#ff7r part 2 theories

[terraxcloud]

Sice

I guess I’ll start my “mumbling” again.

I’ve recently came across the video below. It’s about Kingdom Hearts and FF Type-0, with “potato quality audio”.

I have no idea why I posted that, but it kinda reminds me of...whatever I’m doing here (I’m not going to make videos). Y’know, it does make sense for me to post that.

I was going to title this “Mog’s Intercepting Wills”, but that would mean I’m focusing on the entire thing. No, I’m focusing on something specific, although the entirety of the Intercepting Will is “sus”.

The entire Intercepting Wills has the characters shown above...yes, no one else. This Intercepting Wills was followed by Paine’s Intercepting Wills, which is peculiar because Paine always stands beside Sice in this one.

It’s obvious why Serah, Eiko, and “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Terra” are there (to me, obviously). Let me show you the first three characters that appear in the event that aren’t moogles.

No, that isn’t enough. Let me show you the very first non-moogle character to appear in the event.

Does Sice even have anything to do with moogles? I can’t quite remember...I always thought it was Cinque (Aerith in disguise) that was the moogle character of Type-0.

Many people ask themselves why Red XIII and Rikku aren’t in Opera Omnia. Red XIII at least makes sense...he’s not like the other characters and they can save him for before Rebirth (as he’ll be playable there). Rikku on the other hand has had a character portrait in the files of the game since it released and really has no reason to not be in the game.

Well, see it this way. The reason Paine appears with Sice is to show they are using Sice to represent Rikku. As I said earlier, Rikku was created from Priscilla, the girl in FF7 in the Junon area that gave the party Shiva materia (the Shiva that looks like Terra [the first Shiva that changed appearance too]) and has a crush on Cloud.

Yes, the first time I mentioned Rikku I said that she still remembers having a crush on Cloud in FFX-2 because she is “technically” Priscilla. It wasn’t until this Intercepting Wills that there was finally evidence that she actually has a connection to Terra.

Sice is in Act 4, Chapter 2 - Part 1 with Machina where he is...constantly talking about making everyone’s dreams come true. Yuna and Squall are also involved in that scene. Machina is created after Cloud, and I’m sure others already noticed that.

I dunno. Is Rikku even worth talking about? Maybe I’ll just have to see what DFFOO does with her when she appears before or after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Wait, let me rephrase that...is PRISCILLA even worth talking about? She’ll probably appear before Rikku, in 4k, with modern state-of-the-art graphics, showing off that weird Artificial Respiration minigame.

Yes, this post was kind of a joke, but it’s not.

Let’s go back to that “triangle” pic.

This “triangle” reminds me of that moment Terra, Tifa, and Aerith were just casually talking to each other in Aerith’s Lost Chapter. Change Eiko with Betty (AC’s “Moogle Girl”) and Sice with Rikku (who is Priscilla) and...WAIT. I get it now, HA. They’re just showing the characters in FF7R that are related to Terra and have a crush on Cloud.

DFFOO is a weird game that somehow has all the answers everyone wants, but it tries to not tell you them and instead uses character placement to say things. The average person wouldn’t find anything noteworthy in this scene.

Call me insane, but what fun is there to be a sane FF7 Youtuber theorist? I watched vids from that Maker guy who has created a ton of “complete” FF theory iceberg vids that don’t have ANY of my ramblings in them. I mean, if this stuff gets spoiled...it wouldn’t be surprising anymore once it happens, so maybe I’m glad he hasn’t seen it.

How about I tell you something completely unrelated that nobody knows? Pinkie and Trixie from G4 MLP were originally siblings during development. How do I know? I ask myself these questions sometimes. Knowing things without concrete answers is difficult, which is why I look everywhere until I’m “very sure”. Although, the other things I know are far more important...

Honestly, people like to be so “accurate”. You know how it’s like, “Betty didn’t have a crush on Cloud!”, “Rikku is a different character in a different game!”, or my favorite, “Terra isn’t in FF7.” Yeesh...it’s not that simple! Use your intuition! Intellect is going out of style. Facts can hide the truth.

#I'm actually certain about the MLP thing #It's actually very similar to Clerra #It's very weird #Terra isn't in FF7

[mrmallard]

So I was just struck with a thought about Final Fantasy. I've been living and breathing Final Fantasy for months now, first with my FF13 posting and then with Kingdom Hearts, and then with playing FF13-2. I've also been catching up on the Snapcube playthrough of Final Fantasy 7 Remake as I grind in Old-School Runescape, and I'm literally on the last stream of the base game as I type this, so like I've been in the fuckin Final Fantasy trenches lately.

Here's the thought:

Final Fantasy can be divided into "ages" or "eras" pretty easily, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake is arguably the beginning of the current age of Final Fantasy. Furthermore, the third and final FF7R game - whenever the fuck that comes out, probably around 2028 or something - is probably going to be the capstone on this era of Final Fantasy.

I'm doing the classic conspiracy theory method of coming to a conclusion and working backwards, but hear me out.

Final Fantasy 1-3 are the Age of Innovation. FF1 comes out and does its thing, cribs a bit from Dragon Quest on one hand but innovates its own class system and magic and stuff on the other. Final Fantasy 2 comes out and it has this keyword feature where you can learn keywords and bring them up in conversation to advance the plot. It's a bit of a slog, and the levelling system has been overhauled so radically that one of the most efficient ways to grind is to have your characters beat each other up - it didn't stick. But it was an earnest attempt, and it was really interesting. FF3 was then the birthplace of Final Fantasy's job system, which FF5 and X-2 would run with.

Final Fantasy 4-6 is the Age of Refinement. The storylines of the first three games weren't... unambitious, per se, but Final Fantasy 4 kinda bumped it up a notch. You have this story of a dark knight who realises the error of his ways and decides to travel and better himself and is symbolically reborn, and you have this apprentice and this king, and there's a summoner character who the main guy is looking after - I haven't finished FF4, but the part I have played was very good.

FF5 takes FF3's job system and really fleshes it out. The plot is a bit breezy - unfairly maligned by people who want to shitpost about the main villain being a Soul Jar and a large ham - but it's an extremely fun play. Lots of job combos and character specialties and stuff.

And then you have FF6, which I can't speak about very much, but it's widely considered the pinnacle of the 16-bit era of RPGs. Huge, dynamic story, ambitious gameplay, dark themes - at least in America, Final Fantasy 6 was kind of this great marriage and refinement of everything that came before in the franchise.

And that kicks off what might arguably be the Golden Age of Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy 7. Cutting edge graphics, a wealth of things to do and see spread over multiple discs, pushes the boundaries of video game storytelling. Final Fantasy 8 - takes the stocky little Lego men from FF7, turns them into fully detailed, proportionate and fleshed out people and renders an awesome video game weapon that never quite caught on as much as the Buster Sword. People complain about junctioning, and I can't say anything about that, but comparing FF7 and FF8 graphically is night and day.

Final Fantasy 9 then takes the improvements in modelling, texturing and proportion - and it uses it to render a fully realised steam-fantasy world full of hulking knights and skittering mice children, big angry antlions and small, hopping frogs. The 3D games went from little stock approximations of people, to realistically rendered and proportioned human characters, to a wide menagerie of characters from different species, of different heights and builds, textured as well as possible to convey one of the .ost ambitious fantasy worlds in video games up to a point.

Final Fantasy X, warts and all, represents the end of that golden age in my opinion.

It was the final game in the series to be developed by Squaresoft before they merged with Enix. Hironobu Sakaguchi was credited on Final Fantasy games up to X-2 as a producer, though I think he left the company before FF11 came out - I think X was the final game he was involved with from start to finish. And it's an interesting mix of old and new - this is one of the few games not to use an Active Time Battle system, using turn-order instead, but the technology was a step beyond the pre-rendered backgrounds and text-only dialogue of the PS1 trilogy. The setting is also notably unique; I think it's visually based on the Philippines, as opposed to like a steampunk fantasy setting or grim dystopian cyberpunk.

Final Fantasy 11 and 12, imo, is kind of like an Age of Expansion. This is where Final Fantasy began to really transcend what a Final Fantasy product could be. There had been spinoffs like Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Chocobo GP and Mystic Quest, as well as stuff like the SaGa games on Game Boy that were localised as Final Fantasy Adventure - and shit, you had an anime OVA based on FF5 and a blockbuster movie which bombed at the box office - but to bring that into the main series for the first time, Final Fantasy 11 was a fucking MMORPG. That was... well, maybe not unheard of given Ultima Online, but it was certainly a bold move to take, especially chasing the success of World of Warcraft.

Final Fantasy 12, to my understanding, takes the sort of tone and ambition of a game like Final Fantasy Tactics and combines it with state of the art gameplay systems that were unlike just about anything that was on the market at the time. And even the spinoffs of the time were especially weird and ambitious, like Crystal Chronicles on the Gamecube. This was also where Square Enix began to publish sequels to older properties like Final Fantasy 4 and 10 - the franchise was expanding and testing the boundaries of the franchise, almost aggressively so.

Final Fantasy 13 then began one of the most notorious flop eras in gaming history.

In hindsight, this era of the franchise was moreso defined by growing pains. The jump from the 6th gen to the 7th was pretty huge across the board, and this is where a lot of Japanese gaming giants had a ton of trouble on console hardware. Capcom had a dogshit generation on the PS3, for example - it wasn't just Square Enix.

But the next step in the main franchise, Final Fantasy 13, was struck by bloat and ambition. They built a whole new engine for the game which cost millions of dollars, and it had a lot of shortcomings - you couldn't really render large, populated areas without slowdown, not on the scale that current-gen hardware kind of demanded in that exponential-improvement kind of way, and the development was beset by logistical issues - my understanding is that at one point the team entertained the idea of making Vanille the main character, but they'd already released the announcement trailer with Lightning at the forefront so they were hamstrung by that creative decision.

This was the period where Square Enix execs began saying stuff like "turn-based combat is dead, players don't want that any more, we want to pivot towards more action-driven combat that provides more immediate feedback to the player". And even then it felt kind of like a desperate pivot to further dig their heels in and double down on FF13's differences - even moreso after games like Persona 5 proved that there was still a ravenous, fanatical fanbase for turn-based combat, and that those types of RPGs were still popular and profitable - but this aspect of the corporate narrative would end up staying the course and defining the next era of Final Fantasy.

The game looked gorgeous, but the resulting release caused such a crisis that instead of moving forward on the other two Fabula Nova Crystallis games - Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII - the core creative team would desperately pivot into a trilogy of games that continued the narrative of FF13, basically trying to iterate on it until it was fixed.

Instead of a thematic trilogy of Fabula Nova Crystallis games, they had a literal trilogy of XIII games, a loosely connected instalment on the PSP that kind of carried the spirit of the original series plan, and a hotly anticipated game - Nomura's baby - that had been in development hell for almost ten years straight. That game would be completely divorced from the Fabula Nova Crystallis series and released as Final Fantasy 15, helmed by a new director and buoyed by an entire self-contained multimedia franchise unto itself, which subsequently had a rough launch and was iterated on with DLC for years until the director quit. At which point Square cut their losses, cancelled the rest of the DLC and released a book to tie up the material that never got released.

And like FF13 and FF15 had its fans, and they ended up being pretty okay in the end. I know someone who adores FF15 and its cast. I have a lot to say, positive and negative, about FF13 and 13-2 - I really love FF13-2, actually, and I'll defend the writing of the first game pretty voraciously if prompted.

But with all that said, I haven't even mentioned Final Fantasy 14 yet. And I'm going to keep it short by tying Final Fantasy 14 into the ethos of this era of Final Fantasy. It is a microcosm of this entire era of the franchise.

Final Fantasy 14 launched as an ambitious, user-unfriendly BOMB.

The developers weren't great at communicating with the playerbase. I think the graphical requirements were pretty high, so a lot of people couldn't play it, and players who COULD play it didn't particularly like it. People stuck with it, but it was a dead game being outpaced by its own predecessor in Final Fantasy 11 and it was something of a millstone around Square Enix's neck.

Final Fantasy 14 went from being one of the worst reviewed, worst selling, worst regarded Final Fantasy games - and a real turd of an MMO to boot - to being one of the most successful, most celebrated and most well-regarded MMORPGs ever.

And it got there by TEARING THE OLD SHIT DOWN A D REBUILDING IT FROM SCRATCH.

Square Enix did that at great cost, relying on the word of a young upstart named Naoki Yoshida, and pulled one of the biggest hail maries in video game history.

And that kind of sums up FF13 and FF15.

Final Fantasy 13 was a rough game. The team decided to make a direct sequel in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and then another one in Lightning Returns, to salvage the engine they used and to try and bank on the momentum of its narrative and characters for the entire generation of video games.

Final Fantasy 15 launched in a rough state. They spent YEARS patching that game, releasing DLC (free and paid) and banking on it as a franchise unto itself.

Neither of them succeeded as much as FF14 did, but they managed to eke out their own niches. Square Enix spent almost ten years iterating, polishing, salvaging. I maintain that this era was extremely fucking rough to maintain or justify, but it did lead us to the big moneymaker - Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

So far I've argued for five different "ages" or "eras" of the Final Fantasy franchise. We've had Innovation and Refinement leading into a Golden Age, leading into a rapid Expansion and being stymied somewhat by... well, let's call FF13 to FF15 the Iteration Age, because "Clusterfuck Age" isn't kind. The games were extremely rough, so they were ultimately saved through iteration.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake aimed to evoke the Golden Age of Final Fantasy while refining the gameplay that had defined the Iteration Age of Final Fantasy.

The mindset behind Final Fantasy 13's combat is that turn-based combat was a dying genre, and the executives wanted to move the brand forward into more action-based combat that would grant the player more immediate feedback. That game used a simplified ATB system, bolstered by a Paradigm Shift system which kept the player on their toes. Final Fantasy 15 had more of an action RPG bent to it, but it was hit and miss - I tried it once, and I couldn't get into it.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally signalled the franchise's shift into hard Action RPG combat. It still relied on classic RPG menu mechanics, but this is where you had that immediate feedback they were talking about back in 2010.

The game had a stagger gauge, just like Final Fantasy 13. It had free-wheeling action combat, just like Final Fantasy 15. And it catered HARD to the lofty, lofty expectations that diehard FF7 fans had developed over the years, carting over as much of that Golden Age appeal as they could and welding it to the highest triple-A standard they could.

It was aesthetically based in the old aspects of the franchise. But its core mechanics stemmed entirely from the franchise post-FF13.

That momentum continued with Final Fantasy 16, which was straight-up an action RPG helmed by the gameplay director of Devil May Cry 5. And we now have the second game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, taking the more menu-based approach of FF7R and expanding it to an entire fuck-off overworld map on 2 PS5 discs. It's a part of a trilogy, but Remake was fleshed out into its own unique, standalone entity, and Rebirth - as a sequel and continuation of that game - takes the expansion of Remake and takes it in a new, crazily ambitious direction: marrying the PS1 era Final Fantasy overworld map with modern open-world gameplay.

It being a sequel isn't reactive like Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns was. I mean, as an adaptation of the same source material as the first Remake game, it kind of can't be reactive in that way. I dunno, I'm tired as shit. But I still think despite that, there's a clear difference between 13's mad struggle to salvage itself and the way that the 7R games have been coming out. The iteration is still there, but it's in more of the way that FF7 became FF8 which became FF9, more than how FF13 became FF13-2 into LR:FF13.

That might be giving the FF7R games way too much credit. The way FF7 became FF9 is a way different story to how Remake became Rebirth. But my point is that 7 Remake kind of represents the series finding its footing, with later games - including the latest mainline Final Fantasy game - kind of following in its stead.

It's building a brand new ship based on the previous ship, using what worked in the previous ship while discarding the old. The stretch between FF11 and FF13 was like trying to take an old ship and turn it into a speedboat, and it kiiiiiiiinda worked - but man, it was not an ideal way to sail.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake takes what Final Fantasy 13 started - in spirit, ala moving away from turn-based combat, as well as in function, ala the stagger bar. It's coached in the distant past, but it's built on the bones of the immediate past. And it managed to marry the best aspects of the two.

To strain this already labored metaphor - Final Fantasy 7 Remake retains the form of what it's adapting. It relies on how it looks and how it conveys that air to appeal to an audience.

But it keeps that audience, and any newer audience members, engaged with modern function.

So Final Fantasy 7 Remake keeps everything you love about an old ship. But it never gave up on being a speedboat, as roughly as that worked out the last couple times, and now they've spend thousands of man-hours working out the kinks? This ship has the functionality of a speedboat. Or at least, it offers what people love about speedboats without compromising the image of a ship that people have in their minds.

Look I know that's nonsense, it's almost 5am and I'm tired. Let me wrap this all up.

I wouldn't be able to name this "era" of Final Fantasy, but I know that FF7R signalled the start of a new era for the franchise. We went from humble innovation, to the refinement of those innovated concepts, to a point where the core iterated experience could be taken significantly further than expected in scope. That gave way to a period of technological exploration and a pushing of boundaries and norms, shifting into something of a stubborn decline born of impotent overambition, before the series was finally able to meet its loftiest standards and make good on the decade's worth of promises they started off with.

All I can say for sure is that the same way FF1 signalled what this franchise would become, the way that FF4 refined the best aspects of those first three games and defined the strengths of the franchise going forward, the way FF7 expanded the scope of the world-building and presentation to unseen heights, the way FF11 toyed with what a mainline Final Fantasy game could even be and the way FF13 showed how much you could bungle a mainline release and subsequently salvage it if you try hard enough - and how every game between those keystone releases managed to iterate on and expand on what that initial keystone release did, for better or for worse - Final Fantasy 7 Remake signalled the start of a new cycle of Final Fantasy games. I've tried to explain what I mean, but at the end of the day, that's all I've got.

And the reason why this was significant in the first place when I started writing it is because I was just thinking.

What then?

What happens after the last Final Fantasy 7 Remake game?

What do the 2030's look like for Final Fantasy?

Where is there left to go?

I think the future comes from devs like Naoki Yoshida, the dude who managed to finagle Final Fantasy 14 out of being one of the worst MMOs of its era to being one of the best MMOs of all time.

I think FF7R3 will probably have to mark a changing of the guard, and a bold push forward into the unknown. A new setting, a new standard, breathing new life into a broadly iterative franchise that's mostly relied on the scraps of the past for the last 14 years.

Those scraps have fed some fantastic video games, but I feel like it has to build to a big finale and the next era has to work to define itself. Fuck it, let's get weird. Let's get a Final Fantasy with prominent aliens. Let's get a whole hero's journey in the vein of a Very Specific Video Game I'm Referencing, and have it so you're some random dude who has to get a thing to save your planet or your people, but by the time you return to rescue your people, you're so fundamentally changed that you can't stay there with them any more. That hasn't been done in a hot second.

And I say stuff like that because Yoshi-P's revamp of FF14 was the exact shot in the arm that Square Enix needed. His success in assembling a team to rebuild that game from scratch, and then subsequently becoming the figurehead for one of the most successful Final Fantasy titles ever, partially comes from being new blood to the franchise. He liked it enough and was familiar with it, but he was working on Dragon Quest when he was asked for his opinion on FF14. Final Fantasy 16 was a bold, mature step in a new direction that ended up being hampered by an arbitrary lock to a single platform. It was new - referential as always, but refreshingly new.

We're seeing just how far old concepts can be stretched. But when that's over, when that pet project ends, what's next?

I want to see what a new generation of devs - in proximity to the Final Fantasy franchise, not necessarily in experience - brings to the table. I want to see the next Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, not the next Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

And 7R is fantastic - I'm loving my 7R experience. But there's one more Remake game coming out. Maybe one more mainline instalment between then and now, if we're lucky. And I think that will bring this era of Final Fantasy to a close.

So what does that mean for the next era of Final Fantasy?

Personally? I want to see ambitious new talent take their crack at making their own Final Fantasy 7 - bringing this innovated technology into its own - instead of remaking a shiny new FF7 Remake. I'm definitely not asking for a new Fabula Nova Crystallis situation, that was a multi-car pile-up, but I am thinking about a future for Final Fantasy that is actually a Future.

Man I'm going to bed, sorry for the long post.

#long post #final fantasy #essay

[iaintyourbro]

The New Red Herrings: Biggs and Zack and How Avalanche Tells Us the LTD is Dead

Biggs and Zack are seemingly alive at the end of FFVII Remake Part 1 - so what does that mean? Will they live throughout the story? Maybe they’ll be like Wedge and escape death initially, only to be forced to face it shortly after?

There’s also interesting similarities on the death scenes of Biggs and Zack, A while ago I took screenshots of the “death” scene of Biggs and thought it was interesting how they had Biggs touch Cloud’s head and also made him promise something. 

And how are all these things connected to the LTD? 

Now, clearly, neither Biggs or Jessie had as dramatic of a death as Zack or Aerith. We actually see the initial injury or incident that causes each of them to die. Cloud comes upon Biggs while he’s already sitting down injured. Cloud and Tifa come to Jessie after she’s under the rubble and try to save her. 

We know Cloud pretty much loses it when Zack dies. He collapses mentally. He’s already been through enough shit to fill a lifetime, and now his only friend, his best friend, and the guy who saved his life, dies trying to get them back to Midgar. 

Why Zack is Important to Cloud

Relationship wise, Cloud obviously had a much deeper connection to Zack. At the point that Biggs dies, he doesn’t know any of that, but I think his death definitely triggers something in him. Biggs saw through Cloud’s front. We know Biggs dealt with the kids at the Leaf House, and most likely acted like a volunteer in the Big Brother program. He tells Cloud he’s got a lot in common with the kids at the Leaf House.

Zack had Cloud take on the responsibility to be his living legacy. Of course we all know he shuts down about five minutes later. Biggs had Cloud promise that this wouldn’t all be for nothing. In both cases, it doesn’t work out. He forgets what Zack told him and the Sector 7 plate still falls. 

Zack’s death has a major impact on Cloud - it’s ultimately what breaks him. It also gives us these really sad moments of somebody who’s already been through so much and is breaking now. 

Cloud is upset about Biggs. He was becoming his friend. The three Avalanche members really did accept Cloud and tried to be his friend. He was included with them - in most cases. Of course there’s the Avalanche party that he’s kicked out of (mind you - he does this to himself by acting like an ass to Barret and them) and then during Chapter 4, he’s separated to go steal Jessie’s dad’s ID. 

Ultimately, though, we know that Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie all like Cloud. They seem to see through the hard exterior pretty easily. So Cloud loses another person in his life.

The ending of FFVII Remake takes an interesting turn. Anybody who played OG or CC knows what is supposed to happen to Biggs and Zack.

But, Remake’s ending seems to imply that they survive the event that was supposed to take them out. 

Did Zack survive the last stand? Is this a case of the Last Stand in CC being combined with OG where as they walk away, Zack ends up getting shot anyway? 

So we also see Biggs.... wait, wrong picture.

That’s the right one. We get a shot of Charlie Sheen Biggs waking up in a bed in what looks like some type of either infirmary or large room. In OG, we know that all three of the Avalanche members die during the Sector 7 plate fall. In Remake, the only one we get confirmation on is Jessie, and that’s only in the Chapter description. 

Wedge we know survives until the Shinra building, where the Whispers ultimately take him out since he defied fate. 

So, what will happen to Biggs?

The biggest thing talked about seems to be the ending. Zack surviving created a lot of buzz. Is there a second timeline? Is he going to just simply walk another 10 feet and get shot in the back? Did her survive in the first place? Why does Stamp look different on that bootleg chip bag?

Will we have a beautiful Zerith reunion? 

In the OG, the Love Triangle illusion was the red herring. This was mostly to trick and distract the player to focus on something, so later they can destroy you with major twists. It also was used to get the player to like Aerith so her death would be more impactful. In addition, it makes the whole Northern Crater confession from Cloud about Tifa’s opinion being the only one that matters a slam in your face of holy shit what is going on?!

At this point, everybody and their mother knows Aerith dies. It’s not something that was kept a secret. It’s referenced in various materials. The one thing not openly referenced is what’s going on with Cloud. They never reference the Lifestream, the fake persona, or anything outside of the OG and Ultimanias. I think this is a shame since it’s such an important part of his character arc, but I get that they want to try and leave the element of surprise in play.

I think everybody would agree that the moment you find out Cloud was just a grunt that was WITH Zack during the Nibelheim incident is super powerful. I still get chills all these years later. Letting this be a well known thing would take away the element of surprise from new fans. Of course, people can go online and read blogs like this one and know all of this, but for somebody - especially future generations - who may just be looking for a new game to play, you’d want this element of surprise to stay in tact. 

We can’t use Aerith as the only red herring anymore, and we can’t use the love triangle. For many reasons. Everybody knows about it and the love triangle was a poor choice for something like this because some people missed the point completely.

Now, FFVII Twitter is always on fire. 

Also, even though the Lifestream and Cloud’s true identity are pretty well kept secrets in terms of printed media, most of the people who played FFVII Remake played the original game, they know what happens. People who were new and played Remake first most likely went and bought OG and played it. So now they know what happens. 

They knew this, or they probably wouldn’t have shown Cloud in this state, but even for those who don’t, the alternate timeline theory is born. Biggs enhances this theory because he’s alive too. How can Cloud walk past them AND be carried by Zack in some catatonic state?

It keeps us distracted. They want us to think that fate can be changed. In the case of Zack, they’re even saying that the past can be changed. 

Ultimately, whatever they do, it’ll be shocking to most players. I do trust that the devs aren’t being deceitful when they say they are going to keep the major plot points the same and FFVII will be FFVII going forward. Part 1 keeps major plot points but adds substance to a lot of things. They took out unnecessary parts and enhanced others. They also removed a lot of the love triangle stuff. 

Another striking thing with all of this is the Jessie factor. The Chapter screen tells us she died - it only says Biggs was seriously injured. That hasn’t stopped speculation.

The ending shows gloves on the table next to Biggs’ bed and a lot people said oh it’s Jessie’s left glove! And it does appear that it is. There’s only one glove. To me, this seems like they recovered her body and were able to pull of some personal affects of hers to leave with Biggs. Both articles look damaged or faded. 

Faded could mean they’ve been sitting in the sun for a while. The incident happened a few days ago, though we don’t have a definitive time on when we’re shown Biggs. This could be a future look.

They also could simply be damaged and full of dust from the plate collapse. 

It is implied in Chapter 4 if you listen to the conversation between Jessie’s mom and the gang that Biggs and Jessie have a different relationship than Wedge and Jessie. 

I have some thoughts on what this may mean:

Biggs is Jessie’s BFF and her mom likes him.

Jessie and Biggs dated at one point and decided to not tell her mom that they no longer are or that its casual.

Jessie’s mom was hounding Jessie about finding a man so she picked Biggs to be her pretend boyfriend and he agreed.

Biggs and Jessie are secretly dating and only her mom knows.

Which one do I think it is? Well, knowing Jessie, I can definitely see her doing #3. I can absolutely see her acting like Biggs is her boyfriend to get her mom off her back. I think #1 and #2 are also huge possibilities. #4 is far fetched, but they could cover it up by having Jessie flirt relentlessly with Cloud and appear to be single. 

Some people think that Jessie will end up at the Gold Saucer singing. Personally, I really hope not. If they keep a bunch of people alive (even if it’s for a short amount of time), it really takes away one of the major themes of FFVII which is death and moving on. In addition, I think it’s too many people they’d need to kill off later. Jessie is a very popular character, so I hope they don’t take that as an incentive to change that aspect of the story. 

Aerith’s funeral and Jessie’s death are similar as well, so I think it is foreshadowing some things. 

We get a princess style carry here. Aerith and Jessie both get these in Remake. Jessie’s second one ends in her death. Will Aerith get a second princess carry by Cloud? Will it be to take her to her final resting place?

Maybe she won’t even go to the lake - maybe to the sky?

We know Tifa was super upset in OG, and they really don’t touch on it much. We only see her run away crying after this moment. You learn in Case of Tifa that she’s really upset about, but a lot of people don’t read Case of Tifa, so they only know this scene. 

We know that she gets very upset over Jessie’s death.

I think Aerith’s death will be much worse. 

It seems Jessie’s death is a reference to how Aerith’s death was handled in the OG.

Will it be handled the same? Maybe. I think they’re going to make it seem like she’s going to be okay, and then boom.

So the ending gives us hope that we have two friends that are alive. It makes us think that we can save Aerith. I do think Wedge’s death towards the end and comments that Red XIII made in Chapter 17 may also be hinting towards the fact that you cannot change the past and you cannot change fate. 

Over on Discord, @anesuna​ brought up a good point about Wedge’s cats. Biggums survives the plate collapse along with Wedge. The other two cats - Reggie and Smalls - sadly perish (::cries a lot::). This could also be a reference that Biggs survived while Jessie and Wedge do not. 

So what about the LTD?

I think this is a heavy reference to the old OG love triangle. Don’t fall for it! They’re warning players now instead of wanting them to fall for it. 

Why do I say this? Aerith seemed to think the love triangle was fun. Thing is, Cloud wasn’t all there at this point, so it was just an illusion. Since players didn’t seem to get that the first time, they’re going to make it clear now. There were a lot of aspects they seemed to take from Aerith and give to Jessie. Overly flirty (with Jessie they added thirsty) and being overly childish at times. Aerith in remake is still somewhat childish, but not completely.

Oblivious Cloud is Oblivious. Yeah, he was oblivious in OG that Aerith and Tifa had feelings for him. He has no idea what Wedge is talking about now. Earlier in this same conversation he thinks that Wedge is telling him not to come around because people will gossip about Jessie being in Avalanche, but the player knows really what he’s referring to...

I think this is probably a reference to the Gold Saucer date because of the stage part. I take things at face value and don’t really dig too deep, but I think this exchange with Wedge is supposed to tell the player not to fall for these false loves early in the game.

It’s brought up again during Aerith’s resolution scene.

Earlier Wedge said not to fall for Jessie’s trick, because it was a game to her. It wasn’t real love. Aerith is now telling her that if Cloud thinks he falls in love with her, it’s not real. 

We have two separate instances in the game where they’re telling you to beware of the false love. It’s two times the word love is used. 

After all of this, the ending presents us with two guys who should be dead that appear to be alive. One of them is directly connected to Aerith.

This was their way of trying to shut down the LTD and replace it with different red herrings. Will it work as well as the LTD? Well, it seems that the majority of FFVII Remake fans have talked about the ending.

Yes, a lot of people talk about the LTD, but I think the majority of players are more interested overall in what happens next and what’s up with Zack. I think the majority of the fandom is also ready for the LTD to officially be dead so we can actually focus on everything else and stop the madness. 

It’ll never fully stop, but at least it’ll be clear for anybody who plays the game and alleviate the bulk of the chaos. 

Say hello to your new red herrings: Biggs and Zack. 

Say bye to the LTD.

#final fantasy 7 remake #final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #ff7r #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy 7 spoilers #ff7 shipping war #ff7 theories #ff7r part 2 theories #ff7r theories #zack fair #aerith gainsborough #zerith #cloti #biggs x jessie #biggs and jessie #jessie raspberry #ff7r wedge #ff7 red herring #ff7 ltd #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #this post got out of control #i kept thinking of new stuff

[thefruitloop-chan]

How've you been? You disappeared for a while, so did you do anything fun?

I’m doing fine thanks! Yeah, it’s been a while and I didn’t notice it’s been so long aha.. taking a break from the BNHA and the fandom can really help the burnout.

I did a lot of fun things. We have an oven now and I’m trying my best to do baking stuff and lots of experimenting. I have lots of soon to be baking project experiment to try in the future.

I’ve been playing in my free time to lessen some stress on other works as well but I’ve been having fun on the games. I’ve also been reading other titles like: That time when I was reincarnated as a slime, So what if I’m a spider, Dr. Stone, Toilet Bound Hanako-kun.  

I’m also talking on a server that I am in about theories in regards to Ff7R part 2 possibilities. Lots of discussions and chilling.

It’s really a fun break :D

[flowerslightning]

The OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) in FF7

This thing actually caught my eyes while reading a few theory about FF7R and the word OCD appear in their certain analysis, in IG, youtube comments and some posts in tumblr too. Dunno why but they always relate Biggs with OCD. I looked back to the scenes where Biggs appear and... Okay, i understand why they thinj Biggs has OCD or perfectionist

A lot of people, including the psych students themselves easily confused with OCD and perfectionist (I got confused by it quite often too). Now, is Biggs OCD or is he just a perfectionist? Let's take a deeper look at it

Biggs is not a famous character. So fans dont really care about him, but I do

Disclaimer : i'm not a psychologist. Im an intern and still studying. Psychiatric is not my major field but i got assigned there as an intern for quite a time and we got exposed a lot about psychology too. We didnt learn them professionally like the real psyche students, we learned (and still under training) through real life experience + a little bit from the books.

So there might be wrong interpretation here and there. Pls correct me if I'm misleading u. And pardon my english. Pls dont use any of these terms to diagnose urself. Remember, I'm a student, not a professional.

I kins of blame the social media for portraying OCD in such a nasty way, when someone with OCD is actually suffering inside.

OCD is not just about 'clean clean, must clean this place till squeaky clean' and OCD is not about being perfectionist. OCD and perfectionist are two different thing.

Perfectionist is more to a demand demeanour, eg "I want the cake to be like this. I want it to be pink. No, not that pink, it must be neon pink with slight purple. Do it again. No, i dont want that pink. Do it again. Ahhh yess, nice pink." Someone with perfectionist, after they got their result, they will immediately bcome calm and satisfied. Perfectionist is obviously different from OCPD (Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder). OCPD falls under Personality Disorder and it is different from OCD. Im not going to talk about that

Credit goes to crazyheadcomics.

Look at how OCD got spoken from the media perspective. It is very much resemble to Biggs, dont u think? In reality, someone with OCD always feel stress about everything around them, and they will find it hard to complete their task.

OCD has two components - Obsessive and Compulsive

| 1. Obsessive. It is a repeating thoughts about something and often occur until it makes someone feel stress about it. Eg, u think that ur hand will get bacteria infection if u touch a chair, door, fridge or when holding someone's hand. This thought always appear in ur mind everytime u touch the door, chair, fridge or somebody's hand, but when u touch ur shoes, u never think about the bacteria (in certain cases, some patients become scare of everything they touch)

| 2. Compulsive. It is a repeating of the same actions to fulfill the 'obsession' in order to reduce the stress acted upon them. Usually the 'action' has a specific ways in which the patient believe he has to do it like this or that way or else he will fail. Eg, after touching the chair, he will immediately wash his hand 10x from left to right. He believes the hand washing wont be effective if he starts from right to left

Another sign of OCD is when someone re-checking the door lock few times. Its normal for us to re-check once/twice the door lock for confirmation, but for people with OCD, they will re-check the door lock for about 6-10 times and still not feel satisfied and later they stress out. And also the OCD people, they tend to get annoyed when something is not in particular order and they will immediately fix it eventhough they know they're wrong.

I met a funny woman at the hosp arranging our students' books according to its thickness, when I asked her why did she arranged our books like that,

She replied : "Doctor said I have CDO"

Me : "Sorry, CDO? Never heard of it"

She : "It is actually OCD but I feel so stress hearing that term so I put it in alphabetical order. CDO, much better"

We both had a good laugh. Her case was not serious though, but she was feeling miserable with her thoughts and decided to meet a psychiatrist. I would say she was still in early stage for someone with OCD, but may lead to severe if left untreated

It is really hard to satisfy and convince someone with OCD and they always feel stress about something they shouldnt care too much about. U can say OCD is a fastidious type, and they're actually more than that

If we want to relate this condition with Bigg's case., urmm. The only time where I can spot him being different than the other characters is when he's busy sweeping his front house and when he pat Cloud's head during the Sector 7 plate fall.

The cleaning stuff isnt exactly weird thing for a human to do. But it is something odd, I mean, he just finished his mission with Jessie and survived a jump from the plate, and yet he still have the energy to sweep dry leaves, AT NIGHT! He can wait till tomorrow though and should get himself a proper rest.

Wedge says Biggs has a habit of overthinking stuff

And there we see Biggs sweeping the dry leaves. It might be because he is trying to distract himself from doing his bad habit - overthinking. But urm , i think there'll be higher chance for someone to overthink when doing house chore like Biggs is doing. This is where lots of people say Biggs cleaning the house at night is bcause he has OCD or he's a perfectionist.

But I dont think thats the case. For real, he is completely normal. No sign of him acting weird in that scene. If he really does have OCD or he's a perfectionist, we'll see more of him arguing with Barret about unnecessary stuff. He cant become one of Avalanche's strongest member (not exactly strong, but hey, he's trustworthy). Also, if u notice, Biggs have one earring on his right ear. Someone with OCD will feel irritated by it bcause his ear doesnt look 'balance'. OCD people, even in mild case, they want everything about them to be balance and in good order.

After trying to understand Biggs way of thinking and style through his short screentime, I strongly believe this guy has no such thing as OCD or being a perfectionist. Biggs just cares tooooo much about his friends, he thinks 10 times ahead from the bigger picture in which it frightens him about the bad consequences that will occur to people he cherish.

He is the type that always have a back up plan in his mind. He thinks of 5 possible bad things and comes out with 10 solutions. That's the power of an overthinker like Biggs I'll tell ya

Biggs probably cleaning his front house area at night bcause the next early morning, he will need to leave his house for the bombing mission. Better take care of things the night before the big day. He can ditch the cleaning work but he wont do it, not bcause he's a perfectionist/OCD, but try to imagine this, if ur front house is full with dry leaves and rubbish, it will be unpleasant for the neighbours next to ur house to see. Living in the slum means higher chance for u to get sick if u dont take care of ur surrounding hygiene. Biggs is a kind man, and I believe he doesnt want to upset his neighbours

He probably has overthink this matter like "If i dont do this now, I probably dont have time for doing it tomorrow. Maybe I'll broke my leg from the mission and this trash will be left untouched, then there'll be high chance for the children around here to get sick. What if they get infectious disease bcause of this dry leaves? And then the parents will be worried and the Sector 7 Slum will be in chaos etc etc. Time for plan A. Let's clean this place"

Besides, remember the post where I mentioned about Mental Health First Aid? Biggs, as the side character gives the best MFA to Cloud even without knowing what Cloud had gone through. Biggs is just toooo kind with his friends, he cares too much causing him to overthinks about his friends conditions. He can notice even the slightest change in his friend's behaviour and with his own instinct, he cheers for them

Aww man, how can u not love his personality? He's the sweetest side character ever (and kinda hot too).

Soo as the conclusion for my post here, Biggs does not have OCD. He's a side character with a big heart who cares tooooooo deeply about his friends that leads him to overthink too much.

However, if the devs say Biggs really has OCD then my statement about him will be invalid. I'm sure they have put everything in a very close detail look.

Btw, I personally think Biggs kind of portrays the other small side of Cloud, the overthinking part for their romantic partner. But Biggs express his worry through words while Cloud express it through his actions, eg - like how he always keep an eye on Tifa. He never speak it directly like "I'm worry about Tifa, I must help her", he just simply be with her either she needs a help or not. While Biggs clearly says "Jessie been acting weird, I should go if she needs any - help -"

Action speaks louder than words but sometimes our eyes failed to listen.

Alright, that's it. Thanks for being with me till the end.

#final fantasy 7 #final fantasy 7 remake #cloud strife #final fantasy vii #biggs #biggs final fantasy #ffvii biggs #mygif #character analysis

[silver-wield]

Nobody asked for this one, but I said I was gonna do it anyway. Barret and Cloud's friendship development.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna make a mile long post. I'm just gonna hit on the key moments, but I think these two deserve a bit of spotlight.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be reasonably long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone’s interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I’ve had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea’s approval (Cloti ask response) 

Leslie analysis (not mine, but a good read) 

Cloti action touching 

Aerti friendship analysis 

Cloti body language chapter 3 

Cloti healthy disagreement 

Cloti post heliboss battle (chapter 15) 

Clerith playground scene 

Cloti body language plate fall 

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

I'm not recapping the whole game lol

Chapter 1: Barret isn't impressed one bit with Cloud. Watching back their early interactions and I keep noticing this sad look on Cloud's face when he's excluded. But then, I'm also like “Well you pushed them away first”. But I also wanna hug him.

Yeah, so Barret isn't impressed and he's outright hostile, calling Cloud names and antagonising him. He even shoots at Cloud and then raises his gun to take out a security bot. This man doesn't like Cloud and isn't afraid to show it.

You gotta remember, Barret is 6'5 and built like a brick shit house and has a machine gun on his arm. He's not someone to mess with. Taking that in, Cloud's dismissiveness is pretty impressive. I mean he's almost a foot shorter than Barret, after all, and his sword probably weighs more than him lol

Perhaps by the end of the chapter – after Cloud saves Jessie – Barret might have thawed a tiny bit towards him, but he's still mistrusting and doesn't like him.

Chapter 2 and there's not a lot of interaction between them. Barret does actually agree with Cloud when he says “what's done is done” in reference to the destruction. This shows Barret is pragmatic and not against Cloud himself, just his role. After that, Cloud's alone for the rest of the chapter until the above screen when he leaps into the cargo carriage of the train and Barret says, “You had me worried for a minute.”

He looks caught out when the others all look at him because he's been a total dick to Cloud throughout the mission, but this shows he cares about his team, even if he doesn't like everyone on it. Showing concern for his people is the trait of a leader and if the game were showcased differently we could assume that Barret is our leading man.

“The folks down here don't have the luxury of choice, you know.”

Still in chapter 2 and this is such a great moment between Cloud and Barret! There's no arguing, just Barret giving Cloud a different perspective that's not the badass merc “Idc” one he's showcasing. You can see once the conversation is over that Cloud grows introspective, so Barret's words clearly resonated with him. This looks like another marker on Cloud's chart of going from a douchebag to a decent human being. He thinks about how things are for other people. Later, Marle tells him to consider others feelings, too. To listen. I'm loving all these small moments that come together to build a clearer of picture of Cloud's development.

Barret actually removes his sunglasses – why is he wearing them at night? – to meet Cloud's eye. This is a gesture that shows his sincerity and belief in his words. He's not just blustering for the sake of it. He cares about the people and the planet.

Chapter 3 and we don't see Barret until near the end. He's back to being snappy with Cloud – understandable since he's being a dick going on about money.

(aside: can I just squee at Cloud smiling at Tifa through this whole bit. He's such a dork)

And when we see Barret again he's very professional and courteous. There's no emotion in his tone and his words are very formal. He could be talking to anybody. His head dips as he's speaking, in an effort to lower himself more to Cloud's physical level. On an emotional one, he's making himself non-threatening. This isn’t a confrontation is what he’s putting out.

Cloud doesn't look happy at the dismissal and something we know about him is his desire for acceptance, so this probably hurts, although he acts otherwise.

We're up to chapter 5 and this is a turning point between Cloud and Barret's budding friendship. Barret's in battle dialogue makes it clear he's trying to show off in front of Cloud, who's dismissive still. There's a lot of back and forth between them in the kind of guy banter that suggests they kind of respect each other, but they also just have to put up with each other.

The above screen is the second before Cloud says to Barret that he's better than that in response to his arguing with the Shinra manager. Barret seems surprised Cloud even tries with him, but what's more telling is this expression from Cloud shows he gave it some thought before speaking. He considered the right words to address Barret which shows he's thought about the kind of reaction Barret could have. He took in Barret’s words from chapter 2 and Marle’s from chapter 3. This is called character development!

Chapter and Cloud throws some shade and Barret blusters lol

Tbf Barret's grown a lot less hostile since chapter 1. He's not as combative to Cloud, nor is he maliciously insulting him anymore. They've entered a stage of snarky banter, which we all know is one of the big steps on the road to friendship lol

Clearly Barret being able to see Cloud in action and rely on him in battle – not to mention Tifa's enduring good opinion – are starting to colour his own opinion.

(Tifa actually rears back when Barret waves his arm around in this bit lol)

Barret looking to Cloud for back up here. I mean, they're all in the shit, but this is interesting that he's looking to Cloud for that reassurance they're gonna continue kicking ass. The fact Cloud agrees without even the tiniest disagreement is probably the first time they're genuinely on the same page through their own choice.

Let the friendship begin!

Now, I bet you're thinking I picked this one to showcase cloti, well you're wrong. This is an example of how Barret's mellowed towards Cloud from his chapter 1 hostility to now. Cloud disagrees with him and instead of getting pissed that his leader decision is overruled, he lets it go.This could be a moment of contention between them, but they’ve both grown enough over the game to get to the point that not everything between them is a fight.

Now, maybe Barret's saying this because he thinks Cloud is about to die, but that seems selfish and like he's saying it to make himself feel better after being a douchebag, and for a selfless man like Barret I just don't buy it. He's genuinely regretful of his past actions and this is the point between the two of them that they can start again and actually become proper friends.

There's no time for much of a guy reunion between them when Barret does see Cloud again all the way over in chapter 12 -- that’s a long ass time apart for Barret to think about how he treated Cloud -- and we kind of brush past Barret's feelings because the plate collapse takes priority.

After that, Barret is much nicer to Cloud, trying to get his praise in battle and being a proper support to him. There's still that snarky banter between them, but the hostile edge has gone. We see a culmination of their friendship development during the stairs climbing sequence. Where before their banter had a hard edge and combative nature to it, this is very friendly and full of jokes and warmth. Barret has definitely softened towards Cloud and considers him a real friend. You can't fake that shit.

Conclusion

Yeah, I kinda cut this short and didn't do the latter half of the game, but that's because it's much more clear than this early development. Focusing on the small interactions between them that built a gradual friendship, it took a huge shock to get Barret to reassess his opinion of Cloud and him dropping from the reactor, going missing and then showing up to save the day covered it. It was like he got a reset and from that he dropped his prejudiced preconceived ideas about Cloud and opened up to him more. Because there’s such a huge gap between the time Barret sees Cloud again, it’s easy to miss the middle part of their friendship. The part where it goes from dislike to like. It’s easy to remember Barret hating Cloud and then see them being a team after chapter 12 because those moments stick in your mind more. It’s the transition that gets lost.

I love their development and how they become friends. It's not the kind of friendship that Barret shows with Red. Those two are bros the instant they met. Cloud and Barret's relationship is more complicated because of Cloud's role and identity. It takes Barret a long time to see past that persona, especially when he's only got evidence of that to go on – unlike Tifa. Once he does, he gives Cloud his full support and trust.

I, for one, can’t wait to see how they go forward in Barret’s arc.

#final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #final fantasy 7 remake analysis #Barret wallace #Cloud strife #friendship is the best ship

[critgemhero]

I feel like I truly get what happened with Zack at the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake now, and what it's actually meant to represent for Gaia and the future of the FF7R series. I think people are misunderstanding this whole thing, and hating on the decision to change everything by "keeping him and Aerith alive" now, when that isn't quite exactly what happened. I'm gonna break down what I think really occurred at the end here, the purpose of the Whispers, what it means that they are gone for good, and what that means for the future of the series.

So I think the Whispers were responsible for keeping a singular timeline on the planet. They themselves transcended time like the lifestream can (from what I looked up on the Wiki anyway) and they have always been involved in keeping the course of Destiny. They are a physical manifestation that came from the lifestream of the planet, that people were never meant to see in the first place, but were always there. We can see at the beginning of Zack's scene that he does not see the Whispers floating around Midgar and then later behind him, and whatever they were doing there secured his death on that day. I will say that I'm not 100% sure why so many Whispers are around Midgar at that specific moment, since this is a flashback in time and presumably not the same Whispers in the present-day fight against destiny, but still.

Anyway, so Cloud and the others SUCCEED and destroy the Whispers. They destroy this safety net the planet has used since probably the beginning of its creation to shape the world how they see fit. Now we CAN get into how absolutely bonkers and ridiculous it is that 4 people and a lab rat dog took down this kind of all-powerful planet driven being (I love this game but I'm sorry I just can't buy the logistics of this) but let's put that aside as the video game nonsense that it was always meant to be. When the Whispers disappear, I do not think they just disappear from the future, I think because they are connected to the lifestream and the planet's history, it also destroyed their past. What I am saying is that every single moment where the Whisper's intervened into destiny's course to keep it on track, has now disappeared.

This is where FF7R chooses 1 of many timeline theories. Instead of pulling a Steins;Gate, where there is always 1 singular timeline and the others are overwritten by the logic of past events changing, FF7R goes with the split timeline theory. Now, every single moment the Whispers were supposed to do something become a separate timeline of its own. The example the game chooses to show us this, of course, is Zack avoiding death. If the Whispers were not there, then he would have survived. For WHATEVER reason, the Whispers wanted Zack to die at that moment (and I guess also wanted that dog mascot to be a Beagle? Lol) but now that they are gone, he himself was able to fight against fate and stay alive.

I don't think Zack is "alive" in the way we think, though. I think his survival of that day and his walking past Aerith at the end is just meant to represent something. Zack being alive represents how Aerith now has the chance to be as well. It gives viewers hope that if this beloved character who met a tragic fate escaped their doom in another timeline, Aerith has the potential to do so in future parts of this game as well.

That's ALL I think it is. I don't think we will ever see Zack again, not interacting with this main timeline at least. I think he is stuck to the confines of his timeline where he got his chance to live. I don't think his appearance here is meant to indicate he will be in future parts of the game. Unless this new Remake series decides to go incredibly bonkers and introduce people crossing different timelines, which I honest to God hope it doesn't because that's the shit FF13-2 did and it ruined that series for me, then I think this is all Zack's appearance was meant to do.

Feel free to comment with your own theories and feelings on the ending and what it could mean for "The Unknown Journey" ahead!

#ff7r #final fantasy 7 remake #ff7r spoilers #zack fair #ff7 spoilers

[istanleyff7]

FF7R The Origins of the Men in Black Cloaks

Apart from the Nibelheim incident, the short story, “Final Fantasy VII Remake: The Investigation Unit Within the Painting” which was written by Kazushige Nojima, gave us more insight on the origins of the “tattooed men in black cloaks” whom we know as Sephiroth Clones.

My translation of the novel can be read here: https://istanleyff7.tumblr.com/post/614431290829193216/final-fantasy-vii-remake-the-investigation-unit

I’ll be covering the topic based on my understanding of the lore of FF7 and largely on my interpretation from my translated version of the novel.

Back when the handling of Mako was still unstable, there were a lot more people who got infected by Mako Poisoning. Some of these victims came from military volunteers of the Special Ground Investigation Unit, a volunteer unit which existed 15 years ago and was under the direct supervision of President Shinra, tasked to look for natural plots of land like a Mako treasury, suitable for a Mako Reactor. As they were looking for such places, there was a high possibility of getting Mako Poisoning.

These people infected by Mako Poisoning were retrieved by people like Jack Klien, a helicopter pilot who transports these volunteers to-and-fro. They were handed over to the scientists from the Science Department in exchange for money. This money was meant to keep like Jack quiet.

The Science Department explained that they needed collaborators to come out with a cure for Mako Poisoning, but these people became test subjects of the Jenova Project. They were injected with Jenova's cells by Professor Hojo, the head of the Shinra Science Department, to test Jenova's ability to recall her scattered cells into a "Reunion", in what he called the "Jenova Reunion Theory".

As these victims had Mako poisoning, they were not best in physical and mental health, and thus could not retain their personalities and became shades of Jenova, who is a puppet of Sephiroth. These patients were eventually labelled as successful Sephiroth clones and marked with a number somewhere on their body. They were also operated on, as one of the victims’ mother eventually found an operation scar on her son’s body.

The word never got out that these people were tested and injected with Jenova cells. Instead, people continued to assume that the victims only had severe Mako Poisoning. Families were lied to and were informed that they were receiving “medical treatment” from the Science Department. In one such case, a patient named Lilisa had her condition lasting for 15 years. After receiving "treatment", Lilisa was eventually able to walk at first, but she did not have any further recovery.

The Science Department only apologized to the victims' families for the various confusion regarding the whereabouts of these military personnel. They also stated that long-term patients who had been “hospitalised” and “treated” within the Shinra Company but “did not wish to receive further treatment” were allowed to be discharged.

When these victims were discharged, these people did not grasp what they were doing. Wearing black cloaks, they would just loiter around shakily with no specific destination. Their destination differs depending on the day. Some of them were eventually spotted by their parents and they think that their child, who was supposed to die because of Mako Poisoning, survived thanks to the “treatment”.

Many people had gone missing in slums, some as long as 15 years ago or as recent as 2 or 3 years ago. They eventually returned with similar conditions as each other and a numbered tattoo somewhere on their body.

As per the reunion theory, there were cases where these Sephiroth clones would gather in groups of six or seven in the slums. They would stand there, not do anything, face in whatever direction they like, and look upwards.

These clones do not respond to sound, like someone calling out their name, but respond to touch, like a tap on the shoulder. They also do not seem to recognise anyone they used to know.

These clones are the same clones whom Cloud encounters in the present-day FF7 Remake and they play a part in Cloud dealing with his mental torment.

-end-

#ff7 #ff7r #ff7remake #ffvii #ffviir

[kitsoa]

I'm still waiting for a trailer for it to really sink in the Kingdom Hearts tv series exists. I'm curious over what the series will be? Retelling of KH1? Seems most likely. Not that it's nessecary for newcomers to enjoy. Everybody and their grandma (literally) knows about KH. I know people who don't even play video games but religiously watch YouTube walkthroughs of the games because they enjoy KH. It's like how Detective Pikachu didn't even need Pokemon in the title. Everybody knows pokemon. -

might be why I also like the idea I read about the series taking place post KH3 with the leads being Mickey, Donald and Goofy revisiting all the Disney Worlds Sora's been to. We'd get all the Disney goodness, some possible FF cameos and maybe apperences from Riku and others. But that's just if it's an original work. I'd also love good retellings of the games if done right. I only want the characters/lore/fight scenes to be given justice/respect. Whoah. How does this fit into your meta theory?- KH is a videogame, a novel series, a manga, a mobile game and now a cartoon. KH is covering all it's bases in media. All we need is for Normura to dig his claws into the series and put in even more reality confusing elements. It's like Sora's traveling through all this different levels of media until he gets closer to reality itself (lol when we all first thought it was going to be live action. Now that'd be unsettling).

Let me level with you. I... don’t know how to hype responsibly. So to be frank, I not only believe the rumors (I was watching them unfold and I am no stranger to following leak and speculation scenes for fun) I am... ecstatic about the idea. Scared excited. But man, I’m a dreamer first and foremost. I’ll live with the disappointment when it finally lets me down.  Could it be hot garbage? Totally, but a lot of my initial fears have been soothed by the rumor mill. My list was basically: no live-action, animation please, gimme some square involvement folks. And based on the reports we have that covered. I am okay with a little new vision coming into the fray because I will always give it a chance as long as the creative philosophy is guided properly. I think there’s some level of quality control on both sides of the agreement. And as long as the Disney+ folks understand that this is essentially Disney’s break into the anime market, then we can trust they will at least aim in the right direction. But I’ll be very clear-- I’m almost 100% sure this will be a retelling and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. Here is why: 1. This was D+ idea-- (the ‘mysterious 3rd project’ pitched to Nomura that he mentioned in his interview is almost certainly this meaning it wasn’t a part of the original plan) They aren’t anywhere near Nomura’s thought process of stories to tell within the timeline. 2. D+ has an insanely large and average consumer base-- barrier of entry cannot be high. There is no way you can engagingly infodump any of the lore or series of events in a way that doesn’t make executives and producers nervous. I know it’s different for everyone but from my perspective KH is rather still niche to the larger public. It’s well known in the gaming sphere as an icon but even to Disney fans it is either entirely new or simply elusive to attempt an understanding. I mean, it’s basically introduced to people as a meme because of this lack of general understanding. This isn’t lost to a network with their fingers on the pulse. 3. D+ approved of the KH brand-- harder to explain but basically, the identity and success of KH is most definitely the aspect that ensured the survival of a tv series into development. That identity comes almost exclusively from Sora, the keyblade, and world-hopping shenanigans. Keyword being Sora. The only story that fits the franchise identity is the first story.  4. Evidence has Disney VO cast returning and also a current casting-- meaning we have Disney characters serving an important role (as they do in kh1) and the need for original characters. While this might suggest a brand new story idea, both of these points together wouldn’t make sense. Sora hangs with the Disney crowd. No one else. Coupled with the above points I’m almost certain our boy is getting recasted. This would bother people (and believe me I adore HJO) but consider that HJO cannot do young Sora in a believable way anymore. KH fans can tolerate it, but not a grander audience. If it’s just a child-voice match then that’s all the better but new creative visions require new, marketable talent. (Think of the FF7R recast drama).  ----- I personally want nothing more than for it to be a retelling. Mainly because it’s just a charming story with an interesting world and great characters. I like seeing how it would translate and what would have to be changed to make it more palatable to the medium. That and I think cinematics and great character acting can recontextualize an entire work in wondrous ways. If anything, a retelling almost certainly adds to that experience regardless of other shortcomings. To tie things into a meta reading, I would not put it past Nomura to take advantage of the series to slip in something to the hardcore base. Mind you, not something required for understanding, but something simply meant to imply what is to come. A little trippy thing or subplot that merely confounds the average viewers into a dead end but spins the heads of theoriest like me. If he’s simply acting as an advisor, then, of course, he can get away with something small. The first thing on my mind was the “KH3 Loop” Theory. The idea that Sora is experiencing his entire journey from the beginning, over and over again. The beginning of KH3 where we are playing as KH1 Sora and it’s got this double meaning of ‘seven hearts to save’. It’s hard to explain, but a retelling of the story is a great way to allude that this story has happened multiple times, with multiple variations. Be it due to how a player plays the game, or the manner in which the story is consumed (cutscene movie, manga, tv show)-- it has occurred countless times and Sora is simply a plaything of fate.

#kingdom hearts #kh series #kh meta #Anonymous

[scripting-life]

FFVII: returning to my first love

 *peeks out of the corner of my lurking spot*

Hello? Anybody out there? It’s only been, oh you know, four-ish years since the last time I’ve posted anything here. I apologize in advance for anybody who’s still following me from my Castle days. If you couldn’t tell from my extended absence, I’ve mostly moved on. Castle and Beckett were fantastic characters that let me to play with some deep-dive analyses, and Castle will always hold a special place in my heart as my comfort show and my first real and extended experience with online fandom. I’ll always be grateful to the community I’ve had the joy of interacting with (or, the community with which I’ve had the joy of interacting, as Castle would correct me my dangling preposition).

I honestly didn’t think I would ever have reason to come back to Tumblr after Castle ended. But the FF7 Remake has returned me to my very first love--when I was young and innocent and before I knew anything about OTPs or ship wars. I’ve been back lurking for several months now and seeing all the fanart/fanfics and fun theories and analyses has reignited my enthusiasm for the FF7 franchise. It’s also fun coming back to this franchise with a more mature understanding of the themes/concepts that completely flew over my head as a young preteen.

(This ended up being super long, so the rest is below the cut to spare everyone the pain of scrolling. Apparently, my rambling tendencies have not changed at all. lol.)

When FF7R was officially announced (five freaking years ago!), I was filled with apprehension. FF7 was my first taste of a “grown-up” game. I was 11 and played my brother’s copy of the OG on PC in 1-2 hours spurts on the weekends when I visited his apartment. It took me months, if not years, to finish the game (I ended up stealing his copy to play on our computer at home...lol), and I was so blown away by it. I remember the exact moment I finished it and how I was literally shaking as I watched the ending FMV.

Later, when I found out my brother had a copy of FF8 (my poor brother was so accommodating to his annoying little sister...haha), I was so excited to play, in large part because I thought it would continue the story of FF7. Young, naive me didn’t understand the numbering conventions of Final Fantasy titles. I was madly theorizing and breaking my brain trying to find connections between the two games’ plots and had literally played through more than half the game before I finally realized the storyline of FF8 had absolutely nothing to do with FF7. I was sorely disappointed, and I think that has somewhat tainted my appreciation of future titles. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed the subsequent FF titles, but I think a little part of me is always comparing them to that first experience of wonder and awe that I had with FF7.

I discovered fanfiction in my teens and starting writing FF7/Cloti fics in college. Aside from interacting with a few fic writers at the time, I was not involved in any online communities, so I kept myself pretty free of any ship war drama and the like. When I did research for my fics, I’d sometimes see shipping sites and theories where I didn’t always understand the logic of how certain conclusions were reached, but frankly, I didn’t much care and didn’t realize that Clerith vs. Cloti was such a touchy subject. I was peripherally aware that some sort great LTD war was waging, of course, but it didn’t really touch me. I stayed in my Cloti shipping/fic-writing lane and was probably a lot happier for it. And, to be honest, based on FFN’s listings for FF7, I felt like I always saw a bunch of Sephiroth/Cloud fics and thought that was just as popular as the more conventional ships.

Graduating college and entering “real life” pretty much ended my FF7 fanfic-writing journey. In the intervening years between college and the release of FF7R, I haven’t gone back to the OG too much. I’ve played almost all the Final Fantasy games since then, and I always enjoy getting my FF7 crew fix when I play the non-canon mobile games or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But FF7 was a happy part of my teenage years, and I was content to think on it with sweet nostalgia.

Remakes, in recent experience (*cough cough* Disney, why?), have been hit or miss, with a lot of misses. It’s hard to strike a good balance between catering to nostalgia and delivering a fresh product, never mind the change in social mores through the decades. I was so afraid FF7R would screw up my memories, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Advent Children. The graphics were great and the action scenes were fun, but the story felt like a let-down. Cloud, in particular, felt so different (and yes, moody) from where we left him after the OG. I understand now that a lot of his character motivation was better explained in the On The Way to a Smile novels, but back then, I just felt like AC came out of nowhere. 

Btw, because I see this question a lot on other blogs when I’m lurking, I’ve ALWAYS thought that it was very clear in AC--even without reading anything else--that the reason for Cloud’s depression was due to guilt and not because he was pining for Aerith. The only reason I didn’t like his characterization in AC was because it felt like it came out of nowhere since AC is set 2 years after OG and by the end of the OG, he seemed to be in a pretty decent place mentally and emotionally. That being said, I can absolutely understand why some traumas resurface years after the originating incident and how times of peace might actually be worse because he is no longer solely focused on saving the world, but I was just surprised and a little bummed that this was the direction the devs chose to take AC at the time. Now that I’m older, I do better appreciate the complexities of Cloud’s mental state and the fact that they depicted a hero with lingering mental health issues is actually pretty awesome. I’m drawn to characters that have flaws--sometimes serious ones--but try their best anyway. Hence, why why Tifa Lockhart and Kate Beckett are some of my all-time favorites.

Anyhow, that didn’t stop me from pre-ordering FF7R, of course. I avoided reading any reviews as I didn’t want my first impressions to be swayed, and boy, was I happy that I went in mostly blind. That sense of awe really almost felt like playing the OG for the first time again, but somehow more. The combat system is incredibly fun and the world-building is nothing short of incredible. The variety and abundance of NPCs gives the game so much flavor and the locations have been rendered so well. As I’m going through areas like the Sector 7 train station and Wall Market and Aerith’s house, I can almost superimpose the layout from the OG in my head, but now it’s in 3D and so rich and full. It’s obvious that a lot of attention was paid to details, and I love all the head-nods and homages to the OG.

And oh, the characters!

This is the Cloud I’ve been wanting to see in glorious HD and the Cloud I remember from the original game: all awkward, dorky trying to be cool, socially inept, mentally unstable, abrasive-at-times, reluctant to act depending on who’s asking, wannabe hard-ass who’s actually a big softie inside Cloud. I remember reading an article a few years back about how the devs basically redid Cloud for the Remake because they wanted him to go back to his dorky roots--which ends up making him closest to his personality in the OG than his appearances in other franchises--and I was SOOOO incredibly happy to hear that. I was so sick of the way Cloud was constantly depicted as this cool, broody McBrood in his cameos when he was a pretty big dork in the OG. (Anybody remember him doing squats in the Highwind when Tifa says it’ll be lonely with just the two of them and Cloud responds that he’ll make enough noise to make up for it? Like I said: cute, but a dork.)

I WAS surprised by how comfortable and sweet and touchy (so very very touchy) the devs made him with Tifa from the beginning. That initial scene of Cloud being such a smooth operator giving Tifa the flower had my jaw-dropping and every single flirty interaction after that (and there are many) had my Cloti heart overflowing in shock and bliss. Throughout most of my years as a Cloti shipper, even though I believed Cloti was supported by canon and pretty clearly together, I was also under the impression--mistakenly or not--that Cloti was the minority ship. So for Square Enix to make it so blatantly obvious that Cloud is really into Tifa at such an early stage has been an unexpected gift.

Also, they’re just really hot together. (Clotiscrew tunnel--be still my heart!)

As for Tifa...oh, what wonderful character development we’ve already gotten for Tifa. Tifa has always been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since reading her character blurb in the OG game manual. Initially, as a child, it was because I saw so much of myself in her. She was outwardly bright and optimistic, but tended to hide all of her stronger feelings inside. She fought with her fists, and for someone who was a tomboy growing up who liked playing contact sports with the boys, I connected with her in a way that I had never been able to connect with other female protagonists who were primarily back-row specialists. (I also aspired to grow to her listed height of 5′4″, which alas, did not happen...lol).

I love how the Remake delves into more of Tifa’s moral conflict between the destruction that she causes as part of Avalanche and needing to do something to stop Shinra, and yes, even seeking revenge. They touched on this in the OG lightly, but the Remake really hammers it home. She’s perhaps the most conflicted character in terms of motivation in Part 1. That scene with the Shinra manager on the train is actually one of my favorite scenes of her because it highlights that tension. The elevator scene, if you opted for it instead of the stairs (or if you did one, saved, and reloaded to do the other one, like me), is also underrated in terms of how much it reveals about Tifa’s inner struggle.

On this point, I also appreciate that the Remake has the characters reflecting on the damage they’ve both indirectly and directly inflicted--the Avalanche team all do this to a certain degree. In particular, Jessie’s constant inability to figure out what she’d done wrong with the bomb to cause such a massive explosion and her remaining feelings of guilt during her death scene (”they were my victims” ouch!) were heart-breaking.

Aerith’s depiction was another pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest; I didn’t much like her in the OG. She was too pushy and willfully oblivious to the point of being mean at times. In the Remake, much of her sometimes too in-your-face playfulness was kept--perhaps still a little too much--but I appreciate the nuance that they gave her. The train graveyard scene tells the player that she didn’t have friends growing up, and I think that partially contributes to her lack of social tact at times. The other factor that gives her personality more nuance is the hint of special knowledge that affects how she interacts with the rest of the group. It gives her additional hidden motivation and adds to her mystery for new players while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings for old players who get the impression that Aerith is somehow aware--to a certain, unknown extent--of her own fate. 

I also appreciate that Aerith is more grounded as a real person than as some sort of revered being. I do blame AC for some of that. When you have the power to cure a fatal disease from the afterlife and send the dead back to life, it gets into some godlike territory. Maybe it’s a fair depiction of her powers as a Cetra, but I just get the feeling that Aerith herself wouldn’t really appreciate being made into this goddess-like figure. Remember that her character blurb in the original game manual implied that she was more interested in earthly things (i.e. the love triangle) than in exploring her own powers. I personally think that Aerith used the “love triangle” in the OG as a form of escapism from the weight of her burdens rather than genuine interest, and I just think she’d want to be thought of as a person rather than as a god. One of my favorite scenes for Aerith is when she and Cloud are traversing the rooftops and she slips on the ladder, letting out a simple, “Shit.” It humanizes her in a way that combats some of the ways she’s sort of been deified in the last 23 years. Also, Aerith wielding a folding chair like it’s WWE never fails to make me laugh. Overall, she just comes off as a more reasonably flawed and--as a result, to me--a more likeable character in the Remake, and I do very much like her now.

Barret is pretty much the exact larger than life character I imagined in my head, only somehow even better, and I really love how expressive and emotional his eyes and facial expressions are. His scenes with Marlene are truly the cutest thing ever. Red XIII is a big, furry ball of sass, and I need so much more of him in the coming parts (Cosmo Canyon still wrecks me to this day). The interactions between the Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie are incredible, and they really feel like people who’ve been friends and basically each other’s family for years. The Turks and Rufus are pretty much as cool as I imagined them in the OG.

There’s still so much more I haven’t even started touching on about the Remake, and I think that’s why I’m finally posting this now. I just can’t contain my love for this game any more, and I really really need a place to express myself. I don’t know if anybody is still reading, but I appreciate having the opportunity to finally gush about this game and franchise that I’ve loved so much for pretty much two-thirds of my life.

#ff7r #final fantasy 7: remake #cloti #cloud x tifa #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #aerith gainsborough #jessie rasberry #barret wallace #red xiii #for the love of the game #personal experience #not sure i'm ready to wade back into fandom life #but i really needed to gush #oh man i forgot to mention the cats #how could i forget the cats?!?!?

[sapphire-weapon]

so i did get FF7R yesterday

i’m about 9 hours in, not playing atm because my roommate had to go check in on her grandpa (who currently lives alone so he needs to be checked on). she’s never played/seen FF7 ANYTHING before and she’s super super into the remake and it’s making me very happy, so i don’t want to play without her.

a few impressions (no spoils):

1. they fixed tifa. i no longer hate her. i didn’t think this was possible, so holy shit good job nomura.

2. aeris says “shit” and i could not be happier with her characterization. i’m so glad that pure angelic waifu aeris from the compilation is nowhere to be seen.

3. if my working theory about what’s going on in the remake is correct, this remake is going to piss a lot of people off. i am not one of them. this may not actually be a remake at all. false advertising? maybe. but worth it.

like, remember when bloodborne came out and we all just thought it was an action game where you fight victorian werewolves? and then you get to That Part(TM) of bloodborne and you realize that that’s not actually what’s happening in the game at all and you’re like “holy shit the marketing campaign for this game was amazing, i NEVER saw this coming”?

FF7R is giving me that kind of feeling again. but a lot of people are going to be really butthurt and really betrayed.

if i am right about my working theory, then i’m REALLY REALLY REALLY interested in seeing where the subsequent games take the story.

[terraxcloud]

Serah & Terra

I’ve come to the conclusion that Serah (from FF13) is definitely designed after Terra. The game that makes this the most obvious is Dissidia NT.

In Dissidia (2008) they connected Terra with Rinoa though mannerisms, certain scenes (like the end), how she runs, etc, and I guess that in Dissidia NT they chose to connect her the same way with Serah. It’s more obvious when you look at the Dissidia NT scenes of Terra followed by FF13-2.

It’s odd really, since Terra isn’t Rinoa, Rem, or Serah...it makes me wonder what her default mannerisms and expression actually are. There are similarities they all share no doubt (they’re all noticeably thin), so we’ll just have to wait until she finally appears in another game (or just play WoFF).

However, Serah is a bit too much like Terra. Going through FFXIII and Dissidia NT...I mean, there’s even a mod that changes Terra’s clothing into Serah’s, so it’s not like I’m making some incredible observation!

There is a little thing I look at to see if a character is being tied to Terra in a direct way. In FFXIII-2, these things are...

The character has a moogle, hugs a moogle, etc. However, Cinque in Type-0 is the moogle character in that game, so this can’t be enough (y’know, the character that looks like Aerith’s sibling?).

Next one is children, and this one seems a bit forced, which makes it perfect! There’s almost nothing different with this scene and everything that happens in FF7R Sector 5! Surely, you all want Unreal engine default children NPCs in the next game, right! But yes, she’s just a school teacher. That Sarah girl from the FFXV DLC also deals with children.

The most important one though is that she has a cat. She also has cat earrings, which leads credence to the theory that Terra was supposed to have had a cat in FF6. I mean, Serah is so literally designed after Terra that why wouldn’t it be believable? This cat doesn’t tell kids to kill her to prove her immortality though, so it’s not completely similar or female.

And then you have those things she does with her hands. Terra does the same stuff with her hands in Dissidia NT. It’s too obviously the same. It disturbs me almost as much as Kuja’s thin waist and lack of pants. Even their clothes look similar now that I see both pics at the same time.

From what I’ve read, people ask why FFXIII-2 went with the “time travel” plot. Why do they constantly say they’re in “another world” if they’re just in another time? Why are both Lightning and Snow missing? Who’s this random guy named Noel? Why do they mostly just focus on Serah in this game?

Well, it’s a rough draft for FF7R, is it not? FFXIII-3 may also be, but probably about the more latter part of the Remake. It’s the best explanation that I can give you as to why these two sequels exist. The key may just be that Serah “is” Terra, Snow & Lightning “are” Cloud in different ways (because they “come from clouds”), and Noel “is” Zack (although he’s more like a narrator about all the weirdness of this game...maybe Zack got the part later, since they started pushing him in 2018).

At least, that’s how I see it, because certain things are very similar to this Clerra stuff.

The gist of it is that the main character of FF6 disappeared when Terra was “sleeping” (”Midgar Blues” line), and the FF6 opera/”Hollow” describe this character’s smile or laugh as if it were something that Terra remembered.

In FFXIII-2, Serah uses these same descriptions to describe her remembrance of Lightning hearing about her wedding with Snow before she just...vanishes. She vanishes to another world, just like the main character of FF6 who we now know of as Cloud. Serah is the only one who remembers this, and I would guess it’s the same with Terra (if Cloud magically remembers, why not her?)

It’s a bit weird though...Cloud is remembering Terra in the original FF7 AND FF7R, but how would the “canon” explain that? There is a story element they may use to explain it...

The above line was to explain why Lightning disappeared from Serah’s life. If Lightning symbolizes Cloud, then the above could describe why he disappeared from FF6.

Although, seen in the original FF7′s perspective, this wouldn’t make sense, but would that stop the developers? Did Cloud appear in FF7 because there was some random disturbance in the timeline and he just ended up living in Nibelheim, but it wasn’t enough of a change so his girlfriend split into Tifa & Aerith and his arch-nemesis split into Sephiroth and Hojo? It sounds stupid, but what can you do?

“Midgar Blues” explains that he just...took the train to Midgar! Of course, the train could just be a symbol. It even explains how he met Terra in games like Dissidia, because they were under contract to...behave like they don’t know each other? It’s already silly when you think about it. Terra’s first line to Cloud is just “Why are you here?” Like, she already knows his name in WoFF too, yet Tidus didn’t know who Yuna was?

So, here’s another two pics showing the same hands being in the same positions in two different games with two different characters. I suppose you need to be the judge of these similarities yourself. Look into FFXIII-2 and maybe even FFXIII-3 if you want to more-or-less know what may happen in FF7R. That’s crazy to hear, but not as crazy as FFXIII-2.

Also, Serah is just “Sarah” with the first ‘a’ changed into an ‘e’. Although “Sarah” already sounds like “Terra”, they went one step further! 

It still means “princess” though, right?

Speaking about similar characters. There was once an FF7R promotional screen that released. The scene it showed did not appear in FF7R, but I felt something was odd about that Aerith. After posting the similarity on Twitter, some people told me that they almost look like the same person wearing different clothes. If scaled right, the torso and right arm are exactly the same. This is Terra’s Dissidia (2008) render btw.

#Terra Branford #Serah Farron #FF13-2 #Dissidia NT #FF7R #FFVIIR #FF7 Remake #FFVII Remake #Clerra #Terra FF6 #Serah FF13 #FFXIII #FFXIII-2 #Cloud Strife #Lightning Farron #Aerith Gainsborough

[silver-wield]

FF7R: What if?

I’m back with more analysis!

So, I caught a youtube theory that said because the whispers are gone now, every single event they interferred in is retconned. I was gonna be like, that sounds interesting, but then they went off on this huge tangeant that ended in – you guessed it – Cloud dying 😒

Even though it literally contradicted their own evidence they'd stated earlier in the vid.

Sephiroth says he won't let Cloud die, but then we've got Cloud having seven seconds to make a choice and sacrifice himself for the greater good. Even though Sephiroth literally said he won't let Cloud die. This is why I don't listen to theory vids where they have people live or die because it ignores canon and the devs have said canon still counts, so until we get evidence otherwise I'm gonna go ahead and say Cloud lives and please stop trying to FF15 him because that is the absolute suckiest ending for a guy who absolutely has earned and deserves his best ending – which is ALIVE. He deserves to be alive!

(Not to mention the other theories starting that Sephiroth is the good guy now...like seriously? Stuff like this makes me want to cry. Sephiroth isn't good and Cloud doesn't deserve to die. How tf is this FF7? This is the worst kind of fan fiction trash and it belongs in a dumpster fire!)

And that's my tangeant lol

So, back to the whispers and the what if. If their influence is now undone and everything they interfered in is gone I wondered what that meant. So, Imma gonna follow the ones we know about and see what conclusion we get. I've got a chart of each appearance they make in Remake, so these are the actual events they interfered in.

Let's mosey!

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be huge lol.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Recap time!

Chapter 2 is the first time we see the whispers and their purpose here is to keep Aerith from leaving the area before Cloud arrives – because they meet in the OG – they then later chase her away – also OG – leaving him to fight the security forces alone.

So, we can't actually see them yet, but their purpose at this point is to keep Aerith from leaving the area so she can have the whole flower conversation with Cloud.

What if?

If Aerith wasn't forced to remain there, then she'd have evacuated along with other residents and gone back to sector 5. She'd never meet Cloud, never agree to go back to Shinra and the story of FF7 wouldn't happen.

Aerith is about to stay and fight alongside Cloud until a whisper chases her away, allowing her to deliver her OG line of, “Nice meeting you.”

What if?

If Aerith stayed she'd have remained with Cloud until the station, where he'd been forced to get her onto the train with Avalanche. She'd have met them and Tifa much sooner, possibly joined their cause and potentially died in the pillar if she wasn't able to convince Tifa she could go along to Don Corneo's.

The other option is Cloud would've taken her back to sector 5 once they got to sector 7 and they'd have avoided the rooftop walk, he'd have gone back to sector 7 because that's where he lives and they wouldn't have met again.

Chapter 3 is their next appearance after Cloud gets a futuristic flash of the plate collapse. They appear to distract him and prevent him from questioning what he just saw.

What if?

Cloud could bring up the plate's structural integrity around Avalanche or the neighbourhood watch. They could increase patrols around that area and get a jump on Shinra's attempt to collapse it. The increased security could mean they're successful in stopping the plate from falling.

(Don't tell Cloud this, he'll drown in guilt forever lol)

Still in Chapter 3, during the scene at Seventh Heaven where Cloud isn't included in the next reactor mission. An intangible whisper floats near the ceiling, observing events.

What if?

Since this relates to Cloud being part of the reactor 5 mission, his not going would be catastrophic for those who went instead. Why? I'll get to that in a sec.

Near the end of Chapter 4, whispers appear in Cloud's room while he sleeps. Their purpose is to ensure Cloud remains asleep(?) while they incapacitate Jessie (see conclusion for my theory).

What if?

Well, they failed, since Cloud woke up anyway, but if he'd slept through the fighting then Jessie would still be injured and he'd be on for the mission.

So, we're at the reason for the whispers last two appearances. With Cloud off the reactor 5 mission, Jessie, Barret and Biggs are the go to team. That's not what's meant to happen.

What if?

Oh, I like this one. This one has a huge impact.

Jessie goes on the mission with Barret, leaving Tifa and Cloud behind. Biggs is waiting over by the reactor the same as before.

While on the train, the security measures activate the same as before. Since Cloud was the one who suggested jumping from the train, these two won't think of it. They'll fight the bots off until they arrive at the station where they're either captured by security forces or killed on the spot.

If by some chance one of them realises they need to get off right away and they jump the same as our triple A trio did, they'd likely die during the crab warden battle.

If by some miracle they get past all of that and complete the lighting the path section to get the cargo platform moving and make it into the reactor, they're still caught by Shinra and then executed because only Cloud knows how to dispose of the Air Buster's components.

So, to put it in simple terms: they die.

Neat huh?

The very end of Chapter 7 where Cloud is falling from the scaffold into sector 5's church (what religion is this church for anyway?). Whispers appear to slow his fall and keep him alive.

What if?

He dead lol

What else should I say? He fell 300m and he's not invincible.

In the sector 5 chuch after the Reno fight, Cloud is about to kill Reno and whispers appear to stop him and drag him and Aerith away.

What if?

Another fun one.

Reno dies, the security forces either die or retreat from Cloud. If Aerith isn't traumatised by witnessing a murder right in front of her, she and Cloud walk out of the church and he takes her home, instead of the detour over the rooftops and through the scrapyard (because they'd have taken less time walking along the main road and arrived well before Rude got there in the helicopter).

Rude would've gone to the church when Reno didn't answer, found him dead, come after Cloud for revenge, been killed or badly injured and Cloud would've fixed his reputation around that sector as a badass murderer who you don't mess with.

Elmyra would've sent him on his way because she doesn't want her baby hanging out with a killer and Cloud would've arrived back in sector 7 well before Tifa had the idea to go to Don Corneo. He either would've gone with her or they'd have stormed the mansion instead of the route that actually happened. They may have still been dropped into the sewers, but with a day in hand before the operation, would've arrived back in sector 7 before Shinra arrived and saved the pillar.

Whispers cover the church and block specific exits, leaving the route to the roof open. When Aerith falls (twice) they save her.

What if?

Cloud would take a different exit besides the roof, which would lead to a similar result as above where he avoids Rude at the station and has more time to get home instead of being forced to stay overnight because “it's getting late”. He'd help Avalanche save the plate and wouldn't have to let Tifa go to Don Corneo alone.

For Aerith, the whispers saving her mean she's uninjured and can cross the rooftops. The whispers also prevent Reno from taking her back to Shinra by force.

We don't see the whispers again until all the way over in chapter 12, where they appear to block Cloud, Tifa and Aerith from reaching the pillar.

What if?

Since Cloud is the only one to go up the pillar to start, we'd see him arrive in time to save Wedge and Biggs, then move up with them to save Jessie before reaching Barret.

If we include the previous what if with Reno being killed and Rude injured then the person piloting the helicopter won't know who Cloud is and won't be as vindictive in attacking him. This means the pipes won't fall from the platform and Tifa won't go up there.

Tifa and Aerith would go to 7th heaven to get Marlene and evacuate the sector, Tseng would still appear to threaten Aerith, but Tifa may well be strong enough to deal with him On the other hand, she might not and wind up dead.

If we discount the chapter 8 what if and Reno and Rude are fine, he and Rude have Cloud, Biggs and Wedge pinned down with no solution in sight until Tifa meets up with them (the pipes would still fall here). They'd move on to meet up with Jessie and Barret as a large group, where they'd still save the plate from falling and likely kill Reno and Rude with their larger number party.

Chapter 12, Whispers surround Rude as he tosses Tifa aside and pushes the plate separation button.

What if?

Cloud or Barret would've killed Rude and stopped the plate separating.

Chapter 12, Whispers surround Wedge, keeping him in place until a piece of the plate drops on him.

What if?

Wedge would escape with his cat out of sector 7 and our triple A team wouldn't find Deepground later on. (Kinda odd, seeing how they then drag Cloud away from discovering more about his past once they're there, but it looks like the whispers don't consider their own actions aside from ensuring the current OG canon event takes place. Wedge needed to die, so they dropped shit on him.)

Chapter 13, Whispers appear during Deepground when Cloud is about to remember the experiments carried out on him.

What if?

Cloud would remember his past much sooner, likely have a breakdown right then and there, which makes him incapable of rescuing Aerith. Tifa wouldn't have the benefit of the lifestream to deep dive into his subconscious and help him, so it would likely take a lot longer for him to repair his fractured psyche. Aerith would be experimented on by Hojo, forcibly impregnated and likely killed.

After their big interference in chapters 12 and 13, we don't see the whispers again until Chapter 16, where they appear to drag Hojo away before he can spill the beans to Cloud.

What if?

Cloud is told of his fake persona and recalls the true events of what happened to him. He likely has a mental breakdown, making him useless for the rest of the escape from the lab. The team gets caught and probably executed as an example of what happens to those who go against Shinra.

Aerith is recaptured and the experiments on her continue.

Chapter 17 and whispers surround Aerith, trying to prevent her revealing the truth about who their real enemy is and other events to come.

What if?

Aerith would reveal all about Sephiroth, his role in things and possibly other details that only she knows because she's got some weird meta!Aerith thing happening this time around. She'd be a far less mysterious character and the team would know exactly what they're facing instead of being left in the dark.

At the end of chapter 17, Sephiroth stabs Barret and kills him. Whispers immediately appear to bring him back to life.

What if?

Well, Barret's dead. That means there's no one to help Aerith and Red in the mech battle as they're escaping, meaning they'll either die or be recaptured.

If they escape still and get out of Midgar, not having Barret in the team means the events in Corel change and the possibility of them not getting out or losing the battle to Dyne becomes a possibility. If they're stuck in Corel prison forever, then they're stuck forever.

If they manage to escape, there's still a huge Barret shaped hole in the team formation and they're in trouble anytime they need a long range fighter, and while Barret does fly off the handle whenever he's ranting about something, he's also got a huge heart and offers a perspective that's different to the others. He holds Cloud and Tifa together when they lose focus and is pretty much the team dad. Without him around they're not as strong emotionally or morally.

Still chapter 17 and the whispers surround Cloud as he tries to go after what he thinks is Sephiroth, but is actually a cloaked figure carrying Jenova away.

What if?

I'm suspicious about the identity of #2 here. On the one hand, stopping him from taking Jenova away means she returns to her tank and the threat from her is gone, but on the other hand, what if the reason why they were stopping Cloud is because he knows #2?

In Crisis Core we learn that Cloud was kept in the #2 tank beside Zack, but he never got a number tattoed on his arm. Because of his S cells he won't degrade and turn into a remnant like the others, but (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) Zack has G cells and would degrade eventually. It's all well and good saying he died, but what if he didn't? Before the crisp packet I mean. What if his body was collected by Hojo, had further experiments done and given a tattoo, only because he doesn't give a fuck which one of them was in which tank, he tattoos the wrong number on Zack and so he turns into #2.

It seems far too simple the whispers appeared to stop Cloud from getting to Jenova when that's a remnant that with a number that has potential revelations that would fuck Cloud all the way up.

So, he stops the remnant, learns their identity and freaks tf out and becomes useless for the rest of the escape. They're likely captured by Rufus and executed. The world ends because no one can stop Sephiroth.

The whispers appear to stop Wedge and push him out of a window, restoring canon with his death.

What if?

Does anyone think it's strange they're so insistent that Wedge dies? Why? They've tried to kill him 3 times and he's only a minor character and his being alive wouldn't affect anything.

Unless it does.

Cait Sith theory anyone? If Wedge is somehow transferred into the moogle body that Cait Sith uses then him being dead would be very important because his consciousness would be needed to pilot the moogle. We've got a lot of cat references with Wedge and he's the kind of short, squat shape the moogle is, not to mention he's desperate to be relevant to everyone. So, maybe he doesn't talk when he's the moogle, but he's self aware enough that he wants to do his part for everyone. We only find out after he dies again that it's actually him. Cue tears from Barret.

Whispers cover the Shinra building, causing a delay in our heroes departure when they stop to look at it.

What if?

Well, there'd be no road battle and everyone would get out of town a lot sooner. Maybe the whispers did just wanna see a fight.

Honestly, this one stumps me. There's so many of them. It's like a miniature version of when they cover Midgar. So, what's happening inside the Shinra building that needs them to do this much to contain it? You gotta remember, we're not always getting all the info. There's other things happening besides with Cloud and the gang.

Hojo's inside, so is Rufus and the Turks. They're obviously trying to prevent a change or delay it enough that things continue regardless, but hiding the team from Rufus who has to send troops after them doesn't seem right. I'm betting something else happened here.

The whispers appear to hold up the collapsing roadway so our heroes escape.

What if?

Well, they dead, so this one's simple lol

The whispers in the past cover Midgar.

What if?

Now, if this is an all time consequential event. This one matters. Which makes me question what's happening in the Shinra building that matters.

The glittering result happens only in Zack's scenes and the lingering glitter is then seen in the present, which indicates some sort of ripple effect going out from that point in time.  So, let's track it.

Let's assume that Zack reaching Midgar is what's being prevented here and now he's gonna make it alive. Zack's death is the first jolt that brings Cloud back to himself enough to get to the city, where he then finds Tifa. If this doesn't happen because Zack is caring for Cloud, then he'll end up in sector 5 instead and still very sick. His recovery will be a lot slower and it'll be Zack who goes about with Aerith. Cloud might not recover at all by the end of the game since it's Tifa calling to him that wakes him up.

Avalanche would likely fail the first bombing mission, since they needed Cloud's expertise to get in and out. They might die in the attempt.

There's no plate fall because Avalanche failed and Shinra needed them to blame for it.

Aerith has no reason to go with the Turks and there's no rescue afterwards.

Sephiroth would still retrieve Jenova, but there'd be no one to chase after him because Zack wouldn't be inside the Shinra building because Aerith wouldn't.

Sephiroth would still need a reunion puppet to get the black materia though, so there might be several attempts before he succeeds, but I believe he would eventually even without Cloud. Meteor would be summoned and the world would end.

And that's why Zack has to die.

Whispers linger around several grunt soldiers as Zack prepares to fight.

What if?

Just confirming what I said above about Zack being a necessary key part in the machine that needs to be taken out if things are gonna continue along the ideal timeline where the planet doesn't end in a fiery ball of death and destruction.

Conclusion.

I'm not gonna add the giant whisper battle because that's obvious, but there's definitely some inconsistences happening with what the planet deems important. There's huge events that actually make a difference when you track them and then there's some that make you go “wtaf?”

Most of the whispers interfering is to keep people alive or ensure continuity. They don't get in the way otherwise.

Except one time.

Chapter 4, where you even hear a voice ??? saying to sleep and dream sweet dreams. That doesn't seem right.

I mean, it sounds like Sephiroth and if I was gonna make a reach, the whole dream imagery has been very clearly linked to Aerith in Remake, so is he saying to remain within the dream so that reality can't happen? If Sephiroth wanted to succeed he'd prefer Cloud to avoid reality right? He told him to run away, to live, to leave, to avoid things. He wants Cloud to choose not to fight.

He's a bad guy (no redemption bullshit please), but his motives are much more complicated this time round. He's been very closely linked with Aerith a few times. He touches her. She's the only person beside Cloud he touches. Sure, it's a vision, but the devs still had it happen. And Sephiroth's voice is heard coming from Aerith's direction at the end of the game.

It's obvious this Sephiroth isn't the same as the OG one, but how much is he aware of? I don't believe the whole time travel theory. I do believe the meta!theory, because Sephiroth could get info from the lifestream the same way Aerith did at the start when she's staring at the mako coming out of the pipe. He could still be OG Sephiroth using what he learned during his little dip to manipulate events in his favour. There doesn't have to be a need for time travel to do this. Aerith's changing stuff without being a time traveller ffs. People need to stop going “well it's Nomura” and acting like anything ott is a go.

What I'm getting at is people need to stop looking at this from a mile long distance and screaming time travel because that's all games and films have done lately and look at it using the actual evidence we've got in the game. What we got is the whispers had clear motives for what they did, except one time when a voice was heard. Yall need to look at this shit the devs are dropping in front of your noses because this is where the plot is happening.

#final fantasy 7 remake spoilers #final fantasy 7 remake theory #Sephiroth motives #what if #meta theory #Final fantasy 7 remake analysis #whispers analysis

[rebelcourtesan]

My FF7R Theory

Below are spoilers for FF7R.  DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED FF7R.

Okay, this might sound crazy, but hear me out.  I think it makes sense unless I see something that debunks this.

I believe that the Cloud we play as in FF7R is the original Cloud from the 1997 game.  

For starters, we’ve been introduced to two timelines!  One where Zack dies on his way to MIdgar and one where he survives thanks in part due the party destroying the Whispers.  As evidence by the Stamp Mascot dog being a beagle in Timeline 1 (Zack dies) and is a terrier in Timeline 2 (Zack lives).    

Since it’s been established that we are seeing different timelines (Nomura loves complex stories with time travel and timelines).

The reason why I believe Cloud is from Timeline 0 (the original game), is because of the flashes he receives throughout the game.  At first, I thought these were flashes of the future, but what if really they are memories from Timeline 0?  

1. When Cloud looks up at the Sector 7 plate, he has a vision of it debris falling.  

2. When he meets Aerith in the Church, we are given flashes of Aerith’s impending death.

3.  While traveling with Aerith, he experiences an emotional flash and a tear rolls down his cheek.     

4. He continually sees phantoms or images of Sephiroth through the game.  Which I believe is because Sephiroth we are seeing is either from Timeline 0 or is aware of what occurred there.  

How could this be?

Think back to the original game, Cloud has entered into the Lifestream multiple times.  To heal his torn mind and to deliver the final blow to Sephiroth.  Perhaps a part of him, or a copy, was taken to a new Timeline, but strip of his memories which still come to him in flashes.  

It might be the Whispers doing or even Sephiroth’s plan to finally enact his plan of becoming a God.  By having a Cloud that would do anything to prevent Aerith from sacrificing herself to summon Holy.  

7 seconds.   At first, I had NO IDEA what he meant by 7 seconds.  Then it was pointed out to me that it takes Sephiroth 7 seconds as he descends to kill Aerith.  People have actually timed and it almost exactly on point.  

What choice will you make in 7 seconds?  To let Aerith die so she can summon Holy?  Or save her, but also condemn the planet? 

With the Whispers destroyed, the way is open for Cloud to save Aerith from this fate.  But saving her would also open the way for Sephiroth to fulfill his plan of destroying the Planet.  Tough decision is coming.      

#ff7r #theory #spoilers

[terraxcloud]

Good News!

I’ve looked though both parts of Act 4 Chapter 2 in Opera Omnia and they are indeed building up a Clerra story using the stories of other characters in Final Fantasy.

This means they’re dedicating an entire act on Clerra.

Part 1 is similar to Cloud’s Dissidia story where he “finds his reason to fight”, except everyone is just finding out what they should do for fun instead of just fighting. Neither Cloud nor Terra appear, but this chapter appears to use Sice & Machina to represent them instead (who does Nine represent?). They do focus on fighting quite a lot...there’s even a martial arts tournament, so it’s very tongue and cheek.

Yes, Sice and Machina can represent Terra & Cloud (Sice literally means “6″), but it’s interesting that they don’t use Sice & Seven or Rem & Machina since they can hide the intention better. Also, Sice is rather similar to Rikku...I’m not sure if that was ever the intent of her design, but I just wanted to mention it (in my last post I said Iris dressed like Rikku in a way... and since Rikku may represent Priscilla who’ll appear in Rebirth, it felt important).

Part 2 is about Iris and everyone talking about falling in love with people, unrequited love, etc. etc. There’s a part with “childhood friends” where many of them are mentioned (except Cloud & Tifa for some reason despite Jessie being right there). Terra does appear once in this chapter talking about her own parents being from different worlds. Eiko literally tells Iris that they’re similar by how Iris was happy seeing Noctis & Luna together...Iris = Eiko.

I wonder if that will have something to do with Tifa, since it couldn’t be Aerith (despite her FR weapon summoning Eiko). Remember that Eiko represents the character Betty (”Moogle Girl”) in FF7R, and that character is based more around Tifa. The “Traces of Two Pasts” gives a hint that Tifa will be that type of character by her random thoughts of Cloud and how she’ll have to “face the truth”. I’m not going to speculate much more, since there’s that one theory that she’ll die, and I’d rather not touch that.

Also, there’s a lot of talking about memories in Part 2, specifically about Lunafreya’s notebook.

Cinque is standing-in for Aerith in Iris’ story (that’s a no-brainer), and I suppose Deuce stands-in for Terra in the same regard. Squall appears at random in Part 1, and in places where I expected him to show up.

It feels very uncanny knowing that this is a buildup to Clerra since it is trying to be as discrete as Batman is at hiding his identity.

No screenshots right now, but one detail I can add...the final boss of Part 2 is just Magitek Armor (the FF6 version).

So yeah, it’s suspicious to a fault.

(EDIT: Now that I’ve considered it, Jessie is a bit similar to Eiko, but she doesn’t have the age problem Iris & Eiko have. I believe Priscilla & Yuffie are the best candidates to represent “the Eiko” in FF7R. Do they need one in FF7R? Perhaps...it’s not like I know why anything is what it is, but it’s a waste of time to question Nomura’s head. My question is...how exactly does this relate to Terra? Was three years a big difference? Was it more during the early development of FF6? Celes & Locke are literally 7 years apart! Iris & Noctis are just 5 years apart in comparison. Perhaps it has to do with being children, since a few years is a lot when you’re rapidly growing).

#Clerra #DFFOO #Opera Omnia #Dissidia

[terraxcloud]

Something is cooking in Opera Omnia

I’m starting to understand what’s going on in Act 4, at least with the characters they’re introducing.

They’ve just introduced Iris from FFXV. Recently they introduced Reks (FF12) and Quina (FF9), but I wasn’t THAT suspicious of them...yet I knew they were introducing these characters now for a specific reason.

Since I don’t know Japanese, I can’t be sure how exactly they’re being used, but I know that this entire act is trying to tie itself to Clerra.

Iris was designed to be one of those “Terra-related” characters in FF games. I can just list a few of the hints.

Her belt and skirt are designed to imitate Terra’s sash (Rikku was given the same thing too).

She has a moogle doll (that’s an obvious hint).

When she first met Noctis, it was because of a cat (Brotherhood).

Her FR summon is Serah (that sets off alarms by itself).

She has a crush on Noctis, but she’s way younger than him (this is something that was given to Eiko, but I believe it originated from Terra [no theories for now].

Characters related to Clerra interact with her in her DFFOO scenes (this includes Eiko, Jessie, Cinque & Deuce).

If she was introduced in a Lost Chapter then I wouldn’t be as suspicious, but she’s introduced in Act 4, Chapter 2 - Part 2...the main story.

This is literally the loading screen for Part 2 of Chapter 2!

Back before FF7 Remake launched, the hints they were giving out were placed in one single chapter, scene, or event. This time now...they’re tying everything together as if preparing for something. Anyone who knows about Dissidia would be wondering to themselves if they’re actually trying to make Clerra a reality, since what would be the purpose of hinting Dissidia in this way?

I have trouble describing what’s what, but I can say with more certainty that the major reveal will be in FF7 Rebirth as they would not dedicate an entire DFFOO Act on Clerra if something wasn’t imminent.

The whole “filling the world with flowers” thing is 100% Clerra, never forget it. Much of 3D Final Fantasy has the old FF6 cut Clerra script as its foundation...as crazy as that sounds.

I hope they do something new for at least FF7R.