Why Tifa's GS date is canon.
People have said for years Aerith's is the canon route because her date is "easier" to get, alludes to Zack or because she has more starting pts than Tifa.
Yall are wrong and here's why.
Let's address the pts first. Yes, Aerith starts with more pts than Tifa, but taking into account Tifa's naturally reserved personality, which we see evidence of in Remake with her shyly accepting a flower and compliment from Cloud and the fact she won't confide in him right away until after the plate falls, we can conclude her starting value of 30pts is based on her personality, the time she and Cloud spent apart and the fact she only began to have romantic feelings for him in all seriousness after he left her.
Whereas Aerith is inserting Zack on Cloud, which makes her naturally more open towards him, along with her more exuberant personality and lack of boundaries.
However, thanks to Remake we can see that by the time Cloud meets Aerith, Tifa would already have the necessary pts to make her date the canon route, as detailed in this chart.
So, the pts show Tifa has the lead. What else? Well, the ultimanias list Tifa's date first, too.
As we can see in two different sources, Tifa is listed first, and in one on the right, we can see her canon route is Cloud kissing her hand, whereas Aerith slaps Cloud. It's the same for the Remake ulti in listing Tifa's resolution first and maintaining narrative threads going before and after it linking it to the main storyline.
So, ultimanias and the pts system favour Tifa. What else?
The bmg for the scene refers to Tifa's date, also. As seen in the video above, Tifa's the only one between her and Aerith whose words are interrupted or drowned out by the fireworks. The actual title of the song is "Interrupted by fireworks".
Whatever Tifa was going to say is drowned out and afterwards we have Cloud asking what she was going to say. This doesn't happen in Aerith's. Her sentence is said in full and Cloud shows no curiosity afterwards. The dialogue between them contains options before and after the date, where Tifa's doesn't.
That's the ultimania, the bgm and the pts system all favouring Tifa's date.
As for the narrative, some people say that because Aerith alludes to Cloud's fake identity, that's the canon route, but the fact is we have several non-optional scenes that reference that throughout the game, but the GS date is the only scene before the Northern Crater where we get a hint about Tifa and Cloud's secret feelings for each other. Which goes towards Cloud's motivation to become a SOLDIER, which is stated as key information in every ultimania. If you don't see Tifa's date, the whole reveal, along with Mideel and the lifestream seems to come out of nowhere, but with this scene we can see how there's something going on between them that ties into the narrative of them both having feelings and not being able to express them due to circumstances.
Some people hang onto Aerith's "one date" as a reason why her date is first, but Cloud never expressly stated he wanted a date and never brings it up again.
Starting at 20.04 we can see Cloud actually wags his finger at Aerith, which is reiterated in this script breakdown.
So, Cloud didn't actually agree to or find Aerith's offer appealing.
The top left quote refers to Cloud resolving his identity crisis in the lifestream with Tifa's help.
The top right quote again refers to Cloud's identity crisis and how their mutual feelings are revealed. Something that would come as a shock if Tifa's date wasn't shown.
The bottom left quote alludes to what's hinted at in Aerith's GS date, which is why it appears in the CC ultimania. It relates to Zack and the mystery between him and Cloud that forms part of the core identity crisis Cloud goes through during FF7.
And the bottom right quote shows how both Tifa and Cloud are oblivious to each other because they haven't been able to confess until this point. Which fits with Tifa's confession being interrupted during the GS.
In conclusion: the narrative, pts system, ultimanias and even the bgm refer to Tifa's date being canon, with Aerith's as a secondary option for more story info, much like how Aerith's resolution hints at overarching plot details in Remake. That's not to say Aerith's GS isn't important because it does still contain story relevant info, but for overall narrative and character arc that's vital to the story and resolving Cloud's character arc, Tifa's date is canon.
Bringing this back out just because I now have an interview quote from Nomura that states that even if you wanted to choose Aerith, Tifa is the one the story chooses.
The overall comment is talking about the gaming mechanics and player choice, but Nomura states without player choice then the only path is Tifa because that's how the story goes.
Now, as a dev, you'd think if they wanted Aerith to be the one the player was "stuck with" no matter what you try to do differently, they'd just do it. They're programming the game. Instead they said Tifa is the one you can't choose against no matter what because that's how the story plays out. The story they're writing, designing and programming. The story they were adding/changing things to right up to the end because they could go back into any part and just do it to reflect whatever script edits Nojima made. And yet, it's still Tifa who the story leads you to. Aerith is an option for players. She's not an option for Cloud.
So, as I always said, Tifa's GS is canon and Tifa is canon overall.
In the memorial album, Tifa's GS date is listed first and shows her canon route is Cloud kissing her hand. The ost for the gondola ride ref
And this is just a clearer look at the date pages where Tifa gets the kiss and Aerith slaps Cloud. Those are the canon routes set out in the memorial album, which only shows the canon storyline. It also shows Tifa is the one with Cloud when all the optional date routes end and they run into Cait Sith, which further backs up it's her date as the main one.
Oh and just coming back to that "Cloud doesn't find Aerith's offer appealing and doesn't agree to it" we actually also have a source from the material ulti plus breaking down the scene in remake that backs up this.
In OG he steps away and wags his finger in a disapproving manner. In remake he gives Aerith a dubious look and the ulti explains it further as he doesn't grasp the value of her offer.
That in no way shows he was up for a date with her.
