Why Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Controversial Ending Is GENIUS

1. How Multiple Timelines Converge

To get this information you'll need to equip the Assess materia in the Harbinger fight, and use it both on the main villain, Whisper Harbinger, and its three minions, Croceo, Rubrum and Viridi.

For Whisper Harbinger, the game describes it as "An accretion of Whispers, the so-called arbiters of fate. The creatures appear when someone tries to alter destiny's course. They are connected to all threads of time and space that shape the planet's fate."

That "someone" is clearly Sephiroth, and his meddling with the natural order of things has triggered all of this in the first place.

As if it wasn't plain enough that defeating this entity frees up the rules of time and space, Whispers Croceo, Rubrum and Viridi are described as "entities from a future timeline that has manifested in the present day", with each one "protecting the future that gave shape to it".

Things get even more insane, as we then get footage of Zack Fair surviving the attack that killed him, meaning that Cloud never took his identity.

Zack is shown looking over a Whisper-covered Midgar, further implying that literally anything goes, as the entities in charge of destiny and fate have been defeated. We know this too is in another timeline, as the breed of dog for "Stamp" (Shinra's cartoonish mascot) is a different breed entirely.

After, the gang resolve to track down this now time and space-bending version of Sephiroth, but it's worth taking away that ultimately, expectations have been reset as to what happens next.

We now have a collection of characters that have fought supernatural entities, being rewarded with knowledge of their own pasts and futures. Multiple timelines seem to be progressing simultaneously, and for all the times Aerith avoids answering questions as to what's going on - shaking her head when asked "where are we?" in the final scene - ALL of that will no doubt unfold.

Is it a blessing or a curse to know when you're going to die, and how? This is what Aerith grappled with in the original game, and bringing it to the front of the Remake is a stroke of genius.