Why it ended the way it did - FF7 Rebirth Story Breakdown/Theory (Spoilers)
2024 ж. 29 Нау.
7 028 Рет қаралды
Background music:
FF7 Prelude
Nibelheim Theme
Aerith's Theme (Smash Version)
All done by Nobuo Uematsu/Square Enix
Background music:
FF7 Prelude
Nibelheim Theme
Aerith's Theme (Smash Version)
All done by Nobuo Uematsu/Square Enix
Yeah it's very important that they showed the flowers are still alive! The real Aerith is alive somewhere with Zack. That is 100 percent
I also think another world split when Cloud blocked the sword one where Aerith lived (it just wasn't ours), but I also don't think Zack is back in his original Terrier Stamp world at the end. I think his world is already gone, that his world was the one where he faught Sephiroth as meteor was decending bc in that world, the flowers were dying, everything was dying. But when he awakens in the church, the flowers there are fine. So I also think the comatose Aerith and Cloud from his world are dead, BUT, it seems there are more versions of them in other worlds bc after Aerith and Cloud fall down into the Temple of the Ancients left behind crater, they clearly wake up in a world where their counter parts were comatose (Cloud gets up from a wheel chair) just like in Zack's Terrier timeline, but they make sure to show us it's not that timeline by showing us the Stamp on packages in the market while Aerith and Cloud are hanging out is not the Terrier. So there are clearly comatose bodies they can take over or something in other worlds. Or if they are still alive in Zack's original Terrier timeline, I don't think he's there with them, and I want them reunited (plus Tifa lol). 😔
I think the aerith talking to him with the creepy music and the aerith who pets cait sith are 2 different enteties. The one who pets cait was the aerith from the timeline where she survived who is strying to stop the new sephiroth and the aerith who talks to him is the equivalent of the vision of sephiroth keeping him from realizing the aerith from this timeline actually died. Its why she made him promise to fight sephiroth instead of making him promise to take care of himself. Thats the impression i got I can also totally see them makeing zack a party member in the next game
I personally think there are three Aeriths at the end. You have regular original timeline aerith, who has supposedly died…. You have future Aerith, who is aware, and who sephiroth has been looking for, also controls the white whispers…. And then I think jenova may be using aerith’s likeness to mess with cloud. I could be wrong on the last one, but at one point during one of the scenes, she looked weird. Like her eyes were bigger than usual, almost making her look alien like….. it might have been a graphical error though.
She really had problems with eye expressions from the final CGI, but I think it's because she's trying to hold back in front of Cloud, she look cheerful, carefree, but it's all fake. When she turned away from him, you could see the real emotions on her face. I would also note the Japanese voice acting of the heroine, she sounds like she's holding back crying.
You get it. For omni aerith to exist, current one needs to die. Marlene is talking about omni aerith dying. Zack tells Cloud to save omni aerith too. We're going to save omni aerith, not the one that just died.
There's another mystery that I don't see get talked about a lot, if at all. And that's Marlene. The Marlene with Zack and Biggs had the same interaction with Aerith that she had in the prime timeline. So is Marlene in the same situation as Cloud is at the end? Or is there something else going on?
Play Remake again. Aerith passed on some of her power and knowledge to Marlene before she lost her connection with the lifestream and her other selves.
This one also confused me, mostly because Marlene says that Aerith and Cloud have feelings for each other, but that doesn’t make sense because that happened when Zack died, so technically for this Elmira and Marlene, this is the first time they meet Cloud, because he wasn’t around for the events of “Remake” so it is also the first time Aerith meets Cloud
@@valevm2770 Yeah, Marlene was given that information in the "Beagle" timeline. Why would she also have it in the "Terrier" timeline?
Blame "Doctor Strange and Spiderman" for that tear in the sky? (Anyone else get this?)
My theory, Cloud is a mental wreck and is literally losing it. tbh, the smile after Aerith "died" and when he mentioned the Sky gave me the creeps and he used the black materia x3
Amazing commentary my friend! Loved the theory. You are definitely cooking!!
The burial scene was quickly glimpsed in a flashback scene. I believe we will still see that scene after Cloud “finds himself” in the third game.
Another thing to mention: Zack’s timeline addresses what happens if the fans got what they wanted in crisis core. Where Zack survives the final fight instead of dying. We know though through this timeline, There will be no one to stop Sephiroth. With the whole team either dying or being taken for experimentation without the interaction of Cloud, it is an apocalyptic world which without any intervention, it will come to an end. Also, Zack dies again by the hand of Shinra close to the end of Rebirth if he chooses to go see Hojo for a cure for cloud, but another timeline gets created where he chooses to go after Biggs. Biggs dies instead in this timeline. I hate to say it, but Zack seems like he has to die in order to live. His spirit, just like Aerith moves in the lifestream, probably because of Aerith The key to success here is what was said in the end between Cloud and Aerith: Only Cloud can defeat Sephiroth and at Aerith can save the planet. Which I why I do continue to believe that while there are added elements to the story, the story is still going to play out very similarly to the original storyline. That does unfortunately mean that “Prime” Aerith is actually dead, which serves a purpose. Without Aerith dying, the white whispers would not be there to take war against the black whispers and her interaction with the lifestream would not happen which would have caused holy and meteor to destroy the planet, basically rip it apart from the clash itself. The events in some shape or form have to be the same. The question is: will there this time be a full eradication of Sephiroth, or will he always be a lingering memory? It would definitely make sense that the next game is Titled Final Fantasy 7: Reunion, because there will be a bunch. The Reunion of the Worlds, The Reunion of Fragmented Cloud, The Reunion of Zack and Aerith (which we know they are together in Advent Children) The Reunion of Tifa and Unfragmented Cloud (which their storyline is crucial in the next game), also the Reunion of Cloud and Sephiroth, as he manipulates him to become more powerful and destroy the only person that has come against him and won in the process. Small thought, anytime we look at Sephiroth, we must remember that because he is created using jenova cells, HE IS JENOVA. Sephiroth is the puppet. We can dress it up with a pretty name and awesome sword, but he is Jenova. Take Angeal and Genesis for a second: Angeal was able to make his own decision, even going against Zack so that he could kill him. Genesis had his search for the Goddess at all cost so he can take care of his degradation issue. Sephiroth is actually a true Jenova clone. No degradation, with the power to corrupt minds and even corrupt the lifestream. He is Jenova’s offspring. A “son of a god” that has all power granted to him, so to speak. Hojo, you done goofed! This is the real villain of this game. Even after realizing his mistake on confusing Jenova for an Ancient, he is just like “oh well, let’s keep doing more experiments and track this project, and see how it pans out.” Ok last thought…. The link to a perception of Christianity is big in this game. Jenova can be looked at as their version of Jehovah, but of course it is a dark god. Sephiroth is Christ but in this story, Sephiroth is here to destroy and not to save. If you have Jenova inside you, (thanks Hojo) you can be forced to do the bidding of Jenova, where as Jehovah wants free will to make decisions. Jenova’s plan is to destroy the world while Jehovah and his Son’s plan is to save it. And Advent Children was the Second coming of Jenova’s son, compared to the Second Coming of Christ. Ok I’m done.
I’m keeping it simple. If aerith wasn’t Gona be playable in the third part ~ they would have given you the chance to get her great gospel limit break. :p
“If she dies she will wake up” what isn’t it the other way around?
Yeah that's what I thought bc Marlene said when she wakes up a bad man is gonna kill her. And to be fair, she and Cloud woke up in A timeline/world where they were both comatose (but NOT the one we've been playing as Zack bc the Stamp dog is different), and Sephiroth immediately came for her.
Your side theory blew my mind a little bit
I think they’ll bring Zack and aerith back. And once they deal with the world splitting it’ll have to be fixed and corrected. And then the burial will happen.
Blows my mind people complain about changes, then get upset that it wasn't changed enough.
You can never satisfy people
@@scargamer0022 Agree. Even the Rebirth ending I think completely changes depending on how old you were when you played the first game, and what anyone who played focused on the most. Aerith's death was the biggest moment to many, but for some of us, Cloud's story and the twist of how broken his mind ends up was the real biggest story of the OG...and I'm looking forward to how they portray that, especially now that they have both Zack and Aerith's deaths which he hasn't accepted and will need to at some point.
@@Dayv018I’ll do you one better. What you mentioned also applies to expectations for the future. Interact with the community and you will see people screaming “the end was so good, I can’t wait to see Cloud leaving Aerith’s body in the water”. To even “Part 3 won’t end with Safer Sephiroth, it’s clear as day, Genesis and Nero will be the final bosses of Part 3”. If we are going to complain about the voices of FF7… then let’s recognize that is mainstream therefore every opinion under the sun is being pushed. As for me. After the whole madness of Remake I wanted to be show “a new journey”, but instead they were actually following the original story arguably better than Remake did from start up until the end of Junon. After that it got a bit quirky at some points leading to the insane end. But the “insane end” isn’t the issue now, but rather it’s the predictability now. Remake was insane cause it was the introduction. But now that Rebirth did Remake again, it’s safe (but obviously not 100%) to say that part 3 will now also follow FF7 OG at the start, start adding their classic filler, and then re-enter kingdom hearts madness in the final chapter. It’s simple really, after all the marketing you could see how everyone who was on board with the changes wanted a new Zack story that added a Zack party and a new parallel story, instead Zack is the torch of Kingdom Hearts madness. On the other hand, people who hated the new content were lead to believe they won by being given a rhyme of the original game, until they reached the end… again. So I think it’s actually clear as day why there is complaining about few and many changes… cause the criticism comes from different people! I actually found the perfect way to fix this. FF7 Re-sequels are a circus. You just enjoy it. It ain’t a puzzle meant to be solved, yet it isn’t a completely new journey since we all know what is going to happen and has happened. Minus the details. We know we are going to the northern cave, we know Midgar gets invaded, we know part 3 will end with another boss gauntlet. What we don’t is the small details, Cloud’s breakdown will probably give him more Sephiroth traits like growing his own 1 wing. The Midgar invasion might not be or just be a weapon but will now add fighters of this new Wutai war. Sephiroth might have another final form besides safer and shirtless. But nevertheless it’s predictable enough.
@@josetomascamposrobledano4618 I'm sure you can find some of those in every corner of the fandom, as you mentioned, but it's been far more vocal from one side, than the other. Theorycrafting is what the majority do, and that's not the "this is definitely happening" that you hear mostly from the naysayers. A lot of the rest of what you said I find ironic, b/c they've literally said from the start that it would fairly faithfully follow the story of the OG, with some changes along the way (mostly some expanding of details, side/backstories). Even as far back as a couple of days after the initial trailer in 2015 there were interviews when they clearly stated it would not be a 1 for 1 Remake, but still follow the major OG story beats for the most part. People have been acting like they haven't said it all along (whether wanting more changes or it not being as faithful as they wanted) from the jump. It is what it is. Personally I am just treating it as a slightly new journey and enjoying the ride. I do think they have left plenty of small clues throughout the games, though. Theorycrafting will usually miss, but it's had plenty of hits as well. Again, though, the major thing for me is assuming anything any direction until the entire 3 parts are out and completed. There's plenty of stuff I could complain about in context through 2 games, as well, but at least as far as story goes, any lingering questions can still mostly get answered by the end of Part 3. It has a big job to do, obviously. The one thing I can completely agree with most is I think they overstated Zack's importance/involvement in Rebirth. This isn't to say his role could grow more important in hindsight with greater context for what exactly happened/is going to go on with him based on what else we learn in Part 3, but that's all still unknowns, for now. Aside from theorycrafting, of course
@@Dayv018 I guess at the end of the day we both wrote a whole bunch of nothing. Cause nothing matters until part 3 comes out. But when it does, people will no longer be able to hide on “just wait and see”… WHO AM I KIDDING! We are 110% getting a part 4. But like we both said, part 3 is coming. I just hope we don’t get another DLC with people getting a mmo for more -insanity- theorizing. Why am I badmouthing “theory” so much? Intergrade, people were quick to say everything about Zack opening the church. “It’s Aerith’s funeral”. You can’t say “yeah, toxicity” then proceed to protect the root of all toxicity. It’s the theory people that created this mess, setting expectations where there aren’t. At least we both will find fun on this trilogy, by enjoying the ride in the circus.
It was clear in that scene that a separate timeline was created where she was saved that branched away from the one where he didn't save her.
That Biggs bit had me rolling cause SAME. But, I’m still trying to get my thoughts together and researching, rereading On the Way to a Smile but what I can say is I think I (as well as many others with the popular theories) have taken the multiverse/timeline concept the wrong way just like I have with defying fate initially (before I changed my mind) There are some clues in OTWTAS’s Lifestream White & Black passages that support that these worlds that come and go are tied to the concept of the Journey of the Soul. There’s only 1 version of our characters and 1 prime world, and those who are strong willed and have not accepted death will be put into one of these worlds to have a chance to live out what they need to/come to terms with death. A Woman npc in Cosmo Canyon also mentions this. (But more thinking to do for me!) great video!
its amazing how so many people haven't come to the same conclusion as yourself. it seems obvious the other "worlds" are a red herring so to speak. Its just personal lifestream memories they are playing out before moving on - even Aerith says " just think of it as a dream - my dream to be precise"
@@timsnowdon205 I think it’s the mixture of hype/excitement overall (including the idea of Aerith surviving) & the conversations being had with & between old and new fans (which I absolutely love) But yea taking time away from it I’m like wait… Square wouldn’t dare go TOO far, these story beats are way too close to the og. You mentioned Aerith and her use of the word dream. looking back at That, the cosmo canyon NPC, & Aerith feeling Zack’s hand through the lifestream during the Gi Nattak chapter (besides looking back at AC lore) made my brain convert to believing that the word ‘timeline’ isn’t synonymous with ‘world’ as the much of the fandom thinks. One big piece people seem to forget is this needs to Link up with AC somehow whether it’s before or after it (I think it’s after)
@@jazzy_okami exactly. 100% same thoughts as myself
Great breakdown and analysis. Thank you.
You’re awesome, thank you so much for watching!
The other world is actually inside the lifestream, and it’s the end of the world because of how shinra is basically depleting the energy source of the afterlife Cloud can see that because he has awakened in the lifestream before, due to his experiments at the hands of hojo, and Aerith awakening him there in the date at the end of the world
First time, nice video! They had to make the ending nebulous - if they commited to either path for Aerith they would likely have lost some fans before the third game. But you're right - she'll likely be "back". I think there are several giveaways, but Sephiroth's line about underestimating her and running away from that fight is the big one. If there's another working white materia out there, couldn't she just open another hole in the floor and bring herself back to the main timeline? Probably not, but they introduced that option!
My first reaction to seeing Aerith "alive" was.... wtf? She survived?!?! THIS ISN'T WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!? It was so confusing. Not what I expected AT ALL. I hope she does come back... I cried SO HARD in the original when she died, and again in Rebirth. This game has got me the same as the 1997 OG.
Remake…Rebirth…Reunion
All I'll say is, while I respect your opinion, I hope you're wrong. 💙
Great video.
We have to know this is basically the Empire strikes back of the Final Fantasy universe. The story is finished yet. Fate can still be defied in the third game. We just don’t know yet.
There are 2 white materias. 1st is empty. With cloud atm 2nd has color. Fell down the city of the ancients The white materia only gets full when the owner, aerith, dies or transfers her memories/soul into it.
Also worth noting, the White Materia that Aerith had Forgotten Capital never turned pale green. So, her role in summoning Holy isn't finished yet.
How did you come to the conclusion that Marlene says Aerith will wake up if she dies in the main timeline? I didn't see anything alluding to that.
You can't really say they botched it if you haven't played the 3rd game yet.
I wonder what you would have said three weeks after the original came out back in 1997. Probably something as brilliant as this
Largely agree with what you're thinking. I think there's a few details that really point the direction Square Enix is trying to go here, but I'll leave that up to the individual players to determine themselves. I do see a lot of comments about players complaining that the ending is too convoluted, and I really hope Square keeps things ambiguous until the end in part 3. It's not really that difficult to understand if you put a little thought and effort into it. So the writers of part 3 need to stay the course and not bend too much to the complaints. The story of FF7 was loved and appreciated because of its complexity and how dynamic it was back in 1997, and it was so rewarding for the players who put the time in to understand that they kept asking for a Remake for 20 years. Square can't deviate from that.
You are correct. they sure threw us that played the original off. They achieved their goal. I’m so thrown off, I quit being a final fantasy fan.
Closed minded people man i tell ya. My take. In remake, they showed and explained Elmyra and Aeriths past. Super short, super vague. It was mid at best on the feels radar. Then in rebirth, they revisit that in the trials and the delivery was wayyy different and it hit way harder. This death scene is basically what the past scene was in remake and will be revisited in part 3, and it'll hit way harder. Step 1. Introduce them with the idea of multiple worlds through lifestream ( internet calls it timelines, but not once did they mention that term) with Zack and all that. Step 2: showcase the unstable metal state of clouds mind. Step 3: mix the two😈. What is real?...what is fake?... These are the ingredients to put the players in clouds' perspective as much as possible. The third game will definitely have that sad part that everyone yerns for in this game. And it'll hit even harder. I'm guessing it's when clouds mind gets fixed, and he realizes she actually died and was in his head the whole time. There is a reason the "water burial" scene is missing. There is a reason there were no dog indicators during that whole sequence. There is a reason all aerith and cloud interaction scenes are all missing in the credits roll. And as far as "what timeline do I care about!? There are so many" these aren't "timelines" don't let cheesy marvel ideas get mixed in. There is only one cloud and one aerith "spirit" in the multiple worlds of one "lifestream" this is why when one is awake in 1, the others are unconscious. This is only a fraction of how this works that is known we still have very little knowledge on all this, but that should be answered in the 3rd game. As long as they deliver, we'll get the feeling we wanted in the next game.
This is the conclusion I’ve pretty much come to as well. After rereading On the Way to a Smile, I think with these lifestream “worlds” coming and going, it’s all under the concept of the passage or journey of the soul. There’s only one prime world and there aren’t “really” multiples of people. Just people with strong souls refusing to become one with the lifestream & have unfinished business. I think the popular theories are misunderstanding the concept of a “multiverse”/“timeline” (coming from someone who had that perspective & jumped the gun in making a vid about it before taking into consideration previous lore ESPECIALLY advent children)
Except you're ignoring Aerith's missing memories and that Marlene was made privy to this. Cloud is unaware of the interaction between Aerith and Marlene, so it wouldn't make sense for him have that in his dream/delusion. There's also the matter of the white materia.
@@drewtheunspoken3988 you mean Zack instead of Cloud right? (I’m not sure which comment you’re responding to but I’ll answer anyway haha) I’m not ignoring those factors, I just think any instance of a person showing in another world other than the Prime (beagle) one is a shadow/projection/memory. Biggs knows both Marlene and Elmyra so I think Biggs was placed into a different world first, THEN Zack (since Zack ends up travelling to different ones anyway). Our Aerith does lose her memory, therefore an omnipresent/lifestream Aerith comes bringing an active white materia. Ultimania at least confirms that much (that there’s 2 Aerith’s we know of thus far)
Good points all around but we must remember. So far we know; 3+2+5+?+?+?+?+?=? We can only do so much with the info given but there is still a whole 3rd game to play. And they could easily introduce a story element that could eliminate all theories. Well never know till the very end. People these days hate being confused but I say that was the point, and that they are just impatient. If we had all the answers and this was predictable then they would just complain that it's a boring story that was predictable. People just love to complain in general.😔
@@Shudikan90 true. And yea we’re in the shoes of Cloud, we’re supposed to be confused at the end of Rebirth, the ending shouldn’t be conclusive since it’s not even the 3rd.
There's a good point in explaining everything you think. You're going to get 70% of these fools being surface readers and will blame nomura, get mad, and blow steam instead of trying to think. They have reverted to primal instincts or straight up want to be spoon fed everything to the lips. Regardless, i agree with everything you said. Theyre expanding on the life streams power in real time and I love it
Or maybe, just maybe, people can spot bad writing.
My theory is that the red timeline in the true timeline. The alternates are alternate mental worlds cloud created due to not being able to deal with their death. But also due to events in og disc 2 clouds memories are being manipulated by jenova along with the lifestream(black and white arbiters). I originally thought the grey ones from remake symbolized OG players. Those that have died are able to live through the lifestream and their spirits seep into their respective vessels in clouds memory, but only occupy one vessel at a time. Memories of anyone including shinra troops that have died may fill in the holes. Sector 7 evacuees may actually be dead in reality. If I was 100% sure this was the case I would not have posted it. But I hope SE delivers close or better. Either way it's got me on the edge of my seat.
Her return is only temporary assuming that it happens at all. FF7 is about two things self-acceptance and the finality of death and grief that follows. Keeping her alive would undermine that second bit so I hope they don't do that.
guys can you explain it to me like im 5?
We might get a different stories. There might be a big choice at the end of the third installment. I think is that Aerith and Zack is body cannot live to where Cloud and the others are now because both of their bodies in this timeline are dead but Cloud however is alive and we might be able to choose our own ending. Also I believe we have 5 different timeline at this point, remake timeline, Zack and Cloud survive timeline, Biggs dies in the reactor timeline and Cloud and Aerith end of the world date timeline. I think that when Sepiroth said that world will merge is that things can be combined but you know, only one existence can exist. So, world’s merging might hint that the meteor is not the only problem but worlds merging together. If the universe is merging with another parallel then it could probably destroy the entire timeline. In this scenario, we could possibly travel into parallel universe and save everyone from meteor or something that would stitched down the cracks in the timeline and choose to live one of the timeline. In this case live with Aerith but all your friends dies or live with your friends but lose your lover.
is tifa going to save cloud from mako poisoning and repair his mind in the lifestream in part 3
I would think so, since thats what happened before, only time will tell.
@@XaraFang you do know that if tifa doesn't save cloud in part 3 then no one else is going to buy part 3 at all
@@RyanOstrowski-eh6ftare you stupid?
It would be peak if Cloud was actually the one after Dirge of Cerberus
@@XaraFanghow would she do that ? I mean the OG scene was already shown in Rebirth in a way with the Gongaga incident. All the childhood memories are already established and Cloud seems so aware of all them. What more could she say ?
Reunions opening cutscene will be the burial in the lake.
I don't think we'll see that until the lifestream chapter. I guess we'll have to see. It's going to be a long wait.
This tracks
What version of Aeriths song is that at the end of the video? That’s the best version I’ve heard yet! Btw great video, agree with everything your saying
It’s the Smash Bros Ultimate remix, it really is amazing I completely agree 😆 Thank you btw, I appreciate it!
This is better than big dan gaming's tifa cucked conclusion.
Way better… that shit pissed me off.
Haven’t seen it but based on the title/thumbnail, I can understand lol Also thanks, much appreciated 😊
That analysis got hilariously shallow at the end lol, I also get some complaints but ultimately this remake follows the established story of the OG. Dev's are just "remixing" it for the OG players. I like how they fleshed out Barret's scenes, How it shows Cloud's awkwardness with everybody, Also, The Gold Saucer shattered my expectations. This game is worth the 70$ you paid for the content you are getting.
The Big mistake in this Game was whispers and that Marvel multiverse that they create for remake -_- for that reason this is not a great remake, and in original u see aerith die u can feel that u cant see her again. But in this die and then o but she is with me i can see her again and Talk with her so in this Game u dont get the heartbreaking moment
Nice Video ! but I thought Marlene said if she stood up she would die.
Yeah it is weird how she worded it, this was just my interpretation though. I thought this because Biggs was dying in the main timeline and then showed up in the other one, which I assume would happen to Aerith as well. Thank you for watching, much appreciated 😃
Thing with Biggs, he died in one timeline and one timeline only, the pug timeline. There's no reason to believe he died in all of them, cuz the troopers only showed up because Zack's fate was catching up with him. Biggs was just caught in the crossfire. So in every other reality where Zack didn't choose to stop him, he's still there chilling and eating his chips.
Zack better come back and reunite with cloud they're like siblings torn apart by fate they must reunite although all this is 100% gunna change advent children tho I'd pay for an advent children game plus its just mean keeping zach and aerith apart dude ligit resurrected (kinda) for Aerith and Cloud
Lol
Never liked ff7 but when i saw that ps3 demo and the idea of remaking was being entertained, i just knew this Nomura cretin was going to pull some parallel time shenanigans and play with Aeriths death... he couldnt help himself to add his writing diarrhea. Tabata did the timeline deal better with type 0 and the idea didnt need a revisit. Or make the game gayer for that matter but heh. Since i never liked ff7 no love lost.
Ok i understand the theory but at this point you call this "good writing?" Idk the remakes are kinda woke compared to the original.