You called Aerith a mcguffin and said that you could write her out of the story and it would essentially be the same when asked about her role in the Lifestream. Do you believe that in generall about her character or just in rebirth?
Well let's be clear about what I think exactly, because I don't want it to come across as though I think the entirety of Aeriths character can be dismissed as JUST a Mcguffin, that's mostly a rhetorical oversimplification made to hold up a mirror to the people who try to diminish Tifas role. It's easy to minimize a character if you're willing to be unreasonable. Calling Aerith a mere "Mcguffin" is a slightly teasing but ultimately facetious way to say "two can play at that game" and if they want to play that game, this is where that road leads. But I do think people overstate Aeriths central importance to FFVII.
Buckle up, this reply became a LOT longer than expected.
Aerith is a layered character and has a bunch of things going on in her personal story. Her internal struggles concerning Zack being a big one, her coming to terms with her identity as an ancient is another. But that story still centers on her, not the games central narrative: Cloud's internal struggles with himself, and his external conflict with Sephiroth.
When I talk about Aerith and Mcguffins I am talking specifically about the parts of her character that are needed for the core story of FFVII to function. That being the internal conflict of Cloud - which explores themes of inadequacy and accepting ones own weakness and humanity to become a fully realized human being - and the external conflict against Clouds philosophical opposite Sephiroth, stretching from the event of Nibelheim to the stopping of meteor. I would also add in Shinra as another representation of the antithesis of the games central lesson.
Despite Aerith being a main character, and having a lot of narrative importance, the things that actually make her important to the external fight against Sephiroth, and the internal fight for Clouds soul, could have been reasonably achieved by replacing her with a McGuffin without fundamentally altering the central Cloud/Tifa/Sephiroth arc. Doing so would certainly change some of the symbolic and thematic weight, but the core plot would remain intact.
I also was talking specifically about Aerith in the original game, NOT rebirth. I think Aerith was actually given an internal emotional role in remake and rebirth that was not present in the OG, and which could not be achieved through a Mcguffin, more on this later.
Lets start with the OG.
Lets go down the list of events needed in the OG to tell the basic story of Cloud and his mission to stop Sephiroth, and analyze their function in the story.
1: Cloud fails to protect a girl he likes and the resulting feelings of inadequacy cause him to attempt to join SOLDIER to get her to notice him.
This starts Clouds character journey and sets up the main internal theme going forward. Self-acceptance. This is important to the main story because this event defines the main story. All other events are judged in relation to this. If it's necessary to tell this story, it's crucial, if it's not, it's either a secondary story, or else additives meant to make the main story more encompassing.
2: Cloud fails to get into SOLDIER, Sephiroth destroys Nibelheim and injures Tifa, Cloud gets experimented on and takes on a fake SOLDIER personality.
These events are necessary because they set-up the cause and context of Clouds psychology. It establishes the price of failure, the cause of trauma, and both the mechanical and psychological causes of Clouds strange behavior throughout the game. It's important that Tifa specifically gets injured because in her lies the genesis of Clouds character arc. It HAS to be the same girl that Cloud started this entire journey for, aka Tifa. Without her there is no psychological through line connecting the original incident with the continuation. Because it's Tifa, the girl he loves, Cloud hides his face. Because he hides his face the stories main mystery is born.
Now interestingly the death of Zack in particular is NOT needed. The death of some, potentially nameless, SOLDIER as a McGuffin to get Cloud to have a fake personality is needed. But the events in Nibelheim themselves are enough to potentially justify the trauma and subsequent jenova experimentation that leads to Clouds fake personality. Zack - as a character - is only needed to flesh out a different story, namely that of Aerith. Clouds trauma and fake personality being based on deeply worked out character is only needed to give context and emotional weight to Aeriths character-arc. Clouds fake personality being based on her ex gives layers to her character, her behavior, and her struggles. But those things serve to deepen Aeriths story, not Clouds, not FFVIIs core story UNLESS you consider Zerith to be part of the core of FFVII. It's interesting that Aerith and Zack are only not McGuffins inside their own story, for them to really matter, Zerith has to be granted massive importance.
3: Tifa finds Cloud, notices his behavior is off, and enlists him into fighting Shinra.
This starts the game, and Tifa being Tifa is essential. It has to be the girl with the connection, the girl that started it all, the girl for whom the fake persona was created. Again Tifa as a character is crucial. Aerith, so far, is irrelevant.
4: They bomb some reactors. Start a guerilla style war with Shinra. Cloud falls into the Slums, meets Aerith. Aerith is taken by Shinra, Avalance attacks Shinra HQ.
What is important here is that the game sets up the duality between Shinra, the faceless sterile steel company that - rather than living in peace with nature - drains the planet dry. And "Aerith", the representation of the planet, nature, and life. But what's important here is that Aerith serves as more of a symbol than a character. The themes she embodies could just as easily have been embodied by some sort of animal sprite, or even a crystal representing the lifestream or some other McGuffin representing the spirit of nature or some such such as the white materia.
Without Aerith we'd need to find a different justification for assaulting SHINRA HQ, but as we were already at war with them that doesn't seem too difficult. Them dropping the plate is enough reason, but kidnapping the hypothetical "spirit of nature" would also serve.
5: In Shinra HQ we find JENOVA and discover that Sephiroth is still alive. This changes the direction of the game and we chase after him.
Again nothing about this requires Aeriths character. We just happened to be in the building to save Aerith, but our reason to chase Sephiroth predates that, that's Tifa and Clouds story. Without Aerith we'd still chase Sephiroth.
6: In Kalm we get exposition on what happened in Nibelheim, informing the player of the main conflict of the game.
Again, Cloud and Tifas story. Aerith doesn't really add anything here. Sephiroth thought he was an ancient, and Aeriths existence gives context to that. But Aerith doesn't need to exist for Sephiroth to believe he's part of some ancient race, and he's shown to be only half right regardless.
7: We follow Sephiroth across the world and discover he plans to use a doomsday weapon to destroy the planet, Clouds condition deteriorates.
The next part of the game is a relatively straight forward adventure where we meet new team members and explore their own stories and ties to the main story. Honestly you could do just about anything here and nothing about the core story would change. What matters is we chase Sephiroth, see strange behavior from Cloud that is explored through his dynamic with Tifa, and that Sephiroth obtains an ancient materia that can destroy the planet. In this part of the game Aerith has a fun time bonding with Cloud, but stuff like the gold saucer dates aren't necessary. While Clouds interactions with Tifa tie into the main Nibelheim based mystery of the game, Aeriths interactions only tie into the story of Cloud in relation to Zack. Even if you think Aerith falls in love with Cloud, or vice versa, none of that has any relevance to the core plot (since she dies either way and nothing comes of it), ONLY to the expanded character of Zack. Her relation to Zack and how she deals with his absence is what her potential feelings for Cloud here explores, it has zero impact in terms of pushing Clouds internal arc to new places. As stated before, Zacks importance as a character is because of his connection to Aerith, and Aeriths dynamic as a character during this part of the game is only relevant to the connection she has with Zack. For Cloud and Sephiroths stories this is completely irrelevant aside from potentially in that it serves as a red-herring obstacle for the "I'm trying to get Tifa to notice me" part of the main plot.
Honestly this might not even deserve a bullet point. This event hurts the player. But what does it do for the story? The team was chasing Sephiroth before, the team will chase Sephiroth afterwards. Cloud was breaking down mentally before, Cloud will continue to break down mentally afterwards. It wasn't Aeriths death that finally broke Cloud, it was the visit to the illusionary nibelheim and losing Tifas faith in who he is. Aerith dying serves to increase the hatred we have for Sephiroth, and as the last of her ancient race there are definitely some meanings there that make the entire debacle more poignant and tragic. But a big theme of Aeriths death is the suddenness and pointlessness of it. Aeriths death isn't really needed in either the external or internal plot of FFVII, it exists in isolation, an event whose necessity only exists for the themes of the event itself. A living Aerith could just have easily summoned holy, a sprite of nature could have died and helped us from beyond the lifestream. This is what I mean when I talk about Aerith being a McGuffin. She's needed mainly for one thing, summoning holy. For everything else she serves mainly as a symbol, a tool to get the audience to feel angry or sad, or as a way to simply flesh out already existing parts of the story, EXCEPT in her own story in relation to Zack.
9: Cloud breaks mentally and hands the black materia to Sephiroth during their first encounter with the big bad. Meteor is summoned.
This part of the story follows the classic Campbellian story structure where the initial confrontation with the big bad fails because the hero has not yet discovered some secret or revelation that will grant him the resolution of his inner struggles required to overcome the external obstacle. Buy again, neither the failure, not the solution, nor anything about this section of the story needs Aerith to exist as a character, and in fact in this part of the story she's barely mentioned.
10: Tifa saves Cloud in the lifestream. He comes to terms with his humanity.
The next crucial element for the story to function is the revelation, Cloud has to obtain the knowledge needed to become a fully realized character, this happens in the lifestream sequence where he discovers the truth about Nibelheim, confronts his failure to enter SOLDIER, and accepts his human limitations. All of this revolves around Tifa, Aerith is nowhere in sight. Clouds state of supreme happiness is revealed to be one where he can fulfil "the promise", thereby reaching "the promised land". Which is a spiritual state of being rather than a physical location.
Now as the "guide to the promised land" Aerith should have some role here to get Cloud to said point, as some sort of spiritual matchmaker, but in the OG this isn't very present outside of her general actions during the journey, though I expect Rebirth will expand on this.
What matters most though is that by accepting the past and his own flawed self Cloud concludes the inner story arc set up at the very start, thereby obtaining the final boon, "self-acceptance", and through that Tifas affection, or rather, the realization that said affection was always with him from the start. Tifa herself mirrors this arc, she has to confront the same realities, and obtains the same boon, by confronting the past she discovers that the man in front of her IS the Cloud from her past, and that he loved her all along.
All the stuff about fighting WEAPON isn't needed for the main story, it's fluff. It expands the worldbuilding and fits in with the general themes of the story and humanity potentially being an enemy of the planet. But they're not crucial, they're filler.
11: Confrontation with Shinra
Conversely a final confrontation with Shinra is required. As one of the ideological pillars standing against our heroes the Shinra company needs to be confronted one last time. But this confrontation is the purview of AVALACHE, not Aerith. Aerith could have a final confrontation with HOJO concerning her own history with them, but in the OG this never happens, she's not even present, and if Aerith wasn't a character, then her confronting Shinra also wouldn't be needed. Again Aerith isn't essential to this part of the story. The crucial figures here are once again Cloud and Tifa, because the stories foundation rests on how Shinras actions pulled them apart and started their journey back in NIbelheim. The other characters all have their own demons that need to be confronted in shinra. Barret, Yuffie, Cid, Vincent, Caith Sith, (Aerith), they all have their own stories to conclude there, but only Tifa and Clouds story is the one that's foundational for the entire game.
12: Using their newfound connection the team of "ordinary people" defeat Sephiroth.
Using everything they've learned over their journey our heroes, led by Cloud, now fully realized through the conclusion of his arc with Tifa, confront Sephiroth. Together they and their friends now have the power to stop the big bad. Again, Aerith isn't really a presence here. She's semi-forced into the narrative by having Sephiroth actively stopping her cast of holy. It's the pair of Cloud and Tifa, whose story started the main inner conflict, and resolved the inner conflict, that have to confront the shared external demon that destroyed their home town and killed their loved ones. All the others are fighting for their own reasons, and Aeriths death is a uniting one, but only Cloud and Tifas reason is the core of the game.
Here we get to Aeriths defining role in the external plot. She casts holy, and it fails.....
Luckily though, the planet itself rises up and the lifestream spills forth to stop Meteor, arguably because of Aeriths interference from the lifestream, presumably she pleaded with the planet to help or something. This is an important part of the story, but also a pretty insular plot point, which is why it can be said Aerith functions as a holy summoning McGuffin. While the lifestream rising up to save the day is thematically essential, the reason for it to show up could pretty easily be rewritten. If Aerith had just been some animal sprite "the kindness we showed it in life" could still serve as a justification for the planet to conclude we're worth saving. If Aerith were replaced with just the white materia as a McGuffin the argument that the beautiful memories seen between Tifa and Cloud filling the materia were enough to move the lifestream into action or some other deus-ex-machina ass pull would serve equally well.
So while Aerith is very relevant to the plot of FFVII, she's not actually crucial. She serves three main functions.
1: As a tangible Jungian representation of the philosophies that stand in opposition to Sephiroth and Shinra, that being harmony with nature, humanity, oneself, and the planet, all the generic spiritual good stuff.
2: As a jump sad, a - I won't say cheap, but - effective way to pull emotions from the player and get them angry, sad, and invested.
3: A McGuffin to summon holy.
A lot of the emotional weight that the player feels concerning Aeriths character is because of her death, not because of her plot in FFVII. The death of Aerith was such a shock that it started living a life of its own, to the point where people seem to think Aeriths death is the pivotal moment of FFVII, the moment the plot revolves around. But it never was, that was the point. It was sudden and unnecessary and did nothing for the plot, that's what made it real. That realness made it stick, it made it memorable, which then made people obsess over it, which then made it hyper prominent in subsequent entries, poisoning the original message.
And as a result Aeriths death, or rather the chance to stop it, became a focal point of Rebirth, something that's used cheaply - I will say it here - to "carrot-on-a-stick" style bait the player into getting invested.
It is now not uncommon to hear entire discussions about changing fate that revolve around nothing except potentially saving Aerith, to the point where the two become synonymous;
"If we don't change fate, then what's the point?".
What they really mean is:
"if we can't save Aerith then what's the point?".
As though Aeriths death is the foundation of the story, the event that everything leads to and revolves around.
And in a sense they're right, because in Remake and Rebirth SE intentionally baits the player into thinking it does. Because SE knows people are obsessed with that, and so used that to bait people into thinking changing destiny must mean saving Aerith. So rather than Aerith being a character that - despite not being crucial to the plot - was at least a quirky and beloved part of the story, she instead became a plothook grabbing attention away from what was once a complex but ultimately straightforward and grounded story. All these things were done to capitalize on Aeriths popularity, or rather the infamy of her death, and no character is hurt worse by it than Aerith herself. Remake made it so she's no longer a glorified McGuffin, and that's great, but in doing so the remake made her into something far worse, cheap engagement bait.
