Cloud/Tifa
Pairing | |
---|---|
Pairing: | Cloud Strife/Tifa Lockhart |
Alternative name(s): | Cloud x Tifa, CloTi, クラティ |
Gender category: | het |
Fandom: | Final Fantasy VII |
Canonical?: | canon |
Prevalence: | popular |
Archives: | |
Other: | |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Cloud/Tifa or CloTi is a Final Fantasy VII pairing involving characters Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart.
Canon
Final Fantasy 7
In Final Fantasy VII, Tifa is a childhood friend of the player character Cloud, having grown up together in the small town of Nibelheim. As kids, they shared a promise under the stars that Cloud would always come to her aid if she ever needed him. As an adult, Tifa owns a bar in the city of Midgar but also serves as an operative for the ecoterrorist organization AVALANCHE. She recruits Cloud to work with AVALANCHE on a mercenary basis. Although he does his best to act emotionless and uninvolved, Cloud quickly becomes more deeply attached to the party.
The early part of the game has some light dating sim mechanics that track player decisions expressing Cloud's affection for other characters in the party; the character Cloud has favored the most goes on a date with him at the Gold Saucer. These mechanics are strongly weighted toward either Aerith or Tifa, although dates with Yuffie and Barret are also possible.
As the game progresses, Tifa becomes visibly concerned when Cloud talks about past events they shared in Nibellheim. It eventually becomes clear that Cloud had developed false memories of these events as a result of trauma; Tifa was the only one who realized this, but had been unsure how to talk to him about it. Regretting her failure to help him earlier, she resolves to put Cloud first and cares for him while he's incapacitated, becoming the player character for a significant portion of the game.
An ambiguous scene late in the game is often interpreted as implying that Cloud and Tifa slept together prior to the final battle.
The Compilation of Final Fantasy 7
Supplementary material goes into more detail about Cloud and Tifa's relationship both before and after the events of FFVII.
Trace of Two Pasts adds considerably more detail about Tifa's life growing up in Nibelheim and the development of her feelings for Cloud. Advent Children and On the Way to a Smile depict Cloud and Tifa living together as a family in Midgar after the game, raising foster children together; both show Tifa helping Cloud to work through his lingering guilt and trauma.
Fandom
Ship War
The role of the CloTi ship in FFVII fandom cannot be separated from the infamous Love Triangle Debate. Both Tifa and Aerith Gainsborough are presented in canon as possible love interests for Cloud, and the resulting ship war was intense and spanned decades. Character bashing fic where Tifa is portrayed as an antagonist in Clerith fic, or Aerith as an antagonist in CloTi fic, were common.
In recent years, the LTD has been increasingly regarded in fandom as a source of pointless wank; as a reaction against it, modern fic is more likely to emphasize Tifa and Aerith's canonical friendship, even when one or the other is paired in a monogamous relationship with Cloud.
Statistics
- In 2020, Cloti was ranked 78th on Tumblr's Top 100 ships of 2020.[1]
- In 2020, Cloti was ranked 73th on Pixiv's Top 120 ships of 2020.[2]
- In 2020, in a poll on the official account Final fantasy 7 REMAKE, 56% of the voters had Tifa resolution scene.[3]
- In 2019, in a poll on the official account Dissidia Final fantasy Opera Omnia, Cloti won against the opposing ship Clerith with 74.8% out of 7613 votes.[4]
Trivia
- After the 2007 release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, many fan works increasingly featured Zack/Aerith as a complementary pairing to Cloud/Tifa, and vice-versa.
- Cloud and Tifa appear together in other media or video games, such as:
- Kingdom Hearts 2 when Tifa is a manifestation of “Cloud’s inner light”.[5][6] -Dissidia 012 Duodecim when Cloud sacrifices his life to save Tifa.[7]
- PlayStation Japan promoted cloti for Tanabata day and the theme of love.[8][9]
- The official account of Square enix liked cloti fanworks and also sometimes even commented.[10][11]
- This hasn't been made official but many cloti shippers have noticed that the Midgar blues song referred to Cloud and Tifa during their promise to the water tower before Cloud departure to Midgar.[12][13]
- Cloud said Tifa 59 times in the Japanese version of FF7 Remake.[14]
- There is debate what happened between Cloud and Tifa beneath the Highwind before their final battle against Sephiroth—whether they kissed, had sex, and/or simply shared a heartfelt conversation before falling asleep together.[15]
Common Tropes & Themes
- Childhood Friends
- Tifa managing a bar called Seventh Heaven
- Meet again years later
- Cloud set up a delivery business, the Strife Delivery Service and owns a motorbike called Fenrir.
- Mutual pining
- They are the adoptive parents of a young boy named Denzel and takes care of Barret's daughter Marlene
- Angst & Hurt/Comfort
- There are three important scenes that can often be revisited either in the Canon or Alternate Universe version: The promise under the stars at the water tower, the Lifestream and under the Highwind.
- Soldier!Cloud
- Tifa is a martial artist, trained by Zangan
- They have either lost one or two of their parents.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension
Challenge
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
- "Exponential" by AllumaNoir (started April 2020 - WIP as of 2022)
- "Harmonies for the Haunted" by Marjorie_Franklin (2015-2017)
- "Fool for you" by Hoegeta (June-Aug 2020)
- "Late-Night hauntings" by Janeite_of_the_slums (Nov-Dec 2021)
- "Welcome Back" by Karmi (2019-2020)
- "To catch A Fallen Star" by Lourdes23 (May 2015)
- "Cruel Summer" by Mayelisa (started 2020 - WIP as of 2021)
- "Codes of conduct" by MayonakaNoAme (Jul-Oct 2020)
- "What's in a Name?" by Monseoc (Feb 2022)
- "Learning to Live" by OurLadyMuffin (2020)
- "Not Yours" by Roxicodone (Apr 2014)
- "More Than Words" by Sekiharatae (Oct 2010)
- "A Sea of Silence" by SKEvans (2020)
- "Last Train to Brooklyn" by Somebody_Nightmare (2020)
- "Party Like Your Heart Hurts" by SpaceOdementia (2020)
- "Anchor" by Qwi-Xux (Dec 2008-Mar 2009)
- "Within the Veil" by Waltzforthemoon (Jul 2022)
- "Longing, She Wrote" by You_Light_The_Sky (May 2020)
Fanart
- "「STARGAZER」" by Babigonice (May 22, 2020)
- "クラティ" by Duoj (Jul 26, 2022)
- "Attraction" by Emy_san_arts (July 12, 2020)
- "幼馴染集やらして " by Hmyo_ (Jun 2019)
- "幼馴染好きアピしていい?いいよ" by _hmyy (Jul 21, 2021)
- "Still on the FF7 train" by Hugo_artist (Jun 2, 2019)
- "My Cloud and Tifa redesign" by Ilabarattolo (Jul 9, 2019)
- ""Let's go back, Cloud. Back to everyone..."" by Jen Bartel (Feb 25, 2021)
- "Binary Stars Revolve Around Each Other" by Linono (Jul 8, 2022)
- "Sleep" by Smaii_i (Dec 5, 2020)
- "🐬 x 🐥" by Pudel (Oct 14, 2021)
- "クラウドとティファ~" by Ohse (Jul 6, 2022)
- "Date" by Ria (Nov 29, 2020)
- "あいしてる " by Rito (Apr 25, 2020)
- "Gold Saucer cloti date but Cloud is Princess Rosa and Tifa is Legendary Hero Alfred instead" by Seilo (May 29, 2022)
- "#クラティ" by _shillo (Jul 20, 2019)
- ""It all starts now. A new..."Cloud looked for the right words."A new life."" by Spykeee (Jun 16, 2020)
- "CloTi-Premium Heart!" by sreliata (Mar 2020)
- ""Please, tell me you can hear me..."" by StrawderryST (Apr 22, 2021)
- ""Tell me you see me...that you hear me..."" by Thar (Aug 16, 2022)
Video
- "|| Unexpectedly|| Final Fantasy VII- Cloud X Tifa" (Apr 18, 2020)
- "GMV Cloud & Tifa- Flood of Memories" (Oct 17, 2020)
- "ᴅᴜsᴋ ᴛɪʟʟ ᴅᴀᴡɴ - ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ x ᴛɪғᴀ" (Apr 20, 2020)
- "Cloti Podcast FF7 - OG vs Remake Midgar Analysis" (Streamed live on Apr 1, 2021)
- "FF7 Remake - Trace Of Two Pasts Translation - Tifa Cloud Backstory Nibelheim Cloti pt 1" (Jul 17, 2021)
- "Cloud & Tifa - Listen To Your Heart" (2007?)
- "FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE All Tifa and Cloud Flirting Scenes" (Apr 9, 2020)
- "Hesitate || Cloud x Tifa" (Apr 9, 2020)
- "クラウドとティファ『バトル重複ボイス』特集" (Jul 20, 2020)
- "The Romance of Cloud & Tifa (Final Fantasy 7 Remake Cinematic Montage)" (Jun 18, 2020)
- "Cloud x Tifa FFVII - Rewrite The Stars" (Jul 1, 2019)
- "Cloti | Slow Burn" (May 1, 2020)
- "LTD Mythbusters - The LTD Is Over, CloTi is Canon! (Feat. TifaTheMonk)" (Premiered Dec 25, 2021)
- "FF7R" (Dec 22, 2021)
Meta
- Cloti, a canonical tale. by Dutchdread (june 2022)
- A twenty-five thousand word post about twenty-three year old "debate" by insanehobbit (Jan 2021)
- Opinion of a Clerith shipper by otp-oasis-heavenxearth (May 2020)
- Cloud loves Tifa by enigmaphenomenon (July 2015)
- The Love Triangle of FFVII – An Analysis by Squall_of_SeeD by Makoeyes987 (Sept 2009)
- Mend This Wavering Heartbeat by bofoddity, an essay for ship_manifesto (Dec 2004)
- CLOUD/TIFA/AERIS: A look at the triangle. by Matt Taylor (2003 or before)
Others
- 『CLOTI MUSIC ANTHOLOGY - Fantasia - 』告知アカウント a C/T Anthology (2022)
- Because I Have You - a C/T zine (2020/2021)
- クラティオンリーonline 星月夜-ほしづきよ- a C/T Japanese online event (2020-2021)
- Cloti Fics Archive
Gallery
Sites & Communities
- Bestofcloti a C/T fan Twitter account
- Petalofreunion a C/T and Z/A fan Twitter account
- Cloti Forever a C/T fan Tumblr account
- The Strifes a C/T fan Twitter account
- Dailycloti a C/T bot Twitter account
- Ct_bot a C/T Japanese bot Twitter account
- Final Heaven a C/T fan Tumblr account
- Braverbeat a C/T fan Tumblr account
- ctlove, a Cloud/Tifa community at LiveJournal
- Cloud-x-Tifa-Club, a Cloud/Tifa fan club at deviantArt
- World of CloTi / Under the Stars on Tumblr
- Two Tales Of Love, a Cloud/Tifa and Squall/Rinoa fansite and archive
- Stars Of Heaven, a Cloud/Tifa shrine on Tripod
Archives
- Cloud Strife/Tifa Lockhart tag at Archive of Our Own
- [Cloud S./Tifa L.] pairing filter at FanFiction.Net
- Cloud/Tifa pairing filter at Tumblr
- Cloud/Tifa pairing filter at Pixiv
Resources
References
- ^ 2020's Top Ships on Tumblr.
- ^ 2020's Top Ships on Pixiv.
- ^ Results of the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Post-Play Survey.
- ^ CloudxAerith or CloudxTifa?.
- ^ Cloud and Tifa Kingdom Hearts ALL Scenes and Dialogue.
- ^ Cloud and Tifa in Kingdom Hearts.
- ^ Cloud and Tifa Dissidia 012 Duodecim Scenes FFVII.
- ^ Playstation JP posted a cloti scene for the Tanabata festival.
- ^ Playstation JP posted cloti for the theme of love.
- ^ Square Enix commented to a cloti fancam.
- ^ Square Enix commented to a cloti fanart.
- ^ Translation of Midgar Blues Japanese version.
- ^ Midgar Blues song in English version.
- ^ Cloud said Tifa a lot.
- ^ A famous Youtuber, Max DOOD, reacted to the Highwind scene.