Interpreting FFVII's ending.

The Sephiroth Gene said:
For the life of me, I can't even hazard a guess as to why we're discounting Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus from the equation. They are both direct sequels of the events in VII, both canon and, despite what people might prefer, they both count towards the story of Final Fantasy VII. To me, it's just painfully obvious that humanity was deemed as something good for the Planet. Midgar is still full of people in both games, so it obviously wasn't completely destroyed.

Unless I'm missing something from reading this discussion, I'm happy to continue with this opinion.
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The way I'm looking at this thread is how I interpreted the ending from when I first finished FFVII, which was years ago, before AC & Dirge were even planned. It was the first game I had for the PS1, so it's pretty easy for me to remember.

That's how I'm looking at it anyways.
 
Im extremely sorry if this was already mentioned, or this was already resolved and you have gone to another discussion.

Although the ending of FFVII was left for interpretation, what you were left to interpret was clear.

Nanaki's grandfather said that the planet has to choose whether humanity were to be wiped out or reprieved.. or something like that. So at the end of the game where meteor is close to striking and holy comes to fend it off but is too late. we see the lifestream come and help. This we all know. That I believe is Gaia's action to protect humanity.

However the definitive part is indeed the scene with Nanaki and his cubs. In that Scene you see a view of all of midgar sprawled with greenery. As most of us thought this scene is filled with IMAGERY. So what does the greenery mean? Well it could mean a number of things, like midgar has been abandoned, or that land that couldn't grow anything on the land has now been blessed, maybe a metaphor to show that the land has been given a reprieve and that humanity has been forgiven. That could be one of the many messages about the wilderness that has sprouted from the ruins. This supports that humanity has been forgiven.

but thats just speculation.. not definitive enough. What I think proves that humanity hasn't been wiped out is if you look closely.. their is smoke coming up from various places in and around midgar, showing that people are going on with their daily lives... I think that is absolutely definitive that Final Fantasy VII intended to show that humanity went on.
 
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Lol, bro, look at Nanaki. Go to Cosmo Canyon. You have an entire race of very old (experienced) intelligent talking dogs. I'd say that the laughter was probably that of a talking dog. You didn't see any small towns or villages, you didn't see any tents or treehouses. You think the people were just walking around aimlessly, sleeping under the stars, contending with the perils of nature with their sandals and flowers in their hair? Humanity is gone. If FFVII was a historical fact, Advent Children would be a work of fiction spun off from it.
They still want money, they know FFVII still sells, and nobody wants to watch a movie about a bunch of cavemen hippies.
 
After watching AC again just now, and seeing Nanaki & pups in the opening scene it made me think.

Midgar was one of the biggest Mako "farms" right? Shin-Ra was brought down and there is nomore energy being stolen from the lifestream, which makes me think that, because the energy is not being stolen anymore, the Lifestream has returned to normal, and is created alot more life. All the trees and plant life you see, could that be a result of the lifestream being at full strength?

For example, if you took all the soil out of your garden, plants would not grow there, but if you fixed it and put it back, plants would once again be able to grow.

What I see in the final scene of FFVII is life, not the end of humanity.
 
^Ummm, okay. But I don't see how your.. views and opinions support the theory that humanity was not wiped out though. Can't it easily (and likely) be both? Yes, life everywhere, natural nature in its prime. Doesn't sound like mankind got a hold of it, does it? I think if anything, you theory supports the fact that everyone is dead and gone and the planet once again flourished.

Humans are nearly incapable of co-existing with the planet without draining it's natural resources, pulluting it's air, ozone, ocean and earth with the by-products of our fuel and waste. I say we stand low chance in Hell of survival if the planet had a choice to wipe us out.
 
So you're suggesting that the people of Gaia would not learn from their mistakes, and just decide to start pumping energy from the lifestream again?
 
Did I suggest that? I'm pretty sure I didn't. You think that the LifeStream is the only way that they were harmful to the planet/enviroment?

We do the same shit. We don't call it Mako, we call it oil, or natural gas. That isn't the only way that we harm our enviroment though, is it? Littering, they need fuel, so fuel burning. They have to live, there are measures and costs of life. I'm not suggesting they'd hit the old mako reactor up again, I'm merely pointing out the near impossibility of man kind living in perfect harmony with the world, doing no damage to it.

Very unlikely.

And is there a chance they'd dip right back into the lifestream? Lol, sadly, yes. World leaders aren't as eloquent as it seems they should be, you know?
 
So your pulling real world issues about a video game set in a world where there's talking dog like creatures and people can turn into demons? Or is there a scene I'm yet to see where Cloud asks Barret over a cup of coffee how he can reduce his carbon footprint?

Obviously it draws inspiration and maybe even interpretation from real life issues, but seriously. Volcanos contribute quite a large amount of CO2 emissions, yet this is natural of the planet. So the planet inturn is harming itself.

The draining of the Lifestream is the main issue in FFVII, Sephiroth and Meteor being the other.
 
Okay, the game isn't real life, so are you suggesting that in this alternate reality of FFVII that the people are more morally cautious then their game creators? I'd say it's more the other way around since someone is always trying to destroy the entire universe in the games.
 
I'll go ahead and give my interpretation of what Final Fantasy VII's ending was to me. We see, at the very end, Meteor battling both the Lifestream and Holy. Then boom, we have a flash, and everything goes white. Five hundred years later, we see a vision of Midgar covered in flora and fauna. Now, if I recall correctly, you also see streams of smoke - as if from various fires - flowing up into the sky. Also, let's note this - the laughter of children at the end. Humanity survives - Holy, Meteor, these two don't wipe out people. It's clear, to me, that human beings learned, from their mistakes, and reverted back to the Cetra way of lifestyle - revering and caring for the planet. I decided this long before Advent Children and Dirge - all these sequels, etc, were around and started coming into play. The Planet gave people a second chance and people made right what was wrong. I thought it was a fantastic ending! It really makes you wonder what occured during those five hundred years - many different stories, I'm sure, all equally fascinating.
 
well im pretty sure it is absolutely written in stone that the intent was to show that 500 hundred years later humanity continued to live after the events after FF7. It says in the script for AC in that scene which is identical to the one in the original that "Red XIII runs through the wilderness with two of his children in tow. His fur is flecked with grey hairs. Eventually Red and children reach a promontory overlooking Midgar and stop. We can see that Midgar is blanketed by plant growth. Though the city looks to be in ruins, fingers of smoke reaching for the sky show that PEOPLE ARE GOING ABOUT THEIR DAILY LIVES BELOW ." I doubt you need any more proof than that. Objectively i can see that some might think that since this is the script of AC this is invalid, however in the original the same smoke rising up is present and thats the main point.
 
People aren't the only things that make fire. Didn't you see the fire's in cosmo canyon? Lol. I didn't say life was wiped out, I said that humanity was wiped out. Animals are good people. The smoke was probably Nanaki's tribe or something like it.

And no, we're not takin AC or Dirge into consideration because this thread is called 'FFVII' ending, and they probably haden't even considered any sequels to the game when they created those other games, and you can't make a movie or game about a bunch of Nanaki's, it definitely loses it's interest factor.

Besides if we were lumping sequels together we'd have to go and assume that Tidus comes back safe and sound in X 2.

I think that even as they developed VII, they were trying to tell you that it was over, they just weren't planning on it having such an impact that they could easily put VIIs name on anything to sell it fast and didn't realize that it might be a problem killing off humanity, so they tie up the holes best they can, keep it a little vague, keep you guessing, and here come cash crop sequels out the wazoo.
 
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