Originally Posted by
Masamune-1600
For whatever reason; Aeris tends to be an extremely polarizing character among the FF community at large; this is further compounded by the fact that both her fans and her detractors are often fairly vociferous as regards Aeris' character.
In any case, it seems that the most people that dislike Aeris fall into three broad categories. These are admittedly generalizations, but they cover most aspects of the debate.
The first category includes people that dislike Aeris based on her ostensible lack of utility in battle. This category itself divides into two subgroups; people that think her magical inclination/relative physical limitations make her a bad character (in terms of gameplay), and those who dislike her for her death, as this effectively renders all statistical development with Aeris pointless.
The first argument has more to do with style of gameplay than anything else, although judgment of Aeris in this way is usually misplaced. While her Strength growth curve is the lowest of any party member, and her Vitality and HP growth curves are significantly below average, her MP, Magic, and Spirit curves are by far the highest of any character. Her Dexterity and Luck growth are average. However, all statisitical variation is relatively meaningless in FFVII; there's never a huge difference, and anyone can be turned into a statistical powerhouse via Sources. Aeris leaves the party before Morph can be effectively turned to the purpose, of course, but at the time she leaves no one can derive these advantages.
The best way to evaluate a character in battle, really, is based on Limit Breaks. This can, depending on how you play, petrify your opinion of Aeris in battle. Given that her Breaks are all healing/defensive/indirect, as opposed to damaging, interpretation of Aeris can and will vary. Had Aeris survived, however, Great Gospel would have been almost undeniably the best Limit; it would have, really, unbalanced the already easy gameplay even more. Still, considering that most consider it a burden to level up Aeris' Limits/acquire Great Gospel while she's with the party, this isn't a necessarily significant factor.
My point here is that actually disliking a character based on battle doesn't really make a great deal of sense. As to her death ruining her development, just use her as desired.
The second category lays the only real claim anyone should have with regards to disliking a character (unless there's a character who really does suck compared to everyone else in battle). In this case, aspects of Aeris' personality, and interpretation of her character as regards the story, can lead people down wholly different paths as far as opinion goes.
Aeris' detractors in the area of character tend to point to several different developments and facets of personality. The one I find most relevant is her supposed cruelty to Tifa; there's no denying, after all, that she flirts incessantly with Cloud, undoubtedly aware of Tifa's feelings. I personally differ with many people on this score; however, I can certainly appreciate their point of view. While I don't feel that Aeris' actions regarding Cloud were meant to hurt Tifa, I can certainly see why somebody could hold a different opinion here.
The other character criticisms are somewhat undone by inconsistency; it's amazing how many people criticize her for being "quiet" and "subdued." While anyone can really attack any character trait (some people, for example, might be turned off by Aeris' optimism), this argument is flawed simply because Aeris did not display those traits.
I would thusly consider the "cruel to Tifa/flirting with Cloud" angle to be the primary relevant criticism, although (as I said) I don't necessarily see it that way myself.
The final group is basically the people that have jumped on the "I hate Aeris" bandwagon. People like these are inevitable; you'll also find no dearth of "FFVII fanboys/girls for no reason," "FFVII haters for no reason," "FF classic fanboys for no reason," and so on. That's not to say anything as regards other characters and titles, either positively or negatively; I merely suggest that there are many that have no reason to hold their views or are incapable of articulating why they hold them.
Aeris' fans probably fall into a larger number of groups, although they can generally be patterned after the same groups as the detractors. I won't go into greatdetail here, as the thread revolves around why people dislike Aeris, but her battle utility is a two-edged sword. The more magically inclined will certainly find her useful, although (as I said earlier) statistical variance generally balances out.
Aeris' fans, regarding character, are generally laudatory as regards her sacrifices, her general cheerfulness/optimism/trying to keep characters up, and her resolve regarding events at large as the game unfolds.
Like the detractors, there are also "bandwagon Aeris fans."
For myself, I've always liked Aeris' character. Strangely, I've always been a fan of Tifa as well; the two, along with Rydia, are probably my three favorite playable females in the series.
Aeris is like, the embodiment of everything I can't stand in a person.
Reply With Quote