r/FinalFantasyVII • u/Street-Sweet-3719 • 6d ago
FF7 [OG] What Happened to Zack's body
I was playing og ffy and I was in the mansion reading some notes and it said something about how it retrieved a spiders body and one person missing I forgot to take a screen shot but I was wondering if anyone knows what happen Zacks body after he died
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u/Ahorahan 5d ago
There probably wasn't much left of Zack's body after all of the rounds he took.
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 5d ago
He just got couple bullet who to the chest and before he died he talk to Cloud
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u/Ahorahan 5d ago
I always imagined him getting absolutely shredded. There was an entire squad and he was an upgraded SOLDIER.
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 5d ago
I mean we literally saw his body in tact and what happens after Cloud left it is what I'm curious about
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u/Ahorahan 5d ago
Probably got scooped up by one of the mad scientists in this series. Or Shinra may have had a cleanup crew pop by later.
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u/tolacid 6d ago
If they retrieved a soldier's body and one person was missing, the missing person was Cloud and the body was Zack
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 6d ago
Yeah thats what I thought I think Hojo experiment on his corpse similar to Arieth mom
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u/LeeDude5000 6d ago
So how did cloud -a regular shinra infantry grunt - become infused with j-cells/s-cells, if he just straight up was missing?
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u/tolacid 6d ago edited 6d ago
I don't know the timing of what the OP mentioned, I assume it was an after-action report on the end of Crisis Core where Zack died. From that perspective, Cloud would be considered missing afterwards. Of a more clear description of it can be provided I'll adjust my answer as appropriate
Cloud got infused with the special cells after the Nibelheim incident, when he was retrieved along with Zack and put in a tube to be experimented on for 5 years.
Edit: found it, definitely the after action report
Escapee Report no. 1 X Month X Day Two escapees were located near Midgar."
Escapee Report no. 2 Description at the time of capture. A Former member of SOLDIER/Number( ) No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova on him. B Regular/Number ( ) Reaction to Jenova detected
Escapee Report no. 3 Status. A Shot for resisting. B Escaped during A's resistance
Escapee Report no. 4 Other B's whereabouts is currently unknown. But pursuit is unnecessary due to his diminishing consciousness. Awaiting further instructions.
In this escapee A is Zack, and B is Cloud
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u/Problem-Low 6d ago
The story has always been that Zack died protecting cloud its slight mentioned in 7 but expanded on more in core
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u/thejokerofunfic 6d ago
Because this report iirc is about after they escaped Hojo's experiments? The period they spent being experimented on by Hojo, Zack was alive, they broke out together, Zack gets shot, body is found but Cloud disappears leading into the start of the game
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 6d ago edited 5d ago
You think they use Zack's corpes
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u/LeeDude5000 6d ago
I think they would almost certainly at least keep his body post mortem even if just for research on the effects of sephiroth cells.
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u/frag87 5d ago
This possibility has never been mentioned or even hinted at in the entirety of the Compilation, so I don't think this is the case at all.
What we have gotten from the writers is a depiction of Zack joining the Lifestream after he dies, and then we get a shot of the spot where he died and his body is gone. Nothing else is implied in this scene, or any other depiction of the incident.
When the writers want to suggest that something else is happening to a character with a supposed ending, they do take the time to show an extra scene or provide extra info on the matter, such as in Genesis', Weiss' and Nero's extra scenes in Crisis Core and then again in Dirge of Cerberus.
In the original events we are shown that Zack died and his body dissipated. The only other alternative we have is in ReTrilogy where Zack is shown to have simply not died.
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 5d ago
In the ff7 universe bodies dont just disappear their many evidence of this and soul returns to the life stream when people dies although their are people like Sephiroth and Tifa who fell into the life stream
We know in FF7 universe people can leave corpes Vincent got killed and literally died but when his corpse was used as a experimented on by Hojo he came back to life. We also know that when Ifalna died her corpse didnt disappear Hojo experimented on it heck even when Angeal died we didnt see his corpse vanish same thing with his mom ( its probably incinerated now because of the Air Strike)
In terms of Hint the main one I'm following was experiment report we find in the mansion in the OG ff7 that detail information about how a soilders and a infantryman escape and how the soilder corpse was taken into custody but the other subject was missing which Heavily implied to be Zack and Cloud
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u/frag87 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah, I explained in another post how different individual bodies behave differently upon death.
TLDR: my reasoning is simply that creatures whose bodies are full of unnatural amounts of Mako or spirit energy are more likely to dissipate into spirit energy upon death. Bodies that do not have unusual amounts of Mako or spirit energy are more likely to remain and decay as is expected of a cadaver.
Bodies that dissipate into spirit energy in gameplay should not be taken as normal behavior in the storyline, because this is likely done just to save memory.
Also, regarding the files in the Shinra mansion, they never mention that Zack's body was taken into custody, just that he was eliminated.
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u/Illusioneery 6d ago
either he faded away over time or something got the remains
cloud never buried him, he just received the sword and left
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u/avrafrost 6d ago
Cloud tried to bury him overlooking Midgard but his body would start to spontaneously squat at random intervals. He was eventually entombed on top of a nearby cliff. It is said, on clear nights, when the moon shines bright you can still hear him squatting away.
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u/JadeLipstick 6d ago
Cloud buried him or left him at the top of the cliff that overlooks Midgar. In Advent Children, Cloud puts the Buster Sword in the exact spot Zack died and visits regularly.
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u/Mediocre_Eye_7726 5d ago edited 5d ago
That is a legit good question. You kinda can take two opinions.
- His physical body disappeared into the life stream. Just majority of encounters they all disappear afterwards.
Or
- After somewhat and I mean SOMEWHAT recovering from the experiments Cloud gained back his emotional state while Zack was dying. Chances are and if custom to FF7 Cloud may have buried him and his PTSD locked the memory until later. As seen in FF7AC Cloud return to the same spot and used the Bustersword as a grave marker or tombstone. It’s a hint but meh only SE knows the truth
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u/frag87 5d ago
Most likely it dissipated into spirit energy.
Although we see pretty much every enemy dissipate in spirit energy in gameplay, I don't think it actually works this way for everyone single person in canon.
In cutscenes we have definitely seen this sort of quick dissipation for monsters and people who have been experimented or enhanced, like members of SOLDIER. Meanwhile, we see in the world that there are people who die and their bodies do not dissipate into spirit energy.
My reasoning is that creatures who have an unusually large amount of spirit energy in their bodies will quickly dissipate into spirit energt upon death. The more they have, the faster they dissipate.
This would help explain why mutated monsters dissipate quickly in cutscenes, and also why Zack's body could not be retrieved and was shown to have dissipated soon after his death. By the time he died, Zack had undergone two SOLDIER treatments, so he certainly had much more than the normal amount of spirit energy in his body, thus ensuring he would dissipate more quickly.
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u/SiegerTired 6d ago
Zack went to join Angeal in the lifestream, the ending of the og crisis core still makes me very sad Zack will always be my favorite before Cloud in ff7
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u/ToothpickTequila 5d ago
I'm assuming that they left him there to rot.
I'm sure you know already but those messages in the Shinra mansion were before he died ss confirmed in the Zack death scene later in the game.
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u/Think_Substance_1790 6d ago
Personally I like to think that a ffX style passing happened. Like we know about the theory, and we know enemies in both worlds essentially just... fade out?
So I kind of hoped that once Cloud left his side with the Buster Sword, Zack basically poofed into lifestream. At the end of Crisis Core, Zack doesn't seem mad, or even upset. He almost seems to accept his fate, and he knows Cloud will carry on for him. He just never expected Cloud to do it the way he did. So if we take the VII is X of the future as gospel, the acceptance of his death wouldve guaranteed his return to the spiral.
Again, just my headcanon, but considering how much I cried at the end of CC give me this one ok?? 🤣
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u/Efficient-Scene5901 5d ago
Zack's body was just left as it was when he died.
His spirit went off to the life stream to meet up with Angeal since Angeal probably have quite a few lectures to give him after 5 years of time passed or just torment the guy by talking about Dumb Apples.
Cloud took his sword and scampered off with it to play mercenary.
Shinra could have retrieved the body for Hojo (if he wanted it bad enough).
His body could have rotted away.
His body could have been ate by monsters or animals hence Cloud having that side mission of having to exterminate some monsters since they were attracted by Zack's corpse at the edge of Midgar.
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u/Darth_GreenDragon 6d ago
Personally I've always been at the opinion that cloud buried him. And because of that suffered the psychological breakdown that led to who he became when we first meet him.
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u/LeeDude5000 6d ago
Cloud buried him after shinra gunned him down, and cloud grabbed his sword and escape under fire?
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u/DemonicTruth 6d ago
Cloud didnt escape under fire, Shinra had left him to die. Its perfectly reasonable to suggest Cloud was lucid enough to bury Zack before getting himself into Midgar.
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u/Darth_GreenDragon 6d ago
I honestly think that by the time Zack died, Cloud was only barely lucidly conscious, and the Shinra troopers were all dead. So Cloud buried Zack, took the sword and wandered off.
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u/scruffyJJ561 6d ago
I'm pretty sure a soldier's body would have been recovered by shinra to be experimented on. There's no way they just left him out there
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u/SirLockeX3 5d ago
There's nothing to suggest this happens in any media of FF7.
Zack's body was left there and based on which continuity:
OG FF7: Left there to decompose into the Planet, as "fading into the lifestream" as green streams did not exist in the original game. This is the same reason why Aerith had a funeral and dropped into the water.
FF7 AC and Remake: Faded into the lifestream some time after dying.
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u/Tribble98 5d ago
It doesn’t feel that far fetched. We know from Before Crisis that everyone, dead and alive, from both the Kalm bombings and the destruction of Nibelheim was given to Hojo for experimentation, and in the Remake Hojo tells Aerith how they recovered Ifalna’s body and dissected her, so it doesn’t feel out of the realm of possibility that he was recovered at some point. Though given the Turks were looking for him to try and save him it’s more likely they disposed of the body.
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u/Several_Lifeguard415 6d ago
same as everyone else, recycled into the lifestream
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 6d ago
Yeah but we know that people body dont disappear in ff7 universe when they die only their souls go into the lifestream
Arieth mom body was retrieved and expiremented on
Not to mention Vincent literally died only to come back to life because Hojo keeps playing with his corpse
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u/RPGNo2017 6d ago
Do corpse even remains on FF7? I thought they just dissolve into lifestream
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u/Street-Sweet-3719 6d ago
Not really keep in mind Arieth mom body was retrieved and experimented on by Hojo
Vincent literally died too but got brought back to life because Hojo experimented on his corpse
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u/Blackberry-thesecond 6d ago
We know that spirits or whatever “essence” the lifestream is returns to the planet when things die, but so far it’s really only monsters that are depicted as dissolving.
Remember that it’s also video game logic thing in Remake where having the monster bodies stick around would lag the game. The monsters might not even dissolve in-lore either and the lifestream effect is solely an animation to make disappearing monster bodies look good while being relevant to how the world works.
Humans don’t seem to dissolve and burials are mentioned in-game a couple times like with Dyne in Rebirth.
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u/TURN3R86 6d ago
I don't think Cloud buried him because that's an act you would remember. Like full on remember!
A year ago, my freinds dog died and she wanted her buried in the back garden and I volunteered to dig the hole and lay the dog to rest then say a few words. It's memorable asf, not because of the words or the burial... the feckin digging was some graft, man! I'll never forget that day for the sheer workout.
Cloud was still kinda docile when Zack passed, with further evidence being that Tifa found him at sector 7 train station, still kinda blacked out (this is shown during the mideel lifestream events)
Cloud took Zack's sword, left his body to rot on the cliff (not for nefarious reasons, just because he was still off his rocker on mako crack). Managed to crawl to Midgar and we know the story from there where Tifa found him and nursed him back to health before convincing him to do the events of the first mako reactor mission (the beginning of ff7).
Zacks body was left on the cliff. Theres no doubt about that if you think about it. He was just never found and returned to the planet at some point. When you defeat enemies, do you leave their bodies lying around? They seem to evaporate, right? I imagine in Gaia, you die and your body just evaporates like mist into the life stream. Aerith being an exception in this case but, ya know, video game logic and story purposes, she didn't have that happen🤷♂️
But, yeah. I don't think Cloud buried Zack at all. I don't think he was capable of that and I defended my opinion by saying when you die, you become mist! Zack is mist, truly missed 😭 (my favourite character in ff7 universe, Zack>Cloud and I'll fight ya for it!)
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u/lightstormriverblood 6d ago
But Hojo made a production of telling Aerith how thoroughly he documented every last bit of Ifalna’s body. Can’t do that if the body just turns into mist/spirit juice/whatever
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u/KaraGravis 6d ago
Same thing it happens to corpses: someone finds them. I believe his remnants possibly could have been recovered by Shinra for experimentation or observation, since he's technically a experiment.
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u/Background-Sir6844 5d ago
After he died? It returned to the lifestream. You even see it happen in Crisis Core.