Gainsborough, Aerith
Summary
Aerith Gainsborough is a kind and gentle figure from the Final Fantasy VII series, always eager to assist her friends to the best of her abilities. She is typically depicted wearing a pink ribbon in her hair, a pink dress paired with a short brown coat, and brown boots, though she dons a white sleeveless dress in Crisis Core. Aerith serves as one of Cloud’s potential love interests and was previously in a romantic relationship with Zack Fair. Her story begins with her introduction as a flower girl who briefly speaks with Cloud Strife, a mercenary fleeing the bombing of a Mako reactor alone while AVALANCHE operates separately. They reunite at a church in the Sector 5 slums after Cloud falls through the roof from the plate above. When the Turks threaten to capture them, the pair joins forces to escape. Reminding her of Zack Fair, Aerith asks Cloud to act as her bodyguard in exchange for a date. Later, Aerith is captured by Shinra and taken to a science lab, but Cloud and his allies infiltrate the facility to rescue her. She then joins their pursuit of Sephiroth while undergoing a journey of self-discovery. After failing to stop Sephiroth from stealing the Black Materia, she travels alone to the Forgotten City. Cloud and his companions follow, finding her praying at an altar. As she smiles at Cloud, Sephiroth appears and kills her by impaling her through the torso. The materia her mother gave her, which she wore in her hair, falls into the water and is lost. Cloud carries her body out to a lake in the Forgotten City after defeating an incarnation of Jenova, releasing her back to the Planet. The party eventually learns why she went to the Forgotten City. Using the White Materia inherited from her mother, she summoned Holy, the ultimate White Magic capable of repelling Sephiroth’s Meteor. Although she cast Holy before dying, Sephiroth’s will initially held it back. Once he was defeated, Holy was released but was too late to be fully effective, as Meteor had already drawn too close to the Planet’s surface. As Holy clashed with Meteor, the opposing gravitational pulls weakened the spell. The Lifestream then flowed from the planet, acting as a battering ram to help destroy Meteor, followed by a vision of Aerith within the Lifestream’s energy. In Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Aerith appears as Cloud’s spiritual guide, urging him to forgive himself for tragedies beyond his control and reassuring him that she never blamed him for her death. In visions, she speaks to him in a flower-filled meadow, cheerfully teasing him for burdening himself with the past while offering support. Towards the end of the film, she causes it to rain, with the water curing those afflicted by Geostigma upon contact. At the movie’s conclusion, she is seen at the church alongside Zack Fair, watching Cloud.
