On First Love (And Second): A Final Fantasy Tradition

Final Fantasy VII has confounded its fanbase for decades with its notoriously messy romance threads. The infamous love triangle between Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa is further confounded by Aeris’s own alleged love triangle between Cloud and her “first love,” Zack. To some fans, this simplified the story: rather than accept an ambiguous love story between Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa, Aeris could be neatly stashed away with Zack, thus tying up loose ends in the narrative.

It’s true that Aeris shares that Zack was her first love. But her past romantic history isn’t her present. The Final Fantasy games have a history of messy love stories and “first loves” adding nuance to the feelings of the heroes and heroines. Check out how Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII share similarities in their romantic storytelling: exploring first love while allowing the characters to grow and move past those feelings.

Final Fantasy VI:

FF7’s immediate predecessor did not feature a front-and-center love story, as the most-main of its cast of main-characters, Terra, has an important arc in even learning to feel the very sensation of love. But its other two leads, Locke Cole and Celes Chere, have palpable romantic tension and an implied future together.

But Locke comes with emotional baggage. Introducing the “first love” plot device, we find out that Locke is in love with Rachel, a woman he used to hunt treasure with who is essentially dead, trapped in a magical coma. He is seeking a way to revive her, even while he flirts with Celes and vows to save her.

Locke: [blushing] Have you… always been that pretty?
Celes: Locke… Why did you stand up for me when you did?
Locke: …Because I’m tired of standing by and doing nothing while I lose the girls I like.
Celes: Am I just a replacement… for her?

Final Fantasy VI, opera arc

Rachel is revived long enough to say a goodbye to Locke – after which, it’s implied that Locke is able to finally let go of her memory and move on. While Locke and Celes never officially get together, their romantic interest in one another is all but canon, and we can assume that in a post-crisis world, they might find real romantic partnership in one another.

Final Fantasy VII:

In perhaps an echo of Locke, Aeris was designed from the start as a character who would have a love interest.

There was a story setting about the first person Aerith loved, and it was a concept I was always curious about. There were a few variations of this concept, including where it was actually Cloud. Later on, when the story required a real SOLDIER to portray Cloud’s identity conflict, that was when Zack was created. The story revolving around Cloud’s identity was finalized towards the end of the scenario work, making Zack another character that we added later in development.

Nojima, Weekly Famitsu, Issue 1224, pg 59

The developers have suggested that Aeris’s “first love” was at one point conceived to have been Sephiroth, and an early scenario of the game would involve Cloud trying to protect Aeris’s innocent image of the man she loves while covering up Sephiroth’s bloody trail (an old deleted scene can be found in Ultimania Omega.)

Whether Sephiroth, Cloud, or Zack, Aeris was meant to have a “first love” that would lend a backdrop to her present-day love of Cloud. (I previously covered how her love interest in Final Fantasy VII is indeed Cloud, not Zack, and you can read my conclusions here.) In the extant version, Aeris is initially drawn to Cloud because she is reminded of Zack, but she comes to sense his true self and love him for who she is.

Aeris brings up Zack a few times. The first is while on a “date” with Cloud in the Sector 6 park.

Aeris: What rank were you?
Cloud: Rank?
Aeris: You know, in SOLDIER.
Cloud: Oh, I was…
First Class.
Aeris: Just the same as him.
Cloud: The same as who?
Aeris: My first boyfriend.
Cloud: You were… serious?
Aeris: No. But I liked him for a while.
Cloud: I probably knew him. What was his name?
Aeris: It doesn’t really matter.

Final Fantasy VII, Sector 6 park

She then will talk a bit more about Zack if she is brought along as a party member during Cloud’s first visit to Gongaga. While optional, this dialogue sheds a little more light on who this mysterious first love was.

Cloud: Aeris…
Aeris: What a shock… I didn’t know Zack was from this town.
Cloud: You know him?
Aeris: Didn’t I tell you? He was my first love.
Cloud: …………
Aeris: Zack… SOLDIER First Class. Same as Cloud.
Cloud: Strange, there aren’t that many who make First Class, but I’ve never heard of him.
Aeris: That’s all right. It’s all in the past now. I was just worried because I heard he’s been missing.
Cloud: Missing?
Aeris: I think it was 5 years ago. He went out on a job, and never came back.
He loved women, a real lady’s man. He probably found someone else…
Hey? What’s wrong?
Cloud:
Option 1: Poor guy

Aeris: I don’t really mind that I haven’t heard from him. But I feel for his parents.

Option 2: (…jealous… envious…)

Aeris: Are you… jealous? Hmm? Hmmm? Are you, Cloud?
Aeris: I’m kidding. I’m sorry.
Aeris: Let’s go, Cloud.
(If Aeris’s affection is higher than 110)
Aeris: I was hoping you were…

Final Fantasy VII, Gongaga

Finally, Cloud’s resemblance to Zack and Aeris’s interest in his true self is the topic of their date at the Gold Saucer.

Aeris: Wow, how nice.
Oh! Look, Cloud.
It’s so pretty.
……it’s beautiful, isn’t it?
……first off, it bothered me how you looked exactly alike.
Two completely different people, but look exactly the same.
The way you walk, gesture…
I think I must have seen him again, in you…
But you’re different.
Things are different.
Cloud…
I’m searching for you.

Cloud: …………?

Aeris: I want to meet you.

Cloud: But I’m right here.

Aeris: (I know, I know…what I mean is…)
I want to meet…you.

Final Fantasy VII, Gold Saucer date

Final Fantasy VIII:

Final Fantasy VIII breaks from tradition by centering one, non-optional romance as part of its main plot line. Squall and Rinoa are “canon” by any definition.

However, like Aeris, Rinoa has a “first love” – Squall’s arch-rival Seifer.

Rinoa: I…really liked him. He was always full of confidence, smart… Just by
talking to him, I felt like I could take on the world.
Selphie: Your boyfriend?
Rinoa: I don’t really know. I… I think I was in love. I wonder how he felt…?
Selphie: Do you still like him?
Rinoa: If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be talking about it. It was last summer… I was 16. Lots of fond memories…

Final Fantasy VIII, Galbadia Garden

A dialogue exists in the code of the game that seems to mimic Aeris’s discussion of Zack in Gongaga. In this exchange, Rinoa, flirting with Squall (and even sitting on his lap) teases him about being jealous and assures him that her relationship with Seifer is in the past.

Rinoa: Making sure you’re not jealous, that’s all.
Squall: You mean… Seifer?
Rinoa: Jealous now?
Rinoa: You don’t have to worry. It’s all in the past now.

Final Fantasy VIII, hidden dialogue, Ragnarok

Does this sound familiar? It is shockingly similar to Aeris’s own words to Cloud about Zack. Just see how these scenes compare.

There we have it. Final Fantasy VII using a “first love” storyline to add depth to Aeris’s feelings doesn’t anchor her to one man forever. There is plenty of precedent in Final Fantasy‘s romantic narratives to prove that Aeris can love Cloud today, just as she loved Zack when she was a teenager.