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Spoilers - Discussion
I get how Biggs got pulled on the Terrier world because he literally explained it, but how did Marlene get there? Because the Marlene that warns Zack about Aerith waking seems to be from the Beagle world and the one hugged by Aerith and had a "static" effect in Remake.
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I think it's this:
The actions of Remake placed Marlene at Elmyra's before the worlds split. When they split, it seems Terrier initialized as a (mostly) direct copy of Beagle, including Marlene, Elmyra, Aerith, Cloud and Co, and the rest of the citizens of Sector 5/Midgar and beyond. Things rapidly occur and differ as soon as Terrier exists - Zack and Biggs' are placed there as their fates were different in this new world (as a result of both of their hopes to defy fate/find purpose respectively). Jessie may have fully died and joined the Lifestream before the split happened, which is why I think she didn't end up Terrier (that we know of). We know Tifa, Barrett and Red meet a quick end at the hands of Shinra.
I think a Marlene exists in both worlds, until Terrier meets its end toward the end of the game (when we switch to Pug world). But a Marlene in Beagle with no sleeping Aerith to watch over isn't interesting, so ofc we are shown the Marlene that's in Zack's world.
There are some issues with that though. Red was still alive (at least for a bit) and according to Biggs, he was pulled there while he was still heavily wounded in the Sector 7 pillar so before the worlds "split".
True, but I think it's kind of impossible to tell if the timing lines up across worlds that identically, and that's probably getting a bit too granular. The end result is the same - Biggs/Zack life in Terrier, Red/Tifa/Barrett die.
I would argue that the whispers that Biggs' felt were the original fate whispers - ferrying him to the Lifestream as is their job for the ones fated to die. Somewhere between this and Biggs facing the Lifestream, the worlds split, fate changed, and he then moved to Terrier as he was 'no longer dead.'
From the wiki:
The novella Hoshi o Meguru Otome expands on the purpose of the lifestream, equating it to an afterlife with a concept of Heaven and Hell. Those who led good lives join with the lifestream and their minds fragment and join the collective, while the sinful remain intact and must exist with the knowledge they cannot find absolution because of their actions. Aerith Gainsborough helps many of these people, including Dyne and Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, find peace, and allows them to approach atonement.
This is implying there is a limbo period before someone 'sinful' would become one with the Lifestream, and specifically calls out Biggs as one such person, who is later helped by Aerith. He even comments on this in Rebirth when talking about his purpose IIRC. I'll try to find the clip.
Terrier World was born from Beagle, so everything and everyone in it is exactly the same prior to the moment it was created.
Only 3 people were injected into Terrier: Biggs, Zack, and coma-Cloud. They were brought it for reasons unknown, but it was done by the Whispers.
Everyone else has the same history we know from Remake. When we defeated the Whispers, one of the consequences was Terrier being created with the major alteration of the Tornado causing much more severe damage to the city and our party being heavily injured and taken into Shinra custody.
Avalanche Cloud is nowhere to be seen in Terrier, so it would seem that only one version of a person is allowed to exist in a given world. Coma-Cloud has taken his place, while Zack and Biggs were both dead and didn’t need to replace their other selves.
Interesting point. But where is coma-Cloud now if that's the case? And in Bigg's case, he was inserted before the "split" so does that mean that Terrier already existed even before?
Good question. And then how did Elmyra get there? How did Oates get there? And how did Ms. Folia get there?
Based on things the devs have said, the things going on in the "other worlds" shouldn't be given too much thought. I don't think the devs themselves really care, since the whole multi-worlds doesn't seem to serve any other purpose than to keep old fans guessing.
Sephiroth himself describes them as worlds that just come and go on a whim. And they feel that way since we don't get a lot of story as to what's going on in those worlds. They just spawn, and then we see people just seem to automatically feel abysmally hopeless.
The main focus in those worlds is Zack, so I figure we just need to focus on what Zack is doing and exactly on how he is developing as he moves thru the different situations.
The other people I get that they have "versions" in the alternate worlds (e.g. the dead party members in the intro). But Biggs is specifically from Beagle and so seems to be Marlene so I wouldn't exactly group them with Elmyra and Oates in this case.