FF7 Rebirth ending explain from a new perspective
Hey guys. I am native Chinese. I will share my explaination from a brand new perspective. This could be different from yours becasue we are playing RB with Chinese/Japanese translation. And yes there are a big difference between the English localization and the orginal Japanese texts.
Long story short, my theory is that Aerith is not dead in another timeline. But she is dead on the remake/rebirth timeline (the one we are playing at).
Evidences:
- Cloud did parry the katana of Sephiroth. I think everyone can agree on that especially it is the player who did this move. And a very important detail is when parrying the katana, there is the yellow glow around Cloud's sword, which is an indicator that this move is creating a new timeline. This is true as in Zack's timeline when he chose to meet Hojo instead of saving Biggs there was also the same glow, indicating a new timeline was created becasue of Zack's choice. Therefore, we can say Cloud's successful parry created a new timeline, just as Avalanche created a new timeline at the end of FF7 Remake story via destroying the Fate's Wall (my own direct translation from the Chinese version, might not be precise). Ok, now we have a new timeline for what? What has changed in this new timeline? The answer is obvious. Aerith lived in the new timeline beacuse such result is the direct outcome of the move (parry).
- Sephiroth's katana is different. I'll provide pictures here but I STRONGLY suggest you check the video once again. A lot new stuff can be found. So Cloud parried the sword and the sword stuck into the ground (sorry for my poor vocabulary but you get the idea). As picture 1 shows. After this the screen flashes, and the katana's position and angle changed. There is also blood which was not there before the flash. As picture 2 shows. The diffrent positions and the angle prove at least these two pictures are not from the same timeline.
Picture 1: Katana beforfe flash
- Constant flashes between dead and alive. After the Sephiroth grabbed his katana, Avalanche rushed in. Tifa saw Cloud had Aerith in his arms with blood on the ground (pic 3). However, there is again flash into the same scene with no blood on the ground (pic 4). It then keeps flashing back and forth between the two scenes for mutiple times. Moreover, the same thing happens on Aerith's arm, the scene flashing between blood on arms and no blood (pic 5&6). Bear in mind all these are seen from Tifa's eyes, which probably proves this is not only Cloud's degradation or illusion.
- Aerith's eyes wide open. This is basically the same as the last evidence. But not from the eyes of Tifa. When can see when there is no blood on Aerith's arm, her eyes are open and smilling (pic 8). When there is blood, her eyes are closed (pic 7). This proves at least there are two Aeriths probably in two diffrent timelines.
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Picture 7: Closed eyes with blood
Picture 8: Open eyes with no blood
- Aerith's laying position changes. Cloud put Aerith down on the ground to fight Sephiroth. Aerith lay on the ground with her back with white fellas around her (pic 9). However, when the rest Avalanche are back, they rushed to Aerith to find she's laying on the side with no white fella (pic 10, you get the idea, my English poor). This remained so until Cloud came and from his perspective, Aerith is laying on her back with white fellas (pic 11).
Picture 10: laying on her side
Picture 11: laying on her back again
- Cloud walking into another timeline. Still on the same page as the last evidence. The rest Avalanche came to Aerith first, Cloud behind. When Cloud walked towards Aerith, there is a white fella cutting the scene. And things changed in between. At first Cloud walks normally with nothing on the back ground (pic 12). After the white fella shadowing the screen for a second (pic 13), there came the same yellow glow on Cloud's background (pic 14). And then in the yellow glow, he walked to Aerith with no memebers of Avalanche on her side.
Picture 13: White fella blocking the screen
So in conclusion, here is my theory. Aerith is saved for sure in the remake/rebirth timeline (let's call it the main timeline). However, the result is swapped. I think it is either Sephiroth or Aerith herself swapped resulting in her death. Therefore, the rest Avalanche could not see her and was mourning for her on the lake side. What Cloud sees is not illusion. It is Aerith from another timeline which Cloud created by parrying the katana.
Following this logic, I think in Chapter 3 Cloud will experience a even worse mental breakdown as he then will have realized Aerith is dead (in his timeline). So Tifa has to save him again as the OG unfolds. This will keep the overall remake true to the OG. (Because if Aerith is alive then what about Tifa? The whole story has be to rewritten). However, as Zack said at the end, the world will be reunited again. In the end of Chapter 3 we will see somehow Aerith will be saved. Maybe through reuniting the worlds (different timelines).
Share your ideas below. I am super depressed right now. Wanna talk it through.