#tifa posting

20 year old Tifa Lockhart who fears making those she loves upset and puts up with so much bullshit out of a desperate need to keep people close to her vs 15 year old Tifa Lockhart who's logic and reasoning were overpowered by her wanting to inflict pain onto the man who quite literally burned away everything she had ever known, who knew there was a nigh impossible chance of turning out in her favor but did it anyway because all she wanted in that moment was to hurt him in whatever way she could.

Tifa Lockhart being scared to upset others because last time she got truly, truly, angry she attacked someone just to try and hurt them and didn't care about the consequences until she woke up alone in a hospital bed months later with the consequences permanently carved into her chest.

Tifa Lockhart who's slow to anger because she fears who she becomes, not just out of a fear of hurting those she's mad at but out of a fear of letting herself get hurt again.

Tifa Lockhart who stares in horror as Cloud's anger drives him to needless violence not just in fear of him hurting others, but in fear of him gaining a scar to match her own (assuming he's lucky like Tifa, unlike everyone else who never made it out).

Tifa Lockhart who's body became a vessel to help others because it failed at being a vessel to hurt the one time that was what she needed from it.

Tifa Lockhart who found Cloud lost and confused in a new place and made sure he wasn't alone despite the weight of him on her shoulders because she knew what waking up lost and confused in a new place alone felt like and helping Cloud almost feels like helping 15 year old Tifa, in a way.

(15 year old Tifa never threw others into danger or brutalized an already dead corpse or pushed a childhood friend to what almost ended in an early death. But she didn't exactly have others to drag behind her into danger. Or people to take out her anger on. Or a childhood friend to almost kill. So how can Tifa really he sure of what 15 year old Tifa was capable of?

She stares, horrified, at Cloud's drive to hurt not in fear, but in recognition.

When his blade turns on her she lets it because she remembers how all she wanted to do was hurt. Fighting back would take that away just like it was taken away from her.)

Tifa Lockhart who finds such comfort in Aerith's presence because she doesn't lose control, doesn't let her emotions get the best of her, not like Cloud (not like Tifa).

Tifa Lockhart who watches Aerith refuse to fight back when Cloud attacks her because Aerith might not know the feeling personally (like Tifa does), but still, she knows he's not in control. Watches Aerith walk willingly towards the blade that has taken so much from Tifa already because Aerith might not have ever attempted to use her body as a vessel to hurt but regardless uses it now as a vessel to help others. Watches the consequences of Aerith's refusal to give up her control pierce through her stomach and pool across the floor in a new place she'll never get to wake up lost and confused in because her eyes are never opening again.

Aerith is Sephiroth's foil, the opponent who the planet has deemed as its champion, because who better to outsmart you than someone who shares so many of your experiences and yet is your opposite in every way.

I don't think Aerith was given all this knowledge of the future because she's the last Cetra, but because she's Aerith. She is the strongest threat to Sephiroth's power not because of her blood but because of her brain and her heart. She holds a love inside her not just for the planet, but for everyone and everything that lives on it, too. She has a wit like no one else's, nothing slips past her notice, and she is willing to give up the one thing she wants most—a future for herself—to ensure the future of everyone else.

Tifa, on the other hand, while lacking Aerith's knowledge if the future and connection to the Planet, has a passion inside her that surpasses the ambition of Sephiroth. She is his victim more than anyone else, the one to get caught in the crossfire of the cycle of abuse started by Shinra, and she will be the one to put an end to that same cycle in every single universe.

Tifa again and again acts in ways that Sephiroth doesn't know how to counter because all of her anger and passion and drive is fueled by love and he could never understand that.

Sephiroth sees Cloud as a pawn he can control, but Aerith and Tifa are the ones blocking his path time and time again.

Sephiroth is alone in his fight, but Tifa and Aerith are not. They hear what the other doesn't speak out loud. They help eachother live in the moment. They always pull eachother back up. Their roles in combat even compliment eachother.

(Please excuse my fandom wiki screenshots)

This bit of dialogue is super interesting in the context of the re!trilogy because it seems that they drew from it a lot when writing their relationship this time around.

Tifa Lockhart is the only person who really saw who Aerith was in the original. Not even Cloud really payed enough attention to Aerith to know that she planned on coming back. That she wanted to. But Tifa did. Tifa was the only one who seemed to really know Aerith, and this is even more true in Remake/Rebirth.

Tifa is the only one who sees beyond the mask Aerith puts up.

Tifa clocks Aerith knowing more than she should multiple times. She picks up on Aerith knowing the sector 7 plate is going to fall. She asks her where Cloud had been before she found him, says it seems like something Aerith would know despite Aerith not even meeting Cloud until afterwards.

She rushes to comfort her in the Train Graveyard, the first and only time she ever sees Aerith truly break, and knows exactly what to say to get her back on her feet. She finds the meaning behind Aerith's vague words enough to see that she needs help and gives it to her no questions asked. Says they'll "do it together", even.

Aerith even starts dropping the mask around her, something she does with basically no one else. She's comfortable enough with Tifa to talk more about what has been taken from her by the whispers. To discuss Zack. Aerith does not let many people see her at her worst, when she's sad or stressed or feeling hopeless, but she lets Tifa see it more than most others.

Once again, Tifa is the only one who picks up on the little things about Aerith, the things she successfully hides from everyone else. This makes it even more devastating that she didn't notice anything off with Aerith leading up to the Capital.

There were signs Aerith knew what was coming, most notably in the lyrics of No Promises to Keep, a song Tifa watched her perform (even encouraged her and cheered her on before the performance depending on who you got during the play).

Tifa was the only one who was ever going to pick up on what those lyrics actually meant, because she was the only one who picked up on the other hidden meanings behind Aerith's words. But she didn't. This time, instead of being the only one who knew how Aerith truly felt, she failed to pick up on it the one time it really mattered. Last time, she knew Aerith planned on coming back. This time, she didn't know that Aerith knew she wasn't going to.

Tifa going to have this line of dialogue in part 3 because its no longer true on multiple levels.