Well, I've been thinking about this for a long time, and nows my chance to share this to all of you fans there.


You see, I also have my original characters. But instead of a girl-boy-girl love triangle, its the other way around. I originally paired Hikari( the girl) with Yoda ( her love interest), then I created maigen, my favorite character. I love Yoda and Hikari together, but I love maigen the best. Well, my friend told me that they like maigen better for hikari. For me, that's a sign of interest. So, for "fanservice", I drew pictures of them together, and kept dropping sweet hints that maigen INDEED loved Hikari. They looked cute. But I only do that for fanservice. Yoda and Hikari are still my cannon couple. Whenever they ask me about maigen and hikari, I teasingly smile and give no opinions. then they keep bugging me about that stuff, which amuses me. XD (much like nomura does to us cleris, and to them, cloti)

Then it made me think of Cloti and Cleris. Is that what nomura thinks as well? Is this how he views Cleris/cloti? If we think the same way, I can safely assume nomura is indeed a cleris. XD :cleris:

this is just my opinion anyway. what do you think?

Well, if you haven't noticed their is a massive number of Cleris AND Cloti fans out there. If Nomura were to make an official statement such as 'Cloud will only love Aeris,' Then think how all the Cloti fans will react, they don't want to tick off such a large percent of their fanbase. I think it's safe to say he has always intended Cloud to be with Aeris, they were made for each....literally. :cleris:

I think Nomura really respects and values his fans opinions and that I think, says alot for him. :D I mean, even though he has every right to make Cleris canon, and tey are his creations, nothing should stop him. And yet, he still values the opinions of his fans and their interpretations of the characters. Props to you, Nomura, for being such a great guy! :huggle: Although, the continued war of who Cloud loves and very vicious arguments will continue to go on... :sad:

Heheh, well, some people may view that as being weak-willed and pandering to the fans' wishes, which isn't always a good thing. I'm not just talking about Nomura, of course, but the entire crew who worked on the Compilation/AC/KH2. It's always good to take fans' ideas into consideration, but I think what's also important is sticking to the story you're trying to tell and not getting side-tracked.

If J. K. Rowling could say that she'd dropped "anvil-sized hints" to her own fans, despite many of them being against her canonised pairings, why can't SE?

But it may indeed be a cultural thing. I watched an interview with an re-emerging Japanese pop/rock/whatever band. They too, echoed similar "open to interpretation" ideas on their songs, saying they want their fans to be able to see it as each of them wished.

Or something like that. It's not exactly the same as a movie, but there are similarities. So maybe it isn't SE trying to please everyone, but it's just the way the Japanese tackle these things.

It could very well be. I think Nomura will be pushed by a much bigger force than just the fans, though-- he has to ensure he brings in the money for the company he works for as well. :P

Whereas you are completely in charge of your fanfic, Nomura has to answer to the People Higher Up, and he'll need to bring in the moolah. And the best way is to throw stronger hints than usual for the two big sides, rather than just the one-sided emphasis Cleris got before this.

I kind of like the fact that S-E/Nomura&Co. aren't taking any sides. It goes with the whole, "The author is dead," tagline I've read once before; more notably, with Neil Gaiman. It's the whole, "This is MY intention when writing this story. If that is YOUR interpretation, then that's fine too. Pretend I'm dead and you can't ask me the truth of it," kind of deal.

The problem with Rowling is that she forces her ideas on people--"This is MY intention when writing this. That's YOUR interpretation? Your interpretations are WRONG."--which, in my opinion, is a little too, uhm, forceful. Sort of like the other side of the spectrum from being weak-willed and pandering to the masses.

Judging by pairing essays I've read, the Cleris side indeed have more canon back-up. Of course, that might be because Cleris fans write essays better but I think S-E/Nomura&Co., really does want Cleris to happen. They just respect the views of the others shippers too, and since the pairing wars have escalated too much, simply decided to go with the flow, so to speak.


...did I make sense? >_>

I think Rowling may sound forceful because she has to. As I understood it, quite a bit of wanking was going on from both sides when the pairings were finally decided on, and I wouldn't be surprised if she'd gotten a mountain of fanmail demanding why she'd canonise their unintended pairing.

That kind of reaction would leave a bitter taste in anyone's mouth, even the author whose mouth those fans' money are feeding.

I don't think she intends to say anybody else's interpretation is wrong, at least not so forcefully. It's when fans-- FANS-- have the gall to say that her interpretation is wrong, that they could write her story better than she could, that would likely get to her. Those fans should take Gaiman's advice and be happy with their own interpretations.

And that's my main contention. It's fine if they'd intended for the LT to never be resolved.

But if SE had intended for FFVII to be Cleris, ideally, they should have taken that last step in AC no matter the potential backlash from fans. That's the risk Rowling took that SE may not be willing to. If the Compilation had existed immediately after FFVII was released, and not eight years later, after pairing wars and fandoms have had the chance to settle in, I wouldn't be surprised if AC had had a more clearly Cleris outcome and if Tifa never made it into KH2.

And yes, you made sense. I just hope I do too. ^^

On a sidenote, am reading Gaiman's Neverwhere right now. Good god, I think I've found my new god. *worships at Gaiman's feet*

I'm torn between agreeing and disagreeing. :lol:

On one hand, I've never been much fan of canon pairings because they limit the imagination from roaming, IMO. I like seeing new possibilities, reading about different interpretations and the like. On the other hand, all the pairing-wankage over the last eight years would have been non-existent and we'd finally get closure. Anything is better than limbo, right? :P

Still . . . I've never read a Cleris fanfiction (seriously!) because the series itself has made my imagination go hyperactive--enough that I don't think any fanfiction can do it justice (no offense to writers, though). I think the fact that CloTi have more fanfiction --at least, last I looked at FF.Net-- is because they NEED to rely on fanfiction to be satisfied with it. With Cleris, my imagination is free to roam both because there are a LOT of blatant hints AND because there's no official announcement.

It's my dream pairing ;) I never thought I could find one so ideal.

I understand though that not everyone feels this way, so, yes, I suppose S-E should have a definite answer. But, heh, for the mean time, I can imagine all the possibilities by myself.

Oh. Well, I'm not really talking about the pairings, at least, not specifically. The thing is, I've been quite active in the HP fandom for the last, uhm, five years or so (until AC came and, uh, sort of stole me from there :P), and because of its HUGE fandom, the essays fans came up with are really, breath-takingly spectacular.

These essays aren't even about pairings. They are about character depths, situations, social issues JK has raised and why and how so-and-so character might have reacted in a so-and-so situation. I didn't really enter much into the pairings because of the, well, TOO. MUCH. WANK.

Also, because I was such a fan, I was quite informed about interviews with her, and, looking back, I suppose that started my decline of interest.

IMO, she really does force her opinions on people. She tells the audience that you shouldn't LIKE this character because this character is so-and-so, and ESPECIALLY since someone like (insert-good-character's-name-here) is around. Why would you want to know something like THAT when THAT character is nasty, evil, mean. Slytherins are like so and so. Harry is good. Snape is bad. This is what you should think of this scene. Not like that.

Yeah, see me being so vague. Ehh . . . sorry about that. In terms of pairings, I've seen, first-hand, the wankage produced by the whole R/Hr&H/G vs H/Hr and what happened with the whole JKR interview. Still, to call your fans DELUSIONAL because they deemed to think this couple has potential. Ah . . . not my kind of author. Especially because, in a fit to understand the R/Hr, H/Hr and H/G camps, I decided to read each of the pairings' ship essays. All are equally good. These people put thought into those essays, time, effort and love. It's, well, as a writer herself, I thought she might have understood.

Yes, you should convert to being one of us (fans, I mean, ;)) Ironically enough, his whole, "Pretend I'm a dead author," comment was what drew me to him, BEFORE I ever read his books. An author who actually encourages me to think outside the box he created is my kind of author. ^_^

Haha, to be honest, I'm sort of torn as well. :P Perhaps I've gotten used to being in limbo that it's hard to imagine everything being 'settled'. It does, admittedly, feel slightly stifling when half of your 'what if's are answered definitively.

I think I would, in the end, not mind a definite answer on this pairing business. It would likely really subdue most of the pairings wars that have happened before.

But I like CxA because I like CxA, and not just because I believe they're canon either. I can still imagine many more possibilities for them, and it doesn't matter to me if I have to stick an "Alternate Universe" tag on my fanfics if I write those possibilities. I'm in many fandoms where the pairings are definite, so I don't see myself reacting any differently if it happened in FFVII either.

My main concern is SE's pandering. If it was always their intention to drop little hints and leave things open, more power to them. If they're being led on a leash by fandoms and money, well... they're a company, first and foremost. I should not be surprised.

(I suppose this is mostly aimed at what they did with the FFVII characters in KH2.)

Ah, my bad, I was mostly working off the wanking I've seen about the pairings. ^^;; I'm not in the HP fandom (never got past book 3 *hides*), but it's become so widespread that you can't miss it. Some of the reactions were so bad that I wouldn't blame Rowling if she felt more than a little annoyed.

But I agree about the rest of your posts, though. Telling people what they should and should not like? Perhaps she's just giving her POV, but the way she says it still takes away from the fun of making your own inferences when reading a book. I can't say I can agree with her doing something like that.

Gaiman is, indeed, spectacular. :wub: I first heard of him when America was on that "Freedom fries" thing and he'd made a comment about it that was absolutely brilliant. Since then, I've been grabbing every book by him I could find, even if I don't have the time to read them all yet. :lol:

I would love to read his Sandman series, though. I have some illustrations by Dave McKean, done for the Arkham Asylum graphic novel; and that, coupled with Gaiman's amazing imagination, would be one hell of a read.

haha, guys. we're kinda shifting the topic here. XD although I must say your arguements really has their point. XD

:giggle: Yep, I noticed too. Was wondering when someone would catch us. Sorry, Zuea!

Let's get back to the topic at hand, then.