I thought Cloud was godawful as a father figure tbh. He was drinking alone, ignoring Marlene, hiding from Tifa, being negative in general, acting childlike (normally when a woman feels like a mother to her partner, that's a red flag, not an enjoyable new feeling). And all that was before bringing a sick orphan home - kind of an obviously bad idea? Then briefly acting like a normal father before going out for cigarettes. These are all less than mature things to do in my opinion.
But to your point, Cloud is generally shown to be mature. That's why I support glossing over his mental issues instead of continuing to spotlight them without taking them to their logical conclusions. FFVII tends to lurch between hyper realism and shounen anime logic, and I get whiplash from constantly re-adjusting my engagement to the appropriate level. (Same problem with Star Wars.) PTSD is a serious topic. It's not something that can be neatly solved at the end of a movie. Nor do I want to be reminded that Cloud is an awkward inexperienced dork in Tifa's resolution scene, because the story is going to charge ahead as if that weren't the case. I don't want to get hung up on these details, they're not enriching the world of FFVII for me, so just let Cloud be abnormally stable and mature in spite of everything and let's move on.
The reason I bring it up is because, I think, that building up Cloud and Tifa so much only to have them split up off screen would be lame, and the characters involved wouldn't benefit from it. Especially if it's because of a mental age gap that isn't even necessarily Cloud's fault. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Tifa is confident in Cloud even when things are rough between them, that much we can get from TKAA. So I doubt she would break it off with him going off of what we see in CoT/ACC.
But yeah, now that I think about it, Cloud could have been a better father figure. Like you said, he steps up once he brings Denzel home, but only before leaving, but there has to be some kind of negative premise set for Advent Children to work, that's why I want it redone because they didn't go about it in a way that Cloud didn't seem like some kind of asshole. But then again, if I remember correctly his issues that make him a bad father figure were a result of his depression, which is most likely healed by the end of ACC, so it can't really be assumed that he continued to be immature in this regard after he comes back home. When things were good he was taking small steps forward, I don't know why it isn't reasonable to assume he continued taking more steps forward when things are better again post ACC.
Iirc one of the Ultimania quotes is that they communicated their feelings of desire without words lol. Go around that one (I think I have it at home so not sure of the source).
FF 20th Anniv Ultimania "For the One I love" page I want to say 232? It's kind of been seared into my memory from citing it so fucking often.
This one?:
FFVII Ultimania Omega, pg. 27; Tifa’s profile
“If Tifa’s affection regarding Cloud is high, when the two stay behind at the airship, they will confirm their feelings of desire/wanting for one another.”
This is the 'For the one I love' page:
FF 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario, pg. 394; “For the One I Love” page
“Thanks to Tifa, Cloud regains himself, and before the final battle with Sephiroth, he confirms with her feelings that can’t be expressed in words.”
Because he's the sort to try- or claim to try- and show a movie to grade schoolers to win an online argument.
An online argument he lost from the get-go, mind you.
Plus he's not actually looking for Aerith at all, but Sephiroth.
and Aerith herself talks about his light in a way that she can't really be talking about herself.
I mean, nothing with Tifa playing Rosa would contradict with the dates. You have Aerith doing Rosa on 4 of these dates and it's not her with Cloud on the dates itself on all of those afterall.
Except the same doesn't apply to Tifa, you only get her as Rosa if you got her date. So if she's the 'canon' Rosa, it can only be on her date.
Oh you stumbled on Margot lol that one is crazy and more a selfxCloud shipper than a CA shipper tbh. She also spends her time dissing Tifa. You can block her, you’ll lose absolutely nothing
Yeah, I believe I saw a few of her tweets. She just seems like a Tifa hater. I’d block her just like I do with Aerith or Zack haters.
There's no way Margot isn't a troll, nothing she comes up with could come from a sane human.
Does no one ship themselves with Zack? Is he chopped liver amongst self inserters? I always wondered why we only hear about Cloud-wives. Maybe he just gets those protective instincts going.
I think it's because Aerith's relationship with Cloud is more opposites attract, people tend to be into that. Aerith is less of the spunky girl in Crisis Core with Zack than she is with Cloud in subsequent compilation material, so I think people would rather self-insert as a confident woman as opposed to a slightly more demure one. Especially when said spunky woman would most likely wear the pants in the relationship, not that there is anything wrong with that, by the way.