Aerith, what did they do to you??

I recently finished Rebirth and enjoyed it for the most part (it was far superior to Remake in almost every way, IMO!) but among the issues I had with it, one really stood out - Aerith's characterisation.

I liked what they did with Aerith's character in Remake part one. They brought back a lot of her character that was lost in the original translation, and didn't make her the ~ pure angel ~ that she was in the Compilation. She's sassy, fun, and smart.

Unfortunately, in Rebirth, it feels like they cut her characterisation in half and just made her "the flirty one". While she was always a little pushy both in OG and Remake, in Rebirth they really ramped it up to 11. Every single time she was alone with Cloud, she would insist they were on a date, even over Cloud's objections. Obviously I could be biased because I romanced Tifa in my playthrough, but Cloud seemed just... aggressively uninterested in her. Instead of finding it cute like in the first game (or at least that's how I interpreted it), he seemed to be constantly annoyed. Any chemistry they had in the OG or Remake seemed to fly completely out the window, until the last couple of chapters at least, and then it kind of seemed like too little too late. Her insistence on calling everything a "date" despite Cloud's obvious discomfort also suggests a lack of the emotional maturity that's supposed to be a core part of her character.

Not to mention that they made her ridiculously naive. She's obviously supposed to be a little sheltered having never left Midgar, but the game seems to forget that she grew up in the slums - not exactly a place where you can keep an innocent outlook forever. In the OG, she was clearly incredibly street smart; she sold flowers to the creeps outside the Honeybee Inn; she was the one who suggested Cloud dress up as a lady... she knew how things worked. That didn't seem to be the case at all in Rebirth. I guess at a stretch I could understand not having heard of smoke signals before, but geez lady, use context clues.

Things seemed to go back to normal post-Cosmo Canyon, but honestly, she just irritated me for the majority of the game. Which sucks, because I liked her so much in Remake.

Anyway, thoughts? Comments? Rants? Don't even get me started on Cid.