We Need To Make The Most Of The Time We Have—to Live Our Lives The Way We Wanna Live. Every Minute...every

Aerith's day

Graphics enhancement, 23 years later!

CHAINSAWMAN SPOILER!

Denji bragging about his previous dates..

...His actual previous dates

A good match indeed

“As long as we’re together, I won’t be afraid.” “Yes, I promise.”

@zerith-week day 2: promise

No offense bro, but why are you always so protective of Cloud? No disrespect to you or anything but I've heard quite a bit of different opinions and theories on Cloud myself and I do agree with the people who say that he takes Tifa for granted. Going through trauma in the past is not really an excuse for his behavior. He also does act like he's the only one who has suffered in his life. Do you have other reason to defend him other than the fact that you "relate" to him? Just wondering.

Sorry for the late reply, my life has basically left no room for hobbies these past months. Your question is hard to reply to because I am not sure what you mean when you say I am protective of him. I guess you mean I defend his actions? Specifically in ACC? Firstly let me state that there is a difference between being a good character and being a nice character, there is also a difference between agreeing with someones actions, or just understanding them. Personally, I never really liked Cloud, especially not when I was younger. A lot of my defense of Cloud doesn't come from me personally liking him, but from me thinking he's a good character. I also think Snape is a good character, but I don't like his actions, and I don't defend them, although I still understand them to a certain degree. I should also say that as I started to understand Clouds character more, I also started liking HIM a bit more, although I still don't like the things he did, and would very likely not be friends with him. But I do understand why he did what he did and cannot be too critical of him because of that. You've probably heard that before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That's great advice, if you want to judge someone, you should imagine what it would be like to be them, however, I've noticed that too often when people try to walk a mile in someone elses shoes, they refuse to take their own shoes off first. They don't think "what would it be like to be him", they think "what would I do in that position". But Cloud is not you, and you cannot judge him by how you would act, you've not gone through the same things he has, your thought patterns aren't the same etc. This matters because too often I see people judging Clouds actions in ACC, and establishing his motivations by saying things that boil down to "If I were in his position, I would only do those actions if I loved Aerith/didn't love Tifa/whatever". But they're not Cloud, and they're not understanding how Cloud thinks, and that it's different from how THEY think. But like you said, I do see some recognizable elements of myself in Cloud, which is why I do understand his actions, and why I feel relatively certain in defending them, because I see them coming from a good place. It's common for me to react to things in a way that others find counter-intuitive. Let me give you an example, my brother once was mad at me because I had not told him my girlfriend of several years and I had broken up while I did tell a random stranger at the pub. He said that he felt like he wasn't important to me if I told a random stranger but not him. The truth was the exact opposite, I love my brother, and could not bear to face him for some reason, as I told him: "if not caring enough was the problem, then I wouldn't have told a random stranger". I see people exhibit that same lack of understanding when discussing Clouds actions, where they feel like his actions must be the sign of him just being a bad person, or not caring. But ask yourself what is more likely, that Square-enix wants their hero to be a bad person, or that you simply are misunderstanding the character? I understand why people don't get Cloud, Cloud suffers from obvious mental health issues, and mental health issues simply are not something that the general public understands, even today. Not only that, but Cloud went through the most insane series of traumatic events anyone could ever imagine. He had an alien parasite in him, saw his entire town murdered before his eyes, then saw Zack murdered in front of his eyes, then saw Aerith murdered in front of his eyes, and just when he started living a peaceful life he is forced to watch his child succumb to sickness in front of his eyes, and then he finds he himself is dying. All this on the psyche of a man who had had a fear of failure ever since he was a child, spent most of his life essentially in war, and had a severe identity crisis as well. Do you think you can honestly judge him by going "that's not what I would have done"? Would that not be incredibly

presumptuous? Have you suffered from depression as a result of severe post-war PTSD and a lifelong feeling of inadequacy combined with a fear of failure and the belief that many of your loved once died because you failed and were inadequate? Because that's the context in which you have to view Cloud when watching Advent Children. Saying "Going through trauma in the past is not really an excuse for his behavior" is just incredibly short-sighted, your behavior is determined by who you are, and who you are is determined by what you go through in the past. You can't expect a broken child to became a well-adjusted adult when being a well-adjusted adult is the result of having a normal childhood.

I also don't want to cause offense, but this really is a mindset you should change, because this mindset is one of the most pervasive and damaging ones in our society, it's the one that probably bothers me most when I hear it because it makes zero sense. It's like breaking a robots self-repair unit, and then being angry at it on the grounds that the self-repair unit should have fixed it. It's also very insensitive in general, it's the equivalent of saying "why are you depressed, just stop being depressed", people don't choose to be depressed, people don't choose to have a fear of failure. People don't choose their emotions, they're just there. They can be influenced by behavior over time, sure, but behavior is equally influenced by who you are and your emotions, which, as mentioned before, is determined for a large part by your past. People don't just "snap out of it". They fight and fight and fight, and sometimes they win and break out of the spiral, and sometimes they lose and it breaks them.

FFVII, and especially Advent children, is all about that struggle, and during those struggles you will have high-points, and low-points. FFVII shows all of those. It shows Cloud trying, it shows Cloud wanting, it shows Cloud failing, but it also, ultimately, shows Cloud prevailing. Judging Cloud for not breaking out of the spiral by the time of Advent children, when he was mentally only barely 18 years old, and when he started at the worst place anyone could ever imagine, is just not reasonable. It's the modern day equivalent of "let them eat cake", something that can only be said from the place of privilege of not knowing what the struggles of the people you're critiquing are actually like. So having that out of the way, lets look at Clouds actions from the perspective of Cloud. Cloud is a young boy, and he's in love with the girl next door, he wants to get her to notice him. One day said girl walks up a mountain and he follows, she falls off a bridge and ends in a coma. Cloud followed her because he's in love with her, and he gets the blame from the adults. Cloud internalizes this, and its important to imagine what this must be like for a child, to have the adults all tell him it's his fault that the person he loves ended up hurt. "your fault", "your fault". Afterwards Cloud starts thinking Tifa hates him and starts acting out. I think this is a good moment to point out btw that this child has no father figure. This is the start of his feelings of failure and inadequacy, he blames himself for not being able to protect Tifa, failure number 1, he thinks that if he were strong, he'd be able to protect her, he thinks that if he were like Sephiroth, then even Tifa would have to notice him. Now until this time Cloud is not an asshole, he's a bit of a rebellious kid yes, but notice that he's not a bad kid as much as he's a kid who wants to protect someone, has no direction, and is acting out. So Cloud thinks he's not good enough, but he leaves town confident that he'll become good enough, and even makes a promise to Tifa. All this follows logically from what we know about Cloud, and tells us a lot about how deeply seated these feelings are. Becoming Soldier wasn't a small thing, not some small passion project that he just came up with one day, it's the result of the things that happened in his childhood and he left everything behind make it so. He told the girl he loved, he promised, he boasted. And then he failed. Failure number 2. He comes back to Nibleheim and can't bear to look Tifa in the eye and admit that he couldn't do it, that he's a failure. His entire life so far has revolved around this and he wasn't good enough. So here we have Cloud, not in a great mindset, thinking he's a failure, and what happens? His entire town is murdered by the person he admired, someone he worked with. His Mother is killed, and Tifa, the girl he PROMISED to protect, gets slashed open so badly that apparently she needed to have her ribcage reinforced with metal. I think we can all agree that this by itself would be enough to potentially scar a person for life. (Cloud, not Tifa XD) So what's next for the boy who left town in order to become a hero? Well, he gets captured and experimented on for 4 years, during which his mind and sense of identity is bombarded with memories and knowledge of the lifestream in the form of mako, muddying up his thoughts. Cloud already had a weak sense of self as a result of his childhood, it's why he failed to enter Soldier and now this distaste for who he is makes him extra susceptible to Jenovas influence. The next thing Cloud sees, (he didn't consciously experience the 4 years of mind-fuckery) is his best friend getting killed trying to protect him, because Cloud wasn't strong enough. Failure #3. At this point, in Clouds mind the list of people dead because he could not protect them, because he's a failure, include his mother, his entire town, his best friend, and as far as he knows, the girl he loves. This is his life. His mind is broken, he hates himself, he doesn't want to be himself,

he has a mind-altering parasite inside of him trying to adjust his identity and Clouds just goes "I reject this reality and constitute my own". And why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he want to live in a fantasy world where he wasn't a failure, where he made it into soldier, where he was cool and successful and not a disappointing failure? Zack tells him to be his living legacy and Cloud goes with it, then he runs into Tifa, Jenova adjusts Cloud further based on Tifas memories of them and rejoined with the girl for whom he joined Soldier Cloud is unconsciously all too willing to play the part. FFVII starts and it doesn't take long for the cracks in his fake persona to show, he meets Aerith, and becomes her bodyguard. He gets to be the hero he always wanted to be. But then, even as "Cloud strife, soldier first class", Cloud is still a failure, the plate still drops, killing thousands, he gives Sephiroth the black materia, he beats up Aerith, and ultimately, fails to save her as well. Tifa was the First Failure, and Aerith was the Final Failure. Even as a soldier, Cloud still couldn't save anyone, he loses even more faith in himself, he doesn't know who he is, he doesn't trust himself, and then when he also loses Tifas trust in who he is, he just breaks and gives over to Jenova/Sephiroth. Even Hojo calls him a failure. Cloud feels like a nobody. Now mentally weakened, under the influence of jenova cells, he gives Sephiroth the black materia AGAIN, and meteor is summoned. Another entry on the long list of moments Cloud can look back on in shame later on in life. He falls into the lifestream and again his psyche is under attack. We know what happens afterwards, Tifa finds him, cares for him, and saves him through his feelings for her. Cloud realizes who he is, realizes he's weak, and goes after Sephiroth without lying to himself. In the end he defeats Sephiroth mentally and is supposedly rid of his direct influence.

But that doesn't mean that this mentally 17 year old is now fine, we should remember these events when analyzing ACC. Cloud has been in constant fighting/war/peril ever since he left home as a child, and is now a traumatized 17 year old in a 21 year olds body. Novels and other materials give us an insight into how Cloud thinks during these times, and how he thinks about himself. We hear him say that he's going to live because that's the only way he can atone for his sins. He talks about wanting to change, and about believing he can change because he now has Tifa. He's a man (boy) who just exited war, and wants to be positive, but is still clearly blaming himself. We see that this initially goes well, we are told that Cloud experiences peace and happiness that he's never experienced before. We're also told about the things that make it go badly, when he has to deliver flowers to the ancient city for instance. While Cloud regained the sense of who he was the belief that he wasn't good enough, that he was a failure, was never solved, if anything it was put on hold until he got his memories back, and now he is forced to deal with it.

While he is no longer directly manipulated by Sephiroth he's still suffering from PTSD and, most notably, survivors guilt. He blames himself for the deaths of Zack and Aerith in particular, and starts visiting the church. Now most people might think it's natural to avoid places that make you feel bad about yourself, but that's not how a depressed person thinks, Cloud thinks he deserves to feel badly he WANTS to punish himself, he WANTS to feel bad. He's ashamed of the moments where he's carefree and laughing with Tifa. Why should he get to be happy when Aerith and Zack are dead because of him? He shouldn't be happy, he should be in pain, he should remember them, not doing so would be an insult to their memories, he must never forget how he failed them! That's how Cloud is thinking. We know of course that this is non-sense, Aerith and Zack wouldn't want this, if anything it's this mindset that is tarnishing the memories of Aerith and Zack, but that's not how a mentally unwell person thinks. Cloud wants to atone, and thinks he finds salvation in Denzel, whom he finds at Aeriths church. He thinks that by saving this life, he can, in some way, make up for all the death he caused. Tifa has a similar belief when she finds out Denzels parents died in the plate crash. And when Denzel joins the family, and Cloud has path towards redemption in his mind, things start getting better again. Because this is the cause of the problems Cloud is having in ACC. When Nojima says:

first off, there’s the premise that things won’t go well between Tifa and Cloud, and that even without Geostigma or Sephiroth this might be the same

This is the conflict he's talking about, he's not saying "Tifa and Cloud are incompatible, it has nothing to do with Sephiroth", he's saying "if Sephiroth didn't show up during Advent children, Cloud and Tifa would still be having problems because Cloud is going through survivors guilt."

But the good times don't last, Denzel has Geostigma and Cloud cannot find a cure, Denzel....is going to die. Cloud, has failed again. Not only that, but Cloud catches Geostigma....Cloud is going to die. And THIS is why Cloud leaves in Advent children. And you have to look at this as Cloud. Cloud said he was going to live to atone for his sins, but instead he's going to die. He won't atone for his sins, even worse, he's going to leave Tifa and Marlene behind. He failed again. He couldn't protect Denzel, he potentially brought an infectious disease into their house as well. Literally all Cloud can think about is that literally everything he's ever tried has ended in failure, everyone he's ever tried to protect, he's failed at. Do you understand how easy it would be for a person like this to fall into the trap of thinking "I deserve to die", "I don't want Tifa and Marlene to see me die", "Tifa and Marlene are better off without me anyway", "they'd be happier if I weren't here". Etc. Now we know this is nonsense, but come on, how many instances have you heard of depressed people genuinely believing that their loved ones would be happier and better off if they just didn't exist? However, throughout the movie, Zack, Tifa, and Aerith, all confront Cloud, and urge him to not give up. Cloud eventually does try again, and ultimately finds redemption not by being stuck in the past, but by letting the past rest and be beautiful (a lesson Cleriths unfortunately never learned). "I never blamed you you know, not once" "I want to be forgiven. By who?" "Isn't it about time you did the forgiving?" In the end, Cloud moves on, and therefore, so do Zack and Aerith. Aerith and Zack walk into the light, Cloud plants flowers on Zacks grave, and lets Zacks buster sword rest in Aeriths church, now no longer rusting, but shining. Instead of the past being a negative reminder, Cloud lets the past be beautiful. Cloud was doing Aerith and Zack a disservice by remembering them the way he did, because it was ruining his life, it wasn't a good thing, but it did come from a good place, from a good man whose ashamed of not being good enough. Yes, it harmed Tifa, people going through these things often do hurt those around them, but it's not because they're bad people, or even weak, but because people are imperfect and Cloud has gone through hell, both internally, and externally. Are his actions really that weird or deplorable? "He didn't even go save the kids!" Yes, he's hesitant about saving the kids, why shouldn't he be? Everyone Cloud tried to protect or save, ended up maimed or worse, or as Cloud puts it: "I can't even save myself". "He left Tifa alone!" Yes, he thinks he's going to waste away and die, can you blame him for not wanting to put Tifa through that and for thinking she'd be better off without him? "He drinks!" Wouldn't you?! Who wouldn't want to forget that stuff? But in the end, He's only gone for about a week, he never intended to harm Tifa, he never physically harmed Tifa or cheated on her, his entire life revolved around wanting to be better for Tifa and blaming himself when he wasn't good enough, how is it reasonable to say this man takes Tifa for granted when the fact that he thinks he has to BE BETTER in order to be worthy of being with her has been a constant throughout his entire life and story? He DOESN'T take Tifa for granted, that's why he's beating himself up, that's why he leaves, not because he thinks he's better than her, or that he'll always have her, or that she'll follow him like a dog, or something like that. But because of the opposite, because he thinks HE is not good enough, that SHE would be better of without him. Saying Cloud takes Tifa for granted, is honestly, simply, wrong. It's 180 degrees the opposite of what is happening in FFVII, the biggest constant in Clouds life, is that he doesn't take Tifa for granted, and I don't understand how anyone could argue otherwise.

Reblogging because fundamentally I agree on everything but one point. Adding the "read more" line because I ended up writing more than I expected, it's late at night and probably it's filled with grammar mistakes and inconsistencies.

First of all I'm loving this article, it's really well written and I agree with its content.

The only point I disagree is the firm idea that Aerith will undoubtly die OR her presence will ruin other characters' arcs.

I'd say you're right if we could reasonably assume that from now on things will be going exactly like in the OG and that Aerith's survival is just the faint illusion of some fans. But after all the changes set in the first part of the Remake I don't see how things could be faithful to the OG anymore.

I think Aerith has a big chance to survive. The first part hinted her death way too often to just end up in the Forgotten City and let her die the way she did in the OG. Like "do you remember the tons of times Cloud foreshadowed her death and Aerith seemed to hope she could change her future? Well, it was useless she died anyway". Oh thank you Square Enix.

I don't want to degress too much on plot speculations and stay close to the shipping subject, but can we still assume this is just a Remake of the story as we know it? Maybe yes, probably no. If we defeated the "Whispers" I guess everything can happen from now on. As far as we know this could turn out to be a sequel, or even an illusion.

Aerith's survival is irreconcilable with the events of the original story just like Zack's survival but...actually he survived anyway.

The point is that whatever happens, wherever this Remake will bring us, her survival won't affect the romantic endgame. I am a CT. And not because I prefer Tifa over Aerith, but because I think that reading this story under the perspective of "Cloud will always love Aerith" is both inconsistent and turns Cloud into one of the worst jerks in the world. For a tons of reasons that CAs usually conveneintly ignore.

The big problem of this story is that SE never fully closed Aerith's character arc for what concerns the romantic aspect. In the OG she had strong feelings for Cloud, then there was the date (yes I think her date is the canon one), Cait Sith's prediction and...? She died and the romance died with her, and Cloud never talked about her until the end of the game. She saved everyone from the Lifestream, but what about her and her feelings? When we discovered the truth about Zack there was not a single word that closed their story. Zack said one line about Aerith and it is even not much of a great line. I get why Maiden was created, even if I'm convinced it's not a canon entry.

That's what caused the LTD not the fact that CT wasn't obvious. People who really like Aerith can't accept her being left alone in the Lifestream with Cloud and Tifa living happily ever after. They can't accept Cloud's feelings faded away when he regained his true personality, at the point that most of them refuse that Cloud had ever had a fake personality in the first place.

Crisis Core somehow tried to fix this flaw of the OG but the damage was already done and I lost count of how many times I argued with people who rabidly try to diminish the importance of Zerith. There's no other entry in the compilation where romance is more blatantly obvious than CC but this still happens too often: People trying to disminish the canonicity of CC in favour of Maiden. People saying Zack and Aerith weren't in a relationship. People saying Cloud didn't love Tifa at the time of Nibelheim incident. People saying Zack was in a relationship with Cissnei. People saying Cloud was always himself and trying to minimize his brain damage and the link with Zack. People claiming that Zack in AC was just a product of Cloud's imagination.

I could spend the whole day adding examples. All this to proof that even if Cloud lives with Tifa and raises children with her for at least 4 years (Case of Denzel is set after DoC) they live as totally strangers, because he'll pine for Aerith forever, throwing away all the themes of AC. It's so ridiculous that's incredible that someone could really believe it. But actually A LOT of people are convinced about this, sometimes it feels like most of the fandom thinks so.

SE knows it, they are aware of how many fans want a happy ending for her. Like you said, for many fans she IS the greatest, bestest and most importantest, and she can't be dismissed once again in the Forgotten City just to show up to save the day when Meteor is about to distroy the world. The devs have to give an answer to the expectations between Cloud and Aerith that they set 24 years ago. And they could do it by letting her survive.

The king of CA claims has always been: "IF Aerith survived she'd have been the love interest" followed by "she would heal Cloud in the Lifestream" and "She'd have the Highwind scene". They're debunkable under many perspectives but - at least when I tried to - it never worked. Withthe Remake the devs could let her survive and show that her life doesn't affect the bond between real-Cloud and Tifa. She can't steal moments that belong to other characters. She wouldn't even want to do it. The Lifestream scene will always be Tifa's scene, no matter how much some fans would like to see it played by the mage instead of the monk.

The devs already started to show this. Remake Aerith knows something about the future, and her flirtious attitude toward Cloud is different than in the OG. All their original flirting scenes were removed, most of the new flirting scenes heavily refer to Crisis Core (when they're not a copy&paste), reducing to a minimum the genuine bonding moments between them. Hell, of all the themes her resolution scene could revolve around, the core of it is the famous "You can't fall il love with me. It's not real." No matter how much some people try to distort this sentence to turn it in a love confession. It isn't. It doesn't matter how much people try to read Hollow as a CA love song, it starts when the camera focuses on Zack and Aerith. The devs are softly giving to fans the answer about the LTD in a way that her presence won't affect the outcome.

So I really hope she could survive. For one because I'm selfish, I like her and I don't want to cry her death in 4K. Then because if she dies again at the Forgotten City, the "IF" statements will be brought up again and again and again. Even if the devs would show Cloud and Tifa getting married, someone will always claim that deep in his heart he loves Aerith and Tifa is a rebound, and I don't really feel like keep debating again about who Cloud Strife loves over the next 25 years.

Dead or friendzoned, choose one: The Aerith uncertainty principle.

This article argues that while it might be possible for Aerith to be a love interest in FFVII:R, or that she might survive in FFVII:R, that these things can't both happen. disclaimer: I don't believe either will be happen. ______________________________________________________ Imagine this, the year is 2040, you're playing FFVIII:Remake. Rinoa is doomed out in space, just when she thinks she's about to die, she looks up and sees Squall coming towards her, in a move of unprecedented daring he had jumped out of the Ragnarok to go save her. Your eyes start tearing up as the last recollections of your childhood flood back into your mind and out your eyes. And then, suddenly, from the side of the screen.....Seifer comes floating into frame. Oh yeah, you had almost forgotten, Seifer didn't become evil during the remake timeline.

Afterwards, in the cockpit, Seifer hugs Squall and Rinoa as eyes on me starts playing. How big of an unwelcome intruder would Seifer be in that situation? How much of an insult would this be to one of Rinoa and Squalls most iconic moments? Clearly this would never happen, but why not? If Seifer hadn't turned evil, surely he'd have wanted to save Rinoa as well. Logically it makes sense for him to be there, and yet I think everyone would understand why Seifer isn't welcome there. So why on earth, when discussing final fantasy VII, do I honestly hear people say that if Aerith had lived, she'd have saved Cloud in the lifestream sequence and what's more, actually advocate for this to happen? People need to realize that even if you think Aerith is just the bestest, brightest, most importantest character in the universe, other characters still exist, and people love those other characters. And some of those people work at Square Enix, and they sure as hell won't elevate one character to the detriment of all others. Tifa and Cloud have moments together, important moments, iconic moments. There is Tifa choosing to stay behind and take care of Cloud in Mideel, there is the lifestream, there is the highwind. These are all beloved, iconic moments that fans are clamoring to see, and in each and every one of them Aerith is as unwelcome as Seifer is during "eyes on me", or Rikku during "Suteki da ne". Aerith is an ancient, the entire plot revolves around her, everyone loves her, she has magical powers and is the only person who can save the world! Imagine someone whose already that important, and then forcing her into moments belonging to other characters, there is no quicker way to aggravate a fanbase, or make a character distinctly unlikable. So Aerith, fundamentally, cannot be in those scenes, because those moments belong to other characters. But if Aerith is alive, and a supposed love interest, can she really be left out of those scenarios? Imagine Cloud is in a coma, imagine Tifa staying with him to take care of him while Aerith goes to save the planet. Imagine Tifa going into Clouds sub-conscious and pulling him out, then imagine Cloud and Tifa spending the night before the battle together, cementing their importance to each other, while Aerith goes to spend the night at Elmyra. Then, afterwards, the party defeats Sephiroth and Cloud rejects Tifa in favor of Aerith..... Cementing him as the biggest asshole ever, and Aerith as the most undeserving Mary Sue winner of a love triangle of all time.

Do you see any way of doing that that would not be a gigantic slap in the face to the character of Tifa? Who cared for Cloud while in a coma, who journeyed through his sub-conscious with him and spent her last night on this earth together with him? Fundamentally, the only way Aerith can survive, is if she takes a back in other story-arcs. People have tried to invent nonsensical ways in which Aerith could save Cloud from the lifestream, or suggest alternate routes where you still have the standard "Tifa route", but can also choose the "Aerith route". And all these ideas conveniently ignore the same basic thing. Aerith isn't the center of the universe. Every scene, every moment, every piece of importance you give to her, causes her to cast a larger shadow on the rest of the cast. People want her to be the love interest because they look at her importance to the plot, to her powers as an ancient. They look at how much of a main character she is and their first reaction is somehow "lets give her more". But her importance is exactly why this can never happen, because in order for her to take up the roles played by other characters, those characters need to take up the roles she leaves behind. And Tifa cannot do that. No matter how alive Aerith is, no matter how in love Aerith and Cloud are, Tifa will never be able to summon holy, she will never be able to save the planet by talking to the essence of life. Tifa can never fill Aeriths role, which is why Aerith can never fill hers. Because both matter, and if the thing that makes one special is taken from her, and given to the other, then you've insulted your characters, your fanbase, and your legacy by making one character the sad shadow of who they were, a pathetic ant compared to 'the Mary goddessue'. Aerith cannot do everything. Which means that if you love Aerith, you have 2 choices. You can either have Aerith be a genuine potential love interest, and have that plot point die with her. Or you can have her survive, and sit by as she takes a backseat to other characters, or you can have neither, but you can't have both. Or, you can do the worst of all worlds and argue that the entire story will change to fit this new harlequin romance novel you've invented and antagonize all your fans by removing all those iconic scenes altogether.....yeah, I don't see that happening.

Cloud’s flashback in Kalm:

Cloud recalls the days before Nibelheim incident. 

Real-Cloud (the Shinra infantryman) patrols Nibelheim square and continuously stops to stare at the water tower and Tifa’s house. 

Since 1997.

Just saying.

Aerith’s Farewell Monologue at FF 30th Anniversary Exhibition hinting FF7R

The event, entitled “Farewell Stories Exposition,” was held from January 22 to February 28, 2018 in the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. It will reportedly feature interactive exhibits featuring various “farewell stories” from the Final Fantasy series, including recreated locations and augmented reality. Final Fantasy VII’s exhibit is described as follows: 

Aerith met a tragic death in the story of the original game. In this exhibition, the “Sector 5 Church” where Aerith and the protagonist Cloud first met will be recreated. Freely walk around the inside of the church while listening to a monologue of Aerith’s memories specially recorded for this exhibition. Additionally, never before seen image boards for the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake and more will also be on display.

Scenario by Kazushige Nojima, voice-over by Maaya Sakamoto

Let’s analyze her monologue with official translation below: 

(1) “I hate the sky, it carries away everyone I Iove” Confirmed by Nomura in FF7R Ultimania as this line is voiced up in FF7R ending. This is because the sky represents losing everyone she loved, including Zack, as CC ending depicts a scene of his spirit soaring to the sky / heaven with Angeal picking him up. Let’s forget OG that depicted she’s unaware of his death. Aerith is Cetra and she could sense it–CC showed us and it doesn’t contradict her sensing Elmyra’s husband passing away. (2) “This is a strange place. Flowers bloom all year long. The seasons never change–my feelings never change. I’m stuck.” I think ‘strange place’ refers to the church. Maybe at first she feel close to planet there despite denying her Cetra ability, place she can detach herself. But then, since that day it was also the place where she always meet him. Nomura stated in CC interviews at Dengeki, that Zack always headed straight to the church whenever something comes up. Her feeling lingers there and she’s stuck. (3) "That’s it. I give up! I can’t stop thinking of you. Ugh, I can’t stand this!” Honestly, all these lines aren’t arranged by order and I don’t know which the right order is. Is this line spoken up during years he’s absent? Or during months after Zack’s death? Or, is it still last even after FF7R ending? The implication would be different. (4) “Helloooo~ Wake up. It’s almost morning.” Pretty clear. Both Zack and Cloud crashed into her church in the same way, talk in their sleep, and she wakes them up in the same way, too. (5) “Don’t step on the flower.” Pretty clear. Aerith scolded Zack, and Reno & Cloud when they are fighting. (6) “Sometimes I see someone who has the same eye. Same as you, I mean. And I wonder, should I ask: do you know him? do you know where he is?” Pretty clear. FF7R change the playground scene different from OG, and this is an explicit reference from Crisis Core. JP lines are even the exact same words for words like when she stared at Zack’s eyes. She even has asked Cloud in Sector 5 if he had any SOLDIER friend or war buddy. (7) “I know goodbye will be hard. But when I think of meeting someone new, I still get so excited. It’s cruel.” I think this is Aerith struggling with her feeling between Zack and Cloud. She knew she has to “Gotta move forwards, not back” as she stated in the playground, but it’s so damn hard that she might have this motivation conflicted for so long even before meeting Cloud. Aerith also stopped walking forward a while when Zack in another timeline passed her by. We knew in the future, she would meet more people… Yuffie, Vincent, Cid. Would she say goodbye again to Zack at that spot? (8) “Stamp… Stamp! Guess, you’re gone too.” We know that the Stamp in Zack’s survival timeline has changed, but does her line refer to the old Stamp? Or just Stamp in general that could make Cloud get buzz on his head ‘cause it represent Zack when Barret mention it?  (9) “Things won’t last forever. Sure, it’s lonely. It’s sad. But I can say "bye” with a smile, right?“ She doesn’t say "bye” to Zack with a smile. I guess this fits the narration in optional dream sequence in chapter 14, as well as the next dream Cloud will get that she goes to Forgotten City alone. (10) “You came. Thank you, I’m glad. But you’re already….” I’m not sure about this. Does this represent the time she prays in Forgotten City that Cloud comes to her but he’s under Sephiroth’s control? Or does this represent a future event in the next installment about her reunion with the Zack who survives and she knew he’s supposed to be dead? Or does this refer to the optional dream sequence that she’s aware Cloud isn’t himself? Too many interpretations. (11) “You’re so far now. I’m so far from you. Oh, I’m rising. The sky is carrying me away. I can see you, you’re crying. Don’t cry, you’ll make it rain.” Cloud gets a future vision where we saw he drops a single tear and this line is 100% her farewell to Cloud when it happened. But…. Is the line foreshadowing her death that would be different from OG? We know in OG, she’s sunk down to the bottom of the lake in Forgotten City. But with all of these lines above correlated with FF7R, we’d probably get her death similar to Kadaj in AC as Cloud holds his dying body… her spirit (like Zack, not her body like Kadaj) then soar to the sky and both scenes are raining (although the Kadaj one is raining from Great Gospel as she heals geostigma around Edge). Her death should happen in the place where the open sky can be clearly seen (whether it’s clear blue or cloudy with rain), and Forgotten City doesn’t fit the definition as it’s surrounded by sleeping forest. If Zack was taken by Angeal and Kadaj was taken by Aerith, I guess Aerith would be taken by Zack here (either showing his glove’s hand like Angeal did in CC or with his voice like Aerith did in AC). And the monologue above would be spoken up later, similar to Zack in CC when he watch over Cloud dragging Buster Sword to Midgar. Or maybe, her death would still happen in Forgotten City but SE now use new meta of the death. So, we would see her soul is separated away as Cloud is laying her body to the lake. It doesn’t mean Aerith is still alive when the party fight Jenova Boss tho′, remember Zack died longer before the sky set the sun to show his spirit goes to the sky.

——

This Aerith’s farewell story above can have two meanings: 

75% her farewell to Zack (as he died before her), start with him

25% her farewell to Cloud (as she died in front of him), end with him 

Why the portion is different? Well, Zack took ‘1.5 years active relationship + 4 years writing 89 letters + 3 months grieving his death’ in her life while Cloud take 2-3 weeks of them being together in her journey. 

LMAO THE SCHOOL AU IS REAL. It’s an event coming April 30th.

HELP-

Talk about a coincidence!

Crisis Core and Advent Children References

Second post about CloTi and ZeriTh hints in FFVII Remake!

Find the previous post here.

THE PERFECT OUTFIT

Be sure to pick an outfit that goes with mine, okay?

Leave it to me, Tifa!  😂

In order to sneak in Don Corneo’s palace, Aerith and Tifa wear nice elegant dresses, and Cloud has to disguise himself as a lady. It’s interesting how Cloud and Tifa’s outfits can match in colors, fabrics and details:

These are the OG canon outfits. To get this combination the player has to choose the Mature dress for Tifa in Chapter 3, and complete Chocobo Sam odd jobs in Chapter 9. The odd jobs depend on the answers given at Wall Market: if the player prefers Tifa probably Cloud will get this dress. The CANON dress. 

To get the satin outfits the player has to choose the Sporty dress for Tifa in Chapter 3, and complete Madam M odd jobs in Chapter 9. Same logic: if the player prefers Aerith, probably this will be Cloud’s dress.

For this last combination the player has to choose the Exotic dress for Tifa in Chapter 3, and skip the sidequests in Chapter 9.

It reminded me how Cloud and Tifa’s outfits perfectly match also in Adven Children.

The choice of Aerith’s dress depends on how many Odd Jobs in Chapter 8 were completed:

6 sidequests: red dress

3-5 sidequests: long pink dress

0-2 sidequests: short pink dress

They don’t match with Cloud or Tifa’s, but her two new dresses are pink and also the train of the OG red dress has a lighter shade...

Do you remember the promise she shared with Zack in Crisis Core?

(Yes, I edited the picture. No I didn’t alter the meaning. Link for the whole scene).

These details are AMAZING 💗

What a coincidence!