#I mention ffvii but it's not central

[lets-mosey]

uhhh for the ask thing, what are your favourite video games in general?

For series, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy! For genre… I don’t have a particular preference that I could pin down with one name. Not shooter games, at least. Mostly games with some sort of fighting in them, whether it’s active fighting or strategy type battles (like in Fire Emblem, where everything comes down to a calculation and planning for the most part). Games that are fun to play and have good stories, rather than just interesting gameplay mechanics. A game could have the greatest gameplay mechanics in the world, but if its story sucks then I wouldn’t want to play it. Part of this probably comes from me loving to grind and beat games by being overleveled. I’ve also loved games where it was impossible/extremely hard or too tedious to be overleveled, so that’s not the sole thing, but it contributes. Games where you can grind are pretty fun too.

looking at my favorite games, a theme is that they all make me cry at some point. Not the entire time, because that’s too depressing, but somewhere. Something that gets me all emotional and really involved. The characters have to be part of it too. Characters usually make or break my enjoyment of a game. 

So does plot. For example, NieR: Automata (no plot spoilers follow, just thoughts). I loved the soundtrack. But the plot was… not well executed, in my opinion. There was no real central goal. At least, not a clear one that I could follow. The game before it, NieR, had a central goal from the beginning, and that I liked. I want to know why the characters are doing what they are doing. What are they working toward? Another one of my favorite games, Yakuza 0, had a central plot that kept getting slammed in other directions, if you ask me. However, even with changes, I could still tell where they were going. Character motivations were clear where they needed to be. And the suspense in that one… I could go on. But basically, I like games with compelling characters and plots that are relatively clear and usually defined for a significant amount of time (Like with VII. Stopping Sephiroth wasn’t the goal from the second the game started, but it was important for a majority of the game).

Bonus points for great soundtracks! NieR (Gestalt) has my favorite video game soundtrack of all time (I’m listening to it right now, actually. The soundtrack is not only good for game music, but listening music. I highly recommend you check it out!) FFVII’s soundtrack was the first thing I ever bought for my iPod. 

As for top individual games, in no particular order:

1) Final Fantasy VII (I run a blog for it. Of course it’s up here)

2) Final Fantasy IV (The complete collections version is my favorite. I really like the characters in it, and the plot is interesting too. It had enough twists to be fun without being excessive, and it tugged at my heartstrings at times.)

3) Yakuza 0 (I beat this a few weeks ago and damn did I love it. The story man… The sidequests were fantastic, definitely, but the story was one of the most amazing ones I’ve ever played. I started sobbing more than once)

4) NieR (Gestalt and Replicant. Mostly Gestalt, since that’s the one that was released in the US as “NieR”) ((The soundtrack was amazing as I said above, and the characters were great. The main character was likeable, but 2 of the sidekicks who were with him were absolutely amazing. Particularly GW, for those of you who’ve played the game.))

5) Fire Emblem: Awakening (This one is complicated. I love the first third. I love the last third or so. The middle I’m not so in love with. But this hits so many of my favorite concepts. The soundtrack, while not as consistently good as NieR, includes several amazing pieces and doesn’t include anything I dislike, so that’s a selling point. I also love the gameplay mechanics of the Fire Emblem series, even if I said that that isn’t the most important part of a game, so that gets it up here too. It was the first Fire Emblem game I ever played myself rather than watching a walkthrough of, so it holds a special place in my heart)

I’m mostly a Nintendo girl, to be honest. Even though only two of these were released on Nintendo platforms, now that I look at them. And of those 2, one of them I like best for the PSP version! But yeah. These are my favorite games. Thanks for sending in the ask, this was fun!

[dansantcaparet]

In all my years of being a fan of Final Fantasy VII, I never realized the polarizing nature surrounding the debate about who Cloud loves more: Aerith or Tifa?

What’s clear to me is that Squaresoft wanted Aerith to be the heroine of FFVII from the very beginning. The opening scene of the game revolves around Aerith, with the “LOVELESS” sign appearing above her. The juxtaposition of Aerith walking the streets of Midgar, with Cloud simultaneously jumping from the train, sets these two up as the primary characters & love interests of FFVII.

Star-crossed lovers. Their destiny & fates intertwined. Soulmates.

The creators of FFVII have stated that Aerith, Barret, and Cloud were the original three characters created for the game. This confirms that Squaresoft always intended Aerith to be the central female character & love interest for Cloud. Just look at the original & official artwork Squaresoft produced – it’s all of Cloud and Aerith together.

Let us also remember: Aerith is both the FIRST & LAST character we see in the entire game. In addition – Aerith was one of the ORIGINAL three characters created for FFVII. This confirms that Cloud and Aerith were meant to be together from the very beginning. The ORIGINAL hero & heroine.

Since 1997, I have always felt Cloud and Aerith were meant to be together. After finding Aerith looking beautiful under the “LOVELESS” sign, Cloud agrees to be Aerith’s bodyguard for the promise of one date. When Tifa asks Cloud to join AVALANCE, he only did so when Barret promised him more money. See the difference?

While Cloud was growing up, him and Tifa were childhood acquaintances – not friends or lovers. Tifa ignored Cloud when they were kids, allowed her friends to bully him, and excluded him (just like she did in the morning at Seventh Heaven during the Remake). As kids, Cloud and Tifa only had one conversation – a conversation Cloud doesn’t even remember. During this conversation, Cloud makes a friendly promise to Tifa – a promise Tifa begged Cloud to make (ie: “STRONG-ARMED”) – hardly a childhood romance. Meanwhile, Cloud and Aerith were both two lonely kids destined to meet and complete each other.

The facts are: Cloud only laughs and cries for one character in the entire game: Aerith. This suggests his emotional connection to Aerith is deeper than his emotional connection to Tifa. Even Tifa picks up on this, which leads her to having a jealous meltdown in the Shinra jail cells where she witnesses Cloud and Aerith developing their own “WORLD” together.

When Aerith dies, Cloud exclaims: “My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!” It is officially stated that Cloud’s “HEART” breaks when Aerith dies.

Even after Aerith dies, Cloud seeks the Promise Land so he can reunite with her. At the end of FFVII, Cloud exclaims: “…I think I’m beginning to understand. An answer from the planet…the Promised Land… I think I can meet her… there…” – anyone who doesn’t think Cloud is referring to Aerith is either an idiot or being purposely disingenuous. Furthermore, this quest for the Promise Land and search for Aerith (by Cloud only) is also included in numerous material Squaresoft has released since FFVII (ie: Final Fantasy Tactics, etc., etc.)

Furthermore, Cloud thought it was Aerith reaching down for him during the end of FFVII. It was ultimately Tifa who was reaching for Cloud, but his heart wanted it to be Aerith. See? Aerith is #1. Tifa is #2. That is how it has been from Day 1.

Even in Advent Children, Cloud is shown to be distant & cold towards Tifa while living in Aerith’s Church. If how Cloud acts toward Tifa, and where he’s living doesn’t tell you where his true feelings lie, I don’t know WHAT will.

Many Tifa supporters point to the VARIABLE Highwind scene as proof of Cloud and Tifa’s love. However, this scene doesn’t prove anything and is pure speculation (not to mention VARIABLE). Even if sex did occur, does sex automatically mean love? And would this have even taken place if Aerith had lived?

The fact remains: Aerith is the only character Cloud comes close to revealing his true feelings for. In Cosmo Canyon, Cloud says to Aerith: “But, I’m –I mean– we’re here for you, right?”

...the reason Cloud comes close to revealing his true feelings for Aerith is because of the wonderful chemistry & love the two have for one another.

Those that say Aerith was meant for Zack are also mistaken. Aerith states that she recognizes Cloud is different than Zack, saying to Cloud, “But you’re different. Things are different…” – Aerith loved Cloud for who he was and recognized that the past was the past.

Aerith also states in the OG that she wasn’t in a serious relationship with Zack, and that he was a real ladies man who probably moved on to someone else.

During Cloud’s and Aerith’s Golden Saucer date, Aerith confirms that although she initially liked Cloud because of Zack, she has grown to like Cloud for Cloud.

Finally – the official commercial approved & released by Squaresoft states: “A story of a love that could never be…” – obviously referring to Cloud and Aerith’s tragic star-crossed romance. This is also the official FFVII tagline.

Cloti supporters can dispute this all they want, but the official commercial (approved by Squaresoft) includes the word “Love” during the scene when Cloud holds Aerith in his arms. I need no more proof than this.

But if all this still doesn’t convince you, just go back and look at the official Amano artwork. 5 pieces exclusively of Cloud & Aerith together – the canon couple.

I’ll end with this...

Cait Sith:

“Looks good. You are perfect for each other!”

“Aerith’s star and Cloud’s star! They show a great future!”

You can claim Cait Sith isn’t always accurate with his predictions, but this was an obvious attempt by Squaresoft to further illustrate that Cloud and Aerith are meant to be.

“Poor Tifa!” ~Cait Sith

Want more reasons why Cloud and Aerith are the intended pairing of FFVII?

Go here: http://www.cloudandaerith.com/ – this website discredits every Cloti argument and lists all the wonderful & accurate reasons why Clerith is the **ORIGINAL** FFVII ship from 1997.

[dutchdread]

Hi again, I'm the same anon from your last ask. So my next question then is why would you consider it to be a bad story if Cloud ends up with Aerith in the end? You also say Cloud and Tifa supposedly have something going on, but even if they did, Aerith doesn't know that. Neither Cloud nor Tifa tell anyone, or even show that there's anything going on between them throughout the whole story. Did you see that in Remake that Aerith even asks Cloud if Tifa is someone special and he says no?

Thanks for the question. Your question is comprised of two parts, why Cloud ending up with Aerith would be a bad story, and then the secondary part about Aerith not knowing about the history between Tifa and Cloud. I think understanding the later will be helpful to understand the former so I'll start with that. This goes back to what I said in my last reply concerning the difference between thinking someone is a bad person, and thinking they're a bad character. First off, let me just make clear that I don't judge Aerith too much concerning her behavior in the OG, since as you rightly state, she didn't really know that there was anything going on between Tifa and Cloud, she probably knew there was some attraction there, but nothing about the extent or the history. And if in the remake it turns out she's actually blissfully ignorant I'll be more lenient there as well. However, in my opinion the remake heavily implies she does realize there is a thing between Tifa and Cloud. You mentioned Aerith asking if Tifa was Clouds girlfriend, and him replying "no". However, as always, there is context here, for starters, the scene doesn't end there and then. Aerith replies knowingly "but she's someone special". Moreover the scene is also only one scene in a series of relevant scenes concerning Clouds relationship with Tifa, which starts with Jessie asking about who Tifa is too Cloud, this plotpoint then continues through Aeriths flower. When Aerith gives Cloud the flower she mentions that his girlfriend will love it, then later when Aerith asks him who he gave the flower to Cloud says he doesn't remember, and Aerith calls him out on the lie. The question is then answered when Aerith goes to the 7th heaven and discovers Cloud gave it to Tifa, prompting a smile from Aerith. She figured it out, actually, she probably figured it much earlier, but now it was confirmed. She had a hunch about Tifa, just like Jessie, Cloud was defensive at first, then evasive, but ultimately, Aeriths hunch was correct, Cloud gave the flower to Tifa. He can pretend all he wants, Aerith knows. Personally, I think she smiled because it reminds her of the future. Throughout remake Aerith is hinted to know more than she lets on, and that's especially true concerning Tifa and Cloud. When Tifa is kidnapped she pushes Cloud to go after Tifa, calling Tifa Clouds special person. If I recall correctly she even uses the same terminology that she used to describe Elmyras husband. She actively tries to make Tifa jealous by calling Cloud her bodyguard, and then she straight up tells Tifa to follow her heart. She gives me the distinct impression that she knows perfectly well where Cloud and Tifas hearts lie, and is trying to push them into action. This is borderline confirmed during the Aerith resolution where she basically straight up admits to knowing more about Clouds feelings than she actually should, assuming you think that this apparition is at least somewhat related to the current Aerith in some manner. The thing that really clenches this in my opinion is a trace of two pasts, where Tifa straight up tells Aerith about her and Clouds history. If Aerith doesn't get it by then, then she's being willfully ignorant. But lets say she does indeed not know, that would to some degree absolve her as a person. But it would still make her a bad character, because WE, the audience, know. We know that Cloud is supposed to end up with Tifa, we know that's how the story goes. And when you rewrite old stories in such a way that you take things away from one character, just to give more to another character, you run the giant risk of insulting the characters involved. You see this in things like the star wars sequels, where they effectively character assassinated Luke Skywalker in order to artificially make Rey seem better. But there are two reasons why this doesn't work, for one, it tends to create Mary-Sue like characters who just get given everything, and two, it inherently causes the fans of the other characters and stories to resent the character that's taking it away.

People don't like people who are simply handed everything, even fictional ones.

In a sense, this is also why Cleriths so often seem to hate Tifa, because they feel like Tifa took their story away from them. The difference, of course, is that Cloud ending with Tifa is a part of the original game itself, while Aerith coming back to life and ending up with Cloud would be a 25 year retcon which would blatantly disadvantage one character in favor of another, this in turn would reek of favoritism, which in turn would generate bad blood in the player. A character who needs to take away from other characters in order to be put forward is not a good character. Good characters add to the characters around them, not take away, that's what Aerith in the OG does, that's what Aerith ending up with Cloud, would not do. This effect would then be magnified by Aeriths already over importance to the plot. Having the universe revolve around one character generally isn't good writing. One of the things that makes Lord of the rings so timeless and beloved is that Frodo is just a small hobbit in the grand scheme of things. Likewise, one of the key elements that makes FFVII so appealing to human nature is Clouds humanity and lack of importance. The fact that Cloud turns out to not be a soldier 1st class, but just a grunt who wasn't good enough, who still ends up being the one who saves the world, speak to the human spirit. Aerith living and ending up with Cloud wouldn't be just a small difference where the overall story would stay the same with only the love interest switched, no, it would inherently ripple effect into all other aspects of the story. From the smallest details to the overall themes of the story, from directing to the personalities of characters, everything would be effected and all of it would fall apart. I could go over a hundred examples but I'll limit myself to some of the smallest and largest. Stories have a flow, where what is happening follows logically from what came before. It's not that it's impossible to write a story where two characters that are roughly similar to Cloud and Aerith fall in love, get separated by death, and where the Cloud character mourns and pines for her after she's gone. The problem comes when you add in Tifa, Zack, and all the other context and details of the story. Consider Zack, if we take the concept of Zack as it relates to Cloud and Aeriths relationship and boil it down to the essentials we could see it as a story about a girl falling in love with a boy because he's channeling the spirit of her dead ex, the main internal conflict the characters need to overcome could then be the question of whether these feelings are true, or whether they are just the shadow of her feelings for the old boyfriend. On the surface, this premise works as the basis of a story. The problem lies in the execution. If you write such a story there are a few things you can and cannot do. For one, you have to make this love exceptionally obvious, you can't tell a story about whether or not feelings are true if you never even get to establishing the feelings in the first place. One of the key things you need to do for this is establish the two characters central importance to the others internal emotional arcs. The first thing you DON'T do is establish a second female character and have Clouds emotional arc revolve mainly around her. If you want to tell a story where Tifa and Clouds relationship turns out to just be friendship, while Aerith and Cloud turns out to be love, then you show the scenes establishing that. However, whenever Cleriths argue for a story like this they have to assert that Cloud no longer loving Tifa is just something that happened off-screen and is never mentioned. But if this were true, this would be extremely important to show. So again, if this is the story, then this is bad direction, aka, storytelling. Scene choices matter, if your story requires you to assume that the scenes you're shown aren't important, and that the crucial bits have to be imagined to happen of screen, then that's bad writing. And the reason you can't suddenly do it now, 25 years later, is

because of a thing called "set-up". Even if they were to change to story to suddenly direct it as such now, it would constitute a drastic change of direction, which means the larger 2-decade long story we've been told is no longer a single coherent whole. If the story in remake is that Cloud always loved Aerith, then why wasn't the ground work for that lain 25 years ago? If you want to say that the story is about Cloud loving Aerith, and ending up with her eventually, then you can't have Cloud not speak her name for the second half of the original game, and devote that time completely to establishing port-mortem that Cloud wasn't himself while with Aerith, and that his true self has deeply ingrained feelings towards another woman. And not some minor character who exists only as a plot-device, some fake hurdle designed to try to raise some fake tension, but Tifa, a character who is routinely established to be the "heroine" of the game, someone of equal importance to Aerith who cared for Cloud while he was in a coma, whose history with Cloud started his internal character arc, whose history with Cloud resolved his internal character arc, and who lives with Cloud 2 years later.

And the same thing goes for Zack, it was possible to write him as negligible when it was just FFVII, if you ignored the addition of Tifa and JUST focused on the Zack element as a side character. But the addition of Tifa and the existence of Crisis Core cause the narrative to become disjointed when trying to view it as a single story. This is why people so often want you to ignore Crisis Core, because they understand that if a conclusion of a story is that Zacks role isn't that important, then why did your story spend an entire game cementing the importance of Zack? One of the things I hear most from Cleriths is "why couldn't Cloud just get over his childhood crush on Tifa and fall in love with Aerith? It happens in real life" , or some other variation of "why couldn't this happen?" But this shows the problem with how they want the story to go, because stories aren't real life. Anything CAN happen in a story, but not anything should. Stories have a concept called " checkovs gun", if a gun is introduced into a story in the first act, it has to be fired somewhere down the line. If the gun turns out to not have a role in the story, why was it there? But the same thing doesn't apply in real life, in real life, chekovs guns almost never fire, with few exceptions, real life is a bad guide to how to write stories. Stories written like real life, generally suck. If characters in stories behaved like characters in real life, half their lines would be "uhhhhh", and half the scenes would be them sitting on the couch having meaningless unrelated events happen.

The entire flow, pacing, and sequence of events is wrong in a Clerith version of this story. In order to sell the idea that FFVII is a story about Aerith and Cloud getting together you first have to sell the idea that all these plot threats concerning Tifa essentially don't matter. But if they don't matter, then why are they there? What purpose do they serve? What purpose does Tifa serve? Or Zack? In order to "fix" their preferred interpretation, Cleriths need to get around this problem, which causes them to have to re-interpret everything that happens and twist it in order to create the appearance of a coherent story. This requires them to resort to minimizing characters, character assassinating characters, and generally misrepresenting everything that happens. I think there is no bigger indication of why Cloud and Aerith getting together would suck as a story than looking at how the people who propose this version of the story look at Cloud and Tifa as characters. What follows are some excerpts from the dumbest person I've ever debated.

This went on for over 200 replies, this is not a mentally sound interpretation of the story, but this is what you need to believe in order to get the Aerith/Cloud love story to work. You're forced to minimize Tifa and her importance to the story, and you need to demonize Cloud. So basically you have two options here, you either have to say "all this stuff with Tifa and Zack, doesn't matter", all their scenes, all those plot threats, they all aren't a part of the larger story being told and ultimately amount to nothing. Or two, you remove all those scenes or rewrite them to instead focus on Cloud and Aerith. And both those approaches suffer from the same basic problem, they're both effectively going "screw everything, all that matters is Cloud and Aerith". Which brings me back to my earlier point. If your story is pushing everything aside in order to hype up the main character, you're not writing a good ensemble story, you're writing a bad fan-fiction. This is the writing people HATE. Cloud is no longer a sad but likable character with complex motivations and feelings who wasn't as important as he thought he was, no, he's cliche self-insert main character that the world revolves around, who every girl genuinely loves regardless of whether or not it makes sense, even though he's a complete asshole who abandons children and takes advantage of women just because he's "lovesick". No other man could ever compare, a week with him braindamaged and you forget all about the man you pined after for 5 years. Aerith is not compassionate to a man who blames himself for his failings and thinks he'd do more harm than good, she's compassionate to a piece of human filth who refuses to go save children because he doesn't care about them. She's not just a girl with a big destiny and a tragic fate, no, the universe itself resets to make sure she gets laid. Tifa isn't a powerful woman who devotedly supports the man she loves through his darkest hours, instead she's a weak unimportant doormat without self-respect who even in 2 decades could not measure up to a week with Aerith. Zacks connection with Cloud doesn't come with complex implications about Aeriths feelings, Zack never really mattered, his entire story of getting back to her? Doesn't matter, it only exists to show how much Aerith must love Cloud to choose him over Zack. The entire lifestream reveal concerning Cloud? Doesn't matter, nothing matters, it's in the past. The central reveal of the story isn't important because Clouds true self suddenly likes Aerith now.....good writing. etc, etc, etc. Where Aerith was once a part of an ensemble cast, the heroine of the external plot, tasked with saving the world through her powers as an ancient, while Tifa as the equally important heroine of the internal plot saves Clouds through their shared feelings, now everything instead revolves around Aerith, and the other characters only exist in service to her, not as characters in their own right, but only to make sure she and Cloud gets together, like every hated mary-sue in history. The pain of her death? Gone, the impact and nuance of the story? Gone. Literally everything that made FFVII special? Gone. And concerning the small, even the little details would no longer be coherent, Cetras thematically guide people to the promised land, note: "GUIDE", but now Aerith would suddenly be the promised land herself. The through-line of Cetras "returning to the planet"? Gone, if Aerith doesn't die that doesn't link to the story anymore at all. Tifa's bar being the 7th heaven, aka, the final heaven, aka, the promised land where Aerith guides Cloud to? Suddenly a meaningless name. Tifa's last name "lockhart" being a direct hint towards the "tender feelings locked up inside Clouds hart"? Completely trivial, the feelings weren't that important to the story. And I could go on for hours, every aspect of FFVII, from small to large, would be fundamentally poisoned if Cloud ends up with Aerith.

I could rewrite the story to make it work, but that's the point, then you'd be rewriting the story in order to diminish every other character and story in favor of Cloud and Aerith. Which brings us back to it becoming a horrible fan-fiction where no one and nothing matters except Cloud and Aerith. It's ok to write unimportant characters, it's not ok to make your important characters unimportant in retrospect in order to wank off another character. Thanks for asking.

[barbariccia]

it’s time to talk about Hydaelyn.

i’ve been sat on this theory for a long time - i’m pretty sure i didn’t come up with the original idea myself, but the more i think about it the more it makes sense to me. i’m not sure HOW it’ll come into play in the story, necessarily, but the new year’s eve poem posted last night has me rubbing my chin even more. so:

Hydaelyn exists under Silvertear Lake and i won’t hear no for an answer.

(please note there'll be spoilers for 5.0.)

we have known since 1.0 that there’s Something Under Silvertear. admittedly, in 1.0 it was likely just Midgardsormr, because the times have been a-changing and while the dev team has done a truly admirable job at building on what lore remained from the 1.X days, they couldn’t and didn’t keep everything intact. i do not at any point consider this a downside, just something worth noting!

the Garleans, headed by Gaius van Baelsar (acting under solus-selch’s orders), after the invasion and successful annexing of Ala Mhigo, pushed into Mor Dhona as the next part of their “invade Eorzea” project as a central location that would make continued pushes into the land easy. not only that, but Mor Dhona is noted as being (and has been since 1.X) the center of aetherial connections in Eorzea, if not the whole world, though Eorzea is particularly topped up with aether compared to other landmasses. Cid Garlond in his 1.X iteration suggests that Mor Dhona is where aether returns to rejoin the Lifestream. Quote:

Cid nan Garlond: All aether would - should pass through Silvertear Lake upon returning to the Land, but it now appears that something is bending the energy's course - drawing it away.

in 1.X, Nael van Darnus was originally drawing Dalamud down to fall on this area, where Castrum Novum (now Castrum Centri in ARR and beyond) was built, until adventurers put a stop to that and the transmitter was relocated to Coerthas, where the Rivenroad was ripped from. I’ll accept it as a happy coincidence - the castra was built in this area, it makes sense for plot events to happen there - but it does strike me as interesting, especially where the parallel between the Garlean’s Meteor Project and the original Meteor from FFVII is concerned. Sephiroth wasn’t just calling down a giant slab of asteroid for shiggles; he was doing it specifically to create a wound in the Planet that would require an immense amount of energy to heal that he could siphon off of and become a god. If XIV’s Meteor had hit (and not hatched like an egg), a similar thing might have happened.

And there’s no better place to call a lot of aether to the fore than somewhere entirely rich in it. Almost like there’s a great being in that area dependent on aether that directs the Lifestream through itself to preserve not only itself, but all life on the planet.

The second the Garleans got too close to the lake, Middy burst out with a whole host of Dravanians and the Battle of Silvertear Skies began (and ended with Dravanian victory at great cost). This sequence from 1.X is notable as being one of those things that has to have been changed from ARR onwards considering what we now know about primal summoning (they weren’t just ‘let loose’ into the world, they’ve been actively taught to certain peoples (though why only ‘now’ and not ‘before, too’ is still up in the air)) - not to mention we know that the Echo started manifesting after the battle, too, almost as though something felt like it was in danger and needed thralls (1) to protect itself - but Middy came out to protect something. He’d been known as the great protector of Silvertear Lake for a very long time, since he first appeared to the source. Quote The Rising Chorus, from patch 2.5:

Minfilia: [...] an unlikely ally came to Eorzea's aid that day─Midgardsormr, legendary guardian of Silvertear Falls, burst forth from beneath the waters of the lake and led a host of dragons against the Garlean airships overhead.

Minfilia:  Midgardsormr was once worshipped as the guardian deity of Silvertear Falls [...]

Minfilia: One of the ancient myths regarding Silvertear Falls states that when the waters came into existence, so too did the great wyrm. Althyk and Nymeia, Brother Time and Sister Fate, decreed that Midgardsormr ever watch over the source, from which all water─and magic─was said to flow.   I wonder... What if this was the covenant of which he spoke, and 'twas not the gods with whom he treated, but Hydaelyn Herself? 

minfy and ourselves can only guess as to the nature of the covenant forged between hydaelyn and midgardsormr. Following the Omega questline, we know that Midgardsormr fled the Dragonstar with his seven eggs to get away from Omega, crossing the vast expanse of space at great cost to his own personal strength. We don’t know at what time Midgardsormr appeared to the Source - whether it was before, during, or after the time of the 13th Reflection being turned into the Void as we know it - but it would have been post-Sundering of the Ancient world, considering he was able to make a pact with Hydaelyn at all (2) (not to mention there’s no dragons on the First; if there were dragons everywhere we’d know they were reflections of the First Brood! i’m still angy there’s no Azdaja and Vrtra. fucking PLEASE squenix i’m DYING for info on them).

(1) this is a good a place as any to mention that in 1.X, Minfilia - then known as Ascilia - witnessed the Battle of Silvertear Falls with her father Warburton and her Echo awoke a few years later. interesting to think that the primal that tempered Ascilia in potential desperation would later scour her clean and use her for its own purposes, though i know this wasn’t intentional from the devs at all as a plot-point.

(2) the nature of Hydaelyn and Zodiark’s battle makes me doubt that there was much time between Her summoning and the Sundering of the world

There’s an interview from 2014/15 with Koji Fox where he notes, quote,"There's a presence [at Silvertear]. It wasn't just Midgardsormr there, it was more of a force[...]". There’s definitely something there that isn’t just the dragons. Something big. It’s Hydaelyn!!! It has to be. (highlights in the excerpt mine.)

My interpretation of this event is that Midgardsormr agreed to protect the physical ‘body’ of Hydaelyn in exchange for the safety of his eggs - the First Brood - which is what he’s been doing for potentially upwards of 10,000 years. The battle at Silvertear is pretty explosive otherwise for what’s effectively a non-event. There might not have been dragons in Gyr Abania, or in Ilsabard, or Othard or anywhere else they’ve been pushing into - but there’s never been any indication of the dragons being particularly territorial. The Dravanians shared their space with proto-Ishgardians back in the day, and their issues with the elezen of the Source was due to some choice eye-vorage, not encroaching on lands like the sahagin and kobolds.

As for Hydaelyn’s physical form - well, it’s known that Zodiark has a physical form which was sealed directly into the moon. The true moon, known to us colloquially as Menphina (3) (is there another name for it? i haven’t seen anything). It stands to reason that Hydaelyn has a physical form as well, then, hidden away somewhere safe, because as we known, primals can be defeated and their essences scattered to return back to the Lifesteam.

(3) Hey, it’s worth noting here that Menphina, the Lover (whose divine stone is parked right where Haurchefant’s grave is) is said to be the younger sister of Azeyma, the Warden! and boy, while we’re thinking about the misremembered names of the Convocation coming back as names of gods in modern day, what significance does that have?

The Antitower: In all of creation, what greater mystery could there be than the fate of this very star? To sound the deepest depths, to study the aetherial sea itself─for these purposes and more was the Antitower built. Abandoned by her Sharlayan caretakers following the exodus, it has since been overrun by the magical guardians they left behind. Yet were one blessed with Her gift to brave these dangers and descend to the furthest reaches─to hear, feel, and think at the heart of this world─what would they find?

(emphasis mine.)

in the cutscenes following the Antitower, we meet Hydaelyn in the aetherial sea, and Her mouthpiece, the Word of the Mother. and by using the Antitower, something specifically Sharlayan-built, no less. I’d be very interested to know if you can reach the aetherial sea from only the Forelands, where that dungeon is, or from anywhere. I’m gonna make a stab at anywhere.

It’s been brought to my attention that in the cutscenes post-Antitower, Hydaelyn mentions in the quest The Word of the Mother (patch 3.2), and Ardbert echoes later in Shadows of the First (patch 3.4) that “across ten and three were [we] then divided, reflections of the source, each possessed of a shard”, which seems to imply that not only the people of the world and Zodiark, but also Hydaelyn Herself was sundered and became weaker in so doing. which is FANTASTICALLY interesting, all things considered! maybe She wasn’t just becoming weak (and finding it harder to take mouthpieces and the like) because of the land’s aether being drained by primals (and other sources).

The just-released (as of time of writing) New Year’s Eve poem makes me think that the “last chapter of this story” might relate back to this in some way.

[EN]

Our progeny may never know Wherefore we look unto the sky Nor why we dig for truth below; We bear their scorn or watch them die.

[FR]

With our mouths closed, we pile stone upon stone, To form a staircase leading to the lands of knowledge, As well as another pointing to the heavens of existence. Our children will remember it, no matter how angry they are.

[GR]

Committed to our silent office We seek wisdom in the deep earth. Put tomorrow in starry hands, Sung by children's lamentations.

[JP]

By staying silent and saying naught, we will not accumulate the crystals(?) (4) To gain knowledge, we climb into the earth, To survive, we climb to into the heavens. Even if our progeny resent us, it is all for their sake.

(4) 石 meaning stone rather than ‘crystals’, 水晶 meaning ‘crystal’ (and used in the JP title of the Crystal Exarch).

*** translations from THIS reddit post and THIS tweet for the EU and JP translations of the poem, respectively.

something something 6.0 is looking more likely to be Sharlayan than anywhere else, something something big tower something something learn stuff from within the earth. c’moooon, i wanna go beat some answers out of crystal mom. walk freeeee indeed.

Getting away from the poems again and back to Stuff On The Source, we can take a look at the First, a much more pristine reflection of the Source due to having no Calamities happen to it ever. The Source (not to be confused with the Source), the equivalent of Silvertear, is being presided over by none other than... Bismarck, a member of the fae (and BOY i’d like to know more about whaleboi in this world!!!!), in exactly the same position Midgardsormr is, presumably protecting something of equal importance. Having said that, I don’t know if by splitting the world, Hydaelyn also split Herself.

Having said that, there’s an environmental anomaly in that area. Fly out to Bismarck’s (5) nose, and then dive under the waves. There’s a crystal formation coming out of the ground that can’t be found anywhere else on the First - there is nothing else similar to this formation - that has patches of light emitting from bits of it. A friend of mine noted that the way it seems to be coming through in only this location is almost cancerous in origin - that is to say, uncontained and Wrong in some manner, more complex than we have words or knowledge of. The only way you can interact with these crystals is in the level 78 mining levequest Crystal Meds, which notes that you can yank salt crystals out of that formation... but it seems a little too suspect to leave as ‘just salt’.

(5) Speaking of Bismarck, from that earlier interview with Koji Fox, he also has this to say, which... what else have you been hiding in plain sight... (highlights again mine.)

Or the Crystarium’s just going around seasoning their meals with primal mama, who knows.

Eep, this post got away from me. Anyway, i’m not really sure what to DO with any of this information. as many of my friends know i’ve been harping on about this for years at this point, and i’m not the best at speculation and guessing accurately where stories end up going - but it feels more right than ever to talk about it now after that poem was release.

hells, maybe they’ll give us another tower. say... a tower of bab-il, to take us to the moon? 6.0 FFIV expansion pretty please??

[sugakoni]

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[imaginative-spirit]

hii! i found your twitter acc when i was searching for sefikura meta/analysis, and i found your tweet! i wanted to ask if you know some blog posts (or any posts) of their relationship analysis, as i am quite new to the whole ffvii series and i am intrigued by their relationship. i wanted to ask through cc but i noticed you dont have curiouscat so i’m asking through tumblr, sorry ;;

I didn’t mean to put all of this under a readmore but tumblr is being an ass so that’s what we’re doing now, I guess...

Hello!! Unfortunately I can’t really come up with anything on the spot, because despite seeing posts like that around before, I’m very unorganized and bad at keeping track of posts... so I decided to write you one on the spot instead, lmao!! I’ve been planning to write a more coherent, longer analysis for a while but still haven’t gotten around to it, but I’ll share some of my condensed thoughts here. The sefikura relationship is what intrigues me most about FFVII after all, and I usually yell quite a lot about them on twitter!

You say you’re new to FFVII, which means that I should definitely give a spoiler warning here. I’m going to address spoilery stuff from the OG, Remake and also some of the compilation material, because it’s hard to talk about their relationship without doing so. (I’ll also assume you’re familiar enough with the world of FFVII to know what I mean when I talk about stuff like SOLDIER, Shinra, Jenova, the Lifestream and such... this would get too long if I explained all of that here, lol)

Okay, so. Cloud and Sephiroth are narrative foils, which means their stories and arcs parallel each other in many ways. The most central themes surrounding them are their loneliness, sadness and how they cope with trauma.

Sephiroth was most likely raised by Hojo in a Shinra lab, and if you know Hojo, you know that there’s no way Sephiroth was treated as anything but an experiment. He never knew his mother, and the only person he had any respect for - Professor Gast - vanished when he was young and this seems to have given him abandonment issues. Cloud, on the other hand, had a mother but not much else. He felt alienated by the other children growing up in Nibelheim and seems to have been generally disliked by the adults as well, due to them blaming him for the time Tifa got hurt. In other words, they were both very lonely as children.

Shinra sent Sephiroth to war when he was very young (people disagree quite a lot on how old Sephiroth actually is but it’s assumed that he was around 12), and as the years went by, Sephiroth became the poster child of SOLDIER. We know that Cloud grew to idolize Sephiroth for how strong and brave the media made him out to be (A.K.A. had a celebrity crush on him), and that was what inspired Cloud to leave town and try to join SOLDIER.

As we see in the prequel game Crisis Core, Sephiroth at this point is well-respected by his peers after his efforts in conquering Wutai. His two only friends are Genesis and Angeal, who are also SOLDIER 1st Class, but they end up leaving SOLDIER, which means Sephiroth gets left behind. Considering that he already had abandonment issues to begin with, being abandoned by his only friends must’ve hit hard. I’d say this sets the foundation for Sephiroth’s downward spiral. However, at this point, I would argue that Sephiroth is still a good person at heart, despite all the trauma he has endured. He persists, refusing to hunt down his deserter friends, and even begins a hesitant friendship with Zack, who was Angeal’s apprentice.

Cloud befriends Zack as well, but doesn’t make it into SOLDIER and instead remains in the ordinary Shinra infantry, which is a crushing loss for him because he can’t achieve his dream. It’s at this point I like to imagine that if Zack had introduced Sephiroth and Cloud to one another, things could’ve gone better. Sephiroth is older than Cloud and outranks him, but with how isolated Sephiroth has been for his entire life I think there’s potential for a meaningful friendship here. They’re both very lonely and neither of them is really a people-person, so I think they’d get along well once Cloud gets over his hero-worship and Sephiroth manages to open up a bit. I would say that sefikura, if Nibelheim didn’t happen, has the potential to be a healthy relationship.

But of course, that’s not how canon goes. The Nibelheim mission happens, Sephiroth finds out that he’s not human and finally snaps after years of mistreatment, burning the town to the ground. Cloud manages to kill Sephiroth, ends up spending several years as an experiment, gets injected with Jenova cells, goes into a coma, wakes up just in time to watch Zack die, and ends up so traumatized that he creates a false identity for himself as a former SOLDIER 1st Class.

We’ve now reached OG FFVII. At this point, Sephiroth, while technically dead and chilling in the Lifestream, uses Jenova as a vessel to move around and takes advantage of Cloud, using him as a puppet for his own gains. He constantly dehumanizes Cloud and generally doesn’t give a damn about him as a person, while Cloud resents Sephiroth but can’t resist his manipulations. In a lot of ways, I think Sephiroth projects his own trauma onto Cloud here, because if Sephiroth had to suffer as Shinra’s puppet for his entire life, then Cloud should suffer as Sephiroth’s puppet as well. As a victim of horrific abuse, Sephiroth has a lot of justified anger, but he takes it out on the wrong person entirely. It’s definitely a very unhealthy situation.

But of course, unlike Sephiroth, Cloud doesn’t let his trauma define him. He reaches his breaking point and falls apart completely, but he gets back up, because unlike Sephiroth, he has a support system of friends who stand by his side and work together with him to defeat Sephiroth at the end of the game. For most of his life, Cloud has been chasing Sephiroth. This is where he finally catches up and surpasses him.

And here, the tables turn. Cloud kills Sephiroth but that’s never stopped Sephiroth before. This is where Sephiroth first develops his Cloud-obsession. He fixates on Cloud so hard that his hatred keeps him from completely fading away into the Lifestream. Cloud is literally his lifeline. (Isn’t it romantic? lol) He returns in the sequel movie Advent Children, where he fights Cloud one-on-one and basically just taunts him for 10 minutes before Cloud kills him again.  It’s implied that Sephiroth can keep coming back as long as Cloud exists as well.

Canon beyond this has, for a long time, been unknown territory. There’s a sequel game called Dirge of Cerberus that the fandom at large pretends doesn’t exist because it’s... kinda weird to say the least, lol. And it doesn’t really have anything to do with sefikura anyway. People have written post-canon sefikura as something that continues to be toxic, but there’s also fic that offers redemption and forgiveness for Sephiroth, acknowledging that he was a victim too. It’s left very open-ended.

All of this basically explains how I see sefikura. They’re two people who were alike in many ways, who could have been friends before everything fell apart around them, if things had been different. But they never did meet, before it was too late. Instead, they keep chasing each other, full of hate even though they’re probably the only people in the world who could truly understand each other’s trauma. The only real difference is that Cloud had friends to back him up while Sephiroth was abandoned, and I really, truly wish they could get an opportunity to reach some sort of understanding. And that would basically be it...

...but then the Remake happened. Diving into speculation territory here. I firmly believe that the Sephiroth we see in the Remake is a time traveller, or is at least aware of the future to some degree, and that the remake is actually a sequel where Sephiroth is quite literally remaking OG ffvii. He’s completely obsessed with Cloud to a degree that he never was in the OG, and considering how loyal the developers stayed to the characterization of basically every other OG character this immediately stuck out to me like a sore thumb even though it took me until the end of the game to piece it together.

I’m not kidding here. Sephiroth is desperate for Cloud’s attention in the Remake. He's constantly trying to touch Cloud, everything he says to Cloud makes him sound like a pining ex-husband, and he generally doesn’t do anything to harm Cloud except scaring him shitless simply by showing up. He actually has quite a few moments when he’s very gentle with Cloud. At the end of the game he basically even proposes to Cloud by asking Cloud to join him and genuinely seems upset when Cloud rejects him. And even then, he claims he doesn’t want Cloud (nor himself) to die.

For the life of me, I can’t wrap my head around what Sephiroth’s goal is in the Remake and I have no idea what they’re planning to do with his character in future parts, but I’m very excited to find out. The sefikura content in the Remake was very delicious and at this point the only thing they could do to surpass it in the future would be to have them actually make out on screen, lmao.

I hope this is coherent enough to read, I basically just tried to condense everything I could into a neat little essay and there’s definitely things I didn’t mention here, lol. I’ll write a proper, more well-thought out analysis another time!

Also, if you want to ask me anything else or talk to me about sefikura in general, my DMs are always open, both here and on twitter ;D

[zerolympiustrife]

Favorite video games of all time?

Get ready for a LONG post, folks! However…allow me to break this down to my three favorite video game genres: Fighting games, RPGs/JRPGs, and Platformers/Action Platformers (both 2D and 3D). However! Since I feel like these posts are gonna take MUCH longer than I thought it would, I’m just gonna divide the genres into separate posts. But for now, let’s stick with the…

FIGHTING GAMES!:

Dragon Ball FighterZ: My number one favorite (traditional) fighting game of all time. My favorite ArcSys game of all time. My favorite Dragon Ball game of all time. This game is the reason how I got into the Dragon Ball franchise back when I’ve had to little to NO interest in the franchise, even when I’ve watched the ENTIRE Namek saga from the original anime back in 2009. The game’s GORGEOUS art style, every character animation’s (such as specials, supers, intros, victory poses, and ESPECIALLY the Dramatic Finishes) faithfulness to the original manga AND anime of Dragon Ball Z and other DB properties (such as GT and Super), the AWESOME soundtrack (courtesy of ArcSys theirselves, who’re known for awesome music in their games), the 3v3 gameplay, the character roster (though I’ll admit that having five Gokus and Three Vegetas is rather silly), having a new character design by DB creator Akira Toriyama himself, and lastly, being a breath of fresh air to those new to the fighting game genre (since the genre itself is notorious for its high learning curves) AND to Dragon Ball fans who were sick and tired of having the story of DBZ recapped over and over and over AND OVER AGAIN is a fucking sight to behold. This game FUCKING RULES (and a million times better than MvC:I). However, I wouldn’t call it perfect. I’ll admit that the Story Mode is rather lackluster, Arcade Mode is rather lacking, the Shop is completely randomized, and the Online Mode, much like every other fighting game, suffers from lag, spammable players, or just outright ragequitters. That, and the fact that, unlike MvC3 and BB:CTB, every character assist only sticks to ONE attack (meaning that more than one character is gonna have a Kamehameha assist), and that MOST PLAYERS you’re gonna run into is gonna main the likes of Cell (who ENJOYS dragging out combos for as long as possible), Adult Gohan (like Cell, also drags out long combos), and Vegeta (Super Saiyan, because of his assist. Need I say more?). But aside from those flaws, it is hands down the BEST fighting game I’ve ever played, next to…well, below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: My number one favorite (unique) fighting game of all time. My favorite Nintendo game of all time. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai is a man that I’d like to describe as…well, not only doing the impossible and HIGHLY respected, but also putting those filthy naysayers about certain characters in their place. The fact that the whole point of Smash Ultimate was to include EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER FROM SMASH 64 TO SMASH 4 (Wii U and 3DS), INCLUDING EVERY THIRD-PARTY CHARACTERS DESPITE THE LICENSING AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES THIS WOULD CAUSE is another sight to behold. FUCK Melee, THIS is hands-down the best Smash game of all time! The inclusion of Spirits, the Adventure Mode, the Boss battles, the gameplay, the kind of chicanery you can pull, the game’s main theme “Lifelight”, the roster, the soundtrack…there’s just ALOT about this game that I just fucking adore. What can you make folks more hyped about this game? Oh, I don’t know…why not shock everybody with JOKER (from Persona 5) AND BANJO & KAZOOIE (who’s still owned by Microsoft) being in the game. What I love about Smash Bros is how Sakurai is just outright defies those say certain characters can’t appear in the series for silliest (or justifiable) reasons. Cloud can’t be in Smash because his game was never released on a Nintendo console until 2019? No problem! Ridley’s too big therefore he can’t be playable? Fuck that! Banjo & Kazooie can’t be in Smash because they’re owned by Microsoft of the Xbox brand? It’s fine! Why? “Because I AM HERE!” -Banjo (JK, but seriously, the fact that Banjo’s in was quite a surprise.) Smash 4 is the reason how I got into Final Fantasy VII, and I hold the entire Smash series in high regard for doing so. Goddamn, do I love this franchise! But! Again, it’s not perfect. The Online Mode is MUCH worse than DBFighterZ (to the point where you’re more than likely to end up in a battle with Items TURNED ON or stages with distracting hazards, OR end up fighting the SAME fucking characters I hate fighting against, such as Little Mac, Falco, Inkling, Incineroar, etc.), and that fighting against EVERY single spirit in the Adventure Mode to get 100% can get rather tiring (not to mention that you gotta get BOTH bad endings from fighting Galeem solo AND Dharkon solo), lack of additional content upon release (Stage Builder and Home-Run Content weren’t even implemented into the game at first), and lastly (although these two complaints are one of more personal matter and one towards Square Enix), the fact Zero from Mega Man X, my favorite video game character is ASSIST character instead of a playable was really heartbreaking to see (but hey, I’m not complaining TOO much since I enjoy interacting with him in my free time in Training), and lastly, the fact that Cloud, and to high extent, Final Fantasy VII AND the FF franchise as a whole has LITTLE TO NO representation in this game whatsoever (again, I feel like this was more of SE’s fault than Sakurai’s). No spirits, no “Fighter Spirit” artwork from the original FFVII, no Assist characters, not being dubbed in English AGAIN (though this was more of a contract issue with SE), no additional music on Midgar, NOTHING. But, nonetheless…this game is fucking awesome.

Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle: Ahahahahaha! Ah…Oh, Blazblue…I love this franchise oh-so much, but the fact that it hasn’t received the same treatment as Guilty Gear lately (not to mention the mainstream Blazblue games, aka the C-series, has pretty much came to an end) is a rather sad sight to see…depression aside, I love Blazblue. I REALLY do! I love the characters, I love the stages, I love the music, the story is confusing as FUCK, but it’s a fighting game franchise I’ve discovered WAY back 2012 and I still love to this day, even more so than Guilty Gear (don’t @ me). So…what to do now? Could there perhaps be another Blazblue game? A game that just so happens to be a crossover? One just as awesome as Smash Bros? Ooh! How about…PERSONA 4?!? UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH?!? A FRANCHISE THAT, LIKE DRAGON BALL AND FFVII, I’VE HAD NO INTEREST IN UP UNTIL 2018 (aka RWBY)?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Fangasm aside, the fact that this game even EXISTS is an achievement in its own right. As stated before, this game is the reason how I got into RWBY. What I really love and adore about the game are the interactions among the characters. That, and I was SO HAPPY to hear that the game would be dubbed in English, after GG:Xrd Revelator and BB: Central Fiction lacked a dub. I was not only excited to hear the likes of Ragna, Noel, and Hazama voiced in English again, but I was also happy to hear that any characters who’ve never been dubbed in English in the past (characters from UNIB, newcomers in BB:CF, etc.) would be dubbed in English as well. Hell, the fact that the characters from both Blazblue AND Persona 4 (two franchises/games I really love) being in the EXACT same game together was enough to make me be all like “Shut up, and take my money!”, considering how crazy excited I was in the past to see them interacting with one another via fanart and fanfiction (thanks to the Persona 4 Arena games being developed by ArcSys). And if you thought having only THOSE four franchises in the game was enough, you’d be wrong! Here’s Arcana Heart! Here’s Senran Kagura! Here’s a FIFTH character from RWBY: Neo Politan! This game, much like DBFZ and Smash Ultimate, is awesome. However, complaints I do have towards the game are the Online Mode (although the chibi interactions are cute and adorable and I will praise the Online Mode for that, and ONLY THAT), Gordeau from UNIB is still a problem, the rest of the half of the roster is entirely DLC, lack of additional content upon release, the control scheme is WAY too simplistic (even moreso than DBFZ), and lastly, while I love the sprites ArcSys did for RWBY, the reused sprites from Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and UNIB is also a complaint I have (but a minor one, mind you. They could’ve just easily redone the sprites specifically for this game, but…no). And while this game isn’t exactly in my top two favorite fighting games, it’s definitely in my top THREE. Also, I have yet to actually to play the Story Mode of this game, but I haven’t yet, therefore, I hold no opinion on the story as of currently. Marvel vs Capcom-styled traditional fighting games are hands-down, my go-to preference for traditional fighters.

Dissidia (and Dissidia 012): Final Fantasy: Forget Dissidia NT, THIS game (mostly Dissidia 012) is what an awesome 3D Action Fighting game is about! Much like how Smash Ultimate’s a unique fighting game (a Platform Fighter), this game is also a unique type of fighting game, possessing RPG elements and just having a blast with its awesome combat system. Cloud and Sephiroth were just so much fun to play as, with Terra, Squall, and WoL being my other favorite characters in this awesome game. This game is also essentially a HUGE homage to Final Fantasy as whole. From the ongoing conflicts between Cosmos and Chaos, to MULTIPLE references to the character’s original games, to additional modes that involve unlocking the likes of Gilgamesh from FFV, or fighting against the most frustrating secret final boss I’ve ever had the displeasure of fighting against (Feral Chaos), these games are awesome! Also, the reason why I’m addressing both games as a single installment here is because technically, while Dissidia 012 IS a prequel, it pretty has the same content (no, scratch that, MORE content) from the first Dissidia game and it’s pretty much an updated…well, not a “port”, per say, more like an enhanced re-release, much like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or any of the Blazblue EXTEND re-releases. However, complaints I have for Dissidia is that certain characters are annoying to fight against (such as Jecht, FUCK that character), the RPG system takes a while to build up until your favorite characters are FINALLY at Level 100, trying to get the rarest Equipment is rather difficult, and lastly, the action commands for certain character’s EX Bursts can be retooled for the sake of a proper fighting game, but then again, Dissidia ain’t a “traditional” fighting game. But aside from that, not only is this my favorite Action RPG/Fighting game of all time, but this is also my favorite Final Fantasy Spin-Off of all time.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars: What’s that? You were expecting a Marvel vs Capcom game to be on this list, let alone my top 5? Too bad! It’s Tatsunoko, baby! This one definitely holds a spot in my heart as this game stands as my number one favorite “Capcom vs Whatever” game of all time (yes, even moreso than Marvel vs Capcom itself OR any of the SNK vs Capcom games, don’t @ me). I love this game. I love its soundtrack (ESPECIALLY its main theme, “Across the Border”), I love the roster (despite being small), I love the final boss of the Arcade Mode (Yami, from Capcom’s Okami), and I love the gameplay. My complaints goes towards the lack of additional content outside of Arcade and the Gallery (although the top-down shooter minigame is rather fun), and, as stated before, small roster. But other than that, this game was really fun to play.

OTHER FAVORITE FIGHTING GAMES:

Sonic Battle, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SvC: Chaos, and Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma.

Coming up next: My favorite RPGs/JPRGs!

[yehosera]

15 Deck Challenge, Fire/Wind

This deck is for a series that Vince Scanlan is running alongside myself and Samsonite Prime. The series involves building 15 different decks starting with Fire/Wind (all possible dual colour combinations).

Vince’s Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/FFTCGBlog/?ref=br_rs

Sam’s Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/Chocobros-2178614372164500/

Fire/Wind

https://ffdecks.com/deck/4505414729203712

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: 15 deck challenge Fire/Wind

Created by: yehosera

Forwards (27):

1 Cloud (4-145)

2 Cloud (3-008)

1 Red XIII (1-191)

3 Vivi (3-017)

3 Tifa (1-189)

1 Tifa (2-011)

1 Zack (3-012)

3 Izana (3-049)

2 Adelle (5-050)

1 Arc (5-052)

1 Chocobo (1-075)

1 Chocobo (4-063)

2 Chocobo (5-060)

1 Y'shtola (5-068)

1 Zidane (3-056)

3 Vaan (1-063)

Summons (6):

2 Belias, the Gigas (2-019)

3 Phoenix (5-019)

1 Diabolos (5-062)

Backups (17):

1 Selphie (2-009)

2 Red Mage (1-003)

1 Black Waltz 2 (3-015)

3 Zangan (1-188)

1 Aerith (3-050)

1 Nono (4-066)

3 Penelo (5-066)

3 Echo (5-053)

1 Maria (1-083)

1 Fat Chocobo (4-064)

This deck is a very wind heavy deck, using the fire cards as support for pushing damage during the mid-game and providing a finisher with Phoenix.

Backups

17 is a very high count for any deck that plays Fat Chocobo. Due to this, always discard backups that you are not playing on the following turn for CP during the early game.

Selphie, Red Mage, both of these cards are staples for just about any aggressive fire deck. These cards excel when the controller of those cards is the player attacking. Due to the nature of Fat Chocobo, it’s very often the case that the Fat Chocobo player is the one doing the attacking during the early stages of the game.

Black Waltz 2, while I would normally always play this card with a copy of Irvine, due to how Echo works, situational backups aren’t too useful. By this, I mean that doing a 3 backups T1 play requires backups that don’t require your opponent to have forwards, as such Aerith took the place of Irvine. However, if you are not running into many backups that target your forwards swap her out for Irvine.

Zangan, the deck plays 3 Tifa.

Maria, Nono, both of these cards I like at 1 in my Wind decks. They each provide different kinds of advantage. Nono allows its controller to play multiple things in 1 turn while they are the aggressor and Maria makes your cards bigger. I don’t like playing 2 or more of a named backup (ones without the 3 copies can be played icon) due to how detrimental drawing multiples can be during the early game. Exceptions for this rule are EX Bursts and core strategy cards (e.g. Jihl Nabaat and Duke Larg in mono Ice).

Penelo, Vaan is actually central to this deck’s plan.

Echo, some of the time this card lets 3 backups be played on the first turn. When that happens this deck has an extremely high number of odd costed cards to provide good followup with. In addition, Echo helps accelerate towards a higher number of backups when drawn during the mid-game. This deck thrives on 3 and 5 backups, so try to use Echo as a means of reaching 5 from 3 and don’t leave yourself stranded on 4.

Fat Chocobo, plays Chocobos. Chocobos are aggressive and synergise with Vaan. Fat Chocobo is a core card so do not let it get used for CP. The reason no more than 1 copy is needed is that Izana can search it and only 1 can be played. Play Fat Chocobo as early as possible to generate as much tempo as possible. A Chocobo while the opponent has 5 backups is far less scary than while they have 2/3.

Summons

Belias, The Gigas, while this card could easily be a 3 of, it’s an easy cut to make space. The card is fantastic, it will protect your early forwards and provide forwards later on in the game with Haste. Also, it’s free with Vaan.

Phoenix, is one of the main reasons to play Fire with Wind. There are 4 singletons that Phoenix can pull from the Break Zone that have amazing situational effects. Y’shtola can be pulled in response to a summon/auto ability and be used to negate it. Zidane can be pulled for general disruption. Red XIII as a combat trick. Arc can be pulled either as a combat trick (as he gives +1,000 power) or to close out a game with his effect on the following turn. Similarly to Arc, Adelle can be pulled out during the end of an opponent’s turn to close out a game while they’re on 6 damage. Finally, Vivi sometimes picks up a tasty double kill with Phoenix.

Diabolos, while this card could be a 2 of, there really isn’t the required burn to make use of the set a 4 CP forward to 1,000 power effect very often. A cool trick is to use this card with Lann or Deathgaze to make them basically unblockable. It’s worth mentioning this because both of those cards could easily find their way into the deck after some edits.

Forwards

FFVII

Tifa is the backbone of the FFVII forwards, she should be providing constant pressure. Zangan giving Tifa haste, is a surefire way to assert yourself as the aggressor. This deck REALLY needs the battle phase to gain advantage and Tifa provides a way of doing that from the early stages of the game. In conjunction with Fat Chocobo, it’s very hard to open a slow hand that has no way of getting in the first attack.

Cloud, there are two different copies in this deck. The Light cloud is to crush anybody that tries to answer your early forwards with a forward of their own. While situational, the effect is massive. Note, one of the Chocobos is from FFVII, so if this Cloud and Fat Chocobo (or Izana) is in your hand, pull that Chocobo with the Fatty. The other Cloud is more for breaking stally boards in the midgame. Anytime the opponent is making attacking difficult by having a lot of big forwards, this Cloud can punch through or allow your other forwards to punch through.

Zack, an extremely powerful card in this deck. Zack is amazing vs purple decks (as they hate forwards that replace themselves with other forwards). Zack also provides a Selphie effect for your team. This effect is not to be overlooked. With the sheer volume of forwards this deck can play during the early turns, the effect should be giving, on average, at least 8,000 power to your board. Always pull the Light Cloud with his effect. Drawing the Light Cloud is really sad.

Red XIII, pushes cards like Vaan through when drawn and is an amazing combat trick with Phoenix.

Other Forwards

Vaan. The big bad boss of the deck. While Vaan has a low power stat, being able to summon a 3 CP forward for free has so many merits with this deck. Adelle and Chocobo have haste. Another Chocobo gives Vaan haste making Vaan + the Chocobo cost a mere 3 CP (assuming the 2 CP can be used that turn). Vaan should be used to acquire a large number of on board forwards during the early game. After getting a load of forwards on board, the fire cards should be used to support those forwards in dealing damage. Vaan is like a snowballing effect. Instead of playing a single forward, then using a fire card to allow that forward to deal a damage, Vaan means now you’ve dealt 2 damage. Vaan also draws a lot of removal. Due to his repetitive effect (every time Vaan attacks, gain 2 CP) this makes your opponent have to chose what to remove. For example, do they remove Vaan who will provide bonus CP to the player or Adelle who will deal a damage a turn until answered for example. The increased threat density make it such that a lot of cards who normally get dealt with the turn they are played stick around for a bit longer. Finally, Vaan can also provide double activations on backups. For example, when attacking, declare an attack with Vaan, target Red Mage+any other backup for his ability, respond with the Red Mage’s effect and let the stack resolve. This will make a forward unable to block AND reactivate the Red Mage in order to make a second forward unable to block. In conjunction with Nono that’s a total of 3 activations on a single Red Mage.

Izana, adds Fat Chocobo. Always get the Fatty whenever possible. The Fatty being on field in conjunction with Vaan/Nono allows for multiple activations of the +2,000 power effect. This allows for the Chocobos on the field to start threatening a lot of hard to answer damage. The best case is to play the Izana, add Fatty, play Fatty and pull Chocobo (4-063) and give Izana haste to deal a damage while also putting double forward pressure on your opponent. The power of double forward pressure cannot be stressed enough, a single forward does not apply very much pressure, but two provides such an insane increase in pressure that it’s worth doing with only 1 backup on the field at the time. The other option is off of 3 backups, playing Vaan + Izana and fetching the Fatty. This gives REALLY strong followup options on the following turn, playing the Fatty and pulling Chocobo (1-075) makes the Vaan really likely to stick around if they party together AND provides 2 more CP for additional backup development. Plays like that whereby a bunch of forwards AND backups are played in the same turn really cheaply will cripple your opponent’s hand while they try to answer the pressure allowing the deck to actually try and win via value in the short term.

Adelle, deals damage. Can be summoned with Vaan. The effect is free with Nono.

Chocobo. Opus 4 gives haste to your forwards, making it REALLY strong with Izana. The other one has FFVII and Haste written on it. The last one has 7,000 power. I guess making it a boss monster amongst the Chocobos. It not dying while it’s in a party also means that the Fatty’s effect will be relevant for longer.

Arc, Zidane, Y’shtola. All of these cards provide situational advantage and can be summoned with either phoenix or Vaan. Dorgann can also take up a spot for this reason.

Vivi, is just overall a good card. Synergises with Black Waltz and Phoenix. However, the main reason for this card is in case the opponent finds a way of reducing the power of your forwards or increasing the power of their own during combat, Vivi allows the deck to catchup on board rather easily.

Overall, this deck is very aggressive. The deck has a billion Zalera, the Dark Seraph targets. It is very low on burn damage, the Irvine would be a REALLY nice addition if possible and a Firion possibly. Just go in hard at the start and force your opponent to play inefficiently to answer the board. This will allow you to turn aggro into hand advantage. Once the game state is simplified from your early aggression, hopefully requiring inefficient answers from the opponent, Phoenix or a Vaan based reload should cripple just about anything from there. The deck is all about double forward pressure, into backups, into one more big swing turn.

While making this deck, I also made what I believe to be the greatest deck.

Fire/Wind Skill Intensive Championship Material Deck.

https://ffdecks.com/deck/5309284430643200

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: Fire/Wind Skill Intensive deck

Created by: yehosera

Forward(23):

3 Lann (1-027)

3 Vaan (1-063)

1 Hope (1-082)

3 Tifa (1-189)

1 Tifa (2-011)

1 Vaan (2-052)

2 Zidane (3-056)

3 Marche (4-020)

3 Hope (4-068)

2 Adelle (5-050)

1 Y'shtola (5-068)

Summon(10):

3 Belias, the Gigas (2-019)

3 Alexander (4-052)

3 Asura (5-049)

1 Alexander (4-051)

Backup(17):

2 Reynn (1-028)

3 Nora (1-079)

3 Zangan (1-188)

2 Montblanc (4-022)

3 Echo (5-053)

3 Penelo (5-066)

1 Fusoya (2-146)

This deck doesn’t even require proper formatting. 29 EX bursts. 12 of them re-activate Fusoya (Penelo and Nora both get forwards that do). If you start losing, use Hope to untap itself after everything your opponent does, between every step of the stack and be sure to ask for the time left on the round each time. Make sure that once time is called you make it go to 1st damage loses, Adelle can’t lose if it comes to that. OR just draw Fusoya and untap it 6 times in a turn. That’s what the really talented players do.

Overall, this deck is undefeatable perfect 5/7 should win the 15 regionals.

TL;DR Fusoya + 29 EX Bursts. Chocobos, Vaan and Phoenix

[silveredsilhouettes]

Top Five Video Game Soundtracks

@sriracha-chocobo has tagged me and thereby given me an opportunity to gush, which I will gladly take. So, in no particular order:

1) Xenoblade Chronicles - MMMMM BABY i love this game’s music. It’s all so atmospheric and damn powerful. Probably 80% of the songs will get me extremely emotional and that is the shit I am about. Some favorites include the Main Theme, Central Factory, Agniratha, Refugee Camp, Frontier Village, and oh my god Confrontation With the Enemy. That’s more favorites than I meant to list but they’re all so good i love them and I can’t bring myself to not mention them.

2) Tales of Symphonia - I’m replaying this right now and I can’t not mention it here. So many of the songs are just so catchy and I’ve been humming them nonstop for days. I find myself singing along as I run around and avoid battles just so I can avoid interrupting the music. I don’t know all the proper titles but some of my favorites are the songs in Asgard, Ymir Forest, Latheon Gorge (I think that one plays elsewhere too), and the castle in Meltokio. Also Raine’s theme (the serious version) and Fatalize oh my god Fatalize. Starry Heavens is growing on me, too, even though I am partial to the instrumental opening of the English GC version.

3) Jet Set Radio Future - bruh. BRUH. This soundtrack....is so fucking good in ways I don’t know how to put into words. It fits the vibe of the game so so perfectly and it just makes you feel cool. Honestly, the music is kinda the centerpiece of this game. I adore the graphics and the gameplay too, but when I describe JSRF to someone, the music is the first thing I go into. I love it.Makes me want to go be reckless. My favorites are Fly Like a Butterfly, The Concept of Love, Funky Dealer, Aisle 10, and The Answer.

4) Final Fantasy VII - It has not been long since I first played FFVII this past summer and winter over break, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first nosedive into the world of FF, in no small part thanks to the music. The songs are memorable and do a great job at creating an atmosphere that left me feeling like “yeah, now that feels like what I know about Final Fantasy.” This was another game of me running around singing and praying I didn’t get into random battles. And a game of me standing in place for 5 minutes just to listen to the music for a while. Special shoutout to Cosmo Canyon, Those Who Fight, Cid’s theme, Vincent’s theme, the Turks’ theme, and of course, One Winged Angel. And ESPECIALLY the main theme! Catch me with tears in my eyes, singing the letters “F F V I I” to the tune of the main theme.

5) The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - Okay hear me out. I played this game so much when I was younger, and this past winter I found the whole soundtrack on youtube and I love it just as much now as I did then. I would hum and sing these songs constantly. I can still perfectly imagine the noises of the serfs chopping wood, or the voice clips like “So it shall be,” “It’s raining,” “You will need more tahlers” and “The day for clearing bills. Taxes and wages are paid.” They’re such wonderful background music. I wrote like 3 papers to this ost fall semester. It’s got such a place in my heart because it just gives me such a simple lovely feeling.

Honorable mentions of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Shin Megami Tensei IV (which if I had included, all I would have written next to it is “TOKYO MAP THEMEEEEE”)

aight its late and i dont know who to tag so if seeing this made you think about your favorites and you have a lot of feelings about this topic like i do you should do this. Consider this a formal invitation.

[dutchdread]

In regard to what you said about how what Squall and Rinoa had wasn't necessarily true love because of them being teenagers, why is it that you even consider that Cloud and Tifa had true love when Cloud is technically a teenager too? Why do you say that you wouldn't like Aerith if she had survived and ended up with Cloud? You act as if Aerith ending up with Cloud is a bad thing. If Aerith survives things could've ended up happening differently for Cloud. He could've ended up happier with her.

To answer this question I think it's important to understand the difference between love and lust, I advise reading an earlier article I wrote about this:

"what is love, baby don't hurt me" There are a couple of things to address here. First, I am not sure I ever said that what Tifa and Cloud had at the end of FFVII was "true love". It's something that I think is up for debate, the fact that they haven't spent a lot of time together yet as actual adults makes me sympathetic to the idea that it's not really that far yet. Personally I find that they satisfy the conditions necessary for it to count as love, but you won't hear me pretend it's already at the same level as the love shared between my parents, who've been together for 40 years. Even in love there are degrees, love can always grow stronger, and I have no doubt that in case of Cloud and Tifa, it would. I am not pretending they start out as the ultimate pinnacle of perfect or true love. One of the most telling differences I think between people who support Cloti, and the people who support Clerith, is that the former are simply more in touch with reality. That having been said, like I mentioned earlier, I do think Tifa and Cloud satisfy the conditions of love that I describe in my article, I'll quickly go over why, but before I do, I think it's important to answer your first question first. "If being teenagers precludes Rinoa and Squall from having true love, why doesn't that same logic apply to Tifa and Cloud?" Well, the short answer is that being a teenager does NOT preclude you from loving someone, and I didn't say that it does. My argument is a bit more subtle than that. It's not that teenagers can't feel love, it's that it's very easy for teenagers to mistake infatuation with love. It's important here to distinguish between two different emotions, no one doubts of course that teenagers love, for instance, their parents, but we both understand that that's not exactly what is meant by love in the romantic sense. We also all know that we can be nervous around a boy or a girl that we barely know, and feel physically attracted to them. However, I think that everyone whose ever had more than one relationship in their life knows that that isn't love, it's merely attraction and a physiological response. It doesn't involve the same deep appreciation and closeness of a person that we associate with love. For me personally, the first girlfriend I ever had was someone I actually rather disliked before they suddenly confessed that they were attracted to me. When we were sitting on her couch a while later with her pressed against my arm my heart was beating out of my chest, I was more nervous than I ever had been before in my life and was borderline hyperventilating. But that had nothing to do with her, and all to do with me being a young boy who was about to make out with a cute girl. But that nervousness isn't love, I didn't love that girl, honestly, even while dating her I still didn't even like her that much as a person, and that "nervousness" quickly faded. My heart beating out of my chest...was not love, conversely, when I am with the person I actually do love, my heart is completely at peace. True romantic love I think lies at the intersection of those two emotions, where you long to be with someone physically, not because your heart is beating too fast, but because they're the physical representation of the complete and complex set of characteristics that make up that person. A state where you understand both yourself, and them, and understand that through everything you have become a part of each other. You would not be yourself if they're not there, because a part of you would be missing. The problem with teenagers in love isn't that they can't form the feelings of such a bond, but that they too often think that's what they're feeling when all it is is raging hormones. They think they can never live without each other but they'll have a new sweetheart 2 months later, because it's the nervousness, the beating chest, the excitement, and not the long deep appreciation of who the other person is and what they actually mean to you. They just feel new strong urges and emotions and ascribe meaning to them

when there barely is any. They lack the mutual understanding that sharing time together creates and which is necessary to understand who the other really is, and what that means. They lack the knowledge of the self needed to understand what is important in life and more importantly, what is, or should be, important to YOU and why. They lack the life experience needed to differentiate between love and infatuation, and they lack the wisdom needed make positive choices concerning which feelings to nurture, which often makes them subservient to their emotions rather than guiding them. Love takes time, it takes commitment, it takes understanding, it takes choices and the willingness to sacrifice, those are the things that bind two people together, through thick and thin, as they say. The good, and the bad. In a way, Cloud and Tifa perfectly represent that long slowly developing strength of mutual importance, while Aerith is more like a representation of the temporary hurricane of affection that we often ascribe with something new. This is the reason why Aerith was described by the developers as being like an exchange student who leaves midway through the schoolyear. This is the reason why Cloti is so often described as a "slow burn". The reason Cloud and Tifa are slightly exempt from the "teenagers in love" problem, although it does still factor in, is that their bond didn't start a week before the end of the game. Their bond started when they were kids. Tifa has been an integral part of Clouds life for his entire life, to the point where he decided to join SOLDIER, aka, the army, just in the hopes of getting Tifa to notice him. That is a decision, that is a commitment, that is Cloud tying Tifa into his sense of self ever since he was a boy, he didn't just sit around "wanting" her, he made a decision, to not just "desire her" or be "in love" with her, but an active decision to live his life with her as a central part of it. Those sorts of decisions and action form what you care about and value, what you deem as important, what you see as "you" and your life. Cloud had a type of love for Tifa long before he ever started developing any sexual urges. And Tifa doesn't just fit what he sees as important, he has made her important his entire life. In a way, he's molded himself over time so that the things he treasures, are the things she exhibits. More than that, the entire premise of Clouds character arc is rooted in him finding his true self. I mentioned earlier that a crucial part of love is knowing who you are, and what you treasure and why, and FFVII literally gives us a direct manifestation of Cloud finding himself in the lifestream.....and it's Tifa. There is no question here of whether Cloud knows who he is, what he treasures in a woman, and whether Tifa fits that mold, because Tifa made that mold. Concerning time, Cloud spent over a decade being in love with Tifa, she's not just a part of who he is, but she's such a part of who he is that when he lost her belief in him, he lost faith in himself and who he is. There is no question that these two characters lives are fundamentally emotionally intermingled. Cloud would not be Cloud without Tifa. And the same goes for Tifa, who has always held the image of Cloud close as a sort of representation of what is important. First like an unattainable star in the sky, then as a boy. Cloud is not just someone who has always been important to her, he's also her last link to her childhood, those things form bonds. Tifa is compassionate, and I've always been able to pinpoint the moment where in my opinion Tifa went from having a crush, to displaying true love, and its' the moment where she decides to spend that last days of her life caring for Cloud in a coma. That is not a small decision, and those decisions matter, they're not just telling the world something, they're telling YOURSELF something. When you make such a decision, you cement what is important to you. Through thick and thin. Tifa chose Cloud, she chose to believe in the memories they share together, not of the

memories of the last few weeks, but of the boy who asked her to the water tower all those years ago. Tifa, like Cloud, found herself during FFVII, Tifa knew what she cherished, it wasn't soldier Cloud, it was the Cloud she knew, the REAL Cloud, and her selflessness and conviction is rewarded.

I'd say that pretty much says it all, the groundwork is in place, the only thing needed after that is for a person to CHOOSE to go for it, to not give up, and that's what we get in the events before, during, and after ACC. That the two are willing to sacrifice and work on it, because they know that the other is worth it. And Tifa and Cloud have that as well. When Tifa is feeling down in case of Tifa, Cloud says he'll be there for her, when Cloud is having difficulties in ACC, Tifa never gives up on him. Ultimately Tifa is the glue of this relationship, because she has proven that she will never give up, and that's why her love is real, and why Cloud and Tifa ultimately will succeed as a couple. Cloud and Tifa have a difficult start to their relationship because of factors external to their feelings towards each other, but when you purely look at the basis of their relationship and feelings for each other, it's one of the strongest foundations in fiction. They have to weather a lot of storms together, but the reason the story can throw those storms at them, is that they have the foundation that allows them to handle it and grow stronger. "Why do you say that you wouldn't like Aerith if she had survived and ended up with Cloud?" I don't say that, I say that I don't like the Aerith version that exists in the minds of Clerith, and I don't. What I say specifically about Aerith surviving and ending up with Cloud is that I don't like that story, I think it would be a fundamentally bad story. I do say that I would not like Aerith if she knew the future, or anything really about the relationship between Tifa and Cloud, and still chose to try and get between that. Because setting aside all the shameless "Cloud/Tifa doesn't own Tifa/Cloud, they can do what they want" arguments, we all know that if your friend has someone they've cared about for a long time, and they're hitting in off, and you then try to get between that....you're scum, and I do not want you in my group of friends. I've known people like that, they're not kind. I also say that I wouldn't like that character, which is different from not liking Aerith as a person. A person can be sweet and likable and I can still not like their character if I think that the character is a hindrance to the story. "If Aerith survives things could've ended up happening differently for Cloud. He could've ended up happier with her." And if pigs had wings perhaps they could fly, or perhaps they couldn't. Perhaps had Aerith lived Cloud would have somehow married Scarlet, or perhaps if Aerith had lived Cloud would have been miserable and drank himself to death. I don't care about baseless speculation. Listen, I have no doubt that if Aerith had lived, Cloud would be happier, since it would be one less death on his consciousness, but he'd be happier WITH TIFA, Aerith living or dying has zero impact on who he ends up with and saying "maybe" is absolutely meaningless. Maybe if Aerith had lived, Tifa would have died, and the world would have ended because I don't need to be a fortune teller to predict that if Tifa died, Cloud wouldn't have come back from that. Honestly, saying "perhaps if Aerith had lived he'd be happier with her" is such a blatant attempt at trying to sneak shit past the radar that it honestly bugs me, you can take that implication back to the Clerith boards where dishonest takes live.

[dansantcaparet]

In all my years of being a fan of Final Fantasy VII, I never realized the polarizing nature surrounding the debate about who Cloud loves more: Aerith or Tifa?

What’s clear to me is that Squaresoft wanted Aerith to be the heroine of FFVII from the very beginning. The opening scene of the game revolves around Aerith, with the “LOVELESS” sign appearing above her. The juxtaposition of Aerith walking the streets of Midgar, with Cloud simultaneously jumping from the train, sets these two up as the primary characters & love interests of FFVII.

Star-crossed lovers. Their destiny & fates intertwined. Soulmates.

The creators of FFVII have stated that Aerith, Barret, and Cloud were the original three characters created for the game. This confirms that Squaresoft always intended Aerith to be the central female character & love interest for Cloud. Just look at the original & official artwork Squaresoft produced – it’s all of Cloud and Aerith together.

Let us also remember: Aerith is both the FIRST & LAST character we see in the entire game. In addition – Aerith was one of the ORIGINAL three characters created for FFVII. This confirms that Cloud and Aerith were meant to be together from the very beginning. The ORIGINAL hero & heroine.

Since 1997, I always felt Cloud and Aerith were meant to be together. After finding Aerith looking beautiful under the “LOVELESS” sign, Cloud agrees to be Aerith’s bodyguard for the promise of one date. When Tifa asks Cloud to join AVALANCE, he only did so when Barret promised him more money. See the difference?

While Cloud was growing up, him and Tifa were childhood acquaintances  – not friends or lovers. Tifa ignored Cloud when they were kids, allowed her friends to bully him, and excluded him (just like she did in the morning at Seventh Heaven during the Remake). As kids, Cloud and Tifa only had one conversation – a conversation Cloud doesn’t even remember. During this conversation, Cloud makes a friendly promise to Tifa – a promise Tifa begged Cloud to make (ie: “STRONG-ARMED”)  – hardly a childhood romance. Meanwhile, Cloud and Aerith were both two lonely kids destined to meet and complete each other.

The facts are: Cloud only laughs and cries for one character in the entire game: Aerith. This suggests his emotional connection to Aerith is deeper than his emotional connection to Tifa. Even Tifa picks up on this, which leads her to having a jealous meltdown in the Shinra jail cells where she witnesses Cloud and Aerith developing their own “WORLD” together.

When Aerith dies, Cloud exclaims: “My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!” It is officially stated that Cloud’s “HEART” breaks when Aerith dies.

Even after Aerith dies, Cloud seeks the Promise Land so he can reunite with her. At the end of FFVII, Cloud exclaims: “…I think I’m beginning to understand. An answer from the planet…the Promised Land… I think I can meet her… there…” – anyone who doesn’t think Cloud is referring to Aerith is either an idiot or being purposely disingenuous. Furthermore, this quest for the Promise Land and search for Aerith (by Cloud only) is also included in numerous material Squaresoft has released since FFVII (ie: Final Fantasy Tactics, etc., etc.)

Furthermore, Cloud thought it was Aerith reaching down for him during the end of FFVII. It was ultimately Tifa who was reaching for Cloud, but his heart wanted it to be Aerith. See? Aerith is #1. Tifa is #2. That is how it has been from Day 1.

Even in Advent Children, Cloud is shown to be distant & cold towards Tifa while living in Aerith’s Church. If how Cloud acts toward Tifa, and where he’s living doesn’t tell you where his true feelings lie, I don’t know WHAT will.

Many Tifa supporters point to the VARIABLE Highwind scene as proof of Cloud and Tifa’s love. However, this scene doesn’t prove anything and is pure speculation (not to mention VARIABLE). Even if sex did occur, does sex automatically mean love? And would this have even taken place if Aerith had lived?

The fact remains: Aerith is the only character Cloud comes close to revealing his true feelings for. In Cosmo Canyon, Cloud says to Aerith: “But, I’m –I mean– we’re here for you, right?”

...the reason Cloud comes close to revealing his true feelings for Aerith is because of the wonderful chemistry & love the two have for one another.

Those that say Aerith was meant for Zack are also mistaken. Aerith states that she recognizes Cloud is different than Zack, saying to Cloud, “But you’re different. Things are different…” – Aerith loved Cloud for who he was and recognized that the past was the past.

Aerith also states in the OG that she wasn’t in a serious relationship with Zack, and that he was a real ladies man who probably moved on to someone else.

During Cloud’s and Aerith’s Golden Saucer date, Aerith confirms that although she initially liked Cloud because of Zack, she has grown to like Cloud for Cloud.

Finally – the official commercial approved & released by Squaresoft states: “A story of a love that could never be…” – obviously referring to Cloud and Aerith’s tragic star-crossed romance. This is also the official FFVII tagline.

Cloti supporters can dispute this all they want, but the official commercial (approved by Squaresoft) includes the word “Love” during the scene when Cloud holds Aerith in his arms. I need no more proof than this:

But if all this still doesn’t convince you, just go back and look at the official Amano artwork. 5 pieces exclusively of Cloud & Aerith together – the canon couple:

I’ll end with this...

Cait Sith: “Looks good. You are perfect for each other!” “Aerith’s star and Cloud’s star! They show a great future!”

You can claim Cait Sith isn’t always accurate with his predictions, but this was an obvious attempt by Squaresoft to further illustrate that Cloud and Aerith are meant to be.

“Poor Tifa!” ~Cait Sith

Want more reasons why Cloud and Aerith are the intended pairing of FFVII?

Go here: www(.)cloudandaerith(.)com – this website discredits every Cloti argument and lists all the wonderful & accurate reasons why Clerith is the **ORIGINAL** FFVII ship from 1997.

[sugakoni]

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“the lesson you need to learn right now, can’t be taught with words… only action.”

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welcome to my blog!

requests: closed

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meet the admin!

name: allie, she/they

time zone: central standard

i am a silly little college student who writes when she isn't stressed about everything going on around her. i try to get requests done when i can, but sometimes life is a pain and they can be sort of delayed. i also have a part time job and some other things going on right now ;-;

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hyperlinks

masterlist

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will write for

resident evil

final fantasy (specifically vii)

star wars

harry potter

marvel

attack on titan

five nights at freddy’s

stranger things

stardew valley

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rules

★ i will write for every character i know of, and they are mentioned in the masterlist that i have linked to this post. i will write for whatever is stated above, and might add more in the future.

★ please do not spam me if i do not get to your request in a time you deem reasonable. as i have stated above (general information) i am a first year college student and i really don't know how hectic my schedule will be once college actually starts. please bare with me.

★ when it comes to nsfw works, i will do them if you request them, or just on my own whim. i will not however do any kinks that i find immoral (e.g. consent non consent). i get uncomfortable with some things and i will let you know if i find it bothersome in your request.

★ i will need to know if what you want is a headcanon or a one shot, so i can write it based on what YOU expected. i don't want to accidentally write a headcanon for something meant to be a one shot in your eyes and vice versa. it just helps me out a lot.

★ this is my account. i will post, reblog, and do whatever i want. if you do not like it then leave.

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current comfort characters

karl heisenberg (reviii)

leon kennedy (reii-revi)

claire redfield (reii-rev)

ethan winters (revii-reviii)

jerry smith (rick&morty)

princess peach (super mario)

luigi (super mario)

kylo ren (star wars)

cloud strife (ffvii)

loki laufeyson (marvel)

ron weasley (harry potter)

luna lovegood (harry potter)

levi ackerman (aot/snk)

erwin smith (aot/snk)

glamrock freddy (fnaf)

nightmare chica (fnaf)