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Moments: Sephiroth Kills Aerith
Few moments in gaming live in the same amount of infamy as the scene where Sephiroth kills Aerith.
Final Fantasy VII is a fan-favorite for a lot of reasons (the hilariously complicated story, Tifa), but what the 1997 game is most known for is its totally unexpected death scene.
Players experiencing the game for the first time before the days of inevitable internet spoilers were undoubtedly shocked when Aerith (or Aeris), one of their party members, and the nicest character in any video game ever, was impaled through the torso and permanently killed without warning. The dastardly murderer Sephiroth unsurprisingly expressed no guilt, and players were left one playable-character short for the rest of the game. Thankfully, her death was not totally in vain: Before she was killed, Aerith managed to summon Holy – a power the party later used to help stop Meteor and save Gaia.
This video depicts Aerith's actual death scene, as well as the scene shown sometime afterward where Cloud lays her body to rest in the Forgotten City. I suggest locating your hanky before clicking play.
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