They don't understand that Tifa is Clouds anchor who keeps him together. Tifa, at the end of the game, is grieving silently, hence locking her emotions (Lockheart). Her not having a big part at the end, i disagree the game specifically focuses on Tifas grief, she has just lost her Best Friend again and is witnessing the boy she loves fall apart. The camera focuses on her a lot during the end, and it is her reaction that is the most sad to watch. The last person to get on the bronco apart from Cloud is Tifa and the game lingers on that. The reason Sephiroth is able to kill Aerith is because she had to be in a vulnerable position to pray. Also, Sephiroth can supress holy but why bother when he can stop it from the start. Which is why he tried draining or in my theory tricking Aerith into making her white materia empty. Contrary to popular belief, Sephiroth can't just teleport everywhere and kill anyone. Cloud completely shuts down into his catatonic state when he thinks hes harmed Tifa. The difference is Aerith was stabbed yet Tifa has fallen one is confirmed dead or dying, the other is missing. I don't think if Tifa did die, Cloud would ever be able to snap out of that state again.
If Cloud didn't act that way when Aerith died, the emotion wouldn't be there for the players but comparing death reactions is stupid anyway.
Since by that Logic Aeriths death has affected Barret more than Avalanches!
Lets look at Tifas Trauma from a story perspective
Tifas trauma is very much not noticed by people and players, and the reason is that she never speaks about it or shows it as clearly as other characters. The timeline for Tifa is
- Her mom dies and she tries to climb a mountain on a theory to see her that not even she believes. She ends up falling from a bridge and ending up in a coma
- Everyone of her friends ends up leaving the village, leaving her alone
- She found her dad dead and watched her village burn down
- She then gets almost killed by Sephiroth as a teenager
- wakes up with a scar. She has lost everything and is in a strange unfamiliar place.
- Then gets scammed and put into debt in the slums to a mob boss
- She then, with the help of Jessie and Avalanche, though also on her own has to learn at this young age how to survive in the slums and build a life there. (This is the same age Tifa we see at the Nibelhiem flashback let that sink in)
- Then, after successfully building a life, she finds the boy she loved, who she never thought would return alive but very unwell
- She starts to notice Cloud is very different, colder and having these strange headaches
- Cloud starts opening up to Tifa after the Jessie mission and she is overjoyed.
- On a mission Cloud Falls presumbly to his death. she has just failed to save her last part of childhood and the boy she loves.
- Later on she watches as her new home is destroyed. Her new friends are killed.Jessie her best friend is killed and she watches her die (Remind you of an event from her childhood)
- She blames herself for not preventing avalanche from going too far against shinra. While also being apart of the group that caused Shinra to destroy the sector.
- Barret mistakes her depression for anger
- Tifa shows Cloud her scar since he doesnt think she is real a very personal and uncomfortable moment
- Cloud almost kills her while under Sephiroths influence and she almost drowns in Mako
- Cloud under influence of Sephiroth starts rejecting her comfort and words, and shoves her. Even with this she still tries
to hold onto him with the whispers being forced to hold her back from getting to him.
- Skipping to the end of Rebirth after losing her home and her friends. She forms a bond with Aerith and then once again
watches as her friend is murdered and the boy she loves in denial about it. Smiling as if nothing happens. and slowly going insane which she may think is because of the new twist of Rebirth for new players not Zack but the solider degradation.
They have replaced new players mystery about Zack with New players thinking Cloud is degrading. It seems a lot of OG players don't get this and just complain that the Zack twist is too obvious.
But anyway the point is at the end of the game Tifa is Broken completely. She doesn't have the comfort of Cloud since hes going insane and in denial. She doesn't know how to help him at all and cant even focus on that AS Her best Friend has died Again! she is in a cruel twist of Fate reliving her trauma again for the 3rd time in a row. Shes effectively shocked into silence and just drfiting along with the group. Throughout the whole game shes always had something to say or been keeping the group focused. Thats why the focus is on her at the end of Rebirth; the camera is showing you that Tifa is essentially helpless and directionless at this point in the story. Shes given up.
Everytime Tifa gains happiness, something comes and rips it away and kills it (miracle: she doesn't go insane herself like Sephiroth)
She's one of the more tragic characters, but people don't see that since, like her name she locks her emotions.
some people like the one who made that comment also don't see it though, since they think this story is Just about Cloud and Aerith
