Aerith Gainsborough
Aerith Gainsborough is a character from the 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII by Square. 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 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.[citation needed] 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.
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.
"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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Other appearances
Aerith's character has appeared in several games outside of the Final Fantasy VII continuity. In Final Fantasy Tactics, she appears as a flower girl; when a group of criminals harasses her, Cloud appears and the player engages in battle with the group, letting her escape. Itadaki Street Special features a playable version of Aerith, as well as other Final Fantasy VII characters Tifa Lockhart, Cloud Strife, and Sephiroth. She also appears in Itadaki Street Portable with the same characters from Special, with the addition of Yuffie Kisaragi. Aerith appears in the fighting game Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy as an assistant character. She is also featured in the rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy as a sub-character representing Final Fantasy VII. In LittleBigPlanet 2, Aerith is featured as a downloadable character model. Aerith also appears as a Mii costume and Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Aerith has received an overall positive reception from critics. GamesTM referred to her as a "gaming legend". RPGamer's Stuart Hoggan opined that although Aerith "represented the token damsel in distress", she "broke the mould in terms of personality", possessing "an admirable pluck that was not brassy nor off-putting". In a This American Life episode, titled "Save the Girl", reporter Lina Misitzis described the character as one-dimensional and lacking in personality. She and Kotaku writer Mike Fahey conclude that had the character been anything other than a pretty girl, she would have needed much more development in order to elicit an emotional response from the player. Alana Hagues of RPGFan was bothered by the game's initial characterization of Aerith as a damsel in distress, but she praised the contrast of her dealing with personal struggles, including the death of her boyfriend Zack and being the last Cetra, with remaining strong enough to appreciate life and lift the mood of the party. Aerith's romantic relationship with Cloud was also praised, though some sites noted there were arguments between fans about whether or not Tifa was more suitable to be Cloud's love interest. In a retrospective, Polygon analyzed several fan arguments about Cloud's preferred partner and how each side misrepresents the other's chosen heroine. Polygon concludes that there is no winning couple as, after killing Sephiroth, Cloud has a vision of Aerith when Tifa tries to help him and the duo agrees to meet her again. In contrast to this, Aerith's relationship with Zack Fair was noted to be more impactful based on her role in Crisis Core.
