Am I the only one who thinks the devs aren't subtle or vague at all? I don't think so lol. The LTD exists for a various set of reasons, which range from bad interpretation to bad faith, and the illusion that the devs have always been vague about who Cloud loves, yet this is not true at all. You could think it's only a Nojima thing to push cloti, yet Nomura and others also talk about them freely and add scenes for those two. They are far from vague, and after having watched more than a few gameplays of Remake, I can see cloti painted all over it. That's not to say there's no clerith - there is - but it is far less than cloti, and less qualitative too, imho. The fact that Cloud only flirts openly with Tifa and seeks her approval is very telling.
It's also very telling that when asked about the LTD, the devs always hammer how they don't look at relationships but how to do the best they can with a character, and when they talked about giving the same number of scenes to Aerith and Tifa, they were talking about the girls, not the pairings... yet Tifa's scenes are all tied to Cloud.
This has made me realise something that I had overlooked before, it's that cloti and zerith are pretty much hardcoded in the game. They had a mix of Cloud and Zack as one male character, and a mix of Aerith and Tifa as the female character. Yet they split them nicely, so that Cloud and Tifa would compliment each other, as well as Aerith and Zack, both in looks and character. I joked the other day that I sometimes felt that Zack was Nojima's gift to Aerith, but I'm barely joking as it is - and I'm not even shipping it. Even if you only look at the OG, Aerith is the heroine that makes the overarching story advance, while Tifa makes the intimate story advance.
And when I say that cloti is hardcoded in the game, it is how it is: once Cloud regains his memories thanks to Tifa, this is where his heart is. And at this moment, you cannot change his feelings, the illusion is being shattered as you learn who the true Cloud is. He wavered, that was part of the illusion, but once you've reached that critical point, it's only cloti. And it's why cloti is hardcoded in the game, because they gave to Tifa the intimate part of the story; the devs chose to tear it down from Tifareth to give it to Tifa, making cloti canon in the process. This is why Aerith can never help Cloud, because she's already burdened with the overarching story. They gave Tifa everything that was needed, from the looks to the character and knowledge to make Cloud a pendant. And honestly, this shines even more in Remake than it did in the OG.
After reading multiple essays on the LTD, I never thought I’d ever write one myself but here we go...
To your point, I guess most people’s idea of vague and subtle is anything short of either sharing a kiss onscreen or exchanging “I love you”s. Square Enix could also have Cloud explicity prefer one girl over another, or have one girl officially being considered Cloud’s girlfriend either in-universe or by the creators but it doesn’t seem likely that they would do that, though it would certainly be interesting if they actually go there in future parts of
Remake.
Cloud and Tifa expressing mutual romantic feelings for each other is already canon but I think Nomura’s statement about not knowing if they were in a relationship leading up to
Advent Children combined with silly affection mechanics ultimately keeps this LTD alive. You definitely seem to appreciate the nuances of these relationships, as do I and honestly I really wish more people would. Typically, my rule of canon is as follows: “if the creators confirm something, it’s true. If the creators don’t confirm or deny something, it’s a possibility. If the creators deny something, it’s false.” Which leads me to interpret the story as such:
- Cloud has canonically liked both Tifa and Aerith
- Aerith has canonically liked both Zack and Cloud
- Aerith has canonically never met the real Cloud, but is aware that he exists and desires to meet him
- Cloud and Tifa canonically become aware of mutual romantic feelings in the Lifestream and confirm them under the Highwind
- Cloud canonically blames himself for Aerith’s death (as well as Zack’s) and carries that guilt until the end of Advent Children
- Cloud and Tifa canonically live together and adopt Denzel, and they are still living together post-Advent Children
But I think it also leaves enough room for interpretation for the following points:
- It is unclear how much of Cloud’s feelings for Aerith are canonically from true Cloud, fake Cloud, or Zack
I noticed some people who try to debunk Zack’s effect on Cloud’s feelings completely forget that Cloud’s fake persona isn’t just him coping with all of his trauma. He is quite literally possessed by a 2000-year-old alien who is explicitly capable of reading minds, copying and manipulating memories, and casting illusions. Even in the OG, Cloud remembers specific conversations Zack had with Sephiroth in the Shinra Manor and the Nibelheim mako reactor that Cloud was not actually present to witness himself, yet he recalls them in Kalm years later as if he was. So I think it’s totally possible that Cloud has some kind of remnant of Zack’s affection and memories of Aerith due to Jenova’s influence at least partially, but unless we’re specifically shown this then I won’t treat it as a fact but a possibility.
- It is unclear how much of Cloud’s feelings for Aerith carry over from his fake persona to his real persona
I think the more important argument is not whether those feelings are from Zack, but whether or not they’re even from true Cloud himself. As much as I agree that Cloud and Aerith get along well, ultimately their connection is built on the false premise that he is who he says he is but he isn’t. Which Aerith herself even recognizes in the Gold Saucer date of the OG and the chapter 14 resolution of
Remake. Could Aerith also get along well with real Cloud? I believe so, but ultimately that’s not what happens in the story.
- It is unclear if true Cloud canonically likes one girl over the other between Aerith and Tifa And no, I don’t consider Jessie a real option
Personally, I don’t think who he likes more is important to the story because the story works in either way. We don’t know how much of Cloud’s feelings for Aerith inform his guilt over her death in AC or if he even still has romantic feelings for her in his true persona, but I would at least contend those are possibilities unless the creators say otherwise. As long as they don’t confirm or deny those things I can’t really consider any stance as true or false. (Though it’s definitely false that Cloud is miserable living with Tifa and wants to die so that he can be with Aerith instead, but we know that through Word of God instead of the actual movie itself where we should’ve learned that from in the first place.)
- It is unclear if Aerith is canonically still not completely over Zack or if she’s only interested in Cloud during the events of the OG
This is a tricky one because of all of the debate surrounding whether or not
Maiden Who Travels the Planet is canon. If it is, then I’d easily accept that Aerith likes Cloud more than Zack as a fact though it still doesn’t answer for what Cloud’s feelings are. We do know that she was initially reminded of Zack upon meeting Cloud but grew to fall for Cloud himself.
- It is unclear if Cloud and Tifa had sex under the Highwind or simply cuddled and/or kissed or performed the far more vulgar act of holding hands
Kind of a moot point honestly but it’s one that I see brought up a lot. I know the original scene is far more suggestive but because it’s not
in the game, I don’t consider it the best defense for it. For me, the best defense for this scene is that regardless of which version of the scene you get based on affection value, it is still explicitly referred to as a romantic scene in which Cloud and Tifa confirm their mutual feelings across multiple Ultimanias.
- It is unclear what Cloud and Tifa’s official relationship status is post-AC
Though it does make sense that they would be boyfriend and girlfriend. I don’t think the rough patch they go through during
Advent Children somehow makes it impossible that they’d be a couple, even if Cloud still had lingering feelings for Aerith. Though I would prefer if Cloud was completely over Aerith romantically
before being in a relationship with Tifa, but like I said before, we also don’t know the extent of Cloud’s romantic feelings for Aerith after he gets his real self back.
Personally, I care less about shipping and more about what’s actually
in the story. I wouldn’t say I have any personal attachment for or against either ship, but I did find myself doing a lot of digging across the last five months of being a fan of FF7. (Yes, I’ve only been a fan for the last five months, I can’t imagine what it must be like to have been in this debate since 1997!) If Cloud canonically rejected Tifa and only devoted himself to Aerith even in death, I’d accept that with no problem. But that very clearly doesn’t happen even though I was led to believe that for years because of how people talked about
Advent Children before I finally got into the material myself. I’m very interested to see if Square Enix will ever actually clarify the above points
and the backlash they’ll receive if they do will probably be the most epic shitstorm I’ve ever witnessed in fandom since the last chapter of Naruto was released.
, I ship Cloti because I consider it canon) to think they're the more persuasive ones.
I guess it’s a matter of semantics really, I wouldn’t mind defending Cloud solely being devoted to Aerith if that’s what actually happened in the story
