Romance Author Reacts to Gaming Love Scenes - BALDUR'S GATE 3, FFVII REBIRTH, THE WITCHER 3

[@natashamacedo6848]

It's a pity she didn't get to see Gale's more "talkative" romance scenes!! His lines are so beautiful at times

[@somebodysnightmare]

I love how she 100% nailed the dynamics of Cloud's relationships with Tifa and Aerith perfectly and how they are both important but explicitly different from each other. She also perfectly nailed the characterization. Not sure how much she knows about the full story including the compilation, but this is a pretty remarkable analysis just off the context of what she sees in the two scenes. The day the FFVII fandom will accept this and accept the beauty of both is the day we shall know peace.

[@SR-kh6yq]

"accept the beauty of both" yet you're here writing this comment trying to use this video as validation for Cloti because this random person called your ship's clip more romantic... okay lol

[@darthmaul3228]

@@SR-kh6yqi really can‘t understand aerith and cloud shippers like you when there is a guy named zack

[@SR-kh6yq]

@@darthmaul3228 you mean the guy who basically gave Cloud his blessing in Rebirth when he realized Cloud and Aerith have something going on?

[@Step43099]

@@SR-kh6yqThat’s not really what happened but

[@Maggie-y5e]

I dont want Peace! I want problems always! Nah just kidding, your right.

[@lenakingsleigh]

Nooo there are so many romance scenes that are waaay better in both Mass Effect and Baldur's Gate 3 though... Gale, Astarion, Karlach. They all have such amazingly written dialogue scenes, why chose this one with no dialogue at all? Especially for a writer, who pays close attention to those things! Same with Mass Effect. I mean that Shepard and Liara scene is a classic, but the Thane or Garrus one whould've been so much more interesting to analyze and let her look at. Can we have a part two where she watches and reacts to those, please?

[@RR-mc4qj]

So nice to hear her interest in playing FFVII Remake/Rebirth. The quality of writing and performance that has gone into the cast of that game is masterful and I'd recommend that project to anyone who can appreciate intricately crafted characters attempting to navigate life through layers of trauma.

[@isbammoi3358]

DESPERATELY need more of this beautiful woman breaking down video game romance chemistry, what a treat this was to watch. I'm gonna have to give those books a look 👀

[@ZonaiHero-ul5nm]

Agreed. If she wants to see another good video game romance I would recommend Noah and Mío from Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

[@StygianStilettosGamer]

You absolutely NAILED the dynamics of Cloud and Tifa vs Cloud and Aerith! And not for nothing, won't spoil anything but ummm...if you like Cloud and Tifa, you will NOT be disappointed lol! Excellent work!

[@rebelsway]

I love seeing normal and rational people perfectly assess the scenes as they are and as what they're meant to be, outside the stifling shipping bubbles and fandoms that won't allow you to do that in fear of upsetting one side. Because the dynamics are spot on and very clear!

[@VectoredPromise]

Why not have her watch a Geralt and Yen scene for contrast, like you did with Tifa and Aerith? Missed opportunity

[@laurajanco2i]

And it's so interesting that she said that about the Cloud and Aerith scene, talking about how it's good for character development, but not for romance, because in a dialogue of that same scene on the water tower (which is the place in which Cloud asks Tifa out and promises to be her hero), Aerith asks Cloud if he used to peek at Tifa's window from there when he was young and the next confrontation with Tifa has her talking with Cloud about how he infact used to be curious about her during their childhood. To summarize, what looks like an intimate scene between Cloud and Aerith, is another confirmation of Cloud's feelings towards Tifa and Aerith's longing for a similar dynamic which was denied to her when she was a kid and she was lonely, with Cloud being worried and trying to console her.

[@cordata008]

"Another confirmation of Cloud's feelings towards Tifa" ohhhh! I hadn't seen it that way, thanks for pointing that out. Although, gotta say, Aerith longing for a relationship similar to what Cloud and Tifa had is kind of funny in retrospective, (spoilers ahead) considering that those two weren't friends at all :P

[@laurajanco2i]

@cordata008 They were, I recommend you to read the book written by Nojima (the writer of FF7) about Aerith and Tifa's past. Cloud and Tifa used to play together before the incident in their childhood and Cloud used to search whenever her cat went missing and used to bring it back to her.

[@cordata008]

@@laurajanco2i Blergh, I rather not to be frank. I've read/played some media of the compilation and I disliked them. A lot. Your comment about the book is good example of the issues I have with them. It's like they're trying to simplify the very interesting and complex relationship that Cloud and Tifa have and for what? To make it palatable? To shy away from its difficulty? And it's such a shame, their childhood issues is what makes their relationship so fun! Like they were both embracing a lie but they eventually faced it together and came out stronger despite it. Why would you reduce it to something else?? UGHH Ok, sorry for the rant. I didn't realize I had to get that out of my chest lol!

[@laurajanco2i]

@cordata008 Cloud and Tifa have always had a great dynamic, extremely complex and intimate. I think people have just misunderstood their interaractions through the years, especially people trying to downplay Tifa, lying about her affections for Cloud (making Cloud also look fickle as a consequence). FF7 players are annoying sometimes.

[@cordata008]

@@laurajanco2i No kidding, if I had a penny every time someone says Tifa is a manipulative, horrible person that wants to use Cloud because she willingly withholds the truth I'd have about 2 dollars lul. Not denying that they start with a pretty rocky friendship but it's such a mean spirited take of their relationship.

[@viaschizogeny]

I would watch 82747272 hours of this.

[@IntoMyFantasy]

She was spot on about Cloti and Clerith by watching a single video of each and summarized their relationships with the best wording. I'm impressed! I love what she said about Clerith, that she can see where the beauty of their dynamic is and how much it deepends their characters, because that's why I love Clerith in the first place. But yes, I also think it's very different from the more romantic tension between Cloti.

[@lieberte]

Yea now put the cloud aerith beach scene there and it would be a completely different impression. What a dumb video.

[@SR-kh6yq]

"I love Clerith", says the person with a huge Cloti playlist on their channel trying to pretend to be a Clerith who's admitting Cloti's superiority 💀💀💀

[@IntoMyFantasy]

@SR-kh6yq I said I love Clerith, that I see the beauty in their dynamic, I didn't say I ship it. So I don't know what you're accusing me of here a part from being completely truthful about how I feel lol Am I not allowed to like Cloud and Aerith interactions unless I ship them? That's a weird take

[@SR-kh6yq]

@@IntoMyFantasy Aren't Clerith and Cloti the name of ships? As in, relationships that are believed to be romantic by their respective fans? If someone says they "love Clerith" they usually don't mean that as a friendship

[@IntoMyFantasy]

@@SR-kh6yq Oh well, that's my fault then, I use ship names to generally talk about a relationship between two people because they are short and handy 😅 I never thought about ship names as exclusively used to indicate a romantic relationship... I hope that clarifies the misunderstanding.

[@carole5648]

proof femShep is better than maleShep. even to a non-fan. Where Shepard and Garrus?

[@kiwisocks]

Whoever picked the clips is...pretty biased. They picked the most romantic (but not one of their character-defining) scene for Cloud and Tifa, but picked the least romantic but still one-on-one and important for Aerith and Cloud. She's being asked to compare apples to oranges, and came to the obvious conclusion oranges are more citrusy. It's like if they picked Tifa talking to Cloud about how she didn't really know him as a kid in the Fluffy quest and...almost any other one on one Cloud and Aerith scene. I really hope she plays the games for full context.

[@suzanner8360]

I think the Mass Effect scene suffered slightly from the old graphics giving him the mannequin stare. Also, he’s just not the same level of actor that Jennifer Hale is for the female Shepard.

[@ulyssesocounter8488]

I think, overall, Mark and Jennifer are both good, although there are lines and moments where one outperforms the other.

[@dannysimion]

I love Nikki Payne - you know your stuff and you know romance! 10/10. Cloud with Tifa and Cloud with Aerith is always a joy to watch unfold regardless of who you as the viewer want. I agree that Cloud feels for Tifa in a mature manner as time moves into the future whereas Aerith reminds Cloud of who he was and reminded to not forget about the past.

[@ViciousArcanum]

Gonna need a whole episode with Nikki reacting to only FFX.

[@MrInuhanyou123]

Cloud and tifa have been my favorite for 20 years and this is wyy

[@melissamackey4217]

I love this so much. Nikki is delightfully thoughtful, smart, and funny.

[@DeinosDinos]

"E Pluribus Unum" I'm dying

[@madis7588]

This was cool to watch! I feel like an Ellie and Dina reaction from TLOU 2 would be interesting too Also calling Geralt 'Argaryen Batman' was wildly accurate lmao

[@MekareP]

Poor Tali and Shepard 😂😂 Should have done Garrus. Or even Miranda. Too much context missing from Tali's character.

[@rafaela00002]

this was really fun, very cool to see the reactions of a romance authors on these scenes

[@danielanjos7947]

Love listening to her insight.

[@peyodogo4864]

I'd adore to see her react to a scene with any combination of Karlach, Shadowheart and Durge from BG3. Or yknow more stuff in general. Romance in videogames is a really funky thing and I'm super into people looking at it like this.

[@TheFreakinRican123]

I was watching for her reactions to my favorite games, but as a fellow writer, she was truly dropping somw gems.

[@jeremygeller9145]

Kinda weird scenes to pick, shame no Garrus Shepard, especially the dance scene

[@FengNirothar]

I personally much prefer the other version of the Gale scene, where you convince him that he's enough as just a man, and it's just a sweet moment on a bed If you want to check out some more I would recommend the Lucanis romance from Veilguard... Flirting over the taste of coffee, almost kissing, and so much more

[@antivanramun6998]

I need more of her

[@donutmonk]

The oooooh this messy had got me good lmao

[@vengerbergs]

geralt and triss and cloud and aerith have the same stiff one sided dynamic

[@burgerkingas7027]

Out of all the Clerith scenes they could have shown, they went with THAT ONE?! 😭 Bruh....

[@chickpeas10]

you can tell this channel's bias from the thumbnail alone and from them liking all these comments by Cloti fans

[@monca1222]

It's very disgenuous... The fact that Aerith's scene has variable dialogue based on what you the player chooses and ignoring all the story context prior that builds up to the moments is very....😅 It'd be really hard for someone to truly understand the dynamics between the three just based off these scenes alone when the game is a retelling of a story that spans multiple media for almost 30 yrs. If you want to be fair and unbiased, compare both GS standard dates(only one affects the story no matter what version you get). Although, I think it's very telling why they'd ignore moments towards the end... I understand CloTi really loving their ship, but I'm unfortunately seeing a lot of repeated copycat takes and opinions by them based on other youtubers opinions in an attempt to downplay Aerith's importance or deny ANY possibility of Clerith despite how important it is to the story and Cloud's development. It's great to have a pairing you really like and relate to, but if you're obsessed with proving it's 100% superiority, then maybe you don't like it that much and just like the competition of feeling like you chose the "right" ship more?

[@jaysax7381]

@@chickpeas10oh my god grow up it’s a fake ship these aren’t real who cares?

[@jaysax7381]

@@monca1222y’all have got to get hobbies

[@flateiacantis7510]

Aww man I wanna see her watch the fade kiss with Solas ❤

[@AnnePackrat]

Dude, you didn’t show her the bear scene in BG3?

[@kaylee42900]

Really should have used the Yennifer horse scene for the witcher.

[@johcee]

geralt and triss was awkward bc GERALT DOESNT LOVE TRISS !1!!!!1!!!1!1! geralt and yennefer forever

[@francisco24slb1]

I'll tell you something... you haven't chosen the right scenes to evaluate the relationship between Cloud/Tifa and Cloud/Aerith. It's impossible to make judgments based on what you've seen... there's a lot more to it than that and these aren't the best scenes If you want, I can suggest a video for you to see the comparison, how Cloud behaves with both of them... you'll be surprised

[@danielcarr1297]

No Halsin/Bear scene?!

[@ClandestineDrake]

What I wouldn't do to see her take on Aerith's gondola scene! Such awesome insight

[@StygianStilettosGamer]

I would pay good money to see her watch both intimate Gold Saucer dates for Tifa and Aerith, and compare!

[@lexij4515]

Her take probably wouldn't change much since the gondola scene made it more than clear that Aerith is just a friend, while Tifa is a love interest 😏

[@IXkupo]

@@lexij4515....You are not able to view a game as a whole it seems. You only compare two optional scenes with each other and call it a day. No point in arguing here if someone doesnt know the words "storywriting","pacing" and "logic".

[@tuzi9962]

Nice read on the scenes! I do have to say for the Aerith Scene that was more for her as a individual character, So I would have picked any other scene for them😂

[@-t96]

please have her react to femshep x thane full romance

[@Gladissims]

Aerith puts on an innocent and naive persona, but she really isn't. There's so much to her character. I definitely reccomend checking out remake and rebirth, though! The writing in them is so good.

[@SR-kh6yq]

I just knew from the title and the thumbnail that this video would attract rabid delusional shippers in the comments, trying to claim this non gamer's opinion based on selected clips as validation for their ship... and I'm not talking about just one fandom

[@cloudabc123]

Really cute

[@justingabriel1765]

There’s no way they picked the best Tifa Scene to show her and then didnt also give her the best Aerith scene too lol 😂

[@carlytweedle9943]

That is Aeriths best character scene. It's even Nojima's favourite.

[@StygianStilettosGamer]

​@carlytweedle9943 yep it's Nojima's favorite, says so in the Ultimania.

[@justingabriel1765]

@@carlytweedle9943 no it’s not like what 😂, it can be his favorite what does that have to do with anything

[@carlytweedle9943]

@justingabriel1765 'didn't give aerith her best scene' - yes they did. What relationship and character development scene would you have chosen instead?

[@justingabriel1765]

@@carlytweedle9943 well that’s your opinion, I much prefer the conversation on the beach you have with her at Costa Del Sol, or in Cosmo Canyon, or at the end of the game for Christ sakes on the little date thing they go on, like you get so much more from them then in this scene on the water tower like your out of your mind

[@sonicsoar33]

really?? Out of all Aerith and cloud scene , you picked the one in niebelhiem tower scene. Such a Bias. Theres 4 Aeriths date in Rebirth ,- tower date, costadel beach date, saucer date, and dream date. And i am not even outing numerous flirtatious moments, cosmo canyon photographic quest.

[@laurajanco2i]

@@sonicsoar33 Those are what Aerith herself called dates and Cloud has told her multiple times he doesn't consider them so. I don't get why people act like his words don't mean anything and they only care about what Aerith says. The reality is you guys don't even seem to like Cloud and Aerith's dynamics, you don't care about Cloud as a character. You just like Aerith for yourself, therefore everything that she says, no matter if Cloud disagrees, is like the word of God for you. It's genuinely creepy to be obsessed with a character to this point. Totally blind to everything but her... I wish the writer could react to all those scenes you mentioned actually, because she's not biased and would recognize their non romantic nature, the way she did with this one.

[@jenniferchough]

It takes two people to go on a date and none of those are considerate dates by Cloud. He even tells her he wishes she’d stop calling them dates. Just because they’re standing next to each other doesn’t mean they’re on a date lol. Even for the gondola, when he hesitates because she says it’s a couples thing, she tells him it’s up to his imagination. While with Tifa, he explicitly agrees and says “of course I’m up for it!” And lastly, on the dream stroll through sector 5, she literally tells him to play along, because of that the vendor tells them they lack chemistry, and it ends with her telling him she doesn’t know what “like” she feels and him saying she’s being weird. Y’all shouldn’t want this author to see those scenes and comment on them because she seems to pick up context clues like crazy lol. The water tower convo is the best one between Aerith and Cloud. Even though he refused to sit next to her, we see that their bond grows and he’s being sympathetic to her feelings about her loneliness.

[@alexm8d13]

@@jenniferchough It's impressive how you twist the characters. I'm just going to say this, the main goal of the devs in the OG is that you fell in love with Aerith so that her death would be painful for both the player and Cloud, and you are describing their relationship as Cloud being upset with her all the time. You totally lose the sense of story.

[@laurajanco2i]

@@alexm8d13 Saying "he's upset with her all the time" is you misunderstanding what Jennifer means. No one said Cloud dislikes Aerith. He has good moments with her in which they bond etc, but that only happens when Aerith doesn't force his hand. Cloud doesn't like when people tell him what to do, or how to act, so Aerith being pushy makes him become defensive, bringing him to act firm and a bit harsh towards her because she never dealt with someone introverted and reserved like him and doesn't get that Cloud has boundaries (and that he's not extroverted like Zack, who was her only example of a relationship outside Elmyra). Though when she's being genuine, or vulnerable, that's when Cloud doesn't feel the need to put a wall between them. On the other hand, Cloud treating Tifa better is a result of: 1- his feelings for her 2- the amount of time they've known each other, their communication, trust and deep understanding 3- Tifa's gentle and patient demeanor, which matches Cloud's energy

[@zacatkinson3926]

Aerith is older than Cloud by a few years actually

[@jenniferchough]

She’s only one year older than Cloud but she is written to be childish due to her upbringing and past (that’s straight from the scenario writer). In Japanese, she is purposefully written to speak in a child-like manner as well in terms of her phrasing.

[@zacatkinson3926]

@ it’s a few years not one

[@ulyssesocounter8488]

@@zacatkinson3926 no it’s just one year. She’s 22, Cloud’s 21.

[@zacatkinson3926]

@@ulyssesocounter8488 Shes 24

[@ulyssesocounter8488]

@@zacatkinson3926 you can check literally everywhere, she’s 22.

[@KoriDess]

Hahaha, according to the Remake’s Ultimania Tifa is a “one night’s mistake”. In Advent Children she is “a woman left behind by a man”, who received nothing but awkward silence as an answer to her direct, “Do you love me?” in the novel. And guess what’s her description in Dirge of Cerberus, the finale of the compilation? Childhood FRIEND and nothing more. And Ever Crisis even called her Fireworks from the Past while Aerith is Fireworks in Sync, “a woman forever engraved in Cloud’s heart”, his most cherished person and a perfect match, according to Cait Sith. Sucks to be Boobifa fan right now. Gonna be even harder after Pt3😂

[@darthmaul3228]

i never played the originals but its clear that cloud likes tifa and aerith is just a friend in the remake and in part 3 its probably gonna be zack and aerith again so your bad i guess

[@KoriDess]

@ after Marlene blatantly stated in Zack’s face that Aerith likes Cloud? Pfft. In your dreams. Tifa is Fireworks from the Past and a woman left behind by a man after one night’s mistake. You should be happy she managed to keep her “childhood friend” status. After all the shameless lies she fed Cloud, she deserved to be peevish, jealous, left behind and never get an answer to her, “Do you love me?” Lies comes with high price, sweetheart.

[@lotus2001]

It’s obvious this person doesn’t understand ff7 so I wouldnt take their opinion too seriously on cherry picked scenes