I must say, I find myself surronded by fans in certain places who describe Aerith as a "cute, naive, innocent little girl." Now, am I the only person who finds that patronizing? I'm sure those who've played the game can see that she was something far more deeper then a plot device or just another air headed, damsel in distress heroine that some people try so hard to protray her as. I mean, this is the same young woman (she's a fully grown woman, not a little girl. She's in her twenties, for the love of.....) who evaded the turks for years, grew up in the slums, had the nerve to get Cloud to dress up in drag :P allowed herself to be captured for the key purpose to keep Marlene safe, bravely talked out against Tseng just to assure Tifa Marlene was alright, before hiking off to face Sephiroth alone, before dying for the sake of the planet. Naive? Hardly. She was more emotionally in tune with Cloud then any of the characters before her death: due to her insightfullness, she was able to realise Cloud wasn't himself.

It was Aerith who finally managed to break though to Cloud in AC, making him realise he had to keep fighting. also that the flower girl never once blamed him, not even once. Her gentle questioning and prodding to get Cloud to think for himself really in the end save the day. Aerith is a important character: in both FF7 and AC, her actions really determine the outcome for the planet. I cannot help but feel her innocence in played up on so much.

Discuss: Why on earth do people have this protrayal of her?
Your thoughts on her character's naiveness.
Any Other Thoughts/Points/Etc

Well I pretty much agree with you. I usually don't go for the optimistic characters, hell, I actually can't stand them. But for some reason I fell in love with Aeris on first sight and it kept me wondering for a very long time.

Then I finally realized that it is not because Aeris is optimistic but because she is optimistic DESPITE all that happened to her. She has seen some of the worst and has gone through a lot yet still she remains positive and looking forward to the future instead of being broken by it.
Yet this is not so because she is to simple minded to realize all that or because she simply doesn't take it serious. No, she knows and still she has the power to be the way she is. That is till this day a miracle and the main reason why I love her so much. I've never seen any other character with that kind of quality.

I don't know why she is often seen as naive (I can't think her any farther from it.) but maybe she is just this kind of prototype and if you don't take a closer look at her, she might pass by as "air headed". Even though the difference slammed into my head at first sight of her back when I was still 12 years old, played my first computer game and didn't even know what a Damsel in Distress is...

( :giggle: This actually reminds me of my professor. "Discuss!" *classroom starts discussing*)

Why? Easy.

Wrong first impressions + stereotype = deeply-rooted image of Aerith that refuses to change despite her own actions

I'm talking about the first impressions formed the moment you open that game booklet, the moment she walks on-screen, before her dialogue bubble pops up. Players see her pink dress, gigantic ribbon, flowers and BAM!-- they immediately form the image of Aerith as the bubbly, perpetually cheerful, naive stereotype. Add in the magical girl aspect (since she's obviously a magic user) and it strengthens the idea that she's physically weak and thus, the damsel.

It's the same reason Tifa is still, to this day, being seen as "cheerful" and "optimistic" by some fans. Because of the stereotype that's linked to her character type--the fighter girl. And players refuse to take into account the character's actions within the game.

As you guys have said, Aerith is extremely street-smart. She handles the Honeybee Inn men like she owns the place. :P Like Stern, I don't usually go for the bright, cheerful characters. But Aerith's cheerfulness has an edge to it. She can take care of herself and you know it. She's the last person I imagine living in this padded la-la land, removed from reality.

I think most people don't take the time to look beyond the surface. They see that Aerith is a flower girl who wears pink and is associated with curing magic, and they immediately associate those things with being a naive, innocent, cutesy pink ball of fluff. I don't think Aerith is so simple at all. Aerith never once allowed Cloud to treat her like she was fragile. If she did, then I'm sure she wouldn't go "Oh no, whatever shall I do? Isn't that what you want me to say?" when she and Cloud reached Sector 7. She was streetwise and smart. I think that the fact that she had a sense of humour about things made people think she was too naive to understand what was going on.

Would a naive, innocent character even pick up on what kind of depraved goings-on were happening in Wall Market? :lol: Not only that, but was she shocked? No, she didn't bat an eyelid. She took delight in helping Cloud crossdress! It's those little things that make her such a great character. Like Sternenstaub said, she didn't have such optimism because she was too innocent to realise how things were, she had optimism despite all that.

In AC, she knew exactly the best way to get through to Cloud. She knew full well that he wanted her forgiveness, but instead of telling him he was being silly blaming himself for what happened to her, she just simply asked 'by who' when he told her he wanted to be forgiven. She didn't say 'I forgive you', because there was nothing for her to forgive, and Cloud seemed to understand that after talking to her. Cloud never seemed to have to tell her how he felt, in FFVII, KH or AC, because most of the time she already knew.

To me, Aerith seemed the most clued-up on what was happening in FFVII, and also in the Kingdom Hearts series. In KH1, she explains about Ansem to Sora, and in CoM, she is the one who picks up on the fact that she and the others have been created from Sora's memories of them. Hardly airheaded and naive, if you ask me.

Even on my first play though of the game, I always got the feeling that Aeris really knew more about what was going on than anybody on your team.

I never thought she was naive or anything. But I did think she was pretty bubbly... and I feel more like that than ever after seeing the Crisis Core trailer. Very bubbly.

Is Aerith naive and innocent? For most part, hardly. I admit she's optomistic, who wouldn't? She dreams that things will get better, dream of seeing the sky, and even ride on an airship. Yet, she never give up.

Naive and innocent? Peeps, we're talking about a gal who evaded professional Turks for the majority of her life, know about the Wall Market's nature, have good business skills (from what we seen after she sold her flowers to men while Cloud's inside Honeybee Inn) and like others noted; get Cloud wear a dress.

What a girl do to get people to see her deeper character? Become a punk?

Well yes, in CC she seems to be very "bubbly", but I remember some lines from her that sounded deeper, so maybe it's not going to be so bad. In AC they had this very etheral and goddess-like portrayal of her, maybe there trying to do the opposite in CC but I don't like it.
Just keep her like in FFVII, she was perfect there...

Hah, about Aerith being "innocent" and "naive"?

Well, some people's personalities are just naturally cheerful, such as myself. xD I mean, I may act like an idiot or like I don't know much about what's going on sometimes, but that doesn't mean I'm innocent or an airhead, or naive... More often than not it's just my personality, and I really DO know...And I'm just pretending, or happen to act the way I act. I'd say the same thing for Aerith, as well. Good job analyzing, you guys! 8D

yep...i think that's why i never thought her as a 'naive' girl since the first time i met her...she's deep but optimistic. :aeris:

I never thought of Aeris as naive and blandly sweet. At first glance, that's how she comes across but that's why she was so memorable because once you get to know her, it's clear that there's much more to her. While I think her optimism is very genuine, I also think that her cheery surface is something she was very aware of as how she wanted others to see her. Despite the playful attitude, there was a lot of maturity and level-headedness underneath it all, and she could take care of herself and take charge of a situation and still not let the world get her down.

She was flirty, fun, strong and emotionally-stable, on-the-ball, had an adventurous and daring spirit, wasn't easily shocked or frightened, and wouldn't let Cloud stereotype or idealise her as some fragile and helpless girl. She took things very seriously, but chose the kind of attitude she wanted to present, and generally had a healthy outlook on life. She could be spiritual and mature but she also knew when to relax and have some fun and make the most of life. No naive young innocent would've been able to navigate her way around the slums like Aeris did and no bland little angel would've had her quirky, teasing sense of humour.

And if she was so naive, wouldn't she have trusted Shinra all those years ago when she was told that if she came back to them, then she could make all the people of the slums happy? Even as a young girl, she had more smarts than to fall for that.

But despite being so aware and streetwise, she still held on to some really touching and child-like dreams, like flying on the Highwind one day. :sad:

To me, she was a great spin on the usual "sweet, gentle, demure and innocent healer" type. She was given this very flowery surface but a great deal of strength, intelligence, zest and determination under it. She had a personality and it's a shame when even her fans can't seem to see that, and focus on the cute surface instead.

Pretty much sums it up for me. :P

People can not like Aeris if that's how they respond to her character (they just better stay out of my way), but it really annoys me when people claim to dislike her when what they really dislike it their own simplistic view of her.

Another thing is that because a lot of RPGs use archetypes (ninja, monk, healer, thief, etc) a lot of gamers end up associating one character with another, ie: Aeris reminds them of another damsel/princess character because of her looks, her personality or her abilities, and so they connect both characters in their minds and judge Aeris based on their opinion of this earlier character rather than on Aeris' personality and Aeris' behaviour throughout the game.

It's a form of laziness; when you can't be bothered to really think about and engage with a character, so you just impose a superficially similar character's personality onto them instead.

...And then some haters get angry because this "too-perfect inhuman cypher with no real personality or depth" is stealing all the hot Cloud-lovin' away from the much more deserving, deep, human and relatable Tifa (though a lot of her fans distort her character into some sort of ever-anguished, eternally loyal and loving Goddess figure too... <_< ).

I think you've really hit on something here, Pyra. Being a punkish or overtly-tough female is the only way to deflect being categorised as a damsel, princess or naive angel.

I think some fans do have this virgin/whore mentality going on - a female character is either a pure and innocent angel or she's a tough, gritty fighter who can handle anything and shoulders many burdens. She's either an overgrown child who needs constant protection or a too-young mother who looks out for everyone. She can either be older than her years because of her ultra-serious and pessimistic attitude or childish because of an innocent/immature perky outlook. She can never be somewhere in-between the two. In Aeris' case, because she wears pink, sells flowers, has a gift for magic and healing and is generally a nice person, fans and haters exaggerate her feminine qualities and transform her into this unrealistic ideal (or a Mary Sueish vision of perfection). I think that Bellebelle3 is very right in saying that it's patronizing.

I think you have to keep in mind that in AC she's been dead for two years and very, very in-touch with the Planet. So it's only natural that she would have become more spiritual and serene, because she's in a state of peace. And as for CC, she's 5 years younger than the Aeris we knew in FFVII, so again it just seems natural that she should be less mature and more bubbly in terms of attitude. It just seems to be good writing to me to give her some growing-up to do between CC and FFVII.

I'll definitely agree that she was perfect in FFVII, though. It's there that she had the personality we all know and love. :aeris:

It can't be helped, character archetypes are deployed to help build up impressions then expand on it. One thing I enjoy is seeing how the game designers build up the stereotype's expectations and either expand or give a twist to it. Seeing some people (saying that loosely) who still goes on about their first impression without seeing how the character was portrayed and developed is annoying.

I believe it's part of how we're raised and humanity as a whole, IMHO. We've grown up to fairy tales and stories that build our world's boundaries and made us, consciously or not, be aware of people due to how we first perceived and categorised them. Videogame stereotypes are merely an expanding branch from our outlook.

I'm no different; I perceive some characters from my initial impressions then was slowly changing that perception as I get to know them, comparing them to other alike yet distinctively different from them.