Ending & Zack Explained! [1/3] - FFVII Remake Mysteries [4/4] | Game Analysis #27
The ending of Final Fantasy VII Remake created many questions about the future of several characters—Zack's survival above all. Let's dive into those lingering mysteries and make sense of them all.
Table of Contents
Article 1 ⟵ you are here
Article 2
Article 3
Timelines, Lifestream & Realities
Final Fantasy VII Remake threw many players for a loop with the introduction of new elements and a myriad of mysteries for us Scholars of the Lifestream to solve. Why do the Whispers exist? How does Aerith know more than she should? Why does Sephiroth keep appearing in places he never did before and why can Cloud see visions of future events? But more importantly, and that’s today’s main topic, how and why is Zack alive and kicking? We’re going to answer this and many more questions in this episode of Game Analysis, so sit back and enjoy the ride!
Introduction
Greetings fellow Scholars of the Lifestream!
I’m Vyzzuvazzadth from the Cosmo Canyon Observatory and in today’s analysis, we are going to conclude our series covering the mysteries of Final Fantasy VII Remake by explaining the ending—INTERmission included, talk about what to expect from future installments, and dive deeply into Zack’s new role.
I, and many other lore geeks and theorists already talked extensively about many of those topics on other channels and platforms, so many aspects might not be new to you, but we still hope to provide a comprehensive analysis of and explanation for remaining mysteries with several cherries on top.
If you haven’t already, please check out our previous episodes covering the Whispers, Aerith, Sephiroth, and Cloud as all of them provide the basis for this analysis. It’s not a requirement as several sections stand on their own, but you might find it much easier to follow some of our explanations and conclusions.
And as always:
⚠️Massive spoilers ahead for Final Fantasy VII, its compilation, and Remake. ⚠️
Alright, let’s surf through the wormhole one last time. See you all on the other side!
Remaining Mysteries
It’s finally time to talk about the ending of this first entry to the Final Fantasy VII Remake project and bring all previous conclusions together to make sense of the big picture. While the game is called “Remake” it technically is a sequel to Final Fantasy VII and its compilation. Even in interviews, the creators talked about how they always considered Final Fantasy VII Remake the 5th entry in the compilation ever since Dirge of Cerberus concluded.1
This is evidenced by Aerith’s and Sephiroth’s new roles and knowledge, as discussed at length in Game Analysis episodes 24 and 26. Even the mere existence of the Whispers presents a solid basis for this notion, as we laid out in episode 23 which kicked off this series of videos uncovering the mysteries of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Case in point: a normal remake of the original Final Fantasy VII would not have introduced any of those new elements.
Protecting and defying fate as a new theme?
Certain characters knowing more than they should or appearing much earlier?
Certain characters surviving this time around?
And the phrase “The Unknown Journey Will Continue” at the end?
A regular remake would tell the exact same story and only expand on events or enlarge areas, like new side quests in hub areas, new sub-scenarios like riding to the Sector 7 plate with Jessie, improve world building in chapters 5, 6, 10 and 11, add new NPCs like Marle, Wymer, Oats, the Wall Market trio, and include more from the compilation or even change up certain segments completely while still staying true to the original continuity, like the Honeybee Inn scenario.
All of those and many more changes and expansions only exist to enrich the experience and flesh out the world, but none of those would have changed the main story line, the plot, the themes, or even the main chain of events. With those new elements introduced, it’s clear that we’re not dealing with a simple remake of an old classic but a continuation of the whole Final Fantasy VII compilation, aiming to become the definitive Final Fantasy VII experience which includes the original story as well as most compilation elements, while also bringing the compilation to a close, as we theorized at the end of Game Analysis #26 called “How to Remake the Future”.
With that settled, let’s establish pertinent questions which arose from the changes mentioned before.
Questions
Why and how is Biggs still alive? What about Jessie and Wedge?
What’s in store for Rufus?
How and why is Marlene able to feel Barret reaching out to her?
How is Zack still alive?
Why is the Stamp’s Champs chips bag different?
How can Zack and Cloud “cross paths” with the others?
Are there multiple timelines or just one?
Where do the ending scenes happen?
What is Zack’s new purpose?
Unlike previous episodes, we won’t strictly collect evidence first and answer those questions afterward. Instead, we’ll treat each relevant character and issue separately and conclude with our final theory.
Strap in, it’s gonna be a doozie!
Lost Avalanche Trio
We begin with our beloved Avalanche trio Jessie, Biggs and Wedge. Each of them seems to befall a very different fate, unlike the original story, where all of them died at or on the Sector 7 plate pillar during Sector 7’s final hour.
Jessie
Recap
Jessie succumbs to her mortal wounds very close to the top in both the original game and Remake.
In contrast to the others, her death scene has very much a final feel to it. Not just in the way she slips away, but also regarding the whole scene and dialogue.
Chapter 12’s story summary also not so subtly declares her as deceased, especially in the German version. The Japanese original, however, only mentions saying goodbye.
And during Biggs’ ending scene, only her bandana and a single glove of hers can be seen lying on the dresser below the window.
Is she gone forever?
Does that mean she’s gone forever?
She doesn’t roam the world of the living anymore, that’s for certain. That’s how I see it at least. One big piece of evidence for this is how Jessie receives a lot more attention, scenes, and additional backstory compared to the other two,2 which doesn’t leave much else to be desired for a sound character arc.
Only seeing her glove and bandana next to a still living Biggs also contributes to that sentiment. Nayo, Jessie’s best friend probably tore those two items off her body before evacuating as proof of existence and memento. She didn’t wear any dog tags after all.
However, we believe that this is not the last we’ve seen of Jessie. Mostly due to the following two tidbits by Square Enix staff. During Sony’s Japanese-only Play! Play! Play! Stream,3 Kitase-San was directly asked if Jessie is still alive. Instead of providing a direct “no”, he fidgets around a bit and forms a cross with his arms, signalling his inability to talk about it here. Very curious, isn’t it?
Presenter: “She must be alive, right?“
Kitase-san: nervous laughter
Presenter: “Wait, what’s up?“
Kitase-san: “I really can’t say.“
The second weird piece of information can be found in a Q&A segment with Toriyama-San in the Material Ultimania Plus book. There, he’s asked whether the existence of Jessie’s glove and bandana means that she’s still alive.
And again, no clear answer. However, we can extrapolate one from the points made. If Biggs miraculously survives, there may be hope for the others and Jessie’s fate could go either way. However, “loss” is an important theme to Final Fantasy VII’s story, so a future in which all characters continue to live may result in a different world. We will get to Biggs later, but for Jessie, the simplest assumption would be that she is in fact dead, but we know where the souls of the dead go, right?
Whether “this world” is an imaginary one where the story was written differently by Square Enix or another world within the story remains to be seen. Regardless of what will happen, there are still possibilities for her to appear despite being dead. For one, flashbacks are a powerful tool to show deceased characters again and give them more screen time and context to their story. For another, it’s possible that we’re able to watch recordings of Jessie’s debut at the Gold Saucer.4
There is a third possibility, but we will get into that much later in this analysis.
Wedge
What about Wedge? His fate is a bit more complicated.
Recap
He was initially meant to die at the pillar, but thanks to the still working grappling gun, he was able to break the fall and survive, allowing him to help with the evacuation. Later, changed circumstances lead the Whispers to keep him in a specific place where he would not be crushed by falling debris but instead fall into the underground lab through a cave-in.
This and his cat, Biggums were what led him to be found and saved by us which in turn allowed Wedge to support the group in the Shinra building and thus finally make the difference he always wanted. Unfortunately, fate had no other role for him to play, so the Whispers decided it was time to collect his debt: falling off a high place erected by Shinra and die. However, Wedge’s demise is only implied through foreboding visuals and shattering glass behind a black screen. We don’t see him being pushed out and fall to his death, which makes this whole situation very suspicious.
On the other hand, if you fire up photo mode during that black screen segment, you can actually see a rough version of the scene in which Wedge is shoved through the elevator shaft glass to then fall down on the outside.
It seems like they planned to show this act of fate but decided otherwise for the final product. Since we already saw people falling from heights,5 we believe this was done to add uncertainty. It’s generally good advice to assume a character will show up again after a supposed off-screen death, especially when cut-to-black is used.
Is there still hope?
Does this mean there is still hope for Wedge?
Hard to say. It could go either way. His fate seems to lie somewhere between Jessie and Biggs, which also coincides with the amount of screen time and character development spent on each one of the trio. Wedge certainly receives more attention and is able to interact with Cloud more often compared to Biggs, but nowhere near Jessie’s level. She basically has her own arc, backstory, and protagonist interactions.
While Wedge somewhat did have a character arc, it felt too shallow, and he is still lacking a backstory. This is the main argument for his survival. However, this would amount to two fake-out deaths and thus diminish any further death scenes, if there are any. Not sure what to think about that…
Conversely, if this was his Final Destination,6 such a black-screen death would feel rather cheap. Ratings are also not a factor here as we saw people falling from great heights already—Cloud in chapter 7 and Wedge in chapter 12—with an NPC even being shot before doing so.
No matter how you look at it, Wedge’s fate is currently inconclusive, and neither possibility feels satisfying.7 However, if we take a closer look at the surroundings, we can see a large platform where the falling elevator stops; on floor 59.
Wedge gets thrown out of floor 64, which is a 5-story fall. Survivable?
Well, one story equals around 8 times Barret’s height of 6’6 or 1.97 meters. That’s 80 meters or 262 feet in total when rounding up. There are four segments between two glowing rings (one floor), each amounting to around double Barret’s height.
Biggs
Biggs’ fate on the other hand is way more palpable, even though the reason for it is anything but.
Recap
Just like Jessie, he seems to die in Cloud’s arms during the Sector 7 plate pillar ascent. However, it doesn’t feel final and more like he’s losing consciousness. Additionally, the story summary describes him as “seriously injured” while Jessie’s description pretty much tells you she died.
The German version confirms this but tells a slightly different story. Instead of Biggs urging Cloud to help his friends, it says that Cloud leaves Biggs in the care of his comrades, implying that Biggs will be saved.
Which is basically what happens as we see Biggs waking up during the Sector 5 ending scene, revitalized through a single golden particle flying into his chest.
Why and how is Biggs still alive?
So, Biggs is alive now, huh?
But why, and how?
The “why” question has a multi-faceted answer. As mentioned earlier, Biggs has barely any character arc or even development in this first game. He feels like just another vehicle for Avalanche’s story, similar to Nayo, Billy Bob, and Polk. It certainly feels like Square Enix has more in store for him in future parts. Additionally, the expansion on Wutai, their ties to Avalanche, and the shaky cease-fire with Shinra certainly opens up a lot of potential for Biggs to be incorporated on Avalanche’s side.
Besides Zack surviving his last stand, Biggs now being alive as well further hammers in the fact that destiny has changed. Fittingly, he was returned to where he grew up and later taught the next generation: the Leaf House.
But how did this happen? We can see 2 possibilities:
either he was saved off-screen and brought to the Leaf House
or defeating the Whispers has changed the past.
The latter possibility requires a lot of assumptions and becomes complicated very quickly. In this scenario, Biggs would not have been crushed by the plate, as without the Whispers, Barret and Cloud would have been able to prevent the Turks from dropping the plate. Others would then have had enough time to retrieve a wounded Biggs and bring him to Sector 5. However, if the plate didn’t drop, every single event where the Whispers intervened would also have turned out differently, creating paradoxes and thus countless parallel timelines.
“But the Sector 7 plate is intact in Marle’s ending scene!” I hear you say. While it does seem that way, the skybox in that scene is completely wrong in general. It looks like the developers ran out of time and just reused chapter 9’s skybox made for Sector 6 cast in daylight. This has also been an issue in chapter 8 where Sector 6’s plate was visible above Sector 5.
Additionally, the direction is completely wrong. When comparing the surroundings to those in chapter 13, Marle would be looking towards Midgar’s central pillar and not the outside! That, paired with Sector 6’s broken plate above a destroyed Sector 7 utterly discounts this argument. It’s also easy for the QA team to overlook this error during crunch.
So, in our opinion, this possibility can be flushed down the toilet. This only leaves the other possibility of Biggs having been saved prior to the plate crushing the slums beneath. Besides being a theory barely needing any assumptions, it gained a lot of merit after Episode INTERmission’s release where we learn that Sector 7 harbors more members of Avalanche.
It’s therefore very likely that Wedge met them before returning to his cats and told them about Biggs. They certainly knew that him, Biggs, Jessie, and Barret were involved in the battle and wanted to help anyway, especially since there were no troupes left after Cloud’s and Tifa’s ascent. Billy Bob and Polk could have rescued Biggs while Nayo went further up to find Jessie.
For reference, there was no evacuation in the original game, so nobody could have saved Biggs there at all as everybody residing in Sector 7 besides Cloud, Barret, and Tifa were wiped out.
Anyway, we’re pretty sure that all of Avalanche HQ knew about Biggs’ ties to the Leaf House and thus brought him there, along with Jessie’s glove and bandana. The kids and teachers were probably told to keep Biggs’ stay a secret, which could explain why none of them say anything during chapter 14. There is no NPC chatter in and around the Leaf House at all.
Now, what about the golden particle which wakes up Biggs?
It’s possible that this small fragment of light was enough to wake Biggs from his coma. Additionally, with it being a fragment of exploded Whispers, it’s not too far-fetched that this small memory infusion brought Biggs a new purpose.
Fun fact, that scene shows parallels to the ending of Dirge of Cerberus where Omega explodes into millions of Lifestream particles raining down on Midgar while one of them enters Shalua’s damaged revitalization pod.
But why would the Whispers even allow Biggs to be saved by Avalanche HQ?
Most likely because his continued existence doesn’t threaten the original continuity, and hadn’t they been defeated, they could have stepped in at any point in the future to amend their oversight. Or Biggs was about to die anyway, and his survival is only ensured by that golden particle, a result of the defeat of the Whispers.
Since he’s now alive, will we see Biggs again in future parts of this Remake project?8
We certainly hope so and as mentioned earlier, rejoining Avalanche HQ, another cell outside of Midgar or even the old guard is certainly an option. This conflict between Wutai, Avalanche, and Shinra has to be revisited and heavily expanded upon after the setup in the main game and the DLC.
Episode INTERmission provides us with another piece of evidence: Yuffie only directly interacts with Jessie and Wedge, those who can be considered dead, but not with Biggs, the one who survived. The Whispers even prevent her from entering Seventh Heaven where Biggs resides before and after waiting for the others to return from reactor no. 5. Is this just a coincidence or a subtle hint that Yuffie will meet Biggs for real later on in the story?
And what about this “X” in Aerith’s chapter in Traces of Two Pasts? After hearing Aerith’s story, Tifa realizes that this orphan called “X”, who helped Aerith out once, was actually Biggs! Aerith meeting Biggs later in the story is therefore a possibility. It would also allow Aerith to meet somebody from her past again, one who’s connected to this unknown journey by still being alive.
Shinra’s Future
Alright, let’s now shift to Avalanche’s arch enemy, Shinra. Not much has changed for any of them besides Rufus, who was able to see the Whispers at the start of chapter 18. But before we dig into that, let’s have a look at the other board members and the Turks.
Turks, Heidegger, Scarlet, and Palmer
Besides some minor changes, Reno, Rude and Tseng experienced basically the same events in the same way as they did in the original story and are now at the same starting point for the second installment. However, we received more context this time thanks to the scene showing Rufus taking his father’s place in front of everybody.
In Before Crisis, after a string of incidents, President Shinra gave the order to eliminate the Turks and put Scarlet, director of advanced weaponry in charge.
However, things turned out differently and the Turks were promised to be spared if they killed the leader of Avalanche, Elfe and their own former leader, Veld—or Verdot. Tseng did so, but it turned out it was a mere spectacle for Shinra.
The Turks are spared but Scarlet and President Shinra still want them disbanded. However, Rufus intervenes as they have shown great loyalty. Tseng shows Rufus his gratitude and is told to show it in the work the Turks do, implying they now work under Rufus.
Remake takes this additional lore and neatly weaves it into Rufus’ ending scene. Heidegger also discredits himself by calling Rufus Mr. Vice President, promptly getting ignored. Rufus has never shown any sympathy for Heidegger, not even in the original game, where he tells him to stop his horse laugh and generally bosses him around, leading Heidegger to lash out at everybody around him.
In contrast, Tseng knows his place. He correctly calls Rufus Mr. President and then stands beside the throne, effectively taking Heidegger’s place, just like Rufus now takes his father’s place.
Palmer didn’t have much screen time, let alone a story arc, so we hope for additional involvements besides drinking tea, trying to steal the Tiny Bronco, getting run over by a truck and initiating the rocket’s countdown.
Both Scarlet and Reeve have very good chances of receiving more attention this time. Reeve is intricately involved with both Shinra and Cloud’s party through Cait Sith and seeing more of Reeve’s side is more than welcome. Just keep their ties a secret for newcomers, please.
Scarlet received a big role in Episode INTERmission and is thus much more involved with Yuffie and has ties to the Wutai war, in addition to the Huge Materia segment which was already introduced. Which, to be honest, would really profit from a big overhaul and we feel it could mesh nicely with Wutai and Avalanche Both are after Shinra’s Materia for one reason or another after all.9
Deepground may also play a role later on, presumably during the raid on Midgar towards the end. After all, Chapter 13 solidifies Deepground’s existence in lore and story, and Episode INTERmission went all-in with its inclusion. Scarlet even has Nero and possibly the others directly under her command. Scarlet’s a big part during the raid on Midgar as well as Proud Clod—now localized to Pride and Joy—which can already be seen in a corridor close to her Materia test chamber. Everything falls into place…
Hojo
Naturally, Hojo isn’t present during Rufus’ crowning ceremony as he only leaves his lab if absolutely necessary. Lab assistants are running around like headless chickens at the sight of Jenova’s destroyed and empty tank. Hojo, however, is delighted. After all, this is just another step in his experiment proving the Reunion theory. He realizes that the center of the Reunion is not Jenova’s body but her head, and that it’s Sephiroth, his son leading the charge. No wonder he starts laughing uncontrollably like a lunatic.
So, in essence, it seems nothing has changed for Hojo. However, there is a possibility that he might receive new orders from Rufus regarding the Whispers.
But more on that shortly because we need to address the bridge behind Hojo first.
Wait, how is a silly bridge of any concern to us?
It’s barely visible and most of you probably never noticed it but the bridge behind Hojo is the same one Sephiroth cut off like butter back in chapter 17 …and it’s intact.
Since we only see parts of the bridge, we need to count the number of vertical elements in the rails and red lamps and compare them to the destroyed version to find out. The broken version shows six vertical elements beyond the stairs with one set of red lamps just next to the 6th element. However, the bridge behind Hojo reaches far beyond that cut-off point!
But… how can this be? Again, let’s try to find an answer which requires the least amount of assumptions, like Ockham’s Razor suggests. We can rule out that it has already been fixed because everybody is still scrambling, nobody cleaned up the purple alien goo yet, and Jenova’s former residence still shows the exact same signs of destruction. Therefore, a still intact bridge would suggest that Sephiroth took Jenova the same way but was never disturbed and thus didn’t need to cut off the bridge.
What would this hypothesis entail? Either that the group never met Sephiroth on the bridge or that the encounter happened differently. Or removing Fate erased our party’s foray through The Drum. If the latter was the case, The party would have been removed from basically all events happening in this first game, which would demand a set of more layered assumptions to make sense.
Furthermore, it certainly looks like Cloud’s presence was responsible for summoning number 49 to Jenova’s tank, who appeared as Sephiroth in front of the group thanks to their memories of him. In this case, Cloud’s presence is needed for Sephiroth to appear there and take Jenova away. Without that meeting, which resulted in the bridge being cut off, Jenova would still reside in the tank.
As you can see, we’re starting to build a wild and complicated construct of theories and assumptions merely to justify an intact bridge in one shot of a cutscene, so let’s not go there. The simplest explanation is therefore an error on the developer side. Since we cannot see the whole bridge anyway and only one set of red lamps is visible, it’s very easy to overlook this blunder.
And it’s not like this would be the first visual error in this game. We have:
Strange light reflections in windows
Sector 6 above Sector 5 in chapters 8 and 14,
The inactive sunlamp floating in the air at the start of chapter 9,
Leslie’s fiancée looking like several Wall Market NPCs,
The disparity of Sector 7’s destruction between the pre-rendered scene in chapter 12, the environment in chapter 13, and the skybox in chapter 15,
The wrong skybox and sector above Sector 7 in Marle’s ending scene as laid out earlier,
And a completely botched Midgar in Zack’s ending scene, but more on that later.
Anyway, besides that bridge, everything else still looks the same as it did in chapter 17, which means the developers screwed up and the quality assurance team didn’t catch it. Like so many other things.
To summarize: Hojo is just being Hojo and continues to be. Let’s move on to Rufus.
Rufus
Recap
Generally, his appearance very much reflects the original events. He arrives by helicopter soon after his father gets killed by Sephiroth, duels Cloud with his loyal enhanced guard dog Dark Nation—now localized to Darkstar—and then leaves the scene by hanging from the helicopter’s rails with one arm like a badass.
However, that’s where the similarities end. The rest of Cloud’s group leaves before introductions, which moves their hilarious self-descriptions to the confrontation with Heidegger in the reception lobby downstairs.
Probably because Rufus is accompanied by several normal and Elite Security Officers this time. Cloud also asks Barret to get Aerith out of here, presumably as a result of Barret’s previous death and the visions he had of Aerith. He doesn’t want to lose any more friends. Furthermore, Rufus’ helicopter shot down an Avalanche vehicle upon his arrival, which wasn’t around in the original game either. Neither did any Avalanche attack on the Shinra building take place.
However, with other Before Crisis lore integrated into Remake, like the attempt on the President’s life in the past, Avalanche’s larger role is no surprise, especially since Rufus is their secret benefactor.
Behind the scenes, Rufus was funding Avalanche the whole time, using them to eventually remove his father from power and the world of the living.
Shooting down one of their helicopters is a mere front to keep his involvement hidden. Though it’s unknown whether Tseng or the Turks are informed about this.
Later, Rufus’ helicopter shoots at Cloud, destroying parts of the security grates and railing around the helipad, leading Cloud to almost fall to his death, if it weren’t for Tifa’s last second rescue maneuver. The scenes with Tseng in chapter 18 and taking his new position as president are also new to Remake. What’s more, somewhere between fighting Cloud and walking downstairs to floor 69, the Whispers granted him the sight, making him quite contemplative about the current situation.
Tseng on the other hand sees nothing and is confused about his superior’s unusual behavior. Even after Fate has been dealt with, Rufus stares out of the window again, like in chapter 18, but no Whispers can be seen this time.
He also only reluctantly takes a seat on his father’s throne, as if he was questioning his own fate. Even after sitting down, his slight smirk doesn’t seem as confident as before on the helipad.
Episode INTERmission introduced yet another facet of Rufus’ involvement with Avalanche. Remember Zhijie’s interrogation on the Gigantipede platform? He mentions three names when asked to tell the Shinra grunts who leaked him information. Naturally, neither answer seemed to satisfy his captors, but take a close look at Zhijie’s face when he says Rufus’ name and compare that to how he says the other two names. Also pay attention to his words.
With Heidegger, he looks like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, trying to come up with an excuse. He also drags out saying Heidegger’s name, as if he didn’t really know.
With Rufus, his expression and choice of words are much more to the point. He flat-out announces that he’ll tell them the truth and then directly answers the question.
With Hojo, he poses a question instead of answering and grins mischievously while doing so. He knows they would never believe the truth.
Scarlet also realizes that they might have a mole in their ranks.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Rufus has been leaking information to Avalanche throughout the story of Before Crisis, which is why they kept having an edge over Shinra.
The same happens in Remake. Why do you think the old guard Avalanche was able to quietly sneak into the warehouse at the Sector 6-7 Annex until we messed up their mission?
What about the attack on the Shinra building?
Rufus called the Turks before the video call with Wedge and the first explosion, so he knew beforehand.
The information about the Ultimate Materia plus detailed information about the Shinra building were therefore also leaked by him to Avalanche. It’s how that mission was even possible, with Zhijie acting as the middleman between Rufus, Avalanche, and our beloved Wutai spies, providing them with IDs for the Materia research facility.
What’s in store for Rufus?
Now, with this large info dump out of the way, let’s try to find out what the future has in store for Rufus. We’re pretty sure that having seen the Whispers—fate itself—will have an impact on Rufus’ character arc and motivations, regardless of being aware of the deeper meaning. In addition to our party’s different experience and Biggs and Zack being alive, Rufus will most likely also play a big role in future installments.
It’s quite possible that he needs to know more about those other-worldly cloaked specters and since Hojo’s Sephiroth clone subjects look kind of similar, he might ask Hojo to investigate this phenomenon. This could lead to their reappearance down the line. Imagine a garrison of Whispers controlled by Shinra…10
In any case, it seems like the Whispers were planting a seed in Rufus, introducing another fail-safe for a world without a fixed and enforceable Destiny. Perhaps their plan is to be brought back somehow at some point?11
Besides that, with this new dynamic between Shinra, Wutai, and Avalanche, we’re sure to experience a whole new secondary storyline involving them all, most likely linked to an expanded Huge Materia segment.12
We’re also quite certain that Zhijie and the other new characters from Avalanche HQ make a reappearance in said new secondary storyline, including Biggs and the old guard Avalanche.13
Since Rufus is basically the top dog in Shinra and Avalanche, the war with Wutai will take on a very interesting shape. Will Avalanche side with them or will it end in a Mexican stand-off? Only time will tell.
Marlene’s Sensitivity
Marlene is a curious child. She always exhibited a stronger connection to the planet and especially Aerith compared to every other non-Cetra person. In the original game, she feels Aerith’s essence even before Holy flies in to try and save Midgar from Meteor, as well as the Lifestream approaching before it gets close enough to be seen from Kalm. She doesn’t even seem surprised at its appearance.
Although you could argue that many other Kalm residents go see what’s transpiring outside as well, but in my opinion, they’re just late to checking out the spectacle over Midgar.
In Advent Children, right after Sephiroth summons the Negative Lifestream, Marlene feels Aerith’s presence again, represented by a drop of water.14
She’s also the only one among the main characters who’s wearing the pink ribbon the same way Aerith did, unlike the others, who all have it wrapped around their left arm or foreleg.
Her hairdo in general is heavily inspired by the last Cetra, complete with bangs and a rear braid.
Also take note of the almost identical direction between the following clips with Tifa and Marlene in Advent Children, and Elmyra and Aerith in Remake’s recount of their past. Uncanny, isn’t it?15
What’s more, both Tifa and Elmyra essentially act as a foster mother for Marlene and Aerith respectively.
Alright, back to four-year-old Marlene. Remake adds even more evidence for her heightened sensitivity, so let’s recap the relevant events.
Recap
When crying in Aerith’s arms, something—possibly her tears—establish a connection to Aerith, allowing Marlene to see something that confuses and frightens her at first, but then creates trust between the two. Since Aerith reacts surprised, we think she didn’t transfer her current thoughts and memories on purpose, so it must have been something about Marlene that initiated that memory transfer.16
During her ending scene, she can feel Barret, her daddy, calling out to her through the water droplet falling from the yellow flower’s leaf.
How and why is Marlene able to feel Barret reaching out to her?
But how is this possible?
The game establishes this yellow flower, a lily, to stand for reunion. It connects people. The one Aerith forces onto Cloud makes its way into the bar Seventh Heaven, connecting Aerith to Cloud, Cloud to Tifa, Tifa to Marlene, and lastly Marlene to Aerith.
It’s therefore no surprise that those potted and well-tended-to yellow Flowers in Marlene’s room allowed her to notice Barret’s cry to her even over such a long distance.
But why can Marlene hear the flowers talk while Aerith wasn’t able to in her discovery scene in chapter 8? This ties into our main theory established in the analysis of Aerith’s Secrets where we proposed that Part 1’s story mainly takes place in the Planet’s memories, the Lifestream. Those in Aerith’s garden are mere memory representations of flowers and thus were unable to speak.
During Marlene’s ending scene, however, the planet’s memories are already being rewritten and committed to reality, which is why Marlene’s flowers are real ones with the ability to communicate. As real as her, and the party on the cliff to the west of Midgar where Zack fought and lost his last stand.
However, all of that still doesn’t explain Marlene’s stronger sensitivity. Only that it exists. Children may harbor a greater sensitivity to the planet in general due to their innocence and still uncorrupted nature. They are therefore more open to natural inputs, so to speak. On top of that, Barret’s teachings about planetology certainly helped Marlene to retain that natural connection more easily.
It’s important to remember that the Cetra are neither a separate species, nor a different race per se. You can think of them as a group of people living in harmony with the planet. A way of life. Like nomads or Shaolin Monks.
Back in the day, before the Calamity of the Sky hit the planet, all humans were considered Cetra. The ancient civilization. However, some grew sick of their nomadic life and decided to settle down. They built civilization and began to flourish. More and more Cetra joined them which led to a loss of connection to the planet over time.
After Jenova, the Calamity from the Sky hit the planet, the planet called the remaining Cetra to the Knowlespole, Jenova’s impact site, to help tend to the wound.
This is where Jenova corrupted and killed most of the remaining Cetra before they managed to seal the threat away, all the while the settled Cetra hid and survived, and later became the humans of today.
This led Cetran traditions to almost disappear over the next 2000 years, leaving only Ifalna and Aerith.
But what does this have to do with Marlene you ask?
She’s on the best way to become a Cetra herself. As established before, “Cetra” is merely a name for an ancient civilization and their way of life. This means that they could re-emerge eventually if children were brought up the Cetran way. With Marlene being taught planetology, having such a strong connection to Aerith, feeling her presence when there’s a stir in the Lifestream, unconsciously invoking a memory transfer in Remake, and later being able to understand the language of the Flowers, she has the best prerequisite to becoming a Cetra, like Aerith.
This being said, it should be possible to raise more and more children the Cetran way who express a naturally heightened sensitivity and eventually bring back an extinct people.
Outro
Intrigued yet? You better be since this was only the first out of three parts covering the ending scenes and Zack’s mysteries. Next time, we will talk about Zack extensively, including Terrier Stamp and Episode INTERmission’s bonus scene.
In the meantime, feel free to drop a comment or join us on our Discord server.
And thank you, dear Scholars for reading this analysis and sticking with us to the end. Stay safe and take care!
Vyzzuvazzadth, signing off.
Please refer to the Shinra Archeology Department’s scanlation of the guide book on their website in PDF (page 233) or text (page 12) format. You may also check out page 742 in the original Japanese version of the FFVII Remake Ultimania book if you have access to it and are able to read Japanese.
As well as her own musical theme for the soundtrack which Biggs and Wedge didn’t get.
The original video link is unfortunately not available anymore and I wasn’t able to find a replacement. The screenshots will have to suffice.
Which is exactly what happened. In FFVII Rebirth, the first part of the LOVELESS presentation shows a musical scene with Jessie playing a princess who descends from the heavens bearing wings before shedding them to dance with a knight.
Like Cloud at the end of chapter 7 or Yuffie at the start of her Episode INTERmission story DLC. Though the former fell through a church roof into a flower bed while the latter is a trained Ninja and thus able to land gracefully… somewhat.
Obvious pop culture reference is obvious.
FFVII Rebirth confirms Wedge’s fate during one of its Protorelic side quest chains, and it’s not a pretty one…
Yes, but the circumstances are pretty sobering. As seen in FFVII Rebirth, he only exists in Zack’s separate 4-star terrier world, completely lacking purpose. After Zack makes a choice and creates the 6-star pug world as a result, he finds Biggs who is unceremoniously shot in the head during their conversation. That’s it. Shame.
Fortunately, FFVII Rebirth has already teased this exact direction. The now called Magnus Materia is sought after by both Shinra and Wutai, hence their rekindled conflict, among other reasons.
Fortunately, Sephiroth beat Shinra to the punch in that regard, as seen in FFVII Rebirth where new Black Whispers do his bidding.
As mentioned in the previous footnote, they were brought back, but Rufus was definitely not a factor in their Rebirth (ba-dum-tss).
See footnote no. 9.
So far, FFVII Rebirth has shown none of those parties mentioned to be involved in relation to the supposedly newly arisen conflict between Shinra and Wutai over the Magnus Materia. Although Zhijie and Nayo’s group each ended up partaking in optional side content. Biggs on the other hand ended up in Zack’s world where his purposeless life came to an abrupt stop.
By the White Materia falling into the water pool around the altar where Aerith died, actually, but this is a video transcript, so I didn’t want to edit this correction into the actual text.
Those angles may also be frequently used in Japanese media for common adult-child interactions to emphasize height difference, and thus the similarity between those scenes may be a mere stylistic choice.
This was confirmed in the FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus.
Awww yee