I think Tifa’s problem was that she had a guilt-trip over Cloud; it was her accident while exploring a cave together that caused him to feel powerless to help her, and thus obsessed with becoming “strong enough to protect her.” Though that was his fault, she didn’t help by encouraging him on. Her attempts to help him -even getting him on Avalanche- always struck me as her trying to make up for it. She also of course had that kind of crush you see often in Anime where two friends want to be more than that but feel it awkward because they know each other since childhood and they’re more like siblings. The irony here is that Tifa herself has become physically powerful -to avenge her father’s death- but is emotionally weak. Yeah, everybody in FFVII had issues. Emo game indeed. But fun. 
The one character I wish we knew better is Reeves/Caith Sith. How did a guy like him end up in the highly corrupted upper ranks of Shinra? You’d think he would have been kicked out for being a “softy”. Why was he, of all people, behind the effort to infiltrate the good guys? Where did he get Cait, did he make it himself? AND WHY DID THE HEROES ALLOW A ROBOT TO JOIN THEM? Especially since it was supposed to be just a “fortune telling machine out to find out what was wrong with its prediction”. Buh? And they bought THAT story? (The prediction, if I remember correctly, foretold that Cloud and Aeris’ romance was doomed. I wonder if Reeves was really puzzled over that?)


