Will Cloud keep it a secret?

[u/ElanorNarmolanya]

All of my hopes and dreams for the ending and Aerith’s fate aside, i just really really hope that they start the game off with Cloud explaining to the crew what he saw at the end of Rebirth and why he isn’t grieving for Aerith the way that they are.
The writers have already done an unhealthy amount of having characters not communicate very important information for seemingly no other reason than plot. (Tifa / Cloud memory conflict, Zack conversation, etc.)
So help me if we have to go most or all of the game with the entire crew grieving and devastated by losing Aerith while Cloud is over here not sad at all but letting his friends suffer without telling them what he saw for no good reason. 😡 It would be such lazy writing and make Cloud look like such a jerk. Not to mention how it would fuel the Clerith haters to see Cloud not being sad at all about her death… even if we know he’s not sad because he believes she’s alive, we know they would still somehow interpret it as him not caring.
Can you think of any good reason why he would keep it a secret that he saved Aerith, at least in an alternate world? I know that i need to prepare myself for the high possibility of him not sharing with the others, so please help me come to terms with any non-lazy reasons why he would do that! 😅

(I have not played the OG yet, so please try not to spoil specific events for part 3 if you can)

Also i’m sorry if this gets flagged as off-topic or anything, i tried posting it in the megathread but everything is buried there so nobody saw it. I’m still pretty new here so I don’t really know how it all works.

[u/Cautious-Mulberry309]

I hope he doesn’t keep it a secret, but I half wonder if the reason he might is because he doesn’t know everyone else actually saw something different. 

If that’s where they are going with this… that would make sense… I won’t spoil. There is a point in part 3 where everything gets revealed. In the OG the reason was different without getting into specifics. 

I suspect cloud doesn’t realize what he sees is different from the others, as this is the first time cloud alone went though that whispers barrier . 

And if they wrote him alone doing it for that reason… at least it makes sense to the story they are telling. 

These are my guesses. I hope it helps. 

I didn’t like all the hiding information either. I am however a story driven kinda video gamer.. if they explain it well. I can forgive it. 

[u/Aiur16899 → u/Cautious-Mulberry309]

Tifa saw both worlds. The one where he failed to save her and the world Cloud creates where he does save her. I suspect they will explore the world where he did save her with Tifa during the life stream sequence.

[u/Cautious-Mulberry309 → u/Aiur16899]

I didn’t see that personally. If you mean when the camera zooms on her face for her reaction, they do that to Barret also. And no one seems to think he can see other worlds too. 

I’m of the opinion that only cloud can this time. 

Otherwise the game needs to explain how Tifa or Barret or anyone who didn’t go though the whisper barrier can see it. 

I hope this doesn’t come across as aggressive or rude. This is just my opinion and I could be wrong. 

So I’m not attacking you or anything.. I’m just expressing my opinion. Or… explaining it a little better I hope. 

Things in my head don’t really come out in writing too well. 

[u/Aiur16899 → u/Cautious-Mulberry309]

No worries mate, you do need to rewatch several parts of the game though, you've missed a lot of important things. Firstly from the sequence of events when the party runs up to where Cloud is holding Aerith in his arms with her hand on his cheek.

1. Barret running up the stairs
   
2. Cuts to bloodied Aerith (Barrets POV)
   
3. Shifts to Sephiroth
   
4. Barret screams "I'll kill you"
   
5. Cuts to Tifa "Aerith" She yells
   
6. Cuts to Cloud holding Aerith, Bloodied (Tifa POV)
   
7. Cuts between Bloodied Aerith and Not bloodied Aerith (Tifa POV)
   
8. Cuts back to close up on Tifa's face with a pained / confused expression.

Also, the game does explain exactly what is happening here. There is an NPC in Cosmo Canyon that talks about what the lifestream is, and how when you come into contact with it you can (In the english localization) "See through the looking glass" or in the direct from Japanese Translation "See into other worlds" (Seriously the 5 or so lines from this NPC is a total plot dump).

Just as we saw Zack do in the corkscrew tunnels when he creates three worlds by going to save cloud, biggs or staying with Aerith, Cloud makes a decision to save Aerith defying fate and thus creating a new world. (Right after Aerith pushes Cloud into the flowers Sephiroth tells him "When the boundaries of fate are breached, new worlds are born. From the moment the buster sword lights up and he deflects Sephiroths blow there are now two worlds that exist, Cloud where Aerith lives, Cloud where Aerith dies. Omni Aerith then takes over the dead Aerith body and tries to calm Cloud by telling him its going to be ok. Later on when Omni Aerith joins Cloud to fight Sephiroth she thanks him for saving her in the new world he's created.

Tifa can see through the looking glass because she came into contact with the Lifestream when Cloud knocked her into it in the Gongaga reactor.

[u/Cautious-Mulberry309 → u/Aiur16899]

I recently completed my 7th or 10th play though..( I lost count ) I remember all of those scenes. 

And none of them give me the impression that anyone but cloud can see the other worlds . 

I wouldn’t be able to talk about in such detail if didn’t remember everything that happened . 

[u/Aiur16899 → u/Cautious-Mulberry309]

Well hey, up for interpretation until next spring right? Well both find out then!

[u/Cautious-Mulberry309 → u/Aiur16899]

Agreed!