Aerith Gainsborough – Final Fantasy VII. Twelve Most Memorable Deaths in Video Games
Table of Contents
Game: Final Fantasy VII
Cause of death: stabbed by Sephiroth
Last words: "I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over."
How we'll remember her: as a sympathetic flower girl who lives in harmony with nature, the girl who made us cry for the first time while gripping a controller, and the character we definitely won't spend too much time developing in the upcoming remake of Final Fantasy VII
It's hard to imagine any such summary without mentioning Aerith Gainsborough. She is the last surviving member of the Cetra tribe who is strongly connected to the planet's ecosystem and may be the key to saving it. Players could therefore be sure that she will play a significant role in the plot – especially since the script clearly indicated that there is chemistry going on between the girl and the main character of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife. Because of that, when that very innocent, sweet Aerith was suddenly pierced by a 7-feet sword during a prayer in Forgotten City, mid-way through the game, most players were left in a state of complete shock and utter disbelief.
No wonder: the year was 1997, we were not yet accustomed to such heavy and sad moments in video games, treated as entertainment for kids around that time. For this reason, this death has gained iconic status – it repeatedly appears on the lists of the most emotional scenes in the history of the industry, while fans began to demand the resurrection of the young florist immediately after the game's launch . However, the developers have consistently refused, claiming that their original intention was to provoke a strong reaction from the audience.
Tetsuya Nomura, who designed the character, even admitted that if the players had simply accepted Aerith's fate, the devs would have considered it their professional failure. "Death comes suddenly, without paying attention to good or evil, and leaves not dramatic feelings, but a huge void," he said. "These are the emotions I wanted to evoke." He was 100% successful, because although Final Fantasy VII looks ugly by modern standards, many players still refer to this moment as the saddest experience in their adventure with digital entertainment, and even now, twenty years after the game's launch, they can still cry during the scene of the funeral in the lake.
Although Aerith Gainsborough will forever be associated primarily with Final Fantasy VII, this character has quite an impressive portfolio. She appears not only in several films and books, but also in other games – e.g. Final Fantasy Tactics, several Kingdom Hearts games, while in LittleBigPlanet 2 you can download her character model. Not bad for a heroine who only lasted barely a dozen hours of narrative.
