A Defense of Final Fantasy VII's Ending

by Shawn Conn and Andrew Vestal 
with help from Adam Biffle and Kevin Standifer

It has been a month since I finished Final Fantasy VII. I was one of the first among my friends to actually finish it, so I eagerly awaited their response to Final Fantasy VII's spectacular ending. But their replies were not the responses I thought I would hear. "It was pathetic," "it sucked," "it was alright, but the graphics were great," "it didn't tell what happened to the characters," were but a few responses I heard.

I felt as though I was the only one who had appreciated the ending. I asked myself why I liked it; by then I was again nearing the game's end. When I finished the game I stared at the screen, looking at every specific detail and thinking of every reason why I though it was great. I still didn't understand, so I watched the ending again. It was after the third time that I finally understood.

Square could have told us what happens to each character, but they didn't. Why not? Because the characters' conflicts were resolved within the game itself. Cloud realizes what truly happened five years ago and that he must defeat Sephiroth to bury his past. Tifa finally tells Cloud her true feelings. Barret realizes the mistakes he has made and understands what he is fighting for. Nanaki - Red XIII - discovers early on his father's fate. He knows that he must defend the planet as his father protected Cosmo Canyon. Cid realizes that he was unnecessarily stubborn with Shera and realized his dream of entering space. Vincent realizes that Lucrecia's fate was not his fault, and that Sephiroth must be defeated before the two can rest in peace. Yuffie makes peace with her father after the fight in the pagoda. Reeve - Cait Sith, rather - learns that true friendship and morality outweigh any corporation.

Many of the parts where conflict is resolved are optional in Final Fantasy VII; this may have been why some people did not like the ending. Square could have shown a "happy" scene for each character, but the saccharine sweetness of a Final Fantasy IV-style "'I'm a king!' 'So am I!'" ending would utterly destroy the carefully crafted theme and tone. Instead, Square chose to present a far greater and more complex ending with a very deep meaning.

To understand the meaning, you must understand Final Fantasy VII's theme. In a interview on the second PlayStation Underground disc, Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi explains the game's theme as follows:

Q: Are there any new themes in FF VII?

Sakaguchi: When we were creating Final Fantasy VI, my mother passed away. And ever since then I've been thinking about the theme, Life. Life exists in many things. And I was curious about what would happen if I attempted to analyze life in a mathematical and logical way.

Throughout the game we are confronted with the struggle of life against death. Flowers still grow in the slums despite its pollution. The people in Fort Condor fight to save the life of a baby condor. People in North Corel keep on living even though their town was destroyed. Seto (Nanaki's father) died so that his tribe may live. Aeris dies, but her death leaves hope in Holy. Life and death are inescapably and tightly bound; each endlessly flows and winds into the other. Examples of this central theme are numerous.

Late in the game, Cloud and Tifa discuss meeting Aeris again in the Promised Land. Aeris, says Tifa, was always talking about the future, as if she didn't believe that her death was final. Tifa asks, "can we go see her?" knowing that while Aeris's death brought life to the Planet, Aeris's spirit has returned to the Promised Land, the Lifestream. After the party escapes from the Northern Cave, Marlene opens a window and asks about the "flower lady." She asks just as Midgar is about to be destroyed by Meteor; it is almost as if she's asking Aeris for help. Aeris is more than just a character. She is a symbol of life.

Meteor starts destroying Midgar, but a beam of light, Holy, streaks across the sky. Holy cannot stop Meteor; in fact, Red XIII comments, Holy is having "the opposite effect." Holy amplifies the Meteor to destroy Midgar because, after Sephiroth's defeat, Midgar is the Planet's greatest threat. As Bugenhagen foretold, Holy is doing what is best for the Planet. The fate of humans or human creations is inconsequential compared to the fate of the entire Planet, the fate of life itself. Holy will preserve life even to the point of death.

The characters start to doubt Holy, but soon a pulse of the Lifestream, the essence of life, bursts out of the wasteland to stop Meteor. Cloud understands how Aeris was going to stop Sephiroth. Soon other pulses join that single pulse to form a mass of life energy that stops Meteor.

The camera then zooms out to show the planet, a ball covered with a blue green light, and Meteor, a large streak behind it. Does this picture sound familiar? It's the Final Fantasy VII logo. When I first saw the logo, I thought it was Meteor; after seeing the ending, I understood what it truly meant. The theme of life.

Finally, we are shown one last image of Aeris. It was only her unflinching sacrifice that let the Planet survive. As Cloud says, she "smiled to the end," for she knew that her prayer would save the Planet. She knew that life, which she symbolized, cannot truly die.

Any remaining questions are answered in a short post-credits sequence. Red XIII and two cubs run through a newly restored world. From a cliff's edge, Nanaki shows his descendents the now verdant remains of Midgar. Birds fly off and the logo is triumphantly thrown upon the screen. Finally, the haunting strains of children's laughter play as the screen fades to a starfield.

Did humanity survive Holy? This question alone could easily fill several more editorials. There is no physical evidence that humanity survived , but the sound of innocent children makes it clear that humanity is not forgotten. Meteor was stopped; Holy thwarted armageddon; the Planet survived. The final image of the former city of Midgar, the last and largest citadel of human corruption, defeated by nature at last, says more than any explanation could.

And what of the individual characters? Frankly, it doesn't matter; the characters' futures are inconsequential. It is their development throughout the game which is important. Final Fantasy VII is primarily the story of the Planet's struggle; focusing on individual characters would have distracted from the most overriding theme: nothing is more important than the Planet. Nothing is more important than life.

The story of Final Fantasy VII is more complicated and mature than the story of any game that has come before. It is only fitting that the ending is equally complicated and mature; a literal ending wouldn't have done the game justice. Final Fantasy VII's more symbolic ending perfectly embraces and emphasizes the story's themes.