Who is Cloud in love with?

[noxious.sunshine]

Like I said. Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Folks. And good for you too. And again, Like I said, most of the people I have encountered and in my observations in my surroundings where I live/have lived for X amount of time, young folks are convinced they're in love and then break up 3 months later and then they look back later on down the road and realize that it really wasn't love at all. I did not say -you- specifically or b00bies specifically or her grandparents or my parents or your best friend or anyone else you may know who has fallen in love at a young age and stayed together for all of eternity are incapable of being in love at a young age. It's an observation that I have more often than not, been proved right on.

EDIT: This is turning into an EoEo thread. -_-;

[Sefie1999AD]

He loves Mukki, of course! But out of the choices listed here, I'd say Tifa.

[Raistlin]

Cloud was infatuated with Aerith
He was in lust with Tifa's boobs (not Tifa's Boobs)

But he loved Barret for his personality.

(SPOILER)Actually, out of the conventional Tifa/Aerith triangle, I always thought Tifa.

[Jinx]

What about poor Yuffie?

[Spooniest]

She's just lucky they didn't roast her on a spit.

[Jiro]

Cloud might not be in love with any of them. He was obviously infatuated with Tifa from a young age, but given the fact that there was what, just Tifa and maybe one other girl in the village, it is highly likely that his affection was one-part genuine and one-part forced. Humans tend to seek companionship like that, from what I understand. (I read this great thing once and I have no idea so forgive my poorly executed explanation.)

He probably had a thing for Aerith, but that would have been influenced by the strange sense of familiarity courtesy of Zack, the fact that he was her "bodyguard," and the fact that she seemed to be a bit flirty with him. (Aerith was probably attracted to him because of his muscles, his excellent hair, and the fact that he reminded her a lot of Zack.)

As the game progresses, the party has to deal with a lot of trout. This heightened sense of danger and all that adrenaline creates super powerful bonds between people and probably emphasised the "feelings" that Cloud had toward anyone. Spending that much time with them anyway would've probably resulted in that; I'm sure a lot of you would have felt crazy infatuated with someone at your school and then the feeling kind of fades once you no longer have to see people (if that doesn't work for you: how many of your highschool friends do you keep in contact with?).

Prior to defeating Sephiroth, Tifa has all the attention. I mean, Aerith is out of the picture sure, but she opens up about her feelings (genuine, or as above) and depending on your dating score, they might do it on the grass. That doesn't necessarily mean there's anything romantic (could be just getting pumped up for the big day), but between Tifa admitting feelings and Cloud's gratitude at her helping his mentalness subside and the feelings from his youth, there's a strong argument for them being romantically involved.

Post Sephiroth though, Cloud loses his trout and gets hyper depressed. There's nothing pushing him forward any more (I don't mean JENOVA cells), so all that adrenaline falls away and he gets angsty at failing his one job in protecting Aerith. That doesn't necessarily mean he is romantically attuned to Aerith, only the guilt over letting a friend die.

The kicker is that he leaves Tifa and the kids. He takes this protective role, and it's a pseudo-family, but then he gets complacent or whatever, and has to get out. It could be primarily caused by the guilt, or maybe his feelings weren't strong enough.

Spooniest is probably fairly accurate with his post up a bit further, but yeah, I don't think Cloud necessarily loves any of them, but at the same time, maybe he loves (romantically) both Tifa and Aerith, or maybe just one or the other. It's hard to say.

[TrollHunter]

Well, I think it's quite obvious.
Sephy's mom has got it goin' on.

[Sefie1999AD]

Post Sephiroth though, Cloud loses his trout and gets hyper depressed. There's nothing pushing him forward any more (I don't mean JENOVA cells), so all that adrenaline falls away and he gets angsty at failing his one job in protecting Aerith. That doesn't necessarily mean he is romantically attuned to Aerith, only the guilt over letting a friend die.

The kicker is that he leaves Tifa and the kids. He takes this protective role, and it's a pseudo-family, but then he gets complacent or whatever, and has to get out. It could be primarily caused by the guilt, or maybe his feelings weren't strong enough.

IIRC, Cloud wasn't depressed right after FFVII's events. In "On the way to a smile - Case Tifa", Cloud and Tifa are quite close, and Cloud even seems to have romantic feelings for her. But then he finds out he has Geostigma. He tries to find a cure, only to find out there is none, and that he's about to die. Not only that, but Denzel, Cloud and Tifa's pseudo-son, also has Geostigma, and Cloud is unable to heal him. The guilt of being about to die and not able to do anything about it, and that he's not able to help Denzel, made him distant to his family and run away. There's this conversation in Advent Children:

TIFA: "You have Geostigma, don't you. So it's okay to just give up and die. Is that what you think?"
CLOUD: "There's no cure."
TIFA: "That's not stopping Denzel from fighting. Don't run. Let's fight it together. We can help each other, I know we can. Or do we have to be a real family for that to work?"
CLOUD: "I am not fit to help anyone. Not my family, not my friends. No one."

And from Advent Children Complete:

MARLENE: "Does it hurt?"
CLOUD: "Yeah. But, not as bad as Denzel's."
MARLENE: "Can it be cured?"
CLOUD: "I don't know."
MARLENE: "For Denzel's sake, you've been trying so hard to find a cure for it."
CLOUD: "You knew about that?"
MARLENE: "Cloud, you should clean up your desk sometimes."
CLOUD: "I guess so."
MARLENE: "Say Cloud, because you can't fix Denzel's stigma, is that the reason why you left? Or is it because you had the stigma too?"
CLOUD: "I just thought I could take care for myself. That's what I think."
MARLENE: "How can you look after your family if you can't even take good care of yourself? Or, at least that is what daddy would say. Cloud, don't give up."
CLOUD: "You, and Denzel, and Tifa are always there to help me. You're always there whenever I need you. For now, it's my turn."
MARLENE: "Sure."

Based on that, I definitely wouldn't say Cloud's feelings for his pseudo-family weren't strong enough.

EDIT: Jiro, if you want, I can PM you a link to an English translation of "Case of Tifa".

[Raistlin]

Spooniest is probably fairly accurate with his post up a bit further, but yeah, I don't think Cloud necessarily loves any of them, but at the same time, maybe he loves (romantically) both Tifa and Aerith, or maybe just one or the other. It's hard to say.

I just got whiplash from all the equivocating.

Sephy: that's interesting. I've seen people use AC as an example as why Cloud didn't really care about Tifa, but in that context you make it sound like, if anything, it supports the opposite conclusion.

[ThornQueen]

Other: Jenova


Serious note, I always shipped Cloud and Aeris and it wasn't until my pre-teen self encountered forums and the internet that I learned people also thought of Cloud/Tifa as a thing and there was an LTD.