Alphabet train metaphors
I mentioned doing this awhile ago and it's been sitting in my drafts, so let's mosey. This is for fun, so if it triggers you then you need to chill.
Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be smol.
Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.
You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.
Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx
Let's mosey!
On my phone, so no cut and this is your extra spoiler warning!
We get several metaphors to do with trains in game. The biggest one is in the opening chapters as well as veiled references to Midgar Blues on the OST. Also, pretty sure they started off on the blue or red line and ended up on the adjacent one to it. They wind up on the green line that leads to the grey box and from there take an elevator to the underplate.
The idea that a train can only go where the tracks allow is given to us early on. It's a straight shot from A to B with no deviation, much like the plot of OG. That's our presumed route. There's stops along the way, specific things we expect to see, but in the end, the final destination is set and unchanged.
Plan A or point A. Either way, we have a marker to start as a guideline. The fact this part of the game both deviates from the team's plan, but also follows the OG plot shows that no matter what happens the story will continue the way it always has.
We get more letters that show further deviations from the straight shot to victory. Though, the end result is still the same.
Plan E takes them the furthest from their main route. They only have a vague idea of what's coming.
It's similar to how the devs have said we should assume the story remains unchanged. Those key points still exist, but how we reach them is unknown. We now have mor stops between those key points. More letters in the alphabet to recite before we get to Z.
And once the team made it out of the train tunnel, which despite taking them across several tracks, an intersection, through a guard station and into a fight with a mech, still brought them to the same general location, but with a few extra tangents to go on before they reach that final destination.
Wandering around blind with no map or clue and yet they still accomplished the same goal. They're at the reactor. They went from point A to B, but visited E, F, G and H along the way.