Secrets & Mysteries | What We Shouldn't Have Seen IV

IanGM has come to a fascinating, yet perfectly logical, conclusion about the strange findings discussed in the previous "What We Shouldn't Have Seen" pieces, as well as one of the game's "errors" listed under Errors, Mistakes, and Contradicitons. Thanks, Ian!

Based on a couple of things that "we shouldn't have seen", there is a very good possibility that Aeris wasn't originally planned to die in the cave in the Forgotten Capital, but in Sephiroth's cave instead, located in the Northern Crater. The two places are close to each other and not too much happens in-between. The only notable places that you visit in-between these two caves are Icicle Inn, the Great Glacier, and Gaea's Cliff. This explanation sheds some light on three different mysterious things found in FFVII:

If you use a trainer to bring Aeris back alive, you find that she has dialogue in the Great Glacier. More specifically, she says, "I'm sick of this." This greatly suggests that she was supposed to live longer. (see What We Shouldn't Have Seen)

There is a hidden area in the Northern Crater that is a third rendition of Sephiroth's cave called the Great Cave, which is a separate image of its own and cannot be accessed in the game. This area has Aeris's theme song playing in it, which is the song you hear when she dies. (see What We Shouldn't Have Seen II and III)

In the movie where Sephiroth kills Aeris, he somehow gains black gloves part way through (see Errors, Mistakes, and Contradictions). I think that Sephiroth comes down from the air to kill Aeris because he is situated above everyone in his cave. When the story was changed so that she dies in the Forgotten Capital, I think they decided to keep the part where he comes down from the air, but change the part where he lands and kills her, to reflect the fact that he is in the Forgotten Capital. Listed below are a few things that you'll notice in the movie.
1. When you see Sephiroth without his gloves on, you do not see any part of the Forgotten Capital in the background. There are two parts where it comes very close; when he kills Aeris and at the beginning when you see Aeris and then you see Sephiroth in the air for the first time.
2. You only see Aeris once when Sephiroth doesn't have gloves on, and everything around her is suspiciously blacked out, as if they got rid the original Northern Crater structure around her. Right before he kills her, the video changes and he is wearing gloves and you can see structure from the Forgotten Capital behind him.
3. However, you don't see the branches or anything when the scene shows what is above Sephiroth. The bright light and the fluid-like stuff that is behind the branches may have been modified to replace the branches entirely, which are still present in video.

--Ian GM

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the "Aeris' death" FMV to find these details that Ian indicated in his email. I did find that some of the structure of the Forgotten Capital can be seen when Sephiroth first comes down (sans gloves). As Ian said, it does come very close, but doesn't seem far enough away to indicate two shots being spliced together; also take note of the crystal structures in the background, which are indicative of the Forgotten Capital:

Still, Ian makes a very good case for Aeris' death being originally planned for the Northern Crater, and not the Forgotten Capital. If the "gloveless" Sephiroth descent was originally planned for the Crater, it wouldn't have been all that difficult for the game's animators to preserve the character model (and its animation) and swap out entire backgrounds. Not to mention Ian's first two points, which make a whole lot of sense if you think about it.