Bright and optimistic, Tifa always cheers up the others when they're down. But don't let her looks fool you, she can decimate almost any enemy with her fists. She is one of the main members of Avalanche. She and Cloud were childhood friends, and although she has strong feelings for him, she will never admit it.
Although Tifa tries to appear optimistic in front of the others, in reality she is much more dark and depressive. Tifa puts a cheerful face on to cover her true feelings, her life experience has made it difficult for her to show others her heart. Tifa is extremely shy when it comes to expressing herself, and finds herself forced to take a back seat rather than speek her mind. Tifa longs to be able to be more open and tries to do so throughout the game. However, even though Tifa isn't an open book, she doesn't find it difficult to make friends. Tifa will put a 'brave face' on to make others in the group feel better, even if she doesn't really feel all that brave.
Tifa is a very pretty girl. She has a heart shaped face, with fairly pale skin. She has unusual red eyes. Tifa's hair is layered around the front to form a shaggy fringe, she pulls the rest of it back into a very loose ponytail. Tifa can often be seen looking at the floor, scuffing her boots or pulling her hands towards her heart. These stances reflect her shy personality as they are 'typical' shy poses. However when with someone she is comfortable with, such as Cloud, Tifa often stands with her arms out at her sides, and her feet together. Perhaps this is because of her martial arts training, but it is a rather 'cute' pose.
Tifa's Past:
Although Tifa lived next door to Cloud, they never really spoke. Tifa had her own gang including Johnny, a guy who fancied her, so she never really got the chance to ask Cloud round her house.
Tifa's mother died when Tifa was a child. Tifa, believing she could find her mothers spirit there, journeyed to the top of Mount Nibel, the place of her mother's death. Her friends got scared and ran off, but Cloud continued to follow her. The pair got stuck in the mountains and fell, leaving Tifa in a coma. Finding his daughter in this state, Tifa's father blamed Cloud for leading her there, causing her to be hurt.
Cloud was forbidden from going near Tifa again, but when she awoke from her coma she managed to see Cloud in secret before he left for Midgar. Cloud had always had a crush on Tifa and just wanted to impress her by joining Soldier. Tifa started to realise her feelings towards Cloud at this point in time and made him promise to come and rescue her if she was ever in trouble.
Years later, Sephiroth and other members of Soldier came to Nibelheim. Tifa was appointed to lead them through the mountains but was disappointed as she didn't think Cloud had returned as he was too ashamed to tell her that he hadn't got into Soldier. Cloud was the ShinRa soldier who stayed with her outside the Mako Reactor. At this point in time, Tifa received a letter from Johnny, which says that he loves and misses her.
During this visit, Sephiroth went crazy after spending time in the ShinRa mansion. He burnt down the village and murdered many people, including Tifa's dad. Tifa, blinded by rage, tried to avenge her father by attacking Sephiroth. She picked up Sephiroth's sword Masumune, which was lying next to her dead father and went to attack Sephiroth.
Tifa found Sephiroth in front of the door to Jenova's room. She ran at him with his sword, but he is the only one who can use it, so when he turned around he took the sword and slashed her across her chest. She flew back, and landed at the base of the stairs. Shortly after, Cloud came and carried her off to the side to keep her safe and managing to keep his promise, though at the time she didn't realise it. Zack was near death on the other side of the stairs, and Cloud took his sword, ordered to kill Sephiroth.
Zangan, Tifa's martial arts teacher found Tifa wounded in the Mako Reactor. However he couldn't save Cloud and Zack. He couldn't heal her with magic, so he escaped the destroyed village with her and took her to the hospital in Midgar.
Tifa's life in Midgar:
After Tifa was saved by Zangan, she remained in Midgar and set up her bar 'Tifa's Seventh Heaven'. She met up with Barret, who ran a 'Terrorist' group called Avalanche. She became good friends with his adopted daughter Marlene, who helps in the bar. Tifa sees the ShinRa and Soldier as the cause of all her past misery, so she joined Avalanche and let Barret use her bar as their base.
Later, in Midgar, Cloud and Tifa met again. Tifa was at the train station, when Cloud fell out of the train. He made up a story based on Zack's life. Cloud became a mercenary just like Zack said he would, and started working for Avalanche. Cloud, being the cold hearted guy he is tried to leave when he doesn't get paid. But Tifa, who has had strong feelings for Cloud ever since the night at the well, persuaded him to stay by holding him to their promise.
During their enxt Reactor mission, Cloud falls down a big hole in the Reactor and Tifa nearly throws herself after him. However, Barret manages to restrain her. Barret then goes off to find out more information about ShinRa and Tifa goes to see Don Corneo to find out about ShinRa. She is imployed by the Honeybee Inn and is sent to Don's mansion to act as a wannabe girlfriend.
Tifa met Aeris inside Don Corneo's mansion. Aeris had helped smuggle Cloud inside the mansion by disguising him as a woman, she then insists on helping Tifa gain the information from the Don she needs. There is a slight rivalry between Aeris and Tifa due to the fact they both love Cloud. But because Tifa is so shy she ends up taking a backseat in the love-triangle, as Cloud and Aeris appear to be in love. However, Tifa doesn't hold this against Aeris, and admires her upfront personality.
They find out that Sector 7 will be destroyed as that is where Avalanche's HQ is. Tifa asks Aeris to look after Marlene and she goes up the tower with Cloud, to help Barret. They aren't in time to stop the tower falling and everyone in Sector 7 is killed, including Biggs, Wedge and Jessie. Aeris is captured by ShinRa but Marlene is safe. Tifa is upset about the death of her friends but manages to keep control and they all go off to rescue Aeris.
Tifa met Red XVIII in the ShinRa headquarters, during the rescue of Aeris. Both Aeris & Red XVIII were part of Hojo's experiment. After rescuing them both from Hojo, Tifa (along with everyone else) was very surprised to find that Red could speak! Red and Tifa don't talk that much in the game, but Red obviously likes her as he decides he must fight Sephiroth for the sake of Cloud, Tifa and Aeris.
The whole group is caught, and they wake up in their jail cells with the doors open to find a trail of blood starting at Jenova's chamber and leading upward. At the end of the trail, the find President ShinRa doubled over his desk with Sephiroth's sword in his back. Since only he can use the Masamune, he was alive. Cloud goes after Rufus, the new President of ShinRa. Tifa is worried about Cloud and waits for him. When Cloud returns she is glad to see him and rushes to help him with the truck.
Tifa's Battle to Save the World:
Once outside of Midgar, the group decide to go after Sephiroth Tifa is glad about this as she has a grudge against him for killing her father and burning down her hometown. When Cloud is telling his story in Kalm, Tifa knows that he wasn't the Soldier to come on the Nibelheim mission, but is too shy to say anything and is confused as to why he knows what happened as she doesn't remember him being there.
In Gongaga Vilage, the team manage to sneek up on the Turks. Before springing a suprise attack on them, Cloud and the others are able to overhear their conversation. Reno and Rude are discussing who they have crushes on. Reno thought Rude had the hots for Elena, but really Rude likes Tifa. Tifa never shows any interest in Rude, so this is never taken any further.
Later in Gongaga Village, the gang meet Zack's parents. When they ask if anyone has seen their son, Tifa runs out of the house. When Cloud asks her what what the matter is, she says it is nothing, as Cloud obviously doesn't remember who Zack was.
When the gang reach Nibelheim, they are suprised to find that it has been rebuilt. In Tifa's room there is a letter on the desk explaining that Nibelheim was rebuilt after the Sephiroth incident and that actors live there and try to cover up the incident from 5 years ago. After playing the piano in Tifa's room, Tifa will look for the score and instead find a letter from Zangan, her martial arts instructor. In the letter he tells her he is his best pupil, and gives her Final Heaven.
When Aeris is killed Tifa takes it all rather badly, she strokes her face and runs off in tears. She is even more angry with Sephiroth, as he has killed two of the most important people in her life.
Tifa is upset when they are unable to rescue Cloud from the Northern Crater, but has bigger problems to solve. Rufus plans to make a public execution and his plan only fails whenWeapon attacks. Tifa manages to get the key which Scarlet drops in the gas chamber and unlocks herself from the chair. She escapes through a hole in the roof, that Weapon made. Scarlet and some ShinRa soldiers come after her though and her and Scarlet has a big Cat Fight. She is rescued by the others in the Highwind.
They find Cloud in a hospital but he has fallen ill due to Mako poisoning from the Life Stream. He drifted through the Life Stream after the Northern Crater exploded and is lucky to be alive. However he is stuck in a whell chair and can do litlle for himself. Tifa refused to leave his side even though it was considered unlikely that he would recover.
When Weapon attacks the village, Cloud and Tifa fall into the lifestream. Somehow, Tifa is able to enter Cloud's mind, where he tells her the truth about a lot of things. He tells her how he lied about being in Soldier, pretending to be Zack, but he admits how he really did try to save her from Sephiroth the day her burnt Nibelheim down. He admits to having a crush on her and that when he was little he just wanted to impress her. The pair become closer after this point, and when the others leave the Highwind before the battle with Sephiroth they are left alone together. Tifa and Cloud have no homes to go back to, so they sleep outside the highwind together.
The Final Battle:
Tifa really fights the Final Battle for Cloud. Although she is trying to avenge her dead friends it would only be worth something if Cloud was with her at the end. She almost loses him at the end and just manages to save him before he falls down a cliff.
Summary:
Tifa and Cloud are very good friends, but Tifa loves Cloud secretly. He also begins to show his feelings for her as the game progresses. Although I feel Cloud and Aeris were Soulmates, I can't deny that he loves Tifa.
After the battle with Sephiroth, Tifa and Cloud vow to find Aeris together. Tifa cared about Aeris very much, and knew more about how Aeris felt about giving her life than Cloud did. Tifa knew that Aeris would never have wanted to give her life like that, and that she never knew it would end like that.
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