You mean where it showed Red XIII and his puppies overlooking the ruins of Midgar after Cloud beat Sephiroth? It'a really hard to guess, but my guess is that the "evil" human race perished leaving only the "caring" animals on the face of the earth. FFVII was the best game made in the FF series, but sentiments like that make me want to puke! Artists who hate the human race so much should do the rest of us a favor and, well, you know...

In the ending, Red XIII was shown, surrounded by puppies [his children, I guess], standing on a cliff, overlooking the city of Midgar, a once polluted city that is now covered by lush forest. I think it meant that: >> WHY RED XIII? Among the heroes, I think only Red XIII survived that long. [He was experimented on, remember? *cough cough* Mutants-- *cough* :P] And so it could be assumed that the rest of the gang were all dead by then. As for Vincent-- I dunno.... :P >> WHY DOES MIDGAR LOOK LIKE THAT? -- because this occured a looong time after they defeated Sepiroth .... long enough for Midgar's pollution to fade away and grow vegetation, and for Red XIII to have descendants :P >> WHY THE PUPPIES? Red XIII brought his children [I assume.... ] to the cliff so they would see where a legend was born, a long time ago... to tell a story or two about a spikey-headed soldier....

Hope.

As the answers are pretty much given already...some things I really dont get. It was specified by Hojo that Nanaki was the last of his race, so how did he get children? It can't be mutation, because the copulation experiment led by Hojo between Aerith and Nanaki was disrupted by Cloud and company. Of course in four hundred years a lot can happen. I'm guessing that this adventure was a great part of Nanaki's life though, and as his tribe and culture suggests many times in the course of the game, it's almost tradition to learn from life, weather while, or currently. An example is how Nanaki found out that his father was a ''war hero''. Midgar is the only testament left after all that time to mankind's avarice, and I guess Nanaki's telling his kids about his adventures and how you need to respect the planet and all that. We all knew that Cloud saved the day, and that the planet saved itself when Holy failed, so THAT was the conclusion, really. I guess that little scene is a little follow up to how peace persevered after that. What I don't also get is those girls laughing at the very end, when it says ''The End''. What was that, Aerith's ghost?

It was to signify that life goes on. Hope lives on. The corruption and polution of midgar was transformed into peaceful greenery. Red XII was led to believe he was last of his race but hope lived on and he reproduced. His species have extremely long lifespan and is not due to mutation. Another theory about puppies is that they were cloned or lifestream helped create them.