User:RM395/Course/Edit wars/Aeris vs Aerith

Introduction

When it comes to video games, Final Fantasy VII is one of the biggest if ones out there. It has a huge place in video game culture, and often stands out on top games lists. One of the most infamous scenes from the game occur as a shocking moment when one of the main characters (spoiler alert) is killed off by the main villain. The character was originally introduced in English as Aeris, but was later changed to Aerith. The switch was scene in text, and many fans held onto the name that they had known her by for many years. Ultimately this lead to debates between fans about her proper name in canon, and of course an edit war occurred on Wikipedia as an extension of this debate.

The Edit War

One reason why the debate over Aeris/Aerith occurred because of the translation required from game company Square Enix, which is a company from Japan. Obviously their games require a translation in language amongst other things, and it became a source of contention amongst the fan community whether or not the name change for Aeris/Aerith was simply a mistranslation or misspelling. It didn't help with many arguing that the name change didn't occur on all venues e.g. merchandising offering either name appearing. This inconsistency in localization gave fuel for the debate to continue on further.

As time went on, Final Fantasy VII spin-off/related material would begin to officially use Aerith instead of Aeris. This change is seen in the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children film, and the Dirge of Cerberus game as well. However, before these came into question, the biggest debate came over appearances of Final Fantasy characters in the Kingdom Hearts games. Although this game series is technically unconnected with Final Fantasy, it features characters from various Final Fantasy games with Disney characters no less. Aeris/Aerith makes a relatively prominent appearance. Although she is shown to be Aerith instead of Aeris, the change having been made by Square Enix, fans would still debate that Kingdom Hearts as a series is separate, and the Final Fantasy characters' appearances in it non-canon to the Final Fantasy universe. A similar debate occurred over a character from Final Fantasy VIII named Squall Leonheart (or Leonhart, augh!) who went by Leon in the Kingdom Hearts games, but in this case it was more of a (non-canon?) nickname than true name change.

People argued that no matter what Square Enix and other "official" listings of her name say, the character was and always will be known as "Aeris" in the game in which she first appeared. Unless they were to remake the game today, the original Final Fantasy VII game of course will show her as Aeris always, and that is enough for many fans to hold onto that name as being her official name, just like any celebrity having a birth name they used to go by. Of course this doesn't help with the debate on which name to feature in the Wikipedia page title as celebrities' pages are almost always whatever name, stage name or other, they go by currently.

Finally, there are other debates that technically the absolute first and original translation of the character's name was Aerith and not Aeris. However, it didn't help that there were parts of the company's website that still listed her as Aeris, and there was even a brief debate on the spelling of her last name even though it had never really changed from "Gainsborough".

Conclusions

The debate among fans about the "right" name to call Aeris/Aerith burns so hot is because they simply knew her as Aeris for years and years. It would be like having a close friend suddenly ask you to call him/her something different. Ultimately the debate was over the title of the Wikipedia page article, and Aerith would of course be the listed name because that's how Square Enix lists it now (despite the inconsistencies). In the end it is all about personal preference what a fan would refer to her as. Personally I acknowledge that she is officially listed as Aerith and will recognize it's her, but I will continue to refer to her as Aeris in casual conversation simply because it's what I've used for years...and also because I find Aerith kind of dumb and annoying to pronounce and say. --Seannator (talk) 07:54, 18 March 2013 (UTC)