LILY OF FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: ALL SCENES MASTER ANALYSIS [PART 1/2]
The Lily flowers, in particular, the yellow lilies, is one of the main themes of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Before Remake, Lily was considered only a symbol of Aerith. However, Remake has sort of given it another name and another meaning, the Reunion Flower. So now, Lily dually represents both Aerith and Reunion.
Throughout Remake Part 1, the image of Lily was emphasized on multiple occasions and it carries either a message or a symbol each time. In this post, I will explain the meaning and message of Lily in every close-up shots and will divide them into 2 sections: Aerith and Reunion.
PART 1: LILY - AERITH GAINSBOROUGH - LIFE SYMBOL -THE FATE OF AERITH
Flowers, in general, symbolize Aerith Gainsborough. What is the purpose of flowers? Flowers adorn and colorize our life making our life more beautiful and positive. In Remake, Aerith is portrayed the same way, bright and positive. She always carries a smile and supports others like Cloud, Tifa, Wedge etc when they feel down. Flowers mean beauty. Aerith means the bright side of life. Despite Aerith’s misfortuned fate in Final Fantasy VII, she will always represent Life as much as her tragic death represents Death. That's the direction Remake is going for.
I’ve heard enough fans speculating that Aerith will survive this time because Destiny is no longer fixed. Yes, it is possible narratively at this point but it seems people are neglecting the Visual Story of the game. Usually, the visual story will reveal the truth without spelling it out to us. Like words to literature, images are the storytelling device of movies (I compare the cutscenes of Remake with a movie because of the high quality it delivered. Also, Square Enix is a professional in movie making. They have made at least 3 movies as far as I know and right now an animation show).So, let’s examine the representations of Lily for Aerith. These shots are from the opening of the game.
The first image of Lily in Remake is a dried and wilted Lily. It is a contrast between the lifeless - the villains and the lively - Aerith to show how important and beautiful Aerith is compared to the bad.
We all know the flower is dead because of what Shinra has done to the planet by sucking up and using Lifestream. It’s the literal meaning, but it also symbolizes how the bad forces will impact Life - Aerith. If you are still in doubt, let’s move on the next shot.
This is a significant detail that is added from the opening of Final Fantasy VII and they don’t add it in for no reason. Just by the image, it could mean the coldness of Midgar residents but that idea was never expressed throughout the game. Actually, even Shinra’s employees are portrayed as innocent people who are ignorant of what they are doing to the planet by working for Shinra. They are not mean people. So, that possibility is eliminated. The only meaning we have left here is the misfortuned fate of Aerith. When she picked up the flower, the screen displayed Aerith staring into the screen, not blinking once. It symbolizes the fearlessness, courage, and determination of Aerith to face her fate. She is one tough flower.
Later near the end of the game, the flower was focused one more in Aerith’s hand, we had this image:
In Language of flowers, Aerith was sad and pessimistic when she became serious and dropped her cheery mask briefly.
A bonus aftermath message, did you notice these focuses on Lily? A close-up shot of the Aerith putting the flower on the left side of Cloud’s chest where his heart is. And, pretty much every shot after that until Cloud gave Tifa the flower, no matter what position he is in, they make sure the flower is shown on the screen. I include some examples here but you should replay this part for yourself to see how conspicuous it is. Their choice of direction here serves 2 purposes:
It draws your attention to Lily and shows you how important this flower will mean to the whole story. “Reunion” as Aerith told you immediately before she gave it to Cloud. They are telling the audience to remember this flower and its meaning! There were no “lovers” mentioned in the Japanese original dialogue. The translation narrowed the meaning of Lily and it is a sign of bad translation (they probably did it on purpose). Always remember Japanese dialogue is the ORIGINAL SOURCE written by Nojima himself. No matter what the translations are approved, if you want to do a real analysis on texts, it’s the golden rule to go to the original material because not everything can be translated precisely. Wording means a lot especially because SQ used a lot of symbols and indirect messages in this game. Even when the writer himself translates his own work, he might not be able to make it 100% the same as the original.
This sequence also delivers an important message, Aerith is implanting her image in Cloud’s heart. Cloud will always remember Aerith even after she is gone. This idea has been reiterated throughout post-FF7 games/stories.
Are the messages clear here now? Yes. It is very clear which direction the game is heading regarding Aerith’s fate. They never shows any contradiction even once. If you are not familiar with Eastern’s literature, you might not know that a wilted/trampled flower is a classical motif that is frequently employed to symbolize the tragic fate of a woman, usually a beautiful and bright woman. It is nothing new.
Since the game is not complete yet, I don’t want to be absolute, but this is not a random prediction, more like finding an answer according to the clues we are given from the game. We will see where the game heads later. If they show one thing and mean another thing, I would call that misrepresentation. I am confident that they are professional and they know what they are doing.
==> Please continue your reading of Part 2 here because Tumblr doesn't allow me to add all the images I want in a post.
====> PART 2: LILY - THE REUNION FLOWER
You can also find my other analysis here:
INTRODUCTION & MASTERPOST