What if Cloud killed Aerith and not Sephiroth??

[fantasyplayerx5]

Aerith's death, one of the most touching scenes in Final Fantasy VII. The Flower Girl of Midgar prays at an altar when suddenly her prayers are interrupted by an evil Sephiroth swooping down from the heavens to slay the poor Flower Girl with a cruel and swift stab in her back.

Everything seems perfectly aligned to make us assume that Sephiroth was the evil man who killed her. But what if, and stay with me here, CLOUD was the one to kill her?

I just came across this insane, but also very interesting theory, proposed by The Game Theorists. Here are some indicators:

1. No blood when she got stabbed!
2. The sword pierced through the thoracic part of the spinal cord. Injury here would not let you hold yourself up. You'd be slumping over, just like Aerith did after the sword pierced her. The injury would also knock her unconscious. So these combined would make her seem dead, though she's not.
3. When Cloud laid her in the water, she goes to the bottom instead of floating up. Dead bodies tend to float, not sink. Sinking would happen for someone who's alive.
4. Now since she can't move her body much because of the paralysis from the sword attack and also considering that she was unconscious, what would happen to her in that state at the bottom of a pool of water? Yep, that's right. She'd die.

Hence, it is possible that it wasn't Sephiroth that finally killed her, but actually Cloud (unintentionally).

What do you think?

 

[Daniel G Zambrano]

It's an interesting theory, and I admit that it did cross my mind when I first played it. But there are a few facts on Cloud's behalf.

As soon as Cloud reaches Aerith, he motions as if he's going to cleave her with the Buster Sword. He's struggling against that urge and the companions that are with him at that point shout out, calling for him to stop what he's doing, and he does. That's evidence that the other party members had a clear view of what was happening in that platform, and I doubt that if Cloud had actually killed Aerith, they would've sticked with him.

Now, the interesting thing is that when Sephiroth appears, he stabs Aerith with Masamune, and as you point out, there's no blood. On the next scene, Masamune is no where to be seen, not on Aerith's body, nor on Sephiroth's hand.

So, I do believe Sephiroth killed Aerith, after all he could take possesion of any of the of the clones that had Jenova's cells in them and make them look like him. So the question would be if he actually used Masamune to kill her or if he used another method. It might be an error in the scene that the sword doesn't appear to be anywhere.

After a quick research (don't have a lot of time in my hands at the moment) I couldn't find anything on his abilitie to materialize Masamune, so I don't really know the nature of the weapon. It can obviously parry and interact with other solid objects, but it might be able to kill without leaving any evident sings of injury.

 

[Anachiwo]

This is such an interesting theory and I find some of them true based on the analysis of how Aerith's death came about. Where she was stabbed should definitely leave her dead in an instant and the no blood show from the sword would is a mockery of the whole situation.

Square Enix should do better with how some scene in the storyline is developed in order to make it look more real. Just like there was lots of blood spilling over the floor when Cloud fought Sephiroth, that made the fight a bit more real.

 

[overcast1]

I think this is same as doing action under the influence. I'd say this was expected in sad ending type of the games or movies. So I won't blame either sephiroth or cloud. It's just what plot is designed with.

 

[Anachiwo]

I think this is same as doing action under the influence. I'd say this was expected in sad ending type of the games or movies. So I won't blame either sephiroth or cloud. It's just what plot is designed with.

I think that I would hold Sephiroth responsible mostly for Aerith's death because everything took its course when he stabbed Aerith. The sword wound was a mortal wound, there was no way Aerith was going to survive it.