The Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo gave fans their first chance to try out the reimagined classic. Playing through the iconic bombing missions, it's clear that the remake is wildly ambitious. Part of that ambition comes with a re-imagined world and story, and the remake seems to make some sizable changes to how things play out.
One of these changes comes at the end of the demo when Cloud and Barret finish planting the bomb in the Mako reactor. In the original game, the blast is much larger than Avalanche intended, completely obliterating the reactor and immediate area. In the remake, it's shown that the bomb Avalanche plants fails, and it's president Shinra himself who orders robots to destroy the reactor.
At initial glance, this might seem like a retcon to longtime fans, but the basis for it was actually in the original Final Fantasy 7. Still, there's a bit of explanation as to why Shinra did it, and how the decision relates to the original game.
Shinra blowing up the reactor is all in service of President Shinra's ambition and safeguarding of the company. Nothing is laid out in stone in Final Fantasy 7, so a bit of it is open to interpretation. Still, the obvious fact is that President Shinra is an almost dictatorial kind of leader. He's willing to take extreme measures to squash anything and anyone that threatens his control or good name. Blowing up the reactor is a way of framing Avalanche as violent terrorists who want to wreak havoc on Midgar. This narrative serves Shinra in hunting down Avalanche and creates the perfects excuse for further actions the company takes, like dropping the plate.
Shinra can blame Avalanche for atrocities they commit, and it also threatens any others thinking of standing up to the company. It's a madman showing the ultimate display of power, all while gaining the loyalty of Midgar's citizens. To the common people, Shinra is the heroes who tried to fight off Avalanche, sent relief efforts, and helped the injured.
In Final Fantasy 7, Avalanche's mission is to bomb the reactor and simply disable it; they don't want to cause any collateral damage to the city surrounding it. Because of that, it's a surprise when the reactor completely blows its top and causes some serious damage. It's suggested that the reason this happens is Jessie's inexperience at making bombs, as she simply followed a manual on the computer.
Optional dialog for Jessie in the original shows that she has no experience building bombs, with her stating "Think it was all because of my bomb? But all I really did was make it like the computer told me." A lot of the events at the beginning of the original are left to interpretation, but this dialog suggests that there could have been more at play than Jessie's bomb. This would be completely understandable as Shinra's propaganda machine desperately paints Avalanche as vile terrorists.
The argument can be made for the remake retconning this element of the story, but in the end, all the elements are the same. In both versions the damage is far above what Avalanche intended, the group still decides to go forward with the next bombing, and President Shinra has a complete disregard for the safety of citizens. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake simply expands on the story and fills in some of the gaps.
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