Zack’s Last Stad 

CHAINSAWMAN SPOILER!

Denji bragging about his previous dates..

...His actual previous dates

A good match indeed

I… I could make that mug

Parallel #6

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Welcome 🎉

Talk about a coincidence!

(Previous post here)

Midgar Blues

It has been said and repeated to death: there's a song dedicated to the "promise" in the Remake, and this should be enough to claim the "coincidence" post and end it here with a good link to enjoy the song.

But this song received some criticisms, so I'd like to talk a bit more about it.

1. "There is no evidence that this song is about Cloud and Tifa" and "It's just a random song in Wall Market without specifical meaning".

I saw some people trying to debate about this matter so, here we are.

The text perfectly describes the scene of the promise and Cloud leaving Nibelheim to join SOLDIER. It talks about a man/boy who left his hometown for Midgar, leaving behind a girl. There's a reference to the Lifestream and to the starry night with falling stars. The lyrics - both English and Japanese - are posted below.

This song has old-time/banjo&harmonica sounds that fit the "old west" atmosphere of Nibelheim.

The "author" of the song says he had started his career 7 years ago, when Cloud and Tifa shared the promise, and he's wondering if "Midgar Blues" will be his greatest success. Get the metaphor.

From a storytelling perspective this is NOT a coincidence: no reasonable company invests money and resources to create this sort of content without a reason (and no reasonable company invests money and resources in a song submissively sang in a hidden location of the game, probably this piece will have more focus and importance in the next parts of Remake when the promise will be brought up again - who knows, maybe at Gold Saucer?).

2. The original Japanese lyrics are different from the English translation (hence: it's not about love)

(Source)

The English version is undoubtly romantic and includes the words "True love", while the Japanese version doesn't. I'd like to point out a couple of considerations:

Whether you take the English version or the Japanese one, they're both romantic. It really doesn't seem to me that the original version sounds like a man singing for his sister or his mother. The romantic subtext is in both songs, and it's no wonder: the fact that Cloud was in love with Tifa at the time of the promise is history, more likely the addition of the "True love" part could be made in order to convince the most relunctant part of the western fandom about this subject.

This is a "Enka" song, a popular Japanese music genre that bears some resemblance with blues (for this reason, "Midgar Blues"). This genre is a form of sentimental ballad: enka songs usually express strong emotions, especially love.

This is more a personal opinion about localization from the perspective of someone who's not a native english speaker. I've read many harsh comments about the English localization of the Remake. Especially when it comes to LTD I've seen people from both sides of the fence complaining the translators to be biased CA or CT fans. Fact is that if the complain comes from both sides probably they're not the first nor the second, they're just...translators. I'm not a translator but I speak many languages and it happenes to me to watch and rewatch movies both in English and in my native language. You'll never find a literal word-by-word translation, ESPECIALLY when it comes to songs. Because it wouldn't work. A good localization has to follow the pace of the lip-sync, has to create rhythm, rhymes and lyricism when it comes to poems and songs, it has to convey the right feeling before the right word, it has to take into account the cultural differences from the country of origin of the movie/song and the receiving audience (in this case Japanese people tend to be more descreet and less explicit than western people when talking about love), and much more. With this I'm not saying everyting in the localization is perfect, I don't speak a word of Japanese so I can't make a comparison myself, but just remember that the devs DO speak English. They speak it well enough to notice the difference between the two texts of the song and if they authorized it (I doubt nobody bothered to double check the international scripts of one of the most important products of this company)...it just means that they agree.

In conclusion, yes, it's a love song about the promise and no, it's NOT a coincidence.

Woof

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.

If this isn't soulmate material than I don't know what is. She looks so proud 🥲😂

Tifa’s interrogation: the flashback at Kalm

The flashback at Kalm represents the first time Tifa truly comprehends the depth of Cloud’s delusions. Some fans see Tifa’s behavior during this episode as complete head-in-the-sand avoidance of the issue. 

But… this is a misinterpretation. Tifa isn’t avoiding Cloud’s crisis at Kalm, even if she does opt for subtlety (a necessity, given what transpired at the train station). Tifa tries to use the Kalm flashback to gather evidence to disprove Cloud’s version of events… but she unfortunately discovers that the situation is not so clear-cut.

Tifa’s behavior makes her intentions obvious. As soon as Barret asks Cloud to tell his story, Tifa keeps silent, fidgeting restlessly with her hair. And in contrast with Barret and Aerith, her only dialogue is “…”s:

 As we know, Tifa hasn’t yet had the chance to hear Cloud’s side of the story: at the train station, he reacted violently when Tifa questioned him; at both the bar in OG and Remake’s Alone at Last, Cloud brushes off her questions. Kalm marks Tifa’s very first opportunity to gather information and understand the nature of Cloud’s inconsistencies. The fidgeting is a sign of Tifa’s anticipation/dread; the ellipses represent her listening intently to Cloud’s story, giving him the space he needs to speak without her contradictory recollections setting him off.

Indeed, Tifa’s very first remark is only in response to an interruption:

Barret: Yo wait a minute!! Isn’t that, um…? The name of Sephiroth’s mother… I remember Jenova. That’s that damn headless spook livin’ in the Shinra building.

Cloud: That’s right.

Tifa: Barret, would you please let us hear what Cloud has to say? You can ask questions later.

Barret: Tifa, I was only…

Tifa: OK Cloud, continue.

Aerith: The childhood friends reunite!

Cloud: …I was really surprised with Tifa.

(watch here)

Tifa abruptly cuts Barret off in a way that takes all three characters aback–why is she so uncharacteristically brusque? Cloud, Barret, and Aerith all verbally react to the outburst, as the devs want the player to notice how unusual Tifa’s behavior is. While a first-time player may not understand her motivations, a seasoned player will: at this moment, Tifa doesn’t care about anything but hearing Cloud’s story and figuring out what’s wrong with him.

Tifa continues to listen in silence until Cloud reaches her house. Suddenly, Tifa asks Cloud about everything he did there:

Tifa: Cloud…? Did you go into my house?

Cloud…? Did you go into my room?

Did you play my piano?

(if you check in the drawers to find the underwear…) …Cloud. We’re talking about something really important here.

Did you read it? My letter?

Do you remember what it said…?

Cloud… Do you remember all of it?

(link to the full sequence in Tifa’s room)

These questions may look trivial, like a frivolous Tifa trying to ensure her girlish modesty was maintained five years ago. But it’s the last two questions about the letter which reveal what Tifa is truly doing: she’s subtly interrogating Cloud to determine if he was truly at Nibelheim. If Tifa’s primary motivation is to lessen her embarrassment, then why does she explicitly prompt Cloud to restate the entire letter in front of the entire team five years later?

The full content of the letter is information which Tifa is intimately familiar with, information that only she–or someone who truly was in her room that day–would know. If Cloud doesn’t know about the objects in her room or blatantly bullshits in response her questions, then Tifa has all the more evidence that Cloud wasn’t actually there. But if he does know the answers to these questions, especially regarding something as temporary as a letter, then… what does it mean? That Cloud truly was there, even though Tifa doesn’t remember him being there…? What does that say about Cloud’s memories…? What does that say about Tifa’s…?

The fact that Cloud passes her “test”–that he knows private details of her room, and gives an accurate account of its contents–leads Tifa to recognize that there is more to Nibelheim incident than just her recollections, and there is more to Cloud’s side of the story.  Tifa doesn’t have a full understanding of the situation, and as long as she can’t explain the discrepancies between her memories and Cloud’s, she can’t simply refute Cloud’s version of events. Like it or not, Tifa realizes that the Nibelheim flashback has become a “he said, she said” situation. And who knows… maybe this confident, capable Cloud is correct, and she’s the one who’s wrong?

Now… how do we know that Tifa’s questions about her room are intended to represent her attempts at fact-finding? How do we know that they really aren’t just a trivial cutesy gameplay mechanic to break up the monotony of the flashback?

And the answer is… it’s because Cloud’s answers to these questions are referenced during a critical scene: Sephiroth’s illusion at the Northern Crater.

Cloud: The town hadn’t changed at all. What did I do? Oh yeah…

Cloud’s lines are directly influenced by the actions that Cloud took during the Kalm flashback. After the above line, Cloud can make any number of statements:

“I saw my mom. I saw the people in town.”

“Yeah, I went to Tifa’s room. There, I…”

“I played the piano!”

“I looked in the drawers!”

“I read the letter addressed to Tifa!”

Based on how much or how little you did, Cloud will say more (or fewer) of the above statements.

For example, in this player’s Nibelheim flashback, Cloud met his mom and went in Tifa’s room, where he jammed on the piano and raided her dressers. But he never found the letter. So during the Nibelheim illusion, Cloud only makes statements 1-4.

On the other hand, this player’s Cloud experienced everything during the Nibelheim flashback, so Cloud makes all 5 statements during the Nibelheim illusion.

But in this player’s Nibelheim flashback, Cloud went to Tifa’s room but did the bare minimum. Didn’t say “yes” to anything or even see Cloud’s mom. So Cloud only makes statement 2.

With this easily-missed callback, it proves that Cloud himself recognizes the purpose and utility of Tifa’s questioning back at Kalm, and emphasizes how Tifa interrogated Cloud during the Kalm flashback to try and find incontrovertible proof of his presence on that day.

Final thoughts:

>> Tifa’s final question. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Tifa’s final question at Kalm. After Barret leaves the room, Tifa speaks up one more time:

Tifa: …… Cloud…? How bad was I when Sephiroth cut me? Cloud: I thought you were a goner. …I was really sad. Tifa: ……

There are four ways to interpret this exchange:

The first is how a first-time player would experience it: it’s an exchange which both builds Cloud up as a reliable narrator and suggests that Cloud was relatively indifferent towards Tifa. (Seasoned players will recognize why this moment is played down this way: to build up the shock of the Lifestream reveal, where we learn Cloud isn’t a reliable narrator and that he was deeply affected by Tifa’s injury because he revolves around her.)

The second interpretation is that Tifa’s asking Cloud one more question to confirm if he not only was in her room, but also in the reactor that day–in case you missed visiting Tifa’s house, it’s one last factfinding mission to prove that Cloud was truly there.

The third interpretation is that Cloud’s confidence and accuracy during the flashback leads Tifa to doubt herself; she wonders if the severity of her injuries may be the reason why she misremembers the day’s events. This question alludes to her uncertainty; perhaps she’s performing some factfinding for herself by comparing more of her recollections to his.

The fourth interpretation is that Tifa always knew how badly she was injured, but this is the very first time she learns that Cloud was there when she was injured. Tifa hoped that Cloud would be emotionally impacted by her injury (due to the Promise), which is why she prompts him about it. Unfortunately, his indifferent response is very disappointing. (This could be another reason why her reaction to this moment in the Lifestream is so pronounced and why she brings up the Promise.)

While I think interpretation #1 is definitely what the devs want first-time players to get out of this conversation, I’m not sure if seasoned players are supposed to take #2, #3, #4, or something else away from it. I’ll leave that to you! I hope Remake (or a future Ultimania) gives us some greater clarity here.

>> PS: Undies. Tifa’s not really mad about the underwear–note how her response isn’t something like, “I can’t believe you invaded my privacy like that!” but it’s actually, “Cloud!!! […] …Cloud. We’re talking about something really important here.” Tifa is exasperated that Cloud’s talking about some inane pervy bullshit while she’s TRYING to figure out what’s wrong with him. Come the fuck on, Cloud, a little seriousness here!!

>> PPS: Undies, round 2. Cloud really DID look through her underwear drawer. He wasn’t kidding, because he legitimately uses that fact to prove his existence at Northern Crater. (“I looked in the drawers!”) “I simp for Tifa, therefore I am.” Oh Cloud.

Parallels