#how does she feel about how disconnected she is from her heritage? angry? bitter? sorrowful? ashamed?

[aerithisms]

i think maybe i need to replay rebirth some time to look at this diplomatically because aerith is My Favourite and i might be biased but i think my biggest story critique of rebirth is that i wish they'd done a little more with her. given that this is the game she dies in i found it strange that they didn't push her into the foreground a little more since this is their last real chance to do that with her as a living member of the party (i'm sure she'll show up in some limited capacity in part 3 but dead lifestream!aerith is pretty different to alive!aerith i think).

i know that sounds like a weird thing to say when you consider stuff like them giving her the game's theme song to sing during loveless and the fact that the last chapter is basically The Aerith Movie but there is a strange lack of focus on her in moments where it feels like we should get more from her throughout the narrative. this game pushes tifa and cloud's relationship more in the mandatory story segments, and i LOVED what they did with that relationship in this game, but it felt odd that the same focus was not given to cloud's relationship with aerith throughout the story given that the ending hinges on him being so devastated by her death that he enters a delusional state of grief. and this isn't even a shipping thing bc as far as shipping goes i'm an aerti truther and i feel pretty equally neutral about both cloti and clerith as romances (if anything i prefer cloti!). it's about giving proper narrative buildup to the relationship that the game's tragic ending hinges on - a lot of aerith's most interesting scenes with cloud in the bulk of the game are optional, which i think is a weird thing to do given what the game is building to.

i also wish they did more with her being a cetra! again, the last couple chapters put focus on this but prior to that aerith is weirdly quiet about it. particularly in cosmo canyon, while we do get the lovely bonfire scene, aerith otherwise has a weird lack of dialogue when it comes to the lore dump scenes with the gi and bugenhagen. i expected her to feel some type of way about these revelations but any indication of that is at best subtext and she doesn't really say a lot about it. and for all that they emphasise aerith and nanaki's connection early on as beings closer to the planet, once you get to cosmo canyon there's a weird lack of payoff for it. same with tifa's dunk in the lifestream - i kinda thought aerith might have something to say about it as a cetra, and in fairness i think it's possible she did and the game is withholding some of aerith and tifa's offscreen interactions for part 3 (i swear this isn't even just an aerti cope lol i think the fact that they deliberately show them talking without us getting to hear it might be something they come back to), but i also wish we got to connect with this part of aerith's character more NOW, while she's still here, so it can inform our understanding of her choices and feelings at the end. i just find it kind of a bummer because aerith's complicated relationship to her heritage is a fascinating aspect of her character and her tragedy that i think goes a little untapped in this game, which means it's likely to go untapped in the story as a whole since she's. you know. dead.

#blahs #ff7 #rebirth spoilers #idk there are obviously a lot of character writing changes i love and adore in rebirth but i think they coulda done a little more with her #they put the focus on her bond with the party and her zest for life and that was fantastic #but imo they don't explore the other layers of her as well #and i know we will get more of her in part 3 but the effect of doing it in hindsight is different to doing it while she's alive #like when they go to icicle inn and learn about her parents there'll be a lot of focus on everyone's grief and the tragedy of her life #but what i wanted more of is how aerith feels about that tragic life as a living person. how she struggles with what it means to be a cetra #how does she feel about how disconnected she is from her heritage? angry? bitter? sorrowful? ashamed? #does she even like being a cetra? or does she resent the position it's put her in in life? #the game gestures at all of those in subtext but i want it explored i want her to talk about it!!! #ah well. i suspect if we do get flashbacks to those aerti scenes they'll all be about cloud but i'll still hope for something more from tha #that's my copium #or maybe an aerith and nanaki flashback where they talk about the burden they share of being the last of a people!! #i'd love that #anyway i still love rebirth's character work very much and on the whole what they did with it is very special. i am just an aerith girlie