299: Aeris Dies

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Aeris Dies

Title text: It's bad enough that all the families in your Sims are just you and Maggie recreated over and over.

Explanation

From the looks of this comic, there is a friend here who had a loved one (named 'Maggie') die. Cueball tries to help him by comparing his plight to a significant plot point in the popular game Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 1 in 1997, the plot point being the permanent death of Aerith Gainsborough, the last of a race called 'the Ancients' and even a potential love interest of the main character of the game. Although technically being a spoiler due to its significance and dissonance to the plot, Aerith's death became one of the most iconic video game scenes of all time, leading to its referencing and even parodies throughout the game community (some even depicting her revenge on Sephiroth, the main antagonist of the game and her murderer).

The word 'permanent' was not meant for redundancy in the last paragraph; the developers wanted to symbolize how deaths unexpected, leaving you with an empty feeling, filled only be regret. Therefore, when they received word about how much people wanted Aerith to be brought back to life, they felt that they succeeded with evoking the right feelings with her death. Even so, due to all the significance her death brought, the developers refused to officially resuscitate her.

That did not stop other people from modifying the game in order to unofficially resuscitate her, though. (Even so, there is doubt that Randall knew about this mod upon making this comic.)

Cueball feels really troubled that his friend would take such a course of action (especially with a fictional character, admittedly) instead of dealing with her death. His friend takes this to more disturbing levels, wanting to 'mod' Cueball with Maggie's clothes, turning Cueball into a 'substitute Maggie.'

The title text references The Sims, a series of life simulation games where you can create virtual people (the aforementioned Sims), set their appearances and essentially mess around with their lives. Cueball notes that his friend already attempted to 'recreate' Maggie and him (repeatedly at that) using the simulation abilities in the games of his The Sims series.

Transcript

[Two men are talking. The second man is sitting on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest.]

Cueball: Maggie's gone. You can't bring her back.

Friend: But I have to, she's a part of my life.

Cueball: 'sigh'

Cueball: Okay, let me put this in your terms.

Cueball: Remember when Aeris died in FFVII? It was sad, but you had to keep playing.

Friend: Actually, I downloaded a mod to add her back to my party. It changed other character's appearances and dialogue to hers so you didn't have to lose her.

Friend: Lots of gamers did it.

[Cueball puts his hand on his chin.]

Cueball: That is troubling on several levels.

Friend: I wonder if Maggie's old dress would fit you.

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Discussion

My first thought was that this isn't necessarily about Maggie dying. I think a person geeky and lonely enough would have this reaction even if Maggie only left her and didn't die. Also there is no clear reference to Maggie dying apart from being compared to Aeris. (I haven't gotten to this part of the game yet so I don't know if she dies enough to assume Maggie died too. I'd say thanks to Randall for the spoiler hadn't been this very comic the reason I started playing.) Matega (talk) 06:40, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

I wondered about that too, but the statement "you can't bring her back" and the reference to her "old dresses" seem to imply that Maggie is, in fact, permanently dead. 108.162.214.83 09:35, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Idunno... it would certainly make it a bit more creepy if she left him and he still had her "old dresses", though -- Brettpeirce (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Why is there doubt that Randall knew about the mod? He basically described it to a tee. -- Flewk (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Now that they're making an FFVII remake, I just thought of this. Since Aerith's death was so iconic and memorable that people went to such lengths to revive her, maybe they could revive her in a DLC that will piss off so many people for making it a DLC but they'll still buy it. It will sell like hot cakes. --FrigusAvis162.158.167.228 04:03, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

My wife, before she learned about unlimited cash hacks, would have her sim marry another sim, get him to climb into a swimming pool and then take out the ladder, so then he'd eventually drown and she'd gain all his resources, then do this again with another sim..and another. We're divorced now. —Kazvorpal (talk) 22:45, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Well, then... It could have turned out worse for you! 172.70.162.46 02:21, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

Is the title also a reference to Dies Irae, the musical word for death? --172.69.65.198 01:50, 9 May 2023 (UTC)