Head-Canon: Shera (Final Fantasy VII)

• She's loved Cid for as long as she's known him, and she blamed herself for delaying the rocket launch. Which is why she basically threw herself onto the pyre for him.


• Another big part of it was getting the scare of her life - she took a big knock to the self-confidence, and it showed in a lot of ways. Plus, as a woman who'd pretty much devoted herself to science, she was a lousy housewife (even though she'd convinced herself that being a housewife was all she was good for in many ways), which was another big knock to the ego (because housework is easy, right? No learned and practiced skills there, no way! After all, even the most unintelligent woman can be a housewife... Yes, the Shera in my head has succumbed to the Manager's Fallacy: anything I can't do is easy to do).


• There was also an element of punishment involved... because Cid did delay over the decision, and they both knew this.


• Cid's involvement in the events of the game give her a quick kick upside the ego, particularly when the space program is revived and she's put in the position of being the chief engineer. But I think being away from Cid for a while, and not knowing where he was, helped her to put things into perspective. She missed him, and she wanted him back, and I suspect she and Cid found time to communicate this to each other.