We'll Meet Again...

FFVIIR Yuffie DLC after credit’s scene

****MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW****

“I promise”

The importance of the “promise” through FFVII compilation

For many years part of FF7 fans stated that the promise shared between Cloud and Tifa before he left to join SOLDIER was “not so relevant” or that Tifa “pushed the promise on Cloud against his own will”. Basically it was passed off as a plot device whose only narrative purpose was to convince Cloud to join Avalanche. I think this kind of statements were faulty from the very beginning. If each one of us can have their own interpretation of a specific scene of the OG, due to the stylized graphics and the lack of voice acting, the reiterated prensence of this scene from the start to the end of the game should have been enough to appreciate its importance. 

The aim of this article is to go over the compilation to try to understand if the promise was really just presented as a plot device or if we can safely assume it has a deeper and wider meaning in the narrative context of the story.

Tifa: Hey, why don't we make a promise? Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind......You come save me, all right?

Cloud: What?

Tifa: Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once.

Cloud: What?

Tifa: Come on--! Promise me----!

Cloud: All right......I promise.

1997: Final Fantasy VII

In the original FF7 the promise was brought up by Tifa after the first bombing mission in order to convince Cloud not to leave Sector 7 and join Avalanche. After remembering the promise Cloud behaved dismissively, but nonetheless he agreeed to join the next mission. 

During the flashback in Kalm, Cloud recalled Tifa mentioning the promise when he found her in the reactor (it’s important to point out that during the flashback Cloud’s mind is still highly messed up and that it’s a mix of his own memories, Tifa’s memories and Zack’s stories. Cloud still can’t contextualize what he “remembers” but it’s relevant to notice that even in this state of confusion Tifa’s words are stuck in his mind).

The memory of the promise is one of the three sections of Cloud’s subconscious during the Lifestream sequence.

When Cloud finally remembers the truth about his past, Tifa realizes that he really kept his promise.

During the high affection scene under the Highwind Cloud finally renews his promise to Tifa.

2004: Before Crisis

The Player Turk meets Tifa on 21st September 0002 on Mt Nibel and asks her to be the guide for the SOLDIERs sent to check Nibelheim Mako reactor. Tifa asks if he/she knows Cloud and talks about the promise they shared two years before (video).

The Player Turk meets Cloud twice:

On 0001/6/28 Cloud takes part to a mission to protect a Shinra scientist from Avalanche and he ends up fighting alongside the Player Turk. If he dies these are his last words (video):

When Cloud comes to know that Tifa will be their guide to Mt Nibel, he asks to the Player Turk not to tell her that he's in town because he's ashamed of his failure (video). 

A shot of Cloud and Tifa at the water tower appears in both scenes:

2005: Last Order

Last Order is an OVA based on the events of Nibelheim incident and the escape of Zack and Cloud from Shinra's army. 

When Tifa gets injured she wishes Cloud could be there (video) (she says more or less the same lines Cloud “remembered” in OG Kalm flashback [see above]). Contrary to the other prequels, when Cloud finally arrives Tifa sees him and she thanks him for fulfilling the promise (video) (same dialogue they share in OG Lifestream sequence when they find out the truth).

2007: Crisis Core

Tifa sends an e-mail to Zack where she mentions the promise:

Sephiroth—I don't get him at all. Is everyone in SOLDIER like him? Oh, and are there any blond guys in SOLDIER? Well, it's just a dream...Any girl would love to have a blond SOLDIER guy protect her when she's in a pinch. Well, it's no good just waiting for my blond knight in shining armor to show up, so I've started learning how to fight, myself. My teacher tells me I've got a knack for it.

I almost forgot. Please don't tell anyone in SOLDIER that I asked about the blond guy. Okay?

In one of the DMW flashbacks regarding Cloud, Zack finds him staring at the water tower "thinking about the past" (video)

A parallel: Zack promises Aerith to go back to her in Midgar, under Nibelheim water tower where Cloud and Tifa shared their promise two years before (video). In my opinion this parallel reinforces the idea that the first reason Tifa asked Cloud to share a promise was to meet him again.

* I think also On the way to a smile and consequently Advent Children subtly refer to the promise but it’s less evident so I’ll leave it for another post.

2020: FFVII Remake

Like in the OG also in the Remake there’s the flashback of the promise. The devs fixed the old OG misconception - Cloud remembers it on his own - so that it is impossible to state now that Tifa forced it on Cloud. Cloud is also the first one to bring up the matter telling Tifa that he won’t leave Sector 7 because he wants to help her. 

Finally, the promise is referenced again in Wall Market. At the Karaoke Bar there’s a singer, Akila, whose career started 7 years before (when Cloud and Tifa shared the promise) and he hopes his new song, Midgar Blues, will be his greatest success. The song talks about a man who left his loved one to go to Midgar, and he recalls staring at the stars with her (song). I already wrote a post about this song.

In conclusion, I think that not only the original game but the whole compilation made sure the audience could percieve the fundamental importance of the promise, not just as a plot device but as the motive force that led Cloud to become a hero. 

Final Fantasy 7 Original VS Remake - Key art

Oh those glasses ❤️❤️❤️

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH (2024) ↳ Aerith x Sweet Gangster (⌐■ˬ■)❀°。

I - 30something yo mom - never looked "adult" once in my life. Draw fanart, play videogames, rant about fictional stories and lores, cosplay, read manga and basically do whatever makes me feel good and I regret nothing.

Being in fandom spaces is so surreal-

Bc once your age hits a 'serious' number, you start to think - "damn, I should probably stop geeking and get more serious." But then you scroll and see a 34y/o woman writing fics after driving her kids to school, a 40y/o dude making fanart of his fav super heroes and you realize - "nah, I'm actually good"

1/3 Compliments for your posts, I totally agree. If that, to some extent, is a common tendency of every fandom, it can be said that FFVII one is overly crazy. Zack is another good example of how people try to force the most desperate excuses to deprive a character of its importance because they don't like the consequences of his role.

2/3 "He's just an NPC with insignificant screetime! His scenes are even optional!" So why SE decided to make him the protagonist of a standalone game of the compilation? How can it even be labelled as fan service if he is so irrelevant in the first place? It doesn't take much to realize that without Zack FFVII can't even start in the first place, but before Remake a consistent part of fans even denied CC canonicity. And some are still not convinced.

3/3 It's funny because I've never seen anyone complaining about Cid's behaviour toward Shera but tons of scenes and quotes taken out of context to prove that Zack, Tifa or Aerith are mean characters and should be cut out of the picture. That's pretty self-explanatory of how much people tend to insert themselves in one of the two romantic sub-plots and take it personally, ignoring that neither is the core of the story but they both play a role in the plot. SE really has a tough nut to crack!

They most certainly do, and I would like to believe they aren't taking into consideration all this ridiculous discourse, and just concentrate on their writing. Maybe it helps that, at least from my observation, the JPN side of the fandom doesn't go on about the same stuff we do—at least from these extreme angles.

Zack is another interesting one, and at that point I'd have to have someone define what they exactly mean by "fan-service". The way people view this too, can be strange. Saying Zack was a plot device in the first OG is pretty accurate role-wise, despite being an important one, and I always considered CC to be for the purpose of making up for his characterization by digging into who he was and what his story did for the series. Pretty standard prequel, in this way, with the creative freedom to add more layers not previously known. This is...pretty typical for many franchises. I always felt like, CC is what would've been reminiscent in the OG if the issues of his late development (as a character) and focus in the story had more time. No matter if someone likes it or not, the objective understanding still comes from recognizing its place in continuity and the impact it has on the wider narrative of FFVII—Zack's character literally is written to do this. It's just storytelling. Something that does this is no more fan-service than anything else that's created for an audience and actually has an importance to the story. If CC is fan-service, so is OG, AC (or the separate Complete version), or the Remake. Even if you find it "unnecessary", Zack's character and his story don't abide by this connotation.

Which like, that starts a conversation on the whole "need" ideal that fans have about supplemental materials or extended storytelling, which sort of connects to this based on the "This character or story isn't needed for THIS story!". The issue being that, I think a person's "point of refence" of necessity is off—what they're basing the need for and to. Zack, and all the previously mentioned posts for Tifa, Kairi, Kristoff, etc.—it's like I said, someone an just have a perspective that can write off characters, but that's literally just changing the story, and coming from a point of reference that is just off.

We shouldn't always base an entries "need" in totality only from a reference point of a previous work. This just doesn't always equate to the value of said entry. Any sequel that isn't following a cliffhanger of its predecessor can be deemed "unnecessary" then, by this logic, but obviously it would be beyond trivial to mark any story that continues to extend the storytelling of a world and its characters as this for....what, exactly? To just put it down? The funny thing about CC, is that it IS necessary if your intention is to understand more about that missing slate of the story and to understand Zack's character in more depth.

easy. lmao

AERITH IN HER RED DRESS

artists rendition of one of my favorite bits in the update