fanboys and fangirls unite because we
are bearing the naked truth behind video
gaming's most famous murder
hello Internet welcome to game theory
the show where our favorite Limit Break
is mind blow oh Final Fantasy 7 one if
not the most loved and reviled games of
all time a game so defended by fans and
so attacked by haters that no reviewer
dare touch it but here we don't look at
good and bad we look at truth and often
that truth is more shocking than
aerith's death halfway through this game
oh should I have put up a spoiler alert
too bad get out from under your rock but
this rather well devised segue brings me
to my main point have I really spoiled
anything based on her wounds should
Aerith have died in fact does she die at
all this week we're looking at the
anatomy of a murder that has rocked the
gaming world since 1997 and I guarantee
the truth will shatter what you thought
you knew about this unforgettable and
heartbreaking moment in gaming history
let's start by setting the scene Aerith
innocent flower girl from the slums of
Midgar is found alone praying for the
protection of the planet chances are if
you're not a teenage boy fascinated by
PlayStation era jiggle physics Aerith is
your female character of choice her
vigil however gets a rude interruption
when Sephiroth the heartthrob of game
villains Rams his impossibly long sword
through her torso insert your own joke
here
fast forward to her slumping over sefie
dislodging his massive weapon Aerith
losing her magic marble RPG fans the
world over weeping sad bitter tears
touching water burial and cosplayers
around the world
erecting shrines to their fallen heroine
hmm sorry got a little choked up pardon
my big manly tears anyway that concludes
your tutorial but what really happened
let's rewind first the actual stabbing
viewers affectionate towards fictional
women may want to look away
notice the magical brown belt that just
appears out of nowhere halfway through
this scene not only is this a glaring
and embarrassing graphical oversight
foursquare it gives us a great
to where the sword is going here we see
that it's a straight shot right through
from the middle of her back to the
middle of her front superimposing a
skeleton onto her body we see that the
sword is penetrating right below her
sternum the central bone of the rib cage
so it's definitely going through her
abdomen in the front and piercing her
vertebral column and thus her spinal
cord in the back listening to the scene
backs this story up if I know my sounds
of horrific death and I most certainly
do these are the dulcet tones of Steel
scraping on bone looking at another
diagram we see that the sword is too low
to hit the heart and lungs but the liver
stomach and perhaps the intestines might
suffer some damage and with one final
diagram we see that the inferior vena
cava and the descending aorta both
follow the path of the spine and are
thus targets for the sword overall I
feel confident in saying that this would
be a serious injury death would seem
certain but look again my csi's in
training what's missing I'll give you a
second dear viewer I asked you where's
the blood there isn't a drop to be found
anywhere and before you rush off to the
comments saying oh they didn't want to
make the game too graphic
they clearly use blood elsewhere in the
game first smeared across the walls when
Sephiroth slaughters everyone at the
Shinra headquarters and more noticeably
when you finally defeat the white-haired
weirdo but Aerith shows no injury how
can this be well miraculously it's been
done before and all joking aside if
you're squeamish you might want to look
away for this part in 1947 Time magazine
reported on a Dutchman named Miran da
Joe a man who claimed to be invulnerable
he dumbfounded medical experts at the
time by piercing his body with swords
spears and various blades without
causing himself any internal injuries or
bleeding there were also reports of him
surviving boiling water burning irons
and being shot in the head it's said
that he learned his methods from ancient
religious holy men named fakirs wait an
ancient and miss
to cool people did I mention that Aerith
is etc and ancient a deeply spiritual
people with mystical abilities huh seems
like a mighty important detail to have
mentioned right now all right
so say that through part miracle and
part mysticism there is no bleeding or
organ damage
why does she collapse well you can't get
around the fact that the sword severed
her spine I mean no case of scoliosis is
that bad and we even heard it let's look
at one last diagram the spine is divided
into four sections based on its location
in the body
cervical for the head and neck thoracic
for the chest and stomach lumbar for the
lower back and sacral for around your
pelvis because the spine is the highway
of information from your brain to the
rest of your body injuring it is like
causing a bad car wreck ceasing traffic
further down the road based on the
swords position it looks like it pierces
through the t7 vertebrae or the seventh
bone down in the thoracic section an
injury to this part of the spine not
only destroys your ability to move your
legs but it would also prevent you from
controlling your abdominal muscles in
other words you wouldn't be able to hold
yourself up you would just slump over
like a rag doll or a corpse
however Aerith would still have control
over her arms and head so why wouldn't
she move for the rest of the scene
spinal injuries can result in extreme
dilation of the blood vessels meaning
that not enough blood would make it to
the cells resulting in shock and
eventually knocking her unconscious what
I'm saying is this stabbing slumping
over and closing your eyes doesn't
necessarily mean that she was dead in
fact no blood loss of abdominal control
from a spinal injury and unconsciousness
due to shock means that Aerith could
easily have been alive when she was set
adrift you mean that earth could still
be alive I understand if you need
further proof so let's look at one last
nail in aerith's non-existent coffin
during her sentimental burial she sure
does sink like a stone doesn't she funny
considering that dead bodies tend to
float for a while as oxygen is trapped
in their lungs
eventually they do sink when the air in
their lungs is replaced with water
seeping into their system live bodies
however have a harder time staying
afloat because of the tension in their
muscles and the fluctuations of oxygen
in their system aerith's lack of
buoyancy would hint at her still being
alive
why not swim to save herself then don't
forget that she'd still be suffering
from a bad case of unconsciousness mixed
with an unhealthy dose of paralysis
wait so Aerith might still be alive but
let's look at the full tragic scene play
out once again
Sephiroth impales Eric paralyzing her
from the chest down miraculously all
vital organs and blood vessels are
spared as not a drop of blood is spilled
however with an injured spinal cord
Aerith collapses as she can no longer
support herself upright the scare sent
her into shock and she passes out
unconscious cloud not the brightest
clone of the bunch assumes she's dead
and sets her to drift and her still
living body rapidly sinks wait a living
body under water and unable to swim then
that means yes it's even worse than we
thought to put it bluntly it's very
possible that the true murderer wasn't
Sephiroth on the altar with the sword
instead Aerith may have unintentionally
drowned when clouds set her unconscious
body in the water in a sense she was
buried alive and that my friends puts an
even crueler twist on the most shocking
painful and heart-wrenching scene in
game dumb Aerith everyone agrees that
you left us too soon
and we as gamers were forced to comfort
ourselves in the large cushions of
tifa's chests or was that just me anyway
it's just a theory a game theory thanks
for watching