[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, as well as the original Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake.]
What does it imply for Aerith to die?
In Last Fantasy 7, Aerith represents that concept that no world is saved from calamity with out price. She represents mindless and sudden loss, how demise can take somebody you’re keen on at any time. As Polygon’s personal Maddy Myers mentioned to me as soon as, she’s a stand-in for the planet, in a narrative in regards to the planet’s impending demise. She wants to die for the story to work. Character designer and state of affairs author for the OG FF7 Tetsuya Nomura once said that it was necessary that her demise be “sudden and surprising,” contrasting Aerith with the sorts of characters who had sacrificed themselves in earlier FF video games. Our shock and grief at a pleasant woman who by no means harm anybody being killed whereas she prays for salvation is supposed to inspire us, to push us ahead, to anchor our emotional expertise of the story.
From the very first second, FF7 Remake traded on the query: Would Aerith survive? Her demise may not be “sudden and surprising”; that ship sailed a long time in the past. Remake centered an enormous part of its plot across the Whispers, supernatural beings trying to maintain the “story” on observe; on the finish of the sport, Cloud and firm actually kill them. It’s Aerith herself who claims that this opens up the potential for “boundless, terrifying freedom.”
They could as effectively whisper in your ear, “This time it is perhaps totally different. This time it can save you her.”
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Rebirth leans into this simply as arduous from the very first second, when a newly alive Zack cradles a seemingly lifeless Aerith’s physique within the actual pose Cloud used to cradle her corpse in 1997, as her hair ribbon is undone and the White Materia clatters to the ground in extremely close-up. “Will Aerith die?” will not be the solely motor driving Rebirth’s story, however it’s by far one of many strongest and loudest, notably for gamers of the unique. As I performed the sport, I’m ashamed to confess, I felt a sure… vigilance, searching for any signal of what the plot was going to do.
The sport’s last hours actually start when the occasion heads again to the Gold Saucer looking for the Keystone that opens the Temple of the Ancients. Simply as within the unique, Cloud is requested on a date by a celebration member, however not like within the unique, a part of this date is taking in a present: a manufacturing of Loveless, a play that has haunted the background of the FF7 metaseries by a number of video games. On the finish of this stage present, Aerith sings the sport’s theme tune for the viewers whereas the occasion members who took half within the QTE minigame of the present itself watch from the wings.
Y’all, the literal title of the tune is “No Guarantees to Preserve.”
Even a tiny little bit of scrutiny reveals the lyrics are Aerith writing about her relationship with Cloud: “I received’t say that it was destiny / I received’t say that it was future / but when not, what may or not it’s / that drew you in the direction of me?” She goes on to sing about how she needs she may have lived with out “all of the burdens I used to be born to bear / lived a life with out a care / on this planet save for you.”
Aerith’s rising sense of duty and even guilt about her function because the final dwelling Historical is a constant thread in Rebirth, from her self-recriminating frustration on the White Materia being empty to her declaration to the festival-goers in Cosmo Canyon that, because the final of the Cetra, she has a duty to the Planet. Even the story of the Gi tribe, new materials for Rebirth that paints the Cetra in a significantly much less flattering mild, entails their chief charging Aerith because the final of her race.
In each the unique and Rebirth, Aerith heads to the Forgotten Capital with the White Materia as a result of she firmly believes, because the final of the Ancients, that it’s her obligation and duty to cease Sephiroth’s plans by the Holy spell.
The distinction is available in Remake and Rebirth infusing the ever-popular multiverse/alternate timeline trope into this story. As the ultimate hours of Rebirth strategy, we’ve understood that Zack is alive, however in an alternate timeline the place a rift within the sky heralds the tip instances. Within the occasions on the Temple of the Ancients involving the Black Materia, we discover that Aerith can both inhabit or contact her alternate-timeline selves. Certainly one of them, in reality, offers the absolutely charged White Materia that Cloud takes again to his timeline’s Aerith instead of the empty one she was carrying.
That is the important thing distinction between studying Aerith’s demise in FF7 and studying it in Rebirth: The unique Aerith in 1997 very doubtless had no concept Sephiroth was going to indicate up and homicide her, however it feels as if the Remake-continuity Aerith completely has this data. The alternate Marlene, speaking to Zack, tells him that Aerith revealed to her that she’ll die due to a person with lengthy, grey hair, who will kill her when Cloud isn’t there to stop it. Marlene begs Zack to assist Cloud wake from his coma in order that he can attain Aerith in time to stop this.
Thus we see a distinction between FF7’s Aerith dying a mindless, sudden, surprising demise, and Rebirth Aerith going dutifully to her personal demise within the actual method that Nomura noticed characters had in earlier FFs: sacrificing themselves to avoid wasting others. On stage, Rebirth Aerith sings, “Until the day that we meet once more / at our place, simply let me imagine / within the likelihood that you just’ll come,” however it actually appears as if at this level, she in all probability already is aware of her days are numbered. On the competition of lights in Cosmo Canyon, having spoken of the occasion as “great associates” who got here into her life and confirmed her happiness she hadn’t skilled earlier than, Aerith finishes by saying: “Even if I can’t lead a normal life… there is one thing I can do — return their kindness. And try to make the most of what I’ve been given.”
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Aerith has the power and can to present herself up so others can lead completely satisfied lives, or a minimum of that’s what Rebirth is promoting us. In speaking about “No Guarantees to Preserve,” composer Nobuo Uematsu mentioned that he intentionally disregarded the “ill-fated” and “poignant” melody of “Aerith’s Theme” in favor of writing a tune that confirmed “the other of this, the power at her core.” Her willingness to surrender her newfound happiness and freedom for the sake of her associates and the world is that power.
Which: Advantageous. I didn’t have a horse within the race by hook or by crook on Aerith dying in Rebirth, although I used to be curious how it might all go down. I felt prefer it was simply as doubtless that she would reside or die, in any case; Remake (and Rebirth, as I used to be taking part in it) is filled with examples of the sport hewing to FF7’s unique historical past one second after which bait-and-switch veering sharply off beam the subsequent.
The issue I had, in the long run, is that the sport’s ending, laden with the cursed baggage of the multiverse trope, removes any likelihood of Aerith’s figuring out sacrifice being significant.
Jackson Tyler has already written for Paste about an enormous failing of the sport’s ending sequence: the looming feeling of uncertainty and unsettledness that permeates the endgame occasions. Cloud arrives in time, however Aerith dies anyway… or does she? She’s coated in blood, besides now she’s tremendous, I suppose? After the massive boss battle with Sephiroth(s), she’s laid to relaxation, however we by no means really see the physique or what occurs to it; we simply see Cloud mourning alongside the occasion, however then speaking to an Aerith that solely he seems to have the ability to see. We see Zack again in his doomed timeline, decided to make it again to Cloud and Aerith in some way after encountering them within the Avengers movie-ass last boss sequence.
Is she actually lifeless? What actually occurred? We do not know, and it fucking sucks.
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
To circle again to my unique query, what it means for Aerith to die is that she is gone. That’s the core of her demise within the unique FF7: She very positively, completely, with none doubt is gone from the occasion. After her demise, we don’t see her till the sport’s ending. In reality, Aerith’s face is the final thing we see within the unique FF7, however her presence is felt many instances earlier than this, even simply within the ending sequence. Demise within the FF7 universe — together with within the Remake continuity — is often referred to as “returning to the Planet” or “returning to the Lifestream.” Lore nerds say that as a result of Aerith is a Cetra, from a race of individuals deeply related to the Planet, she will direct the Lifestream itself, and is appearing from past the grave in that method, however the unique sport is cautious to not lean on that too arduous.
Grief exists as a result of we see and listen to and really feel echoes of the lifeless in our lives even after they’re gone, however for that grief to be actual, they should be gone. Within the Rebirth continuity, because of the multiverse, now we have no such closure after Aerith’s deliberate sacrifice. She is perhaps alive, someplace; we would be capable to deliver her again. We’d meet her once more, however perhaps we received’t? Possibly Cloud is simply dreaming her up. Possibly Cloud has House Insanity or one thing, which is why he’s seeing issues the individuals proper subsequent to him can’t. Possibly it’s SOLDIER cell degradation at work, or perhaps Sephiroth continues to be on the market, whispering into his ear! No person is aware of!
Rebirth is a sport that desires to kill Aerith, however for her to not be gone. It needs it each methods, and makes use of the multiverse angle to do it, however in reality, all this does is deeply cheapen the narrative and emotional affect of her demise. As an alternative of having the ability to really feel grief, or disappointment, and even reduction, we’re caught in an emotional limbo. It seems like a pointless tactic to drag us alongside into the remake sequence’ finale partially three, a tactic that actually didn’t must occur. We have been going to observe this by anyway, guys!
I preserve fascinated about what another may seem like. My favourite model is that as an alternative of Aerith, it’s Cloud who dies for good halfway by the sport, which might be extraordinarily unusual, however a minimum of fascinating. Whereas I used to be reviewing the sport I questioned quite a few instances in the event that they have been establishing Tifa to be killed as an alternative, although the scenes on the Gongaga reactor put that to relaxation for essentially the most half.
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Largely I questioned: What wouldn’t it imply for Aerith to reside?
Trendy audiences appear to be very combined on this type of completely satisfied ending. Yussef Cole, discussing Aerith’s death in Rebirth, outright says that “[t]right here’s even a small a part of us that desires her to be saved, regardless that we might by no means admit that, would by no means admit to craving for such a pandering retcon of gaming’s canon.” There’s a sure perspective on this the place Aerith surviving is extra betrayal than constructive change. Cole’s use of the phrase “pandering,” his implication that even wanting this to be true would make us really feel disgrace, is extraordinarily deliberate.
The promise of the multiverse or time-travel hook, story-wise, is often “all of this went incorrect, however you may change it this time!” Japanese RPGs use this story hook liberally, even simply Sq. Enix’s oeuvre. The lesser-used however nonetheless legitimate various is “you may attempt to change issues, however some issues are simply meant to be”; tales about acceptance and adaptation quite than revolutionary change.
That promise is what Remake was promoting us from the soar: not that it would save Aerith, however that it may. The issue is that when it got here time for Rebirth to place up or shut up, it refused. She may nonetheless be on the market! This may nonetheless occur! Nevertheless it won’t. You’ll simply have to remain tuned and discover out in two to 3 extra years. It fucking sucks.
Picture: Sq. Enix through Polygon
Even when it might be pandering, I’d quite see a model the place Aerith is certainly alive than on this ridiculous, MCU-esque limbo of fractured multiverses. That may be one thing that makes the story immediately and sharply soar tracks, simply as Aerith’s demise in FF7 did. If I can’t have that, although — and that’s tremendous — I’d a lot quite have her be really, definitively lifeless. Let me really expertise and course of loss, as an alternative of forcing me to corkboard up conspiracy theories about what might need occurred and be on tenterhooks ready for precise closure.
As Reid McCarter said, the remake continuity usually feels extra cerebral than emotional, “one thing that operates extra on the extent of the mind than the center, which is typically gratifying however in the end works to uninteresting what emotional energy the unique sport holds.” The emotional half issues, although. Grief or disappointment, pleasure or reduction, one thing; I needed Rebirth’s ending to depart me feeling one thing actual, one thing highly effective. As an alternative what I bought was a deep confusion and a gnawing suspicion that, no matter is available in half three to wrap this story up, it should worth “trendy” storytelling tropes and convoluted plot twists way over serving to the participant to truly really feel one thing of their coronary heart.