Barret > Yang:

I've gained a lot of respect for Barret over the course of FF7 Remake and Rebirth.  He's a genuinely good guy who cares about and looks after his 'crew,' which includes Wedge, Biggs, Jessie, Tifa and Cloud.  He also took good care of Marlene and tried his best to help Dyne.  Before then he was good to his wife, and made the right decision in trying to avenge his destroyed town by destroying Shinra.  It takes a lot of courage to lead a terrorist group against a gigantic government and accept that everyone will vilify you even though you're in the right.  He does more with one arm than most people with two could ever dream of.  I assume he'll continue being cool in game 3.

He's a little on the dull side, often the butt of jokes, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a good guy and a good friend.  He even encouraged Cloud to confess to whoever he loves, because you never know when they might permanently disappear and you'll regret it if you don't seize the day (like what tragically happened to his wife).  That was great advice, as it turned out, because Aerith died soon after.  For a black man he isn't bad looking.  I dig his shades.

When I compare that to Yang, a bald dude with a mustache, I have to admit Barret is better looking.  And when I compare Yang's minor character status, a guy you get for a few hours in FF4 before he ends up heroically dying and leaving the party (only not really dying but whatever), to Barret's monumental characterization over the course of three 100+ hour games plus movies and other spinoffs. . .it's not even close.  Yang isn't even a blip on the map compared to how much we know and love Barret.

Furthermore, it would make Tifa happy to have a child named Barret, one of her closest friends, so at that point giving her such a son in '100 Waifus' is undeniably the right decision.  Therefore I've edited '100 Waifus' to make it so.  There's a complication, though.  I need Yang as one of Tifa's children for the sake of the plot, so in '100 Waifus' not Yang, but Serenoa is replaced as one of Tifa's kids with Barret.  In my fictional character hall of fame I can properly replace Yang though and keep Serenoa.  With Barret's inclusion and Serenoa's exclusion I had to edit the scene in Chapter 55 a little, so it now reads (change in bold):

　　Tifa watched over her children approvingly as they practiced her path of the monk. Cloud and Zack had been swordsmen, so she had left them be. Eiko and Tina were summoners, so she had left them be. Barret had been, well, Barret, so she had left him be. Sabin, Yang, Galuf and Snow were martial artists, so she had drilled them, and drilled them, and drilled them, to an inch of their lives, down the path of the monk.

I think it's apropos to make a joke at Barret's expense since the game constantly does too, so it feels more 'Barret' this way than any other.

In addition I made another edit in Chapter 44, fixing a grammatical error of a present-tense 'show' into a past-tense 'showed.'  I know, huge deal, right?  But I want the book to be perfect and this 41st edition is dedicated to achieving that task.

I'm up to Chapter 48 now.  It's good to know that rereading this book for the 41st time wasn't a waste and I found genuinely important ways to improve it as a result, but wading through these long lists of names sure has been a slog.  If it weren't the 41st time I'm sure I'd feel better about them, but man.  I can understand anyone's decision to just scroll through them and get back to the narrative.

The March Madness bracket is settled and there are lots of Texas teams for me to cheer for, including #1 seed Houston.  I expect good things from the coming weeks.