Fisherman's Horizon

“I’m really glad to have you back”

Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII REMAKE © Square Enix Fanart only. No copyright infringement intended. Do not steal, edit, use for 18+ content or make any profit with this render, please.

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CREDITS

Models belong to Square Enix

Big thanks to daemon1 and SSPD077; huge thanks to Sreliata for her help

Posed in XNA Posing Studio XPS (developed by XNAaraL) and Blender (thanks to johnzero7 for the tools)

I can hardly believe this blog was created in February 11, 2013. It’s been an adventurous seven years and due to the Remake, our Cloti fandom is growing every day. When this blog was made, there was no website that compiled all Cloti articles and the old ones were closed down or not updated.

This blog is also due for updates since it was made during the time that people used Tumblr from their desktops. With the shift to Tumblr mobile (including myself), organizing articles has been hard. 

Warning! This blog is full of SPOILERS of the original FFVII and other entries. 

Fanworks

Fanfiction, recommendation, fanfic

Fanart - only directly reblogged from the artist, reposts are not featured in this blog and do tell me if I made a mistake somewhere

Links - Japanese fansites and Twitter. Need updates!

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

OG 

Crisis Core

Advent Children

Case of Tifa 

Remake

Other games and appearances

Dissidia

Dissidia Opera Omnia

Kingdom Hearts or KH

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade

Text posts

Meta - general tag for the thoughts and analysis of players outside official statements 

Translation 

Love Triangle Debate - I’ve been selective on what to feature in this portion, and the blog has taken a stand on promoting positivity for Cloud, Tifa and Aerith as well. 

Asks - answering some questions or some anonymous comments

Information/Others 

Fanservice and cameos

Merchandise

Official

I did say about wanting to do Tifa’s character analysis. Instead of focusing on her background or personality, I am a lot more interested with her fighting skill.

As someone who likes and is training martial art, I have my eyes on this kind of stuff. I’ve always wanted to know what kind of martial arts did the devs referred to when they were creating Tifa’s movement set. Were they from Aikido? Could be Capoeira? Or maybe Taekwondo? Some of her movement reminds me to Tony Jaa and Yuri Boyka. 

The devs did say Tifa uses action-packed fighting moves, with simple control orders, similar like in the fighting games. So, they must be based on something in order to create realistic movement for her. Eg- Law (Tekken) his fighting style based on Drunken Master. Chun Li (Street Fighter) from Chinese Kenpo.

Let’s take a quick look on Tifa’s background. There was no firm record about her martial art background and all I got was just her being a student of Zangan. She learned Zangan-Ryu from him. Zangan was a resident of Nibelheim when the ‘Nibelheim incident’ occur. He found Tifa at the Mako Reactor and took her to a safer place. Knowing Tifa was badly injured, Zangan then brought Tifa to Midgar for further medical care. After some time, Zangan left Tifa to settle his thing. (in OG) He left a note on Tifa’s piano after Nibelheim got reconstructed.

I watched Last Order again to reconfirm something. In that short OVA, Zangan and Tifa already knew each other. In which I quickly assume that Tifa was already his student.

Lets say, Tifa became Zangan’s student at the age of 13 yrs old. The Nibelheim incident took place when Tifa was 15y/o. So, there were 2 yrs for Tifa to master the basic martial art movements. And Zangan took her under his wing at Midgar for probably a year or so before he left her alone.

Now, back to her fighting style. Previously, I thought Tifa’s style was based on Muay Thai. And in second thought, perhaps it was Taekwondo, but Tifa (Remake, AC) uses her fist a lot, so Taekwondo is not her main style. Besides, Tifa is more to an ‘attacker’ type of fighter instead of “defender’. 

After gone through researching, this is what I’ve found ; (Pls note that this is nothing official)

1. Sommersoult (Muay Thai)

2. Refocus (Muay Thai) Some may suggest it’s a Taekwondo move, but judging from Tifa’s way of jumping, I think it more to Muay Thai

3. Dolphin Flurry (Gymnastic)

4. Divekick (Gymnastic)

5. Overpower (Taekwondo)

6. back cartwheel (Gymnastic)

7. Starshower (Boxing)

8. Refocus (Muay Thai/ Taekwondo)

9.  Unbridled Strength (Boxing)

10. Dolphin Flurry (Boxing)

I got super excited when I found the similarities in Tifa’s skill and the real-life fighter. I was like, “Look at my Tifa!! She’s pretty and strong. Pretty strong”. There are still some more but it’s hard to get a proper shot for Tifa’s movement. She has incredible speed.

As a conclusion, I would say that Tifa’s combat is Mixed Martial Art, with her dominant skills will be 1. Kickboxing | 2. Taekwondo | 3. Gymnastic | 4. Muay Thai. I’m glad the devs added Gymnastic to her fighting set, it gives an elegant movement to her instead of only violence

On to her background. These fighting skills take MANY-MANY-MANY YEARS to learn and yet Tifa manages to become a master of these in just a few years. Can you tell how awesome Tifa is? Unlike Cloud who got trained in military service, and his strength was enhanced with Mako infusion + Jenova Cell, Barret has a huge gun arm and Aerith being the last creature of her kind has magical abilities, Tifa on the other hand, she, as a normal people, has to work extra hard to gain these amazing skills. Even with these superior techniques, Tifa still remain calm, soft, and shy to everyone around her. This is something that I really admire about Tifa. 

Well ofc, 20y/o anime character is equivalent to 30y/o experienced fighter. 3 months training is similar to 3 years training. But we’re talking about fictional character here, not a real life person. So, it is understandable. 

I would have to say this, but training martial arts is not popular among girls. I’m a trainee, and I only have 1 ACTIVE FEMALE FRIEND (my only sparring buddy) in our big team. Girls dont like sweat or train their muscles. They love the title of ‘a student of martial art’ but they dont love the hard training. Tifa was one of a hundred girls that was ready to go through hell and yet still able to remain soft.

I have a theory (or more like a fandom) on why Tifa decided to learn Martial Arts. Remember the Vow under the star? Tifa asked Cloud to save her if she was in trouble, she asked her to be her ‘Hero’.

Right after Cloud left the village, Tifa probably became interested to learn some fighting skills. And then, there was Zangan in her hometown. Kinda like, “Cloud will become really strong after this and I want to be strong too”. And the reason she wanted to be strong perhaps she wanted to impress Cloud by the time they meet again.

Devs said Tifa wants a ‘Hero’ to save her, but they never mentioned about Tifa wanting to be a ‘Heroine’ (although in the FF7R, she’s the heroine). Even in Crisis Core, Tifa said it was every girl’s dream of having a ‘hero’ to save them. She never talked about heroine. Perhaps, being a heroine was never in her thought.

I would like to think that Tifa not only wants a Hero to save her, but she also wants to be someone her Hero can rely on. She doesnt want to be the ‘princess’ that stays behind the hero, rather she wants to be an ‘equal partner’ her hero can trust. As if her priority is to make sure the Hero is well covered, both emotionally and physically. And the hero she’s looking forward to…is Cloud Strife

And that was why she worked through hell so that she could stand RIGHT NEXT to her Hero, become the HERO’S SHIELD, support his back and more importantly, able to catch the hero before he fall down.

The official FF7R soundtrack CD is out and they have a pamphlet describing the thought process for some of the songs as well as English ver. cr: jsjunshen

HUGE EMPHASIS ON THE FIRST TWO LINES.

“For Midgar, Midgar, I left my one true love behind”

CLOUD’S ONE TRUE LOVE, Y’ALL HEAR THAT?!

The official FF7R soundtrack CD is out and they have a pamphlet describing the thought process for some of the songs as well as English ver. cr: jsjunshen

HUGE EMPHASIS ON THE FIRST TWO LINES.

“For Midgar, Midgar, I left my one true love behind”

CLOUD’S ONE TRUE LOVE, Y’ALL HEAR THAT?!

By request, part 2 of sassy Tifa reaction gifs :)

More under the cut!

Seeing as his expression goes from pic 1 to 2 in less than 2s when he sees the illusion of Tifa getting stabbed by Sephiroth, I'd say he'd suffer a full and complete mental break if she actually died.

Tifa's the one who brought him out of his mako induced stupor and Tifa's voice is the one he hears calling for him in the lifestream before she begins repairing his fractured psyche.

(or Personal thoughts #3 muhahaha!)

Today I offer a different perspective on ‘Case of Tifa’, one that I believe hasn’t been done before. Far from being anti-Cloti or anti-Tifa, it will shed light on how Tifa really can be romantically clueless and why Cloud’s last smile to her regarding Denzel is in fact a very meaningful moment.

                         (Denzel enjoys being in the centre of attention)

There are a whopping six times in the novella where Cloud offers his personal strength and presence to Tifa and indirectly seeks assurance from her as to where he stands in her life and whether they have a future together. Five of these times I heavily believe she failed to provide him with enough of the validation he sought. 

Woah that’s a pretty big statement! Wait a minute you said, isn’t it Tifa who is insecure about the family status and whether Cloud loves her?  Well yeah, she sought external validation from Cloud once - we’ll get back to that.

Attempt 1: Cloud smiles, says he will succeed in living a new life, because he will have Tifa with him in a unique and different way.

“After this … I think I’ll be okay.”

Cloud was silent for a long time before he spoke again.

“Because I have you this time.”

“You’ve always had me.”

“What I mean is kind of different,” Cloud answered with another smile.

We aren’t told if Tifa verbally responded, or even indicated whether she agreed with him in any way. This novel was written from her perspective, so we’d expect an important exchange after Cloud’s comment to at least be mentioned right?

Attempt 2:  Cloud comforts Tifa at Aerith’s grave, not knowing how she feels about it.  She does like it - but doesn’t really tell him that or know what to do.

She felt Cloud’s hand on her shoulder. He was holding onto her firmly as if he didn’t want her to go anywhere. For now, I’ll just let myself cry as much as I want. I’ll leave the rest in his hands.

I just didn’t know what I should do.

Not much encouragement for Cloud there, it must be hard enough comforting a crying girl without knowing that she is crying over another murdered girl whose death you feel was your own fault.

Attempt 3: Cloud quite directly expresses his desire to build a ‘normal life’ with Tifa.

“Yeah, let’s go home” Cloud agreed.

“Where to?” Barret asked.

“Our suspended reality.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Our normal lives.”

“And where do we have something like that?”

“We’ll find one.” Cloud looked at Tifa and said, “Right?”

“Yeah!” cried the cheerful Marlene. Tifa nodded too, but just like Barret, she wondered where they had a normal life.

Tifa’s nod is probably not strong enough to convince Cloud, and as we see not even strong enough to convince herself.

Attempt 4: Cloud reminds Tifa again that he intends to be there for her and lift her up.

When Tifa and Cloud were alone, Cloud said, “It’s not like you to be troubled by your thoughts.”

“It’s… Just the way I am.”

“No. You’re much more cheerful and strong. If you’ve forgotten the way you were then, I’ll be there to remind you.”

“You really will?”

“Probably,” Cloud said blushing.

Like Cloud’s first try, we are given no indication that any agreement transpired between them after that.

Attempt 5: Cloud offers his presence and personal help to Tifa with opening the new business at Barret’s suggestion.

“Times like that are important, ain’t they? Hey Tifa, what do you think?”

Tifa couldn’t answer right away. She understood what Barret was saying. But opening up a store felt like going back to the times of AVALANCHE. Cloud spoke up.

“Tifa, lets give it a go. If it gets too tough, we’ll just quit.

Again, look at Cloud’s emphasis on the ‘us’ in his plans to start a venture with Tifa.

Attempt 6: Cloud looks to Tifa to see how she feels about him being invited to the family.

A family.” (Tifa)

“Yeah.” (Marlene)

Marlene cheerfully answered in response to Tifa’s murmur.

“I’ll put Cloud in our family too.” (Marlene)

“I appreciate that.” (Cloud)

After Cloud thanked Marlene’s innocent offer with his serious face, he looked at Tifa. Tifa nodded a little.

I dunno, maybe this is affirmation, but to me nodding a little doesn’t really show enough enthusiasm.

So I feel that if Case of Tifa was written from Cloud’s point of view, it would be heart-wrenching. There would be many ‘I told her I’d be there to cheer her up, but she looked ahead and didn’t say anything.’ How sad! 

This made me consider, the part where Tifa asks if Cloud loves her and he doesn’t directly answer is often used to state that he - doesn’t. But she has been doing the same thing to him numerous times before this moment.

“Do you love me?”

Cloud woke up, a perplexed look on his face.

Since it’s from her point of view, we can’t be sure why he reacted like that. For all we know, he had that dubious look on his face because he couldn’t believe what he just thought he heard her say!

The reassurance Cloud sought from Tifa is successfully given in their final moment of the novella, which contains signs of a revelation.

“Aerith didn’t bring Denzel to you.”

“Ahh, I only thought that…..”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Aerith brought Denzel to us.”

Cloud gazed at Tifa and finally smiled.

Here’s the cute insta-net definition of the word gaze: look steadily and intently, especially in admiration, surprise, or thought.

Bringing a young child into your life is not just a once off gesture you perform in honor of your deceased friends. It is potentially a lifelong venture and commitment. Tifa’s insistence that Aerith brought the child to both of them  reveals many things to Cloud; that she does see a future with him and wants to share a significant part of it, that the responsibility to live on and live well was her ‘assignment’ too and she would be right there with Cloud through its duration.

YAY for the first time, Cloud is satisfied with the answer Tifa gave him. They are on a role. Notice after this moment, Cloud didn’t refer to Aerith’s church as ‘his place’ anymore. My suspicion is that prior to this he wasn’t convinced by Tifa that she really wanted him around or that he truly belonged in the family so he mildly excluded himself.

Isao Takahata 高畑 勲 29 October 1935 – 5 April 2018

Very sad news Studio Ghibli co-founder and legendary anime film director Isao Takahata has passed away. Mr. Takahata passed away at a hospital in Tokyo on March 05, 2018. According to sources, the director’s health began to decline in the summer of last year, and he was frequently hospitalized for conditions related to his heart. Mr. Takahata was 82 years old. He is most famously known for his emotional and poignant film version of semi-autobiographical war novel Grave of the Fireflies, received an academy award nomination for his last film The Tale of Princess Kaguya and more recently collaborated on Michaël Dudok de Wit on his film The Red Turtle. 

Takahata’s works regularly broke the anime mould with their choice of story and alternative animation styles which were artistically significant to the creation of the genius that is Studio Ghibli. He will be sadly missed by anyone who knew his works and the film world will be less rich without him. Rest in peace. 

“Rather than paintings that declare ‘I am the real thing’, I prefer paintings that say ‘As you can see, I am not the real thing, but please use me as a means to imagine or remember in a vivid way the real thing that is behind me’. My intent was to have the viewers be there at the moment when the sketches were being drawn and to have them share in the emotions. I want to make sure that we don’t forget the great power of paintings drawn by lines on paper to stir our imaginations and memories.”