Aerith Gainsborough

Aerith Gainsborough

Final Fantasy VII

Remake

Sephiroth

Dissidia

Kingdom Hearts

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“	I'm Aerith, the flower girl. Nice to meet you.	„
	~ Aerith Gainsborough to Cloud Strife

“	I’d love to go on a journey. Just float away somewhere, like a flower petal, or get carried away in the wind...	„
	~ Aerith Gainsborough to Shotgun

“	I have twenty-three tiny wishes, but you probably won't remember them all, so I put them all together into one: I'd like to spend more time with you.	„
	~ Aerith Gainsborough to Zack Fair

“	I miss it... the steel sky.	„
	~ Aerith Gainsborough

Background

Aerith Gainsborough is a supporting protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, who serves as one of the most important characters of the series. Although seemingly a mere flower merchant, Aerith is the last of the Cetra people, which makes her the main opposing force to Sephiroth. After joining Cloud Strife's party, Aerith learned more about her heritage and what she would need to do to save the planet.

This dropdown contains the synopsis of Aerith’s story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!

Aerith is a half-Cetra, who was born in secret to the last remaining Cetra, Ifalna, and former Shinra scientist, Professor Gast. Just as Aerith was a newborn, Shinra invaded her home and killed Gast, as her and Ifalna were kidnapped and taken to the Shinra Building in Midgar. Ifalna and Aerith were held there in captivity for seven long years. One day, however, Ifalna was able to escape from the Shinra Building, and tried to escape from Midgar alongside the seven year old Aerith. Unfortunately, Ifalna was gravely wounded and only made it so far as the Sector 7 train station before she passed away. Ifalna entrusted Aerith with the mysterious White Materia, and then left the young girl all on her own. Fortunately for Aerith, she was quickly found and taken in by a woman named Elmyra Gainsborough, who gave her the name Aerith Gainsborough. There, Aerith would live as Elmyra’s adoptive daughter for several, several years; as Shinra watched over her and continually asked her to come back with them. Aerith would spend the next ten years of her life visiting an old broken-down church in the Sector 5 slums, where she tended to her bed of flowers. However, one day, a young bright-eyed SOLDIER named Zack Fair came crashing through the seventeen-year old Flower Girl’s church roof. They met each other and kicked things off immediately, becoming a couple. For the next two years, Zack and Aerith would live a happy life together selling flowers, until Shinra deplored Zack out to a mission in Nibelheim. This would be a mission Zack would never return from, with Aerith sending him letters for the next four years, only to feel his death from the planet. Aerith would go on to tend to her flowers in a silent sadness, unable to get over Zack and forcing herself to believe that he was still alive, somewhere. Almost unbelievably, yet another SOLDIER crashed through her roof in the same fashion as Zack, and carrying his very same sword; Cloud Strife. Aerith, searching for the traces of Zack within Cloud, joined him on his journey to get back to his friends. From then on, Aerith had joined the AVALANCHE group, focused on preserving the planet not only from Shinra’s Mako Reactors, but also from Sephiroth and Jenova’s summoned Meteor. During this quest, Aerith recognized the importance of the Materia her mother gifted her before her passing; White Materia, which could summon a spell, Holy, that would directly oppose Meteor. Travelling alone to the Temple of the Ancients, Aerith sacrificed her life and was willingly stricken down by Sephiroth, so that she may summon Holy from within the Lifestream itself, while the rest of her body fought Sephiroth himself. Eventually, as Meteor was dangerously close to destroying the entire planet, Cloud and his team allowed for Holy to finally be able to flow through the planet freely, as Aerith recruited countless souls to fight on her side within the Lifestream. Lifestream burst from the seams of the planet and swirled around Meteor, finally stopping the threat, as Cloud and his team took out Sephiroth. Successfully having preserved the planet and its people from death, Aerith returned to the Lifestream; always watching over the planet as its protector.

Powers and Stats

Key: Mortal Form | Lifestream Spirit

Tier: At least Low 4-C, likely far higher | Unknown, possibly 3-B

Name: Aerith Gainsborough

Origin: Final Fantasy VII

Sex: Female

Age: 16 - 22 years old

Classification: Flower Merchant, Cetra/Human Hybrid, The Flower Girl

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: At least Low Mass Star level, likely far higher (Aerith was able to defeat the Jenova BIRTH, which should be superior to Jenova’s spawn, Genesis Rhapsodos, and thus also his summon Bahamut Fury; Bahamut Fury is comparable to, if not more powerful than Typhon; Typhon was able to casually flip the planet) | Unknown, possibly Multi-Galaxy level (Aerith within the Lifestream is considered the counterpart to Sephiroth, as evident by the parallel existence of Lifestream White and Black, along with Aerith claiming she could perform similar things to Sephiroth; Sephiroth can use Super Nova, which has him create a dimension containing one galaxy with room for dozens more)

Durability: At least Low Mass Star level, likely far higher | Unknown, possibly Multi-Galaxy level

Striking Strength: At least Low Mass Star Class, likely far higher | Unknown, possibly Multi-Galactic Class

Lifting Strength: Likely Average Human

Travel Speed: Athletic Human (Is comparable to Cloud Strife, who can run at similar speeds to a Chocobo; Chocobo are said in the Dissidia Final Fantasy Museum to run at 20 mph) | Extra-Temporal (As a being of the Lifestream, time is meaningless to her)

Combat Speed: At least Massively Hypersonic+ | Extra-Temporal

Reaction Speed: At least Massively Hypersonic+ (As a part of Cloud’s party, she can dodge the lasers from Shinra security system like the others) | Extra-Temporal

Stamina: Superhuman (Aerith was able to travel for several, several days on her journey with the party, taking very brief breaks in between. All the while, she was able to defeat legendary and extremely powerful monsters, such as Summons who are thousands of years old) | Limitless (The Lifestream will continue to go on forever, if left undisturbed. Aerith, now serving as a manifestation of this Lifestream, would be an extension of that)

Range: Standard Melee, Extended Melee with staves, far higher with Materia and within the Lifestream

Intelligence: Genius (Is shown to intellectually be on par with Zack Fair, although she is inferior to him in combative smarts. Aerith is, however, still able to keep up with thousand-year old creatures like Jenova, and some Summons) | Cosmic (Aerith within the Lifestream is beyond concepts such as time, to the point where she can comprehend it and act beyond it; she is also equipped with the knowledge of the entire Lifestream; including all of the Ancients)

Key: Mortal Form | Lifestream Spirit

Tier: 3-B

Name: Aerith Gainsborough

Origin: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Sex: Female

Age: 22 years old

Classification: Flower Merchant, Cetra/Human Hybrid, The Flower Girl

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Multi-Galaxy level (Was able to contend with Sephiroth far earlier than he originally could; Sephiroth was confirmed by Hojo to have known Super Nova long before this fight, which has him create a dimension containing one galaxy with room for countless more)

Durability: Multi-Galaxy level

Striking Strength: Multi-Galactic Class

Lifting Strength: Likely Average Human

Travel Speed: Athletic Human

Combat Speed: FTL+

Reaction Speed: FTL+ (Could keep up with Sephiroth; Sephiroth knew Super Nova at the time of their fight, meaning he could react to the comet of his Super Nova)

Stamina: Superhuman

Range: Standard Melee, Extended Melee with staves, far higher with Materia

Intelligence: At least Genius

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Powers and Abilities

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Human Achievements (Aerith was an experienced Flower Merchant), Weapon Mastery (Aerith is proficient with her stave), Extrasensory Perception (As a Cetra, Aerith can hear the cries of the Planet and speak to it), Aura (Aerith can summon an aura with her Limit Breaks), Summoning (Aerith can summon angel-like beings), Blessed and Healing (Aerith is fully healed by praying to the planet), Light Manipulation (Aerith can summon a ray of light), Water Manipulation (Aerith can summon rain around her), Statistics Amplification (The Princess Guard multiplies her strength the more of her allies have been defeated), Non-Physical Interaction (Aerith can destroy the souls of the Gi Tribe), Telepathy (Aerith can telepathically communicate with others), Paralysis Inducement and Time Stop (Aerith can paralyze and stop enemies in time with Seal Evil), Regeneration Negation (Mid-High; Jenova can regenerate itself fully so long as its cells remain. However, pieces of Jenova defeated by the heroes were unable to enact the Reunion), Limited Invulnerability (Great Gospel and Planet Protector make Aerith temporarily invincible), Resistance to BFR (Type 3; As a Cetra, Aerith can interact with the Lifestream, without being forcefully removed from the physical world), Resistance to Power Mimicry and Power Absorption (Limit Breaks are manifestations of a user’s Spirit Energy, which cannot be copied by others. The only exception is from Zack Fair, who is noted to be an exception)

Soul Manipulation (Can interact with the souls of the Lifestream), Memory Manipulation (Can restore individuality to people within the Lifestream, through their memories), Empathic Manipulation (Can ease the hatred of those within the Negative Lifestream), Astral Projection (She could appear as an apparition to people in the living realm), Avatar Creation (If she wished, Aerith could create living avatars of herself similar to Sephiroth’s Remnants), Resistance to Time Manipulation (As a being of the Lifestream, time is meaningless to her), Resistance to Mind Manipulation and Memory Manipulation (Aerith is able to enter Lifestream from death without succumbing to its memory manipulation. She was able to retain herself after death. This is all of her choosing, as a Cetra), Resistance to Corruption Resistance (Type 1 & 2; Aerith was completely resistant to Jenova’s influence within the Lifestream and could not be corrupted by her the way Cloud was)

Healing (Cure, Cura, Curaga, and Full Cure all restore Aerith’s health), Poison Manipulation (Bio, Bio2, and Bio3 magic materia inflict poison), Death Manipulation (Death magic materia inflict instant death), Time Manipulation (Stop magic materia stops enemies in time), Fire Manipulation (Fire, Fira, and Firaga magic materia has Aerith attack with flames), Ice Manipulation (Blizzard, Blizzara, and Blizzaga magic materia has Aerith attack with ice), Electricity Manipulation (Thunder, Thundara, and Thundaga magic materia has Aerith attack with lightning), Life Manipulation and Absorption (Drain, Drainra, and Drainga magic materia sap life for Aerith to absorb), Regeneration (Mid-Low; Regen magic materia will slowly recover Aerith’s health), Statistics Amplification (Barrier, MBarrier, and Wall reduce the amount of health and magic damage Aerith receives), Light Manipulation (Ultima magic materia creates a flash of light that hurts all enemies), Summoning (Summon Materia allows for Aerith to summon powerful beasts, such as Ifrit and Bahamut), Resistance to Status Effect Inducement (DeSpell magic materia removes all negative status effects), Holy Manipulation (White Materia casts Holy, which channels the entirety of the planet’s holy power for self-preservation)

Healing (Potions, Hi-Potions, and X-Potions all restore Aerith’s health. Ethers and Turbo Ethers restore magic power), Resurrection (Phoenix Down fully restores Aerith when she is defeated), Resistance to Status Effect Inducement (Remedy, Elixir, and Megalixir prevents negative status effects)

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Standard Equipment

Weapons

• Guard Stick: A metal staff that Aerith wields to whack enemies with, and which she also uses to channel her innate magical abilities through. Thus, it can also be used as a sort of ranged weapon.
• Mythril Rod: A more potent version of the Guard Stick, which contains more slot storage for Materia.
• Princess Guard: Aerith’s most powerful staff, which she acquired within the Temple of the Ancients. This staff will multiply Aerith’s power, the more of her allies who are knocked out.

Items

• Potion: Restores some of Aerith's health.
• Hi-Potion: Restores a little of Aerith's health.
• X-Potion: Restores a lot of Aerith's health.
• Ether: Restores some of Aerith's magic power.
• Turbo Ether: Restores a lot of Aerith's magic power.
• Elixir: Restores Aerith’s health, magic power, and cures her of status ailments.
• Megalixir: Restores Aerith’s health, magic power, and cures her of all status ailments.
• Phoenix Down: Fully resurrects Aerith when she is defeated.

*Summon Materia: Small red orbs of crystalized Mako energy that Aerith can use to call upon legendary, gargantuan beasts from the distant past, to fight alongside him. This includes giant flaming behemoths like Ifrit, to huge dragons like Bahamut.

Magic Materia: Small green orbs of crystalized Mako energy that Aerith can use to enable the use of magic spells, oftentimes being elemental in nature, such as Fire/Fira/Firaga which attacks with flames.

Command Materia: Small yellow orbs of crystalized Mako energy that Aerith can use to empower herself with techniques he couldn’t previously use; including ones that can inflict status effects, like poison and paralysis.

Support Materia: Small blue orbs of crystalized Mako energy that have the primary purpose of being linked to other Materia, in order to enhance their effects.

Independent Materia: Small purple orbs of crystalized Mako energy that increases the stats of the users.

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Notable Techniques

• Healing Wind: Aerith summons a wind that blows through her allies, which greatly heals them.
• Seal Evil: Aerith summons a darkened vortex that will either paralyze enemies, or briefly stop them in time.
• Breath of the Earth: Aerith surrounds her allies with blue light, which completely restores them from negative status effects.
• Fury Brand: This Limit Break has Aerith completely fill the Limit Break meter of her allies.
• Planet Protector: Aerith surrounds herself and her allies with stars, which make them all temporarily invincible.
• Pulse of Life: Aerith kneels down and prays to the planet, which fully heals herself and her party members of all health and magic, and removes all negative status ailments.
• Great Gospel: Angels descend from the sky after Aerith summons them through a cloud of rain. This not only heals her entire party’s health and magic, but also makes them temporarily invincible.

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Other

Weaknesses: Aerith is extremely headstrong and rushes into things without second thought, which gets her into trouble. She is also very insistent on dealing with problems herself and going out on her own.

Battle Records

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