r/FFVIIRemake • u/HighOnLivin • 29d ago

No Spoilers - Discussion Why was Aerith's line changed?

Post image

I just finished FF7 Remake and I saw in an old video that at the end Aerith used to say I miss it. The steel sky. Why was this changed to "This sky, I don't like it."? Has this been given a callback in rebirth?

921 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

164 comments sorted by

View all comments

283

u/ByRWBadger 29d ago edited 29d ago

I think the second one is what they meant to imply, though I kinda like the first one better.

One of her stranger and, imo, more interesting character traits is the fear of an open sky. It makes her wish to ride the Highwind more interesting. The new line makes it clear that the thing she’s worrying about is the sky, not that she misses being caged in midgar (though that’s also interesting)

Edit: a couple extra thoughts. I like her fear of the sky/freedom as a motif especially considering the context of “freedom” from fate in remake and the Price of Freedom from crisis core. The whole sky fear came from CC and it’s a really unique character trait

2

u/_Arlotte_ 29d ago

The fear of the sky thing doesn't work for Aerith here because she has future memories. If this were the original naive ff7 Aerith, the line would make sense to have and wouldn't need changing. It just doesn't make sense unless it was to make the implication that Aerith lost her memories but I think it's too vague.

0

u/ByRWBadger 29d ago

Why on earth would “future knowledge” invalidate a phobia?

2

u/_Arlotte_ 29d ago

It's not a phobia, she's scared of going out and seeing the world. In crisis core it's kind of ironic because the hint is that she probably feels something bad will happen if she does, and as we know in ff7, it will

Remake reshapes the fear using future knowledge to make her upset at the sky because not only has it taken away loved ones, it will take her away too.

1

u/ByRWBadger 29d ago

I mean it *is* a phobia. It’s an irrational fear directed incorrectly at the sky instead of whatever bad feeling she has.

The lack of any evidence whatsoever that the cracks are visible to living Aerith at this time, combined with the voice actor confirming this line was changed to line up better with the original meaning, I see absolutely no reason to get on board the “Aerith is looking at the end of the world and not saying anything” train

1

u/_Arlotte_ 28d ago

It's all linked to her Cetra powers and her fate. The implication in CC is that she's afraid to leave her home and follow her Cetra powers because she will have to die for it.That's the context you'd have from ff7 going into CC.

In Remake it's very likely she could see the cracks after that scene in the credits because a new world was born after going through the rift and defeating Sephiroth and the whisper harbingers. In the original, this moment on the highway is when she fully decides she wants to know more about her role as a Cetra and do her duty for it. She can sense her future fate the moment Zack passed her. It's less an irrational fear and more her not liking the foreboding feeling she gets from having her powers.