Why is Aeris' death so significant?
One of the most common comments one hears from less enlightened critics of FF7 is "all Sephiroth did was kill a flower girl". The critic will usually go on to say that his favourite villain did something far better and that the reaction Aeris' death has received is completely uncalled for. It goes without saying that these people have clearly missed something important, but what, exactly?
Aeris' death is a masterpiece of storytelling. To begin with, let's look at the setup: the timing and location.
Before Aeris dies, she goes missing. Cloud knows where she is and what she is doing. She has gone to the City of the Ancients to pray for Holy, the one thing that can stop Sephiroth. When they get there and see her, the party is naturally relieved. However, a danger immediately presents itself. Cloud is possessed and attacks Aeris with his sword. However, for the first time in the game, he is able to pull himself together and shake off Sephiroth's control. Once this is done, Cloud faces Aeris whilst she prays. The danger is over, it seems. They look into each other's eyes and all is at peace. Then, out of nowhere, disaster strikes. No music is playing at the time, which highlights the sudden violence of the act and the fact that is comes with no warning. The scene changes before the player realises what is going on and the player is left with a sense of helplessness and shock. What just happened? She died so quickly and so unexpectedly? Anyone who has ever lost a person, except maybe when they died after a very long and drawn-out illness, can attest to the stopping power of death. The more quickly and unexpectedly it happens, the greater the stunning effect. The timing is perfect.
It is also no accident that Sephiroth kills Aeris in a holy place whilst she is praying. It many cultures, holy places are places of sanctuary. Killing someone in a place of sanctuary is not only a crime against the murder victim, it is a crime against the gods. There are few crimes worse than killing someone in a sanctuary because it violates the one place in which people should feel safe. This adds to the feeling of helplessness created by the suddenness of her death. If one can not be safe in a place of sanctuary, where can one be safe? If she had been killed in a random town or on the world map, the effect would not have been the same, in much the same way that being attacked in an unfamiliar place tends to have less of an affect on people than being attacked in their homes. Sephiroth shows that he has no respect for any laws and is willing and able to kill anyone at any time and in any place.
In fact, it is even worse than this. She was not only in a sanctuary and praying, but she was praying for the one things that could save the world. The only hope the world has seems to be shattered at that point. Sephiroth has seen her in the middle of the only plan for victory, something Aeris' may have spent year preparing for, and has ruthlessly destroyed that hope with an overwhelming display of shock and awe. This adds even more to the helplessness. There was one plan, one thing that could stop him, and he took seconds to foil it.
We should also look at how this affects Cloud. He has been at the mercy of Sephiroth for years, and mercy is something Sephiroth lacks. It seems to be yet another item in a long line of crimes against Cloud that Sephiroth has committed. Cloud must be wondering why Sephiroth has such a grudge against him. Sephiroth burnt down Cloud's hometown, breaking all his link to the past and killing his mother. Sephiroth had used Cloud as a puppet and was already making him doubt who he was and whether he was in control of his actions. One wonders whether it was simply out of sadism that Sephiroth allowed AVALANCHE to get the black materia instead of sending a flunky to solve the puzzles for him. Perhaps Sephiroth got some joy from letting Cloud think he was saving the world and then forcing him to hand it over, leading him to think instead that he doomed the world.
This must be the greatest crime against Cloud that Sephiroth commits. As we have seen, his timing is brilliant. He lets Cloud think that everything is OK and that he has finally overcome Sephiroth's control. Then, WHAM! In an instant, Cloud's world is torn apart and for the second time, the most important person in his life is killed by Sephiroth.
Let's also look at the significance of Aeris' character. Had any of the characters been murdered in the City of the Ancients, it would have hit the player hard. But Aeris has a special significance.
Firstly, her personality is bright and cheerful, and she is innocent and well-meaning. Although she knows how to defend herself, Aeris is likely to be the character the player feels most protective towards. It is no surprise that in visual novels, the cute, kind and innocent girl who does her best to make everyone happy will nearly always be the perpetrator or the victim of some horrible crime. Usually both. We feel especially violated when these characters are involved in violence because of our image of them. Aeris was not only killed in a sanctuary; she *was* a sanctuary. Aeris is the antithesis of pain, violence and death, so it is all the more shocking when she is killed.
However, that is not the most important thing about her character that one must note. The most important thing is her role in the wider world of FF7.
Firstly, she is the last of her kind. This means that Sephiroth not only commits murder; he commits genocide. He has finished off the last Cetra in existence.
Secondly, Aeris, as a Cetra, has a unique effect on the world of FF7. FF7 has an environmental message, and it is made clear by many characters, both good and bad, that humans are bad for the planet. They suck out its life to use as energy and they were the ones seen by Sephiroth as responsible for the near extermination of the Cetra 2000 years ago.
Aeris is the opposite of this. I couldn't help but notice just how much of a contrast there was between where Aeris lived and the rest of Midgar. Midgar is the ultimate example of the harm that humans are doing to the planet. There are only two places in Midgar where flowers grow and only two places in the slums where one sees sunlight: Aeris' house and the church in sector 5. If one runs around in the sector 5 slums, one will be conscious of the massive change in atmosphere when one goes from the seedy, dead, brown cityscape of the rest of the slum and into Aeris house. The change is huge. Aeris seems to be the one thing that can make flowers grow in the slums and, as we have seen earlier, offers respite from the gloom of day-to-day life in Midgar. Her job as flower girl is interesting because only she can be a flower girl. Without Aeris, I cannot see the flowers blooming for much longer in Midgar.
Aeris, then represents hope and life within the FF7 world. Where everything else is dangerous, she is safe. Where everywhere else is brown and dead, her places are green and blooming. As long as Aeris is around, flowers can grow in the most depressing place in the world, and hope can not die.
Therefore, Sephiroth not only killed the planet's hope by stopping her from summoning Holy, he killed it by killing its human form. He killed the one thing that made everything better. He put out the one light in a world of darkness.
Let's see Kefka top that.
Questions? Comments? inb4 "hurr, emo"
