Currently, the entire gaming world is playing Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth—talking about their obsession with Queen’s Blood, riffing on the Red XIII’s chocobo-riding methodologies, soaking in every glorious moment Sephiroth says something even slightly sexual to Cloud.
Rebirth also reignited one of the most infamous ship wars in all of gaming (if you discount the aforementioned steamy Sephiroth): should Cloud date Tifa, the badass he’s known since he was a child, or Aerith, the ever-alluring mysterious flower girl? After all, one of the most-discussed events in Rebirth is the date at the Gold Saucer. The ship wars are back, baby.
But I, personally, cannot play Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, because I’m living abroad for a few months, and the chonky version of the PS5 doesn’t particularly pack well. Outside of a generous friend letting me play through Nibelheim, I’ve instead become deeply FF7-pilled through another method: playing all the FF7 games on the (much more portable) Nintendo Switch. This means that I made my way through the 1997 original Final Fantasy VII. I immediately followed up with the prequel, Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion, which came out in 2007 for the PSP and has a recently-released remaster.
As I played the original Final Fantasy VII (and Remake, back in 2020), I didn’t have a particular knife in the Tifa vs. Aerith fight, so to speak. I went back and forth on who I thought was cuter with Cloud, but at the end of the day, I liked all three characters so much that I just wanted them to be happy. (We’re not talking spoilers here, folks.)
And then, I started playing Crisis Core, which takes place before the events of Final Fantasy VII. And now I have opinions. Strong ones.
Aerith’s mysterious ex
Spoilers ahead for Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core! But I will only color in what you already begin to suspect in the first moments of Rebirth. Rest assured we won’t talk The Big Spoilers, just relatively minor ones.
The protagonist of Crisis Core is not our baby boy Cloud Strife, but Zack Fair. Zack is a member of SOLDIER, and I will say no more about him in this regard for fear of opening an entire Pandora’s Box of spoilers.
Suffice it to say, we like Zack very much—he’s principled, dependable, and energetic in a way you could even call “bubbly” from time to time. It is also heavily implied in the original Final Fantasy VII—though never stated explicitly—that Aerith and Zack used to date. You get a more obvious hint in the opening moments of Rebirth (small spoilers), where (obvious contextual questions aside) we see Zack hauling ass to try to save Aerith from Shinra. Sure, the rest of our Avalanche pals are also seemingly dead, but the camera makes it very clear he only cares about Aerith.
In every version of Final Fantasy VII, Aerith will mention—several times—that Cloud reminds her heavily of her ex, who was in SOLDIER, First Class. That ex? Zack. In both the original FF7 and in Rebirth, Aerith will even talk about her ex while on the Gold Saucer date with Cloud, which was already a bit of a red flag when I played through the Gold Saucer the first time, but I also feel for the poor girl. Still, if you read between the lines, you can get the sense that Cloud is something of a rebound for Aerith—or, put more generously, someone through which she’s mourning someone she’s lost.
As a prequel, Crisis Core provides obsessive fans like myself with many keen insights, and (somewhat surprisingly) one of the most acute has been the window into Zack and Aerith’s relationship, which you get to see unfold from the beginning. And ,it turns out, they have the cutest relationship in the series.
Zack and Aerith 4ever
Zack winds up in Aerith’s life the same way Cloud eventually solidifies his role in hers—falling through the ceiling of her church and onto her flower bed. This time, Zack is the one to ask Aerith on a date as thanks, not Aerith offering it up as repayment for bodyguard duties.
The differences go much deeper than the obvious “but this happened instead of this.” Zack and Aerith have ridiculous chemistry, right from the start. Zack’s goofy, excitable personality is wonderfully matched by Aerith’s “girly,” bubbly one. They’re immediately flirting, and it’s immediately adorable.
Imagine me, someone who loves my boy Cloud very much, watching this scene unfold and simply summing up my feelings with, “OH.”
Zack’s effect on Aerith’s life is swift and profound—so profound that those effects become the traits that made Aerith iconic in Final Fantasy VII. Zack is the one who proposes Aerith sell her flowers around Midgar. Zack is the one who buys Aerith her trademark pink bow, as a thank you for rousing him from his fall. Obviously, Zack means enough to Aerith that she still wears that bow every day, years later, when she meets Cloud. And she’s still working as a flower girl.
Furthermore, Zack and Aerith’s relationship is ridiculously cute in Crisis Core. You see them call each other. You see them console each other. The more you watch, the more you suspect—and with no judgement at all from me—that when Aerith meets Cloud, she’s simply not over Zack.
Obviously, that’s not great for either Aerith or Cloud, if we extrapolate what would happen in a long-term relationship with them. My boy deserves better than to be a rebound, and my girl deserves more than settling for someone who she clearly regards, consciously or not, as a rebound. Otherwise, she wouldn’t mention her ex so often around Cloud.
Which is why I’ve turned hard into shipping Tifa for Cloud. Tifa is awesome as hell. Yes, they have their … uh … own issues with personal history to sort out. But it’s at least their history. Or their perceived history. Pandora’s box of spoilers, stay closed, please.
As for Aerith, well, she still deserves the best. Truly.
(featured image: Square Enix)
