Upon exiting the Honey Bee Inn, the citizens of Midgar are surprisingly open-minded and appreciative of Cloud's appearance. For once, Final Fantasy subtly indicates that there's absolutely nothing wrong with exploring that, even if Cloud is still coming to terms with this newfound side of himself. He's a showstopper, decked out in the finest garments Wall Market has to offer and oozing effortless sexuality. In this moment, Cloud isn't a punchline to some elaborate setup. Cloud is left to play the traditionally "feminine" role here, held a hair's breadth from Rhodea's face.
#Final fantasy vii remake reddit series#
Rhodea twirls Cloud around in a series of waltz-like moves, remarking that, when it comes to true beauty, gender doesn't apply. Companion Aerith Gainsborough, who is front and center for the show, claps her hands and stares at Cloud in awe. "You were born for this," an attendant tells Cloud, who is clad in a gorgeous dress, before revealing him to the audience in attendance.
#Final fantasy vii remake reddit full#
Before you ever see him in a dress, it becomes clear that this version of Cloud is willing and unafraid to bust out of his comfort zone to explore the pleasures that the Honey Bee Inn has to offer.įollowing the jaw-dropping scene, we're treated to a montage of enthusiastic staff working their magic on Cloud, applying a full face of makeup and what appear to be hair extensions, giving him a flaxen mullet with braids. It's a sexually charged scene unlike anything we've seen from the Final Fantasy series to this point. They move effortlessly in sync, Cloud shaking his rump and running calloused hands along his body just as Rhodea does across from him. The two bob and weave inches away from each other, bodies pulsating and shimmying to the beat. Incredibly, Cloud engages in a raunchy dance-off with Rhodea to a bombastic EDM number. Rhodea is immediately flirtatious with Cloud as he leads the soldier onto a brand-new battlefield: the dance floor. The staff, clad in racy bee costumes, puts on elaborate dance numbers nightly, and Rhodea ends up challenging Cloud to a dance-off in return for a makeover that will enable Cloud to go after Tifa. The Inn is now a sophisticated nightclub meant only for VIPs, operating under the watchful eye of Andrea Rhodea, a flamboyant, queer-coded man with a flair for the dramatic. The locale has been retconned significantly, doing away with the outdated, seedy vision of what society believes a brothel should be. The remake's greatest change in this regard happens in the Honey Bee Inn itself. Though plenty of games that came after Final Fantasy VII were quick to add in this type of content, it's refreshing to see a classic coming around in this fashion, even if it took an agonizingly long time. But now, instead of pointing and laughing at Cloud in a dress or pretending its heroines are too innocent to go after what they want, Final Fantasy VII Remake paves the way for more sexual awakenings.
That doesn't mean Final Fantasy VII Remake has added explicit sex scenes in the vein of The Witcher 3 or that it needed more mature content in the first place. It also legitimizes both the cisgender and queer desires that certain characters harbor. In Remake, this scene blossoms into a brilliant and daring piece of media that encourages the exploration and freedom of one's sexual identity. A narrative that was once eager to mock Cloud's dalliances in drag, and which turned a blind eye to the sexual implications of the situation, has morphed. Nearly 25 years later, Final Fantasy VII Remake flipped the script. Final Fantasy VII, while heartfelt, dramatic, and in many ways beautiful, was never what could be interpreted as "in tune" with its sexual side. The audience is supposed to guffaw at this warrior clad in women's clothing, tamping down any inherent issues of sexual identity and expression that could be attached to the scene. Undertones of queer panic and derision punctuate nearly every character interaction while he's dressed in a frilly, lavender frock. In the original 1997 version of FFVII, Cloud's drag transformation is played for laughs. Further Reading Final Fantasy VII Remake spoiler-free review: Our kind of Cloud gaming
0 kommentar(er)
