Did you ever read "Episode:Tifa" of the "On the Way to A Smile" novellas (the AC prologues)? It's clear enough without any extra-textual commentary.
No, I'm afraid my enthusiasm for the subfranchise does have limits and that sort of thing is just to the other side: though as I recall, sections of those are summarized in some kind of music video or some much that was packaged with AC's original release? And as I recall, that CGI short staring Denzel is as also called "On The Way to a Smile", so presumably that was an adaptation of one of those chapters. Anyway, I tend to classify that sort of 'extended universe' content as quasi-cannon, even if it is set up as official content: one should not have reading assignments in the form of up-jumped fan-fiction in order to have a reasonable understanding of what is going on in the story as told in the main mediums. I mean, I would never argue with someone saying (as here) that this is factually a part of the story, but I still conceptualize the narrative in terms of how it is represented in the broad appeal entries and I think SE really needs to get a handle on how they approach multimedia content in this regard. All a bit of an aside though, clearly.
Sure, in both stories his greatest foe is himself, and yes, he has to learn to accept his own limitations, but they're two very different manifestations of such a notion.
Well, clearly a case of 'your mileage will vary'; for me, I found the specific differences in context pretty trivial when compared to the overall thematic undertones. I just found it quite reduplicative on the whole: the characters, their relationships, their travails, the nature of the overarching threat and how it interacts with the world conceptual ecosystem. Only a couple of characters (for example, Rufus of all people) seem to have significantly grown since the events of the original game. Everyone else is pretty much a carbon copy of who they are and where they were previously, and facing the same basic challenges.
And that's before one observes that half the characters show up as little more than cameos to tick all of the boxes for fan expectations, but otherwise have next to no impact on the plot, no character development, and really little more than a couple of lines. I guess that works for the type of story this is: not enough time to allow them growth, but it's a semi-fanserivce movie anyway, so you gotta get the band back together. Still, kind of a lazy effort, in my opinion, when it comes to the over-arching story. But superb on an action and art design level, it must be said.
If it's Aeris' staff vs. Tifa's fists we're talking about, you better believe it! ;)
She was kind, yes, but could also be very harsh and callous herself.
Hmmm, that's just not the way I recall it, but it's been a looooong time since I played the game. Can you provide some examples of where you thought the character came off as callous, and enough so that it significantly balanced out against her over-all heartfelt/caring vibe? About the only time I can remember her being even brusque is post-Lost Temple, just before she leaves the party. I mean, one interesting thing that I think never gets addressed in the original game (and which I will be interested to see how they treat it in the remake) is that she might not have known initially that Cloud's Zack-like attributes were anything more than coincidence. And she might not have known for sure that Zack was dead until about the same time as the truth about Cloud's altered personality comes to light. One of the reasons she leaves to take her own approach to the meteor problem may not just be selflessness: she might have been genuinely upset with Cloud that he not only stole the identity of the man she loved, but also failed to even tell her that he was dead: even if she knew that was not Cloud's fault and owed much to his own abuse at Shinra's hands, it might have left her with some conflicted feelings about their friendship.
She died right after casting a giant "vaporize everything bad" spell. =P
No, I have to take a hard exception to that part, though I suspect you know much of what I am about to say. The 'Holy' spell was never meant to vaporize anyhting except for 'Meteor'; had it been resolved as planned, it would have destroyed that alien force of destruction long before it got to the planet. Unfortunately, Sephiroth blocked its effect from his position where he had a strangle-hold on the lifestream and the planet's collective consciousness. By the time that the protagonists defeat his reincarnation and then cloud expunges Sephiroth's essence from the lifestream itself, Meteor is already making contact with the world. It's not clear if Holy's release at this point is an automatic thing or if the planet is willing to sacrifice Midgar for the sake of saving the world, but it is clear that Aeris never meant for its power to be unleashed in this fashion; she had attempted the most direct means of stopping Meteor available to her, that's all.
And even to the extent that Holy does add to the destruction in and around Midgar (and it's unclear if it does any more damage than Meteor would be doing on its own, by that point), it is clearly the lesser of two evils if the alternative is the death of the entire planet and Sephiroth riding its corpse around the universe spreading JENOVA willy-nilly. And it's highly implied that it is Aeris' will is at least a part of what brings the life force to bear on the situation and keeps the combined effects of Meteor and Holy from annihilating anyone within a hundred miles of Midgar. This is all pretty much expressly said within the game itself, and reiterated in follow-up games. Holy was a defense mechanism that may or may not have been adding to the destructive force in that final scene, but was certainly not invoked by Aeris as a scorched earth tactic.
Also -- and this is of utmost importance to the meaning baked into the story -- her death was no sacrifice. The developers have been clear for many years that she intended to come back and live a normal life once Sephiroth was dealt with. She didn't realize he had her number from the start.
Even in the original game, Tifa rejects the notion that Aerith thought she was going to die. She knows her friend intended to return to them and see the future she was always talking about.
I'm not sure that we can say with any degree of certainty whether she went into that situation knowing what the ultimate cost would be, but I do think we can safely presume she knew she was putting a target on her back. The stakes and the players are all pretty expressly realized by the end of the Lost Temple segment and she had to know that Sephiroth might anticipate her plan and intercept her at the Lost City. In fact, as best I can recall, it is pretty heavily implied that this is the main reason why she separates from her friends: she knows that it has every chance of being a suicide mission and that even collectively they are no match for Sephiroth, so she decides to take the risk alone.
You just need to play it. If anything, the remake has made her more endearing than ever before.
It's on the shortlist! :) But alas, for everything going on right now, I for one am not left with an abundance of extra free time. I suspect I may not get to it for another few months at the earliest.
