My personal interpretation of the FF16 ending
Back on my FF16 BS again since I've been replaying NG+. I haven't changed my mind much about the ending, but I think there could be two possible routes.
Major spoilers for the ending below:
So, for the people who haven't done the late-game side quests, there are quite a few narrative elements that could point towards Clive's survival.
In Jill's quest, there is a bit where she wishes to Metia (the red star) that Clive come back to her. Since Clive is like her treasure and her dawn. In the ending credits, we see Metia fade away, and Jill begins crying. She runs away to mourn but looks up and sees the dawn rising once again, and she smiles. This, alongside the lyrics of "My Star", have people speculating that Clive lives. I can get behind the Metia symbolism, but not the lyrics. The song closes with the lyrics: "And though our night is over you shall always remain, forever, my treasure, my star." That just seems like accepting and mourning the loss of a loved one, but that's just me.
The next most clear one is in the Hypocrates quest with Dion. After reuniting the two, Hypocrates thanks Clive and gives him a quill to document his journey after the fight. The bonus after-credits scene then has a book written by Joshua Rosfield. This, along with Clive seemingly narrating the book's intro and conclusion, could mean he lives.
So this is where I start to differ in my opinion on the ending. I've seen a lot of people say that this is just Clive taking his brother's name to write the book since "the phoenix's power can't bring back the dead."
There is no ending in my mind where Joshua dies. Clive did everything he could to try and help his brother. Joshua surviving Pheonix Gate and coming back is almost like a second chance to protect his family once again. Joshua dying again would go against this sort of second chance that Clive now has. So, Joshua clearly dies from Ultima, but Clive also absorbs Ultima's power of creation. I think you can pretty safely say he can use both Ultima and the Pheonix to bring Joshua back.
So with all this preamble out of the way, here are my two possible endings:
Clive lives: So in this one, all 3 of them live. We take all the sidequests as narrative foreshadowing. Clive still succumbs to the Cystals curse but lives long enough on the beach for Jill to find him. Her wish to Metia once again, came true. His hands are no longer functional, so rather than write the novel himself, he has his brother write down his story. This is why Clive is narrating the game, and Joshua's name is on the book. And if the brothers get to live, so does Dion. I abide by the film-making rules where if you do not see a dead body, they are not dead. The man is a dragoon. He can fall from crazy heights. The medicine girl and Terence can find him or something idk. This, plus his promise to Hyprocates to go and retrieve the Wyvern's Tail, could also point to his survival. This would be the best possible ending for the trio.
Clive dies: In this one, Clive is consumed by the curse completely. Joshua lives, and Dion is probably dead. Joshua, Jill and all the people in the hideaway write down a chronicle of Clive's adventure. As discussed in the sidequests, Gav takes up Cid's name and works with all the hideaway members to try and help the people learn to live without magic. All the people that Clive helps can still work to try and live in this new magicless world that Clive died to make. A world that Clive chose how he would live and die for. It's very true to the "a world where people choose how they live and die" that Cid and he vowed to make together. And for that reason, even though it's much more sombre, I prefer this interpretation. It also makes more sense to me because it's very clear that they didn't want Jill in the final boss cause they couldn't kill her and Joshua and make the healing scene make any sense. The theme is also about brotherhood. It's just an eldest sibling thing to do lol. Edit: Grammar.