God....really hitting me how Aerith’s death and ascension to pseudo-godhood is such a great “hyperbolic extreme” depiction of grief, especially for those who were taken suddenly and young

(I’m projecting here so maybe this is just my opinion, but maybe it will resonate with other people too)

Cloud hearing the planet tell him that he can meet Aerith in the beyond... Tifa agreeing. Aerith literally becoming a kind of god.

The sudden and inexplicable loss of a loved one is so absurd that its reality can take years to settle in, if ever.

Even now, I think about the friend I lost with a sort of god-like reverence that I didn’t treat her with when she was alive. That feeling comes from a combination of guilt, loneliness, a personal belief in souls and the afterlife, and still, a feeling of sheer absurdity

That sense of absurdity both weakens and strengthens as more time without her passes. There’s the absurdity of her death, and the absurdity of her existence, the feelings of doubt when I try to remember her voice or the time we spent together. Feels less and less real over time.

If I tried to explain that feeling to someone and it took another shape, i think it would look like she became something like a god to me. I think it would look like Aerith’s story. That’s why the loss of Aerith is so important to me

Sorry this is like, suddenly really personal and weird and deep but it’s helpful for me right now to get these feelings out in the words that feel right

This thread wasn’t about the remake btw, take it apropos of nothing