Never Forget Them: Tifa and Barret

Welcome everyone to Never Forget Them! Do you ever get bored of hearing about Squall and Rinoa, Yuna and Tidus, or maybe even about Zell and hot dogs!? Okay, who am I kidding, no one gets tired of Zell and his hot dogs. Don't you worry, because Pumpkin is here to guide you on an exploration of the lesser known Final Fantasy relationships! Whether they be friends, rivals, love-triangle participants, or just some lost potential, we'll discuss them here and pay them the respect and attention they deserve! Join me as the series explores and celebrates the lesser shown characters and their inspiring, interesting, and impressive relationships!

For our first edition, we'll venture into one of the more popular games, Final Fantasy VII. I'm very excited to write about this one because I think it is one of the more under-appreciated gems of the game. This relationship is between none other than Miss Tifa Lockhart and Mister Barret Wallace. From the beginning these two are shown to have a friendly connection, although sadly it isn't well explored. I would have loved to see more backstory on the two!

Let's get started by exploring different aspects of their relationship.

Tifa, The Mother Figure


When we first meet Tifa at her bar, 7th Heaven, in the Sector 7 Slums, we see her with Marlene, the adopted daughter of Barret. This cute little lady is central to Barret's character. He loves Marlene more than anything and because of that, a lot of his decisions are made with her in mind. He tries hard to be a good father figure to her, even if he doesn't always succeed.

Adopting her was the result of a traumatic experience between he and his best friend, Dyne. Their village, Coral, was destroyed at the hands of Shinra. They both lost their wives and each an arm while escaping. Thinking Dyne was dead, Barret adopted his newborn daughter, who Dyne thought died in the fire.

I always loved seeing his scenes with Marlene because it showed a softer, gentler side to the giant cursing man with the gun for an arm. Heck, I'd be worried to ever touch her if I'd replaced a limb with a Gatling gun!

This shows us how much he trusts Tifa, that he'd leave the person he cares most for in the entire world with her! There are times when he leaves Marlene in the care of others when he has to, but seeing the relationship between Tifa and Marlene seems to suggest that the two are close and that she is his preferred person when it comes to watching the young lady. Tifa, in turn, cares deeply for Marlene and shows concern for her numerous times. She's the one who made sure to ask Aeris/th to keep her safe. Tifa serves as a sort of mother figure to his daughter Marlene, something that automatically makes her important in Barret's life.

A Common Goal


One of the main aspects of their relationship is the eco-terrorist group, AVALANCHE. Each for their own reasons, both are in AVALANCHE to help save the planet from the evil Shinra. We see it from Barret a lot, always going on about “saving the planet” and “the planet is dying”, but we forget that Tifa is also an important member and she feels strongly about saving the planet as well, although it isn't as thoroughly explored.


This aspect of their relationship is important towards the beginning of the game when we're first introduced to the characters. Barret has hired Cloud to help out AVALANCHE, something he is less than keen on. I wouldn't be too keen on hiring a guy with gravity defying hair either, but I digress. If you look at the other members, they're all people Barret really cares about. The group is rather small, occupied only by a select few passionate about the cause and they're all people who are important to Barret, which of course includes Tifa. AVALANCHE serves as the starting point for their relationship, showing that they at least have one goal in common and a rapport of trust between them.

Friendship


Now let's talk about the most important part of their relationship; their friendship. Despite the language used in the image above, it shows that they are indeed good friends, because it takes good friends to be able to playfully and bluntly insult each other in that way. We see this a lot of this friendship on disc 1, although it does sadly take a backseat to most of Cloud's relationships. However we see it surface later on in the game as well, such as when the two are put up for execution thanks to Shinra.


What see here is a touching moment where Barret offers to have himself killed first to give Tifa a chance to escape. When Shinra ignores his plea, he works incredibly hard trying to rescue her from the gas chamber, and you can really tell how worried he is. He's in absolute panic, but the two are still able to communicate well while Barret does his best to get her out of there.

The best part about this relationship for me was their friendship. The two have different personalities, but they've been brought together by a common goal and a young girl named Marlene. Even though their relationship rarely ever takes center stage, when we do see them together, you can already feel the bond between them and you can already tell how deeply they care about each other. Theirs is a relationship I would love to see more often in gaming!

That concludes our look at the bond between Tifa and Barret! Were you a fan of these two? What were your favourite moments? Who would you like to see in the next article? I'd love to hear your thoughts!