Shippers still holding a grudge against Ryu lol. "Remember
me? Caves of Narshe forums, 2002
ring a bell? My therapist says I need to let it go and now my wife would like a word with you"
About people thinking the other side "steals their stuff": That's the creators making those decisions. Like for example how Nojima decided to "take stuff" from OG CA to connect it to ZA. As an artist it makes perfect sense to do this. But yes it's frustrating as a fan.
To be fair, no CA including me asked for that water tower scene. It was Nojima who wanted to write it. He also seems very proud of it. I certainly didn't want it. Though I have come to somewhat accept his vision of it from an artist/creative point of view. Still, it's not my favorite.
I personally don't like it because I feel it adds fuel to "Aerith is so jealous of Tifa!"
She's not. In that scene when we pay attention we see she's mad at Cloud specifically. Because she's jealous of Cloud. Why? Because he has a childhood friend he grew up with. She's jealous of that, and if we look at her backstory we know she had no one like that and the people in her life that could qualify either left her or died. This is no love rival moment.
I think this should be obvious especially when her highest scoring answer in that scene is for Cloud to admit he used to look at Tifa through the window. Why on earth would that be the case if she's jealous of Tifa as a love rival?
I'm glad people here understand that. But it's a headache outside.
There are people who will often look at EVERYTHING as if it's LTD fuel even when it's clearly not. While I'm always on team "creators can do whatever they want." I also think Nojima and not (just him all the devs) need to keep that in mind too and not set up scenes that can add fuel to the fire.
It would benefit them too, they wouldn't need to be making any clarifications if they were more cautious about how their decisions could be perceived.
That conversation could have happened on the ground next to the tower. On the way to Nibelheim. Anywhere else.
Edit: Elaboration
They've established a trend by this point imo, this is the 3rd or 4th time she's been all "tee hee, let's go on a date mister!" And then she drops the manic pixie girl act, and we get to hear what's on the Real Aerith's mind. It's almost like saying to the audience: try really putting yourself in her boots. Don't let the smile and the antics fool you. How does she really feel in that moment?
But yeah, that was probably the worst possible place to have that "date". The others were on neutral ground. Putting this one at the holiest of Cloud/Tifa shrines comes with a lot of built-in subtext that looms over anything Aerith has to say.
Now you have Cloud's Promise spot looking straight into her room (which I'm pretty sure is a retcon - were they
trying to insert Romeo energy?) Of course Aerith zeroes straight in on that. "Come on, you never came up here hoping she'd wave?" But wanting to be noticed by the girl next door is a trope of young love, not friendship. And right on cue there's Tifa
waves. As if to say: "There she is, Cloud, noticing you. What will you do?"
So the well's already been poisoned when Aerith clearly explains why she's so jealous. Even though it makes perfect sense and was clearly the intent of the scene, the vibes are aligned against her to the point of "subverting expectations". And there's a layer of dramatic irony since most of us know there wasn't much to be jealous of - Cloud and Tifa weren't that close, which is why he wanted her to notice him so badly. And they didn't have much in the way of shared childhood memories except for trauma.
Same energy as Cloud bringing Denzel home. No, he doesn't have another woman's child in tow, but that's how it comes off. No, he's not staying at Aerith's church because he's heartbroken, but now everyone thinks his emotional pain is romantically coded. Like
@Skilganon has been correctly pointing out, either this is all intentional misdirection or the writers keep doing things the hard way.
