Quote Originally Posted by PeneloRatsbane View Post
Wasn't Tifa added in as an after thought?
No.

when they decided to kill Aeris? that might be speculative or flat out wrong but I always saw Tifa as the secondary love interest, but who steps up to main love interest when Aeris dies.
Even if Tifa was made exactly when they decided to kill Aerith, this decision happened long before the story as we know it existed. Tifa was the fifth character or so designed, after original design Cloud, Barrett, and Aerith as she was.
That said, that idea actually hurts the C/A cause, because when they decided it was to be Aerith who died, they changed her role and gave it to Tifa. So if she was the Alpha in the beginning of development, that role was given to Tifa.

Plus Cait Sith said Cloud and Aeris were more compatable or something, why bother putting that in if Aeris wasn't the main love interest?
To act as a red herring before SHE DIES. Cait Sith is called an unreliable fortune teller by the people who made the game.

I dunno, this is a question that can't be answered. I'm resigned to thinking its just "complicated" like love in genereal :D
It's actually an incredibly straightforward example of romance, literary-ly speaking.