Oh, the Humanity!
So I’m kind of hoping to piss some people off here. (Things are pretty craptacular at work, I’m in a bad mood, so why not share? ((Okay, not quite so much with the hoping to piss people off, but I’ve done some growing up since the time I first played Final Fantasy VII.)) While FF7 was a watershed in gaming back when, it hasn’t aged particularly well. The notorious localization problems (”Shi’t!” anyone?), the story that was sooooooo compelling then has massive gaping holes in it, the kind that make the Hellas Planitia crater on Mars say “Damn that’s a big hole.”
And then there’s Aeris. Aerith. Earth. Whatever the hell you want to call her (and I’m sticking with Aeris, so mnyah), she’s the flower girl in the pink dress from FF7. You know who I’m talking about. And over the years, I’ve come to hate her. Oh sure, hate’s a strong word, but if the shoe fits. Hate. Everything about her.
No, really.
Why? I’m so glad you asked. She’s a sacrifice, a plot device, a disposable girl. That’s her whole story. Not unwilling, which just makes her even creepier. Everything leading up to the Big Scene at the Forgotten City is designed to make you get all attached and sympathetic so it’s a big shock when she dies and I hate being manipulated like that, seeing the goddamn Plot rolling down on me, the big-ass rock chasing Indy except this time he trips and gets mashed into a fine paste. (Oh, I was pissed at FFXII knowing that Vossler was going to sell me out to the Archadians. Took three hours to get there, and by then I was in a controller-hurling rage.)
And the subtext, dear sweet little frogs and fishes. I don’t care if it was intentional or accidental, it’s still there and hidden under a very thin coat of sweet, sweet lead paint. Cloud’s all woogly about Aeris, wants her to be his girl. But she runs off into the woods in her underwear (no, not really, but it’s the same behavior) and when Cloud finally catches up with her, she gets killed by Sephiroth. Yay, now it’s personal!
Let’s parse this a little, shall we? Aeris is a Nice Girl. She’s pretty. Not very strong physically, but she’s great with the magic, and the first healer the party gets. Very traditionally feminine, especially by video game standards. She gets impaled, penetrated by, Sephiroth’s Big Fucking Sword, not that anyone’s compensating for anything. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes it’s a penis. Then she comes back as the deus ex machina that saves the world, but she doesn’t come back as herself, just this magical force that stops Meteor from killing everything.
Please, please don’t misunderstand me. I loved FF7 back in the day. Played it obsessively. (Okay, so I was riding the ragged edge of psychosis. Shush.) I’ve put over a hundred twenty hours into a single game, grinding out Master Materia, slaughtering the Weapons, raising a gold chocobo, und so weiter. I was all heartbroken when Aeris got skewered. It’s only in retrospect that I came to hate her. But now, oh, how I do.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:00 am
I never played through all of FF7, so while what I did play through I enjoyed, I wasnt hooked or anything. I think I only kind of slightly caught on to the whole “romantic” aspect between that Cloud and Aeris (was it with that Tifa(?) as well? Like I said, I dont think I got much farther than her death scene, so Im not fully qualified to talk about this really). To be honest I think I didnt much care about that aspect of the story anyway, and even if I were to make a choice, I think I much preferred that Tifa over Aeris. The best comparison of my feelings on her that I can come up with is what I also feel about a character (perhaps inspired by Aeris now I think about it, given her name and nature) is one called Aerie from Baldurs Gate II. I dont naturally despise weakness, I just naturally despise her level of weakness. And I think to make it worse, Aerie never stops whining about her lost wings. Ever (so Id say +1 for Aeris there). But I digress. Bottom line is, I think they both have (as I recall someone else putting it, which I quite liked) the constitution of a box of Kleenex, and that whole “pure” thing going on. So I found both of them particularly annoying.
I never cared for the whole “dramatic” death thing either. I have said my piece on it here before, but when I see it “lauded” I get real dismissive about it. It got no substantial reaction from me, because I didnt particularly like that Aeris, and I didnt think that Sephiroth was hot shit either. At my most fanboyish Id probably make a list of all my favourite baddies who could squeeze him like a pimple.
So no outraged reply from me really, since Im inclined to agree with you.
Another thing: while Id agree that its completely true, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing when you wrote Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes it’s a penis. I don’t care if that makes me immature, I needed it, so thanks for that.
Also, thanks to your post I just realised that a book Ive been reading just got rid of a “disposable girl”. Mainly I was just pissed off, as I quite liked her for the short amount of time she was part of the series. Now that Im able to put a good meaning to her stupid death (I never knew that term, even though Ive seen it played out a bajillion times before) Im pissed off about it in a more focused way. So good post Moira, you did share, and Im grateful for it. I think Ill listen to some heavy music now…
October 4th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I found this site that explains the entire FF7 storyline and it’s references — though I’m not sure it’s not entirely rabid-fan justification for stuff that’s not really there. =P
I have a great affection for FF7, though I’m sure that’s mostly nostalgia.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
By the end of FF7, I started hating Cloud…
I never liked FF7 much, despite being a Square fan back before it was cool to be a Square fan.
October 6th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Never really liked Final Fantasy 7. I’m of this generation of FF gamers who think that the height of the series was number 6 (though actually I think 10 might have been as good).
October 7th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I’m a 10 fan as well. I loved FFV11 when I was playing, but the story really bugged me, even then. At least the 10 story made some sort of sense, even in the “I woke up and it was all a dream” sense.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:45 am
My favorite out of the franchise is IX, though I had serious issues with the way Brahne was treated. If she’s human, how the blistering fuck did she end up looking like a troll? Everything else? Pure love. None of the women (or girl) PCs were fanservice-bait, the skill system was a nice change of pace after the deeply obsessive Junction system from VIII, and the village of Black Mages made me cry. A lot. Most people count Vivi as one of the men, but I’m not sure that’s really right. My reading on it was that Quina was both female and male, while Vivi was neither. They call him ‘he’ because they didn’t want to call Vivi an it. My count? Three men,
three womentwo women and a girl, and two of ambiguous gender.Someday I’ll write about my swooning crush on Freya and why I feel vague twinges of guilt about it. Burmecians FTW.
The story of FF Tactics was compelling, but not enough to get me to finish the game. I keep meaning to go back and play that all the way through. ’cause it’s a really good game. If I get that done, maybe then I’ll let myself buy a used copy of Disgaea.
And Doug? Word. Cloud’s a whiny bitch. He didn’t deserve for Zack to save his narrow white ass.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I thought IX was really good until the end; Zidane’s Heroic BSOD just didn’t seem to fit with the way he acted before, and the Save the Villain ending annoyed me. Also, it seemed like the characters didn’t grow that much during the course of the game; Zidane is a dashing hero at the start of the game, and at the end of the game, he’s… a dashing hero. The only character I felt was especially interesting was Amarant.
Still, I did like the game and give it an 8/10 on my personal rating scale. I just find it easier to write about everything that’s wrong with a game instead of what’s right about it.
Oh, and if you’ve never played Disgaea, move it to the top of your priority list. I adore that game’s story; it manages to be both a hilariously funny parody and a drama with real emotional depth. If Terry Pratchett wrote a game script, it might very well look a lot like Disgaea.
October 13th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Yeah, I didn’t like the “save the villian” thing in 9 either, mostly because it’s such a “superhero” stereotype. I mean, dammit, sometimes you should just let the bastards fall to their death okay?
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I just wandered in from the internets at large, and realize this comment is way late, but I just wanted to protest a tiny bit - without infringing on your right to Aeris hating, since she is one of those love ‘em or hate ‘em characters.
***some possible spoilers!***
First, I do agree with your assessment of her role in the original game. She’s a sacrifice and a plot device and God, does she fuel Cloud’s angst. But I get sad at how she, as a person, gets dumped on for her role in the game. Aeris as a character is the safe female, the virginal saint, the mother-figure, the martyr: she’s the ultimate male fantasy of non-threatening femininity, especially when contrasted with - as she inevitably is - with Tifa’s Strong Independent Woman character. But as a person, I’ve always felt she was the more interesting of the two, in terms of backstory, sense of humor, and relationship with Cloud. So I can’t get behind the blanket hatred. Yeah, the symbolism of her character sucked, but that’s how she was made; it wasn’t who she *was*.
Plus, I find the sequels (Advent Children, Crisis Core, and the Kingdom Hearts series) fascinating in their treatment of Aeris. It’s practically an in-world mythology, and while it’s easy to say she’s a “safe” character to pick, Aeris has, in and beyond death, gained more power than the vast majority of other FF characters. I’d argue that she *does* come back as herself, at least in later installments - both in a physical sense, and in that she becomes synonymous with the planet (big ‘P’ and small) and regeneration. She’s the closest thing the FFVII world has to a deity, imo.
I’m not really trying to change your mind; just wanted to give a rebuttal
I do adore Aeris (despite VII being low-ish on my faves list), so consider this comment equally biased.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:34 am
I don’t know … There are definitely problematic aspects of Aeris’ role in the sotry, especially in Midgar. But I can’t get behind condemning her sacrificial role in itself.
I think the commenters comparing her to the Madonna have their aim a little off.
What do we know about her?
She acts humble, but is the most powerful character in battle
She’s half human, half other
She hears the voice of a divine presence
She willingly dies to save the world
She communicates with the living after her death
She foretells and in some nebulous way will lead humans to a paradise, though not beofr eher death.
Aeris isn’t the Madonna. She’s Christ. Not just nay old christ-figure, either, but literally the most christlike figure I can recall seeing in a game.
Is being the supreme being if her seting really *disempowering*?