Owie

[mimi_sardinia]

The plotbunnies are biting again, through they aren't being very original at the moment. Current idea has strong resemblance to bits of this series, particularly One of These Days, and moreso to bard_linn's Equivalent Trade. There's also a part of the plot that may get me castigated for Tifa-bashing.


So, after the events of AC Cloud is pretty good. He's cured of his geostigma, he's come to terms with the deaths of old friends and is starting to be social again.

Without any warning, he disappears. He goes on a delivery and never comes back.

It is several years later that he is found alive - and living with a reserected Sephiroth.

Of everyone's reactions to this Tifa's is the worst. She has never been able to let go of Cloud even though everyone had practically accepted him as being dead. The whole issue of Cloud had become rather obsessive for Tifa - so much so that everyone avoided talking about him in her hearing range.

Of course, finding out he's with Sephiroth immediately sets Tifa off badly - she immediately assuming Cloud's being missing is due to Sephiroth kiddnapping him and holding him captive.

Okay, I don't have the exact course of events set out but Tifa does something to Cloud while he is seperated from Seph - I originally thought something akin to date-rape actually - that Cloud reacts badly to. Badly =/= yelling at her, badly means beating her up viciously and only being stopped because Seph - thanks to a mental link between him and Cloud - arrives just in time (with others following) to stop Cloud from killing her.

This is where the resemblance to the abovementioed fics come in.

Aerith and Zack make an appearance, saying things need to be set straight.

Gaea, the Planet, wanted someone who could hear it, someone to protect it. It picked Cloud because he was already halfway there. The problem is Gaea is barely sentient in it's own right, so when it grabbed Cloud and altered him for it's purposes it did not understand "gentle". The result was that it damaged Cloud's mind - badly. Cloud was angry at the torture the Planet put him through and set out to "punish" it... by summoning another Meteor.

Sephiroth's reserection was Zack and Aerith's doing. Before Nibelheim Sephiroth and Cloud had the beginings of a relationship but between Sephiroth's lack of understanding of how normal human interaction works and Cloud's total lack of self-worth it was not going well. Zack was just about to make the pair of them sit down and talk everything through... after they got back to Midgar from Nibelheim.

To put it simply, Sephiroth's role now is to guard the guardian - to keep Cloud stable. Tifa's interference at a time when Sephiroth was not present was something that could have caused Cloud to go off the deep end again.

So there you go. I'd advise CloTi fans not to read - I'm usually nicer to Tifa but... :) Sometimes you need to vent against an unfavoured character.

Comments

[bard-linn.livejournal.com]

I'm not really talking about whether something is OOC - because to put it bluntly, it's a fic-bunny which means it's not fleshed out, though it could possibly be done in an IC way but it would take a lot of work and Cloud isn't very sane pe say is this bunny you'll note - but as to WHY so many fans (including myself) have a problem with Tifa is really a singular instance.

Tifa didn't tell Cloud the truth.

She KNEW what he told everyone else had happened in That Incident was a lie. She knew and didn't say anything, but just let Cloud continued to believe an untruth. Wouldn't you be pretty happy if someone allowed - possibly encouraged! - you to embrace a falsehood?

Yeah, so that's why I don't like Game!Tifa. Movie!Tifa softened my opinion towards her and I try not to bash her very much, but there still is that very true concern.

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

Um, it's not the anti-Tifa vibes I'm complaining about. It's the fact that Cloud isn't going to beat her up, no matter how big of a problem you, me or anyone has with her. I can see him carrying a really, really big chip on his shoulder over the whole lying incident, but the truth is that Cloud isn't going to physically attack her without a DAMN good reason.

It's not the fact that Tifa gets beaten up, it's the fact that Tifa gets beaten up by CLOUD.

And as I said, Tifa's lying was possibly the worst thing she could have done to him. It shows Cloud's incredible strength of character that he's able to forgive her (scene under the Highwind, anyone?). Of course, he's got lots and lots to be mad at her for, but the fact that he didn't actually kill her, or attack her, or even shout at her shows the sort of person he is. Whether Cloud genuinely likes her, or whether he's faking it for the sake of keeping the peace, is up to you, but he would never actually attack her unless something was terribly, terribly wrong.

[bard-linn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but point number one: Cloud. Is. Not. Sane. The planet has altered him in this bunny and it could easily have changed the very way his mind WORKS. If you're familiar with Madam Hydra's COI series at all, this Cloud reminds me a bit of Strife (who, it has been recently shown, definitely wants to beat her up at the least). Remember, this is NOT the game!Cloud. This is post-Hojo+planet-altered Cloud. So his head isn't on straight.

I think you're right that in normal circumstances Cloud would never hurt Tifa. But this ISN'T normal circumstances.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Linn's assessment of the plotbunny is pretty right - Cloud is not sane and Tifa is not totally stable either. Niether are quite In Character for either the game or AC.

I will also agree with Linn's comment that normally Cloud would not attack Tifa but the circumstances outlined in this bunny are not normal.

[jessara40k.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that might be a pattern for her, letting people believe what they wanted to believe if it was convenient for her. For instance she did the same thing with her father after she was hurt going into the mountains 'to look for her mother', she let him blame Cloud and assume she was following him.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

In that situation she was in a coma for 7 days afterwards so she didn't have a chance to correct her father when he first took it out on Cloud. On the other hand there's also no evidence she ever did tell her father otherwise when she did wake.

[jessara40k.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know she was in a coma, but she should have told him when she woke, and I'm pretty sure it would have been mentioned if she had.