Why Has the Internet Spent Nearly 20 Years Begging These Boys to Kiss?

To say Final Fantasy VII has immense staying power would be the understatement of the century. Despite coming out in 1997 on the original PlayStation, the game has stayed culturally relevant on an international scale for nearly three decades—so much so, developer Square Enix rebooted the game into an epic-scale series slated to have three installments. While the second, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, released Feb. 29 on PlayStation 5, the pre-release excitement was already so overwhelming that the game even made the front page of the New York Times’ website (albeit for controversial reasons).

You could point to so many different reasons as to why Final Fantasy VII has such staying power. The horror of greedy corporations and politicians’ destruction of the planet at the story’s heart is even more resonant now than it was then. You could also point to how Nobuo’s Uematsu’s score is among the best in gaming history; the enthralling twists and turns of its epic story; to the sprawling map populated with fascinating towns; or the incredible cast of well-fleshed-out, complex characters, which include a refreshing number of badass ladies. Or you could say it’s because most of those characters are super hot. To play Final Fantasy VII is to watch all those hot people (plus a stuffed cat and a more hardcore version of Simba) have very fraught emotional experiences around each other. It’s the perfect equation for fireworks among the fandom. Everyone has their ships, but in particular, the sexual tension between our protagonist, Cloud Strife—the most fraught of all—and his mortal enemy, Sephiroth, is truly a popcorn-worthy spectator sport.

At the outset of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is an ex-member of an elite group called SOLDIER, who are scientifically doped-up to become super-soldiers. Sephiroth was the greatest of all members of SOLDIER, someone Cloud both looked up to and called a friend, until Sephiroth discovered the truth of his identity and went rogue. And by “went rogue,” I mean, “decided that everyone on the planet except him and the remains of his mom should die.” Cloud therefore feels personally betrayed by Sephiroth, and therefore hates him very much.

Read more at The Daily Beast.