All Dead, All Dead - Final Fantasy VII's Ending

The Witch

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According to Death FRB (a mate of mine), he discovered in a Japanese mag what the producer of FF7, Hironobu Sakaguchi, thought about the ending. According to the script, Holy wiped out Humanity, which may partly explain why Aeris said she'll be 'coming back.'
http://ff7citadel.com/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=12

Has anyone ever seen the original source for this? A lot of people back in the day honestly assumed that the ending showed everyone dying (I also assumed this) but with this interview it appears that Sakaguchi really did mean for the ending to mean everyone died. I've been looking for what this Japanese magazine is but the site owners have yet to respond. At the time it was said, nobody even questioned the authenticity of this Sakaguchi interview so I'm assuming that back in the day everyone just knew the source and accepted it as fact because it was authentic.

So can anyone tell me if what the FF7citadel says is true or just hearsay?

To me, everyone dying in the end makes absolute sense and always has. I believe that's why the game's final moments is Cloud closing his eyes just as the Lifestream and Meteor clash, and then the screen fades into blackness and then Aerith is shown looking up at the screen as if she's welcoming someone/people.

D8pZPPR.gif


To me, if you consider the fact that Cloud told Tifa that the Planet told him he can find Aerith in the Promised Land, the ending makes it appear as if Cloud (and the others) died and Aerith is welcoming him (them) to the Lifestream.

Especially if you consider this Ultimania quote...

7edraAR.png

その瞬間、 彼らは感じ取る、緑色の光が星のようにまたたくなか、静かにほほえむエアリスの存在を。

Roughly, it says,
"(In) that moment, they sense (or "feel"), twinkling within (the) star's green light, (the) presence of Aerith's peaceful smile."

* If my translation is wrong please be kind with corrections, I am only a beginner. :lew: Parentheses added to indicate words that are implied in Japanese, but since the Japanese language lacks words like them they need to be added.
* The Japanese word that I translated as "they" is actually"
karera / 彼ら" and refers to only a group of men. So I'm assuming this is either a typo or it's referring to Cloud as "they".

Either way, this quote from the Ultimania Omega makes it seem like they/Cloud all died and now they're looking at Aerith.



So, do y'all think they died at the end? :hmmm:
 
Interesting.

I've forgotten how I interpreted the ending originally. Regardless, I would have obviously had to adjust my interpretation to fit in with Advent Children (where Cloud and co didn't die).

My questions about this interpretation are as follows:

  1. If everyone dies, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I guess with them all going to the Promised Land it can be akin to the Rapture of sorts?
  2. Red XIII can't die because he is seen with his cubs roaring at the ruins of Midgar hundreds of years in the future. How did he survive FFVII's Rapture? Was that just him running about in the afterlife?
 
Good question. Red XIII's future is what I was left thinking about as well. If the interview with Sakaguchi is authentic then clearly humanity was wiped out, maybe Sakaguchi said "humanity" because he wanted players to know that other creatures (birds, whatever Red XIII is, etc) lived. Maybe the Lifestream only targeted people because people were the only threat, whereas other species posed no threat to the Planet. That's the only logical reason I can come up with.

The children's laughter could easily be Red XIII's children, though... couldn't it? Nanaki speaks English, so his offspring would too, right?
ann1w4.png


An alternate theory could be that since it's 500 years in the future by time the Red XIII has kids, maybe humanity wasn't entirely wiped out during Meteor/Lifestream battle, and the population came back after the Planet had enough time to heal the people's mistakes?

I also forgot to add this quote:

EGM: At the very end of FFVII, we see the epilogue to the whole story that takes place 500 years later, so really, you still have another 497 years’ worth of games and movies to fill in....

Kitase : Ha, maybe I’ll try to do that. In a way, I consider that epilog to be the true happy ending of FFVII. Well, it’s a happy ending even though all the human beings are destroyed. [Laughs]

So despite the laughter during the 500 year epilog, humanity is still destroyed.
 
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I was only 12 when I saw FF7's ending, but it never occurred to me that humanity might've been wiped out or that the ending was actually very vague. Maybe I also forgot all about it after all these years.

After reviewing the ending again, I can see how it may appear to have that sort of message, and it's heavily implied for sure. You can tell by the look in everyone's eyes as well. But the biggest hint is Midgar in ruins and its obvious lack of human presence.

The children's laughter...I interpreted it as a reminder of innocence. A hidden message of some sort, that perhaps there's hope for the future or something along those positive lines. I think it makes a bigger impact that they are actual children's voice rather than Red XIII's.

I'm sure the remake will touch up on this.
 
I think it's a fair thought that humanity went extinct after Meteor struck, honestly. As far as Red XIII, he (and whatever remainder of his species) survived this, and that's why we see him many years in the future. (A clever beast, having survived that. Haha.)

What if Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus didn't happen in actuality, since humanity was vanquished? What if they're possibilities of events that could've occurred post-FFVII?

... or Advent Children and DoC did happen, and some of humanity survived. :XD: It's really open to interpretation! (Fun to speculate, though.)
 
I think it's a fair thought that humanity went extinct after Meteor struck, honestly. As far as Red XIII, he (and whatever remainder of his species) survived this, and that's why we see him many years in the future. (A clever beast, having survived that. Haha.)

What if Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus didn't happen in actuality, since humanity was vanquished? What if they're possibilities of events that could've occurred post-FFVII?

... or Advent Children and DoC did happen, and some of humanity survived. :XD: It's really open to interpretation! (Fun to speculate, though.)
Funny you mention that. You know what the meaning of "Edge" is?

yR9NOL5.png


I always thought that maybe everyone DID die at the end of FFVII and Cloud was stuck in Limbo during AC. :lew:
 
http://ff7citadel.com/efiction/viewstory.php?sid=12

Has anyone ever seen the original source for this? A lot of people back in the day honestly assumed that the ending showed everyone dying (I also assumed this) but with this interview it appears that Sakaguchi really did mean for the ending to mean everyone died. I've been looking for what this Japanese magazine is but the site owners have yet to respond. At the time it was said, nobody even questioned the authenticity of this Sakaguchi interview so I'm assuming that back in the day everyone just knew the source and accepted it as fact because it was authentic.

So can anyone tell me if what the FF7citadel says is true or just hearsay?

To me, everyone dying in the end makes absolute sense and always has. I believe that's why the game's final moments is Cloud closing his eyes just as the Lifestream and Meteor clash, and then the screen fades into blackness and then Aerith is shown looking up at the screen as if she's welcoming someone/people.

D8pZPPR.gif


To me, if you consider the fact that Cloud told Tifa that the Planet told him he can find Aerith in the Promised Land, the ending makes it appear as if Cloud (and the others) died and Aerith is welcoming him (them) to the Lifestream.

Especially if you consider this Ultimania quote...

7edraAR.png

その瞬間、 彼らは感じ取る、緑色の光が星のようにまたたくなか、静かにほほえむエアリスの存在を。

Roughly, it says,
"(In) that moment, they sense (or "feel"), twinkling within (the) star's green light, (the) presence of Aerith's peaceful smile."

* If my translation is wrong please be kind with corrections, I am only a beginner. :lew: Parentheses added to indicate words that are implied in Japanese, but since the Japanese language lacks words like them they need to be added.
* The Japanese word that I translated as "they" is actually"
karera / 彼ら" and refers to only a group of men. So I'm assuming this is either a typo or it's referring to Cloud as "they".

Either way, this quote from the Ultimania Omega makes it seem like they/Cloud all died and now they're looking at Aerith.



So, do y'all think they died at the end? :hmmm:

Wow. that actually makes a lot of sense.
 
I personally think holy wiping humans out kinda goes against the whole theme of the game. I always felt the game pushed the whole humans can rise above themselves aspect. Also without humanity's influence the lifestream propably couldn't have pushed meteor back, as I've always interpreted that scene as Aerith guiding the souls of the people within the lifestream to protect the planet. I mean the planet itself had done a pretty shit job at defending itself up to that point; sending the WEAPONS away from the norther crater whe THAT'S WHERE SEPHIROTH WAS ALL ALONG. Plus it would have made the game a shaggy dog story and thats depressing. FF7 never seemed that cynical to me.

Frankly if it isn't EXPLICITLY STATED in the game itself than it didn't happen as far as I'm conserned. I'm free to interprete the ending according to my own values, and similarly the production staff's oppinions are also simply their interpretation. (Also without AC showing that humanity survives, I'd deem FF7s ending to be worse than ME3s original ending.) I also don't really care about the Ultimania guides, as info in them often comes of as contradictory or even retconing. And I think a game needs to stand on it's own without extra materials, so anything stated after the game's completion is of dubious canonity at best.
 
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