10 Video Game Deaths You Were POWERLESS To Stop (But Kept Trying Anyway)

And finally, was there ever going to be another #1?

There's simply no more iconic or lamented death scene in video game history than that of Aerith in the original version of Final Fantasy VII. 

The moment she was cut down by Sephiroth is a serious pain point for an entire generation of gamers, and it didn't take long for players to try and figure out a way to bring her back from the dead or circumvent her demise entirely.

It was whispered about in school playgrounds and rumoured in gaming magazines the world over in the late '90s that the game had a secret quest which could help you save Aerith from Sephy's blade.

But it simply wasn't true. There's no canon, authorised way to keep Aerith alive, with players ultimately resorting to cheat devices like Gamesharks or mods to play as Aerith following her expiration.

Recently a glitch was also discovered which allowed players to keep Aerith in their party until the end of the game, but in terms of the actual story, she's of course still treated as dead.

The subject of Aerith's fate has also been something of a touchy subject in the ongoing remake project, and considering what a convoluted palaver the end of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was - a sort of Schrödinger's cat situation where she's both alive and dead - it hasn't given still-distraught fans much comfort.