Tifa Repairs Cloud's Mind FFVII Original Game

Tifa helps Cloud piece together his true self when they both fall into the lifestream following an earthquake in the FFVII original game. Many of the contradictions in Cloud's back story are explained.

By the way... we're getting a REMAKE!

[tqnguy]

I hope they nail this scene in the remake series. This is the most important part of this story. Cloud's mind becomes...Less cloudy

[SuparTuber]

Tifa accepted Cloud at his worst. She deserves him at his best.

[justin.m]

I know this arguement is 20 years old but if Tifa stayed with him during his weakest and strongest moments then I don’t know what true love is

[blaziken]

Everyone talking about tifa’s unyielding support but here you also see how cloud has loved tifa since his childhood. every deeply rooted feeling and memory cloud has from his past literally revolves around tifa. She was the reason he began his hero’s journey.

[MrDoubleJ]

Cloud's face while falling into the lifesteam: ಠ_ಠ

[thejesman]

When people think of FF7, they usually think of Aerith's death. But for me, this right here is one of the single greatest scenes in video games.

[Jerbsinator]

I feel that Cloud is too hard on himself in this scene. He went through a lot of traumatic shit in a very short period of time and he could of just gone insane from it all and never recovered. Instead his mind found a way to move forward and repair itself. Sure it did this by creating a lie but it helped him survive. The mind is a powerful tool and it saved his life. Cloud doesn't give himself enough credit for that. It's hardly his fault that he "believed the lie", it was what he had to do to survive and be able to find out the real truth. He was never "weak" in the first place, nobody that is weak could survive what he did.

Damn I love this game...

[eternia-reginleif]

now i remember why tifa theme sound so lonely yet so warm.

[straypaper]

I just realized that this isn't a one way session of Tifa helping Cloud. This is also where Tifa pieced back her past. Notice how of the three memories, Tifa only has one that she fully remembers (the Nibelheim 5 years ago). The one about the promise beside the well is hazy to her, and she never noticed about Cloud in front of her window.

People think that only Cloud is a crazy mess at the start of the game, but Tifa is actually not that far off either. Think about it. If you were Tifa, all you'd remember is that Seph came, burned the village, stabbed you in the chest, and the next thing you know you're in Midgar with Master Zangan. That's why Tifa is *so* cryptic with Cloud throughout Disc 1 and Disc 2 despite being his childhood friend, and that's why their interactions are often awkward and don't add up (you see her reel back every time the past is brought as the topic even though she should be the main reliable source for them).

Tifa doesn't want to talk about the past not because of some convenient plot device to set up the twist, but it's because she doubted her own memory of it. She never knew Cloud all that well despite being neighbors because of her social clique, and thus she doubted ever making that promise by the well, and doubted ever having a crush in the first place. She thought Cloud never came 5 years ago but Cloud started recollecting 5 years ago in great detail at the inn in Kalm, and thus she doubted that memory too. This is further compounded when the party revisit Nibelheim and see it not burned to the ground, making her doubt if she was rescued from a burning Nibelheim, or if she was just leaving it behind for the big city with her master.

I hope the remake conveys this perfectly. Cloud and Tifa isn't just a story about the girl next door saving her broken childhood crush. It's about mental illness and what it does to your identity, the meaning of memory for one's own identity, and about the bond between people who share memories. With this scene, the two can finally move on from Nibelheim 5 years ago. In Advent Children, Tifa talks with Cloud again so he can finally move on from FF7 main game, delivering them both proper to the future.

Edit: Case and point being Zack's parents in Gongaga. Aerith looked sad especially after the girlfriend question, but Tifa looks panicky. Aerith had no problem laying out how Zack was her boyfriend, but Tifa denied knowing Zack despite reacting to the name. Keep in mind at this point the player isn't supposed to know who Zack is and how important he is. Tifa probably denied this because it contradicts Cloud's memory about 5 years ago (Tifa can only know Zack if he was the other SOLDIER visiting Nibelheim instead of Cloud) and she's scared of what will happen (to their person and their current friendly relationship) if either of them finds out that their version of the past is the wrong one.

[ZhangtheGreat]

Want to know what "love" is? Just watch this scene. Tifa stayed with Cloud day and night when he was on the verge of being broken, then helped piece him back together when he really was broken, even at the risk of sacrificing herself. If this isn't the ultimate example of love, then love doesn't exist.

[returnedtomonkey]

6:53 clouds face always kills me. He's like "they're kickin in..."

[webguy]

i guess no one cares about the doctor being eerily calm inside the building during the earthquake, then dies as the building collapses into the lifestream. RIP doctor, u will me missed.

[andyho]

6:52 Cloud is like "wtf is going on"

[FreeFlow__]

I am still amazed how genius the plot of ff7 is

[eduandino]

"Thanks Tifa, tell him what you told me, later. He'll probably be so happy"
Damn, even his subconscious is telling her how deeply he cares what she thinks about about him, they never say to each other "I love you" but those little details are so obvious and beautiful... I swear I love this couple

[johnepants]

The twist of Cloud being the soldier in the background who survived the whole time was one of the best twists in the game.

[DetectiveVox]

Geez...Mako-poisoned twice, an identity crisis, geostigma, and skewered by Sephiroth a second time. Guy really can't catch a break can he? Cloud needs a looong vacation with Tifa when the world isn't in a crisis.

[Pscj]

27:22 when the music kicks in, when all the pieces join together, truly one of the defining moments in this masterpiece!

[maxlefou]

This scene!! THE moment when they open themselves to each other... When Cloud finally expose his weakness to tifa... I'm a man and i totally melted for this emotionnal story!

[NinA-mfkm]

such an important but underrated scene.