This forum feels pretty Cloti dominated. I really wish there are some reasonable Clerith here so I can get to know what they truly want from Cloud and Aerith given that Aerith is canonly dead now, and it probably won’t change in the future.
I have a friend who likes Aerith, but he only like Aerith and doesn’t ship her with anybody.
Shipper on X are in general more insane and got trigger easily by stating the fact that Aerith is dead..
Hi. I'm a CA.
I had a blog a while back where I wrote my ideas about the LTD. It was supposed to be a one off thing that turned into a series of essays and lots of character defense posts. Unfortunately what happened as a result is people thought I was Cloti in disguise because I said I think CT is canon even though I still very much romantically ship Clerith. So that might be why you can't find many "Cleriths" engaging with Clotis. People start to think we aren't real if we have an opinion that differs from what they think it should be.
To be transparent. I'm a CA but also a multishipper. And my stance does not really match fully either that of the Cloti nor Clerith fandom and there are many things I disagree with of both. I never understood exactly how that made me a "Cloti", but sure. I used to think he loved both girls and was wavering between them like the Kitase quote about the hero wavering between two heroines suggested. But Remake changed my mind on that.
It's obvious to me that devs are pointing people towards ZA and CT as canon and have been for years since like CC it got more obvious and I just accepted it. Ultimanias say mutual feelings since childhood so there we go. There is no reason for me to argue against it. I'm just not a Cloti and that's okay.
But that doesn't mean I agree with everything either side of this fandom says. Like for instance, I have only ever seen a few people get Aerith's character right and understand her. Usually she's wrapped up in either being glorified to high heaven or teared down to hell. As is her relationship with Cloud. I don't think they are anything like siblings for example.
If anything their relationship is more spiritual and mostly undefined beyond comrade and I'm fine with that. It can be a deep platonic bond. A beautiful friendship I can accept that.
But also you can't tell me their aesthetic doesn't at least look romantic and that this wasn't intended on some level. And in general telling someone the pink girl with sparkles holding hands with the hero, the one who tells her he is coming for her etc and she's talking about "You can't fall in love with me" is "sibling like" it isn't going to go well if they see it as romantic. Because on the surface it does look romantic, and can we really blame people for seeing it that way? Regardless of canon I mean. I do think talking about why it's set up to look romantic is important and we can do that without talking about siblings because looking at for example the red dress scene? Please tell me how I'm supposed to see anything about that as sibling like.
Also I think Aerith as a character is just extremely misunderstood. And I think both Remake and Rebirth are actually doing a better job of solving that. She feels a lot more fleshed out. Also I liked her in OG and it is not because of shipping but because I think flawed characters (all of the party in OG were hella flawed) feel more human. I liked her in CC too, to me she was herself just younger.
I think currently a lot of CAs are on copium about the CT kiss. But I don't see Rebirth itself as terrible for CA in fact, I'm really enjoying it and I know the spoilers. The scenes are beautiful and their friendship is beautiful. I think Aerith trying to puzzle out her feelings needed to be addressed if the LTD was to be solved. Though I really wish we had more of her Cetra heritage and her by herself as a character.
So yep, that's me. You can probably see how I don't fully fall in the definition of either faction here.
But
What exactly would you like to know? I don't engage in LTD anymore honestly. I mostly write about lore and story themes but I can give some perspective maybe.