It’s been discussed before, but I’m interested in this topic because I think it’s worth mentioning that though the line is very likely a reference to Aerith, it reminds me of the prediction from Cait Sith about a “bright future” in that these details often don’t reflect where the story actually goes.
I think though that for this scene, ToTP has heavily reframed it - like it did with other stuff, like say, chapter 3 in its entirety. The way I see it, it's a mother teasing her son because she knows that he at least crushes if not more on the girl next door. She even describes Tifa - the mature girl that can nudge Cloud in the right direction, which is totally Tifa's role - with a grin. After ToTP, I just can't unsee that. In the same vein, Thea describing Cloud as beautiful is because she saw that her daughter crushed on the boy next door. It's just something that parents tend to do with their kids (we can't help ourselves ok? XD).
The fact is you could argue both ways in Remake, especially since we had a shot on Cloud's eyes that looked like they reflected stars, and quickly after tried to go back to Tifa, but it was just an interpretation. ToTP pretty much confirms it, especially since Claudia has no way to know Aerith, and since Aerith herself is the childish girl, not the mature one (no matter the English erasure of her character).
In the OG, IIRC, clotis argued that Cloud just wasn't interested in such girl (older) because he already was set onto Tifa, hence his answer to his mother "Not interested".
Edit:
@Thenir also beautifully explained the fake/real angle which I hadn't considered. I really like how Remake is giving new thoughts to chew on and how we should have seen that scene, even from the OG perspective. We often forget that the LT is supposed to further the illusion, I guess we're pretty trapped in it
So for me it’s weird when people claim the game “favors” somebody because it assumes the game wants the player to have a choice while also nudging you in a particular direction, yet we don’t actually have a choice.
Oh no, I just had a lot of argumentation regarding this with Peko lol XD When people talk about that, they talk about the mechanism of the romance that is implemented in-game. And there is no way to deny that this mechanism favoured Aerith in the OG and favours Tifa in Remake. Let's get to it!
In the OG, Aerith starts with a higher base points - because she must make an impression, as the devs say. She's the easiest to get for the GS date, but also is put in situations where, if you play without knowing about it, you'll favour her unknowingly. For example, in the sewers, you wake up next to her while waking Tifa up is a grand detour. In the cells, when you ask everyone how they are, her name is at the bottom but the mouse pointer is next to her name. That kind of thing that make it easier to chose Aerith as the answer rather than Tifa. Tifa herself has some odd choices, like in Don Corneo's dungeon - if you ask her how she is, you'll lose points, but if you say "let's go save Aerith!" you'll win points, which is odd at best (and you're likely to ask how she is and lose points like this even if you want to favour Tifa). So the OG definitely pushed Aerith in such a way that the player felt that she was the right choice, which led to problematic interpretations once the player reached the Lifestream scene - to simply put it, the player thought it was in the past and now he loves Aerith. That's how the LTD was born, mainly, and why it still poisons FFVII to this day. It's also worth to note that when the game begins, Aerith is the first out of the two girls that you meet, so when you meet up with Tifa, you don't necessarily chose to flirt with her etc. because you want to see Aerith again.
In Remake, the mechanism is very different; first, there are less, less choices. As I joke often, it's down to a bunch of side quests you're supposed to do and who you wake up in the sewers. So basically, it seems even, right? Wrong. The mechanism does push Tifa through its trophy Dressed to the nines. Because you're supposed to do all the quests for Tifa for any of her dresses, while you're supposed to do less and less quests with Aerith to get her other dresses. Mechanically, that means that if you're doing this, then you have to get Tifa's resolution, no matter who you wake up in the sewers. However, it's also interesting that the game does give you a bonus scene for waking up Tifa first. And it is to note that the first girl that is mentioned and who you see is Tifa, and you are questioned about your relationship with her. I guess that it does change the perspective a lot for newcomers, because you become eager to meet up with her before even meeting up with Aerith - and you have no choice but to flirt with Tifa.
In that sense, despite having the choice, the OG did push Aerith as the preferred route, and Remake is pushing Tifa as the preferred route (I prefer to use "preferred" rather than canon, since anyway all three resolutions, whether you see them or not, are canon). Remake also has Aerith telling you flat that Cloud's feelings aren't real while (true) Cloud does show up to hug Tifa. It's very blunt in its narrative, compared to the OG, IMHO. Which again doesn't mean that we won't have any clerith in the next games: I fully anticipate that, and more cloti too. Just what is unforeseen, since at that point in the OG, there is very little romance (almost none until the GS date). Personally, I wouldn't mind if it followed the OG route there since it's rather heavy, story-wise, but it's probably not happening.
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just saying that this is what it means to have to do all Tifa's side quests (x3) and less of Aerith's side quests to get all the dresses.