The bird “returns” to Midgar at a site on the Plate that appears still to be under construction. According the Crisis Core Ultimania, Sector 4 is the last part of the Plate to be completed. In the OG, you can tell by the landscape that the unfinished highway where Cloud and the others leave Midgar is to the southeast of Shinra HQ, thus somewhere on the border of Sectors 3 and 4. Does the bird then “return” to Midgar at the same location the party leaves? Or have I just looked too much into this one? Read on.
(Train map)
The train map clearly shows the last stop being “South Edge”. There’s an obvious nod to Advent Children. But, perhaps not in the way you might think. In On the Way to a Smile: Case of Shinra, it is revealed that Edge is named so because it was established on the southeast border of Midgar (Sectors 3 and 4), and then extended east as it grew. Therefore, “South Edge” refers to a location on the Plate (or possibly Slums) rather than actually having anything to do with the city that emerged from its ruins (the way that Manhattan is broken up into Lower East Side, Upper West Side, etc). Nonetheless, it is a cool nod, but also adds weight to my point above.
Is anyone interested in this?
