Aerith Gainsborough

Aeris Gainsborough, also known as Aerith Gainsborough in the Continuation, is a female protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. She uses a staff as her weapon and wears a pink ribbon in her hair. Having lived in the slums of Midgar for years, she has become street-smart, and has had to evade the Shin-Ra many times. She is portrayed as a independent, outgoing and kind young woman who displays a stark understanding of others at times.

In the original Japanese version of the game, her name is Aerith, but it was translated as Aeris in the early English versions. Since Kingdom Hearts, her name has been re-translated to Aerith in her appearances such as Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

She is one of three characters in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to bear at least two different English voice actors, the other two being Yuffie Kisaragi (Christy Carlson Romano and Mae Whitman) and Genesis Rhapsodos (Robin Atkin Downes and Oliver Quinn).

Birth
Aeris was born from one of the last remaining Cetra, Ifalna, and her father was Professor Gast Faremis. When her mother managed to escape the Shin-Ra who tried to capture her, she made it as far as Midgar. Ifalna was badly wounded, and gave the young Aerith to Elmyra Gainsborough just before she died.

She lived with Elmyra in Sector 5 in the Midgar Slums for a long time. Being a Cetra, she could hear the words of the planet. Even though people claimed nothing could grow in the slums, because the Mako Reactors drained all the life out of Midgar's surrounding areas, she managed to grow flowers her Sector 5 Church.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
A younger Aerith appears in Before Crisis. Her role is the same as it would be later on in the series; As the last Cetra, she is caught between AVALANCHE and Shin-Ra, both parties attempting to capture her. She develops a friendship with a Turk who crashes into her church, much in the same fashion as Zack Fair and Cloud Strife. The nature of this relationship culminates in the Turk betraying his company to defend Aerith when she is attacked by soldiers. Whether or not there lies a romantic inclination to this "friendship," is yet to be confirmed.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-


Aerith first appears when Zack 'falls from the sky' into her church. After an amusing minigame, he buys her the pink bow which she ties on her head as a thank you for "saving his life" much to the girl's delight. They then proceed to form a relationship together, even going on a hasty date within hours of meeting. During this time, Aerith says that she is afraid of SOLDIER and believes that they are not normal, and that being "normal" is the greatest happiness. Zack then says he's from SOLDIER and she apologizes. To break the awkward silence, Aerith says that his eyes are pretty. Zack then lets her have a closer look, and as they draw nearer, Aerith becomes aware of their close proximity and pushes him for teasing her. He then comments that his mako eyes are like the sky. Aerith smiles and says, "If that's the sky I'm looking at then I'm not scared."

She appears in other scenes, and is implied to be his girlfriend. A romantic relationship is heavily implicated after Angeal's death; as Aerith proceeds to hold Zack as he cries. Their relationship continues until Zack ensues on a mission that took him away from her for four years, while she doesn't know his whereabouts. The last time Zack and Aerith are seen together, she gives him her own personal wish list, which had "I want to spend more time with you" written on it. She even writes him 89 letters while he is gone for the past four years, but she never realizes that Zack already died while trying to return to her.

Her upbeat, cheerful demeanor is still intact thoughout Crisis Core, as well as her ablity to read people.

Final Fantasy VII
Aeris continues to sell flowers on the street for one gil after Zack's death, when she meets Cloud Strife, who bears a striking resemblance to Zack. Later on, Cloud winds up in the church, where he introduces himself to Aeris and becomes her "bodyguard". When Cloud sees Tifa, and decides to break into Don Corneo's mansion, Aeris helps him disguise as a girl. Aeris gets captured by Shin-Ra once, but Cloud and his friends manage to save her.

Later on in the game, the party goes to the Temple of the Ancients to obtain the Black Materia. Cloud obtains the Black Materia, but is controlled by Sephiroth, and gives it to him. Cloud also ends up hurting Aeris, and passes out. He sees Aeris in a dream, with her telling him that she will come back when it is over. It turns out that Aeris has gone after Sephiroth. She claims that by using the White Materia, Holy, which she has in her ribbon, she can stop him. Although earlier in the game she claims her Materia is completely useless and does nothing, clearly through learning of the power of the Black Materia in the Temple of the Ancients she learns of it's true power. The party arrives at the Forgotten Capital, where Aeris is praying for Holy. Sephiroth gains control over Cloud again, and instructs him to kill Aeris. Cloud is stopped by his friends, but then Sephiroth falls down from the ceiling and kills her with a stab through her back. When he pulls the Masamune out of Aeris's body, she falls forward and the Holy Materia in her hair ribbon falls out and into the water. Cloud is enraged, and after a battle with Jenova-LIFE, he takes Aeris' body down to the water, and lets it sink down to the Lifestream together with the Holy Materia.

After Sephiroth is defeated at the end of the game, the Holy that Aeris prayed for is able to begin to move, and together with the Lifestream, Aeris' Holy spell is able to fight off Sephiroth's Meteor. Aeris' role in the Lifestream fending off Meteor is expanded in the novella Maiden Who Travels the Planet, which depicts Aeris in the Lifestream helping to fight Sephiroth's influence over it as well as consoling other dead characters from the game.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Aerith is in the CGI-movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. She appears, at a few points of the movie, to Cloud in a vast space of light, usually without background (presumably the Lifestream.) Cloud blames himself for her death, and asks her for forgiveness. Aerith, however, tells him that it's time he did the forgiving. She eventually convinces Cloud to forgive himself via these meetings---she even manages to leave a message on his cell phone telling him that his coming for her was all that really mattered (the message is the last one on the phone before it hits the bottom of the lake), and that she never once blamed him for her death. Throughout these meetings the audience can only see the bottom half of her face. It is only in Cloud's fight against Bahamut SIN that her face is finally seen, though very briefly and distorted due to the curvature of Cloud's eye. In this scene, each member of the original game party helps Cloud in his final attack. The last to appear is Aerith--she is reflected in Cloud's eyes as a bright light shines. He takes her outstretched hand and is able to defeat Bahamut.

Aerith encourages Cloud on in his fight against Kadaj, and some images of her are seen, along with a few of Tifa's and Zack's, when Sephiroth asks Cloud who the people closest to him are. Her Gospel rain begins to pour and heal the people of Geostigma. Marlene wonders if it's the 'flower girl', and Tifa thanks her, saying she knew Aerith was there somehow. Kadaj hears her voice in his dying moments, mistaking her for the Mother he was seeking. Cloud, too, calls her Mother, when he floating in a blank space after being caught in an explosion. This makes Aerith comically wonder why everyone's calling her that. Zack's voice tells her that it's probably because everyone is so fond of her. Aerith sends Cloud back, with Zack telling him that, unfortunately, there is no place for Cloud 'here' yet.

Waking up again in Aerith's church, Cloud sees her sitting beside some children, with Zack leaning against the doorway. Aerith heads towards the door, and just before exiting, turns and smiles at Cloud, telling him that everything is all right now. This is the first proper view we see of her face. Aerith then turns and leaves, walking into bright light along with Zack. Cloud, smiling, agrees that he's not alone anymore. Aerith is seen in the ending credits, standing in a huge field of flowers, seemingly waiting for Cloud's arrival.

Limit Breaks
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Final Fantasy Tactics


Aeris made her cameo appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics, where she is initially referred to as a Flower Peddler and later as Aeris by the ruffians that Ramza and Cloud fight off. Apparently Aeris and her mother owes a 30,000 gil debt with the ruffians. The criminals go so far as to suggest Aerith could make the money by selling her body-- but it is at this point that the player intervenes with Cloud.

In Final Fantasy Tactics, she was referred to as Aeris, though this was changed to Aerith in The War of the Lions.

Music
Aerith's Theme is an important track in Final Fantasy VII, played at various stages of the game, during the fight with Jenova LIFE and during the preceding scene. It was one of the three tracks which were orchestrated and included in the album Final Fantasy VII: Reunion Tracks.

Kingdom Hearts
She is first met in Traverse Town with Leon and Yuffie. The three of them, plus Cid and Cloud all lived in Radiant Garden before it was taken over by the Heartless and re-named Hollow Bastion. She, along with Leon and Yuffie, assists the player throughout the game and eventually gives them the powerful Curaga spell. In the ending FMV, Cloud and Aerith reunite in Hollow Bastion. Although this scene implies it was Aeris that Cloud mentioned he was looking for earlier in the game, in the Final Mix version, an extra scene involves Aerith saying he's actually looking for Sephiroth.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, she seems to be the only person in the Traverse Town made from Sora's mind, who knows that she is just a memory, and why they have forgotten what happened in Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, Aerith is part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, together with her friends from Traverse Town, wearing the dress from Before Crisis. She and Cid are the only ones that do not fight alongside or against Sora in the game. She shares a close relationship with Yuffie, Leon and Cloud and assists Leon in the restoration of Hollow Bastion and encourages Cloud to settle his grudge with Sephiroth.

In Kingdom Hearts she is voiced by Mandy Moore. In Kingdom Hearts II, she is voiced by Mena Suvari.

Itadaki Street Portable
Aerith also appears as a character in Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable.