This is exactly how I've been feeling, especially post-Rebirth.
I think Aragorn's full quote describes the CA relationship to a tee: "It is but a shadow and a thought that you love. I cannot give you what you seek. I have you wished you joy since first I saw you." (but lbr, Cloud could never be so articulate).
Eowyn's feelings for Aragorn are instrumental to her character arc, but the culmination of her arc does not require those feelings to be reciprocated (in fact, very much the opposite is true). Meanwhile, Aragorn and Arwen's arcs are intrinsically tied to one another, their relationship, and the reciprocity of their feelings, and Eowyn has nothing to do with it. The biggest obstacle in their relationship isn't another woman, but...Sauron.
Replace those names, and that's basically the "love triangle" in FF7.
In TTT, there are many moments where Aragorn is quite tender towards Eowyn, so the audience understands why she develops those feelings, and people who never read the books may legitimately be confused as to what his feelings are for her, but everything becomes clear by ROTK.
Similiarly in Rebirth there are enough scenes of Cloud being kind to Aerith that could be interpreted as romantic, so we can understand why Aerith is able to keep her hopes alive (even though I think they're really toeing the line in Rebirth, since there are also many moments where Cloud can be -- optional or not -- quite rude to her).
My biggest gripe with Rebirth is that it feels like the "shadow" Aerith is chasing is literally seeing the shadow of Zack in Cloud. I found the writing for her character in this game rather inconsistent and to the very end, her motivations opaque. It's kind of how I felt about Advent Children, where I can see what they were going for, but found the execution lacking.
The tragedy of her character is that she is someone who just wants to be a normal girl, doing normal things like trying to sort out her romantic feelings for two different guys, but she can never be normal because she's the last of her kind, destined for something greater and ultimately, destined to die. The problem is I feel like Rebirth leaned way too far into the first part of that sentence, and I have to imagine it's because they brought back Zack and made his motivation almost entirely about saving her. Aerith's mixed up feelings are then used as a way to bridge Cloud and Zack's storylines.
This is especially clear in the "dream date" in Ch. 14. Nothing about it should be taken at face value, and I think it's more a meta-commentary on the immutability of fate than anything, but it also doesn't really make much sense as a culmination of Cloud and Aerith's relationship. Mostly because there's almost no development for said relationship throughout this very long game. Not that they don't share any scenes together, but there's little to no progression. In Ch. 2, Cloud is uncomfortable when Aerith tries to make their Clock Tower outing romantic by calling it a date, and in Ch. 11 & 12 (granted these are optional), Cloud is again uncomfortable when Aerith tries to make things too intimate/romantic by asking him to sit near her and he pointedly sits farther away in both instances.
Even without looking at the menu and realizing that the game considers this part of Zack's "interlude," the entire thing is framed by Zack's story and by the dramatic question that was initially raised by Marlene earlier in the game - Does Aerith have feelings for Cloud? - but this is not about the two of them, this about how Zack feels about this and how he deals with it. The tension throughout the date is that they're going through the motions, they do seem like a couple (even though all the NPCs say otherwise), and maybe Zack's fears are true.
Of course, by the end of it, we the player, know that's not the case. Because even after they go through all the motions, even in a world where Zack and Tifa don't exist, by the end of the date, the conclusion Aerith herself comes to is that she's not sure if her feelings for Cloud are romantic after all. Not to mention, while Aerith has to lead Cloud herself to "Our Place" -- in every single fucking universe Zack somehow finds his way there on his own. This game doesn't explicitly spell it out, and Zack remains unaware to add some dramatic irony/emotional conflict to carry us through the third game, but all the clues are there.
This dream date is really not relevant to Cloud's arc at all. Cloud's arc in Rebirth is all about his fucked up mind. Aerith, like the rest of the party, can tell there's something wrong with him, but the only person he confides in is Tifa. Obviously, his reaction to Aerith's death exacerbates his mental decline, but all the stuff that happens in the other "world" before her death isn't really relevant. (If anything, this date just fucks him up more because Aerith is trying to get him to live out the life of the man he's pretending to be, but I have to imagine it's not the game's intention for her actions to be perceived this way, more of an unintended consequence of questionable writing.)
It's also technically works as a culmination of Aerith's personal arc in as much as the game bothered to give her one. The one thing that this games does progress are her feelings about Zack -- in Gongaga where she tries to pretend she's over him though it's obvious she's not; in Cosmo Canyon, where she feels his hand in the Lifestream; in the Gold Saucer, where I guess we're supposed to believe that she's finally beginning to accept that he's probably dead (though the fact that this is hidden in the optional dates is another baffling narrative choice). So then this "dream date" is, like on the Gondola, her trying to move on, except either consciously or subconsciously, she just ends up recreating her date with Zack, so she clearly hasn't. Which again, is an outcome predetermined by the fact that they brought back Zack and made his motivation all about her. They're not gonna make Zack's arc be all about trying to fight destiny in hopes of saving/reuniting with her, if she -- even if she wavers -- isn't going to be waiting.
So in the Church, Aerith resolves (or at least is working towards the inevitable resolution of) her romantic feelings, and also gets Cloud to give her her MacGuffin so she can fulfill her duty as a Cetra? I guess? Then us getting her big speech about life and death and looking towards the future in the Temple of the Ancients before the dream date feels...backwards. Idek.
It's extremely frustrating that we never get Aerith's own POV on her motivations in what is supposed to be her game (especially when we get tremendous insight into Tifa's motivations through her own POV in Ch. 9). Instead of putting us in her shoes as she leaves the party (and as she goes to what she probably realizes is her death?) and letting us sit with those conflicted feelings, we see everything through the eyes of an extremely unreliable narrator just so the ending can be the kind of mindfuck that invites debate rather than a fitting, bittersweet sendoff for her character.
If only because almost every other character in this game is so well-drawn (with such clear arcs), Aerith ends up feeling more like a plot device here (and more damningly a plot device to service the arcs of two different men this time) than she did in the OG. A gaping flaw in an otherwise very good game, especially since so much of this comes at the end.
the last date is definitely a meta commentary on CA/ZA to me because this is not "our" Aerith, although I do think she is linked to "our" Aerith (I have a long arsed theory about this world lol). But I will say it, I think the reason why there are so many version of these worlds existing is because she wanted to save Zack, and in no reality she finds a way to keep him alive. The only way for both of them to be together is to die; Zack is her Promised Land, her own happiness, and I think these worlds is how they're going to show that (in fact they already have started) and why Zack is still around in AC/C (after 2 years even a SOLDIER should have joined the Lifestream).
