SPOILERS LTD Remake — It's like New Coke except ... no, it's exactly like New Coke

[Maidenofwar]

I ship Aerith with most characters (outside of specific ones for obvious reasons) tbh but I knew most of those were crack ships and I would never get any in game content for them.

 

[starcape91]

I ship Aerith with most characters (outside of specific ones for obvious reasons) tbh but I knew most of those were crack ships and I would never get any in game content for them.

It doesn’t help that all the main characters in Remake are ridiculously hot. Would you ship Aerith and Zack if they get quality screentime in Part 3? Because with those two the yearning is real and it hurts me. I need to see a reunion.

 

[Empyrea]

The issue is that people take their personal headcanons and present them as fact when the characters and the story don't support those headcanons.

It looks like Rebirth is going to make it harder to play the "this is my interpretation" angle as well. But when people already have their mind made up, they will see what they want to see no matter what is being shown to them.

Oh, I agree. 100%

I was just chiming in that Aerith being dead is not the factor as to why people ship her with Cloud.

I, for one, was very happy to see the leaks on here. If they're true, then the part of the story that left such a huge impression on me (the Lifestream sequence) finally can't be misrepresented anymore. Not that it should've been in the first place, I'd say.

 

[GamerSkull]

Oh, I agree. 100%

I was just chiming in that Aerith being dead is not the factor as to why people ship her with Cloud.

I, for one, was very happy to see the leaks on here. If they're true, then the part of the story that left such a huge impression on me (the Lifestream sequence) finally can't be misrepresented anymore. Not that it should've been in the first place, I'd say.

It’s honestly one of the three most important pillars of the OG story, the other two being the events that go down at the Forgotten City and what happens upon the first visit to the Northern Cave.

 

[Empyrea]

Uhhh shucks, I don't know how to edit, so I'll just say here that I forgot to add an "always" there. As in Aerith being dead is not always the reason xP

 

[Nal]

Guys the

Spoiler

GONGAGA

scene has dropped in the new trailer?

Don't know if you can post it tho

Spoiler

Whats interesting is whats happening there isn't actually what people are going on about Gongaga is a long sequence that parts just a glimpse at the end

 

[Legend45]

Spoiler

Whats interesting is whats happening there isn't actually what people are going on about Gongaga is a long sequence that parts just a glimpse at the end

I'm very excited for the whole thing

 

[Maidenofwar]

It doesn’t help that all the main characters in Remake are ridiculously hot. Would you ship Aerith and Zack if they get quality screentime in Part 3? Because with those two the yearning is real and it hurts me. I need to see a reunion.

Spoiler

I would like to see them get quality screen time that doesn't feature Cloud definitely. Pass the new test like Bechdel test like Ryu said.

 

[r_monk]

He coped by lying to himself about being superior (narcissism often is a sign of loneliness), Tifa retroactively headcanons this childhood friendship because she got a crush on a stranger.

I'm not even going to fully respond to your whole post because at this point, I can't really believe that anyone could be this far off base with what actually happened in the game, even without the aid of additional materials like TOTP. It's fine to dislike a fictional character, but please don't make things up just to further "prove" your misinterpretation of them. I'm not an idiot; I've played the game(s).

 

[starcape91]

Spoiler

I would like to see them get quality screen time that doesn't feature Cloud definitely. Pass the new test like Bechdel test like Ryu said.

Spoiler

I could totally see Aerith acting mad at Zack at first. Asking him where he’s been. I would very much like for them to embrace then. Please. Yes.

 

[Stiggie]

I fail to see the difference, really, between Aerith stepping back and Aerith not being alive anymore. In either case, Aerith isn't in the picture. Perhaps you might argue that one is willing and the other less so, but the end result is the same.

Anyway, my main point was that no matter how compelling and obvious the case for Cloud x Tifa, there will always be some who simply don't want to believe and find ways to ignore it. Indeed, one of my favourite articles on this site back in the day was your own, now 14 years old, declaring the LTD officially over. How little we knew

We might fail to see the difference, but trust me, people who are set on seeing aerith and cloud together do see a difference, and the difference is choice. As long as the thing holding them apart isn't their own choice they will always cling o to that as the real reason they're not together. Which allows them the justification to fill in the rest of the story as being about cloud pining over aerith and them trying to be together....as long as tifa isn't important at least....so they have to make her unimportant.

The Ltd definitely arose for a large part because aerith died rather than get rejected

 

[starcape91]

@Maidenofwar

Don’t be saddddd. Come to see that Zack is best boy.

 

[GamerSkull]

We might fail to see the difference, but trust me, people who are set on seeing aerith and cloud together do see a difference, and the difference is choice. As long as the thing holding them apart isn't their own choice they will always cling o to that as the real reason they're not together. Which allows them the justification to fill in the rest of the story as being about cloud pining over aerith and them trying to be together....as long as tifa isn't important at least....so they have to make her unimportant.

The Ltd definitely arose for a large part because aerith died rather than get rejected

I’m pretty sure if Aerith is alive, it’d be even more fuel because there is an actual chance for Cloud to pick her over Tifa. Even if Cloud goes the AC way of living with Tifa, the possibility would still keep it alive since Aerith herself is still alive.

Although… I guess they wouldn’t be able to argue that Tifa is just the second choice anymore.

 

[Kigan]

I think a lot of this could have been avoided if

Spoiler: Rebirth spoilers

they had made Tifa the default princess and sing a love song and get the lovers brooch instead

They are talking about that event between A and C before that other major event at the very end. The scene with the

Spoiler: Item

Flower brooch

Judging from that long WOT from earlier, they didn't understand that event either, and I don't expect them to ever will.
If they missed it in the original, they will keep missing it going forward. Peak tunnel vision.
Cloud mourning a dead "friend" and having "guilt" over it.
They were always star-crossed lovers, and he loved both Tifa and Aerith. He started with a crush on Tifa, accidentally met Aerith (also with a crush on someone else), they're two lonely people with a sad past bonding with each other, thing is cut short, she still left a huge mark in his life.

It's same issue with Tifa.
Don't really answer this, it's a rhetorical question: if Cloud and Tifa's relationship was always so deep, compelling and set in stone since 1997 why did it take them until 2021 to come up with the novel? Why did they completely rewrite the way they interacted in the original with Remake and Rebirth? They're not "expanding on", that's a headcanon of a retcon.

When they were younger, she and Cloud used to play together a lot. Their houses were right next to each other, and it was easy to go back and forth.

“Cloud has such a beautiful face,” her mother once complimented him at the dining table. Did that happen when she was seven, or was it eight? For some reason that compliment made her feel happy and a bit shy.

Her mother had given her a knowing wink, which didn’t escape her father’s notice - he scowled at them. This moment became one memory she had of her family life before her mother passed away.

When did Cloud start to drift away from everyone? Did something happen between him and the other boys? What was clear in her mind was that it must have had something to do with that disaster incident that happened because of her mother’s death. But he stopped coming over to play even before then.

“I wonder why…”

Also, characters often get pushed/retconned/cleared of their character flaws often due to fanservice

Vegeta was a nasty guy at first in the serialization, and I had thought about bringing an end to [his story] as just a villain, but as I was writing, I felt that his villainous sort of warped straightforwardness was unexpectedly interesting. I couldn’t imagine that a guy with this kind of hairstyle would become popular, and yet he’d get more votes than Goku in favorite-character polls, and even I consciously began to actively have him appear.

I ship Aerith with most characters (outside of specific ones for obvious reasons) tbh but I knew most of those were crack ships and I would never get any in game content for them.

CxA got tons of fanservice until 2024.

can't be misrepresented anymore. Not that it should've been in the first place, I'd say.

It's been misrepresented for 27 years since people still think Tifa cared for Cloud before the promise.
Since he always loved her, she always loved him. That's how it works. (...)

I'm not even going to fully respond to your whole post because at this point, I can't really believe that anyone could be this far off base with what actually happened in the game, even without the aid of additional materials like TOTP. It's fine to dislike a fictional character, but please don't make things up just to further "prove" your misinterpretation of them. I'm not an idiot; I've played the game(s).

Read the rhetorical question above.

 

[LNK]

Is that including the revelations included from the novel?

Which novel? Someone else brought it up. I asked the title, and got no answer

@Kigan

Nothing in the Remake series is retconning things

 

[r_monk]

Christ on a mf-ing cracker.

 

[GamerSkull]

Pretending for a moment that Tifa only cared about Cloud after the promise, how does that have to do anything with Cloud’s feelings and motivations?

Yes, I agree the promise is where Tifa developed romantic feelings for Cloud… but again, why is it relevant? The fact that she did not like him before that has nothing to do with what happens later.

Let’s not forget Aerith’s initial attraction to Cloud was his similarity to her missing boyfriend and the genuine interest actually came later.

Also, Traces of Two Pasts is elaboration. A retcon is only a retcon if it actually changes something previously established. Cloud and Tifa’s relationship pre-promise is in a gray area where we just don’t know much about it. So adding further information is only a retcon if it conflicts with anything.

The reason they published a book about it in 2021 after so much time is because they are marketing the remake trilogy and also setting up the groundwork of stuff they want to explore in the games.

 

[starcape91]

Traces of Two Pasts is not a retcon. It’s an elaboration. Are you calling it headcanon? I mean, I guess that’s true. It does happen to be Nojima’s headcanon though.

Also, I don’t think anyone here is saying Aerith doesn’t have a crush on Cloud. From what I’ve heard:

Spoiler

She says herself that she is confused about her feelings in the church scene near the end of Rebirth (whether it is HA or LA)

but we’re talking more about Cloud’s feelings.

 

[Maidenofwar]

The main ships aren't crack ships, so yeah they get content

 

[Nal]

Christ on a mf-ing cracker.

anyone gonna tell him XD

 

[starcape91]

Be nice everyone.

 

[r_monk]

Which novel? Someone else brought it up. I asked the title, and got no answer

The new Cloud novel? "2000 gil to a Hero." Someone posted a translation earlier in the thread.

 

[Rose Alive]

Don't really answer this, it's a rhetorical question: if Cloud and Tifa's relationship was always so deep, compelling and set in stone since 1997 why did it take them until 2021 to come up with the novel? Why did they completely rewrite the way they interacted in the original with Remake and Rebirth? They're not "expanding on", that's a headcanon of a retcon.

You're coming into a debate thread to present an argument, but you don't want anyone to answer your argument? Why bother then?

 

[Nal]

They are talking about that event between A and C before that other major event at the very end. The scene with the

Spoiler: Item

Flower brooch

Judging from that long WOT from earlier, they didn't understand that event either, and I don't expect them to ever will.
If they missed it in the original, they will keep missing it going forward. Peak tunnel vision.
Cloud mourning a dead "friend" and having "guilt" over it.
They were always star-crossed lovers, and he loved both Tifa and Aerith. He started with a crush on Tifa, accidentally met Aerith (also with a crush on someone else), they're two lonely people with a sad past bonding with each other, thing is cut short, she still left a huge mark in his life.

It's same issue with Tifa.
Don't really answer this, it's a rhetorical question: if Cloud and Tifa's relationship was always so deep, compelling and set in stone since 1997 why did it take them until 2021 to come up with the novel? Why did they completely rewrite the way they interacted in the original with Remake and Rebirth? They're not "expanding on", that's a headcanon of a retcon.



Also, characters often get pushed/retconned/cleared of their character flaws often due to fanservice


CxA got tons of fanservice until 2024.


It's been misrepresented for 27 years since people still think Tifa cared for Cloud before the promise.
Since he always loved her, she always loved him. That's how it works. (...)

Read the rhetorical question above.

Cloud and Tifas Relationship was shown with The Highwind and The Lifestream, the inside of clouds subconscious
None of your ultimania pages say anything about Cloud loving Aerith romantically, and we already know Aerith likes cloud

Heres evidence that i gathered while looking into this since when i played, i looked at both sides to see what the truth was

 

[Nal]

Cloud and Tifas Relationship was shown with The Highwind and The Lifestream, the inside of clouds subconscious
None of your ultimania pages say anything about Cloud loving Aerith romantically, and we already know Aerith likes cloud

Heres evidence that i gathered while looking into this since when i played, i looked at both sides to see what the truth was

But this doesnt even matter because the OG game straight up tells you this