TFS' Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged

I imagine the stuff with his father.

Improving as an author, one video at a time.

That would be the obvious thing...

YO. Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie.

I thought the joke they made Lampshading the Mood Whiplash was funny enough.

Elaborate.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

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edited 18th Dec '17 6:01:46 PM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Ah. Well, yes, silly me, I forgot about that.

Well thanks anyway. I'll just do some digital spelunking.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Oh yeah, forgot about the stuff about his dad. I mean, they were playing that pretty light, I wouldn't exactly consider that "getting serious."

Red flip-flopping between growling and "Woops! There I go again" had me laughing so hard. Probably the most of the entire episode. I'm eager to see what they do with Cosmo Canyon.

edited 19th Dec '17 1:53:08 AM by Talden

I just wonder how there going to handle the infamous seen with Aerith. Also how close are they to it?

In the actual game, Tifa is rather meek and traditionally feminine (soft-spoken, supportive of others rather than focusing on herself, etc) while Aeris is more aggressive and forward (she actively pursues Cloud rather than waiting for Cloud to notice her, she makes decisions for herself and follows through with them even against group consensus, etc).

The fandom — and FFVII: MA — generally reverse this. They make Tifa The Lad-ette (a hard-drinking, hard-living tough girl who swears like a sailor and solves all her problems by punching them) and Aeris The Ingenue (childlike innocence and Incorruptible Pure Pureness) except where Cloud's affections are concerned, at which point she becomes a Clingy Jealous Girl (up to full-on Yandere sometimes, depending on where they fall on Cloud x Tifa vs Cloud x Aeris).

I suspect this is mostly superficial character traits taking over. Tifa is a busty hand-to-hand brawler who wears a tank top and a miniskirt and works at a bar in a bad neighborhood, while Aeris is a (relatively) sheltered young woman with long braided hair and wearing a full-length dress, who sells flowers for a living and tends a beautiful garden in her spare time, and who (according to the narrative, anyway) isn't a fighter so needs a bodyguard to protect her. On a purely surface level, it looks like they've got a Tomboy and Girly Girl thing going on, with Tifa as the tomboy and Aeris as the girly girl. On a personally level, though, it's backwards — Tifa is the girly girl and Aeris is the tomboy.

All of which is why I still think it'd be funnier if Aeris was the crude and blunt one, while Tifa was sweet and innocent. The contrast between their appearance and their personality is funny in and of itself, but it's also just an exaggeration of their canon personalities so it works better as parody.

edited 19th Dec '17 6:40:12 AM by NativeJovian

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Personally, I like Abridged Tifa's crassness because it matches her look. There's a really obnoxious tendency in Japanese works to make Ms. Fanservice an innocent, sweet, naive soul who would never touch a penis or anything naughty like that, and doesn't know why everyone thinks it's weird that she's basically wearing a napkin. It's appears everywhere in anime and video games and it's always stupid as hell; a way to have your fanservice cake without having to tolerate the existence of sexually assertive women.

Also, like, she's a brawler. So that's a thing. The idea that she's a passive, meek, shy girl feels like it doesn't exactly mesh with the idea that she will rip your f*cking skull off with her bare hands and shove her fist down your neck stump.

edited 19th Dec '17 7:10:22 AM by TobiasDrake

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Except that's why Tifa works a character better then if she were a stereotypical Ladette, which is why its even better when Aerith is the Ladette. its a Role reversal for a reason.

And Tifa isn't "Innocent" in terms of sex at all, btw.

Watch Symphogear

"It's a role reversal!" is not a defense of dumb character choices. Throwing in a subversion just for the sake of having a subversion is a hollow character choice.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Are we talking about the original character or the abridged version at this point?

Obviously, when I'm talking about Tifa being meek, I mean socially. She's not hesitantly tip-toeing up to monsters and giving them a half-hearted slap. She's a talented martial artist and more than capable of handling herself in combat. But that doesn't make her assertive or confident when dealing with her friends and allies.

As far as role reversal, subverting expectations is a pretty key element of comedy, so I'm not really sure what you mean by calling it "hollow".

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Pretty sure Tobias means just because expectations are being subverted (in the original game), doesn't make them any less cliche (in regards to Japanese media, at least).

As for the abridged version, whether you'd find it funnier if their personalities were exaggerated over their roles being reversed is definitely a matter of comedic taste. Personally, I think I'd prefer what Team Four Star is doing right now as opposed to them just simply ripping their personalities from the game and exaggerating their character traits.

Personally, I think that the general dynamic they have here works better for someone who's known Cloud for awhile, rather than someone that he's just met.

Oh God! Natural light!

Pretty much this.

You know what else is cliche? "The meek, chaste wallflower girl wins the day and falls in love with the hero while the brash and aggressive woman is punished for her lack of traditional femininity by being killed off."

We literally have a trope for this.

It's not subverting expectations when you play obnoxious cliches completely straight. What TFS has done with Aerith is present her as the Final Girl, the one who is absolutely 100% guaranteed to be alive and walk into the sunset hand-in-hand with Cloud at the story's end. That is subverting expectations.

edited 19th Dec '17 11:45:29 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

I wasn't making any value judgements, I was just describing the work. If you don't like the way the characters were written in canon, then that's an entirely reasonable opinion and I'm not going to argue with you.

I don't see how swapping out the only subversive thing the game does (giving the girly girl character design the tomboy personality and vice versa) and making it 100% played straight (so that stereotypical character design and personality match) is an improvement, though.

I'm not sure that Final Girl is the trope you want, though. That one is about the final surviving heroine in a slasher flick, which doesn't seem to mesh with the post you made at all.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Karkat mentioned that Tifa's personality (I'm 99% sure he/she means Tifa here) works better for someone who's known Cloud for so long. She's more inclined to be abrasive and pushy towards Cloud because of that fact (knowing how stupid he can be). I think that works better than if they just used her personality from FFVII, from a purely comedic perspective. But, again, it's just an opinion. I'd probably still be laughing my ass off because TFS is so good at parodying characters.

Well alright then.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

I was referring to Tifa, yes. And yeah, I was thinking that it made more sense that was, as a way to build enmity between them.

Oh God! Natural light!

I like Tifa in this, but I'm not sure that I like what they've done with Aerith. The debate about their personalities aside, she just doesn't feel as important and developed as Tifa does and it hurts her character.

Tifa has her friendship with Yuffie, her obvious hang-ups when it comes to Cloud and his memories of Nibelheim, we've been reminded that she and Barret are actually friends and that she's a bit of a big sister to his daughter, she's already suspicious of Cait Sith, she's the stuff of Reno's nightmares, etc.

Aerith doesn't have a strongly defined relationship with anyone so far, not even Cloud. Episode 12 and 16 showed that she was rather good at easing the pain of others (as opposed to Tifa, who empathizes but prefers to give people their space, and Cloud, who is just oblivious), but even that isn't strongly defined.

There is favoritism there is what I'm saying, and Aerith isn't the subject of it!

edited 19th Dec '17 1:49:38 PM by Sannom