How do you/did you find Aerith?

[Neo Bahamut]

To answer the OP, Aerith was fundamentally the same, but she was a bit different. I'm guessing the point was that she got her spunky & flirtatious attitude from Zack.

In other words, Zack didn't affect just Cloud.

Seeing some kind of fan debate emerging above me, I'll answer it as well, even though I have only the vaguest notion of what's going on:

Remember Aerith's Cetra powers. She knew when Elmyra's husband died when she was just a little girl. She knew Zack was dead. She just refused to admit it.

 

[minimosey]

I only wish there were more in depth conversations between her and Zack and not just simple and cute cutscenes.

In a way, I think this is kind of suited toward the nature of their relationship and their characters. Zack's shown constantly getting called away by work-related matters and at the end Aerith expresses a wish to be with him more often and uses a ploy like getting him to build better stuff for her to have him spend more time with her. They cared about each other and their relationship lasted quite a while, but how much time alone did they really get to get into in-depth conversations?

And there's the question of where they both thought the relationship was headed; it's never very clear at all if they're looking for anything beyond happy fluff times that fuels shippers.

Spoiler

In fact, look how Aerith never told Zack about her being an Ancient. She has good reason to not want to talk about her heritage, and better reason to not completely trust Shinra personnel...but it's because Zack is Shinra personnel that he really needs to know if they're in a serious relationship. Imagine if events like the OGC had unfolded in CC and Zack had found Reno abducting Aerith on company orders? Conflict of interest, anyone? Or even if he hadn't gotten involved in the actual abduction, just...discovering Aerith missing, and having to hear from her mom that his employers had it out for her? Or never knowing at all what happened to his girlfriend?

We know as players this situation never happens, but from Aerith's point of view this easily COULD have, she knows the Shinra company has been after her for years. Not letting Zack know when they've been involved for closer to two years points toward her being either selfish or unprepared to face the issue...or that the writers didn't think the implications through, lol.

(So I guess, to answer the thread's main question - I found Aerith much more immature than she was in the OGC, for the obvious reason that she's younger.)

But, overall, I think their relationship was one of two people who really cared for each other, but Zack was constantly distracted by SOLDIER issues and Aerith wasn't ready to really try deepening the relationship--she just knew she wanted him to stick around.

One of my favorite parts was during their first date in the park where Aerith was describing her fear of SOLDIER and mentioned her fear of the sky, and they mentioned it again in a different scene, but they never explained where this fear of the sky came from. I'm guessing it's because of how Jenova came to Gaia. I don't know, I just expected a bit more depth to her character. In some ways it shows how she changed since her teenage years since in FFVII she seems more outspoken and brash. Maybe some of Zack's personality rubbed off on her.

I think it did too. I've thought Jenova might be why she fears the sky, if she heard the story (maybe a simplified, almost fairy tale version of it, since she never says much about Jenova to cloud&co), but it could also be that growing up in a lab (and then under the plate) made her so used to closed spaces that she had a lingering fear of wide open space.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

Wow...I have to admit, I never thought of that before. Aerith never told Zack she was an Ancient...I'm sure she had her reasons, but still, that speaks a lot about how she felt about him.

 

[minimosey]

Wow...I have to admit, I never thought of that before. Aerith never told Zack she was an Ancient...I'm sure she had her reasons, but still, that speaks a lot about how she felt about him.

It's things like that which really make me wish there was something in the Compilation that focuses on Aerith at an earlier point of time, because what she's thinking and feeling is a curious point. I think it has more to do with her own issues than her feelings about Zack--this is the girl who wrote 89 letters. Think of how Hojo treats her in the OGC, as just a specimen; she dealt with that attitude for seven years growing up. That was probably her first real-world lesson, that people who knew her heritage would treat her as less than human, and judging by how secretive she is at times, she seems to have been stuck in that mindset (keep in mind she tried--and horribly failed--to hide her abilities from Elmyra as well). So she should have told Zack, but I don't think it's that she didn't care about him; more that she had issues from a screwed-up childhood and worried he'd look at her differently if he knew. In my mind, it's sorta like how Tifa didn't talk to Cloud about the events of Nibelheim: a poor error in judgment and a misguided version of caring too much. It makes Aerith more human to me, so I like the implications, even though I'm a bit sad about what it means for Zack/Aerith. (It doesn't help that I see Aerith's "23 tiny wishes/I'd like to spend more time with you" as a possible indication that she was starting to get more serious about having a relationship. Maybe she would have told him about herself soon afterward.)

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

Didn't Aerith not accept herself as an Ancient for a while, like as a little kid or teen? Maybe I'm remembering wrong though...

 

[Tennyo]

Nah I think she just denied it so that the Turks wouldn't take her away.

 

[ForceStealer]

Maybe...not necessarily though. She does say in the Shinra building that she thought the voices would go away as she got older. That kind of implies she was denying it, thinking she would just grow out of it. But she could have just been dodging abduction too, hard to say.

 

[Tennyo]

I also do wonder about whether or not Aerith ever felt ashamed about her heritage. I mean she sure did imply that it made her feel quite alone. Especially in Cosmo Canyon in the original game. And when her and Zack are in the playground in CC she says that she thinks normal is best. To me this speaks volumes. Aerith probably wanted nothing more than to be normal and not always hiding from Shinra.

This could also be why she never told Zack.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Didn't Aerith not accept herself as an Ancient for a while, like as a little kid or teen? Maybe I'm remembering wrong though...

In FFVII, Tseng visits Aerith at Elmyra's house and tells her she's an Ancient. She totally rejects the idea and denies hearing voices. Later, she won't tell Cloud the real reason why the Turks are after her. in CC she is very concerned about being 'normal'. Is it possible that during her time with Zack, she's in denial? But Cissnei tells him, of course.

As for how Aerith could know that Zack has an eye for the ladies.... Girls, haven't you ever had a boyfriend who couldn't stop checking out other girls whenever you were out and about together? Guys, which of you hasn't done this? It's just the sort of thing Zack would do. After all, he talks to all the women he meets in the street, even when he's out with Aerith! 8) And he can sometimes be a bit tactless!

 

[Loxetta]

Zack's just a friendly guy.

Aerith probably wasn't in denial, at least not on the inside -- she understood what she was and what it meant and had a grasp of it, she just... didn't want it. She wanted to be a normal girl with a normal boyfriend. Unfortunately, she never gets that (or even an illusion of that), which makes her character just that little bit more tragic.

 

[minimosey]

I don't know that I would really think she was in denial. It's true that she lies about it--to Cloud, Tseng--and hides it--from Zack, Elmyra--but that might just mean it was a secret, which it was. This is why her mother ended up dead, it's hardly something to share with everyone. (Seriously, if she had told Cloud from the get-go, hearing what we do afterward, I would have thought less of her common sense.

Spoiler

Especially now that the compilation has made it canon that she was kidnapped by AVALANCHE

--it wasn't just Shinra she had to worry about.) She was old enough to understand who they were running away from, and Turks wear uniforms. Why would she ever have told Tseng the truth, especially since as far as we know, that was their first meeting?

And she doesn't want to think about it, but again...who would, considering how much it messed up her life? But she never denies what her abilities are telling her--she accepts them as true--which makes me think she was perfectly aware of what she was, even if it wasn't what she wanted to be.

She does say in the Shinra building that she thought the voices would go away as she got older. That kind of implies she was denying it, thinking she would just grow out of it.

More specifically, it was Ifalna's voice she thought she'd stop hearing. It's shown throughout the game that even though Aerith is an Ancient, she doesn't understand much about her people. So while she could be talking about old denial, it could also be confusion over why her mother's voice remained strong while others merged with the Planet and faded away.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

*really should get CC, did not know about the 'Normal is best' line*

I think that line really does point to part of her wishing she could be normal and have an average life. Pretty sad she never got to.

 

[Tennyo]

Granted it's played out and kind of awkward (why would she just bring it up out of the blue?) but it's there, and I think it says a lot about her. Aerith seems to think that anything that is abnormal is not good, so it makes one wonder how she must have viewed herself. There's no question that, as far as the original game goes, she knows who she is and what she is, but more so than that, and coupled with this, it seems like she really may have wished she were something else. That she was just a normal girl.

 

[Sunstrider]

There's no question that, as far as the original game goes, she knows who she is and what she is, but more so than that, and coupled with this, it seems like she really may have wished she were something else. That she was just a normal girl.

I always thought that was why she didn't tell anyone about it in the game, why she told Cloud that the Turks were after her because they thought she had what it took to be in SOLDIER... Sure, it was just one way to interpret her back then, but CC seems to have confirmed it.

 

[Tennyo]

Yeah, and you have to consider it was under somewhat dire circumstances that Aerith finally admitted it in FFVII. And even then Elmyra was the one who told the party first, because Aerith had lied about it even to Cloud. It came out because really there was no way around it. I'm sure if there was she wouldn't have told even him, or Tifa, or anyone in Avalanche.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

"HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT I'M A FREAK AND I CAN TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENTS AFTER ME WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND"

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

"HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT I'M A FREAK AND I CAN TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENTS AFTER ME WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND"

how did you know how I make friends? :o