Damnit, this same questions always shows up on Gamefaqs and I had a really long post for it too.


There are TONS of theories as to why characters cannot be revived by Phoenix Downs when they are killed off.


1. The most obvious one, it's a plot hole, while the KO status stands for Knock Out, as we know, the Death spell will always "kill" them, this implies that the status blatantly contradicts itself.

2. Phoenix Down's cannot revive someone who is "too far" dead.

3. It's a story based reason, let's look at Galuf and Aerith for example,


Galuf: He's an old man who was forced to allow himself to be ravaged by severe lightning to shatter his Crystal, then he walked into a ring of FIRE to save his Granddaughter, and finally he took an epic beating from Exdeath's most powerful spells and beat him before finally dying (what an epic scene). This one would backup the "too far" theory around Phoenix Downs.


Aerith: This one is quite debatable, most people usually follow the Masamune theory which is anyone "killed" by Sephiroth's Masamune cannot be revived.