In response to: The true meaning of FFVII's finale

by Haruka-Minako 

I disagree with the views of Thomas Mastrangelo about the true meaning of the Final Fantasy VII ending. There is nothing to prove that the human race died out, leaving just RedXIII.

In the finale, showing Midgar covered in plants, with RedXIII running in the distance was not a show of sadness in my eyes. Instead, it was a sign of happiness.

Let me explain why. During the finale, Meteor was upon Midgar. The power of Holy was not enough to destroy it, so the LifeStream came into play to help destroy Meteor. In my opinion, Midgar was destroyed beyond repair (for want of better words!!!), yet some inhabitants survived.

They fled the city, which was abandoned. After all... why live in the slums when you have the chance to leave now that the world is in 'chaos', due to the demise of Shin-Ra?

With Midgar abandoned, no more damage could be done to the planet, Shin-Ra was gone. So there was no more Mako being sucked out of the planet, no-one would go back to Midgar which was in shambles because of Meteor, and so, 500 years later, Midgar was still uninhabited, the land had fully recovered , and to show the extent of the planet's recovery, Midgar, the incarnation of Mako abuse (all that dreary grey wasteland around Midgar at the time of Shin-Ra proves this) was no longer grey and 'dead'. It was very much alive, surrounded and filled as it was by vegetation.

The finale shows RedXIII running through the wilderness because the finale is set 500 years in the future, so obviously Cloud and co. would no longer be alive, or any of the other familiar characters from the time of Shin-Ra. However, because no humans were shown at this time does not mean that the human race died out. In my opinion, it was just impossible to show any familiar characters other than RedXIII. Watching RedXIII looking at the remains of Midgar 500 years after the demise of Shin-Ra filled me with great joy, rather than sadness.

However I don't believe that this was a simple of case of 'they all lived happily ever after. The End'. Far from it. Cloud was affected by the Mako experimentation on him and he still misses Aeris. Because he couldn't really accept the death of Aeris, it is hard to say that he will then choose Tifa. This leaves Tifa unhappy too. Vincent is still searching for Lucrecia, Yuffie is unhappy with the state of her hometown and there seems to be no future for Cait Sith.

Marlene may not have survived Meteor's 'attack' on Midgar, leaving Barrett in even more pain, for he still has many things to deal with, such as Dyne's suicide, and his guilt over what happened in Corel. RedXIII seems to be the only one of his species remaining, quite a sombre thought (hmm... where did those red cubs in the finale come from?), and what of Cid? I think what is left for Cid is for him to clarify his feelings over Shera (and that's never an easy thing to do...)

Of course, this is all subject to opinion. Well, this is mine. ^_^;;