Draw My Life | Aerith Gainsborough

[Pixel]

I'll just leave this here and back away slowly
Thanks to Lex for the beautiful signature

 

[Lex]

I've already given my thoughts to Pixel a few days ago, looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say (curious if thoughts match up). Will post screenshot of convo if this is the case

 

[lithiumkatana17]

Just watched it on Facebook.

Thanks guys. I didn't, ya know, need those emotions today or anything.

It was very well directed. Love it. Is anything going to be done like this for other characters?

 

[Octo]

Ok maybe I'm evil, but I was going along like 'this is sweet' and then Sephiroth appeared and I was like 'waiiiiiit, they're not going to......are they....?'

and then stabbity stab and I lol'd

But it was good! I'm just a bit evil when it comes to Aerith :p

 

[CrashOuch]

SO PERFECT! I love it <3
The voice is spot on, the animation is amazing, and the blood splatter, oh man
Already loads of good Youtube comments as well.
Awesome job!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It was really well done. Felt very authentic somehow.

Did not expect that ending, though. XD

 

[Channy]

I can't... I just.... What did you...

 

[Tennyo]

This was super adorable!

At least until...

I actually felt a little shocked and traumatized by the ending.

That was really good, though.

 

[Flare]

I really really liked this. I used up extra internet space just to watch it. Really adorable and the voice was really good for her. <3 Piano music was also lovely. <3

Lots of feels. Lots of feels everywhere.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Lots of feels. Lots of feels everywhere.

Especially the mid-spinal area.

 

[Flare]

Lots of feels. Lots of feels everywhere.

Especially the mid-spinal area.

Lots of nerves there, yes Makes things very sensitive and feely

 

[Channy]

Right at the beginning of the video when she's introducing herself, her voice had this weird waver to it that I wasn't sure would be a good fit... but as she kept going, it really blended with the story. And the writing was really well done too, Pixel, excellent word choice that accented her character and personality.. "Half Cetra, Half Human... Me!" .. "She was in a bad way." Playful yet innocent, without being the new-born lamb innocent sorta stigma that has been attached to her character, post-OG.

 

[MintEggs]

RRRRIIIGGGHHHT in the feels. The ending was a big punch to the gut. xD

I feel like Aerith's character was portrayed really well in this. \( o w o )/
10/10!

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Achieved what I thought was impossible: making Aerith's death feel suck a sucker punch all over again. Lovely work.

Are you going to do some for the other characters, or was this just a one-off?

 

[Pixel]

Possibly a Tifa one. There are things I'd like to explore about her character. I just need good, reliable voice actors. And I'd like it to just explore up to the start of the events of the game. In the Aerith one, I had a lot more written, taking place during the game, but it just felt like it was going through the motions, and I was conscious of it getting a bit too long. This felt like a good cutoff point.

I would like to do a cloud one, but pre-revelation. Biggest problem is people wouldn't get the joke that he's telling the false memory version

This was the stuff I cut from the script, if anyone is interested

Flowers were luxury items in Midgar. Even so, I kept the price pretty low. I felt a little guilty charging anything at all to be honest. A lot of people up on the plate were pretty rude. I was used to spending most of my time down in Sector 5, where most people know me. But up there it was different, I don't know why.

One day, I was up at the Theatre District selling flowers, when suddenly,there was a huge explosion at one of the reactors. The shockwave knocked me to the ground. I was suddenly overwhelmed by voices screaming. I felt dizzy as I tried to get up. People were panicking, aimlessly running around. One of them bumped into me as I tried to gather flowers that had fallen. I was knocked to the ground again. A lot of my flowers were trampled. I hate when people step on my flowers!

That's when I first met him. A guy with spiky blonde hair approached me from the street. His hair was like a chocobo's feathers. A bit too much hair gel, but he was cute. I dusted myself off and asked him what had happened. He seemed pretty evasive, and asked me about my flowers. I sold one to him and quickly left. I didn't give it much thought, but turns out he would become very important. More about that soon.

Anyway, I rushed home, Mom was so worried. She wanted to keep me safe every second of the day, and hated when I went off on my own. We sat, watching news reports on the TV, claiming that Avalanche were responsible. I didn't tell Mom, but as I sat there, I could still hear voices crying out as they returned to the planet.

The next day, I went to the church to take care of the flowers. Usually I would spot Tseng watching me from a distance, but that day, another of the Turks was there, called Reno. I figured Tseng was busy with other things. I wasn't there for long when I heard another explosion. It sounded like it was right above me. It wasn't as big as the explosion the day before. I didn't hear as many voices this time.

All of a sudden something came crashing through the roof and nearly fell on me. Again! It was like Deja Vu. It was another guy. What are the chances of that? It was the guy from earlier, with the chocobo hair. He was murmuring something as he lay there in the flower bed, then he came to. His name was Cloud. He even remembered me from before. He reminded me so much of Zack. His eyes, the way he carried himself... I guess I wanted to recreate what I had with Zack. For some reason I felt like I could trust him.

Suddenly, I noticed Reno entering the church. The Turks never approached me in there before. I knew something was going to happen. Cloud helped me escape through the hole in the roof. He was amazing. He even escorted me through the slums. I felt strange around him, like I was 15 again. I was giggling, and muddling up my words. I guess he didn't notice, or he was too nice to correct me. He was a pretty quiet person. He brought me back to my house. Mom was so worried when she saw me with Cloud, but she was relieved that he protected me.

Cloud mentioned a girl named Tifa; that he needed to get to Sector 7 to see her. I admit, I got a little jealous, but he said she wasn't his girlfriend. I wanted to spend more time with him, so I said I'd show him the way. Mom insisted that we wait until the morning. Cloud seemed reluctant, but he agreed. In the middle of the night, I heard Cloud sneaking downstairs. I snuck out of my bedroom window and waited for him near the playground. He wasn't happy about it, but I insisted I would go with him.

We talked for a while in the playground, when we noticed a chocobo drawn carriage. Cloud recognised a girl at the back of the carriage as Tifa, and went after her, so I followed. We asked around in Wall Market and found out she had been taken to Don Corneo's Mansion. Corneo was a bit of a creeper. Let's just leave it at that. We went to try to get in, but they only accepted girls.

Hmmm... I promised Cloud I would never mention this to anyone. You won't tell him, will you? Promise? OK ... I persuaded him to dress up as a girl. He wasn&#8217;t to happy, but he seemed to get into it after a while. All we needed was a dress and a wig, but he insisted on getting a tiara, perfume, makeup... and... lingerie&#8230; The place we got his makeup done was kinda weird. I had to wait outside. He was in there for a while. When he came out, he had a strange look on his face. He refused to tell me what happened in there.

Anyway, we got into Corneo's mansion and found Tifa. She was so beautiful. I would have been jealous of her, but she was so nice. She didn't even recognise Cloud until I said his name. Her reaction was so funny. The three of us were taken to see Corneo. He chose just one of us to take into his bedroom. Guess who he chose... Cloud! I was kind of shocked that he didn't choose Tifa, but to be honest, Cloud did look pretty cute.

Tifa and I were taken downstairs to a room full of creepy guys. I was pretty worried as they approached us like drooling zombies. But as soon as they got close, Tifa leapt into action. She took all of them out with ease, while I just stood there in shock.

We quickly got changed and ran upstairs to Corneo's room. I'm not sure what was going on when we burst through the door. Cloud looked pretty disturbed. Tifa was there to interrogate Corneo. As Cloud got changed, she threatened to hurt him... in various ways. Corneo revealed that Shinra was planning to blow up the Sector 7 support pillar to wipe out Avalanche.

Before we could leave, Corneo released a trapdoor, and we fell down into the sewers. We fought our way out of there and through the train graveyard, before Shinra could blow up the pillar. There wasn't much time. Cloud and Tifa's friends were already there, trying to stop what was happening. I felt so useless. I tried to help one of their friends, who had been shot, but it was too late.

Tifa asked me to go to the bar in the slums, and find a little girl there, and take her somewhere safe.. I went as fast as I could. The little girl, Marlene, was hiding behind the bar. I explained everything to her, and she understood. She was pretty smart for her age. I decided to take her to the safest place I knew. Mom would know what to do.

We went as fast as we could back to Sector 5. But Tseng was there waiting for me. He looked different. The soldiers accompanying him were pointing their guns at me. He was there to take me by force. There was no way I could fight them. I wasn't strong like Tifa. And I had to protect Marlene.

I agreed to go with them if they allowed me to leave Marlene with Mom. Tseng agreed to it. After that, he took me to a helicopter. I could see that we were flying toward the pillar. There was lots of gunfire in the distance. When Tseng opened the hatch, I quickly shouted to Tifa that Marlene was safe. Suddenly, Tseng hit me. I couldn't believe it. Tseng had never even threatened me before. It was like he was a different person.

As the helicopter flew off, I could hear the explosions behind us. I wasn't sure if they could escape before the pillar collapsed. Then I heard it. Thousands of screaming voices. I could feel the lifestream writhing with pain. All of those people; gone. It was too much to bare, and I passed out.


I don't know how long I was out. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I could see that I was inside some sort of glass chamber. I vaguely remembered that place from when I was younger. Then I saw a face I had seen in my nightmares for as long as I could remember. The things Professor Hojo and his team did to my mother... I was so scared.

I couldn't hear anything outside, but Hojo was talking to someone. When I looked, Cloud was standing there. Tifa and Barret were there too. My bodyguard had come to rescue me. Suddenly, a platform inside the chamber rose up, with some sort of wolf on it. He looked pretty angry as he came to, but he said "You have nothing to be frightened of." He could talk... a talking wolf...

When Barret started shooting at the glass, he leapt to protect me. As soon as the chamber opened, he leapt out and attacked Hojo. Hojo had captured him as a lab specimen, and named him Red 13, but I prefer to use his real name, Nanaki. Hojo managed to escape. That was our chance. We split into 2 groups. I went with Tifa, straight to the elevator, while the guys looked around.

As the elevator went down, it stopped, and a group of soldiers overpowered us. They split us up and threw me in a cell. I wasn't sure where they took Tifa. I think the Cell I was in was the one my mother and I were kept in, but I couldn't be sure.

Soon, I heard Cloud's voice in the next cell. Tifa was with him. We had all been caught. I tried to explain everything to them. The Cetra, the Promised Land, everything that had happened. But honestly, I wasn't sure myself. I was so exhausted. I could feel myself drifting off.

I woke up to find Tifa in my cell. Somehow, their door had been unlocked. The guard outside was dead, and there was blood everywhere. We followed the trail of blood up to the President's office and found him slumped over his desk, with a huge sword in his back. Apparently someone called Sephiroth had done it. I think I had heard that name before somewhere, but Cloud seemed shocked to hear it.

We didn't really have time discuss it. The president's son, Rufus turned up. Cloud told us to head down to the lobby, while he dealt with Rufus. We fought our way down to the lobby, and Cloud followed soon after. We escaped in a truck, but we were chased. Cloud managed to fight them off.

We were finally free! Yay! I was worried about Mom, but I knew she would do everything she could to keep Marlene safe.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

You really do have a great grasp of her voice. Stabbing Cutting things off where you did was the right call, though -- strength in length.

 

[Fangu]

I really enjoyed the ending. Up until then I was kind of feeeling the "Aerith Sue" trope tickles, since, you know, with the how she sounds so innocent and sad and the "I was really shy" stuff (when my headcanon says we all know Aerith is the dirty one (despite not wearing a mini skirt! omg!)) - but now I'm thinking you intentionally set it up that way so you could just totally splat her on screen.

Awesome idea and really nicely executed. Bravo!

 

[Octo]

really nicely executed

 

[The Blue Bandit]

I'll just echo a lot of what's already been said: that was very well done, hit me in all the feels, etc. The voice acting was great. And I think it was a good call to cut what you did. Too much longer and I think the emotional punch would have been lessened somewhat.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

Possibly a Tifa one. There are things I'd like to explore about her character. I just need good, reliable voice actors. And I'd like it to just explore up to the start of the events of the game. In the Aerith one, I had a lot more written, taking place during the game, but it just felt like it was going through the motions, and I was conscious of it getting a bit too long. This felt like a good cutoff point.

I would like to do a cloud one, but pre-revelation. Biggest problem is people wouldn't get the joke that he's telling the false memory version

This was the stuff I cut from the script, if anyone is interested

Umm... *raises hand slowly* I totally volunteer?

 

[robotwarui]

Umm... *raises hand slowly* I totally volunteer?

no, me!

 

[Channy]

The only issue I took with how it ended was it would have ended better that way if you kept the in-game stuff and/or did a part 2 and ended it that way. to end pre-game Aerith, with the meeting of Cloud and the tag line "Midgar full of flowers, wallet full of money" would have been a really bitter-sweet way of ending it.

Just my two cents, but lovely nonetheless <3

 

[Tennyo]

I upvoted.

 

[Pixel]

I really enjoyed the ending. Up until then I was kind of feeeling the "Aerith Sue" trope tickles, since, you know, with the how she sounds so innocent and sad and the "I was really shy" stuff (when my headcanon says we all know Aerith is the dirty one (despite not wearing a mini skirt! omg!)) - but now I'm thinking you intentionally set it up that way so you could just totally splat her on screen.

Awesome idea and really nicely executed. Bravo!

Yeah, I figured it would be more important for the viewer to feel something for her before the ending. But also, at the point in her life, she was 7-10 and had spent the first 7 years of her life locked up with only her mother, not knowing anything about the world. She would be shy. In my headcannon, it was Zack who brought her out of her shell, and imprinted his personality on her, making her more outgoing and forward. When she meets cloud in the church, she has the memory of zack asking her on a date, and tries to recreate it by being forward. But later, on the gondola, she admits she is a different person than she was when she was 15, and she wanted to feel what she did for Zack.

I really recommend everyone watch "Room". It kinda gives a bit more perspective on a child who grows up locked up

 

[Pixel]

Youtube's analytics arent working in our favour lately. The only videos our stuff is being suggested on is our own content, so nobody is finding it. But I found this kind of funny Ive been trying to get it to appear as a suggestion on other popular draw my life vids, but that one's a bit random.