Why did aeris have to die

Inevitably, a vital question emerged:. Her death is seen by most fans as being an essential piece of the story that strongly reinforces the theme. But what is that theme exactly?

On its face, the original Final Fantasy VII was this super convoluted story about a man dealing with extreme trauma and having an identity crisis, an alien being and its army of clones, a maniacal villain who—we find out—is the son of aforementioned alien and Has A Lot Of Feelings about it , and looming over it all is a power-hungry mega evil Super Corporation that basically rules the world.

Also, that meteor I mentioned. Final Fantasy VII Remake has gone out of its way to tell us that this is going to be a different story.

Each of the characters have moments where they consider their own identities and places in life, except Aerith. We learn early on that she lost her mother when she was very young. Tifa even takes a moment to correct Cloud when he beings to muse about it:. I wonder? As I played through the game, I took particular joy in seeing her character get more fleshed out.

Charming, but obvious. Being an Elder Millennial, I had the great good fortune of playing Final Fantasy VII when it was first released, and back in those days the internet was pretty sparse. If you wanted to explore something niche, like video games, there were a handful of webpages and discussion forums dedicated to video them, and those were rife with rumors. Reeve , through Cait Sith , later tells the party he informed Elmyra Gainsborough of Aerith's death and consoled her.

When the player arrives in Forgotten City the path that leads to the sections beneath the city is blocked by a large simulacrum of a fish. In one of the abandoned houses on the east side of the city the player finds beds where the party can sleep for the night. During the night Cloud wakes up, claiming he can hear Aeris calling for him. If the player then enters the middle path from the entrance to the city, the fish is missing and in its place stairs lead down. The stairs lead to a section underneath the city where the player finds a save point and Aeris praying on the altar.

Cloud's party members stay behind while he approaches her alone. The player must jump across the platforms to the Water Altar, but as Cloud approaches Aeris he begins to act strangely, as he is under Sephiroth's influence. Whenever the player presses the confirm button Cloud comes closer and closer to attacking Aeris, until his team mates' protests stop him in the nick of time. The battle is one of the easiest boss battles, and it was likely planned so for the player not having to view the scenes of Aeris's death again, which would happen if they were to lose the boss battle, as this may have lessened the scene's emotional impact.

After the boss is defeated, the player gets a cryptic message assigned to Jenova saying Cloud is just a puppet, and Sephiroth will be gone. Depending on who is in the player's party during Aeris's final moments, each character pays their respects in their own way:.

Cloud picks up Aeris's body, which triggers the FMV where he lays her to rest in the lake. Afterwards Cloud and the others return to the house with the beds. Cloud vows to avenge Aeris's death and settle things with Sephiroth.

The scene ends disc 1, or part I in the PC version re-release. The weapon and armor Aeris had equipped when she left the party are lost , as it is not possible for a player character to not have something in these slots.

Her Materia and accessory return to the player's inventory as she leaves. The last possible moment to de-equip her weapon and armor is actually after the boss battles at the Temple of the Ancients, so the player can still equip her the best gear and swap them out before she is gone, however the window of opportunity is narrow: It is possible to open the menu during the moment Cloud lunges at Aeris at the bottom of the pit, and change her equipment.

Two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII , Aerith's death and Zack's sacrifice , and his inability to prevent either event from happening, haunts Cloud to the point of crippling depression. While in pursuit of thwarting the Remnants of Sephiroth , Cloud seeks forgiveness for his self-perceived "sins". When Marlene senses Aerith's presence during Cloud's duel with Sephiroth at Midgar, a brief vision of her in her pose just before her death at Sephiroth's hand could briefly be seen.

While attempting to amend, Aerith's spirit from within the Lifestream reveals she never blamed him for her death, only that she was happy he came for her in the end.

Sephiroth 's Hell's Gate HP attack consists of him leaping into the air and descending rapidly while stabbing his Masamune down, mirroring his pose when he impaled Aerith. Aerith 's animation while charging Holy mirrors her prayer stance before her death. The scene appears approximately halfway through FMS.

The scene is edited however to not show Sephiroth impaling Aerith—as he descends there is a burst of light, which fades to show Aerith falling forward as she does after Sephiroth withdraws the Masamune. The sequence of the White Materia falling is similarly cut short: after it falls to the floor another flash of light cuts the scene to Cloud laying Aerith to rest.

Aerith's descent into the water marks the end of the FMS if the player fails the Feature Drive, which extends the song. A card depicting a Yoshitaka Amano artwork of Cloud mourning for Aerith appears on a card. As it is considered Aerith's card, it is wind-elemental. In Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Tesleen is mortally wounded by a sin eater , stabbing her through her torso when she shields a child. While she didn't die physically, she transformed into a Sin Eater which slowly erases her personality.

Lunafreya was stabbed by the main antagonist shortly after a successful summon. In Final Fantasy Tactics , if Cloud abandons the party due to low Bravery , he will say "I couldn't even save one girl. What do you expect from me? In Super Smash Bros. To commemorate the achievement, a picture is shown of Cloud holding Princess Zelda in water similarly to when he was laying Aerith's body to the lake in Forgotten City.

He found that this appears in both films and video games from North America and Japan. Director Yoshinori Kitase concludes:. After facing the boss, Jenova LIFE, we watch her burial, where she sinks to the bottom of the Forgotten City's lake, as well as we hear her ultimately saddening theme song.

In the end, Aeris was there. She was always there to support the team. She had never left. So, in the end, Aeris was killed in cold blood by the game's director, not completely by Sephiroth. Thanks to Reno is my man for the awesome siggy!! P Owen Macwere R. P to my cat, Turk. She was in Advent Children. Originally Posted by Sephiroth's Cage. Yes he did JDAS and you remember that. No more having to have her in your party. I had a mission to get her LV4 Limit but then I got tired of training a useless pink woman.

Actually when i first saw the scene of her death i thought Sephiroth was going to decapitate her. And if you ask me i have a more plausibe reason for her death the director of the game was playing the the game before it was released and then he thought to himself What the hell was i thinking when i added this stupid pink thing in the game!!!

Who had this pathetic idea!? Was it you Jin Sun!? And kill this abomination of a character i hate pink!!!! That's only a half truth. Not to mention its a really old rumor. Where did you copy that from? It sounds too pompous to be an average message board goer's post. Also, Sephiroth didn't kill Aeris :] He was frozen in the crater up north during the course of the game. Damn you Mr. You have to check this out, it's really fun.

Think Ragnorok Online, only free and with less people. No, Kitase's mother died ten years before FF7. He was NOT referring to FF7 in his interview, and a simple look at the date of the interview would reveal that. And it was Nomura who came up with the idea of killing Aerith, which he and Nojima expanded into contrasting between the overblown sacrifice of Cait and the cold murder of Aerith, in order to strike out at the cliche.

The only writing credit Kitase has for FF7 is the concept of the lifestream.