March 19, 2024 • 28 mins
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most beloved games of all time, and at the heart of it is Aerith, a woman who embodies so much more than the various stereotypes people like to bestow on her. A woman who sells flowers, a warrior, a flirt and the last of her kind, her story resonated with so many.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Stefan
Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio, and welcome to
another segment, sub sub sub segment of fictional women around
the world. Today's gonna be fun for a lot of reasons.
(00:27):
Samantha has no idea what we're talking about. That's great.
I have no idea. Yes, this one's gonna be really
fun for people who do know what I'm talking about. Like,
I think you'll still enjoy it even if you don't.
But if you do, you're gonna enjoy this one, I think,
although not if you're not my friend who's really heartbroken
(00:48):
right now. Oh no, So today we are talking about
Final Fantasy n the character Eric Gainsborough, So spoilers. I
put a question on that. Because this game came out
in nineteen ninety seven, I'm mostly going to be talking
about the original, but I will be talking on some
(01:10):
of the stuff going on with a new one. So
if you don't know, I believe in twenty twenty because
I was playing it during the pandemic with my friends,
they released a remake and it doesn't follow the original game.
That's why it's called a remake. But it has a
lot of stuff that's similar. They just released a new game,
(01:33):
the second part of their remake trilogy, Rebirth, and I
listeners have been sucked in. It's such a long game
and I don't have time to play it. I have
all those other things to do, but I want to
play it. And at the heart, you know well that
(01:55):
part of the heart of this game is a love triangle. Samantha.
You play as the character Cloud, and there are two women,
Tifa and Rath, who are your main choices. I got Tifa,
that is all I will say. I really cannot wait
to come back and do an episode on Tifa and Una,
(02:17):
who is from a different Final Fantasy, but still again,
some of these episodes, I'm like, oh, we have to
talk about this too. This character has been in a
lot of media Earth, including a movie that was a
very odd film, but she was in there. She's also
in Kingdom Hearts. She is voiced by Mandy Moore. You
(02:39):
can see the episode we did on Tara Branford. He
was from Final Fantasy three slash six, depending on your
translation copy. I do you know. I have to say it.
I love all the Star Wars references in it. It's
a very there's a lot of Star Wars references in
this game. Also, my D and D campaign is based
(02:59):
on Final Fans seven, on Final Fantasy seven and Star Wars,
but mostly I guess that like overt puns are Star Wars.
But the game is based on Final Fantasy seven. And
that's why I was like, oh, no, Dylan knows he's
played File Fancy seven. It's ruined. I hope it's clear
(03:23):
this is not a sponsor. Every time we talk about
games and movies and stuff, unless we specifically say that
that's why we're doing the episode, it is not a
sponsor at the current moment, or not why we're talking
about them. Yes, all right, so who is this character? Again?
I one of the reasons I want to talk about
this is that I'm seeing so many wild conversations play
(03:45):
out about her. I am seeing a shipping devastate my friends.
Because again, there's two main characters that you could end
up with, and I thought, why not talk about one
of the main ones, one of the most pivotal characters.
And I'm not gonna argue later at the end that
perhaps the most pivotal character Erith Gaines. Real all right,
(04:10):
So first thing, if you like me and you grew
up with the PlayStation one version, her name was mistranslated
to Aris in the American version. It's meant to sound
close to Earth, but it's Rith Now. I say Earth
now is and that's what it is in even English games.
But in the original PS one it was Aris. As
(04:32):
I've mentioned, the first Dragon Con cosplay I ever did
was of Tifa, my good friend did Rith, who is
the yes, the other character in the love Jungle with Cloud.
I will be talking about her some too, but she's
definitely gonna get her own episode. And Yes, your choices
throughout the game influence who you end up with, and
(04:54):
Earth and Teeth aure to two mains, but they're not
the only ones, though I will say there your only
serious ones. I did play it every time to get
the different person right one of them was really difficult.
But what's interesting to me about it is that Eric
and Tifa are friends. No matter what happens. There's no
(05:15):
cat fighting. They're both to me legitimate choices as an
even if they're both in love with Cloud, it might
be a big part of their motivations, but they are
their own, separate, different people. They're complex characters with lives
outside of a dude what pretty much. Apparently Robert Pattison
has said that this love triangle is how quote every
(05:38):
guy figures out what love is. That he loved both
character interesting. Also, I was telling Samantha before this, I
had to cut a lot of this episode. I think
at least two pages because I was just going off
on tangents that aren't about Earth. But one of them
is Tifa's boobs. I've talked about this before, but there's
(06:01):
a scene. If you know it, you know it. And
they really put in those animation books, those nineteen ninety
seven animation books to animating her booths bounds. Oh my gosh.
Oh yeah, it's very I won't forget it. But okay,
(06:27):
all least tangents aside. Final Fantasy seven is a role
playing video game that first came out in nineteen ninety seven,
and yes, it's now getting a remake. It was hugely popular.
It was critically acclaimed. Some argued it altered the gaming
landscape at large. It is considered as one of the
best video games of all time. I loved it. It's
one of my favorites. It was an epic story. Over
(06:51):
three discs that had a compelling main story all about
a planet being poisoned from pollution, but with a ton
of side quest that the player could seek out if
they wanted them. As I mentioned in the episode we
did on Tara, Final Fancy games are not generally connected,
but there are similar elements in each edition. One would
(07:11):
be like magic and summoning things like that. Another they're
complicated as to explain, but extremely briefly. The plot of
Final Fancy seven follows the mercenary named Cloud Strife who
takes a job with quote eco terrorist group Avalanche, and
a lot of the members are from his hometown. This
(07:31):
group believes that Shinra, who is they're the controlling power
kind of a company government entity, is killing the planet
by draining its life force of Maco just kind of like,
I don't know, the green magic that keeps the planet going,
but it's useful for a bunch of other stuff. Basically,
they're overmining the planet of its soul. So Cloud sort
(07:54):
of gets wrapped up in this group in part because
of his childhood friend and girl next door type teeth.
Through all of this, he meets a flower girl later
falling through the roof of her church named Erith Gainsborough,
who is immediately mysterious and flirty, but she's also presented
as like very innocent. She wears pink and reds that
(08:17):
cover her whole body. She's very sweet. She is the
foil to our closed off leading man, and she needs
a bodyguard because some of the big wigs at Shinra
are hunting her down. You later learned she's the last
of her race, the Ceta, who wielded powerful magical abilities
and our protectors of the planet. Aris's mother tries to
(08:41):
convince Cloud to leave, and he attempts to sneak out,
basically like he's hiding out at her house, at Ara's house,
and her mom's like no, so he tries to sneak out,
but he's caught by Rith, who demands to come with
him on their hunt for the mysterious and deadly Sepheral
powerful soldier and Soldiers like a title in these games
(09:04):
that has connections to Cloud. Antifa's passed and they believe
it's at the heart of all the bad stuff going on.
Erith is a playable character and she fights. She's kind
of the magic person healer, but she's really powerful. More history.
She is actually half Cetera, born to her mother of Fauna,
(09:25):
who was full Cetera and her father, Professor gast Farmis. However,
within weeks of being born, a scientist working for Shinra
named Hojo kills her father and captures her and her
mother and brings them to his lab where he performs
a lot of experiments on them, pretty cruel to her mom.
Erith was very isolated during this time. At one point,
(09:48):
her drawings were interpreted as showing the promised lands where
Maco was plentiful, and they really want to know where
this was. With the help of someone on the inside
of Fauna, A escaped with Earth, leaving her on the
streets of the sector five slums in mid Garlic on
the church steps and Midguards like the main city, and
(10:10):
it's very divided by class and socioeconomic status. It's very polluted.
After her mother collapsed, Ereth searched for a doctor and
instead was found by her adoptive mother, Elmira Gainsborough. Elmira
soon learns that Earth has power she cannot explain. When
Earth correctly predicts the death of Elmira's husband on Erith's
(10:32):
eighth birthday, Shinra shows up in forming Elmira that Erith
is et cetera, and they regretted how cruelly a fauna
had been treated, and then they would leave her alone
if Ereth told them the location of the promised land.
Elmira was able to convince them to let them be
if she kept a close watch on Earth, and Ereth
(10:52):
told Emira she was in fact et cetera. This meant
that Elmira was very strict with Erith where she could go,
what she could do. No television, so she didn't really
know what was going on in the outside world. Eventually,
Erith ran away in protest. She was found by the
man who helped her and her mother escape, but he
(11:14):
told her that he was in love with her and
had been in love with her mother and wanted to
be with her. Elmira found them and chased him off
at the broom and a pistol. Despite all the pollution
and the difficulty of growing things, Earth starts planting flowers
near her home and a nearby church, where they grow
well due to her and the magical qualities of the water.
(11:36):
Earth was very compassionate and caring. She was very joyful
and upbeat when it came to her view on life,
how she behaved flowers and people. She sees violence as
the last resort, but she can absolutely fight and she will.
To her work at the church, she meets a soldier
named Zach who fell through the roof while she was
(11:59):
sending flowers. He called Earth an angel and asked her out,
and she laughed off this request. He then suggested that
she sell her flowers for money. She gave him a
tour of the slums, and he'd brought her her signature
pink ribbon. She admitted to him that she was afraid
of soldiers, who, in her mind, were experiments that were
created for violence. But oh no, she learns Zach as
(12:23):
a soldier, and she's embarrassed. They aren't. They're like clones essentially.
Oh star wars. Then there's much flirting. She phraises his eyes,
but alas Zach is called away, but he promises to
come back and visit her when he can. He does
come back, and he builds her cart to sell her flowers,
(12:45):
and they did a bunch of cute like dainty things,
including Rath promising she'd wear pink every time they went
on a date. But Zach was called away again on
a job with sephyr Wool and he never returned. I
don't know, uh huh. Erith kept selling flowers, though she
did it out of a basket because the cart had broken,
which I assume is a symbol. She spoke of hearing
(13:08):
the wind and an old voice speaking to her and
wanting to see the world. And yes, she later tells
Cloud if this story is like, wait a minute, did
you already say that? Yeah, she later tells Cloud he
reminds her of Zach. Both fell through the roof of
the church and that is a whole mess that I'm
not sure we have time for today, because like Cloud
(13:28):
is Zach fun with clone and memories, He's not, but
he thinks he is, but he doesn't know. It's confusing.
He thinks he's Cloud, but he has Zach's memories in
life in his head. Anyway, back to the main storyline.
So this epic journey ensues all across the planet and
(13:51):
you really get to see that Earth. Despite her quote innocent,
exterior is an instigator, like she's flirtatious. She's the one
that convinces Cloud to cross dra to infiltrate an enemy layer.
She's often the one that argues they should help people
or animals or the planet or what have you. She's
great at reading people and figuring out what they want,
(14:11):
and this often puts her in situations where a great threat.
And she is captured after rescuing one of the party's
daughter who is a single father. And I also read
a whole bunch about how interesting that was to be
in this game. But anyway, and Hojo is back, Oh no,
and he wants to oh yes, Odo because he wants
to breed Erith with Red thirteen, who is a sentient
(14:37):
dog cat. There's a huge argument on the internet right
now about this Samantha because of the game. They keep
calling him a dog kind looks like a cat. Anyway,
apparently people are still still weigh in but whatever the species,
they live over one hundred years, so Hojo wanted to
(14:57):
make a longer lasting hybrid. The group arrives to rescue
earth In and read thirteen before this can happen. But
then they get captured too, and they all wake up
and they're in cells. But then they wake up and
cell doors are open and everyone, including the president of Shinra,
has been killed. Oh no, Yeah, well they're bad guys.
(15:19):
But yeah, ok, presumably by Severov, who has a great
theme song by the way, one winged Angel. Erith, now
with some evidence that Sephiroth was related to the Cetera,
was more determined to find him, although spoiler alert, he's
not and he's kind of a liar. But whatever are
they all liars? Yes, more stuff happens. They've run into
(15:42):
Hojo again, but he's on vacation. It's like leave maybe.
Erith starts thinking about being the last of her kind,
like potentially, and learns more about her heritage. She meets
Zach's parents and confides to Cloud that Zach was her
first love. If you played your cards right, I guess
(16:04):
if you want to get a date with Earth, perhaps
Cloud and Earth go on a date. A confrontation with
Cepharoth takes place, where he reveals his plan to basically
destroy the planet. Earth harnesses her Cetera powers, but Cepharroth
takes control of Cloud to attack her, because again he's
a clone and cephra can kind of control all the clones.
(16:26):
Cloud doesn't know he's a clone. That was like one
of the big shock of the game. It's like, because
you keep trying to find out who are all these
guys in robes and then you're like, oh no, I'm
a clone too anyway, So he's knocked out, but he
hears Earth promising that she'll take care of it, and
then she's gone. Erith locates the city of the Ancients,
(16:50):
slash et cetera, and praise for the holy White Magic
to combat the dark magic the media or that Cepharoth
has summoned. While she's summoning it, the party finds her
and Cepharroth once again takes control of Cloud to try
and murder her, but Cloud resists. However, Sephiroth descends from
(17:11):
the sky and impales her with his sword, killing her.
As Cloud is holding her, her ribbon comes loose and
a white materia, which materia is kind of a maco
infused or abuse for magic, falls out. This is known
as one of the most shocking traumatic video game moments ever.
(17:34):
I wasn't expecting it, No one was expecting it. I'm
pretty sure it happens at the end of disc one,
so it's not like it's pretty late. It's early, but
it's late, I don't know, and people were determined to
find out if you could prevent it somehow with your choices.
(17:54):
And remember this was when we were all one, old
slow internet connections and trying to figure all all of
this out. Here's a quote from the wiki fandom about
Ari's death. The death of Earth in Final Fantasy seven
(18:16):
has been seen as a monumental moment in gaming history
due to the impact it had on fans. In two
thousand and seven, games by Staff listed it as the
tenth top cinematic moment in gaming history, calling it dramatic
as it is beautiful and comparing it to the death
of Gwynn Stacy from the Spiderman comic books. Emma Boys,
writing for IGN in twenty twelve, described the death of
(18:37):
Earth as a genuinely shocking moment, saying her death stays
with players and allows them to sympathize with Cloud's quest
for vengeance against Severalth. Several players, in response, created numerous
fan theories on message boards and dissected the game's code
to explore the possibility of reviving Erath or preventing her death.
In describing this, Brian Taylor, writing for Kills Scream, compared
(19:01):
this to the campaigns of writing letters to Charles Dickens
to urge him not to kill the endearing protagonist of
the old Curiosity Shop. And here's a quote after Sephyral
kills Earth from Cloud. The cycle of nature and your
stupid plans don't mean a thing. Earth is gone. Earth
will no longer talk, no longer laugh or cry or
(19:23):
get angry? What about us? So what are we supposed
to do? What is this pain? My fingers are tingling,
my mouth is dry, my eyes are burning. It's a
really upsetting scene. It's really like it stuck with me.
I've found an article that was like a traumatized the
whole generation because we weren't expecting it. It was that's
(19:43):
how they do it, that's how they do it. And again,
I'm not going to go into the remake, but I
want to so badly. Okay, So Erith joins after she's murdered,
She joins the life stream, which is sort of like
(20:04):
the planet's soul, and she reaches out to Cloud when
his mind is broken, and essentially there's a whole section
of the game where you're in his head and he's
just reliving the worst moments, and she it's and she
reaches out to him. So does Tifa again separate episode,
(20:25):
but she's able to help harness the life stream and
the summon that she died for to block Metior and
stop sephyr Off. Like I said, yeah, I'm not going
to go into the remake, but it is one of
my favorite video game endings ever. And I believe the
(20:48):
rebirth is the same. But basically they're like, we're not
going to do exactly the same thing, but yes, basically
in the in the remake, they are these things called whispers,
and there's sort of fate and you can change some
of it, but some of it, the whispers are like, no,
this has to happen. So all I'll say about that.
(21:10):
She is a hugely popular character. She came in third
in a twenty twenty pole about all time most popular
Final Fancy characters, behind Cloud and Una. And I do,
like I said, I want to come back and do
episode on Una. I did a whole art project on Una.
I love her. But Okay, there are a lot of
things to talk about here. People have written a lot
about her. One thing is there's a very interesting juxtaposition
(21:33):
with her with the Madonna and the Horre, wherein she
is very presented as very innocent. She wears pink, she
sells flowers. She's very upbeat, she's very like outgoing emotionally,
she's very flirtatious, but she is not slut shamed, not
at all. She's definitely the one that is flirting with Cloud.
(21:56):
She has moments of like teasing him in particular about
him feeling like she has to protect her even though
she's proven herself time and time again. But she also
has her moments of vulnerability. And this was really interesting
to me because when I was reading about it, a
lot of people didn't like her because she was too forward.
But to me, when you she doesn't seem that forward.
(22:18):
It's just she's a woman in kind of an innocent
guys who's firtatious, and people are like, whoa, or she
got in the way of their ship if they're a
tifa Cloud, oh yeah, Or that she was weak because
she was too feminine and more pink and sold flowers.
But again she kick yous uh. This is a quote
(22:40):
from Sam Rowitt. As such as dual rola savior antidectress
can seem strange to us as Western players who are
generally more familiar with those traditions, despite the source of
its inspiration However, seven makes no effort to undermine Airth's
benevolent image through its narrative. She isn't one to sit
on her behind waiting for Prince Charming to save the day,
(23:00):
especially not if she thinks she can do better. Eric
was never an innocent little child. She was a bold
young woman with the will and determination required to save
the world. In many regards, She's more of an ideal
hero than Cloud himself could ever hope to be. That's
why her death still reduces fans to tears after twenty years,
and why it has such a visible impact on the
(23:21):
rest of the party. I also found a theory that
wasn't looking down at all, but that she's sex worker.
I thought that was fascinating, but I had never heard
of that. That was new to me. She was looked
down on as a girly girl, and I found a
lot of articles from women who grew up with this
(23:41):
game who have played it again as adults, kind of
coming to terms with how much they judge her for
being a girly girl. She's kind of like outwardly a
girly girl, but I get I think both her and
Teafa are more nuanced than the tropes they represent. Here's
the vote from XP show. The whole deal with Tifa
(24:03):
and Erath is that none of them act like how
they look. They switch the character archetypes. A major theme
of Final Fantasy seven is subverting archetypes. Tifa the fighter
is the carrying motherly type and Erath, frail magic user
is the bold, outgoing one. Yep, costumes, there are a
lot of sexualized costumes, but I would say I mean
(24:25):
not generally Like I said, Erith's main costume isn't. But
there are a lot of costume changes, but I say
she leans into them as not slut shame for them.
She kind of weaponizes them and convinces Cloud to wear one. Two. Also,
the perils of pink. I found a whole article about this,
just the fact that she wears pink and how a
(24:45):
lot of people judged her for it. She is friends
with all the other women in the party. Everyone really,
but she's friends with the women. That unfortunately is kind
of rare. Recent quotes from developers about wanting her in
Tifa to have a better relationship have come up. They
wanted them to have more fun, and there was a
lot of backlash from mainly gamer dudes about how she's
(25:08):
too mean. It's a cloud the main guy. She's definitely
not one. She is like a really incredibly optimistic character
in the face of a lifetime of tragedy. Some have
argued that she is the main hero Fantasy seven. She
is the foil to suffer Off, who's the main villain,
(25:28):
but also a sympathetic villain for sure. But yes, she
was still killed to move along the plot, but it
didn't feel empty like it often does when they do
that to women characters. But she was still killed to
the plot. She was the heart of the party. She
(25:48):
feels like she could have easily been the main character.
I'm cloud the sport like when you play it, especially
for me. Now, I'm like, she feels like the main character,
and I'm playing the side character to her. From Alana
Haiggs at RPG fan As a child, I let society
and the world cloud my opinion of Earth. To me,
she wasn't Tifa. She was physically weak, and her playful
(26:10):
attitude rubbed me the wrong way. I imprinted horriful gender
stereotypes on Earth because of other people's perceptions of what
a quote strong female character should be like. But now
I think Ereth is one of the strongest female characters
I've ever seen. Thrust with the burden of saving the planet,
she travels the world with a smile on her face.
She's got attitude, but her vulnerability shows that even she
(26:32):
is scared of her own destiny. By re experiencing Final
Fantasy seven that second time, I often realized how unfairly
I treated other female characters for similar reasons, because I
believed them to be weak, because they were too nice,
because they weren't strong. Seeing Earth in a new light
taught me to recognize the good in everyone and to
celebrate female characters for who they are. Yeah, I get
(26:56):
I want to come back and talk about Tifa, because
it really is interesting that kind of they're outward. What
they would have you believe is not the case of
their character. It's really interesting. But yeah, I hope this
made some sense for you who don't know about this,
(27:17):
for those that for those that doo, I hope that
this was a fun one for you. And Oh, I
desperately want to talk about the shipping stuff that's coming
on with the new one, but I'll wait. Oh, but
my heart goes out to everyone's sad. There are broken
Oh yes, it's gonna be okay. Well, I hope. So
(27:42):
I haven't gotten to the end yet, So I'm pretty
sure I know what happens, but I haven't gotten to
the end. Well. If you have any thoughts or any
suggestions about this, please let us know. You can write
in at Stepanida Mom stuff at heeartmedia dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at monster podcast, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You. We
have a tea public store, and we have a book
where I talk about some of these characters. You can
(28:04):
find it wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina I'm expecing to prducer Maya
and your contributor Joey. Thank you. Thanks to you for
listening Stuff I Never Told Us Fiction by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can check
out the Heart Radio Apple podcast, or whef you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Stefan
Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio, and welcome to
another segment, sub sub sub segment of fictional women around
the world. Today's gonna be fun for a lot of reasons.
(00:27):
Samantha has no idea what we're talking about. That's great.
I have no idea. Yes, this one's gonna be really
fun for people who do know what I'm talking about. Like,
I think you'll still enjoy it even if you don't.
But if you do, you're gonna enjoy this one, I think,
although not if you're not my friend who's really heartbroken
(00:48):
right now. Oh no, So today we are talking about
Final Fantasy n the character Eric Gainsborough, So spoilers. I
put a question on that. Because this game came out
in nineteen ninety seven, I'm mostly going to be talking
about the original, but I will be talking on some
(01:10):
of the stuff going on with a new one. So
if you don't know, I believe in twenty twenty because
I was playing it during the pandemic with my friends,
they released a remake and it doesn't follow the original game.
That's why it's called a remake. But it has a
lot of stuff that's similar. They just released a new game,
(01:33):
the second part of their remake trilogy, Rebirth, and I
listeners have been sucked in. It's such a long game
and I don't have time to play it. I have
all those other things to do, but I want to
play it. And at the heart, you know well that
(01:55):
part of the heart of this game is a love triangle. Samantha.
You play as the character Cloud, and there are two women,
Tifa and Rath, who are your main choices. I got Tifa,
that is all I will say. I really cannot wait
to come back and do an episode on Tifa and Una,
(02:17):
who is from a different Final Fantasy, but still again,
some of these episodes, I'm like, oh, we have to
talk about this too. This character has been in a
lot of media Earth, including a movie that was a
very odd film, but she was in there. She's also
in Kingdom Hearts. She is voiced by Mandy Moore. You
(02:39):
can see the episode we did on Tara Branford. He
was from Final Fantasy three slash six, depending on your
translation copy. I do you know. I have to say it.
I love all the Star Wars references in it. It's
a very there's a lot of Star Wars references in
this game. Also, my D and D campaign is based
(02:59):
on Final Fans seven, on Final Fantasy seven and Star Wars,
but mostly I guess that like overt puns are Star Wars.
But the game is based on Final Fantasy seven. And
that's why I was like, oh, no, Dylan knows he's
played File Fancy seven. It's ruined. I hope it's clear
(03:23):
this is not a sponsor. Every time we talk about
games and movies and stuff, unless we specifically say that
that's why we're doing the episode, it is not a
sponsor at the current moment, or not why we're talking
about them. Yes, all right, so who is this character? Again?
I one of the reasons I want to talk about
this is that I'm seeing so many wild conversations play
(03:45):
out about her. I am seeing a shipping devastate my friends.
Because again, there's two main characters that you could end
up with, and I thought, why not talk about one
of the main ones, one of the most pivotal characters.
And I'm not gonna argue later at the end that
perhaps the most pivotal character Erith Gaines. Real all right,
(04:10):
So first thing, if you like me and you grew
up with the PlayStation one version, her name was mistranslated
to Aris in the American version. It's meant to sound
close to Earth, but it's Rith Now. I say Earth
now is and that's what it is in even English games.
But in the original PS one it was Aris. As
(04:32):
I've mentioned, the first Dragon Con cosplay I ever did
was of Tifa, my good friend did Rith, who is
the yes, the other character in the love Jungle with Cloud.
I will be talking about her some too, but she's
definitely gonna get her own episode. And Yes, your choices
throughout the game influence who you end up with, and
(04:54):
Earth and Teeth aure to two mains, but they're not
the only ones, though I will say there your only
serious ones. I did play it every time to get
the different person right one of them was really difficult.
But what's interesting to me about it is that Eric
and Tifa are friends. No matter what happens. There's no
(05:15):
cat fighting. They're both to me legitimate choices as an
even if they're both in love with Cloud, it might
be a big part of their motivations, but they are
their own, separate, different people. They're complex characters with lives
outside of a dude what pretty much. Apparently Robert Pattison
has said that this love triangle is how quote every
(05:38):
guy figures out what love is. That he loved both
character interesting. Also, I was telling Samantha before this, I
had to cut a lot of this episode. I think
at least two pages because I was just going off
on tangents that aren't about Earth. But one of them
is Tifa's boobs. I've talked about this before, but there's
(06:01):
a scene. If you know it, you know it. And
they really put in those animation books, those nineteen ninety
seven animation books to animating her booths bounds. Oh my gosh.
Oh yeah, it's very I won't forget it. But okay,
(06:27):
all least tangents aside. Final Fantasy seven is a role
playing video game that first came out in nineteen ninety seven,
and yes, it's now getting a remake. It was hugely popular.
It was critically acclaimed. Some argued it altered the gaming
landscape at large. It is considered as one of the
best video games of all time. I loved it. It's
one of my favorites. It was an epic story. Over
(06:51):
three discs that had a compelling main story all about
a planet being poisoned from pollution, but with a ton
of side quest that the player could seek out if
they wanted them. As I mentioned in the episode we
did on Tara, Final Fancy games are not generally connected,
but there are similar elements in each edition. One would
(07:11):
be like magic and summoning things like that. Another they're
complicated as to explain, but extremely briefly. The plot of
Final Fancy seven follows the mercenary named Cloud Strife who
takes a job with quote eco terrorist group Avalanche, and
a lot of the members are from his hometown. This
(07:31):
group believes that Shinra, who is they're the controlling power
kind of a company government entity, is killing the planet
by draining its life force of Maco just kind of like,
I don't know, the green magic that keeps the planet going,
but it's useful for a bunch of other stuff. Basically,
they're overmining the planet of its soul. So Cloud sort
(07:54):
of gets wrapped up in this group in part because
of his childhood friend and girl next door type teeth.
Through all of this, he meets a flower girl later
falling through the roof of her church named Erith Gainsborough,
who is immediately mysterious and flirty, but she's also presented
as like very innocent. She wears pink and reds that
(08:17):
cover her whole body. She's very sweet. She is the
foil to our closed off leading man, and she needs
a bodyguard because some of the big wigs at Shinra
are hunting her down. You later learned she's the last
of her race, the Ceta, who wielded powerful magical abilities
and our protectors of the planet. Aris's mother tries to
(08:41):
convince Cloud to leave, and he attempts to sneak out,
basically like he's hiding out at her house, at Ara's house,
and her mom's like no, so he tries to sneak out,
but he's caught by Rith, who demands to come with
him on their hunt for the mysterious and deadly Sepheral
powerful soldier and Soldiers like a title in these games
(09:04):
that has connections to Cloud. Antifa's passed and they believe
it's at the heart of all the bad stuff going on.
Erith is a playable character and she fights. She's kind
of the magic person healer, but she's really powerful. More history.
She is actually half Cetera, born to her mother of Fauna,
(09:25):
who was full Cetera and her father, Professor gast Farmis. However,
within weeks of being born, a scientist working for Shinra
named Hojo kills her father and captures her and her
mother and brings them to his lab where he performs
a lot of experiments on them, pretty cruel to her mom.
Erith was very isolated during this time. At one point,
(09:48):
her drawings were interpreted as showing the promised lands where
Maco was plentiful, and they really want to know where
this was. With the help of someone on the inside
of Fauna, A escaped with Earth, leaving her on the
streets of the sector five slums in mid Garlic on
the church steps and Midguards like the main city, and
(10:10):
it's very divided by class and socioeconomic status. It's very polluted.
After her mother collapsed, Ereth searched for a doctor and
instead was found by her adoptive mother, Elmira Gainsborough. Elmira
soon learns that Earth has power she cannot explain. When
Earth correctly predicts the death of Elmira's husband on Erith's
(10:32):
eighth birthday, Shinra shows up in forming Elmira that Erith
is et cetera, and they regretted how cruelly a fauna
had been treated, and then they would leave her alone
if Ereth told them the location of the promised land.
Elmira was able to convince them to let them be
if she kept a close watch on Earth, and Ereth
(10:52):
told Emira she was in fact et cetera. This meant
that Elmira was very strict with Erith where she could go,
what she could do. No television, so she didn't really
know what was going on in the outside world. Eventually,
Erith ran away in protest. She was found by the
man who helped her and her mother escape, but he
(11:14):
told her that he was in love with her and
had been in love with her mother and wanted to
be with her. Elmira found them and chased him off
at the broom and a pistol. Despite all the pollution
and the difficulty of growing things, Earth starts planting flowers
near her home and a nearby church, where they grow
well due to her and the magical qualities of the water.
(11:36):
Earth was very compassionate and caring. She was very joyful
and upbeat when it came to her view on life,
how she behaved flowers and people. She sees violence as
the last resort, but she can absolutely fight and she will.
To her work at the church, she meets a soldier
named Zach who fell through the roof while she was
(11:59):
sending flowers. He called Earth an angel and asked her out,
and she laughed off this request. He then suggested that
she sell her flowers for money. She gave him a
tour of the slums, and he'd brought her her signature
pink ribbon. She admitted to him that she was afraid
of soldiers, who, in her mind, were experiments that were
created for violence. But oh no, she learns Zach as
(12:23):
a soldier, and she's embarrassed. They aren't. They're like clones essentially.
Oh star wars. Then there's much flirting. She phraises his eyes,
but alas Zach is called away, but he promises to
come back and visit her when he can. He does
come back, and he builds her cart to sell her flowers,
(12:45):
and they did a bunch of cute like dainty things,
including Rath promising she'd wear pink every time they went
on a date. But Zach was called away again on
a job with sephyr Wool and he never returned. I
don't know, uh huh. Erith kept selling flowers, though she
did it out of a basket because the cart had broken,
which I assume is a symbol. She spoke of hearing
(13:08):
the wind and an old voice speaking to her and
wanting to see the world. And yes, she later tells
Cloud if this story is like, wait a minute, did
you already say that? Yeah, she later tells Cloud he
reminds her of Zach. Both fell through the roof of
the church and that is a whole mess that I'm
not sure we have time for today, because like Cloud
(13:28):
is Zach fun with clone and memories, He's not, but
he thinks he is, but he doesn't know. It's confusing.
He thinks he's Cloud, but he has Zach's memories in
life in his head. Anyway, back to the main storyline.
So this epic journey ensues all across the planet and
(13:51):
you really get to see that Earth. Despite her quote innocent,
exterior is an instigator, like she's flirtatious. She's the one
that convinces Cloud to cross dra to infiltrate an enemy layer.
She's often the one that argues they should help people
or animals or the planet or what have you. She's
great at reading people and figuring out what they want,
(14:11):
and this often puts her in situations where a great threat.
And she is captured after rescuing one of the party's
daughter who is a single father. And I also read
a whole bunch about how interesting that was to be
in this game. But anyway, and Hojo is back, Oh no,
and he wants to oh yes, Odo because he wants
to breed Erith with Red thirteen, who is a sentient
(14:37):
dog cat. There's a huge argument on the internet right
now about this Samantha because of the game. They keep
calling him a dog kind looks like a cat. Anyway,
apparently people are still still weigh in but whatever the species,
they live over one hundred years, so Hojo wanted to
(14:57):
make a longer lasting hybrid. The group arrives to rescue
earth In and read thirteen before this can happen. But
then they get captured too, and they all wake up
and they're in cells. But then they wake up and
cell doors are open and everyone, including the president of Shinra,
has been killed. Oh no, Yeah, well they're bad guys.
(15:19):
But yeah, ok, presumably by Severov, who has a great
theme song by the way, one winged Angel. Erith, now
with some evidence that Sephiroth was related to the Cetera,
was more determined to find him, although spoiler alert, he's
not and he's kind of a liar. But whatever are
they all liars? Yes, more stuff happens. They've run into
(15:42):
Hojo again, but he's on vacation. It's like leave maybe.
Erith starts thinking about being the last of her kind,
like potentially, and learns more about her heritage. She meets
Zach's parents and confides to Cloud that Zach was her
first love. If you played your cards right, I guess
(16:04):
if you want to get a date with Earth, perhaps
Cloud and Earth go on a date. A confrontation with
Cepharoth takes place, where he reveals his plan to basically
destroy the planet. Earth harnesses her Cetera powers, but Cepharroth
takes control of Cloud to attack her, because again he's
a clone and cephra can kind of control all the clones.
(16:26):
Cloud doesn't know he's a clone. That was like one
of the big shock of the game. It's like, because
you keep trying to find out who are all these
guys in robes and then you're like, oh no, I'm
a clone too anyway, So he's knocked out, but he
hears Earth promising that she'll take care of it, and
then she's gone. Erith locates the city of the Ancients,
(16:50):
slash et cetera, and praise for the holy White Magic
to combat the dark magic the media or that Cepharoth
has summoned. While she's summoning it, the party finds her
and Cepharroth once again takes control of Cloud to try
and murder her, but Cloud resists. However, Sephiroth descends from
(17:11):
the sky and impales her with his sword, killing her.
As Cloud is holding her, her ribbon comes loose and
a white materia, which materia is kind of a maco
infused or abuse for magic, falls out. This is known
as one of the most shocking traumatic video game moments ever.
(17:34):
I wasn't expecting it, No one was expecting it. I'm
pretty sure it happens at the end of disc one,
so it's not like it's pretty late. It's early, but
it's late, I don't know, and people were determined to
find out if you could prevent it somehow with your choices.
(17:54):
And remember this was when we were all one, old
slow internet connections and trying to figure all all of
this out. Here's a quote from the wiki fandom about
Ari's death. The death of Earth in Final Fantasy seven
(18:16):
has been seen as a monumental moment in gaming history
due to the impact it had on fans. In two
thousand and seven, games by Staff listed it as the
tenth top cinematic moment in gaming history, calling it dramatic
as it is beautiful and comparing it to the death
of Gwynn Stacy from the Spiderman comic books. Emma Boys,
writing for IGN in twenty twelve, described the death of
(18:37):
Earth as a genuinely shocking moment, saying her death stays
with players and allows them to sympathize with Cloud's quest
for vengeance against Severalth. Several players, in response, created numerous
fan theories on message boards and dissected the game's code
to explore the possibility of reviving Erath or preventing her death.
In describing this, Brian Taylor, writing for Kills Scream, compared
(19:01):
this to the campaigns of writing letters to Charles Dickens
to urge him not to kill the endearing protagonist of
the old Curiosity Shop. And here's a quote after Sephyral
kills Earth from Cloud. The cycle of nature and your
stupid plans don't mean a thing. Earth is gone. Earth
will no longer talk, no longer laugh or cry or
(19:23):
get angry? What about us? So what are we supposed
to do? What is this pain? My fingers are tingling,
my mouth is dry, my eyes are burning. It's a
really upsetting scene. It's really like it stuck with me.
I've found an article that was like a traumatized the
whole generation because we weren't expecting it. It was that's
(19:43):
how they do it, that's how they do it. And again,
I'm not going to go into the remake, but I
want to so badly. Okay, So Erith joins after she's murdered,
She joins the life stream, which is sort of like
(20:04):
the planet's soul, and she reaches out to Cloud when
his mind is broken, and essentially there's a whole section
of the game where you're in his head and he's
just reliving the worst moments, and she it's and she
reaches out to him. So does Tifa again separate episode,
(20:25):
but she's able to help harness the life stream and
the summon that she died for to block Metior and
stop sephyr Off. Like I said, yeah, I'm not going
to go into the remake, but it is one of
my favorite video game endings ever. And I believe the
(20:48):
rebirth is the same. But basically they're like, we're not
going to do exactly the same thing, but yes, basically
in the in the remake, they are these things called whispers,
and there's sort of fate and you can change some
of it, but some of it, the whispers are like, no,
this has to happen. So all I'll say about that.
(21:10):
She is a hugely popular character. She came in third
in a twenty twenty pole about all time most popular
Final Fancy characters, behind Cloud and Una. And I do,
like I said, I want to come back and do
episode on Una. I did a whole art project on Una.
I love her. But Okay, there are a lot of
things to talk about here. People have written a lot
about her. One thing is there's a very interesting juxtaposition
(21:33):
with her with the Madonna and the Horre, wherein she
is very presented as very innocent. She wears pink, she
sells flowers. She's very upbeat, she's very like outgoing emotionally,
she's very flirtatious, but she is not slut shamed, not
at all. She's definitely the one that is flirting with Cloud.
(21:56):
She has moments of like teasing him in particular about
him feeling like she has to protect her even though
she's proven herself time and time again. But she also
has her moments of vulnerability. And this was really interesting
to me because when I was reading about it, a
lot of people didn't like her because she was too forward.
But to me, when you she doesn't seem that forward.
(22:18):
It's just she's a woman in kind of an innocent
guys who's firtatious, and people are like, whoa, or she
got in the way of their ship if they're a
tifa Cloud, oh yeah, Or that she was weak because
she was too feminine and more pink and sold flowers.
But again she kick yous uh. This is a quote
(22:40):
from Sam Rowitt. As such as dual rola savior antidectress
can seem strange to us as Western players who are
generally more familiar with those traditions, despite the source of
its inspiration However, seven makes no effort to undermine Airth's
benevolent image through its narrative. She isn't one to sit
on her behind waiting for Prince Charming to save the day,
(23:00):
especially not if she thinks she can do better. Eric
was never an innocent little child. She was a bold
young woman with the will and determination required to save
the world. In many regards, She's more of an ideal
hero than Cloud himself could ever hope to be. That's
why her death still reduces fans to tears after twenty years,
and why it has such a visible impact on the
(23:21):
rest of the party. I also found a theory that
wasn't looking down at all, but that she's sex worker.
I thought that was fascinating, but I had never heard
of that. That was new to me. She was looked
down on as a girly girl, and I found a
lot of articles from women who grew up with this
(23:41):
game who have played it again as adults, kind of
coming to terms with how much they judge her for
being a girly girl. She's kind of like outwardly a
girly girl, but I get I think both her and
Teafa are more nuanced than the tropes they represent. Here's
the vote from XP show. The whole deal with Tifa
(24:03):
and Erath is that none of them act like how
they look. They switch the character archetypes. A major theme
of Final Fantasy seven is subverting archetypes. Tifa the fighter
is the carrying motherly type and Erath, frail magic user
is the bold, outgoing one. Yep, costumes, there are a
lot of sexualized costumes, but I would say I mean
(24:25):
not generally Like I said, Erith's main costume isn't. But
there are a lot of costume changes, but I say
she leans into them as not slut shame for them.
She kind of weaponizes them and convinces Cloud to wear one. Two. Also,
the perils of pink. I found a whole article about this,
just the fact that she wears pink and how a
(24:45):
lot of people judged her for it. She is friends
with all the other women in the party. Everyone really,
but she's friends with the women. That unfortunately is kind
of rare. Recent quotes from developers about wanting her in
Tifa to have a better relationship have come up. They
wanted them to have more fun, and there was a
lot of backlash from mainly gamer dudes about how she's
(25:08):
too mean. It's a cloud the main guy. She's definitely
not one. She is like a really incredibly optimistic character
in the face of a lifetime of tragedy. Some have
argued that she is the main hero Fantasy seven. She
is the foil to suffer Off, who's the main villain,
(25:28):
but also a sympathetic villain for sure. But yes, she
was still killed to move along the plot, but it
didn't feel empty like it often does when they do
that to women characters. But she was still killed to
the plot. She was the heart of the party. She
(25:48):
feels like she could have easily been the main character.
I'm cloud the sport like when you play it, especially
for me. Now, I'm like, she feels like the main character,
and I'm playing the side character to her. From Alana
Haiggs at RPG fan As a child, I let society
and the world cloud my opinion of Earth. To me,
she wasn't Tifa. She was physically weak, and her playful
(26:10):
attitude rubbed me the wrong way. I imprinted horriful gender
stereotypes on Earth because of other people's perceptions of what
a quote strong female character should be like. But now
I think Ereth is one of the strongest female characters
I've ever seen. Thrust with the burden of saving the planet,
she travels the world with a smile on her face.
She's got attitude, but her vulnerability shows that even she
(26:32):
is scared of her own destiny. By re experiencing Final
Fantasy seven that second time, I often realized how unfairly
I treated other female characters for similar reasons, because I
believed them to be weak, because they were too nice,
because they weren't strong. Seeing Earth in a new light
taught me to recognize the good in everyone and to
celebrate female characters for who they are. Yeah, I get
(26:56):
I want to come back and talk about Tifa, because
it really is interesting that kind of they're outward. What
they would have you believe is not the case of
their character. It's really interesting. But yeah, I hope this
made some sense for you who don't know about this,
(27:17):
for those that for those that doo, I hope that
this was a fun one for you. And Oh, I
desperately want to talk about the shipping stuff that's coming
on with the new one, but I'll wait. Oh, but
my heart goes out to everyone's sad. There are broken
Oh yes, it's gonna be okay. Well, I hope. So
(27:42):
I haven't gotten to the end yet, So I'm pretty
sure I know what happens, but I haven't gotten to
the end. Well. If you have any thoughts or any
suggestions about this, please let us know. You can write
in at Stepanida Mom stuff at heeartmedia dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at monster podcast, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You. We
have a tea public store, and we have a book
where I talk about some of these characters. You can
(28:04):
find it wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina I'm expecing to prducer Maya
and your contributor Joey. Thank you. Thanks to you for
listening Stuff I Never Told Us Fiction by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can check
out the Heart Radio Apple podcast, or whef you listen
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