Article by: Polo
Pictured from: Final Fantasy VII
Created by: Square
First appearance: 1997
Bio
In the slums of Midgar, we see a pink-clad brunette sell a flower to the mercenary Cloud Strife for the price of one gil. Harmless enough. After a botched bombing mission, Cloud wakes up in a crumbling church, where the same girl is tending more flowers. But she's happier for his health and durability than her garden's, aware that the Turks, scouts of the Shinra megacorporation, are seeking her out again. To simplify matters, the girl enlists Cloud as her bodyguard in exchange for a date. And so Aeris Gainsborough joins the story of Final Fantasy VII.
Aeris is not your average flower girl. Talkative since childhood, she informs her adoptive mother when the spirits of people they love "return to the planet," as well as the planet's cries of pain. This sensitive spirituality shows in Aeris's low-on-health Limit Breaks: healing, status-cleansing, even shielding Cloud's party from onslaughts, blessed from the ground up. This is also why Aeris is constantly pursued.
As Shinra's reactors hungrily pump Mako Energy like oil, the planet weakens. Aeris's instinctive know-how and know-where of the substance may yet reveal the location of the Promised Land, where Mako Energy flows in abundance. But at what cost to Aeris, or the planet?
Quote
"Don't fight here! You'll ruin the flowers!"
Selected game appearances
PlayStation
- Final Fantasy VII (1997)
- Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)
PlayStation 2
- Kingdom Hearts (2002)
- Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special (2004)
- Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
References
- Wikipedia - "Aerith Gainsborough"
- Video Game Character Adaptations - "Aeris Gainsborough"
- Final Fantasy VII instruction manual
