What I hate most about Aerith is this: her development post-FFVII is smurfing atrocious. I also find the fact that she was completely oblivious to her impending death frustrating.

But Aerith is an excellent character otherwise. She balances Tifa and neither of them are simple weak damsels, so that's positive points for both of them (though they could've benefited from not being in a love triangle, but 1997 whatchagonnado). As far as weak female healer archetypes go, she blows that out of the water: she's hardy and has survived in the Slums on her own. She eluded the Shinra for a long time. Her stats and skills make her a useful character -- unfortunate that she (SPOILER)dies.

She takes it upon herself to save the world, and does it alone, not only because she doesn't want to burden everyone else, but because it's simply not smurfing safe. Cloud is off the rails. Aerith, despite loving him (to whatever degree), and despite having such strong bonds with her friends, leaves them to shoulder the weight of the world on her own. Heavy.

Aerith is a pretty great character.