It literally shits on Cloud's progression as a character, the bonds he makes with everyone - and not only Aerith - on what the game shows you (true Cloud telling him how he only scrapped his knees back then), on what the devs say (true Cloud actually does show up for Tifa in her resolution scene, and his true personality also comes up around her). Literally everything is screaming that this cannot be a clone, if it's a clone it shits on every party member, on the player, but most of all, on Cloud himself. Like, you cut off the link we've made during TWO games with Cloud if you go "haha kidding it's just a clone after all!"
What's the idea behind this except "OMG shocking!"? There's no point. ZERO. It's not the story of FFVII.
Eerie, you seem to have a really strong reaction to this silly theory even being put out on the table. I originally stated very strongly I'm happy to be wrong and likely am, I just see a few pieces that could make this work. That said, in your attacks on this, in your big reaction, you've missed a key piece to what I said:
I absolutely believe if something like this happens, what we're going to see is Real Cloud with Zack just stay in a Mako Poisoned state. We get Fake Cloud, fighting it out, and then the two merge in Lifestream Scene, reconciling the Not-Just-Made-Up-By-Cloud, Cloud, but also generated by Sephiroth. Clone/Fake Cloud and Real Cloud would have to merge. It actually addresses your central complain. The fixed Cloud is
both.
And this literally builds on the original Lifestream scene. Folks might forget, but that scene isn't just about getting back to Real Cloud. One of the things that happens is he accepts all of his adventures up to that point. The Mako Bombing, battling Rufus, the Temple of the Ancients? Everything. Though we know he struggles, he has become a hero. He is incredibly powerful and gifted. Those are things Cloud reconciles with. All aspects of his persona. My suggestion is exactly that, just on a two bodied scale.
That doesn't shit on anything, it doesn't render those relationships false or fake, and it doesn't contradict the themes of the Compilation. The entire body-construction thing is a big deal in OTWTAS and is a central element for how AC works. We know those things helped inform Remake. It's not some weird stretch here or an assault on everything you love dear. Frankly, I'm more likely wrong than right.
How do you know the core themes are dumped on when the series isnt even half way done?
I do lean toward Mako on this. So, I know that folks point to the story about Sakuguchi (IIRC) and loss here, about Aerith's death. But we also have some commentary that they're revisiting and closing this story quite some time later. 20 years? 30 years? After you lose someone? You may not be in the same place to say "You know what, we accept these bittersweet losses and just move on." It is silly to think that the story can NOT grow from where it first was. Which it can, and certainly the compilation has added a lot.
So in Remake, we see Whispers save Barret, Biggs seems to be around, Zack is on his feet. Death must be meaningless, right? No sense of loss? There's really many other ways to deal with this that doesn't betray everything in the original. Remake really is the setup, and we
do have loss at this point. We experience Jesse's death scene. But I think part of where this theme is evolving is "refusing to let people go." It's a part of that loss, part of those 5 stages of grief, where you do whatever you can to not let go. I expect some of that in this game.
But it's also the final installment of a huge compilation spanning multiple works. I frankly won't be surprised if they overcome those losses or prevent them in some way. I won't feel the story is betrayed. The OG is still the OG and nothing they do here will change that.
Always seemed like an awfully dark/controversial way for KH to go before the official name was announced, lol.