SPOILERS FFVII Remake Open Spoiler Discussion Thread

Obsidian Fire

Ahk Morn!
AKA
The Engineer
The OG Ultimanias make it sound like Aerith is kinda lying to herself about Zack. She knows he's dead. But she'd rather he have left her for someone else rather than for him to have been dead. So that is what she keeps telling herself happened.

Remake makes her outright ask Cloud if he knows where Zack is. And then she makes several huge references to how she and Zack talk about the sky in Crisis Core when Cloud and Co. finally leave Midgar. Specifically about how it takes people she knows and loves away.

Aerith in Remake very much feels like she hasn't gotten over Zack yet and is *still* looking for him. Zack in Crisis Core was heading to Midgar to find Aerith. The idea of them not being happy to find each other at this point... feels very off for their characters.

I can understand them being concerned about each other. Especially once Aerith finds out that Zack and Cloud were with Hojo for four years. In fact, I almost expect it. And Zack is going to be *really* concerned with Sephrioth being around. But the only thing I can really see them doing when they finally meet each other is being so relieved that the other is still alive and is okay. And being almost giddy that they finally found each other again.
 

Fiz

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Eh?
The OG Ultimanias make it sound like Aerith is kinda lying to herself about Zack. She knows he's dead. But she'd rather he have left her for someone else rather than for him to have been dead. So that is what she keeps telling herself happened.

Remake makes her outright ask Cloud if he knows where Zack is. And then she makes several huge references to how she and Zack talk about the sky in Crisis Core when Cloud and Co. finally leave Midgar. Specifically about how it takes people she knows and loves away.

Aerith in Remake very much feels like she hasn't gotten over Zack yet and is *still* looking for him. Zack in Crisis Core was heading to Midgar to find Aerith. The idea of them not being happy to find each other at this point... feels very off for their characters.

I can understand them being concerned about each other. Especially once Aerith finds out that Zack and Cloud were with Hojo for four years. In fact, I almost expect it. And Zack is going to be *really* concerned with Sephrioth being around. But the only thing I can really see them doing when they finally meet each other is being so relieved that the other is still alive and is okay. And being almost giddy that they finally found each other again.

Yes, and to me this is far more interesting character story than “she’s met Cloud and moved on”.

Bereaved people rarely “move on”, even if they fall in love with a new person and start new relationships. They tend to learn to cope.

Excluding older people, who ofc I know who have been bereaved, I know two younger people who have and have found new partners. They still love the person they lost as they did before, and one goes to her grave with their new partner. They more learn to cope and continue living their lives than “move on”.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
I was thinking about this very trauma earlier today. I can understand the distaste for phrasing it as "move on," as that may not fully offer an appreciation for the fact that you never heal from such a wound. Grief permanently alters your brain, so you literally can never get back to who you were before. Even if you try.

You can resolve to let yourself continue growing in new, unavoidably different directions than before, and see who you then become; or you can stay in the same anxiety-ridden system-shocked state of being as when you were wounded; but you can't go back to who you were before you received the injury.
 

Clement Rage

Pro Adventurer
Aeris' superpowers mean that she knows whether the people that are close to her are dead or not.

So she knows Zack died, but almost more importantly, she knows he didn't die in Nibelheim. As someone who was raised in Hojo's lab, it would not be hard to make the leap. So 'I hope he's dead, because the alternative is worse' is a very possible mindset.
 
I think there isn't just one Chadley moving around from location to location.
I think there are innumerable Chadleys scattered all over Midgar, sharing access to a single AI processing core. They are fixed in their location, like a vending machine. There's a bio-mechanic whose job it is to travel around and service them.
I wouldn't be surprised if this theory had been suggested many times before and I simply missed it.
 
Once all of Sephiroth's schemes have been thwarted and Shinra is no more, Chadley will be there to reshape the world in his own image. Nothing but an army of obnoxious robot kids obsessed with gathering data sets by projecting people into hellscape holographic battlefields. It will be like the Matrix except instead of squid bots it's all Chadley bots.

All the signs were there...and nobody did anything to stop it.
 

KindOfBlue

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Blue
Chadley…is blowing his trumpet. Can’t you hear it?

The day of reckoning is coming, but you all crawl over each other like rats in a sewer. I have fallen to earth from heaven’s grace, and yet you all point and laugh.

Can you hear me now, Chadley? Can you hear my cries?

They have clipped my wings, and I can no longer fly to you. I am chained to this rock, this desolate place, so full of isolation that the voices in my mind are the only ones to bring me comfort.

The day will come. Judgement will be made. You will scream, but they will fall upon deaf ears. VR and materia will be the cornerstone of this utopian future. I will cover the world with my passion.

Chadley’s trumpet is sounding now…can you hear it?
 

Eerie

Fire and Blood
I've been thinking about something lately, and @Obsidian Fire quoted that which solidified somehow these thoughts (from the OG):
Cloud
What is it?

Hojo
Nothing. I just remembered a certain hypothesis......
Haven't you ever had the feeling something is calling you?
Or that you had to visit some place?......


Cloud
I'll go anywhere Sephiroth is at!
To beat him and put an end to all this!

It made me think about Cloud telling Elmyra that he feels called (either by Aerith, by destiny, or just like this depending on the translation or JP). I think this line might have 2 purposes: show that Aerith's scene is canon in game (just like the two other scenes have been referenced in game), but also.. that Jenova or Sephiroth might be acting up there? That they might be "calling him" for the Reunion, and Cloud, having seen Aerith in his dream, thinks that it's her who's calling him instead? Because Aerith told him to not come and was genuinely surprised that he and Tifa did come to save her. So it's odd to me that she would "call him" despite what we are shown otherwise.
 

KindOfBlue

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Blue
I actually really like the idea of Jenova mimicking Aerith in that scene, I’m just trying to work out why she’d then tell him “you can’t fall in love with me, even if you think you have, it’s not real” so I guess it makes sense that it’s not Jenova mimicking Aerith directly, but that Cloud is drawn to the Shinra building for another reason he doesn’t realize
 

KindOfBlue

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Blue
The chapter 14 dream scene is definitely Aerith though, it would be weird if she wasn't since we have both Tifa and Barret who also share a moment with him. What I'm saying is that there's this scene with Aerith AND aside this there's also Jenova "calling" him.
I know I’m just saying it’s a cool idea, either way, Jenova influencing Cloud towards Aerith has some precedent in the OG albeit for…less-than-favorable reasons
 
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