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What If: Aerith Never Died by Sephiroth's Blade?

February 02, 2010 in Blog comments 23

Game Podunk introduces a new editorial series, "What If," where Podunk editors formulate bizarre, far-fetched, and possibly believable outcomes to popular questions that gamers ponder when playing their games. For the first "What If" series, Podunk editors grab a rather unforgettable scene from the beloved game, Final Fantasy VII, in light of the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII.

So sit back and enjoy some of the strange answers to: "What If: Aerith Never Died by Sephiroth's Blade?"

Scenario 1: Aerith's Dark Intentions Revealed!

Sephiroth wasn't planning on killing Aerith but rather meeting up with her, then we find out that she was just using the AVALANCE members to make her plans of destroying the planet. Sephiroth wasn't the real villain but rather Aerith's right hand man. So instead of just fighting the idol he used to look up to, Cloud would have to take on the flower girl from the slums whom he might have had feelings for. Would Cloud be able to take her on? No one really knows. But it is likely that if he wasn't able to that, Tifa would have no problem doing the job.

Scenario 2: Sephiroth Pulls Trump Card on Cloud.

Cloud was the murderer, courtesy of Sephiroth's mind control, of Aerith. When he snaps out of the daze he is in and realizes what he has done, Cloud leaves the gang and sets off to find and kill Sephiroth. But the gang, not aware that it was Cloud who killed Aerith or that his mind was being messed with, tags along unknown to the spiky hair man. When the final confrontation occurs and Cloud sees his friends are there to help him, Sephiroth pulls out his trump card. He informs the group of what really happened to Aerith and when they ask Cloud to confirm or deny it, he can't. Sephiroth then promises them a guaranteed high position in his rule over the Promised Land as long as they kill Cloud. Blinded by the anger from their dear friend's death by him, they kill Cloud and the world is destroyed.
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Most recently commented on by on Feb 4, 2010

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  • 0
    ThreeTwoFiveSix Feb 2, 10
    Scenario 1 sounds good to me.
  • 1
    Dragoshi1 Feb 2, 10
    VII wouldn't be as popular if she was still alive.
  • 1
    reaver11 Feb 2, 10
    If she hadn't died, games would be very different nowadays, as well as every subsequent FF game.
  • 1
    ThreeTwoFiveSix Feb 2, 10
    Yeah, I agree.. Aerith's death is pretty iconic for FFVII and the Final Fantasy series in general.
  • 1
    Burning Dread Feb 2, 10
    True, her death is one of the most memorable scenes in gaming history. And her death made people love/hate Sephiroth even more.
  • 0
    Hideo1 Feb 2, 10
    I think this would have more of an effect on the game's popularity and fanbase more than it would the story, since her death was what made the game what it is, so without it it would be just another Final Fantasy behind whichever other game (most like 8) became the most popular in aforementioned alternate reality.
  • 0
    Zeta Feb 3, 10
    No, she needed to die. That scene made the game feel more real than just having a happy ending.
  • 0
    chautemoc Feb 3, 10
    Whoah, spoilers.
    • 0
      BANDITO ATTACK Feb 3, 10
      people who never even heard of ff7 already know aeris died
  • 0
    RabidChinaGirl Feb 3, 10
    She needed to die so I didn't need to level her anymore. FF7 had no likable female archetypes for me; Tifa was close, but then she kept pining after an idiot.
  • 0
    skygear75 Feb 3, 10
    It would have been crazy if she did end up becoming a villain like the Sephiroth that is respected today.
  • 0
    Storm Feb 3, 10
    Hahaha, the title can certainly spur a lot of good replies. xD

    If she didn't die from Sephy's blade, she would have died by Sephy's hair. :S
  • 1
    Bale Fire Feb 3, 10
    These scenarios are pretty silly. I would have gone for Aerith actually being Jenovah in disguise, or using Yuffie to take over the world, or just use her White Magic to make an entirely CGI film where Cloud is emo and no one knows how the laws of physics work.
    • 1
      Hideo1 Feb 3, 10
      You've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, right? I think as soon as you cross the border into Asia physics is just a blur.
      • 2
        RabidChinaGirl Feb 3, 10
        Lies. My ancestors could totally walk on water.
  • 0
    Chais Feb 3, 10
    Aerith dies? Ah crap, now there's no sense in me playing FF7 again. Best plot twist spoiled already.
  • 0
    Ammy and Issun Feb 3, 10
    Video Game characters die every day :/

    I don't see what the big deal is for Aerith
    • 0
      Storm Feb 3, 10
      During those times, it wasn't very common in story-driven games, nor was it common with playable characters. Here I was building Aeris up as I liked her current setup, all to find out the hard way that she gets killed. It was like a turning point, it certainly drove me to want to continue the game. I wasn't exactly depressed about her death, and what I was shocked about was that they killed off a playable character. I was more disappointed with all those hours of training going down the drain. xD
      • 0
        Twin_Master Feb 3, 10
        They're never even alive to begin with. =3
      • 1
        Miss Razz Feb 3, 10
        To add to what Storm said, Aerith's death is iconic for a number of reasons... FFVII was the biggest RPG at the time (arguably it was the RPG that brought the genre into the Western mainstream), so people paid special attention to it. It set the benchmark in alot of ways.
        Aerith was advertised as the main heroine of the game. She was also the party's healer and was being set up as Cloud's main love interest all throughout disc one.

        Players were led to believe that she would be there till the end of the game, that she would be able to fulfill all the dreams she talked about, and possibly even ride off into the sunset with Cloud. Then, all of a sudden, she gets stabbed in the back and dies. No lead up, no hinting, the game's main girl was just...dead.

        It was a big kick to the gut to everyone playing
    • 1
      Hideo1 Feb 3, 10
      She was one of the main characters, you grew attached to her because you trained her up and played with her for so long, it changed the story and motives, said a lot about certain characters in its aftermath and it was a bloody shock because she was the 'happy ending' character, the optimistic glue that held the mostly emo and angry team together. Imagine if you were watching something like Lost and out of nowhere Hurley gets his head ripped off. Or you're watching Heroes and Hiro suddenly gets hit by a truck (most likely thrown by Sylar). It wasn't just a death, it was what defined the game which (many say) defined a genre.

      In case everything else was TL;DR

      (Edit: *bleep*, even my short version is TL;DR )
      • 0
        dwg14390 Feb 4, 10
        I'll make one for you

        TL;DR
        You spent hours leveling her up. You spent alot of time listening to her goals/backstory/etc. You spent all that time with her. Sephiroth gets bitchy. Seph kills Aerith. You go wtf.

        So all that time working with a main character to just die like that was totally unexpected and was one of the many things that made FFVII great and changed storytelling in games.

        Sorry bud, your princess isn't in another castle....she's dead.
        • 1
          Hideo1 Feb 4, 10
          That was still too long

          How about this

          TL;DR
          Play the damn game or look it up before talking about things you clearly don't know

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