Tuesday was a big day for video game news; a day that truly showcased the duality of humanity. It was impossible to miss the news of Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard, a staggering change for the industry. But the other big story was that a Rule 34 animated video of Tifa Lockhart was shown in Italy’s parliament.
By accident, of course — this was not a matter of civic discourse. The Italian senate was meeting on Zoom, to discuss data transparency in politics. As Nobel Prize Winner Giorgio Parisi began to speak, a user by the name of Alex Spence entered the chat and ‘Zoombombed’ the senate by playing a pornographic video of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Tifa Lockhart for a short period of time, before he was disconnected.
anyway, on lighter news, have you heard about the Tifa Lockhart hentai video that was accidentally shown during a meeting of the Italian senate yesterday
— Ducktor Naldush (@FrancescoDonald) January 18, 2022
Fan-made video game porn is a booming industry, with artists creating elaborate clips starring characters from Overwatch, the Resident Evil franchise and, of course, Final Fantasy. The artist Dragk, who made said NSFW video of Tifa, had the unexpected experience of seeing his own work in a very unusual context.
“I found it quite funny, got a good laugh out of it!” he told Polygon over Twitter DMs. Friends and fans alike messaged him with the clip when it went viral on Twitter. “I actually have no idea what the interrupted stream was about,” he says, but other artists are already creating fan art of the meme.
The zoom bombing has led to an increase in attention on Dragk’s content; he reports a dramatic spike in the number of comments his work receives. For him, this served as an unexpected but welcome kind of exposure. “I’m quite happy that a lot of people saw my content, even if it was by accident!”
