Aerith Gainsborough: Encyclopedia II - Aerith Gainsborough - Biography

Aerith Gainsborough - Biography

Aerith Gainsborough - Past

Aerith was born to the last true Cetra, Ifalna, and her experimentor, Professor Gast. Previous to this, Ifalna had been captured by the Shin-Ra to be experimented on by Gast, their top scientist. The two fell in love and instead eloped; Gast continued his investigation into the Cetra's history with Ifalna's help in Icicle Inn and a baby girl, Aerith, was born to them.

While Aerith was still a baby, her family was attacked by Shin-Ra soldiers, killing Gast and captured her and Ifalna to be experimented on now by Hojo, an evil scientist at Shin-Ra. It wasn't until Aerith was a small child that Ifalna was able to escape with her, but while the escape was successful, she died in the attempt. They had managed to get to Midgar, where a dying Ifalna passed Aerith to Elmyra, a childless widow. She raised Aerith and protected her when the Shin-Ra found her again and attempted to kidnap her.

At the age of sixteen, Aerith dated her first boyfriend, Zack, who is linked to the Final Fantasy VII's protagonist, Cloud. Looking back on this relationship, Aerith comments that they weren't serious but "I liked him".

She makes a living selling flowers, which is how she eventually meets Cloud during Final Fantasy VII.

Aerith Gainsborough - Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

Shin-Ra, in hopes of advancing methods to harvest the earth's energy (see "Lifestream"), seek out lore for "inspiration." These tales rumor the existence of an ancient race, the Cetra, who have the remarkable ability to communicate with the planet itself. Their search leads to Ifalna, the sole survivor (at the time). She is apprehended by Shin-Ra forces and subjected to many horrific experiments.

Ifalna, in captivity of Shin-Ra forces, becomes romantically involved with one of the more humane researchers, Professor Gast. Gast breaks her free and together, they escape to a remote mountain village and live (momentarily) in peace.

Following twenty days after the birth of their daughter, Aerith, Shin-Ra soldiers, led by Hojo, raid their home. Gast is slain and Ifalna is again abducted along with baby Aerith for further torture in Shin-Ra's labs.

Seven long years pass. The two, mother and child, flee from Shin-Ra's clutches to the munincipal Midgar. Ifalna, wounded in the attempt and on the verge of death, begs a woman to take care of Aerith. The kindly widow, Elmyra Gainsborough, accepts and raises Aerith as her own. With the death of her mother Ifalna, Aerith is now the last survivor of the ancient Cetra (or simply, Ancients).

In adopting the title, she is burdened with its cursed circumstances. As the sole Cetra, her role as an envoy to the planet's cries (see "Lifestream") impose a responsibility far too overwhelming for a child to bear. To make matters worse, she has become the key target of the empirical Shin-Ra which is based in central Midgar--their hold completely enshrouding the city in economic and social disparity. Shin-Ra, inching closer to the Ancient's location, dispatches the Turks to finally recapture her.

Aerith, now a flower seller, tries her best to lead a normal life despite numerous kidnapping attempts by the Turks. She retreats routinely to a local run-down church which serves as an ideal hideaway from the insanity of the outside world. According to her, it is the only place where flowers seem to grow, a symbol of hope that is followed many times throughout the game.

Chronologically, the game begins here, ten years after her initial arrival in Midgar. While on a seemingly typical flower route, she bumps into a frantic Cloud who flees from the scene of Avalanche's successful bombing of a Mako Reactor.

The two would later reunite in Aerith's church, this time, under more tense circumstances. Faced with the possibility of being captured by Shinra, Aerith asks the mercenary to be her bodyguard against the Turks for the cost of one date. She is eventually kidnapped but once again saved by Cloud and company. Aerith joins them in the pursuit of the malevolent Sephiroth.

Aerith, although seemingly "innocent," is very spunky, outgoing, mischievous, and at times, downright flirtatious with Cloud. She generally remains optimistic throughout the journey though her shady and somewhat mysterious actions leads others to believe she knows more more about Sephiroth's conquest than she lets on.

After a failed attempt to foil Sephiroth's stealing of a dangerous materia, Aerith ventures alone into the City of Ancients -- a reckless action in the eyes of her party. Cloud eventually catches up, only to witness a praying Aerith impaled by Sephiroth's Masamune. Cloud and gang ensue a fight against a form of Jenova and secure a quick victory. But, shaken, hurt, and saddened, they bye the loss of a dear friend. Cloud takes Aerith's body, wades out into the middle of the lake of Ancient Capital, and gives her body back to the planet by releasing her into the depths of the water.

The party learns that, through her White Materia (handed down from Ifalna), Aerith summoned "Holy," the only force capable of repelling Sephiroth's cataclysmic summon, Meteor. In order to initiate its effect, however, Sephiroth would have to be defeated. Inspired by Aerith's ultimate sacrifice, the party sets out on a final showdown. Cloud succeeds in killing Sephiroth, however Holy is activated too close to the planet. While Holy clashes with Meteor to prevent impact, their powers are augmented by each other and create an even more destructive force. In a climatic FMV, the earth's Lifestream spews from the planet and bands together to diffuse the monstrous structure. This magnificent showing is followed by a vision of Aerith--an indication of her final efforts to save the planet (this is discussed more in "The Maiden that Travels the Planet").

Maiden Who Travels The Planet is a novelization written by Benny Matsuyama that appears in the Ultimania Omega Guide for Final Fantasy VII. It is the story of Aerith during Final Fantasy VII while she is in the Lifestream, after her death at the hands of Sephiroth. It revealed that Cetra can exist in the lifestream without letting their conscious be scattered through sheer force of will. It showed Aerith's encounters with people who have died over the course of the game, which includes Biggs, Wedge and Jessie of AVALANCHE, Dyne, President Shin-Ra, Zack and Hojo. Her true feelings for Cloud are also revealed in the story.

Aerith's appearances in Advent Children run few and far between, but her presence, as it always has been, profoundly motivates Cloud for the better.

Since Sephiroth's defeat, the party has had no time to rejoice. Though the planet has been saved by Aerith's actions, Holy has overcompensated in its effects and has begun to infect the population through a fatal illness known as Geostigma. Cloud, now secluse and infected, as well, isolates himself from his friends. Though resolute, he is maddened by his failure to prevent Aerith's death.

When each of the members of the original game's party lend their respective strength to Cloud's final attack against Bahamut, an act symbolizing one of the film's primary themes of comeraderie (summed in Cloud's final line "I'm not alone"), Aerith makes an appearance as the last of the party members to lend their helping hands.

After Cloud's triumph over the reincarnation of Sephiroth, it is through Aerith's church in which it is discovered that the Lifestream flows beneath the flowerbed after an explosion from Kadaj blasts a hole in the soil, thus explaining how flowers were able to bloom in a place as desolate as Midgar, a cure for Geostigma is discovered. Throughout the movie, Aerith helps Cloud let go of his painful past and encourage him to forgive himself, in which he does in the final scene. Before vanishing, she smiles back, a reminder of her heroic actions, a reminder that she is forever a part of the planet and she will forever live in Cloud's heart.

Until the movie was released, Aerith's face, or at least the upper half of her face, had been kept "hidden" by Square Enix. This tactic left fans speculating on how she would look like in her Advent Children incarnation and many times, doctored images were sent by people claiming that was Aerith's face was revealed. Aerith's full face is shown at the end of Advent Children and also during the bonus ending.

Aerith Gainsborough - Kingdom Hearts

Due to it being an alternate universe, Aerith also makes a notable appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series. She is a member of a group dedicated to defeating the Heartless, which also includes Cid Highwind and Yuffie Kisaragi of Final Fantasy VII, and Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII (aka, Leon). Her attire is mostly unchanged; the only changes were the short red jacket she wore over her pink dress is gone, the ribbon on her hair is now red instead of pink, her gold bangles were replaced with silver bracelets on her left wrist, and she now wears a purple belt. You can now see her shoulders and underarms.

Aerith encounters Donald Duck and Goofy in the streets of Traverse Town and escorts them to the Traverse Town hotel. It is there that she suggests recovering the scattered pages of Ansem's Report to find a way to destroy the Heartless.

In the Kingdom Hearts manga, she appears to Sora, Donald, and Goofy when the trio go to look for Leon, who is training in the sewers. In the Kingdom Hearts Manga, Aerith is seen serving sweet beverages, like barley tea and soda with milk, drinks that Leon dislikes because they are sweetened.

After the locking of the Hollow Bastion keyhole, Aerith returns to her home where she is reunited with Cloud in the Hollow Bastion library.

After making a brief appearance in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as a perceptive figment of Sora's memories, Aerith returns in Kingdom Hearts II, wearing a modified version of the white dress she donned in Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII. In her hair, instead of pink, she wears red (or pink with a red hue) ribbons. She, along with fellow Final Fantasy VII characters Cloud, Cid, Yuffie and Tifa, help Sora fight against the Heartless.

Aerith Gainsborough - Final Fantasy Tactics

Aerith also somehow manages to make her presence known in Final Fantasy Tactics (as Aeris). During the course of the game, Aeris shows up offering to sell the characters a flower for one gil.

Later, after Cloud Strife is pulled through time and wanders around the streets of Zarghidas, he encounters Aeris, who offers him a flower for one gil, similar to his first encounter with her in Final Fantasy VII. Cloud doesn't respond but instead stares at her, probably due to her resemblance to the Aerith he knew. Aeris asks Cloud if she reminded him of somebody. He denies it and walks away, leaving her to wonder if something is wrong with him.

Shortly after Cloud left, a group of thugs appear from the shadows and start harrassing Aeris for the 30,000 gil that she and her mother owes them. After pleading with them to give her a week to come up with the money, the thugs then examine her and tell her that she's "pretty good looking!" and suggest that she sells her body instead of flowers.

Cloud, angered by what he's seen, tells the thugs to get their hands off her then tells Aeris to run away. Aeris does as she's told and runs off-screen, leaving Cloud to fight off the thugs.

The flower girl is identified as being Aerith: She has her job, her basic personality, and her looks, yet she's somehow not in her actual time nor does she know Cloud. No explanation has been given to her presence in this game.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki