I still think it was an odd choice narratively to have Tifa bring up Aerith being the source of the flowers in her resolution scene and when she definitely has bigger losses and worries after the destruction of Sector 7 and the loss of Biggs and Jessie.
No it wasn't, it flowed perfectly because it represented all the hopes Tifa had put in this symbol. And it hurt her to discover that Cloud hadn't had the idea by himself to bring her a flower. As Aerith predicted to force Cloud to take the flower in ch2, she was happy to receive it
I disagree that the hug is a reunion or an allusion to the Highwind scene (I don’t see any connection between the two scenes). I also disagree that the high affection version of the Highwind scene is canon (why would Tifa ask Cloud if he loves her in Case of Tifa if they’ve already confessed mutual romantic feelings to one another and have consummated their feelings?).
The hug represents the physicality and closeness that already exist between the two. It's not only about comforting/being comforted, it's about how close you are willing to be from someone. This is HUGE deal for Japanese people. I've seen a clerith screaming at her screen and being like "Ohhh I thought Cloud was bad with this kind of stuff!" it was really a testament of how much this means *for Cloud* (and Tifa). You may say it's something anyone would do for a friend, but Cloud isn't anyone, he's himself, and doing this isn't easy.
Also the HA highwind scene is the canon route, it has been stressed out many times by SE by now for us to confidently say this, just as much as the Gold Saucer date for Aerith is the canon route. Truck loads of people had both while playing. It's one of the things that a lot of clerith fail to understand: no matter how much Cloud in the first part falls for Aerith, he will ALWAYS meet back with Tifa, they will ALWAYS confess their feelings for each other and have sex under the Highwind. It doesn't diminish what clerith has, but it's the canon.
I’ll just say that there is evidence that Cloud’s feelings from the OG are bleeding through to Remake Cloud – Cloud sheds a tear after watching Aerith walk away from him at the beginning of chapter 9. This was a clear allusion to Cloud watching Aerith walk away from him in the sleeping forest dream from the OG and an instance in which OG Cloud’s feelings were felt by Remake Cloud. I think it’s quite possible, then, that the same can be said for their feelings in Cloud and Aerith’s resolution scene.
I don't think his feelings are bleeding through, at least not in the way you're implying. In this particular scene, yes he is sad so he cries, but he doesn't understand why, and he doesn't want Aerith to know he's been crying either (still the look cool thing). This is the only scene where we get to see him touched emotionally by a flashforward, it's pretty clear that he doesn't really understand those flashes either.
Otherwise, I agree that Cloud is still trying to understand what he feels for Tifa but he seems to have at least realized that his feelings for Aerith are romantic in nature (that he is falling for her, maybe, rather than that he’s already completely in love with her).
This is stretching at best, especially when Nojima goes out of his way to say that Cloud wants to look cool in front of Aerith (Zack persona surfaces; remember it's a fake persona based on how Cloud THINKS what looking cool means, and to him Zack was really super cool) and goes out of his way to say that the real Cloud surfaces with Tifa. Cloud is IMHO absolutely none the wiser, he doesn't know or understand his feelings for both (this was a stressing point in the OG), and that's only natural since he doesn't have a grasp on who he is. I mean, it's really important in the lens of the LTD to understand Cloud's own actions.
I don’t think she was referencing Cloud not being his true self in her resolution scene, as I’ve explained to other posters. The Remake Ultimania only mentioned those lines were about Aerith’s fate and if they were willing to allude to that spoiler, I don’t see why they wouldn’t allude to Cloud’s screwed up memories if that was what she was really talking about.
Yes, but let's talk about how what he thinks he feels is just an illusion then. They say it's a clear call back to the OG, however, it's not only Aerith dying that is referenced, but also Cloud not being himself. The illusion talk is exactly that, a clear call to Cloud not being himself. Than Aerith also references the Highwind scene, because it's the truth hidden by the illusion. And she goes in her prayer pose, which is relative to her dying.
I don’t place as much narrative importance on Aerith’s love for Zack in terms of arguing the LTD since SE has already said point blank that Aerith loves Cloud more than Zack. Yes, Zack was Aerith’s first love and he’ll always hold a special place in her heart, but Maiden of the Planet pretty definitively showed Aerith is not going to resume a romantic relationship with Zack at this point.
Maiden is not taken as canon around here, it was never referenced as such by SE (they also took out an anime from the canon where there was some cloti, so it's 1:1 there). The thing is, in Remake, Aerith is NOT yet over Zack. She is not. His importance looms out on sector 5, where you see Aerith has talked to NPCs about him ("oh I thought you were taller" no shit, Zack was). She asks twice Cloud about him, full of hope, until she notices that Cloud is weird when she mentions Zack's name, so she dials back from then on. She says she must move on and look forward, but those are the words of someone who's stuck and unable yet to move on. And then Zack's shadow comes back to haunt her at the end... yeah that is on purpose, and Aerith's path is not as simple as it seems.
I thought it was pretty obvious Cloud was thinking about Aerith based on the flow of the conversation and the fact that the story description talks about them wishing each other luck on reuniting with their respective lost loved ones:
Oh that may very well be possible, it may also be him wondering if he should tell Leslie what the flower symbolises, or even him realising what the flower symbolises and why it was so important to both Aerith and Tifa. Who knows, this is not my hill to die on, seriously lol.
Aerith is the one that is missing, the one who gave him the flower regarding reunion and was speaking cryptically about flowers to him. It seems to be a very specific call back to Cloud and Tifa’s conversation about the flowers and Aerith in her resolution scene.
Tifa's resolution scene shows that she knows the flower's meaning, that it's important to her, and that's a knowledge she can passes on to Leslie. I mean the flower has pretty much an overarching mini-story in itself that spans across several characters in Remake, the motif is about everywhere. And "reunion" IS a cloti motif, as well as a clerith one.
Cloud and Aerith’s shared looks in the cinematic before the Sephiroth fight begins
??? You are aware that you can get the Sephiroth fight without Aerith, right? Or are you talking about something else?
This is a reasonable assumption, I agree, which would balance out with Cloud thinking about Aerith during Leslie’s conversation where he wonders what his fiancé was trying to tell him with the flower pendant.
It's not really an assumption when you don't have the choice of the scene, and the camera pans out to show both Cloud and Tifa when Cloud answers "yes" to Andrea. TBH it made me laugh because Tifa was standing there blissfully oblivious that they were talking about her. :')
Well, if we go by what Cloud says, his words in chapter 14 seem pretty solid confirmation of a romantic interest in Aerith, supported by his reaction in two out of three dress reveal scenes in chapter 9 and the fact that he didn’t want to part ways with Aerith at the end of park scene. But yes, there’s definitely romantic interest from Cloud to Tifa as well, though I don’t think that them saving one another in battle are particularly good examples of it.
Like, this is your opinion, giving that's not what he says in JP (that's one-sided). I DO think he's interested, just not as much as you believe he is though. Not my hill to die for, again.
The thing is, and you mentioning Aladdin and Jasmine pretty much nails it, you simply don't see the cloti scenes as romantic like you do with clerith because the two romances are supposed to talk differently to people. Clerith is pretty much Disney. Cloti is grounded fully in reality. Clerith is fireworks and words and al. Cloti is always standing by each others' side, showing not talking, bodily language over all. Because you like the first one more, you can't see why the second is romantic. For me, clerith is just that, Disney, and I'm not really into Disney (the only pair I really liked was in Mulan, and uh that was not a classic Disney pair lol). I hate Romeo & Juliet with every fiber of my body, I always have, and I read it as a teen, so when it was supposed to be very romantic in my eyes. Clerith doesn't "talk" to me, I'm not interested in them and I miss a lot of cues. And that's ok. It's not my thing but it's there for others who adore them.
On the other hand, I'm a sucker for cloti because it's everything that I look up to, that I think of very healthy in a relationship, even with so many troubles, they can overcome them. To me, that's a couple that's working and shines through. Tifa is about the only heroine I know who stayed beside a vegetable hero, because she had decided that the meaning of her life was to stay beside him and help him. That she would not doubt him again. It takes a LOT of love to do something like this. This is straight out of marriage vows reaction. They talk through body language, they understand each other at a deep level, on a whole (Case of Tifa may show Tifa's insecurities, she is still the woman who knows him best). And it's ok, it's not your thing, and you miss or dismiss a lot of things because they don't talk to you. However, when shippers tell you "this is cloti, this is meant to please us", maybe there is a reason behind this. Just like when you say "this is meant to please me as a clerith shipper", this is true too. The fight happens on how much this is valid, or how much weight those truly have, because... we are all biased
Now shippers being shippers, I think we all have different ideas about what Aerith knows. I think that at the start of the game, she knows much less than by the end, for example. I take her "every time they (the whispers) touch me, I lose a part of myself" or something alike, and then that she is lost in a maze. I think they overload her with information, albeit not necessarily wanting to share it with her, and she loses part of what makes her "Aerith" to become more her Cetra-self.
). We're in for a wild ride in the next years D:
