[Kanon]

Eh, I may be biased but I thought the story pushed Cloud x Tifa a lot more.

Spoiler for Ending spoilers:

Cloud is a lot more conscious of her (that totally not subtle glance at her cleavage when she showed up in her swimsuit) and they even kiss during their date. Aerith, on the other hand, admits in chapter 14 that she likes Cloud but isn't actually sure what kind of "like" it is. I feel they tried to make their relationship less romantic in this remake because Zack's still technically around and is the one who will end up with Aerith in the end, just like in AC.

Obviously, Cloud and Aerith still have a very strong bond, but Cloud x Tifa is (still) the canon romance. If Aerith had lived though, who knows? Maybe it could have developed into something more. But she still died.

I've been reading people's thoughts on the ending and it feels like no two person has the exact same interpretation. That's how ambiguous it is

Really would be nice if the third game came out earlier.

Originally Posted by Homura7

Yes, sorry if that sounded a bit rude.

For starters, the FF7R series being a sequel to OG FF7 shouldn't come off as a shock anymore. I think anyone that played the 2 games should have figured that out by now.

I gathered every major and minor detail in Rebirth to have more or less a rough idea of what's going on. Here're my thoughts.

Spoiler for spoiler:

Lifestream is the blood of the Planet, all living things are born from it, including the Planet itself that one day will also wither and die and, in Sefirot's words, "become part of it".

But the Lifestream is much more than just the place where the dead go. It's a whirlpool that contains information (as in, memories) of the Planet and every living being that lived on it. And the Lifestream uses that pool of information to create new life. Yet it cannot create anything, as it needs to use these memories as the blueprint.

Thus the cycle of life would repeat once more. The planet would be reborn, and so would every living thing that once inhabited it: the Cetra, Jenova, Shinra, Cloud, Aeris, Sefirot, etc.

But just because things happened in a certain way before doesn't necessarily mean everything should play out identically. This is where the "Wisper Harbinger" I think came to being: a special type of Weapon created by the Planet whose mission is to ensure its survival by any means necessary, using the memories of the planet as the guide. Ultimately, Cloud and his companions destroyed this weapon. Starting Rebirth, fate was no longer set in stone and anything could happen.

But the Lifestream wasn't out of tricks, as it had a last resort just in case the Weapon got destroyed. After the final battle in Remake, a new world separate from the main one was born, a second Planet if you would put it. In Rebirth we got an explanation on what causes this strange phenomena: whenever someone or something goes against the established course (FF7), the Planet corrects that by removing the breach of fate to a new paralel world created specifically for that purpose.

Through the game, this situation repeats another 5 times: Zack decision to help out Cloud or to help Biggs ends up with him being met with a firing Shinra squad in a way reminiscent of his actual death. After two failed attempts, he's unsure of what to do and that creates a 4th world where Sefirot comes and kicks him out himself.

This is also why Marlene says Aeris will die if she wakes up, as no matter when or where, anything she does will end up with Sefirot killing her, as it happened once right before Cloud went to the City of Ancients.

And each of these worlds is numbered with a different dog breed and a number of stars. So far there're a total of 6 breeds counting the main world.

The ending: Confusing as it looked, I think what happened in the altar was the following:

Cloud saves Aeris > the Planet corrects that and creates a new world as a result of Cloud breaching fate, while in the main world Aeris dies. The worlds then merge, causing Aeris to be reborn, all while memories of her actual death from FF7 flash in Cloud's head. A rainbow hue and white whispers surround the two, heavily impliying only Cloud and Aeris spiritual bodies were moved to their bodies in the new world that was just created.

The rest of Avalanche however were outside when that happened, and all they see is Aeris dead and bleeding, while Cloud sees her alive and well, then gently lays her down. During the decisive battle, Sefirot undoes the mergin of the worlds, yet Aeris still joins Cloud by separating her spiritual body from her flesh, which is easy to tell because after the battle is over she fades in green light.

The end I think is easy to understand. Because they were the only two that were inside the Destiny Crossroads when the breach of fate happened, Cloud's consicousness is now stuck between the main world and the new one where Aeris lives, which explains why only he can see her and the scar in the sky (the rest of Avalanche cannot see Aeris nor the scar in the sky, though Nanaki can somehow feel she's with them).

Also, as much as she wished she could join them, Aeris knows that if she does that the Planet will again intervene, so she'll return to the City of Ancients and continue praying for Holy with all her strength. (and as long as she does that, Sefirot cannot kill her).

In a way you could say that Cloud not grieving for her is actually much worse for his mental health. The rest of Avalanche are sad and demoralized, yet they see Cloud calm and smiling, causing them to think he's losing his sanity at an alarming rate.

By the way, I wonder how many players were confused going for a specific date other than Aeris, only to realize that their choice felt disjointed within the narrative and ultimately was just there for the sake of letting the player choose. I can proudly say I wasn't one of these people

Spoiler for Ending spoilers:

I really don't think your theory works, because Jenova and the Gi tribe are aliens who are completely unable to merge with the lifestream, meaning the planet would never be able to recreate them.

If this is a sequel, it's really just more likely Sephiroth traveled to the past through the lifestream and started messing things up. The completely different situation in Wutai can entirely be attributed to him, since Glenn is clearly another one of his puppets. The reason the Whispers didn't fix this is because he has his own army of black Whispers battling them. They started color coding the Whispers to make that more clear. IIRC, in Remake he could control them too, but they all looked the same.