Let’s Talk About that Wholesome Marlene Reunion
I gotta say, after having kids of my own, any scene that has moments with kids in it hits harder. My husband said the same thing.
When Aerith goes to get Marlene from Seventh Heaven in Chapter 12, it’s emotional. My daughter is around Marlene’s age. Hit right in the feels.
At least you know Aerith saves her before the plate drops. I also appreciated that plot hole filler to explain HOW Aerith was taken by Tseng.
Then we have the start of Chapter 13 where Barret is beside himself. He’s broken, he’s just lost everything, his friends, his home, and he thinks he’s even lost his daughter. It’s a great scene and Barret’s VA did an excellent job of portraying the pain in his voice. This isn’t going to be an in depth post, it’s more of a light, fun, look at what Cloud and Tifa are doing back there type of thing.
Luckily, this has a happy ending. Barret is reunited with Marlene (even though he scares the shit out of Elmyra) and it’s wholesome, so I took screenshots. And yes, this is more of a Cloti post because the way those two act in this scene is adorable to me.
He realizes she’s alive and upstairs. And yes, he needs to wear sunglasses or we would get lost in his eyes. I love Barret - loved him in the OG and they just made him even better in the OG. He’s a passionate dude and wholesome.
So he goes upstairs and sees his sleeping little girl and you forget, for a moment, that Chapter 12 happened. It feels nice, something good happened.
Then I spotted these fun things:
Cloud looks happy. Of course Tifa is happy. But Cloud has that adorable happy look on his face. I replayed this part a few times cuz I enjoyed seeing him being happy for Barret and Marlene. Character growth, folks.
Cloud looks much softer. I enjoy Tifa’s closed eye chibi smile sometimes, so I left it. I also love the fact that they’re looking in on Marlene, and we know they end up being guardians for her in AC.
Tifa looks at him and then makes sure he stays quiet, which is quietly agrees to. I dunno, this whole scene between Barret and these two makes this so damn wholesome.
GAHHH I love this shot. I absolutely adore this whole scene. I love that they allude to the ACC family with this (minus Denzel).
Bonus: What was the point of them shooting out to these two during Barret’s talk with Marlene… I mean, they did this random Cloti shot in A LOT of parts and it was random, but I’m not complaining.
Tifa looks content as hell. I tell myself they’re secretly holding hands. (Note, this is not proven or canon, I can’t see what their hands are doing, so I can imagine what their hands are doing.) I can’t really explain Cloud’s expression here.
Cloud looks a bit more serious here. Getting geared up to go? Thinking about how he can improve his hug game? Maybe Al and his flowers? Or the fact he saw Aerith as a ghost? Did he remember to turn off the stove?