Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth set the fandom back 20 years
In school, I once learned about British politics. I don’t remember the details, but our teacher showed us a video of a rancorous debate in the House of Commons. Shouts of Parliament members echoed throughout the chambers, and people booed in disapproval to someone speaking at a mic. People squished up next to each other like a loose mosh pit and waved papers at each other. It’s unruly, it’s chaotic — and it’s also exactly how I imagine Cloti and Clerith shippers would have it out if you corralled them all up and tossed them into a single hall to debate the best love interest for Final Fantasy 7 protagonist Cloud Strife.
Fans ofFinal Fantasy 7 and its associated compilation media have been debating the right fit for the broody mercenary since 1997. On one side we have Cloti — a pairing between Cloud and Tifa Lockhart, Cloud’s childhood best friend. On the other side is Clerith, which posits Cloud should be with Aerith Gainsborough, an upbeat and carefree sorceress Cloud meets on his journeys.
Every time I think the fandom’s interest in one of the greatest ship wars in video game history has finally died out, something prods the slumbering beast awake once again. Last winter, Square Enix released Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, and its arrival has unleashed new devastation on the fandom. The events depicted in the recent remake — and the conversations around it — have set the fandom back 20 years.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the intimate date scene shared between Cloud and Tifa and other events in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.]
User-made fan sites of the early 2000s chronicled the sentiments of each side of the great ship war. Even back then, people supporting either pairing would spew profanities and hate towards the other character they didn’t ship with Cloud. You could read rants on anti-Aerith sites about how she was a “pure bitch” for taking Cloud away from Tifa, or head to Clerith forums to read a supporter drag Tifa for having “big airbag boobs.” Anything
Read more on polygon.com
