This is very interesting! I played the game late and had already seen clips from Advent Children, which I knew was a sequel. So I assumed that humanity survived, even though it wasn't explicitly stated. I was happy to see Midgar in ruins, because it represented everything that humanity was doing wrong; it also implied that Shin-Ra was defeated.

But actually, now I read this thread, I can see that it is a far more powerful ending if humanity didn't 'pass' the test, and yes, returned to the Lifestream. I like Oddsocks' interpretation very much.

I prefer to think that Nanaki shows his cubs Midgar to say "This is where it all began, where I met my friends". or something. And I think that Midgar is green because ShinRa collapsed. Not including AC.

It was supposed to be 500 years later. How is Nanaki still alive? Did I forget something about his species having very long life-spans? And if he was indeed the last of his species left, then how come there are cubs?

I suppose ultimately they left it as a cliff-hanger so that the players would ask themselves the question - "Were the humans good for the planet, or would they have to be eliminated/re-absorbed?" And then it's not so much of a stretch to apply that to our own world.

Nanaki's race does have an exceptionally long life span. He was about 40 in human years during the course of the game, and was still called a young child or teenager.

And he has cubs, which suggests that his race isn't completely gone, as I think Bugenhagen had prophesised at one point, may have been mistaken. But nevertheless, a Mrs Nanaki must have been out there somewhere!

i was going to start a topic about this... i really didnt get it... i mean all through the game it goes on about him being the last of his kind (as aeris/aerith is the last of hers) and then at the end of 7 beginning of 7:ac he has cubs which made me think WTF where did they come from??? is there a mrs nanaki... also i know im including ac here but on the english version it says 488 years later at the beginning... yet the turks, cloud and the gang are still alive... come on nanaki i can believe but those "humans" alive after 488/500 years???

This is a good point to bring up now I think about it, actually. The human race is FFVII in convinced throughout that Aeris is the last of the Ancients (and some speculate that Sepiroth could possibly also be Cetra, although this is proven to be false to the player later in the game), however these ideas are deemed wrong when in the Temple of the Ancients you find another Cetra running around with his big white beard and pointy hat. If wrong about the remaining population count of the Cetra, they could quite easily be mistaken on Nanaki's race.

I didn't think those pointy-hatted people were Cetra. I think they were supposed to be just guardians of the Temple.

AC is two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, that's why it says "498 years later" instead of 500 (end of FFVII you see the same scene and it says "500 years later.") It's just recapping the final scene of the game and signafying AC is two years later.

whether you guys want to accept it or not...AC is part of the FF series. It IS part of FF-VII I dont know what your ughing about.