Well a while ago, I do not know if this theory is still valid, but Sephiroth's masamune may have been a holy weapon and would kill anything it would touch?

But then that would not explain how Tifa and Zack survived, unless that was just an inconsistency.

Heh. I'm sorry to say that that theory is completely implausible. Quite a few people have survived being stabbed or otherwise touched by Sephiroth's Masamune (namely Zack, Tifa, and Cloud) and with very little scarring, no less. Hell, Cloud was impaled twice by it. In fact, the only named characters who actually died from it were President ShinRa and Aerith, and they were both stabbed through their vital organs. There's absolutely no indication of Sephiroth's Masamune being a holy weapon. It's just a normal sword that happens to be wielded by a legendary warrior. I mean, if the Masamune were capable of killing someone instantly just by touching them, don't you think the game would've made a bigger deal about it or at least have told you directly?

Really, it's not that much of a stretch to assume that a thin girl stabbed through the gut with a 6 foot sword would die from her injuries or that a middle-aged man would die from being stabbed through the torso. The fact that the party survives being shot, stabbed, etc. is nothing more than a Gameplay Mechanic. Cutscenes, Crisis Core, Last Order, Advent Children...basically everything EXCEPT gameplay battles prove that the characters are vulnerable to ordinary weapons and such.

It works if you see HP not as life. (because you can't assign a number to life, e.g you cannot be half dead or half alive there are only two outcomes.) See HP as the stamina of having to dodge/block attacks. After a while you'll most likely pass out as you do in the game. That would also esplain why your hp grows as you get more expreience, as an experienced runner quite obviously has more stamina than a couch potato.

its a game, its not real. althought the battle scnes require you to drain an enemies hp, there are no rules in cut scenes. theres nothing you can do to stop or change naything. i think you just have to take it with a pinch of salt really.

I think ya all looking into it too much. I do not think the designers thought it out that well. It is all story, things work to make something else possible , and to happen.

my point exaclty. dont think into it too much else it stops being fun.

The reason Aerith could heal from all the other attacks but not from Sephiroth? It'd break the plot if she lived and the writers were too lazy to create even a clumsy solution.

Though I never used Aerith anyway, so I don't really care about this particular gameplay/story segregation.

i think its quite simple. non-scripted battles = non canonical, scripted scenes = canon

It is because Sephiroth's sword is super huge. But then now with CC and AC it makes no since why see died and cloud could live twice?