Zack’s Last Stad 

Aerith in light of healthcare provider

So, I’ve wanted to write an analysis about Aerith in light of her medical viewpoint for quite a long time but only recently got the chance to complete it. It is well known in the game that Aerith is the healer of the story. She possessed great MP with a limit break to heal and buff people which greatly affect your gameplay. Of course, you can equip others with Healing and Prayer materias to render them useful for healing as well. But story-wise, no one can take away Aerith’s status as the healer. We know in canon that Aerith provided herbs to the Sector 5 slums doctor to create medicine. And if you finished the Corneo Stash side quest in Chapter 14, you can return to the church and see a couple of elderly sitting on the pew praying. And when you come closer to them you’ll hear them talking about how they didn’t see Aerith around and they’re sure she’s alright and probably be around healing people. You know, since the Sector 7 plate just fell. (Even though Aerith is not alright actually coz she was kidnapped by Shinra by this time) Point is, we are fed by the NPCs on how much Aerith had helped around as a healer. She had been doing this for years.

While being in denial about who she actually is, being a healer had always been implanted in her. She is used to it. When you’re used to being a healer, there’s a certain level when you have different reaction compared to others. The way you think is different. Apart from that, she’s also a Cetra. And we knew for a fact Cetra had a certain affinity towards souls who are returning to the Planet. Meaning, as much as she is used to healing others, she’s also used to sensing death.

My whole point is that, being a Cardiac Anaesthesiologist and Intensivist as I am, I can totally relate my position with Aerith, as we both had constantly helped people and encounter death on daily basis. While I’m pretty confident that majority of these might be coincidence (because I’m pretty sure there were no doctors in the SE team), I thought the coincidence is pretty cool to ponder upon and I’m amazed at how the subtle differences between Aerith’s reaction to events from other characters.

I’m gonna ignore the meta part of Aerith, mainly because I’m not discussing about how much Aerith knew, and if there was anything in jeopardy of what she knew whatsoever. So we’re gonna focus on the fact that she is used to healing and feeling people’s death. People who are used to death on daily basis had a certain unique view on life and death. And that affects how we act upon facing them too. While this is evident throughout Remake, I’m gonna focus on the plate drop event to be more concise. I will also use Tifa as comparison to make it easier to see the difference between the reaction of the two. Let’s start!

1) Aerith is quick in emergency situation.

When you are used to people dying, you developed a certain immunity and you are able to have sound mind and composure at sudden change of event. As healthcare providers, we face stable situations turning into critical real fast. And we have a switch in our minds that turn us from standby mode to rescue mode. This is exactly what happened to Aerith when Don Corneo revealed Shinra’s plan to blow up Sector 7’s support pillar. Tifa is part of Sector 7. It is her home. Which was why her reaction showed how she was super devastated, she slowly stood up and muttered “They wouldn’t…” because she couldn’t believe it. Aerith? She had that switch in her mind, and she immediately turned and say “Come on, guys! We gotta go!”. She switched into that critical mode in a second. It helps that she’s also not personally connected to Sector 7, and thus her judgement was not as impaired. Of course, they both switched into critical mode in the sewer, but it was at the moment of reveal that made it different. Just like how healthcare providers switched at the moment of reveal that their patients are at the brink of death—you immediately jumped into rescue mode.

2) She plans for the worst.

Remember after they defeated Abzu and Tifa started to question Corneo’s information? She didn’t want to believe it, because it didn’t make sense to destroy your years of efforts building the plate just to get back to a small group like AVALANCHE. Think about the money they put in to build it, they’re gonna have to put them all again. In fact, along their way out of the sewer, Tifa voiced out multiple times how this had been bothering her. But I’m intrigued with Aerith’s reply “If he’s telling the truth, then we should go. And if it turns out he was lying, then so what?”. This here is exactly what doctors do. We plan and prepare for the worst. And if the worst didn’t happen, then so what? If you have ever had a life saving surgery, your doctors would tell you “You need this surgery coz you might die. But if you do the surgery, there’s a high chance you’ll survive, but there’s a small chance you’ll die too”. And we prepare for that small chance that our patients die. No, we don’t let our preparations lacking because we hope they’ll survive. We prepare to the worst outcome possible and get all the equipments ready in case they’ll die. If they didn’t, then so what? It doesn’t mean our preparations were futile efforts. It only means we were prepared. And that line of Aerith seriously hits home to me.

3) She hopes for the best.

Before they crossed the water sewer, Tifa once again voiced out how she couldn’t stop thinking about what Corneo said, and she was still hoping that he was lying. And then Aerith said “The future isn’t set in stone”. (Again, I’m gonna ignore the meta part of Aerith) And then she proceeded to set up that small date with Tifa. Believe it or not, this is actually what we do during bad calls. We’d talk about what we would do after all this ends; we’d go out dining, or playing games/darts, or go drinking, or whatever it is that makes us happy. Just to keep our minds calm and to allow us to hope for the future, even if it’s just a few hours away. It gives us hope and courage to go on. We plan for the worst, but we hope for the best. The more critical the situation is, the more you need to be level headed. And needless to say, after this point onwards, Tifa is much more calmed down from her struggle to keep herself focus.

4) She follows orders.

This might sound weird to some, but the ability to cast away your worry and focus on what you can do, instead of what you should do, is important in emergency situations. You need to know what you don’t know. You don’t get in the way of your comrades. If you’re not good in intubating, you don’t insist to intubate in emergency situations just because you wanna help. Seriously, you’ll just make things worse. When Cloud, Tifa and Aerith were attacked before climbing up and out of the sewer, Cloud asked both Tifa and Aerith to keep going. Aerith immediately answers “Okay” and left—without a single but. This is significant, because it shows that Aerith knew she’d be better off leave. She doesn’t need to offer help, coz her help was not needed. This is not the place where she could help. The ability to recognise this is very important for healthcare professionals. Tifa was a bit more reluctant to leave, but that’s probably because she is a martial artist in game. Also, the fact that Aerith could still joke “We’re not delicious” is just so real lol! Yup, we joke sometimes when we’re facing deaths—doesn’t mean we lose focus in saving the dying person in front of us, don’t worry. And then it happens again when they reached Sector 7 when Cloud asked them to stay with Wedge as he goes up, and Aerith immediately answered “sure"—because she can “patch” Wedge up, it’s where her abilities lie. This is even more accentuated when an injured Wedge argued that he can still fight, when he clearly can't—making this point even more obvious. Aerith is someone with the healthcare mind, Wedge was not.

5) She supports her comrades emotionally even when she’s worried too.

When they reached the surface, they spotted Shinra helicopter. Cloud assured them they’re only on patrol. Aerith turned to Tifa and said “Don’t worry, we’ll make it in time”. This moment is also very iconic to me. As I mentioned, I’m an anaesthesiologist. We are the support doctors to surgeons and physicians. Those moments when we’re operating on a AAA surgeries and the patient is losing litres of blood and literally dying, we’re pumping bloods in with our hands and get those Level 1 machines operating, and the surgeons would be panicking because it keeps bleeding? Yep, I did say it before. “We’ll make it. Just concentrate with the surgery and don’t worry about the bleeding”, even though I’m sweating and dying here trying to keep the patient alive. But I pretended to be calm in front of my team and cheered them on. Because the whole team need to keep calm. If one of the team lose hope, then bid your chance farewell. As an anaesthesiologist, we’re almost like the anchor in the room. People look at us to know if everything’s alright. I need to tell them it’s alright, so they need not worry. Aerith knew Tifa is worried. And she tried to keep Tifa calm with reassurance.

6) She doesn’t discriminate.

After they defeated the ghost at the haunted maintainance facility, Cloud tried to kill it, and Aerith didn’t let him. When Cloud said that thing was dangerous, Aerith said she knows and added “but even so…” she didn’t feel right about killing it. (Let’s ignore the fact that the Ghoul was a lonely creature for now) It then goes to drop the train wreck which almost killed them had it not been for Cloud. Now this would have been avoided had Aerith let Cloud killed it—maybe. But here’s the thing. When you’re hyper aware that people are dying left and right, you value life more. No one deserve to die, even the worst criminal in the world. You’re a law-abiding citizen? You’re a criminal? It doesn’t make a difference to us. I know this is something super hard to comprehend. But technically only when the law subject the criminal to death sentence that a person should be left to die. I’ve been a doctor for eleven years, I was a prison doctor for two. I had first hand experience of dealing with criminals. It’s not my job to determine whether they deserved to die or not. It’s not my call whether they will turn a new leaf or not had they lived. I know this is something others find difficult to relate and agree—happens to my non-medical family and friends. The verdict to us is simple. It’s a life. It’s worth saving. Period. (Technically the ghosts are dead though but my point still stands)

7) She tries in her best abilities and lets go of what is out of her control.

Tifa’s emotions are tampered again when they confirmed Shinra was going to drop the plate when they overheard the Turks conversation. Her voice shook, we can literally hear it. Aerith’s response was “all we can do now is keep moving”. And she’s right. When they reached Sector 7 and the Whispers were preventing them, she said “we have to get past whatever it takes”. And later on Tifa left to help Cloud and Barret, and Aerith agreed to get to Seventh Heaven to ensure Marlene’s safety. Wedge had a short mental breakdown when he realised he was no good to anyone up or down the crime scene. And Aerith told him “We can still save a lot of lives”, “That’s no excuse to give up”, “I need to know I did everything I could”. Her encouragement helped Wedge save more people. Some argued, did she not care about the lives that already died? Now here’s my point; no, we don’t. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but really. What can we do for people who are already dead? Nothing. What can we do to people who are still alive? Everything. And this is the core of being a healthcare provider—we prioritise. Yes, we’re also humans. We can get emotional when our own friends and relatives die. (Aerith might not be as calm had it happened at Sector 5) But when we put the healthcare provider cap on, we meant business. That is why when disasters happened, and we triage people with black tag? That’s when we know we couldn’t do anything for them. We don’t mourn at the black tags. We move on to the other tags instead. So that we know we already did everything in our power to help. And yes, it doesn’t matter even if we lost more lives than we saved. It’s worth it, even if we only saved one person out of thousands deaths. Just like how Aerith saved Betty in Sector 7, that one life is worth it.

The care for details..

The Crab Warden stored in the corkscrew tunnel is the same weapon that killed Melphie during the Wutai war.

Advent Children Complete | Last Order

Zack and Cloud / Cloud and Denzel

REBIRTH

I've been thinking about Sephiroth's having a tendency in Ever Crisis First Soldier to put his hand on his chest and that it seems to have made it into Rebirth as something he does.

The revelation that he used to wear a locket with his mothers picture there really does change the gesture meaning. I think he's reaching for for that. The idea he's still reaching for her roughly a decade after losing the locket really breaks my heart.

A question about Kingdom Hearts, but can be for other stuff too. Do you think some important context or subtext is lost in the translation process from Japanese to a second language, even if it's translated to the best of a translator's ability, and if so, do you prefer a more literal translation over an official dub?

Hello! Thanks for the ask.

To answer the first question, there's different points to be made given the case by case nature of the topic. Important or simply interesting (these are not the same thing) information absolutely can be lost in the process of translation, but there's a lot of things fans need to understand:

Per discussion, is it actually lost, whether in the specific line or that of the overall context elsewhere?

Is the meaning actually *important* or imperative for understanding context [subtext]?

If lost, is it something that could've been localized creatively within the limitations of its presentation (voice acting/lip-sync, text space, etc.)?

Was it something that couldn't even be translated literally within the corresponding localized language? And/or did it not naturally flow into the writing of the actual scene itself for the given language?

Keep in mind that some interesting nuances built within a language system is really tailored for THAT language, and doesn't have to (or can't be) be transferred to another language smoothly in the production process of localization—if it's actually important, they might have to find a way, and chances are a literal translation may not even be enough to accomplish this. So to the second question—it isn't really “literal” vs localization for me, because whether one or both of these things can get the job done is circumstantial. Ultimately, what I care about most is whether what is written makes sense and can still be seen to retain what matters contextually (and sometimes, this means you can even get MORE or something more direct from a localization as opposed to “literal”). I’m using “ “ because really, you don’t want literal, for the majority of the text, it just doesn’t work that way as smoothly as people think. But I understand sometimes literal is actually “close to definition as possible” for people. (sometimes, indeed)

Anyway, if there is an issue with what's written, I know a "literal" translation doesn't always solve the inherent factors dependent upon the specific nature of the JPN language. The "literal" definition doesn't always fully capture how the Kanji is contextually used in the writing for another language. If I ever felt something was completely missed within a localization, my instinct is to first check the nature of the JPN and how it's written contextually to see how it fairs.

Of course, if it's information that isn't really based on the nature of the Kanji and how it's used, that it's something just being misunderstood in translation, then that isn't even a matter of whether it was literal or not—it was just wrong, and could've been right in any form if the text was understood (meaning, I'd take it literal or localized as long as the information is correct). In comparison to the amount of important storytelling text actually localized in video game projects, this doesn't nearly happen that often, though.

To look at Kingdom Hearts:

There have been many, many examples, especially between #1 and #2 discussed within fandom over the last 20 years. lol The majority is very miniscule and inconsequential (if even non-existent of a difference with proper understanding)—in KH3 I tend to think of some scenes between Sora and Kairi that has been discussed. @phoenix-downer has some excellent JPN/ENG comparisons of Sora and Kairi's Paopu Fruit and Light in the Darkness scenes (plus more) that serve some examples—Phoenix might be more readily able to remember some things over the years than I. There’s also this line from Xemnas about finding the Ancient Keybladers in KH3—this one can reasonably create a misunderstanding, but at the same time we don’t exactly have all the information at this point in time anyway.

One thing I do tend to think of is the scene between Aqua/Terra/Ven and the Disney Passes—where the term hogosha 保護者 (guardian, protector, patron, parent) is used in JPN, while in ENG it was written as "grown ups". There's a subtext here that has been missed by some ENG speakers. Similar to #4 (about literal translations), this is one of those cases where contextually speaking, the ENG went with what made sense for the scene and all factors corresponding to it, while still retaining something similar to the concept context-wise. As you can see based on the definition, the term hogosha is very flexible in use due to its span of multiple different words, but in its usage, it always has the connotation of something "parental". But, translating it as straight up "parent(s)" doesn't always work because of the nuances of the word. e.g. From FFXIII, Lightning is a hogosha to Serah, but this isn't to say that Lightning is literally her parent/mom—the contextual nature of hogosha tells more than this but with the same connotation. Sometimes it can be directly "parents/legal guardians", like how it's used to refer to what is essentially PTA school meetings (hogoshakai 保護者会). There's a reason why hogosha is distinct from just more direct words for parent (like oya 親 or ryoushin 両親).

This flexible nuance isn't readily and neatly packaged in a single word in ENG, however, and while, say, “guardian” [parental] can fit in some situations on its own, the connotation of parental isn’t so readily available like it is for hogosha alone. (A good example is this post I made) So, contextually there are other ways to capture it, and that may have to be with a non-literal translation. But, its meaning was missed by some ENG speaking fans, so when they hear "Aqua and Terra are like parents to Ven", they have no idea where that's coming from. Of course, some people were able to understand how this is carried contextually by the word "grown ups" and the situation of the Disney Passes—otherwise, some people completely missed that parental nuance, which would be significant of representing the relationship between Aqua/Terra to Ven.

Sometimes it isn't a localization issue, but a perception one.

With that being said, if in the case of other fandoms/series? It's all over the place. I've seen it all, between something being lost (important or just interesting [unimportant]), something being a mistranslation, or something being retained and people are honestly just trippin' because of misunderstanding things. Straight up. #4 (literal translation/context issues) happens a lot, in that case.

For example, recently I made this post and a follow up post about functionalities of JPN pronouns for (I, me) and the differences that lay there—there's also an extra layer I think I didn't include, which is that between using a specific pronoun in the form of hiragana/kanji/katakana, sometimes it's a stylistic choice as well. (Don't worry about this if you're confused lol). Point is, in this situation I also talked about how this was something that only applies for the JPN language and not necessarily others (especially ENG).

But again, a lot of this is case by case and we'd have to consider the #1-4 above, and for me, I know that to get the job done, it doesn't even have to be literal in order for this to happen.

As an extra note, fans REALLY need to understand localization, if even for SE specifically, to really talk about it efficiently. A lot don’t, and don’t care to. There is a sea of information to gather to form a perspective, and if they had this information, it’d change what they think about the “changes” a localization will make. One of the most blunt translators I can think of (Tom Slattery) gave this thought towards this very topic, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. So I’ll leave it with this:

Vocal fans on the internet often complain about translators "changing" things in the English versions of games. This always amuses me, as we're very often working alongside the team to help name those things in the first place. For example, on Final Fantasy XIII, we were asked to help with the naming of the roles--Medic, Synergist, Ravager, and so on. We were intending to use different names in Japan and the US/EU from the start, and we (the English translators) brainstormed and proposed both sets. For the Japanese version, they needed English words that (A) sounded cool when rendered into Japanese, and (B) would be understood by non-English-speaking Japanese players, so we worked with the writers to come up with a set of consistent-sounding terms that met those criteria. For the localized version, our focus was on creating names that would have a more sci-fi feel to a native speaker's ear, and also abbreviate to three letters in a way that looked natural and made the short forms quickly and easily distinguishable from one another. We didn't "change" anything; we just generated two different sets of names for two different audiences.

Retroactive integration of the English translation into the Japanese version happens on projects quite often as well. For example, we were asked to come up with a translation for the names of the transporters in the Nautilus theme park. The Japanese name at the time was not something that really worked for us, so we went with "Nautilift." A few weeks later, that started popping up in the Japanese script. That kind of thing is always a huge compliment. It's a collaborative process. No one is going out stomping all over each other's work just for the heck of it.

There's quite an interesting tendency in the various "analysis" of this character. On the one side she's accused to lack a character arc because it's too interwoven with Cloud's - which is enough of a weird accuse, as if she, of all characters, was expected to have a life disjointed from sociality..? Isn't every person the product of their social experiences and relationships with other human beings? How comes nobody accuses Vincent to lack a character arc because it revolves around Lucrecia? - while on the other hand she's harshly accused to be a regrettable character because she's too busy trying to overcome her personal issues to tell immediately Cloud her version of Nibelheim incident, or because she scolded him during AC - as if all of this happened for no reason.

So either she lacks a character arc and she's completely devoted to Cloud, or she has one and Cloud is not her only concern, people should pick one or just stop "analyzing" characters in purposeful bad faith, to push the idea that if Aerith could have been in that situation instead of her things would have been better, which is wrong by all means, but still it is a groundless comparison with the only purpose to trick the interlocutor and reach the consensus that this character is bad/shallow/uninteresting/unworthy, so by default the other one must be "the good one" aka the winner of "the competition".

If she's constantly portrayed in every single entry of the story by Cloud's side, then Cloud is involved in her life just like she's involved in his. Hell, Cloud devoted his youth trying to be worth her attention, and later created a fake persona based on her perception of him, to cope with the sense of guilt for failing to save her twice. HE revolves around her.

It's pointless to try to describe her as a sort of annoying insect that stubbornly keeps flying around him. It's a matter of common sense.

Seriously, nothing ruins this story and its characters for me more than these bad takes.

As a Cloti, what do you think about the criticism of OG FF7 where Tifa revolves around Cloud too much?

I think people need to get over the fact Tifa's story entwines with Cloud's because she's the deuteragonist and her role is to support the protagonist.

Barret in Costa del Sol mod

My response to someone asking me to clarify why I say Cloud can't have been in love with Aerith after only 36 hours yet he loved Tifa as a little kid when they never even interacted. Isn't that hypocritical?

This is divided into 3 parts for clarity like my original comment.

Part 2: Gonna split this reply in 2 parts for  clarity

Pt 1 Clarifying  my point on Cloud's feelings for both girls

The point I brought up is that Cloud start to fall for Aerith eventually yes (that's  why she says you  can't  fall in love with me) but  her reference was of the original game because she knows of the future.  She doesn't mean in that moment.  He has no idea what  she's talking about there but  says she  can't decide that for  him. But it's not  forever  love in the span of two days. She also  says even if he thinks he has it's not real/in his imagination.  Alluding to his identity crisis. He may think  he's in love but there's stuff going on he's  unaware of.

It's not  forever love with Tifa during the game either though not even during Highwind scene. That's the beginning of their feelings being realized. Their feelings also need time to grow and figure themselves out. But Cloud actually gets that time with Tifa because at the end of the game they confess mutual feelings and live together less than three months later. There's plenty of time for development. Unlike with Aerith there wasn't time for it to go further not  that his feelings stopped cold. He just never  time to figure them out before the guilt took over.

He did interact more than once with Tifa they used to see eachother around. They were not close. She watched  him from afar. Cloud just  never  approached but he watched her too. And 16 years old Cloud and 16 years old Tifa liking eachother is canon in Crisis Core and shown in Last Order. Again he falls for  her like  a kid would but  over  a much  longer period of time. 8 years. And these are feelings he still has. It's puppy love. Of course 8 year old isn't going to fall in love for real. It isn't forever love but  definitely a start.

As I said Cloud acts like a kid when it comes to his feelings. He doesn't comprehend them and that's  big part of his character even before his mind broke. That's why 2 days wouldn't mean forever love with Aerith when heck 8 years later he was still struggling with coming to terms  for his feelings for Tifa in Crisis Core.

He's still can't vocalize them in the present and his true self and memories are locked off that's why it's hard to explain.

He doesn't really  understand until the Highwind Scene and in Case Of Tifa and he voices it  and he's still struggling with all sorts of feelings in AC not neccessarily romantic ones. He even  struggles with his fatherly feelings towards Marlene. Heck being happy with Tifa and the children when Aerith  and Zack are dead causes guilt so bad he runs away. Feelings aren't his forte. And the trauma that he's gone through as young as age 9 when he fell off a friggin mountain and was blamed for trying to save a girl precious to him and after that losing those he held dear over and over again doesn't help.

He's a character that takes a lot of time to emotionally come to terms with things especially things like romantic love. So no what he had with Aerith is something he never figured out because he was oblivious. And he is so wrapped up in guilt in AC it probably confused him more.

It takes regular people time to really fall in love. Short term love is infatuation when we don't know someone yet. Now apply it to a character like Cloud who doesn't deal with feelings like regular people. It's unrealistic to say he loves anyone after knowing them for what is basically 36 hours during that scene.

Cloud having the mentality of a 16 year old is the present Cloud. Nomura himself says it. I posted the interview about Remake. Here it is again https://www.inverse.com/gaming/ff7-remake-interview-story-changes-cloud-jessie-wall-market

Part 2: Literally no time has passed for  Cloud between the Nibelheim incident and the events of the story. 16 year old Cloud is the present.

Zack dies in September Tifa finds Cloud between then and December. December  9  is the first bombing he meets Aerith two days later and dies weeks later Meteor fall is in January. Case of Tifa starts in March. Advent Children is 2 years later.

Biggs says it too he says Cloud and the children have so much in common.

Or do you think Cloud mentally caught up after 5 years of being in a mako coma after just a month? No, story wise in the present he's 16. Nomura even says that's why Jesse teases him. He's mentally 16 the whole time.

Cloud realizing his feelings for Tifa is what happens in the Lifestream scene of the game AFTER Aerith's death.  But he obviously is still crushing on her in Remake. The devs said when he's with  Tifa his True self  comes out so that's why.

His 21 year old self couldn't have gotten over Tifa because his last memory before joining AVALANCHE is Zack's death and his last memory that he can actually recall is finding Tifa in the reactor and thinking she's dead. That's yesterday for him. He meets Aerith a few days after waking up and seeing Tifa again.

Aerith dies less than four weeks after meeting her.

Then he finds out about his true self which IS his 16year old self.

That self has feelings for Tifa. That Cloud is literally unlocked in the Lifestream sequence and that's why the developers themselves say in more than one quote that Cloud and Tifa have held favor for eachother for many years before he calls her two the water tower a popular date spot. This was even before they spoke only once as you put it. And the devs go on to say they reveal mutual feelings beneath the Highwind then live together in Advent Children.

This is why in Case of Tifa Cloud is telling her he has her now and now he knows what that means and he always be there to remind her of herself. This is also why Tifa is asking Do You Love Me? And Nojima mentions things not going well in Case of Tifa but maybe the kids can help them work it out. He didn't  want to give opinions  on love marriage and family. Because they were going through relationship issues. Three years later they're still together.

For a timeline reference Cloud liked Tifa since he was a kid

At age 8 he goes to Mt. Nibel with her

At age 14 he calls her to water tower still likes her

At age 16 he hides from her in his mom's house because he still likes her

That scene where Cloud's mom is talking about girls? He's currently hiding from Tifa in that scene because he's ashamed of facing her because he didn't join SOLDIER.

Tifa however is looking for him and in Crisis Core she keeps asking Zack about him

Tifa had a crush on Cloud from afar too but neither of them realized their feelings

That's why they call eachother childhood friends Tifa WANTED to be closer and befriend him

And of course so did he so he rationalized it in his broken mind. Guess we were friends...

During the reactor sequence which is a few days after leaving his mom's house Sepiroth burns the town

Cloud finds Tifa thinks she's dead and it causes him to kill Sepiroth in rage

He still had it bad for Tifa in that scene Zack had pointed it out earlier

Then he's skewered and captured for experimentation right there

He doesn't wake up until 5 years later during Zack's death

Then he wanders around broken for almost 2 months and finds Tifa again.

Seeing her makes the Jenova cells activate and that's why he thinks he's a SOLDIER because she thinks he is and Scells use memories to manipulate

He forgets Zack and anything related to his true self and his true self is locked behind his memories.

His memories of Tifa are also mostly locked

So yes that's why Cloud doesn't show as much interest in Tifa during the time he is SOLDIER! Cloud as 16 year old Cloud does.

He meets Aerith slowly warms up to her as she draws him out of his shell

And eventually they grow closer

She senses his true self is in there somewhere and tells him during their date but he doesn't understand

She goes off to fight Sepiroth alone because she realizes that something is very wrong with Cloud and she doesn't want him to suffer a breakdown

But he does anyway when Sepiroth shows him the real memories he locked away then lied to him

He falls back into Mako poisoning after being in the Lifestream and his then Tifa pieces his broken mind together using their childhood memories the real ones

True Cloud is now back and for him the Nibelheim incident was yesterday and for him he's still 16 years old and his feelings for Tifa that were locked with him  return

That's why the devs talk about them realizing mutual feelings in the Highwind scene.

Case of Tifa starts

That's why things work out like they do. The song Midgar Blues allude to True Cloud's past with Tifa and refer to their feelings. the eng English official version says "left my true love behind". The devs say they held favor for eachother for many years before before even meeting at the water tower.

That's also why Nomura and Nojima say Cloud in the remake is mentally a kid trying to be an adult and why he tries to be cool and why he wants to hug Tifa during her resolution, And why Biggs tells him he has so much in common with the kids.  He wants to be adult like, but  he doesn't realize he literally lost 5 years of his life.

This would not magically change when he met  Aerith a few days later.

The entire game 1.5months after waking up again. He meets Aerith less than a week after Tifa finds him. He has literally no time to be anything other than 16 year old Cloud.

This is just going off  official  material

Next part is my summary in my own words

Part 3

Everything I have written above is what the devs themselves have said.  It's all official  statements.  Not my opinion. As for  a summary in my own words on what it all means.

Tifa is Cloud's past but  she's also his present.  The easiest way to think of it is Cloud's  true personality as another side of himself. because this story follows the Gnostic  ideas of two competing selves. Cloud's  16 year self is his current self but he is unaware.

The reason a lot of people think Tifa is the past is because they don't understand that Cloud acting as SOLDIER Cloud is the one who fell for  Aerith. And that really complicates things. 

Real Cloud was in there but  locked off in his subconscious.

Aerith saw through him but  Real Cloud doesn't actually come back until the end.

SOLDIER Cloud and Real Cloud are not the same. They're essentially two personalities seperate from eachother. But  because of JENOVA's manipulation it's also as if Cloud himself was split into  two people. When True Cloud is in the LifeStream scene he tells Tifa  "Then... this is goodbye, Tifa. Until we meet again......". When he wakes up he says  "Yeah...... Tifa...... We finally...... meet again......". Because True Cloud wasn't actually present until that moment beyond his subconscious.

He was locked away until Tifa literally Lock Heart unlocked him.

It's Nomura and Sakaguchi and Nojima and Kitase after all.

The Gnostic theme here is of two selves fighting for control and causing inner turmoil. Unless one reaches their Tifaret on the path of Sepiroth these selves will stay at war and the the self will be a false self that can't reach it's Final Heaven. This is based on ideas of enlightenment in Kabbalistic mysticism and its what the lore of FF7 is about. Gnostic themes in general are a really big part of SquareEnix games.

And if anyone  wants  a source for anything I have said here feel  free to ask. I have reciepts it would just make this post too long if I post them all at once.

The truth is a lot of us played this when we were young and a lot of stuff went over our heads but Final Fantasy VII is as complicated and mature as Xenogears and has similar lore. It was never a simple adventure and romance story, there's A LOT going on. Basically the Cloud we see in the game until the LifeStream scene is essentially a fake self and we learn the mystery of that through the narrative.

Now it's been confirmed the Remake is canon to the Compilation so it's going to be a lot clearer especially in terms of the Gnostic themes. They're bringing back their original ideas about the Thermaturge too.

Zack’s Last Stad 

Find the differences!

CRISIS CORE vs FF7R comparison