Sephiroth's Endgame [4/6] - 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
Article 3
Article 4 ⟵ you are here
Article 5 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 previous three 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
End of the Road
3rd Feather
Upon reaching the end of the highway, Cloud has one last hallucination of Sephiroth, standing at the checkpoint, waiting for and smiling expectantly at Cloud, which prompts him to hit the brakes hard.
However, the image of Sephiroth disappears as fast as it appeared. It was just an illusion. But… how? Cloud wasn’t having a mental breakdown or something similar for Sephiroth to hijack this time. He also never showed up here in the original game. It seems that Remake Sephiroth is now powerful enough to appear in his mind without a crutch.
Then the 3rd and last feather shows up and foreshadows yet another Sephiroth appearance. Notice how it goes up in smoke once it hits the ground, just like the first time. This suggests that the upcoming Sephiroth appearance isn’t what it seems…
The Beginning of the End
When the party approaches the end of the unfinished highway, the Midgar segment of the story doesn’t end like in the original, where we entered a new chapter. And who is to blame? Sephiroth of course. Again, a black feather floats into view, but this time, the whole area above gets covered in black feathers as Sephiroth appears before everyone.
However, this is not the same Sephiroth from chapter 17. No illusion, no black-cloaked figure and not a flashback. And not quite corporeal either, if the single feather going up in smoke from earlier is of any indication. The myriad of feathers here seems to be a mere byproduct of Sephiroth entering this realm, plus another hint towards future Sephiroth from after Advent Children, where he first donned his black wing.
We theorize that Sephiroth, who is trapped by fate—also known as the Whispers—finally managed to gather enough influence and power over them to project himself into the memories of the pure Lifestream. Why? To lure them into his realm and free him from his prison.
Aerith notes that Sephiroth is wrong. That everything about him is wrong. However, in the Japanese as well as the German version, she notes that he’s mistaken, that he’s in the wrong. In the end, it’s both. She thinks that Sephiroth is wrong in his beliefs and how to go about the situation which brought both her and him here. However, his existence here is also wrong and shouldn’t be.
It’s even more nuanced in the Japanese version. When stopping Barret from confronting Sephiroth, again, she holds him back, looks at Sephiroth and mutters: “Don’t.” In Japanese, she simply says “Chigau,” which can mean that Sephiroth is different than usual.
This describes the Sephiroth in front of them perfectly. It looks like him but it’s not the real Sephiroth. He’s something different. Different than the one Barret faced earlier. But Sephiroth is completely unfazed and retorts this with “Those who look with Clouded eyes see nothing but shadows,” implying that Aerith’s knowledge is biased which doesn’t let her see the truth.
In the Japanese version, this line has a different meaning: “Eyes clouded with sentimentality cannot see anything.” As long as she’s guided by feelings and emotions and clings to her past, she won’t see the truth.
But Aerith just repeats herself, not paying him any mind. He knows that it’s futile to reason with her, which is why he averts his gaze in resignation and then focuses on Cloud only. His next lines tie back to his first appearance to Cloud: “All born are bound to her. Should this world be unmade, so too shall her children.” When this world, the planet perishes, all life ceases to exist. This includes Cloud and therefore Sephiroth, which is why he doesn’t want this world to end.
Just as the Whispers begin forming the dome, Sephiroth tells the others to listen, and that Destiny comes. Or how he phrases in Japanese: “Here it comes. The cries of Destiny.”
All of our heroes cry and wince in pain from those screams while Sephiroth just stands there, unfazed. While Sephiroth doesn’t hear the screams of the planet, he most likely still knows they exist but doesn’t care. Aerith confirms this a bit later.
Aerith
They… Their words…they don’t reach him.
All these moments and memories, precious and
fleeting…they’re like rain rolling off his back…
And when they’re gone, he won’t cry…or shout…or
anything.
He’d tell you that he only cares about the planet.
That he’d do everything in his power to protect and
preserve it.
But this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.
There’s no greater threat to the planet than him.
Here we see the different world views between Aerith and Sephiroth. Both want to protect the planet, but for different reasons and with different outcomes. Aerith wants to preserve the cycle of life, the planet’s integrity and a natural lifespan, free of corruption. Sephiroth on the other hand needs the planet alive to keep Cloud’s essence alive and thus ensure his existence, until he achieves his and Jenova’s goal of absorbing the entirety of the Lifestream and travel the cosmos. That’s the threat Aerith is talking about. She wants the planet to stay autonomous while Sephiroth wants to be in control.
The Material Ultimania Plus book contains additional information about Aerith’s thoughts about Sephiroth. Quote: “Sephiroth’s way of preserving the planet is to sacrifice those living.”
So, basically killing all living beings and return the remaining Spirit energy to a dying planet. Where have we heard that before, huh…
Anyway, this opinion of Aerith directly ties into our theory at the end, so let’s table this for later.
After we witness the memories of Zack just before his final stand, Sephiroth approaches the wall of Whispers and cuts a hole into it, creating a portal to a place outside of the Lifestream’s memories, at least the current part of it.
Take note of its color: purple.
It’s entirely possible that the other side is the negative Lifestream where Sephiroth’s essence is currently imprisoned, which is why Aerith needs to cleanse the passage in order for everyone to stay safe and sane. But if he’s imprisoned, why is he then able to appear here? By keeping his connection to Cloud strong and making Cloud remember him more and more by stoking the flames of hatred, Sephiroth is able to establish a good enough connection to the remaining pure part of the Lifestream to make himself appear to everyone and open a portal for them to follow him and eventually defy destiny and thus free him from his shackles.
But what’s interesting here is that he only tells Cloud to follow him. In the Japanese version, he even tells him to do so quickly, probably because the time until the planet’s demise is running out.
Final Battles
Whisper Harbinger
In the realm beyond, the Singularity, we eventually encounter the king of the Whispers, the gigantic guardian of destiny, Whisper Harbinger. But we can’t fight it directly and have to face off against its 3 henchmen, Whisper Rubrum, Viridi, and Croceo—Latin for red, green and yellow. Their Japanese names follow the same concept but use Italian color names instead: Rosso, Verde, Giallo.
According to their assessment description, they were pulled from a future destiny into the present where they draw their weapons to protect the future where they came into being.
At first glance, they seem to be future representations of our party: Cloud with the sword, Tifa with the fist and Barret with… two guns? Something doesn’t seem right here. Cloud wields his swords two-handed, Tifa has gloves on both hands, and Barret only one gun on his right arm. They thus have to be different entities. Existences closely and directly tied to Sephiroth? Maybe the whole reason for why we were waiting to cover those until now?
Remember the Remnants from Advent Children, Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo?
Kadaj wields a Souba, a dual blade Katana, in his left hand.1
Loz has a spike-mounted, electrified arm attachment on his left arm called Dual Hound.
Yazoo holds a bladed double-barrel gun in his left hand and sometimes uses a second one held by Loz for safekeeping if needed.
One thing doesn’t quite match up, though. The representation of Loz’s fist contraption is grafted onto Whisper Viridi’s right arm instead. Other than that, everything fits.
We know that many out there already know most of what we just did and will talk about, so please bear with me. For those still out of the loop or only tangentially involved, here’s the list of evidence, if you’re not convinced yet.
First of all, the boss track playing here, Arbiter of Fate has three phases:
Advent
Rebirth, and
Singularity
The fight starts with Advent, continues with Rebirth when the Harbinger’s first limb falls off just before we see the first glimpse of the future, and the last one, Singularity begins when the party splits up again and the three Whisper Remnants merge into Bahamut SIN, …I mean, Whisper Bahamut.
Arbiter of Fate refers to Whisper Harbinger, the entity that is responsible for keeping fate—also known as the planet’s memory—intact. It is the authority over fate itself. The terms Advent, Rebirth, and Singularity can be understood as a singular message: This battle is the Advent of His rebirth within the Singularity.
In Advent Children, the three Remnants represent Sephiroth’s children who serve as the Advent of Sephiroth’s rebirth. Another parallel between this game and the movie. And here is the next piece of evidence. While the Remnants don’t merge into Bahamut in Advent Children, Kadaj does summon it after several fights earlier and the party then has to fight Bahamut instead. After beating Bahamut, Cloud fights the 3 Remnants again, vaguely mimicking this string of battles here.
On top of that, we also fight Sephiroth accompanied by a sick version of One-Winged Angel at the end of this game, just like in Advent Children... but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Those three Remnants were also summoned on the planet’s surface by Sephiroth as he himself was not able to appear until Kadaj fused with Jenova’s remains. The same happens here. Sephiroth is trapped in his prison, the Harbinger’s heart and uses his three Remnants from the ordained future to make our party fight and overcome Destiny in this realm where he himself cannot roam freely or at all.
Still skeptical? What if I told you that Whisper Croceo uses an attack called Velvet Nightmare, the same name of his two guns I deliberately didn’t mention before?
It’s very unfortunate that the name of this attack has been changed to Amber Judgement in the English version, so this reference is completely lost on non-Japanese savvy players.
Still not convinced? What about Whisper Viridi’s attack called Elude in English and Back Crusher in Japanese?
It seems to be using this one only against Tifa and teleports behind her before attacking, just like in the movie Advent Children during their duel in the church.
And if that still doesn’t convince you, the Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania confirms most of what we just talked about. Those three Whispers represent the three Remnants from Advent Children, which takes place two years after the events of the original game where they come into being.
It also talks about the Velvet Nightmare attack as well as their general fighting styles being similar.
But what does this all mean?
Let’s establish a few more important details about this battle first.
Each smaller Whisper has its own specific color. Whenever one of them is staggered, the big Harbinger’s main color turns into the one from the staggered smaller Whisper during this phase. Whenever we damage a staggered smaller Whisper, the big Harbinger receives 3.5 times the damage through Vicarious Wounds, emphasizing the bond between Rubrum, Viridi, Croceo and Harbinger. Each wound one of the three children suffers from, the father suffers 3.5 times as much without being hit directly. Similar to receiving emotional damage by watching someone dear to you suffer. In this case a three-fold representation of a future the Harbinger seeks to preserve.
Anyway, this factor of 3.5 is not just made up randomly. It’s not 100% accurate, but when we add the maximum HP of all three smaller Whispers of 13’208 together and multiply that by 3.5, we get 138’684, which is almost as much as Whisper Harbinger’s maximum HP of 140’880. That’s a difference of 2196, a bit less damage than what we need to deal at the very end.
Furthermore, each time we defeat one of the smaller Whispers, we also destroy one of Harbinger’s limbs, which causes specific memories of a future destiny to rush through the party. A glimpse of the future should they fail today.
Defeating Rubrum shows a 548-year-old Red XIII running through a barren valley.
Defeating Viridi and Croceo then yields a flash of Meteor approaching the planet.
After those three are resurrected again, defeating one causes another future memory for each to wash over the party.2 These are:
Cloud dueling Sephiroth,
Holy falling into the pond,
and the burial of Aerith.
But why those specific memories? The Harbinger is made of Whispers, a.k.a. Spirit Energy a.k.a. memories. Memories it aims to protect. Memories which the timeline leading to the end of the world hinges upon. By destroying parts of the Harbinger, those memories are set free.
However, it’s also possible that a still trapped Sephiroth might be able to influence which memories are shown to the group to paint a picture of a future they’d want to avoid, increasing their resolve.
Now, the question is, why would the planet’s timeline protector summon the essences of the three Remnants? As we briefly established in the analysis video about the Whispers, Whisper Harbinger contains a purple heart, which the party needs to attack after we finally defeat Whispers Rubrum, Viridi and Croceo. Defeating Whisper Harbinger also shatters this purple heart, which leads directly into the next scene, where Sephiroth is reborn by absorbing the image of Meteor and the remaining Whispers.
This is a clear indicator that Sephiroth’s essence was being held prisoner in that purple heart from where he presumably gained more and more influence over the Whispers, of which the Harbinger is made of. Thanks to our efforts defeating its three minions and thus the big Harbinger and with it Sephiroth’s prison, we allow Sephiroth to take complete control over the Whispers. Which incidentally looks quite similar to the prison Sephiroth erected around Holy as seen before fighting Bizarro Sephiroth. The red-brown cage even resembles a human heart, another parallel to the Harbinger’s heart.
There’s also another interesting detail. When the heart shatters, the party receives another flash of the future. Yes, really. This light blue realm they find themselves in looks a lot like the structure of Holy during the ending cinematic. Holy flies through the flame tornadoes caused by Meteor, severing them but Meteor is too close and thus too strong and starts to slowly push through and damage Midgar even more. This also happens here as the surroundings slowly turn into a menacing orange and Meteor appears from above to destroy the image of Midgar completely.
Also notice how Meteor only appears after Sephiroth repeats his line from earlier before he entered the portal, which only Cloud can hear. After all, it’s Cloud he wants. He doesn’t care about the others.
In the Material Ultimania book, Lead Effect Artist Iwa comments on this scene and reveals that It’s meant to represent a clash between two worlds: Aerith’s Lifestream—hence the water below—and Sephiroth’s Meteor. The water disappears and makes way for a piece of dry concrete debris within a destroyed Midgar, probably signifying that Sephiroth has the upper hand now and not the Lifestream, also known as fate.
Final Showdown
When Sephiroth appears, he’s enveloped in a bright purple light, the center of several black strands of something, seemingly feeding into this purple light. The same black particle strands also shoot out of Meteor, only to be absorbed by Sephiroth as well, as is the whole image of Meteor and its flames, which seem to have been made of said black substance.
Those who have watched Advent Children might remember it. It can be seen when the Remnants are born, Shadow creepers are summoned, and when Sephiroth calls in the negative Lifestream.
Sephiroth also planned to infect the Lifestream with as many Geostigma victims as possible to then girdle the planet using the resulting negative Lifestream and use the planet as his vessel to travel the cosmos.
It looks like this Meteor we see here is a memory made of corrupted, negative Lifestream. Memories which Sephiroth absorbs to become whole again. This is needed as he used his own memories to spread the Geostigma disease in the first place. It can also be argued that the memory flashes of the future we saw earlier reminded the party of Sephiroth as most of them have direct ties to him. The more people remember him, the stronger he becomes.
Since we now know what happens in this scene, we also know why this light engulfing Sephiroth is purple. It’s the color signifying corruption and Jenova’s essence, which he just absorbed back into his being. In the following segment of this scene, Sephiroth telepathically controls huge chunks of debris and throws them at the party, with Cloud effortlessly slicing through them, expressing far more skills than before in this game.
Even Sephiroth wasn’t able to telepathically control matter in the whole compilation. But he can control negative Lifestream, which is where we believe we currently are in, as mentioned earlier.
Eventually, Sephiroth separates Cloud from the others and starts this long-awaited duel. During their duel, Sephiroth taunts Cloud with up to seven unique lines of discouragement, each referring to a specific memory of them.
Fate is not to be taken lightly, Cloud
The planet will claim you
Do I frighten you?
Will you weep for me?
Come, Cloud
Have we forgotten already?
The weakness within
The Material Ultimania Plus book lists the Japanese version of them, which were naturally translated by our dear Audrey on Twitter. Most mean basically the same, but one difference stands out.
Instead of “The weakness within” he says “You can’t protect anyone” which is the same line he says to Cloud in chapter 2 upon meeting Aerith, where he refers to all those people Cloud failed to save, especially Aerith.
After a while, two other characters arrive one after the other, ruining Sephiroth’s one-on-one. He even makes his disdain heard by spitting lines like “Begone” or “Leave” towards them, in this case Tifa.
The Material Ultimania Plus book lists four lines in total which Sephiroth can direct towards Tifa and they all basically tell her to screw off. After all, she’s Cloud’s support pillar and therefore a big obstacle. And this Sephiroth, having the knowledge about the compilation and beyond, knows exactly how she will contribute to curing Cloud of his influence. Sephiroth has three more lines to spare when attacking Aerith: “What can you even do?”, “You can see the future?” and “You can’t change fate.”
Even he acknowledges that she has future sight, but she still won’t be able to avert her fate. This shows that he knows about her secret and that he has no plans of letting her live. We’ll see why later in this analysis. And again, the number seven is present. Sephiroth has four lines for Tifa and three for Aerith. Seven in total, just like his lines for Cloud. Even Sephiroth is obsessed with the number seven.
Another neat detail is the steady increase in the number of characters in this battle, which represents “power gathers together” and “the future expands”, as stated in the first Material Ultimania book.
This stands in contrast to the original where the party size instead shrinks from all party members against Bizarro Sephiroth, all the way to one against shirtless Sephiroth, where only Cloud is fighting. This also underlines this new direction for the Remake. Everything expands.
Also worthy of note is that many attacks by Sephiroth are accompanied by a purple particle effect, for example Hell’s Gate, especially in those two cutscenes where another character joins the battle. In the first one, he charges his sword and unleashes shock waves towards Cloud. This then becomes a normal attack in battle as we can see here.
In the second one, he pins both adversaries to the ground using a purple gravity field and points with his purple glowing sword at Cloud’s face with a smile, asserting dominance.
Later, he finally brings out his single black raven wing. Doing so makes grey particles fly all over the place. The same grey the Whispers are made of. However, this Sephiroth is created of negative Lifestream.
Do Whispers also originate from the negative Lifestream where Sephiroth was held prisoner? They do emit similar particles at the start of chapter 18 when whirling around the Shinra building after all. As we see later, his wing looks to be made of Whisper essence. If some Whispers are corrupted souls from the negative Lifestream, his wing would thus be created from memories of the events in Advent Children.
It’s interesting what Sephiroth says to Cloud when he performs his Fire Infusion: “Oh, the memories.“ This is a reference to Sephiroth’s cherished memories of burning Cloud’s hometown to the ground as we learned in chapter 2. And in the original game, of course.
At the start of the next and last phase, Sephiroth summons a bunch of Whispers from his wing, further solidifying our theory that at least some, if not all Whisper essence originates from the negative Lifestream. If true, his wing would therefore be created from memories of the events in Advent Children. It would also explain how he’s able to manipulate the Whispers in chapters 4 and 12. Sephiroth then uses those Whispers to weave memories into an image of Meteor. This is evident by those famous purple memory streaks accompanied by some green Lifestream particles while they swirl around their new master.
It then looms menacingly in the sky, just like in the original game’s overworld, and a countdown from 10 begins.3
In one deliberate shot, we can see that the image of Meteor is made of Whispers or even negative Lifestream particles. It also keeps glitching out a bit, as if Sephiroth has trouble keeping it stable during the fight. Why, though? Is he trying to change the past while in control of the Whispers, just like he’s holding back Holy in the original game? We also see several purple lights floating around it, similar to those purple lightning effects we see during Whisper Harbinger’s introduction upon entering the Singularity.
When listening to the music, it underscores the meaning of this battle beautifully. In one segment, it incorporates a heroic version of the battle theme, follows up with a vocals-deprived Whispers’ Theme that reflects the loss of their voice by being choked through Sephiroth’s control,4 and ends with a few menacing notes of the boss battle theme.
→ Link to timestamped video if the embed above doesn’t work or starts from the beginning.
This is the battle against fate but not without hard resistance from the final boss.
Speaking of music, this rendition of One-Winged Angel contains the additional term “Rebirth” in its track title. Sephiroth is reborn here, similar to his reappearance in Advent Children just by different means.
And of course, we cannot escape his pear.
Upon defeating Sephiroth, this fake Meteor disappears into purple memory streaks and Sephiroth conjures more Whispers from his wing to sic on the party, multiple times, but they are tenaciously holding their ground. When Cloud performs his final blow reminiscent of the original Braver Limit Break or even his final Omnislash strike, Sephiroth just smiles victoriously at him, without even trying to defend himself, as if this was the plan all along.
After all, this last blow destroys this form of Sephiroth and with him the remaining Whispers as we can see by this beautiful multi-colored light.
Edge of Creation
The following scene is an alternate version of the original final battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, where Cloud’s spirit gets sucked into the Lifestream, flies through a wormhole and meets up with Sephiroth’s remaining essence. There, Cloud can perform his Omnislash attack to finish off his nemesis for good.
…until the compilation arrives.
In Remake, something similar happens but with a completely different outcome. We fly through a wormhole in first person and see Cloud fly out of it, with Sephiroth below and a closeup of Cloud’s face before he lands, almost identical to the original FMV.5
However, seeing Cloud pierce through the darkness before the wormhole and the golden Materia underneath a water surface between wormhole segments are both missing here.
What happens after the landing is also different, starting with the landing itself. In the original, it immediately transitions to their battle while Cloud physically lands on a barren and rocky surface here.
He then almost immediately suffers from another vision. We don’t see it, but according to Sephiroth’s line “Careful now. That which lies ahead… does not yet exist,” Cloud was probably about to see their fight from the original, which is from a future that does not exist yet. A future that might not happen anymore.
However, why is Sephiroth able to stop Cloud’s vision? Did he inherit the Whispers’ ability to take memories away or is that a side effect of now being the most powerful entity in the Lifestream? After some more talking, Cloud refuses Sephiroth’s offer and draws his sword, which leads to the exact same face-off. The camera zooms towards them, interjected with flashes of different shots of them. A perfect replication of the original version.
And in the flashback scene in Advent Children where Cloud and Sephiroth clash—a callback to this duel—we can also see a rocky surface below them for a few frames.
What follows now is quite the deviation. Cloud directs a flurry of stabs and strikes towards Sephiroth reminiscent of his Omnislash Limit Break. We see a few normal hits, overhead strikes and even a piercing attack. However, Sephiroth blocks, parries, and outright dodges every single hit without breaking a sweat. Cloud even tries a few feints to throw off Sephiroth but even teleporting around and redirecting a strike in the last second does not break Sephiroth’s guard and cool.
In the end, Sephiroth sends Cloud’s sword flying with a single but powerful strike, leading to an image reminiscent of the title screen, even down to the rocky ground. Very nicely done.
Fun fact: in Remake, Cloud delivers exactly 14 sword swipes before Sephiroth disarms him. Why is this important? In the original game, Cloud strikes a 15th time using one last overhead jump slash to finish off Sephiroth. That last hit is missing in Remake, rendering Cloud’s Omnislash incomplete and Sephiroth unharmed.
Many of Cloud’s individual attacks differ because Sephiroth is now fighting back. Cloud therefore has to change his attack pattern. Still, Sephiroth cuts this onslaught short before the final hit. Now, what does this mean? Why do we see the end of the original game at the end of Midgar already? Sephiroth’s end goal is still the same but the path to it might deviate from the one he followed in the original game, leading the developers to show this scene here as it would be missing otherwise. Though it’s still possible that we’ll experience this duel in the end but with Cloud winning instead, showing his growth during his journey with his friends.6
Let’s now go through their conversation to find out what’s going on here.
First, the Sephiroth from the future, now free of his prison in the negative Lifestream, takes Cloud’s spirit to where he hails from: the actual end of the world, as described in the chapter summary. And also confirmed by Motomu Toriyama in the Material Ultimania Plus, several months after writing this script. Yes, it was completed that long ago.7
After he tells Cloud that which lies ahead does not yet exist, he follows up with “Our world will become a part of it…one day.” referring to the planet apparently becoming a part of this unwritten future eventually.
His line also expresses the uncertainty of Cloud’s vision of the original future even coming to pass. Maybe it will, maybe not. This fits nicely into our theory of this planet’s future being reset and given the chance to unfold differently. It’s also interesting that he’s looking at the bright nebula above on his side while Cloud is located on the side of the red nebula hanging low in the background. According to the Material Ultimania book, this bright golden nebula is supposed to represent Sephiroth’s wing.
Cloud from the past, the original game’s events, stands before a sinking red nebula representing dusk and contains the shadow of a figure that resembles Jenova. On Sephiroth’s side, we see a bright future rising, his golden wings of freedom, his goal, the new world, finally free from Jenova.
Wait, why free of Jenova?
In this conversation, Sephiroth refers to himself using “ore”—the informal way of saying “I”—for the first time in the compilation after the Nibelheim incident five years ago. Ever since Jenova’s body escaped the Shinra building as Sephiroth, he has been using “watashi,” the neutral formal way of saying “I.”
One interpretation is that, thanks to being free from destiny, this future essence of Sephiroth here has become free of Jenova’s direct influence and is now able to form his own destiny.
Or so it may seem…
In any case, he needs Cloud to help him to achieve his goal, as his essence still resides within the Lifestream and Cloud would only be there to defeat him, yet again.
Another interpretation is that Sephiroth plays a game of manipulation, as he so often does. By talking to Cloud like he did before he went mad, before he became obsessed with Jenova, with “Mother,” he might have an easier time winning Cloud over by appealing to Cloud’s positive memories. A version of Sephiroth Cloud once admired and was his idol as a kid and a person Cloud aspired to become.
While it’s hard to guess what’s actually on Sephiroth’s mind, it’s clear that he behaves less crazy, more grounded, and treats Cloud with respect. Almost as if he’s dependent on Cloud and has to rely on him… The next lines reinforce this notion. Even if the planet becomes a part of what lies ahead, the end of the world, he wants neither himself nor Cloud to die.
Sephiroth
But I… will not end.
Nor will I have you end.Cloud
This is…Sephiroth
The Edge of Creation
He needs Cloud to retain his existence because as long as Cloud exists and remembers him, he will never fade. His existence is intrinsically tied to Cloud’s, as explained in the Lifestream Black chapters. This means that even when this world meets its end, Sephiroth will not share its fate, but he needs Cloud to achieve that.
Let’s have a quick look at the term “Edge of Creation”. While it’s a pretty good translation, it does lose some nuance compared to the original Japanese version. “Sekai no Sentan” contains 2 terms. Sekai means “the entirety of this world” or “the entirety of human society.” Sentan stands for either the end, edge or tip of a thing or object, or can stand for the head or lead of an era.
In our interpretation, it describes the very tip or end of human society on this planet. Applied to Final Fantasy VII lore, the Edge of Creation is most likely the end of the Lifestream and the memories within. So basically, the point where the world ends and just before it sends its life force back into the cosmic Lifestream, just like any life form on this planet eventually returns to the planetary Lifestream.
Big thanks and kudos to Game Gengo, who helped improve our understanding of the Japanese version of this term. Check out his “Learning Japanese through video games” video series if you haven’t already!
Sephiroth
Cloud, lend me your strength.
Let us defy destiny… together.
…he says, while extending his hand. Quite reminiscent of one of cinema’s most famous scenes: Darth Vader asking Luke to rule the galaxy with him together.
When Cloud refuses, he looks quite disappointed, emphasizing our earlier assessment of how much Sephiroth relies on Cloud’s cooperation, but deep down knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. As a result, he tests Cloud by provoking their original one-on-one battle which we described earlier. Having the knowledge of this very fight and Cloud’s abilities already, Sephiroth effortlessly avoids all of Cloud’s attacks and even throws in a few playful swipes before he decides to prematurely end this duel.8
Sephiroth
Not yet.Seven seconds till the end.
Time enough for you. Perhaps.
But what will you do with it? Let’s see.
The Japanese version is much more specific: “7 seconds until the end. However, you can still be in time. The future depends on you, Cloud.”
Instead of insinuating that Cloud has to do or decide something within those seven seconds and only in those seven seconds, the Japanese version includes Cloud’s journey to that very moment of seven seconds before the end. Meaning, Cloud’s whole journey is important to avoiding the end of the world. He needs to grow strong enough and needs to arrive wherever in time to avert the end of the world before those seven seconds run out.
If we assume the Edge of Creation to be the latest memory committed to the Lifestream, this Sephiroth is the real one in the Lifestream, having been imprisoned by the planet ever since his defeat in Advent Children. That’s why he needs to set events into motion that lead to something at the end of this remake series, where Cloud has to make a decision. One that will define the planet’s destiny. Demise or Rebirth.
Sephiroth hopes this to be one where he will not end, as he proclaimed earlier. This is his final chance of eternal survival, his Final Fantasy, 7 seconds before the end. To succeed, he has to Remake the story. And this right here is the second meaning of the word Remake in the title, the mystery Nomura-San alluded to in the Ultimania interview.9
And in the Material Ultimania Plus book, Motomu Toriyama basically confirms what we just talked about.
Quote: “It’s the edge of the world’s space and time, a place where time has stopped. Time is running out before the end of the world and thus is represented by the words ‘seven seconds prior.’ If time were to resume, either the world will meet its doom within 7 seconds or with some kind of power, the path of space and time can be changed. This is why Sephiroth tells Cloud: ‘it is up to you.’”
That’s why he needs Cloud to become stronger and join him in defying destiny. By manipulating the party into removing the fate police, he kicks off a butterfly effect which changes the situation at seven seconds before the end. And the “journey” of this butterfly effect reverberating throughout the planet’s memories will most likely be represented by the upcoming installments of this Final Fantasy VII remake project. Sephiroth has changed the planet’s memories and thus the past and now waits for the changes to reach his present so that time can resume and his plan to save the planet his way is complete.
Back at the Edge of Creation, Cloud is left alone, still disarmed, confused, looking at the future nebula, a future envisioned by Sephiroth, who leaves one last feather behind, possibly the one we see in the ending cinematic.
Before we move on to the last relevant scene, let’s talk about the awesome music that plays here. It’s a remade version of Can You Hear the Cries of the Planet? which plays in the Forgotten City where Aerith meets her end. Quite fitting as we’re also in a place where something meets its end through Sephiroth. However, it’s the whole planet instead of “just” the last living Ancient. And Sephiroth doesn’t hear the cries of the planet, but Cloud still does, so there’s that.
Ending Cinematic
The Whispers are destroyed and all the changes to the timeline that happened in this game are applied to reality. After the party escapes the Singularity, they end up on the cliff where Zack died in the original canon.
We’ll get into that in the analysis about the ending so let’s focus on the last thing related to Sephiroth. His feather. Cloud is still brooding over his defeat at the Edge of Creation, holding a black feather with a purple shimmer in his hand, left behind as a calling card so Cloud remembers his purpose and thus Sephiroth.
This might also be a callback to Crisis Core where Zack grabs one of Genesis’ feathers after he flies away just before Banora gets carpet bombed. The shot looks pretty similar. Both are holding the feather in their right hand in pretty much exactly the same way, with only one major difference.
When Zack closes his fist around the feather, it remains real. Genesis flies away but still exists. When Cloud grabs Sephiroth’s feather tight, it dissipates into purple mist, indicating that this specific version of Sephiroth won’t return.
After reality has been reset to this point, the future—where Remake Sephiroth came from to inject himself into the planet’s memories to alter them—doesn’t exist anymore. He accomplished what he set out to do: averting the demise of the planet by resetting the timeline and having his past self try again from this changed starting point.10 Just like us using chapter select and responding with a different answer to Tifa to have her don a different dress or skip all side quests to witness Barret’s resolution scene instead, just way more consequential. This feather basically represents the last remnant of the old reality, the Final Fantasy VII compilation.
This concludes the fourth 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 5 covering the summary of Cloud and Sephiroth’s Remake related peculiarities coming soon…
Sephiroth wields his Masamune in his left hand, too. Kadaj is thus the Remnant that’s closest to Sephiroth, which is probably the reason why he was chosen to be overtaken by Sephiroth during Advent Children’s climax.
In reverse chronological order if we consider the “movie” showing Holy at the Forgotten Capital on the visit with Bugenhagen. We’re undoing the future bit by bit…
"Ten…” would happen at the very start of this phase, but it’s never shown.
One could even say that those four remaining brief female vocal shouts could be deemed suppressed cries for help. The Cries of the Planet…
FMV stands for full-motion video—moving video images used in a video game, which make the action look very clear and real.
The true Omnislash were the friends we made along the way.
That statement refers to the time shortly before March 3rd 2022 when the full video version of this analysis was released.
In addition to that, with this scene also taking place in the Lifestream’s memory, Sephiroth might be able to read all of Cloud’s intentions and thus movements before their executions. It’s why he doesn’t even bother to block or dodge Cloud’s feint.
Unfortunately, the source, Aitaikimochi’s Tumbler post is not available anymore, so you’ll have to make due with a summary of that point on gamersdecide.com.
According to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, this turned out to be false as the all-knowing future Sephiroth still exists and does certain things differently this time around. But that’s for another article.