Tifa Crystal
Rookie Adventurer
- AKA
- Freya
I've searched for a similar discussion in the forum and I haven't found it. Sorry if I've made a mistake. So, the title is clear, I'm curious to know and share opinions with you about these characters.
For me it's a close tie between Aerith and Reno. And Aerith became even more special with the remake. Quite the opposite of what Stiggie said about Tifa, I sometimes feel like Aerith is the one who gets overshadowed, though that's just a matter if opinion.
As for the specifics, I like how Aerith doesn't fit into that "strong female character" type that's increasingly popular these days. Nothing against that type, but Aerith not being like that is part of what makes her stand out to me. She's neither particularly strong, nor a damsel in distress.
In the remake especially, her relationship with the people around her makes it seem like she's just an ordinary girl, more so than say Jessie or Tifa (or Cloud and Barret too). No lofty dreams of taking down mega corporations despite knowing better than anyone just how awful they've been to her. She's a local florist who tries things and gives up whenever. One could call her unmotivated, yet when it matters most, she steps into the role she needs to play. Despite her fears of the unknown and having to step away from the perceived safety of the steel sky, she moves forward. She is someone who knows how to move on when she must regardless of what has happened before, or what grudges one might bear if they were in her shoes. To me, that's a real heroine worthy of leading the party, and she does so in her own unique way.
As for Reno, teenage crush aside, I must be one of the few who find him relatable. Maybe I'm just a dick IRL.
Wow, Stiggie, we have the same sentiment but for a different character! To me, Tifa's the one who's too perfect. The strong independent woman who's mature enough to keep the party grounded, and the one that all the boys like, but no, she's just a normal girl. And don't even get me started on fandom porn... Nothing against people into it, just really not to my taste and makes me cringe when Twitter insists on forcing it in my face.
For me it's a close tie between Aerith and Reno. And Aerith became even more special with the remake. Quite the opposite of what Stiggie said about Tifa, I sometimes feel like Aerith is the one who gets overshadowed, though that's just a matter if opinion.
As for the specifics, I like how Aerith doesn't fit into that "strong female character" type that's increasingly popular these days. Nothing against that type, but Aerith not being like that is part of what makes her stand out to me. She's neither particularly strong, nor a damsel in distress.
In the remake especially, her relationship with the people around her makes it seem like she's just an ordinary girl, more so than say Jessie or Tifa (or Cloud and Barret too). No lofty dreams of taking down mega corporations despite knowing better than anyone just how awful they've been to her. She's a local florist who tries things and gives up whenever. One could call her unmotivated, yet when it matters most, she steps into the role she needs to play. Despite her fears of the unknown and having to step away from the perceived safety of the steel sky, she moves forward. She is someone who knows how to move on when she must regardless of what has happened before, or what grudges one might bear if they were in her shoes. To me, that's a real heroine worthy of leading the party, and she does so in her own unique way.
As for Reno, teenage crush aside, I must be one of the few who find him relatable. Maybe I'm just a dick IRL.
Yeah, Barret is really strong in the remake, he's so engaging because of the clear moral greyness there, we see he's a good father, and passionate about a good cause, but he is also clearly a violent fanatic whose methods are highly immoral. To me that, in general, is the strength of FFVII's cast.There are so many great characters in the series: Cloud, Aerith, Reno, Rufus, Tifa, Vincent, Zack...it's not an easy choice, and it shifts over the years but Iately I have to say I really like Barret.
His story is really compelling. He goes from this coal miner who naively trusts Shinra to going on a warpath against Shinra for redemption and vengence. And yet throughout all the tragedy he experiences, he still emerges as a charismatic leader, a devoted father and loyal friend. To me, he's a poster child of human resilience.
I think a lot of Tifa’s perfect girl image comes from horny fanboys and shippers projecting their desires (which is by far not unique to her but she definitely gets more sexualized for obvious reasons) but the source material itself takes great care to treat Tifa as an actual character who has flaws and insecurities and makes mistakes which is typically not the case with genki girl types like Aerith. (and other girls mind you, as @Ryvius points out)To me, Tifa's the one who's too perfect. The strong independent woman who's mature enough to keep the party grounded, and the one that all the boys like, but no, she's just a normal girl. And don't even get me started on fandom porn... Nothing against people into it, just really not to my taste and makes me cringe when Twitter insists on forcing it in my face.
But to the creators' credit, they really toned down that sex appeal nonsense by a ton in the remake and I'm not sure how much more they could have changed without changing the character. I enjoyed her chapter, walking around seeing how much she has rebuilt her life from total devastation in 5 years. I guess the part that I have trouble relating to is the part that many fans like her for, her insecurities. Someone this strong usually deals with their insecurities in a different way. Or maybe that's just what I was taught being in a rather weird all-girls middle school (the weirdness seems like a common sentiment from other students in other schools in town?). So yeah, something about her just feels unreal to me? Idk...
This is also something I don't get, I don't see how it's bad to have a shared plot, that's one of my favorite parts about her character, and one of the things I like least about some other characters (like amarant in FFIX), I like seeing how stories are entwined, and I don't see how anyone would see this as a negative, I never hear anyone complain about how Clouds backstory is so intimately tied to Tifa, so why complain the other way around?that’s not so heavily tied to the male protagonist and character development that’s more independent of him