“What was Sephiroth’s plan here?” TOTA Theory/Analysis

This is a LONG write-up so I placed a “TL;DR” near the bottom for people that want the short an quick summary, but also an “EXTRA” section at the bottom for people that want even more food for thought.

If you have the time however, I opt you to read through it all, should take about 1-3 minutes.

So at Temple of the Ancients, after Cloud breaks free of Sephiroth’s influence, he runs to save Aerith from her fall. Sephiroth then with the black materia in his possession cuts the branch holding them up and essentially sends them down to their deaths.

We see that when Cloud is waking up from the sleeping forest that a white whisper was in front of him after the fall.

I’m interpreting this as the white whispers saving Cloud and Aerith from their fall, but if the White whispers had to save them, wouldn’t that imply that Sephiroth was going to just let them die after getting the Black Materia from Cloud?

It makes sense if we think about the context:

1)

White materia no longer works (at this point) so what’s the benefit in keeping Aerith alive?

She’s a risk more than anything at this point.

2)

Sephiroth now has possession of the Black Materia, not with his true body, but why couldn’t he just deliver it to himself in the northern crater?

It’s been a LONG time since I played OG, so if I forgot about a reason why please let me know!

3)

Keeping both Aerith and Cloud alive does nothing but present additional risks to his plans at this point as Sephiroth knows Cloud has beaten him multiple times and Aerith’s abilities as a Cetra.

This would imply that due to Aerith and Cloud surviving the fall at TOTA and the white materia functioning again since cloud returned it to Aerith in the sleeping forest dream, that Sephiroth has to alter his plans at that point?

This is a theory and observation, but I wanted to see if anyone else has different interpretations of this scene or possible explanations.

TL;DR

Cloud gives Black Materia to Sephiroth

Cloud Saves Aerith from falling

Sephiroth cuts the branch sending them to their deaths (ain’t no one surviving that fall w/o help)

White whisper appears in front of Cloud’s face

(Implying it just saved them)

(This makes sense being OG Aerith since she pulls him into the date world, which makes sense she was the one who also saved them both).

In short, Sephiroth was potentially planning on killing Aerith here along with Cloud now that Holy is out of the way and he has the Black Materia from Cloud.

Sephiroth’s altered plan failing at the end of the game due to Aerith results in him seemingly giving Cloud back the black Materia, since he needs to continue his breakdown now as he approaches north.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to throw out counter evidence if you have any!

—

EXTRA:

It also seems plausible that Sephiroth wanted Cloud to kill Aerith here when attempting to get the Black Materia from her to further break him down.

Parallel this to Cloud and Tifa in Gongaga;

1) Cloud under Sephiroth influence

2) Sephiroth attempts to get Cloud to kill her

3) Tifa narrowly dodges Cloud’s slash

Cloud and Aerith in the Temple;

1) Cloud under Sephiroth influence

2) Seph forces to get Cloud get the Black Materia by force if necessary, implying he wants Cloud to take it from her by force.

“If she won’t give it to us, then we must take”

(Would mess Cloud up even more)

3) Aerith gives Cloud the Materia to stop Cloud from being forced to hurt her.

Considering their location here, Cloud would seemingly end up killing her by either attacking her or just knocking her off, same as what almost happened with Tifa in Gongaga, except there isn’t any water/mako below to save anyone from the fall.

Aerith giving Cloud the Materia by choice might mean she realizes this and rather than forcing Cloud to do something really screwed up and he would be destroyed by, opts to just give it to him by choice.

Sephiroth gets the Materia and now with Cloud breaking free of his control, opts to just kill them both himself.

(This lines up with Sephiroth trying to use the Black Whispers to force Cloud to kill Aerith at the Forgotten Capital.)

In Short, Sephiroth’s a Dick.