FAQ Roundup #5

Not a question but your blogposts are really well written and very insightful while also staying unbiased towards Clerith. Keep up the good work!! 🙂

Thank you! 🙂

Hi, I’m not sure how many years have passed since you wrote this blog, but I have a big question. Are these books still considered valid given how the story is unfolding in Remake and Rebirth? There are still a few years left before Part 3 comes out, but the theories that anything could happen fill me with both excitement and curiosity. Personally, I love the Cloud x Aerith ship, but I’m not sure how likely it is in the Remake trilogy. Since you’re very knowledgeable about the series, I’d really appreciate hearing your opinion. Thank you for your blog.

By books, do you mean things like the Ultimanias and Dismantled books? I think we have to always remember that the Remake trilogy is not overwriting the original game. The original game still exists, and the Dismantled/Ultimania books about the original game will always be considered official material. Whether or not they inform about the Remake trilogy – that depends on what we’re looking at in particular. Ultimately, the Remake trilogy is different from the OG, and OG-related passages in OG sources naturally may or may not apply.

As for the Cloud x Aerith ship being likely or not in the Remake trilogy, it’s already “canon” in the sense that Aerith has feelings for Cloud and Cloud has feelings for Aerith (at very least, in an Aerith-romance route, but it’s apparent even in non-optional scenes). If we’re wondering whether or not it’s an endgame ship, that’s something none of us will know until the series is completed.

Why do you think, the game’d devs had created the gold soucer kiss between cloud and tifa? And another question, don’t you think, that if ff7 always had a heroe and a heroine, remake and rebirth, giving more protagonism to tifa, are destroying the ff7 plot? What aboyt the tragic love story? Why, even clerith like you, don’t bother about that?

To parse out what I think you’re asking.. Why did the game devs include a kiss between Cloud and Tifa? Three reasons.

One, because yes, Tifa is a romance option, and the non-optional content of the game – particularly the game’s finale – is so heavily Aerith-focused, that perhaps the devs felt they needed to add something a little more intimate to the Tifa date scenario to try to equal the playing field just a little. (And even as it is, kissing Tifa doesn’t affect the game’s finale, Cloud will still have a romantic date with Aerith in Chapter 14, and hug her and hold her hand.)

Two, because the narrative between Cloud and Tifa is on full display here: Cloud has complex feelings. He wants to be a cool guy, and he’s also jealous of Aerith’s feelings for Zack – hence why he asks about her right before kissing Tifa. He also wants to impress Tifa, and be the kind of guy he subconsciously imagines Zack is, so hugs or kisses Tifa. Does he have genuine feelings for Tifa? Yes, I think that exists – but I don’t think this moment highlights the pair not being on the same page, Cloud posturing, and complicated feelings about the love triangle. This explanation fits in as well with Ultimania material confirming Cloud’s jealousy about Zack in Remake’s Sector 6 playground and Cloud’s “cool guy” posturing around Tifa in her Resolution scene.

Finally, fanservice. Why not? Tifa has lots of fans, why not include some optional content to please them?

Did you notice when Cloud spoke to Tifa on their Gold Saucer date about talking to Aerith, he looked miserable after saying “she must till have feelings for Zack”? I agree with others that it could be a rebound kiss. Maybe he thought he didn’t have a chance with Aerith since “she must still have feelings for Zack”

Right – as mentioned in my previous answer, Cloud’s jealousy is on full display in Tifa’s date. I honestly found it rather astounding that even in a Tifa-romance route, Cloud’s complicated feelings about Aerith’s feelings for Zack are presented as such an important facet to the intimacy that unfolds.

Does cloud truly have feelings for Aerith

Yes. While I do think a lot of the love triangle stuff is open for interpretation, there is zero room for doubt in my head that Cloud has feelings for Aerith. Perhaps the extent of those feelings are a matter of player choice and interpretation, but Cloud definitely has feelings for her.

with Nomura confirming that square enix has decided on a reveal date of the game how do you interpret the story to unfold and conclude

I have no idea. I’m just a fan! I would guess it will have a plot that more or less follows the OG, and an additional plot that doesn’t, with anyone’s guess for the climax and ending.

In the end, all of this goes down the drain. In Remake, Aerith admits she’s in love with Zack, and the flowers guide him so he doesn’t die. And in the new events in Ever Crisis, they’re shown together all the time. Like Cloud with Tifa.

Goodness. Aerith didn’t admit she’s in love with Zack, she said “maybe” she still has feelings for him… and then Aerith confirmed her feelings for Cloud. As for Ever Crisis, I’ve been a player since day one, and Zack and Aerith have only interacted in like, one event (the school event), whereas there’s been a bountiful harvest of Clerith content. I recommend looking into all the Ever Crisis events, by the way! Sounds like you’re not familiar with them, but I bet you can find them all on YouTube. Here’s a great one to start with. 🙂

How would you interpret Aerith’s fear/discomfort of the sky, and do you think this may extend to Cloud in some way? (Considering his name). I’m a big fan of your writing 🙂

I also think there must be some intentional symbolism there. Cloud’s name indicates the sky, after all. I did always think it was strange, the “Aerith is afraid of the sky” stuff, and Remake’s attempt to bridge the oddity by having her associate it with death… when dead souls “return to the Planet” below her, not above. Well, it is what it is, I suppose, and I wonder if it will play out at all in part 3. Either way, the arc completes if Aerith learns to embrace the sky – and if Cloud is associated with the sky there’s a rather touching metaphor in there.

Can you post CT quotes that are famously quoted but are often mistranslated or taken out of context?

I’ve heard many mistranslated or out-of-context quotes in my years as a Final Fantasy VII fan, but I don’t care either to go out of my way to delve into CT fandom spaces just to make a running list of gotchas. These days, thanks to efforts from the likes of the Shinra Archaeology Department fan group, significantly more material has been translated in full with ship-neutral intentions, allowing fans who don’t speak Japanese to access old Ultimania materials, interviews, and other sources directly. If something seems suspicious to you, check out another translation and read the full context, or even find the original Japanese source and chat about it with a Japanese speaker. It’s not 2005 anymore: these days, we’re lucky to have a fandom – shippers included! – that love to be source-stewards and archive these things.

I have made posts in the past responding to instances I feel are misconstrued within the context of a greater thesis related to the love triangle or Aerith’s character. But I think about these things more in terms of larger arguments rather than small, bad-faith mistranslations.

Hello! I saw in your ‘about me’ that you like to talk about all characters so I hope my question doesn’t come off as weird. I haven’t heard many compelling writings about the characters’ personalities other than your own. I enjoy all that you write about Cloud and Aeris, but I was also curious on how you characterise Tifa. I’d also like to hear more about Aeris as well if possible? In the sense, I’ve seen how you’ve written about scenes like the life stream and it’s importance to Cloud’s character, do you have any specific scenes like that in mind for Aeris or Tifa? How do you characterise the two? I want to be clear this has NOTHING to do with shipping wars and I respect your work, which is why I thought I’d ask. If this question is uncomfortable for you, I apologize and I understand not answering, if you do, then thank you!

Thank you for reading my blog! I’m genuinely such a fan of the whole cast. There’s a lot to say about Tifa, but I’ll share a few thoughts in short.

Tifa is consistently written as a caring person with maternal qualities who struggles with self-doubt, feelings of loss and yearning for her hometown, and – while not prone to violence – packs a punch when push comes to shove. Like Aeris, her appearance was meant to both complement and contrast her inner self. So while she is a tough-girl bartender, she is more demure and romantically shy than Aeris.

She has been written with some noticeable discrepancy between her OG iteration and the Remake-trilogy. In the OG Midgar section, we see her coming across a lot spunkier than in Remake. (For instance, see my recent post about her dialogue in Don Corneo’s mansion.) She prickles if Cloud underestimates her, and has certain jealous outbursts toward Aeris. Ultimately, by the final leg of the OG, however, she falls into self-doubt and becomes more emotionally dependent on Cloud (to the point where the devs have said her true personality is “clingy”.) Perhaps this calls back to her childhood fantasy of wanting a hero to come save her one day.

In Remake, a new aspect was added to her character: she is portrayed as a people-pleaser who can’t help but want to make others happy. Additionally, some of her traits are expanded upon – like her feelings of self-doubt, which were largely only tied to the mystery of the Nibelheim incident in the OG – and others were diminished or reimagined, like her early-game spunky lines.

For instance, compare Tifa shouting at Cloud that he’d better not underestimate her when he asks if she’s okay at Don Corneo’s mansion (and Cloud losing affection points as a result!) with a similar Remake scene, where Tifa just smiles cutely and says she’ll be fine, she can kick ass.

I think it will be really interesting to see where part 3 takes Tifa’s character. Will she still crumble when Cloud is compromised, and become emotionally dependent on him? Or will she find a way to become her own hero?

By the way, my favorite Tifa scene has got to be her fight against Loz in Advent Children. The fight choreography, with Tifa at her strongest protecting Marlene, it’s pure magic. I was always mad that Loz easily one-shotted her after she seemingly bested him; she deserved that victory, it was so badass.