The Ending - Some Questions (spoilers)

Ok, I just scraped through against Safer Sephiroth, with Barret and Tifa dead, Super Nova decimating Cloud, I went for the limit last attack rather than healing method, and Meteorain did about 80k damage, no idea why it did so much, as it has never done that much before, but I killed Safer.

So, some questions on the final demo....

Holy, comes to save the planet....it counteracts meteor, destroying it and also saving the planet.

Does holy destroy Midgar on purpose, removing all the mako-sucking technology, to "return the planet to its original state" kind of thing? Hence the jungle that has overgrown Midgar?

The lifestream, does that seep out of the planet to aid holy, because it isn't doing the job quite well enough, and its helping hand destroys meteor?

Is the little girl in Kalm Marlene, and why does she say "the flower girl"?

The very last image of Aeries, why is that there? Who sees her?

If Nanaki is the last of his kind, who is the mother to his two children?

Any idea what happens to the rest of the cast except Nanaki? Or is that just down to each's own interpratation?

Basically, could you please answer my questions, but also put a comprehensive interpretation of what you think the final demo means, and what exactly happens?

Thanx

Oh, and I've never seem Omnislash before, Cloud owned Sephiroth!!!

To answer your questions.

The first, I dont think Holy intentionally destroyed Midgar. I mean, having two major forces of Good/Evil overhead giving it both barrels is gonna leave anywhere in disarray.

The lifestream's there to help, yes.

Yes she is, and the 'flowergirl' is the nickname of Aeris

It's because Aeris IS there, and you see her :)

For nanaki, your guess is as good as mine

Hard to say. Some say that everyone is dead bar Nanaki. I think at the very end sequence everyone is at least dead from old age (Nanaki after all does live about three hundred years). However judging by the fact their bringing out Advent Children, they all survive

I think the final FMV basically explores whether or not the human race is worth saving, after all the damage we do to the planet. The release of Holy to me isn't there to stop Meteor, but rather a sign that there are people who are willing to step-up to save the planet i.e. Cloud and crew.

Holy didn't stop Meteor, it failed. In its failure, lifestream emerged from the planet and is actually what stopped Meteor. I think the image of Aerith as the end is supposed to show that at that point it was Aerith's will, inside the lifestream, that made it consciously emerge to save the planet and those living on it. Personally, I thought the ending was incomplete and unsatisfactory.

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

Holy didn't stop Meteor, it failed. In its failure, lifestream emerged from the planet and is actually what stopped Meteor. I think the image of Aerith as the end is supposed to show that at that point it was Aerith's will, inside the lifestream, that made it consciously emerge to save the planet and those living on it. Personally, I thought the ending was incomplete and unsatisfactory.

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You can either do one of the following then:

A) See Advent Children when it comes out and HUSH!

B) Burn at the steak.

As Bugenhagen dies, he tells Red to go out into the world and search for others of his kind. The ending shows that he succeeded.

Here is how I interpreted the ending.

(SPOILER)Cloud and company manage to stop Sephiroth (whatever he'd become) and Jenova (whatever the hell she was in the first place) so that Holy can be unleashed. However, we see Holy and Metor almost in a struggle, with Meteor bearing down as Holy tries to fight it away. The girl in the window is indeed Marlene, and she says "The flower girl" because she's aware of who Aeris was and what Aeris did to save the planet. In short, while Aeris was taking care of Marlene before Sector 7 was destroyed, she obviously told Marlene a lot about herself. Barret probably filled in the rest later when he went to see her before the party left for North Crater.

Anyway.

Since Meteor is actually winning the struggle, the planet starts to react by sending tons and tons of lifestream to heal itself (which is ironic, cause that's what Sephiroth wanted to happen, and even though the party killed him it happened anyway). In the end OF THE GAME* we don't really know the outcome. We only see Meteor about to destroy the planet and Holy failing to save it. However, the last screen, that of Aeris, is supposed to provide hope in the gamer that it all works out in the end, as that's what her character represented throughout the game.

*From trailers for Advent Children, we can assume at least Midgar was destroyed by Meteor. But we're talking about the game :p.

EDIT: *agrees with Kishi about the Nanaki bit*

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Originally Posted by devilmaykickass

You can either do one of the following then:

A) See Advent Children when it comes out and HUSH!

B) Burn at the steak.

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Haha, I choose A! Advent Children is like the second coming of Christ for me, I'm so excited I want to vomit.

If you look at Aries at the end, it's virtually (if not exactly) like she was at the very beginning of the game when she was kneeling by some place (praying?) with little green balls of... shinyness... coming out of someplace in Midgar. My interpritation of that was to show that Aries had had a premonision of all the things to come, showing she knew everything that was going to happen. That's why she wasn't afraid, because she knew she was going to die, and that there was nothing she could do about it, but she also knew that the world would be saved. Does that make sense?

Advent Children is like a year after meteor, and the ending of FFVII is like...hundreds of years later, watch the hole ending. speaking of which, is there something after the blackness with stars going by? and sepheroth wanted to destroy the planet...completely i beleive. but even with the amount of lifestream used up, there was probably alot left, seeing's how the planet survived, AND healed itself

the only thing that matters is that sephiroth actually is not dead, he has just returned to the lifestream, which is something that the thread maker didnt touch on.

this is shown when the streams of life energy that sephiroth goes into do not disappear. he has just done what he did when that lucky punk cloud threw the injured man into the mako in the reactor.

sephiroth will never die he is a being of the lifestream and he is due for an amazing comeback..... if you are still wondering cloud is a weak man who when he has a headache falls to the ground and cries...who could idalize someone like that :mad: .

:D :D sephiroth will never die :D :D

When Cloud tossed Sephiroth into the Lifestream, his body was injured, but still preserved. When Cloud killed Sephiroth, his body freaking exploded. No more Sephiroth.

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Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi

When Cloud tossed Sephiroth into the Lifestream, his body was injured, but still preserved. When Cloud killed Sephiroth, his body freaking exploded. No more Sephiroth.

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did u not see that his body just turned into spirit energy and did not actually disappear. this leads one to beleive that he didnt die but retreat to the lifestream.

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Originally Posted by sephirothisnotdead

if you are still wondering cloud is a weak man who when he has a headache falls to the ground and cries...who could idalize someone like that :mad: .

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Give the bloke a chance the time he did that ....he was trying to find himself!i think it adds depth to show that he is actually human...sortof...and thats part of the reason why the game intrigues me...thats these "average" lookin people could do so much good or bad. Sortof parallels us humans....that the average man or woman can do soo much good or bad!

the mother? i think the name red 13 suggests there are others out there

my opinion about the ending was that it was perfect....id like to hear why its incomplete and unsatisfactory

I hear they are remaking the ending in AC?

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the mother? i think the name red 13 suggests there are others out there

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Red XIII's real name is Nanaki. XIII means he was the 13th experiment by Hojo, done on different things. Not all of his experiments were on the same species. I think he gives Aerith a number, if I remember right.

But yes, there are others of his kind out there, at least one other, as proven by the children at the end.

i felt three emotions sad lonely happy and confused... wow i wounder by then how old nanaki's children are?

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I hear they are remaking the ending in AC?

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No, no, no! I like it the way it is! I think it really was a perfect ending for the game; it allowed the person playing it to imagine what happened afterwards. I like that.

it was okay..i still wish it ended differently..

Geez... Don't you remember Bunahegan (Nanaki's Dad) saying that when something (trees, humans, dogs, animals, etc.) 'dies' they return to the life stream from which their souls 'come from'. It's a big circle. Remember? (This is just the details) If something hurts the process, (such as the Mako reactors) the planet will simply 'split' fall & die. He let the party hear the screams of pain the planet was having. Remember now? Geez you should actually pay ATTENTION to the story.
:mad2: Thanks- BudSoda02 BudSoda02@yahoo.com

jeez, dont get hostile now...not everyone pays THAT close attention to a video game, that's just...sad. yes i remember all that, but what's ur point? if something dies it's SPIRIT goes back into the lifestream, and can't come back the same way

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Originally Posted by BudSoda02

Geez... Don't you remember Bunahegan (Nanaki's Dad) saying that when something (trees, humans, dogs, animals, etc.) 'dies' they return to the life stream from which their souls 'come from'. It's a big circle. Remember? (This is just the details) If something hurts the process, (such as the Mako reactors) the planet will simply 'split' fall & die. He let the party hear the screams of pain the planet was having. Remember now? Geez you should actually pay ATTENTION to the story.
:mad2: Thanks- BudSoda02 BudSoda02@yahoo.com

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Bughenhagen is his grandfather not his father, :mad2:

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Originally Posted by One winged angel of death

i felt three emotions sad lonely happy and confused... wow i wounder by then how old nanaki's children are?

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THATS 4 MEMORIES LOL :rolleyes2

crap NOT MEMORIES (*EMOTIONS*) im as dum as others here :(

EDIT: Others don't double post, so use the edit button next time. -Murder

Sorry I was tired & angry that day so I made the misprint about Nanaki's Grandfather. Nanaki's dad is in the Cave, at the exit anyway. He was a great protector of Cosmo Canyon from the barbaric tribes & ended up getting permanently petrified, uncurable; but is apperently still alive as he cried for Nanaki, which is really weird. Although that world is full of mysterious things...
Thanks- BudSoda02 BudSoda02@yahoo.com :p

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Originally Posted by Necronopticous

Holy didn't stop Meteor, it failed. In its failure, lifestream emerged from the planet and is actually what stopped Meteor. I think the image of Aerith as the end is supposed to show that at that point it was Aerith's will, inside the lifestream, that made it consciously emerge to save the planet and those living on it. Personally, I thought the ending was incomplete and unsatisfactory.

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Holy did not fail. Holy was stopping Meteor, however it was much too close to the Planet, and the resulting battle was going to end up destroying much of the Planet anyway. Therefor, the Lifestream was called to protect the Planet and help destroy Meteor without killing everyone in the process.

What makes me laugh is how people can't agree on a name for the last of the Ancients. She is alternately called Aeris, Aerith and Aries in this thread alone. I understand that she's got different names in different games, but does anyone else realize the significance of the name Aeris? It's Latin for "air" or "atmosphere". Since there's a connection in the game between white/Holy magic and air (i.e. "Breath of the Earth", "Healing Wind"), I myself prefer to call her by this name. Aerith sounds like Caesar lisping. Aries is a ram.

Getting to the point...

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did u not see that his body just turned into spirit energy and did not actually disappear. this leads one to beleive that he didnt die but retreat to the lifestream.

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Doesn't Bugenhagen or someone say that when we die we all return to/become the Lifestream? That's partly why I think Aeris' face comes back in the end - she is part of the Lifestream.

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Is the little girl in Kalm Marlene, and why does she say "the flower girl"?

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Notice that just before this happens, you hear the first three notes of Aeris' theme, which gradually blends into the rest of the music. Marlene senses Aeris' presence somehow.

~MJE~

Aeris is the game spelling, Aries is by people who can't spell, and Aerith is for people who prefer the alleged Japanese version.

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Doesn't Bugenhagen or someone say that when we die we all return to/become the Lifestream? That's partly why I think Aeris' face comes back in the end - she is part of the Lifestream.

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Yay, someone with sense. :D
Yes, Sephiroth blew apart into "spirit energy." This, at least to me, seemed to signify him returning to the Lifestream.

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Originally Posted by sephirothisnotdead

did u not see that his body just turned into spirit energy and did not actually disappear. this leads one to beleive that he didnt die but retreat to the lifestream.

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Agreed. Aeris would be in a similar state. I imagine it would be something like this:

Sephiroth: "Oww... well, at least I'm still alive inside the Lifestream."
Aeris: "Hey asshole, remember me?" *splits his skull from behind w/ staff*
Sephiroth: "...damn... now I have no hope in hell of keeping the Lifestream from stopping my Meteor..." *dies again*

SEPHIROTH ---> :chop: <--- AERIS

Well, so to speak. Technically, neither of them have bodies, but you get my idea. Aeris would be at home in the Lifestream, and Seph would be a new arrival, fresh from getting his multi-segmented ass kicked, and thus no match from Aeris on her "home turf". After defeating his will, she'd direct the Lifestream to help Holy. Go Cetra!

Where did you guys get this nonsense about Sephiroth "retreating into the Lifestream?" The last fight with Cloud was in the Lifestream, and when Sephiroth lost, he blew apart in a zillion pieces, and was reabsorbed back into the Lifestream to continue the natural life cycle.

well, first up, Aerith is ment to be her name, hence why she is called that in kingdom hearts, they had a bad translation on her name first time around.
Also, Sephiroth can not return to the lifestream, as the Bug man says in cosmo canyon evil souls can not return to the lifestream. So hes gone, and not coming back, ever.

The ending itself is well done to me, as people can inturpret it. My view is that Holy acted to late, metor was already colliding with the planet and so, as Red XIII says its having the opposite effect. I think Marline goes to the window on cue of the lifestream because she can fell Aries/th, as I think it was her who summoned the lifestream to aid Holy from the promised land.

Oh, and Sephiroth is dead, forever, he did not retreat and he cant come back, ever.

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Originally Posted by Wuggly Blight

evil souls can not return to the lifestream.

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Load of baloney. ALL souls return to the Lifestream when the body dies.

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So hes gone, and not coming back, ever.

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Oh, I agree that he's dead. But his lifeforce returned to the Lifestream.

listen in cosmo canyon against the GI, it says there, evil souls are prevented from returning the lifestream. scream and stamp all you want, its int he game.

That's talking about the non-human Gi. All human souls return to the Lifestream. As does every other living thing, according to Bugenhagen.

Are you sure the Gi weren't real people? I just played through Cosmo Canyon today. He says that the Gi tribe is one of the exceptions of beings that did not return to the Lifestream, so they're spirits hanging around in the Gi cave since they died in a certain battle.

I just recently came up with the theory that the stars from the beginning of the game and the end of the game is inside the Lifestream. The green stuff that you come out of when you meet Aeris at the beginning of the game looks like Lifestream. Oh, did anyone notice the Goblins Bar in the opening movie? I had to watch it like 18 times before I noticed it.

Also, are we even sure that it's Sephiroth? I mean, some people here in the forums keep saying he's Jenova, and I believe it. I'm playing through this game one more time to see if I get it exactly how this worked.

I think it goes something like this:

2000 years ago, Ancients were all over the place. All of a sudden, a weapon from Space lands on the Planet, called Jenova, and wreaks havoc. The only survivors are the people who hid, and a few Ancients. I guess Jenova was sealed some place until Shinra found it so Gast and Hojo could start researching it and doing experiments with it. While Lucrecia is pregnant with Sephiroth, Hojo injects Jenovan cells into her womb. Now you have a super-being. Then, Hojo starts trying to clone Sephiroth and uses Cloud and Zack. Sephiroth goes to Nibelheim with Cloud and Zack, goes insane, Cloud kills him ... I think. Shinra ships Jenova from Nibelheim to Midgar. It gets up one day and kills the President, emulating Sephiroth ... I think. The rest is history.

Wait, some of you are thinking the Planet might not have survived? Of course it did! Aeris directed the Lifestream in some obscure fashion so that Nanaki could have a planet to run on in the 500 years later bit. The Lifestream saved the Planet. It cured the Planet like it's supposed to do. If the party didn't kill Sephiroth, the Lifestream would come anyway, but no Holy, and Sephiroth would say to the Lifestream "Cooooooome to Papa!" Why he was in the Crater and not near Midgar where the wound was, I have no idea.

Usually, when someone dies, their soul hangs out in the Lifestream for an undefined period of time, then enters a newborn. Bugenhagan doesn't say "You have to go back into a human." Well, let's hope that either Jenova/Sephiroth doesn't count, or he entered a Sandworm. If it wasn't for AC, it would be very emotional listening to the Prelude while you are experiencing the party's death; they can't come back b/c no more humans. I think that's what's it's like in the very last sequence of the game to be in the Lifestream forever.

I hope AC does something neat like this: Cloud and Tifa die, and their spirit energy merges, so when they reincarnate, they reincarnate into the same person! Awww!

Hello.
This is my first post so it wont make any sense (all my first posts don't make any sense :P )

Anyway, I think the ending of Final Fantasy VII was excellent and the proof is this thread, It opens all doors of imaginations and none can agree to one ending, You keep speculating what happened to each person of the party, and You'd find yourself reaching dead ends anyway lol.

And now everybody's going to buy Advent Children to find out what really happened in the end.

That's like saying, Square! You win! lol

Ok back to the topic, Sephiroth DID die but his spirit is still around, because I think by reviving we mean calling back the spirit right ? in the 4 minute trailer of Final Fantasy Advent Children, Vincent tells Cloud that Jenova can revive Sephiroth, and I heared a rumour about some leaked trailer that shows another scene of Sephiroth that is different from the Niblheim (Sorry forgot how to spell that).

and to those who say that he retreated to the lifestream, the final fight where Cloud uses his omnislash actually happened in the lifestream, and that's that, He's dead, Reviving someone means that he was DEAD and someone REVIVED him, I guess :P

About Nanaki, I've been thinking of the same thing, Who's thier mother?! lol.

You know what else we didn't know and we're going to know in the movie ? what actually happened to the additional characters like Yuffie and Vincent! which weren't put on FMV at all!

so if we go back to the first page and look at the two choices, I'd pick the watch Advent Children and hush choice :P lol.

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Originally Posted by AhmedTheGreat

About Nanaki, I've been thinking of the same thing, Who's thier mother?! lol.

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Yeah, I tripped and fell into that plothole. It was one of the many plotholes in the story. Nanaki was supposed to be the last in his race, yet he reproduced. Square's going to have a hell of time trying to clear that up.

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Originally Posted by AhmedTheGreat

You know what else we didn't know and we're going to know in the movie ? what actually happened to the additional characters like Yuffie and Vincent! which weren't put on FMV at all!

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Yeah, that sucked. It made me wish they weren't additional characters. They shouldn't have been in my opinion. I mean, everyone knows about them, and I doubt anyone here passes up the chance to obtain any of them.

For those in favor of the "evil souls don't return to the Lifestream" theory: keep in mind this opens all sorts of doors about how to define "good" and "evil". Since that would make this thread even more complicated, I'll not even try to define good and evil and just say this regarding the theory:

Sephiroth was insane. Generally, crazy people aren't trying to be evil. They're just doing what seems right for them. Seph wanted to reunite with Jenova and take back the planet from the "encroachers". I don't think he was looking in the mirror going "Damn, I'm evil." He was just taking care of business as best as he knew how. (Which, unfortunately, meant doing destructive things.)

As for Red XIII's kids? Best I can figure is that he swiped a couple of Jenova cells or something, took some of his own DNA, and cloned himself (except making it female, obviously), so that he could breed. Jenova wouldn't even be necessary, but he might've thrown it in there to make his offspring stronger in whatever was left of the Planet after the whole Meteor VS Holy/Lifestream thing. (I assume he would've told his kids the truth from the get-go to prevent them having a meltdown and going psycho like Seph.)

Oh your doubts are not that good, first time I beat the game was without Yuffie, second time was without Vincent, then the rest was with everyone lol.

But I'm surprised why they didn't have many FMVs? I mean they could've made it a four CDs game and has FMVs WITH Vincent and Yuffie, and FMVs withOUT them.

That would've made sense, and now as you can see, if some newbie played the game, and didn't aqquire those characters, what would he be like when playing Vincent's new game or watching Final Fantasy Advent Children? lol.

Final Fantasy was the greatest game and still is, but it's still a fact that it has many many many plot holes.

Okay, I am just at the first time you go to the Crater.

1) The crater is there b/c that's where Jenova landed.
2) I can prove to you that when you all are refering to Sephiroth, you really mean Jenova. Cloud realises it immediately following the battle with Jenova*Death when they find an arm with Jenovan cells. You may want to put Tifa in your party just in case, b/c she makes the implication when I had her in my party. "You mean it's not Sephiroth we've been following all this time?"

Part of the reason this game is so great is b/c the story is so elusive, and they probably make you feel suspense a bit too much. "I'll explain later [about us not chasing after Sephiroth.]" Next, Cloud says that the real Sephiroth is further down the dungeon. Yep, that's where the real Sephiroth ended up when Cloud threw him into the reactor.

But yanno, he looks like he does when you fight him in the final battle. Do you REALLY fight and defeat Jenova when you fight her first? Is that the real Sephiroth when you beat him in the final battle?

EDIT: Whoops. You do not need Tifa in your party for Jenova*Death to see her make the implication I mentioned above. All 6/8 available playable characters appear on screen during this dialogue.

Makes sense.. but STILL! lol
Jenova may not be dead, because in Advent Children they're actually looking for her "Quote: Where's our mother!", and Sephiroth IS dead, because they're trying to actually revive him in the movie, and also, I do believe that Sephiroth ended up in there when Cloud threw him into the reactor.

I kept playing, and Hojo explains a lot.

That's the real Sephiroth in there, and he's not just a corpse. He didn't want to go into the Lifestream / didn't go in the Lifestream, so his spirit is still in the corpse, and that's what calls clones, and what is communicating with Cloud to give him the Black Materia.

Jenova can definitely emulate other people, like Sephiroth. At one point, she emulates Tifa to trick whoever you gave the Black Materia to into bringing the Black Materia to Sephiroth's corpse, which is where his spirit is.

I think that area where his corpse is (where you appear near Rufus and Hojo, and where the weapons come out of) is where the final battle takes place. How Sephiroth can fight as a corpse, I have no idea. He was one of the toughest corpses I've ever fought!

ok here's the scoop from my point of view. Ok here it gose...
Sephiroth in Cloud's comma it turned out he was thrown into a mako stream. thus freezeing himself solid. Cloud thought that Sephiroth was still alive because of the experiments conducted on him. He had some of Zack's memories, then he finds out Sephiroth is indeed dead but like lucrecia, and the GI he was able to by his will refrain from returning to the life stream. So Cloud pretty much had to fight sephiroth's corpse (will, etc.) to destroy him and return him to the life stream. That's why sephiroth desintigrated. At least i think. i know i left out some important detail. so whatever. :)

I suggest emailing this whole thread to square :P

I was sad at the end. Mixed emotions...Not because it was incomplete, but because it was the end of such a great game. Even though I thought, there wouldn't be a sequal, I was happy in some sense. Because I knew that life would go on...As we see 500 years later.

But now that advent children is on it's way, I'm really curious to see how all of this ties into the game.

I'd like to add one comment: about the GI, Lucrecia, and sephy not going to the lifestream....

Have you ever thought that the lifesream and its theories are Just like the farplane like in FFX? I mean maybe if they have such a strong bond to the world as in hatred, love, or desire, They will still linger in the real world but kinda sorta turn into monsters (like The GI in FF7 and Seymour in FFX) (and yes, I know, auron didnt transform, but he DID age, maybe he chose to age instead of transforming so noone would get suspicious)

And ALSO, for Lucrecia and sephy, theres another possibillity: Do you remember going to see her in the cave? She says herself she wanted to die but the Jenova cells wouldnt let her, so theres another possibillity for those two as well.