React like she often does: showcase anger & pride,scoff & maybe find a way to get revenge by undercuting or insulting the people saying that depending of how bad it is.

If the two of them are already close, it will be one of those cases where she knows she can affirm her beliefs. She doesn't put Rufus on pedestal like many people do. She sees him as a flawed man who also has his own qualities. But he's not the type of person who can build a relationship with just anyone. And turns out that she's one of the rare person out there who match his freak on various domains.

I still sees her seeking for re-assurance & support from him when nobody is looking tho. I think it would be interesting to observe their growth as they learn on that side, as these two comes from places where they didn't felt necessarily supported as they become each other's "safe place"

I don't know really. There's the fact that her motive to personally chase him is gone & we kinda already got the punch/roll down the cliff as a her boss battle mechanic. And Cloud is now completely unhinged too. Him letting her punch him wouldn't make sense knowing Sephiroth's influence is so strong that he almost offed her in the temple.
My hopes tho is that they'll change this & make her the Turks (and maybe Rude & Reno as well) who accompany Rufus in the Northern Cave.
They set her up as someone curious, someone who was actually excited at the idea of finding the promised land, who might ultimately wants answers about what's going on behind-the scenes but also the fact she's worried about Rufus stunts. There's also the fact she's the last Turks you see in Rebirth before you switch to Rufus.
Her deciding to "redeem" herself by personnally following Rufus to the Northern Cave might work better in the context of part 3.
And tbh, I don't care much if it gets cut (it's not important to her & just undercut her character) & if it is replaced by something that doesn't make more disservice to her character but enhanced it instead.

Rufus is not the most physically durable of the group but he knows how to compensate with his smarts & quick reflexes/reaction time. He could win a fight like this. Which could be an interesting (needed) challenge for Elena.
She's smart but her overeagerness causes her to do bad mistakes in combat ( the Elena knuckle is almost worthless due to the time she takes to charge the attack & she misses to the point of falling down cliffes, she sometime need to take a breath because she doesn't spend her energy correctly etc)
So fighting someone like Rufus might push her to think a bit more beforec acting to win, which could be a valuable learning experience for the both of them.

Knows that as someone who didn't play OG myself (my "true" entry to the compilation was AC when I was 14), I might not be as attached to their OG presentation as some other players might feel.

For Cid, I can't tell yet in the current circumstances. While he's still presented as different, we're barely scratched the surface of his character. We can see they try to improve some part of his character like him behaving less like an old man when he's not even in his mid-thirties.
However there is still the matter with Shera that has not been presented yet, which was a big component of his character. While I find his behaviour in OG as awful af & still hate the fact he get rewarded by marrying Shera, I liked that the devs didn't shy away to give a more horrible side to some party members at the time. Like yeah, Cid is on that ride to save the world but he's also an abuser. The way other party members seems to close their eyes on that too... It's also awful in its own way but we also meet that kind of ppl & behaviour irl.
I hope Shera will still be a part of his arc. But I think they might take a different approach on it, in particular with the revelation that Cid had a crush on Ifalna. I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered that Shera looks like Ifalna & Cid attempted to project her crush on her at first or something to the point of being unhealthy. Or compare Shera to Ifalna, that he might have seen more like the ideal partner who would have pushed him until the end to attain his dreams even at the risk of his safety or something.

I'm a bit whatever with Dyne, tho i'm not really a fan of the suicide by cops solution. I liked him telling Barret to live so he can suffer in his stead tho & the japanese performance for that scene is great. I also went to see the scene in eng & I really liked the performance of Barret's voice actor here. In short, I think I felt more bad about Barret more than anything. I think they attempted to show the importance of having emotionnal support during tough times but didn't want to delve about how destructive your mind can become toward yourself & others, which is narratively...idk. I feel there is a potential parallel to be made with Cloud' mind deteriorating & how it will culminate in the Northern Crater, with Barret potentially witnessing another Dyne's like situation there.

I try to think how things might work in the grand scheme so we'll see. In any case, I don't feel the anger that other players might feel about the changes

Why do you say I was annoyed by it? I was lit one of the few people who keep dunking on fandom about the way they treated her during & ruined her first reveal with that matter.

I was never annoyed by her face unlike the hordes of toxic fandom out there because:

1. unlike many, I understand that the characters are in a semi-realistic style ( anime faces that got the realistic style basically. However it's not on the same level of details as you would find for a game like the TLOU/Uncharted. Everyone looks pretty doll-ish except for the random NPCs & more "gruff" looking guy like Barret, Cid, Dio, Reeve, Heidegger etc...) so of course, characters are gonna have similar faces. Scarlet, Noctis, & Rufus have a similar faces & you can lit swap them out without noticing much. Cloud's is similar to Lightning. FF is filled with with an enormous amount of Tifa clones in general. A lot of npcs in 7R have Tifa & Aerith faces.

2. Elena was always supposed to look like them stylistically since OG & fits the fact that I've always hc'ed her as half-asian.

3. I hate her EC face, which is just Aerith's face but with slightly diff eyes. It also doesn't suit her personnality & I can't see her do the various expressions she has in Rebirth.

   1. This is also the fandom who thinks that Tifa, Yuffie, Elena & Kyrie looks too much alike, which is a bit of a sus statement. The devs gave them traits to show they are asian, also made sure they are all distinguishable from each other. & I think it need to stop because it's starting to really give an immature & smelly racist aura to some section of the fandom.

Oh, I have lot of them, in particular with all the new arrangements of rebirth. We got so many bangers:

_ Tifa's theme is such a lovely piece

_The Day Midgar stood still. Love how powerful & melancholic that song is.
_ Hollow. It felt so good to hear the rawness. Such an emotionnal song. The rebirth arrangement are also great but felt more like endgame kind of music,

_ The one winged angel. I tend to prefer the arrangements to the original. The AC one is full raw power, The remake one sounds like something out of an horror movie at times, the rebirth really emphasize how angry Sephiroth is with the guitar & has a more chaotic side by almost skipping entire parts & how fast it is. Like yeah, Remake is the one where his plans are working but here Aerith put a wrench in them & he's sooo furious.

-The second phase of Rufus Shinra theme in Remake & the second & final phase of the Rebirth one. The remake theme is methodical af, meanwhile the Rebirth one encapsulate how Rufus is feeling & his struggle as the more you go into it, the more you lose the usual Shinra letmotif. It's like as if his individuality, his weaknesses & flaws but also resilience is starting to emerge.

_ Elena's theme does a great job at characterizing her as well. The first 20 seconds are fire, the way her personnality sips thru the Shinra leitmotif with the whimsy piano & how we finally hear the Turks one when Rude comes to help her & it almost sound heroïc, chef kisses

_ The bench version and Rumble with the Turks are so underrated but I think it's probably one of the best Turks theme we got. It does an amazing job at pumping you up & make Avalanche/The Turks feels like two rival teams of equal power duking out.

_ In term of open world things, the battle theme of the grasslands is amazing. I also like the battle edit of Heavy Heart (the one you hear when you're still around Costa del Sol). That one is so underrated. I think putting it there wasn't exactly a great idea.

_ Another underrated one is Barret's theme that you can hear when you reach the destroyed mako reactor. You can feel the damage & despair that event caused thru that song. My mind goes to Barret, Myrna & Dyne. The fact, Rufus is also partially responsible for that in BC makes me feel a certain way.

_ In term of sidequest, Stamp's theme, the battle version of the Wall Market theme & the Fort Condor music are my favs.
_ The track when Tifa wake up within the Weapon as it bring her to place her memories are within the lifestream. The Hans Zimmer vibes & the build-up made me so emotionnal.

_ The Nanaki's trial music during chapter 10. The god of war like choir sure left an impression. Like yeah, it does a great job at reminding you that the Gi are still alive, furious & bitter about it, ready to emerge to start a war just so they can finally pass away. The fact the voices are also merged with
Nanaki/ Cosmo Canyon theme, who

_ The Gi village is amazingly haunting as well. It's as if the singer is trying to lure you into something really grim.

_ The battle theme at the entrance of the Temple of the ancients & then inside of it. Loved it the first time I heard it in one of the trailer due its intensity & I was thinking how great it would be if they added singing, which is absolutely what they did within the temple, adding an amazing intensity to it. I wish they added a similar vibes in the Turks fight in TotA as well. Also kinda wishing to see the Turks battling their way in the temple as they are losing men with that music blasting.

_ Listen to the cries of the planet. With the sounds of the clock & some parts of 7 second until the end. Absolutely hauntingly, beautifully evil of them.

_ The music when you get to see the story of the Cetra, humans & Jenova. The way it builds up to the chorus of the Mural chamber as if you feel the weight of the destruction Jenova caused but also as if the voices are screaming at you to stop, to not go further.

_ The sleeping forest version of Aerith's theme. Prettiest thing ever

_ The promised land is a lil' banger as well. Like yeah, something big is coming

_ Her final prayer. When you walk to the altar as you hear the voices & then Aerith's theme mix-in. It was so haunting, it gave me shivers.

_ Jenova Lifeclinger. Aerith's theme kicking in & then being eaten away by Jenova's. Evil.

_ Safe & Sound from AC. Love Jamming to that one.

For other FF:

_ Otherworld from FFX. The way that song rewired my brain chemistry.
_ A fleeting dream from FFX. Hearing that as you enter Zanarkand & playing it during fights even. Hello?

_ FF12's main theme.
_ FF12 boss battle is glorious
_ The whole music during the last boss fight with Gabranth. That moment where he does that pose which is the logo of FF12 lives in my mind rent free.

_ Away & Control from FF16 are one of my fav tracks that FF put out recently. But it also pisses me off bcos it remind me how much they wasted the characters & story of that game lol

Special mention for instrumental version of Somnus that you could hear in the FF15 demo title screen with Carbuncle staring at the horizon