Why is FF7's shocking moment considered the most shocking *spoilers*

[demonfox13]

Kasz216 said:

tehsage said:

Alright, so, Aerith dies in FF7. Yes, I'm pretty everyone and their mother knows that by now. However, I'm a little curious as to why her death bothered people so much versus what has happened in other Final Fantasys.

For instance, in Final Fantasy VI, an entire kingdom is killed. AN ENTIRE KINGDOM. Pshh, we don't care about them. We only care about party members!

I'm playing Final Fantasy IV right now. It's my first time, so, no extra spoilers please. Anyhow, three people in my party have died so far. Two of which were fucking children. TWO KIDS SACRIFICE THEMSELVES. Aerith is killed. "OMG NOOOOO" Two children die. "Who cares?"

 

>__>; Thoughts?

In FF5 a player character is killed to.

 

More people care about FF7... because they played it first. 

 

Also... the Phantom Train moment is far sadder then anything in 7.

 

FF7 was amusingly just following a trend of playable characters dieing in FF. (two die in FF6 to.)

It's just people heralded it as the "first" time it happened because nobody knew better.

No no no no no. This is where you got it all wrong. Aerith dying was big because she was to be one of the most CRUCIAL MAIN characters in the game as far as importance went. Best example, picture having Spiderman fight villains for a long time as we follow that comic and all of a sudden out of NOWHERE BAM MJ gets killed. I endured FF1 with the same midi music that NEVER changed even for boss fights. It's like a Romeo and Juliet story where only Juliet dies. Aside from it being the first CG instance where we see something like that happen. She was the heroine of the story, and the way the story was written, they lead you to believe in the end it's Cloud and Aeris to stay together and be happy. The only other instance that could have rivaled that is if Squall at the very end of FFVIII would have died in Rinoa's arms.