Ask any right-minded FFVII nerd what they think of flower girl Aerith and they'll tell you flat out: she is without doubt the representation of the perfect woman, if not the perfect woman, period. Maybe her sense of fashion could use some work, but perfect nonetheless.

The proof is in the pudding: after all, she's kind, thoughtful, cute, and likeable.

And she dies before the middle of the game, which broke up some people more than it did Cloud. But since he was actually there, he chose to seek vengenance, while the rest of us wept softly among our fantasy novels and Macross tapes.

Devoted followers and admirers of Aerith go a long way to reiterate the qualities we've mentioned, and many a badly-spelled flamewar has been made over whether or not she's better than Tifa (who we'll talk about later). But as some have eventually come to realize, Aerith is worth it.