Here's a fun one. Or "fun," depending on how much you like or dislike it! We've got the whole ending shebang that everyone has discussed to death, including the survival of Biggs and fairly, if not rock-solidly, implied survival of Jessie. There's also the Zack schtick, which everybody and their mother is still going on about nearly a year later.
But what about Wedge...?
To my mild surprise, several of my friends didn't even think about this until after the fact, when I broached the subject with them one-on-one. This sequence is so abrupt, and its abruptness extends to its execution -- it fades to black rather than showing us Wedge's demise outright. The whole thing lasts less than a minute. Some I've spoken with have cited all that as a reason to believe he's not dead. Others have (understandably) pointed to the, uh, we'll call it "elasticity" of other characters' survival odds in Remake and told me that's plenty enough evidence to suggest likewise.
Yet here's where things get murky, and by murky, I mean murky even within the bounds of Remake's controversial live-or-let-die narrative tomfrakkery. If Wedge lives, how come it's not even remotely hinted at during the ending, which is chock full of "zomg, wait" gotcha moments in that regard? We also hear what are clearly intended to be his last words here, ringing in a way that heralds some of his final dialogue in the original game. To top it all off, and as a genuine fan of Remake I hate to use this as evidence here, but the awkwardness of it is not unlike the writers in other aspects of the game's final chapters. I gotta say, I could see Kitase and Nojima remarking in a couple of years that "they were unaware fans thought otherwise." :P
The last possibility is that this was sort of a fakeout fade-to-black for the purposes of leaving the door open for Wedge's return in case the writers ever decide to pull that card, rather than because they already intend to do so. I can easily see this one being the case.
Okay, you know, no, wait, there's one more possibility: Wedge does, in fact, die here; but defeating the fate ghosts brings his survival back into the equation. At that point, we're going full Psycho Square Enix Mode, but hey, c'est la Venus.
What say you, Era?
But what about Wedge...?
To my mild surprise, several of my friends didn't even think about this until after the fact, when I broached the subject with them one-on-one. This sequence is so abrupt, and its abruptness extends to its execution -- it fades to black rather than showing us Wedge's demise outright. The whole thing lasts less than a minute. Some I've spoken with have cited all that as a reason to believe he's not dead. Others have (understandably) pointed to the, uh, we'll call it "elasticity" of other characters' survival odds in Remake and told me that's plenty enough evidence to suggest likewise.
Yet here's where things get murky, and by murky, I mean murky even within the bounds of Remake's controversial live-or-let-die narrative tomfrakkery. If Wedge lives, how come it's not even remotely hinted at during the ending, which is chock full of "zomg, wait" gotcha moments in that regard? We also hear what are clearly intended to be his last words here, ringing in a way that heralds some of his final dialogue in the original game. To top it all off, and as a genuine fan of Remake I hate to use this as evidence here, but the awkwardness of it is not unlike the writers in other aspects of the game's final chapters. I gotta say, I could see Kitase and Nojima remarking in a couple of years that "they were unaware fans thought otherwise." :P
The last possibility is that this was sort of a fakeout fade-to-black for the purposes of leaving the door open for Wedge's return in case the writers ever decide to pull that card, rather than because they already intend to do so. I can easily see this one being the case.
Okay, you know, no, wait, there's one more possibility: Wedge does, in fact, die here; but defeating the fate ghosts brings his survival back into the equation. At that point, we're going full Psycho Square Enix Mode, but hey, c'est la Venus.
What say you, Era?
