Since Kebrel has invited us to get into extreme and possibly metaphysical argumentation by comparing this thread to the religion thread, I shall defend Tifa to the last.
Tifa stood by her man, and not in the same way Hillary did. Cloud was a freakin'
nutcase; I think a lot of people would have dropped him like a hot rock, but Tifa supported him (hell, even pushed his wheelchair) until he was able to get his mind back in some semblance of order. That kind of dedication is lacking in many real-world relationships, and her example is something both men and women can look up to.
The reason why I describe Tifa as psychologically complex stems partly from her choice to lead Cloud on during the Nibelheim retelling in Kalm, rather than blurting out that he's a total schizoid who's imagining himself doing things he never accomplished. Tifa understood his delicate mental-emotional condition, and realized she might send him off the brink if she revealed what really happened -- though her choice came at the cost of truth, which is, itself, a heavy price to pay for protecting someone. Or is it?
Burning Zeppelin says none of these women are
real. But does this depend on how one defines reality? Gravitons may be very real, yet we can't see them -- only their effects on the universe. Final Fantasy characters have affected people's lives -- inspiring them to write fanfiction, or draw awesome artwork like the ones d3viant has posted. In this way, could we say that videogame characters are more real than people who live in the Amazon forest, and lead whole lives full of free choice that nevertheless have no impact on the course of our lives?
Note that I consider this a horrible, horrible thought for a number of humanistic reasons -- just playing Devil's advocate in an effort to spark some philosophical discussion. If this thread were all about who's got the most desirable body, it wouldn't be worthy of the Compendium forums.
Now for some of my fave depictions of Tifa:
...and some of my fave depictions of Aeris:
