Why didn't you use a phoenix down?

[MCDeltaT]

Ok i would use a spoiler tag but this isn't a spoiler because if you don't know that aeris dies you must have been living in a womb for the last 9 months.

Anyway I like many of you (I assume) enjoy videogame humour, and the more I love a game series the more I love seeing webcomics or jokes about it. There is no game series I love more than Final Fantasy but today I say enough. Not to all jokes but to 1 in particular (If you haven't guessed which one by now.....well I don't know what to say)

Today I saw another Webcomic that depicted Aeris' death and questioned "why not just use a phoenix down?" Because that isn't the point. I doubt that moment or even Final Fantasy VII would be remembered so vividly if you could simply revive Aeris and skip happily into the sunset holding hands and picking flowers.

Anyway I know I am not the commanding authority of the internet but I feel I deserve my say. This "joke" has been used far too much. Anyway I suppose I should have a point or at least something to provoke discussion. Does anyone agree/disagree? Or is there another piece of videogame related humour that isn't funny and needs to wiped from the face of the internet?

EDIT: Ok people seem to think that I just don't get the joke. Whilst I do understand how my rant may come across as that, it wasn't my intention. What I was trying to say is that I don't find it funny anymore, just like "The cake is a lie" or "Mario does magic mushrooms" it's a joke that I can't stand purely because it has become so overused it's lost all meaning to me.

 

[PunkyMcGee]

she was supposed to come back but they rushed the ending otherwise why would you get her personal after the fact. (from my understanding anyway)

 

[zehydra]

Who is Aeris?

Lol, to be honest, I've never played FF7, just simply because I've never owned a Sony Console. Just because you think everyone's played FF7 doesn't mean that you shouldn't still add a *SPOILER* thingy to your thread title.

I'd say the comic writer has a very valid point, and the plot writers can't just simply ignore the way their fictional world works to accomplish a part of the plot. I mean, you can, but it wouldn't make any sense.

What they should have established instead, is that perhaps when you go down, maybe you're not specifically "dead", as much as K.O'd, leaving the actual state of the character in ambiguity. So when they player is "revived", it is similar to being healed at a pokemon center. Even pokemon can die, apparently.

 

[GiantRaven]

Why? Because gameplay and story segregation, that's why.

 

[Screamarie]

From what I understand about the phoenix down it brings you back to consciouness when you've been knocked out. It doesn't cure knife wounds (though this does bring up the question of if a health potion can...) and it certainly doesn't bring you back from the dead.

All in all, yes it's a over done joke and I honestly have to say that it doesn't make sense either.

 

[Drakmeire]

I thought of this
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/051205.jpg

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Today I saw another Webcomic that depicted Aeris' death and questioned "why not just use a phoenix down?" Because that isn't the point. I doubt that moment or even Final Fantasy VII would be remembered so vividly if you could simply revive Aeris and skip happily into the sunset holding hands and picking flowers.

actually, not to bash you, but that IS the point i think you're missing. yes, Aeris's death makes sense from a narrative standpoint, but from a gameplay standpoint, where death isn't permanent as long as you have enough phoenix downs, her death is pretty meaningless.
hence the humor in those jokes. from an in-game standpoint, her death is pointless. from an in-story standpoint, however, it does have meaning.

*edit* basically ninja'd by GiantRaven. "gameplay and story segregation" very nice way of putting it.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Phoenix Downs are for reviving KO'd people, not dead ones. Its the same as Pokemon, characters get knocked out when they get to 0hp. Honestly, it says it in the description.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Because it isn't real death until its outside of battle.

Why? Because gameplay and story segregation, that's why.

Or basically this.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I thought of this
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/051205.jpg

hahahaha thats pretty funny and oh so true, i was such a cheapskate in that game =\

 

[D Moness]

I keep remembering this one. It annoyes me because i really dislike Tifa >.< (that is probbaly why i keep remembering it.

 

[comfychair]

i second Mr Pantomime.

 

[Lukeman1884]

Phoenix Downs are for reviving KO'd people, not dead ones. Its the same as Pokemon, characters get knocked out when they get to 0hp. Honestly, it says it in the description.

In that case, the various "death" magics in FF seem like misnomers.

 

[timeadept]

Yeah the moment wouldn't mean a thing if you could have simply revived her. But the effect is somewhat diminished and even allows it to be outright rejected when such a serious problem has such a simple solution that most players probably would have thought of.

FFI was the only one I've ever played, so i have no idea exactly what you're talking about but i can still relate it to other times that stuff like this has happened to me in games, or even movies. I WILL end up rejecting a moment saying "it never happened" because it never SHOULD have happened. And when that happens the rest of the story ends up becoming complete BS. It's really a make or break moment for a story and when it's poorly done, well it's obviously a break.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Phoenix Downs are for reviving KO'd people, not dead ones. Its the same as Pokemon, characters get knocked out when they get to 0hp. Honestly, it says it in the description.

In that case, the various "death" magics in FF seem like misnomers.

Thats a good point. Though im not sure the creators put too much thought into it.

 

[KalosCast]

I understand that you're sick of the joke, but it's a legitimate plot-hole.

If you introduce a rule in your universe (such as an item that revives people who have sustained fatal injuries), and then an event happens that defies the rule as we know it (such as us not being able to revive someone who has sustained fatal injuries with the item), you have to explain that no longer applies.

That's just how stories work. Hell, it would have been as easy as "whoops, I left them in yesterday's pants. Sorry guys." Not well-written, but I don't collect a paycheck writing games.

 

[eggy32]

Phoenix Downs wake people who've been knocked unconscious, not killed.
However this raises the question of why none of them bothered to use a life spell, which I'm pretty sure is emant to bring people back to life. (Was life materia available at that point? Does it actually exist in FF7? It's been a long time since i've played it.)

 

[Something Amyss]

I keep remembering this one. It annoyes me because i really dislike Tifa >.< (that is probbaly why i keep remembering it.

No Red! She's laced with pollutants from the Midgar slums!

 

[MetaKnight19]

Because I would have much rather used a Phoenix Wright.

http://objection.mrdictionary.net/go.php?n=4761097

 

[Antidrall]

People keep obsessing over this whole thing in FF7, when even as a kid I was unconvinced in any relationship they had. A tank protecting a Healer in WoW has more romance than Cloud and Aeris. In the game, it basically tells you that Cloud loves Aeris because he effin' does. there is no hint to them both being attracted to each other, they basically spontaneously hold hands and talk about shit. Even if I could buy their relationship together, I can still not relate to Cloud in any way. He's annoying, basically a piece of cardboard, and once Aeris finally gets screwed in the chest, He grabs her corpse and starts whining to Sephiroth about his feelings instead of going on a godamned rampage throughout the game for killing his friend...Yeah, that's what it should have been. They should have been friends. Tifa was the one constantly standing by Cloud's side, they should have been the love story throughout the whole thing. Wouldn't that make much more sense? She would have made a man out of him.

As for the whole 'killing off Aeris', it totally comes out of nowhere, and completely shocking. but for all the wrong reasons. At the time, we had no idea what was going on and thought she was going insane. We then see her praying there for some reason and gets run through by the most impractical katana I have seen. there's bright pearly altars and floating stair steps, it was more surreal than anything. If you want a good death scene then

*Spoiler*

In Final Fantasy Tactics (the last good final fantasy game) Ramza and Delita are off to save Delita's sister, a commoner that was mistaken for a noble and kidnapped for leverage. Ramza joins because Delita could basically be considered his brother since they were raised together and Teta in turn, his sister. after facing down the Corpse brigade and defeating Wiegraf, they reach the fort where she's being held to see Ramza's brother Zalbag and cavalry arriving. Who then orders to shoot Teta and then captor. Algus (the shooter) then tells Ramza that the nobles didn't care for such commoners and that they killed her to save face. Ramza and Delita then go and fucking massacre Algus (fun fact: in the battle, Teta's body is still on the map, but won't resurect if you try a life spell or phoenix down). That death had reason, it was a very sadistic and brutal reason, but a reason nonetheless. We see later that Aeris casted the spell, so her death was just to prevent people from knowing what the hell was going on until the next 2 discs.