The confusing end of FFVII Remake and why they lied to us.

There are two kinds of people: Those who hated the ending and people with awful taste and are horribly wrong about the ending and what a Remake is.

This game is NOT a remake of FINAL FANTASY VII... Hell, it's not even a Remake of the Midgar section of FFVII.
By calling it Remake, Square Enix made false advertisement. The game is a soft-reboot/sequel, which to be honest; if they had told me that back in 2015, I would've been almost as excited as I was back then...

Let's start by defining a Remake:
Cambridge says to make a new film that has a story and title similar to an old one. It gives us an example of a remake:
The French film "Trois Hommes et un Couffin" was remade in Hollywood as "Three Men and a Baby".

Let's see what Merriam Webster has to say:
remake noun
re·​make | \ ˈrē-ˌmāk \
Definition of remake (Entry 2 of 2)
: one that is remade
especially : a new version of a motion picture.

I'm using the second definition listed by Merriam-Webster because it's the only one that applies to the word remake as a noun. The other definition is used for the verb remake.

Collins Dictionary... you get the idea... but let's put it in a videogame context.

Super Castlevania IV, despite the sequel connotation in it's title is a REMAKE of the Original Castlevania, but with improved gameplay and added elements, but same story as the original game.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is another game, whose subtitle makes it sound like a side game, but it's a remake of the original MGS, with redone voice acting, the MGS2 engine, and cinematics done by Japanese film director Ryuhei Kitamura. Same story as the PS1 game.

2002 Resident Evil had updated graphics, new voice acting, added areas based on an originally cut subplot, but the same story.

The Recent Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, again, told the same story, new gameplay style, new voice acting, music, etc. Some parts from the original had some tweaks or left out due to "pacing/budget/time" constraints.

But you can see the common denominator there, right? Same story with added elements, which kills the arguments by idiots that defend the team No-No travesty...

Kazushige Nojima the big brain behind
Writing FFVIIR, WAS THE SAME DUDE
Who wrote the story where Tidus sees a
Blitzball-like object, goes to kick it and it blows up.
Not only that but the surprised decapitated head lands on Yuna
and she faints.

But here's the part where they dismiss all criticisms by saying: PlAy ThE oRiGiNaL tO gEt ThE oRiGiNaL sToRy.
The idea of a Remake is to literally get the same main fucking story, but with added perks of extra subplots, character development, fixing sedialogue/translation/localization issues, that kind of thing... Nowhere, in the definition of the word remake there is anything that says: changing the story in order to tell a new story. The word that does have a definition close to that is reboot:
Collins:
"A New version of something".

Cambridge:
"to start something again or do something again, in a way that is new and interesting."

Merriam Webster: "to refresh by making a new start or creating a new version"

But in fiction, Reboots usually wipe the slate clean on oast continuity in order to tell a new story...
Very easy examples of reboots:
SQUARE ENIX's Tomb Raider is a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a reboot of the Prince of Persia series...
DOOM 2016 is a reboot of Doom (1990s)

Nobody freaked out when those games came out and weren't modernized copies of the originals.... Why is that?
Because they were honest with the customers and flat out stated, that they were reboots of the franchises they represented. By Putting the word Remake in the title, Square Enix made a promise of giving us Final Fantasy VII... Not a new beginning, not a sequel, but a graphical update of the game we fell in love with in 1997.

But back to FFVIIR: Most of the people now being dismissed as Whispers or Arbiters of Fate, because the people defending the combined 5-inches of Doom by Nomura and Nojima, can't defend the bad choices made by their beloved Team No-No... ( the big brains behind the convoluted shitstorm that is Kingdom Hearts)  Aside a TINY, MINUSCULE minority, the sane people who hated the ending are NOT AGAINST CHANGE. They're against STUPID CHANGES. I have not seen so-called purists complain about Jessie's background story,  or Biggs and Wedge getting some character development. They haven't complained about Aerith having to save Marlene. No complaints about how the Shinra building was changed. Their complaints have been limited to the story elements that contradict the themes of Final Fantasy 7.

Which brings me to the ending: JENOVAROTH with knowledge from Future JENOVAROTH has won, since Cloud and co. Killed the guardians of Destiny. Aerith, who may or may not know her future as a Kebab, might have been trying to change Destiny as well. THIS is one of the things "purists" dislike. Coping with death, failure was a part of the original game that this weird time traveling consciousness defeats. This hate Against Time Travel is because it's usually used as a weird deus ex machina. Also time traveling ring sold the whole set of convoluted problems that are not needed in Final Fantasy 7. Just because it's Sephiroth's and/or Aerith's consciousnesses doing the time-travel instead of day or physical bodies it still is time travel.

 Fate, Destiny, this Trope is so overplayed... especially if we're talking about Team No-No. how many chosen ones were in Kingdom Hearts? Exactly. the truth is that the hole destiny bullshit it's just a lazy excuse are using to try and get off from having to make the entire world. In a previous rent I have already mentioned how they could have bypassed the whole world map thing and it's based on things from Past final Fantasies including the original FF7. But now we journey into the unknown... where we saw a parallel timeline where is Zack is alive...

BuT tHe DiFfErEnT sTaMp Is NoT a SiGn Of A dIfFeReNt TiMeLiNe!

Some people erroneously claim that the Stamp seen on the Zack lives Timeline is a Stamp from 5 years ago...
It's not.
After the incident 5 years ago, Cloud and Zack were experimented on for 4 years. Now returning from Nibelheim to Midgar while on the run from Shinra took them close to a year. Cloud stumbles into Midgar roughly hours or maybe a day or two BEFORE the original game starts. So the different Stamps, same timeline theory makes no sense.  if this theory was true then we should have been able to see both versions of Stamp throughout the entire game. We only see the Beagle version of Stamp.
So, Multiple Timelines are confirmed.

And the whole notion of parallel timelines, time travel, and the possibility of timelines crossing is a huge fear FF7 "purists" have. We're afraid that Nomura and Nojima... (also to a smaller extent Toriyama)  will focus on their "new story that is in no way a rehash of plot elements from Kingdumb Farts" than the actual FF7 story.
Zack is alive... does this mean Aerith will not kebab? Will Tifa be kebab? (They better do me a solid and not kebab Boob girl... for the idiots, it's an abridged series reference
... or two)

The ending is a sour note to some, BECAUSE it literally sounds like Team No-No is saying: "Screw the original, you're in our turf now... we "broke the chains of fate that bound us to the original timeline". We changed Destiny and ourselves. This new freedumb has altwred the past, present and future... that which was known is now the unknown.


Straying too much from the original path may cause the sequels to suffer. The ending left a bad taste on a moderate group of the fandom and game 2 may be the one that makes or breaks the "saga". Despite my issues with the stupid changes and the ending of part 1... "There ain't no getting offa this train we on!"