I think the moment when the photographer said CA doesn't look like couple because the girl looks like gonna cry (JP)/it's like funeral (EN) is also the callback how the shopkeeper in CC thought Zack is Aerith's boyfriend that she wouldnt find a good--kindhearted guy like him, and Bruno says Zack & Aerith look good together,
About the church, this isn't ever mentioned before in this discussion. But Nomura says in Dengeki Maou for CCFF7 interview back then (2007)
"Whenever something comes up in his mind, Zack heads straight to the
church, as if he’s looking to be healed."
Aside from the moment Aerith embraced him when he's grieving Angeal's death, Nomura's comment reminds me of all of these scenes throughout Remake & Rebirth:
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This to me is why I personally cannot look at the church as Cloud and Aerith’s “spot”.
Their scene together there is of course beloved, iconic, and memorable especially as it was remembered in the original and recreated in Remake.
But all told the time they spend there together is less than ten minutes or so.
Meanwhile innumerable scenes between Aerith and Zack take place there, not to mention it being their very first scene there together.
It’s Zack and Aerith’s spot. And I always felt as much as Cloud goes to the spot where Zack died in Advent Children to mourn both Zack
and Aerith, so too do I see him going to the church to mourn them
both. Symbolised as others here have mentioned by the yellow flowers blooming at the spot where Zack died, and his buster sword being planted in the flower patch in the church.
And as you’ve highlighted, in no matter what universe or world or timeline or Lifestream dream pocket he is in, Zack somehow always finds himself at Aerith’s church.
As much as there is a desired narrative right now for some to see Cloud search the multiverse to find and reunite with Aerith, that isn’t the story that is being set up for him. The many goodbyes he has with Aerith in Rebirth’s ending sets up what is his original path in Part 3, that of stopping Sephiroth. There isn’t any promise made between them to find each other, and why would they? Irrespective of whether Aerith is alive in another world or not, she’s still very much able to be present with Cloud if she so chooses, or if Cloud so chooses to wish to see her there.
Their final goodbye together doesn’t set up any potential reunion for them. It’s more a “I’ll do my part, you do yours, and if you run into trouble send up smoke and me and the cavalry will come by”
Meanwhile pretty much the entirety of what they’ve done with Zack in Rebirth is the very “searching the multiverse for Aerith” narrative that some CAs are thinking Part 3 will be about for Cloud and Aerith.
Again I get the sense they know that is what Zack’s story is and would rather see it be for Cloud and Aerith, so too the Lifestream scene being Cloud and Aerith, and Under the Highwind.
There is a tacit understanding of where things are going for some I think, but they’d rather all of the above moments be funnelled down into Cloud and Aerith. And while they can recognise the writing on the wall to an extent, I don’t think there is anything wrong inherently in
wanting those scenes to be for Cloud and Aerith. But there comes a point where if you want to be arguing reasonably you have to accept that the way things have been set up doesn’t suggest in any strong way, that we will be seeing these things for Cloud and Aerith.
To come back to the church, it’s Zack’s nexus point. Much like how I think for Cloud… it’s Nibelheim, and the water tower, like how it is for Tifa. Part 3 will affirm this or it won’t in the Lifestream, but I think it will if it follows the original.
But for Zack, it’s Aerith’s church. It’s their spot. One they spent years spending time in, getting to know each other, falling in love. It’s where Zack keeps coming back to now, no matter the time, place, or dimension, he keeps being drawn back to their place, and I can’t interpret that in any other way as to it being one long drawn out tease for Part 3, when somehow Zack finds himself back there again but this time Aerith will also be there, thus facilitating their reunion.
