As if calling him hollow wasn’t enough, Sephiroth flicking the blood at Cloud was another level of disrespectful on top of that.

the way it gave us hope for two seconds then flashed to the bloody blade was both genius and FUCKED UP

No joking when she told him "wathever happens, you can't fall in love with me" :(

don't cry, bro, there will be part 3

bro when her theme started playing 😭 nahhhhhh 😭😭😭😭

It would appear that Cloud did save her, but like with Barritt being "killed" by Jenova-Sephiroth in Remake and the whispers resurrecting him, the fate whispers "corrected" it and forced her death.

and ppl will still deny that cloud loves aerith as if tragic romance isn’t a thing.

Cloud created a new timeline when he saved her. We're just seeing the events play out in the main timeline. They will be merged and Aerith will be back in part 3. Would be no reason for them to go multiverse and constantly emphasize the theme of defying fate/predestination if the story just ended the same way.

Cloud is crazy, but not because he is seeing Aerith. Her speaking to him spiritually is real just as it is in advent children. Also, the illusions in the sky are to do with the timelines bleeding into each other but only he can see it. This isn’t just Cloud being delulu, it means something. Red senses her too. It’s a nod to that fact that in OG, after her death she was still with the party in spirit and the audience didn’t realize it til OG’s final shot.

Clerith is non-optional star-crossed lovers 🗡️💫🎀

I think a big clue to Aerith being saved is Zack literally telling Cloud to save her. When Cloud parried Masamune he created a different world by “breaching the parameters of fate” like Seph explained. In this story Seph clearly wants a different reunion, one of worlds this time, with the death of Aerith in the main world he somehow starts to do just that. Said worlds start merging and he becomes more powerful, seeing as he literally becomes Bizarro Sephiroth at such an “early” point of the OG story. The way I perceive it is that this whole part of the game is Sephiroth’s “plan A” kinda. With us beating him here due to him underestimating Aerith’s power, we stop this plan and we stop the worlds from merging early. Leaving a bunch of worlds to be free, even if they may be ultimately doomed. Which leaves us with a world with a Zack alive and a world with an Aerith alive too. Due to Cloud entering the wall of whispers alone this time in Rebirth, only him is aware of the saved Aerith world, and he even seems to have one foot in one world and one foot in the other. Cloud IS kinda losing it, but its fueled by the whole craziness of different worlds ON TOP of his personality problems and the mind control that Seph + Jenova put him under, its not just all delusions as people seem to be saying. The devs did say that this time Cloud’s breakdown wont just be about him being an unreliable narrator but also about the world itself being unreliable. That to me is the biggest indicator that Aerith is alive and chilling in another world where she most likely went back to the forgotten city to keep praying, in the JP version of the ending Aerith tells cloud to not worry because she’s going to a place thats like a home for cetra, which the forgotten capital matches completely and they also make it sound/seem like said home of the cetra is the lifestream as a form of misdirection too. I think Square Enix is gonna get their cake and eat it too with this Remake project. In the ultimania it was revealed that, I believe it was either Nojima or Kitase that said because this will be the last FF7 project for a LONG while and also prob their last due to their age, they want to give the characters a happy satisfying end in part 3. Nomura also told them to add something that explicitly wasn’t in the OG that would be hard to implement but would make people happy if done right, whatever it is. They have simply leaned in too hard into defying fate and the future not being written, which is a theme that wasn’t so in your face in OG. The end of Remake has the characters seeing scenes of OG and then the party going “it cant end like this/the future is not written yet” they even show them the actual last cutscene of OG with nanaki and his offspring and the party mentions that that is their tomorrow IF they fail to beat the arbiter of fate. And then the party goes on to succeed at beating fate. There’s zero point to the whole ending sequence of part 1 if at least SOMETHING about the ending does not change.

For those who aren't satisfied about Cloud crying from Aerith's death, don't worry, I think they are saving the emotional moments in Part 3. Like i imagine the opening of the game would be the impaling scene of Aerith, Cloud saying those words from the og FF7 when she died (it was inaudible here but you can clearly see Cloud saying something to her), and the burial scene on the river. This is only just a tease of what's to come for Part 3, and y'all know they love teasing us lol

My heart broke again.😢

Idk why ppl say aerith is jenova. Thats silly. We clearly see the rainbow n whenever that happens we know a new timeline is created. Cloud is simultaneously in two timelines. Aerith knows the others cant see her thats why she acts "weird".

the pain was there 😢😢😢 as it was back on the Original. RIP Aerith

Looks like Cloud was saying something when he was holding Aerith.

I wonder what they did with Aeriths Body? I mean in the OG it is Cloud who puts her in the water but he couldn't have done it this time as he seemingly (?) believes she is still alive.

no matter how many times clouds travels back to the past, he can not save aerith.....

How many of us were hoping and praying we could save her?

Man I was sobbing during this scene and then had to try and fight Jenova Lifeclinger through the massive amount of tears falling from my eyes. It was just like when I played it as a kid back in the 90’s and the same thing was happening.

She is alive people. They will meet in part 3 and Zack

Cloud losing his mind as the rest of the party is there to see what really happened. Were Cloud has been living a lie since the start of the game. Rebirth seems to be a better telling of the events of OG FF7 at this stage of the game. Rather than Remake being very different at a lot of points.

For those who are saying why cloud still see aerith and not the whole party... its actually CANON.. in ADVENT CHILDREN, AERITH and ZACK likes to help cloud A LOT!.. it actually makes sense...

Cloud was tripping but now he's plain broken. Well played Aerith. He actually did save her but she knows she has to die so the timeline glitches and the blood appeared on the sword. The chuckle from Sephiroth says it all.

I think just thinking.,. At the end of the game to make it connect to Advent Children… His memory of Zack and not being able to save Aerith, failing at being a bodyguard, comes crashing at him all at once.

If he knows what will happen, why doesn't he go after Tifa instead to prevent her from repairing Cloud's mind later on? By killing Aerith he simply guarantees his defeat, since she retains her sentience in the lifrstream.

They should have the party surrounding aerith as she dies and also when when cloud brings her to the water as she sank down

I knew that she died no Matter what but I didn’t think it come so soon… I didn’t despise Sephiroth before but now I do…

You f***** Sephiroth You absolute weapon.

Cloud Strife: YOU KILLED AERITH, SEPHIROTH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!

he dont, its just his pov he think he cried, but to everyone he dont

Let's hope Zack is right

She dead also Cloud is losing his mind again. Aerith and Seph really did a number on him.

The Remake universe was the one world where Sephiroth wins, which is why the White Materia was empty. I think Sephiroth was tryin to prolong the Remake reality long enough for him to get the black materia. That way he can destroy it without holy to stop him. He would then merge all realities together into Remake.

Hallow...

why it's white materia not holy green like og

Aerith with longer laugh...no longer cry or get angry....aerith is gone.. Without this line this scene means nothing to me,in the OG we spent so much time with her way more than others,in this new game they're all always talking cryptic shit.....!!! RIP og Aerith

Long lives the queen 😂🦁

When he realizes Aerith is dead in Part 3, probably “Reunion”, he’ll probably cry a lot…😢

thanks for posting this you completely spoiled the game for me great job dude

How did she die if cloud blocked sephrioths sword?

i have a question why is tifa getting visions of aerith death?

I honestly prefer the 1997 sequences, it was more emotional. This new sequence is very very very confuse

Poor cloud, he thought he can cry and aerith can wake up, but in reality he's losing so much that he dead inside and starts delusional and aerith is dead

Wish they’d left this as it was so we could see the funeral and new players could experience it as it was intended. I like a lot of the extra stuff they add but they shouldn’t mess around with the iconic scenes in this way. Real shame.

He really thought he could cry if something were to happen to Aerith. But in reality, he can't even shed a tear, no matter how hard he tried.

While I do ship Cloud with Tifa more, it's still obvious that he loved Aerith, too. That love never had to be romantic but it's there either way.

Who here believes that Cloud is hallucinating that he saved Aerith? Because I believe in that theory.