Recently, I was looking into the 'Cetra Only' subforums of the Cloud X Aerith forums, and while looking at the owner's posts, I came to a realization. She was right! The TRUE story of Final Fantasy Seven is hidden, and the details of this story can be found in the minutiae and call outs of game with no possible continuity to the story. Granted, the conclusions she draws are erroneous, but finding the correct methodology is to be applauded. So, with thanks to FF_G, I will now elucidate and express to you all the TRUE story of Final Fantasy Seven.
The real plot is scattered all across various games. Final Fantasy Tactics, Ergheiz, Final Fantasy Eight, and Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. These games can't be taken individually, as they all contribute hints to the truth of the game. They much be carefully arranged and assembled, as jigsaw puzzle, to fill in the gaps to the story that Final Fantasy did not cover.
The first game to look at is Final Fantasy Eight. In the Esthar shopping center, there are a bevy of stores, including one apparently owned by a 'Cloud' that sells pet supplies. Now, if you buy enough, your purchase will come gift wrapped with a ribbon that can be used on one of the Guardian Forces in the game. Now, certain people will tell you that this is a clue that Cloud loves Aerith, but games pertaining directly to Cloud have Cloud appear in them (and are detailed later), and you don't even step foot inside the store, much less see Cloud, so this can't be about him. So what is this about then? The important clue is that you are handed the ribbon, an non equippable item that is only compatible with summoned monsters. Who does Cloud know who is identified by another non equippable ribbon? Aerith. Somehow, Aerith is related to Guardian Forces, or in other words, Aerith is herself a summon. I'm sure plenty of you are scratching your heads at that one, and rightfully so, because we need to go into another game to get some more details.
Shortly after their work with Final Fantasy Tactics, Square decided they wanted to put several FF7 characters into the fighting game called Ergheiz (Subtitle: God bless the ring). They chose several characters from the game, but only two managed to make it into the game's story mode- Cloud and Tifa. They are only reachable by fulfilling certain conditions in story mode, after which you are given the chance to fight Cloud, whose story title is 'Guardian', and then -if you are successful in defeating Cloud and meeting the time and knockdown criteria- Tifa, whose story title is 'Summoner'. This is a clue that doesn't make a whole lot of sense until Final Fantasy 10, the prequel to Final Fantasy 7, is released. On Spira, Summoned Creatures were the manifestation of the will of a Fayth, and the same holds true of Gaia, with summon materia being the crystallized will of someone who has changed into a summon. Aerith was such an entity, and the reason she went to the forgotten capital was not to pray for Holy, though she did do that, but to await Tifa's arrival, as she had finally learned her purpose was to transform herself into a summon for Tifa (A natural summoner, though unaware of this fact) to use. Sephiroth realized her plans, and wanted to use Cloud, Tifa's chosen (though not consciously) guardian to kill Tifa's Personal Summon Monster, but stepped in to do the job himself when Cloud proved ineffective. Also, though he destroyed her physical shell, the summon spirit lives on, and can occasionally perform grand acts at Tifa's (unvoiced) behest, something Tifa finally realizes in Advent Children, which is why she thanks the raindrop, that tiny representation of her personal summon, Aerith.
There's also a secondary hidden plot to Final Fantasy Seven, this time revolving around Cloud. It occurs over the games of Final Fantasy Tactics, and Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
Some people say that the thing Cloud says he has lost in Final Fantasy Tactics is Aerith, but if this was the case, why does he not make any indication of this when he meets her alternate self, and continues on his search? It is because Cloud holds a secret he has forgotten. In Final Fantasy Tactics, the 'Ribbon' class of items is only equippable by females. Cloud can equip all of these items. This obviously means that Cloud is a womyn, raised as a boy by his grief stricken mother after the death of her husband. Clearly, what Cloud seeks is his gender identity, or rather HER Gender Identity, of being able to reconcile both being a womyn, and being attracted to them as well, something that would have not been smiled upon in the conservative mountain culture of Nibleheim.
Kingdom hearts follows this up by having Cloud searching for, and defeating Sephiroth, the embodiment of her 'darkness', a combination of the masculine identity she has been saddled with for most of her life and of her attraction to men, which is getting in the way of her relationship with her lover Tifa. This is made obvious by the fact that Sephiroth is best identified by his overly phallic sword, and how he often appears to Cloud with a bare or mostly exposed chest. Cloud fights and defeats this urge in KH, leading to a time when such things no longer trouble her. However, as Cloud defeated her desire for men with another masculine symbol, her own sword, it was inevitable that Sephiroth, the masculine darkness, would rear its ugly head again, leading to the additional showdown in Kingdom Hearts 2. In this showdown, Tifa's status as the embodiment of Cloud's light, and her statements that Cloud only needs to focus on her femininity and her attraction to womyn- Tifa in particular- and she won't be haunted by her masculine facade or her attraction to men, being too occupied with the light to care about the darkness, since this victory comes about without Cloud combating her desire for men with her masculine persona (though she does start the fight with her sword, she finishes it with feminine light), there is little chance that Cloud's masculine demons can reassert themselves again.
Cloud's story is about a young girl who living a lie, who must face the lie of being a boy along with all the other lies she has lived with in her life. It is also the story of the first lesbian couple in Final Fantasy. A progressive tale indeed.
So, there you have it. In brief, the real story of Final Fantasy Seven, Tifa is a summoner, Aerith is an Eidolon, Cloud is a womyn, and she and Tifa are lesbians. Thanks FF_G, for showing me the way to look at Final Fantasy to uncover the Truth!
Note: The pencilneck who has submitted this essay is currently under observation to see if she has started taking something she shouldn't, or stopped taking something she should. Hopefully, she shall be mentally fit in no time. We can only hope.