![]() Cloud quite literally begins the film marked for death. It’s a strong enough premise for a sequel, admittedly. How does mankind persist after the end? As Cloud himself is suffering from Geostigma, Advent Children has an opportunity to explore death on an even more intimate level. With an incurable disease, Geostigma, serving as a death sentence for anyone who contracts it, Advent Children opens with the implication that the situation has only deteriorated for mankind. “It looks like the Planet is a lot madder than we thought,” so spoke Marlene. Set two years after the end of the game, humanity did survive Meteor’s impact, but they’re in dire straits. Naturally, one would hope that any sequel to Final Fantasy VII– should there even be a sequel to a game that ended with a 500 year fast forward– would carry over that same tact in depicting death. When you lose someone you loved very much, you feel this big empty space and think, ‘If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently.’ These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith’s death relatively early in the game. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. There isn’t anything romanticized about either of their deaths.Īpplicable to both characters albeit specifically in reference to Aerith Gainsborough’s death, game director Yoshinori Kitase stated, “In the real world things are very different. The two do not get to say goodbye, and Zack’s death is contextualized as nothing more than a painful moment in Final Fantasy VII– one that psychologically damages Cloud beyond belief. Cloud is left to die, and suffers a mental breakdown over the death of his best friend. Before they can ever reach the city, however, Shinra soldiers unceremoniously gun Zack down in the rain. It’s implied Zack took care of a near catatonic Cloud for quite some time, keeping them both alive on their way to Midgar. #Cloud strife advent children full body freeExperimented on by the Shinra Electric Power Company, Zack Fair manages to free himself & Cloud, and go on the run. Although Cloud himself abides by the idea that Aerith knew Sephiroth would kill her, Final Fantasy VII keeps it ambiguous as in keeping with the incomprehensibility of death.Ĭhronologically, Zack Fair dies years prior to Aerith’s, serving as the catalyst for Cloud’s arc. Tifa in particular notes that Aerith constantly mentioned her plans for the future, squashing any notion that she would have wanted to die a martyr. Cloud is the most affected by Aerith’s death, but every member of the party reflects on her sudden murder. Cloud not only fails to save her from Sephiroth, he nearly kills Aerith himself. Occurring roughly halfway through the game, Aerith’s death marks a major turning point. There are two major deaths depicted in Final Fantasy VII: those of Aerith Gainsborough and Zack Fair, both of whom share a deep connection to protagonist Cloud Strife. ![]() Death is an inevitability, one we cannot reasonably comprehend. The end will come for all of us eventually, but it’s not our place to know when, how, or why. It’s a thought-provoking ending, but one ambiguous by design, neither confirming nor denying that humanity survived– and why should it? Much of Final Fantasy VII centers around depicting the reality of death. Humanity’s fingerprint, Midgar, has even been claimed by nature. Meteor succeeded in wiping out everything deemed harmful to the planet, and mankind is nowhere in sight. There’s a poignancy to Red XIII and his brood howling over an overgrown Midgar at the end of Final Fantasy VII. ![]()
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