Just idle speculation on my part for nothing better to do.

What if Aeris hadn't died at the end of the first disk of the game? What would've happened in the game if she had carried on living?

The way I see it, if Aeris had lived, the game wouldn't have changed much in terms of the outcome. She would've still activated the White Materia, and Holy would still have been summoned eventually. However, it's possible that she might've been able to help Cloud from giving up the Black Materia and stopped Sephiroth from summoning Meteor in the first place...

... Then again, it may have made no difference at all. Just wanted to start a debate...

<font color=red face="comic sans ms">I don't think Aeris would have been able to stop Cloud from giving the Black Materia to Sephiorth in the first place because Cloud was being controlled. He was the one Hojo considered a "failed" experiment, yet he was the only one to make it to the Jenova Reunion, and so he was under the influence of Jenova there.

However, I do agree that even if she didn't die she would have still summoned Holy. She had still prayed on the White Materia, and it just happened that it only fell from the altar after she was killed, but she could have dropped it into the water to let her prayer reach the planet anyway.

In fact, as Aeris had prayed on the white materia to summon Holy, I think she knew that Sephiroth was going to end up with the Black Materia anyway. Either that, or she knew that she was going to die, because either way she wouldn't have bothered praying on the White Materia unless she really knew that she had to do it then...

Bah, I think it's a good thing she died, it just made the ending that much better when

SPOILERS

Cloud kicks Sephiroth's ass with Omnislash...


I think that it wouldn't have made too much of a difference in the story-line, but would in fact just take away from the ending, wich, in my opinion, was great, but might not have been so great if it wasn't for the feeling of vengence that would have been weakened if Aeris did not die...

The game wouldn't be the same if Aeris didn't die. It made you hate Sephiroth more! :notgood:

As Meltigemini said, Cloud was being controlled or manipulated. So Aeris probably couldn't have helped. If Aeris did live, you probably wouldn't get that scene where Tifa and Cloud are together at the end of disc 2.

yeah you needed that 'hate' for Sephiroth for killing Aeris

dont get me wrong tho, i didnt want her dead......

The game would've had to end right there. It seemed that the game was all about Aeris, and I cried when I saw her die when I first played it. I cried for almost 5 minutes! I wanted to break my Playstation because of what Sephiroth did, that evil person!

If Aerith was still alive...?

Hmm.... I would say that Holy would still be summoned, Tifa, Cloud & Aerith would be in the Highwind when the gang went to find their reasons to keep on fighting Sephy(or maybe Tifa would finally back off, giving Cloud & Aerith some space...?).

Aerith would have tried to keep Black Materia from being handed over to Sephy, but couldn't resist his powers so we would be back at square one either way. Aerith would have been able to provide some vital info to the gang on how to stop Sephy(tell 'em about Holy and maybe the planet would "borrow" her voice and talk through her...?).

Further more... Aerith would have proved handy in the final battle, assuming that you took your sweet time to get her levels up, limit breaks etc. Holy would kick in, Sephy might have really died(not dragging Cloud back in like he did) and in a last desperate attempt to save the planet, Aerith would have used her link to the planet to realse the LifeStream(like happened in the end).

But was it Aerith that did that, or just her... uhm... Soul? You see her in the end, with that content smile on her face. True that Sephy was no push-over, but is it really that easy to kill the last of the Cetra, the people of the planet sort of speak? Spirit of the dead or alive and kicking... doesn't really matter, 'cause either way there was no way Aerith would let anything happen to the world she loved so deeply(not to mention Mr Spikey head :P)

_____SPOILER____I think id woulve made a difference if she hadnt of died, and it wouldve been for the worst. Aeris was either trying to awaken holy, or give it power, and i believe she was feeding it power from herself, a cetra. and her being a cetra made her close to the planet and probobly, she had more life energy than most things. If she wouldve lived she might not of had enough life energy to summon holy(maybe, its what i think). When seph killed her and she "returned to the planet" it couldve empowered her and gave her the power to summon holy, where as she lived, she mightve failed. She mightve borrowed the power of the planet and used it to summon holy, and to assist it to stop meteor.____END SPOILER____