Sephiroth's Endgame [1/6] - 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 ⟵ you are here
Article 2 coming soon…
Prelude
Cloud and Sephiroth, eternal adversaries ever since the Nibelheim incident 5 years ago, where Cloud prevailed over Sephiroth against all odds, kicking off this whole mess we’re in now. In this first installment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, Sephiroth makes a lot more appearances than in the original storyline and Cloud experiences many more memory incidents. He also seems more aggressive. Why? Let’s find out!
Greetings, fellow Scholars of the Lifestream!
I’m Kutakuma from the Cosmo Canyon Observatory and today, we’re continuing our analysis of the new mysteries surrounding Final Fantasy VII Remake and take a detailed look at the new story elements which include Cloud and Sephiroth. And as always, huge spoilers ahead.
If you haven’t watched our previous works about the Whispers and Aerith’s secret yet, we strongly advise you to do so before jumping into this one as both contain a lot of information and conclusions which act as a foundation for this analysis. However, be prepared for a roughly 3-hours long foreplay.
Still here? Fantastic! Let’s jump into the wormhole again and to see what Cloud and Sephiroth are up to.
⚠️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 1: Setup
Character introductions
But… who are Cloud and Sephiroth exactly? Let us summarize the segments of their curriculum most important to the following analysis.
Cloud
Cloud is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, in the center of its main conflict and also its solution. During the course of the game, Cloud experiences a multitude of memory glitches and flashbacks. In this analysis, we only focus on those memory glitches and flashbacks, their meaning and what they entail.
Important to note is Cloud’s fake persona and backstory. Thanks to his severe Mako poisoning and Jenova cells injection, Zack’s passing and especially meeting Tifa again leads Cloud’s mind to reconstruct itself as a coping mechanism – with the help of Jenova’s abilities – to suppress his trauma and allow him to function again. As a result, Cloud pretends to have made it into SOLDIER and replaces Zack in the memories he has of him with himself. So, in Cloud’s eyes, he went to Nibelheim as a SOLDIER 1st class together with Sephiroth 5 years ago, killed him in the reactor out of revenge and then quit SOLDIER down the line to work as a mercenary. However, those past 5 years feel very sketchy, and Cloud doesn’t talk specifics about them. If he did, holes would present themselves. His mind wants to preserve his false persona and partially made-up past at all cost, which is the main reason for many of Cloud’s memory glitches in this game.
Sephiroth
Sephiroth is the main antagonist of the original Final Fantasy VII and his endeavors are thwarted by Cloud every single time. He tried to take back the planet for and with mother—Jenova—but Cloud managed to throw him into the Lifestream instead.
Over the next 5 years, he absorbed a lot of knowledge and began to rebuild his body at the heart of the northern crater in preparation for becoming a god. How? By using the Black Materia to summon Meteor with the goal to cause a mortal wound in the planet and then stand at its center to absorb the entirety of the Lifestream gathering there to heal the planet. However, Cloud and friends came along to prevent this from happening. Again.
Luckily, he managed to prevent the assimilation of his being into the planet’s memories and thanks to a contaminated Lifestream coming to the planet’s surface to help Holy ward off Meteor, Jenova cells spread across the planet causing the disease called Geostigma. An overreaction from the body trying to combat those rogue Jenova cells.
He then found 3 fitting souls he could use as a vessel on the planet’s surface to search for the rest of Jenova’s essence which would allow him to eventually be reborn. His new goal: spreading the contamination everywhere and choking the planet to death to then use it as his vessel to travel the cosmos, like his dear mother Jenova did before him. The problem: Cloud foiled this plan yet again and he seemingly became just a memory.
Sephiroth: “I’ll never be a memory”
However, he’s now back in the Remake with a new master plan and pesters Cloud like a jealous, clingy boyfriend whenever he can.
Questions
In previous analyses, we already established that Sephiroth tries to change the past to have another go at bringing his plans to fruition. But which plans? Let’s establish our questions which we’d like to have answers for at the end of this analysis.
Cloud
Why does Cloud experience more memory glitches this time?
What types of glitches do occur and what do they represent?
What is the meaning of Sephiroth’s black feather, which only Cloud can see?
Why does Cloud try to kill Marco, Johnny, and Reno without remorse?
Is Cloud able to remember memories exclusive to Zack?
Why is Cloud so strong within the Singularity?
Sephiroth
Why and how does Sephiroth appear in the Midgar arc already?
Is it always the same Sephiroth or are there multiple ones?
How does Sephiroth gain control over the Whispers?
What’s the color purple about?
Why is Sephiroth so obsessed with Cloud?
What is Sephiroth’s ultimate goal and how does he try to achieve it?
Part 2: Evidence
Supplemental Material
Before we go through all relevant scenes and dialogues within the game, we need to look at material outside of it to set the foundation for Sephiroth’s side of things. This includes 3 pieces:
The Lifestream Black chapters of the Final Fantasy VII novel On the Way to a Smile, which takes place in the 2-year span between the original game and the animation movie Advent Children,
two official key artworks for the Remake,
and an important line from the original game.
Lifestream Black
“The man could sense the Lifestream trying to erode his spirit—the memories of his former experiences, thoughts and emotions. If he allowed himself to be taken into the current, the being he once was would soon disseminate and disappear amongst the spirit energy cycling around the planet. The man thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat.”
“Cloud was the one who had twice sent the man into the Lifestream. The man knew that if one could hold onto some core of their spirit, then one could remain a separate entity, independent from the planet’s system. Cloud. The man decided to make Cloud that core. And he wanted to let Cloud know of that. I’m still thinking of you. And I’ll show you the proof of that as well.”
“As long as Cloud remembers me, I can continue to exist. Within the Lifestream, and on the surface. Even if my spirit disseminates, even if just one fragment of a memory courses around the planet, in the end I can count on Cloud’s consciousness to bring me back, the man thought.”
“With a fragment of Mother’s body, I too can get a body again, the man thought. And so firstly, he tried to manifest on the surface as just a spirit, but his attempt failed. He had already returned the memories of his own appearance to the planet, and so he was not able to produce an image of himself.”
“The man thought of the future. As my servants are looking for Mother, if they come across someone who knows me, then from that spirit I can learn of who I once was. And with Mother’s further assistance, I can become fully real. Even if there’s something lacking, it doesn’t matter. Cloud will make me complete.”
To summarize, Sephiroth didn’t want to fade away so he made Cloud his spirit core and essentially tethered his existence to Cloud’s memories. As long as Cloud remembers Sephiroth, he can never fade and always come back, as he demonstrated in Advent Children with Geostigma, the Remnants and finally himself. This is the most important piece of information for this analysis to keep in mind. But worry not. We’ll remind you when necessary.
Artworks
Remember the very first key art we received at Final Fantasy’s 30th anniversary? It depicted Midgar with Cloud in the front and Sephiroth in the back. It’s interesting that they chose to change the design of his shoulder guards which is some sort of mix between the original version and the ornamental design from Dissidia. However, more important is his unfurled raven wing, which was never part of the original Final Fantasy VII and only became a thing in Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children, where they decided to include the One-Winged Angel designator in his standard design.
Practically all fans were moaning about the black wing’s inclusion. “Why did they feel the need to cram Advent Children stuff into the original story? He didn’t have a wing then! Bring back OG Sephiroth!”
However, nobody would have ever anticipated that this is actually depicting post Advent Children Sephiroth, the one diving into the Lifestream’s memory to change the past, so to speak. Squaresoft and Square Enix never shied away from spoiling parts of the plot in Final Fantasy logos but spoiling crucial plot points in early revealed key art is something else entirely.
The second key art depicting Sephiroth contained another spoiler: Him standing in front of a burning Midgar with 4 Whispers flying around in the background, insinuating his control over the Whispers. It’s what confirmed Vyzz’s own theory about the Whispers being souls from the Lifestream corrupted by Jenova cells and controlled by Sephiroth, which turned out to be partially true, but more on that later. The fire itself never happened and was most likely to illustrate the new threat or possibly Meteor Fall depicted before the final battle against Sephiroth.
In any case, we do see the 4 Whispers appear in the game itself in multiple instances and each time, it’s in the context of a changed event:
4 whispers are circling around Aerith and Cloud in chapter 2, forcing them to part ways.
4 Whispers are circling around Wedge to keep him in place and make sure he ends up in the secret Shinra underground lab.
The very first Whisper encounter in chapter 4 starts with 4 Mysterious Whispers, as does the 3rd and last encounter in chapter 12. There, however, they are accompanied by a 5th entity, the Enigmatic Specter, which Sephiroth in this second key art is most likely a reference to. Again, more on that later.
For more information on the Whispers, please check out Game Analysis episode 23.
Original Game
In the original game, Sephiroth already had plans to create the future, although to a different extent and said the following to the party at the Temple of the Ancients, after it shrinks into the Black Materia:
Sephiroth: “I'm far superior to the Ancients. I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients. I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the Ancients.
And soon, I will create the future.”
At that point, he was talking about the time after absorbing the Lifestream and creating the new world as he would see fit. This same line now holds much more gravitas as he’s literally trying to create the future after we defeat the Whispers, the protectors of the planet’s memory and future.
Chapters
Alright, let’s now go through all relevant scenes in the first part of Final Fantasy VII Remake and collect all the evidence we need for building a comprehensive summary explaining the Remake’s new elements pertaining to Cloud and Sephiroth.
Intro
It starts right at the beginning with this phenomenal intro cinematic which puts Midgar and Aerith into focus, much like in the original game. However, it contains a huge additional chunk before we even see Aerith, practically replacing the star ocean showing nothing but white moving dots for long 44 seconds.
Besides Midgar and Aerith, we have another protagonist of this intro movie: Sephiroth!
…wait, what? Where?! Vyzz, what are you talking about?
Vyzz: Do not worry. Just keep going. You’ll be surprised.
…o…k. If you say so.
At the beginning, we see a vast landscape devoid of any life surrounding Midgar which transitions into a beautiful view of Midgar’s skylines, shows life on the plate and even kids riding through the streets. Though this nice image is marred by signs of poverty and trash. …but still no sign of Sephiroth. Vyzz?!
Vyzz: keep going…
…fine.
But there is another new detail. Remember the white dove flying through the cloudy skies entering Midgar’s outskirts at the start of the reveal trailer at E3 2025? A similar thing happens here as well, but instead of a dove, it’s a black and unhealthy-looking eagle with an occasional light grey coloring.
Don’t its wings remind you of something? Correct, Sephiroth!
Vyzz: See? You’re too impatient.
Hehe… sigh. Anyway…
This alone isn’t interesting enough, however. Pay attention to its flight path. It flies from a corrupted and dead landscape through white Clouds into Midgar and then veers towards the Shinra building. Sephiroth, traveling from a corrupted, dying world, eventually manages to access Midgar through Cloud. Cloud, whom Sephiroth made his spirit core, an anchor of existence if you will.
But that’s not all. You might have noticed fragments of Sephiroth’s choir chant in the background music, something we know all too well from his One-Winged Angel final boss theme song:
“Es tuans interius, ira vehementi! Es tuans interius, ira vehementi! Sephiroth!!”
Those 5 Latin words repeat over and over throughout this intro cinematic, starting exactly when the camera focuses on the eagle!
It then gets more intense when it breaks the clouds, and we see Midgar from up close. It repeats a few times, makes way for a melody consisting mostly of the main theme with some notes from the Shinra theme sprinkled in and then comes back when Mako reactor 5 erupts.
Little side note: I’m not sure if this imagery was intended, but Mako exhaust from the reactor piercing the clouds above reminds us of Cloud being showered with Mako.
After a nice transition, we finally see Aerith and the familiar Lifestream melody starts playing. However, as soon as she gets spooked by something purple further back down the alley, the Sephiroth chant returns and keeps her afraid until she picks up the stepped-on yellow flower, washing away the fear. The intro cinematic together with the black eagle already introduces Sephiroth in the context of returning to Midgar though Cloud, and Aerith already noticing an ominous presence.
On top of that, it also already foreshadows his connection to the Whispers as Nojima-San does reveal that Aerith gets spooked by the Whispers’ presence here.
Kazushige Nojima: “She felt the presence of the Whispers and wanted to run away from them. Perhaps it’s because Aerith had several bad experiences with the Whispers up until then?”
And then there are those purple light sources we already covered in our analysis about Aerith’s secrets, both of which draw Aerith’s attention. This intro cinematic alone already provides a multi-layered and very subtle introduction to elements new to Final Fantasy VII Remake part 1, laying the groundwork for the whole game.
Mako reactor 1
Reactor entrance
Cloud’s very first unexpected memory glitch happens when Barret rags on him for not immediately telling him the way to Mako Storage.
Barret: “Bet you’ve seen a few reactors. So how do we get to the bridge above mako storage?” — “Ain’t holding out on me, are you? Stamp scared to bite the hand that fed him? Or is he a loyal little doggy!?”
It’s easy to assume that Cloud’s headaches are triggered by Barret’s outburst. However, that’s only half the truth. We see Cloud’s insecure face, unconsciously knowing he’s never been inside a Midgar reactor, but he tries to remember anyway. He was in SOLDIER after all …right?
Barret’s unrelenting pressure forces Cloud’s memory to “correct” itself to retain his SOLDIER facade. Cloud might associate Stamp, the loyal dog to his days as an infantryman, necessitating this correction. In the original, this exchange is very brief and doesn’t include any memory glitch: Barret asks if this was Cloud’s first time in a reactor, to which Cloud merely replies that he did work for Shinra after all. Barret’s more specific question requires a more specific answer, which Cloud didn’t have to face before. But why does Barret act more passionate this time?
It might be the result of Sephiroth’s or Aerith’s meddling with the Lifestream’s memory where this game most likely takes place according to our conclusion in the analysis of Aerith’s secret. Or this scene has been expanded to introduce Cloud’s memory problems a bit earlier for pacing reasons.
Waiting for the elevator
While waiting for the elevator to arrive, Jessie seizes the opportunity to feel out Cloud’s relationship to Tifa. This conversation never happened in the original story, mind you. Upon asking whether they were close, Cloud remembers a scene from his childhood where he tried to avoid Tifa because she was already with the other stupid kids.
While a mere flashback, it still shows those green glitch effects, most likely because it’s a new flashback that never occurred in the original and wasn’t supposed to surface until his and Tifa’s involuntary trip into the Lifestream where she helped him piece his real self together.
It’s very interesting that the track playing in this scene is called “Anxiety – False Memories” and contains the beginning of the original’s Anxious Heart. Why false memories? While the memory itself is certainly real, it might be considered false from the point of view of Cloud’s SOLDIER persona. Again, why this added conversation and Jessie’s higher interest in Cloud? Natural expansion of content for the Remake or a deliberate addition which is a result of meddling with the Lifestream’s memory?
Mako pump
In front of the mako pump within mako storage, Cloud experiences another memory glitch just before setting the bomb, which is congruent with the original story for a change. However, something’s different. Instead of a red glitch and hearing the line “Watch out! This isn’t just a reactor!!”, Cloud sees a black feather floating down and dissipating upon impact.
This is the first change relevant to Remake’s new story elements. Though the aforementioned line doesn’t have any relation to anything else in the original game and might be a remnant from a scrapped concept or scene. However, it’s possible that it was meant to be a line shouted by Zack to Cloud after being defeated by Sephiroth when Cloud enters the pod chamber and picks up Zack’s buster sword.
Anyway, what does the appearance of Sephiroth’s feather mean? It is the 1st out of 3 scenes where such a lone black feather appears only to Cloud. The Ultimania1 reveals that Sephiroth’s feather appears when his presence can be felt. However, it also heralds a Sephiroth appearance in the near future, the first of its kind respectively. This fact is underlined by Sephiroth’s theme, of which a few notes play during this memory glitch.
Lo and behold, Sephiroth unexpectedly appears before Cloud in the very next chapter.
Sector 8
Meeting Sephiroth
It still takes a while until Sephiroth appears to Cloud as he needs to wait for a moment of weakness so he can then establish a connection and insert himself into Cloud’s consciousness. The whole segment between Barret’s speech and meeting Aerith is a new addition to the Remake, but still fits perfectly into the original story. Even if Cloud experienced the Remake events between both screens in the original, nothing would change. Besides one thing: Sephiroth.
When the highway collapses right in front of Cloud, cutting off his path to the sector 8 train station, the flames licking through the windows of a nearby building trigger a flashback to a burning Nibelheim, including the famous scene with Sephiroth standing amidst the flames he caused himself. Since it’s a PTSD trigger and not a natural memory, the transitions are accompanied by those green glitches.
Sephiroth uses this opportunity to insert himself into Cloud’s consciousness to appear before him right after that flashback, made possible by his connection to Cloud since after his defeat at the end of the original game. Startled, Cloud jumps back and as loose debris comes crashing down, stoking surrounding flames, re-triggers Cloud’s PTSD episode, superimposing parts of a burning Nibelheim on top of sector 8’s surroundings. Sephiroth then leads Cloud back through the street he came from and into an alleyway to finally confront Cloud head on, reality still overlaid by flames and burning wooden struts. During this section, green glitches keep appearing irregularly, plaguing Cloud’s sanity.
This meeting has 3 purposes.
First, Sephiroth needs to rekindle Cloud’s hatred towards him and embed himself into Cloud’s conscious memory once more. The stronger Cloud’s memories of him, the more corrupted Cloud’s heart and mind will become and the stronger his influence over Cloud will grow.
Second, he wants to prevent Cloud from meeting Aerith to keep her out of the equation, hence the detour. Aerith majorly contributed to Sephiroth’s defeat and was Cloud’s main guide. In the original, when hijacking Cloud’s dream, he even tells Cloud that Aerith will be a difficult one. By getting into Cloud’s head, stoking the flames of hatred, it would be easy for Sephiroth to send Cloud on a journey on his own terms, without interference by a Cetra or even Cloud’s friends. Divide and conquer.
Third, it sets up the nature of the Remake: who this Sephiroth is, where he comes from, the current state of the planet and what he tries to do to prevent its demise. Therefore, a lot happens in Sephiroth’s speech here, so let’s go through all the points one by one.
Cloud: “You’re not real. You’re… dead. I killed you with my own–”
Cloud correctly assumes that Sephiroth isn’t real as he, Cloud, killed Sephiroth with his own hands 5 years ago. Or at least that’s what he assumes as he remembers facing Sephiroth and still lives to tell the tale, which is quite the departure from the original, where he had no idea how the confrontation ended. It’s quite possible that Sephiroth’s appearance triggered memories Cloud would not be able to recall on his own. The details of how it happened won’t be known to Cloud nor the player until the revelation in the Lifestream.
Sephiroth: “Our beloved planet is dying. Slowly, silently, painfully.”
While the English translation is pretty accurate, the Japanese version of the phrase “Our beloved planet is dying” (死のうとしている) holds more nuance as it can be translated to “being on the verge of death”, “lying on its deathbed” or “being at death’s doorstep.” Or simply: “It’s about to die.” This suggests that the planet is effectively almost done and just waiting for its demise to happen. Please keep this in mind as it’s very important for our conclusion. Sephiroth doesn’t want that to happen as he would cease to exist as well. This is why he asks Cloud to run away, to leave and to live.
Another very important detail in this line: Sephiroth doesn’t mention the screams of the planet. Why? Because he can’t hear them. He’s completely oblivious, even immune to the screams of tortured souls. Remember Aerith’s line in chapter 18?
Aerith: “They… Their words… they don’t reach him. […] …they’re like rain rolling off his back.”
She already knows this fact, which is being hinted at this early on in a very subtle way. One chapter earlier, Barret very loudly established the screams of the planet and Sephiroth now claims the planet is dying silently. Nice juxtaposition and very good writing! Big thanks to Game Gengo2 for pointing this out!
Sephiroth’s very wordy and visual speech is multi-layered and serves multiple purposes as laid out before. First, he guilts Cloud into caring for the planet:
Sephiroth: “Can you bear to see the planet suffer, Cloud?”
which he didn’t before.
Cloud: “I'd worry less about the planet and more about the next 5 seconds.”
Side note: in Japanese, Sephiroth instead says “Our planet is going to disappear”, which changes the meaning and intention quite a bit. Instead of eliciting guilt, he emphasizes the planet’s imminent demise.
He continues with describing precious memories that would be lost if the planet perished.
Sephiroth: “Were the planet to die, so many things would be lost. Your hometown that burns so bright...”
Sephiroth even mentions killing Cloud’s mother with his blade, presumably right before Cloud’s eyes. So disgustingly evil!
Sephiroth: “The sound of her voice pleading for me to spare you. The shiver of her flesh yielding to cold steel.”
Furthermore, the second line can also be taken as dark foreshadowing to that event at the altar in the Forgotten City, another memory from the point of view of this Sephiroth.
Sephiroth speaks of those horrendous memories as if they were such a precious thing to hold dear in one’s heart. That’s his cruel way of torturing Cloud even more, adding to his trauma. To Sephiroth, those memories and Cloud’s hatred are most precious as they ensure his own existence. Take notice of Cloud’s memory of himself reaching out for his mother presumably lying dead in their burning home.
First, it’s in first person view, underlining that it’s Cloud’s own experience.
Second, Cloud remembers himself wearing his current SOLDIER attire. Which he didn’t, of course, as he was a mere Shinra infantryman at the time, the one lying unconscious on the ground next to his home.
Third, after this short flashback ends, the camera zooms out of Cloud’s face, just like it did after he saw Sephiroth in the flames a few minutes earlier, indicating it was him remembering that moment.
Also notice the absence of those green glitch effects. That’s because it’s just a normal recollection which fits Cloud's current partially made-up persona and backstory. A recollection which Sephiroth instantly uses in his speech as outlined before. This memory of Cloud starts before Sephiroth comments on the burning Nibelheim and the death of Cloud’s mother.
The following lines are also very important:
Sephiroth: “That which binds us together would be no more. And I would be loath to live in such a world.”
In the Japanese version, he talks about how losing the bond he has with Cloud would be even more unbearable than his own death. This means that he prefers dying over being trapped in a world without his connection to Cloud. It’s this connection that allows him to remain a separate entity in the Lifestream capable of returning eventually. Without this bond, his essence would eventually be assimilated into the Lifestream and he’ll truly become just a memory, which then also fades away were the planet to die.
Now let’s return to the favor he wants to ask of Cloud.
Sephiroth (?): “Run, Cloud... Run away. You have to leave... You have to live.”
This favor alone would never elicit such a strong reaction in Cloud to the point where he immediately attempts to cleave Sephiroth in half. So, what does? Sephiroth already primed Cloud for this part by talking about killing his mother. It’s very much possible that those were the exact words of Cloud’s mom3 just before being returned to the planet by Sephiroth’s blade. If so, Cloud’s reaction would be very fitting.
After Cloud’s missed attack, the Sephiroth illusion disappears, along with the flames. Sephiroth has achieved what he came for. He reminded Cloud of his existence and reignited Cloud’s hatred for him, as confirmed by his own words at the end of this scene. The favor has been done.
Sephiroth: “Good, Cloud. Very good. Hold on to that hatred.”
It’s important to note that in the Japanese version, Sephiroth does not tell Cloud to hold on to that hatred, but rather to not forget about him:
Sephiroth: "Don’t forget me" (私を忘れな)
On top of that, Sephiroth stalled Cloud long enough to disrupt the original flow of events and possibly prevent Cloud from meeting Aerith. This sentiment is reinforced by the main objective which pops up right after this cutscene ends: “Taking a detour”
So, even the game itself acknowledges this as a detour.
Returning to reality
In the alleyway leading out into the street exist a few very interesting pieces of graffiti. We won’t cover them here as their implications are tied to our conclusion of this analysis and Sephiroth’s end game. Instead, let’s cover the music which starts playing after this very first encounter with Sephiroth. It’s called The Promised Land – Cycle of Souls and has huge implications regarding Remake’s story and placement in the compilation.
Just like the piano version of Aerith’s theme playing in the church, this track here stems from the animation movie Advent Children. It plays just after Cloud’s victory over Sephiroth, when a barely holding on Kadaj falls into Cloud’s arms and whose name is called out by Aerith from the Lifestream right before the cleansing rain starts to fall.
It also plays during Marlene’s recap of the original game’s events around 4½ minutes into the movie, which effectively encompasses memories residing within the Lifestream, which its opening imagery confirms.
Now listen to the Remake’s version in chapter 2.
This track playing after defeating Sephiroth in Advent Children as well as after the first encounter in the Remake establishes an important parallel: “I’ll never be a memory” in Advent Children versus “Don’t forget me” here. And in the Remake, a remade version of the same track plays until we meet Aerith on Loveless Street.
It’s interesting that they added the term “Cycle of Souls” for the Remake track, which can mean multiple things: Cycle of souls is another description of the Lifestream, which takes back expired souls and injects them into new life forms born on the surface. This now either suggests that Sephiroth has returned yet again from the Lifestream, the cycle of souls, or that this is the Lifestream version of this track as we’re literally within the Lifestream’s memories right now. At least according to our conclusion in a previous analysis video.
But why is Advent Children’s piano version of Aerith’s theme exactly the same whereas the Promised Land track has been rearranged? Well, Aerith was already within the Lifestream in Advent Children, but Cloud’s victory over Sephiroth in Advent Children happened in the world of the living while we’re now within the Lifestream’s memories. While “Cycle of Souls” might also refer to all the lives which returned to the planet due to the bombing, why didn’t it play before Sephiroth’s appearance as well? Certainly something to take into consideration.
But wait, we have one more interpretation for you.
The Advent Children version of this track contains a choir, possibly representing the voices of the planet. The Remake version lacks the mostly female singing voices and replaced them with a Cello, which, among other factors, lends this track a dark and somber tone. Building onto the Sephiroth encounter just before, this track perfectly represents a planet on death’s doorstep. A corrupted Lifestream. No hope. Only despair.
However, as soon as we reach Loveless Street, where the other fated encounter happens, the track shifts into its second mode which is supplemented by a rhythm section that sounds like a heartbeat. As if there’s still hope, a heart beating again, bringing back life to a dying world. Or it’s a very subtle foreshadowing of Jenova BEAT or PULSE, as Jenova Dreamweaver is called in Japanese and German respectively.
Before meeting Aerith
Let’s now jump forward to the next cutscene where Sephiroth makes yet another appearance. As established in episode 24 of Game Analysis, Aerith already received additional knowledge before this meeting happens, which is why she’s actively trying to sell flowers, even though she did not do so in the original.
We also covered the reason for the Whispers’ appearance here in episode 23, so check that one out for more context, but the gist of it is that they either try to keep Aerith in place so she still meets Cloud or swirl around her to watch and observe since she shows a different behavior than in the original game. Or both. Her Cetra heritage allows her to feel their presence, which is why she freaks out and draws Cloud’s attention.
However, instead of letting the meeting happen as preordained, Sephiroth appears again in Cloud’s mind, seemingly freezing Aerith in place to get Cloud’s undivided attention.
Sephiroth: “You are too weak to save anyone. Not even yourself.”
Since one of his previous plans didn’t work out, preventing Cloud from meeting Aerith, he tries to disrupt this meeting and stoke Cloud’s hatred and helplessness even further. His comments about Cloud being too weak to help anyone, not even himself possibly references Cloud’s inability to prevent the sector 7 plate from falling, Sephiroth from receiving the Black Materia, Aerith from being impaled, and eventually from himself falling into and getting lost in the Lifestream.
Cloud tries hard to get rid of this Sephiroth hallucination as we see him squirm before Aerith breaks Sephiroth’s hold over him. Another unwanted intrusion, causing those green glitch effects to appear. Sephiroth’s meddling is the main cause for this meeting to start differently and Cloud trying to get away from her contrary to his behavior in the original event. However, Aerith manages to turn things around and back on track, making sure Cloud takes the yellow flower with him to sector 7 and ultimately to Tifa and Marlene.
Contrary to the previous appearance, Sephiroth enters Cloud’s mind without using one of his moments of weakness as a conduit like before. Why is that? Well, he’s still actively connected to Cloud from their previous exchange. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the track “Promised land – Cycle of Souls” is playing throughout the segment between the first meetings with Sephiroth and Aerith respectively.
However, Aerith unknowingly breaks this connection again, either by just talking to Cloud, being nice and giving him the flower or even by unintentionally transferring incomplete memories about the original timeline to Cloud.
We already talked about this in previous videos, so let’s keep this short.
Since we’re in the Lifestream’s memories, Aerith’s touch has the ability to transfer her memories into other souls, as described in the Lifestream White chapters from the novel On the Way to a Smile. This happens unintentionally because Aerith gets scared by those invisible things and wants Cloud to help. From here on out, Cloud occasionally has visions of the future, the original timeline, which are triggered by seeing or experiencing events related to that vision.
Escaping from Shinra
After the Whispers and some Security Officers break up this lovely reunion, Cloud runs through the whole sector, evading his pursuers, until he finally reaches the train tracks, his exit strategy. During this last exchange between the ex-SOLDIER and the guards, one of them recognizes Cloud’s Buster sword.
Security Officer: “Wait! I know that—”
This evokes a suppressed memory of the sword in Cloud’s mind, hence the glitch, which drowns out the word “sword”, as we see his lips moving after the sound cuts out. Interestingly, the Japanese version takes a different approach. There, the guard does use the word “sword” in the audible bit.
Security Officer: 「おい その剣は――」 (“Hey, that sword––”)
It’s hard to make out the rest, but he might have blurted out something related to Zack, which of course must be instantly drowned out. It’s possible that this guard knew Zack and thus has already seen the Buster sword before. Any mention of Zack’s or Cloud’s real past needs to be immediately ejected from Cloud’s consciousness to hold up this new persona his mind erected to prevent itself from breaking. This is why we see this green glitch effect again.
This concludes the first 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 2 covering chapters 3 through 13 coming soon…
See page 225 in the truncated English PDF version translated by the Shinra Archeology Department.
The remade flashback in Rebirth’s first chapter confirms this theory which was proposed all the way back in 2020.