The character’s death is punctuated by “Aerith’s Theme,” a motif by Nobuo Uematsu that has become a popular instrumental score. Arnie Roth, a conductor known for staging concerts of video game music, will play the song at Carnegie Hall in June.
“The melody is very compelling. Bah dah dee, bah dah dum,” Roth hummed during an interview. “With ‘Aerith’s Theme,’ you can hear Nobuo pulling on Impressionist and Romantic influences. People ask us if they can propose marriage at our concerts before we play it.”
These emotions are allowed to linger in Rebirth, according to Cody Christian, who voices Cloud in the trilogy. “We do not shy away from injecting that scene with heartfelt sympathy for the characters,” he said. “Our performance was meant to humanize it.”
As players exited the cut scene in 1997, Sephiroth belittles Aerith’s death, saying she soon will become part of the planet’s energy. In the Japanese text (but not the flawed English translation), Sephiroth describes the assassination as nothing more than a “detour,” taunting Cloud to follow him into the snowy fields where he intends to become a god.
Cloud then exhibits signs of a panic attack: “My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning.”
When Sephiroth finally leaves, Cloud is forced to confront the manifestation of a parasitic alien as “Aerith’s Theme” continues to play in the background.
Nomura said he wanted the surviving characters to immediately achieve the threshold needed for an ultimate attack, as a way to signify their heightened emotions. But the era’s technology impeded that vision.
The battle still forced players to reckon with Aerith’s absence, Boulanger said. Suddenly, the character with the best healing abilities was gone.
For Nomura, those feelings were personal.
“The weight of loss is felt more deeply these days, certainly, now as I age and at times lose some people around me,” he said, pausing.
“I certainly feel the weight and gravity of loss much more so now.”
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