#was the og aerith's prayer heard? did she pray for a second chance?

[rocketbirdie]

dont apologize for going insane im putting my rambles out there to also find insane people 🤝🤝🤝 but yeah i haven't played rebirth yet but seeing people complain on the basis of "it's not og" is ALWAYS crazy to me because it's SUPER clear, in both an in-universe and out-of-universe sense that it's like. Explicitly not OG. It's so explicitly about breaking the chains of og and that's super super interesting. remakeverse is like it's own beast and its very cool and it's also making me lose my mind because the "what if"'s are so beautiful but also [breaking down about the original timeline] THERE WAS SO MUCH LOVE THERE TOO AND IT DIDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING!!!! HEAD IN HANDS. anyway thats to say i agree with all of your thoughts thank u for the insane food

EXACTLYYYYY AAUUUGHHHH the mind-screw of it all..... the implications........

[silver-wield]

So, I've been thinking about the plot, because shockingly, FF7R isn't about ships. It's an action rpg where Cloud is up against Sephiroth.

This line from him is part of the conversation the devs said was one of the first things they came up with, along with seven seconds until the end, which we know refers to the end of the world, but rather importantly, doesn't mention meteor. It's just the end. Which I think refers to Sephiroth trying something new from OG. Because he's failed a few times now.

The start of OG, and Aerith already has her eyes open and she's praying to the lifestream. Then she turns to look towards loveless Street and walks through the alley.

What's the prayer? Well, it could be to do with Zack, since she suspects he died already, but possibly not. I'll explain why in a bit.

The end of OG and beginning of Remake align. Aerith is shown in a similar position to the beginning of OG, only she now opens her eyes. Remake Aerith does the same. The suggestion is the story of OG happened and is happening again, only with Aerith aware of it.

But, unlike OG, Aerith looks away from loveless Street in the opposite direction. The devs have said this is because she senses the whispers, but they were vague about when she came into contact with them before. She then runs towards loveless Street as though driven that way. The implication could be she wasn't going to go there unless the whispers made her. Was she already challenging fate?

Yeah, Biggs is a suspicious type, but the second I heard him say this particular word it reminded me of FF15 and the Omen trailer, which shows Noctis on a journey alone to fight. This turns out to be the wrong path and when he fails time resets to the point before he leaves, so the current FF15 playthrough shows his journey with the chocobros instead. At the end of 15 we hear Gladio in a voice over about "some bad omen" that echoes his line from the beginning of the game. This suggests time reset again and will until Noctis finds his ideal ending.

This was a manipulation of time to "make things right".

Back to Remake.

We hear about the will of the planet encompassing all time from inception to end, which remains fixed on a set path.

Aerith in OG didn't know how to use her cetra powers well enough to stop Sephiroth, but at the end of OG it's possible she sent that knowledge she accumulated back to her past self.

This is the meta knowledge Aerith acquires in Remake. The whispers are against this because she shouldn't know anything. It's not about perpetuating a bleak future or going against humanity. It's because Aerith is cheating fate. She's taking the role of an arbiter to change things. It's why she says every time they touch her she loses a part of herself. They're taking back what she knew and leaving her fumbling along an unknown path, but it's not unknown to them because it's the OG path. It's why their destruction isn't permanent. Fate can't be killed. It's the will of the planet. All they did was remove its influence for awhile.

Sephiroth has also acquired the same knowledge because they are each other's foil. What she knows, he can learn too. Probably before her tbf, since he sought knowledge and she hid from it.

Sephiroth knows she's trying to end the cycle of unending fate. They go against Sephiroth, sort of triumph, but not good enough, so it begins again. He wants the whispers out of the way because they ensure he loses. Now he has a chance to win.

This also ties into this being the last in the compilation. Things will end.

Back to the OG prayer. Maybe OG Aerith was given hints about the future too, but because she wasn't as powerful or ignored everything out of fear she didn't pay attention to things until it was too late. She lived in her own delusion that if she acted ignorant it wouldn't happen, but as we hear from Red, the planet's will can't be denied. It can be diverted with some changes, but eventually everyone is back where they belong.

Remake Aerith admits she's afraid, but is resolute in doing the right thing, possibly because she's seen more than one previous path.

A path before OG Aerith where she gave up and did nothing.

OG Aerith, who half-heartedly embraced her destiny and was still too late.

Now it's Remake's turn and she's barging through every OG obstacle. She's dragging everyone into her friendship circle before they even know who she is, she's telling Cloud she has someone special and preemptively rejecting him, she's becoming bffs with Tifa, protecting Barret from his impulsiveness and letting everyone know Red is a child. She's telling them Sephiroth is a bigger threat than Shinra and confronting him in the drum and final battle. She's resolved to making things right for everyone, even though she knows it means she'll still die in the process because the ultimate fate of the planet can't be denied and her place is within it, alongside Zack, whose fate she also changed temporarily.