#ff7r 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!

If you have enjoyed this, please check out my other analyses for FF7R:

WHAT DID CLOUD CALL BEAUTIFUL? [cinematic analysis]

FF7 LTD: CLOUD’S TRUTH REVEALED - Chapter 10 [scenario analysis]

Honestly, I was re-watching FF7R footage to get some illustrations for another analysis and came across this, so this is a totally accidental catch about the LTD of FF7. I didn’t ask myself questions this time.

ATTENTION:

If you do not care or cannot handle LTD, then please skip this post.

I acknowledge the scenarios are more than just LTD. They are also about character building and the friendship between Aerith & Tifa. I respect all characters and the devs. However, please understand this post is an analysis about the LTD element of the scenarios.

If you are cool with all that, please read on. Thank you!

In Chapter 10 of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, we have Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith as our team members and it is probably an amazing chance for the story to tell and develop the relationships between them. In the sewer, the game set up two bridge collapses and there are intentions behind those cutscenes just like probably any other cutscenes the devs put in this Remake and I am, as a fan, very grateful for their attention to detail. I also like to compare because sometimes you need to place one thing next to another to understand what it truly is. By comparing the scenarios of the two bridge collapses, I think I have found the truth about the LTD from Cloud, at least up until this point of the story (after all that happened between Cloud – Tifa and Cloud – Aerith from the beginning till Chapter 9).

With the first bridge collapse, you see Cloud crossing first and then Tifa. Both crossed the bridge successfully. Then, it was Aerith’s turn. Aerith had trouble. When she was in trouble, we saw the screen showed Tifa and Cloud. Cloud was at the back and Tifa at the front. Cloud was out of focus and Tifa was in focus. At its peak, the bridge started sinking. It was Tifa that immediately took action and reached for Aerith. Cloud, however, stayed out of the screen, implying he either didn’t take action or his action was not important enough to be displayed on the screen. Then, we heard Cloud telling Aerith what to do: “Jump!”. Aerith jumped and Tifa was ready to catch her. Cloud was back on the screen, holding onto Tifa while his eyes focusing on Aerith.

Because Cloud barely talked or expressed his feelings openly, we - fans -  have been watching his action carefully to find out what he really meant/felt/thought. So at this moment, who did he care about? My answer was Aerith definitely because she was the one he looked at and she was the one in trouble, even though he had that tendency to touch Tifa. But, let’s check the second bridge collapse.

The second collapse came shortly after the first one. It happened when both Aerith and Tifa crossing. However, if you looked closely, the one truly in trouble this time was Tifa. The screen shows only Tifa being in trouble, not Aerith. You also heard Tifa saying “Huh? No way!” which tells you how she was in trouble. Actually, Aerith was closer to the other side so she was in a safer position. Tifa was near the middle of the bridge and she probably thought she could not make it to the other side, so she turned around to run back. This time, Cloud was in focus. Even a close-up shot was used to tell the audience how he felt.

His face had a stunned and scared expression and it quickly turned into a determined one. Cloud didn’t just stand and told Tifa what to do. He instantly ran toward her. Aerith noticed Tifa was in danger and Tifa was wrong by turning back. So, Aerith took Tifa's hand and pulled her forward together. When Aerith took Tifa's hand, you would see Cloud was already in action in the back. As the two girls moving to the other side, Cloud continued rushing behind. I think the force of such action was too much for him to stop while it also seems he didn’t even want to stop (because he couldn’t feel assured enough if he wasn’t the one that rescues Tifa himself?). The bridge collapsed completely.

You can see him falling almost at the same place that Tifa was at the last shot before the trouble occurred. It’s safe to say that Cloud saw Tifa in trouble, and without thinking, he immediately rushed to rescue her; within such a fleeting moment, he was so determined and projected himself precisely to where she was. That’s how he got himself in trouble. Luckily, the girls rescued him. Then, Cloud turned to Aerith and said “Sorry ‘bout that” and she replied “No need to be”. Why did he apologize to Aerith? Because to him, she was a bystander in that circumstance. How was Aerith a bystander? Because Tifa was in danger and he was so reckless about saving Tifa, thus he bothered Aerith. When Tifa and Aerith went ahead, Cloud was caught looking down sighing. He caught himself. He was such a cocky and try-to-play-cool dude, that sigh was most likely not about his own danger. It’s more like a sigh of relief that the tension of Tifa being in danger was over or he was disappointed about himself for acting recklessly and thoughtlessly because he wanted to protect Tifa.

So we see here, in almost two identical situations, Cloud responded differently when each girl was endangered. It really shows how deeply Cloud cares about Tifa and how much she means to him compared to Aerith. Through his action, Cloud has involuntarily revealed who matters the most to him. However, I don’t think that the devs would go this far just to compare how Cloud cares for Tifa more than Aerith (at least true till this point of the story) just for the sake of the LTD. Remember in FF7AC, Cloud was the one that felt guilty about Aerith’s death more than any other team member? Remember in OG, he acted weirdly before Sephiroth appeared and killed Aerith?

I think there is a high chance the Remake will show in detail how Cloud’s role/Cloud’s failure played in Aerith’s death, which caused his deep guilt in AC. Had he been determined to protect Aerith as he could for Tifa, would have it been different?

After all, here I include the video with slow-motion so you can see it for yourself.

If you have enjoyed this, please check out my other analyses for FF7R:

TIFA AND THE MOON SYMBOL – WALL MARKET [symbolism analysis]

WHAT DID CLOUD CALL BEAUTIFUL? [cinematic analysis]

BONUS only for Cloti: Cloud lost his shit and rushed toward Tifa without thinking the same way.

In the resolution scenes, there are two similar shots of Tifa and Aerith’s feet. Since they both stood at Aerith’s garden, the backgrounds could have looked similar but they don’t. So, I think the devs intended to make 2 similar shots of Tifa and Aerith’s feet for us to notice the differences.

 TIFA’S FEET

This is the shot of Tifa’s feet. You see mostly here 3-leaf clovers instead of the lilies. It does not mean that the lilies – reunion flowers are therefore not associated with Cloud & Tifa in this scene. This is a directional choice because when Tifa mentioned that the lilies were reunion flowers, there was a close-up shot of the lilies. This is to make sure that your attention was fully focused on the lilies and what she said when the lilies were finally shown up-close in the scene.

It’s widely known that 4-leaf clovers represent good luck but the 3-leaf clovers’ meaning are not so popular. So I look up on the internet and find this on the Wikipedia page:

So basically, the 3-leaf clovers mean hope, faith, and love. The theme of “hope, faith, and love” seems to fit the overall love story of Cloud and Tifa in Final Fantasy VII perfectly. It also fits the resolution scene especially well because Tifa was talking about her hope for the lilies to stay alive, hope for 

happiness, and her lost beloved ones etc.

AERITH’S FEET

I’ve seen people trying to claim the lilies - reunion flowers are about Cloud and Aerith during the resolution scene because Tifa mentioned Aerith’s name when she started talking about the flowers and because you see the flowers at Aerith’s feet. In my opinion, it’s a misunderstanding for many reasons.

If the reunion flowers are associated with Cloud and Aerith, why wasn’t it mentioned directly on Aerith’s resolution scene via dialogue?

The reunion flowers were never shown in focus during Aerith’s resolution scene, either.

In this shot, you only see Aerith’s feet. If it’s meant to be the reunion of Cloud and Aerith, we should have seen both Cloud and Aerith feet.

Aerith’s feet are not surrounded by the reunion flowers in this shot. Technically, they are all surrounded by the reunion flowers (Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith during 3 resolution scenes), but the composition of this shot alone didn’t convey that image. You see Aerith’s feet at the foreground while the flowers are at the background.

Look at this example from Tifa’s resolution scene, you see the concept of Reunion completely here. Both Cloud and Tifa’s feet, because reunion are meant for at least two people, not one. You see the reunion flowers at the foreground, middleground, and background which simply mean the reunion flowers surrounded Cloud and Tifa. Even on this one, you see an abundant of 3-leaf clovers together with the reunion flowers? A Reunion for/because of Hope, Faith, and Love.

Then what is the meaning in Aerith’s shot? I notice that where Aerith stood, it is quite bare. I don’t know with better graphics how much detail we can see the texture but here you can definitely see a mixture in colors of the grass and the soil compared to the very green place where Tifa stood. A bare place with flowers? The concept immediately prompts the image of Zack’s grave in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children to me. Then here, Aerith told Cloud to not fall in love with her because it isn’t real. It doesn’t look like coincidence to me.

Check out my other analysis for FF7R:

TIFA AND THE MOON SYMBOL – WALL MARKET [symbolism analysis]

WHAT DID CLOUD CALL BEAUTIFUL? [cinematic analysis]

FF7 LTD: CLOUD’S TRUTH REVEALED - Chapter 10 [scenario analysis]

If you have not read PART 1, I recommend that you read PART 1 first. Thank you!

PART 1: LILY - AERITH GAINSBOROUGH - LIFE SYMBOL -THE FATE OF AERITH

PART 2: LILY - THE REUNION FLOWER 

I saw people fighting about which characters Reunion belongs to. Reunion is a wholesome concept, another central theme of Remake imo, so why can’t it be shared between characters? I know Final Fantasy VII is dark, but I am glad there are 2 bright themes brought in Remake: one wholesome (Reunion) and one poetic (I will talk about it some other time). I really love the positive energy the Reunion Theme brought into the Remake. It is such a bless for our life to be able to reunite with our beloveds.

This part will be my take for each scene, since this topic has been heavily discussed, you might have encountered some ideas here and there.

#1

The first Reunion when Aerith gave Cloud the flower is Cloud and Aerith’s Reunion. It’s their true Reunion in FF7 Compilation after 23 years, a true Reunion to fans because Aerith is still alive here. 

It is also a message from Aerith to Cloud that they would reunite later after this event. She was very likely to have some knowledge about that.

Narratively, it could also mean an indirect Reunion between Aerith and Zack because Cloud reminded her of Zack and this is their first time meeting. They don’t know each other yet.

I am quite against the idea of Aerith travelling back in time, so no Cloud and Aerith’s Reunion because of time travel. I am against that idea because during the Evergreen Park talk and ending of Remake, Aerith’s sadness for Zack was still very raw. She was clearly disappointed and upset. In my opinion, if she was going back in time to fix things, she would be more accepting and at peace with what was going on like her portrayal in FF7 Advent Children.

#2

When Cloud gave Tifa the flower, it was the Reunion of Cloud and Tifa. They were separated for 7 years from Tifa’s memory and 5 years from Cloud's memory. The story began when the 2 childhood friends were reunited as Nojima called it in the FF7R Insider series. Notice Cloud took the flower from his heart’s place and gave it to Tifa. Heart is a symbol of someone’s real self. Just like the message that Cloud will remember Aerith forever in his heart, this is a message that from his heart, True Cloud was for Tifa.

#3 

Surrounded by Reunion Flowers, Cloud and Aerith were reunited in the church as she predicted earlier

#4

Aerith was pleased to know where her flower ended up. She was happy for Cloud and Tifa’s Reunion. Notice that she learnt about this before the resolution event, where if you had Aerith’s scene, she told Cloud “it was not real”. She might understand there was something going on between Cloud and Tifa right here.

#5

This is a foreshadowing of True Cloud and Tifa’s Reunion when he gained his memory. Reunion was mentioned in Tifa’s Resolution Scene. The Reunion Flowers was placed next to a stream in one shot here on purpose. Lifestream - Reunion. In a recent interview, Hamaguchi, co-director of Remake directly stated this stream was connected to Lifestream. You can read more about True Cloud and Tifa’s Reunion foreshadowing HERE where I explained in detail why Reunion Flower here is about Cloud and Tifa, not anyone else.

#6

In this sequence with Leslie, his fiancée left him the pendant with the Reunion Flower. She said it was just a dream. Was there a message? Message: We will meet again. 

You see Cloud’s perplexed expression here. The dream was a reference to Aerith’s Resolution Scene. The message was a reference to Aerith’s message to Cloud. Cloud was perplexed because he realized that Aerith had been trying to send him a message the whole time. There were also a lot of other weird things happening around her so Cloud now understood Aerith knew things and wasn’t straightforward. He looked sad and sorry that he didn’t get it earlier and maybe could have prevented her from being captured by Shinra if he knew more. Hence, later on in Chapter 17, we see the continuity of the narration. Cloud asked Aerith to reveal what she had been hiding.

Back to Chapter 14, when Tifa was telling Leslie the meaning of the Reunion Flowers, Cloud turned to Tifa with a little surprised expression. It was a moment where Cloud realized that Aerith had known that they would meet again after their first encounter when she gave him the flower. 

It is also a reference to Tifa’s Resolution Scene and their future Reunion. My explanation is that True Cloud subconsciously became triggered as Tifa mentioned Reunion and “We’ll meet again”. Tifa - Reunion - We’ll meet again. He didn’t truly know it right now, but at heart, True Cloud was still there. 

#7

In the ending, there was another close-up shot of Lily Flowers blooming beautifully in a pot. The image of Marlene watering the flower is her nurturing a hope that her dad - Barret would come back to her. The image is very bright and positive conveying the message that Barret and Marlene will definitely meet again. And, everyone will have their due Reunion fulfilled.

And also, when Aerith met Marlene for the first time, she asked Marlene to remember the flower. Marlene will remember the Flower - Aerith. The image of Aerith will live on beautifully in Marlene’s memory. She is taking care of the flowers, she won’t forget Aerith. 

My final thought is that the beauty of symbols and indirect messages is that they are capable of carrying more than one meaning. I hope that people don’t have to fight which meaning is canon. They are all canon as long as they make sense and we have enough evidence to believe in them. Hope you have enjoyed this.

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You can also find my other analysis here:

The Lily flowers, in particular, the yellow lilies, is one of the main themes of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Before Remake, Lily was considered only a symbol of Aerith. However, Remake has sort of given it another name and another meaning, the Reunion Flower. So now, Lily dually represents both Aerith and Reunion. 

Throughout Remake Part 1, the image of Lily was emphasized on multiple occasions and it carries either a message or a symbol each time. In this post, I will explain the meaning and message of Lily in every close-up shots and will divide them into 2 sections: Aerith and Reunion.

PART 1: LILY - AERITH GAINSBOROUGH - LIFE SYMBOL -THE FATE OF AERITH 

Flowers, in general, symbolize Aerith Gainsborough. What is the purpose of flowers? Flowers adorn and colorize our life making our life more beautiful and positive. In Remake, Aerith is portrayed the same way, bright and positive. She always carries a smile and supports others like Cloud, Tifa, Wedge etc when they feel down. Flowers mean beauty. Aerith means the bright side of life. Despite Aerith’s misfortuned fate in Final Fantasy VII, she will always represent Life as much as her tragic death represents Death. That's the direction Remake is going for.

I’ve heard enough fans speculating that Aerith will survive this time because Destiny is no longer fixed. Yes, it is possible narratively at this point but it seems people are neglecting the Visual Story of the game. Usually, the visual story will reveal the truth without spelling it out to us. Like words to literature, images are the storytelling device of movies (I compare the cutscenes of Remake with a movie because of the high quality it delivered. Also, Square Enix is a professional in movie making. They have made at least 3 movies as far as I know and right now an animation show).So, let’s examine the representations of Lily for Aerith. These shots are from the opening of the game.

The first image of Lily in Remake is a dried and wilted Lily. It is a contrast between the lifeless - the villains and the lively - Aerith to show how important and beautiful Aerith is compared to the bad.

We all know the flower is dead because of what Shinra has done to the planet by sucking up and using Lifestream. It’s the literal meaning, but it also symbolizes how the bad forces will impact Life - Aerith. If you are still in doubt, let’s move on the next shot.

This is a significant detail that is added from the opening of Final Fantasy VII and they don’t add it in for no reason. Just by the image, it could mean the coldness of Midgar residents but that idea was never expressed throughout the game. Actually, even Shinra’s employees are portrayed as innocent people who are ignorant of what they are doing to the planet by working for Shinra. They are not mean people. So, that possibility is eliminated. The only meaning we have left here is the misfortuned fate of Aerith. When she picked up the flower, the screen displayed Aerith staring into the screen, not blinking once. It symbolizes the fearlessness, courage, and determination of Aerith to face her fate. She is one tough flower.

Later near the end of the game, the flower was focused one more in Aerith’s hand, we had this image:

In Language of flowers, Aerith was sad and pessimistic when she became serious and dropped her cheery mask briefly.

A bonus aftermath message, did you notice these focuses on Lily? A close-up shot of the Aerith putting the flower on the left side of Cloud’s chest where his heart is. And, pretty much every shot after that until Cloud gave Tifa the flower, no matter what position he is in, they make sure the flower is shown on the screen. I include some examples here but you should replay this part for yourself to see how conspicuous it is. Their choice of direction here serves 2 purposes:

It draws your attention to Lily and shows you how important this flower will mean to the whole story. “Reunion” as Aerith told you immediately before she gave it to Cloud. They are telling the audience to remember this flower and its meaning! There were no “lovers” mentioned in the Japanese original dialogue. The translation narrowed the meaning of Lily and it is a sign of bad translation (they probably did it on purpose). Always remember Japanese dialogue is the ORIGINAL SOURCE written by Nojima himself. No matter what the translations are approved, if you want to do a real analysis on texts, it’s the golden rule to go to the original material because not everything can be translated precisely. Wording means a lot especially because SQ used a lot of symbols and indirect messages in this game. Even when the writer himself translates his own work, he might not be able to make it 100% the same as the original.

This sequence also delivers an important message, Aerith is implanting her image in Cloud’s heart. Cloud will always remember Aerith even after she is gone. This idea has been reiterated throughout post-FF7 games/stories.

Are the messages clear here now? Yes. It is very clear which direction the game is heading regarding Aerith’s fate. They never shows any contradiction even once. If you are not familiar with Eastern’s literature, you might not know that a wilted/trampled flower is a classical motif that is frequently employed to symbolize the tragic fate of a woman, usually a beautiful and bright woman. It is nothing new. 

Since the game is not complete yet, I don’t want to be absolute, but this is not a random prediction, more like finding an answer according to the clues we are given from the game. We will see where the game heads later. If they show one thing and mean another thing, I would call that misrepresentation. I am confident that they are professional and they know what they are doing.

==> Please continue your reading of Part 2 here because Tumblr doesn't allow me to add all the images I want in a post.

====> PART 2: LILY - THE REUNION FLOWER 

You can also find my other analysis here:

Hi Everyone,

I have been in love with FF7 since the original game came out, but I am fairly new to the fandom. I have been around only since the hype for Remake’s release last year. All the loves and the wars for/because of the game are quite new to me. Tbh, I didn’t pay much attention to the fandom till the last few month since the official release in April. I am very happy and grateful that the release of Remake has made the fandom more active and so, I can enjoy and share the love for the World of FF7 with many other friends. I hope you feel the same way.

This is a little blog through which I hope to share some of my thoughts on the Remake game. I might shitpost a little bit on other platforms but for this blog, I aim to stay positive and objective as much as I can with everything I write. My purpose for this is Understanding, not Proving (an already established stance). My focus will mostly be on cinematic/visual analysis. 

Finally, please find my collection of posts here. I will try to update it often. Please remember that it is alright to disagree and more importantly we should remain respectful and reasonable to each other. Thank you!

FF7 GENERAL THOUGHTS

FF7 LTD: Why I don’t support “Cloud loves both [romantically]”

FF7R SYMBOLISM ANALYSIS

THE SYMBOLS AT THEIR FEET – FF7R RESOLUTION SCENES [symbolism analysis]

TIFA AND THE MOON SYMBOL – WALL MARKET [symbolism analysis]

LILY OF FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: ALL SCENES MASTER ANALYSIS:

PART 1: LILY - AERITH GAINSBOROUGH - LIFE SYMBOL -THE FATE OF AERITH

PART 2: LILY - THE REUNION FLOWER

FF7R CINEMATIC/SCENARIO ANALYSIS

WHAT DID CLOUD CALL BEAUTIFUL? [cinematic analysis]

FF7 LTD: CLOUD’S TRUTH REVEALED - Chapter 10 [scenario analysis]

FF7R TRIVIAL APPRECIATION POST