What I was trying to explain that I don't really believe in the LTD debate, because it seems like in the game that there is no canon.
And I am saying you are mistaken, because to conclude there is no canon you have to ignore not only the events of the game, but all of the supplementary materials as well.
Back in 96, missing the hints might be excusable. Now when we're told rather explicitly what happened and what things mean, it comes of more as denial than anything.
And I know how canon works Ryu. If FF VII had a canon pairing, Cloti or Clerith would be a official pairing, and not what the two groups assume...
You don't need a press release to be canon or official.
Tifa actually saw quite alot of the event though, being the guide. She would of seen alot of secrets that none of the normal villagers would of saw, and most of all she knew about Zack. Why didn't she tell Cloud about Zack in Gongaga ? Tifa actually remembers more than Cloud, and it always seems like she's not wanting to tell him what she feels is not right in what Cloud said what the incident was, from her own experiences and memories from that day.
Because Cloud remembers all those events too.
But according to Tifa's memories, he wasn't there, but he would have had to be there to know those things. Tifa doesn't want to confront him, because she's not sure herself. Hence why she keeps asking questions, looking for some way to discover if it was he or she who was mistaken.
She kept quiet out of concern for him, not out of a desire to manipulate him.
Cloud and Tifa didn't really know each other until Tifa's mom died. Til then Tifa was always the poplaur girl hanging around the guys, and Cloud was the misfit.
Actually, we know nothing of their relationship before that day, just that it was the first time Cloud was in her room.
Oddly, it's never described as 'the only' time. Cloud became the misfit AFTER this event, blaming himself for his weakness and picking fights.
It seems like they only connect is when they met by the wishing well, and Cloud makes that infamous promise to Tifa that he'll rescue her when she's in danger. They hardly are childhood friends.
'That we know of'
But again, this is irrelevant. She trusted him enough to meet him at the town date spot, at night, and she dressed up for the occasion, and she thought he was cute.
She did not fall for him because of SOLDIER. She was interested before that.
I felt like that moment was SE making a Cloti connection. In Kingdom Hearts, Cloud is the darkness and Tifa is the light. In romance, and in relationships, there's a saying that 'love can melt one's heart'. Tifa's light melted away Cloud's darkness, and made him stronger, also it means that Tifa is important to Cloud...
I am not saying you are wrong. I am saying the importance of an AU, even one with a major symbolic moment for C/T, is less important than C/T confirming their feelings for one another in the actual continuity.
The date system still works after Aerith has died, to work with the scene with Cloud and Tifa underneath the Highwind. Also this is like saying, that once a loved-one is dead, the love for each other, no longer exists...
...No, it's saying that Narratively, you DON'T KILL OFF a third of a love triangle and expect that third to be still 'in the running'
And the date system affects Tifa after Aerith dies. Just as it affected her, Aerith, Yuffie, and Barret before it. the AVs are not representative of Cloud, but people's opinion of him.
Final Fantasy has always been like that though. I mean with Kain being a traitor in FFIV, he is really evil or just misunderstood ? FF V Exdeath is a tree. FF VIII the whole time, space thing was a huge mind -screw.
Kain's mind control and Exdeath's treehood are not mindscrews. A mindscrew is getting into the head of the playing, playing on their expectations, their knowledge of cliches, leading them one way, then blindsiding them with something totally unexpected forcing them to reconsider the evidence they'd been given before. FFVII does this twice.
FFVIII really only does this once, with the revelation that the villianous looking woman you think is the big bad is actually the closest thing you had to a mom growing up.
I agree alot with this post. Aerith had a crush on Cloud, because she was reminded of Zack. In Crisis Core she was scared of Soldiers and Zack comforted her fears. I think if she saw Cloud in that Solider gear originally, she would of told him GTFO.
Yet she saw both Cloud and Zack in said SOLDIER gear originally, and didn't freak out. Aerith was afraid of the idea of SOLDIERs, but had no actual fear of Zack because he was in SOLDIER, even when he first revealed he was one.
I think that this what I meant that Tifa only liked Cloud because he was Solider. Tifa liked the idea of Cloud being her hero, knight in shining armour. I feel like Tifa didn't want to express the truth to Cloud about the Nibelheim past, because she'll loose her romantic fantasy. She saw almost everything as a guide, she saw that Cloud wasn't originally a proper Solider, she still remembers Zack. Why doesn't she say something ? She only explains the truth, after Cloud has gone insane. Not good timing...
Tifa doesn't tell Cloud BECAUSE HE KNOWS TOO MUCH. Cloud KNOWS THINGS that he could only know IF HE WAS THERE WITH HER. It has nothing to do with 'her romantic fantasy' and if it was about that, then she wouldn't have stayed with Cloud's vegetable ass when she found him in Mideel, stayed with him even after knowing he wasn't in SOLDIER, which she DIDN'T know til AFTER he admitted it to her.
She had no reason to doubt his story that he was in SOLDIER. She also had good reason to trust that he might have been there, given his personal knowledge of the events only Four people witnessed.
Also I don't know the Tifa-Tards here, are getting so angry. I said that it's all up to opinion, and personal choice, and that people might see a completely different view in Tifa than me. Chill please, take a breather.
You must have mistaken us for dumbasses who will fall for someone calling something their opinion as just opinion when it is presented as anything but.
A pure opinion is 'I like pie.' Not an opinion is 'This is just my opinion, but pie is unhealthy.'
In a way, Cloud never really stopped acting like Zack until the coming years to Advent Children. Cloud still did Zack movements, and he didn't change out of his Solider gear, so he still kept up this charade of being a Solider, which is Tifa's fantasy, Cloud being her hero. Being a Solider he would seem more heroic. When he stops the charade, he becomes depressed and starts isolating himself away from Tifa. She hasn't really seen the real Cloud, since she's still seeing the illusion...
Cloud started acting like Cloud from the lifestream sequence onwards. Not only was Tifa the one person who knew Cloud best, the only person he's ever opened his heart to, and who knows him all too well, SHE SUPPORTS HIS MENTALLY WEAK SIDE. She KNOWS his weaknesses. She accepts him and loves him despite those.
He is still her knight, still the hero, even WITH the depression and the doubt. It's not a fantasy, it's a relationship.
He fainted inside the 2nd Reactor bomb trigger place, he almost killed Aerith with his sword, he gave up the black materia to Sephiroth and bashed Aerith on the ground, no to mention after he gave the materia to Sephy, he knew that Seph, would manipulate his mind again, and didn't know if he'll be able to control it or not. Huge clues, that something was not right.
And she knew before the game even began. Because she knew him well enough to tell something was off. Before he began acting really wierd.
Ah, kids these days. 
