Arehexes said:
Sorry to DP but I guess Galuf's death didn't mean anything then? Sure he wasn't a young hot girl, but he was the warrior of dawn and light and broke out of EX-Deaths grip and he kept fighting even though his HP hit zero. Aeris just was praying for holy and was stabbed in the back, to me it was funny but Galif fought to the end and died with his grandchild watching him die. And after that he sent down his power of the crystals to her. I'm not bashing FF7 but I hate it when FF7 fan boys don't realize that death was not something new.
That's not
entirely true, and either way it's something you can only say in hindsight. For starters, Galuf was in an FF game that didn't reach Western shores until two years after Aerith kicked the bucket. From the FF's I had played before then, the only character deaths I had seen were the
multitude of cheesy "sacrifices" in FFIV that bore no meaning after they had all been Deus Ex Machina'D back to life, and General Leo in FFVI (THAT one did piss me off).
But more importantly, you know what makes Aerith so different? She was
murdered. Right before your eyes. Everyone else before her either gave up their lives willingly or fought back, but Aerith didn't get any such say. Also it wasn't cheesy or overdone like, say, watching Cid blow himself up as he falls through a giant chasm; it was quick, effortless, and left you in a state of shock. A lasting shock, it would seem, since we're still talking about it ten years later.
But I don't wanna downtalk Galuf's sacrifice either. That was epic win. Still fighting even with 0 HP? Unheard of. And
awesome. It's just a very, very different kind of dead than what Aerith got.
Anyway, there'll be a "final" Final Fantasy when
I lose interest in it. If that happens, then they should be worried.