Aerith herself doesn't care if you want to ship Cloud and Tifa. Briana White, the actor behind the English voice of beloved flower girl in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, says headcanon is the true canon in this instance.
"I get asked this all the time," White says in an interview with Dan Allen Gaming on YouTube. "Like, 'who do you ship?' To be honest, I know some people think it's a cop-out answer, but it's whoever you think is right - is right! That's the way the game is designed! There's a reason why it's an option for you to go on a date with Aerith or with Tifa. Or with neither of them! You know? There is a reason for that. It's because it's an RPG. It's a role-playing game, so you - Cloud, the character, the player - get to choose who you like the best. Both are correct. All are correct."
White says that "whatever your headcanon is, I love that for you, and I just don't care about anything else. I don't care about the negativity or' mine's right, yours is wrong.' It's just… they're all right."
For people like my colleague Heather, who spent 70 hours trying to get the perfect date with Tifa in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, I'm sure this comes as a kind of vindication. As an Aerith fan, let me echo White's sentiments: just date who you like, ship who you wanna ship, and let people have their preferences. At least, this is what I tell myself working in an office full of Tifa enthusiasts.
Online shipping wars can get pretty vicious, but White says she's gotten adept at dodging the hate over the years. "It was a bit tougher during Remake, I would say, because I wasn't as aware that there was so much negativity surrounding it. So I really just kind of stayed away from anything regarding that." She continues, "if anyone's overtly nasty or negative towards me specifically, it's an easy mute or block. But that doesn't happen very often. Things have settled down with Rebirth, and I've only really seen very positive things."
