"No, Tifa doesn't know Cloud the best. It's Aerith/Zack/Sephiroth/etc."
Ok first of all, Cloud Strife himself doesn't know him best, ain't no mf know him whole. Secondly, nobody knows more version of Cloud than Tifa, no one.
Zack doesn't know SOLDIER Cloud.
Aerith doesn't know real Cloud.
Sephiroth is just straight up projecting. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.
Even his own mom didn't know that he joined Shinra until Tifa told her.
The only person who meets every version of Cloud, aka kid Cloud, teen Cloud, infantry Cloud, SOLDIER Cloud, AC Cloud, and more; is Tifa, only her. That's a fact. Hell yeah, Tifa doesn't know Cloud that well, but she for sure knows him better than the rest. She wins by elimination. Just because Cloud makes the truth overcomplicating for Tifa to approach cos he's autistic and possessed by brain eating alien doesn't mean she isn't the pivot of his life and the only one who he opens up wholeheartedly to. Argue with Cloud. I don't make the rule.
People seriously underestimate how many versions of Cloud that Tifa has known and loved. Every persona, facade, high and low of him have been seen by her. Some of those are created because of Tifa. To know Cloud is to track back to Tifa.
Obviously Cloud is a multifaceted person and can have different dynamic with different people. But that's the problem, ppl seem to always to set a weirdly high standards for Tifa when it comes to Cloud. Unless she can straight up read his mind and be the perfect ray of sunshine in his life, none of their shared memories, trauma, personal traits, confrontations, conflicts, secrets count. Which is absurd, ppl give other characters more credit for less. Every time Tifa poses a challenge to Cloud's insecurity, ppl brush it off as they're incompatible instead of seeing it as necessary trial for Cloud to face and learn. Ppl always ask for character growth until character actually grows.
