A Possible Explanation of Final Fantasy VII's Ending

by Arpad Korossy

A lot of people dislike Final Fantasy VII. This is a fact. Most of them list the ambiguous ending as one of their gripes. I was personally troubled by the ending, but after many hours of thought, many of them during Ancient History class, I found an explanation that I thought fit perfectly. Feel free to disagree, I am by no means being absolute here, but if at least one person can enjoy Final Fantasy VII because of this, then great.

The main question is: "Does humanity survive?" My answer is yes. The key scene is the one where the entire party is gathered on the bridge of the Highwind, preparing to enter the North Crater. Cloud tells everyone to return home and find their own reasons for fighting. You will notice that not a single person says: "yeah, let's do it for the planet!" Even Barret admits that he doesn't fight for the planet, but for Marlene. Everyone realizes that fighting for the planet was a nice cover, but they all have people that they fight for, not the planet. Another important scene is where Cait Sith confronts Barret about destroying Shinra Reactor No. 1, and the people who died in the explosion. Barret admits he was wrong, and realizes that those people's lives were more important than the good of the planet.

In the ending movie, after Cloud and Co. escape from the North Crater on board the Highwind, we see Meteor finally begin to strike Midgar. As the heroes watch, Holy, finally unlocked by Jenova's defeat, comes to stop Holy. Holy does what is right for the planet, and prevents its destruction. Meteor does what is bad for the planet, and attempts to destroy it. Humanity, unfortunately, is their mutual enemy. Holy forms a shield against Meteor, but opens up around Midgar, allowing its destruction, and as Red XIII says, actually amplifies it. Humanity has been decreed to be an enemy of the planet. But then, the Lifestream begins to come out of the planet. Slowly at first, with a few wisps here and there, but soon the whole planet is enveloped in green as the Lifestream rushes towards Meteor. It builds up, and in a flash of light, Meteor is destroyed. After the credits roll, we se Red XIII and his cubs 500 years later, run to a cliff, and look down on the remains of Midgar. The city that once had a perpetually black sky and was surrounded for miles by desolation and death is now overgrown with greenery. Life grows where death once was. Life is triumphant. But did humanity die? There are many reasons why it can be seen that humanity survived.

First, there is the fact that Midgar, even after 500 years, is almost totally intact. It has aged, but even most of the reactors are still standing. Even on the top level, people could have survived Meteor's destruction, but Cait Sith/Reeve says in the ending that he had the people taken below into the Slums. They had an entire layer of city as shielding between them and Meteor. If even the top level wasn't destroyed, why should the people below in the slums have died?

Secondly, there were many people outside of Midgar. Kalm, Junon, Costa Del Sol, Cosmo Canyon, all of them were far from Meteor's destruction. Why would the people there have died? Unless they were magically whisked away by Holy, for which there is no evidence, then they all survived unscathed. And if Red XIII survived the cataclysm from his place on the Highwind, why wouldn't everyone else on the Highwind have survived? And if Holy would have whisked them all away, how would Red have landed the Highwind using only his paws? And again, there is no evidence that Holy magically made humanity disappear. Besides, if it could have done so, why would it have tried to use Meteor to destroy humanity?

Third, there is the laughing of children heard at the end of the game. Why would Square have put this in? It is not just there for no reason. It's yet one more piece of evidence that humanity survived, and for those of those ho prefer more concrete evidence, that was the laughter. Why would children laugh if there are no children? It makes no sense.

Finally, and most importantly, if humanity were destroyed, the entire theme of the game would be totally destroyed. It would lose its entire meaning. The game shows us that human life is more valuable than 'the good of the planet'. It certainly warns us to be kind to our planet, but it also warns us not to put the planet above the lives of people. If humanity dies, in the words of Barret, "What about Marlene?" What about the things that the heroes all fought for? They all die! How is that a resolution? They fight with all their strength against evil to do what? To kill those they love? No! The heroes fight for their friends, their children, for those they love, and for revenge. If those people die, then there is no point to the entire game. Humanity cannot die because it would make the entire game meaningless. This is the most important reason why humanity must live on. And in the words of Sakaguchi himself, the theme of Final Fantasy VII is "Life." What kind of an ending would it be if it ended with the death of millions of people? Humanity lives on, now in harmony with the good of the planet. From death, life is reborn. The final scene of the game just screams at you: "Life goes on!"

Those are my thoughts on the ending of Final Fantasy VII. I apologize for the lateness of this editorial, but unfortunately I only beat the game a few weeks ago. I would be interested in anyone else's opinions on my ideas, and I hope that this clears up a little confusion about a wonderful game.