"Tifa wa ironna tachiba wo awase motte irun desu ne. Haha no you demo ari, koibito demo ari, isshou ni tatakatte kita senyuu demo aru"

Translated this statement says this:
There are so many different roles that Tifa holds. She's like a mother, a lover, and a close ally in battle.

TresDias, who has written many essays on Final Fantasy, and knows a bit of Japanese had this to say: "Just think of it as meaning "beloved" with a strictly sexual/romantic connotation. Most people in English wouldn't use it except in cases of mutuality."

Another friend of mine who is also unbiased in the case had this to say: It's basically, if you hear this, people are going to assume that it's mutual and that there's two people involved there (since the word itself is talking about the object of affection, not the person doting the affection). Not to say that's always the case, since emotions are a subjective thing. You can think to yourself, "hey, Billy's my koibito" while Billy might be all "woah, back off woman". However, we aren't talking about what Tifa thinks herself. Because this was Nomura, talking about a fictional character in the third person.

So the majority of the time, it establishes a love between two people and it was coming from Nomura himself, but there are also times when it is simply stating that someone is loved by someone else. For simplicities sake, I'm going to address the word as if it's simply stating Tifa is someone's beloved or dearest. Now onto the arguments.

Argument #1: The first argument is that when written in Kanji, the word simple means "person who loves." I'm assuming they're trying to say that Tifa is someone who has a lot of love in her and is generally warm and caring.

While this definition sounds a lot like Tifa, the simple fact of the matter is this argument is not true. The argument further states when written in "Katakana," koibito has the meaning of boyfriend/girlfriend/lover. Again this is not the case and this time I'll quote my friend Cee, who put it best, "Well Katakana is like phonetics, kanji can be read as anything depending on what katakana is written next to it. Katakana usually doesn't have meaning, it's more often used for names and english words." So saying while written in Katakana the word means something different simply isn't accurate.

Conclusion on Argument #1: I'm not saying Cleriths are liars or anything of the sort. But I do think some of them are either misinformed or taking something out of context because this simply isn't true.

Argument #2: The next argument I see come up a lot is that koibito can be an adjective to describe someone or something. The example has been brought up that Shiroi Koibito is a brand of white chocolate cookies from Japan. Their name means "white beloved ones." Of course running the site through Alta Vista Translator, all I got was, "There are 2 types of "white sweetheart black" where the "white sweetheart white" where the white chocolate was put and, the milk chocolate was put." Not that it was really needed to know what the cookies are made of, they clearly are not in a romantic relationship with anyone. However, they are also cookies and can't be, so that's really not the best example to use in this situation.

My other problem with this argument is the "koibito" in the Reunion Files is clearly a noun. Sure koibito can apparently be an adjective, but in this case it IS a noun. Since the word beloved can be either an adjective or a noun, let's plug in the noun definition. A person can be someone else's "beloved," can they not? This leads us to wonder who Tifa is a beloved to. Many Cleriths will point out Johnny as a possibility, but he wasn't even in the movie, so I doubt the Reunion Files are referring to him. There's only one person in the movie that I can think of that would consider Tifa a beloved, and it's not Barret.

Conclusion on Argument #2: Since the koibito in the Reunion Files is a noun and not an adjective, making this argument doesn't make a lot of sense.

Argument #3: The other phrase that comes up is "Nihon no koibito" which is Japan's Sweetheart. This is used to prove that koibito doesn't always have a romantic undertone. I mean, clearly the "sweetheart" isn't in a romantic relationship with all of Japan, but where did this phrase come from? I had to do some research as to when this phrase is used. This is what I came up with. It was a title given to a man who was a singer and known for a style of records in which he was really good at "wooing" the audience. He earned the title "Japan's Sweetheart/Lover." While, yes this doesn't mean he has a relationship with all of Japan, the phrase given to this man pretty much revolved around romance and I'm sure people loved him for it.

Conclusion on Argument #3: If this is supposed to make me think that the koibito in the Reunion File isn't about romance... it's not doing a good job.

Argument #4: So we move onto the next argument which is that if Tifa is someone's beloved, it could be a large number of people who love her at once. Johnny, Barret, Rude and possibly the entire inhabitants of Nilbelheim. (FYI I have no idea why people keep bringing up Barret, but they do so...) Up until recently, I believed this was possible as the "Nihon no koibito" meant this guy was loved by all of Japan, so why couldn't Tifa be loved by more than one person? It made sense at the time, but then I thought about it. The problem with this argument is Tifa is stated to be "a koibito" not "Midgar's Koibito" or "Nilbelheim's Koibito," so the argument doesn't work here. I asked my friend aneJlek if koibito could mean someone is loved by a lot of people when used by itself. He had this to say: It's used for love between 2 individuals. Not between a whole group of people, that's something else

Conclusion on Argument #4: If Nomura was trying to say that Tifa was loved by a lot of people, he either would have used another word, or he would have referred to her as something like "Midgar's Koibito." So this argument is not valid.

Argument #5: The argument about the koibito possibly being Cloud's crush on Tifa when they were kids comes from the line, "tatakatte kita senyuu." (戦ってきた戦友) The word "te kita" indicates the beginning of some process or continuation of some action up to a certain point of time. Obviously Tifa didn't start fighting by Cloud's side in AC/C, she was doing so from FFVII and on. Because of this, some people refer to her role in FFVII and how many people had a crush on her. The problem is, the way the sentence is written, the "te kita" only applies to her being a fighter. It's simply saying she's always fought along side her friends. The "te kita" should not be applied to koibito. Since the Reunion Files as a whole is talking about Advent Children Complete, it wouldn't make much sense for this one word and one word alone to be referring to her past, (especially as far back as when she and Cloud were kids) and especially without indicating the entire statement is in past tense.

Also, many Cleriths insist that Cloud no longer has a cruch on Tifa during FFVII. The problem with this statement is that Tifa started fighting along side Cloud in FFVII, not when she was a child. If you insist that Cloud's crush on Tifa began when Tifa started fighting along side Cloud, that means he had a crush on her in FFVII, so the statements contradict one another.

Conclusion on Argument #5: Nomura is talking about Tifa's roles in AC/C, and the fact that she continues to fight along side like she always has. The "koibito" is not referring to Cloud's crush on her as a child.

Argument #6: This argument says Nomura was describing Tifa's traits and not her roles. In order to use this argument, we have to use the official translation written on the page. The translation is this, "There are many dimensions to Tifa's character. She's like a mother, a sweetheart, and a close ally in battle." So by using the official translation and nothing else, some argue that Nomura was describing Tifa's character or traits, and not stating she actually IS a koibito. Well that seems pretty reasonable, I mean if you're describing someone's character you're talking about their traits, right? So Tifa has the traits of a mother, the traits of a lover, and the traits of an ally in battle. ... WHOA WHOA wait wait hold up here. Here's where the problem comes into play. Tifa doesn't have the traits of an ally on battle, she IS an ally in battle. To say she's like one almost seems like an insult. I mean what would you say if a co-worker of yours came up to you and said, "Hey you have the traits of a person I work with." Your reaction would probably be this:

So where does roles come from? In the original Japanese text the word tachiba (立場) means position or roles. So if the official English translation has the word "character" in it, couldn't that mean they're describing her character traits? Not really, imagine the sentence going more like this, "The various roles comprising Tifa's character are that of being like a mother, being someone's beloved, and being a steadfast ally in combat."

Conclusion on Argument #6: Nomura is definitely describing her roles and not her traits. The word trait isn't even used.

Argument #7: The argument that it could be referring to Johnny kind of goes along with the koibito either being Cloud's crush or it referring to a group of people. Johnny wasn't even in the movie, so I highly doubt Nomrua would reference Johnny for no reason, especially when putting her other roles on a level such as "a mother to these children" and "fights in life or death battles."

Conclusion on Argument #7: It's not Johnny. Never was and never will be.

Argument #8: This isn't an argument against the koibito being Cloud, but it is something that I wanted to point out. It's actually not two seperate words, it's simply a compound word. It's like "butterfly" or "overboard." Sure those words can stand by themselves, but if you want the exact meaning of "butterfly," you wouldn't write it like "butter fly." Same with koibito. It is made up of two words. Koi (恋) which means "love or tender passion" and bito (人). Now if you want to get technical, bito can't stand by itself, the actual kanji that is used in this case is for "hito" which means person. So why when the word is written in English and Katatana is it "bito" instead of "hito?" "Bito" is the "stressed" pronunciation in Japanese for the word "Hito." The stressing comes when words are compounded together and is done to make the the flow and pronunciation work better for the speaker. A simliar example would be that goi can be used instead of koi.

Conclusion on Argument #8: Koibito is one word made up of two. It's a compound word and especially in the case of Reunion Files, shouldn't be written as two words.

Argument #9: Saying it'd be jumping to conclusions to say the koibito is Cloud sort of goes alongside the Johnny argument. While it's true that Cloud's name isn't mentioned on the page, really, who else it could be talking about? As the Cloti argument says, Cloud is simply the most reasonable answer. Sure Rude is in the movie and he's said to have a crush on Tifa, and a lot of kids had a crush on Tifa in the past, but again the other roles of hers listed are very important. If you assume anyone but Cloud, you get a statement like this, "Tifa has a lot of roles. she's raising these two kids, so she's like a mother to them. She also fights in life and death battles with her friends, so she's an ally to them. Oh, and she's liked by this guy who she barely notices the existence of. That's not important to the movie that this book is all about, but I just thought I'd throw that in there while discussing her." Really, even Nomura isn't that nuts.

The argument was also made that if Cloud is the one the message is addressing, how come we didn't see any type of romantic love between the two of them? Well that's very true, we didn't. But we also didn't see her sharing romantic love with anyone else. So going by that alone you cannot one minute say it can't be Cloud, and then the next say it could be Rude or Johnny. It doesn't make sense. Also, the simple fact that there is no romance AT ALL in ACC says to me that they didn't want to bother putting any romance in there. But just because you don't see romance, doesn't mean it's not there.

Conclusion on Argument #9: Given the context of the surrounding sentence and of the book itself, Johnny and Rude or anyone else simply do not fit.

Argument #10: Some people argue that the "like" in this statement refers to mother, lover and ally in battle. The official translation certainly does flow that way to make one think that. So is it saying she's like these things, but that she isn't actually these things? Once again we run into the problem of Tifa isn't LIKE an ally in battle, she IS an ally in battle. To use this example again, imagine if a co worker of yours came up to you and said, "Hey you're like someone I work with." It doesn't make sense. It's safe to assume that the "like" does not in fact refer to the "ally in battle." I'd also like to point out that I don't get how you can be "like someone's beloved." No idea what that means but what if we used the word lover?

In order to access this argument, we need to look at the Japanese statement. "Tifa wa ironna tachiba wo awase motte irun desu ne. Haha no you demo ari, koibito demo ari, isshou ni tatakatte kita senyuu demo aru"

The part that I've bolded is demo ari and demo aru. They act a as a semi colon and a period respectively. The "no you" is the part that means like. So what we basically have here is, "She's like a mother, is also a lover, and is also a close ally in battle." Basically three separate clauses that could almost be three separate sentences. Since "no you" is only used for the mother part, it's safe to say that the "like" part is only supposed to be used with the mother clause. She's like a mother, IS someone's beloved and IS a close ally in battle.

Conclusion on Argument #10: The word like only addresses Tifa being like a mother. She is a lover and is an ally in battle.

Argument #11: Well this is actually a really good argument. Nomura would not solve the love triangle with one single statement. He would solve the love triangle with several statements such as saying Cloud and Tifa revealed their feelings for one another and now live together. So does this one statement solve the love triangle? No, it does not, but you can't take this statement by itself and itself alone. You have to look at the whole puzzle.

Conclusion on Argument #11: There have been several statements by Nomura and Nojima that make many believe there is a conclusion to the love triangle. It's not just one statement at all.

There are other arguments sometimes used in conjunction with this statement such as "Nomura says that Tifa has a maternal bond to Cloud, which contradicts her being his sweetheart" and "If Tifa was "left behind by a man" that doesn't sound like she's someone's sweetheart" and I addressed those on my Reunion Files page.

There is one last thing I want to address about the quote. Many people have asked, "If Nomura so intended to make Tifa into a 'lover,' why does the official translation use the term sweetheart, which, when used in the context it's used in, could mean she's an endearing person?" It's a good question, and the answer is something that happens quite often actually. It's not really using the wrong word, but it's using it incorrectly. I asked about this on another forum, and a young man by the name of Greg had this answer.

That's a sense of someone translating and using the correct term, incorrectly in English. Someone might describe her as their own 'sweetheart'. Like barbershop quartet style. It does not mean 'sweetheart' in the endearing sense, "Awww, aren't you a sweetheart." And that can easily be misconstrued the sense it's used in.

An appropriate translation would be "...a lover..", since it's talking about the roles she's assumed.

Conclusion: So, is this statement in fact, a conclusion to the love triangle? Well, since there is no name included, no the statement by itself is not conclusive; however that's only if you look at it as a single solitary quote. If you take into account the many other quotes that are out there such Cloud and Tifa realizing their feelings for one another and starting to live together and continuing to do so in DoC , it's very obvious who the quote is referring to. I probably don't need to say who it is, but he's referred to as Tifa's love interest; Nojima has said Tifa belongs with him; he's revealed his mutual feelings with her and now, in this statement, he sees Tifa as his beloved. He is, of course, the one and only Cloud Strife.

... Okay 180s aside, let's look at this quote. The first thing to discuss is that Cleriths and Clotis alike seem to argue a lot on whether or not the statement is in past or present tense. Well, I'm telling you right now, it's in past tense. The end verb (だった, which means was) sets the tense for the statement. Some people argue that であり sets the tense, but this isn't true. であり is simply a conjunctive form which leads to the next part of the statement. This isn't to mention that the entire novella and in fact ALL of the novellas are written the same way, which is past tense. It would seem ludicrous for this one statement and one statement alone to be in present tense. It is in fact past tense, as are all the other novellas so the statement being in past tense doesn't help the Cloti case at all.

The next thing I'm going to get out of the way is the last argument by Clotis. My problem with this is you'd have to assume that if Cloud is a symbol of these things, he isn't actually those things. We know he was at least Aerith's friend, so I prefer not to use this argument.

Now because I always come to a Cloti conclusion, I'm going to speak of koibito this time as if it was being used to attempt establish a relationship. So basically, it comes down to the second part of what my friend said above. I'll post it again so you don't have to scroll up:

It's basically, if you hear this, people are going to assume that it's mutual and that there's two people involved there (since the word itself is talking about the object of affection, not the person doting the affection). Not to say that's always the case, since emotions are a subjective thing. You can think to yourself, "hey, Billy's my koibito" while Billy might be all "woah, back off woman".

Now is Case of Lifestream White telling us Aerith's feelings, or is Nojima stating for a fact that Cloud was her lover at one point? The answer is really quite simple. All of the novellas are written the same way which is third person limited. Third person limited has the narrator tell the story through one characters eyes and one character's eyes only. An easy way to look at this is to simply look at the sentence in context. Is it a universally accepted fact that Cloud is someone to be protected? No, it's Aerith's feelings that Cloud is someone to be protected. We can also take into account other statements from Case of Lifestream Black such as, "The man thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat." Obviously, the narrator isn't stating the planet was to be Sephiroth's rule as a fact, but rather that Sephiroth believes it to be so. So clearly the novella is only telling us Aerith's feelings, and not stating anything as fact.

Now before I get to my conclusion, I want to point out that I am by no means saying Cloud was ever "Whoa, back off Aerith," or that Aerith is delusional. All I am saying is what Aerith is feeling isn't universal truth and is not fact. If you're mean to Aerith and ignore her throughout disc 1 and get the date with Tifa or Yuffie, it really doesn't make any sense at all for Aerith to say Cloud was her lover. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're nice to Aerith and end up on the date with her, it makes perfect sense and you're probably all "WTF? How can you not trust Aerith?" at anyone who says otherwise. The bottom line is, because of the date mechanics on disc 1 this statement will either present itself as fact to some, or as just Aerith's feelings to others. So what this really comes down to, is how you played the game in disc 1 and whether or not it makes sense for Aerith to call Cloud her lover. I personally don't think there's any reason to distrust what Aerith says, but again, I can see others being confused by this depending on how they played the game.

Conclusion: Because of the date mechanics in disc 1, and the story being in third person limited, it is not definite proof of a relationship between the two. It is, however, proof positive that Aerith loved Cloud very dearly while she was alive.

Note: It is quite common for people to confuse the narrator with the author, and I would advice anyone to read this page if they're still unsure about the issue.