Let's discuss Cloud's main love interest: Aerith or Tifa

[Shishikabob]

I sometimes have issues regarding Tifa's romance with Cloud. Cloud always had a crush on her but I feel Tifa only invented her romantic feeling for him in the beginning and it wasn't til the full events of VII that Tifa actually grew to truly love Cloud.

Yet if we take a look at the Crisis Core Ultimania is states:

Believing in Cloud’s promise, Tifa’s waiting to see Cloud become a SOLDIER like Sephiroth. Tifa dresses herself in a pretty and sexy look. Does she do that to spirit up herself in preparing for a touching reunion?

Why would Tifa dress herself up sexily if she didn't already have feelings for him or begun to have feelings at least. For that matter she asked Cloud to make a promise she then believed in. It's also stated in the lifestream event of FFVII that she began to read the newspapers looking for information about him. So to me it doesn't sound like she invented those feelings later on, she was feeling them after their night at the watertower.

Yet on the flipside, I feel that Cloud's own feelings regarding Tifa have changed when you compare them to his boyhood self. He was utterly infatuated with her but now it seems he can easily find ways to stray from her and close his heart off to her.

In the lifestream event after Tifa says to the younger Cloud that she began looking for information about him in the newspapers he says something along the lines of, "Be sure to tell him that, he'll be happy to hear it." If Cloud's feelings really changed that much, he wouldn't care so much about this. Also I'm sure Cloud wouldn't care so much about just a "friend" reading about him in the newspaper.

Plus the Ultimanias state that the promise he made to Tifa is etched in his heart forever. That sounds pretty important to me :P

And it's been stated that the reason Cloud closed his heart off was because of his guilt. He began to grow happy with Tifa and his family, but he started to become scared that he'd lose that happiness. This is why he began to close himself off to everyone. It was his guilt, not his unhappiness with Tifa or anything of the sort.

Further more this is what FFVII AC/C was about, Cloud healing his guilt so he could live on with his family in a guilt free world. Clearly his heart has reopened to Tifa by the end of the movie and he realizes he's meant to live with her.

Even Nojima in the interview seems to imply that Cloud's feelings for Tifa are different.

How so?

This is not to say that Cloud doesn't care for her or does not have romantic feelings for her but its seems pretty obvious from AC that Tifa is the one actually doing all the work in regards to their relationship. Cloud spends most of it in a daze of guilt and angst.

This isn't true, it wasn't until about 3/4ths of the way through Case of Tifa that Cloud started to feel guilty and close himself off. up until that moment he was truly happy. The creators have stated this on at least 3 occasions. When he found Denzel, he thought this was his chance for redemption and he began to open himself up again. This is stated in the novel... it wasn't until he got geostigma that he thought he was really worthless and shut himself off completely.

Think about this too, Cloud feels responsible for the death of two of his closest friends. That's not exactly something you forget when you get yourself a girlfriend and begin raising a family with her. Plus he goes out looking for a cure for a disease his son has and then contacts the same fatal disease. This means he can't live out Zack's promise so he failed him as well. Their love for one another isn't going to magically just cure all the guilt he feels. I don't even think Disney would go with a story like that.

Plus, Square actually stated Aerith was the only one who could heal his guilt. He needed to hear from her that he was forgiven. That's what happened in AC/C and in the end, Cloud has opened himself once again. This is confirmed by his "I'm not alone, not anymore" line.

In regards to Aerith, I also feel the relationship is far more ambiguous than fans of the paring would like you to think. Playing through the game I feel that Aerith is mostly attracted to Cloud due to his similarities to Zack,

I feel their feelings for one another were genuine at the time. But yes Aerith did overlap Cloud with Zack.

However, Zack did not appear only for the reason as a key to the puzzle. The setting of “Aerith overlaps Cloud with her first love” and Zack as the key character are settled before I joined the team of development.

likewise, Cloud undergoes a personality change once he meets Aerith. Before he met her, he was cold and selfish, being even temperamental and moody with Tifa. Once Aerith appears we finally see Cloud actually relax and joke around a bit and he becomes much more heroic and utilitarian in his thoughts and actions. Where I'm going with this is that I feel Cloud's sudden mood change is a result of the influence of Zack in his personality.

Close but not quite, it was actually a result of Jenova's influence. She wanted Cloud to get close to Aerith so she could eventually kill her.... erm.. I know I've read this somewhere but give me a bit and I'll find a source on that. :P

By this notion, I feel that Cloud's original feelings for Aerith are a direct result of the Sephy Clone experiments. Cloud is drawn to Aerith because of the part of him that is Zack just as Aerith is originally drawn to him cause of the part of him that is Zack. Course Cloud's feeling also change as he comes to realize the truth of himself and if you read the dialogue of the date with Aerith, it seems that Aerith figured out the truth behind Cloud as she says "I want to meet you". So I feel Aerith does grow into looking to Cloud as something different from a love interest, a lot of the dialogue she has on the date always gave me the impression that she realized her feelings for Cloud were not true.

I agree with all of this. But Cloud is drawn to Aerith mostly because of the Jenova inside of him.
Aerith does want to meet the real Cloud, and honestly I think Cloud did love her, not as deeply as he does Tifa though. My interpretation always was that Cloud loved Aerith, but after the lifestream event, he realized who he was meant to be with, who he sought out to be with, and who he's ultimately with.

Her death does affect Cloud in the long run and I feel it elevates Aerith to something higher in Cloud's mind.

I disagree, any time Aerith gets singled out to Cloud it's in relation to the guilt he feels. The only one who's ever been singled out of "mutual feelings" is Tifa.

She is a person who radically changed his life and a person he failed to save (despite there being no way to save her). Part of it might be from the part of him that is Zack's memories but I feel Aerith had a profound affect on his life and though Cloud may love Tifa, I feel Aerith may be more important to him as she served as a mentor and a figure who dramatically influenced him.

And what did Aerith do that was so important? Tifa was the one who literally went inside Cloud's mind to piece his past together so he could find out who he was. They shared their feelings for one another under the highwind and live together.

Not only that but on the subject of the lifestream event, they are in the center of Cloud's brain and, as messed up as it is, the one thing is always constant is that Tifa is always the main focus.

This is always how I interpret the problems between Cloud and Tifa, its not that Cloud is hung up on a lost love but rather someone who was dearly important to him.

I won't deny that Aerith is important, but a love interest she is not. Look at the quote by Nojima I posted, "Maybe things would have gone well with Aerith." To me this indicates they never really had that much of a romance going. Nothing serious anyway, I do think there was love between the two, but their relationship didn't go much beyond that.

While Tifa my have finally grown to love Cloud, I feel that Cloud's feelings towards her have changed due to the events of the original game.

Yep, they're stronger now than ever

He's happy to be with someone he cares about but it doesn't stop his sense of loss for Aerith and to a lesser degree Zack.

Yet they were put on the same level emotionally in the AC playback book.

This hinders their relationship, so technically I would say Cloud's relationship with Tifa is hindered by his feelings for Aerith, I just don't believe those feelings are necessarily love.

Then permit me to ask what you think the feelings are when they revealed their feelings for each other? Which BTW, is something stated by the creators that they did at least 3 times in the Ultimanias.

and I'm not being offensive am I
Just let me know

BTW whoever voted for Aerith, please post why :P