ultima786
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- ultima
Greetings people,
As one who played the OG back in 1997 and considered it the greatest game of all time, REMAKE was pure magic for me and I cannot believe how amazing this experience was. REMAKE was an event in gaming history. A rollercoaster (or rather, a themepark). I have never seen characters so lovable, expressive, and well-depicted. Greatest cast in all of gaming. The ending was out of no-where, but has grown on me over the last few days; and even if you didn't like the ending, you have to admit that Zack twist was super-hype with remarkable music.
I have become frustrated with so many Youtubers' over-reliance on certain non-canon terms, like "time-lines" and "time-travel", comparisons to AVENGERS and BACK TO THE FUTURE to explain what happened in REMAKE, especially the ending. Especially Max-Dood's theories, which have been really fun, but are at times overly overly-wacky and unsubstantiated. I want to offer an explanation to the game that relies heavily on the established OG Final Fantasy 7 lore.
- The Whispers - These are new elements to FF7 lore but have their basis in established lore. They are voices from the planet, as per the explicit words of Aerith. They are the planet's will. When the planet wants something, it creates certain things to accomplish its goals. For example, WEAPONs are its way of defending from physical dangers. The Planet has made an assessment of what is best for itself and has decided that it wants to ensure certain deeds to be done that will lead to its salvation from Jenova and Sephiroth within the Lifestream. And so, it created these Whisper as protectors of its future, similar to WEAPONs, which happen to need to goad the party on in a certain direction. You do not have to believe they are "trying to ensure FF7OG takes place" nor do you have to believe that they are a meta-narrative symbolizing fans. That's fine if you want to think that. But within the story, they are just wise viceroys for the planet and carrying out what it thinks is best.
In OG, if I remember right, Bugenhagen says that the Planet is like a child. And so it behaves like one in trying to ensure it gets its way. Perhaps this is why the Planet is willing to sacrifice its inhabitants for its own purposes, such as Zack and Aerith.
The implication of the ending to REMAKE is that the Arbiters have been intervening on behalf of the planet since Zack's last stand outside of Midgar. If you look closely at the ending scenes, the Arbiters/Whispers are floating around as Zack faces off against Shinra soldiers. The implication is this: Zack would have easily defeated them, but the Arbiters ensured that they won. Zack could not see them.
- The Whispers in Time - At some point, the party enters the "singularity" where they meet the Harbinger Arbiter and fight the 3 smaller arbiters. This singularity is not in time but is above time, and is perhaps like a single point that can witness all of history. I think this also means that the Lifestream is also a timeless existence, and so one who goes within it does not experience time the same way as they normally would. So when the arbiters act, they act upon all of history all at once. Therefore, when the party defeats the Arbiters, their influence disappears from all of history all at once. This is why the Arbiters are no longer there in present Midgar, nor are they around a few days earlier, allowing Zack to defeat them.
- The Knowledge of the Whispers and the Planet - In OG, the Planet is a knowing entity. The Lifestream contains knowledge. This is why the Cetra are so knowledgeable, as they are gaining knowledge from Lifestream. This is why the Whispers have knowledge of what happens and what will happen, and also explains why Sephiroth is knowledgable about the future. He is also an unfortunate resident of the Lifestream, like a virus that needs to be destroyed.
- Zack - As stated earlier, Zack does not see the Arbiters a few days before the events of the start of REMAKE. When their influence is removed from history by the party, he is allowed to be his super-soldier self and defeat the shinra army chasing him. You may wonder: how then did Cloud get the bustersword? This is a mystery at the moment, but can easily be explained with simple story clarifications: for example, maybe Zack got ambushed again in Midgar, and his sword is left behind for Cloud to grab when he is finally awoken by Jenova at the train-station when meeting Aerith for the first time in 7 years (not 5 years!).
The only evidence that everyone has for belief in various timelines is that the chips bag had a different Stamp Mascot on it. This is compelling but can also be explained that the Arbiters no longer acting on history allowed history to be changed. Just like Zack changed his own outcome, the artist for Stamp's bag changed his design for Stamp. There is no need to take recourse to different timelines. Do not be surprised if the party comes back to Midgar at a later date only to see all of the Stamp iconography changed to the 'new' design.
For this reason, I do not think the game will have two independent timelines, nor do I think they'll be any sort of convergence of two timelines and its characters. The Arbiters simply changed the one history that the party is living in. So we'll eventually get to meet Zack and Biggs again. [Hopefully our beloved Aerith will still make her sacrifice!]
- Sephiroth - Sephiroth is not time traveling, nor is he from the future. Just like OG, his consciousness flows within the life-stream and therefore has access to its knowledge. His body is still encased in Mako near the Northern Crater. Every-single time you experience "Sephiroth" out in the world, there are two reasons: (1) He is a vision within Cloud's mind which is precisely as it was in OG except it is now depicted visually instead of words and black screens. Such a vision cannot be seen by anyone else. This is completely sensible because Cloud has Jenova cells within him, and therefore Jenova/Sephiroth (take your pick) is screwing with him. (2) A Jenova Sephiroth Clone is manifesting as an image of Sephiroth. Even the last battle with Sephiroth within the singularity is not the "true" Sephiroth. It is simply that same clone that we followed inside. We defeat that Sephiroth, which is still crazy powerful because it is a mutation of Jenova.
All of this implies that Sephiroth has access to the Planet's knowledge and foresight about the future. He uses this knowledge to influence the party to carry out his plan of goading Cloud and Aerith to chase him and one day provide him the Black materia (only Aerith can retrieve the black materia, and only Cloud can be used via his mindcontrol).
- The Edge of Creation - This is the exact same realm that Cloud went to at the end of OG, but now given a name. We even enjoyed similar cinematography as in the OG before Cloud does his failed omnislash. This is where Sephiroth's consciousness resides. It must be a realm within the Lifestream.
As one who played the OG back in 1997 and considered it the greatest game of all time, REMAKE was pure magic for me and I cannot believe how amazing this experience was. REMAKE was an event in gaming history. A rollercoaster (or rather, a themepark). I have never seen characters so lovable, expressive, and well-depicted. Greatest cast in all of gaming. The ending was out of no-where, but has grown on me over the last few days; and even if you didn't like the ending, you have to admit that Zack twist was super-hype with remarkable music.
I have become frustrated with so many Youtubers' over-reliance on certain non-canon terms, like "time-lines" and "time-travel", comparisons to AVENGERS and BACK TO THE FUTURE to explain what happened in REMAKE, especially the ending. Especially Max-Dood's theories, which have been really fun, but are at times overly overly-wacky and unsubstantiated. I want to offer an explanation to the game that relies heavily on the established OG Final Fantasy 7 lore.
- The Whispers - These are new elements to FF7 lore but have their basis in established lore. They are voices from the planet, as per the explicit words of Aerith. They are the planet's will. When the planet wants something, it creates certain things to accomplish its goals. For example, WEAPONs are its way of defending from physical dangers. The Planet has made an assessment of what is best for itself and has decided that it wants to ensure certain deeds to be done that will lead to its salvation from Jenova and Sephiroth within the Lifestream. And so, it created these Whisper as protectors of its future, similar to WEAPONs, which happen to need to goad the party on in a certain direction. You do not have to believe they are "trying to ensure FF7OG takes place" nor do you have to believe that they are a meta-narrative symbolizing fans. That's fine if you want to think that. But within the story, they are just wise viceroys for the planet and carrying out what it thinks is best.
In OG, if I remember right, Bugenhagen says that the Planet is like a child. And so it behaves like one in trying to ensure it gets its way. Perhaps this is why the Planet is willing to sacrifice its inhabitants for its own purposes, such as Zack and Aerith.
The implication of the ending to REMAKE is that the Arbiters have been intervening on behalf of the planet since Zack's last stand outside of Midgar. If you look closely at the ending scenes, the Arbiters/Whispers are floating around as Zack faces off against Shinra soldiers. The implication is this: Zack would have easily defeated them, but the Arbiters ensured that they won. Zack could not see them.
- The Whispers in Time - At some point, the party enters the "singularity" where they meet the Harbinger Arbiter and fight the 3 smaller arbiters. This singularity is not in time but is above time, and is perhaps like a single point that can witness all of history. I think this also means that the Lifestream is also a timeless existence, and so one who goes within it does not experience time the same way as they normally would. So when the arbiters act, they act upon all of history all at once. Therefore, when the party defeats the Arbiters, their influence disappears from all of history all at once. This is why the Arbiters are no longer there in present Midgar, nor are they around a few days earlier, allowing Zack to defeat them.
- The Knowledge of the Whispers and the Planet - In OG, the Planet is a knowing entity. The Lifestream contains knowledge. This is why the Cetra are so knowledgeable, as they are gaining knowledge from Lifestream. This is why the Whispers have knowledge of what happens and what will happen, and also explains why Sephiroth is knowledgable about the future. He is also an unfortunate resident of the Lifestream, like a virus that needs to be destroyed.
- Zack - As stated earlier, Zack does not see the Arbiters a few days before the events of the start of REMAKE. When their influence is removed from history by the party, he is allowed to be his super-soldier self and defeat the shinra army chasing him. You may wonder: how then did Cloud get the bustersword? This is a mystery at the moment, but can easily be explained with simple story clarifications: for example, maybe Zack got ambushed again in Midgar, and his sword is left behind for Cloud to grab when he is finally awoken by Jenova at the train-station when meeting Aerith for the first time in 7 years (not 5 years!).
The only evidence that everyone has for belief in various timelines is that the chips bag had a different Stamp Mascot on it. This is compelling but can also be explained that the Arbiters no longer acting on history allowed history to be changed. Just like Zack changed his own outcome, the artist for Stamp's bag changed his design for Stamp. There is no need to take recourse to different timelines. Do not be surprised if the party comes back to Midgar at a later date only to see all of the Stamp iconography changed to the 'new' design.
For this reason, I do not think the game will have two independent timelines, nor do I think they'll be any sort of convergence of two timelines and its characters. The Arbiters simply changed the one history that the party is living in. So we'll eventually get to meet Zack and Biggs again. [Hopefully our beloved Aerith will still make her sacrifice!]
- Sephiroth - Sephiroth is not time traveling, nor is he from the future. Just like OG, his consciousness flows within the life-stream and therefore has access to its knowledge. His body is still encased in Mako near the Northern Crater. Every-single time you experience "Sephiroth" out in the world, there are two reasons: (1) He is a vision within Cloud's mind which is precisely as it was in OG except it is now depicted visually instead of words and black screens. Such a vision cannot be seen by anyone else. This is completely sensible because Cloud has Jenova cells within him, and therefore Jenova/Sephiroth (take your pick) is screwing with him. (2) A Jenova Sephiroth Clone is manifesting as an image of Sephiroth. Even the last battle with Sephiroth within the singularity is not the "true" Sephiroth. It is simply that same clone that we followed inside. We defeat that Sephiroth, which is still crazy powerful because it is a mutation of Jenova.
All of this implies that Sephiroth has access to the Planet's knowledge and foresight about the future. He uses this knowledge to influence the party to carry out his plan of goading Cloud and Aerith to chase him and one day provide him the Black materia (only Aerith can retrieve the black materia, and only Cloud can be used via his mindcontrol).
- The Edge of Creation - This is the exact same realm that Cloud went to at the end of OG, but now given a name. We even enjoyed similar cinematography as in the OG before Cloud does his failed omnislash. This is where Sephiroth's consciousness resides. It must be a realm within the Lifestream.
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