True, except he was also growing distant from Tifa before he contracted Geostigma, before his life got miserable. CoT, Tifa is happy Cloud is opening his horizons and is doing something he likes. Even when happy, Cloud's life leads him away from Tifa. And yes, as he contracts Geostigma and falls into his depression, he grows even more distant.
I think what I've always found shocking about this standpoint is that it utterly misses the whole point of AC. It's all about Cloud being lost to guilt - not geostigma. The geostigma gives his pain a nasty finality, but the whole thing is about how his past - his failures - have destroyed his present and future. He can't move on from the guilt of Zack AND Aeris. Now think about it from a writer's perspective: if you wanted to convey his guilt as the loss of a romantic someone, you don't compile Zack into the equation. There was no need. Aside from an optional flashback, Cloud has no connection to Zack in the game.
In fact he has more connection to his mommie who dies equally tragically, yet Zack is included. Now part of this is to set up Zack's relevance in the Compilation, but my point is you don't invest the audience with a romantic subtext by putting a third party in there - one who happens to be the dead girl's ex. Three's a crowd? So immediately the story is TELLING you that whatever pain Cloud feels for Aeris, the film is not setting it up as a romantic pang, it's en par with the pain he feels for Zack.
That's the other reason why we have the wolf/guilt symbolism - it unites the two aspects of guilt rather than letting one be spun in a different way to the other (for instance, if you wanted to imply his loss for Aeris is greater than his lost for Zack). They are both applied with the same iconography,
In the end, whether you feel Cloud felt more for Aeris or Zack, the author is telling you his pain is the same for both - the pain represented by the wolf - it's guilt. And that guilt from his past is paralysing him from being happy with his present, so much so he doesn't feel worthy of the happiness he finds in CoT. AC opens with his present fractured and Cloud at an all time low. It's a common cinematic device.
"I tried to create an atmosphere in which she (Aerith) still seems to be by his side - in spirit, at least" - Nojima
Again, the statement doesn't suggest love, it suggests a deep bond. By this logic I guess Lucas wanted to imply Obi-Wan's connection with Luke, always watching over him, caring for his protege implies romance. Personally, don't think it implies Luke wants to have a moment in a flowerfield with his old master in Empire Strikes Back. His koibito is clearly Leia.
Moving on.
Interpretation. Again, RF - "Like Aerith she also has a maternal side to her, but in a different sense. Not only was she looking after Marlene and Denzel, but she also felt a certain maternal bond to Cloud, who is a "big kid" himself in some aspects"
And CoT - the scene where Tifa thinks of her motherly feelings towards Cloud compares him to a child two or three times within a relatively small piece.
Doesn't mean anything. Aeris is a maternal character, very much symbolising Mother Earth in the film. In CoT it shows Tifa doting over Cloud feeling loving and protective over him like a mother - which from my experience, many girls do, and Tifa is a very motherly character. Doesn't infer interpretation - unless the writers have to start working out of lists of adjectives they can't use in case people feel that it's going to immediately allude proof to certain pairings.
Bottomline, is what you're doing is what the Clerith ideology always does - takes out random snippets of "interpretation" and ignores the WHOLE theme of either the film, game, or compilation. You can take the elements I explained about Tifa and apply them to FF7, CC, DOC, AC, COT, COB and they all make sense. There is a consistency. Your points might have some interpretation stretch on their own, but make no sense in the wider picture. And of course ignore possibly the biggest issue - how Cloud, awakened to his true self in the lifestream goes straight to Tifa after the FF7 battle two acts later and asks her to live with him, fulfilling his Tifa focus back in Nibelheim as a kid, fulfilling his expression under the Highwind.. that to me, beyond Koibito, the setup in AC, the comments in COT, COB, LO, CC really kills Cleris. So soon after the death of your "love", you don't ask the other girl to live with you. Where's the grief? Notice Tifa doesn't say no, fearing she's stamping over the relationship of Cloud and her dead best friend? Is that because she's callous? No, because there was no romance there. Again, it just all flows.
I checked the timeline hosted here, unfortunately it doesn't give specific dates for any of the movie events, if they can provide them that'd be nice.
Common sense tells you it isn't long. Tifa wouldn't be asking "where are you" and taking messages if it had been months. People don't work like that.
