I feel since you are new that I should warn you: I used to hate Aerith, people here can attest to that. But Remake made me love her, and after replaying the OG, I think she is OK there. I'm still not super fond of her characterisation there, because her character is the type of girls I don't really like to have around me (very flirty).
However, the debate right now isn’t about Cloud ends up with who(because that’s obvious), it’s about who Cloud loves more.
This is because of moving goalposts. And it's not the entire fandom, a whole subset of cleriths fans do say cloti has never been canon and it's clerith that is canon in Twitter, hence the ugly wars - I see those claims in the cloti tag when I frequent it, EVERY TIME, so it's understandable that people are pissed when they go to the tag to enjoy cute fanarts or whatever.
Of course, looking up for Reddit group, mostly people will say Cloud loves both or it was up to player’s interpretation, and minor of them will say if Aerith had lived, he will end up with her, which very isn’t convinced me because there’s no evidence to proof that(Besides bringing up “that” Cait Sith fortune
)
That hasn't been my experience in that sub, maybe because I got unlucky, but I get downvoted every time I mention that Cloud ends up with Tifa, or his feelings towards her. I rarely post there too (in fact I rarely check it, even less than before).
I found the biggest issue on why many Clotis cannot accept Cloud has romantic feelings for Aerith, I think it come from the role of two heroines, I never/barely see Clotis against Aerith’s important as heroine who saving the planet. However, comparing to Aerith, Tifa can’t be like Aerith in terms of external heroine, which is why Tifa is internal heroine who saving Cloud and be by his side(I think Nomura said this). If Aerith is taken as love interest too, then it is a loss for Tifa. Which is why I see many people fighting about who is the main heroine. So sad that this fandom isn’t ready for having two heroines at the same time.
I personally don't think Cloud was in love with Aerith. I think he was attracted, had a crush, but it's nowhere near what he feels for Tifa. And the devs in Remake offered us what Cloud's feelings towards Aerith are: they aren't real. And this is Aerith warning herself, when she is the most in tune with the Lifestream than ever, who says this.
I often say it, but if you look at the timeline, it's literally impossible that his feelings for Aerith trump those he has for Tifa. It's harsh, but it's the truth. And I say this as someone who does believe in love at first sight, because I have experienced it first hand: the love you feel at the beginning is nothing compared to a love you've nurtured for years. It just doesn't hold a candle to it - it's just a huge crush, really. It is my belief that even if Aerith had/will survive(d), the outcome regarding the canon pair will still be the same; Cloud will end up with Tifa. What the timeline says;
- 12/09: Cloud meets up with Aerith
- Aerith dies somewhere like 2 weeks after that without ever meeting the real Cloud
- something like 2 to 3 weeks after this, Cloud confirms with Tifa that their feelings match by having sex with her
Compare that to years of little Cloud crushing hard on Tifa, a crush that cemented into love, a promise made to be her hero that coloured his whole character, him being still in love with her during CC, forgetting about his feelings during the beginning of FFVII but still being attracted to her at that time, getting back his feelings, having sex with Tifa a mere what, two to 3 weeks after Aerith dies, making yet another promise to get reunited in the Lifestream after their death to meet up their loved ones who have died, planning to spend his whole life with her, actually spending his life with her. If he's supposed to love Aerith that much, that sounds really bizarre and arseholish from him, and we know that Cloud isn't an arsehole.
To me there is no comparison possible, and the two big reasons why I can never ship clerith are that she never knew the real Cloud and it looks very shallow to me. I think yes, it's dreamy, that's the whole thing about it - but that's because it's supposed to be an illusion. And to me, Remake cemented the fact that Cloud loves Tifa in a much deeper way than what his relationship with Aerith is. As I often say here though, there is nothing wrong with shipping clerith; shipping is a matter of taste, clerith is cute, it makes sense that they appeal to people. And at the end of the day, I still think that in the next parts we'll get more clerith moments too that will make the fans happy. That Cloud and Aerith will still grow closer - but it doesn't prevent Cloud's feelings to be where Tifa is.
) and how his mind is messed up. And later of the game, we found out that in Cloud’s conscious is Tifa everywhere, which make the player be like “Holy shit, so Tifa is the biggest reason on Cloud’s whole journey just because he just want to impress her”. I must say this part is also the biggest part that let lots of people love Cloti, and I think this is also the devs want to make things clear that they are not randomly choose Tifa to end up with Cloud as “second choice”, if Tifa is a second choice then I don’t think they are necessarily to make the whole arc revolves around their relationship, especially if they think Clerith is the main couple of the game.
