Quote Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryűkishi
Aeris, however, is a thinly disguised wannabe of the author's dead mother.
(SPOILER)Aerith's death was Nomura's idea. The emphasis on life and death itself was Sakaguchi's, whose mother died early on during the production of the game. Both of the two are credited as coming up with the overall basis for the story, which Nojima and Kitase then fleshed out. In other words, the commonly believed idea that Aerith's death was due to the death of Sakaguchi's mother and that he came up with the idea as a result isn't so. He only ever claimed that it made him think about studying life in a mathematical or logical manner, whereas Nomura claimed to have come up with Aerith dying.