You’ve seen the logo. That iconic, jagged green-and-blue streak trailing behind a massive rock. It’s arguably the most famous image in RPG history. But for a lot of people, the Final Fantasy 7 Meteor is just "the thing that happens at the end." We sort of take it for granted now. We see it in the Remake trilogy visions and think, "Yeah, yeah, the apocalypse is coming, let's go play Queens Blood."
Honestly, though? The lore behind this thing is way darker and more calculated than most players realize. It isn’t just a big space rock. It’s a surgical instrument designed to perform a lobotomy on a living planet.
The Absolute Mess Sephiroth Was Planning
Let’s be real for a second. Sephiroth didn't just want to blow the world up. If he wanted total destruction, he probably could have found a faster way. His plan with the Final Fantasy 7 Meteor was a lot more "mad scientist" than "angry villain."
Basically, the Planet in FF7 is a living organism. When it gets hurt, it sends a massive surge of spiritual energy—the Lifestream—to the site of the wound to heal it. Think of it like white blood cells rushing to a cut on your finger. Sephiroth’s big idea? Use the Black Materia to call down a meteor so massive that the "wound" would be catastrophic.
He planned to stand right in the center of that impact zone. When the Planet dumped its entire soul into that spot to try and fix the hole, Sephiroth would just... drink it. He’d absorb the entire Lifestream and become a god. It’s a parasitic move. He wasn't trying to be a king of a graveyard; he was trying to hijack the Earth's battery.
Why the Rocket Failed (and Why It Had To)
Remember the Shinra No. 26? Cid’s old rocket? Shinra actually had a somewhat logical plan: pack the thing with Huge Materia and ram it into the Final Fantasy 7 Meteor. On paper, it makes sense. In reality, it was a total disaster.
If you played the original game, you know the explosion basically did nothing. It chipped the paint. Some fans argue that if Cloud hadn't "stolen" the Huge Materia, the explosion would have worked. But the lore suggests otherwise.
- Physics vs. Magic: Meteor isn't just a rock floating through space governed by gravity. It’s a summoned magical entity.
- The Pull: The Black Materia provides a constant magical "tug." Even if the rocket shattered the surface, those pieces would have just kept coming down as a cluster of smaller, equally deadly extinction-level events.
- The Atmospheric Problem: As some theorists have pointed out, even if you vaporize a rock that size in the atmosphere, all that kinetic energy still turns into heat. You'd basically turn the sky into a broiler.
That Ending Still Sparks Arguments 29 Years Later
We need to talk about Midgar. When the Final Fantasy 7 Meteor finally gets close enough to touch the Midgar skyline, the visuals are haunting. Holy—the White Magic spell Aerith died to cast—isn't enough. It actually makes things worse for a minute because it’s being squeezed between the Meteor and the Planet, creating a massive pressure cooker over the city.
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Then the Lifestream surges up.
The famous "500 Years Later" scene shows Red XIII running toward a greenery-covered Midgar. For years, fans argued: Did everyone die? If the Lifestream had to wipe out humanity to save the world, did Sephiroth kind of win anyway?
The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (the movies and sequels like Advent Children) eventually confirmed that humans survived, but they had to abandon Midgar. The city became a tomb. The "good" ending was actually a total societal collapse. We often forget that. The heroes "won," but the world they knew was completely deleted.
The Remake Trilogy and the "Multiverse" Twist
Things are getting weird in the Remake and Rebirth era. We're seeing Sephiroth talk about "the union of worlds." In this version of the story, the Final Fantasy 7 Meteor might not just be hitting one planet.
In Rebirth, we see different realities where the sky is literally torn open. It looks like a "fractured" version of the Meteor's arrival. There’s a theory floating around that Sephiroth is trying to merge all possible timelines into one single point of impact. If he destroys the Planet in every timeline at once, the amount of Lifestream he could absorb would be infinite. He's upgraded from a planetary parasite to a multiversal one.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re trying to piece together the full story before the third part of the Remake trilogy drops, here’s what you actually need to look at:
- Re-watch the "On the Way to a Smile" summaries: This novella bridges the gap between the original game and Advent Children. It explains exactly how the survivors dealt with the immediate aftermath of the Meteor's "near-miss."
- Look at the sky in Rebirth: Pay close attention to the "tears" in the sky during the Zack sequences. They mirror the jagged edges of the Meteor logo.
- Check out the "Ultimania" guides: If you can find translations, these official books confirm that the Lifestream didn't just "push" the Meteor back; it was Aerith's conscious will from within the planet that directed the flow.
The Final Fantasy 7 Meteor is more than just a countdown clock. It’s a reminder that in this universe, the Planet is the strongest character on the roster—and it doesn't always play nice with the people living on it.