Ok, I've been reading through posts and don't think this has yet been discussed. If it has, please forgive :)

More proof of the Aerith/Cloud importance by the Director. As I found on imdb it states

Ok, the whole purpose of the movie originally was to relay a message THROUGH CHILDREN to Cloud to help him. Who is the one who gives him a message? I doubt it's the Turks bringing a message to help defeat the Remnants. I doubt it's the Remnants giving him a message (even though they used children in the movie.) It was only 20 minutes, they couldn't fit an entire storyline with the Remnants and their mother-seeking into that. Certainly not Tifa. She berates him that he needs to put their family first before his grief, but she never gets through to him and that's only a small mention in the bedroom scene. Yes, he does put the family first, starting with taking Marlene home, but he does so at the Forbidden City in which there are all sorts of Aerith mentions from his conversation with Vincent to his cellphone messages. But over and over again we have Aerith coming to him and telling him to forgive himself, that she never blamed him. It was she who finally got through to him with a message. And yes, Tifa takes care of the children but children are associated with purity and the idea of their innocence being a way to connect to things adults can't. Such as a spirit perhaps? After all, who was taking care of children in the Church at the end despite being dead? There are many connections between Aerith and children, least of all with Marlene who's a copy of her complete with bow in her hair.

And considering all the pairings of Aerith and Cloud in subsequent games and based on interviews, we can pretty easily assume that this would be a more correct assumption than Tifa being the messenger who saves Cloud from his guilt. It seems to me that Cloud and Aerith were originally the focus of the movie and even though a subplot, still the heart of the movie in its finished product. It's written to the point that you feel and see a connection throughout the whole movie through symbolism and facial expressions yet it doesn't overpower the movie even though it's the driving point of the movie. Feel free to disagree, but what do you think?

Duchie

I think FFG(?) sort of touched on this somewhere in one of the threads, but I'm not sure where it is anymore, so it's a good idea to start a thread here. Honestly, I would agree with your points. I really do feel Nomura is referring to Aerith:

The message is then relayed to Cloud through several children and, when the message finally reaches Cloud, we learn who the messenger is.

Like you said, Aerith is the only one who appears to interact with and to have a connection with the children, not Tifa or anyone else really. Also, why would Tifa need some children to pass on a message to Cloud? She's quite capable of giving Cloud messages herself. Nomura mentions that it's not until the message reaches Cloud that we learn who this messenger is. It sounds like this person is supposed to be someone mysterious, someone we might not have been expecting. Certainly doesn't sound like Tifa to me. I guess that if it's not Aerith, the only other possibility that would sort of make any sense to me is Kadaj and his gang. However, they don't have that kind of a relationship with the children though. Anyway, we do see evidence of the children relaying something from Aerith to Cloud:
"It's just like what she said. Wait here and Cloud will come back."

I recall the Clotis jumping up and down with joy because they believed this was referring to Tifa and that AC was originally ALL about her and Cloud. At one point in time, I think either Nomura or Nojima mentioned AC was Cloud and Tifa's story. However, I don't think it was ever stated that the messenger was Tifa, was it?

There was mentioning that they originally had a 20 minute movie with Cloud and Tifa so I guess they automatically assumed it was Tifa?

Kaldea:

Ah, you're right. I completely forgot about that.
You know, just because the original movie was with Cloud and Tifa, I don't think that necessarily means the messenger had to have been Tifa.

Wasn't there something that stated somewhere (whoo, way to be accurate, Lynn! :rolleyes: ) that SE originally wanted to put Aerith's voice in the phone (during the scene where Cloud's phone is falling into the lake and we hear the recorded messages)? Then they decided against it, and had Aerith's voice overlapping the scene instead.

I'm sure I read it on an official source recently. RF, perhaps?

If so, it's possible that the idea to have Aerith's voice in Cloud's phone carried over from the 20-minute script, but was finally changed to what we saw in AC.

Yes, it was definately RF. Page 4 of Cloud's thingy. :P

*nods*

Hi, i have the movie and i have wached when nomura said that about the messenger, well, in the spanish version ( the subtitles) he said that:


The message is FROM A GIRL, it is relayed to Cloud through several children and, when the message finally reaches Cloud, we learn who was THE GIRL sending it

So, it can only be Tifa or Aeris, i am sure it was from aeris.

Dear Hade's Daughter~

Thank u for pointing that out! I've been wondering why other adults (especially members of Avalanche) do not "sense" that Aerith shows up in final scene, while children seem to be aware of Aerith's existence (She even converses with two kids). I felt so nervous when Cloud stares at her leaving since Tifa or Barret..etc would notice the strange look on his face----I'm afraid that this precious moment would be ruined :blush:

After reading ur analysis and posts above, I now realize that Aerith is this messager and children are the itermedium; so they can see her and have some comunication....

Remember in "The case of Tifa", Cloud thinks that Aerith brings Denzel to his place?? Tifa corrects him that she thinks Aerith brings him to "them", but she doesn't deny that the kid is brought from Aerith! (Although I personally doubt that <_< ; if Aerith intends sending D to "them", why don't she simply leads D to 7th Heaven?)


One more thing about the message....Since Daga15 has posted the translation of Spanish version(Thank u!) I think I can try to translate it from Chinese version..


"Cloud got a message from a girl. This message was delivered through children. At the end of the movie, we will know who sent this message."

(Note: I do translate them word by word...if there's any mistakes, feel free to correct me^^)




By the way, I can't help but praise Aerith again!!!!!!!!! :fangirl: :fangirl:
She is soooooo smart! She always know how to help Cloud and the way to appraoch him, comfort him, cheer him up.....Not like Tifa's nagging encouragement. :P