Hey I went to a website called Destiny Fullfilled: Cloud and Aerith. and I thoguht it was beautiful. I strongly recommend you visit that site. The adress is Destiny Fullfiled: Cloud and Aerith

Anyway I found an essay on Japanese culture and it was interesting. Do you know that most Asian cultures don't use the words "I love you," but they would rather show their love for one another. The only way to know that Cloud shows his love for Aeris in Midgar, is when he protects her from Reno and totally forgets to charge her. This was another thing that I found in the essay, if a guy protects a woman out his free will, then it means that he loves her.

Hi, BusterBlader!

I'm glad that you read that article! The person who told us about how protecting a woman of his own free will is an indication of love in Japan is actually a member of this forum. He's rather busy with exams right now, but you may want to speak with him further. :rolleyes:

More about the Japanese interpretation can be found at Japanese Culture and the Love Triangle of FFVII.

However, I always thought it was quite obvious that Cloud was falling for Aerith in Midgar, anyway... even from an American point of view. ;)

You are right, BusterBlader, Destiny Fulfilled is THE site for info on CloudxAerith! Did you know that it is Anastar's site? ^_^

Anyways, it is pretty sad when the CloTis try to ignore the Japanese cultural influence and symbolism in FFVII. They are just ticked because all of it points to CloudxAerith. All of the symbolism in FFVII points to Tifa being a tragic character and not being a love interest of Cloud at all. B) Of course, CloTis will ignore anything that is ClAeris-related... :rolleyes:

It's funny you should mention that. Has anyone gone to ffshrine.org. One of my friend has this really neat Cloud & Aeris thread in there in the FF7 forum and has posted countless points on that and others. The problem is an annoying Cloti wanna be who always come and ruin her thread. Its like, Gawd, what's your problem? If FF7 didn't come out of Japan, it came from the US? Europe? Outer space? My friend has been studying japanese for 4 years and still is. So she's really fluent, probably more than me but that Cloti person is just asking for problems and trys to counter and contradict that.
It really amazes me how they Cloti will try to grasp at straws and then states that the game shouldn't be compared to symbolism or cultural references because it doesn't play a role. Really? So its like every culture is the same, is what Cloti are screaming at.

It's like Aly said herself, you can't analyse the game without taking Japanese culture into account, the reason being that the people who wrote and developed the game are Japanese. Whether intentional or not, aspects of and references to Japanese culture will undoubtedly work their way into the game. And that, as they say, is that. ;)

I'm totally in agreement with you MB. But, what I've noticed is that whether it's strictly Japanese or not, a lot of those mentions have been adopted by other cultures that are not Asian. Case in point, "......" is not only Japanese, a lot of people use silence whenever they're at a lose of words or reticent because they don't want to hurt the speaker's feelings. And colors, animals, and plant symbolisms are probably the oldest and most used in the world of literature. Somebody get those people a metaphor, stat! :lol:

Yeah, I actually found a site that validates the "......." statement made by Naru regarding that it means annoyance, awkwardness, etc...

http://www.garoustudios.com/sym_n_ani.htm

It says:

"A silence ellipse is three or more dots indicating the noted silence of a character. Sometimes it is used as a humorous pause, but often it appears as a more serious tactful or awkward silence."

Excellent validation, FF_G! :D

Remember that "..........." is Cloud's response to Tifa when she says, "Words aren't the only thing that tell people what you're thinking".

If you think of Cloud's character, isn't an awkward silence and a refusal FAR more like Cloud than spending the night cuddling with Tifa? Would Cloud cuddle? Would Cloud even know how to do it? I think the poor guy would be such a nervous wreck, he wouldn't know what to do! :lol:

Sorry, but Cloud's not the cuddling type...

:D Hehehe...right! I mean the poor guy passed out in the &$#% Room. He's strictly business, otherwise he would of stayed to enjoy the full perks of the Honeybee Inn and never rescued Tifa.

He hadn't even been on a real date before Aeris came along either...I just can't imagine him rushing into things like that. Like you said, it's out of character.

Exactly! It is amusing when the CloTis say that Cloud being angsty is OOC. Well, what about him being a cuddly love-machine? Is that what they consider IN CHARACTER for Cloud??? :rolleyes:

Yeah! I mean, where do they get off "Cloud and Tifa had sex under the highwind!" when up until then, even if you believe Cloud DID love her, he never did anything like that before? Generally, a couple KISSES at least before going all the way. It's so silly! It just comes out of nowhere like that!

That's really interesting... I never knew how much of the Japanese culture they put into the game, to hint their love. Of course, the game being Japanese, explains that... :rolleyes:

Right you are! It is silly that some of them claim it did happen. Whenever I played I never got that impression and neither did many other people.

It reminds me of a rumor long ago that there was a secret explict video of Cloud and Tifa that the programmers add in, which is just more craziness fabricated by someone with an overactive imagination. <_<