Zack and Aerith's Relationship in Crisis Core

by Alantie

The release of Crisis Core brought to light more arguments regarding Zack’s relationship with Aerith. Some fans had expressed skepticism regarding Aerith’s descriptions of Zack in FFVII, believing that she spoke either out of bitterness or delusion and were certain that the new game would prove them right. However, Crisis Core proved Aerith’s statements regarding him to be the truth. In addition, there is controversy regarding the influence that Zack had on her in the form of her flower selling, the ribbon in her hair, and her wearing pink. Some believe the fact that Aerith continues to do these things even long after Zack’s death prove that she is still in love with him, instead of realizing that Zack left his mark on many in a similar fashion.

At the market in the slums, to thank Aerith for helping him when he fell through the roof of her church, Zack buys her a ribbon. Fans immediately jumped to the conclusion that Aerith continued to wear the ribbon in the original FFVII because she was still in love with Zack, not considering that she might cherish it for the good memories it held, because it was a gift, and not because she was still pining for Zack. Another thing to consider is the ribbon that Zack gives Aerith and the one she is wearing at the ending look very different from each other.

The one that Zack bought for her is a darker red color with straight ends, while the other is lighter pink with pointed ends, both tied in a different style. It’s entirely possible that the one at the ending is a completely different ribbon, not the same that Zack bought for her. Perhaps the old one wore out and she had to replace it, buying a new ribbon. Even if it were the same ribbon, it doesn’t mean that the reason she wears it is because she’s still in love with Zack. Many other girls keep gifts from ex boyfriends; that does not necessarily mean that they still love them romantically.

Another thing that's often overlooked about the ribbon is that Zack didn't choose the ribbon for her. Aerith actually picked it out for herself, as shown in the following passage from Crisis Core:

Aerith: Hey, is it okay if I take a look at this shop for a bit?
Zack: What? So the reason you brought me to the town was to go shopping huh?
Aerith: I guess not then.
Zack: I was just joking, it's all right. Go ahead and find the one you like.
Aerith: Thank you. It'll only be a short while. I'll be quick.
Zack: It seems like you have a lot of interest in this store.
Aerith: Yup, just window shopping here is pretty fun.
Zack: Hey Aerith.
Aerith: Yes?
Zack: About when you said "Hellooo---?" to wake up, I still owe you for that.
Aerith: It's really okay. You were offering me one date right?
Zack: You said it sounded dumb right?
Aerith: But that was because---
Zack: Then for helping me get out, I'll buy you a gift to commemorate our meeting today.
Aerith: Are you sure?
Zack: It's fine.
Aerith: Then---is this one okay?
Zack: Got it, I'll go pay for it. Just wait here.

From the dialogue, it appears that this particular shop is one that Aerith comes to visit a lot. Furthermore, it almost seems as though she's actually had her eye on this ribbon for some time. When Zack offers to repay her by buying her a present, she picks out the pink ribbon. Zack merely pays for it. With that being said, the ribbon is something Aerith liked and wanted, picking it out herself. Zack simply paid for it to repay her.

An optional scene in Crisis Core, activated by the D.W.M wheel is Zack suggesting to Aerith that she should wear pink. She laughs and seems to consider it a joke at the time.

Zack: "Let's make a promise for our next meeting!"
Aerith: "Promise? Next meeting?"
Zack: "Well...no, let's make it 'a promise for the moment of our next meeting.' Aerith wears pink clothes then, how about that?"
Aerith: *giggles*.....what are you talking about?!"

Some consider the fact that Aerith seems to take his suggestion a sign of her romantic emotions for Zack. However, there’s nothing to say that Aerith decided to do so simply because she liked the color pink to begin with, or for any other reason. Her original dress does have pink trimming on it already, and in AU games, such as Kingdom Hearts, where Zack has not made an appearance, she still wears pink. Why should she have to change the color of her outfit to prove that she does not love Zack anymore? If she likes the color pink, there’s no reason she has to stop wearing it because Zack suggested it.

Some fans believe that Zack wanting to show Aerith the real blue skies outside of Midgar is romantic. However, what they are overlooking is the fact that Aerith is frightened of the wide open sky; she says so herself that she is scared of it. It’s not a wish of hers, or a mutual wish between her and Zack, but Zack’s own desire. It’s something he wants to show Aerith, despite her own reluctance. Aerith expresses no desire to leave Midgar until Before Crisis and in the original FFVII, she finally does leave.

It is a mistaken thought that it was because of Zack that Aerith began selling flowers. In reality, Aerith had wanted to do so for awhile. She mentions in the game how it is her dream to cover the slum in beautiful flowers, and Zack is the one who encourages her to sell them. He assists her by building a flower wagon to help her transport the flowers around the slums and being supportive about the idea. It’s his idea that she should sell them for 7 gil each, but Aerith changes it to 1 gil instead. In the original game at the Honeybee Inn, it’s said that she knows how to “make a good business through selling flowers”. In other words, selling flowers is Aerith’s dream; Zack only helped her gain the courage to do so. There’s nothing about her continuing to sell them after his death that indicates it’s out of romantic feelings.

Crisis Core makes a point of showing how Zack has a great deal of influence over many people in the game, not just Aerith. He suggests to a man in the slums who’s trying to think up a name for a bar to call it Seventh Heaven. It turns out that the bar is the one that Tifa works at and that Avalanche makes as its hideout. He also is a role model for Cloud who wants to be a hero, much the way he sees Zack being, and his influence on Cloud is clear in their similar fighting style and gestures. On a work related visit to Wutai, Zack encounters a young Yuffie who tries to steal from him, and he accepts several missions from her, helping to find treasure. At the Shinra mansion, he sees Vincent sleeping in his coffin, though the player does not see him, nor does Vincent wake up. He also has quite a bit of influence over Angeal, convincing him that he is not a monster and brings him back to the good side after he had been swayed by Genesis. Zack’s ability to touch people is a big part of his role in the game and who he is as a character.

In the original game, Aerith refers to Zack as a ladies man, believing that he had probably found someone else because he never came back to her. Some fans thought this was an undeserved description, but Crisis Core revealed it to be a true one. Zack is shown to be very friendly with women in general, flirting with a female receptionist that worked in the Shinra building.

Zack is quite "busy"
Zack is hitting on a female receptionist. He pretends to be busy and plans to end the conversation with Tseng who calls for tasks. However, Tseng penetrates the whole story.
~ Crisis Core Ultimania, Tseng's D.W.M, p.534

His most notable female relationship in the game, besides Aerith, is that with the Turk, Cissnei, who he first meets when he tries to rescue her from a swarm of enemies though she ends up taking care of them herself. She seems to take to him immediately, winking at him before dashing off to continue her mission. Zack runs into her again only a few minutes later, helping her defeat a powerful Genesis Clone. They work together in several missions, and are friendly with each other.

After the encounter with Zack in the escort mission at 8th Street, she is continuously pulled by his humanity.

For Cissnei, the contact with companions and Zack makes her realize the importance of bonding with people.
~ Crisis Core Ultimania, Cissnei’s Profile, p. 27

Zack asks Cissnei out to dinner, but she declines his invitation at the time without specifying why. Later on in the game, they are sent out on a vacation together at the beach before being interrupted for a job. She sends him two messages however that seem to hint at her wanting to spend more time with him.

Mail 4-2
Topic: Since you’re free…
From: Cissnei
Without Lazzard’s order of unification, it seems impossible to get control of SOLDIERs. The manager knows not what to do and the Turks waves it aside. The recent vacation was also interrupted and I’m overly busy.
Well, actually I’m just talking about job. Zack also notices that, right? I’m sorry.
How’s your condition? Anyway, you’re smoldering with it, right? How about going back to the beach again?

In order to work well, it’s also important to take a break once in a while.

Mail 4-4
Topic: If you come back….
From: Cissnei
Are you in Nibelheim? My case is in a very cold place.
By the way, Zack, when we were in Costa Del Sol, the book you’re reading is Loveless, right? That’s the novel Genesis loves to read. Did you read it through? I think people like Zack must lay it aside in the middle it.
Recently, the movie Loveless is on in Midgar. Do you want to go to that movie together when you come back?

It could become some kind of hint.
~ Crisis Core Ultimania, two mails from Cissnei, p. 520-512

She indicates that she would like to go on vacation with him again, perhaps back to the beach, and also that she would like to go see a movie with him. Perhaps Cissnei regrets having declined Zack’s first invitation for a date? Or does she only want to spend time with him? It’s hard to say for certain.

When Zack and Cloud escape from Nibelheim, Cissnei is clearly reluctant to fight him, becoming quite concerned over the condition of Cloud. She calls Tseng and tells him she lost the trail and then gives Zack the keys to a motorbike so he can escape. She ends up following him to Gongaga where she has spoken to his parents and given him time to avoid being captured. Zack asks her to talk to his mother for him.

Zack: Anyway Cissnei---Do you think you could talk to my mother for me?
Cissnei: That's true. It'd be my pleasure.
Zack: Just don't say anything that would make them think you're my bride to be.
Cissnei: I've already told them.
Zack: How could you tell them something like that! Cissnei!
Cissnei: That isn't my real name.
Zack: Eh?!
~Zack and Cissnei conversation in Gongaga, Crisis Core

Zack jokingly says for her not to give his parents the idea that they are engaged or dating, to which she returns that she already has. Whether or not Cissnei was serious is uncertain, but she does return his flirting before leaving. She later secures a helicopter and goes out with the other Turks to try and locate Zack, determined to find him and Cloud before the army does, her motive being that she hasn’t told him her real name.

*Caption for the picture of Cissnei with Zack in Gongaga:

Does she help Zack out of friendship? Or out of affections?
~ Crisis Core Ultimania, Cissnei’s Profile, p. 27

The connection between the two is certainly strong, though whether it’s truly romantic or simply friendly flirting is up for interpretation. It’s also interesting that while Cissnei readily talks about her past to Zack, Aerith never brings up her own and tells him very little about herself.

As she associates with Zack more, she talks little by little about her background in receiving Shinra’s special training.
~ Crisis Core Ultimania, Cissnei’s Profile, p. 27

Zack does indeed flirt with other women, as Aerith originally made clear in Final Fantasy VII. Aerith isn’t the only source though that talks about Zack being a ladies man, though. It’s referred to in the Ultimania.

Lady's man's flirting? ---the other side of Zack the SOLDIER:
“Zack loves women, a real lady’s man” Like what Aerith recalled in FF7, Zack is very good at hitting on girls, and is skilled at flirting. In BC, he used to compliment a female member of Turks during a mission; in Crisis Core, he also invited Cessnei, a member from Turks, to dine together. Since “one who steals an egg will steal an ox”, Zack’s girlfriend, Aerith, probably had been impatient about this….?

*caption under the picture:
1. While escaping to Midgar, which girlfriend did he plan to ask help for?
2. In chapter.8 of Before Crisis, during the mission in Iceberg, Zack praised a female member of the Turks. (He says, "Yuko is beautiful!" in the graphic.)
~ FF7 10th Anniversary Ultimania, Zack's info, p.83

Another point worth mentioning in Zack and Aerith’s relationship brought to light in Crisis Core is what happens at death. When a person dies in Final Fantasy VII, loved ones of theirs are portrayed as being able to sense it, and come for them, or wait to be reunited with them. Angeal is the one who comes for Zack when he passes away to guide him into the Lifestream at the end of Crisis Core. Another reunion is portrayed in the official novella Maiden of the Planet when Aerith touches Dyne’s arm, his guilt lifts, and he is able to sense the spirit of his wife Eleanor who had been waiting for him.

From the point where Aerith touched, the blood dried up into tissue, detached from Dyne and wore away. Then, Dyne's left arm started to fade away.
. . .
Just before he sunk into the Lifestream, Aerith saw it.
She saw Mako particles make their way towards Dyne and huddle together on him as if they had a will of their own. Dyne's faint, surprised voice could be heard.
"Eleanor?"
~Maiden of the Planet

However, Aerith did not sense Zack’s presence in the Lifestream until long after she had died. If she and Zack had shared such a deep romance, why was he not there to greet her when she died, or sense her when she entered the Lifestream? His spirit did not wake up until he caught her thoughts comparing him and Cloud. In comparison, when Cloud is gravely injured in Advent Children and dies, Aerith comes to him, healing him before sending him back to the church. This certainly shows just how important they are to each other, that in following the tradition of others, that Aerith would be there when Cloud died.

While the relationship between Zack and Aerith was important and he did have an influence on her life, Crisis Core does show that Aerith’s words regarding their relationship was the truth. Zack did indeed flirt with other women, and their romance was not as serious and as lasting as some have incorrectly assumed.

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