Can I just say I really hope we’re not venturing into “Jessie is alive because the furniture next to Biggs spells out the kanji for whatever-the-hell” territory with all of this church talk lmao. The prerendered cutscenes being inconsistent with the in-engine design isn’t exactly out of the question considering
Cloud, Tifa and Aerith themselves look different. Still though, I’ll indulge in it for a bit lol.
Because it's a paradox and the Ultimania says outright that if Zack is alive, Cloud shouldn't have the Buster Sword. Then it specifies that these two parties in fact do cross paths; Zack holding an unconscious Cloud as they pass Cloud and Aerith. Yet they do not cross paths within the same time and space. That's a detail not being raised idily. It's a Doylist analysis of how the scene plays out and its contextual meaning. It's not an ambiguous concept. Unfolding these concepts are the entire point of these book series, after all.
He
shouldn’t have the sword and yet
he does. They haven’t explained the specifics of how this works. This is what they said:
“How is it possible that there are two different Clouds that exist at the same time?” That’s a question. They then follow it up with “it is assumed that they shouldn’t not exist in the same time and space”. It is
assumed that they
should not, but what the hell
are they then?
And notice how both of our explanations fit here. If what you’re saying is true, then they don’t exist in the same time and space because it’s two separate timelines. If what I’m saying is true, they still don’t exist in the same time and space because the actual event of Zack living did not occur at the same time that Cloud left Midgar, but earlier.
And then of course, there’s “aside from that, the rest is unknown”. I know the ultimanias are meant to break down the specifics of what’s going on in the story but they literally did not do that with this particular point lol, they’re basically saying “we’ll get there when we get there.”
To answer your question about children crying in Aerith's church, it's simple. There's clearly
something wrong. And people associating those children with the plate fall are missing the point of that scene entirely. Look at the scenery and design of the Church in Zack's ending; it doesn't match what that church looks like in FFVII-R.
The details are wildly different.
There are only
6 broken down pews, nestled near the front of the church, during FFVII-R.
Pay attention to the ending. There are several pews when Zack enters, with people sitting on them,
all the way near the entrance door of said church.
The entry archway and walls of said entrance to the church are a clean,
polished white in Zack's ending.
The entry archway is a
dull, dirty brownish color during FFVII-R. Just look at yourself if you think it's not true.
The brick walls of the church are clean and white in the ending with Zack.
The brick walls of the church in FFVII-R are dirty brown.
I don't understand how no one's noticing this.
They're not the same. church That's not what the church looked like in FFVII-R.
But you wanna know when the Church
looked like that?
This is some big brained level-100 shit lmao but you know what though? We can treat the design of the church the same way I’m interpreting the design of Stamp.
The way the church looks throughout most of the remake? That’s the world
before the singularity changed the past (beagle). The way the church looks at the end of intermission? That’s the world
after the singularity changed the past (terrier).
If time just "went on for him" why would Aerith be in sync with Zack's entrance into the church and realizing that something wrong? The entire point is to show that Aerith is somehow able to sense and feel that something's off while Zack encounters these anomalies within his existence. They can't be experiencing that if they aren't in corresponding points in progression as shown from when they existed the Singularity.
Because Zack entering the church
did occur at the same time that Aerith senses something’s wrong, again we agree there. But Zack’s last stand itself still took place months before Cloud left Midgar. Remember, we only ever see Zack’s last stand
before and
after the singularity, not
during. In this new world that Cloud ended up in, Zack’s last stand is an event that took place months before Cloud leaving Midgar, that has not changed, only the outcome.
What I’m suggesting is that time has not shifted, Zack still fought Shinra in September and Cloud still left Midgar in December. I am treating those as two events that are fixed in time. The question then is, what was Zack doing during that three month period? He didn’t just teleport 3 months ahead, he
lived those three months. Then when we catch up with him, it’s December, he’s going to see Aerith and…she’s gone.
Had Zack gone to the church in September, Aerith would have likely still been there. So what was he doing for those months? Who knows. Probably dealing with being a wanted criminal and surviving a fight with a whole ass army.
Of course, that’s all still conjecture. But we still have an opportunity to tell a Zack story here just as we would if we were on two separate timelines. Why didn’t he go to the church right away? Perhaps we can learn about what was holding him up. Or we can see what Zack gets up to after reaching the church. Where does he go next? More importantly, we can have a Zack story that isn’t so disconnected from the main plot because it’s all happing on the same plane of existence.
This only requires common sense. The writers have said explicitly that Yuffie will run into Cloud and the others in Part 2. If Yuffie exists in the universe where Stamp is still a Beagle dog, then it stands to reason Cloud and the others are too. Because they have to meet. Unless you think Yuffie or Cloud and the others are going to have to punch a hole into space-time and then cross over accordingly.
Cloud and Yuffie can still meet though, it’s just that maybe the world around them has changed…I’m thinking of it more as though the beagle world was overwritten by the terrier world