There have been a lot of weird debates and reasons for whose better, Aerith or Tifa.

This is fine. Final Fantasy VII is a game and therefore is subject to fantasical fanfictions, fan drawing and whatever else we, the fans, create. The problem is when people go on about what kind of people Tifa and Aerith are with absolutely NO regard for what really happened in the game, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and whatever else Sony has come up with. Also, credit is not given to a character where credit is due a lot of the time.

Here are a few observations that haven't really been observed based on an Aerith vs. Tifa comparison (NO bashing insues):

1.) Aerith has more street cred than Tifa

A lot of people would think that the busty girl running the bar in the middle of the slums who also knows martial arts would get more street cred than the girl wearing the pink sundress with the big basket of flowers. But look:
Tifa was loved and known throughout Nibelheim growing up and most people liked her because she was pretty and somewhat popular, and even Cloud noticed that. She didn't move out to Midgar until she was about 16 or 17. She opened a bar and joined a rebel faction named AVALANCHE. She gets some points for joining a type of gang but...
Aerith spent most of her life living in the shanty-town ghetto running from the MAN trying to make ends meet by selling flowers for cheap. And the ONLY reason the MAN was keeping tabs on her was because she was of a different race. True, she has the best house in the slums, but it's still in the slums and by the drainage ditch. And she STILL joins that same rebel faction...
Aerith is DOWN.

2.) Aerith's Final Limit Break is actually more useful than Tifa's

This is not to say a seven hit combo isn't kick ass...if all seven hits land.
Tifa's limit break works like this when you get all seven limit breaks: you get seven slots where you have to try to land a YEAH or a HIT and avoid a MISS. Therefore, a lot of the time, you may not get all seven hits, and you will VERY rarely get all seven YEAH!s. So you can kick ass...but how much ass you kick varies on your luck.
Aerith's final limit break GUARENTEES invincibility and full health. Would you rather MAYBE hit all seven YEAHS or HITS against the Emerald Weapon which would only amount to be a minor poke in its side? Or would you rather be INVINCIBLE and FULLY CURED so that no matter what the big bad beastie does, it's like no big deal because you got the Knights of the Round backin' you up and you're not taking any damage!
(And I am aware of the fact that Aerith doesn't get a chance to be in your party when you get a chance to fight the Emerald weaopn. This was just an example.)

3.) Tifa kicks more ass that Aerith

Literally, YEAH, Tifa kicks more ass than Aerith. She's a fighter. Let's give Tifa fighter credit and recognize, even though this is a PRO-AerithXCloud forum, that she's got the martial art skills and can throw a guy clear across a room.
Aerith gets a stick. And maybe it hurts really bad when she hits you upside the head or in the knee cap. But it's not really as kick ass as just being able to do a neuclear punch attack.

4.) Pink doesn't make someone a pansy

Just because a few infamous people doll themselves up in pink does not mean all people who wear pink are pansies. Some people just don't like the color pink and so they press their color prejudices against fictional and non-fictional people who wear them.
If you can sell flowers in the bad part of town wearing nothing but a pink sun dress and smile and come home unscathed, then you're a bad ass. Plain and simple. Because you know you got harassment coming to you once you hit those streets, especially if you're not a girl. But if you pull that off, you got some kind of crazy in you.

5.) Aerith is an independant woman

I don't know where this helpless damsel in distress thing comes from because Aerith takes care of herself. The only time she has ever pressed the services of a bodyguard was when Cloud came crashing through the ceiling and my guess is that she was just tired beating off the Turks on her own.
Furthermore, she makes a living in the bad part of town, workin' hard for the money. She was the one who came up with the "Saving Tifa Mission." When Sephiroth came to town, Aerith told Cloud not to worry about it, she's got that covered. And that takes guts to go out all on your own after the planet's #1 bad-ass. She died, but she STILL got holy and the lifestream through and she STILL gets the lifestream to help out when need be (Advent Children.)
ARGUEMENT: "But she got captured and put in a glass cell! Cloud HAD to go and save her because she couldn't save herself. Tifa could escape all on her own in Disc 2."
Tifa DID get out of the gas chamber ALL BY HERSELF in Disc 2. But someone dropped a key. That was opportunistic work. She did what any survivor would have done in that kind of situation. And she didn't need Cloud for that.
BUT Aerith didn't have a key in the scary glass tube. She got a funny-looking scientist staring at her 24/7 from outside the tube, tapping on it like she's a gold fish. If she had the means to do it, you better believe she would have gotten out on her own.

6.) Aerith is not that innocent

Do you really believe anyone growing up in NO-MANS-LAND City is going to be naive and innocent? Aerith probably seemed that way, but she knew what Don Corneo was into when she got to his mansion. She knew how to flirt. She had no problem taking care of herself for the most part. And no one NAIVE could navigate through the slums like she did and NOT get hurt.
Aerith was streetwise and savvy. She may have been pure in heart and spirit, but she was used to living in the down and dirty.

7.) Cloud DOES care about Tifa but he LOVES Aerith

Totally. Cloud DOES care about Tifa. He CARES about her well-being. He's thankful that she tries so hard to help him, even when it's not all that helpful or when it is even damaging (like not telling him the truth from day one.) He tries to be a good friend to her in return. To say he completely doesn't care for Tifa at all is false.
But Cloud's heart belongs to Aerith. Aerith is dead. She will never come back. We know that. But she makes him stronger by supporting him in a way Tifa can't, even in death. She reaches him spiritually and makes him believe in himself, which is what Cloud really needs after believing himself to be weak for the most part of his life.
However, I DO believe Cloud most likely DID have a crush on Tifa when they were kids, but she was the pretty popular girl. Every guy gets a crush one of those at least once. But after all of the bad stuff that went on between childhood and adulthood, I think Cloud's tenacity for that crush wore out.
Of course Tifa supports Cloud...she loves him. But the problems that really bothered Cloud were the ones that she couldn't fix, as seen in AC. Cloud needed the reassurance from Aerith that it was okay to forgive to make him move on. Cloud needed Aerith to give him that final lift upward. Cloud needed Aerith to tell him it was all right in the end for him to really believe it was.
And then, of course, there's more evidence to this, but most of you have already touched on that.

:cleris:

3.) Tifa kicks more ass that Aerith

Except she doesn't. Regardless of what the stereotype is in weapons of which looks stronger and what a fighter/inexperienced Aerith users in general might think Aerith actually does more damage with her base physical attacks in FFVII. This is due to her always getting better weapons before Tifa does. Such as the Striking Staff before the Grand Glove, the Umbrella and the Princess Guard before the Work Glove. The Umbrella is actually the strongest weapon that it's possible to have in the game inventory at the time it's first possible to get it. Also factoring into the matter are the facts that the Umbrella has a high critical hit rate and her ultimate weapon the Princess Guard has power up factors. The Striking Staff which comes before those is a good ATK based weapon early on for Aerith before they become available, it can be obtained as early as the train graveyard quite a bit before Tifa can get her Grand Glove which is also amongst the early game high ATK weapons. Things like Champion's Belt will boost Aerith's strength even more. I've had Aerith hit 9999 damage before with a fully powered up Princess Guard + Champion's Belt way better than Tifa's base physical with a Work Glove.

So yeah Aerith kicks ass :)

Yeah, she does. She kicks one of Don Corneo's lackeys in the groin which I found very impressive for the flower girl. Looks can be deceiving.

Excellent post. :gift:
Just a quick comment or two from me:

I don't think the whole bodyguard thing was something to be taken seriously. I think she was pretty much merely interested in Cloud. First off, she's been escaping from the Turks all her life. Did she seriously need his help there? Most likely not. :)

Secondly, she adds in the whole 'date' deal. That should have been the obvious clue. Sounds almost like Cloud flirted right back, especially since he so willingly agreed to the deal. If he wasn't interested in her, I imagine he might have excluded the date. :P

Well, I think it's easy to jump to the conclusion that people had thought she was pretty...but I don't think anyone was shown to have actually thought that about her. If Cloud had thought that about her or if she was the only person he had wanted attention from, then I think I would buy the idea that he'd had a crush on her.

Each to one's own interpretation, but it sounds to me like Cloud's childhood was about how he'd wanted to fit in and to be liked rather than "a crush on Tifa". IMO, it's quite reasonable for Cloud to have singled her out since it was Tifa who Cloud failed to save and was then blamed on by the others. Also, it's not out of the ordinary at all for him to single her out since she was the most popular child in town and was pretty much 'the leader' of her group of followers. Just my opinion, of course.

QFT

This is how I see it.

Barret: Cloud, don't ya understand that (insert some talking about the planet)
Cloud: Money, plz

Tifa: Cloud, don't you remember our promise?
Cloud: Money, plz

Aerith: Will you be my bodyguard?
Cloud: What will I get?
Aerith: ... How about a date?
Cloud: Ok.

So I guess the player is supposed to take a hint. :lol:


Going on-topic, Butterfly220, that was a great post. No character bashing and nice points. ;)

Dear Butterfly220: Another good analysis!
I've read volumns of articles against Aerith.
The funny thing is, the more I read, the more I love Aerith :lol:

Simply wanna point one thing out:
IF Aerith's really a damsel, so what? I hope dissenters could mark this: it's Cloud's own will to protect her along their whole journey. If SquareE did deliberatly make Aerith a damsel, Cloud's behavior will NOT change. IMO it's Aerith's stout-hearted personality that shows Cloud's special feeling for her.....I mean, she's NOT a damsel but he still wants to keep her from any possible danger. If the reason is not a crush, then what would that be? :fangirl:

Well, you have to admit, that if there was an Adevnt Children style remake, Tifa a lot more likely to be jumping around and throwing fancy kicks like some kind of cross betwen Jackie Chan and Spider-man than Aeris is.

I agree. So what?
Why would Aerith being portrayed as a damsel in distress-like character rather than some awesome, fist-fighter be an issue? It's meant to allow us to see Cloud's natural protective/soft side...not for Aerith's creaters to express how "weak and sucky" their own creation is. :rolleyes:

Seriously, fact being that Aerith is so often accused of being a damsel in distress only helps to solidify one thing: she's Cloud's main love interest. The love interests of RPG heroes are usually portrayed as being something like damsels in distress anyway. I really don't see this as being something offensive or horrible.

Agreed. I have yet seen an RPG hero's love interest not in a situation that required rescuing, in general. At times, I find that sweet that the hero's really focused and passionate (depending on his character, of course) about saving his love interest, from kidnapping, potential or inevitable doom.

So what if Aerith's a 'damsel in distress'? Am not bother by that, Cloud want to protect and make sure she's safe; especially when he went off on his own first toward Shinra Building without telling Barret and Tifa. The fact that he didn't tell them or ask for them to come along told me quite a bit.

Seriously, we all love Aerith and she's a kick ass girl, but give credit where credit is due.

Aerith is more of a dedicated magic user. She's also more built for healing. Her final limit break is way more useful than most others because she can make you invincible. Physical attacks aren't the big thing she does.

Tifa is a fighter. The only reason Aerith gets all of her kick ass weapons before Tifa is because she dies in the first disc and it doesn't make sense to get her ultimate weapon way all in disc 3. Tifa has a hard time contributing in some boss battles, but she's more built to do physical damage.

Tifa fans constantly claim she's more superior to Aerith in every way. They even say she's the better magic user, which of course, makes NO sense whatsoever. They don't notice that Aerith is the better magic user or that she plays such a key role, or that she's a strong presence in everyone's life in FFVII simply because they love Tifa so much.

I understand a lot of people here don't seem to like Tifa all that much. I don't really either. BUT...

If you can see that Tifa has her virtues without bias, then that makes the arguments for Aerith and the match up between Aerith and Cloud all the more meaningful because even though Tifa has all that going for her, Aerith STILL has what Cloud needs in a relationship.

It's like that one guy turning down the popular girl to be with the smart one, y'know. The popular girl's cool. The smart girl's smart. Both have their virtues, but the guy goes with what his heart tells him and what he knows is right for him.

Yeah, Tifa can kick some ass but I noticed that she was great at the beginning but eventually her low stats makes her, well, how can I say this, uhmm... weak. But maybe its my fault for not having Tifa in my team that's why I said that..


Anyway!

For me, Aerith has a very strong personality than Tifa. Even though her physical attacks doesn't give that much damage to the opponent, her magical abilities PWNS! :winner:

I do give credit where credit's due. And it's due to Aerith as well as Tifa.

Magic eventually becomes outdated in FFVII and physical attacks and limit breaks start to take over. Aerith deals way more damage with her base physicals + counter > deathblow set ups than with L3 spells + powerful enemy skill magic on disc one. Oh and how many people use magic on disc two when they have Omnislash/Highwind/Doom of the Living/Barret's L4/Tifa's full limit chain at their leisure? ;p

I really need to write an easy on this for Destiny Fufilled. Seriously I've used Aerith extensively in battle in everyway and it still stuns me of how even many of her own fans think she's weak physically and don't know what she can become or have not experienced her sheer power personally. That she can match and eventually overpower almost anyone, earlier on with magic, later with base physicals and limit breaks.

Cloud also gets good weapons early, and he doesn't die ;p

There doesn't need to be a remake Allen. Aerith already kicked ass in Advent Children against the silver haired men remember ;p

As for Tifa, I do like her so my battle analysis has nothing to do with any dislike of her character or anything like that, but geez is she overhyped :P Her physical attacks are hardly *that* much better than Aerith's and that's before Aerith gets her better weapons ;p

The one thing Tifa does have going for her though is her speed. If I recall correctly she was pretty fast whilst Aerith had a low speed stat ...

This is a really good topic. :D I'm not so good at stating my opinionz, but I'll try my best. :lol:

Yes... so what? I like to believe that Aerith is a damsel, because it makes the whole FFVII story so much more romantic! :wub: Heroic love stories have a damsel that is the hero's love interest, as one of us stated earlier. If Aerith wasn't such a damsel, I believe there would be some things in the game that never would've been put in:

The Cosmo Candle
Aerith: I'm all alone.
Cloud: But I'm... we're here for you, right?

Aerith is afraid of being alone (much like our Cloudy ^_^), I mean, nobody does, right? Cloud, the hero, tries to comfort our little heroine, by telling her that he's... I mean, AVALANCHE are there for her. :rolleyes: I'm guessing Aerith and Tifa are pretty much both strong emotionally, after all, Tifa is decribed as bright and optimistic. However, the two ladies have different ways of hiding/showing their emotions. Aerith chose to open up to Cloud. Thus, Cloud consoled her. Tifa never really revealed what she was thinking, so in essence, drove Cloud away. If some one never opened up to me, I would guess that they didn't need me... right?

That's just one example. :D

I personally think Aerith could kick Tifa's butt and make her cry. You just have to know how to use her. Yeah Tifa is the "fighter" but put Aerith in the back row so Tifa's attacks won't hurt her, load her up with materia and she can fry her ass!

Especially if you use the limits. Great Gospel makes Aerith invincible and that means Tifa's attacks won't make a difference and then Aerith can summon meteor .... mwahahaha *cough* ha ...

And i don't think Aerith is a damsel in distress, she even hated it when Cloud was worried about her getting hurt. If anything I think she played the damsel in distress part just for Cloud, lol, and she loved every minute of it.

Saying Aeris eventually becomes a super strong fighter is rather misleading, as she should by all rights be dead by the time your characters reach that level.

Not unless you take absolutely hours training her up before she does die, so she kicks Temple Butt at the Temple of the Ancients. :whistle:

:D

Eheheh *guilty as charged* :blush: I have a L80+ Aerith on one of my files :whistle:

However I disagree that she can't be powerful before then (now she's just insanely powerful) Unless one is going out of their way to avoid fights/avoid training at all or doing a low level game or some sort of other challenge all three characters should be at least decently levelled for heading to the Temple of the Ancients. L30 - 40 seems like a good average level. Aerith is still pretty strong even then due to Princess Guard being able to give her triple atk/damage *^_^*

In addition as in other games like S03 pure levelling up isn't what makes the most difference. Often good equipment, good skill set ups and good tactics/strategies is what really makes the difference :)

Levelling up is mainly for the HP/MP totals since stats like strength don't get too much of a boost through pure levelling alone.