I played the OG on PC, must’ve been 25 or 26 at the time. My husband warned me: “don’t level her up, she dies”. Being kind of a completionist, I was glad to know beforehand lol.
But anyway I disliked her from the get go. Because when she started flirting I went “wtf, ok I’m going to tell her that I already have a gf”
and she didn’t stop. Plus she was a hassle because she also was my first game over (Barret Aerith Red fight in the lift
). Anyway I didn’t like her from the get go. But the thing is, I didn’t like Cloud either lmao. I thought he was an arsehole. So while I liked Tifa, I didn’t ship CT until the LS, even kept telling Tifa she could do so much better since I felt the game was pushing CA.
So when Aerith died, I went “omfg finally!” followed by “noooooooo my materia!!!!”
Nowadays when I replay the OG I’m more like “come on Aerith, it’s time to go now”
For Rebirth when Holy hit the ground I went “ohhh… she’s gone for real” and finally felt sad. I am however not liking her as much as I did in Remake, and I’m not sure if that’s the result of her characterisation or of the horrible PR for this game. Only time will tell I guess.