Final Fantasy VII debate: Aerith's........

Thanks to Con for the debate - I'm a big fan of the FF franchise (FF-X and below anyway). Like many other players, I was fairly taken aback when one of the main characters in the game suddenly died relatively early in the game in such a dramatic fashion. My job in this debate is to justify the choice on the game maker's behalf to have Sephiroth kill Aerith. Before we begin: ALL BOW BEFORE SEPHIROTH. SEPHIROTH IS LORD: http://www.youtube.com...Included is the theme tune for my side of the debate. All voters should listen to this music while reading my side of the debate. If they don't, Sephiroth will cut their f*cking head off.Argument 1: Aerith's death was one of the greatest moments in gaming history:A readers poll on Gamespy ranked Aerith's death as second in a poll of the the top cinematic moments in gaming [1]. The website itself ranked the moment 10th, saying "Every medium has an unforgettable tragic death. Spider-Man has the death of Gwen Stacy, Star Wars has the deaths of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, and the Final Fantasy series has the death of Aeris. This scene is as dramatic as it is beautiful"[2]. GamePro ranked it the greatest moment in gaming history out of 55 other greatest moments, saying "Aeris is killed by Sepiroth in one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever in a video game."[3]. Numerous other gaming publications have listed Aerith's death as one of the most important moments in gaming history, lebelling it as unforgettable, hearbreaking, dramatic and cinematic. Wikipedia states "Edge called her death the "dramatic highpoint" of Final Fantasy VII, and commented reintroducing her through the related Final Fantasy VII titles "arguably undermines this great moment".[4] In other words, trying to bring Aerith back in some way cheapens the dramatic impact and masterful storytelling surrounding Aerith's death. Argument 2: Aerith's death was intended to defy cliché:FF7 character designer Tetsuya Nomura has said that he was frustrated with the "perennial cliché where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love" [5]. He continues "Death should be something sudden and unexpected, and Aerith's death seemed more natural and realistic", and "When I reflect on Final Fantasy VII, the fact that fans were so offended by her sudden death probably means that we were successful with her character. If fans had simply accepted her death, that would have meant she wasn't an effective character.". This was partly in response to petitions by Japanese fans to have her resurrected. The game designers of FF7 never intended to bring Aerith back, and they had thought this decision through - Aerith's death was intended to defy the story convention of the hero sacrificing himself to save the world. The game designers intended Aerith's death to parallel death in the real world - as unexpected and often brutal and shortYoshinori Kitase, a producer of the game argued "in the real world things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. 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. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood." [6]The producers of FF7 themselves anticipated criticism of their decision to have Sephiroth kill Aerith and responded, but history has validated their decision - Aerith's death is now considered to be one of the greatest moments in gaming history. Counterpoints:I will respond to the labelled summaries at the end of Con's round:A) Just because deaths have been overused in comic book storylines doesn't mean they can't be used to great effect in stand-alone storylines like FF7 was originally intended. Some of the greatest storylines in history has included deaths. As You mentioned, Gwen Stacy's death is widely regarded as a great comic book moment. In Lord of the Rings there was Bormir's death. Batman has Wayne's parents. These classics would all be greatly diminished without deaths, so it's absurd to claim that killing characters off is the mark of a bad storyteller. Almost every classic story in history is related to death in some way. B) This isn't true - the things they left behind can still continue to drive the plot. Besides, there was a whole cast of compelling characters in FF7. Killing Aerith by no means damaged the plot. On the contrary, it was one of the high points and would have been cheapened had she been brought back. C) I'm not sure what to make of this argument. So what? Regardless of her death's impact on the overall story, it was an important and dramatic plot point by itself. As previously mentioned, there were good reasons the game makers included her death which aren't necessarily to do with the plot. D) It did contribute to the plot by being an important plot point in itself. And while it might not have been solely the thing that drove Cloud to revenge, it certainly has an impact on the gamers themselves to whom Sephiroth was previously just a shadowy villian. The death showed Sephiroth as a potent threat who could kill even members of the main cast. E) It made the game more challenging - I would argue that forcing gamers to use a less obvious character as a healer increased the tactical merit of the game. [1] http://uk.gamespy.com...[2] http://uk.gamespy.com...[3] http://www.gamepro.com...[4] http://en.wikipedia.org...[5] http://www.ff7citadel.com...;[6] http://en.wikipedia.org...