Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Fictional Women Around the World: Aerith Gainsborough

Transcript

Fictional Women Around the World: Aerith Gainsborough · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Stefan
0:07
Speaker 1: Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio, and welcome to
0:19
Speaker 1: another segment, sub sub sub segment of fictional women around
0:23
Speaker 1: the world. Today's gonna be fun for a lot of reasons.
0:27
Speaker 1: Samantha has no idea what we're talking about. That's great.
0:30
Speaker 1: I have no idea. Yes, this one's gonna be really
0:34
Speaker 1: fun for people who do know what I'm talking about. Like,
0:39
Speaker 1: I think you'll still enjoy it even if you don't.
0:42
Speaker 1: But if you do, you're gonna enjoy this one, I think,
0:46
Speaker 1: although not if you're not my friend who's really heartbroken
0:48
Speaker 1: right now. Oh no, So today we are talking about
0:52
Speaker 1: Final Fantasy n the character Eric Gainsborough, So spoilers. I
0:59
Speaker 1: put a question on that. Because this game came out
1:03
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, I'm mostly going to be talking
1:05
Speaker 1: about the original, but I will be talking on some
1:10
Speaker 1: of the stuff going on with a new one. So
1:12
Speaker 1: if you don't know, I believe in twenty twenty because
1:15
Speaker 1: I was playing it during the pandemic with my friends,
1:18
Speaker 1: they released a remake and it doesn't follow the original game.
1:25
Speaker 1: That's why it's called a remake. But it has a
1:29
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that's similar. They just released a new game,
1:33
Speaker 1: the second part of their remake trilogy, Rebirth, and I
1:38
Speaker 1: listeners have been sucked in. It's such a long game
1:44
Speaker 1: and I don't have time to play it. I have
1:47
Speaker 1: all those other things to do, but I want to
1:49
Speaker 1: play it. And at the heart, you know well that
1:55
Speaker 1: part of the heart of this game is a love triangle. Samantha.
2:00
Speaker 1: You play as the character Cloud, and there are two women,
2:04
Speaker 1: Tifa and Rath, who are your main choices. I got Tifa,
2:08
Speaker 1: that is all I will say. I really cannot wait
2:14
Speaker 1: to come back and do an episode on Tifa and Una,
2:17
Speaker 1: who is from a different Final Fantasy, but still again,
2:20
Speaker 1: some of these episodes, I'm like, oh, we have to
2:22
Speaker 1: talk about this too. This character has been in a
2:24
Speaker 1: lot of media Earth, including a movie that was a
2:30
Speaker 1: very odd film, but she was in there. She's also
2:34
Speaker 1: in Kingdom Hearts. She is voiced by Mandy Moore. You
2:39
Speaker 1: can see the episode we did on Tara Branford. He
2:41
Speaker 1: was from Final Fantasy three slash six, depending on your
2:46
Speaker 1: translation copy. I do you know. I have to say it.
2:50
Speaker 1: I love all the Star Wars references in it. It's
2:52
Speaker 1: a very there's a lot of Star Wars references in
2:54
Speaker 1: this game. Also, my D and D campaign is based
2:59
Speaker 1: on Final Fans seven, on Final Fantasy seven and Star Wars,
3:03
Speaker 1: but mostly I guess that like overt puns are Star Wars.
3:06
Speaker 1: But the game is based on Final Fantasy seven. And
3:12
Speaker 1: that's why I was like, oh, no, Dylan knows he's
3:14
Speaker 1: played File Fancy seven. It's ruined. I hope it's clear
3:23
Speaker 1: this is not a sponsor. Every time we talk about
3:25
Speaker 1: games and movies and stuff, unless we specifically say that
3:29
Speaker 1: that's why we're doing the episode, it is not a
3:31
Speaker 1: sponsor at the current moment, or not why we're talking
3:33
Speaker 1: about them. Yes, all right, so who is this character? Again?
3:40
Speaker 1: I one of the reasons I want to talk about
3:41
Speaker 1: this is that I'm seeing so many wild conversations play
3:45
Speaker 1: out about her. I am seeing a shipping devastate my friends.
3:50
Speaker 1: Because again, there's two main characters that you could end
3:55
Speaker 1: up with, and I thought, why not talk about one
4:00
Speaker 1: of the main ones, one of the most pivotal characters.
4:03
Speaker 1: And I'm not gonna argue later at the end that
4:04
Speaker 1: perhaps the most pivotal character Erith Gaines. Real all right,
4:10
Speaker 1: So first thing, if you like me and you grew
4:13
Speaker 1: up with the PlayStation one version, her name was mistranslated
4:16
Speaker 1: to Aris in the American version. It's meant to sound
4:20
Speaker 1: close to Earth, but it's Rith Now. I say Earth
4:25
Speaker 1: now is and that's what it is in even English games.
4:28
Speaker 1: But in the original PS one it was Aris. As
4:32
Speaker 1: I've mentioned, the first Dragon Con cosplay I ever did
4:35
Speaker 1: was of Tifa, my good friend did Rith, who is
4:41
Speaker 1: the yes, the other character in the love Jungle with Cloud.
4:43
Speaker 1: I will be talking about her some too, but she's
4:47
Speaker 1: definitely gonna get her own episode. And Yes, your choices
4:50
Speaker 1: throughout the game influence who you end up with, and
4:54
Speaker 1: Earth and Teeth aure to two mains, but they're not
4:57
Speaker 1: the only ones, though I will say there your only
5:00
Speaker 1: serious ones. I did play it every time to get
5:04
Speaker 1: the different person right one of them was really difficult.
5:10
Speaker 1: But what's interesting to me about it is that Eric
5:12
Speaker 1: and Tifa are friends. No matter what happens. There's no
5:15
Speaker 1: cat fighting. They're both to me legitimate choices as an
5:19
Speaker 1: even if they're both in love with Cloud, it might
5:22
Speaker 1: be a big part of their motivations, but they are
5:24
Speaker 1: their own, separate, different people. They're complex characters with lives
5:29
Speaker 1: outside of a dude what pretty much. Apparently Robert Pattison
5:35
Speaker 1: has said that this love triangle is how quote every
5:38
Speaker 1: guy figures out what love is. That he loved both
5:42
Speaker 1: character interesting. Also, I was telling Samantha before this, I
5:48
Speaker 1: had to cut a lot of this episode. I think
5:51
Speaker 1: at least two pages because I was just going off
5:54
Speaker 1: on tangents that aren't about Earth. But one of them
5:57
Speaker 1: is Tifa's boobs. I've talked about this before, but there's
6:01
Speaker 1: a scene. If you know it, you know it. And
6:03
Speaker 1: they really put in those animation books, those nineteen ninety
6:06
Speaker 1: seven animation books to animating her booths bounds. Oh my gosh.
6:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's very I won't forget it. But okay,
6:27
Speaker 1: all least tangents aside. Final Fantasy seven is a role
6:30
Speaker 1: playing video game that first came out in nineteen ninety seven,
6:33
Speaker 1: and yes, it's now getting a remake. It was hugely popular.
6:37
Speaker 1: It was critically acclaimed. Some argued it altered the gaming
6:41
Speaker 1: landscape at large. It is considered as one of the
6:44
Speaker 1: best video games of all time. I loved it. It's
6:47
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. It was an epic story. Over
6:51
Speaker 1: three discs that had a compelling main story all about
6:54
Speaker 1: a planet being poisoned from pollution, but with a ton
6:57
Speaker 1: of side quest that the player could seek out if
7:00
Speaker 1: they wanted them. As I mentioned in the episode we
7:03
Speaker 1: did on Tara, Final Fancy games are not generally connected,
7:07
Speaker 1: but there are similar elements in each edition. One would
7:11
Speaker 1: be like magic and summoning things like that. Another they're
7:15
Speaker 1: complicated as to explain, but extremely briefly. The plot of
7:20
Speaker 1: Final Fancy seven follows the mercenary named Cloud Strife who
7:24
Speaker 1: takes a job with quote eco terrorist group Avalanche, and
7:28
Speaker 1: a lot of the members are from his hometown. This
7:31
Speaker 1: group believes that Shinra, who is they're the controlling power
7:35
Speaker 1: kind of a company government entity, is killing the planet
7:39
Speaker 1: by draining its life force of Maco just kind of like,
7:44
Speaker 1: I don't know, the green magic that keeps the planet going,
7:47
Speaker 1: but it's useful for a bunch of other stuff. Basically,
7:50
Speaker 1: they're overmining the planet of its soul. So Cloud sort
7:54
Speaker 1: of gets wrapped up in this group in part because
7:56
Speaker 1: of his childhood friend and girl next door type teeth.
8:00
Speaker 1: Through all of this, he meets a flower girl later
8:04
Speaker 1: falling through the roof of her church named Erith Gainsborough,
8:08
Speaker 1: who is immediately mysterious and flirty, but she's also presented
8:13
Speaker 1: as like very innocent. She wears pink and reds that
8:17
Speaker 1: cover her whole body. She's very sweet. She is the
8:20
Speaker 1: foil to our closed off leading man, and she needs
8:25
Speaker 1: a bodyguard because some of the big wigs at Shinra
8:29
Speaker 1: are hunting her down. You later learned she's the last
8:32
Speaker 1: of her race, the Ceta, who wielded powerful magical abilities
8:36
Speaker 1: and our protectors of the planet. Aris's mother tries to
8:41
Speaker 1: convince Cloud to leave, and he attempts to sneak out,
8:45
Speaker 1: basically like he's hiding out at her house, at Ara's house,
8:48
Speaker 1: and her mom's like no, so he tries to sneak out,
8:52
Speaker 1: but he's caught by Rith, who demands to come with
8:54
Speaker 1: him on their hunt for the mysterious and deadly Sepheral
8:59
Speaker 1: powerful soldier and Soldiers like a title in these games
9:04
Speaker 1: that has connections to Cloud. Antifa's passed and they believe
9:08
Speaker 1: it's at the heart of all the bad stuff going on.
9:11
Speaker 1: Erith is a playable character and she fights. She's kind
9:15
Speaker 1: of the magic person healer, but she's really powerful. More history.
9:21
Speaker 1: She is actually half Cetera, born to her mother of Fauna,
9:25
Speaker 1: who was full Cetera and her father, Professor gast Farmis. However,
9:29
Speaker 1: within weeks of being born, a scientist working for Shinra
9:32
Speaker 1: named Hojo kills her father and captures her and her
9:36
Speaker 1: mother and brings them to his lab where he performs
9:38
Speaker 1: a lot of experiments on them, pretty cruel to her mom.
9:43
Speaker 1: Erith was very isolated during this time. At one point,
9:48
Speaker 1: her drawings were interpreted as showing the promised lands where
9:52
Speaker 1: Maco was plentiful, and they really want to know where
9:55
Speaker 1: this was. With the help of someone on the inside
9:59
Speaker 1: of Fauna, A escaped with Earth, leaving her on the
10:02
Speaker 1: streets of the sector five slums in mid Garlic on
10:05
Speaker 1: the church steps and Midguards like the main city, and
10:10
Speaker 1: it's very divided by class and socioeconomic status. It's very polluted.
10:15
Speaker 1: After her mother collapsed, Ereth searched for a doctor and
10:19
Speaker 1: instead was found by her adoptive mother, Elmira Gainsborough. Elmira
10:24
Speaker 1: soon learns that Earth has power she cannot explain. When
10:26
Speaker 1: Earth correctly predicts the death of Elmira's husband on Erith's
10:32
Speaker 1: eighth birthday, Shinra shows up in forming Elmira that Erith
10:36
Speaker 1: is et cetera, and they regretted how cruelly a fauna
10:39
Speaker 1: had been treated, and then they would leave her alone
10:42
Speaker 1: if Ereth told them the location of the promised land.
10:45
Speaker 1: Elmira was able to convince them to let them be
10:50
Speaker 1: if she kept a close watch on Earth, and Ereth
10:52
Speaker 1: told Emira she was in fact et cetera. This meant
10:56
Speaker 1: that Elmira was very strict with Erith where she could go,
11:01
Speaker 1: what she could do. No television, so she didn't really
11:04
Speaker 1: know what was going on in the outside world. Eventually,
11:06
Speaker 1: Erith ran away in protest. She was found by the
11:11
Speaker 1: man who helped her and her mother escape, but he
11:14
Speaker 1: told her that he was in love with her and
11:16
Speaker 1: had been in love with her mother and wanted to
11:19
Speaker 1: be with her. Elmira found them and chased him off
11:21
Speaker 1: at the broom and a pistol. Despite all the pollution
11:25
Speaker 1: and the difficulty of growing things, Earth starts planting flowers
11:29
Speaker 1: near her home and a nearby church, where they grow
11:32
Speaker 1: well due to her and the magical qualities of the water.
11:36
Speaker 1: Earth was very compassionate and caring. She was very joyful
11:39
Speaker 1: and upbeat when it came to her view on life,
11:44
Speaker 1: how she behaved flowers and people. She sees violence as
11:49
Speaker 1: the last resort, but she can absolutely fight and she will.
11:53
Speaker 1: To her work at the church, she meets a soldier
11:55
Speaker 1: named Zach who fell through the roof while she was
11:59
Speaker 1: sending flowers. He called Earth an angel and asked her out,
12:03
Speaker 1: and she laughed off this request. He then suggested that
12:06
Speaker 1: she sell her flowers for money. She gave him a
12:09
Speaker 1: tour of the slums, and he'd brought her her signature
12:12
Speaker 1: pink ribbon. She admitted to him that she was afraid
12:16
Speaker 1: of soldiers, who, in her mind, were experiments that were
12:18
Speaker 1: created for violence. But oh no, she learns Zach as
12:23
Speaker 1: a soldier, and she's embarrassed. They aren't. They're like clones essentially.
12:29
Speaker 1: Oh star wars. Then there's much flirting. She phraises his eyes,
12:35
Speaker 1: but alas Zach is called away, but he promises to
12:39
Speaker 1: come back and visit her when he can. He does
12:42
Speaker 1: come back, and he builds her cart to sell her flowers,
12:45
Speaker 1: and they did a bunch of cute like dainty things,
12:47
Speaker 1: including Rath promising she'd wear pink every time they went
12:50
Speaker 1: on a date. But Zach was called away again on
12:53
Speaker 1: a job with sephyr Wool and he never returned. I
12:57
Speaker 1: don't know, uh huh. Erith kept selling flowers, though she
13:01
Speaker 1: did it out of a basket because the cart had broken,
13:03
Speaker 1: which I assume is a symbol. She spoke of hearing
13:08
Speaker 1: the wind and an old voice speaking to her and
13:11
Speaker 1: wanting to see the world. And yes, she later tells
13:15
Speaker 1: Cloud if this story is like, wait a minute, did
13:17
Speaker 1: you already say that? Yeah, she later tells Cloud he
13:20
Speaker 1: reminds her of Zach. Both fell through the roof of
13:23
Speaker 1: the church and that is a whole mess that I'm
13:26
Speaker 1: not sure we have time for today, because like Cloud
13:28
Speaker 1: is Zach fun with clone and memories, He's not, but
13:33
Speaker 1: he thinks he is, but he doesn't know. It's confusing.
13:39
Speaker 1: He thinks he's Cloud, but he has Zach's memories in
13:42
Speaker 1: life in his head. Anyway, back to the main storyline.
13:47
Speaker 1: So this epic journey ensues all across the planet and
13:51
Speaker 1: you really get to see that Earth. Despite her quote innocent,
13:54
Speaker 1: exterior is an instigator, like she's flirtatious. She's the one
13:58
Speaker 1: that convinces Cloud to cross dra to infiltrate an enemy layer.
14:02
Speaker 1: She's often the one that argues they should help people
14:05
Speaker 1: or animals or the planet or what have you. She's
14:07
Speaker 1: great at reading people and figuring out what they want,
14:11
Speaker 1: and this often puts her in situations where a great threat.
14:16
Speaker 1: And she is captured after rescuing one of the party's
14:19
Speaker 1: daughter who is a single father. And I also read
14:21
Speaker 1: a whole bunch about how interesting that was to be
14:24
Speaker 1: in this game. But anyway, and Hojo is back, Oh no,
14:27
Speaker 1: and he wants to oh yes, Odo because he wants
14:31
Speaker 1: to breed Erith with Red thirteen, who is a sentient
14:37
Speaker 1: dog cat. There's a huge argument on the internet right
14:41
Speaker 1: now about this Samantha because of the game. They keep
14:43
Speaker 1: calling him a dog kind looks like a cat. Anyway,
14:48
Speaker 1: apparently people are still still weigh in but whatever the species,
14:55
Speaker 1: they live over one hundred years, so Hojo wanted to
14:57
Speaker 1: make a longer lasting hybrid. The group arrives to rescue
15:03
Speaker 1: earth In and read thirteen before this can happen. But
15:06
Speaker 1: then they get captured too, and they all wake up
15:10
Speaker 1: and they're in cells. But then they wake up and
15:12
Speaker 1: cell doors are open and everyone, including the president of Shinra,
15:15
Speaker 1: has been killed. Oh no, Yeah, well they're bad guys.
15:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, ok, presumably by Severov, who has a great
15:24
Speaker 1: theme song by the way, one winged Angel. Erith, now
15:29
Speaker 1: with some evidence that Sephiroth was related to the Cetera,
15:32
Speaker 1: was more determined to find him, although spoiler alert, he's
15:36
Speaker 1: not and he's kind of a liar. But whatever are
15:38
Speaker 1: they all liars? Yes, more stuff happens. They've run into
15:42
Speaker 1: Hojo again, but he's on vacation. It's like leave maybe.
15:46
Speaker 1: Erith starts thinking about being the last of her kind,
15:51
Speaker 1: like potentially, and learns more about her heritage. She meets
15:55
Speaker 1: Zach's parents and confides to Cloud that Zach was her
15:59
Speaker 1: first love. If you played your cards right, I guess
16:04
Speaker 1: if you want to get a date with Earth, perhaps
16:07
Speaker 1: Cloud and Earth go on a date. A confrontation with
16:10
Speaker 1: Cepharoth takes place, where he reveals his plan to basically
16:14
Speaker 1: destroy the planet. Earth harnesses her Cetera powers, but Cepharroth
16:19
Speaker 1: takes control of Cloud to attack her, because again he's
16:23
Speaker 1: a clone and cephra can kind of control all the clones.
16:26
Speaker 1: Cloud doesn't know he's a clone. That was like one
16:28
Speaker 1: of the big shock of the game. It's like, because
16:33
Speaker 1: you keep trying to find out who are all these
16:35
Speaker 1: guys in robes and then you're like, oh no, I'm
16:38
Speaker 1: a clone too anyway, So he's knocked out, but he
16:42
Speaker 1: hears Earth promising that she'll take care of it, and
16:45
Speaker 1: then she's gone. Erith locates the city of the Ancients,
16:50
Speaker 1: slash et cetera, and praise for the holy White Magic
16:54
Speaker 1: to combat the dark magic the media or that Cepharoth
16:57
Speaker 1: has summoned. While she's summoning it, the party finds her
17:01
Speaker 1: and Cepharroth once again takes control of Cloud to try
17:04
Speaker 1: and murder her, but Cloud resists. However, Sephiroth descends from
17:11
Speaker 1: the sky and impales her with his sword, killing her.
17:15
Speaker 1: As Cloud is holding her, her ribbon comes loose and
17:17
Speaker 1: a white materia, which materia is kind of a maco
17:20
Speaker 1: infused or abuse for magic, falls out. This is known
17:26
Speaker 1: as one of the most shocking traumatic video game moments ever.
17:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't expecting it, No one was expecting it. I'm
17:38
Speaker 1: pretty sure it happens at the end of disc one,
17:41
Speaker 1: so it's not like it's pretty late. It's early, but
17:47
Speaker 1: it's late, I don't know, and people were determined to
17:51
Speaker 1: find out if you could prevent it somehow with your choices.
17:54
Speaker 1: And remember this was when we were all one, old
17:58
Speaker 1: slow internet connections and trying to figure all all of
18:01
Speaker 1: this out. Here's a quote from the wiki fandom about
18:14
Speaker 1: Ari's death. The death of Earth in Final Fantasy seven
18:16
Speaker 1: has been seen as a monumental moment in gaming history
18:19
Speaker 1: due to the impact it had on fans. In two
18:21
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, games by Staff listed it as the
18:24
Speaker 1: tenth top cinematic moment in gaming history, calling it dramatic
18:28
Speaker 1: as it is beautiful and comparing it to the death
18:30
Speaker 1: of Gwynn Stacy from the Spiderman comic books. Emma Boys,
18:35
Speaker 1: writing for IGN in twenty twelve, described the death of
18:37
Speaker 1: Earth as a genuinely shocking moment, saying her death stays
18:41
Speaker 1: with players and allows them to sympathize with Cloud's quest
18:44
Speaker 1: for vengeance against Severalth. Several players, in response, created numerous
18:49
Speaker 1: fan theories on message boards and dissected the game's code
18:52
Speaker 1: to explore the possibility of reviving Erath or preventing her death.
18:57
Speaker 1: In describing this, Brian Taylor, writing for Kills Scream, compared
19:01
Speaker 1: this to the campaigns of writing letters to Charles Dickens
19:04
Speaker 1: to urge him not to kill the endearing protagonist of
19:07
Speaker 1: the old Curiosity Shop. And here's a quote after Sephyral
19:12
Speaker 1: kills Earth from Cloud. The cycle of nature and your
19:17
Speaker 1: stupid plans don't mean a thing. Earth is gone. Earth
19:20
Speaker 1: will no longer talk, no longer laugh or cry or
19:23
Speaker 1: get angry? What about us? So what are we supposed
19:26
Speaker 1: to do? What is this pain? My fingers are tingling,
19:29
Speaker 1: my mouth is dry, my eyes are burning. It's a
19:33
Speaker 1: really upsetting scene. It's really like it stuck with me.
19:37
Speaker 1: I've found an article that was like a traumatized the
19:39
Speaker 1: whole generation because we weren't expecting it. It was that's
19:43
Speaker 1: how they do it, that's how they do it. And again,
19:47
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into the remake, but I
19:53
Speaker 1: want to so badly. Okay, So Erith joins after she's murdered,
20:01
Speaker 1: She joins the life stream, which is sort of like
20:04
Speaker 1: the planet's soul, and she reaches out to Cloud when
20:06
Speaker 1: his mind is broken, and essentially there's a whole section
20:11
Speaker 1: of the game where you're in his head and he's
20:13
Speaker 1: just reliving the worst moments, and she it's and she
20:20
Speaker 1: reaches out to him. So does Tifa again separate episode,
20:25
Speaker 1: but she's able to help harness the life stream and
20:33
Speaker 1: the summon that she died for to block Metior and
20:36
Speaker 1: stop sephyr Off. Like I said, yeah, I'm not going
20:40
Speaker 1: to go into the remake, but it is one of
20:41
Speaker 1: my favorite video game endings ever. And I believe the
20:48
Speaker 1: rebirth is the same. But basically they're like, we're not
20:52
Speaker 1: going to do exactly the same thing, but yes, basically
20:58
Speaker 1: in the in the remake, they are these things called whispers,
21:01
Speaker 1: and there's sort of fate and you can change some
21:04
Speaker 1: of it, but some of it, the whispers are like, no,
21:07
Speaker 1: this has to happen. So all I'll say about that.
21:10
Speaker 1: She is a hugely popular character. She came in third
21:13
Speaker 1: in a twenty twenty pole about all time most popular
21:15
Speaker 1: Final Fancy characters, behind Cloud and Una. And I do,
21:19
Speaker 1: like I said, I want to come back and do
21:21
Speaker 1: episode on Una. I did a whole art project on Una.
21:23
Speaker 1: I love her. But Okay, there are a lot of
21:26
Speaker 1: things to talk about here. People have written a lot
21:28
Speaker 1: about her. One thing is there's a very interesting juxtaposition
21:33
Speaker 1: with her with the Madonna and the Horre, wherein she
21:36
Speaker 1: is very presented as very innocent. She wears pink, she
21:39
Speaker 1: sells flowers. She's very upbeat, she's very like outgoing emotionally,
21:48
Speaker 1: she's very flirtatious, but she is not slut shamed, not
21:53
Speaker 1: at all. She's definitely the one that is flirting with Cloud.
21:56
Speaker 1: She has moments of like teasing him in particular about
21:59
Speaker 1: him feeling like she has to protect her even though
22:01
Speaker 1: she's proven herself time and time again. But she also
22:04
Speaker 1: has her moments of vulnerability. And this was really interesting
22:09
Speaker 1: to me because when I was reading about it, a
22:11
Speaker 1: lot of people didn't like her because she was too forward.
22:15
Speaker 1: But to me, when you she doesn't seem that forward.
22:18
Speaker 1: It's just she's a woman in kind of an innocent
22:21
Speaker 1: guys who's firtatious, and people are like, whoa, or she
22:27
Speaker 1: got in the way of their ship if they're a
22:28
Speaker 1: tifa Cloud, oh yeah, Or that she was weak because
22:34
Speaker 1: she was too feminine and more pink and sold flowers.
22:36
Speaker 1: But again she kick yous uh. This is a quote
22:40
Speaker 1: from Sam Rowitt. As such as dual rola savior antidectress
22:44
Speaker 1: can seem strange to us as Western players who are
22:47
Speaker 1: generally more familiar with those traditions, despite the source of
22:50
Speaker 1: its inspiration However, seven makes no effort to undermine Airth's
22:53
Speaker 1: benevolent image through its narrative. She isn't one to sit
22:57
Speaker 1: on her behind waiting for Prince Charming to save the day,
23:00
Speaker 1: especially not if she thinks she can do better. Eric
23:03
Speaker 1: was never an innocent little child. She was a bold
23:06
Speaker 1: young woman with the will and determination required to save
23:09
Speaker 1: the world. In many regards, She's more of an ideal
23:11
Speaker 1: hero than Cloud himself could ever hope to be. That's
23:14
Speaker 1: why her death still reduces fans to tears after twenty years,
23:19
Speaker 1: and why it has such a visible impact on the
23:21
Speaker 1: rest of the party. I also found a theory that
23:26
Speaker 1: wasn't looking down at all, but that she's sex worker.
23:30
Speaker 1: I thought that was fascinating, but I had never heard
23:33
Speaker 1: of that. That was new to me. She was looked
23:36
Speaker 1: down on as a girly girl, and I found a
23:38
Speaker 1: lot of articles from women who grew up with this
23:41
Speaker 1: game who have played it again as adults, kind of
23:45
Speaker 1: coming to terms with how much they judge her for
23:47
Speaker 1: being a girly girl. She's kind of like outwardly a
23:52
Speaker 1: girly girl, but I get I think both her and
23:56
Speaker 1: Teafa are more nuanced than the tropes they represent. Here's
23:59
Speaker 1: the vote from XP show. The whole deal with Tifa
24:03
Speaker 1: and Erath is that none of them act like how
24:05
Speaker 1: they look. They switch the character archetypes. A major theme
24:09
Speaker 1: of Final Fantasy seven is subverting archetypes. Tifa the fighter
24:12
Speaker 1: is the carrying motherly type and Erath, frail magic user
24:15
Speaker 1: is the bold, outgoing one. Yep, costumes, there are a
24:21
Speaker 1: lot of sexualized costumes, but I would say I mean
24:25
Speaker 1: not generally Like I said, Erith's main costume isn't. But
24:29
Speaker 1: there are a lot of costume changes, but I say
24:32
Speaker 1: she leans into them as not slut shame for them.
24:35
Speaker 1: She kind of weaponizes them and convinces Cloud to wear one. Two. Also,
24:40
Speaker 1: the perils of pink. I found a whole article about this,
24:42
Speaker 1: just the fact that she wears pink and how a
24:45
Speaker 1: lot of people judged her for it. She is friends
24:48
Speaker 1: with all the other women in the party. Everyone really,
24:51
Speaker 1: but she's friends with the women. That unfortunately is kind
24:54
Speaker 1: of rare. Recent quotes from developers about wanting her in
24:58
Speaker 1: Tifa to have a better relationship have come up. They
25:02
Speaker 1: wanted them to have more fun, and there was a
25:04
Speaker 1: lot of backlash from mainly gamer dudes about how she's
25:08
Speaker 1: too mean. It's a cloud the main guy. She's definitely
25:13
Speaker 1: not one. She is like a really incredibly optimistic character
25:20
Speaker 1: in the face of a lifetime of tragedy. Some have
25:22
Speaker 1: argued that she is the main hero Fantasy seven. She
25:25
Speaker 1: is the foil to suffer Off, who's the main villain,
25:28
Speaker 1: but also a sympathetic villain for sure. But yes, she
25:33
Speaker 1: was still killed to move along the plot, but it
25:36
Speaker 1: didn't feel empty like it often does when they do
25:40
Speaker 1: that to women characters. But she was still killed to
25:43
Speaker 1: the plot. She was the heart of the party. She
25:48
Speaker 1: feels like she could have easily been the main character.
25:51
Speaker 1: I'm cloud the sport like when you play it, especially
25:53
Speaker 1: for me. Now, I'm like, she feels like the main character,
25:56
Speaker 1: and I'm playing the side character to her. From Alana
26:00
Speaker 1: Haiggs at RPG fan As a child, I let society
26:05
Speaker 1: and the world cloud my opinion of Earth. To me,
26:07
Speaker 1: she wasn't Tifa. She was physically weak, and her playful
26:10
Speaker 1: attitude rubbed me the wrong way. I imprinted horriful gender
26:14
Speaker 1: stereotypes on Earth because of other people's perceptions of what
26:17
Speaker 1: a quote strong female character should be like. But now
26:20
Speaker 1: I think Ereth is one of the strongest female characters
26:22
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. Thrust with the burden of saving the planet,
26:26
Speaker 1: she travels the world with a smile on her face.
26:29
Speaker 1: She's got attitude, but her vulnerability shows that even she
26:32
Speaker 1: is scared of her own destiny. By re experiencing Final
26:35
Speaker 1: Fantasy seven that second time, I often realized how unfairly
26:39
Speaker 1: I treated other female characters for similar reasons, because I
26:42
Speaker 1: believed them to be weak, because they were too nice,
26:46
Speaker 1: because they weren't strong. Seeing Earth in a new light
26:49
Speaker 1: taught me to recognize the good in everyone and to
26:51
Speaker 1: celebrate female characters for who they are. Yeah, I get
26:56
Speaker 1: I want to come back and talk about Tifa, because
26:58
Speaker 1: it really is interesting that kind of they're outward. What
27:05
Speaker 1: they would have you believe is not the case of
27:08
Speaker 1: their character. It's really interesting. But yeah, I hope this
27:13
Speaker 1: made some sense for you who don't know about this,
27:17
Speaker 1: for those that for those that doo, I hope that
27:24
Speaker 1: this was a fun one for you. And Oh, I
27:27
Speaker 1: desperately want to talk about the shipping stuff that's coming
27:30
Speaker 1: on with the new one, but I'll wait. Oh, but
27:33
Speaker 1: my heart goes out to everyone's sad. There are broken
27:36
Speaker 1: Oh yes, it's gonna be okay. Well, I hope. So
27:42
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten to the end yet, So I'm pretty
27:44
Speaker 1: sure I know what happens, but I haven't gotten to
27:46
Speaker 1: the end. Well. If you have any thoughts or any
27:50
Speaker 1: suggestions about this, please let us know. You can write
27:52
Speaker 1: in at Stepanida Mom stuff at heeartmedia dot com. You
27:55
Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter at monster podcast, or on
27:57
Speaker 1: Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You. We
27:59
Speaker 1: have a tea public store, and we have a book
28:01
Speaker 1: where I talk about some of these characters. You can
28:04
Speaker 1: find it wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
28:07
Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina I'm expecing to prducer Maya
28:09
Speaker 1: and your contributor Joey. Thank you. Thanks to you for
28:11
Speaker 1: listening Stuff I Never Told Us Fiction by Heart Radio.
28:14
Speaker 1: For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, you can check
28:15
Speaker 1: out the Heart Radio Apple podcast, or whef you listen
28:17
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.