiroth. I’ pretty sure he still needs her dead to become the God he dreams to be.
@@lisaeschenbach-nd3bp It's weird, but I'm getting some Persona 5 vibes from this, where Akechi is made to believe a completely different reality from what actually happened, and the tables get turned on him.
The problem I see is how Sepheroth can remain unaware of the time-split. He has to know there is an Aerith he failed to kill, because he was there when Cloud stopped him.
Lol more of an ending summary then an explanation. Though I am positive you misunderstood and interpret a lot of things wrong. Some of which has pointed out in the comments. I think the biggest issue is you're explaining to many things as different timeliness where I believe and I think they made it pretty clear that Cloud is seeing things differently. Not only does Cloud still see Aerith as Alive but he sees the tare in the sky. Tifa even gives Cloud a death glance for how callous he is acting. I disagree with a lot of other points but I think it's clear they didn't want us to have all the answers and wanted us speculating until the next part comes out.
I loved this story line. It really destroyed me emotionally lol. I love what they are doing and although I hated some parts of this game (sidequests, minigames), the game is overall really awesome. I like the analysis but agree with what others have said about there being more timelines and disagreeing with why the other party members are sad. I believe that Aerith is indeed alive in a new timeline and that it is going to be a huge part of the new direction of the story in part 3. There was just too many things said and events that would make her living in some capacity make sense. We also literally see her get saved. Cloud may be tripping and his brain scrambling to protect him from further trauma, or Aerith maybe is part of the life stream interacting with him, but I think her being alive in a timeline makes more sense, especially since we saw her get saved, Cloud asks her if she will make it back ok which I don't think you would ask a ghost, Zach says "save her" to Cloud, and on and on. None of that makes sense if she is dead dead lol. I am really excited to see how the next game plays out. I wouldn't be surprised if Cloud has to try and save Aerith in multiple timelines from Sephiroth in order to merge her back into their reality after he gets his memories back. Also maybe I am misunderstanding but I feel like the handoff of holy in one timeline and taking it back in another is somehow really significant. I feel like nobody is talking about this. What do you guys think? I am going to go take a 3 year nap now, bye.
I knew it was going to be something nuts like this when they let the director of KH take over
That honestly ain't a good thing. Much as I like KH, the story is absolute tripe.
@@clarencewalters338 Tbh Final Fantasy is more popular than KH and idk what they are thinking of having a KH director in a Final Fantasy
You do know that Nomura was always director of 7 right?
@@ShikiHisashiif you meant the OG, then no. He wasn't.
@@ShikiHisashithe director of OG7 was Kitase. Nomura was not a director or anywhere near it.
I couldn't handle any more of that labyrinth level in chapter 13 and lost my temper!...lol. that level was so boring and long and stupid to me i just quit the game all together and started rise of ronin. i liked rebirth but after 100 hrs i lost intrest 😮💨 unfortunately
She will never laugh, never cry or get angry. How did we not get that line
We got it but just not vocalised
I think Sephiroth will force those memories at Cloud to mess with him in the next chapter. So we will get the full scene but at a different time.
Yea...I was disappointed in that. Her death was not near as impactful as it was in OG....They showed her too much after she "died" for me to be sad. In the OG they actually showed Sephiroth's sword going through Aerith. Cloud and the party's reaction to her death was way more emotional in the OG which is crazy when you consider it was all done via text and low quality lego models.
Unfortunately we’ll get that in part 3. They really broke Cloud so badly at the end of this game and I honestly think it was because they really had to shake up Tifa’s faith in him after all the close bonding they did in this game. Notice how we didn’t get the submerging scene for her as well. It’s something that he’ll likely remember when Tifa finally doubts him at that pivotal moment. I commend them for setting this up in such a way that when Cloud breaks this time, we’re really going to feel it.
@@matthieuwilliams7043God our boy is gonna be more mental fucked up then a mind break doujin.
Before with the first remake I was pretty optimistic ngl. I really was curious what they were going to do next game.
Next game is here and man oh man. It kinda just makes me want to join the ever growing crowd of ff fans who said we wish we got regular remake off original just done better and deeper. This direction Im starting to disagree with. It leaves countless people including myself searching for a video like this just to fucking piece together 3 different timelines and understand this confusing ass crap.
I also EXTREMELY DISAGREE with making the timeline you spend all the time in and working immense effort into and what is presumed to be the main onwards into the third game to have aerith with cloud together…
You teaching me that in this video crushed me now that I understand. The whole game Its been teased to get with tifa get with tifa (get with tifa) and I genuinely made an effort to make that happen. Did the kiss on the Ferris wheel and celebrated that shit because it makes sense, they grew up together, and they will live and die for eachother and me as the player fucking tried all the right moves as possible…ONLY to get fucking uno reverse carded in the fucking end.
That change…is probably the worst one that really upset me. Fucking abominable.
Tifa SHOULD be with cloud.
Zach (who is now in our timeline we will play in the next game) SHOULD get back with aerith!
That guts me as hard as they depicted it gutting tifa.
It will be a convergence of the three timelines to make Aerith Zack alive.