When it comes to the realm of gaming, everyone has to take sides. Which console is better? What game should be hailed as Game of the Year? Sprite based graphics or 2D? Are games to easy or should they offer more of a challenge? These are the standard questions gamers ask themselves.

However, the biggest question is one of the more polarizing but also one that brings a lot of gamers together: Tifa or Aerith? Yes, the two main female characters in Final Fantasy VII have split apart the fanbase. Not in violent flame wars, from what I’ve seen. Rather, it’s more of a difference of opinion with one side picking Tifa, the buxom pugilist and childhood friend of Cloud Strife, or Aerith, the spunky, demure flower girl and the last of the Cetra who is destined to put her life in danger to save the world.

To a lot of non-gamers, this is a very silly question. Just ask Zoe Kravitz as during her press tour to promote The Batman, a reporter commented to Robert Pattinson about how men will openly admit to crying while playing Final Fantasy VII. But Robert Pattinson said what all gamers were thinking: it’s just hard to choose between the two.

By the way, I will be going into SPOILER territory for this post. I know a majority of gamers knows what happens to one of the characters as it’s one of the most well-known secrets in gaming history. Heck, Robert Pattinson already spilled the beans in the clip above. However, I will be delving more SPOILERS from now on as I will be going through some moments from the original game. So, yeah. SPOILERS!

As someone who played the original Final Fantasy VII back when Square Enix was still called SquareSoft, I can say things weren’t so civil as they are now. This was the early days of the Internet and most people were just figuring out what they could do on it. So, not only did you have a lot of fans building free “shrine” websites dedicated to Tifa or Aerith, you also could find a lot of sites proclaiming how terrible they were. Thankfully, things have calmed down considerably since then and, while the “hate” is still there, it’s not the flame war that it was then.

Also, a lot of fans who did play the original have built up some, shall we say, false memories of how the characters were portrayed in the original PlayStation classic. This is especially true with Aerith as most people believed she was some kind of angel in the original game. Well, she wasn’t as she was not above charging exorbitant prices on her flowers if she knew some rube would be willing to pay 100 zenny just so they could get one from a pretty girl. She was pretty street smart then and why, while so many people were in disbelief that she cursed in Final Fantasy VII Remake, this was still aligned with her original personality.

Getting back to the topic at hand, though, it’s not difficult to see why fans have been asking who is Cloud’s “true love” in Final Fantasy VII. The folks as Square Enix/SquareSoft borrowed a lot of anime archetypes when developing Tifa and Aerith.

Tifa is literally the “girl next door” as she grew up with Cloud in the town on Nibelheim. She was always the popular girl in town while Cloud was too shy to hang out with her. She did become close to Cloud after the boy saved her from an deadly accident and, even though Cloud was blamed for what happened, Tifa never did forget what he did for her. She’s also kind of a tomboy, which is very apparent as, in a departure from most female characters in video games who use long range attacks, Tifa prefers quick and hard hitting melee strikes. There’s also Tifa’s looks as she’s very, shall we say, well-endowed. Despite being a striker, Tifa is more toned rather than bulky, which is probably why she can still move very fast and still hit very hard.

Despite her attractiveness, she’s not stuck up or haughty in the slightest. Tifa is still very down to earth and genuinely wants to help the people she sees are in trouble. She’s also rather tactful as well. She appears to have a lot of suitors but, because she doesn’t want to hurt their feelings by rebuffing them, Tifa generally pretends she doesn’t see the signals. This is why she manages to get along with everyone, even the ones who pine over her.

That’s not to say Tifa is flawless. One of the things Tifa haters will always say is how her people pleasing ways causes problems for Cloud as he is an unreliable narrator. At one point in the game, Cloud talks about revisiting his hometown of Nibelheim with Sephiroth after getting into the SOLDIER program. Most of the facts from his tale are true, such as Sephiroth going mad after discovering his origins, leading to the veteran SOLDIER razing the village to the ground. But Tifa doesn’t remember Cloud being there. This is because Cloud never got into the SOLDER program and he was actually one of the grunts who accompanied Sephiroth and Zack. If Tifa was just honest with Cloud, maybe he wouldn’t be that big of a mess.

Aerith, on the other hand, has a much more feminine personality when compared to Tifa. She may come off as somewhat naive but that’s only half true. After all, she grew up in the slums of Sector 5 so she knows her way around as well as take care of herself. Even so, she’s still super friendly and nice to the people around her. I’m assuming it’s because she was adopted by Elmyra and she taught her well.

In Remake, it’s hinted that Aerith isn’t super hot, at least when compared to Tifa. In fact, she comes off as rather plain looking. She does come off as more demure, thanks to her signature long dress. I’m actually impressed it never gets really dirty throughout the game, despite her running around the Slums as well as the areas in-between the Slums. Then again, while Tifa is supposed to be more gorgeous, Aerith can be considered to be the cute one. Aerith’s hot but not in the overtly sexy way like Tifa.

Aerith is actually a little more tactless than Tifa, in a sense. While Tifa’s biggest weakness is shutting up when she needs to speak up, Aerith is much more playful and open about her feelings and thoughts. This is precisely why the very guarded Cloud slowly opens up to her. In fact, she may even be the catalyst as to why Cloud generally lightens up throughout the games.

Still, Aerith is not perfect as well. In both the original and Remake, she has the weird tendency to lead Cloud on and seemingly trying to make Tifa jealous. While some people have written this off as her being clueless about her actions being flirty, you have to remember what I said about her being street smart. I have a feeling she knows exactly what she’s doing. While it may not be malicious, it is still kind of deceitful, especially since she doesn’t want Cloud to fall in love with her.

In the end, I actually do pick Aerith over Tifa and, weirdly enough, it’s not really close. Nothing against Tifa stans but I’m generally drawn to the Aerith archetype. I just like the magic pixie girl vibe Aerith generally has. But I can’t blame you for picking Tifa. In fact, I do think I’m in the minority as, while Aerith is more popular in Eastern regions, Tifa dominates in the Western world. Still, I do believe we can all be civil and pick the waifus we want, can’t we? Honestly, I do think we can all see everyone has a point.

Which camp to you belong to? The Tifa tribe or the Aerith association? Let me know in the comments section below!