#aerith's death shocked me because i didn't expect it but then?? is she even actually dead or is cloud just nuts

[strfe]

finished rebirth & i'll maybe write more about it some other time but for now i'll just say it was ok

[aerifth]

i feel like if rebirth kills aerith again itll be pretty bad and i feel like the way a lot of people talk about the future of rebirth and that part of the original story seems underinformed. with the torture of all of the devs saying intentionally misleading things about rebirth over and over in interviews theyve successfully gotten me hooked on their wild ride only i do genuinely think if it turns out she dies again in the same way and place as before it'll just be bad.

way more after the jump lol i feel kinda bad just dropping this on ppls heads + ff7remake spoilers

theres too much obvious setup and punch-pulling going on already in remake considering it literally shows you it happening over and over and over beating you over the head that it happens for them to just turn around and do it anyway. even the fact that they keep talking about "That Scene with aerith in the capitol" just feels like its completely missing half of why the original games scene was so shocking in the first place, and its also kind of shining a light on why its not really a thing theyve earned considering how memeified its become nowadays. im kind of surprised theres not more people expecting this subversion as-is because honestly the fact that it seems like common consensus that she will just die again anyway like before leads me to believe this is somehow a twistier twist than i think it is

theres also the point that i dont think theres any actual reason for her to die? not the way the story is set up so far + how rebirth is being presented to us, like, the way sephiroth works so far i dont think he has any interest in aerith nor is there anything she could do to stop his plan. that's why theyre choosing to focus on tifa, theres a really strong reason for her to die as much as i dont want that to happen either. aeriths death in the original game is really multifaceted and complex whereas the story we see so far doesn't have a place for that, unless they make up some contrived magic thing for her to do to justify it, but even then i think it would feel hollow compared to... you know. killing tifa, the character who is the only one directly tied to his past which is what is preventing sephiroth from taking over cloud completely

i feel like most of the discourse ive seen gets tangled up in both like Objective Lore and The Tone Of The Original when i think neither are really that helpful here, especially when the latter isnt as explored as much as it needs to be. the whole point of aeriths death is that it could have been prevented, it was unfair and didn't have to happen, and i feel like in a modern context, in a scenario such as remake where the original game is so integral to the experience, the only answer is to either prevent that from happening or create a more interesting scenario where aerith is forced to deal with something more challenging than that. it deliberately cut her character arc short, and i dont think killing her would work with what was set up in remake about her grappling with her own loneliness and hopelessness. shes in a position to be an insanely interesting protagonist in the absence of potentially both cloud and tifa, and i would hope they either dont squander that or come up with something way way more interesting that i havent thought of

tldr i think rebirth is going to end with

1. cloud being taken over as a direct vessel for sephiroth's rebirth. also sephiroths plan will involve purging jenova from himself and the earth. this is part of how he convinced cloud to finally join him

2. tifa dying will be a major catalyst for this (or if they want to soften the blow, she'll be comatose and barely alive)

3. aerith will live, now totally disconnected from the people in the party she's known the longest and who have connected the most with her. she will have to figure out how to find "the real cloud" in a situation where she has little to no help in doing so, where the only person closest to that past cloud is gone

fate has changed, but that isnt necessarily a good thing. it was sephiroths plan to have cloud challenge and overcome fate. killing aerith is almost directly how his original plan fails, and we dont even know if he wants any part of that plan (i also dont think meteor is happening LOL but well see)

debating if tumblr is where i should choose to dump all of my smotheringly heavy ff7r thoughts that are in no way biased in favor of a given character not dying

[iaintyourbro]

Helooo u. Ur opinions r fresh and i really did have same ideas but it just looked odd (specifically UT)and I didn't share my thoughts. Make ur own analyzes plz. Have do u see characters development and relationship with each other? And what u really didn't expect in ur firstplaythrough?

Hey there! Appreciate the comment.

I do plan on doing basic analysis on how I feel about things and interpret things. I am not a body language expert or an expert on human interaction, so pretty much it’d be me and how I deal with things myself or how I perceive things. @silver-wield @nibelheiim and @otp-oasis-heavenxearth Do some really good analysis on body language and psychology, among other things.

I can talk about my first impressions and things that I wasn’t expecting, here, though.. And it’s gonna be long, cuz I have a lot of thoughts.

So full disclosure - I was worried about FF7 Remake. I almost didn’t play it. I actually didn’t play it right away. I liked the OG a lot, but FF8 was my favorite. That being said, I still really enjoyed 7, so was anxious initially about the remake. I was worried they’d change too much, which I don’t deal with very well. 

My husband played it first. I’m definitely the FF stan in the family. I played a game in college where people would play FF songs and I could name them. I was fun, I know. I guess it worked cuz my husband stuck around. 

I wasn’t aware of the Love Triangle of FF7 between C-T-A. I thought it was pretty straight forward, even as a teen. Cloud was... well, Cloud, I didn’t get all there was to understand about that situation, but I didn’t see a lot of romance in FF7. Especially since I finished FF8 first. However, Aerith died... Tifa saves him in the Lifestream, and they go on their way. The ending was bizarre when he said he’d meet her and Tifa’s reaction also made no sense. But I didn’t think much of it - wasn’t the game with the romance, so I didn’t take it as such. The game also was riddled with translation errors. “This guy are sick.”

Anyway - Remake, I would glance at my husband’s play through and was amazed at times, but still being a stubborn dumbass, like I am. I think the few times I saw Cloti scenes I was like woahhhkayyy... I don’t remember this. I saw the pillar drop on his playthrough and cried when they showed Wedge. Like both of us wouldn’t look at each other cuz we both were losing it.

My first playthrough was truly played with no shipping goggles, because I didn’t own them yet.

So I decided to play. My kids were being total jerks and carrying on, so I was getting upset as I’m realizing I enjoy the game. The voice acting, battle system, environments, characters, I was like in shock and awe, and slipping back to being a young teen again playing FF for the first time.

Got to the Discovery Quest - Alone at Last. I mean, I saw the title of it and was like um okay... this seems suggestive. Then she tells you to come over after you’re done changing your filter. Ohh... okay... huh. Also noticed Cloud being jealous at times? That was new.

Cloud in general was different than he was in the OG. But I LOVED it. I loved how they did his character. It makes the battle of his persona much more intense and enjoyable. The SOLDIER!Cloud vs True!Cloud stuff. (I didn’t know these terms my first play through, I did notice his face changing a lot). At times, Cloud was a jerk in the OG (well, you could make him be a jerk, I suppose, he wasn’t all that bad). 

Alone at Last I was like “HOLY SHIT!” This is so suggestive! And this was before I heard... 

The Moan  (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

I actually heard it on a YouTube video where somebody pointed it out. However I DID notice that Cloud asked her if she was sure she didn’t want a break at the end too... I got that one.  (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So anything heavy Cloti wasn’t even a though thinking about remake. At all. Not a wish or anything, I just didn’t think there’d be anything even close to it. Remake is actually what made me absolutely fall in LOVE with the Cloud x Tifa pairing. It is so damn wholesome and charged. Whenever that sexual tension breaks, it’ll be intense. I didn’t even know Cloud x Tifa was “Cloti” until I looked up “is the remake pushing Cloud and Tifa?” cuz I was that confused.

I got the resolution scene with Tifa on my first play through, only because I chose her first in the sewers. I did every quest, so I didn’t miss anything. Another thing I had spoiled by watching my husband play, I believe. Another thing I thought I must have been imaging. Especially when he stands there and I start going “wtf dude... ARE YOU GOING TO HUG HER?!” Phew, glad he did.

Jessie drove me nuts - I don’t do well with characters like her. I kept commenting that she wasn’t like this at all, at least not that I picked up on. I was thrilled when Cloud said “Are you seriously that desperate!?” because that’s exactly what I kept thinking. I didn’t like her death scene, I’m not sure if it was the dialogue or the way it was delivered, but I definitely got upset when Tifa was crying, cuz she just was breaking down emotionally as things go. Then Cloud’s reaction... phew. 

I ADORE BIGGS AND WEDGE, though. Wedge especially, since I’m also a cat lover. Biggs looking like Charlie Sheen had me laughing. 

Barret is amazing. I love the growing broness between him and Cloud. They start rough and end good. His relationship with Marlene is much more developed, and Marlene had a major improvement, I think, since she actually says quite a bit. 

All of the environments were gorgeous. Seeing Midgar as it should be seen and not a screen of dirt and buildings was incredible. Aerith’s house was insane. I definitely was in awe of that place when you first get to it. the skyline during the rooftop sequence was great. I cannot wait to see the rest of the game and those environments - like Cosmo Canyon, for example... 

THE MUSIC: Who else lost their shit when the third phase of Jenova Dreamweaver played J-E-N-O-V-A?! The jukebox was a pleasant surprise that I was iffy on at first, but ended up loving it. Stamp, Midgar Blues, On our Way, Tifa’s Theme (jazzy), and FREAKING SCARLET’S THEME. The Arsenal battle theme was one of my favorites.

And can we talk about Scarlet? Using a soldier as a foot stool and making him crawl around? Guess he took the whole Stamp thing to heart. Scarlet is such a nasty bitch, but I can’t help but love it. 

Aerith was greatly improved character wise for me over her OG version. I didn’t really like her... at all... in the OG. Not good with female characters that start shit with flirting. Just felt malicious at times (though as an adult I think she just was really immature). I ADORE THE FRIENDSHIP OF HER AND TIFA.

The new characters: Oh boy, change. 

BUT ANDREA!!! Andrea was amazing. I absolutely ADORE him. 

Madam M and Chocobo Sam were also pretty good. Leslie was great, and I hope we see more of what goes on with him. It’d be nice if he could be there to see Corneo die. 

Honeybee Inn was incredible.

Things I wasn’t a huge fan of:

Well, Chapter 8 was good on my first play through, but after that, I had a hard time with it. It’s slow. You have to walk, you have to wait a lot. So, I’d say the pacing on Chapter 8 is a bit slow for me. There’s not much “action” if you will. The scenery is good, though. 

Jessie... yeah, I know. A lot of people love Jessie. I just don’t - she’s too extreme with the quest to get laid. However, I did enjoy thinking about her and Biggs having a thing. 

The sun lamps. 

The robot arms in Chapter 9. 

Getting around the stupid trash and stuff to leave Aerith’s house.

My list of bad isn’t long. I love the game, so don’t mind really going through all of that stuff again.

THE SEWER PUMP IS EVIL.