Fair enough, and I hope that explanation is an awesome one! There is a ton of evidence that most Planets are living organisms in the FFVII universe, hell, who's to say JENOVA wasn't herself a planet that just ate other planets to live and exist?
The characters care about replacing the whispers' will with their own because they want to be in charge of their own destiny. Think about Barret's comments about being destined for a bleak future, or Aerith having premonitions about the future but only vaguely understanding why. They don't know exactly what will happen; they just know it could be bad, and they want to have agency to avoid it. I think that's the emotional thrust behind their unity in overcoming these whispers - whispers that sometimes help and sometimes hinder but that are ultimately depriving them of deciding their own destiny.
If you were going in blind, and Remake was your first encounter with the FF7 universe, you'd at least know by the end of Remake that:
The party knows that the whispers will at least sacrifice 50k people to be crushed under a plate, if that is destiny's chosen course. They are dipicted as time janitors. The souls of those that were and are to come keeping history on course. For me as soon as the whispers let Rude drop the plate, I knew they had to go. Plus they didn't now they were going to be fighting a Weapon until they went through the portal, chasing Sephiroth. And each had their reasons for wanting to do that.
You're not paying for the dress in any scenario. It's always paid for entirely with Madam M's million-gil prize. If I had to guess a story reason why it changes, maybe Madam M is less frugal with the dress if you have a better reputation from your work in the slums (since it's determined by how many Ch. 8 quests you complete). *shrugs*
When you talk to Madam M about the dress she mentions how much work you put into the community so it has to do with that. I'm guessing when she goes shopping for the clothes, your reputation determines who gives her a good deal or better dress, etc.
Aerith singles you out because it would've been your choice to retire early in Ch. 8 rather than put in work helping the community. At no point does anyone say you're paying for the dress; Madam M says she's paying for it with the million gil you earned her at the Coliseum. She does, however, observe whether you've been putting in work in the community. The dress she gets could be her judgment of you as a result, or the deals she can get because of the reputation you forged, or both.
You are remembering the scene wrong, she says she feels bad that the dress is so poor because Cloud put alot of work into it. And then asks did he put alot of work.
I made a comment earlier about it, but I like the idea of:
From the direction of discussion in this thread, I'm definitely on the same page.
Aww, thanks!
I know it's based off of Chapter 8 quests, but I would need to look at the dialogue of Madam M to see if she says your reputation will help.
I would do it but it would need to be tomorrow and I'm guessing it needs to go up now.
Agreed. It's a very character-driven story until the very end when the writers grind everything to a halt so they can have a conversation with audience.
