Sephiroth's Endgame [3/6] - 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 ⟵ you are here
Article 4
Article 5
Article 6
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 two articles 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
Shinra HQ
Cosmos Theater Showcase
The next Sephiroth appearance and memory glitch happen right after the spectacular Cosmos Theater presentation in the Shinra building’s Visual Entertainment Hall on floor 61, where we experience the history of the Ancients. The Shinra logo appears to mark the end of the presentation. However, just as the lights go back on, purple glitches appear in 3D space around them, forming the image of a street on Midgar’s sector 4 plate.
Why sector 4? Because the street sign above contains a fork junction leading to Mako reactor 5 to the right and sector 3 to the left. Why sector 4 specifically? Maybe it provided the best view on the Shinra building for this fantastic wallpaper shot with Cloud and Sephiroth? Or maybe because the clip this pre-rendered showcase is based on depicts the original game’s ending where Meteor descends upon Midgar, in which the Shinra building is shown from the perspective of sector 4 twice.
Anyway, in this additional presentation, which definitely isn’t part of the usual program, we not only experience Meteor Fall but also something else. Sephiroth shows Cloud a few extra images, namely the apparition of a black-robed figure and an image of himself, who then supposedly kills Tifa and Barret in front of Cloud’s eyes.
The “presentation” ends with Sephiroth and Cloud standing back-to-back against each other – posing for wallpaper screenshots – and then Cloud utters Sephiroth’s name.
Now, what does this all mean and how is this additional display even possible? While climbing the stairs to floor 61, the automatic guide talks about “Shinra’s cutting-edge technology.”
Shinra is mainly in the Mako business nowadays, so it stands to reason that this virtual reality is induced using modern Mako technology. The lasers scanning our trio emit a Mako green light after all. Besides scanning their shape for accurate positioning within the simulation, we think that their perception is altered by using minuscule and precise Mako infusion to imprint the presentation onto spectators.
There are more pieces of evidence for this. For one, there are multiple big Mako pipes running into this Visual Entertainment Hall called Cosmos Theater, likely pumping in more Mako than it needs to run. For another, the whole interior architecture goes invisible. This can be seen best by the disappearing lines along the dome. Furthermore, the control pillar in the center, the immediate ground around it as well as the circle where our characters are standing dissolve into fragments. The rest of the ground and circular steps fall into the depths below, leaving spectators seemingly floating in mid-air, which they most certainly are not.
This makes sense if we consider VR battles. The battle area is much larger than the dome’s interior and the control pillar in its center is also never an issue. The same goes for the portable version where the surroundings seem to be irrelevant. Or do you really think Cloud and the others are running around hitting innocent citizens in Sector 5 and Wall Market?
Lastly, Episode INTERmission provides us with the final piece of the puzzle. Upon destroying the projector in the Combat Simulator Prototype, Yuffie and Sonon disappear into the same particles defeated enemies are.
In conclusion, what participants see and experience, including their own movements only happens in their mind and not in reality. A memory infusion if you will.
Anyway, back to Sephiroth’s presentation.
Mako is just another word for the Lifestream, where Sephiroth currently resides, which might be the reason why he’s able to connect to Shinra’s presentation and inject memories cooked up by him. After all, Tifa and Barret can see the images of Midgar and Meteor as well. However, only Cloud sees the Sephiroth related elements, as the others certainly would react differently.
Barret only complains about this presentation not being for kids and Tifa asks about Meteor. Nothing related to the black-robed figure, Sephiroth, or them being killed off.
Barret
Crazy-ass thing made me wanna puke. And not just
‘cause of the presentation, but the content too.
Oughta come with a warning! That ain’t for kids!Tifa
That huge meteor… What was that about?
The Ultimania also confirms that Sephiroth is only visible to Cloud.
Cloud also experiences another glitched vision here, triggered by the destruction of Midgar. He sees Meteor from space, Aerith praying on the altar, and the Holy Materia underwater.
We know it’s a vision of the future because it starts with this green glitch effect, which happens again when transitioning to Aerith and then back to Cloud who even holds his hand against his head, as if in pain.
Aerith and Holy were both working together to save the planet from Meteor, so this vision effectively shows Cloud the outcome of the catastrophe which Sephiroth shows to them. We also get a bit of a better view on praying Aerith in this vision which shows again that this scene was completely recreated and not taken from a scene in the movie Advent Children. The Holy Materia resting and glowing on the pond floor is also not a scene from Advent Children but the original game (see above).1
Meteor breaking through the Clouds—another metaphor for Sephiroth trying to break Cloud—is also a new creation as the Advent Children version includes the Lifestream. But that’s most likely due to this scene being a pre-rendered movie created by Image Studio—formerly called Visual Works—and not the people responsible for in-engine scenes or the touched-up Advent Children clips.
Back to Sephiroth.
His illusion begins with purple glitch effects. A similar effect happens when the camera cuts from the hooded figure back to Cloud and when the fleeing crowd appears. The effect when this hooded figure teleports and later turns into Sephiroth is also colored in purple.
What we believe the real message in this presentation to be is rather subtle and can probably only be decoded by those familiar with the whole story. Notice that the black-robed man doesn’t show a number and the Jenova symbol on his back is halfway faded away, two distinct differences from numbers 2 and 49 as well as numbers 11, 16, and 20 from Episode INTERmission.
All those details lead to the following conclusion: Sephiroth conveys to Cloud that he’s just another Sephiroth clone who will be responsible for the death of his friends. In the original game, Sephiroth claims that Cloud has been constructed by Hojo five years ago, that he’s essentially just a puppet, one with memories created by the power of Jenova by merging Tifa’s memories with his own. However, he was a failure, an incomplete Sephiroth clone, not even given a number.
This figure in the black robe therefore represents Cloud how Sephiroth describes him in the original game. It also has no number tattoo and the incomplete Jenova symbol coincides with Cloud being a failed clone. A Sephiroth clone. That’s why the figure transforms into Sephiroth. Killing Tifa and Barret is a metaphor for how Sephiroth could take over Cloud any time and use him as a puppet to do whatever he wants.
This happens twice in the original game. Once at the Temple of the Ancients where he forces Cloud to hand over the Black Materia and at the Forgotten City, where he almost makes Cloud cleave Aerith in half.
The last image with them standing back-to-back reinforces this notion. Sephiroth is always there, his master and superior.
There’s another interpretation for why we see Sephiroth kill Barret and Tifa here. Sephiroth does kill Barret later in chapter 17, but the Whispers bring him back. Nothing happened to Tifa thus far, but it might in future games. However, we don’t think that Sephiroth will now skewer Tifa instead of Aerith or anything like that. Tifa could be presumed dead for a while or die in one of Cloud’s hallucinations at some point in the future, for example.2
One last thing: Sephiroth still doesn’t seem to be able to enter Cloud’s mind when he doesn’t suffer from a flashback connected to Sephiroth, so he uses the Mako in this cutting-edge technology as a pathway. We assume it’s future Sephiroth showing us this presentation because it features an event from the ordained future. Original Sephiroth sitting in the Northern Crater has no knowledge of Cloud yet, let alone the future.
Increasing Cloud’s active hatred and visual memories of Sephiroth would strengthen the connection between Jenova, number 2, and Marco and thus allow original Sephiroth to project his own image onto the latter two, which is what happens in the very next scene.
Appearance in the Building
Right after Cloud utters Sephiroth’s name, we switch to Palmer, who is walking along the red carpet leading past President Shinra’s office on the 70th floor and not on the 69th as the label wants you to believe.
When we run along this gallery later and enter the president’s office through that door, the label correctly says 70th floor.
Anyway, back to Palmer, who is lamenting about missing the lard in his precious tea when he suddenly drops both cup and saucer after seeing a ghost, or so he thinks. For the first time, somebody else besides Cloud is able to see Sephiroth as if he really existed, which shouldn’t be possible. But it is and here’s why. Remember the two black-robed men with the numbers 2 and 49 tattooed on their left shoulder? One of them made it all the way up here and now appears as Sephiroth thanks to the illusory abilities of Jenova cells. The Ultimania confirms this fact and even tells us that it’s Marco we see here, number 49.
But why does Sephiroth appear only now and in this specific instance? The most likely scenario is a synergistic effect between Cloud, his memories, the black-robed men, and Jenova, which allowed Jenova to fully activate the clones and have one of them appear as Sephiroth to everyone and help initiate the Reunion.
But this alone isn’t enough. It seems that, while within Shinra’s new cutting-edge technology dome, Cloud remembering Sephiroth initiated a chain reaction through the whole Shinra building’s network, leading to connect Cloud’s memories of Sephiroth to one or even both black-robed figures, providing the Jenova cells within them to change their appearance to that of Sephiroth.
This is how it would work if it was future Sephiroth showing us this illusion.
But why does Sephiroth need to appear now and not later? In the original, nobody gave a crap as nobody knew about his quasi-survival. But appearing to Palmer spreads the news and memories of Sephiroth like wildfire. This is most likely how he already has so much power at this point and is able to manipulate the clones as well as conjure up an illusion of Jenova.
One little thing before we proceed: The English translation of one of Hart’s lines in the next scene is a bit misleading.
Hart
The Visual Entertainment Hall has been experiencing technical difficulties of late… and he suspected that these difficulties might impede your progress.
This suggests that those technical difficulties started recently but also happened before this incident just now, which is wrong. In the Japanese version, he says the following: “Because we noticed a strange system error on the Visual Floor, he wondered if you, Avalanche, were in trouble.”
Here, Hart refers to just one specific system error that happened once. Nothing about recurring difficulties. The German version is practically a literal translation in this case, so only the English one stands out. This confirms that the display of Meteor and Sephiroth was a one-time occurrence only.
Old Training Buddy
Mayor Domino tells the group to meet an Avalanche sympathizer in the cafeteria on the 63rd floor. After receiving another key card, the group wants to leave but is cut off by two Shinra security officers who are coming their way. One of them gets tense and is about to stand them up as the other one recognizes Cloud and stops his comrade.
Security Officer
Cloud? You’re Cloud, right?
Holy shit!
It’s cool, bro. We went through training together.
Damn! So you still alive and kicking, huh?
Some of the guys heard you got smoked, but I told
‘em it was all bullshit!
Hey, sit tight man—I’mma go get Kunsel.
I’ll be right back!
This scene is entirely new and reveals a tiny bit more of Cloud’s past. Naturally, his messed-up mind suppresses this memory immediately as he would otherwise remember his past as a Shinra infantryman in Nibelheim five years ago and not as a SOLDIER, as he currently believes. The track which starts playing here is also very fitting. It’s the Remake’s version of “Who Are You?” In the original game, it plays in the &$#% room in Honeybee Inn, when Cloud looks at Jenova in the Shinra building, before waking up in Lower Junon, and when Tifa wakes from her seven-day coma in Junon. Each time it’s connected to Cloud’s repressed past and the person talking to the protagonist is unknown.
Floor 65
Hojo spills the beans
Eventually, they find Aerith, but Hojo is already a step ahead and prepared a small squadron of Shinra combatants for them to fight. After an easy victory, Cloud gets a bit too cocky, which leads Hojo to look a bit closer and shamelessly spill the beans.
Hojo
Well, no matter. Reinforcements will soon arrive.Cloud
But will they get here in time to save you from me?Hojo
My, are you a SOLDIER?Cloud
Yeah.Hojo
No, not quite.
Oh, now I recall. My memory was mistaken.
My boy, you weren’t a SOLDIER…
Before Hojo can speak any further, Cloud’s mind blocks out the truth, as we can see by the green glitch effect. Furthermore, a number of Whispers appear and carry Hojo away to prevent him from revealing even more.
Lucky for Cloud, getting Aerith out of her tank, defeating Armored Troopers and being surprised by Red XIII distracts the group enough to prevent them from asking any questions. Thanks to the Whispers, Hojo forgets the memory he recalled just a minute ago, that he experimented on Cloud five years ago, a mere infantryman, and gave him the standard SOLDIER treatment.
If it wasn’t for Zack, Cloud would probably have ended up just like all those other poor tattooed souls now wandering around, eventually joining the Reunion. Although, Cloud ends up doing that anyway…
Jenova calls
Despite Cloud’s differences to those Sephiroth clones, he still succumbs to the call of the Reunion as the party approaches Jenova’s tank in the drum. It seems that this corridor and the cylindrical elevator reminds Cloud of going after Sephiroth in the Nibelheim reactor and seeing Jenova with his own eyes, hence the Jenova flashes.
While we direct Cloud towards the elevator, we hear some of Sephiroth’s words he utters when facing his “mother” in the Nibelheim reactor with Cloud reacting audibly to those memories.
Sephiroth
Mother. I have come for you.Cloud
Je…no…Sephiroth
Mother. Together we will reclaim our
world.
Mother. They have come again.Cloud
Mo…ther…
What’s curious about those lines is that they are spoken by Sephiroth when Zack was facing him. Cloud came in later just as Zack is being thrown out of Jenova’s chamber, defeated. Even in the original story, Cloud is not supposed to know exactly what transpired within the chamber…
Anyway, upon reaching the elevator, it visually turns into the similar looking Jenova’s tank. This traumatic memory of facing Sephiroth combined with the proximity to Jenova and the still lingering urge to follow the Reunion seemed to be enough for Cloud to lose it and give in.
He even gives off noises similar to the black-cloaked people in the original as well as the black-robes number 11, 16, and 20 Yuffie encounters while roaming the outskirts of Sector 7.
This is the first of two instances where Remake recreates Cloud’s episode in front of Jenova’s tank in the original after seeing the monstrosity inside. Just turned up to eleven and moved to after getting Aerith out of captivity. What we find very strange, however, is the fact that nobody even bothers to go after Cloud and check on him before he collapses. Maybe they didn’t quite understand what was going on or were unsure of what to do.
Since Cloud never had an episode at this moment in the original, even Aerith might be caught by surprise, even if she generally knows what’s wrong with Cloud, especially after a similar scene in chapter 8. Still, it’s quite strange that nobody asks any questions or even mentions anything in relation to this scene or even Hojo’s revelation earlier, which must have been heard by the others. Not now, nor later in Aerith’s former home, or even afterwards on their way to the Drum.
Black Feather the 2nd
When the group enters the elevator, Cloud sees a black feather floating towards the ground just as the elevator doors are closing. This is the second time Cloud sees such a feather. However, something’s different: This feather looks real! It doesn’t disappear in smoke like the first time.
Nonetheless, it’s a mere illusion and like last time, it heralds another Sephiroth appearance. As we see later, he appears to be real and corporeal. That’s why the feather Cloud sees here also appears real.
But that’s not all. Have you noticed the melody that’s playing while the feather falls?
Remember this track from Advent Children? It plays while Rufus is telling Cloud about Geostigma and Sephiroth. Fitting foreshadowing. It’s the setup for Advent Children’s plot and it also contains the following line, which incidentally contains the aforementioned melody.
This track from Advent Children is incidentally called “Sign.” Very fitting for this feather’s appearance. Side note: Final Fantasy VII’s main theme contains a similar melody when it transitions to the sinister part.
This is yet another subtle but strong piece of evidence that we’re dealing with a Sephiroth from the future, who wants to be reborn. However, the Sephiroth we see during chapter 17 is a rather curious one…
The Drum
Jenova’s Tank
When the group approaches Jenova’s tank in the Drum, Sephiroth isn’t present yet. Barret asks what that thing is and Aerith answers with “Jenova” which triggers a slew of flashbacks to painful memories in Cloud’s mind. This whole segment contains several deviations from the original.
Instead of taking the elevator and being captured, they seek refuge in Aerith’s childhood chamber,
Jenova is now held in the center of a multi-storied research facility instead of a small dome on floor 67,
And the whole group reaches Jenova’s tank instead of only Cloud, Tifa and Barret.
All of those deviations plus Cloud’s episode earlier made his mind more fragile, which then reacts to Aerith mentioning Jenova’s name and all the memories come flooding in. Let’s go through those one by one.
First, he sees a closeup on one of Sephiroth’s alien cat eyes, followed by him standing in front of Jenova’s tank in the Drum, just like he saw Sephiroth standing in Jenova’s chamber in the Nibelheim reactor.
However, Sephiroth is not standing at that spot yet, so it stands to reason that Cloud sees several seconds into the future as a vision, as we see almost the same image when he becomes visible to Tifa.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Right after seeing Sephiroth from behind, both of his eyes appear for a fraction of a second. Then Sephiroth slowly floats down from above towards the bridge. At first glance, it seems to be number 49 appearing as Sephiroth in front of the group. However, the others can’t see him yet.
But what’s the explanation? In Crisis Core, Zack falls to a lower bridge after clashing with Sephiroth in Jenova’s chamber in the Nibelheim reactor. Right after, Sephiroth floats down to join Zack in a very similar fashion.
However, Cloud never witnessed Zack’s battle against Sephiroth as he comes running in after Zack’s defeat. Is it just a coincidence, a mere throwback or something more?
Let’s put a pin in it for now and finish up with Cloud’s flashbacks.
The next few flashes show Sephiroth’s sword and him standing in front of Jenova’s tank in the Nibelheim reactor five years ago, repeating the same line we heard earlier during Cloud’s reunion walk towards the elevator.
Those flashes with Sephiroth’s sword are quite interesting. We can barely recognize the blurry surroundings but some frames with a higher brightness show a few details which allows us to take a guess on the location. The brighter part right beside Sephiroth’s hair in the first one resembles the brown stripe on his other side in the second shot, where we see his whole blade, legs and metal rings around his boots.
Where could this be? It kind of looks like a door frame with pipes next to it. Our best guess is the entrance to Jenova’s chamber in the Nibelheim reactor right after he cuts down Tifa. While the original background render does not have pipes right next to the door frame, we can see 2 of those strange lines going off of it in the first, less detailed flashback image.
This being the moment after he cuts down Tifa also ties into the following flashes, which are excerpts from the same flashback of Tifa seen in chapter 7, where she’s mourning over her father and picking up Sephiroth’s Masamune blade, the reason why she was cut down by him in the first place.
This is underlined by another brief flash of Sephiroth’s evil face right when Tifa picks up the Masamune.
In short, the word “Jenova” triggered Cloud’s painful memory of Tifa being struck down in front of Jenova’s chamber, a very similar place compared to where they’re standing now.
The scene then transitions to Tifa approaching Cloud, fittingly bridging Cloud’s flashback to reality. Now it gets interesting. As mentioned before, Sephiroth is not physically standing on the bridge before Tifa touches Cloud. But right after touching him, she looks ahead and sees Sephiroth standing where Cloud just saw him before. She slightly recoils, not believing her eyes and then fear overcomes her. Red XIII also immediately switches into his attack stance as he knows what that means through the knowledge he received from Aerith earlier.3
Aerith also gets angry at the sight of Sephiroth. He’s the blight of this planet, the reason why she’s intervening in the planet’s memories and now he appears at a point where he wasn’t supposed to.
After asking “Is it really you?” Cloud suffers from another memory glitch but this time, it’s a vision from the future. Cloud grabs his left upper arm, the same spot he bears the Geostigma marks in Advent Children. [show a reference scene where he does the same in AC.
Since Jenova wants Cloud to take part in the Reunion, its influence over the black-robed man underneath the Sephiroth image we see here tells Cloud to embrace and not deny Sephiroth. In the Japanese version, those 2 phrases are a bit different. He instead tells Cloud that he’s pathetic and should just accept it. As in, his influence over Cloud and the Reunion. While this could be an indication of this Sephiroth being puppeteered by his future self, we believe that the latter is not involved in the whole Shinra building segment. At all. But more on that later.
Then Cloud finally snaps under the pressure of Sephiroth and all the bad memories from the past and future and blindly charges the black-robed man posing as Sephiroth, presumably number 2. Why number 2? First off, the Ultimania flat out tells us that this Sephiroth here is a black-robed man. It also tells us that the Sephiroth on floor 70 who walks past a terrified Palmer is number 49.
It’s also number 49 who poses as Jenova Dreamweaver and then number 2 is taken over who carries Jenova to the top and jumps off the building.
Carrying Jenova away from its tank as seen on the surveillance screen after we finish the Drum would therefore fit the role of number 2. It’s also not future Sephiroth connecting to Cloud here as he would be way chattier and still invisible to the others.4 But more on that later.
Just to be clear, we’re not dealing with a hallucination here. Sephiroth cuts off the bridge and Cloud falls down a few stories, just like the others who we can briefly see sliding down the falling bridge in the background and even hear Aerith scream.
On the other hand, it’s also possible that we only meet number 2 after beating Jenova in battle and number 49 is responsible for all other Sephiroth appearances before that. After all, Cloud activates number 49 in chapter 3 while number 2’s activation happens in chapter 8, around two-and-a-half days later. It’s therefore possible that number 2 doesn’t arrive before we beat Jenova.
Anyway, why were the group only able to see a physical representation of Sephiroth after Tifa touches Cloud? To our knowledge, this can only be explained by this game’s story happening in the Lifestream’s memories. It’s the only way a physical person can appear in the blink of an eye out of nowhere in front of anyone other than Cloud and destroy a physical object.5
It seems like both black-robed men—number 2 here and number 49 on floor 70—were summoned up here by Cloud himself. But how? Through their connection established during their meetings and touch in chapters 3 and 8. Cloud’s intense flashbacks must have called them here by the power of Jenova cells and the reunion. Number 49 on floor 70 right after the Cosmos Theater presentation and Number 2 right here.6
We highly doubt that both were able to lurch up here by themselves undetected, through security in trains, at the Shinra building’s entrances and within it including stairs and elevators plus doors requiring key cards. However, as we’ll see later, Jenova’s abilities apparently include hiding a physical object from the sight of those around it. It’s possible that this is what happens here as well and touching Cloud lifted the spell, so to speak.
This cutscene ends with another reunion line by Sephiroth which made its debut in the Theme Song trailer in January 2020.
Sephiroth
A touching Reunion.
Again, he talks about Jenova’s Reunion. This meeting is the third and last time Cloud has a connection to a black-robed man before the Reunion begins: the moment when Jenova leaves its tank to start the journey. With number 49 in chapter 3, it happened without words, but as a black cloak Sephiroth encounter. With number 2 in chapter 8, the image of Sephiroth tells Cloud that the Reunion is nothing to fear, which almost made Cloud take part in it, hadn’t it been for Aerith’s touch. And here, Sephiroth tells Cloud to embrace him and implies the actual beginning of the Reunion during.
However, Sephiroth can’t let Cloud and the others reach Jenova. He needs to make sure that Jenova starts the journey to complete the Reunion. The changed circumstances have apparently become a threat to it.
One last thing: doesn’t the clash between Cloud and Sephiroth and Cloud’s fall into the abyss plus dropping the Buster Sword remind you of something? And it’s even for the same reason, to get Jenova out of its tank in peace.
A bit later, also in Crisis Core, Cloud charges Sephiroth in rage, clashes with him and gets thrown away as well, with the Buster Sword landing right beside him, just like in the Remake.
Hojo’s Hypothesis
Hojo has of course watched all of this unfold from his command center and is happy about his hypothesis being proven correct. But what hypothesis? Hojo’s main research encompasses Jenova and the Reunion hypothesis, which proposes that all of Jenova’s cells will eventually try to reunite into a single organism. He also tries to create more Sephiroths, which led him to experiment on and inject dozens of members of the military—infantry and SOLDIERs alike—with Jenova cells, tattooed all of them with a number and thus the black-robed figures were created. [show some from OG, numbers 2 and 49 from Remake and numbers 11, 16 and 20 from INTERmission]
Two of them are now in the building with one of them having reached Jenova and defending if from the others. Hojo knows that Sephiroth died five years ago. It’s the reason why he found so much interest in Cloud, a mere infantryman responsible for the death of the greatest SOLDIER ever.
Sephiroth wandering these halls, going for Jenova and easily defending it from other intruders proves both aspects of his research: People injected with Jenova cells, who are too weak to resist its effects, congregate around Jenova and are able to turn into a Sephiroth clone with similar capabilities. Even after being carried away by the Whispers which presumably removed those memories provoking fate-altering events, Hojo might still remember that he experimented on Cloud five years ago and why. For a black-robed Sephiroth clone defeating the one who defeated the real Sephiroth certainly constitutes as a very positive development, especially since he regards Cloud as a failed experiment.
But Hojo is looking at Cloud while he says that, so he must be talking about him! Maybe, but Hojo can just as well be talking about the Sephiroth clone and consider Cloud’s current situation as part of the proof of his hypothesis. Hojo hopes that he, Cloud or the Sephiroth clone, continues not to disappoint, insinuating that disappointment happened in the past, but not anymore and that it should stay this way.
Yes, this was the case with Cloud as he failed as a Sephiroth clone. His victory over Sephiroth made Hojo curious, but Cloud devolved into a blubbering mess. However, Cloud clashing with Sephiroth and being tossed into the abyss doesn’t seem to prove any hypothesis about a worthy Sephiroth clone or even the Reunion. He also doesn’t seem to care about Cloud at all for the rest of his screen time in this game but does observe Sephiroth and Jenova with high interest as we see later.
If not Cloud, then how and when did Hojo’s black-robed subjects disappoint him in the past? He experimented on survivors from the Nibelheim incident and turned them into black-robed figures with tattoos. However, they never left Nibelheim, even after Shinra moved Jenova to Midgar. From the story contained within the World Preview book, we know about the existence of other black-robed people living in Midgar who regularly assemble in Sector 7’s train graveyard to creep around and look up to Jenova’s location in the Shinra building. Now, at least number 2 and 49 made it into the building somehow, proving Hojo’s Reunion hypothesis at least partially.
End of the Trial
After we beat the entirety of the Drum, we see Sephiroth again briefly on one of Hojo’s monitors. He’s carrying Jenova on his arms, walking towards the elevator leading to floor 69, the one full off purple goo.
As mentioned before, it seems like he needed the time to free Jenova and bring it to the rooftop safely. But here’s the real question: How did it take Sephiroth just as long to cut Jenova loose as it took our party to get through the trials in the Drum? It looks like Sephiroth cut through everything with a single slice of his sharp blade to free Jenova. On the other hand, the hoses holding Jenova’s head piece suspended in the air are still intact. Maybe Sephiroth had to carefully carve out and detach everything piece by piece so as to not accidentally damage Jenova’s body?
It’s also very strange that nobody in our party mentions Sephiroth or Jenova in any way after the destruction of the bridge. As if they lost their memory of what happened. Only Tifa asks Aerith about Cloud’s mental state, but neither of them mentions Sephiroth.
When they reach the destroyed tank, again, Tifa does drop a remark that they’re here, again.
Tifa
We’re back… again.
However, after seeing the destruction instead of Jenova in its tank, they act as if they have no clue as to who could have done this.
Barret
What the hell is going on?Tifa
Who would…?Red XIII
We may find out soon.
Was Sephiroth cutting off the bridge like butter not enough of a hint for y’all?!
…Sigh
Yet another case of inexplicable mass oblivion.
Floor 70
President Shinra
Upon reaching the president’s office, they finally remember that Sephiroth is here. At least Tifa does.
Barret
Where the hell is that bastard hiding?Tifa
And Sephiroth?
Still, that alone isn’t enough as a justifiable response to Sephiroth, especially for Cloud and Tifa, though we understand that Aerith and Red XIII have to hold back on purpose and Barret just doesn’t care enough. Unfortunately, there’s no other follow-up whatsoever. We therefore preliminarily conclude that this is due to cut content and time constraints with the Drum as its biggest victim. The strongest indicator for this is the brief dialogue before using the elevator to floor 69. Aerith and Red XIII warn the player that this is the point of no return, and any unfinished business has to be taken care of now by using the previous elevator to reach the central terminal again.
As if there was more planned to do in the Drum. But as it is designed now, there’s no need at all to return whatsoever, unless you ignored all chests and Materia lying visibly in our way, besides a few hidden ones.
And those alone don’t warrant such a stern warning as this whole game is littered with hidden treasure and quest rewards and the only warnings you get are single questions whether to keep roaming around or not, to prevent you from accidentally triggering the next point of no return as we can see in chapters 3, 8 and 14, this game’s side quest hubs.7
To be fair, the game will provide you with a warning message if you don’t pick up the optional Materia treasure in chapter 9’s collapsed expressway, though in this case, it’s just a message and not an in-lore conversation.
And then there’s chapter select after beating the game, if you still want to collect everything. Plus, Episode INTERmission’s Drum equivalent, the Materia production facility, doesn’t provide you with such a warning.
That’s why we think it’s entirely possible that the developers had to cut out scenes which would have referenced Sephiroth and the event on the now broken bridge, along with presumably other optional stuff.
Anyway, let’s return to the president’s office.
Contrary to the original scene, the president is nowhere to be seen. However, there’s this hole in the window with a broken railing just outside. We can even see the president hanging from the security grate and calling out for help. It seems like someone chucked the president through the window and over the edge of the building but wasn’t entirely successful or didn’t care enough.
Outside, a new scene begins in which Barret threatens and confronts the president, helps him to safety, only to try and clear Avalanche’s name and make the president admit the company’s crimes towards the planet. However, he’s too careless and lets the president grab the golden gun, reclaiming control of the situation.
Seriously Barret, you have a freaking Gatling gun for an arm!
Use it!
…unbelievable…
Anyway, just before president Shinra manages to discharge his weapon, Sephiroth appears out of nowhere and stabs the president in the back, bringing the story back on course. But unlike the original version, Barret and the others watch him do it.
Feeling robbed of the opportunity to make things right, Barret snaps and charges towards Sephiroth. Bad move…
The Whispers rush in and try to prevent their clash but Sephiroth doesn’t care and even uses the Whispers’ essence to teleport straight into Barret’s face and stab him, too.
A shock for everyone involved—the player included.
Can you believe they spoiled this scene in the launch trailer?8
An atrocious travesty!
*ahem*
Tifa, Red XIII, and Aerith run towards Barret, shocked of what just transpired. Cloud on the other hand freezes in place, completely in denial it seems and unable to move, especially with that crazy gleeful grin on Sephiroth’s face, reveling in giving Cloud despair. Of course, Barret won’t die here as fate has other plans and instructs one of the Whispers to resurrect him.
The other Whispers try to contain Sephiroth by swirling around him but it’s no use as he scares them away with a single swipe of his Masamune, as if they were mere annoying insects.
I know, this was quite a lot of exposition, but all of it is important for our attempt to find out what’s going on here. It’s also important to note that we’re still dealing with a black-robed Sephiroth copy here. One controlled by the Reunion and Jenova, who in turn is influenced and later completely controlled by Northern Crater Sephiroth. Whenever future Sephiroth appears, he talks in a mysterious and superior manner. When the original Sephiroth appears, he either remains silent or talks about the Reunion. He also never addresses Cloud by name. Future Sephiroth however keeps addressing Cloud by name and points out specific memories of them.9
Now, why didn’t Sephiroth kill the president and leave right away like he did in the original? He reached the office before the others after all. What’s also strange is that the purple trail of alien goo just stops at the entrance to the office. To be fair, the trail of blood is also missing on floor 70 in the original.
We assume that Jenova visibly fully turned into Sephiroth at that point, which is why Palmer saw Sephiroth kill the president and not Jenova. However, this is not the case in Remake as we will see later. It’s possible that the trail of goo’s only purpose is to lead the party to the president’s office.
While not germane to this analysis, we do need to address the elephant in the room: the missing blood. We think it’s a mixture between keeping the rating low and the changed circumstances.10 In the original, Jenova’s body escaped on its own after being activated by cloud’s proximity, leaving death and destruction in its wake due to being mainly instinctual, hence the dead bodies and the claw marks on the walls.
The red blood is most likely a combination of hurt Jenova flesh from breaking out and the murdered employees who were unlucky enough to stand in its way. President Shinra included. In Remake, Jenova uses the body of either number 2 or 49 to break itself free and carry it into President Shinra’s office. Either that, or Cloud’s stronger memories of Sephiroth allows him to take control earlier. Due to the absence of employees on the top floors, nobody gets hurt, and the purple goo is most likely Jenova’s alien blood from wounds inflicted by Sephiroth ripping it away from pipes and hoses and removing other cumbersome attachments barring its “wings”.
There’s also another element most likely caused by a lower rating and that’s the grey effect emanating from president Shinra’s and Barret’s stab wounds. However, if it were just for the rating, they could have merely left out the blood, like when Sephiroth prepares himself an Aerith Kebab in the original. So why use this strange effect?
Maybe because it looks very similar to the one the Whispers leave behind. Both the smoke and the particles, which look very similar to most appearances in cutscenes, like in chapter 2.
Ok, back to topic.
What caused Jenova’s escape to change? Simple: the earlier confrontation with Sephiroth. In the original, Jenovaroth didn’t even recognize Cloud until sometime after the cargo ship.
Here, Sephiroth’s early appearance to Cloud, activating number 2 and 49 through proximity afterwards plus flashbacks and visions result in this meeting to happen much earlier. While Sephiroth might not remember Cloud per se, he definitely feels the Jenova cells in Cloud and thus his capacity to join the Reunion due to his weak mind. Although, thanks to Cloud’s memories of Sephiroth being much stronger now, it’s also possible that original Sephiroth already remembers a few smidges of who Cloud really is. This might explain the president’s helpless position. Sephiroth might have been the one preparing this situation and watch the scene unfold from the shadows, waiting for Barret to kill the president.
If Barret turned into a killer, it would drive a deep wedge into the group and sow despair, an advantageous situation for Sephiroth’s plan. The weaker the party’s friendship, the easier to separate them from Cloud. However, Barret decides to let the president live after the girls plead him to stop.
This leads Sephiroth to do the job himself. Barret being killed by the president would only divert their anger from Sephiroth over to the president, which is not what Sephiroth wants. However, killing Barret didn’t seem to have been Sephiroth’s plan. It was Barret’s attempt for retaliation which prompted Sephiroth to act. Take note of the focus on his eyes just before the Whispers barge in. It seems that this sudden change of plans called the Whispers to rush in and protect Barret from Sephiroth.11
Unfortunately, Sephiroth seems to have a few additional abilities at his disposal, like using Whisper essence to teleport. Essence, which might contain more Jenova than meets the eye…
It’s also possible that he possesses this additional ability because of the nature of this location: the memories within the Lifestream, as established in Game Analysis episode 24. We can even see the green glitch effect. The same one used during Cloud’s memory glitches and Sephiroth’s freezing of Aerith in chapter 2. Green, a color representing Mako, the Lifestream, and memories.
What about Sephiroth’s invisibility before he suddenly appears? Memory manipulation and illusions have been Jenova’s main abilities since the original, so he could have just made use of those. Just like shapeshifting, as we’ll see in the next segment.
But wait! …there exists another possibility of why President Shinra is not sitting on his throne. Remember Avalanche HQ’s plan to flush out the president? The bomb went off before our party had to go through the trials in The Drum.
Avalanche HQ’s plan, in cooperation with the Old Guard we saw in chapter 4, was most likely to have the president stand on the helipad outside, being presented to Rufus on a silver platter.12 Villains usually love to reveal everything to their victims before they dispose of them. Rufus might have wanted to do just that to then give the order to execute his father. However, Sephiroth robbed him of this golden opportunity. Here and in the original game.
But why, then, is nobody around when we enter the president’s office? And why is president Shinra dangling from the safety grate around the helipad? The Avalanche helicopter coming our way is doing so a second time! The same one has been there before already, most likely to evacuate friendlies after accomplishing their mission of flushing out the president.
It’s possible that they did confront the President but were interrupted by Sephiroth and had to escape. President Shinra was probably tossed out by somebody or even Sephiroth himself by accident during the commotion and left hanging to be found and finished off by Rufus later.
Alright, back to Sephiroth and Jenova.
Jenova
Sephiroth turns around to look gleefully at the distraught party and then it happens. He’s engulfed in blue-purple smoke and turns into Jenova Dreamweaver. Or “Jenova Beat” in Japanese or “Jenova Pulse” in German. This fits right into the original game’s naming convention where we have Birth, Life, Death and Synthesis. Pulse is the first sign of life before birth. Some people predicted Jenova Conception, but Vyzz prefers Pulse. The English variant “Dreamweaver”, while inaccurate, still fits very well as it puts an impeccable mass illusion on display.
In addition to its transformation, the surroundings also change and turn into its disgusting lair. During this transition, we see smoke being emitted from Sephiroth, which passes through Cloud and the others. This smoke seems to be responsible for this illusion. The surroundings and Jenova itself.
Now pay attention to the shapes beyond the battlefield: the green cuboid pillars. Where have we seen those before…? The ground on which we fight also shows a lot of squares, similar to Jenova Synthesis’ battle arena.
This makes sense as Jenova’s head is currently residing in the center of the Northern Crater where the original’s final battles happen.
After the battle, it’s revealed that we’ve been fighting number 49 all along. Number 49, who had taken on the looks of Sephiroth thanks to the effects of Jenova cells and Sephiroth’s influence.
Now it’s going to become a bit confusing so please bear with me.
The purple smoke disappears, number 49 falls to the ground, dies and disappears. However, there are no green Lifestream particles seen after we kill enemies. Instead, there’s just a bit of purple smoke.
We assume that this is due to Jenova’s complete corruption of the black-robed people. They thus either return to the negative Lifestream, the one unusable for recycling spirit energy, or simply disappear forever. At the same time, Jenova’s body, which was hidden from our eyes appears again, and with it, the second Sephiroth… wait, what now?
This second Sephiroth, who also appears out of nowhere, picks up Jenova’s body and disappears again. It seems he teleports outside, according to Cloud’s befuddled reaction. He then slowly floats upwards to the rooftop.
Floating is nothing new as we can see this ability in the original on multiple occasions: in the cargo ship, in the Shinra mansion library, at the Temple of the Ancient and at the altar in the Forgotten Capital.
However, it was Jenova’s shapeshifted body in those cases while we’re dealing with yet another black-robed man here. Maybe carrying Jenova’s body grants temporary abilities to those containing its cells?
Anyway, Cloud tries to follow Sephiroth to the top but is blocked off by Whispers, who need to make sure that Jenova can escape unencumbered. But that’s not the important part of this scene. First, we see this brief green glitch effect when Sephiroth looks towards and acknowledges Cloud. This effect usually accompanies suppression, alteration, or hurtful recollection of memories.
It’s interesting that this glitch happens just after Cloud calls out Sephiroth’s name. Maybe it jogged some more of Sephiroth’s memories of Cloud? He does crack a smile, after all.
Unless future Sephiroth calls in, hence the smile, and orders the Whispers to get Cloud off his neck. Anyway, shortly after, the veil of Sephiroth’s apparition is lifted, also accompanied by a green memory glitch effect, and the illusion turning number 2 into Cloud’s nemesis fades away.
The following observation might just be a mistake, but for a few frames before one of the Whispers covers the view, we can see both Sephiroth’s and number 2’s models overlapping.
Without being hindered by Cloud, number 2 lets himself fall off the building, accompanied by three Whispers, presumably the same ones who directed Cloud towards Number 2, and now ensure a safe escape for Jenova.
But why help Cloud chase after Sephiroth and then keep him from reaching his nemesis? This is the main piece of evidence pointing to future Sephiroth swiftly calling in to stop Cloud from reaching number 2.13
It’s notable that number 2 and Cloud share a brief glance as the scene slows down to show the face underneath the black hood.
We’re aware of a theory which links number 2 to Zack. But since any conversation about it would need its own video, we’ll just say that Vyzz does not subscribe to this theory. Instead, we believe that this non-verbal exchange between Cloud and number 2 only underlines their similarities: both possess Jenova cells and are being used as disposable puppets by Jenova and Sephiroth.
This concludes the third 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.
![Sephiroth's Endgame [4/6] - FFVII Remake Mysteries [3/4] | Game Analysis #26](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ufzd!,w_1300,h_650,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f5102d2-e52f-4f61-9c6e-c1c20dedb1cc_3840x2160.png)
A shot from the original game specifically recreated for Remake, to be exact.
He truly tried to get rid of Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth multiple times. First by psychologically manipulating Cloud to drive a wedge in between him and Tifa, then by making Cloud believe that Tifa is a fake, leading him to almost slice her in half in the Gongaga Reactor in chapter 9, and finally trying to do the deed himself by attempting to stab her while she was floating in one of the young Weapon’s giant Materia orb, also in chapter 9. Though he did not succeed thus far. Let’s see what the third installment brings…
For more information about that, please check out our two-hour analysis about Aerith’s secret. Either in video format or as a three-part article series, starting with part one.
And he would call Cloud by name. Whenever Sephiroth appears to Cloud—and probably any other black-robed individual—as part of the Reunion call, his lines are vague and impersonal. When it’s the real and future Sephiroth talking to Cloud, he usually addresses him by name or at least mentions something unique to Cloud.
The only exception is when one of the Whispers tells Cloud to “Sleep. And dream the sweetest dreams…“ in chapter 4. But since the speaker is hidden behind question marks, we’re not supposed to know that this is actually Sephiroth speaking. Him addressing Cloud as such would give it away.
Not that the voice already does…
Or it’s a case of Jenova’s power allowing the black-robed man to remain imperceptible until Tifa touches Cloud and thus establishes a bridge between those with and those without Jenova cells. This would explain how Cloud is able to see Sephiroth when getting close to Jenova and thus to the black-robed man standing in front of its containment.
This line of thinking leads into the conclusion that we see number 49 in front of Jenova and number 2 only after Jenova Dreamweaver’s defeat.
And if there are still unfinished side quests remaining, a huge warning message appears to make sure you don’t accidentally skip them.
Let us know in the comments if you skipped watching that spoilery launch trailer, same as most of the CCO crew!
It’s what binds Sephiroth to this realm after all. Memories of him. The stronger the memories, the stronger Sephiroth’s foothold on the planet. Especially Cloud’s hate-filled memories of him, since he’s the one who killed Sephiroth five years ago as revenge for torching his hometown.
This has been later confirmed in an interview with Naoki Hamaguchi first published on game8.co. However, that link seems to be dead, so a copy of it on resetera.com has to suffice.
Technically, the Whispers start flying in just after Barret begins to rush towards Sephiroth. They realize what’s about to happen and the focus on Sephiroth’s eyes only confirms their prediction.
Reminder: In Before Crisis, the Japan-only mobile phone game released in 2004 and discontinued in 2018, it is revealed that Rufus is the one funding and thus controlling the old guard Avalanche. Rufus appearing shortly after Avalanche’s raid on the Shinra Building is therefore not a coincidence.
This would also explain the second glitch effect revealing number 2. His interference stops, as does the illusion.