#and like. ignoring the fact that the two have romantic feelings for each other tifa has a big part in cloud's character arc

[arikad0]

it's so cool that FF7R seems to be putting way more focus on Cloud and Tifa's relationship than the og did

[rabid-heart]

Good Bones

For @sefikuraweek Day 2 - Prompt: New Beginnings

Sephiroth asks Cloud to move in with him and Cloud says yes. But once the house hunting starts and Cloud rejects every possible suggestion, Sephiroth begins to doubt if Cloud’s heart is really in this relationship.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Notes/Warnings: None really, other than one tiny brief mention of sex.

Inspired by the song "The Bones" by Maren Morris.

AU – Everybody Lives! Shina is no more, Sephiroth and Cloud have been dating for a few years, and now their biggest argument is about finding the right place to start this new chapter of their lives together.  

(There is angst, because Sephiroth is just an angsty guy, but really the whole thing is just purely indulgent fluff.)

Read on Ao3 | See Previous Day

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“No.”

Sephiroth sighs, exasperation, exhaustion, and annoyance evident from the crease in his brow. He moves his hand away from his face and points at the laptop screen, while turning to his very stubborn boyfriend. “What’s wrong with this one now?” he asks.

Cloud simply huffs, as if that sound were enough to explain everything, and then walks away to the kitchen, leaving Sephiroth once again a little more than frustrated. It is not as if the former General himself was perfect at vocalizing his own thoughts and needs, particularly after a lifetime of being forced to suppress them, but Cloud’s pointed lack of clarity around this whole escapade had long begun stressing Sephiroth’s discipline and patience.

He pushes his chair back away from the desk and leans to watch Cloud dig into the refrigerator and pull out one of the soft-drinks that the blond had stocked in Sephiroth’s apartment. Those drinks are one sign, but there are many others – pieces of Cloud everywhere in the two bedroom condominium he had bought with his Shinra savings years ago: a blanket strewn on the black leather couch; junk food on the kitchen island (Sephiroth was never allowed junk food in his former life, but even after obtaining freedom from Shinra and Hojo’s strict meal plan, he had yet to develop a taste for that stuff); a toothbrush in the bathroom; some clothes and underwear in one of his dresser drawers. Even beyond those facts, Cloud himself arguably spent most of his nights with Sephiroth here, instead of in his actual living quarters in the house he shared with Zack, Kunsel, Aerith and Tifa (a place that Genesis not-so-affectionally dubbed the frat house).

They had been dating for over two years, though they had known each other for longer. In the end, Cloud Strife had now become invariably and inextricably woven into the fabric of Sephiroth’s life and space. He would either wake up to the blond in his arms or to a text message from Cloud. Most dinners they shared together, holding hands huddled in a restaurant booth or making a game of distracting each other while cooking. When Genesis and Angeal sent their wedding invitations, Cloud and Sephiroth’s names were on the cards together, as one. So, while Sephiroth had, admittedly, little relationship experience before this, asking Cloud if he would like to start living together seemed like a natural progression of the dance.  

He did, on the advice of Aerith and Tifa, try to make the actual asking a romantic affair. He bought Cloud’s favorite whiskey, lit candles in the apartment, asked Aerith for her best roses. Cloud had seemed thrilled at the prospect, the usually scowling face instead blushing brightly throughout the evening. When Cloud had said yes, it started such a swell in Sephiroth’s heart that he was sure there was nothing else he could ever be more grateful for in his life. He had carried Cloud to his bedroom and made sure that the blond knew just how much he loved him, well through the night and into the hazy hours of the morning.  

Then, something changed. They had agreed to find a new place, something that would let them have a true fresh start, something that they could turn into forever. But every open house Sephiroth suggested, every listing he found online had gotten summarily shut down. That would not have bothered Sephiroth as much had the blond provided more thorough explanations for his rejections, or at least explanations that were not so contradictory. Too far away from everything. Too close to the city. Too traditional. Too modern. Not enough space. Too much space. I don’t like the carpeting. I don’t like the kitchen. I don’t like the bathrooms.

Sephiroth had studiously jotted down the curt notes that Cloud had offered and then tried to adjust, come up with new possibilities. And yet, nothing seemed to please Cloud, not in the slightest. It became bizarre. Cloud did not act picky about anything other than his motorbike or his hair. And it did not make a difference that Sephiroth offered to finance renovations on an existing property to make it perfect. Cloud would shake his head, say it was too troublesome, and then move on to something else.

Sephiroth had considered himself an intelligent man, but this behavior tore at the boundaries of his understanding. He had begun to think that he had done something wrong, something to cause Cloud to suddenly grow cold on the idea of living together. He wracked his photographic memory for something – an offhand comment or gesture, a sign, even discussed the possibility with Genesis and Angeal over their weekly lunches together (Genesis called him a paranoid shithead, and while Angeal was much nicer about it, he essentially hinted at the same idea) – but could not find anything suspicious.

It had then dawned on Sephiroth that perhaps what Cloud was getting cold to was not the concept of moving in together – that maybe it was him. When that thought arose, he had quickly tried to push it down, bury it with all the other dark parts of his mind that he worked very hard to control. But try as he might to ignore it, it continued to nag away in the corners of his mind.

Even now, as he watches the blond kick close the refrigerator and wander into the living room to sit in front of the television, Sephiroth cannot help but wonder. Did Cloud really love him? Sephiroth had said it first, had felt it really from the moment Zack introduced them, and he was stunned into silence by the brilliance of those sky-blue eyes. Back then, Cloud was shyer and sweeter, but he had a stubborn streak a mile wide that often clashed with Sephiroth’s arrogance and tactlessness. They had fought often in the beginning, stumbling over misunderstandings and insecurities. But after a few honest and true conversations, things began to blossom. Sephiroth found himself being less afraid of being truly known and more willing to be honest and emotionally open. And Cloud in turn became more confident, less doubtful of his worth. They began fitting perfectly into each other’s lives, like pieces of an unusual, but beautiful puzzle.

Or at least, that had been what Sephiroth thought.

He turns to the computer screen, opened on a lovely four bedroom home just at the edge of Midgar proper – close enough to enjoy the central city, but far enough for peace. It has the large master bath, hardwood floors and open concept kitchen that Cloud had requested, and the laundry room, gas-range stove and garage that Sephiroth desired. Sephiroth had thought he struck the right compromise and had been excited at the idea of showing Cloud this new listing. But when they finished dinner and Sephiroth had pulled open his laptop, Cloud was simply as dismissive as he had been before.

Resignation begins to creep on Sephiroth now, like spiders crawling up his back. Dread, too, starts to mount in his chest. The weeks of this, the stress, the wondering, the doubt, the fear – it is too much, like an itch under his skin that he could not scratch for relief. He had pushed this conversation out for so long, under the guise of his own paranoia, but now, enough had become enough.

Sephiroth stands and walks into the living room. He reaches down for the television remote and shuts the program off, turns to face a perplexed Cloud and says, “I believe we need to talk.”

Cloud pauses, soda halfway to his lips, before putting the can down on the coffee table (no coaster, Sephiroth notes with a mild hint of irritation). “I was watching that, you know,” he responds casually.

“Cloud, I am serious.”

“You always are.”

Sephiroth closes his eyes, wills himself to breath, to calm, to still. “Do you still want to do this?” he asks, looking down at the blond sitting cross legged on his couch.

“Do what? Move in together?”

For a moment, Sephiroth considers taking the out – letting Cloud admit that he is not ready to live with him and allowing them to just resume their relationship as if nothing had happened at all. But Sephiroth knows that would not be enough for him now. He loves Cloud, wants to spend the rest of his mornings and nights with this man, but if Cloud does not feel the same, if he wants his freedom, then maybe it is best to let the blond go. Even if it means breaking open his own heart.

Sephiroth decides to push forward. “No. I mean our relationship.”

Cloud’s eyes suddenly widen in shock. “What?”

“Do you wish to continue this relationship?”

"I heard you,” Cloud says, standing up now. His face looks flushed, with anger, with embarrassment. “What I don’t understand is why you are asking this. What happened?”

Sephiroth looks down, for he knows if gazes in those blue eyes, he could never gather the necessary strength. “For the last few weeks, you have shown disinterest in every option for a new home together. I have tried my best to listen to your comments, but nothing seems to be right. I thought perhaps the true issue is that you no longer desire a life with me. I simply— I just…”

The words become trapped now, blocked by the swelling sorrow and fear in his chest. Is this it? Is he going to lose Cloud? Will he never hear that bell-like laughter, watch those blue eyes glaze with love and pleasure, dance in his living room to imaginary music with that lithe body, kiss that beautiful neck and those happy lips ever again?

He does not notice that Cloud has stepped close to him, until he feels a warm hand on his chest. Cloud glances upward, and the eyes Sephiroth loves are tinged with fear. “You don’t want to end this, right? You don’t want—”

“Of course not,” Sephiroth insists suddenly, grasping onto that hand tightly. “I love you. I love you more than anything, more than life itself and I--”

Then, Sephiroth stops, because Cloud, inexplicably, strangely, starts laughing. The blond presses his face against Sephiroth’s chest, and he can feel the vibrations of Cloud’s amusement and relief running through his body. It leaves Sephiroth feeling all the more mystified for it, and in his confusion, he finds himself locked in place and unable to move.

Finally, Cloud pulls back and looks at Sephiroth with slightly misty eyes. “You scared me, for a moment. I thought that you…oh, Gaia, Sephiroth. I’d never leave you, not for anything in this world or the next. I just needed another few weeks, that’s all.”

Sephiroth blinks at him, tilts his head. “I do not understand.”

The blond pauses for a moment, biting his lip in the way that he does whenever he is considering something. Then, he reaches down and tugs on Sephiroth’s hand. “Go get your jacket.”

“I don’t—”

“You won’t regret it, I promise.”

Sephiroth’s mouth opens to protest, to question, but Cloud is already moving, shoving his feet into his boots and slipping into his coat. The blond fishes into the ceramic bowl on the table next to the front entrance of the apartment and takes Sephiroth’s keys in his fingers. “I’m driving,” Cloud explains. “Now, c’mon!”

There appears to be no other option. Though his mind is still reeling from the whiplash of the last few moments, Sephiroth takes his jacket from the coat closet and follows Cloud down the hall, into the elevator and into the parking garage. Cloud is at his car quickly, with a springing nervousness to his step that Sephiroth only sees whenever the blond is excited about something. That recognition only serves amplify Sephiroth’s bafflement.

But he goes along anyway, watches as Cloud hops into the driver’s side of his car and complains again about having to adjust the seat for Sephiroth’s “impossibly long legs.” They drive in relative silence, Cloud with one hand on the steering wheel and the other entangled in Sephiroth’s own. It only takes a few minutes (with Cloud’s borderline reckless speed) for them to reach the edge of the city proper, and another ten or fifteen to reach the outskirts. Sephiroth recognizes their route. Since the deconstruction of the plate, the reactors and the wall, more and more residential districts have cropped up on the land surrounding Midgar, especially now that the Planet had begun to heal, and the ground had begun to repopulate the grass and flowers that used to be so scarce.

Finally, Cloud pulls up in front of a plot of land, with an unfinished two-story house sitting atop it. Some of the roofing had yet to be completed, windows installed, and outside walls painted, but the construction appeared strong and in good progress. Attached to the house is a large garage, and there is an unpaved path winding from the front door to the street. Though it is far from finished, looking at it now, Sephiroth can image the quiet, peaceful beauty of the place – the flowers they could plant along the walkway, the welcoming double-doors of the entrance, the little mailbox they could stand at the end of the path to the street. The house is slightly larger than most of the ones Sephiroth had been considering, but it still seemed comfortable all the same.

Sephiroth turns to Cloud now, bewilderment on his face. It is his turn to ask, “What?”

Cloud glances at him quickly, skittishly, then releases his hand and jumps out of the car. “Now, I know it’s a mess, but you should see the sketches Genesis gave to the contractor.”

“Genesis?” questions Sephiroth, as he steps out of the car. His mind flickers briefly to the lunch he shared with his two oldest friends earlier in the week, to Genesis’s teasing of his suspicion. He almost wants to sigh in mortification.

Cloud takes Sephiroth’s hand again, begins leading him up the path. “Angeal, Tifa and Aerith helped too, with picking out designs of stuff, making sure it would be things you’d like. Zack was useless, though, said we could just use him to help us move in.”

Us? Move in? His mind craters on the verge of shutdown. He stops abruptly, halfway to the front door, and Cloud turns to him with worry on his face.

“I’m sorry,” Sephiroth begins. “I’m sorry.”

Cloud is in front of him now, his hands around Sephiroth’s shoulders. He leans forward on his toes and closes the distance, kissing him gently but insistently, as if trying to push back the doubt and the fear that had been spilling from Sephiroth these past few weeks. He keeps going, tugging on the lapel of the man’s jacket to bring him even closer.

Then Cloud breaks the kiss, almost too soon. “I love you, Sephiroth Crescent. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He then walks backward, and with a guilelessness that seems so at odds with the ferocity and skill of that kiss (but that was Cloud, that special contrast of sweetness and steel that made him so appealing, so seductive, so irresistible), he motions to the house behind him.

“So, I built you a house. Well, technically, it’s still in progress.”

Sephiroth tries to say something, but nothing comes out of his mouth. And yet, when the realization hits him, relief floods through his body like water over fire, and he can’t help but feel his cheeks tug into a wide smile. He pulls Cloud back into him, kisses him again and again, trailing his lips down that delicious jawline, the lobe of that ear, that wonderful neck. In between kisses, Cloud breathes out words in delight.

“It was an old building partially torn down and they said renovations would be done in six weeks, but they kept delaying things and finding issues and I was getting so nervous and I—”

“Mmhm,” Sephiroth hums, just kissing Cloud again. He can feel the blond laugh against his lips, but he merely takes the opening to explore the blond’s mouth, and almost rumbles in pure thrill at the way that Cloud’s laughter melts into a soft moan.

Then, the blond pushes him back, blushing red. “Stop, we’re in the middle of the street!”

The former General finally backs up, but can’t stop himself fully, can’t bring himself not to nip that adorable nose. “Alright.”

Cloud smiles but glances askew, apologetic. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to send you on a wild goose chase for a mystery home. I just wanted to surprise you, and I wanted to build something for us. For our new beginning.”

The two then turn to the building now, still empty and still incomplete. But with a bit of magic and imagination, Sephiroth could see it – the promises of comfort, of love, of peace, of a whole lifetime, held up by the good bones of this house. He could see the garden out front, Yule decorations hanging from the roof, the warm glow of fireplace light within. Most of all, Sephiroth could see himself happy here, for the rest of his life, with the man that he could hardly believe he had the good fortune to love.  

Cloud squeezes his hand, softly, gently. “I can show you the sketches, if you’d like?”

“No need,” Sephiroth whispers, as he dips down to kiss him once more. “If it’s from you, I know it will be perfect.”

[dutchdread]

Cloti vs Clerith: The premises

This article will attempt to establish a framework for the conversation. The goal is to get everyone on the same page concerning what we’re actually talking about here, and what we’re trying to prove/achieve. ________________________________________________

when discussing the LTD, there are two different points that are touched on which need to be kept in mind while trying to dissect each parties respective positions. So what are these points? 1: Who does Cloud love more? 2: Who does Cloud end up with? For Cloti it’s relatively straightforward, most Clotis believe that Cloud loves Tifa, that whether or not he also loved Aerith it mostly irrelevant since she’s dead, that he loves Tifa more either initially or eventually, that they end up together and that she’s generally his “true love” or “canon love interest”. In other words, Clotis tend to believe that Tifa was, and will always be, endgame, both for Cloud in universe, and as the design by the developers. To that, I would like to add that I personally think Aeriths death is irrelevant, I think Cloud has a clear preference for Tifa and I’ll divide Cloti up into two camps, the weak claim, and the strong claim. The weak claim: The weak claim here represents that very bare minimum that needs to be true to make the interpretation that “Tifa is the main love interest” be more reasonable than the interpretation that “Aerith is the main love interest”. It does not need to be conclusive, it does not need to be official canon, all it needs to do, is tip the scales in favor of Tifa. The strong claim: 

The strong Claim represents the strongest boldest claim a reasonable Cloti is likely to make. It’s the claim I make, but also the one that would require the most overwhelming evidence. The truth I predict, will likely fall somewhere in the middle. The weakest Cloti claim is:

“Real Cloud loved both Aerith and Tifa, and will always also love Aerith. However, the fact of her death makes it so that Tifa wins by default, if Aerith came back to life at the end of FFVII, we don’t know who Cloud would choose, but if Aerith came back after AC, the time Cloud spent with Tifa means that he would now love her more, if he could exchange Tifa for Aerith, he wouldn’t”

The strong Cloti Claim is :

“Real Cloud only romantically loves Tifa, any romantic feelings he has for Aerith are comparatively a minor part of his life and can mostly be attributed to him not being himself, and can therefore be dismissed as invalid. Whether Aerith lived or died is mostly unimportant since Tifa has always been, and will always be, the main focus of his heart. Conversely, Aeriths interest in Cloud is also mostly invalid and based on his connection to Zack, this makes her connection with Cloud a less significant indicator of love and compatibility. If Aerith came back at the end of FFVII, Cloud would choose Tifa, and if Aerith never died and Cloud regained his memories, he’d still choose Tifa, and it wouldn’t be a difficult choice”.

The “what if Cloud didn’t regain his memories” hypothetical is usually, understandably, ignored.

For Clerith the claims made vary a bit more. For one, there is a large community of shippers who love the idea of Aerith and Cloud together, but don’t think its canon. However, I have no issues with these people, I hope they reconsider, but I don’t think they’re wrong, it’s not a matter of right and wrong, it is a matter of taste, I’d just love for them to see the beauty of the story of Cloud and Tifa.  For the purposes of defining who I am actually arguing against on this page, as a cutoff point as to what I consider “Clerith”, I mean people who think that if Aerith stayed alive, that Cloud would have chosen her over Tifa, even if Cloud regained his memories. The weak Clerith claim is:

“Cloud loves both Tifa and Aerith, however, because the things Aerith and Cloud go through, his feelings for her, whether they’re valid or not, have caused him to prefer Aerith over Tifa, this might change after years of being with Tifa, but the story the developers wanted to tell is that had Aerith never died, Cloud would have chosen her, Tifa is second choice”.

The strong Clerith Claim is:

“Tifa and Cloud are just childhood friends, nothing more. Final fantasy VII is a story about how Cloud tragically lost the woman he loved, and afterwards, he continues to pine for Aerith. He continues to look for her after death because he continuous to love her romantically, this is the intended endgame of the story that the developers are telling”

[silver-wield]

tbh after playing the remake, I get the appeal of CA, because it's a familiar manic pixie dream girlfriend type love story. It even plays into the tragic boy loses girl trope which helps frame it as some grand romantic story. and yeah they're cute, and they definitely have a special connection. I think I could ship it if not for the whole rest of the story. It's a relationship that has the potential to become romantic, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. 1/5

The remake is doing a great job on untangling a lot of the ambiguity the OG left us with. Yes, Cloud could develop feelings for Aerith and vice versa, but the remake is planting so many seeds that confirm he currently has feelings for Tifa (which she reciprocates) and I don't think it's possible for any feelings he might develop for Aerith to overcome these feelings he has harboured since childhood. 2/5

Unfortunately those feelings are something he cannot fully understand because of his comprimised mental state. But you can clearly see that his deep affections for Tifa and desire to protect her stay with him despite that (as can Aerith). The problem with the OG (other than having to potray this incredibly complex subversive nuanced story through text and polygons) is that the LS scene recontextualize so much of who Cloud is, but by that time people had already made their conclusions. 3/5

With the remake you can see them trying to fix this by having a constant thread of romantic undertones to all of cloti's interactions. The CA relationship meanwhile is potrayed with these moments that play into romantic tropes and expectations. The bridge scene is flashy and grand and draws the attention, but it doesn't carry the substance that a single hand-clech does. 4/5

It's meant to be a smokescreen to the real story - just as Cloud is not the hero you think he is, the love story is also not the one you think it is. And that's what makes FF7 so great. It's all about the subversions of what you expect - it's about the truth underneath these grand and compelling illusions that is complicated and real but still just as beautiful. 5/5

Okay, first off I don’t see how anyone can play Remake with Cloud being biggest mood around Aerith and find that appealing. Personally I think it’s the most toxic and harmful behaviour in the entire game when he’s alone with her and she’s literally trying to force him to act like her dead boyfriend. There is zero appeal in that and it’s not cute how she behaves, it’s arrogant and self serving. Like I said in a different post (or maybe a tweet) both Sephiroth and Aerith use Cloud to fulfill their own selfish desires. Sephiroth needs Cloud to destroy the planet by getting him the black materia, and Aerith wants Cloud to emulate Zack so she can fool herself into believing he didn’t die. In both cases what Cloud wants doesn’t even factor into things. That harmful dynamic doesn’t give them a special relationship. It mirrors Cloud’s relationship with Sephiroth in that it hurts him. Aerith and Sephiroth are two sides of a coin and the whole isn’t anything that benefits Cloud. Even after they’re both dead they continue to harm him through their obsession with him. It’s only at the end of AC when they’re both truly gone from his life completely that he’s able to smile and be at peace. He has no stalkers in DC and that’s why he’s so cheerful. He gets to live happily with Tifa and not worry about ghosts coming after him. It has zero potential to become anything because to make that a thing, you need to totally destroy everything else about the story and characters themselves. You have to take away Zack being Cloud’s best friend and saviour, at which point he’s just dead. You have to take away Tifa being his motivation to become a soldier, at which point he’s dead cause Sephiroth still comes to Nibelheim and burns it. Point is, there is no way that dumdum dinghy is possible without removing Cloud and most of his personality from FF7, at which point he’s just a pretty face, so people should just go write AU fanfiction and admit they wanna bang the pretty boy and not deal with his canon personality and story. 

There wasn’t any ambiguity in OG because 7R is FF7 and the devs have said multiple times the story is the same as before. The problem back then was a poor translation, bad advertising and people refusing to follow the narrative to its proper conclusion. Cloud at no point in OG or any of the compilation could develop feelings because it’s shown in the entire compilation that he has always and will always love Tifa. Before Crisis he loves Tifa. Crisis Core he loves Tifa. OG he loves Tifa. AC he loves Tifa. DC he loves Tifa and Remake he loves Tifa. There’s zero room for anything with Aerith because his entire character arc is consumed with his desire for Tifa. It’s literally shown in the damn game that he’s in love with her. So, no, there never was any chance for Aerith, and I’m tired of people trying to entertain one by saying “if she lived”. Sorry, not sorry, if she lived Cloud is still in love with Tifa, so he never would, could or want to develop any feelings for Aerith. 

Cloud loves Tifa. It’s the goddamn plot. 

There isn’t any problem with the lifestream scene being the big reveal at that point in that game. The problem, again, is that people refused to follow the narrative to its logical conclusion and got hung up on their dumbass headcanon about Aerith. The entire premise of the game is built on illusion vs reality and yet some people still refuse to wake up and see reality. The game spells it out for everyone. They got so triggered over her dying that they acted like the game ended at that point instead of it carrying on and reaching the actual true culminating arc where we find out Cloud wasn’t himself this entire time. People seem to think Aerith dying is the plot and that she’s the main character or something. It’s Cloud’s game. The plot revolves around him. That’s why the lifestream scene is the apex of it. 

It’s Cloud’s story, not Aerith’s. 

I’ve pointed out several times how Aerith’s optional scenes in Remake show that Cloud is barely even a fixture. Her language of flowers you barely have Cloud in shot while she’s doing all that talking. She’s basically talking to the player. Her optional dress scenes show the illusion for what it is. That bridge is tiny and yet in the red dress is looks like this massive structure. I laughed my ass off when I spotted it. The pink dresses perspective shortens drastically for each one, with the funeral dress having Cloud standing nearest to Aerith, so that one’s probably closer to reality than that ott scene with random fireworks and fans popping up from nowhere. Not to mention the fact Aerith’s entire figure is padded out to fill that dress and she’s got hair extensions in and a ton of make up and the ost is actually called a mess of makeup or something like that and not a certain gaudiness. I mean, Madam M tried to turn Aerith into Tifa to win the bride contest and beat Sam. The game makes things very clear that the illusion is Aerith and the reality is Tifa, and players can’t turn Aerith into Tifa to make Cloud notice her no matter how hard they wanna believe they can. Her resolution literally has her repeating her OG lines from the GS about how Cloud isn’t himself, but she also arrogantly assumes he fell in love with her or would because she’s arrogant. It’s a character trait that again mirrors Sephiroth’s arrogance. It’s what gets them both killed in the end. Aerith underestimates Sephiroth and Sephiroth underestimates Cloud. 

And we already saw what Cloud had to say about her declaration cause he only ever refers to her as a friend and didn’t show any romantic behaviour when he rescued her. Unless “Yep” is the height of romance now. It’s not that the romance isn’t the one you think it is. It’s that it’s the one you ignored and acted like wasn’t important because you hate the heroine. Tifa and Cloud are together from start to finish, but because people decided the pink girl was more important they acted like Tifa had no right to what was hers from the beginning. She didn’t get between Cloud and Aerith. There never was any Cloud and Aerith. It was always Tifa. She just took what was always hers and kept it. 

Anyone who doesn’t understand that should try playing the game cause it’s clear they didn’t.

[bebopboyfriend]

2 and 15!

2. Does your insert have a very strong relationship with a f/o, maybe more than one? Tell us a little about the dynamic they have! This can be a bond that’s romantic, familial, or platonic, anything - even an enemy would count as a strong relationship!

Yes, definitely! And more than one! I’m going to start with Vince’s familial dynamic with Tifa. Then I’ll get to Jessie’s relationship with Vince, and maybe some friends as well. 

For starters, Vince and Tifa are siblings. They’re not blood related, but they might as well be. The two of them met as young teenagers, and had a familial bond since then. Vince does see Tifa as an older sister figure, even though the two are around the same age. They’ve worked together at Seventh Heaven for a long time, and they have such an undeniable bond. Vince would do anything for Tifa, and she would do the same. 

As for romantic, Jessie and Vince are dating! Well not at first, but they eventually get together and fall in love. Their dynamic is really lovely, because they’re both upbeat people with strong personalities. In the beginning, Vince is easily flustered by Jessie because of his crush on her. Jessie uses this to flirt with Vince, and it makes her laugh to fluster him. But slowly as they get closer, Vince eases up and they have a more silly dynamic as significant others. They love each other so deeply though, despite their carefree dynamic. Being in Avalanche helps the two work well together, and got them to develop feelings as they learned more about one another. 

With Vince’s platonic dynamics, he’s very close with Wedge, Barret, and Aerith! 

15. Does your insert have any enemies? What’s that dynamic like? Why are they enemies? Did they ever get along in the past? Is patching up differences out of the question for the future?

Man oh man is this an ask! I want to say that Biggs and Vince would be enemies but he’s not even worth the title since he’s just.. there. If I’m thinking seriously about this, maybe Roche and Vince would be enemies. We’re ignoring the fact that my other ff s/i is with Roche but that’s another au so we’re ignoring that. But in this timeline, Roche and Vince are enemies! Their dynamic is mutual respect for the most part, but they just fight with each other because they’re insane. I think Roche doesn’t even want to take on Vince as an opponent at the beginning because he’s thinking that Vince isn’t worthy enough to fight him like Cloud is. They’re just enemies because Roche wants to mess with Avalanche. They didn’t ever really get along, but will eventually get to know one another. It’s definitely something for the future! They’ll become friends in this au, so they’ll eventually simmer down and stop being crazy for no reason. 

[synnefo-nefeli]

I’m a die hard Clerith shipper since 1997, you can’t change my mind but the one thing I won’t tolerate in FFVII aside from shipping wars, is anyone shitting on Tifa.

Don’t. You can like Clerith without hating Tifa. You can find other reasons to not to like Tifa as character, that isn’t “I don’t like her because she gets in the way of my ship”

Personally, Tifa isn’t one of my top tier FF characters, but I am not going to ignore how much of a badass and important person Tifa is to Cloud’s story.

People cite Aerith’s death and burial as the most important moment of FFVII, and yes it’s heartbreaking and an iconic scene. But you know what’s also an important scene?

Tifa in the lifestream with Cloud setting his memories straight. Tifa who up until this moment unbeknownst to the player, is aware that Cloud as he’s presented himself thus far *isnt* the Cloud he thinks he is. She’s been patiently going along with Cloud’s story trying to figure out *what happened* to him/ how he appeared in Midgar boasting of being a SOLDIER while clearly suffering from Mako poisoning/how will she ultimately break this story to him.

Think how hard it was for her to watch Cloud have ptsd episodes and not know how to ground him other than to say “it’s okay. Pull yourself together, let’s keep moving”, because she doesn’t know how or why Cloud is suffering.

But then they fall into the Lifestream together and Tifa helps Cloud sift through the memories warped and altered by the poisoning and Cloud’s severe PTSD.

Only Tifa could help Cloud here- she’s the only one on the Team who has known Cloud since they were young/understands Cloud’s motivations for wanting to become stronger in joining SOLDIER.

This part of the game is beautiful and emotional, and very ahead of it’s time in its portrayal and meta-discussion of PTSD; Cloud isn’t magically healed and back to normal, he never will be, be he’s reclaimed his identity enough that he can begin to heal. I’m replaying the original atm and the moment still holds and I’m hoping that the remake nails this moment. It’s as important and impactful to Cloud as a character as Aerith’s death.

Speaking of Aerith.  Aerith and Tifa become friends from the jump.  Aerith is so respectful of Tifa that twice she makes sure that she isn’t encroaching on Cloud and Tifa’s relationship. She asks Cloud if Tifa is his girlfriend, she reassures Tifa in Don Cornero’s Mansion that she’s not there to steal Cloud from her.  

And yeah, Aerith isn’t trying to steal Cloud or anything - she helped a cute buff guy recover from a fall, asked him for an escort because this time the Turks brought backup to capture her, and got swept up in the ensuing events.  

Hell, Aerith is ride or die for Tifa BEFORE THEY EVEN FORMALLY MEET EACH OTHER. Aerith sees Tifa being carted off to Wall Market and her “some bad shit’s about to happen to this woman if we don’t move NOW” senses go off.  

Cloud’s like “oh let me take you home first and I’ll get my teammates...” and Aerith’s like “YOU NAIVE FOOL? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO CUTE GIRLS IN WALL MARKET? (tbh, considering how naive Cloud can be, I am going with ‘nope’.) WE GOTTA GO! QUICK GET INTO THIS SEXY DRESS BECAUSE MR. SOLDIER YOU’RE NOT COMING UP WITH A BETTER PLAN WE CAN WORK WITH!!” Aerith drives the entire plan to get into the Don’s mansion. She negotiates the dress, the wig, the makeup, EVERYTHING, to make sure that Cloud can pass as a women to come into the Mansion with her.  

Heck, Aerith was going to go into the mansion HERSELF to get Tifa when the guard was like “No dudes allowed.” The only reason they went looking for dresses in Cloud’s size, was because Cloud got all “No, I can’t let you go in there a lone if it’s as bad as you think it is”, (as if he hadn’t just spent the last day with this woman watching her completely kick ass in battle). So Aerith was like, “Fine, you wanna come with me? Get in the Silk Dress, Cloud” with the same energy as Shinji’s Dad.

And when Aerith gets captured, Tifa was like “WE GOTTA GO AND SAVE HER FROM SHINRA!” as well as protecting Aerith through the whole ShinRa office building mission when the groups had to split up.  So yeah, these two queens love and respect each other from the get-go, they put Cloud in his place, tease the shit out of him and Barret, probably had hair-braiding trains at camp, and support the hell out of each other . 

Also, as we see from the rest of FFVII and in AC, Tifa is devastated by her friend’s death and continues to grieve with Cloud.  Tifa is emotionally intelligent enough to see that Cloud’s grief and guilt over Aerith’s death is killing him, but also respects his need for space.  However, when she finds that he has Geostigma and has staying away from everyone so he can just waste away and die as some sort of penance for not being able to save Aerith and zack, she get’s PISSED at him. Tifa is instrumental in bringing Cloud back (again) to his senses.  Making him see, that he doesn’t only belong to himself, he belongs to their family, just as much as they belong to him. The love and fierce protection Cloud has for his family?  They have that for him and believe he’s more than worthy of that love. Tifa takes none of Cloud’s mopey and self-loathing bs, and sets him straight.

So if you think Tifa is only there for fan-service, an annoying bitch who is there to be jealous of Aerith, is there just to make a love triangle so SE can pander to fans on both sides, you clearly

a) didn’t play the games b) missed one of the best female relationships and examples of women supporting women in gaming c) missed how equally important both Aerith and Tifa are to Cloud in their own ways

IMO I see her and Cloud as platonic soulmates- kinda like Black Widow and Hawkeye- they have history, they have shared trauma from their childhoods and in the destruction of Nibelheim, they know what it’s like to grow up in a poor country town that’s been exploited by Shinra on so many levels from the natural resources to it’s culture of military indoctrination and idealization.

Yes, there was an innocent first love, but after certain events, to me- it’s moved beyond romantic attraction between them. They’re always going to be important to each other and in each other's lives.  

Their innocent first love to me, mirrors Zack and Aerith’s, but Aerith moved on and fell in love with Cloud. Yes, Cloud reminded her of Zack, she probably wanted to remain close to Cloud to get closure on what exactly happened to him. 

People often forget, Aerith *knows* Zack’s died and returned to the Lifestream in the way that she knew her adoptive mother’s husband had died before word reached them. When she has her awkward moment in Gongaga it’s not because she’s now realizing that he’s dead, she’s now realizing that these are Zack’s parents and they still don’t know what became of their son. Zack was scrambled into Cloud’s memories due to trauma and because Zack was someone Cloud looked up and was his ideal, combined with the fact that Zack was the only person talking to Cloud for 9 months as Zack carried his catatonic self back to Midgar. But Cloud didn’t *become* Zack, only Zack’s plans of becoming a mercenary and being a former SOLDIER were impressed upon him. If Cloud actually became Zack he would have been chipper, this energetic “I’m a hero!” all around good-guy hero Zack made himself out to be. The Cloud we first meet...isn’t- yes he thinks he’s a former SOLDIER turned merc, but he’s sardonic, arrogant, and too much of “tough guy/lone wolf”...he’s more like his child-like self who was made to feel like an outsider and wants to showoff how much cooler and stronger he’s become.  He didn’t find Aerith because Zack was some how possessing him.  Aerith and Cloud meeting was destiny, and their subsequent relationship is independent of their past histories with Zack. And if Aerith is interested in Cloud because she reminds him of Zack - well...the woman is allowed to have a type.

I digress.

Cloud was in love with Tifa in that - “hey! notice me! If I go off an become this awesome guy, I’ll be worthy of your attention” sort of way, that teens get.  He was a lonely kid, often bullied by the other children in the village (Tifa included), and probably didn’t know *why* he wanted Tifa’s attention- it was most likely Tifa had the most social capital among the kids. And despite her hot/cold treatment of him,Cloud who was desperate to prove himself, figured that if he somehow “won” Tifa’s attention, it would “show them”.  I am not saying that Cloud was using Tifa or didn’t care about her- he does love her. He blamed himself for not being strong enough to save her when she tried climb Mt. Nibel.  But you can’t ignore that his thirst to prove himself wasn’t wrapped up in his crush.  It’s your typical “become a hero, get the girl” idealization.  Cloud was 14 when he left Nibelheim for Shinra’s military. He was a child, just like Tifa, with a naive idea about how the world worked- and the world slapped them both in the face, HARD.  Relationships mature and change over time. Outside forces can and will shift your dynamics in how your relate to the people you love.  Sometimes your first crush, becomes one of your very best friends (happened to me personally so maybe this informs my take on Cloud and Tifa) because when you’re young you don’t understand that loving someone, outside of your nuclear family, isn’t only constrained to romance. This is what I believe happened to them. Cloud and Tifa had the quintessential school yard crush, and when they were reunited years later in Midgar, they still care deeply for each other in a different way than they did when they were 14 and 13.

But those are MY feelings, it’s how I play the game’s attraction mechanics; I am afforded to shape Cloud’s relationships as I, the gamer, see fit. I understand why Cloti shippers ship Cloud and Tifa, and they’re just as valid as Clerith, Zarith, Clack, etc.. but I’m a sucker for M/F platonic soulmates because there needs to be MORE of that in media. I rather Cloud and Tifa be platonic soul mates, co-parenting Marlene and Denzel with Barret, than Cloud “settling for Tifa because Aerith died”. which that explanation for Cloud x Tifa, often used by Clerith shippers, just undermines who Tifa is as a character and her’s and Cloud’s relationship.

But anyway, even though I don’t ship them and Tifa is not my #1 girl for VII, she is a vital character. She’s not there for fan-service.  She’s not there exclusively for a love triangle and to cause tension between Aerith and Cloud.  Tifa is VITAL to Cloud’s story, to the story of VII, to the planet of Gaia. You wouldn’t have VII’s core story without Tifa. And I will go to the mat for her just as hard as Aerith did when she saw Tifa in the cart bound for Wall Market.

So again: you may not ship her with Cloud, or she may not be your fave in VII, but in this house we forever respect the badass queen whose name is Tifa Lockhart

[variabels]

It’s a mess and I forgot some ships lol.

Link is shipped with 11 people, down 1 from last time. Peach with 8, one up from last time. Samus ties with her once again. Lucina's up to 7. Pit got 6 again and Marth’s tied with him. Obviously, Piranha plant is the most shipped since it’s shipped with everyone.

List and useless explanations:

OTP: Roy x Marth, they're my mains lol... But like, there's kind of an unintended story line with them. Roy was short in Melee but then he left in Brawl. Then he came back and was taller and different from Marth in 4. Now he's definitely taller in Ultimate and he's looking to be one of the best swordfighters in the game, it's kinda like Roy's proving himself to Marth. And now Marth's side taunt is "I won't lose!" just like Roy's. It's goes from Roy trying to be like Marth and looking up to him to him becoming Marth's equal. It was the first SSB ship I got into because of the "if you were gay" animation. And it's like the hottest ship in Smash Bros since Roy's really hot. Love: Mario x Pauline, I fucking forgot to put it. Mario x Peach, no explanation needed. Link x Zelda/Sheik, the fact that they're from different time lines made the ship more interesting. Link x Peach, I love it, it's cute and I love the idea of Peach having a crush on him. Link x Marth, it's hot, it's cute, you can have them love each other, hate each other. Underrated af. Link x Pit, I love rival ships. They're really cute together. Link x Ike, yeah, I love shipping Ike with short people. They're hot together. Kirby x Jigglypuff, they're both pink puffs. Kirby x Meta Knight, it's so cute. I headcanon Kirby as pretending to be a baby so that Sakurai treats him nicely when he's actually pretty mature and has fucked your mom. Ignore the last part. Luigi x Daisy, they need to get laid. Ness x Lucas, they're so cute together and they've got powers in common. Marth x Caeda, the only woman for Marth's heart. Lucina x Inigo, I always put them together in Awakening. Lucina x Shulk, futuuuuuuurrrrreeeeeeee!!!!!! Lucina x Samus, it's hot. Roy x Lilina, sometimes I forget that it's not canon. I headcanon that Roy's got a thing for blue hair and blue eyes. Chrom x Robin, they're perfect together. I can't play Awakening without having them get married. It makes the game so much better. Even the devs ship it. I'm so glad Robin can fight alongside her husband in Ultimate. Ike x Pit, now that PoR!Ike is back, it's better. They're really cute together. I think their personalities work great together. Ike x Soren, why isn't it canon? It's better than all the canon fe ships. If there's a RD remake, I hope it's possible to make them canon. Samus x Snake, it's a great ship. It doesn't feel as childish as Samus x Little Mac/Captain Falcon. Love it! Samus x Bayonetta, I really started shipping it when Bayo came out since they're both the most mature ladies in Smash. Samus x Palutena, hot. Bayonetta x Palutena, they adopted Kirby and Joker and now I ship them. Palutena x Lucina, the screenshot lol. Wii Fit x Little Mac, they're both fit. Cloud x Sephiroth, foe yay... Cloud x Tifa, Tifa's best girl. Diddy x Dixie, why is my girl not in smash? Like: Mario x Daisy, it's cute for when I want a break of the usual ships. Link x Corrin, anything with Link is cute. Link x Cloud, two hot blonds, add in some rivalry and you've got a hot ship. Link x Shulk, Link x anyone is cute. Link x Roy, I prefer them both with Marth but they're still cute together. Link x Lucina, I really ship Link with a shit ton of people. Fox x Falco, they have ho yay. Fox x Wolf, they have foe yay. Pikachu x Jigglypuff, kawaii. Luigi x Peach, look at Mario x Daisy. Peach x Bowser, Bowser's crush on Peach is cute okay... Peach x Daisy, tbh I think Peach would prefer this over the Mario bros. Peach x Pit, I can't remember why I ship it but it's cute. Zelda x Peach, hot. Zelda x Samus, hot. Marth x Pit, sometimes I want a Marth ship that's pure fluff and shitting on Link 24/7. Cloud x Marth, it's really hot. Lucina x Corrin, they're cute together. Lucina x Richter, echo x echo Ike x Roy, I once spoke to a person who shipped it and after thinking about it, it's pretty damn hot. Like SSBU could be seen as f**k Marth, Roy and Ike are the true ship. That's how Chrom happened. Game & Watch x R.O.B., 2D x real life, what could go wrong? Pit x Dark Pit, it's cute but I wish Dark Pit looked less like Pit but then it wouldn't really be dark Pit... Pit x Viridi, she's lying about her crush on Link, Cloud, Roy... I know you like him, Viridi! Samus x Captain Falcon, CF loves her. Samus x Little Mac, cute height difference. Samus x Wii Fit, hot. Mewtwo x Lucario, I like to think of them as the smart pokemon who have to deal with the other pokemon's shit. Sonic x Amy, my ship from when I was nine with one bonus year. Rosalina x Peach, hot. Wii Fit x Palutena, hot. Shulk x Robin, cute, I prefer it with M!Robin. Ryu x Ken, cute but I don't really know anything about Street Fighter. Inkling x Inkling, Candy's comics are cute but they're gone now Tolerate: Samus x Dark Samus, don't really know much about their relationship tbh. Ness/Lucas x Popo/Nana, they're kids but I don't really care about them. Peach x Wario, I read a fic once, it was pretty funny. Zelda x Ganondorf, eh... Ike x Cloud, I saw a pic once but haven't really explored it. Lucas x Toon Link, they both blond bois. Wolf x Isabelle, they're canines and I've seen it a bit on Tumblr. Red x Green, I don't know if they're actually supposed to be Red and Green. Mii x Mii Wii Fit Trainer x Wii Fit Trainer, fit. Dislike: Ike x Zelda, if you play Ike's games you know Ike x princesses doesn't work out. Roy x Lucina, doesn't click with me, Marth works better with Roy imo. Bayonetta x Pit/Dark Pit, it's weird because Bayo kills angels and the Pits look too young for her. Pit x Samus, there are better Samus ships than this. Ike x Samus, after playing Ike's games, I can't really ship him with any girls. Hate: The incest ships Link x Toon Link x Young Link, it's weird because of the age gaps. Marth x Peach, I don't like it romantically, but I like them as unexpected friends. Marth x Zelda, I headcanon that Marth hates her because of "stow your fears, it's now or never". Marth x Samus, Marth x any girl that isn't Caeda feels wrong tbh... Ike x Marth, despite shipping them with the same people, I hate them together. Pit x Palutena, she's more like his mom. Robin x Lucina, Robin's banging her dad so yeah... BROTP: Mario bros, of course. Pikachu and Samus, you know why. Pichu and Dark Pit, Candy's comics :3 Ike and Roy, they're bros. They went to the gym together and they trained Chrom. Snake and Isabelle, he protecc. Cloud and Isabelle, BROTP. Don't even try to hurt Isabelle in Cloud's presence. Bayonetta and Joker, she adopted him. OT3: Link x Marth x Roy, the Melee trio. It's hot and cute. Ike x Link x Pit, a mix of ho yay with a bit of foe yay :3 Any yuri combination Joke ships: Yoshi x Eggs Kirby/Ike/Dedede x Food, Marth x his tiara, GOAT Squirtle x soup, turtle soup to be specific Venusaur x Piranha Plant, they're plants Charizard x Fire Alph x Olimar R.O.B. x Marth's iPhone, Truly my greatest creation Villager x Money Mega Man x Chargers Greninja x Nerfs, better nerf Greninja Pac-Man x dots Duck Hunt Duo x Screentime in my fanfic Ridley x Confirmations K Rool x his crown, aka discount Marth x his tiara Incineroar x Catnip Piranha Plant x Everyone

[namixart]

To start off 2019 with some positivity, I'm going to make a list of things that I absolutely love and make me happy in my favourite shows, movies, books, games etc. Small things, big things, no particular rhyme or reason. It was surprisingly therapeutic. Feel free to reblog and add your own!

Link being left-handed now let him use sign language Nintendo please

The entire Sector 6 Market section in Final Fantasy VII and the Honeybee Inn in particular

Zuko's character arc

The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

Final Fantasy X's worldbuilding

Everything about Disney's Mary Poppins it put me in a good mood for three days straight

How Percy absolutely adores his mum and is supportive of her relationship with Paul (after a while)

Edward Elric

(Yes. Just Edward Elric as a character, person, concept, actions...)

Major character design kink: boys with long (ish) blonde hair (see Edward, Link, Zidane, Howl)

Final Fantasy IX's soundtrack

Aerith and Tifa being close friends despite both being in love with Cloud

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence's worldbuilding

The fact that one of the characters in Zootopia speaks with my city's accent in the Italian dub (you never see it in any movie)

Final Fantasy IV's world being just vague enough that it tickles my creative bone to expand on it

Kingdom Hearts I using original storylines for the Disney Worlds

How Yato's eyes are very a very clear indication that he's a supernatural being in Noragami, being unnaturally light and bright

That one panel in the Kingdom Hearts II manga where an almost-naked Pete carries Maleficent bridal style out of the collapsing tower

Sleeping Beauty's art style and instrumental soundtrack

The fact that two super popular shonen manga/anime have leads who are super smart instead of being dumb muscle or the stock happy-go-lucky-not-very-bright protagonist (Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia)

How some of the Olympians like Hermes and Poseidon are so casual when interacting with mortals

The scene where the Spaceport is revealed in Treasure Planet and the look of the film in general

The first few chapters of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga before card games took over the plot

People in the Gentleman Bastard Sequence being emotionally honest despite being literal con artists

The theatre motif in The Republic of Thieves

Cloud, Aerith and Tifa threatening Don Corneo, but especially Aerith saying that "she'll rip it off" if he doesn't cooperate

Locke and Jean becoming pirates in Red Seas Under Red Skies

The Hunger Games movies being the most accurate film adaptations I have seen in my life

The Kingdom Hearts soundtrack, especially the vocal tracks, Dearly Beloved and The Other Promise

Final Fantasy VI shoving you in what usually is the backstory of a videogame and literally destroying the world

Edward defending Mustang when he had his sight taken from him despite them having spent 90% of their screentime together bickering

Tony Stark and Peter Parker's relationship in the MCU

Sophie throwing a tantrum after she realises she's in love with Howl and creating deadly weedkiller to express those feelings

Darcy being a goddamn social Disaster in every incarnation of Pride and Prejudice

The relationship between Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye

The Once Upon a December sequence from Anastasia

The mere existence of Zamira Drakasha and Ezri Delmastro and everything they represent

Sokka's role as both the strategist and the goofball in the Gaang

Peter Parker sharing a hot dog with Loki when he could have asked for anything because Loki owed him a favour

How the plot of Kingdom Hearts is so ridiculous we don't even question it anymore

Enormous muscly men I can still categorise as "super adorable and sweet" (Major Armstrong, All Might)

Howl being the biggest drama queen in the book

My Hero Academia's fantasy AU ending

Spider-Man (PS4) nailing the Friendly Neighbourhood Spidey aspect of the character and letting him interact with civilians

That moment when I was sure Bakugou was going to join the League of Villains but then he didn't and I've never been happier about being wrong my entire life

Zuko practising before asking the Gaang to join them

SNAP SNAP SPARK SPARK

Harry's wonder at every new thing in the Wizarding World

The fact that Spider-Man's backstory could just as easily be that of a villain but instead he's a hero and he has the biggest heart

Jake and Amy being in an Adult and Communicative relationship while still being themselves and each other's best friend

Winry being just as much of a prodigy as Ed and Al and building Ed's automail at 11 years old

Percy Jackson starting out as a standard straight white kids' series and Riordan adding ALL THE DIVERSITY as soon as it got popular enough that Disney couldn't say no

Charlie Weasley just outright trespassing into Hogwarts to smuggle an illegal dragon out

The soul and essence of Pride and Prejudice being passive-aggressiveness and sarcasm

Apollo's haikus in Trials of Apollo

Every scene using Deep Canvas in Tarzan

Winry and Edward's diametrically opposed reactions to the realisation they're in love ("Oh I guess I've fallen for him alright moving on" vs "Fuckfuckfuckfuck oh shit no why oh god aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh")

Lilo & Stitch's watercolour backgrounds

The fact that Roy Mustang's womanising persona is a facade to hide the fact that he's a) a huge nerd, b) going to overthrow the government and c) in love with his lieutenant

The "makings of greatness" speech in Treasure Planet

Spider-Man (PS4)'s swelling score as you start web swinging

The Battle of 1000 Heartless in Kingdom Hearts II

Sophie proudly describing Howl to Abdullah, him assuming she was listing flaws and her getting angry about it

Edward and Alphonse being atheists despite having literally met their version of God

The fact that Amajiki is one of the top three hero students despite his crippling anxiety

Rubicante recognising Edge as a warrior and apologising for Lugae's horribleness

Edge unlocking new powers out of sheer rage

Sora throwing a tea party at the end of Dream Drop Distance while his best friend was still asleep

The backstory in Skyward Sword about Hylia and the first Link

The "immoral manga" omake in Fullmetal Alchemist

The School Festival arc in My Hero Academia, Eri finally smiling and Deku and Mirio being the best big brothers I've ever seen

Kingdom Hearts III finally coming out this month

McGonagall's cat form resembling her human form

Edward finally breaking down at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist god I love this boy so much he has such a big heart

The Enlarged Suit Scene from Howl's Moving Castle

Most of Howl’s Moving Castle is a delight to be honest

Kairi's reaction at the news that she would be training with Axel in A Fragmentary Passage

The bonfire scene in Cosmo Canyon from Final Fantasy VII

Uraraka deciding not to focus on her crush on Deku in order to grow as a hero

Rydia summoning Titan and raising a mountain at the ripe age of seven in Final Fantasy IV

The friendship between Percy, Annabeth and Grover

Kairi and Lea looking like they're going to be a team in Kingdom Hearts III

Greed (at least the second one) claiming that his goal in life is to have everything when in fact he only ever really wanted friends

The Main Theme of Final Fantasy playing during the scene where the characters not in the final battle pray for the party in Final Fantasy IV

The Overture from Phantom of the Opera

Locke Lamora from the Gentleman Bastard Sequence being named after Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI

Luna Lovegood never having to change who she is and remaining weird and happy

Terra Branford becoming more human by feeling not romantic love but maternal love for a bunch of orphaned children

The "You're not alone" scene from Final Fantasy IX

Darcy respecting Elizabeth's refusal of his first proposal and working to become a better person after she points out his many flaws

Neku learning to open up to people in The World Ends With You and literally saving Shibuya through character development

Bakugou's slow development into a better person

The sketchy animation during Disney's Dark Age

The official character artwork for Skyward Sword

Harry and Sirius's relationship

Spider-Man being a street-level hero and being super humble even though he can literally lift Thor's hammer

That little high-five between Sora and Remy in the 30 seconds trailer for Kingdom Hearts III

Rosa and Rydia immediately ignoring the boys' order to not come to the Moon and stowing away on the Lunar Whale

Plus Edge's adorable "Y-you're here too!?" in the DS remake

Cloud not being allergic to smiling and joking around in the original Final Fantasy VII ("Let's mosey!")

Thor and Loki starting to mend their relationship in Ragnarok

Into The Spider Verse has a scene where Miles uses Spider-Man comic books to figure out how to use his powers and it's the best and I love it

You know what, Into The Spider Verse as a whole because I saw it a while back and I'm still gushing

[theycallmeeljefe]

Cleriths need to stop pretending that the amount of hate Aerith gets vs Tifa is comparable.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Most people don’t hate Aetih. Even cloti shippers for the most part don’t hate Aerith. The reason is simple. Aerith is not a threat to the Cloud/Tifa relationship. Tifa on the other hand is the thing standing in the way of your clerith dreams. Which is why a stupidly high percentage of cleriths will talk shit about her. Even when professing they actually love the character. 

That being said I am curious why cleriths say Cloud have Tifa don’t have romantic interactions? I guess saying he will succeed at life because he has Tifa now and then building a home with her is meaningless? But Cloud feeling guilty that Aerith died is the height of romance? And that is just CoT/AC. And no he in fact does not “drives around the planet to meet her”.

Of course you follow up your lack of examples of Cloud being a douche to Tifa with zero examples of why Cloud and Aerith are perfect for each other. I guess we are just supposed to accept this as fact for some reason?

And now to shit on Tifa...this character you love. You start pulling randomly from the remake and AC. But let’s break this down. 

- Tifa chides him to be nice and smile more

That bitch! 

-  doesn't see how mentally unstable he is 

In the remake it seems Cloud has literally just arrived. In the OG he had been there like a month by the time the game started. But if the remake follows the OG then it will be shown that Tifa invites Cloud to stay with AVALANCH specifically because she is worried about him. But if you even played the OG I guess you just ignored that fact. 

-  doesn't give him comfort and makes him choose between her and 'memories' in AC.

Uh...Tifa in fact does offer him comfort. She wants Cloud to open up and not give up. His reluctance causes her to lose her temper. Because, and this must be said. CLOUD IS REFUSING TO ACT TO RESCUE THIER ADOPTED CHILDREN. And in a moment of despair she wonders if Cloud has chosen to wallow in guilt over saving his family. It is not as cleriths like to pretend “choose between me and Aerith”. This is literally the low point in the movie. Their children have been kidnapped. I repeat THIER CHILDREN HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED.

How fucking dare Tifa amirite?

-  In that case I think Zack or Rude would fit better for her. Rude actually likes her, no question asked there. And Zack is the heroic SOLDIER she wants Cloud to be.

Rude actually likes her? Actually likes her? You mean Rude confessed his love to her without words and these feelings are why he built a home with and started a family with Tifa? Or did just find her attractive and mention that once? 

And Tifa doesn’t give two shits that Cloud never became a soldier. The things she responds to are Cloud being his honest self.

And to let you in on one more little secret. Tifa does consider Cloud her hero. He has saved her multiple times. She loves him for him. Not for what he pretends to be. That was Aerith. 

@ all clotis: just because you feel the need to hate Aerith doesn't mean that we cleriths automatically hate Tifa too.

I know quite a few cleriths (me included) who love Tifa. And we love Cloud. I do love the whole goddamn VII cast.

Still I think Tifa deserves a better guy than Cloud. Cloud IS a douchebag to Tifa, none of their interactions are anywhere near romantic. Cloud does have his own room in AC and does live in Aeriths church AND drives around the planet to meet her. At the same time he's an adorable and awkward dork around Aerith.

Cloud and Aerith are perfect for each other cause they complete each other. Aerith sees through him, accepts him and comforts him when he needs it.

Tifa chides him to be nice and smile more, doesn't see how mentally unstable he is, doesn't give him comfort and makes him choose between her and 'memories' in AC. How fucked and selfish is that? In that case I think Zack or Rude would fit better for her. Rude actually likes her, no question asked there. And Zack is the heroic SOLDIER she wants Cloud to be. And she won't have to tell him to be nice and smile, cause he is a more open and positive character.

Also not everyone hates AC or how Cloud is there. It's still one of my fave movies that isn't from Marvel.

[silver-wield]

Hi there! I was wondering if you could actually make an analysis comparing the touches between Cloti and Clerith (including the times when he leans away/doesn’t lean away when they get close). I know this is a big ask since Cloti share about a million touches lol. You can ignore me if this is too much. Thank you for all your insightful analysis thus far. I’ve really enjoyed reading everything you’ve put out. It’s made my FF7R experience so much more fun 😊

Heya, nonny! It's finally your turn, but with a slight tweak to our usual programme! There's way too many touches to compare each directly, it'd be like trying to break down every single look and say which are romantic and which aren't.

That being said, it's easier to list how many times each pair touches, how and who initiated and whether that touch was returned turning it into a mutual touch. Because there's passive touching, where only one person is taking hold and there's mutual, when both are taking hold of each other. There's also who is dominant in the situation because that's telling of whether they have mutual respect for each other.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Let's mosey!

I figured I'd start with the shorter one, since it only goes over one screen and it's easy to break down.

Of the 18 chapters of the game, Aerith appears as a playable character for 8 of them. The rest are minor appearances for cut scenes only. This takes her total screen time to 11 chapters.

The amount of times Cloud says Aerith's name in total is 23 times, with an optional 24th if you choose her in the sewers at the start of chapter 10.

This is the only part of the game that's optional. All touches are non-optional. They all happen. The ultimania confirms the clotiscrew tunnel as having happened and the resolutions all happen within the same night, but we only witness one at a time – which is why it says in the play log we witnessed them. It's just the one we happened to see that changes.

Of that 23 times, Cloud says Aerith's name, he says it directly to her a total of 9 times, with the sewers adding an optional 10th.

Cloud speaks Aerith's name to others a total of 14 times. The chapter he says her name the most is during chapter 16 when he, Tifa and Barret talk about rescuing her. Because it'd be weird to call her “the ancient” or some other epithet when she's their friend. In fact, Cloud does refer to Aerith as their friend when talking about her as well.

What's interesting is that even after meeting her during chapter 8, Cloud doesn't say Aerith's name to her or about her until they meet Leslie in Chapter 9. In game, they've been together around 12hrs by this point and Cloud never once said her name. In comparison, Cloud says Tifa's name to her in the first chapter they're together. Chapter 3 also lasts around 12 hours.

Onto touching.

The total amount of times Cloud and Aerith touch in the entire game is 18. Or once per chapter if you want to spread it out lol

Most of the touches come from Aerith to Cloud, with only 2 mutual touches between them, which are the 2 high fives.

Cloud touches Aerith a total of 7 times. Most of those are “action touches” where he's saving her from danger. I bet it still counts to some people though, so let's drop the whole “action” bullshit. It's a touch.

I suppose if someone wanted to romantically code this chart then the damsel catch and face touch are the most romantic gestures. Yet, we know from Cloud that he had no interest in Aerith then because of how he acted. And the resolution left him confused, so from Cloud's pov, nothing he did with Aerith was romantic. He did his job as a bodyguard. Aerith was the one making the flirty gestures, but even those came from a place where she's the dominant partner and Cloud is the submissive one. Their interactions were not that of equals from her perspective.

The most times Aerith and Cloud touch is chapter nine: Wall Market. Not surprising. Aerith initiates touch a total of 3 times, always her right to his left. There's the mutual high fives which are both right hand to right hand and then Cloud touches Aerith once at Don Corneo's when he helps her up. That's his right hand to her right wrist.

There's a very notable save between them during the train graveyard against the ghost in the maintenance room where we can see that Cloud doesn't put his hand on Aerith at all and holds his arm out to the side. This is during the jump when he also has his arm around Tifa. Because Cloud puts his arms out for balance when he's jumping and is already off balance by his hold on Tifa, he's keeping his other arm extended and wedged Aerith against him, holding her in place with upper body strength alone. I counted it as a touch since they are touching, but his hand is nowhere near her.

As for the resolution. If people think that Aerith had control over whether she was solid enough to touch Cloud, but then his hand went through her, that's their business. I made the allowance that she did touch him, but he didn't touch her because his hand literally went through her.

Right or left hand?

The right hand is a symbol of strength and most people's dominant one. The left hand symbolises passivity and weakness. It's the one you see Cloud clenching when he feels like he's not strong, whereas when he wants to protect someone he clenches his right fist.

Now that's explained, the touches between Aerith and Cloud are predominantly her right hand touching his left side. Even when she uses both hands to grab him, she's grabbing his left wrist or hand. This suggests that she thinks Cloud is someone weak in need of her protection. She doesn't believe he is bodyguard material.

In terms of symbolism, Cloud considers Aerith more of an equal than she does him.

The one time she touches his right arm is during the train graveyard section when he's about to kill a ghost. She uses her left hand to touch his right arm and stop him. She then puts her other hand on him to reinforce her words. This is a moment when Cloud is strong and she's weak, but there's no protection here. Aerith is in the passive role, but still trying to protect someone else. The ghost. Cloud is the aggressor and she is pleading for the Ghost's existence. It's a contrasting moment to Tifa and Cloud with Johnny, where Tifa begs for the living and Aerith begs for the spiritual. It's a strong division between their two roles and outlooks, as well as Cloud's preference. With Tifa, he backs down and trusts her judgement. With Aerith, he questions it.

Yeah, this got long because Cloud wouldn't stop touching her lol

Tifa appears in the game for a total of 17 chapters, either as a child in a flashback or actually in the chapter. Only chapter 2 is missing her presence. She is playable for 15 chapters.

Cloud says Tifa's name a total of 37 times, with one extra as the optional choice in the chapter 10 sewers. Of that amount he says her name to her 28 (29) times and he says her name when she's not around 9 times. He even says her name during battle, which he doesn't do with anybody else.

He mostly says her name to her and makes a point of using a different tone when speaking to her to highlight his deep feelings for her. When he's speaking about her there's still that edge of softness, but it's less obvious since she's not there in person and he doesn't want to give himself away how much he cares about her.

Cloud and Tifa touch a whopping 61 times! Because there's no such thing as “optional touching”. You just chose not to witness it.

These are all individual touches. This means that one touch ends and then another touch begins. With the clotiscrew tunnel, Cloud has his hand on Tifa's back, that's one touch. He takes it off to brace against the ground. Then he puts it back on her. That's a second touch. In the list the first is under full body hug because that's how that touch began. The back caress is listed as its own touch because there was no reason for him to do that. When there's no reason to touch, but it happens, then it's its own touch.

Most of Tifa's touches are to Cloud's hand, arm, back or shoulder. She varies which hand she grabs him with depending on how insecure she's feeling at the moment and which side of him she's on. She shows weakness towards him at times, but predominantly her touches are her right to his right, showing that she views him as her equal. The times when she touches his left side, it's usually in a moment of weakness for herself, so she's touching him with her left hand.

Ex. the final dungeon when Tifa grabs Cloud. She starts off by holding his wrist with both hands, but he slips, leaving Tifa to clasp his left hand in hers. This is a moment of weakness for them both since she's not strong enough to pull him up. Barret appears and helps. The touch began by Tifa taking Cloud's wrist but became mutual when their hands held. This makes it a different touch than the initial wrist grab because Cloud returned it.

Cloud touches Tifa a lot. Like a stupid amount. There are several “action back hugs”, he grabs her around the waist a lot, and although in early chapters he took her wrist, after chapter 12 he also begins taking her hand.

During the train graveyard he literally uses his body as a shield, throwing himself on top of her (in case people wanted to question why I described it as “guards”)

The chapter 14 resolution I've listed as Cloud hugging Tifa, since her arms aren't around him. They're resting on his upper torso – which counts as a touch since she had to put them there – but this was Cloud hugging Tifa.

Cloud's touches towards Tifa are a lot more romantically coded than hers are to him. He caresses her back, grabs her around the waist, by the hand, props her between his legs and hugs her. Tifa is much more reserved in comparison, but her touches imply a lot of affection and desire to be close to him, while remaining respectful of his personal space.

No naming?

Cloud doesn't speak Aerith's name in 10 chapter out of 18.

He doesn't say Tifa's name in 2 chapters out of 18.

People can argue it's because he didn't know it before that point, and sure, okay, whatever, in that case he didn't say her name in 2 chapters, but to get that total you have to ignore 10 chapters of the game.

Oh wait. How many chapters does Aerith appear in? Sounds about right.

After her rescue, Cloud only says Aerith's name to her 3 times. This is in chapter 16 and 17 only because he says neither girl's name in chapter 18. In comparison, Cloud says Tifa's name 7 times in those same two chapters.

This shows that even when in the depths of a fear state, he knows he can rely on Tifa as a figure of support.

No touching?

You'll notice that in plenty of chapters there's zero touching at all between Cloud and anyone. That's because skinship isn't the point of the game and he's got bigger things happening in his life than who he's touching more.

After Cloud and co rescue Aerith you'll notice he doesn't touch her at all. Not once. During this part of the game, Cloud is in a fear state because of all the Jenova stuff, the experiments, Hojo, the drum, Sephiroth and so on. He's terrified and Aerith isn't someone he feels he can look to for comfort. During this part of the game, Cloud is mostly a silent background presence within the narrative. For the hero, that's very telling what state his mind is in. He doesn't return to that cocky SOLDIER persona until the Rufus fight.

Cloud also doesn't initiate touch with Tifa during these closing chapters, however he does engage in mutual touch by taking her wrist and hand.

“Action touching”

Since I'm sure some people would love to discredit a lot of the touches between Cloud and Tifa as necessary because he's saving her.

6 of the 7 actual touches from Cloud to Aerith are action touches. The Resolution where his hand goes through her is only an attempt and didn't succeed. Cloud is saving Aerith in every single one of them. The one touch from Cloud to Aerith that isn't an action touch is when he puts his hand on her shoulder after saving her from Eligor. During this moment, he doesn't make any kind of eye contact with her or checks to see she's ok. He doesn't ask if she's ok, either. He puts his hand on her shoulder, then turns to face Eligor. Of the two, it's Tifa who checks that Aerith is ok and reassures her; she also puts her hand on the same shoulder that Cloud did.

Of Cloud's touches to Tifa 22 are “action touches” with the remaining 11 being unnecessary. That means those touches happen when there's no threat to Tifa or himself or need for him to put his hands on her in a protective capacity.  

In the name of fairness, the 2 mutual touches between Cloud and Aerith are not action touches, whereas all 9 of the mutual touches between Cloud and Tifa are “action touches”.

Battle banter?

There is no downed or low health dialogue between Cloud and Aerith where he says her name. Cloud yells Tifa's name if she's knocked out and he asks if she's okay when she has low health.

In conclusion

Was this a stupidly long and involved way to waste my time on a replay? Yes. It fucking was. Why? Because it doesn't even fucking matter who said who's name more often or who touched who more often and how.

Cloud and Aerith began the game as literal strangers – one who Cloud didn't particularly like that much either – and then they slowly became friends by the end of the game. Cloud literally calls her his friend several times.

Aerith's touches are either her showing dominance towards Cloud by taking his left hand or arm, or they're flirty and irrelevant. She slaps his shoulder at one point, which isn't close to the kind of thing someone with an interest in another person does. Compare to Tifa who touches Cloud's shoulder, it's a marked difference between their attitudes towards him.

More telling is the fact that after Aerith rescues Tifa, there's only one moment she touches Cloud that's a purposely flirtatious gesture. It's the arm grab during the train graveyard. This is the only time she's purposely flirting with Cloud. Even then, Aerith grabs Cloud's left arm, signifying that he is not her equal in this exchange. Tifa takes the right arm, looping her left arm around his and placing her right hand on him, signifying she does consider him her equal.

After that there's only two other times in the entire game that Aerith touches Cloud. Her resolution when she uses her left hand to touch the left side of his face – signifying that she is feeling too weak to be a figure of strength and that Cloud is also weak. It's not a flirtatious gesture because her expression conveys regret. This is also a reference to the gold saucer date where Aerith laments not meeting the real Cloud. This Aerith knows Cloud isn't real and regrets she'll likely never meet him if her death remains as it was in OG.

The other time is during chapter 18 when she grabs his arm to stop him walking straight into the portal at destiny's crossroads. Again, she grabs his left wrist. Not romantic.

Cloud and Tifa began the game as old friends. They already have the foundation of knowing each other, not to mention their mutual crush. This means they're more eager to further intimacy. They want to touch each other. Cloud more so than Tifa because he's not long out of a mako coma and his last memory is her stabbed by Sephiroth and believing she died. Ofc he wants to touch her to reaffirm she's still there. Ofc he wants to push for that relationship he was too afraid to go for. And this is further impressed on us after the chapter 16 cut scene where he sees the vision of her being killed again. After that, not only does Cloud turn his head to look for Tifa, but he turns his entire body to reorient himself to her. Because he's terrified of losing her again.

Tifa has more reserve with her touches because she's aware something's wrong with Cloud and doesn't want to upset him. She's concerned and it shows. Her touches are very supportive and sympathetic. She's conscious of not pushing him or getting in his personal space. The one time she does break this unspoken rule is during her resolution and even then she's very mindful of not touching him more than necessary until he puts his arms around her. Then she puts both hands on his chest, but still able to maintain that respectfulness towards him.

So yeah, that's that.

I'm not gonna be providing a load of pics with this one because it's insane trying to illustrate every single touch between Cloud and Tifa. I probably could've added another category listing them by cut scene, but I literally didn't think of it until now and there's no way I'm going back over everything again.

Estimating Aerith's off the top of my head it's about 17 cut scenes worth of touching.

Tifa's is about 23 cut scenes worth.

So yeah, hope everyone's happy with the results lol

[silver-wield]

Do you have the language of flowers body language discovery event analysis? Would like to know your thoughts on it.

Okay, language of flowers discovery, which is something else that's all about Zack.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Let's mosey!

Recap time!

After completing all the quests in sector 5, which Cloud was not a happy bunny about, he and Aerith head back to her house because her mom made dinner. Before that, though, Aerith heads over to one of the flower beds and calls for Cloud to join her.

Just gonna add that this is completely avoidable if you ignore Aerith and go into the house, same as alone at last is avoidable if you go back to the bar. Because I did this. I checked it out. After some dumdum tried to say you can't skip it. Because you can.

Also, you have Marle in alone at last who stops Cloud for a chat, but here, it's just Cloud and Aerith with no one else for a pre-chat chat.

Yeah, that's Cloud's face the second we see him. I mean, the boi doesn't look impressed. He's like “da fuq?”

And when Cloud asks if Aerith's talking to the flowers, not that he even gets to finish that question, she shushes him. What's really interesting about that moment, is that although Aerith initially gives Cloud a bright smile like she's playing, before she's even brought her finger away from her lips she's giving him a less than pleased expression. Then there's the fact she shushed him at all. For people who say this is romantic, shushing somebody when they're trying to talk to you is rude.

And it's here that the black, white and red butterfly first appears and begins hovering near to Aerith. It stays around for the entire scene. The symbolism of this type of butterfly is drawn from several sources, but the overall implication is that it's a departed soul of a loved one. Since Aerith is obviously talking to Zack and not the actual flowers during this scene, the butterfly symbolises his presence beside her.

Aerith speaks the line about the day she had in a resigned tone, indicating she wasn't having as much fun as she made it seem. Aerith is someone who hides her feelings behind a bright smile – which is often misinterpreted by her fans as something it's not. She likely endured much of Cloud's bad mood just as much as he endured her. The meta knowledge she has says they're friends and she misses her friends because she gives each and every one of them a bright smile when they meet again, but she's also aware that she could hurt Tifa because of Cloud, so she's already making an attempt to keep him at a distance, while also trying to become friends with him again.

This is so obviously her thinking about Zack I shouldn't even have to bring it up. She looks like she's having a conversation with him, tilting her head, smiling and looking more happy than the entire time she's spent with Cloud. We get zero shots of Cloud during this. Instead, we get a shot of the flowers. Surely, if she's trying to engage with Cloud we'd see him? It's like he's been cut from the scene. There's no sounds from him to say he's part of the conversation and there's no reaction from him to show he's even still there. Aerith's focus is totally on that flower bed and Cloud could've left and I doubt she'd notice.

And if the fact she's ignoring Cloud isn't evidence enough, she's blushing here. After tilting her head to listen to something the flowers said and one touched another. So, a language of flowers kiss from Zack to Aerith and she sighs and blushes.

Zack's a bigger dork than Cloud.

And that butterfly is still hovering around Aerith, because one of the meanings of that kind of butterfly is that it shows up to chase away any potential rivals. Cloud isn't even a rival, but it's gonna make sure he doesn't get a chance to become one lol

We can't see Aerith's face exactly here, but her mouth is a straight line and she's looking at the ground with a vacant stare. Seems like she's lost in thought.

We still don't get to see Cloud's face during this. He's basically a totem that the audience is using to sit on so they can watch Aerith. It could literally be anybody standing there and we'd get the same result of that character being detached from what's happening because we don't get to see their reaction.

And then we get a mid range shot of the two of them standing pretty far apart with the butterfly flitting about between them. In the background we can see the house with its triangle windows, which are dark for now indicating the LTD aspect isn't lit up, which means we've not reached any LTD references yet. Which is interesting because in the OG we've had several before we reach Aerith's house.

That line is such a Zack thing to say there's no way she wasn't talking to him and imagining what he'd say to her. He died five days ago and she knows that, so it's actually heartbreaking that she'd choose something he'd say as a reply here. It shows how close they were that she'd know his speech patterns and phrases he'd use. It shows how much she loves him that even when she's hurting from his death she'd choose something he'd say just to try and bring herself closer to him.

And that butterfly is still between her and Cloud.

Cloud offers polite interest because he's been learning lessons and applying them. It's called character development and isn't that special seeing how he already asked Biggs about Jessie and then offered Wedge encouragement when he felt down all the way back in chapter 4. He didn't say anything with the level of importance of “if you wanna talk, I'm listening,” because he doesn't know Aerith, but he's trying to join in the conversation and not be such a closed off asshole to people.

Aerith they didn’t say anything, but she looks depressed as she says that because she wishes she could hear Zack’s voice. It’s in her downed dialogue that she hears his voice calling to her. 

Then we get Aerith looking at us. Because Aerith does that. A lot. Of all the cast who do a 4th wall break and look at the audience, Aerith does it the most and usually it results in her trolling the players. Which is hilarious and I support it!

Aerith shrugs and, still looking at the camera—us—says it's not like we'd believe her. This is so damn funny! She's basically saying even if she outright said to everyone that she loves Zack, she isn't interested in Cloud and actually likes Tifa and doesn't wanna be part of their toxic nightmare LTD that those people still wouldn't listen to her. And the look on her face when she says it is like “We've all tried for 23 years and you still won't listen.”

And Cloud barely gives her enough eye contact to suggest they're talking to each other and then dismisses her. Which feels like it relates to the meta message Aerith just gave about fans not listening to them.

Then he stops. Has another thought about not being an asshole. This is all soldier Cloud btw, I checked and there's none of those real Cloud hints we get around Tifa and and post resolutions.

Aerith seems surprised at this change in him, since she's not done anything to warrant it, but obviously she doesn't know about stuff he's done with Avalanche and anything outside of her general knowledge. She wouldn't know about Marle or the Jessie job or him flirting with Tifa or any of that. She only knows about him from what OG Aerith knows and she'd only know about Cloud from the moment they met.

And again, Aerith's looking at the flowers. Obviously this message is plot related and hints at Aerith's upcoming fate. She says it won't be much longer now, meaning she doesn't have much time left to live. The flowers having an important message to give her is one of those mysteries that we're not gonna get an answer to yet because it's something that's related more to how the flower metaphors unfold and isn’t part of any romantic context.

And when we cut back to where we can see Cloud we see he's not even looking at Aerith. Polite interest, like I said. He's not actually interested. But the butterfly is still flitting around Aerith, so it cares at least.

Then we get a shot of Aerith's right hand, which is a symbol of strength, protection and resolve. Aerith knows what her duty is and she's determined to see it through, even though she's likely very scared about what she has to do.

Cloud looks meh about this. There's literally no reaction happening here and the only reason I'm including it is to show that Cloud has no reaction to what Aerith just said.

But when Aerith speaks of giving up and it's what she does best he gets another big mood face on. If what she did that day was giving up then he probably doesn't want to know what she's like when she's trying lol

He even says he doesn't believe that about her. “Could've fooled me.” People really don't listen to Cloud, do they? He's not meta, doesn't do double speak. He says what's on his mind. He doesn't say everything on his mind at every moment, but when he shares, he's straight with it. If he thinks Aerith isn't like how she thinks she is then that's how he thinks.

Aerith says today is special, Cloud looks away as he asks why and then we get another bit of Aerith trolling the camera. She gives it a long look, laughs and keeps her gaze on it and gives it this knowing little look like she knew people would get all excited by her doing that and that's why she laughs. It's got nothing to do with Cloud. Although we know Cloud doesn't like it when people laugh at him, so she probably accomplished a couple of goals there by alienating him a bit more.

Which, yeah, she did, because his face is not amused. Cloud doesn't like gossip or being made fun of.

Cloud says to the flowers to learn to talk to her, but the flowers are a representation of Zack during this scene, so he's saying to Zack to learn to talk to her, and then we get the butterfly in the frame again, front and centre this time confirming the symbolism.

I might've suggested Cloud's words were about himself with Tifa, but he's very much soldier Cloud during this, so I don't think he'd say anything out loud about her unless real Cloud prompted him to, and since he's absent from this scene I can't see it being anything other than soldier Cloud drawing on real Cloud's dork personality trait and trying to sound cool with it.

Aerith asking if the flowers said anything and Cloud repeats the Zack line. Her answer of “that's the spirit!” has a double meaning. It could mean that's the attitude you need to have towards it. Or, it could mean, that's Zack's spirit.

In conclusion

This is pretty much Aerith and Zack with Cloud as a bystander/third wheel. There's some great meta moments from Aerith where she trolls the players and calls out their bs about LTD stuff and anything else to do with her or the other characters having their own opinions.

On the surface of it, the only reason I can see for people to even think it's something it's not is the fact that Aerith is smiling and perky. Like, someone isn't allowed to be like that unless it's romantically motivated. But, Aerith is like that. She's the girl who hides her pain behind a smile.

Cloud isn't really present for much of this scene when you really notice it. We get his back more than his face and when we do see his face he's not looking at Aerith or he's looking bland af. The most animated expression he makes is right at the start with the one eyebrow lift. After that, his face is in lockdown lol

[silver-wield]

Okay, as requested a few days ago, a Cloud and Aerith analysis. I feel like I've spent a lot of time in chapter 8/9 today lol 

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be reasonably long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone’s interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I’ve had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea’s approval (Cloti ask response) 

Leslie analysis (not mine, but a good read) 

Cloti action touching 

Aerti friendship analysis 

Cloti body language chapter 3 

Cloti healthy disagreement 

Cloti post heliboss battle (chapter 15) 

Clerith playground scene 

Cloti body language plate fall 

Cloud and Barret friendship 

Resolution scene analysis (A) 

Barret character analysis (chapter 13) 

Cloud character analysis (Honey Bee Inn) 

Cloud character analysis (Barret's death) 

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Recap time!

Okay, our delightful heroine (I will rein in the sarcasm, but Aerith aggs me when Cloud says no and she ignores him. No means no.) and our moody af hero have finally got done with the flowery side quests, kiddos, Rude and the giant hands of crash crash boom oops there's an invisible wall there minigame trip through sector 6 to reach sector 7.

Aerith says “let's take a break.”

Cloud says, “No.”

They take a break anyway.

(I've already done the slide analysis, link above)

Back down from the slide and it's time to go. Aerith opens up the underground link into sector 7 and we're venturing into awkward goodbyes.

So, we're starting with Aerith being chipper and cute with the quips. Standard stuff. It's possible she's feeling regretful they're parting, but I've said plenty of times that of everyone in this, Aerith has the best poker face. There's very few times she lets that mask slip and lets us see what she's really feeling and it's usually in times of intense stress. This isn't stressful, although she was feeling down a few moments ago while talking about Zack, so maybe that'll make her a little easier to read. For now, though, she's fronting like a boss.

Hmm interesting. He's definitely thoughtful here. So, I'm gonna have to put together some possibilities.

He's clearly mellowed his attitude towards her – he was proper stroppy at her house the day before, shouting and so on – so this isn't negative. We could say he started feeling more positive towards her through their interactions over the day or maybe when he saw the whole Rude bit and realised she's not quite what he first thought. Or it might have been when he saw her looking downcast about not high fiving or it could've been their chat on the slide that finally thawed him out towards her.

And Aerith's the same. Her smile falters just a bit and she can't meet his eye. Maybe she knows they have no reason to meet again or that her mother told him not to see her. We don't know for sure, but it's possible, otherwise why is she disappointed? She could expect to see him again. They could make plans. It could be meta!Aerith knowing that Cloud is probably better off not getting to know her.

Eugh dammit. Does anyone know how hard it is to analyse people's motives when you can't see their faces clearly? I bet this was on purpose, thanks Square.

I mean, having to go by the above data I've mentioned, they could both be feeling the same lingering regret intuitively. You know like how you just get the sense how someone's feeling? That.

Their poses are identical, and coupled with the slightly awkward intonation on “so” I'd look at this and say this comes across like a couple of teenagers who kinda like each other and don't know how to take the next step. You know, that kind of immature I have no idea what I'm doing with my life kinda deal. That's not to say it's romantic, especially not from Cloud. He's an awkward introvert. Aerith has no social skills. They're not friends and up until five minutes ago Cloud was annoyed af at her. That'd make for an awkward goodbye.

Aerith laughs, Cloud doesn't, and she moves aside so he can leave. Looks like the moment’s over.

Before going, Cloud turns back to ask if Aerith can get home ok. This looks like polite concern, which I'd expect considering they just came through an area full of monsters, mech and bandits. If Cloud wasn't concerned, I'd call him a douchebag. His eyes widen a little as he speaks, but it's not that same kind of expression he pulls whenever we're suspecting a visit from real!Cloud. This is SOLDIER!Cloud asking. 

(I've said that typically Cloud's eyes go very wide as a hint that his real self is reacting to things, but widening eyes on their own do not indicate real!Cloud. It's something about the way he does it that shows it's not quite right for the SOLDIER persona we usually see. I can't explain it properly, but it's likely something the devs have done to his microexpressions on purpose to differentiate between the two and without knowing exactly what I can't put a pin in it. All I can say is when it looks like real!Cloud is expressing himself and when it isn't because there’s a difference that I’ve picked up on.)

This is flirting. Plain and simple. Head tilted, little smile, crinkling eyes. She's amused and teasing him in a flirtatious manner and her dialogue backs that up, although at the same time the tone she puts it in also sounds quite matter of fact, like she's genuinely asking what if she wasn't ok? That likely does appeal to the protective SOLDIER side of Cloud. He wants to be known as the hero. Still not romantic.

That's what I like to call a shit-fuck-bollocks moment. The realisation he should take her back home and make sure she's safe, but then he's also got to get back to sector 7, and this is all SOLDIER!Cloud's debate. There's no sign of real!Cloud and there's a quick decisive result that he should do the right thing, which is why he says he’ll take her home.

This is nothing like in the honey bee inn later when you see the clear back and forth of his eyes darting around as he argues with real!Cloud about dancing to get Andrea's approval.

And Aerith laughs again because I think she's aware how ridiculous it is that he'll walk her back when he needs to get home. She was teasing the entire time, but it looks like it went over Cloud's head – colour me unsurprised.

I mean, there's no romantic undertone to her expression here. It's genuine amusement and I'd definitely say friendship towards Cloud.

Ah the image that certain people hang their hat on. Let's get this one done.

Aerith says she has a backup route for emergencies that's safer than the one they used. You can hear Cloud start to speak—- ask a question because the sound is a “W” -- then cuts himself off and smiles. That smile is a mix of bemused and amused. 

For anyone who doesn't have a stupidly large vocabulary and thinks those two are the same thing:

Bemused

adjective: puzzled, confused, or bewildered.

Amused

adjective: finding something funny or entertaining.

Cloud's bemused because back at the start of the collapsed expressway he literally asked if there was a better way and she avoided answering. So, he's caught her in a lie and what can he do about it? Nothing. That's why he's all "of course there's a safer route".

And then we're back in control and moving onto the next part of the game.

Conclusion:

Well, they're awkward. Both of them. Cloud is an introvert with mental issues and Aerith has no social skills and a terrible personality flaw in which she bosses everyone around and doesn't listen.

I wouldn't say they're friends, more like comrades. Cloud's still very resistant to her company even after she helps him save Tifa.

[silver-wield]

An analysis on the Hollow song lyrics? People where debating on what the song is talking about, I read many takes and of course I have my own opinion but I'd like to hear yours now.

I have to admit that I've not listened to the song lol

I'm just not that big into theme songs, to me they're just music that goes with whatever I'm consuming, but I did show the lyrics to some friends of mine for a cold take – no context given.

The conclusion was it's a song about grieving a lost love, so not romantic, more tragic.

I'll let that sink in for a minute...

Ok, for anyone who hasn't heard/seen the lyrics I'll throw those down first, although I did see a hilarious interpretation that left out like a good 75% of the lines and I was like “w-where's the rest?” so that's something else to think about lol

I would be lost, drifting alone Floating up high, time after time And there you'd be, shining brightly Your smiling face, to guide my way Bloody and bruised, brought to my knees When beaten down, when broken up You would appear, reach out to me Heal every wound, and make me whole Was it all a dream? Will I never know? Foolish and blind, to everything Had I realized, had I thought it through Would you be here, in my embrace? Shine bright, once more Guide me, to you Smile bright, once more This time, I will never let you go With your every smile, hiding something more Dark mysteries, lurking beneath But I was consumed, with this emptiness This selfishness, this void to fill Hear me, once more Show me your smile This time for sure I'll see the truth hidden inside your tears But I, I know That you're long gone But I, I will Go on, howling and hollow To never know.

Damn, there's a lot to unpack here. I'm gonna preface with poetry isn't my strong suit, but let's give this a go!

Ok, this is split into four lines a piece, which breaks the story of the lyrics down into bite sized chunks and builds and overall picture. I know for a fact that Nobuo (our lovely, talented magician of a composer) has said that this song has several meanings, including some hidden ones.

The obvious ones are it's about couples and I'll get to that in a minute (tbf it's played out; we know one interpretation is Zerith, one is Clerith and one is Cloti, no matter how much certain ppl like to argue otherwise).

More interesting to me is a hidden meaning this is the planet and Aerith.

The planet is a child in the dark and Aerith is the light that protects it. That's paraphrased from OG script so don't even try it with me and if you do I'll haul my ass off to find the actual lines that says the planet is a child crying in the dark. She summons holy and saves it from the darkness that Sephiroth threatens it with. The planet is injured because of Sephiroth – scraped knees is a typical metaphor with children. It's just one of those tropes don't @ me.

Since this is Remake, we could consider that the actions of OG are undone. Aerith is alive – for now – and the planet is possibly regretting how it went about bringing her to it. This could be a hint that goes towards the devs statements that Remake will hit OG notes, but in different ways.

The song goes on to imply that this time Aerith will die the right way and that it'll be a complete ending for her, instead of all this “Aerith lives” wailing that we've put up with for years. The lament at the end is saying that this time Aerith will rest. That she can rest and the world will continue on without her and that all the unknown events of her life that were lost will remain that way.

Maybe yall disagree or think I'm shitting with you, but I'm looking at these lyrics cold because I ignore theme songs and since I'm already aware of the huge debate I was gonna break it down by character and start with Aerith – ykno, pick out which lines are hers and which aren't – just like everyone else has, but then my perspective shifted because people aren't the only one important to Aerith and we've had hints through Remake about the planet having a will of its own, so what if that will is the one referenced here? There's more to a theme song than romance and this is the theme song of the game. It's not just a ship song.

There's two points in the game that we hear the instrumental for this song. One is during the slide scene in sector 6 between Cloud and Aerith – where she goes on at length about her dead boyfriend and the mood is low and sad.

The other is after the plate fall and it plays while Barret, Tifa and Cloud are looking at the devastation.

Idky anybody thought this song was romantic from either of these events. This is tragic. I sure af wouldn't want this playing while I slow danced with someone lol

But that's probably not what anyone wants to hear and I should just pick out which line fits which ship right? Or should I say that there's no evidence for one or more for another? Knowing Nobuo, I bet he crafted this song to be perfectly balanced, with tons of nuance and metaphor because he is a master of his craft and I think the only thing anyone will get trying to pigeon-hole each line to fit their narrative is a headache.

It didn't feel right to make my analysis so limited. This is a great sweeping overarching song that encompasses the entire game, which is more than the hour or so of combined shipping moments.