Sephiroth's Endgame [2/6] - FFVII Remake Mysteries [3/4] | Game Analysis #26
Cloud's memory glitches and Sephiroth's appearances are more numerous and contain new elements regarding Remake's mysteries. And it all leads to Sephiroth's new endgame, his plan to remake the future.
Table of contents
Article 1
Article 2 ⟵ you are here
Article 3 coming soon…
Greetings, fellow Scholars of the Lifestream!
This is a continuation of our multi-part analysis about Sephiroth’s Endgame. If you haven’t read the first article yet, please do so now as you’d be missing out on a lot of information otherwise.
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All caught up? Fantastic! Let’s jump into the wormhole and continue our journey.
⚠️We’re about to spoil the Moogle out of the original Final Fantasy VII, its compilation entries, and the Remake. You’ve been warned.⚠️
Part 2: Evidence (continued)
Jump to the start of the Evidence section
Chapters (continued)
Jump to the start of the Chapters section
Sector 7 slums
Pillar plaza
Shortly after arriving in the sector 7 undercity, we make our way to the plaza below the support pillar and meet the Remake equivalent of the guy calling it his special place in the original. Here, he laments about the Avalanche posters which pop up faster than he can tear them down. He’s very pro technology and marvels at Midgar’s steelwork.
As Cloud looks up, something different happens. The original game merely pans the camera up along the pillar, but here, Cloud receives his very first vision of a future event: fiery steel debris comes crashing down. Since it’s his first, he thinks it’s real and tries to shield his head until he realizes that it’s not. This is also the only vision of a future event that happens in this game. All other visions show events from the original timeline occurring after the Midgar arc. Anyway, in chapter 12, we see a very similar scene happening after the video call with Tseng finishes. Cloud looks up, sees the explosion and watches steel debris crash down in front of his feet.
Before we continue, I need to mention one thing that Vyzz forgot in the analysis about the Whispers. It’s possible that this is another instance of the Whispers taking away memories. Cloud doesn’t react in any way after they leave and mentions this scene never again. Plus, the other resident looks at the poster board again, seemingly oblivious to what just happened. Of course, Cloud might just ignore this strange occurrence as he does in other instances and the other resident returns to his own woes after calling Cloud a Mako junkie, not paying any further mind.
Number 49
A bit later, Cloud goes to sleep in his new apartment, courtesy of Tifa and Marle, the landlady. In the middle of the night, he suddenly wakes up from weird grunting and moaning noises in the room beside him where Marco lives. Curious about the situation, he goes to investigate. The background music playing in this segment, Noises in the Night, is a rendition of Trail of Blood which mainly plays during scenes connected to Jenova and thus beautifully foreshadows the next encounter.
As soon as Cloud enters the room, a green glitch effect happens again and makes Cloud see Sephiroth instead of Marco getting up and walking towards him. Is Sephiroth invading Cloud’s mind yet again? Not this time. Sephiroth doesn’t say anything and acts more like a puppet than a human being. Naturally, Cloud draws his sword and tries to slay Sephiroth, like he did in chapter 2. Fortunately, the door frame keeps him from going through with it, which leads to one of the most comical scenes in this game.
Outside, Tifa enters the scene and prevents Cloud from killing poor Marco. This is the first near-kill by Cloud new to Remake. Keep this point in mind. With Cloud being distracted by telling Tifa to get inside, fake Sephiroth manages to grab Cloud’s ankle which triggers yet another green glitch. This time, it’s another vision of the future.
We see a windy and unwelcoming area in the Whirlwind maze, complete with multiple jagged rocky spikes protruding from the ground. A sight we’re all too familiar with. Several people in black cloaks are slowly lurching towards the center of the northern crater, one of them muttering Reunion, just as we see in the original game.
After the vision ends, we finally see how Marco really looks like. He’s one of those black cloaked figures and bears the number 49, a number much greater than their counterparts in the original game, where the highest number is a mere 12.
However, there is a higher number in the Final Fantasy VII canon. The Final Fantasy VII Remake World Preview Book contains an original story called Picturing the Past which is told from a Security Officer’s point of view searching for someone important to him, and involves little Aerith’s paintings from her time in the Shinra building. In this story, we learn that many other black-cloaked people exist in Midgar with some of them meeting up in the Train Graveyard to stare towards the Shinra building where Jenova resides. One of them, a young woman named Lilisa, bears the tattoo number 24. She and Marco are therefore only two of many others who have fallen victim to Hojo’s Reunion experiments. Anyway, Marco’s number is most likely just an Easter egg: the square root of 49 equals… 7.
Tifa explains to Cloud that Marco’s got a few problems but isn’t a bad guy. That’s a very generous way of describing someone with a severe case of Mako poisoning and too many Jenova cells. Very similar to Cloud, before Tifa found him at the sector 7 undercity train station and thus provided the last pieces for Cloud’s psyche to reform itself. Remember the resident at the pillar plaza calling Cloud a Mako junkie? In German, he asks Cloud whether he had Mako poisoning.
In Japanese, the word used by this resident [中毒 / ちゅうどく] can be translated to either poisoning or addiction, so both English and German are correct. However, poisoning fits better in this case. The guy most likely also knows about Marco and deems Cloud’s weird behavior to be similar. Oh, if only he knew…
Another interesting observation is Tifa’s role in this scene. Both the Remake’s depiction and the original scenario the vision refers to show Tifa barging into the scene. She prevents Cloud from harming Marco in the Remake and forces herself into the active party in the original game, if she’s not in it yet. Coincidence or a deliberate and beautiful parallel?
Now, what does this encounter mean? Cloud and Marco both have Jenova cells in them. It’s likely that the proximity of two mentally weak people injected with Jenova cells creates a connection based on their Reunion instinct, which is why Marco wakes up, starts making noises and thus wakes up Cloud who then goes to investigate. Primed by earlier Sephiroth encounters which rekindled Cloud’s hatred for him plus the interaction between Jenova cell carriers, seeing Marco probably makes Cloud see Sephiroth instead.
Also, Jenova’s head currently resides with the actual Sephiroth in the northern crater and is mostly controlled by him, which is why any visualization in relation to Jenova cells result in an image of Sephiroth. It’s also a nice foreshadowing of Marco eventually appearing as Sephiroth in the Shinra building.
Cloud receives this specific vision of the Reunion’s endpoint here because it’s Marco who’s touching Cloud, a black-robed S-cells1 experiment, triggering this appropriate scene. It’s also possible that their encounter contributes to Marco starting his Reunion pilgrimage. However, we don’t know that he leaves the slums until we see him and number 2 in the Shinra building. And according to Hojo, the people in black robes all went on a journey to the Northern Crater instead of Jenova’s body in the Shinra building, as he initially thought. But more on that later.
Buster Sword
When Cloud and Tifa return to Biggs and Wedge after clearing out Scrapyard Boulevard, Biggs wants to know how Cloud’s sword is doing after the upgrade. Then this happens:
Biggs: “…Seems like the perfect fit for you.”
Cloud: “Yeah. We’ve been through a lot–“
Upon accessing his made-up memories as a SOLDIER first class, Cloud’s real self, buried deep within, briefly pierces through the veil but gets instantly pushed down again to retain the facade, resulting in this green memory glitch. The truth is that Zack has been through a lot with this sword, but remembering Zack is not an option because the alternative would be a breakdown of Cloud’s mind and sanity. This can’t happen.
Johnny
The following segment isn’t about Cloud’s memories, rather about his behavior which doesn’t coincide with his original counterpart. After they rescue Johnny from Shinra’s custody, Cloud is about to finish Johnny off because he knows too much and has a hard time keeping secrets. He’s a talker. A loose end, so to speak. Naturally, Tifa prevents Cloud from doing so and takes on the responsibility for Johnny’s loose lips. She doesn’t even want Cloud to finish off the Shinra guards. No more killing. She experienced enough of that in the past. Cloud’s aloof and uncaring behavior is scaring the crap out of Tifa. Something in Cloud’s eyes changed and it’s not just the Mako glow.
This whole Johnny side event wasn’t in the original game, but also doesn’t really break canon. However, it’s a great way of showing the corruption within Cloud. Sephiroth’s meddling and manipulation inflamed Cloud’s hatred, which leads to a waning compassion and results in Cloud’s willingness to kill off innocent people. First Marco, then Johnny, and another one in chapter 8. For now, Cloud has too little positive influence to offset the hatred. More on that when we get to chapter 8.
Memories of Nibelheim
Chapter 4 contains a few more interesting memories and encounters. While Biggs, Wedge, and Cloud prepare their diversion, Cloud remembers the promise he made to Tifa shortly before he left Nibelheim to join Shinra in order to become a SOLDIER. This happened seven years ago. In the original game, this flashback took place right after Avalanche’s debriefing in the hideout with Tifa initiating the conversation about the promise, using it to guilt Cloud into staying to fight with them.
In Remake, Cloud never gets to visit the hideout. After Barret’s outburst, Tifa leads Cloud to his new apartment. The next day, Avalanche decides to not employ Cloud anymore, which negates the immediate need for Tifa to try and convince Cloud to stay as he won’t be part of the next mission anyway. Then, chapter 4 comes along and shows Cloud remembering their promise on his own, seemingly out of the blue.
While the slow and many-bladed fan does look a bit like the wind wheel on Nibelheim’s water tower, it feels like the writers needed to come up with something to still make Cloud remember their promise. In Vyzz’s opinion, this flashback should have happened right in Cloud’s apartment when they talk about the promise anyway which would make his reply to Tifa more natural and immediate. Their side mission to the plate already focuses on Jessie, Roche and Avalanche HQ, so including this important flashback there feels completely out of place thematically.
Now, the most important thing about this flashback for this analysis is the nature of this memory. Contrary to previous memories and illusions, this one lacks glitch effects and headaches and can therefore be considered a normal recollection of his past. No vision, no Sephiroth intrusion, no suppression, and no Jenova cells. The camera even zooms out the same way as it did after Cloud remembers looking at his burning home, calling out to his mother during his first encounter with Sephiroth in chapter 2.
Whisper attack
Towards the end of chapter 4, the Whispers make their first offensive move. This is where we finally reveal what’s going on here after teasing you in the analysis about the Whispers. In case you haven’t watched it, please do so now or afterwards. You won’t be disappointed.
While Cloud is asleep, two Whispers emerge through the floor and one of them puts Cloud into a deep slumber.
???: “Sleep. And dream the sweetest dreams…”
Who is talking here? Whispers never speak, ever. The speaker is even censored with question marks. However, keen-eared players might notice that it’s none other than Sephiroth speaking here.2
This has huge implications. First, there’s no glitch effect happening, so it’s neither Sephiroth intruding Cloud’s mind nor a vision of the future nor a forbidden memory that needs to be repressed.
Second, Cloud is also not remembering a past memory. So, what happens here? The only answer is that Sephiroth managed to take over some of the Whispers and uses them to manipulate Cloud this way. But why does he not invade his mind again like before? It seems that the encounter with Aerith severed that bond and Sephiroth needs to wait for Cloud to experience another flashback connected to him.
By using Whispers, Sephiroth can make Cloud fall into a deep slumber and thus ensure he sleeps in. In chapter 3, Cloud has been established as a light sleeper as shown by waking up from Marco’s noises. This is confirmed by him saying this out loud during his heart to heart with Tifa in her resolution scene.
Cloud: “I’m a light sleeper. It’s a SOLDIER thing.“
But why does Sephiroth need Cloud to sleep in? Seconds after Cloud wakes up, Tifa barges in and urges him to follow her outside where countless Whispers are flying around everywhere. According to her, those things appeared when they were about to embark on their next bombing mission. Without Cloud. Which goes against the original timeline. When Barret kicks Cloud out of the group in chapter 3, a single Whisper can be seen floating across the screen, starting to observe the possible change in events.
We believe that Sephiroth needed Cloud to sleep in to ensure he doesn’t go on the mission, doesn’t fall into the church, and thus doesn’t meet Aerith again, his biggest adversary besides Cloud. However, the uncontrolled Whispers still need Cloud to go on the mission, which is why they keep Avalanche busy until Cloud arrives to join them. This creates a huge conflict of interest, which is most likely the reason for this myriad of Whispers causing the commotion.
But how is Sephiroth even able to control some of the Whispers?
First, he’s trapped by Whisper Harbinger and might take control from within thanks to his loose connection to Cloud and thus to the untainted Lifestream.
Second, with Whispers being around sector 7 to observe and intervene if Cloud doesn’t join the others, Sephiroth might be able to use those as a conduit and puppeteer some of them.
Once outside, Cloud and Tifa are surrounded by Whispers, keeping them in place. Only after fighting back and dispatching enough of them, they’re able to move forward. It’s important to note that one of their attacks is called “Impale”, Sephiroth’s signature move he also uses on President Shinra, Aerith, Cloud in Nibelheim, and Barret in the Remake. They even fly up high into the air and drop back down fast to perform the Impale attack, just like Sephiroth does in one of the most iconic scenes in gaming.
Although, besides the move itself, the emerging cascade of sharp, pointy roots also cause damage. Still, the Whispers only physically attack and deal damage when under the influence of Sephiroth. Here in chapter 4 and chapter 12, but more on that when we get there. Other Whispers wall off certain pathways, forcing us to take a detour, and then fly towards us creating an annoying headwind, still trying to prevent us from reaching the others. Again, completely against their mission. The remaining conflict within the ranks of the Whispers makes sure that, despite the detours and delays, Cloud and Tifa eventually manage to reach the others.
But why is there even a conflict in the first place?
Can’t Sephiroth control all of them? It’s possible that he just doesn’t have the skills to control them all yet or he can only control or manipulate those souls harboring enough negative emotions. While unaffected Whispers are still keeping Barret and Jessie at bay, Whispers affected by the hostile takeover initiate another battle against Cloud and Tifa by ripping away the latter from the former, putting her in a bind, and keeping her in place with multiple Whispers, one of them being a purple Enigmatic Specter.
This is where it gets interesting. The purple Enigmatic Specter turns out to be the puppet master and the one we need to defeat for the battle to end. If we don’t, it will call upon more and more Mysterious Specters. However, the Enigmatic Specter is very resistant against all attack types until we defeat one of the minions, which makes it vulnerable and puts it into the pressured state, the perfect opportunity to stagger it.
As its minions, the Enigmatic Specter—or the “Demon of Nihilism” as its called in Japanese—also performs attacks which can be attributed to Sephiroth. Consume—or “Black Hole” in Japanese—summons sucking black holes, pulsing and blinking in and out of existence. Similar to Sephiroth's Shadow Flare attack, just less powerful.
Flood—or “Comet” in Japanese—riddles the battlefield with countless “Arrows” of Negative Lifestream, similar to the black strands we see in Advent Children.
By now, the parallels between the Enigmatic Specter and Sephiroth should be more than apparent.
As soon as we defeat the Purple pest, its hold over many of the other Whispers subsides and one of them shoves Jessie down the flight of stairs, causing her to strain her ankle hard and set the stage for Cloud’s return. Then, remaining Whispers surround Cloud, look at him intently and then finally screw off. We assume they try to tell him to get back on destiny’s track while also thanking him for freeing them of foreign control. Jessie is now out, which leads Barret to get Cloud back into the team, ensuring the story proceeds as planned.
Though 1 question remains: why does Sephiroth pull Tifa away from Cloud and harass her by making several Whispers swirl around her? Maybe to bring more despair to Cloud. Or maybe Sephiroth tries to incapacitate her in some way so she can’t go on the mission either, implicitly forcing Cloud to stay behind.
Mako reactor 5
After failing to change the flow of events, Sephiroth isn’t seen until chapter 8. However, there are 2 glitchy flashbacks haunting Cloud in chapter 7. The first one is congruent with the original game. A repressed memory of Tifa kneeling over her dead father in the Nibelheim reactor. It also happens at the same spot, on the bottom-most bridge leading to the Mako pump. Why a repressed memory? It’s accompanied by a torturing glitch and head pain—unlike Cloud’s normal flashback of the promise in chapter 4—and is triggered by a similar looking area, just like in the original.
While the English version differs from the original, Tifa’s lines in the Japanese version are the exact same here. However, the first half of this scene is missing for some reason. Tifa only speaks the last three out of her original six lines. Could this be the result of memory loss due to the planet nearing its end? Or is Sephiroth’s meddling and influence the reason why Cloud doesn’t remember his repressed memories as well?
In any case, it’s interesting that they chose to show a fragment of this exact flashback again right before the battle against Airbuster. Tifa utters the last line from this flashback verbatim in the present, which triggers Cloud’s repressed memory again.
Tifa: “I’m sick of all of this!”
Cloud’s mind: “It’s just like… like when I failed you”]
In addition to the memory itself, he remembers that he failed Tifa that time. He wasn’t able to stop her from entering the reactor and wasn’t able to prevent her from getting hurt, thus not honoring his promise. Not that he actually remembers the events before and after the earlier flashback. His scrambled mind still prevents him from seeing the truth, though a fragment seeps through, thanks to this additional trigger.
The Church
Scraped Knees
When Cloud lands in the sector 5 church, the flashback from the original game happens as well. Similar dialogue but better visualization. After Tifa’s mother passed away 13 years ago, she went to Mt. Nibel to find her. Cloud was the only one to actually follow her all the way compared to Tifa’s other three chicken wuss friends. The unstable bridge gave way, and both fell into the chasm.
Cloud only got scraped knees while Tifa fell into a coma for seven days and he got blamed for it. Cloud was angry at himself for his weakness, not being able to protect nor save Tifa. After hearing about SOLDIER and Sephiroth a few years later, he decided to join SOLDIER, partly because of the aforementioned incident. This memory is thus tied to his new persona hence the missing glitch effect.
Falling down a long way from a bridge and getting away with only scraped knees again was the connection needed to trigger this flashback. In the original, as well as in the Remake. However, due to this memory’s ties to Sephiroth, he manages to hijack Cloud’s subconscious once again. When Cloud asks who the other voice in his head is, instead of waking up in the church, Cloud’s real self is replaced with Sephiroth. The surroundings turn dark immediately, underlining the switch from Cloud’s real self to Sephiroth’s intrusion.
Cloud: “Who are you!?”
Sephiroth: “I am… your everything”
After the switch, Cloud asks again and now, Sephiroth answers instead. The English version sounds much more mysterious and quite vague, implying that he is all encompassing, possibly referring to Cloud being a Sephiroth clone and thus basically him. In Japanese however, Sephiroth calls himself Cloud’s master, implying that Cloud is his puppet, just like he directly tells him after the battle against Jenova LIFE. The Japanese version thus makes more sense.
Sephiroth’s next line, before Aerith completely pierces through and awakens Cloud, reveals that he still has a lot of plans for Cloud
Sephiroth: “Oh, Cloud. There’s still so much to be done.”
So much is clear after his plea to Cloud to join him in defying destiny together at the Edge of Creation. However, it seems that Cloud’s friends keep disrupting Sephiroth’s plans, constantly calling for adjustments. As a side note, this line might also be a callback to Dirge of Cerberus’ secret ending where Genesis awakens to pick up Weiss and fly away. There he uses a similar line:
Genesis: “We still have much work to do…”
There is also another interesting bit about this scene. Contrary to the Remake, the original version is completely silent. However, the Remake added a beautiful but eerie version of “Who Am I”, which plays during Cloud’s and Tifa’s trip in the Lifestream where they piece Cloud’s real memories back together. This connection might be the reason why they opted to use the track “Who Am I” instead of “Who Are You”, the same phrase Cloud uses in this scene twice, making it the better candidate on surface level.
White Materia
During the conversation with Aerith, she mentions her own special Materia is
Aerith: “…not good for anything at all.”
This triggers Cloud’s newfound memories of the future, the event in which Aerith loses that special Materia. A very traumatic experience for Cloud. We see the Holy Materia fall, bounce off of one of the steps, dive into the water and glow on the ground, interjected with Aerith praying on the altar in the Forgotten City. Since Cloud doesn’t know what to make of it, he seems to just shrug it off and continue the conversation as he did in the original.
Cloud: “Bet you just don’t know how to use it.”
Important to note here is that those glimpses of the future aren’t taken from the animation movie Advent Children, even if they look similar. There, we only see the Holy Materia flying in mid-air, piercing the water surface without disturbing it much and Aerith praying. Here, however, we see the Holy Materia bounce, causing a big splash when piercing the water surface, in a different angle no less and then rest on the pond’s ground.
When looking at the shot of Aerith, she seems to wear bracelets different to their original and Remake design. Instead, they bear a certain similarity to the original’s Minerva Band or the Remake’s Gothic Bangle.
If it’s the former, her connection to Minerva is something the Remake could explore, as some fans have already speculated, for example that Aerith will eventually replace Minerva as the Goddess of the Lifestream and planet. We can also make out a circle-like element on either side, but due to the level of distortion, it’s hard to tell what they are.
We’ll get a better look at this image later in this analysis, so let’s move on to the next scene.
Attacking Reno
Remember how Cloud almost killed Marco and Johnny and only didn’t because of Tifa’s interventions? The same happens here. Due to Aerith’s different behavior, a battle between Reno and Cloud ensues. When Reno is beaten, Cloud attempts to finish him off for good when Aerith calls out to him not do it.
That and the appearance of the Whispers stop Cloud in his tracks, saving Reno’s life. Thanks to Sephiroth’s manipulative appearance earlier, Cloud’s inner hatred has been inflamed again. However, thanks to spending time with Aerith and the lack of more Sephiroth interference, he seems to calm down over time as we see later, for example when confronting Leslie where he never seriously aims to attack him.
Kid’s Hideout
Tifa
After saving those 2 adventurous kids who were being threatened by a Hedgehog Pie and a Smogger, they run ahead of Cloud and Aerith shortly before reaching the hideout. This triggers one of Cloud’s suppressed memories of young Tifa and her friends catching up, calling her by name with one even asking her to wait.
Why a suppressed memory? The green glitch effect gives it away.3 And it is part of his real past which fortunately does not stand in conflict with his new persona. It’s possible that this short scene depicts Tifa’s departure for Mt. Nibel to search for her deceased mother. It’s what led Tifa and Cloud to fall off the bridge and eventually to Cloud’s determination to join SOLDIER.
This Guy Are Sick
Shortly after, they finally meet the man in the black robe, the guy that are sick. The same one with the number 2 tattooed onto his arm living in this weird tube in the original game. Strangely, he’s now wearing the same black robe as Marco does despite wearing normal clothes in 1997.
When he enters the scene, he scares the kids and eventually topples over and hits the ground. He seems to suffer from the same Mako poisoning as Marco does. Something similar happens here, too. Nameless number 2 grabs Cloud, this time his arm, which triggers Cloud’s Jenova cells, making him see Sephiroth instead of Number 2, who calls for the reunion. This must be how all black robed people feel like and what they see and hear when being called to participate in Jenova’s Reunion. The next memory glitch ends the image of Sephiroth and Cloud sees number 2 again.
While he’s watching number 2 lurch away, the Jenova cells in Cloud seem to begin to take over as he starts to slowly follow number 2. He looks at his trembling hand, trying to get a hold of himself, though only manages to do so with Aerith’s touch and voice telling him to get it together.
Interestingly, Cloud saw Sephiroth instead of Marco just by proximity, but with number 2, he had to be touched first. It’s possible that Aerith’s company reduced the Jenova cell’s resonance, increasing the reaction threshold. Number 2 also starts walking about before encountering Cloud or even being close to him. Maybe Sephiroth’s continuous interventions and the previous meeting with Marco increased Cloud’s Reunion capabilities.
It’s important to note that this is not future Sephiroth calling in from the Negative Lifestream. He’d behave differently. But we’ll go into the four shades of Sephiroth at a later point in this analysis.
Lastly, this scene gives us a good view on this strange symbol painted on number 2’s black robe. It vaguely resembles Jenova, a mixture between its human form and the doll placed before her tank in the Nibelheim reactor. But instead of spread-out wings, the ones on this symbol are partially folded-in. Could this be symbolism for an incomplete Jenova? A fragment of the whole? It’s what those black-robed figures are, after all.
Leaving sector 5
As we already discussed in our thorough analysis about Aerith and her role in the Remake, the scene in the tunnel connecting sector 5 to sector 6 has many similarities to the one in Cloud’s dream after he loses consciousness in the Temple of the Ancients. If you somehow haven’t watched the aforementioned analysis yet, be sure to do so afterwards to get up to speed about our conclusions on which parts of this analysis build upon.
Anyway, in this scene, Aerith’s similar movements trigger Cloud’s additional memories from the original timeline obtained by Aerith’s touch. Again, we see the green glitch effect, but instead of visuals, we only see Cloud shedding a tear. We think the writer chose to not show us what Cloud actually sees to, for one, keep the mystery and for another, not spoil too much of the original game. Still, they could have superimposed an image of the Sleeping Forest over the surroundings around Aerith, similar to Nibelheim in chapter 2, just much shorter. Maybe they had this planned, but time constraints forced them to not show anything at all as this would have meant creating a forest area from scratch, just for this one scene.
The choice of music is also very interesting. We hear the high-pitched string note and first 7 notes from the beginning of the Lifestream theme. Since Aerith enters Cloud’s dreams via the Lifestream in the original, playing this theme here makes perfect sense.4
It’s also a hint that those memories are in fact from the Lifestream’s memories, giving more credibility to our assessment in Game Analysis episode 24 about Aerith’s secret, which concludes that the events of the Remake’s first installment happen entirely within the Lifestream’s memory.
Have you noticed that the seventh and last note of the Lifestream’s melody hits exactly when Cloud’s tear rolls down his cheek? Nice touch, isn’t it?
Evergreen park
We also covered the upcoming scene extensively in our analysis about Aerith’s secret, so if you need the full context, go watch it afterward and optionally skip to that scene using the timestamp system. That being said, we’re dealing with yet another repressed memory being triggered here. A very strong one at that. Aerith mentions Zack’s name, which she never did in the original game, causing Cloud’s mind to almost shatter as his whole current persona relies on taking Zack’s place as if he never existed. Luckily, the Jenova cells in his body manage to fix the memory leak and Cloud returns to “normal.”
Save Sector 7
At the start of chapter 12, we stumble into another fight against the Whispers. The third one so far and the second one against a purple Enigmatic Specter, controlled by Sephiroth.5 While it dragged Tifa away from Cloud in chapter 4, it merely blocks the way and casually takes a hit of Cloud’s sword without flinching, reflecting its invulnerability until we dispatch a Mysterious Specter.
Like last time, it only turns purple once the battle starts. It’s also accompanied by four other Whispers. Three in sight and a fourth one coming into view from the left upon battle start. This coincides with Sephiroth’s key art where we can also see four Whispers floating around behind him.
After either beating the Enigmatic Specter or fighting for a set amount of time, the battle ends, and we see three Whispers flying towards the pillar. This is important as those might represent the same three at the beginning of the battle and the ones floating above Biggs, Jessie, and around Wedge respectively. The fourth one entering the view then represents the fourth one accompanying the other three to hold Wedge in place.
As we discussed in Game Analysis episode 23, Whispers Uncloaked, a regular Whispers intervention does not make sense here. Slowing down the group doesn’t prevent them from stopping the plate from falling. That’s what the Whisper intervention on the pillar itself is for, to give Rude enough time to press the button. What needs to happen is the plate falling, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie dying, and Aerith being kidnapped. Not the specific way of how it happens. Even seeing Wedge fall isn’t necessary as Tifa would ask Aerith to take care of Marlene anyway, which is what leads to Tseng kidnapping her. And even if it somehow was important for the party to not arrive too early, it would be much easier for the Whispers to build an impassable wall just before the pillar plaza. No need to slow them down here.
On top of that, Whispers don’t normally fight agents of change. They merely block, shove, move, or hold them in place, which in conclusion makes this battle entirely initiated by Sephiroth. Also, it’s a timed battle, so it’s about slowing them down and not blocking them. The battles in chapter 4 didn’t run on a timer, which suggests those instances have been about completely blocking Cloud.
An entirely different but important question is how Sephiroth is even able to interfere without one of Cloud’s flashbacks connected to him. Like in chapter 4, Whispers are already on high alert to ensure that this event happens as preordained. Thanks to constant meddling until now, their meticulous observation is pertinent. Such a concentration of Whispers provides enough of a passage for Sephiroth to intervene. But why would he need to intervene here in the first place? We get the answer in chapter 13 during his next appearance.
Aftermath
On their way to Elmyra, just before reaching Wall Market, Cloud suffers from another flashback triggered by Barret’s brief explanation of who the Ancients are. This happens in the original as well, although not in the same location as they take the hazardous road through the collapsed expressway there while we take the safer route through Wall Market here.
Another change is Cloud’s trigger. In the original, his glitched flashback starts immediately after his mentioning the Ancients while Remake gives him a bit more time to hear Barret’s explanation about the Stewards of the Planet. However, the memory itself is the same:
Sephiroth: “In my vein courses the blood of the ancients. I am one of the rightful heirs to this planet!”
Sephiroth: “Within my veins flows the blood of the Ancients. This planet… is my birthright.”
Like in chapter 2 and after landing in the church, Sephiroth uses this flashback of Cloud about him to connect yet again, appearing right in front of him right after the flashback ends. It’s important to note that the background is purely white here as it was while Cloud’s past self was talking to him in chapter 8. What connects the two? Both represent memories of events but not of the events themselves.
The same white background is shown in Advent Children when Aerith or Zack communicate with Cloud and even during the ending cinematic in this game. White backgrounds during scenes can thus be attributed to communications through the Lifestream. Initiated either by a specific entity like Aerith or Zack, a specific memory or even through changes like in the ending.
Anyway, when the actual Sephiroth takes over in chapter 8, the background turns to black as Cloud is still unconscious. Here, the actual Sephiroth appears in the environment around Cloud, just like he did in chapter 2.
Sephiroth: “You have failed again, I see.”
Here, Sephiroth refers to the destruction of sector 7 which Cloud wasn’t able to save, as well as to Biggs and Jessie, which he failed to protect yet again. According to our current theory, the events in this game take place within the Lifestream’s memory, which Sephiroth intends to change. So, from his perspective, Cloud failed to save sector 7 again. Although, he could also refer Clouds previous failures like failing to save his mother, Tifa in Mount Nibel, and the Nibelheim reactor as well as failing to become a SOLDIER.
Sephiroth: “But through suffering, you will grow strong. Isn’t that what you want?”
Those lines are quite insidious. Sephiroth conflates a negative feeling with a positive motivation to increase confusion and sow despair. Cloud does want to grow stronger, but only to protect what’s dear to him. However, failing to do so is what results in suffering. So, instead of preventing the suffering as a result of growing stronger, Sephiroth suggests that suffering is what makes Cloud grow stronger, turning his motivation upside down.
Now we know why Sephiroth wanted Cloud to witness Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie getting hurt or even die: to suffer by not arriving at the pillar early enough to save them, which he achieved by sending Whispers to keep them busy. Although, it is in Sephiroth’s interest for Cloud to grow strong, just for another reason. He needs Cloud to become strong enough to help him escape his prison, for which he might need Cloud to be removed of all emotional attachments. While this notion is rather speculative, it’s important to keep in mind for the end of this analysis.
Deepground
Cloud is noticeably absent during this whole segment between finding Wedge and defeating the Failed Experiment with Barret and Tifa. I wonder what he did in the meantime…
In any case, after dealing the penultimate blow to the Failed Experiment to give Barret an opening to finish it off with his Limit Break attack, all three get a glimpse of the human experiments being conducted down here. It seems that all those Unknown Entities we fought before were once normal humans. This fact triggers bad memories in Cloud and reminds him of his time in one of those tanks while being Hojo’s subject.
Interestingly, this flashback is categorized as a PTSD moment and is not suppressed. We assume that Cloud only remembered being a subject and not that he was still a mere infantryman and not a SOLDIER. Like in chapter 2 when he remembered watching his home being burned to the ground while wearing his SOLDIER outfit instead of the attire befitting an infantryman. In any case, the Whispers don’t like that he remembered this, and as a result instantly transport everyone out and rob Cloud’s memory of this flashback as we described in the analysis about the Whispers.
This concludes the second article covering Sephiroth’s Endgame.
Due to the sheer amount of content, I decided to split it into 6 parts. Not only for the first video releases of this analysis back then (10 videos) but also for their transcripts here, even though I linked the full video up top. The table of contents will also encompass all 6 articles eventually and be present in all of them for easy navigation, all the while keeping the article length and footnotes at a manageable size.
Article 3 covering the whole Shinra building coming soon…
S-cells refer to cells isolated from Sephiroth—hence the initial S—which are used in the creation of S-type SOLDIERs and all test subjects in Nibelheim after the incident 5 years prior to the start of the main story, which include several survivors, Zack, and Cloud. Sephiroth was implanted with Jenova cells at the embryonic stage, granting him superhuman powers. Shinra’s ambitions of creating a super soldier army led them to inject candidates with the aforementioned S-cells in hopes to mass-produce Sephiroth’s prowess. However, those not mentally fit enough ended up as wandering black-robed people who succumbed to Jenova’s will.
And Cloud’s headache. His false memories reflecting desires over truth in chapter 1 were accompanied by the green glitch without any physical ailments.
Check out this video link (timestamped at 1:18:18) to have a listen for yourself.
Not officially confirmed, so it’s just a theory for now, albeit a compelling one, given the evidence provided in this section.