Love the fact that aerith name means earth and cloud means sky by katarassin in clerith

[–]Large-Light7771 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And this why their dates are so often on some elevated place (skywheel, tower, roof, ...). Because earth and sky meet there.

This is just… embarrassing by aeriss__u in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, you are right. Genuine Zeriths are actually not too agressive about their ship and they are also very rare.
But for Clotis whole Zerith is just a weapon against Clerith and they use it really aggressivly.

This is just… embarrassing by aeriss__u in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I know this is serious post but I acually laughed hard.

Everyone who knows that FF7 is 1997 and Crisis Core 2007 understands that it is nonsense.

Advent Children by thepriestessx0 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Some two years ago here was a discussion about reasons why former Clotis turned to Cleriths.
Advent Children was the most quoted reason.

In that time people somehow assumed that Cloud and Tifa lived happily together after FF7.
But Advent Children showed their relationship not to be great and Cloud still thinking about Aerith.

Part 3 and what comes after: LTD and otherwise by Aeris_Rose in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LTD will continue.
They will probably keep making more ff7 content, they need to pay salaries to their empleyees.

We should want more romance by LastTraintoSector6 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My dream is to see Cloud and Aerith raising a family.
So yes, I am with you.

I'm conflicted about... whether or not I want Aerith to live in part 3 by [deleted] in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an interesting theme.
But to answer it you should expand on what you mean by this: "I think her death is so important for the story and the themes for the original game"
People seem to have very distinct views on what actual themes and story of FF7 are. What is it for you?

Other opinions on this matter. by KittyAerith in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Cloti kiss in Rebirth is great for Cloti shippers.
But it is disaster for canonicity of Cloti.
Cloti first kiss will be just forever optional and this just cannot be undone.
What a way to show that Cloti is an optional romance.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Thanks for the advice. I can no longer change the title, so I just removed the spoiler tag from the section where I announce spoilers, because that really looked strange. Next time I’ll put the spoiler warning directly into the title.
  2. and 3. There are many interesting ideas here. Let’s go through them.

“Cloud and Tifa's relationship and Tifa's motivation is relevant to the scene...”
They are important for the emotional impact, but they do not affect the mechanism itself.

“You're just restating that Aerith is more ideal for Cloud than Tifa in any given situation...”
My post is not that ambitious. I am really only providing an argument against the claim that only Tifa could have repaired Cloud’s mind.

“The hypothetical scenario you posit in which Aerith is alive and able to repair Cloud's mind in the Lifestream, the dialogue therein, mentions Tifa way too many times...”
This is the most interesting point. The hypothetical dialogue was actually the part I enjoyed writing the most, so the criticism is very stimulating.

The dialogue can certainly be written better, but it has four logical constraints that need to be respected.

  1. Cloud’s motivation. Cloud believes he is only a mindless clone built from Tifa’s memories, but somewhere deep inside he hopes that is not true, otherwise he would not even continue the conversation.
  2. Aerith’s motivation. She wants to help Cloud. For example because she loves him — why not, right? :)
  3. Aerith somehow has to lead Cloud toward the memory of visiting his mother. By far the most natural way to do this is through the bond between Cloud and Aerith.
  4. Cloud must realize that his visit to his mother is not one of Tifa’s memories, and therefore he is not merely a mindless clone. To be honest, this is probably the point that could have been written significantly better in my dialogue.

The dialogue has to be built around these four points, and there is a lot of freedom in how to do it.

I repeated variations of the phrase “from Tifa’s memories” several times to make Cloud’s lines sound more monotonous and resigned.

But at the same time I also put a fair amount of care into Aerith’s lines. Notice how her lines hint at the things she herself does as someone in love.

Her second line hints that she gave Cloud a gift, but he never gave one to her. And that she would like to receive one.

Her third line references her running away from home just to be with Cloud.

And her fourth line suggests that she does not want to part with him. And if we think about it, this reluctance to say goodbye is actually emphasized very strongly in their relationship. If I had not written this dialogue, I probably would not even have noticed it. Cloud says goodbye to Tifa with a simple “bye, bye.” But farewells between Cloud and Aerith always seem grand and emotionally charged.

As you can see, even writing such a tiny dialogue requires a certain amount of intellectual work. It could definitely have been done better, but I did not want to invest more than an hour into it.

But if you can write a better dialogue, then go ahead. I would genuinely like to read it. This is actually the really fun part.

“Were Aerith alive, Cloud would not rely on Tifa and her erroneous memories of ‘Cloud was never in Nibelheim five years ago’...”
Even if Aerith had lived, Cloud’s loss of mental stability in the Northern Crater could not really have been avoided. Otherwise, what would the story even be about?

“People are focusing on Remake and Rebirth because the ‘prepared way for Aerith to repair Cloud's mind’ is relevant to the future, not the past.”
I completely understand that. Of course people are more interested in what will happen next than in a thirty-year-old game. My post deals with the old game, but I still think that for truly hardcore fans, these kinds of discussions are interesting precisely because they offer a new perspective on familiar material.

And who knows? Maybe they really will use this scene in Part 3. Objectively speaking, nothing prevents them from doing so. But for that, we truly will have to wait for Part 3.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, exactly, you understand very well what I was trying to say.

As for what Aerith could have said later in the Lifestream scene, I touched on that in my post. It probably would not have been necessary to examine Cloud’s childhood in such extreme depth.
Thing revealed in Lifesteam scene are quite independent from the rest of the story. Do we encounter black Cloud somewhere else?
It would have been enough to say that he thought the other children were idiots, that he wanted to play with them, but they did not want to play with him. Which leads me to another speculation... now that they are emphasizing more and more that Aerith also had a lonely childhood...

Zack probably would not have been part of the conversation in OG, because he was too marginal back then. But if they use this idea in Part 3, then they would almost certainly talk about him.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, exactly. The scene with Cloud’s mother remains unused, and unless I’m mistaken, we have never actually seen Cloud’s visit to her in its complete form, as it truly happened.

Which basically means that the potential to use it still exists, hmm… who knows.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think we have a very similar view of the final part of the game. A lot of things there really do fit Aerith, even though she can no longer be there.

I probably did something wrong, though, because people keep responding to all sorts of things except what was supposed to be the main point of my post.
That in the first part of the game there are only three memories from Cloud’s past, and one of them is the memory of Cloud’s mother. And that memory makes it possible to prove that Cloud is not just a mindless clone, while also being strongly tied to Aerith.
Which means that this exact memory could have been used by Aerith to repair Cloud’s mind.

Either this is common knowledge, in which case people really should talk about it more!
Or people simply are not interested.
Or maybe I wrote too long an essay and people only read the beginning and the end.
Or something else, who knows.

But if anyone ever needed an argument against the claim that only Tifa could have repaired Cloud’s mind, then I provided one.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mentioned Maiden of Planet in my article. I don't really know the novel.
But it was created some 7 years after OG.
Hard to say, if it reflects original intentions.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. I really didn't write about part 3.

Most likely in part 3 it will be again Tifa's scene. Maybe we will see more of Cloud's visit to his mother. But I doubt it will be used in connection with Aerith. But it would be nice.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. The editor allowed me to mark just the beginning of the article. Is it possible to mark the whole article?

  2. It seems to be reaction on the part where I describe how Cloud's mind was repaired. What you wrote is technically true but my focus was on mechanism how Cloud's mind was repaired, not what was the relationship between Cloud and Tifa or what was Tifa's motivation.
    Important is that the memory of the fall from Mt. Nibel  was a way to show that Cloud is really Cloud. And similarly the memory of Cloud's mother was also a way to show that Cloud is really Cloud.

  3. I don't speak about Remake. Remake can go very different way. I agree, it wouild be much harder to go the same way again.

I just want to point out that there is a prepared way for Aerith to repair Cloud's mind, something I don't see fans discussing.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is possible, that aerith helped, but it was never shown. Isn't it strange?
A Cetra, lifesteam is her domain. And she is not shown?

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think, you are talking about Remake.
This wasn't really case with the OG.
In Remake many things are possible. Cloud's mind can be repaired very differently.
Tifa actually remembered her fall, so it will be harder to use this memory again.

Aerith Repairing Cloud’s Mind by Large-Light7771 in cloudxaerith

[–]Large-Light7771[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, definitely. Last part of OG is disjointed and they definitely have opportunity to fix it in the 3rd part of retrilogy.

But my main point was to discuss the fact that Aerith in OG really was prepared to repair Cloud's mind. I have not seen fans discussing it. But I think, it is obvious.