Twitter "For You" tab hurts my brain :
Obviously takes like these are exceedingly unhinged and betray a deeper, fundamental problem with Cleriths, vis, they are willing to throw anyone or anything - the characters, the narrative, the devs and more - under a bus to protect their ship.
But wow, I'd love to focus on this last little line there "rebound jealous kiss that was after asking about Aerith feelings..." - leaving aside the blatant character assassination of Cloud here, that'd he'd actually do this, and the fact that would you even want this man with Aerith if this is how he behaves (?), it's an interesting spin on the events in Gongaga which is becoming harder and harder for fans of CA to ignore.
Cloud stumbles on Zack's house with Aerith inside. It's clear she's emotional and they talk a little outside, perhaps the most frank and unguarded conversation between the two in the entire game. She explains, Zack was her first love. Cloud asks, do you still love him? She answers yes. It's an answer that comes from the heart and it has to - she hasn't seen him in 5 years, is either in part or in whole aware he's dead, and could easily handwave the question away with "I don't know" if there was any uncertainty. But she says yes, because, she does. And it's
to Cloud.
The implications here are enormous. First, this is the most overt, unquestionable statement by Aerith about her feelings for any one man to a third party in canon. Obviously she has interest in Cloud due to his connection to Zack, this grows into an interest in Cloud in it's own right (she knows he's not the real him, but isn't aware who the real him actually is) and this could well have developed into something bigger had they not known each other for only a few short, and very busy, weeks. Nevertheless, this one statement is about Zack and it's to Cloud.
Secondly the rest of the game, and indeed franchise, has to be interpreted in light of her feelings and the fact she's
expressed them with Cloud. While in Rebirth, this doesn't make much difference admittedly - the devs purposely kept Z and A apart as bringing them together now would end the discussion once and for all, destroying any chance for build up of C and A ahead of her death - there's still plenty that changes in light of it.
One has to understand the context of future declarations of feelings on behalf of Aerith, for a start. I don't think NPTK is as significant as many seem to believe, but if you want to say it's a love ballad that represents Aerith's feelings then you must concede that Zack is at least a part of this because he's a part of her.
Further, the Sector 5 date - already a direct copy of her date with Zack, projected as part of an attempt to recapture that lost romance she shared with him - ends with Aerith confessing she doesn't know if she loves Cloud or just likes him. One can say that, OK, maybe she does love him. But there's a hesitancy there, a doubt there. In Gongaga, the response is swift, unwavering and solidly "I love Zack".
Even the Cleriths are realising, such as this quote illustrates, that this changes the game. They claim Cloud is jealous - and well he might be, at least a little, as he's still in his SOLDIER fantasy persona and has been greatly indulged by acting the part of Aerith's bodyguard - but this acknowledgement throws a direct spanner in the works of CA, vis, Cloud is clearly, even before realising who Zack is, unwilling to progress his relationship with Aerith further in light of the fact she's still in love with Zack. That's a damning admission.
Ultimately, the LTD has never been about who loves Cloud. We know Tifa has feelings him, and always has. We know Aerith has feelings for him. But who does Cloud love? In the Lifestream sequence, Tifa puts together the broken pieces of his mind only to discover every single piece loves
her deeply, so we've had the answer since 1997. This "jealousy" or "rebound kiss" thing is a myth, Cloud's wanted to snog Tifa for a decade.
Just as we must interpret the kiss in light of Cloud's love for Tifa - as if it was in question by anyone arguing in good faith - so too we must interpret Aerith's feelings for Cloud in light of her admitted love of Zack. It seems in a roundabout way even CAs are starting to see one cannot treat him as a thing of the past for her any longer.
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