Aerith vs Tifa

In the time since writing my list of compelling gaming heroine where I rated Aerith Gainsborough as my fav. Having made such a declaration, I thought I might contribute my thoughts to a never ending debate: Tifa Lockhart or Aerith Gainsborough. The two key heroines of Final Fantasy VII. This debate has been lasting a long time, many years since the game to be exact, and, as long as SquareEnix keeps pumping out stuff bearing the FF7 logo, doesn’t look like it’ll be ending sometime soon.
Granted I haven't attracted any attention from angry Tifa fans (alliteration!) but still, the Aerith/Tifa debate is something that’s guaranteed to have FF7 fans at each other’s throats so I might throw my two cents in.

But before I begin, I thought I might share my own thoughts on the role of women characters in gaming, both as a gamer and an aspiring writer.
It seems to me that female game characters seem to exist in two extremities: They are either a) a damsel in distress, incapable of doing a single thing when the hero isn’t around (eg: Princess Peach) or b) independent woman of the speak-to-me-and-I’ll-kick -your-balls-in variety (eg: Lara Croft). There appears to exist very little in the terms of overlap.
With the women’s rights movement, the fairy tale-inspired motif of ‘princess waiting around for prince to be rescued’ seems to have lost relevance in a modern world. Sure it may have been both a motivational aspect and a familiar plot device for games, but it does raise the question of why would the princess wait around for so long for the protagonist to get his act together? In all that time spent waiting wouldn’t she herself attempt to escape?
As for the independent woman motif, I’m not buying into it. It would appear that being independent means being grouchy and bitchy when a male character as so much says hello to you, doing everything a man can do to prove …….something, and favouring bleeding to death over asking for help. I have nothing wrong with women being independent but more often than not such independence is taken to unnecessarily extreme levels. Some would argue about one’s masculinity being threatened but I refute that claim by saying I wouldn’t be bothered by a female character who can do anything equally well as (or even surpass) the males – I would only be bothered if she decided to be a total bitch about it afterwards. Also, I’ve noticed in women characters that independence and depth don’t really sit well together. Just look at Lara Croft: As pointed out by Yahtzee, once you get past her over-sized bazoombas there really isn’t much to her: She is just stealing priceless historical artefacts before her rivals – all of which seem to have a lot less money than Lara. Sorry but I like my heroines to have a lot more than a rack big enough to land stealth bombers on.
What I look for in female game character is someone who has intelligence, has some capable fighting skills, is pro-active in solving a problem, has hopes and dreams like any other hero, doesn’t suddenly become completely useless when a problem arises, is able to do things without the hero being around, ends up rescuing the hero as many times as he rescues her AND has the looks to match.
So in any case, my criteria isn’t really that hard to accomplish and having a well-thought out female character with depth and independence isn’t really that hard.

Now that my view on female gaming characters has been established, let’s return to the task at hand: Tifa or Aerith. My thoughts on Aerith have already been established so lets cut straight to the chase and look at Tifa



Well, there’s no getting around it: For a bunch of polygons, she sure looks gorgeous. Okay she may not be much in the FF7 game graphics but, as the pic I’ve used above will attest, in Advent Children she looks great. For a fictional character, I’m quite impressed with what the animators did with her hair, her eyes and her facial features. Appearances are indeed stunning and it’s clear to see why Tifa has quite a large number of fans.
But I’m not fooled so easily: Through playing FF7 I didn’t find much to like about Tifa: Her limit breaks were lame, her fighting capabilities were useless, her stats were low and, as a result, I rarely used her at all. And this is supposed to be the greatest martial artist on the planet?
Okay maybe I’m being harsh but not without good reason. You see, there is something I don’t really like about Tifa’s personality. For the greatest martial artist on the planet (apparently), Tifa sure comes across as being somewhat useless the instant Cloud isn’t around – even to the point where Barrett actually points it out.
In fact a lot of Tifa’s world seems to revolve around Cloud: She worries about him when he isn’t around but won’t tell anyone else about it, and from the looks of it, the lass is in need of someone to look up to and lean upon when things are looking bad. Indeed, it makes me wonder how many male players entered their own name instead of Cloud’s.
But now that I think about it, Tifa really strikes me as pandering to the fanboys: a busty yet emotionally frail heroine who needs a man to rely because she can’t do jack the instant he leaves the room? What male wouldn’t want Tifa gushing over him?
To her credit though, Tifa certainly comes across as a more emotionally stable character in Advent Children, who’s more than capable of holding her own in a fight. And her appearance has a lot more sensuality than Aerith.
Ultimately though, Tifa strikes me as a woman who seems to need a man in a life becuase it seems that without one, she'd get nowhere fast. Indeed, it's the Lara Croft thing: Get past the looks and there's not really much left.

So when Tifa fails to win me over, Aerith claims that honour. After all, can you say no to those wonderful eyes?



Didn't think so