Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth set the fandom back 20 years

At school, I discovered British politics. I don’t remember the details, but our teacher showed us a video of a rancorous debate in the House of Commons. The shouts of MPs echoed throughout the chambers and people booed in disapproval when someone spoke into the microphone. People crowded together like a mosh pit and waved papers. It’s unruly, it’s chaotic – and it’s also exactly how I imagine the Cloti and Clerith shippers would fare if you rounded them all up and threw them in one room to debate what’s best interest lovers for Final Fantasy 7 protagonist Cloud Strife.

Fans of Final Fantasy 7 and its associated compilation media have been debating the right fit for the brooding mercenary since 1997. On one side, we have Cloti – a duet between Cloud and Tifa Lockhart, Cloud’s childhood best friend. On the other side is Clerith, who posits that Cloud should be with Aerith Gainsborough, an optimistic and carefree witch that Cloud meets during his travels.

Every time I think that the fandom’s interest in one of the greatest naval wars in gaming history has finally died down, something awakens the sleeping beast again. Last winter, Square Enix released Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, and his arrival unleashed further devastation on the fandom. The events depicted in the recent remake — and the conversations surrounding it — set the fandom back 20 years.

(Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the intimate date scene shared between Cloud and Tifa and other events in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.)

User-created fan sites of the early 2000s chronicled the feelings of each side in the great naval war. Even back then, people supporting either pair spewed profanity and hatred towards the other character that they didn’t deliver with Cloud. You can read rants on anti-Aerith sites about how she was a “complete bitch” for keeping Cloud away from Tifa, or head to the Clerith forums to read a supporter dragging Tifa for having “big tits with airbag”. Anything that could be used as ammunition for one side or the other would be – no matter how insignificant or downright irrelevant the detail might be. Some fans even analyzed details like the supposed secret meaning of the color of Tifa’s skirt. (You can read Polygon’s deep dive into this era of fandom here.)

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

In the years since, Square Enix has continued to release new remakes and FF7-related media, and it only gave fans more fodder to support both sides. Final Fantasy 7 Remake shows a budding friendship between Tifa and Aerith, with Cloud’s overall storyline not leaning too heavily on either person when it comes to romance, but then Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth went even further. It’s because Cloud and Tifa are kissing! In this scene and several others, Renaissance seems to go all-in on Cloud and Tifa. The dates and cutscenes vary depending on the dialogue choices you make and the quests you choose, but even if you don’t see Cloud on an intimate date with Tifa, the two will almost kiss regardless. your appointment choices at another time. the story. And no matter what you do, Cloud doesn’t share a kiss on the lips with any other character.

Yes, we’re talking about who kisses who on the lips. (Even when talking about the facts, conversations about it seem super basic.) But now, these moments in the game, and many more, seem almost ready to strong-arm supporters of either character of a military grade arsenal for their camp. On the game’s release day, users shared clips of various date scenes with Cloud on X. Fans started reacting and with that, Renaissance ignited the fire of fan fervor and it hasn’t gone out since.

The anger between the two groups began to ping-pong at an alarming rate. In an article on A screenshot of this post ended up on the Cloti subreddit, sparking heated responses like this one from a user named Riskedbiscuit, who wrote: “Classic deranged Clerith behavior.” They clearly don’t play games and just think Tifa “bullied” Cloud when she didn’t, she tried to invite him to stuff but he didn’t want to go because of his friends and he wanted Tifa all to himself…not her fault. They blame her for everything, probably some of them think Tifa killed Aerith. A bunch of media illiterate clowns trying as best they can to distort the history of their ship. I can’t imagine being this miserable and stupid.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

In Renaissance, Cloud struggles with his mysterious connection to Sephiroth and often lashes out at those around him, including Aerith and Tifa. In a single message, User X CloudxAerith wrote, “Since 2015 cIotis was anticipating and looking forward to using Cloud’s breakdown when he hits Aerith and that’s what they got,” and the tweet contains a clip in which Cloud pushes Tifa to the ground. In response, X-user Mudiscorp said, “Now that we can use the same weapon as them, they say ‘but it was controlled by Sephiroth.’ ohhh karma.

Just scrolling through the barrage of takes defending each side takes me back to early 2000s fans spewing their anger at each other’s favorite characters. Fandom members continue to confuse one or another fictional character, and even the methods of analysis have remained the same. (People are still screaming about the so-called “unbiased” translations of Final Fantasy Ultimania archive books.)

The difference now? In a world where these disparate fan communities have been brought together on sites like Reddit, X, and TikTok, the anger has shifted even more toward personal attacks on the posters themselves. If you’re a Tifa supporter, it’s no longer enough to hate Aerith, you also have to hate anyone who ships Aerith. A Tifa fan can easily search and find Aerith’s fan profile and respond to her messages. Fan accounts can tweet claims which, in turn, serve as a venue for accumulating a particular claim or argument.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

Even if a fan doesn’t go out of their way to find accounts and positions they disagree with, they can still come across content from the other side. In my own experience, the TikTok algorithm showed me content from both Cloti and Clerith, probably because I expressed interest in watching videos on Final Fantasy 7. It seems to me that the TikTok algorithm could easily direct Cloti’s content to a Clerith fan, or vice versa, and stir up more conflict.

It’s important to remember that these extreme examples are not representative of the entire fandom, nor of every Clerith and Tifa shipper. Just this week I saw a cute post on Reddit from an Aerith fan who just wanted to highlight her favorite moments of the duo. There’s a lot to like about all three characters. Final Fantasy Remake showed us that Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa would actually make a good group. Better yet, it showed us that perhaps the date we needed to see all along is the one between Tifa and Aerith, since the two plan to go on a date alone.

I have no problem with shipping. Talking about romantic pairings helps build online communities around games, and for me, it enhances my enjoyment of a series. Cloti and Clerith shippers have treated us to sultry fanfiction, flashy video montages, and cute artwork. It’s just that sometimes these teams can get a little aggressive and ruin the fun for people who are only there for the cute moments. Part of this is because of the way social media works today, but fights also drag on because we just can’t say for sure who would be the better match. Clerith versus Cloti is an unwinnable war – and perhaps that’s why it’s lasted so long.