#(rebirth spoilers) -> even in Zack's timeline Cloud AND Aerith are there | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

priceofreedom · 3 months

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funny how everyone seemed to adore Zack until he started having more screentime...

#it's honestly very surprising. i see hate towards him almost every day since Remake came out and i wish i was kidding #and yeah yeah i know other characters get lots of hate too but the hate towards him has been so sudden and random???#idk maybe he *was* hated before but i just didn't notice #but at the same time no. i'm 100% sure the hate increased considerably after he was shown to be alive in the Remake #i feel like some people are just weirdly concerned he is gonna overshadow the main characters which is stupid #this story is still about Cloud and the others #we're just gonna explore another reality (allegedly) with Zack it's not that deep bro #(rebirth spoilers) -> even in Zack's timeline Cloud AND Aerith are there #and who knows how many more #like i get shippers being petty because when are they not petty #but i've seen non-shippers/casual players saying they do not want to see more of him and being all bitter bc he's important #he's always been important you all just refuse to acknowledge it!!!#no matter how many times hamaguchi nomura nojima etc say he's super important ppl just keep denying it 💀#as if y'all know more than the freaking devs i'm getting tired of this bs #my post #i'm glad the devs love him as much as we do. cry about it

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getvalentined · 14 days

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Getting back on my Zack Is Canonically Polyamorous soapbox because the people need to know and also the number of people accusing Aerith of being unfaithful in Rebirth is absolutely fucking ridiculous when taking Zack's romantic escapades into account.

There are spoilers here, and I'm tagging accordingly, but I'm not putting it under a cut.

We know for a fact that Zack is in a relationship with Aerith. We've known this since the OG, although we didn't know most of the details back then, just that they were together. In Remake, Aerith describes Zack as her "first love." In Chapter 11 of Rebirth, the first memories of Zack that Cloud reclaims are of him talking about how great Aerith is, and Cloud describes him as being "head over heels" for her. In Chapter 8, we found out that Zack's parents were able to recognize her based entirely on Zack gushing about her when he wrote home—and this is one of the most important parts, honestly.

Zack has a thing with Cissnei. We don't know how deep it is, but throughout Crisis Core (and even in the summer event in Ever Crisis) we can see very clearly that there is something between them, and it's never treated like a big deal. She's never completely honest about her feelings, so we can assume he didn't know that she saw him as anything more than a casual thing, but they have a relationship. It's made explicitly clear that this is the case when Zack returns to Gongaga and she lets him know that she's spoken to his parents, and he warns her that they're basically going to suggest that she marry him.

Zack's parents know about his relationship with Aerith and they also apparently know enough about his relationship with Cissnei to suggest that she make that relationship "official." They want her to join the family. They asked, she apparently reciprocated, and she lives in Gongaga after Veld is "killed."

Cissnei is also aware that Zack is in a relationship with Aerith, but that doesn't stop her from pursuing him anyway. She gets it and she's okay with it. She never, at any point, tries to push him away from Aerith—she's the one that tells him how special Aerith is, how important, how lonely. She's supportive of his relationship, and doesn't seem to feel that it makes her own feelings or their relationship any less valid.

Okay, so that's proof that the people around him are, at the very least, okay with him having multiple partners. That doesn't necessarily mean he's poly, though, maybe he's just a womanizer and everyone accepts it. Weird, but possible. He's really endearing so maybe they all give him a pass.

But no! No this isn't it at all! And we know it because of how Zack responds to Aerith being in love with someone else in Rebirth. When he finds out that Aerith is has feelings for Cloud, there's not a hint of jealousy in a single thing he does or says. He's disappointed when Marlene says it's because he wasn't there, but it's not disappointment in Aerith or in Cloud—it's disappointment in himself, because Marlene is right. He wasn't there. He couldn't protect her. There's also no spite there, he never responds like her feelings are wrong because he's here now and that means Aerith can rely on him again, and we know that because of how he responds to this information.

Zack finds out that Aerith has feelings for Cloud, and his immediate mission is to make sure that Cloud recovers as quickly as possible. Now it's not just for him, it's not just because that's his friend, it's because Aerith loves him (too) and that means he has to save Cloud for both of them.

He's fully supportive of Aerith and Cloud having a relationship, to the point that the last thing he says to Cloud when he gets thrown into a dying timeline is a request that he take care of Aerith. He's not exactly passing the torch here, because he's still alive—but he doesn't know if he'll be able to meet back up with a version of Cloud that is awake again, and he needs Cloud to know that he supports them in this.

And then, in the dying timeline where Zack is banished after fighting Sephiroth, he has the ability to synergize with Cloud from across the multiverse. The DMW limit break connected to Aerith is active in the space. All three of them are together here, just not physically; Cloud and Aerith are protecting Zack as much as Zack has been struggling to protect them.

Zack loves that Aerith loves someone other than him because that's how he is too. Zack has multiple relationships at the same time, he loves multiple people at the same time, he has emotionally intimate connections with multiple people at the same time. Why would he take issue with the love of his life feeling the same way?

Cloud isn't his replacement any more than Cissnei and Aerith are interchangeable, and Zack understands that, because Zack is polyamorous—and he's really happy that Aerith may be, too.

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genouxcasses · 2 months

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!!MAJOR REBIRTH SPOILERS!!

Okay, so I finally managed to calm down and spared some time thinking over the ending, I've come to make some conclusions (totally mo!):

1) There are definitely Aerith 0 and Sephiroth 0, probably from OG/AC timeline which know the whole story, and Sephiroth 0 is on the hunt for Aerith 0 who hides from him between worlds. Well, did hide since we saw in the Church scene that Sephiroth found her ("So that's where you've been hiding"). Sephiroth 0 knows that killing Aerith will only bring her to Lifestfeam and give her opportunity to interfere his plans again (same goes for alive Aerith), so his best option is probably to just keep her locked between worlds. Aerith 0 knows she can't hide from him forever so with last attempt before being caught she puts her last hopes into Cloud 1 (the Cloud from Remake timeline). Both Aerith 0 and Sephiroth 0 can obviously travel between worlds and in Aerith case (I suppose with help of Lifestteam) she can also move others between them (she dragged Zack into Cloud 1 reality and Biggs to Zack's and so on).

2) Cloud 1 isn't hallucinating or goes crazy in the end. He's the one present in two (at least) worlds at the same time, and as in one of them (my guess what we saw was OG timeline because we see but not hear Cloud says something and it's probably his famous lines "Aerith won't laugh again"). but then he sees Aerith calming him down with "Cloud, it's okay" which could be pointing at that Aerith 0 not only gave him her mageria but also told him what to do, so Cloud remembers that and calms down, because he now does really know what to do and how to save her. Remember last scene before he gets on Highwind and leaves Aerith? NO WAY Cloud would do that to any of his friends and especially to Aerith since we saw dozens scenes when he's worried for her in even light situations, not speaking of leaving the girl alone in the field lol. It's not even OOC for Cloud, it's just not him completely. which I believe also points that Cloud knows exactly what he sees and what he has to do (or maybe feels it, since Cloud 1 is not fully awaken yet). anyway this leads us to Marlene's words "only Cloud can save her". because only Cloud recieved those insights from Aerith and he is indeed the one who can save her;

3) As for the future which was left to us to guess for now... Well, along with all said above and taking in the fact that AC timeline is totally fckd up (where Sephiroth will just keep coming back again and again until there's no one left to stop him), and whole Remake point was to "Make things right", and with main themes of Remake - Hollow with its "I will never let you go again", and of Rebirth - NPTK with "We can be together forever evermore", my bet is on they're gonna mix all the realities including OG (as ai said, I think it's already happening in Aerith d-h scene), and come up with one whole new one where things settled in "right" way and no place left for any other timelines or else;

4) Aerith's fate... It's up to decide, I suppose. I believe Zack had high chance of survival since there's only one Zack for all timelines, but I'm afraid there's a high possibility that the only Aerith to live will be the original one, or rather her consciousness kept by Sephiroth between worlds. Also I see a possibility (of fanservice, additionally...) of leaving two Clouds: one in coma from Zack world, who might be left to live with those who he knows: Zack and Tifa, and Cloud 1 from Remake main timeline, who might leave with Aerith for their Promised Land he was searching so hard for in OG and AC. Or maybe I'm just scared to believe in NORMAL happy end with Aerith alive and happy in normal world. But I guess we'll see in 3 or 4 years on the last part of our journey...

What about you, guys? Which conclusions have you reached? I was so depressed these last days I'd be happy to discuss.

#ff7 #ffvii rebirth #ffvii remake #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy #cloud strife #aerith gainsborough #ff7 remake #ff7 rebirth #final fantasy remake #final fantasy rebirth

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breakfastteatime · 1 month

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OKAY! Spoilers for Original Final Fantasy VII discussion of Rebirth! This is your only warning.

Cloud remembering Zack was a real surprise... even if he remembered wrong. Well, I'm sure in another world that's exactly what did happen, but not to this Cloud. I did love Tifa being all "I'll let Aerith know, okay????" because she knows Cloud's not got it right...

I really like that they're playing up the degradation angle with Cloud, even though that's not what it is. S Samples INDEED. It's been a minute since I played Crisis Core, but I also think that's why Zack didn't experience degradation. Of course, he also died sooooo...

When you're talking with Biggs, it's like he's from the main remake timeline whereas Zack is from the alternate universe. Initially I thought maybe they were dead in the lifestream, but of course that didn't make sense... And how Cloud can see into that other world in his dreams... but it's also not the one he winds up in near the end, because the only way to keep track of what universe we're all in is based on Stamp the dog. I think we've seen four variations now?? Maybe five? Because when Zack makes his choice in the tunnels, he creates another alternate world. UGH SO GOOD.

Oooh, but the opening flashback where you see hints of the REAL Cloud under the mask... So subtle. So good.

Evil Cloud. Evil, Sephiroth-quoting Cloud who kills indiscriminately. YEEEEEEEES. He was so ready to straight up murder Elena daaaaaaayum.

I love that they're really playing up how unstable and genuinely dangerous Cloud is to be around. The real Cloud is in there somewhere, but he's so lost. And the ending where he's chatting away to Aerith even though she's dead... although that did also undercut how impactful that part of the original was. The part where Sephiroth tells him he doesn't have any feelings because he's a puppet and Cloud fights back against that was lost in Rebirth because we flick between realities - including one where Cloud murdered her (at least that's what it looked like to me). Ultimately, I do like the ending, but the original did it better. Honestly, it will be easier to figure out how far they're taking that once we play the final part of the remake. I understand they have to pace a three part remake very different because in the original you just... carry on to Icicle Inn.

...seriously though, does he think she's alive???? Because it really feels like he thinks she's alive... which, well, I guess we'll see him mourn later.

The way they're really foreshadowing how Cloud is ultimately the most successful robed figure - albeit without the robe - because Hojo considered him to be a failed experiment. Again, it's in the original, but they're able to really expand on it here.

Oh - another minor complaint but still: did not like that we can't go upstairs in Shinra Mansion. Another part of the original I loved. But LOL at the door code. I SEE YOU, SQUARE ENIX.

The sidequest with the dude who makes a weapon for Barret and says that someday Barret might not need the gun any more. Nice nod to Advent Children.

Speaking of Advent Children, which obviously at this point in the remakes isn't canon, but with Cloud being so out of it re: Aerith it kinda takes away the whole him coming apart because of his depression and guilt in AC.

Hey, SE, while you're busy remaking stuff, wanna update those graphics on Advent Children? I always forget how GREY it is until I watch it again. And Cloud has such pretty eyes in the remakes!

#final fantasy vii #ffvii #ffvii rebirth #ffvii rebirth spoilers

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novakaiserart · 14 days

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Rebirth Broke Me

i jusr finished rebirth and oh man i fucking love this game, it embellished the relationships between every character to well. worked on the plot so naturally and beautifully. i especially love how much they portrayed aerith and tifa, gave yuffie more of a connection to the group. i also adore how they explored the gi story and made it so much more relevant. i love how they worked out barret's struggles. absolutely in love with vincent, but i always did so lol. i saw some people complaining about cid, but imo i think he's putting up a good guy front just so he doesn't lose any business after his attempt at being a shinra pilot failed. i fully expect them to cover his story in part 3 and explore it more like they did with everyone else. im soooo happy we got to see cissnei, but so sad aerith and her didnt speak of zack :(. it's also cool we got to see some midgarian faces again even after the crew left. the trials had me actually crying, it was stunning. they really cooked

i was very confused with chapter 14 until I reached the end, but it makes sense to me. spoiler warning ahead ofc i believe aerith died. i also believe cloud is incapable of coping with the fact that she's dead, so he sees her still present with them. but i also believe she won't stay dead either, i think she was really there with cloud when they fought sephiroth. her line of "i'll pray to stop the meteor" tells me she'll come back. being a cetra and all, i think she'll find a way to return to the earth through the lifestream

my leading theory for the trajectory of the games currently goes as following; i believe that sephiroth went back in time to when it all started (crisis core time) in the hopes of changing how events played out, my biggest proof of this is his attempt at killing barret in remake and tifa in rebirth. he underestimated them in the og timeline and only took out aerith as he viewed her as the only threat, but he needs the others out the picture too sooner than later. especially tifa. hence why he constantly gaslights cloud about her being a fake or not being trustable; she's the only one that can help him put his mind back together. without her, cloud will always view the world through clouded lenses. but one thing changed about my theory with the whispers now being white and black; aerith followed him to stop him. she sacrificed her memory and recollections of events to make it back. the whispers were sephiroth and aerith's will fighting to keep the timeline intact, but they evolved and split into two factions. i also think aerith's white materia being hollowed out has something to do with that. i think she saw what he was up to from the lifestream (since shes dead in og timeline), sacrificed her memories to stop him once and for all. for a while i thought aerith was the one going back, but it wouldnt make much sense for her to undo what they did just to save herself and zack. it's possible this is an entirely different sephiroth, but i believe it's the one from the og timeline trying to reunite every world possible to make sure he wins everywhere.

it's hard to say for sure whats going on and we're only going to know once part 3 drops, but i know one thing for sure. neither cloud nor sephiroth are relliable narrators and their interpretation cannot be trusted. cloud's mind is still scattered, he's divided between denial and obedience to sephiroth. anything he says cannot be trusted. sephiroth is bad shit insane, he only accepts his view of the world. his vision is the only valid one, therefore what he says cannot be taken as matter of fact.

one final footnote i want to comment on is the "date" aerith and cloud had. yes, im a big cloti and aerti fan. also believe zack is the only right person for aerith, so maybe im coping but idc lol. i think it was all a dream or at least an altered vision of events. i firmly believe aerith still loves zack. she wrote to him for 4 years while he was taking a mako bath, waited for him endlessly day and night. she loved him dearly. but aerith is also one hell of a loyal person. i doubt she would ever be able to brush off zack like that. she also doesn't know if he died in the remake timeline. i think she projected her love for zack onto cloud; to relive the happiness she found with him one last time. she's been holding on to her grief for years, she still thinks about him. he dropped in one day into her life so suddenly and changed it for the better. as did she for him. he vanished the same way she found him. so when another soldier falls into her life the same way, carries the same sword as him, has similar mannerisms, reminds her so much of the man who she fell in love with; can we really blame her for wanting an escape of how much sadness she felt from zack being gone? i also dont believe for a second she used cloud to feel better about herself, i think she just wanted to feel the love he showed her again before she had to pass on. but cloud isn't zack, cloud could never love her the way zack did. aerith grew up without any real friends, no one that accepted her for being her. everyone viewed her as different or weird; but not zack. he was the first person to show her genuine care (besides her mothers). she misses him, as much as she's happy with all her new friends who also accept her for her; she wishes he was there too. i also don't believe that the real cloud has any romantic feelings for aerith. again, he took on the life of zack in his head. he feels drawn to her because of how much zack loved her.

it's really such a tragic story full of nuance and hurt. i noticed that zack and tifa are great parallels; both of them are the only ones truly capable of reaching inwards towards their respective partner. zack understood aerith much better than cloud ever could. tifa can touch cloud in a way no one could. but that doesn't negate the fact that cloud cares for all of them just as much. they all mean a lot to him and he means a lot to them.

also really appreciate how the devs still kept the canonity of tifa and cloud, but also gave the chance to fans of other pairings to be happy with the outcome and choose their path. its always been a divisive thing in the ff7 fandom, so its cool of them to try and make everyone happy

overall, im super excited for part 3 and i think i might recover from this by the time it comes out

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freelanceexorcist · 15 days

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Cut for FFVII Remake/Rebirth and Sliding Doors spoilers and length.

So the FFVIIR Ultimania pretty much confirms that we’re dealing with the multiverse. I’m loving it, too, because I love the multiverse in fiction.

There are two types of multiverse in fiction that I’m familiar with. The first is the most common one, I find. In this one, the other universe or several other universes have always existed alongside the “prime” universe. This is the multiverse that’s seen on Fringe and in the Marvelverse, among other places. Travel between universes isn't often possible unless a machine or special ability is used.

There’s also a version that doesn’t appear quite as often at least in my experience, and that’s one where a new universe is created by a point of divergence. This could be a spawned universe in which an event has the opposite outcome (character dies in the prime universe, creating one where they lived; character makes choice #1 which spawns a universe where they make choice #2 instead). There’s a hypothesis in the real world about something like this called the quantum multiverse, but I’m nowhere near being a theoretical physicist so I’ll stop talking about that now.

When this plot device is in play, the terms "alternate universe" and "alternate timeline" are sometimes used interchangeably. In the latter, the point of divergence is someone going back in time and changing something and a new timeline is spawned where things progress differently and can lead to a different outcome, which is a good way in fiction to avoid temporal paradoxes. Even though the multiple timelines exist in a single universe, I can see how they can become universes unto themselves, so the interchangeability makes sense.

One example of this second type is the movie Sliding Doors, at least to my eye. Helen misses the train then gets mugged and goes home to her cheating boyfriend none the wiser and her life goes on as usual. This is the point of divergence, because it creates a universe where she catches the train, gets home in time to catch her boyfriend in bed with his side piece and begins a whole new life as a result. From what I remember from the movie (it's been a minute since I've seen it), both Helens have some sort of low-level awareness of each other.

It’s made pretty clear in Rebirth that we’re dealing with this second type. Zack dying in the prime universe is the point of divergence that creates a universe where he lives. Him choosing to confront Hojo about a cure for Cloud is the point of divergence that spawns a universe in which he chooses to go to Biggs instead. Cloud and Aerith not becoming the official couple in the prime universe is the point of divergence that spawns the universe where they do. Cloud not getting to the altar in the Forgotten Capital in time to stop Sephiroth is the point of divergence that spawns a universe in which he does get there in time and disarms him, and we see both things happening at once. There’s also the implication that Sephiroth slashing Tifa but not killing her is the point of divergence that spawns a universe where he slashes and does kill her.

That’s what we’ve seen so far. We’ve also seen things that make me wonder about how they’re telling the story. There’s a poster of Yorkie!Stamp in what we assume is the prime universe, where we’ve seen that Stamp is a beagle. Cloud and Aerith’s antics as a couple appear to take place in the same universe where he’s still in a mako coma. Sephiroth somehow has time to both unite the multiverse in the prime one while pursuing the Black Materia and engage in political intrigue and beat the war drum for Wutai by impersonating Glenn and trolling the holy hell out of Rufus.

What if they’re showing the story progressing across multiple universes and doing it so seamlessly that we don’t know whose story is being told in which one? Right now we have Cloud as the protagonist in the Beagleverse and Zack as the deuteragonist in the Yorkieverse, or so we think. What if we’re seeing multiple stories playing out across multiple universes with multiple versions the main characters? That’s a pretty bold storytelling choice if that’s what they’re up to. So far it seems we’re dealing with about 5 or 6 universes. Wow. If so, maybe this story should have been called Everything, Everywhere, All At Once if the movie hadn’t gotten to that title first.

And Sephiroth seems to be the Big Bad in all of them, because the points of divergence all occurred after the Nibelheim incident.

But speaking of those points of divergence…

If there were those that occurred after the Nibelheim incident, there would be ones that occurred before it as well, wouldn’t there? There are strong hints that one of these points was Sephiroth succumbing to Jenova after torching Nibelheim and carving up Tifa, which could have created a universe where he didn’t succumb (hence the retention of the Ore pronoun in Japanese). This is assuming, of course, that this version of Sephiroth is not one of Cloud’s hallucinations. I have more to say about this part, but that’s another manifesto for another day.

It follows that there would also be universes where the point of divergence was the Nibelheim incident. Could this have spawned a universe where he doesn’t torch the town? You would think so. What other outcomes could there be? Would he pack up and go back to Midgar to force the truth out of Hojo? Would he resolve to destroy Shinra instead?

Would he maybe follow through on his desertion plans, head to Wutai and make plans with Old Man Shinra to resume the war while taking on the appearance of his now-deceased childhood brother figure who just happened to foment a coup in Wutai and become a pretty prominent figure in its interim government? Hm…would he, now? Is this how he preserves the life of the planet? By duping the old man and later Rufus into buying into the destruction of Shinra without even realizing it?

The scenes between Glenniroth and Rufus could possibly take place in a universe where that last scenario could have played out without the destruction of Nibelheim in the mix.

Going back to the idea that we’re viewing multiple universes all at once. We see the main party infiltrating the ranks, and Captain Cloud is leading his troops through the parade in the prime universe. All in pursuit of saving the world from Big Bad Scary Evil Man Sephiroth.

In another universe, Sephiroth-As-Glenn is meeting with Rufus, presenting his war plan and giving him shit about being an idle trust fund baby. In this universe, Cloud is marching in the parade as a regular old trooper, Nibelheim still stands and Tifa is probably contemplating getting the hell out of Dodge because my god, that place sounds like Betty Friedan’s worst nightmare.

See where I’m going with this? I hope so because I’m not sure I do.

Anyway, it seems that at least two versions of Sephiroth are able to access a space in between the universes and pull others into it as well (Edge of Creation). How he does this is not made clear, and we know little to nothing about the version Cloud meets there at the end of Remake and the Rebirth Ultimania doesn't seem to add more to that story.

There’s also the possibility that Jenova’s plan to unite the multiverse is already underway and what we’re seeing with the way the story is told is all of the universes bleeding together. That would probably be easier to pull off than my last suggestion, but I hope the last one is the case because I want to see how well they can pull it off.

The lack of clarification in the Ultimania about the different versions of Sephiroth or why things seem to be happening that shouldn’t be happening is-I hope-avoidance of spoilers in order to set up some big reveals in Part 3 and not them just losing the plot big time and writing by the seats of their pants. Making a big deal out of a character then just abandoning said character and their storyline is an amateur hour move expected from novice fanfic writers still growing into their craft, not professionals with 30+ years of experience. I'm going to put my faith in Kitase and his team and say that they just don't want to ruin any surprises.

That’s all I’ve got for now. And I acknowledge that I’m inconsistent with my speculation. If you’ve been following along, you know that I change my mind more than the day changes to night. That’s the beauty of this story: the more you think about it, the more you rub your chin and think “hm, maybe THIS happened instead of THAT.” And then an Ultimania here and a dozen interviews there comes along and says “NOPE. It’s that third or fourth other thing we just came up with.”

Anyway, thank you for indulging me if you chose to stick around for the whole thing. Take care and enjoy the rest of your day or night!

#FFVIIR Spoilers #FF7R spoilers #Sephiroth #Cloud Strife #Tifa Lockhart #FFVII Rebirth Ultimania #Multiverse

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violetaeons · 2 months

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Finished FF7:Rebirth after spending the weekend trying to dodge spoilers.

To begin with, I was never on board with the multiverse idea when it was initially marketed as a Remake however since then, I accepted that it was a different story. With them fighting fate at the end of part one.

But now that I've finished it...it does seem dissonant for the ending of part one to be "changing fates" - only for fate to ultimately win out. But only for Aerith, though. And this has been my pet peeve since part one. I didn't understand why people were baying for Aerith's death in part two when Zack's fate was changed and his death was avoided. To me, that was when all bets were off. I accepted it would be different and not a remake. After all, both deaths are important to the story - not just hers. But this had already been changed by virtue of Zack's survival and the timeline split. That and the song "Hollow" implied changing Aerith's fate. Wanting her dead to stick to the story but ignoring the glaring issue of Zack just seemed like a double standard to me.

I also don't really get Sephiroth's motivations now, seeing as he seemingly knows all timelines. He knows he faced opposition the first time - with Aerith returning to the lifestream. He's making it harder for himself surely. And killing her the exact same way, too? My only guess is to weaken Cloud mentally but he could've done that by killing anyone he cared for like Tifa. Is killing her even a good idea villain strategy-wise anymore? She's basically more of a threat to him dead.

I had a lot of fun with parts of the game though. Highlights being Barett and Dyne's storyline, Tifa and Aerith's friendship, the Shinra mission and Aerith's Cetra storyline in the temple. I'd have to think about it more overall though.

#final fantasy vii rebirth spoilers #ff7 rebirth spoilers #final fantasy vii rebirth #ff7 rebirth #ff7 #ff7 spoilers #final fantasy rebirth #aerith gainsborough

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aerifth · 26 days

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3 am rebirth spoiler thoughts

sifting through some of the direct translated japanese dialogue from rebirth has me reconsidering a few scenes... by the way i finished rebirth and thought the ending was a little stupid but the emotional impact worked on me so whatever. anyway

i have a bunch of Big questions that are sort of swirling and intermingling as more time is spent by the community breaking it all down and speculating. a couple of my big ones right now are:

- why is zack's timeline healing?

- what the fuck is the dream date?

- why can only cloud see aerith, and the crack in the sky?

and i think these all are connected, in that breaking them each down helps me get the bigger picture. a big concept right away thats been on my mind: does despair signal the end of the world?

in intermission, we see zack entering the church to find no aerith but her flowers dying and a bunch of townies sobbing for a previously unknown reason. in rebirth, we learn his world is dying- marked by the scar across the sky. this is a common theme across all of the alternate universes- tear in the sky, locals believe the world to be ending. what if one is causing the other?

i believe that these alternative timelines /are/ fragile, but not necessarily predestined to die- not any more than our planet is predestined, for instance. all things die, eventually, but what if that great despair is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy? people believe the world is ending, and so it does.

zack is the wildcard here. we're left to assume that aerith, somehow, saved him by taking control over the whispers- otherwise, we don't fully understand how zack was able to unite with whats left of the otherwise post-remake sector 5 civilians. zack, throughout the entire story of rebirth, is constantly trying to outrun his fate; constantly trying to uplift others and get them to believe that something can be done, and that they still have a life to fight for. we periodically check in with the aforementioned flowers, and something strange happens: over the course of the story, they start to come back to life.

we hear from biggs that the lifestream is "all dried up", in one of the offshoot timelines. there's no more mako left to take from the planet. if we're to assume this is precisely how these worlds are dying, then that means, at least in zack's main timeline (terrier), there is a lifestream. one that is healing. this can't just be aerith, somehow - one might assume it's a sign of her return, following her death, but this regrowth begins long before approaching aerith's destiny.

on that note: the dream date. in the japanese direct translation, the thing she says to cloud in the beginning is a little different.

"simply returned to the planet? or returning?" is a notably different line, if only because it's a little more direct than her quoting sephiroth's one-liner about a "homecoming". i'm still not 100% on its meaning, so i'll explore a couple of avenues.

my first inclination is that, somehow, this is implying that this is something they've done before. not literally, per se, but it's an awareness of the original game's events that suggests this is some kind of reunion of a cloud with an aerith. this, regardless, is echoed in the final scenes of ch 14 anyway. after the dream date, cloud seems far more aware of what's happening to aerith, and when fighting jenova lifeclinger, he mentions that he's "done it before, he can do it again"- something that can only really imply that he's now much more aware of the original games events than before. aerith and cloud even talk about meteor before it's been cast, making it sound like they know what's coming. you could interpret that because of this "enlightenment", that is how he can see the crack that the party cannot. maybe aerith could see it herself the whole time? it would give another meaning to why she "hates the sky", enough to have gone back and retconned her final line from remake before rebirth came out.

that was a doozy, but the other interpretation of aerith's dream date line is that they're somehow between life and death. maybe not in a literal way (though in the main timeline, both are unconscious), but in a way that maybe suggests the true nature of the alternate timelines. aerith take cloud on a date that is intentionally very similar to when zack takes her shopping in crisis core, which is solidified in the japanese dialogue where she quotes this original scene directly.

i'm left wondering if these timelines (or at least this one) are made of memories. hodge-podged together worlds with no destiny or motivation to exist, just to be as they were until they no longer can. it's a little shaky, but the way things interconnect in general is very hard to tell right now. in the japanese text, sephiroth calls the lifestream's alternate realities "layered", which would explain a bit how this could work (inception style - literally a dream (date) within a dream (zack's world). the game suggests that consciousness can be transferred between multiversal bodies, so i don't think coma aerith and cloud just suddenly got up and were fine. they seem more separated, and even when cloud is able to visit that body and see zack in the gold saucer hotel, he still can't just get up and move. he's confined in the same way zack's cloud is.

the big point i think i wanna make here is that i think hope is what is fixing zack's timeline. without him, the world would be doomed to die, because without him everyone else is already resigned to their fate. sephiroth wishes to use negative emotions and despair to choke the lifestream out of being functional, which i think seems to happen innately. zack's world heals as a result of him spreading hope. it's a sentiment echoed all throughout rebirth: if you believe, you will.

this could also be why cloud's world has a crack in the first place. if the party had been resigned to their fates, unwilling to think they can change it, then the world they inhabit will reflect that. cloud, the one who made that change in saving aerith, can see the truth- he is fully free from the shackles of hopelessness, free to make his own destiny. the rest of the party, however, mourning aerith's death, are already feeding into sephiroth's plan. that despair on a global scale is what he's wanted the entire game- it's why he's fueling the shinra-wutai war. global scale despair to choke the planet out of its hope.

this was a big brain dump and im not sure how much it holds any water, but i feel like i'm onto Something that's making sense of what all happens in rebirth. i'm still, like, mega coping that the interview quote about "linking up to advent children" is misleading, because frankly by this point that seems thoroughly impossible, unless AC is just a part of re3 and itll be new and different following the events of the story. aerith half dying already has me checked out a little bit, i think they should've committed to saving or killing her, though it seems that either way she can still be "brought back" one way or another (which seems likely anyway given how some of her most iconic weapons are still awol, and her level 4 limit break, accessible in the original game, is just not in rebirth at all). i don't know!!! this all feels star wars sequel make-it-up-on-the-fly to me and i hope they can stick the landing. i do deeply think if aerith dies at the end of all this then the story sucks and i don't see why they'd bother with all the "changing fate" stuff. i hope these mystery boxes aren't empty...!

#ff7 rebirth #ff7r spoilers

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draiad · 28 days

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FFVII Rebirth Spoilers Ahead

NGL This is going to be a big ramble but BUT I finished this game a bit ago now and I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. For anyone who is curious I ADORED it. There were a few moments I had frustrations with (Looking at you box throwing mini game) but that aside this game is still a solid 10/10 for me.

Be prepared for a lot of this to not make sense because I am typing as the thoughts come, there is no organization to them. for the TL:DR I liked the game and I am super excited for the answers we're going to get in part 3.

I cannot get over how well they handled the characters in this game. I should have expected it with how good of a job they did in Remake but they managed to absolutely blow my mind this game AGAIN.

That aside the thing I want to really focus on right now is the timeline stuff. I don't really have any solid theories as to how things are going to resolve nor do I have any set in stone mindset for Aerith's current situation but I have thoughts and ideas of how I would LIKE them to go.

I'm very curious about the timeline stuff. The characters who seem to have knowledge of other timelines vs those who don't. Its clear Zack, Biggs and Marlene are aware that there's something going on, not necessarily what but the fact that Marlene and Biggs knew of Cloud while in Zack's timeline makes me wonder what that means for Marlene in Cloud's timeline. I figure the hug from remake imparted all Marlene's with a bit of knowledge? I don't even know and I cannot wait to find out.

I also found the whispers a lot easier to deal with mentally this time around when thinking of them as extensions of Sephiroth and either Aerith or the life stream.

I may be wrong but I also feel like the weapons we saw in this game were the unwoken/larval stages of Ruby and Sapphire. I absolutely adored that sequence with Tifa and it makes me HELLA excited to see her help Cloud piece himself back together.

And then AND THEN we have that whole mess (still loved it all) with how they handled Aerith's death. I'm of two mindsets right now with what happened there. The one that I think is most likely true is Aerith is dead dead and Cloud is seeing her as some coping mechanism. I'm not 100% sold on the idea of it being Jenova manipulating him (though that would be hella dark and I would LOVE it). The other thing that I feel like may be the case is Aerith is dead but in the lifestream and is actively communicating with Cloud. Again not fully sold on it but I suppose we're just gonna have to wait and see. I think next game when we revisit things we're going to get that iconic scene of him lowering her into the water as he finally accepts the truth. Maybe after he recovers himself. All I know is its going to be so heartbreaking and good to watch as the team start doubting him while he spirals.

I think the black materia is going to be a fun game-play element to his skills in the next game too and I am super excited for some sort of Dark Knight Cloud. I feel like we're going to lose him pretty early on in part 3, I fully expect within the first couple of hours of the game the northern crater shit is going to go down and we'll have Party Leader Tifa for a while.

I can honestly say I don't know what kind of ending I want for this trilogy. Part of me wants it to be a reset, for the timeline to return to what it should. Another part of me wants it to be the happy ending for all. Either way I'll probably be happy. I think the only ending that would piss me off is someone wakes up and it was all a dream.

#ffviir #ffviirebirth #ffvii rebirth #ffvii #final fantasy vii

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holyguardian · 2 months

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I finished Rebirth.

And I gained depression. Though I'm also angry, BOTH things that I didn't want to happen managed to happen.

The predictable, that Cloud or Zack would rescue her. "Rescue", even if it was delulu. The reason I'm angry about this point is because there was too much song and dance about Aerith knowing that this moment was coming, and that she herself didn't act to stop her own death. The white materia was an acceptable touch but call me bitter because managing to trick Jenova / Sephiroth by other timeline comatose Aerith knowing everything that's going on to pull the switch did my head in.

Then the alternative, where Aerith chooses to sacrifice herself. For the record my Aerith would not want to die, and it's insulting that it's hinted she chooses this path. That's my biggest gripe. Not that she died, but that it was tampered with. In the original game it was a tragedy, a young life cut short, it wasn't a sacrificial moment but it feels like Rebirth is leaning into that.

Anyway, I'm super emotional and cried like a goddamn toddler who had their ipad taken away. I can't put a time on when I'll return to writing because I'm not joking about the depression. I'm a deflated balloon right now and I can’t really express my feelings without it being a spoiler.

#out of flowers #ff7r spoilers #spoilers #don't click if you haven't finished #this has things from the final chapter

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asoulofatlantis · 22 days

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I have a few words to say about chapter 14...

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILER FOR FINAL FANTASY 7 REBIRTH. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

As you know... I've been a Clerith shipper. I started shipping them while playing Kingdom Hearts - as I never managed to get past the Nibelheim-Flashback in the original game many years ago and can barely remember it I do not now if I shipped them back then already, to be honest - and FF7 Remake made me feel right about that choice. I loved the playful banter Cloud and Aerith had on the rooftops. I loved the way Cloud acted with and around her. I loved how when Tifa wanted an high five, he stoically ignored her (not saying that he didn't care that she was sad, but obviously not enough to get out of his shell) but when Aerith was disappointed that he wasn't giving in to it he actually put in the afford and was willing to go out of his way to give her that high five she wanted. I loved how he never once denied them being a couple or anything, when people hinted at that. I loved how he insisted to save Aerith from Shinra when even her own mother was at first to stupid to see what dangers she would be in as Hojos labrat. I loved how he asked Barett - who he had a heard time with so far - to get Aerith to safety. I loved the that Aerith and Cloud were always so touchy touchy even tho when it actually mattered, there hands never met and yet they touched each others hands and arms many times. (Not saying that Tifa and Cloud felt wrong, as I do believe that both ships are valid and there scenes should be seen, acknowledged and respected.)

Going into Rebirth I've already noticed that in most of the trailers we have been focusing on Tifa. The ones that focused on Aerith were amazing and full of great Clerith moments of course, but it were few. But as this is a game with a dating-mechanic, I knew we would still get our fill and I was enjoying the few but wonderfully shippy moments. From their "Date" in the Clocktower, to them coming back to the conversation about what Cloud will do if Aerith won't make it back on her own. I enjoyed them all. I really did.

But over time I've got a bit frustrated with how the game was handling things. I found Aerith holding on to Cloud after her "sort of date" - confirmation, even tho both he and Aeriths friend Tifa obviously felt uncomfortable about it absolutely out of character. She is a tease without any doubt, but that was plain mean. I also do not like that Aerith sad "Maybe" when Cloud asked her for her feelings for Zack. He was gone for 5 years without so much as a word and she said himself that it was time to move on and look towards the past and I get that with that somewhat connection to the Zack-Timeline it was getting harder to let go of the past. But either Aerith wants to move on and find the real Cloud or she doesn't. There is no MAYBE in the question if you love someone or not. I didn't like it that Clerith had a scene that gave you points with Aerith on that freaking Watertower. That is Tifas and Clouds place and the fact that they talked about Tifa and some shippiness from Cloud regarding Tifa doesn't change the fact that This conversation with Aerith should have happened inside the house, while Tifas conversation should have happened on the Watertower. I did not understand what SE was planning with doing that, but just EVERYTHING was actually wrong about this scene in the way it was. Also, despite Cloud almost killing her, after the "almost kissscene" with Tifa, she totally took over. Even after seeing how she slowly but surely lost control over Cloud even with bodycontact she still was the one trying to stop Cloud when he lost it, even tho in both Remake and Rebirth we saw that Aerith touching Clouds hand has always worked so far. But Aerith stood in the background, barely even said anything, while Tifa did all the work and that was no way in hell to make the ships feel balanced. In fact, after Tifas little trip to the live stream, the balance was almost completely gone as it has shifted over to Tifa almost completely, with only a few small minor moments for Aerith left here and there.

The fandom was saying that chapter 14 would be worth it. That Clerith would have a special date all to themselves and were celebrating this date - despite the bittersweetness, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. So I too was looking forward to this so called "date" and enjoyed what little shippiness we had in that weirdness of a dream.

Only for my Friends to make me face reality. My Friends are Diehard Clothi Shippers. And that's fine. Once again, both ships are valid in my eyes. HOWEVER, they have been heard over heels about their Tifa-scenes and I get why, I would have done the same. But I was sure they would come down a bit after chapter 14. Its a Clerith date after all, right? There is no way to ignore it, right? WRONG! This so called date, was almost a one to one repeat of a date Aerith had with Zack in crisis core. Only with the difference that Cloud didn't get any of the things he wanted and Zack did. With got a cheap Zack and Aerith Date copy and the whole Clerith-Fandom made it out to be THE Moment in the game. HOW? How is that a Clerith moment, when Aerith, who said she is searching for the real Cloud, chose to repeat her Zack-Date with Cloud in her own dream? And how on gods earith did no one mention that in any of the many posts and tweets and whatnot I have read about that date?

When my friends told me about it - and I got it confirmed as well - it felt like someone punched me in the gut. The scene that every Clerith shipper was celebrating that one moment were I thought all the Tifa scenes were worth it... turned out to be a Zack-Copy-Date with a Zack-Copy-Cloud. SE gave us what the Clothi-Shipper have always used against Clerith. A moment were Aerith does with Cloud, what she did with Zack, like he really is just a cheap copy of the man she actually loved.

And I do not know what diappointed me more. The fact that SE did that. That they were so cruel to us, so shortly before Aeriths death? Or that no one in the Clerith-fandom had the guts to stand to the fact that this date was a copy of a Zack-Date and yet made the best out of it, proving that our ship isn't that weak!

Why did no one say, that Aerith might have been in a pinch, given that they have been basically falling to their deaths and knowing that her time was running out and just wanted them to have one more memory together just the two of them. But as her only dating-experience was with Zack, she chose to copy the date, as she couldn't come up with anything different on short notice and it was a situation that she herself enjoyed once, but also kind of fit Clouds description of how a date should look like for him. And that the reason Cloud didn't get what he wanted wasn't because it was telling him that he can't get Aerith, because apparently only Zack gets what he wants but that instead, Cloud didn't get what he wanted because he wasn't Zack so of course things are different for him. Instead of replacing the hair-ribbon Aerith actually got from Zack, he gets her something knew. A broche that uses her flowers, which is the symbol of lover reuiniting, giving us a sign, that Clerith might reunite eventually. Then with the sweets, yes, it wasn't what they chose and the sweets actually didn't taste nice, but Aerith and Cloud both agreed on that one so it still shows that they have a similar taste. And with that stupid foto... Aerith wanted to make it look like the date of a happy couple. Buying gifts, holding hands, just enjoying their time - as the time unbeknownst to Cloud was running out on them - BUT that wasn't a happy couple date. That was them spending her last hours together with Sephiroth chasing them. She was trying to be cheerful and enjoy this little bit of time with Cloud, but her head wasn't fully in the game, because of the circumstances and that was why they didn't get the picture and not because it didn't click between them or anything like that. ALSO yes, the spot that Cloud shares with Aerith is also Zacks spot. Given circumstances, they mirror each other, nothing to be done about it. BUT even when you chose Tifa in your game, Cloud still considers having a "next time", meaning that despite him noticing that something was wrong, he still had a good time. Even tho he didn't get what he wanted. He didn't need to get what Zack got, to still enjoy spending time with Aerith.

So why did no one say, that Aerith chose this date, to see how she feels towards Cloud compared to Zack and that they way she acted in the end did show, that she did love the real Cloud and didn't just chose him as a Zack replacement? Instead, people acted like this date had never been a copy of the Zack-Date to begin with. That makes it look like you have nothing to say to defend our ship? Are we that weak? After all those years defining Clerith in front of everyone who said Aerith only loved Cloud because of Zack and would treat him in a heartbeat, you didn't manage to say: "Yes, it was a repeat of the Zack date. But IF Aerith truly actually wanted a Zack-Date, she could have chosen a timeline were Zack was there, willing to spend time with her, while she left Cloud behind "to rest" or something."? I am not just disappointed in how SE handled our ship, I am also disappointed in the fact that the fandom wasn't even willing to fight for our date, but instead just ignored the facts.

This whole mess ruined it all for me. And no matter what the future holds... I will not return to what will likely be FF7 Reunion. Because I can not take how badly SE treats us (saying that "No promises to keep" is not a lovesong, despite the connection to loveless is not just hurting is, it is also hurting the people who thought Aerith sings about Zack. And for what? To avoid getting beheaded by the shipping-war-mop?) and our ship but also because I am so damn disappointed in the Clerith-Shipper-Community.

#ff7r mona version #I was not in a good place when I got that revelation #and it ruined EVERYTHING #we barely got anything for our ship in this game #and then they do this #so shortly before the end

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lazerv4 · 26 days

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Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [1 out of 2]

Just my raw thoughts, not a review or anything

I really loved Final Fantasy VII Remake when it came out during the early pandemic, it along with Animal Crossing: New Horizons kept me going during the difficult times before we started getting used to the isolation of the lockdown. Years later when I got a PS5 the first thing I wanted to play before I even Spider-Man: Miles Morales (the first game I got) or Astro’s Playroom was the PS5 exclusive (at the time) DLC chapter for Remake Episode Intermission which I also really loved since Yuffie has always been in my main party back when I played FF VII for the first time with that janky ass original PC port only available in Square Enix’s website.

All this is to say that Rebirth for me was a long time coming love at first sight, in a way similar to Remake I was disappointed by the previous main series entry be it XV or in this case XVI and then suddenly got my life completely taken over by Avalanche and their adventures, I was completely enthralled by it in a way few games have done and I was having a great time overall. So now that I’m done with the main story unlike my other posts I’m gonna talk a little liberally about the plot (I’ll mark Rebirth only spoilers with []) and bring in my own theories about the story.

So the game begins with you playing as Zack in a different version of the Sector 7 drop in a small sequence where Avalanche got crushed this in itself is strange as the timeframe from the death of Zack which he now survives in the ending of Remake which now somehow happens at the same time as an event that in the original timeline would have happened at around a month after his death, after he rescues Aerith we cut to the Nibelheim flashback which starts with a small section where we play as Sephiroth which I found really strange early on because it’s also the only time you play as him (until you finish the game) and finally after a bit you get to play as Cloud and do the rest of the flashback as it went in the original with the exception of a few more hints like Cloud’s VA also playing him as a faceless Shinra soldier clueing you in early on if you know where to look. Afterwards you do the rest of the story in a very similar way for a while, The Grasslands are fun starting area to explore and have plenty to do for what they are but aren’t too remarkable story wise except for the beginning of the Queen’s Blood side game that I will talk about later on, the real kickoff is the next area Junon which has you infiltrate Shinra’s main military facility and do a parade dance with the Honey Bee Inn minigame from Remake. Junon also introduces either the abundance of minigames that like the Playstation OG this game is completely filled with and unlike the original introduces Yuffie after the events of Intermission as a frankly impressively competent assassin [crazy that if not for Barrett she would have killed Rufus that early on] and teases her joining of the party later on rather than her antagonistic optional side quest in the original. The region started setting the mood that Rebirth would have but that got kicked into overdrive with Costa del Sol just doing its thing and completely upping the comedy and the drama of the story and it along with the rest of the Corel region being the main hub that introduces an absurd amount of minigames in Rebirth which depending on your tastes and thoughts on the original it’s either the most faithful aspect of the game or the one outdated thing they should have cut, which segues will into Gongaga because it sucks ass (I don't mind the minigames but I wanted the transition) yes it is home a to one of the coolest sections of the game [the girls rushing to the reactor to save the boys] but the open world aspect of Gongaga is bad and that seems to be the overall sentiment of the internet so I won’t dwell in it too much as it’s followed by Cosmo Canyon which is a great region with that weird FF trend that we have since XV of doing a small little horror section in all of them and soon after we head to Nibel and which again does a fantastic job with the story [except for the Cait Sith section that wasn’t all that] and finally we head to the ending zone and that I will save for the ending discussion in a bit.

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii rebirth #cloud strife #aerith gainsborough #yuffie kisaragi #square enix #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy #video games #ramblings #rambles

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icharchivist · 28 days

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That's okay

You're allowed to be unwell about Zack, he's so sweet

Enjoy the good moments with your man. Especially if you say that they haven't been handling him so well so far

oh anon.

that's so sweet

thank you very much. i'm going to enjoy everything

but it's not as much as they've been handing it not well but..

if you don't mind spoilers, i'll explain,

Zack is supposed to be dead!!!!!!! He's supposed to be dead!!!!!!!!

Zack's death is supposed to happen before the OG timeline and it is a consequent element of Cloud and Aerith's storyline and even Tifa's to an extend. A major part of the plot rests on Zack's death, because it traumatized Cloud so much he forgot everything about Zack and /started to mix his identity with Zack in his mind so much so that he thought what happened to Zack happened to him in flashbacks/. Which is why Aerith, Zack's ex-girlfriend (only ex because Zack DIED mind you), start to take a major interest in trying to understand what's up with Cloud because "why is this random dude i just met who has ZACK'S SWORD on his back and who's behaving just like Zack doesn't know who Zack is.". And it's important to Tifa as well because when Cloud starts to recall stuff that happened to Zack as if it happened to him, but those things are stuff Tifa knows about, it means Tifa has a mental breakdown the whole game thinking /she's/ going insane because she doesn't remember Cloud being there at all and she wonders if she made up Zack in her own mind.

And the whole thing builds up the whole game as Cloud becomes more and more instable and comes to a boil when Sephiroth ends up using the fact Cloud's memories are so fucked up Tifa has an existential crisis to push Cloud over the edge and make him entirely his puppet.

Zack haunts the narrative, his death is extremely signifiant to the game, it's the mystery of the first part of the game on "what the fuck is going on with Cloud", and once you actually get to see flashback of Zack you see he's a sweet and cheerful guy who died protecting Cloud at all cost. And Sephiroth's manipulations hinges a lot on Zack, this is literally after breaking Cloud's mind over the Zack reveal that Sephiroth is able to use Cloud to start the apocalypse.

But in the remake they went with a whole thing about how Sephiroth came back in time so the Sephiroth you see in the remake is one from the end of the game who knows what's going to happen and is playing his cards differently this time around, which leads to the Specters, "keeper of the timeline" to try to do everything to set the timeline back on rail, but the Remake ends on destroying the Specters... which, meanwhile, affect a parallel timeline where ZACK DOESN'T DIE, and the remake and rebirth have the two timelines going on, one that has some canons elements but a different Sephiroth, and one where it's Zack progressing in the plot, and i'm pretty sure from what i've seen the timelines do end up merging and Zack is able to reunite with Cloud.

And everything i've seen? Zack is super in character, he's sweet, he's perfect, and like, do you know how many fix-it AU post canon i've had over "Zack comes back to life"? it's a lot. I had a lot. To say i want Zack back is an understatement

but i really hate the way the remake is going at it and i really hate the bait and switch over "ahah maybe the characters who died won't die this timeline" because i love those characters so much i wish they were alive, but the whole story of the game needs them to die to make sense.

And so i watch Rebirth!Zack content wincing because "why the fuck is he alive he shouldn't be there you're cheapening the thematics linked to his death" while also being "ZACK ALIVE AND BREATHING WE'RE SO WINNING"

so to say i am mentally torn about all of this is an understatement.

seeing Zack's death play out is literally the thing that got me into video games and especially in ff7, his death is one of the most impactful in fiction to me along with the other ff7 death.

i'm feeling played with.

but also. Zack 😭😭😭

so yeah i have a normal one everytime i see him--

thank you for reading. i'm going to cry over Zack again brb

#ichareply #anonymous #ichafantalks ffvii #weeps and cries

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freckledbastard · 1 month

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i guess if i had to sum up my feelings on ffvii rebirth, it would be like this: for the most part the game was incredible, but the way side quests were tied to affection points actively discourages players from completing any said side quests until after the gold saucer date scene had played out.

BIG SPOILERS FOR REBIRTH ENDING (warning: this gets rambly the way my posts always do - oh god its so long)

a bigger thing is of course, what everyone is talking about: the ending. they were so desperate to do a will they-wont they with aerith's death and in the end the answer to 'is aerith going to die' was... kinda.

i couldnt quite tell you what actually happened, but this is my current understanding. cloud simultaneously saves/fails to save aerith, which two timelines crashing into each other at the same time? or at the very least, the timeline cloud could see (where he manages to save aerith) is NOT the same as everyone else (who are experiencing the timeline where aerith dies) which is annoying, because it means we don't get to see the classic scene of cloud slowly lowering aerith's body into the lifestream EVEN THOUGH THATS SUCH A CLASSIC FFVII MOMENT.

but it also kind of funny, because everyone else is crying and cloud is just... so chill. and he warns everyone not to look up at the sky (where it's cracking due to timeline shenanigans) and then when they look up and see nothing clouds like EXACTLY. its an illusion and dont trust it. and spirit!aerith is going around and saying her goodbyes to everyone, not that they can see her, and cloud is still chilling because i guess to him, she's just staying back to focus on her praying? while everyone else is actively mourning her.

sephiroth's manipulations of cloud in this game sure was something as well. my man was going out of his WAY to gaslight/mentally traumatise cloud good lord. sephiroth reminded me a bit of godzilla from minus one because everytime cloud experienced any sort of happiness sephiroth was there to either actively fuck things up or to stand there menacingly and tell cloud to enjoy being happy while he can

also poor tifa good lord my girl is going through it. when cloud is like i remember zack omg shes like oh?? and clouds like yeah i let him be washed away in the river in nibelheim :'( and you can SEE her thinking 'no!!!!!! no!!!!! cloud that's not right at all!!!!!!!'

the thing with her in the lifestream though.... that was odd. and kinda felt unnecessary and like it was there to add some sort of plot related to the overall story - since otherwise the plot is very hmmm what should we do next.... just like og 1997 version.

idk, the whole timeline thing is weird. ALSO the fact that in the zack timeline, nanaki gives his life to try and save aerith and zack just goes thank you and runs off with aerith when i tell you i was screaming at the tv like ZACK NANAKI ISNT DEAD YET like i get after all the trauma he'd gone through he didn't want anything to happen to aerith and was even willing to dump clouds comatose body into kyries arms (who he didn't know) to run after aerith - which btw already made me sad like i get it!!! i get it!!!!!!! i too would singlehandedly devote everything to saving aerith but as a cloud and nanaki lover i was v sad!!!! anyway then when they kept shifting from the actual story to the zack cutscenes i was like im sorry zack but i dont actually care that much about this side plot i want to get back to cloud.

going back to the ending, i laughed a little when in the fight against sephiroth hes trying to manipulate cloud again but clouds like nuh uh thats not gonna work on me anymore!!!!! and then the ending cutscene shows cloud discovering he has the black materia on him, him saying 'reunion...' and then combining the black materia into his blade and knowing exactly where sephiroth is and its definitely due to SOLDIER intuition and nothing more i swear guys. cloud im so sorry you're definitely still being puppeted. also also i saw the japanese version of the scene where sephiroth first calls cloud a puppet and the build up is sepiroth saying that cloud doesnt actually experience emotions and he's deluding himself if he thinks they're real and in english he says 'for you're nothing more than a puppet. MY puppet' which is already fantastic, but in the japanese version instead hes like 'how cute, my empty puppet' which is even BETTER. please call cloud kawaii again sephiroth we love toxic yaoi in this household.

genesis wasnt in the game which im genuinely disappointed about. since crisis core reunion was remastered and theres a scene in the gacha game where sephiroth is trying to call genesis i thought there was high chance of him in the game. CLOUD THINKS HES DEGRADING (hes definitely not) AND THERE WAS NO GENESIS. no way hes not in the next game theres not a chance he's not. please i need cloud and genesis to look at each other and say lines please squeenix im begging you let my rare pair be vindicated in some way

speaking of rare pairs, vincent and cloud. they looked at each other and talked which basically means they're canon. vincents waist is SO tiny i was shooketh and then i saw how broad his shoulders were and I WAS SHOOKETH AGAIN actual dorito man.... hes so edgy in this game i was laughing at him so hard, shadow the hedgehog ass. when he gets on the plane and is like im joining you and clouds like 'if you betray us you're dead' i was thinking cloud sweetie im so sorry but if anyone is doing the betraying (unintentional or otherwise) its you

uhhhhhh what else. i went with nanaki for my gold saucer date which was v cute. cloud and nanaki had a handshake and cloud was like oh.. they ARE soft.... in relation to his paws which so soooo cuteeee. my team was cloud yuffie and nanaki. it'll be tough when part 3 comes out, because cloud and vincent are 100% permanent, but idk who will be the third person....

also is sephiroth trying to become the ruler of all the differ- wait sorry pivot, i just remembered zack and cloud fighting together against sephiroth, which is pretty funny because cloud still doesn't actually remember who zack is, not really. to him they're friends yeah, but friends because they were both in SOLDIER and cloud was unable to save him from being swept away from the river. meanwhile to zack, cloud is his dear friend but a friend he managed to save at the end of crisis core and is confused as to how biggs knows him. sephiroth is the ONLY one who actually knows what the hell is going on but hes sure as hell not saying anything because anything that makes cloud more susceptible to being sephiroth's is a win in his book ANYWAY sephiroth trying to take over all the different timelines? i guess?

ALSO ROCHE. theres NO WAY roche would have volunteered to be hojo's test subject like that theres literally no way. my personal theory is that sephiroth saw that cloud was experiencing positive emotions when he was with roche and his possessiveness flared up and he used the jenova cells in roche's body to basically make him volunteer to be hojos lab rat. anyway rip roche's mind, hes gone from us another one lost to the reunion i was so sad i loved roche i thought he was a lotta fun and a great new character, but of course that wasnt meant to be

im sure there are other things i wanted to say but im drawing a blank.

i did actually really really enjoy the game! i thought it was amazing, the combat was super fun i enjoyed the exploring (although as much as i like chadley i wish hed stop asking about the protorelics), the voice acting was incredible for the most part the story was really really good. i would HIGHLY recommend this game, even if you're not a big ffvii fan its so incredibly made and clearly made with a lot of love

my only real caveats are again, side quests being tied to the affection meter and them trying super hard to will they wont they with aeriths death to the point that they technically didnt commit either way

#final fantasy #ffvii rebirth #ffvii rebirth spoilers #ffvii spoilers #long post

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tribaloflight · 2 months

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((Just for my own personal satisfaction, I want to give some of my thoughts on Rebirth after having finished most everything in the game save for the superboss and some side stuff and dumping over 100 hours into the game. These are really in no particular order, but I'm numbering them out of habit.

Spoilers, naturally.

First, I'm kinda disappointed Deepground didn't show up at all after being brought back in Integrade. I figured that if they were going to show back up in the plot, that Scarlet, Rufus, or someone would have sent them after Cloud and company instead of just constantly relying on Rude and Elena. Only time any of the Tsviets shows up is in yuffie's 'trial' at the Temple of the Ancients where she relives her trauma of seeing Nero murder Sonon. Really hope they actually use the Tsviets in the third game otherwise having them in Integrade was kinda pointless.

Second, the minigame overload. I obviously expected a lot of holdover from the original like the gold saucer, fort condor, etc. But they added a lot more and actually trying to 100% them with my mediocre skills became so tedious that I just gave up on it towards the end to actually enjoy the story. I highly doubt I'll ever finish everything with Johnny because of that. It's just way too much of a grind.

Third, their handling of Cid, Vincent, and alterations to story content. Being absolutely honest: Cid and Vincent feel totally wasted here. Not only are they not playable characters, they are barely characters at all here. I get with how the game being based around disc 1 of the original that wouldn't give them much time to be usable given how late in that disc they joined, but they feel more like props than anything. It doesn't help that they completely cut out Rocket town for Cid which helped establish his character. Currently, I'm not even sure if that part of his backstory is even still canon in the rebirth continuity. Another thing is removing most of the northern continent stuff. Sure Icicle inn and the glacier didn't do much for the story save for visiting professor Gast's old lab and getting the info about his and Ilfana's relationship/Hojo murdering them but it's still worldbuilding they dropped for reasons of pacing. And to that, it's also incredibly weird how they literally moved where the temple of the ancients was, changing it from an island in the southern sea to RIGHT OUTSIDE THE SLEEPING FOREST. If that doesn't scream 'convenient', I don't know what does.

Finally, the ending. It really reached Kingdom hearts levels of confusing.

I get Sephiroth's new plan. He wants to make a reunion of all separate timelines of Final Fantasy VII into one where he controls all. Clearly the efforts from the first game created a new one where Zack lived. Also from the scene at the capital, there's likely at least one where Cloud had saved Aerith from Sephiroth and she IS still alive. The only thing is whether or not it's in the current rebirth timeline. Yes it looks like she is probably dead given only Cloud can see her, but it's not like they haven't made retcons before. The entire beginning of rebirth was one to the scene from Integrade. The plot point for the final game is set: Zack is going to work to try and find a way into the Rebirth timeline to help Cloud and the others stop Sephiroth. Hopefully this includes bringing Aerith with him, because frankly him living and her staying dead really reads as a cruel joke. Same if he ends up dying in the next game trying to protect the others.

And that's my greatest concern for the sequel. They make all these overtures about changes and expanding the lore, only to have the end result still be the same? If Aerith and Zack are still dead by the end of the final game, then I can't see the trilogy as anything but pointless. They expanded the story so much only to reach the exact same conclusion. I would be fine with that, but if they were going to do that, they could have stuck with a simple remake and made it a single game, instead of a trilogy that spans what will likely be nearly a decade of game releases. There's legit potential here but if they play it too safe then I think it's going to rub a lot of fans the wrong way.

Finally, I am happy that they made Gilgamesh a big side character. He's a beloved series icon, one of the best parts of V and I've always enjoyed his involvement with Hildibrand stuff in XIV but I really don't like that they put his level at about 20 past what endgame was on average, meaning if I want to fight him I have to do an ungodly amount of grinding.))

#azem's musings (ooc)#final fantasy VII rebirth spoilers #final fantasy 7 rebirth spoilers

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writerwithlowselfesteem-blog · 2 months

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Ignoring all the shipping Fandom junk going about now that ff7 rebirth is out. I just want to be out here theorizing on where the story is going. I already know there are going to be people who hate it and that's okay, personally I enjoyed it.

Spoilers bellow

ZACK MY BELOVED PLEASE JUST BE ALIVE IN ANOTHER TIMELINE!

Why does it seem like at certain points Sephiroth and Aerith have similar goals going on but just different methods?

Sephiroth really trying to mess Cloud's head up more than he did in Canon.

The multiple timelines is kind of implying that either cloud got messed up even more and he's just projecting Aerith as alive or he is seeing an Aerith of one of the timelines that Sephiroth is trying to merge with theirs. Could be both as well but Cloud also seeing the thing in the sky that was in the other timeline while the others don't kinda makes me lean a little more towards him seeing other timelines.

If the dark whispers are Sephiroth's then the light whispers must be Aerith's. She's trying to see who can be saved and he might be trying to ensure his victory??

Weird idea, with the mention of the fake promised land and the people who cannot join the life stream would Sephiroth also not be able to join the lifestream? If he is post og timeline Sephiroth could he have two different plans? A sort of back up plan perhaps?

Cait Sith is a gem.

They scared me so many Times thinking they would kill Zack again. Not sure if Biggs is fully dead or just wounded, could go either way...trying to be optimistic here.

Lost my mind when Sephiroth confirmed my theory that beating fate caused multiple versions of Gaia to come into existence multi-verse shit and all.

Aerith seems to be trying to pull people who survived in these other timelines into their timeline, at least in Zack's case.

I'm very curious to see where this story goes and how they wrap it up.

#final fantasy 7 #final fantasy 7 remake #ff7 rebirth #ff7 rebirth spoilers

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