except Vincent did have a storyline outside of Cloud. Lucrecia, that is all.
And what a riveting, lengthy tale demanding another game that was.
Rangiku said:
It's not like anyone really cared about his storyline outside of that. Tifa has... uh... Tifa likes the planet and doesn't want it to explode! Hurrah!
Tifa was something like the daughter of a small-town mayor with the attention and adoration she received, the focus of attention for every male in ogling distance, someone who lost her mother at a young age (immediately followed by a week-long coma), was brought up to be more of a fighter than most boys, and was too shy to make eye contact with a boy she liked who -- unbeknownst to her -- also digged her.
She grows up a little bit after the boy leaves town, but is still a child. Then, her father and -- as far as she's aware -- every friend she has in the world is butchered by someone she trusted. Her town is burnt to the ground, and she's left with absolutely nothing.
Well, almost nothing. The guy who murdered her father, friends, etc. and destroyed her town also left her with a life-threatening injury.
Anyway, she then becomes driven by hate, but learns that the one whom she wants revenge upon is supposedly already dead, forever beyond her reach and vengeance. In the meantime, she takes up a job doing, of all things, bartending in a shithole slum for guys who doubtlessly try getting under her skirt every night. She also befriends a group of other bitter people who have a bone to pick with those who played a role in the sorrow she has known, and learns from them that these same individuals are also literally killing the world.
She joins them in becoming an outlaw, covertly launching attacks to bring down the behemoth organization that controls the world.
As well, she becomes a mother figure to a young child who is often left in her care. Despite the hate that brought her to where she is, she finds herself in a position of caring for an innocent life, and her natural compassion continues swelling to the surface -- both in the care of the child and in the care of her fellow terrorists, for whom she cooks meals every night.
Time passes, she encounters the boy who she'd had a thing for years earlier. He's alive. Mucked up, but alive. She begins taking care of him, realizes that he's not quite right in the head, and once he's well enough to get around on his own, she asks him to join her group's efforts to upset the status quo.
She loses half of her new family not long after, and also soon learns that the one who was directly responsible for the majority of pain she has suffered in her life -- as well as the great anguish that her lost/rediscovered crush has dealt with -- is not only alive and well, but preparing to wreak more havoc in the world. She resolves to put him in the ground for good.
Despite those efforts eventually being successful, and despite building a loyal, loving family unit around herself, she's left with feelings of guilt and regret for innocent lives lost when hate had been her motivation above all else. She realizes that she has willfully enacted upon others the same sorrow that was shoved onto her -- and though she'd like for her memories and her own life to all just be washed away, she realizes that she must deal with what she's done, if not for her own sake, then for the child who looks at her as a mother, and for the man in love with her, whom she loves back.
That sounds like a story all bound up in Cloud?
Rangiku said:
yeah like zack. tifa was so tied up in zack as well and zack was her best friend, and experimentation happened to her too and
oh wait
No, see, I said "Cloud" not "Zack."
And, yeah, his story his heavily tied up in her, just as a good bit of hers is in him. She's the reason he wanted to join SOLDIER, she was part of his motivation when he killed Sephiroth the first time, she unknowingly played a major role in forming his false persona, and she was ultimately the one who guided him through sorting it out.
Oh, and she's the chick he's in love with, who fucks him the night before he believes he's marching to his death, and begins living with him/raising a family with him immediately after shit's settled up with their nemesis.
So, yeah, I'd say they're equally wrapped up in each other. Neither's tale is completely tied to the other's, though.
