If Tifa only ever wanted a SOLDIER, why did she abandon AVALANCHE and everything she had fought for to nurse a loser with Mako poisoning, who may have never even gotten better as far as she knew?
Tifa thought Cloud was cute. He called her to a famous date spot and said he's gonna be big and strong like Sephiroth. So she said that when he does, he should not forget her and come back to help her if she's ever in trouble. They're kids. That's what being a SOLDIER means to them -- being heroes. This isn't just Tifa dreaming of a prince. Cloud tells her he wants to be a hero and she plays on that. Heroes rescue people. She believes in him and says: come rescue me.
To think that she forces him to make that promise is ridiculous. It's not something he didn't want. He followed her to the mountains when all others abandoned her and blamed himself for not being able to rescue her when she was in a coma.
Being strong in Tifa's eyes is what he's always wanted. Even before she asked.
So his hesitance has more to do with that and him being surprised, than his unwillingness to be her hero. That's stupid. Why would he call her to the water tower to tell her he's gonna be a SOLDIER then? What the fuck was the point?
Why would that promise be foreveretched in his heart?
Why so embarrassed that he covers his face the entire time after his return to Nibelheim? Why does it matter then, if he never wanted to fulfill it?
Why not just say "Hey Tifa. Boy, you've grown. Oh yeah, that silly promise we made as kids. It was so long ago" if that were the case?
No, but he hides like he failed his one mission.
Must be cause he really fucking hated it. Cloud rues that day every day
Where the English version says Cloud was "never allowed into the group," the Japanese script says he could never ask to be let into the group (仲間に入れてって言えなかった
. The English one makes it sound like he was actively left out of their group, but the Japanese one sounds more like he just couldn't bring himself to ask them to let him join in with them.
