Cloud/Tifa

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Pairing
Pairing: Cloud Strife/Tifa Lockhart
Alternative name(s): Cloud x Tifa, CloTi, クラティ
Gender category: het
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Canonical?: canon
Prevalence: popular
Archives:
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Starry Night by Kikoldraws
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Cloud/Tifa is a Final Fantasy VII pairing involving characters Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart.

Canon

Final Fantasy 7

  • Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart were born in the village of Nibelheim, Cloud being one year older than her. Despite the fact that they live in the same neighbourhood, they aren't really close due to Cloud's shyness and lack of sociability, yet he quickly develops an admiration for Tifa who, unlike him, is a popular girl.
  • At the age of 8, Tifa's mother died. She went to Mt Nibel thinking she would see her there with her friends. Concerned Cloud follows them. As they advance, her frightened friends leave her alone. Only Cloud continues to follow her. He and Tifa are injured during the expedition and she ends up in a coma. Cloud takes the blame, thinking that it was his own weakness that caused this incident. Tifa's father, Brian, orders Cloud to stay away from his daughter. After a week in a coma, Tifa wakes up. During this time Cloud, angry with himself, begins to fight often with others.
  • At the age of 13, Cloud invites Tifa to join him on the water tower at night. He tells her that he's leaving Nibelheim to join SOLDIER in Midgar and to become like his idol the famous Sephiroth all in order to impress her. Tifa made him promise that if she had a problem he would come to her aid, as heroes do.
  • Cloud during his training did not pass the SOLDIER exam, he's in the infantry. He returned two years after his assignment in Nibelheim accompanied by two SOLDIER 1st class: Sephiroth and his friend Zack. He's ashamed to have failed and hides behind his helmet except from his mother Claudia. Tifa guides them to the Mako reactor to complete their mission. The massacre of Sephiroth follows. Enraged by the death of her father and the destruction of her village, Tifa tries to attack him with his sword, the masamune, but the latter takes it back and slices her off. Cloud arrives on the scene, brings her body to safety, takes incredible strength from seeing his mother burning in the village and Tifa lying lifeless, manages to deliver a fatal blow to Sephiroth and kills him before fainting from his own wounds. He's found by Professor Hojo's team and does experiments with Mako on him.
  • 5 years later, Tifa finds Cloud in Midgar in a very weak state, to make sure he's well and to monitor his mental health she asks him to join the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE led by Barret, Cloud presenting himself as an EX-soldier and intending to be a mercenary. During their infiltration to save Aerith in the Shinra Tower, they discover that Sephiroth is alive and decide to go after him. From here begins their adventure with their friends all over Gaia to prevent the terrible purpose of Sephiroth.

The Compilation of Final Fantasy 7

  • In "OTWTAS", after defeating Sephiroth, Cloud and Tifa decide to rebuild a home with the help of Barret. Tifa reopens the 7th Heaven bar and Cloud with Tifa's advice decides to open the Strife Delivery Service. After Barret's departure, he entrusts his daughter Marlene to Cloud and Tifa. Everything goes well when Elmyra, Aerith's adoptive mother, asks to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the place where her daughter died. This reopens a terrible wound in Cloud's heart and he feels very guilty. Increasingly caught up in his work, there is great tension between him and Tifa. For Marlene's sake they decided to act like adults and things calmed down. Cloud takes a young orphan Denzel with Geostigma, an unknown disease that affects many people who later die, back home. Cloud tries to find a cure and contracts the disease. This is followed by a period of great depression in which he feels unable to protect the people he cares about, starting with his best friend Zack and Aerith in the past and now Denzel. He ran away from home and took refuge in church so he wouldn't have to tell his family the truth about his possible death.
  • In "Advent Children", after Cloud leaves home, things get complicated with the appearance of three mysterious people who manage to resurrect Sephiroth through the remains of Jenova. Fighting his demons and with the help of Tifa, who still has confidence in him despite their problems, and his friends manage to beat Sephiroth again. Through the powers of Aerith in the lifestream, everyone is healed of Geostigma, and Cloud seeing his former companions as ghosts is freed from his guilt and smiles.
  • In "The Kids Are Alright" and "Dirge of Cerberus", Cloud and Tifa make appearances and we know that everything is back to normal and live their family life.
  • Cloud and Tifa make an appearance in "Before Crisis", and "Crisis Core" but from the POV of Zack, who depicts in detail the famous incident in Nibelheim with Sephiroth.

Fandom

Statistics

  • In 2020, Cloti was ranked 78th on Tumblr's Top 100 ships of 2020.[1]
  • In 2020, Cloti was ranked 73th on Pixiv's Top 120 ships of 2020.[2]
  • In 2020, in a poll on the official account Final fantasy 7 REMAKE, 56% of the voters had Tifa resolution scene.[3]
  • In 2019, in a poll on the official account Dissidia Final fantasy Opera Omnia, Cloti won against the opposing ship Clerith with 74.8% out of 7613 votes.[4]

Trivia

  • After the 2007 release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, many fan works increasingly featured Zack/Aerith as a complementary pairing to Cloud/Tifa, and vice-versa.
  • Cloud and Tifa appear together in other media or video games, such as:

- Kingdom Hearts 2 when Tifa is a manifestation of “Cloud’s inner light”.[5][6] -Dissidia 012 Duodecim when Cloud sacrifices his life to save Tifa.[7]

  • PlayStation Japan promoted cloti for Tanabata day and the theme of love.[8][9]
  • The official account of Square enix liked cloti fanworks and also sometimes even commented.[10][11]
  • This hasn't been made official but many cloti shippers have noticed that the Midgar blues song referred to Cloud and Tifa during their promise to the water tower before Cloud departure to Midgar.[12][13]
  • Cloud said Tifa 59 times in the Japanese version of FF7 Remake.[14]
  • There is debate what happened between Cloud and Tifa beneath the Highwind before their final battle against Sephiroth⁠—whether they kissed, had sex, and/or simply shared a heartfelt conversation before falling asleep together.[15]

Common Tropes & Themes

Challenge

Ship War

Cloud/Tifa and Cloud/Aerith are two sides of a long-standing ship war in FFVII fandom commonly known as the Love Triangle Debate (LTD). Debates about which of the two ships can be considered canon are common.

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Video

Meta

Others

Gallery

  • Lovers by DaJiF

  • A promise to Tifa, etched in his memory by arialladraws

  • Cloud and Tifa going for a "ride" back in Nibelheim by HTSA art

  • AC polygon Cloud and Tifa by manuelaellela

  • Cloud, it's okay, you saved me before, now it's my turn. by pudelmudel

  • Ok, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. Cloud...? I... by SafaiaArt

Sites & Communities

Archives

Resources

References

  1. ^ 2020's Top Ships on Tumblr.
  2. ^ 2020's Top Ships on Pixiv.
  3. ^ Results of the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Post-Play Survey.
  4. ^ CloudxAerith or CloudxTifa?.
  5. ^ Cloud and Tifa Kingdom Hearts ALL Scenes and Dialogue.
  6. ^ Cloud and Tifa in Kingdom Hearts.
  7. ^ Cloud and Tifa Dissidia 012 Duodecim Scenes FFVII.
  8. ^ Playstation JP posted a cloti scene for the Tanabata festival.
  9. ^ Playstation JP posted cloti for the theme of love.
  10. ^ Square Enix commented to a cloti fancam.
  11. ^ Square Enix commented to a cloti fanart.
  12. ^ Translation of Midgar Blues Japanese version.
  13. ^ Midgar Blues song in English version.
  14. ^ Cloud said Tifa a lot.
  15. ^ A famous Youtuber, Max DOOD, reacted to the Highwind scene.
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