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 19 -- the fervent desire to be by one's side for eternity 🌙

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hii im new here, i made this to post my cloti (and sometimes zerith) think pieces i think of mostly before going to sleep that would otherwise sit in my notes app. likes, reblogs, follow backs appreciated <3

analyses

Tifa is the most important person to cloud

Cloti and Zerith parallel 1: Soldier eyes

Hollow as cloti

Tifa and her moon motif

[chubbybeaver77]

TIFA AND THE MOON SYMBOL – WALL MARKET [analysis]

Why did Tifa wear the moon earring with her default dress? Why not stars like Aerith’s best dress?

Probably most of us fans know that Cloud and Tifa’s promise is represented by the stars. Thus, we often associate Tifa with the stars. This time in FF7R at Wall Market, Tifa wears Moon and Aerith wears Stars. Thinking about it again, Tifa is only represented by the stars concerning her relationship with Cloud. By herself, probably not! So let’s find out how the moon connects with her character:

1. Supreme Beauty Symbol

The other day I came across the Crescent Moon explanation in the Dictionary of Symbol (Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, Penguine). The moon is mentioned as “goddess of the night, glory of the stars”. Notice when Tifa wears her default dress, she barely has any makeup. Her hair in untied. Her dress is minimal showing most of her curves and body in general. That’s the true beauty of her features. It’s reconfirmed by how the game focus on Tifa’s beauty in the dialogues.

Next, look at how the game zooms in at the 2 girls accessories because they want us to notice them.

The stars brighten the night. “The best-remembered property of the star is its luminosity and the fact that it is a source of light.” However in our eyes, comparing the stars and the moon:

• The moon is bigger and brighter than the stars

• The moon is unique, stars are abundant

• The stars compliment the moon (Notice in Sailor Moon, the moon is the princess and the stars are like her guardians, too?). Actually, the dictionary also mentioned the moon as “glory of the stars”!

Aerith’s best dress is heavier and more complicated so it covers more of her body like legs, thighs, and hip. Like her multilayered dress, her hair is also heavily done in curls and adorned with lots of flowers. She wears the most make-up with her best dress, too. Notice that her dress is red (warm tone) contrasting Tifa’s purple (cold tone). So, I think the game really tries to contrast her to Tifa and by that narratively portraying Tifa’s standout beauty and sex appeal. It doesn’t mean Aerith is not beautiful, but Tifa is the real queen of the night.

By the way, I think the Stars of Aerith could fit in the theme of celebrity. Her potrayal with the best dress is like a super star!

2. Lover Symbol 

The moon also symbolizes feminine quality and the women while the Sun symbolizes masculinity and the men. In Chinese culture, the moon also represents Yin relative to the Sun’s Yang. Tifa’s dress is in cold color tone is also Yin (warm colors, Yang), which is why I think she doesn’t wear her normal signature red color here. Her depiction here is the moon against Cloud - the Sun. She is Yin while he is Yang. They are one pair.

3. True Love Symbol

The moon also indirectly represents romantic love in literature/art. Its changing phases symbolize passages of time. That quality used to emphasize on how true loves remains the same through changes of time. On this one, the devs have gone above and beyond to spell it out to us with the Cresent Moon Charm’s decsription. But even if they didn’t, naturally the moon still represents the loyalty of lovers to each other. The moon charm fits Tifa well because she is a very loyal and dedicated lover. Her love for Cloud is symbolized and witnessed by the moon. I think the devs really thought carefully about everything they planned on this game :) Stan the devs!

[hartofhearts]

This is so great, I love this! One more thing you may find interesting is that the Crescent moon isn’t new–it was part of Tifa’s OG design as well. From the 2018 Ultimania (Vol. 2, the one spanning VII-IX):

Full page with design notes:

Zoom in on the dress:

She’s wearing a single crescent moon earring even here!

Another interesting note is that Aerith’s star accessories from her best dress (even the flower accessories from her medium dress) are brand new for FFVIIR.

Aerith’s OG dress design:

In the OG, she has simple round beads (similar to her materia?) as earrings and a ribbon accessory, with big bows on the back of the dress and in her hair.

Thanks again for such a great post! 

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i wanted to add to this something i found today.

thea’s (tifa’s mom) name originates from a goddess in greek mythology who is described as mother of the moon 

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benny matsuyama and whether or not Dismantled/Maiden is canon

No, Matsuyama was asked by his boss Yamashita at StudioBentStuff to write the novel for the ultimania they were making, not Nojima

"I was asked to write an original interpretation of the story about the superheroine who was so beautifully dispersed"

http://www.bent.co.jp/lineup_day/%e4%bd%9c%e5%93%81%e7%b4%b9%e4%bb%8b%e8%a9%b3%e7%b4%b0%e3%80%80um19/

He also calls it an original interpretation.

Matsuyama was also not on the dev team of course, and based on his comments about his novel for FFX, where he didn't even know Tidus would come back or really anything about FFX-2, it seems that his works are mostly his interpretation of the events.

http://www.bent.co.jp/lineup_day/%e4%bd%9c%e5%93%81%e7%b4%b9%e4%bb%8b%e8%a9%b3%e7%b4%b0%e3%80%80um14/

His Japanese wiki page also says that his works are not canon even if included in the strategy guide.

https://wikiwiki.jp/ffdic/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%83%E3%83%95/%E3%80%90%E3%83%99%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC%E6%9D%BE%E5%B1%B1%E3%80%91

Edit: The works that immediately followed Maiden and after also did not bother to abide by it all. You can see in the first link that Yamashita just wanted a novel by their company for the ultimania they were making. Others who have researched more of Matsuyama's unofficial works have said that it's basically just for the purpose of more creativity and entertainment.

copied this from some reddit user, just wanna leave it here

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Tifa is the most important person to cloud

clouds speech about how the party should approach defeating sephiroth

notice the words *very personal*

the game shows us how it’s tifa

barret mentions his important reason being marlene and so he goes and spends the last night with her

cloud doesn’t specify who, only mentions that he does have an important reason, and goes on to spend the last night with tifa...

and its funny to think that there are 2 variants of this night but both of them he spends with tifa. you would think a game where the romance is ‘optional’ they’d give the second outcome to the other girl in the love triangle

he surely could have gone to the forgotten capital or anywhere he associates with aerith but instead he mentions how there is no place for him to go (other than wherever tifa is)

memories

and since cloud doesn’t specify what personal memory it is... lets break it down

1- aerith

it’s pretty sweet but he mentions in front of the entire party. not how cloud described as ‘very personal’

actually not even a little personal because soon after, everyone joins in saying how they too remember aerith

why does her memory suddenly become personal in his speech, when he had no issue bringing it up to the same people before?

2- tifa

1 - a memory shared between *only* the two of them

2 - its indicated how personal it is within the text it self “no one can ever know” matches up with “ a very personal memory that i have”

and so cloud goes on to defeat sephiroth for tifa for the second time, the first had been in nibleheim

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FF7 orchestra tour, the quality is ass and a bit off sync but this is too cute how they matched up the scenes with the lyrics

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‘hollow’ interpretation based on cloud and tifa’s relationship

its easier to read on twitter if you’d like

“I would be lost  Drifting along  Floating up high  Time after time”

 pretty self explanatory, these 4 lines describe clouds mental state: lost

“And there you'd be” 

here we have the *first* line about how tifa is there for him, mentally when he is lost

“Shining brightly Your smiling face” 

you wouldn’t think of tifa at first for this because the isnt exactly the smiliest of the bunch, but the use of exclamation points in her dialogue here does make her seem cheerier than she usually is

“To guide my way”

shes guiding him all throughout, giving him directions where he should start and such

“Bloody and bruised Brought to my knees When beaten down When broken up” 

now onto another 4 lines, yet these ones describe his *physical* state. 1st pic he’s literally on his knees

“You would appear,” 

here we have the *second* line about how tifa is there for him, physically when he is beaten down 

“Reach out to me, heal every wound,”

“And make me whole” 

here we see all the shattered pieces of him joining and becoming whole again

“Was it all a dream? Will I never know? Foolish and blind To everything”

they were blind to the fact that they both like each other, even though it was obv to everyone else

“Had I realized, Had I thought it through, Would you be here in my embrace?”

had they realized they loved eachother, cloud would have never had to leave

“Shine bright once more Guide me to you  Smile bright once more” 

you can look at it 2 ways: 

1- whatever force guided cloud to tifa, they found eachother again. after tifa thought she’d never see him again, after cloud thought sephiroth killed her.

“This time I will never let you go” 

this time he wont let go of her, they might not find each other again

or

2- she guided *real* him to her and this time and the real him will never let go of her

“With your every smile  Hiding something more Dark mysteries Lurking beneath”

“But I was consumed With this emptiness This selfishness This void to fill”

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whatever ‘love’ cloud feels for aerith, isn’t real

this one isn’t as analytical as much as it is a compilation

1- aerith is from the future (kind of) and knows her shit

2- cloud remembers a memory of zacks

source:  FFVII Ultimania Omega 

will keep adding to this but so far this is all i have on hand

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its embarrassing how they keep setting their ship up

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cloud helping up his girlfriend after a light fall, then leaving her help up the rest after throwing them to the ground

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Cloti and Zerith parallel 1: Soldier eyes

most people tend to pair cloud/aerith or zack/tifa based on “oh extrovert and introvert must go well together!”

this is a breakdown of hints shown in the compilation on why only cloti and zerith are right for each other

(i cut down irrelevant parts of the convo for the sake of length)

so tifa thinks cloud’s eyes are scary while aerith doesn’t think so of zack’s eyes

their SOLDIER eyes in this case are supposed to be representative of their identities

since zack really is a soldier and his eyes are reflective of his real identity, it’s sweet that aerith thinks they aren’t scary at all

cloud’s eyes are a reflection of his fake identity, when he tells tifa his eyes are this way because of SOLDIER we know that isnt the case

so tifa telling cloud his eyes are scary is her rejecting this fake cloud and and later when “[they] finally meet again” it’ll be her accepting the real cloud. (this point also disproves “tifa only likes cloud now that he’s a hero” bs argument)

anyways im 100% right if u disagree ur wrong why else would they add that scene completely unprompted in the remake to mirror zerith’s + THE SAME SOUNDTRACK PLAYS IN BOTH!!!