How Final Fantasy 7 Remake Expands The Eternal Conflict 

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I now want Square to take their time even more to ensure the story lives up to the creators' visions. I am okay waiting another year or two to give the game time to grow and represent the World of FF7

We'll just have to wait until Bugehagen, reveals all!

I like the direction they're taking here. It's a game of chess where Aerith & Sephiroth are in the know, the planet is a neutral piece, and Zack is a potential wild card. If done well this could give us twists and turns that will be similar to the feelings when playing the original FF7. My only concern is that the story doesn't "Go off the rails" and become overly convoluted and nonsensical. Granted you can argue that only the very end really went off the rails, and all the major story beats where done extremely well.

I absolutely love the direction they're taking this. At the end of Advent Children, Sephiroth said he would never be a memory. This seems to be a perfect continuation of that promise. The final post credit scene of the original game showed Aerith looking at the camera through some lifestream particles... The exact same way as shown during her entrance to this game. I think she's at least sent information to her past self via the lifestream to counter Sephiroth.

Cosmo Canyon gonna be lit in the Remake. Hopefully we'll get the answers there.

Maybe Cloud too is actually from a future timeline, seeing as he gets memories from future events, but seeing as his connection to the Lifestream is not as strong as Aerith & Sephiroth, he only gets them in painful flashes and not full memories. It also proves WHY he sees those flashes and get those feelings towards Aerith (the tear when he gets the flash of sad emotion and where he shows feelings towards Aerith even though he still does not really know her during that dream scene). =)

I'm pretty sure that Nomura confirms Aerith knows of events from the future in response to a question about her awareness. He doesn't deny it and tells the interviewer to wait and find out, or something to that effect. Edit: It's in the Ultimania, if anyone was wondering.

I found out that when Aerith gives Cloud the flower in the remake she says : ‘lovers used to give these when they were reunited’. This is more evidence that Aerith is a continuation or from another part in the timeline

Remake can be to "Remake" the world. That is my understanding.

Aerith: Don’t fall in love with me. It’s not real. For me, that line is everything. To me, it is as if Aerith is experiencing a new consciousness - a remade consciousness - that contains fragments of her self that is in a constant battle with Sephiroth to take control of the planet. That’s why she’s far more developed and in-tune with the planet this time around and actively rejects what she knows to be her destiny at the end. Also: Sephiroth brings Cloud to the edge of time, or something of that nature. That directly implies he can travel realities and times in my opinion. Basically, Aerith is granting everyone a second chance but it involves both her and the party recognizing the past mistakes which was, in essence, focusing on Sephiroth and not a bigger problem. And if this is a true continuation then Sephiroth is indeed remembering of everything and knows what he must do differently. Aerith / life stream is gambling on changing the outcome of everything. But to do that they must also accept Sephiroth and defeat not just his body but his diffusion throughout the lifestream as well.

Marlene is mentioned in the train graveyard before Aerith says her name.

Level 4 theory: Cloud must die in order to fully destroy Sephiroth

Explains why they had Advent Children cutscenes in FF7R. look at the flash backs closely in the game.

Ahhh, a particular line from the original keeps popping up in my head! "The Planet is in a crisis, a crisis beyond human power and endless time."

In addition to Aerith reassuring Tifa that she would help Marlene, Aerith also hires Cloud as a mercenary before even Cloud even has a chance to tell Aerith what he does for a living.

So...the entirety of FFVII has been about the cosmic battle between Aerith, Sephiroth, and the Planet. A Battle that transcends time and with the OG FFVII being the bad timeline, Aerith has now set out to get the timeline right this time, with Sephorith being her total antithesis and the planet neutral not for or against her efforts... Wow: *when the plot thickens*

I just can't believe how good and well scripted your videos are, just so satisfying and interesting. + 1 sub

Spot on analysis! I think, in some ways, this game is more representative of the original than people think. I just replayed through the og FF7 Midgar segment as I am playing back through the game right now, and Aerith definitely has a similar sense of knowing more than she lets on. I don't think there is any literal time travel going on, but rather some use of the lifestream to communicate through time to their past selves, sorta like the movie Frequency, if anyone remembers that one. Also, with Clouds little "episodes", those happened during the original game in even as far back as Midgar, but they were more vague. I think Aerith has been communicating through the lifestream with her future self or something to that effects, and I think Sephiroth has navigated the lifestream to affect things he shouldn't be able to like inhabiting his clones in order to manifest himself and invade Clouds mine through his connection with mako poisoning and Jenova cells. I expect the future segments to play out very similar to the way this one has with similar embellishments to the story. And rather than being a tragic tale of accepting death and loss, it will be a counter to that as a triumph of defying fate and destroying the notion of destiny, therefore giving more agency to the characters to remake themselves rather than follow their preset paths.

So the fact that it’s called “Remake” isn’t just because the game is updated with more features and a new coat of paint, but also because it’s a power struggle between Aerith and Sephiroth to remake a new timeline.

You actually made things make more sense, thanks

I always had doubts that the little specters at the end of the game where Cloud Tifa and Barrett and man you just gave it all the more reasons to backup my doubt!! Good job with this!

Thank you so SO much for making this video. Personally, I really love the narrative foil between Sephiroth and Aerith, and I find it very interesting how their goals in the Remake are essentially the same. The Remake has gotten me extremely excited and theorizing again, and this is all I could ask for!

This is by far the most comprehensive, fact-driven theory assessment out there for the FFVII Remake! So many different sources pulled in to make sense of the situations presented. Please, PLEASE continue to provide this type of content! It is exceptionally insightful!

Gotta give credit to Maximilian Dood to realize upon deep analysis that was Yazoo, Kadaj and Loz. Also, even he realized that was Advent Children Sephiroth before the Ultimania release.

This is probably the most in-depth analysis of Remake I have yet to see. Wonderful job friend #subbed

"As long as Cloud remembers me, I can continue to exist" KH Fans activate

Such a great video, so almost got the platinum and while playing through Hard Mode, I was noticing all these little details with Areith and was also thinking, she’s from the a future or she’s already dead because she knows sooo much and I’ve wondered why no one else has been speaking about that, so it’s incredible the way you articulated it in this video. Please do more series like this, my favourite of your videos so far.

I enjoy so much to hear you talking. Clear thoughts, nicely structured speech, great voice colour.

DUDE! from all the theories made, yours makes a lot more sense!

This makes it SO much more hype than a simple remake!!! I’m ALL ON BOARD for a continuation of the compilation!

Great layout, concise cross referencing, very enjoyable watch although some cut scenes were repeated it was all in context. Thank you for this wonderful video!

This is exactly what I was thinking, playing the game. Every time there was a flashback, a little change, a sign that Aerith might remember things from the previous game etc, I was telling myself: Wait... it's not a remake! Or not the kind of remake they usually do! And I love it. I didn't see the parallel between the whispers and Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz and I find it so amazing... So many theories can be made with this game and I love it!

Aerith section “not to fall in love with me” in past tense, I believe it’s This Aerith from Advent Children from the livestream

Let's not forget about Genesis when he carried Weiss's body and said that they have so much work to do.

Basically, Aerith and Sephiroth are like kids fighting over their favorite Chocobo plushie, but on the scale of Cosmos vs Chaos in the Dissidia games.

I enjoyed this video and I hope you'll consider making more of them :)

Thank you for making this video! I have been watching analysis videos and replaying both remake and the original trying to figure out what all of this means, as well as decide whether I think the new story is good. Your video cleared up so much confusion and has me excited for the next part. Keep up the great work, you earned yourself a sub.

The Advent Children references give me hope that the story doesn’t deviate too much from the original...both Aerith and Sephiroth trying to defy fate might actually mean that the original main plot points still happen...meaning that I do hope Tifa does not die prematurely and Aerith still has the same impact in the remake at the end of it all as the original

This video was really good. It answered questioned some of us have so please continue these videos

The end of the remake makes more sense after watching this. I was so confused as to what was going on, but this all seems to click.

Wonderful stuff

Loooooove this analysis/theory! It's so deep, so crazy, so complex.

As a person who comes to Final Fantasy as a watcher of the movies, theories, origins, I really like these pieces. They fill gaps that are left. I only knew the ending of the original FFVII because of your Cloud origins and various other things I'd heard/read. So, seeing the end of the remake I was like Whhaaaaattt???? (Mostly because I'm a novelist and I'm expecting a nice link to Advent Children! But.... the theories you talk about here gave me pause for thought, and a re-look at the story I 'know'. I love that you opened my eyes (and I can't say how stunning FFVII (and XV) is from a novelist's point of view in terms of character and plot) and really appreciate being encouraged to think outside the square. Thumbs up to plot twists. What about Marlene and Aerith? Marlene's pose in the train graveyard is the same as when she's hiding under the bench at Seventh Heaven when Aerith finds her. And when they hug there's a 'moment'. I originally thought 'ohh Marlene's got Ancient blood' but I wonder now if it was more that Aeirith somehow let Marlene know through touch/thought that everything was going to be alright with her dad, Cloud, Tifa etc. And... just watching Cris Core again and I notice that the number 49 shows up prominently in the training room scene with Angeal, Sephiroth and Genesis - the same number on the strange guy living beside Cloud. (OMG - sorry for the length. Did say I was a novelist.....)

Feel like I have watched every theory but this one made some other great connections! Thanks for the great videos!

I'll have to really explore the feeling, but I always had the hunch that the Harbinger wasn't what we thought it was. It's three arch henchmen being those goons from Advent Children only furthered the hunch. Great video!

At the beginning of chapter 6 or 7, I can’t remember which one, Barrett and Tifa mention Marlene’s favorite book. Life in an endless maze. Later in the story Aerith mentions that she’s lost in an endless maze and about how when the whispers touch her she loses part of herself. Then the line about following the yellow flowers.

This was great! I love the way you guys summarize everything.

i'm new to this channel. I LOVE your content! 👏🏽 It gives me a lot of daydreams about FF7/remake and how it will continue. Pls 🙏 keep it up! u have a new subscriber in me!

SE: All questions will be answered Me: Doubt

Amazing video. I think even amongst the most diehard fans of FFVII there is a good portion who were unaware there was a whole FFVII novel series published. You did a great job in summarising and contextualising these in regards to the events FFVII:Remake. Personally I think theory videos will ultimately be what sustains me until the second part of the Remake is released. Looking forward to more content!

This was an amazing video, you really filled in a lot of holes. Thank you!!

Ah, it's nice to think that all these corollary short stories and guides + FFVII Compilation games + FFVII Remake contents have been produced to render a cohesive narrative that will neatly, logically pull together all FFVII lore threads in the end... But let's be honest, how likely is it that with the amount of a) people involved in the creative aspects of anything FFVII-related, and b) stuff being produced across more than 20 years, the writers/directors have always, collectively had their shit 100% together in the aftermath of FFVII? When you get a project this size, with all this prequels/sequels/spinoffs/expanded universe material, you bet details get forgotten, small creative decisions snowball into pretty divergent scenarios, stuff gets retconned like it's nobody's business, and so on on and so forth... Once you start getting on board a bunch of different authorial voices across long stretches of time in a series, on average you end up with people making/unmaking things up as they go (Nomura already seems the type to do that on his own if you ask me lol) more or less loosely within a common core knowledge frame (Evidence of this happening can be observed, imho, in how varied the interpretation of Aerith and Sephiroth's actions in the original FFVII game can be based on this textual reference alone versus what is presented in the each of the subsequent games or novellas or whatnot)

I love getting my final fantasy fix from you guys! I would 100% watch more theory videos too!

Your theory really makes sense. I found myself nodding and agreeing so many times while watching your video. Nice one! Playing FF VII Remake felt like nostalgic as well as refreshing. Still so many mysteries to unfold, but I will wait patiently for SQE to build the necessary plots while replaying the game again and again hahaha

What a great video. Congrats. Having chils during all of it. Great job.

I like this theory a lot. It also gives the word "Remake" another level of depth. It's actually Areith, Sephiroth and Gaia's remake of what happened. That said, what is Aerith's motive to have to redo this... she doesn't absolutely lost, she just didn't get the perfect outcome. Humanity survived, all her friends survived.

I’ve heard most of this before, but I think this video was very well done and I love theory videos

Love this video! It encapsulates one of the more prominent fan theories out there that I believe makes complete sense

Great work guys. I have been thinking most of this myself.

FFVII will live forever

Great video, this made me even more excited to see where they take the story. On a side note, I'm very interested see how they make the other characters play. I have this feeling that Yuffie could potentially be one of the best characters to experiment with. Given her narrative obsession with materia and that thing on her arm with all those materia slots.

This game was the perfect combination of interesting story, amazing cutscenes, & great gameplay 👏🏽 hope they stick the landing at the end of this 🙏

Yeah, from the incident with the whispers and Jessie in sector 7, I was certain this was a sequel too. I really like how they played with the word Remake. Aerith/Sephiroth are literally trying to remake the events that happened into something that works for them. I still don't think OUR Cloud will make it out alive though...

Very good video! Thanks for making this.

I always enjoy more content from you guys!

Jenova already took control of some of the Cetra's bodies & fused with their dna back then..The misconception of Sephiroth being an (indirect) Ancient might be true because of his Jenova's genes (because he's still an offspring of the extraterrestrial being). That could be also be why Aerith & Sephiroth have some similar capabilities within the afterlife. Also Cloud could see the future only because of Jenova's abilities. Lucrecia had saw the future of Sephiroth's dark outcome after giving birth to him; regardless she wanted to see her son.

The best theory video that I've seen since FFVIIR is out. Congratulations!

That caution at the beginning reminded me of law an orders opening when they advise caution for adult content

More content like this please! It makes my day!

Great Video! Big fan of the presentation!

I love this! This is so much more than just a remake and I can't get enough of it even after Platniuming the game.

I highly recommend that everyone here go listen to spoiler mode with Maximilian Dood, The man’s theories will make you question everything in this game and give it another go.

Thank you! This helps clear up a lot of feelings

This was a neat video and keep up with videos like this.

Speaking of Marlene. There emwas that moment, where like Red XIII, she seemed to also glimpse something. A something Aerith asked her to keep secret for now, which interestingly may be unique to Marlene goven that weird moment in the ending where she and Barret resonated towards eachother. As for your analysis. I liked it. It makes s lot of sense if you consider the series as a whole and the Lifestream's power to affect reality even retroactively. I personally felt that this Sephiroth, or at the very least, the one at the end *was* the post AC Sephiroth. I feel like he's pulling a Caius in using not just the clones, but an earlier version of himself too. It's pretty doable if you consider that, in the original, Sephiroth is still recovering in the Lifestream at the Northern Crater. As for Aerith, I think she's getting messages from her future self and indeed acting indirectly. She feels more in line with a present version of herself still trying to make sense of things rather than an Aerith who already lived through it. This is highlighted in her characterization, which feels closer to her ber Crisis Core self over her original Compilation FF7 version. Honesrly, and unless you know your lore, it's easy to miss so much. Even I was surprised by the Remnants connection in the Arbiters of Fate boss rush. But it makes sense and would fit in line with this being a 3 way war between the planet, Sephiroth, and Aerith with the Lifestream as the catalyst for it all.

i'm replaying on hard mode and catching all sorts of things that i didn't on my first playthrough, and all of what you suggested could absolutely be true and i'm really excited to see how they handle the next part of the game ;-; thank you for the video !

Hell yeah more theory content! very well thought out and delivered.

Love the theories keep them coming

Thank you!!!! Awesome narratives and explanations 👍

Promised Land is not the only Advent Children song in the game. In Chapter 17 (possibly elsewhere) you can hear "Sign" from the film play for a bit when the party gets into the elevator toward the Drum, and a black feather falls to the floor. I just been replaying the game and noticed that track.

Lovely video! Personally, I think they are going to kill Cloud instead which worries me deeply. Our poor boy can't catch a break...

Fun to see the discussions. But there are too many important questions people are not asking themselves

please have a full analysis of all the changes and stuff in remake and all the meanings you are the only ones i trust

Great vid man!!

Wow.. i just watched this. and this is great. hope.we can get part 2 soon or a dlc on what to expect at least.

thats amazing, great video im gonna check out the book too!

When the last thing you expect, the planet, messes up your plan.

Has anyone just sat down and thought “Isn’t Sephiroth just a silver haired, male version of Aerith?”

Very respectful analysis. This is 5th installment of the compilation as Nomura said... if it is a continuation then the rest of the compilation will still be considered cannon after the remake is complete then?! Lol... looking for a happy ending where everyone is alive here xD

Something interesting about the Black Robed Sephiroths is that I’m fairly sure that’s the present day one that’s still in the Northern Crater trying to do his original plan. All the times he appears he only talks about the reunion or is doing what happened in FF7 with taking Jenova from the Shinra building.

Thank you, THANK YOU for finally explaining these wraiths to me!

I really liked this video! I feel like the creators want us to theorize about FF7R. So I think this is a great direction to go in when covering this series.

Amazing video!

We will have to wait and see. Never picked up on any of these things. So interested to see how it plays out. This could end up being something i don't want, though it has been enjoyable so far.

I agree with this analysis completely! I had some of the same thoughts floating around and you were able to take most of them and structure them into a nice clear narrative. The big one I missed is that the Harbinger is Jenova and because remake has used purple so strongly as a signifier of her presence and the Harringer being purple as well then of course that must be her in a similar form as Loz, Kadaj and Yazoo. FF7 from the beginning has always been Aerith vs Sephiroth with Cloud pulled along on their fight against one another. I'm so happy they decided to really delve deeper into this conflict for the remake. Years and years ago I thought if there was a sequel it would be awesome to have Aerith and Sephiroth still in the lifesteam undissolved trying to influence events. The remake seems to be in that theme.

Its amazing how complex the story is. Hands down probably the best Final Fantasy story in history

I love this so much more than simple alternate timelines theory the way you've explained it, it makes a lot of sense. I now believe there are 2 likely possibilities it's either the directors cut to bring original ff7 and the whole of the compilation together in a cohesive story, or it as you have said. Either way my first thought while playing this game is that both aerith and sephi as so connected to the planet that they are sensing future events. I don't believe either of them knows exactly what is wrong they just feel like things aren't as they should be regarding they're ultamate goals.. sephiroth somehow feels he is destined to fail and aerith can sense the change in him which is why she says hes wrong on highway he feels off... I really doubt they're would get into time travel that's a ff8 thing not ff7..

Why would they show the OG Buster sword? I only remember Cloud holding it during Advent and during CC when he stabbed Seph with it. Also is it just me, or the Flashback of Zack's last stand starts from Cloud but end with Aerith has some meaning to it? I know its the wrong vid. to ask but am I the only one who wonders on those things?

For a theory video all the information given was spot on to what we think is happening within the universe of Final Fantasy 7. Aerith and Sephiroth within this game do know more then they let on. Aerith being subtle about it, but still was kind of out of context with what was happening during curtain points of the game; and Sephiroth being himself and not caring about anything but his own objectives within the plot. I love how this is turning out to be a sequel and a reimagined Final Fantasy 7. I cant wait for the other parts to come out and see where this rollercoaster with end up. Each time I find out something knew I havent thought about and each time it makes a lot more since. Thanks for the video.