Aerith Died By Drowning?

[shadowskater]

I stumbled across a video series this morning where the host used real-world research to analyze Aerith's death in FFVII. I thought it was amusing and wanted to get your opinion on the issue.

Spoiler

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tEJ_3_wYROc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

To summarize, since there is no blood coming out of her wound, he guesses that she slumped over because her spinal cord was severed and closed her eyes because the injury sent her into shock. He even traces it to the exact vertebrae that was sliced. And then, she sinks so fast because living bodies have tension that makes it harder for them to float. He blames the whole death on Cloud! It's all really over-analyzed and pointless because she obviously died, he even admits that, but it was a fun show that really got me thinking. Plus, he says he was inspired by Extra Credits.

And something he didn't mention is that prior to Sephiroth stabbing her, Cloud was under Sephy's control and almost killed her himself. So, in releasing Aerith into the water, it might have been Sephiroth's doing. And I vaguely remember there being some wrinkle about killing people with the Masamune. Anyway, it would also explain why Cloud is so emo for anything after that moment. It's a fun thought question. What do you guys think?

 

[shadowskater]

Darn! Screwed that one up. I'm new to the forum scene, so I'm not used to embedding videos. Here's the link I'm talking about...Sorry about the inconvenience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEJ_3_wYROc&feature=channel_video_title

 

[goldendriger]

Or she got stabbed by a sword which can do like "3175" Damage with no armour on and died from that? We didnt see any air bubbles when Aeries was dropped either

 

[Baralak]

Interesting stuff. Haven't watched it yet, but you can easily imbed videos on here by doing what you did with the spoiler, just replace the word "Spoiler" with "youtube=" then what the numbers and letters are in the youtube URL. Just wanted to help out a newbie to the forums!


Semi-OT: Anyone else just a general fan of this kind of overanalyzing?

 

[Felstaff]

Aeris dies? THANKS FOR THE SPOILER, JERK.

Next you'll be telling me Bruce Willis is a ghost, the Titanic sinks, Jesus dies, Kevin Spacey can fake a limp, and portals can open on the moon.


But seriously, Cloud (at least, my Cloud, who I named MR. FLIBBLE) had, like, 99 Phoenix Downs in his inventory at the time.

 

[MightyRabbit]

Well the Masamune of Japanese legend was a blade so sharp it never drew blood, so that and the not wanting a higher rating is what they were going for.

Although as for people calling Cloud 'emo', it's a pet peeve of mine. He has all his hopes and dreams destroyed, his childhood town burnt along with everyone there, including his mother, tehn he's experimented on for years and has his mind broken, then Zack dies, then he sees Sector 7 destroyed because of him, then Aerith dies, then he finds out his entire identity is a lie that Tifa (who he probably trusts most) didn't point this out to him, remembers all the shit he went through before, gets Mako poisoning and puts everything aside long enough to save the world and then people complain whenever he's upset. Gee, I wonder why he's feeling blue?

I'm not saying Cloud is an amazing character, or that FFVII is "teh bestest gmae EVAR!!!!11!!!1! n u iz teh n00bz iff u fink diffurnt!!!1!!!!1" so please dont' mistake me for a whiny fanboy. And I'm really not trying to attack you or anyone personally, but Cloud, Tifa and Aerith's characters are accidentally or deliberately misunderstood so damn often it really bugs me.

 

[shadowskater]

Thanks for the assist! I kept playing around with various incarnations of "embed" this and "link" that, but couldn't come up with anything. Now I know!

And I agree with you about the reviewers that overanalyze games. There are so many people who do basic reviews or who try to add fairly weak story arcs to their videos. I can only hear about how much you liked GEARS OF WAR 3 so many times. I like gaming shows with some thought to them. This series, Game Theory, is pretty good. Apparently, ADVENTURE ISLAND takes place in the Philippines based on the fruit and animals that appear there. He even analyzes the accuracy of CHRONO TRIGGER's time travel. It's cool stuff. You learn about life AND video games!

 

[No_Remainders]

This is actually a bit stupid.

He's totally over-analysing all of this. It's ridiculous.

 

[shadowskater]

You raise a good point. At this point, can we just assume that everyone knows this classic scene? Or does it still require a spoiler alert? I figure, if you don't know by now, it's time to get out from under your rock. To gamers, it's like knowing that America won the Revolutionary War. It's part of gamer history by now.

 

[squirrelman42]

Holy cow, that's why Cloud is so whiny after this and through all of Advent Children. He blames himself because HE KILLED HER

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Well the Masamune of Japanese legend was a blade so sharp it never drew blood, so that and the not wanting a higher rating is what they were going for.

Although as for people calling Cloud 'emo', it's a pet peeve of mine. He has all his hopes and dreams destroyed, his childhood town burnt along with everyone there, including his mother, tehn he's experimented on for years and has his mind broken, then Zack dies, then he sees Sector 7 destroyed because of him, then Aerith dies, then he finds out his entire identity is a lie that Tifa (who he probably trusts most) didn't point this out to him, remembers all the shit he went through before, gets Mako poisoning and puts everything aside long enough to save the world and then people complain whenever he's upset. Gee, I wonder why he's feeling blue?

I'm not saying Cloud is an amazing character, or that FFVII is "teh bestest gmae EVAR!!!!11!!!1! n u iz teh n00bz iff u fink diffurnt!!!1!!!!1" so please dont' mistake me for a whiny fanboy. And I'm really not trying to attack you or anyone personally, but Cloud, Tifa and Aerith's characters are accidentally or deliberately misunderstood so damn often it really bugs me.

Yeah but for someone leading a group to save the world he is kinda whiny about it. I think they just threw all these issues at Cloud to make him seem more tragic, but most the FF heroes had tragic things happen to them. Hell one didn't even exists if I remember FFX right, another lost both parents and lived on his own for the long time(Bartz FF5), One lost her identity and purpose and was scared that she would die from saving the world (Terra FF6), another was pretty much killed his girl/blamed himself for it (Locke FF6), One can't piece what his past was (Squall FF8), one lost the love of her life (Yuna FFX), another lost her/his village due to a corrupt power who saw them as a threat (Rydia FFIV/Cyan FFVI). While I can see why the "emo" thing is a pet peeve and I can see why he would be upset, it's just that square pretty much forced the tragic victim on cloud when

A)He wasn't the only one to suffer

B)He just has so many damn problems that for me at least I can't take it seriously.

 

[Risingblade]

All of Cloud's emoness finally makes sense, and the whole I let you die thing o.o

 

[MightyRabbit]

Well the Masamune of Japanese legend was a blade so sharp it never drew blood, so that and the not wanting a higher rating is what they were going for.

Although as for people calling Cloud 'emo', it's a pet peeve of mine. He has all his hopes and dreams destroyed, his childhood town burnt along with everyone there, including his mother, tehn he's experimented on for years and has his mind broken, then Zack dies, then he sees Sector 7 destroyed because of him, then Aerith dies, then he finds out his entire identity is a lie that Tifa (who he probably trusts most) didn't point this out to him, remembers all the shit he went through before, gets Mako poisoning and puts everything aside long enough to save the world and then people complain whenever he's upset. Gee, I wonder why he's feeling blue?

I'm not saying Cloud is an amazing character, or that FFVII is "teh bestest gmae EVAR!!!!11!!!1! n u iz teh n00bz iff u fink diffurnt!!!1!!!!1" so please dont' mistake me for a whiny fanboy. And I'm really not trying to attack you or anyone personally, but Cloud, Tifa and Aerith's characters are accidentally or deliberately misunderstood so damn often it really bugs me.

Yeah but for someone leading a group to save the world he is kinda whiny about it. I think they just threw all these issues at Cloud to make him seem more tragic, but most the FF heroes had tragic things happen to them. Hell one didn't even exists if I remember FFX right, another lost both parents and lived on his own for the long time(Bartz FF5), One lost her identity and purpose and was scared that she would die from saving the world (Terra FF6), another was pretty much killed his girl/blamed himself for it (Locke FF6), One can't piece what his past was (Squall FF8), one lost the love of her life (Yuna FFX), another lost her/his village due to a corrupt power who saw them as a threat (Rydia FFIV/Cyan FFVI). While I can see why the "emo" thing is a pet peeve and I can see why he would be upset, it's just that square pretty much forced the tragic victim on cloud when

A)He wasn't the only one to suffer

B)He just has so many damn problems that for me at least I can't take it seriously.

The thing is, going back and playing through it, he doesn't *really* whine, at least not excessively. It's like watching Casablanca and realising nobody ever says "Play it again, Sam". Like I said, I'm not trying to flame anybody that thinks otherwise.

And despite whatever troubles there may be with Cloud's character, at least he's not Vaan!

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Well the Masamune of Japanese legend was a blade so sharp it never drew blood, so that and the not wanting a higher rating is what they were going for.

Although as for people calling Cloud 'emo', it's a pet peeve of mine. He has all his hopes and dreams destroyed, his childhood town burnt along with everyone there, including his mother, tehn he's experimented on for years and has his mind broken, then Zack dies, then he sees Sector 7 destroyed because of him, then Aerith dies, then he finds out his entire identity is a lie that Tifa (who he probably trusts most) didn't point this out to him, remembers all the shit he went through before, gets Mako poisoning and puts everything aside long enough to save the world and then people complain whenever he's upset. Gee, I wonder why he's feeling blue?

I'm not saying Cloud is an amazing character, or that FFVII is "teh bestest gmae EVAR!!!!11!!!1! n u iz teh n00bz iff u fink diffurnt!!!1!!!!1" so please dont' mistake me for a whiny fanboy. And I'm really not trying to attack you or anyone personally, but Cloud, Tifa and Aerith's characters are accidentally or deliberately misunderstood so damn often it really bugs me.

Yeah but for someone leading a group to save the world he is kinda whiny about it. I think they just threw all these issues at Cloud to make him seem more tragic, but most the FF heroes had tragic things happen to them. Hell one didn't even exists if I remember FFX right, another lost both parents and lived on his own for the long time(Bartz FF5), One lost her identity and purpose and was scared that she would die from saving the world (Terra FF6), another was pretty much killed his girl/blamed himself for it (Locke FF6), One can't piece what his past was (Squall FF8), one lost the love of her life (Yuna FFX), another lost her/his village due to a corrupt power who saw them as a threat (Rydia FFIV/Cyan FFVI). While I can see why the "emo" thing is a pet peeve and I can see why he would be upset, it's just that square pretty much forced the tragic victim on cloud when

A)He wasn't the only one to suffer

B)He just has so many damn problems that for me at least I can't take it seriously.

The thing is, going back and playing through it, he doesn't *really* whine, at least not excessively. It's like watching Casablanca and realising nobody ever says "Play it again, Sam". Like I said, I'm not trying to flame anybody that thinks otherwise.

And despite whatever troubles there may be with Cloud's character, at least he's not Vaan!

I agree on the last part 100%, and pretty much what you said. It's just watching the movie made me wanna burn the disc in a white hot fire.

 

[burningdragoon]

No blood, but also no stab wound or tear in her dress either. Aka it was an FMV and that was asking for a bit much then. Other than that. It's interesting but get your science out of my fantasy!

 

[manythings]

I don't think it is actually water though, I'm pretty sure it is raw, natural mako. It is at the heart of the ancient temple.

 

[Sassafrass]

That's a pretty amusing video.

His point is pointless as he's discussing a game, a medium where all logic goes out the window in even "realistic" games, but still, it was amusing.

[sup][sup]Also, Phoenix Downs revive people from KO, not Death. Although as to why the Death spell only KO's you...go ask someone else. XD[/sup][/sup]

 

[Pyro Paul]

why was there no blood?!

... Because it was the 90's and the technology really wasn't there to support the addition of blood or gore to the very limited animated cut scene.

That is like playing FF7 and coming to the conclusion that every one in the game is a Deaf mute that communicates through sign and body language as there is no audio with the game.

 

[Thyunda]

His point is pointless as he's discussing a game, a medium where all logic goes out the window in even "realistic" games, but still, it was amusing.

I'm going to argue against this by merely stating that I'm arguing against it. No further comment required.

 

[Jonesy911]

Aeris dies? THANKS FOR THE SPOILER, JERK.

Next you'll be telling me Bruce Willis is a ghost, the Titanic sinks, Jesus dies, Kevin Spacey can fake a limp, and portals can open on the moon.


But seriously, Cloud (at least, my Cloud, who I named MR. FLIBBLE) had, like, 99 Phoenix Downs in his inventory at the time.

Phoenix Down's don't cure death, they cure K.O. status. As in "Knocked out".