AERIS GAINSBOROUGH
"Aeris is here...everyone is here...Cloud is here with us! There's still so many things for us to do...I'm not giving up!"
Aeris is introduced as a flower girl and this is understood as her own attempt to lead a normal life despite numerous kidnapping attempts by the Turks. She retreats routinely to a local derelict church which serves as an ideal hideaway for her from the insanity of the outside world.
According to her, it is the only place where flowers are able to grow in Midgar.
Chronologically, the story's events begin for Aeris when she bumps into Cloud, who is fleeing from the scene
of AVALANCHE, successfully destroying a mako reactor. The two would later be reunited in Aeris's church,
this time under more tense circumstances. Faced with the possibility of being captured by Reno of the Turks,
Aeris asks Cloud to be her bodyguard for the cost of one date.
Aeris then joins the party in the pursuit of Sephiroth, as well as embarks on a journey of self-discovery.
As well all know next, Sephiroth slays Aeris with a single thrust of his sword. It is Cloud who then carries
Aeris's body out into a lake in the ancient capital city of the Cetra and releases her back to the Planet.
The party later learns through her White Materia, Aeris was able to summon Holy, the only force capable of
repelling the ultimate destructive magic, Meteor. Though Aeris successfully casts Holy before her death,
it is released too late to function as effectively as it should. Meteor was already summoned by Sephiroth
and set on a collision course with the Planet. While Holy clashes with Meteor, attempting to prevent its impact,
the gravity of both Meteor and the Planet pulling on the spell in opposite directions weakens it, leaving it
with too little room to take effect. The Planet's Lifestream then flows from within the planet and acts as a battering ram to push Meteor back, giving Holy enough room to properly destroy it.
I have always found it troubling and extremely immature that fans are either anti-Tifa or anti-Aeris. First of all, Aeris and Tifa are not rivals because the subject is not so simple. Both of them share feelings for Cloud but with that point in mind, they were also good friends. Nevertheless, it is not hard to imagine that she carries complex feelings as a woman toward Aeris, who had built up a special bond with Cloud that was different from her own. Tifa's complicated feelings continue on after the game due to the fact that Cloud believed that the death of Aeris was his fault.
Through their conversations, you understand that Aeris was a little surprised when she first heard about Tifa, but that's about it. When Tifa was upset and feeling kind of hopeless, Aeris quickly responded to her with words of wisdom and hope. Her words quickly calmed Tifa and she was very thankful. You can see that they have a friendship based on trust. It isn't competition because Tifa knew that Cloud loved Aeris; she probably figured that they belonged together because Cloud only opened up to her. After Aeris died, Tifa like the other characters, was deeply affected and upset. She took the death of Aeris as a wake up call in my opinion; almost like a second chance. It gave her the option to be there for Cloud and to just be the partner and best friend he needed. In a way, Aeris dying was a key to opening the closed relationship between Cloud & Tifa. Cloud obviously has to move on eventually and we can all see the Tifa is clearly becoming the mother in the family they are all trying to create.
I discuss this all much further and in greater detail in my love triangle section. Please don't leave me any more comments saying that I'm a supporter of Cloti or whatever. For God's sake, Aeris died. I have expressed my opinions on Cloud's relationship with Aeris before her death, and Cloud's relationship with Tifa after the death of Aeris.