Next, let’s look at On the Way to a Smile: Case of Barret. Here, the very second line of the story says that Barret helped Cloud and Tifa build their home. One they would be sharing together.

Later, when Barret talks with Cid, the pilot asks, “So Cloud’s with Tifa?” — and Barret’s response is “yeah.” While one could interpret this to mean Cloud’s with Tifa in the sense that he’s just occupying the same living space, the context established by the rest of the discussion would suggest otherwise.

Barret says Tifa is whipping Cloud into shape and Cid says, “In the end, it’s the women wear the pants.” I imagine most people reading this are familiar with the idiom of “wearing the pants in the family.”

Cid — who wasn’t even around Cloud and Tifa for long after FFVII’s events — was speaking of them in the context of romantic partners. Why might he do that? And why might he have suspected they were now living together in the first place?

Because he was one of the members of AVALANCHE who witnessed/overheard Cloud and Tifa sharing their moment under the Highwind, and then playfully teased them about it the next morning. Certainly something gave him an indication that they might have been moving toward a romantic relationship.

Another line that points to the same thing comes from Cloud himself in the revised version of Case of Tifa, where he apologizes to Tifa for “doing things without consulting” after he tells her he’s begun a delivery service — certainly not something he should have felt the need for if they weren’t in a relationship as described above. Roommates don’t have a need to apologize for how they spend their free time if they don’t first gain permission.

Another line that points to the same thing comes from Cloud himself in the revised version of Case of Tifa, where he apologizes to Tifa for “doing things without consulting” after he tells her he’s begun a delivery service — certainly not something he should have felt the need for if they weren’t in a relationship as described above.

Speaking of Cloud and Tifa in the context of a family setting, various official materials — as well as Barret and Marlene in Case of Tifa, and Cloud himself in Advent Children/Advent Children Complete — refer to them as being in one. Whether it be On the Way to a Smile: Case of Tifa saying that Cloud looked like a young father with his children when hanging out with Denzel and Marlene, Tifa’s profile — written by Advent Children’s creators — in the April 2009 Dengeki PlayStation 3 (issue #445) that identified Tifa as serving the role of the children’s mother, or Cloud’s profile from the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania (pg. 38) that says he, Tifa and the children live together like a family.

As well, that book’s profile for Tifa says this: “The present Tifa isn’t just Cloud’s childhood friend, but also the mother of the ‘family’ they were forming in Edge.” This structure alone implies more than simply sharing quarters.

There’s also a comment from Kazushige Nojima on pg. 70 of the Reunion Files where he says this about conceptualizing the story of Advent Children:

“Inside, I felt one thing was for sure: Cloud and Tifa would be together.
Everybody would be back home where they belonged.”

Now, I suppose one can argue — as with Cid’s comment from OtWtaS: Case of Barret — that this is just another way of saying that they’re living in the same house. Given the wider context of the Compilation that we’ve been examining, though, I don’t believe this fits.

Especially if we look at another comment from Nojima in the Reunion Files, this time on pg. 20. There, we find Nojima say, “Although there’s a lot to Tifa’s character, she’s actually very much like any other woman who’s been left behind by a man.” There is no other connotation for a “woman who’s been left behind by a man” than one who was left behind by her romantic partner.

Before we move away from the subject of sharing quarters, a late-night
conversation between Cloud and Tifa in OtWtaS: CoT would suggest they were sleeping in the same room, if not the same bed. Tifa asks Cloud some questions after waiting for him to fall asleep one night, waking him up.

That same profile for Cloud also identifies Tifa as an important woman to him and part of his family. Not really the kind of description you’d expect for a platonic friend who he happened to share quarters with.

Speaking of sharing quarters, a late-night conversation between Cloud and Tifa in OtWtaS: CoT would suggest they were sleeping in the same room, if not the same bed. Tifa asks Cloud some questions after waiting for him to fall asleep one night, waking him up.

While the first of these questions — “Do you love me?” — has been argued to indicate that Tifa is unaware of what Cloud’s feelings for her are, and, thus demonstrate that they aren’t in a romantic relationship, given that the premise here is that they are in a *troubled* romantic relationship it makes complete sense for Tifa to be asking this.

Things were not going particularly well between them at the time and Tifa was worried about whether they were going to work things out. This is what people do in relationships during times like that. You begin to wonder if the other person still loves you and so you eventually ask.

In any case, while Cloud has a perplexed look on his face when he awakens, it’s left unclear whether this is due to her presence or the waking. That said, given that he shuts his eyes after replying only three times and goes back to sleep without waiting for her to leave or making sure he’s answered all her questions, one is left without a suggestion that her presence while he sleeps is out of the ordinary.

Furthermore, were he to simply go back to sleep like that without making sure he’d answered questions that were clearly bothering her, he’d be conducting himself as something of a jerk. I think even the most firm Clerith supporters would agree that Cloud cares more about Tifa’s feelings than to dismiss her so coldly.

The fact that she was waiting for him to fall asleep and knew when he had is also quite telling, as is the utter lack of description regarding movement into the room or toward Cloud in this scene.

That said, it has been suggested that the bed visible in Cloud’s office in Advent Children identifies the room as his bedroom when considered along with a line from Case of Tifa. In the official translation included with the North American Limited Edition release of Advent Children, Tifa tells Cloud at one point, “Then drink in your room.”

Though the original Japanese line is absent a possessive reference for the room — she literally just says, “Drink in room” — contextually, it makes sense to identify it as Cloud’s. That said, another line in the story shortly before that — and set on the same day — refers to the room simply as “the room Cloud used as an office” — not “Cloud’s room” or “the room Cloud slept in.” This, despite the story referring to Marlene and Denzel’s room as “the children’s room.”

As well, the last paragraph of the story refers to the room once again as “Cloud’s office,” not his room.

What’s more, the room is absent the barest of amenities beyond the bed and office desk. The spare tires laying to one side give even less an impression that this is a room lived in rather than worked in. Minimalist as Cloud may or may not be, to have not acquired so much as a dresser or nightstand in two years seems unlikely, even for him.

By comparison, the children’s bedroom is lavishly furnished — though it really just looks like an ordinary room by any other measure — including
beds that actually look comfortable.

That Cloud would take the time and have the thorough compulsion to customize a motorcycle, adorn himself with a wolf-themed outfit, cell phone and jewelry — which themselves are tied to the motorcycle because of its name, Fenrir – and to decorate his desk, but not the time to provide his bedroom with a simple piece of furniture for storing anything he would need on a day-to-day basis is a little ridiculous and out of place.

For that matter, given his customized clothing and bike — the latter of which he was willing to exchange a lifetime of free drinks and meals at Seventh Heaven for — as well as the sophisticated gadgetry implemented in his bike and Fusion Sword, Cloud hardly gives the impression of being an ascetic. He clearly appreciates the finer things in life.

Given the strange hours Cloud worked because of his job, it makes a lot more sense that the office he used for work just had an extra bed for crashing in without waking up anyone else. After all, since Barret had stayed there for a while, it’s not that strange for an extra bed to be around, and there likely aren’t more than three bedrooms anyway since Denzel doesn’t have one of his own.

Counterarguments to the ideas discussed above include the observation that Case of Tifa says Marlene slept with Tifa up until at least the night that Barret left — the implication being that if Cloud and Tifa had just officially entered a romantic relationship, they should probably be sleeping together. Not an unreasonable assumption, though not a deal breaker either.

They had just built a new home out of the ruins of Midgar at that time, and only been sleeping in the new place for a week by the time Barret left. Furthermore, this statement is only known to apply as far as that first week — a period in which it would have made sense for someone to sleep with a child so young to help her adjust to all that had changed in her life and become comfortable with her new surroundings.

The next time reference is made to Marlene’s sleeping arrangements, she has her own bed in the room with Denzel.

When Marlene made this transition is left unidentified. As such, it can’t be said that she went back to sleeping with Tifa right after Barret left any more than it can be said that she never slept with her again.

This particular matter is more or less rendered moot by the knowledge that Marlene is no longer sleeping with Tifa later in the story. We must look elsewhere for refutations.

Another counterargument often cited in relation to Case of Tifa is that Tifa herself had the following thoughts during the story:

“They needed friends to live without being crushed by the guilt. Even if they all bore the same scars, shouldered the same sins, they never would have made it without comforting and encouraging each another.

‘All right, then. Maybe it is safe to say we’re a family. We just have to work together as one. Together with friends to call family, there’s no storm we can’t weather,’ Tifa thought.”

This passage is often cited as evidence that Tifa saw her living arrangement with Cloud as simply friends cohabiting — and, indeed, that she just saw family as a circle of friends who support one another.

I would argue that this passage refers not to the arrangement she had with Cloud and Marlene — Denzel was not yet in the picture — but, rather, to the “extended family” that included the rest of AVALANCHE.

Cloud is one individual, so he wouldn’t fit the plurality indicated by
“friends.” Also, Marlene wouldn’t be included in the group who “all bore the same scars, shouldered the same sins,” so she’s not able to provide a plurality that would turn the residents of Seventh Heaven into into a circle of friends with sins on their backs.

What characters close to Tifa then do fit that description? Who feels guilty of sins other than Cloud and Tifa? Barret, of course, and for the same reasons as Tifa — the deaths caused by their terrorist activities in opposition to the Shin-Ra Company. Who else?

Cid likely would for his treatment of Shiera. Vincent absolutely does given his belief that he failed Lucrecia and Sephiroth. Reeve, as well, had felt a need to redeem himself for standing by while Shin-Ra carried out its assortment of immoral activities.

Possibly even Red XIII would feel some measure of guilt for not honoring his father’s memory most of his life.

Marlene, though? There’s nothing that she should feel guilty over, nor is she ever indicated to have.

Another point brought up to suggest that Tifa didn’t see the family with
Cloud as legitimate is how often she tries to convince herself throughout CoT that they are just a normal family. The Clerith perspective would argue that the does this because she knows that their family situation isn’t normal — one with two parents in a romantic relationship raising children.

In fact, it’s often argued that Tifa’s relationship with Cloud is more akin to that of a mother and son. When he feels guilty about running deliveries without Tifa’s knowledge and spending money on enhancing his bike without discussing this with her as well, then reveals it, she thinks to herself, “He’s like a child.”

At the prospect that the world Cloud knew was expanding, Tifa next thought to herself, “Yes… Maybe this is kind of what a mother feels like.” As well, it’s stated that she was happy with “the new emotions growing inside her.”

The Clerith perspective feels that this indicates that Tifa’s romantic
interest in Cloud had begun to disappear at this point, being replaced instead by a motherly affection. As well, the perspective is that Tifa accepted she and Cloud weren’t meant to be together in any other way.

This view is bolstered by a quote from Tetsuya Nomura in the Reunion Files (pg. 18), where he said, “Tifa was a very difficult character to create. Like Aerith, she 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 respects.”

Next, the Clerith perspective would point out that it is only after Cloud has brought Denzel into the family that he begins spending more time at home, the implication being that he only spends more time there because his bond with Denzel is due in large part to his belief that Aerith led Denzel to him — thus making Denzel a connection between Cloud and Aerith in his mind.

Perhaps most significantly, the Clerith perspective holds that the family’s structure no more favors Cloud as a figurehead — a father role to Tifa’smother role — than it favors Barret. In fact, the perspective holds that Barret is better described as serving the family’s fatherly role since he is the one who originally put the family together in founding AVALANCHE.

From this point of view, Cloud is more of a son to the family — a brother to Marlene and Denzel. This structure is said to be suggested further by Marlene saying “I’ll put Cloud in our family too” in the revised version of Case of Tifa, presumably while drawing one of the pictures that adorn the wall of the children’s bedroom — Marlene’s words considered an “invitation” of sorts to Cloud to join a family that already existed and which he played no part in forming.

All this then culminates in Tifa’s discussion with Cloud in AC/ACC, in which she says, “I guess that only works for real families” — the idea being that Tifa once again acknowledges that they aren’t a normal family with two parents in a romantic relationship raising kids.

While this does make for a cohesive, relatively consistent analysis, it also requires dismissing each of the pro-Cloti factors we’ve already looked at in isolation rather than together — Cloud and Tifa sharing an intimate moment before the final battle of the original game; Cloud’s declared desire following the battle to have Tifa with him in a “different” way than he’d always had her with him before; the house being described as theirs; Cid’s question about Cloud and Tifa being together followed by a joke that the women in relationships wear the pants; Nojima’s own statement that he knew when conceptualizing AC that Cloud and Tifa would “be together” and everyone “home where they belonged”; the references to Cloud and Tifa living together with children as a family that they themselves were forming.

It’s a long list even without the Nojima Statement.

Before taking such a perspective, it would benefit us to look at the Japanese version of Nomura’s quote from the Reunion Files about Tifa’s motherly behavior. Of significance, only the English translation used the term “maternal bond” — Nomura’s actual statement was merely that Tifa “also looks after Cloud” (“Cloud no mendou mo miteiru”) in addition to Marlene and Denzel.

This can be said of many women where their romantic partners are concerned. A maternal bond isn’t necessary.

Even had Nomura’s actual statement included the term, however, it should go without saying that such qualities are not uncommon to find in women, nor is the presence of a “certain maternal bond” between a woman and the man she has romantic feelings for. That really falls to individual variance — how naturally doting and mother-like a woman is.

Some are more so. Some are less so. Tifa’s more so. That doesn’t mean she sees Cloud as a son to her.

As far as the notion goes that Tifa decides during Case of Tifa that she’s more of a mother to Cloud than anything else, that isn’t supported by a later passage where Tifa observes Cloud, Marlene and Denzel seated at a table in Seventh Heaven. There, the comment is made — obviously incorporating Tifa’s perspective — that “you might have said Cloud, Marlene and Denzel resembled a slightly young father and his kids.”

As well, she clearly she has not accepted a role as Cloud’s mother in AC/ACC if she’s still making references to the idea of a real or normal family. She still sees him as something other than a son to her — especially if Nojima’s comment that she’s “like any other woman who’s been left behind by a man” is to apply.

While on the subject, that could very well be why Tifa prods Cloud with the question of whether they’re a real family in AC/ACC — he had left them. To begin with, Marlene and Denzel weren’t their biological children. For Cloud, then, to leave and die alone rather than looking for and providing support at home only does more to sever the bonds that would make them a legitimate family.

For that matter, Aerith doesn’t go without an analogy as Cloud’s mother herself — and this from Cloud. When he feels her presence as he’s dying near the end of the film, he says “Mother?” aloud, prompting Aerith to say he’s too big to adopt.

If Cloud sees Tifa as a mother figure to him, what then is one to take from this?

Both Tifa and Aerith have motherly qualities to them, as Nomura said in the Reunion Files (pg. 18), and both are motherly toward Cloud in their own way. Again, these qualities are not uncommon in women.

To the idea that Cloud had to be invited into Marlene’s family by her and that he himself played no role in forming it, I say this: The FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania outright said that Cloud and Tifa were “forming” the family.

Furthermore, while Barret’s FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania profile says that he rushes to Edge to aid his family (pg. 54), Barret himself is never included in any itemized description of Cloud’s family — not Cloud’s profile in the same book where the family is said to consist of he, Tifa and the children (pg. 38), nor in a later passage where Barret is outright differentiated from Cloud’s family and would fall instead into the category of “his friends” (pg. 131): “When he awakes, there was his friends. There were the children, freed from their fatal illness. Tifa and Marlene, and Denzel asking for Cloud to heal his Geostigma– his family were waiting.”

Tifa, Marlene and Denzel, however, are identified as his family here.

While the family of Seventh Heaven had certainly been originally created by Barret, it had been completely restructured in the time since Biggs, Jessie and Wedge died, as well as by Barret’s own departure after the new Seventh Heaven was built. Barret was still part of the family, of course, but had become more a part of the “extended family” discussed earlier in this article.

There was nothing formal about Marlene’s “innocent offer,” as it’s described, to include Cloud in the family. She was simply a child recognizing that the structure around her had changed — along with the structure of the family itself — and that Cloud was now part of her family.

That brings us to the matter of Denzel and Cloud’s bond with him motivating him to spend more time at home. While I would not be the one to suggest that Cloud’s belief Aerith brought the boy to him didn’t impact the bond Cloud felt with him, I would also point out that when he and Tifa discussed that idea, Tifa posited that Denzel had been brought to them both. To this suggestion, Cloud smiled.

Though it’s feasible that Cloud could have simply smiled to placate Tifa’s feelings, even while he felt she was shoehorning herself into a matter that didn’t concern her, given that he’d just admitted thinking he was wrong about the kid being brought to him, only for Tifa to clarify that Denzel was brought to the both of them, it’s more likely a genuine a smile.

In any case, it’s more relevant to examine why Cloud believed Aerith brought the child to him in the first place.

Tifa’s own reasons for thinking this may shed some insight into Cloud’s. Her thoughts on the matter in Case of Tifa are as follows:

“Denzel was supposed to come here. He was a victim when Sector Seven was destroyed–and we’re the reason it’s gone. So we need to take responsibility and raise this boy right.”

Cloud, for his own part, feels the weight of sins he blames himself for —
most notably, Aerith and Zack’s deaths. Aerith’s in particular, given that he might have been able to save her had he done a number of things differently in that situation.

While there was nothing he could have done for Zack, Cloud would be left wondering whether he might have helped Aerith had he broke Sephiroth’s control a second sooner, not been so susceptible to it in the first place — or had he done anything when Sephiroth descended from the sky to kill her.

Cloud felt a great guilt for Aerith’s death, and it stands to reason he — like Tifa — would have seen raising the boy as penance for his sins. He even says toward the end of Case of Tifa, “I don’t think I’ll ever fix [my] problem. I can’t make somebody unlose their life. But now, maybe I got a chance to save a life that’s on the brink. Maybe that’s something even I can do.”

Tifa asks if he means Denzel, and Cloud says, “Yeah.” The connection that the boy had to Aerith for him is made obvious by these lines.

In any case, none of the points we’ve gone over from the Clerith perspective would do anything to suggest a pro-Clerith development so much as an anti-Cloti one. Though the counteraguments of the Clerith perspective fail to put the scoreboard back at square one, even if they did, that wouldn’t move the scale in a pro-Clerith direction. Positive one and negative one equal zero.

Though detractors of the couple’s status as canon have suggested over the last few years that Cloud was unhappy with this arrangement and that it was why he left, all official comments on the matter have indicated that Cloud was happy with his family, and, indeed, that this happiness was why he left.

His 10th Anniversary Ultimania profile (pg. 38) says that the more he realizes how happy he is living with Tifa and the children, the more anxious he becomes at the fear of losing them. Furthermore, his Dengeki PS3 profile says that he left initially because he wanted to find a cure for geostigma for Denzel, but later withdrew from them entirely because he believed he was useless to those he cared about.

His comments to Tifa and Marlene in AC/ACC corroborate this, and his profile in the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania outright states that his guilt about not being able to protect people he cares about are what drove him to leave (pg. 38).

Aerith’s death, in fact, is identified in her profile from
the same book (pg. 50) as “a major factor in causing him to close himself off.”

As for Aerith herself, she is said there to “live on in the hearts of her
friends who saved the planet,” and “in particular to Cloud, as a symbol of his failure to … protect those dear to him.”

In any event, once Cloud began to believe in himself again and was freed from his guilt over the deaths of Aerith and Zack, he returned to his family.

The matter of Cloud’s guilt may warrant further analysis, as, in all cases
where he speaks of Aerith post-FFVII, it’s in the context of guilt. Cloud
believed that he sinned in failing to save her. It’s guilt, rather than
romantic yearning he feels.

In any event, once Cloud began to believe in himself again and was freed from his guilt over the deaths of Aerith and Zack, he returned to his family.

The matter of Cloud’s guilt also bears some analysis. In all cases where he speaks of Aerith post-FFVII, it’s in the context of guilt. Believing that he has sinned in failing to save her. Hardly romantic.

Furthermore, whenever this feeling comes up about Aerith, it’s always applicable to Zack as well. Whether it be the wolf symbol that represents his guilt appearing in places relevant to both of them, or his flashbacks to the moments before both their deaths when Denzel and Tifa are nearly killed in Advent Children Complete, Zack and Aerith are almost always placed together in Cloud’s thoughts.

Even in Dissidia: Final Fantasy when he mentions “something that happened before” while talking to Terra about his doubts over being able to save anyone, this applies to both of those he was unable to save in his past.

One of two exceptions to this parallel applicability in Dissidia is the field of flowers that appears in the game’s ending. Cloud decides during Dissidia to share Firion’s dream of a world filled with flowers, and when he returns to his world, it’s in a flower field similar to the one seen at the end of Advent Children.

Certainly a reference to Aerith, as was an earlier comment following his final battle of the game with Sephiroth. There, Cloud said, “The one I really want to meet is …” and trailed off.

Given Cloud’s desire to see Aerith again and get her forgiveness, however, neither this line nor the field of flowers are necessarily romantic.

If anything, Cloud’s dream of a field of flowers is the symbol of his redemption for the sins he believed he’d committed. It is ultimately in such a field that he meets Aerith in Advent Children, and while there, he says only that he wants her forgiveness. There are no words of longing. Just a desire to for forgiveness.

While on the subject of Dissidia, the materia Cloud receives as his crystal during the game is often thought to be a representation of Aerith’s White Materia. Though the size is wrong, as the White Materia was much smaller than this baseball-sized crystal, Dissidia’s representation of the Black Materia has increased its size:

In addition, the representation of the crystal of creation that Zidane
receives as his crystal is much smaller than the real thing. That being the case, there is a precedent that would allow the crystal to be a different size than the White Materia while still representing it.

As well, though the White Materia glowed in a different fashion in the
original game when Holy had been cast — a white spiral emanating from its center as opposed to a solid white glow — it’s plausible that a new rendering of the materia so many years later might portray this differently:

That said, the Dissidia: Final Fantasy Ultimania does not identify the materia as a reference to Aerith or to the White Materia in Final Fantasy VII’s “Link to the Original” section of the guide (pg. 530) — even while it identifies the feather Squall catches in the ending as a reference to Rinoa (pg. 580).

The Ultimania also goes so far as to point out many references that would be significantly less relevant than would be one to Aerith or the White Materia.

For example, the guide draws attention to a reference for Final Fantasy II in which the Shiva AUTO summon uses lines similar to that game’s Lamia Queen boss, making Firion — who is shy and inexperienced with women – feel nervous (pg. 196).

That’s not nearly as relevant to Dissidia’s story as Cloud’s crystal, nor is it as relevant to FFII as Aerith and the White Materia are to FFVII. While on that topic, the Buster Sword — of comparable significance to the White Materia, and a memento of Zack — is identified in the Ultimania, as is its relation to Zack.

Given the Ultimania references and the unquestioned identification of the Black Materia by the game itself, why would Aerith’s memento receive no mention at all if it indeed were present? Why would Aerith’s memento receive no mention at all if indeed it were present?

What Cloud receives in Dissidia is most easily concluded to be a representation of an ordinary green materia, a generic crystal from and
representative of his world. All his companions in Dissidia likewise receive a crystal that does more to represent the game they’re from than to represent the character theirself or a connection they may have to another character from their game.

There’s a sphere for Tidus that looks like many spheres seen in his game, including Jyscal Guado’s sphere, Yuna’s sphere, the Jecht spheres and any of the spheres laying on the floor of Rin’s travel agencies. However, it is never implied to be a representation of any one of these specifically.

For Terra, there’s a magicite whose identity is never suggested. Though it could be a representation of the magicite of her father, Maduin, this is not implied by the game.

The rest of the characters in Dissidia receive equally generic crystals, each even more unlikely to be associated with a specific character from their original game.

Moving away from Dissidia and back to Advent Children, in The Distance: The Making of Final Fantasy VII documentary included with the film, Nomura makes some comments that are often thought to lend themselves strongly to a Clerith conclusion:

“The words ‘memetic legacy’ are used a lot in the film, but in Advent Children, rather than focusing on memories, we wanted to show that consciousness is what lives on. We took the ending of the game and expanded on that idea. Even if they’re dead, their consciousness is still with us. As for Cloud… He sees Aerith several times throughout the film. It’s not that he sees her because he senses her presence. He sees her because her consciousness lives on inside him.”–

Nomura, however, made this as a general comment made about everyone and used Cloud and Aerith as an example — it was not something said to be specific to Cloud and Aerith. Only seconds later, Nojima speaks of recently having a child and how this means his bloodline continues, even as his grandmother died around
he same time. He says that everyone is part of a bigger flow.

Just as significant, the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania makes it clear that Cloud isn’t the only one within whom Aerith lives on in such a way :

“Two years after returning to the planet, Aerith still lives on in the hearts of her friends who saved the planet. And in particular to Cloud, as a symbol of his failure to having being unable protect those dear to him, she was a major factor in causing him to close himself off.”

Indeed, in Advent Children, Marlene and Tifa are both shown to have a
connection with Aerith as well. It also bears pointing out that the only way in which Aerith lives on specifically for Cloud is as a symbol of his
inability to protect those he cares about.

And, ultimately, like everything else that applies to Aerith in the movie,
this idea that Aerith lives on inside Cloud applies to Zack as well. He also appears to Cloud, and on more than one occasion. During one of those appearances, Zack even reminds Cloud that he is his “living legacy.”

Zack lives on inside Cloud every bit as much as Aerith.

Despite the information discussed thus far, perhaps the biggest indication for many fans that Cloud harbored feelings of romantic love for Aerith comes from On the Way to a Smile: Case of the Lifestream White’s reference to him as Aerith’s “koibito” — a Japanese word usually meaning “lover,” “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” depending on the situation. There are a couple of matters overlooked in this, however.