I gotta say, it's not backpedaling to revamp your essays/theories when a new game comes out. I mean, we do it all the time here as well. New canon comes out, you gotta adjust, and not just for LTD-related things.
The backpedaling isn't in the revising. The backpedaling is in going 'Well X obviously means Y' and then rejecting your logic when you see X isn't what you wanted it to be.
Koibito is a goo example of this. From RF until COLW, There was much wringing of hands from FFG et. all that Koibito meant anything other than 'lover in a relationship' or 'beloved', including the infamous WacDonalds interview DesFail keeps a record of, insisting it meant 'one who loves' or had no meaning when written in Kanji.
There was also the argument that it doesn't tell us who Tifa is the Koibito in relation to, so it could be anyone!
Come COLW, and 'Woman' speaking from her own perspective, and suddenly Koibito does have a meaning in Kanji, it does mean lover, and Woman can't possibly be overstating things, using the second meaning, or wrong.
Plus the double standard that we can tell who 'woman' is (Yes, it's pretty obvious it's Aerith, my point is we're never actually TOLD it's Aerith. Maybe it's Tina.) but we cannot tell who the koibito in relation to Tifa is.
That's the backpedalling.
(As for the claims of C/T advocates backpedaling on the same issue, I find these overblown. Firstly, because several people were clarifying koibito before COLW hit, and because out basic stance hasn't actually shifted. We're skeptical of COLW because it's Clerith's POV only and she can't speak for everyone, not because we think the meaning of the word changed).
The 'Light' argument from KH is another such backpedal, but that bike's such a tangled mess I'm not sure where to begin.
There's the 'Aerith's ribbon is the red string of love (and it ties her to Zack!)' argument that some backpedaled on, some admitted was wrong, and others tried to justify with it not REALLY tying her to Zack, even though he actually has a connection to it with her.
I'm not sure 'Rival Orphanages' is a backpedal, strictly speaking, but there is an effort to disavow all knowledge of that.
The 'live on in the heart' argument is one area they haven't adjusted on, despite the statement that Aerith lives on in all the hearts of her allies and is said to belong in the lifestream of the planet itself.
Etc. etc. etc. There's a lot of sweeping proclamations made that later have to be reversed, sweapt under the rug, or kept by careful arrangement of partial evidence.
Of course, as she clearly ignores canon whenever it's convenient for her, I'm not sure why she put in all that effort to revamp them in the first place.
I mean everyone knows canon is just your personal interpretation of a game amirite.
No, only theirs. Their fanon is canon. It's the only one that counts.
