Since its release in 1997, Square’s Final Fantasy VII has captivated audiences with its science fiction plot and rich characters. Like many video games, it presents a story about the forces of good and evil, played out through the protagonists and antagonists of the game. Throughout the story, musical character themes reinforce and enhance the struggle between good and evil taking place in the narrative. Drawing on Peter Brian Barry’s theory of evil known as the mirror thesis, this article views the character themes associated with Aerith and Sephiroth as representative of the moral extremes of good and evil, respectively. After framing the narrative and characters through the lens of the mirror thesis, I perform a close reading of Sephiroth and Aerith’s musical themes and backstories. The analysis demonstrates how Sephiroth represents the moral extreme of evil personhood, while Aerith represents the extreme of moral sainthood. The article concludes with a discussion of how these musical themes occur in relation to each other during significant moments of narrative conflict, particularly during Aerith’s death scene and the final cinematics of the game.
You move slowly through the monster-infested ruins of an ancient civilization. Somewhere, in the heart of this abandoned city, you should find a member of your party who left the group to travel here alone. Soon you’ll be reunited. As you reach the end of the area, your missing friend comes into view, and you prepare for a happy reunion. But something is wrong. Suddenly, a figure emerges from the shadows and runs the person through with a sword, killing them. Instead of the satisfaction of regaining your party member, you’re faced with a sense of shock and loss. How could this happen?
Players of Square’s Final Fantasy VII (1997) might recognize this scene as the one in which Sephiroth, the game’s primary antagonist, kills playable character Aerith Gainsborough.1 The sudden and shocking nature of her death deeply affected players, and it has since been described as “one of the most iconic moments in game history.”2 Video game characters die all the time—so, why does this death cut so deep? Characterization, narrative, visual graphics, and the fact that Aerith is a playable character all contribute to the force of the scene, but the music also plays a crucial role in evoking the desired emotional response. Nobuo Uematsu’s choices in the musical themes associated with Aerith and Sephiroth reinforce the good-versus-evil trope underlying much of the game’s narrative content. In this article, I examine two moments of narrative conflict that bring these contrasting musical representations into direct opposition, underscoring the struggle that motivates the game’s narrative. My analysis begins with an examination of the backstories and visual representations of each character, followed by a close reading of their respective musical themes. After surveying the mechanisms used to align Sephiroth with the concept of evil and Aerith with the concept of good, I turn to the juxtaposition of these themes and examine their broader implications within the game.
Whether a fan enjoying a casual playthrough or an academic scrutinizing the game’s most nuanced details, something about Final Fantasy VII (hereafter FF7) captures our attention and holds it long after we stop playing. As of this writing, it holds the distinction of being the best-selling game of the Final Fantasy franchise, and the sheer volume of scholarship addressing the game’s narrative, characters, and themes provides further evidence of its substantial impact.3 A quick internet search immediately brings up countless wikis, gaming articles, and videos posted by passionate fans and professionals alike. The game maintains a similarly diverse following in academic circles, where scholars from disciplines as varied as musicology, philosophy, psychology, and legal studies have taken up the game with analyses on subjects ranging from its ecocritical message to its representations of religion and personal identity.4 With the recent Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) giving the game new life, it continues to captivate audiences and scholars alike.
Several features of the game combine to make it so compelling, foremost among them being the detailed characterizations. Like other games in the franchise, FF7 allows players to control a number of different characters, each one unique.5 Unlike early games in the franchise, which sometimes included superficial or unbelievable character backstories, the characters of FF7 are richly detailed and psychologically motivated.6 As philosopher Christopher Wood notes, the characters are deeply relatable, sharing a diverse array of “hopes, fears, goals, and desires […] revealed to be like our own.”7 We can identify with Barret’s desire to protect his daughter, Marlene, and Cid’s unfulfilled dreams of becoming an astronaut. We recognize Tifa’s concern for a childhood friend who is struggling. Not only can we understand how the characters feel as we learn more about their respective backstories, but we also come to internalize their values within the game world. For example, in the cutscene following the destruction of the Sector 7 slums by the Shinra Electric Company (one of the main antagonists of the game), Barret stands near the rubble and cries out for his young daughter, who may now be dead. As players, we have seen Barret interact with Marlene as part of the main storyline; we may have even spoken with her ourselves during prior gameplay. Because Barret is one of the main playable characters, we have most likely invested time in leveling him up and are more likely to be emotionally invested in the character. To some extent, his loss becomes our loss, and this perceived emotional connection shapes how we view the other playable characters, the Shinra Electric Company, and their motives.
Of course, these richly detailed and relatable characters exist within the game’s overarching narrative, which pits a small ecoterrorist group named Avalanche against the might of the massive Shinra Electric Company. At the outset of the game, the leader of Avalanche, Barret Wallace, recruits a mercenary named Cloud Strife who has former ties to Shinra and is the primary protagonist of the game. Cloud’s work with the group begins with a bombing mission meant to shut down one of the many reactors farming the life energy of the planet for electrical power. Through subsequent gameplay, Cloud gradually meets the other playable characters, including a flower seller named Aerith Gainsborough, who is pursued by Shinra due to her deep connection with the planet. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Sephiroth, an elite Shinra soldier and experimental test subject, plans to destroy all existing life on the planet. In response, Cloud and the remaining members of Avalanche resolve to stop him while continuing to oppose Shinra. The game culminates in a final showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth, who has evolved into a powerful, godlike being.
Put in the most succinct terms possible, FF7 tells a story about a battle between good and evil. On the surface, the game’s ecocritical narrative relates a conflict about the preservation of the planet’s natural resources and environmental stability. But good versus evil tropes underly each of the narrative’s main themes.8 The story pits the good of environmental preservation against the evil of environmental exploitation for profit. Due to the socioeconomic status of the characters involved, it also places the good of the moral but economically poor members of Avalanche in contention with the immoral but extremely wealthy leaders of the Shinra Electric Company. When Sephiroth threatens the existence of the planet, the narrative becomes a conflict between the good of preserving life and the evil of destroying it. Through Cloud and the other protagonists, players align themselves with and fight for the good, while the primary antagonists of the game—first the Shinra Electric Company and later Sephiroth—are clearly aligned with evil actions and intentions.
By repeatedly placing good characters, intentions, and actions counter to evil characters, intentions, and actions, the narrative establishes good and evil as diametric opposites within the game’s story. In doing so, the game subscribes to an idea known in philosophy as the mirror thesis. Peter Brian Barry describes the fundamental premise of the mirror thesis by observing, “there is an obvious sense in which evil persons mirror moral saints: each is an instance of the highest degree of something.”9 Stated another way, we often think of these categories as representing the extremes of the moral scale—moral saints represent extremely virtuous people on the side of good, while evil persons represent extremely immoral individuals with vicious character traits.10 Like any philosophical position, the mirror thesis is open to debate, and it has been criticized by other scholars, most notably Luke Russell.11 Nonetheless, for the purposes of this article it is a useful and appropriate framework for understanding the narrative construction and characterizations present within the game.
FF7 encourages us to think about the categories of good and evil as opposites, clearly linking specific characters and their actions with the extremes of evil personhood and moral sainthood. All of the characters in the game fall somewhere on the moral spectrum between good and evil. Protagonists generally have more virtuous character traits and intentions, while the antagonists of the game demonstrate immoral character traits and intentions. For example, Cloud generally exhibits virtuous character traits and actions, trying to save his friends and the planet. By contrast, President Shinra, who runs the Shinra Electric Company exhibits immoral character traits; for example, he watches the destruction of the Sector 7 slums with pleasure. But very few of the characters reach the extremes of moral sainthood or evil personhood; most fall in the middle, demonstrating both virtuous and vicious qualities. Cloud is generally virtuous but also driven to hunt Sephiroth for personal revenge. Cait Sith, a robotic, fortune-telling cat, is operated by a Shinra employee who engages in immoral actions on behalf of the company but shows virtuous character traits by helping Cloud’s party. Only two characters occupy the extremes of the moral scale: Sephiroth represents the immoral extreme of evil personhood, while Aerith represents the virtuous extreme of moral sainthood.
Sephiroth’s Evil Personhood
Even before players interact with Sephiroth directly, the narrative depicts him as powerful and inhuman. Players first learn of Sephiroth’s existence while imprisoned at Shinra headquarters following a failed attempt to rescue Aerith. Cloud and party wake up to find their cell doors open and the guards dead. Upon seeing the carnage, Red XIII states, “No human could have done this.” The party then follows a long trail of blood to find President Shinra dead in his office. Despite several other NPCs confirming Sephiroth’s presence, players do not encounter him during this gameplay sequence. Instead, our first impression of him comes from the aftermath of his actions, which appear excessively violent and vicious in nature.
During a prolonged flashback sequence that occurs after Cloud and the others escape from Shinra headquarters, players meet the infamous Sephiroth in Cloud and Tifa’s hometown of Nibelheim. As the flashback begins, Sephiroth stands out visually from the others on screen; two low-level soldiers wear blue armor, and Cloud wears his typical blue-gray clothing with spikey blond hair. By contrast, Sephiroth wears a long black coat and has long silver hair that reaches to his waist. He stands much taller than those around him and wields the Masamune, an extremely long ōdachi (Japanese great sword). While in Nibelheim, Sephiroth uncovers hidden research notes that reveal him to be the product of genetic experimentation with alien cells. After learning the truth of his origins, Sephiroth declares himself the chosen one who will rule the planet, burns down the town of Nibelheim, and kills most of the innocent people who live there.
In both sequences, Sephiroth commits what we might consider to be evil actions. He brutally slaughters Shinra employees and murders the president in the present; he destroys an innocent village in the past. This type of wanton destruction and cold disregard for human life becomes characteristic of Sephiroth’s treatment of others throughout the game. Along with his later intention to destroy all life on the planet, these actions make him a morally reprehensible character.12 Given Sephiroth’s origins and upbringing, it is possible that players may sympathize with Sephiroth’s anger to some extent. Indeed, it is open to debate whether Sephiroth is morally responsible for his own actions. For example, we may consider him to be not responsible due to insanity, or we may feel that his difficult childhood impairs his ability to distinguish right and wrong.13 Since the nuances of such debates are beyond the scope of this article, I will operate under the assumption that Sephiroth is morally responsible and intends to cause significant harm with his actions.
The musical themes most closely associated with Sephiroth throughout the game reinforce the visual and narrative depictions of his evil character. Of Sephiroth’s two primary themes, his final boss battle music “One-Winged Angel” has been analyzed most frequently. It appears in my analysis of villains’ themes in the Final Fantasy games,14 and it has also been analyzed in detail by James S. Tate, who focuses on tritone relationships within the piece.15 Tate’s analysis includes a brief description of how Sephiroth fits Thomas B. Yee’s “god-slayer trope” paradigm, merging rock and sacred music topics in his final boss theme.16 Because “One-Winged Angel” has been treated so thoroughly elsewhere, this article focuses more specifically on Sephiroth’s individual character theme that occurs throughout the game. Sephiroth’s theme, titled “Those Chosen by the Planet,” first plays during the flashback sequence in Nibelheim. After discovering the hidden lab, Sephiroth asks to be left alone, and the narrative implies that several days pass. When Cloud goes to check on him, the introduction to “Those Chosen by the Planet” begins to play, looping while players look for Sephiroth and talk to him. The piece moves into the main loop and increases in tempo when Sephiroth leaves to visit an alien lifeform called Jenova, who he believes to be his mother. The musical theme continues into the following cutscene, in which Sephiroth destroys the town. In subsequent gameplay, the theme returns any time Sephiroth is on screen, and parts of the melody appear in “One-Winged Angel.”
“Those Chosen by the Planet” serves two functions in its initial appearance: it foreshadows Sephiroth’s narrative trajectory and simultaneously makes players aware that this character is the true villain of the game. In this theme we hear several features closely associated with the sacred topic as identified by Yee, including chorale-like homophonic textures, a slow tempo, and the use of timbres including choir and tubular bells.17 The religious overtones within the piece hint at the semi-deified state Sephiroth will obtain at the end of the game, signaling both his inhuman power and his ambition.18 At the same time, the harmonic dissonances, slow pacing, and mellow timbres give “Those Chosen by the Planet” an ominous feeling. When players hear this piece for the first time it is divided into a four-measure introduction that vamps until a specific narrative point, followed by the main loop. The introduction uses a low synth pedal tone and tubular bells to evoke connections with pipe organ and the tolling of church bells. To this sustained background, Uematsu adds a percussive heartbeat (Example 1).
“Those Chosen by the Planet,” mm. 1–4. All examples are transcribed reductions from Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VII (Square, 1997).
“Those Chosen by the Planet,” mm. 1–4. All examples are transcribed reductions from Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VII (Square, 1997).
The pared-back texture creates a sense of anticipation, forcing players to wait for the next thing to happen narratively and musically. The main loop breaks this sense of anticipation when Sephiroth leaves Cloud to destroy Nibelheim. The tempo increases and the synthesized choral melody enters when the main loop begins (Example 2). The theme remains melodically simple, but steady eighth-note motion in the bass and the unsettled harmonic motion from i–VI in mm. 5–6 and i–i° in mm. 7–8 add tension in the first half of the phrase. In the second half of the phrase, the i–VI motion repeats, but finally resolves to the expected minor tonic in mm. 11–12. From here, the theme builds into a series of dissonant sustained harmonies for four measures before repeating the preceding melody.
As Tate observed in “One-Winged Angel,” Uematsu makes frequent use of tritone relationships. Each time the main melody descends from A to G# over the common tone D it creates a tritone. Furthermore, the prolonged harmonies in mm. 13–16 do not represent functional harmonies, but rather multiple pairs of perfect fourth, perfect fifth, and tritone relationships stacked together, usually at an interval of a minor second (Example 3). For example, in m. 13, Uematsu stacks the perfect fourth pair A–D with another perfect fourth, B♭–E♭. In m. 14, the perfect fifth relation B♭–F is stacked with the tritone F#–C. In mm. 15–16, Uematsu expands one interval G♭–D to an augmented fifth, but pairs it with another tritone relationship, E♭–A. When this material repeats in mm. 25–28, the final chord continues this pattern of stacked pairs, restacking the E♭–A tritone of m. 16 as A–E♭ and pairing it with the perfect fifth D♭–A♭. Throughout this highly dissonant passage, the underlying synth and tubular bell drone on the tonic D help to ground listeners in the home key. The prolific dissonance, moderate to slow pacing, and use of sustained tones all contribute to the foreboding quality of the theme. In conjunction with the dark timbres, these musical features combine to signal Sephiroth’s corrupt character, reinforcing the narrative and visual depictions happening during the destruction of Nibelheim.
Aerith: The Moral Saint
If Sephiroth represents the moral extreme of evil personhood, then Aerith mirrors his extreme position, acting as the moral saint of the game. As mirror images of each other, the two characters share complex genetic lineages that link back several thousand years. Yet even in this similarity, there is a sense in which the mirror image is distorted. Aerith is a true descendant of an ancient civilization known as the Cetra, and she is the last of her kind. Sephiroth represents a corrupted reflection of her ancient lineage, produced through genetic experimentation with cells from a destructive two-thousand-year-old alien lifeform. The two characters can also be considered mirrors in that they reflect extreme opposites in character and action. Sephiroth regularly kills people and causes harm, while Aerith’s limit breaks (special attacks or boosts associated with each character in the player’s party) focus on white magic and healing. They are also opposites in terms of their fundamental goals within the game’s narrative. Sephiroth wants to destroy the world; Aerith sacrifices herself to save it.
Although Aerith’s presence is limited to the first third of the game, the narrative clearly establishes her role as moral saint and mirror to Sephiroth. Players first meet Aerith early in the game as an NPC on the street after Avalanche successfully destroys Shinra’s Sector 1 power plant. A short time later, during a second bombing mission, Cloud falls from a broken walkway in the explosion and crashes through the roof of an abandoned church in the Sector 8 slums. Cloud wakes up in Aerith’s flower garden within the church, and following a brief exchange, she hires Cloud as a bodyguard and becomes a playable character. She remains an available member of the player’s party until just before the narrative events leading up to her death. After Sephiroth obtains a powerful object of condensed energy called Black Materia, Aerith voluntarily leaves the party to travel alone to an ancient Cetra city. There she will pray to the planet and awaken the power of the White Materia in order to counter Sephiroth’s new destructive power.
The game repeatedly associates Aerith with various visual, narrative, and musical topics meant to signal the sacred, but unlike Sephiroth’s cues, which convey his overwhelming power, Aerith’s associations with the sacred capture her virtuous character. When players meet her, she is an innocent girl who can sense sacred places and grows flowers in a church. Her lineage also makes her the only person who can speak to the planet through prayer, which lends her character a priestess-like quality. In some sense, Aerith’s role is to act as an intercessor between humanity and a higher power, in this case the planet. Her unique musical theme, simply titled “Aerith’s Theme,” occurs during her death scene, but the melody appears in other contexts when the character is onscreen—most notably in “Flowers Blooming in the Church,” which plays during her encounter with Cloud in the flower garden. Since I will be addressing the death scene in detail, this analysis focuses on “Aerith’s Theme” as it appears during the death sequence and does not examine other variations of the melody from elsewhere in the game.
Throughout “Aerith’s Theme” players hear textural and harmonic elements designed to clearly link the character to sacred topics. Her theme comprises three main musical ideas, with the dramatic climax of the loop happening at the start of the third section. In the first section (Example 4), “Aerith’s Theme” unambiguously establishes the home key as D major, but the liberal use of borrowed chords from the parallel minor lends the passage a melancholy quality, despite its major key.19 The phrase ends with a plagal cadence, moving from borrowed iv to the tonic in mm. 8–9. The second melodic idea uses gradually ascending scalar motion, thicker harmonic textures, and an increase in volume to build tension (Example 5).20 This passage begins to reinforce associations with sacred topics through the introduction of chorale-like homophonic chords, played by the orchestra. These chords (mm. 15–20) enter in a call-and-response format, answering the solo oboe’s preceding arpeggiated gesture. Harmonically, the second section shifts to emphasize G major, the subdominant of the home key. In the final section, the orchestra’s chorale-like homophonic chords dominate the texture, increasing the volume and intensity as the loop reaches its climax in mm. 22–25 (Example 6). Harmonically, the section remains focused on the subdominant until the end of the orchestral melody in m. 31. The phrase ends with a plagal cadence, using ii7 in m. 30 as a substitute for the usual IV harmony. This resolution to the tonic remains brief, and the solo melody once again emphasizes the subdominant in the final measures, setting up another plagal cadence when the loop repeats and returns to the tonic. Overall, the piece shows a reliance on plagal harmonic relationships, both locally and structurally, and the limited use of strong dominant chords enhances this effect.21 The few chords in the first section that are based on the fifth scale degree (Example 4, mm. 2, 4, and 6) are borrowed from the parallel minor, lessening their strength as dominant chords in the home key. The V chords that appear in the third section (Example 6, mm. 27–28) occur in the middle of the phrase and move to subdominant harmonies for the plagal cadence.
Conflicts of Good and Evil
The death of Aerith marks a critical moment in the narrative and serves as the first of two climactic conflicts between the party and Sephiroth. Contextually, the death sequence comes at the end of the first disc of gameplay. Sephiroth has revealed his plan to summon a powerful spell to damage the planet and obtained the Black Materia required to carry out his mission. As the last descendant of the Cetra, Aerith travels to the Forbidden City and attempts to communicate with the planet, hoping to activate the White Materia’s dormant power. The attack that occurs during the death sequence is the first major direct confrontation between the moral extremes of good and evil as represented by Aerith and Sephiroth. Certainly, smaller confrontations between the good members of the player’s party and the evil henchman of Shinra have been an ongoing fixture of the game, but this sequence marks the first time that Sephiroth directly attacks a member of Cloud’s party.22 The cutscene begins as Cloud approaches Aerith, who kneels with eyes closed in prayer.23 As Aerith opens her eyes, Sephiroth drops from above, running her through with the Masamune. Although a painful moment in the story for many players, Aerith’s death serves a critical function, making the final confrontation with Sephiroth personal—not only for Cloud and the characters but also for players.24 On the airship before the final battle, Cloud cites Aerith’s death as the primary reason they must confront Sephiroth: “…Aerith. She was smiling to the end. We can’t just let it end with that smile, we have to do something.”25 Players may also carry extra motivation to kill Sephiroth since Aerith was a playable character before her death.
Throughout the death scene and subsequent gameplay, the music underscores the moral conflict between good and evil by juxtaposing elements of Sephiroth and Aerith’s themes. As the cinematic cutscene begins, a brief closeup shot of Cloud cuts to Aerith’s face as she slowly opens her eyes and smiles at him. But the music underlying this brief exchange signals that something terrible is about to happen. A high ringing sound enters softly, building in volume and intensity. The visuals cut to Sephiroth, descending from the ceiling with his sword out, and dissonant, high string glissandi mirror his fall.26 As Sephiroth’s blade pierces Aerith’s back, the heartbeat from “Those Chosen by the Planet” is the only sound. Sephiroth smiles at Cloud, then pulls his sword from Aerith with a sound effect like a sword being pulled from its sheath. As she collapses, her hair ribbon unwraps and the White Materia bounces away. “Aerith’s Theme” enters the first time the materia hits the crystal floor. The delicate piano timbre and soft dynamic mirror the visual focus on the colliding crystalline surfaces and set a reflective emotional tone. Throughout this visual sequence, the motion of the materia is closely aligned with the musical phrasing of the first four measures of “Aerith’s Theme.” The full orchestra restates the initial melody (mm. 5–8) as the materia disappears into a pool of water and the cinematic portion of the cutscene ends. Her musical theme continues throughout the subsequent dialogue and boss battle, repeating until the members of the player’s party can lay her to rest.
Although Sephiroth’s musical presence is limited during the exchange, it nonetheless serves an important narrative function contra “Aerith’s Theme.” The sonic tension associated with Sephiroth alerts players to the looming danger, while the heartbeat sound when he stabs her acts like a sonic pause that lets players process the shock of what has just happened. Sephiroth’s lack of other musical qualities in this moment signals the depth of his depravity. There are no melodic or harmonic cues to suggest any emotional investment or humanity on Sephiroth’s part—just silence and a heartbeat. By contrast, the recognizable melody and gentle timbres of “Aerith’s Theme” immediately act as a foil for Sephiroth’s brief, but inhuman musical entrance. The solo piano of the opening bars gives the melody a plaintive quality, while later use of solo oboe adds a pastoral quality that subtly emphasizes her role as a spiritual intercessor with the planet. The carefully planned increase in musical tension throughout the main loop mirrors the feelings of grief that Cloud expresses in his subsequent dialogue with Sephiroth. This buildup also adds musical interest when the loop repeats during the ensuing boss fight against Jenova-Life.
A similar juxtaposition of good and evil happens in the final moments of gameplay; once again Aerith’s and Sephiroth’s themes reflect and enhance the conflict occurring in the narrative. Following the final boss battle against Sephiroth, a cutscene shows Cloud being drawn into a one-on-one spiritual battle with Sephiroth in the center of the planet. As Cloud’s spirit is drawn toward Sephiroth’s location, a brief musical reference to Aerith’s theme plays, but the sound is distorted and quickly overtaken by the harmonic dissonance associated with Sephiroth (Example 7). In the scripted one-on-one battle with Sephiroth, Cloud deals the final blow. Sephiroth has returned to his human form, and the heartbeat and tolling church bells from the introduction of “Those Chosen by the Planet” loop in the background. Musically, this confrontation directly parallels the opening of the Nibelheim incident, just before Sephiroth begins his rampage. As in Aerith’s death scene, the lack of harmonic and melodic elements reminds players that Sephiroth is evil and inhuman. The lack of dramatic music also reinforces that the major battle is over and Sephiroth is about to meet his end. When Cloud strikes the final blow, he releases the energy of the planet, which surrounds him with ribbons of green light. Once again, players hear a brief statement of the first four measures of “Aerith’s Theme,” this time without the distortion heard earlier in the sequence.
Cloud’s spirit travels to the final confrontation; audio-visual transcription.
Cloud’s spirit travels to the final confrontation; audio-visual transcription.
Despite having won the physical confrontation against Sephiroth, the final contest between good and evil occurs in the skies over Midgar, the town in which the game began. Before Sephiroth’s death, he successfully summoned the ultimate destructive magic, which is slowly approaching Midgar. Thanks to Sephiroth’s defeat at the hands of the party and Aerith’s prayers earlier in the game, the White Materia’s inert power activates, releasing a protective counter spell. In the final cinematic of the game, we see the town of Midgar and hear the melody of “Aerith’s Theme” (Example 8). Barret’s daughter, Marlene, says, “The flower girl?” and walks to the window, suggesting that she somehow senses Aerith’s presence. The music shifts and players see the destructive magic Meteor approaching the city, causing catastrophic damage throughout the town. The protective magic from the White Materia acts as a shield temporarily, but as Meteor breaks through the foreboding chords resolve into a statement of Sephiroth’s familiar melody from “Those Chosen by the Planet” (Example 9).27 Even though the player has stopped Sephiroth, narratively and musically it appears that evil has won. In this moment, the music shifts and the energy of the planet gathers in the form of green ribbons of light, weaving together to help repel Meteor. The characters see a bright flash of light, then players see Aerith’s face, as she lifts her head, opens her eyes, and smiles.28 This image of Aerith has two parallels within the game: the moment just before her death and the game’s opening scene. Musically, this final moment with Aerith brings us full circle, repeating the first three notes of the main theme before fading to silence. While good triumphs and Aerith’s role is integral, this musical return to the opening theme reinforces the collective nature of the victory. The members of Cloud’s party struggled together throughout the game, and that unification behind a shared cause made their success possible.
Conclusions
At its heart, FF7 tells a story about the conflict between good and evil, setting the two moral extremes in opposition. The game clearly establishes the character of Sephiroth as an evil person, both through his actions in the narrative and his musical theme, “Those Chosen by the Planet.” The dark timbres and dissonance cue players to interpret his character as ill-intentioned, and parts of his theme often appear in texturally sparse forms that lend him an inhuman quality. The flower girl Aerith mirrors his moral extreme, representing the moral saint of the game. As in Sephiroth’s case, “Aerith’s Theme” musically reinforces the narrative elements that cast her in the role of spiritual intercessor and healer.
In the two climactic confrontations of the game, the juxtaposition of Sephiroth’s and Aerith’s themes help to narrate the conflict. During her death scene, Sephiroth’s sonic appearance is short-lived, and the emphasis on her theme throughout the remainder of the scene focuses players’ attention on her loss, rather than his triumph. Even after players defeat Sephiroth in the final boss battle of the game, the narrative continues to pit good and evil against each other in a final contest for the fate of the planet. Once again, the music suggests that evil could emerge victorious with a bold final statement from Sephiroth’s theme. A sudden musical shift and the closing scene reveal the truth: good triumphs in the end, but it is not Cloud, Aerith, or the player’s party that win the day. In the final moments we see that the contest between good and evil is not decided by either of these moral extremes, but something more—a collective good, drawn from the whole of the planet. In the end, the moral extremes vanish, leaving the collective good and an open future in their wake.
Notes
In English-language versions of the game, the character’s name has been translated as both Aeris and Aerith. In this article, I will use Aerith throughout. For a succinct description of what led to the naming discrepancy, see Camden Jones, “Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Is Her Name Aeris or Aerith?,” Screenrant, March 5, 2020, accessed August 10, 2022, https://screenrant.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-aeris-aerith-spelling-change/.
Tristan Donovan, Replay: The History of Video Games (East Sussex: Yellow Ant, 2010), 279.
Final Fantasy VII’s significance is evidenced by its inclusion in several books documenting video game history. See Donovan, Replay, 278–79, Stephen L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 540–543, Karen Collins, Game Sound (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), 69–70, and Jessica Kizzire, “Final Fantasy VII (1997),” in 50 Key Video Games, ed. Bernard Perron, Kelly Boudreau, Mark J.P. Wolf, and Dominic Arsenault (New York: Routledge, 2022), 110–13.
For more on ecocriticism, see Robbie Sykes, “‘Those Chosen by the Planet’: Final Fantasy VII and Earth Jurisprudence,” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 30 (2017): 455–76. For more on religious representations, see Benjamin Jozef Banasik, “Cloud Strife: The Intertestamental Hero,” Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 13 (2018), accessed August 10, 2022, https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.rel.2018.0.23842. For philosophical perspectives on a variety of topics related to Final Fantasy VII, see Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. Beaulieu (ed.), Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009). For psychological perspectives on games in the franchise, see Anthony M. Bean (ed.), The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break (Fort Worth, TX: Leyline Publishing, 2020).
Rachel Kowert argues that the game’s bottom-up narrative construction helps players bond more deeply with the playable characters of the game. Rachel Kowert, “The Storytelling of Final Fantasy,” in The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break, ed. Anthony M. Bean (Fort Worth, TX: Leyline Publishing, 2020), 11.
For a more detailed description of the other playable characters and the importance of characterization in the game, see Kizzire, “Final Fantasy VII,” 113–16.
Christopher R. Wood, “Human, All Too Human: Cloud’s Existential Quest for Authenticity,” in Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough, ed. Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. Beaulieu (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009), 168.
Sean Atkinson notes that all Final Fantasy games ultimately share this same basic meta-plot of good versus evil. Sean Atkinson, “Introduction,” in The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break, ed. Anthony M. Bean (Fort Worth, TX: Leyline Publishing, 2020), 6.
Peter Brian Barry, “Moral Saints, Moral Monsters, and the Mirror Thesis,” American Philosophical Quarterly 46, no. 2 (2009): 163.
The inclusion of vicious character traits in the definition of evil persons is part of Barry’s refinement of the mirror thesis. See Barry, “Moral Saints,” 173.
Russell counters Barry’s assertions in “Dispositional Accounts of Evil Personhood” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 149, no. 2 (2010): 241–42. Barry responds to Russell’s criticisms directly, pointing out that Russell includes a faulty premise in the argument. See Peter Brian Barry, “In Defense of the Mirror Thesis,” Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 155, no. 2 (2011): 199–205.
Anthony M. Bean posits that Sephiroth offers an example of negative utilitarianism because he seeks to reduce suffering by destroying the world. Under this view, the end of human suffering outweighs the immediate harm of killing humanity. For more on the implications of this interpretation, see Anthony M. Bean, “Dueling Drives: Life and Death,” in The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break, ed. Anthony M. Bean (Fort Worth, TX: Leyline Publishing, 2020), 140.
For a high-level overview of the relationship between evil and responsibility, see section 3.5 of Todd Calder, “The Concept of Evil,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (Summer 2020), accessed August 10, 2022, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/concept-evil/.
Jessica Kizzire, “Dancing Mad: Music and the Apotheosis of Villainy in Final Fantasy,” in The Music of Nobuo Uematsu in the Final Fantasy Series, ed. Richard Anatone (Bristol: Intellect, 2022), 13–33.
James S. Tate, “The Devil in the Detail: Analyzing Nobuo Uematsu’s “One-Winged Angel” from Final Fantasy VII,” in The Music of Nobuo Uematsu in the Final Fantasy Series, ed. Richard Anatone (Bristol: Intellect, 2022), 34–66.
According to Yee’s article, there are many variants of the god-slayer trope. Sephiroth can be best categorized as falling under the “seizure of divinity variant,” with some influence from the “advanced alien variant.” For more, see Thomas B. Yee, “Battle Hymn of the God-Slayers: Troping Rock and Sacred Music Topics in Xenoblade Chronicles,” Journal of Sound and Music in Games 1, no. 1 (2020): 3.
Yee, “Battle Hymn of the God-Slayers,” 7.
Andrew S. Powell has described this musical gesture “the ringing death knell,” which operates as part of broader set of codes that signify evil. Andrew S. Powell, “The Devil Is in the D-tails,” Aspects and Analyses of Multimedia Music (Blog), October 13, 2020, accessed July 14, 2023, https://aspectsandanalysesofmultimediamusic.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/the-devil-is-in-the-d-tails/. All of the musical indicators affiliated with the sacred music topic described here are tied to the musical characteristics of Western Christianity.
Giles Hooper notes that this major/minor alternation, along with the ascending/descending melodic motion, creates an affective duality for players. Giles Hooper, “Sounding the Story: Music in Videogame Cutscenes,” in Emotion in Video Game Soundtracking, ed. Duncan Williams and Newton Lee (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 128–29.
In this passage, some chords do not operate as diatonic, functional chords. Most notably the repeated F# minor chords are often produced through neighbor or passing motion in the bass. I indicate these chords using roman numerals to highlight the overall emphasis on the tonal area of G major (IV) throughout this passage.
Hooper also concludes that the reliance on plagal harmonic relationships throughout this theme reinforce Aerith’s connotation as spiritual intercessor. Hooper, “Sounding the Story,” 129.
During their prior altercation at the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth does not attack the party directly, instead taking control of Cloud and forcing him to hand over the Black Materia. Still under Sephiroth’s influence, Cloud attacks Aerith before he is knocked unconscious by the player’s third-party member. Just before the death scene, Sephiroth attempts to have Cloud kill Aerith, but Cloud successfully resists Sephiroth’s influence.
Hooper delineates three types of cutscenes: cinematic, viewpoint, and fixed dialogue. The death sequence begins and ends with fixed dialogue cutscenes. Aerith’s death is depicted in a cinematic cutscene at the center of the sequence. Hooper, “Sounding the Story,” 117.
Niles P. Muzyk writes about how Aerith’s death binds players more closely to Cloud and the remaining members of the party. Niles P. Muzyk, “Gestalt[ing] the Group: How Principles of Perception Inform Our Fantasy,” in The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing the Limit Break, ed. Anthony M. Bean (Fort Worth, TX: Leyline Publishing, 2020), 38–9.
In the original English-language version of the game, Cloud uses the name Aeris. I have changed it here for consistency.
Similar string glissandi occur during the cutscene depicting the destruction of Nibelheim, in which Sephiroth is surrounded by flames.
The harmonic direction of the Aerith and Sephiroth fragments in this final scene directly mirror each other. Aerith’s fragment closes with vi–I motion, while Sephiroth’s repeatedly uses i–VI motion.
Following this brief glimpse of Aerith, an epilogue depicts Red XIII, a large cat-like creature who is one of the playable characters, with two cubs. They overlook the overgrown ruins of Midgar 500 years in the future, implying that the planet did indeed survive.
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