Resurrecting Aerith: The Final Fantasy 7 Fans Who Re-Wrote Fate
Aerith dies. If you know one thing about Final Fantasy 7, it’s probably that Aerith dies. The praying girl gets cut down by the guy with the massive sword. There’s a reason why this pivotal story beat is one of the most well-known spoilers in gaming: it’s a moment that’s continually stunned players since 1997.
Video games had killed off significant characters before Final Fantasy 7, but this was different. The resonance Aerith had with fans is incomparable, and the emotional impact of her death left many players desperate for a resurrection. Over 25 years, rumour became myth, myth became hoax, and eventually hope became a way to genuinely save the flower girl from Midgar. This is the inside story of the players who re-wrote fate and resurrected Aerith Gainsborough.
Aerith Gainsborough is one of the most beloved characters in RPG history. First introduced as little more than a flower merchant in the opening hour of Final Fantasy 7, she soon becomes a significant figure in the story’s central cast. The revelation that she is the last remaining member of an ancient race positions her as vital to the plot, but it is her multi-layered personality that made fans fall in love with her.
“From the moment you meet her she's charming, she's very sweet, but she has a little bit of spunk here and there,” says Ally Tamara, a Final Fantasy fan and cosplayer from Canada. “And she was just one of those characters that immediately I personally fell in love with.”
“I think she's a really, really fantastic character where you can't judge her based on her appearance,” says Aequorinn, a UK-based cosplayer. “I kind of assumed because she dresses really conservatively, and you see the pictures of her praying, I thought she was going to be quite
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