As a science person, who's entire thing and training was research and argumentation. Finally someone who knows what "burden of proof" actually means. Thank you.
Shippers online always argue for their ships by trying to disprove the other. Which is why it never ever ever ends. Because they're ignoring that the actual hypothesis is:
Cloud loves X. X here being the girl you are trying to prove he loves
So the null hypothesis is Not Cloud does not love Y because that's a different hypothesis on its own that needs it's own argument and it's own null hypothesis (Cloud loves Y). But it's what ship arguments will tend to go for.
It is null: Cloud does not love X
Because proving Cloud does not love Y doesn't actually do anything to prove the actual hypothesis Cloud loves X.
Hence why goal posts always move because you have people not presenting one hypothesis, they're bringing up like four or five at once and jumping between them. And it just doesn't work that way.
And it honestly drives me nuts lol
But yeah in such debate for canon I also think everyone should be on the same page of what canon actually means too because if not the argument goes nowhere and that's how you end up with these ten or so different hypotheses being thrown around instead of argued systematically and all the leaps in logic and bad faith arguments we tend to see in these types of fanwars.
But yes, thank you for getting it.
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Also
@SephirothSucks
I will add because I remember the Nojima quote from COT and I don't want to double post. I think it's not the word better there but "well"? If anyone wants to remind me. But I read it as: "Maybe things would have gone well with Aerith. But her responsibility is too great I think." I don't think it's really an implication things with Tifa are worse in comparison in my view. Just that he is considering and responding what others like the interviewers would ask. And the impression they'd get from what he wrote.
But I don't have the JP quote with me anymore.
In general though I don't think the devs really were trying to to pit them against each other during OTWTAS or AC era just to address whatever they were asked about in the moment.