The original 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7, launched in 1997, has stood the tes🐠t of time, sourcing many spin-offs and becoming one of the most well-known RPGs of all time. This memorability is partly due to its impactful story🌸line, iconic characters, and how the game ends.

The game’s various themes are tied to the ending, including the connection between life and death and humanity’s relationship with nature. The ambiguity of the game’s ending scenes has spawned lots of di𒁃scussions over the years, regardꦍing the outcome of the party’s mission to save the Planet. It’s a powerful ending and one that deserves to be understood to its fullest.

Updated February 21, 2024 by Casey Foot: With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on the horizon, it’s an apt time to revisit the original story to refresh your memory of the lore. The original game’s ending is heavily tied to Sephiroth’s origins, so we’ve expanded on this a little more to help provide much-needed context.

Jenova And Sephiroth’s Plan

Leading up to the game’s ending, Sephiroth hopes to take revenge for his ‘mother’ Jenova as he believes he is a Cetra, and that the Cetra (also called the Ancients) were betrayed by humans 2,000 years ago. In reality, Jenova was the real threat to the Planet all along.

Through Shinra scientist Professor Gast’s conversation with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ifalna, a Cetra, it’s revealed that “something fell from the sky making a large wound” which was Jenova.

Jenova tricked the Cetra by appearing as their “dead mothers” and “dead brothers”, and then infected them, “transform𒐪ing them into monsters” according to Ifalna.

Though Jenova was defeated, it was later unearthed by Professor Gast, who began the Jenova Project at Shrina, which involved using Je🐻nova’s cells to create an elite group of soldiers.

Professor Gast’s assistants, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Professor Hojo and Lucrecia, offered up their unborn child, Sephiroth, to be experimented on wit𓄧h Jenova’s cells, believing it was 🦋an Ancient.

When Sephiroth discovers the research notes in the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim, he comes to believe he is a Cetra and that Jenova is his mother, which leads him to burn down Nibelheim in anger at what💮 he thinks humans havไe done.

Cloud manages to stop Sephiroth and throws him into the Lifestream, which sends Sephiroth into the North Crater, where Jenova was originally found.

Sephiroth’s body becomes encased in crystallized Mako and he devises his plan to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor. Sephiroth uses Jenova’s body to carry out his plan, making it take his form and controlling it while his real body is in the North Crater.

Much of the latter half of the game revolves around preventing Sephiroth from obtaining the Black Materia, but Sephiroth is able to manipulate Cloud into giving it to him by showing him images of Zack in his place in his memories.

Using the Black Materia, Sephiroth summons Meteor with the intention of fatally harming the Planet so that the Lifestream will appear to heal it.

Once the Lifestream emerges, Sephiroth plans to become one with it and transform into a god-like being, ultimately avenging Jenovജa by taking bღack the Planet.

Sephiroth In The North Crater

As a consequence of summoning Meteor, the Weapons are awakened to protect the Planet.

The earthquake created by the Weapons emerging causes Cloud to fall into the Lifestream, where his mind becomes even more jumbled. The party finds Cloud in a catatonic state, and Tifa decides to stay with him until he heals.

The Weapons’ cause yet another earthquake, and Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream together. Tifa is able to help Cloud reconstruct his true memories.

Through a combination of being experimented on with Jenova cells and the traumatizing events he witnessed, Cloud’s mind used his memories of Zack to cope, making Cloud believe he wꦏas in Zack’s place as a first-class Soldier.

Cloud, now fully aware of his true past and the events that occurred, resolves to stop Sephiroth.

In the North Crater, Sephiroth produces a shield to stop the Weapons from finding him and attacking his true body. He begins alte🌞ring his body in preparation for becoming a god.

He’s also blocking Holy, the power Aerith awakened, from arising to stop Meteor.

Cloud and the party travel to the North Crater to confront Sephiroth and stop him from bringing down Meteor.

The party successfully destroys Sephiroth’s physical body, but Cloud still feels Sephiroth within the Lifestream. Cloud’s soul is taken ♛in🍸to the Lifestream, where he easily defeats him.

After Cloud beats Sephiroth for the final time, a hand reaches out from the Lifestream while Aerith’s theme plays, suggesting that ꦦAerith pulls Cloud from the Lifestream and sends him back to his body in the North Crater.

Cloud returns to consciousness and rescues Tifa from falling into the crater. After he does so, he speaks of an “answer from the Planet” and “the Promised Land”, realizing that he can meet “her” (Aerith)🍃 th꧙ere.

Though Aerith is dead, she isn’t really gone. She is part of the Lifestream, where Cloud will eventually end up too. Cloud is able to come to terms with her death, accepting the cyclical nature of life, one of ꦆthe game🐼’s main themes.

Sadly, by the time the party defeats Sephiroth and allows Holy to be unleashed, Meteor is already dangerously close to the Planet - too close for Holy to destroy Meteor and save the Plan🌸et at the same time.

Aerith And The Lifestream

Aerith, havi☂ng become part of the Lifestream after her death, uses her connection with it to instruct it to force Meteor back. This allows Holy to use its full power.

Even after her death, Aerith is the one to protect the Planet and save the people still living using the Lifestream, where people return to after their life ends, symbolizing the g𝄹ame’s theme of life and death.

The game ends much in the same way as it begins - with Aerith’s face. This reinforces the focus on the 'cycle' of life.

Post Credits Scene - 500 Years Later

Set 500 years after the events of the game, the post-credits scene features Red XIII and his offspring running towards a dilapidated Midgar which has been overcome with vegetation, seemingly abandoned.

After the game’s title is shown, the screen fades to black and the sound of children laughing can be heard.

The ending is ambiguous, as it’s not clear whether humanity changed their destructive ways and learned to live in harmony with the Planet.

It’s possible that humanity was wiped out, resulting in the people becoming one with the Lifestream, which would explain Midgar being deserted.

However, it’s also possible that only Midgar was abandoned, meaning humanity could have survived elsewhere on the Planet.

Speaking of this post-credits scene in a , Yoshinori Kitase, the dire🐲ctor of the game, stated:

“In a way, I consider that epilogue to be the true happy ending of Final Fantasy 7. Well, itꦿ’s a happy ending even though all the human beings are destroyed.”

This quote sheds some light on the game’s post-credits scene, implying that, 500 years in the future, no humans remain; however, this is ultimately a positive for the Planet, as it’s able to heal from the damage caused by Shinra. But the sou🌜nd of laughing children gives some hope that, even if humanity was destroyed, their memory r🤪emains.