Aerith, what did they do to you??

[Dr. Acula]

I recently finished Rebirth and enjoyed it for the most part (it was far superior to Remake in almost every way, IMO!) but among the issues I had with it, one really stood out - Aerith's characterisation.

I liked what they did with Aerith's character in Remake part one. They brought back a lot of her character that was lost in the original translation, and didn't make her the ~ pure angel ~ that she was in the Compilation. She's sassy, fun, and smart.

Unfortunately, in Rebirth, it feels like they cut her characterisation in half and just made her "the flirty one". While she was always a little pushy both in OG and Remake, in Rebirth they really ramped it up to 11. Every single time she was alone with Cloud, she would insist they were on a date, even over Cloud's objections. Obviously I could be biased because I romanced Tifa in my playthrough, but Cloud seemed just... aggressively uninterested in her. Instead of finding it cute like in the first game (or at least that's how I interpreted it), he seemed to be constantly annoyed. Any chemistry they had in the OG or Remake seemed to fly completely out the window, until the last couple of chapters at least, and then it kind of seemed like too little too late. Her insistence on calling everything a "date" despite Cloud's obvious discomfort also suggests a lack of the emotional maturity that's supposed to be a core part of her character.

Not to mention that they made her ridiculously naive. She's obviously supposed to be a little sheltered having never left Midgar, but the game seems to forget that she grew up in the slums - not exactly a place where you can keep an innocent outlook forever. In the OG, she was clearly incredibly street smart; she sold flowers to the creeps outside the Honeybee Inn; she was the one who suggested Cloud dress up as a lady... she knew how things worked. That didn't seem to be the case at all in Rebirth. I guess at a stretch I could understand not having heard of smoke signals before, but geez lady, use context clues.

Things seemed to go back to normal post-Cosmo Canyon, but honestly, she just irritated me for the majority of the game. Which sucks, because I liked her so much in Remake.

Anyway, thoughts? Comments? Rants? Don't even get me started on Cid.

[Loony BoB]

I thought she was great, honestly. Never felt she was too flirty (if anything, that's how I felt about her in OG, and I really didn't like it). As for lack of interest / discomfort, this is how Cloud has always been, no?

I also never felt like Aerith was ridiculously naive in any of the games. She has always been someone who has notable experience in certain areas, but a notable lack of experience in others.

Perhaps this is less about Rebirth making the characters different to OG and more about how many different ways you can interpret a character when you don't have voice acting, such as in OG.

[Dr. Acula]

This is true, the voice acting makes a huge difference. I always pictured her having a slightly smoother, more mature voice, if that makes sense. Not that I think her voice is bad or wrong for her.

I suppose Cloud's always seemed disinterested, but in OG and Remake it was because he was wanting to be cool and not let on that he was interested. In Rebirth, he just didn't seem like he was keen on her at all. Although again, it could be my Tifa-bias.

[Karifean]

Felt much the same about her in Rebirth. Remake Aerith may just be my favorite FF7 character, which makes Rebirth Aerith a major disappointment. She went from feeling like the one who's always going to feel like the adult in the room while being very approachable and understanding, to being kind of a bratty teen girl who is more unapproachable and self-absorbed than anything, genuinely feels like a completely different character to me even beyond literally having some of her memories erased (which was pretty disappointing in itself ngl, I thought that was an interesting concept to explore and what she chooses to do in the face of that but guess nope). Mind you it's a general problem I have with Rebirth and all of its characters, the game's stakes and mood are an utter mess to me, but Aerith just embodies it more than most, and well probably also hits harder precisely because I loved her in Remake that much.

[Sephiroth]

She never was a "pure angel" in the Compilation. Advent Children is a short movie. There is no reason to show the Final Fantasy VII equivalent of a Force Ghost with sassy behaviour. She was the counter balance to Sephiroth, just like she was in On the Way to a Smile - White Lifestream. So they focused on her "force of good" side. Anything else would distract from that narratively. In Crisis Core she was relavtively well balanced - a little to "innocent for the kind of person who already was shown as a ball of energy even as a child, but considering she was a teenager in Crisis Core there is no reason to doubt she could not have "calmed down" a little until Zack arrived and brought in his own youthful energy with which he even showed her to be more aggressive as a seller.

In the Remake it is true that they balanced it out well. I did not have any sort of issue with her in Rebirth either and that is for the same reason I have no issue with her depiction in Advent Children. It is the situation that makes certain characteristics be lured out more. You mentioned Tifa. Tifa in the original was way underutilized - something they heavily changed in the Remake which then would also shift how much time and focus would be spent on Aerith. Sephiroth is an arrogant person. It is the same way for why people did not like Cloud in Advent Children. They think he "reverted" back to what he was before he was healed. But he didn't. 1) Cloud in the past even before his mask was very much depicted to have a douchy side and 2) having to struffle with almost dying as well as blaming himself for Aerith's dead makes it understandable he gets more reserved again. That he was not like that after his restoration on the second CD in the original does not mean a reserved and douchy element was not a part of what he was when he would not wear the mask. As said, not every situation demands a full on reflection of someone's personality.