As a person who is, most of the time, not fully immersed in this debate, I do get periods of doubt. “Maybe TLS is looking too deep into stuff,” “maybe this quote shouldn’t be taken a certain way,” etc.
But then I see hito make clear the nuances of important Japanese quotes. I become reminded by him, Tres and other people of the relevant quotes which settle who Cloud has paired up with: Tifa. The only reason I doubt is that my disinterest in the LTD makes me forget about the existence and true meaning of certain quotes.
If it wasn’t for those few, important statements in complementary material, I would have no idea who Cloud is more romantically involved with because I’m the type of guy who needs concrete confirmation of romance in stories, either via confessions or displays of physical intimacy. The scenes between Cloud, Aerith and Tifa are just too vaguely written for me to draw any conclusions.
But the research and conclusions done by the FFVII scholars of TLS are reasonable. Only two scenarios are at this point possible:
1) Cloud loves Tifa romantically and only Tifa
2) Cloud loves Tifa romantically AND has romantic feelings for Aerith as well
To repeat myself, I find it interesting just how tough it is to interpret the love triangle dynamic. There is good reason that Tres has had to write a *book* about the matter. For those not academically invested in the discussion, the interpretation can go either way.
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—Shademp