I would argue that she absolutely does.
-She saw the flower she said would make a great gift for Cloud's girlfriend in Seventh Heaven, and smiled. This was after she asked him who he gave it to, to which he said "I don't remember".
-Yuffie was able to pick up on it in a matter of days. If the emotionally mature Aerith can't pick up on it in a couple weeks, then everything feels inconsistent.
-Omni Aerith knows more than she lets on.
-Aerith in Rebirth does atleast know how important Tifa is to Cloud. She laments that she doesn't have a friend like Tifa is to Cloud that she can reminisce with, and she more or less tells him to cherish her after their argument in Kalm.
-She teases Cloud sitting on the water tower trying to catch gimpses of Tifa.
-She's present in Gongaga, when Yuffie and Cait Sith are begging them to kiss while they are having an intimate conversation. Since Cloud and Tifa can hear whispers through the door, I'm certain atleast some of that conversation was audible through the door, and that Aerith was able to hear some of it.
-Cloud would go as far as to drop everything he's doing to pretend to be a sex worker if it means he can help Tifa. And humiliate himself on stage.
After all this, you're willfully ignorant if you don't pick up on it. Which is why it makes no sense for the supposedly emotionally mature Aerith to not pick up on it. Nevermind the obviously complicated and deep past Cloud and Tifa have with each other.
This also isn't to say we should judge Aerith if she did pick up on these feelings or not. This post isn't meant to prove Aerith is some sort of homewrecker, she isn't. It's just that having Aerith be completely ignorant towards how Cloud feels about Tifa feels inconsistent with what we are shown.
Yes, ff7 is not strictly about romance, and people have the right not to care. But I don't think I've ever seen somebody say "ff7 isn't about romance" in good faith, in a way that isn't trying to put down people who are discussing this side of story. From what I've seen, it's used synonymously with "I don't care, shut up weird shipper", if you get me?
Not to mention that we know that Tifa straight up admitted to being in love with Cloud when she was younger. Yuffie straight up says Tifa said so, do we really think Aerith was not there to hear that? Sure its couched in the past, since of course it would be, but combine that with all the evidence about how they're feeling NOW, well. She'd be an idiot not to know.
But I don't think I've ever seen somebody say "ff7 isn't about romance" in good faith
YES!, Thank you!
That's something else I'm upset with the re;trilogy for. They had a chance to simplify and streamline things, to retcon and update things to make a more coherent, understandable experience.
Nope, they had to go with a (not) multiverse! Fuck sake.
Another "Yes thank you"
I find a lot of people have this interpretation of their relationship which is fascinating to me. I can't say that this is how I ever saw things even back in the OG. For a brief moment, their lives overlap, yes but real!Cloud is in love with someone else. There's a whole different woman at the centre of his entire subconscious, a woman that he does everything for and whose opinion matters most to him.
Same. I get thinking this in remake since it goes a lot deeper into Cloud and Aeriths bond, but I literally see 0 signs of Cloud giving a single crap about Aerith in the OG more than he does about any other party member. Sticking strictly to the OG I see them as having about as much of a romantic connection as Tidus and Rikku. At the very least Tidus had a single dream where Rikku and Yuna fight over him. Aerith didn't even have that. The only "evidence" for CA in the original is that it conforms to expected stereotypes about "first girl = love interest", "white mage = love interest", "main female hero = love interest" etc.
- I just personally don’t believe she should be held to having a bigger responsibility about this especially considering that Cloud can (optionally) spend more time with her than with Tifa depending on the player’s choices, as well. I think this inconsistency of certain characters “not being aware of a story-driven development of a romantic relationship” can be attributed by the devs wanting to implement an affinity system where Aerith is also presented as a character option for Cloud to take on dates.
- So if Aerith is somehow lacking clarity on what CT is right now, I think some of that confusion can be attributed to Cloud who can pick her (or not pick Tifa) for spend time events and dates.
But he can't, side quests just sorta happen, and Aerith initiates the dates. What's more Cloud explicitly tries to keep Aerith at a distance while he's always engaged with Tifa. Is she blind? Does she not realize that when she talks about food Cloud is curt and uninterested while when Tifa does it he's trying to keep the conversation going? How is Yuffie more aware of this than Aerith? Yuffie straight up tells Aerith "Tifa will just have to crack the whip" and there is not a single "what do you mean" in sight from Aerith?
Aerith also actively seems to try to goad Tifa when it comes to Cloud, like grabbing his arm in Kalm and watching them both be upset at this, again, is this a wise in-tune spiritual girl, or is this an idiot?
Cloud doesn't really pick the person though? They pick Cloud. Important distinction to make.
Cloud didn't show up to Aerith's door: "hey, wanna spend some time with me?" at the exclusion of asking Tifa that question. It's the other way around.
Exactly. This is something that always bothered me about the OG arguments.
People constantly talk about the dates as if they mean something. Even sites act as though "going on a date" means "being a love interest". When Cloud never chooses who to go with, and never starts dating either of them, it's literally irrelevant.
Also, to come back on something said earlier about Aeriths importance.....I have to disagree, she really isn't, or wasn't I should say.
Aerith is like the iceberg in the Titanic, it's very important in that its what sinks the ship, but the iceberg itself doesn't really matter, just that the ship sinks. What matters is the story between Rose and Jack, as well as the hubris of humanity in thinking they made an unsinkable ship and them going too fast and not having life boats etc.
Aerith is important in the same way, she's needed to summon Holy, but that's about it, in the OG she's literally just a MacGuffin. She matters very much as a cog in the external conflict against Sephiroth, but in the internal one she's irrelevant. Without Aerith you'd still have Sephiroth killing Nibelheim, you'd still have Cloud joining AVALANCHE in the fight against Shinra, you'd still have the general story of a corporation sucking out the lifeblood of the planet. Sephiroth would still steal Jenova, Cloud will still go after him, Cloud would still have his attacks, he'd still lose his mind, the lifestream would still happen, meteor would still happen. You can remove Aerith from the story entirely and almost nothing about the story would change. You'd need a new reason to go to SHINRA HQ and you'd need to find a new MacGuffin to summon holy, but that's it. Aeriths existence improves the story because the existence of the Ancient spiritual creature ties into the themes about life and nature, but the story functions perfectly fine without it. The same goes for her death, it hurts, but it changes nothing, it's not what breaks Cloud, and Cloud would have broken without it as well.
In fact, I will state right here that If you changed Aerith from a humanoid to some sort of non-verbal animal like spirit that represents nature and has the same general powers, absolutely not a SINGLE thing about the story would change. Which is quite ironic because usually Tifa is the one who is claimed to not matter, which betrays a gross lack of understanding concerning storytelling.
Don't get me wrong though, this 100% does NOT apply to Remake, she definitely matters there. I think this is one of the reasons in fact that remake added in the changes concerning destiny and what not, because they realized that Aerith didn't matter in the OG and they needed to actually add some emotional significance to her and make her relevant to the internal plot. They did something similar with Tifa through the Gongaga sequence, which made Tifa appear more crucial to the external one. This is also not meant to be some sort of attack on Aerith, I am not trying to call her useless or anything, it's just that when I analyze Aeriths actual importance to the plot of FFVII it's all mechanical, like Cid only being necessary in Rebirth to get us from A to B.
have some shame!!
