The Official "How many parts?" Thread

[LNK]

I mean...yes. Yes it does.
The singularity bridges different points in time. Why do you think us fighting the plot ghosts retroactively made Zack survive his encounter with Shinra?
The Whispers form a dome around Midgar. We flash back to Zack and see the very same swarm of Whispers around Midgar. Later we defeat the Whispers and Sephiroth inside the Singularity and back in Zack's timeline it explodes into golden particles. We then see sector 7 in the present day with the very same golden particles. Visually it's made clear it's the same thing and that it happens across two points in time "simultaneously".



Because it didn't happen for her. Same reason why Zack wasn't always alive. It's a different timeline.

I guess we'll see if Zack or anyone in his timeline says anything about the explosion in part 2

 

[LNK]

When the Arbiter of Fate and such is finished, the singularity blows up, and that seems to be the Whispers too. The dust that falls reminds me of Pyreflies,

This is what has me confused though. When the party defeats Whisper Harbinger, the singularity doesn't blow up. The team is still in it, then fights Sephiroth, right?

So then, what is the exact moment when the singularity is destroyed?

 

[Makoeyes987]

So then, what is the exact moment when the singularity is destroyed?

When Sephiroth retreats from battle.

After you win the final battle, if you notice, the Whispers Sephiroth absorbed begin to escape out of his body and he loses his wing. He begins to lose control of them and they eventually escape out of him and explode. The party didn't completely beat Sephiroth, however they did make him lose control over the Whispers and that caused the Singularity to explode.

 

[LNK]

When Sephiroth retreats from battle.

After you win the final battle, if you notice, the Whispers Sephiroth absorbed begin to escape out of his body and he loses his wing. He begins to lose control of them and they eventually escape out of him and explode. The party didn't completely beat Sephiroth, however they did make him lose control over the Whispers and that caused the Singularity to explode.

Are you talking about the explosion right around 14:10?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Are you talking about the explosion right around 14:10?

Correct. That's the explosion.

 

[LNK]

Correct. That's the explosion.

OK OK, I see. I didn't remember that explosion happening. That's why I couldn't remember what caused the explosion in Zack's scene. Hopefully it does get brought up in his timeline

 

[eleamaya]

Would Nibelheim be epic enough for final boss battle?
I still stand that it's gonna end in Temple of Ancient and leave Aerith's fate as cliffhanger for the next part.
We'll all get 4 parts.

Okay, I make up my mind.
It can end in Nibelheim BUT with Zack finally catch up (regardless of his timeline is) with the main party there!
It'd be a graciously mess haha.... since it's the source of everything.

 

[Odysseus]

If they aren't lying about the plot mostly following the original, I can't imagine Zack directly intervening with the main party until after north crater, unless we're just ditching Cloud's whole dramatic arc.

 

[eleamaya]

If they aren't lying about the plot mostly following the original, I can't imagine Zack directly intervening with the main party until after north crater, unless we're just ditching Cloud's whole dramatic arc.

With Zack showing up sooner, when Aerith wanted to go to Forgotten Capital separated from Cloud and the party, he'll definitely stay by her side instead of Cloud. The rest is unkown if both of them survived this time. This is why I also think of him catching up in Temple of Ancient if it aint Nibelheim, but Zack finally bumping them (either in Nibelheim or Temple of Ancient) should happen in the final chapter of the part like Midgar's expressway conclusion. How he gets there? Maybe it's explained in DLC.

 

[KindOfBlue]

Calling it here, Cloud versus Zack fight, the edginess writes itself

 

[Wol]

Calling it here, Cloud versus Zack fight, the edginess writes itself

He'll see Cloud as an imposter since he carried and left the other one in Midgar.

Lol

 

[KindOfBlue]

He'll see Cloud as an imposter since he carried and left the other one in Midgar.

Lol

“This Cloud, he’s…he’s kinda sus!!” *Activating Combat Mode*

Alternatively, one of them gets influenced by Jenova or maybe Zack watches Cloud attack Aerith or something

 

[Dark and Divine]

Or maybe he'll somehow join the party after Cloud is lost in the Northern Crater and die in the Lifestream while helping Tifa restoring Cloud's mind.

 

[Roundhouse]

The interpretation I favour is that Cloud is going to be the jealous Ron Weasley (Deathly Hallows) watching Zack and Aerith, and then the fight happens and Cloud storms off.

 

[eleamaya]

Cloud gets stroke seeing Zack, then Seph takes control (he could still attack Aerith) so they fight before he ends up collapsed. That's what I imagine.
This makes more sense than some people thinking Seph would control Zack for that fight 'cause no way he could. But Seph shapeshift as Zack? Nah, DFFOO show that.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I can't imagine Zack directly intervening with the main party until after north crater, unless we're just ditching Cloud's whole dramatic arc.

I don't understand why this has to be mutually exclusive. You can have Zack intervening with the main party long before Northern Crater. You can have Cloud's dramatic arc with Zack there. Maybe with some of the beats changed up a tad. But Zack being in the Party isn't an automatic fix-it for Cloud's mental problems.

In fact, having Zack there could show how mentally messed up Cloud is maybe better than the OG did. Zack can be there and Cloud can know what happened.... only for it to turn out that Sephiroth can still use something else to influence Cloud to mentally break him. Cloud has more than enough mental issues that Sephrioth doesn't have to use just the issue of Cloud pretending to be something he's not to break him.

And this is all with the fact that NKN want to *surprise* us in Remake. It would be... more than a bit predictable if Cloud mentally broke for the same reason he did in the OG. It would be more surprising if something else was used to break Cloud this time around...

 

[Eerie]

You literally cannot have Zack interacting with Cloud before the LS scene. Zack would not shut up, it would destroy the whole most important scene of the OG. I know people love Zack but... this is FFVII, this is Cloud's story. This is why Zack's likely in a parallel timeline.

 

[waw]

I don't understand why this has to be mutually exclusive. You can have Zack intervening with the main party long before Northern Crater. You can have Cloud's dramatic arc with Zack there. Maybe with some of the beats changed up a tad. But Zack being in the Party isn't an automatic fix-it for Cloud's mental problems.

In fact, having Zack there could show how mentally messed up Cloud is maybe better than the OG did. Zack can be there and Cloud can know what happened.... only for it to turn out that Sephiroth can still use something else to influence Cloud to mentally break him. Cloud has more than enough mental issues that Sephrioth doesn't have to use just the issue of Cloud pretending to be something he's not to break him.

And this is all with the fact that NKN want to *surprise* us in Remake. It would be... more than a bit predictable if Cloud mentally broke for the same reason he did in the OG. It would be more surprising if something else was used to break Cloud this time around...

Ideas like this are why I actually think Cloud will fall sway to Sephiroth's control and be a villain for a while (rather than being lost) and be replaced with Zack.

Zack will still feel Aerith's loss if she dies.
Tifa would struggle and want to reach Cloud.
Cloud would be a scary villain that everyone wants saved.
Zack and Tifa reaching the real Cloud in the LS would be a major moment.
Sephiroth "asking" Cloud to join him is foreshadowing.
Aerith's uneasy feelings would play off in a new way.

Aerith won't die. Cloud will join Sephiroth. Zack will replace Cloud in the party.

If it's not main Cloud, it'll be alt-timeline-Cloud.

I'm probably crazy for thinking this buuuuut....

 

[Odysseus]

You literally cannot have Zack interacting with Cloud before the LS scene. Zack would not shut up, it would destroy the whole most important scene of the OG. I know people love Zack but... this is FFVII, this is Cloud's story. This is why Zack's likely in a parallel timeline.

Yes that.

I also feel like a lot of these complicated write ups about Zack are making a looooooooooot of unfounded assumptions too, but I'm not gonna stop people from having fun.

 

[looneymoon]

I know I'm late to the jokes, but Cloud finishes Sephiroth in Advent Children by casting the FF equivalent of the patronus charm.

?

 

[Maidenofwar]

Well they already showed they are not afraid to destroy important scenes. One idea for what Obsidian Fire said for something else breaking Cloud instead ... Sephiroth constantly tortures and torments Cloud showing him visions of his mother, Aerith and Zack dying in every reality Cloud is unable to save them ... when Aerith dies again and Zack also in current tl this time after Cloud was reunited with his best friend who was supposed to die but didn't only to die again later ... Cloud finally breaks. Sephiroth could also keep showing visions of Tifa and Barret and everyone dying too. I know they already showed that but maybe Cloud will eventually believe it to be true and that it will happen. He won't know what's real and what isn't and even if it isn't everyone he thought that really died in the end it'll still suck.

 

[KindOfBlue]

No bully Kuraudo pls

 

[Eerie]

Zack cannot reach Cloud in the LS though, only Tifa can... I mean, again, this is Cloud's story, what you are trying to imagine is too off from the OG storyline, which the devs have repeatedly said they are following. I just don't understand that train of thoughts that makes Zack somehow the main character of Remake, sorry? Especially when the devs keep saying they'll retain the important events.

Maiden, what important scene are you referring to? Maybe they hit less or what, but in Midgar, everything went as per the OG.

Also I would argue that Sephiroth showing Cloud a vision about him killing Tifa and Barret (and Red XIII etc.) isn't probably going to happen anymore. I mean, it totally could, but in part 1, it did its job, aka making Cloud uneasy with Aerith's speech (Sephiroth has no one dear to lose) and made him extra careful about Tifa's safety, which allowed him to save her in the fight vs the whispers. So I am not really sure that they're going to reuse that.

However, I do expect Sephiroth to fuck him more with visions. We already know that all the visions minus the promise scene are all tainted by Jenova, or nearly so? So it's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out in Northern Crater.

 

[waw]

Zack's going to have a really important role. They didn't bring him back and put the work into these scenes to just show an alternate world. I would be really surprise if this whole thing ends and we never play as Zack - whether main story or DLC.

I'm partly joking he'll be a main character for a while while Cloud is corrupted/comatose. I could really see them doing that over, say, Cid, who is going to come really, really late at this point.

I think Zack could reach Cloud in the Lifestream. I have no reason to think Zack couldn't. Zack is Cloud's bestie, the guy Cloud constructed his whole being around, who went on several missions together. Zack is Cloud's hero, and they're shown to have a super intense bond in AC. I'm not saying they need to make Zack reach Cloud in the LS, I just don't see why Tifa could and he couldn't. In other words, they could easily make it so that Zack could at the very least.

I get they've said they're going to follow the original. I don't know that I trust them to follow it 1 for 1. Honestly, if they're following it 1 for 1, all the changes in Remake are pointless. Either they need to steer into the changes and allow some things to evolve or, they just wasted a lot of time, money, and fandom on Ultimanias and things hyping up the changes. They've already shown a willingness to deviate from the core story (Zack is alive, regardless of what timeline or whatever). If Zack can be alive, anything else can change, even if subtly. I'm not saying it will, but I am saying it can.

 

[eleamaya]

I believe Zack being alive doesnt magically just save the day. If by meeting SOLDIER!Cloud, it would crush him even more (because we know how he just got headache by hearing Zack's name), Zack may not shut up but it can worsen the situation he doesn't intend so he would distance himself in the end... this is just like Aerith decided to go to Forgotten Capital alone and want Cloud to take a break. This is why I imagine he may show up in final chapter of Part 2 either in Nibelheim or Temple of Ancient. But then, when Cloud wakes up, Zack and Aerith could have already gone on their own journey. They just can't see Cloud suffer and like "Okay, you get rest and lemme handle this" type of person. They are similar, even Nojima said in CC interview that he entwined Aerith's characteristics in OG to Zack as much as he could. And what would prevent Aerith to not go with Zack or vice versa? Before parting, Zack could tell Tifa all of the truth about Nibelhein incident though, but it'd be still her role to fix Cloud in Lifestream. And if Zack took black materia with him because he wanted to handle Sephiroth just as much as Aerith's with her white one, Sephiroth would likely still influence Cloud to pursue them.

Sorry, but I could only imagine the combo or teamwork of Zack and Real!Cloud, not when he was still SOLDIER!Cloud.

This is me trying not to divert the Remake plot far from Original with Zack being alive, bumping the main party, affecting the story... but everything still follows the same path because Cloud and co. (without Aerith despite she's not being dead this time) would still continue on their own. We could probably have ZackAerith's side and CloudTifa's (main party) side for us to select. Aerith won't die at Forgotten Capital and she & Zack continue to go to Northern Crater (and hey, Zack could visit Modeoheim before or after Gast's house with Aerith). But they dunno that Cloud and co. pursue them, then catch up, and imagine what would happen in Northern Crater. What if Zack & Aerith died here? Their souls could still come to appear in the final battle just like how Cloud sees them in AC to support him.

Hold on! Maybe they dont die, just almost or look like they die (red herring), and they're lost in Lifestream too with Cloud. Though, Cloud is found in Mideel and ZackAerith's whereabout is unknown, the party believe they die till they surprise everyone by come appear in final battle as Lifestream actually heals them physically. Aerith doesnt have to die to stop meteor, just lets her venture Lifestream alive and communicates with it. And Zack & Cloud defeat Sephiroth.

Then, happy ending for everyone.
But let's see!
Till proven, it's just my fanfiction.