I found this.. I don't really remember where, but I'm pretty sure if you copy and paste some of it in google or something, you'll find it.

Nomura, concerning Aerith's death:

Quote
Back at the time we were designing the game, I was frustrated with the perennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love. We found this was the case in both games and movies, both easter and western. But I wanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right to set such an example to people?

Change himself, to herself, and I think you got Aeris! He says 'loves someone very much, and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love.'. (cept' himself would be herself [Aeris]).. so with Nomura saying that, It makes me think that.. well.. she (Aeris) ``died in a dramatic fashion to express that love.`` [for cloud, of course.]. But then again, there's that other part to 'saving the planet', but I think she did it for him, out of love, since that was his goal in the first place. :) Kind of like.. the line "I'd die for you.". so cool. :D


Kitase follows that up with this:

Quote
In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you lose someone you loved very much, you feel this big empty space and think 'If I had known this was coming, I would have done things differently.' These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

Not just players, but.. Cloud too! (But then again, the player would be Cloud since.. he's the character you're playing as.) and since I think.. he's referring to Cloud, he had to have loved her. Yay! :cleris: I don't know.. I guess I found this a bit interesting, since, to me, it resembled Cloud and Aeris. (i have improper use of commas. :unsure: )

Wow, well if they wanted to do it differently, it must mean they came to this idea for SOME reason. I wonder if Cloud would kill himself over Tifa when she is still alive. :yawn:

Hm, someone you love very much, wanting to do things differently ...

Hm, Cloud exhibits those same symptoms!! Who knew? :rolleyes:

Kinda reminds me of the movie "If Only" with Jennifer Love-Hewitt on it. ^_^'

I Googled those quotes and came up with this:

In the May 2003 issue of the United Kingdom video game magazine known as EDGE (quite possibly the most professional, best organized, and all around greatest video game magazine around), there is a six-page "Making of..." feature on Final Fantasy VII (there's a six-page "Making of..." feature in the back of every issue they release), in which Yoshinori Kitase (Co-Scenario Writer and Director of Final Fantasy VII) and Tetsuya Nomura (Character Designer of Final Fantasy VII) are interviewed.

During the course of the interview, Nomura speaks about what he intended in coming up with Aerith's death, and Kitase speaks on the fans' responses to her death. Here follows that part of the interview, along with picture proof that this issue of the magazine exists, and that the interview and dialogue I speak of is present within the issue.

Nomura, concerning Aerith's death:

Quote
Back at the time we were designing the game, I was frustrated with the perennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love. We found this was the case in both games and movies, both easter and western. But I wanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right to set such an example to people?


Kitase follows that up with this:

Quote
In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you lose someone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think 'If I had knowni this was coming I would have done things differently.' These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."


Kitase, concerning the fans' responses to Aerith's death:

Quote
The world was expecting us to bring her back to life, as this is the classic convention. But we did not. We had decided this from the beginning. There was a lot of reaction from Japanese users. Some of them were very sad about it, while others were angry. We even received a lengthy petition addressed to our scenario writer asking for Aerith's revival. But there are many meanings in Aerith's death and that could never happen.

There were links to the actual magazine scans, too. Check it out:

http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/forums/ipb/in...t=0&#entry84006

:D

I've seen the Cloti's use these quotes before, but their interpretation is different. They say that if Nomura and Kitase wanted to portray things realistically, that Cloud would move on rather than continuing to love someone who's dead.

However, I see that their view is negated by what Kitase said about it:

Kitase doesn't talk about moving on, and he's practically saying right there that Cloud lost someone he loved very much. Isn't the emptiness described by Kitase exactly what we see Cloud experiencing now in AC? Isn't the feeling that he wished he could have done things differently exactly what Cloud is experiencing in AC?

Yes, that's it exactly. He isn't feeling empty because he's afraid for Tifa, afraid she'll get hurt, afraid of hurting her, he's feeling empty because he lost someone he loves. :(

Wheeeee! :woot: ClAeris score: 4,894; CloTi score: 0. :lmao:

Anyone else noticed that the creators never discuss the Highwind scene, or the Well scene, or any of the "Cloti Scenes" the clotis always brag about? :rolleyes:

Yeah, and none of those scenes were FMVs either. :whistle:

Hm, so Aerith reviving in AC is nil now, if that is how they felt about it regarding her death.

On a positive side, it seems Kitase is saying that Cloud loves Aerith! So am happy! XD

I knew they would never revive her, it would take away from Cloud's personal growth and character development, as well as compromising one of the key themes in the game.

And yes, Cloud loves Aeris ( :D ), but then ... we knew that too!! :P

I've always thought that Kingdom Hearts was Aerith's resurrection. They won't do it in the FFVII universe, but they did revive her and put her with Cloud in KH. They did the same in FF Tactics, too.

I never expected it to happen in AC, but I wouldn't have been against it if they did. Cloud is communicating with her, though, and I hope he'll be able to see her before the end of the movie. They're also able to touch one another, since Cloud's back is up against hers and Aerith touches his arm. She may not be revived, but he's still able to be with her in a sense.

Wow, thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention, Aki. Certainly something I had never seen before.

When I first played the game I was expecting a ressurrection, but when that never came, I figured it wasn't going to happen. This however is still a great find in the sense that it does give more insight into Aeris' death and Cloud's feelings. Always good to see more concrete proof on our side. :D

i am glad aeris wil not revive in the film...cloud has to remember her, this way..

.i think aeris is just in clouds mind, he desires to be with her, so, because he is ill with geostigma, he see aeris but i hope it wil not be real, its just the desire of cloud.I hope cloud will die....to be with aeris

The Clotis are gonna have a field day over this one. They're gonna say that Cloud's continuing love for Aerith is the "perennial cliche" that Kitase is talking about and therefore, he will never meet her in the Promised Land and will move on instead :yawn:
But this does put a new spin on our 'Cloud's Death' theory, doesn't it? If Cloud dies, it won't be merely for the reason of "being with Aerith", it'll be for something else.

I thought the cliche was the guy getting recklessly killed for the girl (as seen what Romeo did when he saw Juliet), not thinking about her...

OK, I'm confused...

The cliche is definately over the guy killing himself or letting himself be killed JUST because he loved someone. Cloud has never showed signs of killing himself or letting himself be killed (he could have done that during the battle with Sephiroth), he just spiritually gave up in a way. And for more than one reason.

The love he has isn't a cliche. If Cloud loving Aeris is a cliche, then so is every other instance of love. And in my opinion, childhood love is ten times more cliche than letting go of the past and moving on with someone who makes you truely happy, regardless of life or death matters.

For that to work, the clotis would have to admit Cloud loved Aeris.

Throughout the game itself, too, where they insisted that Cloud and Tifa are THE pair as Square intented in the first place.

It also has to mean that Cloud loved Aerith for Cloud to "move on". "Moving on" means that you're getting involved in a new love relationship after an old love relationship ended, so it's an admission that he loved Aerith. :lol:

I think what would have made it cliche is if Cloud would've jumped in front of Aerith and sacrificed his life for hers. That tends to be more of the dramatic sacrifice they probably are talking about. That's what I think at least.

Oh dear, that would also mean all Cloti interpretations of FFVII is wrong :o
Now, they would never agree to that would they? :no:

Kind of late, but no problem!

Well, for Nomura, the realism he talked about, wouldn't that be that you can't always save the one you love?

And for Kitase, we all know Cloud felt the same way. :)

For me, the realism Nomura talked about was dealing with how a character would typically be willing to sacrifice themselves to prove their love-- that they would be happy to do so. You know, dying with a smile and no regrets because that early death was proof of their love for their loved one.

In real life, how many people would actually be happy to die? Wouldn't they much rather want to spend the rest of their days with the people they love? I thought it was presented very starkly in MotP-- how Aerith herself admits that she would've much rather wanted to stay with Cloud forever. She didn't want to die, wasn't willing to. But it was something that she knew she had to do, and she stepped up to the plate to do it.

Utter willingness to die is something I can only imagine happening in a story. I think that was what Nomura was trying to say-- that while it is a romantic idea, it is not very realistic.

Kitase follows up with a similar thought. But with him, I think he tackles the typical idea that when somebody dies for the greater cause, their teammates are 'okay' with it because it was for a greater cause. There is the feeling of... acceptance, I suppose one could call it, however sorrowful. 'Dramatic', as Kitase says.

But when Aerith died in FFVII, Cloud did not accept it calmly-- he was enraged, he wanted revenge, he couldn't/wouldn't let go of Aerith. It was real, seething anger. I thought that was what he was referring to, as feelings of reality and not Hollywood.

*Bows* You win, Lynn. ^_^

I can see that now, as unrealistic as FFVII was, it was also VERY realistic at the same time. That makes perfect sense! :)

I've never seen this before. Excellent find, Aki! :gift:

I was frustrated with the perennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love.[/b] We found this was the case in both games and movies, both easter and western. But I wanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right to set such an example to people? - Nomura

It's just my interpretation but after reading this, I got the impression Nomura was referring to VII's theme: Life. Usually, people associate death with The End, but just maybe Nomura and Co. wanted to incorporate into the game the idea that death isn't the end of life as MoTP stated. Perhaps they wanted to set a different example, something different to show the rest of the world, something more realistic and not just something dramatic.

When you lose someone you loved very much, you feel this big empty space and think 'If I had known this was coming, I would have done things differently.' These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood - Kitase

The words of Kitase himself. :woot:
CoT pointed out Cloud's feelings of 'sadness' and 'regret', and now we have evidence as well of this feeling of 'empty space' (loneliness). Haven't we been arguing all along that 'guilt' wasn't the only issue at hand? :)

Kitase points out that these are feelings of reality which go along with how Nomura talked about wanting to show something realistic. Hence, I don't see how Clotis can claim Nomura and Co wanted to show that Cloud would 'move on' with Tifa. That's complete assumption, just like how they like to assume Nomura had killed Aerith off because he "dislikes" her... :crazy:

:cleris: