I’ve wa♋xed lyrical befoꦑre about how Aerith and Tifa are the lesbian power couple we need in Final Fantasy 7 Remake 2, alongside how Cloud should be used as an emotional support twink instead of the heteronormative third member in the game’s archaic love triangle. The chemistry between the two girls in the remake is magnetic, whether they🦋’re teasing their fellow party members, fighting against evil, or confiding in one another when the going gets tough. It’s genuinely touching, and could easily blossom into romance if the opportunity ever arose.
I’m not convinced Square Enix would dare go in such a direction, due to a mixture of the series’ canon and❀ not wantin⛦g to upset the gamers. But a girl can dream, and the recent announcement of a light novel with an original story by Kazushige Nojima, a man who has helmed several stories in the franchise for decades, has my mind doing backflips regarding all the possibilities. The relationship between Aeri𝄹th and Tifa has been given significantly more attention in the remake universe, and materials such as this is evidence that Square Enix i🃏s fully aware of fan’s love for it, so I want it to lead somewhere groundbreaking, to establish a queer romance in a world that is sorely in need of one. Enough of gals being pals, let’s make it something more.
The light novel summary is rather cryptic, providing only the smallest of clues regarding what it will entail: “No one was there who wanted to listen, no one was there who wanted to talk. The two heroines who color the world of Final Fantasy 7, this is the unknown story oꦚf their different paths.” As I alluded to earlier, Aerith and Tifa are two women who have learned to confide in one another during the events of Remake, finding sympathy in their shared experiences of trauma in a world that is willing to treat women as sexual objects or throw them into underground labs to be experimented upon. They're fighting a losing battle, but together they can triumph over adversity.
Judging by its brief synopsis, the novel is going to focus on the bond between Aerith and Tifa, and how in a landscape where they are often ignored, they can come together and learn from one another, talking things out to find a path forward. It also hints at the backstory of both characters, which will almost certainly have changed in some way given how this new iteration of the Final Fantasy 7 universe is toying with different timelines and all that convoluted nonsense. Everything is on the taඣble, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Square Enix pulls the rug out 🌺from beneath us once again to change things up. I’m already convinced that Aerith isn’t going to die in this new timeline, with Zach sacrificing himself in her stead given his recent return to the land of the living. Defying fate is a core theme of this new journey, for the heroes and villains, and I can see it being a constant motif with each new game.
The remake universe is one that is no longer just a modern conversion of the JRPG classic - it is instead a form of media that is drawing from Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and every single piece of FF7 content under the sun before pouring it into a single experience. It’s going to be an absolute mess once things are all said and done, especially with Tetsuya Nomura having a hand in things, but I can’t help but admire Square’s willingness to throw everything at the wall. It’s impossible for everything to stick, but if the most compelling elements do, the selection of failures will hardly matter. I🔥 hope they throw som✅ething queer at said wall, building upon the gender fluidity of Honeybee Inn with a canonical gay romance that isn’t afraid to push boundaries in such a major franchise.
Ryne and Gaia from Final Fantasy 14 came tantalisingly close, sharing a similar connection to Aerith and Tifa in that it was easy to label them as “just r🗹eally good friends” if you weren’t willing to read between the lines. With a novel focused entirely on them, Final Fantasy 7 Remake could make things far more definitive, not shying away from chemistry that fans continue to morph into fanart and theories that would sadly never be capitalised upon. ‘Two Pasts’ is a title that heavily implies flashbacks, or Aerith and Tifa looking back at their shared history and learning from their achievements and mistakes as they grow closer together. It probably won’t be gay, but I’m convinced if I keep wishing for it that something will happen eventuaꦕlly.
I doubt it will be told in any explici♓t means, and given it’s a Japanese-only release (for now), Twin Pasts isn’t likely to include any massive revelations regarding the upcoming sequel. If it does, expect it to be repeated in the game itself when it arrives in the coming years. However, I’ll bite for any form of advancement in Aerith and Tifa’s relationship, even if it means hunting for the bare minimum of representation in an experience that is determined to define itself as heternormative. I don’t think every strong female friendship needs to develop into romance, but with Aerith and Tifa, the foundations feel so wonderfully natural that if it ever ventured in that direction, it would feel right. They certainly have more chemistry with each other than 🗹with Cloud, who will inevitably win the cute girl lottery when all is said and done. Away from a wider audience, this upcoming novel could change that. Or just transform Avalanche into a giant polycule - that works too.