LTD, round 3: This time, we settle it with Jello Wrestling

[The Twilight Mexican]

Delayed reaction mind blowing?

I sent you that link 9 hours ago.

Was at work at the time, so I didn't get the full impact until a few hours later.

 

[Isabella]

Call me a softy but, somewhere mixed in with my disgust is some sympathy for Anastar. She's given so much of her life to her OTP over the last decade. It must be very important to her, and not something she can easily let go of overnight. It probably feels like your boyfriend has been cheating on you for ten years and you just got blindsided by it.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

You kinda have a point there, Bella. I know that's got to be the reason she's clinging so hard to this -- it's not even about not wanting to be wrong, it's just she doesn't want it to have been a waste.

But, then, that's why I say never be ashamed of any work you've done -- unless it's a holocaust or something -- only work that you haven't.

 

[Isabella]

But, then, that's why I say never be ashamed of any work you've done -- unless it's a holocaust or something -- only work that you haven't.

*looks at half-painted bathroom and sighs*

You know, with so many of them having mad crushes on Cloud, and with the rampant self insertion we see going on, I think it probably really does feel like being cheated on, for some of them. It sucks and I'm sympathetic, but there's a lesson there: instead of being so preoccupied by a fantasy guy, get out there so you can be cheated on by a real guy. Or something.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

... instead of being so preoccupied by a fantasy guy, get out there so you can be cheated on by a real guy.

And that was how Bella began her surprisingly successful "Fortune Cookies from Hell" empire.

 

[Loxetta]

Cloti is now the canon couple of FFVII.

Where have you been?

It cannot be denied that this is what the scan says. In my opinion, however, it is questionable whether this makes CloudxTifa the canon couple of Final Fantasy VII.

Yup, just because they're called a couple, doesn't mean they are, obviously. One should always question the validity of creator statements. It's not like they know anything, after all.

If the Highwind scene made Cloti canon, SE sure hasn't been acting like it for the last 12 years - not when they portray Cloud searching for Aerith in Kingdom Hearts, Cloud running away from Tifa in Kingdom Hearts II, Cloud searching for the Promised Land and meeting Aerith in FF Tactics, Cloud arriving in a field of Aerith's flowers at the end of Dissidia,

Fail. They're AUs. (read: irrelevant)

In the second place, there was never any romance portrayed between Cloud and Tifa in Advent Children or Advent Children Complete. If SE had wanted to make Cloti canon, it seems to me that they would have portrayed Cloud and Tifa as a couple in the movie.

...Which they did. If you bother to put the movie/s in context in relation to OGC, the Cases, etc, they are very obviously a couple. They're having very obviously couple-like problems.

If anything, I personally thought the continuing love between Cloud and Aerith was clearly shown in both movies, while the relationship between Cloud and Tifa was left up to interpretation.

Sure, if you erase the context. Or if you're biased, same dif'.

For that matter, even the Highwind scene showed nothing conclusive. Whatever happened under the Highwind was left completely up to interpretation.

I'll agree with this. They might have all-out fucked. Might have just done oral. Or if you're more conservative, some suggestive grinding and heavy necking. It's all a matter of your interpretation.

If SE wanted to solve the Love Triangle, it seems to me that they would have done so along with commentary from Nojima, Nomura, and Kitase in a special section of the 10th Anniversary Ultimania dealing with the Love Triangle. Furthermore, they would have revealed it in the 10th Anniversary Ultimania, which dealt with the Compilation of FFVII, not in one line of an Ultimania about all Final Fantasies.

They obviously overestimated the average fan IQ. Cloti was pretty fucking obvious when Aerith got impaled. Why do die-hard Cleriths always act like death is something that can be brushed aside? She's dead. Doesn't that count for anything anymore?

Statements like these leave the feelings expressed between Cloud and Tifa up to player interpretation, since it's never specified what feelings were expressed. The scan in the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania is the only source which specifies that the feelings shared between Cloud and Tifa were romantic by talking about the Highwind scene under a page heading of "Romantic Love Between Heroes of Final Fantasy".

Hey, Ana, I think you need a leash for your goal post. It won't sit still.

In the fourth place, from my own perspective there's just too many contradictions.

Because you're clearly the authority on such matters.

If Cloti became canon in FFVII under the Highwind, then why did SE say that Aerith's Church is Cloud's Promised Land? It seems to me that Tifa and his family would be Cloud's Promised Land if Cloud truly loves Tifa.

I dunno about y'all, but I always cream myself when I see someone lowered into a watery grave. So romantic! *dreamy sigh*

Aren't there four other figures similar to this one, of Zack, Aerith, Cloud and Tifa? Where Zack and Aerith have flowered bases while Cloud and Tifa have industrial-looking ones?

Why all of this emphasis on Cloud and Aerith in SE merchandise if the canon couple is really Cloud and Tifa?

Because Sqex is not restricted to making merch of only the canon couples. Aerith and Cloud are hugely popular characters and are the main hero an heroine. It's possible for that to happen and have them not automatically be a couple.

For another thing, the screenshots used for Final Fantasy VII on this page in the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania are both optional scenes, while the screenshots used from other Final Fantasies are all non-optional. Why use optional scenes instead of non-optional scenes with Cloud and Tifa, such as the Promise scene or something from the Lifestream event?

Because it's in the optional scene that Cloud and Tifa confess that they love eachother. Not in the promise scene or in the Lifestream event.

Present a scene with Cloud and Aerith that compares.

And no, it's not this one...

If SE intended that this page declare Cloti canon, then why use a picture of the CloudxAerith date scene instead of the CloudxTifa date scene?

If you read the captions, you'd see why. Because the GS date doesn't mean anything. It says so in the caption. READ THE CAPTION. They could have put Tifa, Yuffie, or Barret, and it would make no difference to the point they are trying to make with the image -- which is that depending on the player's actions different people will accompany Cloud on the date. It doesn't say Clerith is canon because of an optional date where all she does is talk about her ex.

For these and other reasons, I have to question whether this one scan serves as "ultimate proof" of Cloti love, especially when Cloud's feelings for Tifa are clearly optional.

Except they're not.

If SE wanted us to think of Cloud and Tifa as the canon couple of the game, they would have made it clear during the Compilation of FFVII, but they didn't.

Except they did.

If anything, I thought the continuing love of Cloud and Aerith was clearly portrayed during the Great Gospel rain scene and the Bahamut hand reach scene and during the final FMVs of both movies.

Except it wasn't.

Why show Cloud riding out among flowers that SE said were chosen because they're the same color as the flowers in Aerith's Church if we're supposed to think that Cloti is canon?

Because obviously prolonged exposure to boobs gives one pollen allergies. Cloud is supposed to avoid flowerfields at all costs if he's with Tifa, for fear of the dreaded itchy eye.

No, really, how does Cloud riding through a field of flowers signify that Cloud loves Aerith? I'm sure he runs across lots of varied flora while travelling. You missed the message of that second credits, anyway. The entire point of it is to show that Cloud is free again, from his guilt, from his sickness, from his doubt. Aerith was a huge marker in his problems and why he was unhappy, so him riding through a field of flowers that resemble hers without any compunction symbolizes that he has dealt with those issues that he was letting hold himself back. Everything is alright in his world once more, and he can move on with living and being happy.

Why end ACC with a scene of Aerith's Church

You mean the scene where Cloud has restored the Buster Sword from it's damage and rust, and placed it in the Church among Aerith's flowers, which is blatant sexual symbolism? That just shows Cloud is a rabid Zerith shipper.

Personally, I feel there's too many reasons to question that CloudxTifa has been declared the canon couple of the game. If SE truly wanted us to think that, they would have made it clear long ago.

Except they did.

 

[OneWingedDemon]

Wait, I thought that promised land quote said that was Cloud's promised land because at that moment he was surrounded by everyone he cared. That sentence continues to say "surrounded by so and so".

Since when did they say the church itself is his promised land? That's retarded

 

[Fighter]

Wait, I thought that promised land quote said that was Cloud's promised land because at that moment he was surrounded by everyone he cared. That sentence continues to say "surrounded by so and so".

Those subsequent lines of text do not exist if you wear the special pink glasses you were supposed to.

 

[Eerie]

If they don't twist stuff around, OWD, HOW CAN THEY STILL DREAM?

Also, props to you guys for reading that long WTF essay and all. I couldn't be arsed. XD I liked the replies though XD

 

[Isabella]

That promised land thing is one of her funnier points, because it goes on to say exactly what she says it should.

 

[Fighter]

What they should ask themselves is why would anyone be required to have special inside knowledge to understand a simple line of text? If I'm an average joe who bought the book for the other installments of FF reading the romance page I'm going to assume Cloud and Tifa are the main couple of FF7. I'm never going to suspect their feelings were optional because, well, it doesn't say so unlike the date.

Instead of asking why SE say something vague or not say anything somewhere else ask why would they say this anywhere at all if it wasn't true?

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I hate when they say it's optional. No, Aerith's date is optional. HA and LA are two versions of the same scene, there's no way you can get a scene where Cloud is alone and angsting about Aerith or some shit.

Adj.1.optional - possible but not necessary; left to personal choice

But the highwind scene progressing IS necessary for the story to progress, so I loathe it when people say that the scene is somehow 'optional'. Yes, you can have a personal choice as to how much Tifa likes Cloud, but that makes the scene no more optional than the Macalania make-out.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

Those subsequent lines of text do not exist if you wear the special pink glasses you were supposed to.

 

[Tennyo]

Can someone with pics of the Cloud/Tifa and Zack/Aerith toys with matching bases go post them on C/A? Because using toys is kind of a lame bit of evidence.

Maybe also post the Cloud/Sephiroth ones with matching bases for effect.

 

[OneWingedDemon]

http://www.gashaponrakuen.com/collections464.html

 

[Ryushikaze]

Call me a softy but, somewhere mixed in with my disgust is some sympathy for Anastar. She's given so much of her life to her OTP over the last decade. It must be very important to her, and not something she can easily let go of overnight. It probably feels like your boyfriend has been cheating on you for ten years and you just got blindsided by it.

You kinda have a point there, Bella. I know that's got to be the reason she's clinging so hard to this -- it's not even about not wanting to be wrong, it's just she doesn't want it to have been a waste.

But, then, that's why I say never be ashamed of any work you've done -- unless it's a holocaust or something -- only work that you haven't.

Religion. It's their religion. I don't say this merely sarcastically. They trip all the religion earmarks.

*looks at half-painted bathroom and sighs*

You know, with so many of them having mad crushes on Cloud, and with the rampant self insertion we see going on, I think it probably really does feel like being cheated on, for some of them. It sucks and I'm sympathetic, but there's a lesson there: instead of being so preoccupied by a fantasy guy, get out there so you can be cheated on by a real guy. Or something.

At the very least, get your freak on.

 

[Shadowfox]

Hey, Ana, I think you need a leash for your goal post. It won't sit still.

It used to be that a Clerith could once safely say, "I'll only accept that Cloud and Tifa are a couple if SE comes out and tells us that," in debates. Obviously, they can't do that anymore.

http://www.gashaponrakuen.com/collections464.html

Why is the Reno toy wearing lipstick?

 

[Tennyo]

Bad sculpt. That and he has weird hair in DoC.

 

[Ryushikaze]

http://www.gashaponrakuen.com/collections464.html

So... RenoxRude is Mechandise!Canon, is what you're saying?

 

[Eerie]

So... RenoxRude is Mechandise!Canon, is what you're saying?

Reno looks so gay in that merch, it's no wonder they're canon by now. XD

 

[Fairheartstrife]

Was Reno x Rude ever in doubt? I mean what the hell? That's like THE OTP of FFVII.

 

[Dashell]

So... RenoxRude is Mechandise!Canon, is what you're saying?

FUCK YEAH I knew it

 

[Tennyo]

I think it was a mid-life crisis. Vincent doesn't age, but he's gotta still be due for one. ._.

Could be. It could also be that he woke up one morning and realized he was 60. That's not midlife crisis, that's old-age crisis.

 

[Loxetta]

Thank you OWD, I knew those figures existed somewhere

Also anyone that doesn't believe Reno/Rude is canon needs to replay the game.

 

[Dashell]

Hooray new Clerith on TNC!... uhm...

Also anyone that doesn't believe Reno/Rude is canon needs to replay the game.

Reno/Yazoo is still my fav.

EDIT
And TTLY canon because there's a screenshot of them
Why would Square do that if they weren't canon?