#final fnatasy

[ethernalium]

[dochollibee]

Clill

[koyoriin]

Another FFXIV character commission! Thank you Laconfir (on Twitter) for the commission!

http://twitter.com/koyoriin http://patreon.com/koyorin http://instagram.com/koyori_n http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=12576068

[kyuubipandorachan]

~And Sephiroth had speedily slam dunked the box of what Aerith had already known were condoms in his room.~

Flustered Sephiroth from the latest chapter of this fanfic https://archiveofourown.org/works/28541319

[notaplushtoy]

03

“Beware scoundrels of the lioness who prowls the sands of Thanalan.“

[thanatophobia-thoughts]

Oh, Final Fantasy VII.

The original was considered a game changer back in its day. It wasn’t the first one I recall playing, that honor belongs to FFVIII. FFVII isn’t even my favorite one, but it was many things to the world, and many things to me, all the same.

My favorite two characters were Aerith Gainsborough and Red XIII, or Nanaki. I usually renamed him on additional playthroughs to be his actual name, the way I’d rename “Garnet” in FFIX to Sarah when given the chance.

What does FFVII have for death anxiety?

It has Aerith Gainsborough.

She is a main character that dies permanently in the course of the game. In the game, there is a mechanic for revival known as “Phoenix Down” or Life magic. Neither of these could restore her, suggesting the Phoenix Down and Life magics only “wake up” someone from being knocked out, not actually restore life.

This game has been out forever, so if that’s a spoiler for you, I’m sorry. I’m not sure if the FFVII Remake is going to go that direction, as the game has already gone off the rails of the original FFVII, so who’s to say. This isn’t going to talk about the remake, either.

This is probably not the first time a game killed a main character, but the impact of it was notable. I think it surprised the fanbase, especially given how important a role Aerith is made to play in the course of the first disc. Like Eddard Stark or Robb Stark’s death in Game of Thrones, few people saw it coming.

That’s now how these games went.

The good guys win, the bad guys don’t.

And the bad guys didn’t win.

Aerith’s story is a story to show how your actions live on after your death. Yes, there’s a lot of magic involved here, but it’s still a good story to show that you can have an impact after you die, whether because of how you die, or because of the choices you made in life.

Prior to her death, Aerith set in motion a chain of events to save the planet that was under attack by Sephiroth. In the game, she does this by more or less, casting a spell known as Holy, and then after her death, using the Lifestream to aid Holy in destroying a meteor destined for the planet. In using the Lifestream, she sort of had to get a lot of other people on board.

What this helps to show is the power of movements.

It shows why it’s also worth starting something in your life, even if you may not finish it. Other people can help where you left off – Aerith starts the process to save the planet, but she can’t finish it. It takes the help of others who find out what she was doing, and continue in her footsteps, to help make it so Holy can work, and so things can move forward.

Aerith didn’t expect to die. The players didn’t expect her to die.

She did – but her efforts are the story of FFVII. Don’t let a fear of death stand in the way of your works. They may outlive you, and that’s not a bad thing.

Other parts of FFVII that deserve some attention, include the fact it is also a story of identity. Cloud Strife starts the game living a lie, thinking that he is someone else. It takes a long time for him to figure out who he actually is, and to then determine who he wants to be. This isn’t Cloud deciding to live a lie – he’s dealing with some amnesia problems and a promise he made to a friend. He slowly dismantles this with the help of his new friends, and comes to figure out who he is, and who he wants to be.

Most of us don’t have that kind of issue of amnesia, but some of us can relate to an identity crisis, and not being who we thought we would be – so watching Cloud struggle with it, and reidentify himself, can be helpful.  

There is also another story of death, in that of Seto, Nanaki’s father.

Nanaki has grown up hating Seto because he thought Seto ran away during a war. It turns out, Seto instead rushed to defend his home, and ended up literally petrified because of it – unable to return home, and dead in all the ways that matter, but a permanent fixture of his courage, and his resolution.

The lesson from this is obvious – Seto chose to sacrifice himself, for the good of others. It’s a position I wish on no one, and I can’t say I would be able to make that decision myself. Nonetheless, I still find that it is actions like these, that tend to give hope and inspiration to many, that there is “good” in the world, because we can acknowledge and see beyond our own lives, to the lives of others, and weigh the importance of the many, over the few.

It also has my favorite song in the entire game at that point: The Great Warrior.  

[super-ether]

[ffxiiicrystarium]