#still a chaotic part of me yearns for a version of this game with aerith explicitly saying 'i love you' to cloud at the end. NON-OPTIONALLY

[my-current-obsession]

Why have I not seen anyone talk about the fact that this...

...is definitely meant to parallel THIS?

Like, it's a very emotionally intimate yet fraught moment where the heroine "thanks" the male lead before the pair is about to be separated, and he has a... let's say strong reaction to it. Because it's understood in the context of subtle, indirect Japanese that this is NOT a simple thank you. This is a love confession, which is why in English, Yuna straight up says "I love you." The localizers knew her saying "thank you" would not be as strong or understood as a confession to us more direct and blunt English speakers. We might even be left wondering why Tidus would seem so shocked at a simple thank you.

I myself am not Japanese nor do I speak much of the language, though I am learning. I just want to point out that if it is known and accepted that Yuna's "thank you" in Japanese was truly meant to be interpreted as "I love you", hence the translation we got... then Aerith's "thank you" in Rebirth is ABSOLUTELY the same case.

As I already mentioned, the mood and situation is similar, Cloud/Tidus has a shocked reaction to a seemingly basic phrase, the girls even use the same exact word - "arigatou" by itself, nothing before or after.

I just wanted to point this out since I know there has been some debate about what we got in English - "I really like you. But 'like' can mean a lot of different things. 'Cause there's liking... and there's liking." You definitely CAN interpret this as a confession but it's more ambiguous and COULD be read as her friendzoning him instead (although that would be An Interesting Choice for her to make, after CHOOSING to go on a dream date with him as opposed to summoning Zack, and holding his hand a bunch, and then embracing him immediately after saying this; basically saying she's rejecting him involves ignoring all surrounding context, but it's true that the line itself IS unclear), which is why most people in the opposite camp refuse to acknowledge it. But I have to imagine this clear, direct parallel to Tidus/Yuna makes Aerith's confession explicit and undeniable in Japanese. We were robbed of an official "I love you" in English.