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.
In real life, people and especially women can get real emotional with the whole ‘childhood crush’ thing. They feel like its a link to their past, to the person they were when they were young, and the feeling of recapturing your lost self can translate into feelings of intimacy and romance for a lot of people. Of course, that’s in real life, not game logic.



