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Not really... brave yes... but Tifa starting a bar and joining a resistance group because of her past does not prove her to be strong.... in fact as you play through the game it proves quite the opposite. When people are confronted with things that make them weak (fears, trauma, sadness, etc) and they don't deal with these things a number of things occur. Some people only do one or two... Tifa does four; avoidance, regression, anger displacement, and repression.
I'll start with regression... regression is when someone is faced with a weakness (that's the term I'll use) or something that maybe associated with such a person will revert to a child-like state. Tifa is not an extreme in this case, but she does regress. That comes from her emotional dependency on Cloud(which is a contributing factor to her break downs). "Cloud will save me." "Cloud is here so everything will be all right." "Cloud, what will we do?" "Cloud, you're so brave." These are all actual Tifa quotes... clear sign of dependency regression; or damsel symdrome. Just as Aeris is a sort of physical damsel; Tifa is an emotional damsel.
When Cloud was present she emotionally depended on him almost as if he were a father. This is very common when women suffer trauma regarding their fathers in childhood as Tifa did. However, in Cloud's absense Tifa would practice repression... otherwise know as bottling it up. Tifa suffered two different stages of repression; masking and convenient memory. This is what lead to a lot of Tifa bashers labeling Tifa a liar. Masking is when a person hides their feelings... generally these people will put on happy faces or faces they think will lead to acceptance. They also will try taking on the problems of others as means of feeling better about their own weakness. Her case of convenient memory relates to her childhood with Cloud. Before her breakdown, Tifa consantly talked of her a Cloud being close childhood friends. She didn't lie because she in a sense forced herself to believe this to suit her emotional dependency on Cloud. Again this can and, in Tifa's case, did contribute to breakdowns.
And Tifa's repression at the beginning leads to avoidance... many times to avoid weaknesses or thoughts there of people will take on a project. This allows subjects to disconnect from the weakness. A sort of, "If I ignore it it will go away." Running a business is a very good way to do this.
Unfortunately, with Tifa's case, since she associated ShinRa with her weaknesses; this lead to aggression. Displaced anger from Sephiroth to ShinRa and further displaced to the reactors. I'm not saying Tifa wasn't against the reactors.... they were part of her association. She more than likely felt on a subconscious level that destroying the reactors was hurt Sephiroth some how.
This act of her joining this resistance group also accounts for her and Barret's emotional weakness... or disturbance would be more accurate. Attacking the reactors as much as we all (including myself) hate to admit it... are terrorist acts. Terrorist attacks both involve both enemy and a 3rd party... many excuse the third party as a nessicary sacrifice, claim it so be part of the problem, or ignore it all together. The third option is what happened in FF7. IF the attacks are examined objectively it is a testiment to the mental and emotional stablity of the group. neutral
Tifa is a great person and character... faults and all. But excusing faults or ignoring never help the situation. At least she is more stable than Cloud.

I agree! I'm glad you're open minded Amylin. blaugh

That I can defend pink for in one state as an avid fan of this pairing. (If I had a scanner I'd post my Fack fanart) This pairing is generally not liked by fans. Every shrine/forum/etc I have ever found to this pairing usually is filled with nothing but flamers stating, "Shut up! Clifa end up together!" "Zack is dead!" "It's Zack and Aeris!" "It's Cloud and Tifa!" as well as Clifa bashing this pairing rarely with any other ammunication other than how perfect Cloud and Tifa are together.
Now there are plenty of Clifa that do not do this. Unfortunately... these fans do not typically post on the shrines/etc. This is likewise with Aeck fans. So this eventually leads to the break down of counter pairings before explanation of such pairing can be established. So it can really be taken as a precautionary. (Mind this can be done with any pairing.)
Fack sadly has a very thin line of defense... building the wall before some people get there is usually seen as a good way to strengthen it. It leaves a bad name but... so does accusations that someone only likes something because it counters something else they like.
I simply pointed out to pink that her statement can leave a bad impression... I did not state that was what she really felt... just the impression she was leaving. I'm not pink and pink is not a fictional character; thus I can not say what her objectives are. Only note to her what undertones she leaves behind.