One of the most unusual behaviours with the LTD I've encountered is this propensity for fans of one ship to claim ownership of and, thereafter, gatekeep, one or both characters involved in said ship. I see this quite a bit on both sides, and it's not necessarily a bad thing per se, but I have to say I find it to be particularly egregious when it comes to Cleriths in relation to Aerith.
Now, to deal with the obvious context, there there are legitimate complaints about Aerith's characterisation in Rebirth. For instance, her seemingly overly-familiar, if not downright pushy, behaviour in relation to Cloud is oft cited, here and elsewhere, as being a chief source of frustration for many.
It's quite easy to dispel, however. Aerith may well be aware of Cloud's history with, and feelings for, Tifa - and almost certainly is aware of Tifa's affections for Cloud - but that doesn't mean Aerith is being insensitive to either of them.
It's made obvious time and again that Aerith's pursuit of Cloud is in many ways simply a manifested pursuit of Zack and the actions of a confused and ultimately lonely girl trying in desperation to search for and even recreate a lost love. That nuance is important not only because it's the catalyst for her thoughts and actions but also because it shows us Aerith fundamentally isn't a bad person at all. She is shown quite clearly as a character defined by self-sacrifice and heroism, so to say she was self-centred, uncaring and a bad friend in this way would contradict these themes.
Unfortunately, Cleriths struggle to see the nuance and even make matters worse for her character in general. They will rightly jump to Aerith's defence but, by fundamentally ignoring the complexity of her character, their rebuttal serves to only add fuel to the fire of the belief that she is either bad written or written to be bad.
Let's take a step back. Back in 1997 all we had was Final Fantasy VII. Aerith meets Cloud, travels with him and the others, her existence as the last remaining Cetra is revealed and expanded, she dies. The party momentarily grieve but ultimately move on, with Cloud himself infamously going snowboarding shortly thereafter. It's a flash in the pan, a blink of the eye between the party meeting Aerith and Aerith leaving them behind forever. It's fleeting, disc 1 of 3, but it's all we had.
The Compilation came along and blew the doors open on everything. Final Fantasy 7s erstwhile popularity guaranteed it expansion, exposition, greater development and prominence and the rising tide lifted all ships.
Unfortunately, because by then some of these ships had settled in preconceived notion about various things, a situation developed where some refused to accept the expounded characters and story as it had not done so in a way that conformed to their imaginations. This is especially so with Aerith.
Aerith's relationship with Zack, with their dates over 2 years, their warmth and love for each other and her continued and abiding devotion to him, right until the end, in particular were seen as a threat and unacceptable. The number of Cleriths who to this day have not played Crisis Core, despite it being re-released and heavily pushed, is staggering.
But therein is the issue. By failing to accept the events of Crisis Core, or relate to Aerith's depiction as being one of a girl waiting for her boyfriend to return, fans of CA fundamentally handwave away a central aspect of her character. Similarly, by denying the closure of Advent Children Complete - in which Zack and Aerith are depicted together in death, paralleling Cloud and Tifa in life - they double down. The novels and supplementary materials are the cherry on top.
What we're left with is the discourse on Aerith's 22 years of life being solely narrowed down to just two weeks and nothing else seemingly mattering. Said time is lifted up on a pedestal as being vastly more important, indeed as everything, than what it's intention was. It's here where the problems start to get graver.
The seismic importance of this fleeting-meeting between Cloud and Aerith comes to define the characters not just before, but thereafter too. Instead of a future in which both characters can seek to move on, their agency is stripped away and the doors to a happy future forever shut. Aerith is viewed as encouraging Cloud's romanticised depression and willingly allowing Zack to persist and suffer the torture of being forever second best. Such behaviour is far, far worse than anything that might have been levied against Aerith previously.
The issue is that Clerith is, by virtue of nuanced dynamic between the characters, a ship that hinges on everyone being the worst versions of themselves that one can imagine and none more so than Aerith herself.
As stated previously, while CT can sit back and is able to absorb the story as presented, CA relies on ignoring large swathes thereof and actively hoping for a scenario in which envy, betrayal, callousness and depression win out in the end. One side enjoys past, present and future, with each instalment providing a microcosmic look into the relationship of Cloud and Tifa. The other side has two weeks that must be elevated above all and everything must be beholden to it.
It is, as such, extremely inappropriate that Cleriths should gatekeep Aerith and who can be fans of Aerith. As a Zerith, there is not a single moment of her character that I can not enjoy and not a single moment that I can not appreciate. I don't need to ignore events that are uncomfortable, nor do I need to twist her character into being something it's not. Aerith is Aerith.
It's time those of us who appreciate ZA reclaim the character and change the discourse. This isn't merely someone who exists as a plot device for Clerith, but a nuanced, deep and - most importantly - narratively cohesive character that has a purpose in the story, but also her own development to see through.