Aerith’s Death ‘I’ll Come Back’

Original painting capturing one of the most heartbreaking moments in gaming history: Aerith’s death in Final Fantasy 7. The painting depicts Cloud carrying Aerith into the lake, a poignant scene where he says goodbye to the woman he loved, before letting her body sink into the water. Painted in soft pastel colors, the work evokes a stillness, sadness, and quiet beauty, reflecting the profound impact this moment had on both the characters in the game and players themselves.

I was fortunate enough to experience Final Fantasy 7 for the first time before its story became widely known, before it became part of popular culture. For me, the death of Aerith was not just a plot twist, it was a game-changing experience. In most games, characters don’t die, and the expectation was that Aerith would return. But that moment, the reality of her death, stayed with me long after the screen faded to black. It’s a powerful, unforgettable scene that continues to impact me to this day.

In creating this painting, I wanted to express the emotional weight of that moment. Cloud’s quiet, sorrowful action of carrying Aerith into the water is a metaphor for letting go. To capture the melancholy and the beauty of this scene, I painted it in extremely pale pastels, with the soft light streaming through the trees, adding a sense of dreamlike serenity to the composition. The gentle colors create a peaceful, almost ethereal atmosphere, yet beneath that calm is the tremendous sadness and loss that defined the moment.

This Aerith’s death painting is also an exploration of the universally felt grief that so many experienced when this character, who represented hope and love, was taken from us. The beauty, sadness, and quiet strength in the scene speaks to the lasting emotional impact of Final Fantasy 7, and how it forever changed the way we experience storytelling in games.