is a character from the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII by Square (now Square Enix). She has also appeared in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, the wider Final Fantasy series, and the Kingdom Hearts series by Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company. She was designed by Tetsuya Nomura with influence from Yoshinori Kitase, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yoshitaka Amano.
Aerith is a young woman allied with the eco-terrorist organization AVALANCHE. During the group's pursuit of the game's antagonist Sephiroth, it is revealed that Aerith is the last surviving Cetra, or "Ancient", one of the planet's oldest races. She is ultimately murdered by Sephiroth. Aerith has been met with generally positive reception, and her unexpected death is considered to be one of the most memorable scenes in the series.
Concept and design Aerith was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, who based her on an earlier design of Lemure from Final Fantasy V, with influence from director and scenario writer Yoshinori Kitase and Hironobu Sakaguchi, while Yoshitaka Amano created conceptual artwork for her design. She has green eyes and long light ash brown hair tied in a braid with a pink ribbon. She wears a long pink dress, a bolero jacket, and brown hiking boots. The long dress was designed to appear ladylike and contrast with the miniskirt worn by Tifa Lockhart. During development, Aerith was supposed to be Sephiroth's sister, as their designs resembled each other. However, they were made former lovers, with Aerith remembering Sephiroth when meeting Cloud as both are ex-SOLDIERS. Late during development, Aerith's first love was changed to Zack Fair.
Aerith is a white mage, a recurring Final Fantasy class, who uses magic spells to heal her allies in combat. Her green eyes are meant to symbolize nature and contrast with Tifa's red eyes. Nomura did not change much of Aerith's design for Advent Children, but her design was updated in Kingdom Hearts with the removal of her bolero jacket, which made her attire resemble how Amano had originally drawn her. Other changes included the addition of bracelets and a belt. Nomura modified her dress in Before Crisis, adding white and green colors; this version was also used as the basis for her design in Kingdom Hearts II.
Aerith's original Japanese name is . This was transliterated to "Aeris" in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics and "Aerith" in later products. However, official Japanese material uses the spelling "Aerith",Final Fantasy VII instruction manual, CharactersV Jump Final Fantasy VII the PerfectFinal Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania and developers stated that "Aerith" is a near-anagram of "Earth".
In Final Fantasy VII, Aerith was to be one of only three protagonists alongside Cloud and Barret Wallace. During a phone call to Kitase, it was suggested that at some point in the game, one of the main characters should die, and after much discussion as to whether it should be Barret or Aerith, the producers chose Aerith. Nomura stated in a 2005 Electronic Gaming Monthly interview: "Cloud's the main character, so you can't really kill him. And Barrett... well, that's maybe too obvious". While designing Final Fantasy VII, Nomura was frustrated with the "perennial cliché where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love". He found this trope appeared in both films and video games from North America and Japan, and asked "Is it right to set such an example to people?" (abridged online edition) Kitase concluded: "In the real world things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. When you lose someone you feel this big empty space and think, 'If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently'. These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood".
According to Nomura, "death should be something sudden and unexpected, and Aerith's death seemed more natural and realistic". He said: "When I reflect on Final Fantasy VII, the fact that fans were so offended by her sudden death probably means that we were successful with her character. If fans had simply accepted her death, that would have meant she wasn't an effective character". From the original release of the game, rumors have circulated that Aerith can be resurrected in or that the original plan was to have her come back, but this was scrapped in development. Nomura has categorically stated that neither of these rumors were ever true, as he said that "the world was expecting us to bring her back to life, as this is the classic convention". A lengthy petition asking for Aerith's revival by Japanese players was sent to Kitase, but he dismissed it, pointing out that "there are many meanings in Aerith's death and [her revival] could never happen". Mena Suvari explained that for Advent Children, Aerith was given a motherly feel with an ephemeral presence, and expressed joy for her role.
For Final Fantasy VII Remake, voice actress Briana White studied the acting of Maaya Sakamoto, the Japanese voice of Aerith, to appeal to fans for the English performance of the role.
Voice actresses Aerith is voiced in Japanese by Maaya Sakamoto. In English, she is voiced by Mandy Moore in Kingdom Hearts; Mena Suvari in Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Andrea Bowen in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and the Re Mind DLC of Kingdom Hearts III; and Briana White in Final Fantasy VII Remake, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Musical theme
"Aerith's Theme", a leitmotif associated with Aerith and written by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, is used several times throughout Final Fantasy VII. It is first heard during the flashback scenes with Aerith's mother at her house and also plays as she is killed by Sephiroth. The piece "Flowers Blooming in the Church" is based on the theme.
"Aerith's Theme" is popular among Final Fantasy fans and has inspired orchestral and piano versions, as well as a vocal rendition performed by the artist Rikki, who also sang "Suteki Da Ne" for Final Fantasy X. A piano arrangement of the theme appears twice in Advent Children; the opening phrase of "Aerith's Theme" appears prior to the climax of the track "Divinity II", whose final line is the Latin phrase "Sola Dea fatum novit" ("Only the goddess knows fate"), and it is also featured during the end credits of the film. The theme also shares similarities with the track "Water". It has been reinterpreted on the OverClocked ReMix Final Fantasy VII compilation Voices of the Lifestream. In 2013, "Aerith's Theme" was voted third place in the Classic FM Hall of Fame poll for classical music.
Appearances Final Fantasy VII Aerith Gainsborough is first introduced as a florist who briefly converses with Cloud Strife, a mercenary working for the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, as he flees the group's bombing of a Mako reactor. The two later meet in Aerith's church in the Sector 5 slums, where the Turks attempt to capture her. Aerith asks Cloud to be her bodyguard, offering a date in return. She is eventually apprehended but ultimately rescued by Cloud and his allies. Aerith then joins them in the pursuit of Sephiroth, while also embarking on her own journey of self-discovery.
After a failed attempt to foil Sephiroth's theft of the Black Materia, Aerith ventures alone into the Forgotten City. Cloud and his companions pursue her and eventually find her praying at an altar. As Aerith looks up to smile at Cloud, Sephiroth appears and kills her by impaling her through the torso. Cloud carries Aerith's body out into a lake in the Forgotten City and releases her back to the Planet. Reeve Tuesti, the head of Shinra Urban and Development, brings the news of her death to Elmyra Gainsborough, Aerith's adoptive mother. The party later learns why Aerith was in the Forgotten City; through her White Materia, Aerith was able to summon Holy, the only force capable of repelling the ultimate destructive magic, Meteor, which Sephiroth has summoned.Bugenhagen: It says, when the time comes, we must search for "Holy". / Cloud: Holy? / Bugenhagen: Holy... the ultimate White Magic. Magic that might stand against Meteor. Perhaps our last hope to save the planet from Meteor. Cloud: Aeris has already prayed for Holy. ... She said, she was the only one who could stop Sephiroth...... And to do that, there was a secret here... That was Holy...... That's why, she had the White Materia. Although Aerith successfully casts Holy before her death, the spell is held back by the power of Sephiroth's will. When Sephiroth is finally defeated and Holy is released, it appears that it is too late to function effectively, as Meteor is approaching the Planet's surface. While Holy clashes with Meteor and attempts to prevent its impact, the gravity of both Meteor and the Planet, pulling on Holy in opposite directions, weakens it. Aerith is seen praying whilst urging the Lifestream to defend the planet. The Planet's Lifestream then flows forth, intervening between Holy and Meteor and aiding in the destruction of Meteor.
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII In Before Crisis, which is set several years prior to the events of Final Fantasy VII, Aerith becomes the target of the original incarnation of AVALANCHE, led by Elfé, who seek to prevent Shinra from acquiring the last surviving Cetra. Instead, AVALANCHE intend to use her to learn the whereabouts of the Promised Land for their own purposes, although a member of the Turks tries to protect her.
Aerith makes a few appearances in the CGI film Advent Children as a hallucination in Cloud's mind, urging him to move on with his life and forgive himself for the tragedies that were beyond his control. During one such introspection, Cloud imagines Aerith speaking to him in an open meadow laden with flowers, poking fun at how he needlessly burdens himself with the past.Aerith: So, why did you come? / Cloud: I think ... I want to be forgiven, more than anything. / ... / Cloud: But... I let you die... / Aerith: Dilly dally, shilly shally. One of Aerith's interactions with Cloud comes when each member of the original game's party helps in Cloud's final attack against Bahamut SIN; he imagines she appears as the last party member to assist him. When Cloud hangs between life and death after his battle with Sephiroth, her and Zack Fair can be heard referring to Cloud as a child "too big to adopt" before returning him to the living world. She appears again in the final scene of the film, along with Zack Fair, where she gives Cloud more words of encouragement before she and Zack walk into the light.Aerith: You see? Everything's all right. Near the end of the film, it is discovered that water mixed with the Lifestream flows beneath the flowerbed in Aerith's church, which manifests as a cure for a disease called Geostigma.
The On the Way to a Smile novella "Case of the Lifestream – Black & White" focuses on Aerith and Sephiroth's respective journeys through the Lifestream after the end of the game but before the events of the film. The "Black" section deals with Sephiroth, and the "White" with Aerith.