New here but felt like contributing
(I apologise if you feel like anyones previously made points are needlessly restated)

I havent played VII in a long time but i can tell you I was actually amazed by Aeris' death. I dont mean that to sound uncaring, but I can not think of a more precise word to describe it.
It was a first to me. Not the first time to permenantly loose a character, but the first time i had actually felt affected by a action in a game. Was it that I was enthralled by the character of Aeris? No, she was a worth while character, but not any more or less than the others. It was the first game that had, without my knowing I must sadly admit, engrossed my attention and emotions. I can see it for the masterful story telling it is now. Now that I look back at it. But ... at the time it was ... well ... sad.
Consequently I must give the game makers their dues on this sequence of events. They did it all very well. Yes the music does make it more poignant (think i misspelled that). Music inherintly has that effect on all things. Watch any movie ... thats why they have sound tracks applied to them. And, despite you like or dislike of a character, you have an attachment to them. When it is taken from you in such a way as you do not feel it was right to let it go, it increases the emotion response. Which brings me to the next point
I enjoyed the line that was made about the fires of hatred for a villain never burning so brightly (Its almost poetic) It makes you hate and want to kill her murderer. Even though Sephiroth is undeniably one of the most liked (i hate to term him villain it sounds dimeaning) antihero, After he does this you want to see him pay. You want to see him suffer before you crush the last breath out of him. *looks around* Ohh sorry, zoned out there. Or so the more emotional people do. The death of other characters (IE) Dyne are important and emotionally captavating, but with Dyne do you care more that he killed himself or that his daughter's dad is now truelly dead? As for the deaths of most of the villains, this is once again a masterful story telling. Their characters have been constructed in such a way that by the time most of them die, you are ready and almost happy to see them get what the deserved (IE) the Don. Wrong as it may seem morally, you carry no emotion conection to the mass of unnamed soldiers you mow through simply because; you know that if you go back to that spot they will atack you again, or atleast clone characters of them. This cheapens the ideas of their "deaths" nearly to a comical level.

Phew got that out of my system thanks for listening