FF7 Rebirth Ending Analysis and Discussion 

If you’re new to my videos don’t be surprised if I release another video in a week that completely contradicts everything I say in this video haha. I enjoy analyzing these games from multiple angles, and I never really stick to one concept or theory. My notes are evidence of this and I can’t wait to share my other viewpoints on the ending and the game in general. But man does it feels good to be back! I hope you guys enjoyed Rebirth as much as I did! Sorry for the delay but I seriously couldn’t put the controller down. I had to take care of my wife for a couple of weeks as well because she was in and out of the hospital, but thankfully she’s doing much better and I’m ready to start making videos regularly again! I have a ton of ideas for future content so please look forward to it!

Great Video! Well explained

Great video as always man! Keep grinding, great things will come 🤙🏼

Great video and take! ❤️

2:43 I GET why people think that but you also have the issue with these other worlds having characters we interact with, and who ARE ALIVE at least if we believe the worlds run congruently with the 'main timeline' (which its hinted that it does as the news broadcast when Zack first shows up in midgar is playing in Kalm when the party wakes up the next morning) So i would buy it if we JUST saw biggs, wedge, and bunch of randos but we see Kyrie, Elmyra, Marlene, and Johnny.characters we know to be alive. I think of it like the SACRED TIMELINE in Loki Season 1. There was one timeline and the whispers and fate were a proactive TSA preventinging the branching worlds from coming into being before they had the change too as opposed to wiping them out once they did. BUT then cloud and the party go and kill fate, so similar to when "He Who REMAINS" died, basically the potential worlds are free to exist. BUT it does seem these worlds don't have a lot of 'staying' power and are either doomed to die (or possibly Sephiorth is systematically murdering them as a result of his Reunion plan)

awww ye. Good vid, gee I don't know what to make of the ending and I haven't thought about it all the much either!

One point is that the clear (white) materia and the black materia are two different ones. When he puts the clear materia away you can hear a soft "clink" followed by his arm/hand moving to a different position. He's clearly confused to have another one. I hadn't thought about the Stamps representing the individuals over different timelines and it's an intriguing thought. Though the waters are a little muddy here. Terrier Zack chooses to go see Hojo and we then see that golden light just before Pug Zack shows up to talk to Biggs. Then we return to Terrier Zack at Shinra HQ. Finally, we arrive at the (whatever Johhny was carrying) Zack who's discussing his options. He wouldn't be wondering if he should help Biggs if he'd just seen him die. We also don't know how the encounter in Shinra HQ ended. There's also the fact that Sephiroth clearly states different "worlds." So it's possible that each conscious has its own world but those still remain distinct. I'm on my third playthrough now and I'm just very obsessed with solving this puzzle and probably overthinking everything.

Anytime the story switched to Zack and his world I was immediately reminded of the final season of Lost with the “flash-sideways” concept.

Tetsuya Nomura has stated that the characters who die in FF7 are going to stay dead. This is not a multiverse. The Lifestream is the collective consciousness (the real memories and not-real imagination) of the dead, as explained by an NPC in Cosmo Canyon. In the Zack cutscenes and the final fight, we are "peering through the looking glass" so to speak at the inner workings of the Lifestream. Aerith, Zack, and Sephiroth are dead but their consciousness persists bcs they cling to their ego, their loved ones, unfinished business so to speak. Sephiroth wants to avoid death at sll costs, Aerith persists to put lingering souls to rest and prevent Seph from destroying the world in his quest for immortality. Like in the Compilation, Aerith is able to communicate w/her friends to a limited post-death. That's what we're seeing at the end

Some very insightful thoughts.

She saves Biggs because Biggs takes cares of the kids in the orphanage in Sector 5. He was the Teacher's mentor . Aerith is from Sector 5 and has deep connections with all the kids there.

I think the cosmo canyon NPC is just explaining how the timelines exist, and the beagle timeline is also made in the same way and also in the lifestream, as well as the OG. The lifestream functions as an ocean of consciousness - all living things and their wills and desires are what creates the branching paths that make the other worlds, which overlap, and all that makes up reality. Characters like Elmyra, Marlene and Johnny being alive in worlds where Barret, Tifa etc are dead is proof enough, to me. IMO Cloud definitely saved Aerith in one world, but he's the only one part of that one because he's the only one who made it through the whisper wall(which is why tifa sees a glimpse, but only a glimpse). Aerith, at least the one in the final fight, knows this is probably bad, hence her saying "dont fall in love with me" in remake(confirmed a future aerith in ultimania), and the "I saw what you did back there. Thank you". White whispers, assumed to be aerith's doing, also stop cloud from following Aerith in the woods. I think you hit the nail on the head when you say maybe she lived, but thats the world that has the crack in the sky signifying it's doomed. If she was truly dead and it was in clouds head and that was the end of it, Zack wouldn't yell "Save her!" in the boss after her death, and theyre not gonna have Red 13 shake your hand and promise to save her on an optional date that won't be followed up on(an optional date that reveals lore important canon info about Red 13's future memories). Theyre also not gonna never put her iconic weapons like the Princess Guard, etc and her final limit Great Gospel. The same team that toned down the Dyne stuff, the Shinra tower massacre, etc are not gonna go extremely dark and have the Red 13 handshake and Zack yelling to save her mean nothing other than false hope. The scene after the costa del sol boss is also pretty blatant foreshadowing that another timeline's aerith will join the party. She says something like "I was talking to the future me. I don't know when youre gonna meet, but I'm sure you're gonna love her!". I feel like the Aerith asleep in the timeline with Zack never died so if I'm wrong on everything else, I say it's this one. I strongly do believe, though, that Aerith is a party member in part 3. I would go so far as to say, maybe, the entire point of the whisper and timeline shenanigans are mostly so Aerith and Zack can stick around a lot longer and probably join the party in part 3, as well as having earlier sephiroth fights for each part. I'm not sure she's gonna stick around by the end - the crack in the sky is huge evidence of that. I could easily see her and Zack being in a permanently split off timeline but alive too. A lot of taglines for the game are stuff like "Will you be in the world I'm fighting for?" which definitely implies shes not dead in every world to me. Long post, sorry, little rambly. Good video and it's fun to discuss but if they don't stick the landing a lot of this speculation is gonna be really met with a lot of hostility. I don't envy their position at all!

Very interesting. Great video, and lots of interesting thoughts! What I can't get my head around is that we see a bullet which is definitely a split second away from hitting Zack directly in the head and killing him immediately... But in the original canon, he shouldn't have died there like that. He died later on, was never shot in the head, and had enough time to talk to Cloud for quite a while and even give him his buster sword. If it is just his desires playing out in the lifestream, and everything actually happened the same as the original canon, this makes no sense. The lifestream would have both conjured up a fake death (avoided because of whispers), which happened differently from his real death, AND erased all memory of the last 20 minutes or so of his life... If that is the way the lifestream works, then its extremely weird by anyones standards, and doesn't make a lot of sense. ESPECIALLY as it doesn't add up with Biggs's account, as he remembers the exact moment directly before his death. Why such different effects for those two? Also, if the lifestream plays out your desires, does that mean Zack's desire is to see Biggs gunned down? Doesn't add up. Or to randomly fight the massive crazy Bizzaro Sephiroth suddenly in a destroyed version of the church? And wouldn't Jessie and Wedge be knocking about too? I'm more of the opinion that the main Remake series timeline is a separate offshoot timeline/reality from the original game. Hence having both Sephiroth and Aerith with knowledge of things from the original game already ~ Their consciousnesses both travelled from the original timeline, as we've seen Zack, Biggs, and Cloud travel from other timelines in Rebirth. The bullet that should have killed Zack, the existence of any Stamp at all, the additional knowledge of Aerith and Sephiroth, and the various flashforwards you got throughout Remake all point to the fact that the Remake trilogy is a sequel in my opinion... Stamp is such a random name for a dog. I haven't ever seen anyone talk about this, but the fact that the dog is called STAMP could well be a clue ~ Maybe the dog in all its forms is the architect of all this's own STAMP on these realities. Like how an artist signs a painting.. That could line up with some stuff you pointed out in the video about how the different Stamps represent different character's worlds.

Given the dialouge from the Cosmo Canyon NPC along with comments from Nojima in the Ultimania about not looking at the worlds as "parallel" I feel confident saying this interpretation is the correct one. I dont even view this as a theory at this point.

❤

I'll post more here since it may help with the youtube algo. I think the overarching story is that there was once a world like Gaia. With its own lifestream, but its lifestream was turned black. In essence this means that all hopes and dreams had died and the lifestream became saturated with despair. (You see black lifestream in Advent Children as well as the very beginning of the Forgotten Capital in the CGI cutscene. But more importantly, you see the black lifestream as a world with Zack's chapters where everyone has given over to despair and just welcomes death.) But this world I was speaking of, is a different world. This is the world (IMO) in the play Loveless. A world where life was in harmony with nature, but was replaced by a world of machinery and soulless technology. And the lifestream turned black. At the heart of that lifestream, its goddess turned black, and that goddess is now known as Jenova. In contrast with Gaia's Minerva white goddess. The people of this alien world, were the Gi, and the heart of the Gi's lifestream became Jenova. When the world crumbled, remnants of it spread across the cosmos, delivering Jenova and the Gi to Gaia. This is why the Gi can't return to the lifestream, and their black hearts seek the release of the black materia. Perhaps the Gi are not all from just one world, but many worlds that the influence of Jenova keeps infecting as it hops from planet to planet spreading despair and misery. Jenova infected Gaia's lifestream and is a threat to its very existence. If Sephiroth is successful, he will turn the entire lifestream black, and repeat the process. Minerva will be absorbed into Jenova and Jenova will become a calamity of a new world, bringing with it the souls of the damned who will be unable to return to the lifestream of the next planet, and the misery will continue.

where is the white materia at the end? Also how did the remake saga events even start. Who's doing this or what triggered it

18:05 meteorrain limitbreak

Isn't Sephiroth's ultimate attack a blast from a different realm or reality? What if those blasts are the realities where the planet doesn't survive meteor?

Bro...Brain blast. In OG IIRC Bugenhagen talks about Holy's judgement getting rid of everything bad for the planet- maybe even the humans. Fast forward to the end of the OG where Holy doesn't quite work against meteor...until it melds with the Lifestream...and then a bright FLASH.. then the shot of Aerith's face that we've seen many times. Now follow me on this- All the Purgatory elements along with reliving and in some cases coming to terms with past traumas. Bro....is this Holy's Judgement? It's fused with all the memories from the Lifestream and seeing if man is indeed worthy to exist and Sephiroth is actively fighting against it, while Aerith is like "No no see? There's good stuff here still!!" Further crackpot you ask? Ok....The rainbow effect...IS Holy from the OG timeline doing it's thing.

"These dudes can't die right? They're invincible!" "I'm not sure that's something to celebrate..." One thought I had watching this vid... Is that the black materia is forged by Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud is unable to mourn Aerith, and accept her death, because Sephiroth has siphoned away his grief. Just as Sephiroth stole Aerith's hopes, and emptied out the White Materia, Sephiroth has stolen Cloud's grief, and filled the Black Materia. Why is Cloud's Limit Break empty? Because it's inside the materia now. Cloud stares at the hollow materia and sees a reflection of himself, symbolising that he is empty. The materia then turns black, symbolising that he is empty because the materia is now storing his grief. The Gi are a nihilistic, hollow race who are unable to accept death, and they want to be given the gift of death. Their hope... is the black materia. Likewise, Cloud is hollowed out by Sephiroth, becoming like the Gi, and this leaves an emptiness that seeks to be reacquainted with pain and suffering. "Steeped in our one desire... Purest of materia no more... With pain and spite made black" - This line leads me to believe that the white materia and the black materia are the same thing. "Purest of materia no more" indicates that the black materia is made from a white materia.

Nice theory. I enjoyed the video, and it certainly made me view things in a way that hadn't occurred to me. However, I do have a few points to make. First, these worlds being a part of the Lifestream doesn't add up in some aspects. For example, how would a character like Zack have memories of Biggs and Marlene? I'll admit, my knowledge of FF7 lore is a little spotty, but to my knowledge Zack never met Biggs or Marlene before the events shown in Rebirth. So how could Zack be seeing these characters in his own "world" if these worlds were just a manifestation of a character's hopes, dreams, desires, and memories? To add on to that, how would characters like Marlene, Johnny, and Elmyra be present in these other worlds, if we know they've never died and therefore couldn't have re-joined the Lifestream? There are also a couple of plot holes I can see with Aerith's death this time around, that maybe you could share your thoughts on? 1. The Whispers would be almost entirely redundant in a narrative sense if Aerith actually dies. Especially in Remake. Why introduce entities into the story that serve the purpose of keeping fate on a predetermined course, only to show them being defeated, but have everything come to the same conclusion? If they're going with the angle of "fate is always inevitable", then they'd make even less sense. What exactly would the Whispers be trying to protect, if the outcome is always the same no matter what goes down between point A, and point B? 2. Sephiroth is clearly shown to have knowledge of the OG events. This is evident from early on in Remake and throughout Rebirth. I'll give an example. Just after the first reactor bombing, Cloud sees Sephiroth, follows him, and they have a conversation. The conversation goes: Cloud: "You're not real. You're dead." Sephiroth: "I am?" Cloud: "I killed you with my..." Sephiroth: "Oh, you need not remind me." So it's shown that Sephiroth and to some extent Cloud have this knowledge. Even if this is just in Cloud's head, it shows that at one point, Cloud did kill Sephiroth in the past. My point is, why would Sephiroth once again kill Aerith, when he has this knowledge and therefore knows that killing Aerith was the exact reason his plan failed in the OG game? It doesn't make sense to me. I'll fully admit, although I do know what happens in the OG game, I never did finish it. Aerith's death was the very reason I stopped playing. She was my favourite character and I lost all enthusiasm to continue playing after her death. To me it was like watching a TV series in which your favourite character dies at the end of the first season. The other seasons may be good, but you aren't going to be as invested as you once were. So I have thought about this a lot, as Aerith dying once again has made my enthusiasm for part 3 plummet to the ground. In fact, the only reason I played Remake and Rebirth was because of the "defying fate" plotline and the many hints and obvious foreshadowing of her survival this time around. I can't help but think Aerith's death this time around makes the whole "Re-trilogy" redundant in a sense. They could have made a 1:1 remake of the original and they'd essentially have a licence to print money. But with all of these changes that OG purists hate, and now killing Aerith again and frustrating fans like myself that have waited almost 30 years for a chance to save her at last, it feels like they've shot themselves in the foot. They've tried to please everybody, but ended up pleasing nobody. (Sorry for the long comment. I went on a bit of a rant at the end there.)

I hope not, it being the lifestream is a cop out. I want actual worlds that Aerith and Zack can and will live. Also there won't be another lifestream sequence with Tifa and Cloud. Tifa did it alone its done over.

Why is everyone so jammed up on "hard mode"? It used to be a game maker made a game and that was the game. Hard or not. It is a little sickening that we need levels of play to play a game. Seems like a waste of developer time... without just doing vars that damage sponge enemies or throw in a wild kill all attack... which is not how it ever was or how it should be. "All of a sudden (on hard mode) boss drops three nukes instead of one!!!" Big wow and not helpful to the game at all.