As Cloud begins to bring down the Buster Sword and kill Aerith (The fact that the game forces YOU to push the buttons in order to advance the game was a nice touch, by the way), the other party members yell at him just in time to snap him out of it. Then the FMV begins. Aerith opens her eyes and smiles upon seeing Cloud there, but their joyful reunion is short lived as Sephiroth descends from above and impales her through the back with the Masamune. FFVII has some excellent presentation in its key scenes, and this one is no exception. The sound effects (with no background music) are chilling and it slowly sinks in what just happened as Sephiroth pulls the Masamune out of Aerith and the Holy Materia falls from her hair. Then Aerith’s Theme begins to play right as the Holy Materia clinks on the ground, almost in unison with the piano, which is another really nice touch. There are a couple of weird gaffes in this FMV, like Sephiroth not wearing any gloves as he descends from above, and then in the next shot, he’s wearing gloves again. There’s also the fact that Aerith went from facing toward the opening where Cloud came in to having her back to it so the Holy Materia would fall out and drop into the water below.
Anyway, I really like the dialogue after the FMV between Cloud and Sephiroth. The latter begins spelling out the details of his elaborate plan, celebrating his victory over the last Ancient. Then Cloud interrupts him in the middle of his speech and tells him to shut up. He doesn’t care to hear him pontificating right now. While obviously defeating Sephiroth is top priority, at this moment in time, nothing else matters other than the fact that Aerith is dead, and he doesn’t know what else to do. His fingers are tingling, his mouth is dry, his eyes are burning! Watching Cloud hold Aerith’s body and visibly shaking the entire time he talks is really powerful, I think. Square did an excellent job of communicating emotion through body language in this entire sequence.
After hearing all of this, Sephiroth slowly lowers his arms and addresses Cloud as if genuinely surprised by his emotional outburst. I love how Cloud quickly swings around and stands up at Sephiroth’s question about whether he feels any sort of emotion over this, and he’s like, “Of course! Who do you think I am?!” Then Sephiroth takes off, leaving a boss fight with Jenova-LIFE behind. I love the fact that Aerith’s Theme continues to play during the boss fight. Just an excellent touch that serves as a reminder of what just happened even as you fight this boss. Unfortunately, this boss is a total joke if you found the Water Ring the game conveniently leaves for you as you enter the Forgotten City because all of Jenova-LIFE’s attacks are water-based, so if you have it, she literally cannot do any damage to you.
After you beat Jenova-LIFE and get her lone quote in the game, which the translation team botches (“Beacause you are a puppet”), you get to see your two party members react to Aerith’s deaths. I absolutely love the fact that FFVII gave each character a custom animation for this moment to emphasize how big of a deal this scene is. I remember playing through this scene several times back to back just to see every character’s reaction to it. This is one of those rare times when Yuffie might have the best moment in the scene because watching her lean on Cloud and bawl her eyes out was really moving, I have to admit.
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"Why must we always choose between certain death and probable death?"
"I'm in an epic battle to the death, FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!"