Today's moment is one that needs to be explained in more than one level. From a narrative stand point, it's a rescue mission that lasts for a few minutes and then leads on to the of the most shocking moments in the game. From a gameplay level, it's a scavenger hunt. Yet on a meta level, it's an unforgettable scene. The tenth best moment in the game is "Cloud cross dresses to save Tifa from Don Corneo."
On a narrative stand point, this is what happens: After Cloud falls from Sector 5 and is nursed back to health by Aeris, he is determined to return to Tifa and AVALANCHE. Aeris invites herself along, and so the two cross the ruins of the Sector 5 slums. During a small break in an (apparently) abandoned playground, Cloud catches a glimpse of Tifa, dressed provocatively, riding on the back of a chocobo drawn cart. He sees the cart headed towards Wall Market, a shanty market where the beer flows freely, the women are loose, and criminals run everything.
Cloud discovers that Tifa has been "invited" (brought) to be a "guest" (one night stand) of Don Corneo, the leader of Wall Market. Knowing that guys like Corneo are NOT the kind of guys a decent girl like Tifa ought to hang around with, and that a girl like Tifa is the kind of girl guys like Don Corneo will stop at nothing to have, Cloud decides to bust into the mansion and get Tifa out. But, Cloud knows that doing so might put Tifa in danger. So, Aeris offers a solution: sneak in.
How? After all, Don Corneo only allows women to visit him...
And voila, the answer: dress Cloud like a woman. After gathering all the items he'll need (a dress, a wig, makeup, and some accessories), Cloud infiltrates Don Corneo's mansion, where he finds Tifa. Turns out, she went to Don Corneo's mansion out of her own free will, due to the fact that Corneo was a Shinra informant who managed to get info on AVALANCHE. From then on, the game resumes its seriousness, though the comedy can continue for a bit if Corneo chooses Cloud as his "date" for the night.
From a narrative stand point, this moment is short and seemingly pointless. After all, why not just have Cloud pull a Solid Snake and sneak across Don Corneo's mansion? The answer to that question lays on a meta level of narrative: this is a comedy relief moment.
The purpose of having Cloud cross dress is to provide the player with some much needed laughter. Up until this moment, the player has seen: two power plants get blown up, the misery of the slums, a girl get chased by a group of thugs, the main character seemingly fall to his doom only to wake up in a strange place, and a world where children live in squalor. A little comedy helps relieve some of the tension, and keeps the game from being an angst fest.
By the time the player has reached this point of the game for the first time, they have already gotten an impression of Cloud as a badass. The guy is first seen leaping off a train, taking on two soldiers by himself while wielding a sword bigger than he is, and had fallen HUNDREDS of feet in the air and survived. The comedy of this scene, then, comes from not just Cloud cross dressing, but being pulled into it by a girl he, quite literally, has known for a few hours tops. It's the image of the big badass super ex-SOLDIER, being pulled by the arm by a pink-wearing flower girl to get him to dress more feminine in order to infiltrate a crime boss' mansion so he can save his childhood friend.
That's what makes this scene so unforgettable. The scene so heavily contrasts with what came before and what will come later that it stays etched into the gamer's mind. It's a bit of comedy sandwiched between action and sorrow.
By the time the player has reached this point of the game for the first time, they have already gotten an impression of Cloud as a badass. The guy is first seen leaping off a train, taking on two soldiers by himself while wielding a sword bigger than he is, and had fallen HUNDREDS of feet in the air and survived. The comedy of this scene, then, comes from not just Cloud cross dressing, but being pulled into it by a girl he, quite literally, has known for a few hours tops. It's the image of the big badass super ex-SOLDIER, being pulled by the arm by a pink-wearing flower girl to get him to dress more feminine in order to infiltrate a crime boss' mansion so he can save his childhood friend.
That's what makes this scene so unforgettable. The scene so heavily contrasts with what came before and what will come later that it stays etched into the gamer's mind. It's a bit of comedy sandwiched between action and sorrow.
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