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themelodicenigma · 1 year

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Since you talk about finding out if things are romantic or not, what about Jessie and Tifa's moments in the two pasts novel? They have a moment where Jessie is suuuuper blushing because of something Tifa said. If I didnt hate her character in the remake so much i'd ship them!

I think I know what you're talking about, which if using @pekotranslates translations of the novel, is probably this scene:

“Nibelheim is right here with you, and your dad is right here with you too.” Jessie cupped Tifa’s face in her hands. Her touch was warm. “You’re not alone.” Tifa placed her hands on top of Jessie’s and said, “I haven’t been alone since the day you first came here.” Jessie’s eyes widened. Flustered, she broke away. “Oh my god! That’s so sweet of you to say!” She brought both of her hands up to her cheeks, looking extremely flattered. “Well, see ya!” Jessie walked away, her cheeks still pressed in-between her hands. Tifa realized that she had forgotten to check to see if Jessie was a member of Avalanche but felt strongly that it didn’t matter.

Is this it? I feel like part of how I answer depends on what you're really asking me lol

If you're asking me if this is like, a genuine "romantic moment" (genuine as in, authorial intent for the characters and their storytelling to reflect their feelings for each other), I'm more tempted to say not at all given who these two characters are and their complete association with one another.

But if you're asking, as simple as can be, whether this holds identifiable "romantic elements" for the sake of the scene itself, then my answer is...maybe? Really: sure. lol

My more strict logical answer for her reaction itself (i'll describe later), at it's most basic core, is that it's contextual. But, the way it was written in context—such a hard reaction + Jessie's characterization adds to the perspective that it was maybe functioning in the way of a "romantic element". Maybe. That's honestly what we're looking at more, is how Nojima wrote it + Jessie's character.

I think it can be seen a lot of different ways in and out of the grander context, as supposed to the isolated contextual observations of the passage itself.

But to recap what I mean by "romantic elements"—to keep this short, similar to what I talked about in this post about FF7 ships, it's just anything of which is identified specifically as a romantic/sexual attribute—suggestive or direct. In media, this can be used in A LOT of different ways, including that of comedic things or fanservice things. Anime/Manga is notorious for using "romantic elements" in essentially, for the larger understanding, neutral situations for a certain effect.

So if the question is "Is there a romantic element here?"—if I was trying to identify a romantic element here, I'd probably be looking prominently at Jessie's reaction. If out of context (that is, to simply talk about the action)—someone being flustered by flattery + covering their cheeks w/ their hands as a reaction to this (which is basically implicit of blushing/warmed face), so much to the point they basically run away from being so thrown off by this.

I mean, generally this is used a lot where said flattery is a romantic/sexual thing. BUT, I'd argue it's still contextual, as opposed to an inherent romantic action.

"Contextual" meaning, what is described above isn't ultimately of a reaction to a specific tone (which in this example, is romantic), but it's meaning derives primarily from the situation (the how/why), which depends on a lot of other factors in order to be understood. This is different than a "romantic element being used platonically", but just ultimately a "neutral thing" that's meaning is decided by how it's used by the writer. Think the difference between the act of sex or making out—inherent romantic/sexual things no matter the context VS holding hands is an action that absolutely is contextual and can happen in a lot of scenarios to signify different things.

Moving back to the reaction:

I mean, plenty of times this happens in JPN media when someone (let's be honest, mostly women) is reacting to something of a "romantic element". Very easy, I believe that to be true, and I think it makes sense for people to see it that way even for this scene. I DEFINITELY have seen it this way WAAAAY more often.

The problem is, I've also seen plenty of JPN media that has this type of reaction, but a lot of the time it's really just based on the character more than what was said. Is this a character who is easily embarrassed? Are they consistent? I mean man, you have some mangaka who draw characters who honestly blush at everything because it's treated as a character trait of being easily embarrassed or flustered.

Now, if I was looking at Jessie's character—I think it depends on what you're deciding to focus on in regards to her character + this reaction.

Jessie's character was built to be someone who is very jokey w/ "charm and attractiveness", teases people, has a lot of bravado, etc. She's very energetic, and acts with "flare". Very loose and carefree., and in the novel, VERY much so within the supportive archetype. She's not one to get embarrassed, but rather is probably trying to get other people to be flustered. The extent of which she takes this with Cloud is very defining of this—is MOSTLY defining of this. She doesn't exactly treat Tifa the same way she does to Cloud—with Tifa she is just generally energetic as opposed to flirtatious.

Still, for Jessie to have a moment where SHE is thrown off, I feel like I have to ask myself: is she capable of reacting like this only from a romantic element, or is it more of a reaction to actually getting something that is genuine and isn't a joke, as she always is doing?

I think both paths of thinking are understandable given her characterization, though I like the latter more to be honest. I also don't think these have to be mutually exclusive either, so that third option is there technically.

She's having a very heartwarming, intimate moment with Tifa, where SHE is the one to console Tifa by even grabbing her face (something that is definitely contextual)—something that the novelization actually does a really good job of doing: showing us a side of Jessie that the game absolutely did not—she's caring and attentive, she built up a close and supportive relationship with the teenage Tifa (Jessie is about 3 years older than Tifa, who is first 16 going on 17) and reading, Tifa REALLY needed the interactions and support Jessie gave—all that plus her VERY active personality described above. I've seen people who have made it no secret they prefer novel Jessie over game Jessie. XD

So when Tifa reciprocates that warmness, suddenly Jessie is all flustered, as if she wasn't expecting Tifa to say something so wholesome and not as a joke. It's interesting that Jessie is the one who is initiating the heartwarming nature of this conversation—she's being supportive to Tifa, she is consoling her, and even showing the physical intimacy (which she has before) that can often come with that. She's the one that tells Tifa "you're not alone", but I suppose she didn't expect Tifa to actually confirm that, yes, she didn't feel alone since she's met Jessie, like, so sincerely.

I think about a scene before this one, which shows how Jessie acts when she is being jokey/spirited and is complimented:

“Jessie, do you practice martial arts?” “Huh? Oh, you mean that kick? Neat, wasn’t it? They had it on the action training program. But that was the first time I actually struck a person. I’m an actress, you see.” “What?!” “Business is temporarily closed now though.” “I believe you.” “Is it because you’re in such awe of my beauty that you’re convinced I’m an actress?” “Yes.” “Aww! That’s so sweet of you to say!” Jessie gave a carefree laugh. Tifa found herself laughing along too.

Jessie has the personality that is into her own hype and is super jokey, normally. lol And she initiated the joke. She just laughs about it. It's a simple conversation. This is a big contrast from what otherwise is a serious conversation between her and Tifa when talking about Nibelheim and Tifa not being alone.

So, one could say, for Jessie, to have been told such a genuinely, heartwarming thing, she got flustered because otherwise, this isn't really what she is used to. She's super embarrassed. I've seen this kind of characterization before, but a lot of the time the person in question would play it off as if they weren't affected.

Jessie was very ungraceful in taking the compliment, as you see. XD She's all about being sweet to Tifa until Tifa is sweet back, and then she immediately gets embarrassed.

This could be more about Jessie's character handling actual genuine, sincere behavior when she herself always treats these things as jokes or is super positive-energy.

Buuuut, at the same time, since we know the prime way Jessie acts with her confident, bravado stuff is, a lot of the time, with romantic/sexual tones about herself, her ability to finally be "thrown off" instead makes it feel like the only way she could be like this is if she felt it was something of that nature in a genuine way. I think at that point you'd have to assess whether this is written to be something Jessie takes in this capacity, as something of romantic nature, or if author's intent was "romantic thing for neutral context". It was kind of a large reaction, really. If large reaction always = romance, sure, but it's debatable.

I can see both, sort of, but the actual depth of things is better if it's more about how Jessie handles genuine, sincere expression.

Like all things intimate or revealing of a depth of bond, some people have an instinct to mentally configure it as romantic on sight. Nothing new. I feel like I kind of did too, but once the more relaxed observation passed and I thought about it from a writing perspective, I can see Jessie's reaction definitely doesn't (and probably isn't) have to function as a response to a "romantic element", but I think it's also culturally obvious as to how people see it that way initially. People be romantically inclined, yo.

Not that I ultimately agree with what people still forego in order to fall in to this instinct once they're open to be more logical than reactive, just to be clear, but I understand it.

#jessie rasberry #tifa lockhart #final fantasy 7 remake #traces of two pasts #ffvii remake

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