revival

This one's a tough thing to talk about, because there are so many different opinions on Aerith's revival, that I can't remember all of them. I'll say this though, in my opinion, I think it is best that Aerith should stay dead, and I'm glad they made her stay dead. I know it sounds harsh but I think the whole point of the game would have been completely defeated if she came to life. This game, I think, is all about the choices we make, much like many stories, games, and movies out there. It's the choices that we make that get us where we are.

Aerith decided that it was her time to act - she may not have known or decided to die, but I think she felt that it was drawing near. All her life she had been confined to the foul slums of Midgar, with not a hint of light or fresh air. Her life has been bombarded by people trying to take her away from her mother, the wretchedness of her surroundings, and the unknown voices speaking to her all of the time. It's haunting and very sad stuff. Finally, when she get's to go out on an adventure and see the outside world, it's more then words could describe. It is so much better then what she was living in before (despite how good her mother made it look). When they found out that their wonderful world would be no more after Meteor, this must have come as great shock to Aerith. She came to love the outside world so much that it scared her. She didn't want to lose the people she loved dear and the planet that made her feel so free.

It came down to this; some say it was a sad heroic act, some say that she didn't mean to die, and some say that it was just meant to be. Honestly, it remains a mystery, but whatever Aerith was trying to accomplish, it was not done in vain. She spent the last moments of her young life praying to Holy for some miracle to happen. No, the miracle did not happen, and Holy was not enough, but do any of you honestly think that the game would be the same if she had lived or if she'd been revived - I sure don't. It was Aerith's death that triggered so many emotions within the party; it pushed them over the edge and motivated them to go out and pursue Sephiroth, and make him pay for what he did. The act of bringing Aerith back would completely make me lose all respect I had for this game. Her death brought heart to the story, but most of all, it gave us a hint of reality - meaning that bad things happen, and sometimes there isn't a happy ending. You can't bring dead people back to life, and showing this within a game is even more powerful because you become attached to the characters, much like in real life. It's even more affective then seeing a death on the news. It's very scarey stuff, but people need to know what it's really like. There is anger involved, sadness and angst. It's not always teary-teary and fluffy. There is always going to be hate and blame involved, and a thirst to reason it out, trying to find an explanation, but sometimes you just can't.

Cloud and his friends tried their best to reason it out and find meaning, but they didn't find meaning in Aerith's death, no, they found meaning is moving on and doing what it was they had to do.

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