I wrote an ending theory elsewhere and would love to hear what you think about it.
I think a lot of people have misunderstood some things about the ending. I have spent a lot of time thinking about it and now when doing a second playthrough it's starting to make much more sense. I really don't think it'll end up being "some convoluted Kingdom Hearts bs level of mindfuckery" as some people fear. I tried to keep this as simple I could, but it's still a bit long, so bear with me.
For starters: there's only two timelines, this game is not a sequel and we’ll likely never “physically” set our foot in the other timeline and yes, Aerith has to die, again. Our heroes are still in the good old "what happened, happened" timeline. The plate still fell, Avalanche buddies still died and Zack is most definitively dead. And I really don't think there's going to be any physical travelling between the timelines.
They clearly tell you this with visual clues during the ending scenes.
- In the Zack scene the camera slows down to show us that Stamp the dog is a completely different dog breed than in the real timeline. That’s why they make you look at Stamp the dog multiple times during the game, to make you recognize the picture and the breed of the dog.
- The scenes where the timeline has been altered all have this golden dust rain on them which starts when the Harbinger, Whispers and “Sephiroth” are defeated and the singularity closes. The scenes where Zack lives, Biggs lives, Jessie and Wedge is hinted to live and the plate doesn’t get completely wrecked etc. all have this golden dust rain on them.
- However, there isn’t a single scene that has the golden rain in any of the scenes with our heroes. When they get back to the real world everything seems to be just like it should be. Nothing from the past was undone, and now we'll get to what the future has in store for them.
My theory is that there's actually no time travel at all, at least not in the way that people are interpreting it. Instead I think they're going to greatly expand the lore of the Ancients, Gaia and the Lifestream. The following will contain spoilers from the original game also.
Sephiroth is still dead and is still controlling Jenova from the Northern Crater. However, I think in Remake he can also use the Lifestream to see the past, the present and the future and I think Cetra can do that too now. We'll likely learn about that more later. But he can’t time travel, it’s just his consciousness much like in the original. By using the Lifestream/knowledge of the Ancients he sees his eventual downfall and uses that knowledge to his benefit to try and manipulate Cloud & buddies using Jenova's hallucinations. He doesn't actually physically travel from the future to the past (this ain’t a sequel to Advent Children, that’s nonsense). By manipulating the Lifestream/Whispers Sephiroth shows our heroes glimpses of the future without context: the Meteor falling, Midgar ruins, one of the massive Weapons etc. Without context they look like apocalyptic events. That's why Cloud and the others think that they're going to lose and that they have to avoid that fate.
Now about the Whispers of Fate. Aerith pretty much says it clearly that they're from the Lifestream and they might even be Cetra and that’s why also Aerith is more aware of what’s happening, because she too can talk to the planet, just like in the original.
"Voices of the planet… those born into this world. Who lived and who died. Who returned. They're howling in pain". <- That's Lifestream and Cetra for you.
The Whispers are trying to keep the timeline unchanged so that Sephiroth eventually loses. But Sephiroth's powers combined with Jenova's powers still possess a threat to them. Sephiroth can't directly kill the Harbinger and the Whispers which are some kind of manifestations and guardians from the Lifestream (I know also about the Barret, Cloud & Tifa theory, we’ll see…). He also can’t directly alter the events yet, but what he can do is to try and manipulate our heroes (using Jenova’s hallucinations) to think that they need to destroy the Whispers.
And tricked by Sephiroth our heroes eventually win, which undoes everything the Whispers prevented and that creates another timeline, where now Zack is alive, which would likely set on motion a chain of events where our heroes might not even ever meet or at least Aerith survives. So in this timeline Sephiroth will eventually win. But that's not the timeline we're going to be playing in. Also you can clearly see the Sephiroth we fight at the end is formed from the Whispers so he seems to be again just a hallucination made by Jenova or something like that.
I think where they are going with this is to keep Sephiroth's plan more fresh for everyone while still maintaining most of the original events from here on also.
They will likely sometimes show events from the other timeline to show the players that this is what happens if they don't succeed. A timeline where Zack and Aerith lives is not the happy ending, not even for them. That's the ultimate apocalyptic ending where Sephiroth basically reaches Godhood and eventually destroys everything, because the events to prevent that don't happen.
In the real timeline thanks to Sephiroth's manipulation our heroes now falsely think that they have to prevent the events that ultimately lead them to win. I think during the road ahead they will bit by bit understand what's going on and Aerith clearly plays a big role again. Key moments for the larger plot are likely again in the Cosmo Canyon, Temple and the City of the Ancients etc.
She still has to die so she can use the Lifestream to save the planet, but she might live longer this time, which will keep her fate fresh for everyone while still not changing it too much. Sephiroth’s line “Seven seconds 'till the end. Time enough for you, perhaps. But what will you do with it?” might be related to Aerith’s death and maybe this time Cloud has to choose between saving Aerith and something else. He might actually save Aerith and set Sephiroth’s plan into full motion. That leads to a situation where Aerith’s life needs to be taken in some other way later, so they might actually pull off making it devastating and surprising this time also. I think because at that time Cloud is still not “the real” Cloud they might actually make Cloud completely fall in love with Aerith and thus making the “wrong” choice at first. That’s why there’s a hidden/optional scene in the game where Aerith tells Cloud not to fall in love with her, no matter what.
Look, I know the key people doing the Remake have a thing for stories with multiple timelines and changing fate etc. But they're not stupid either. This Remake clearly shows they still understand what makes FF7 good. But yeah, they’re going to add new things and change some old things. Until proven otherwise in the coming games, I think they found a way to keep things fresh while still not changing it too much. I'm sure they keep most of the original story beats and settings while at the same time expanding on the lore of the planet, Aerith, Ancients, Sephiroth and Jenova to keep the players guessing and not knowing everything that is going to happen.
I know there's holes in this theory, but something like this seems much more likely given the real facts we have at our disposal, rather than some completely off the rails time travelling shit. Yes, I think the last fights were too epic and the Whispers were too meta. They really didn't need to develop an in universe plot that enables them to keep things fresh. They could just have made the changes they want to the story and game design and basically say "deal with it".
They've clearly lost some of the more subtle storytelling beats and replaced it with a pompous character driven drama. But for me at least so far everything I love about FF7 is still presented in a very respectful way and the ending did make me more excited about what’s to come. If they go the route I'm thinking, I don't think they'll lose the theme of life, death, birth and all that, even if they add a touch of fate to it. It's pretty clear this is the only game titled "Remake" because it's an actual plot twist in this game. I'm almost 90 % sure they'll use Final Fantasy 7: Reunion as one of the titles, maybe the last one, but we’ll see.
I’ll gladly admit I was wrong if this train goes totally off the rails in the coming parts, but for now I’ll give them the benefit of doubt.
I think this line from the reveal trailer is now more relevant than ever. "The reunion at hand may bring joy, it may bring fear, but let us embrace whatever it brings."
