Cloud and Aerith: What Couldve Been (SPOILERS)

[Sephiroth]

Except Aerith is dead and will inevitably dissolve into a blob of souls with everyone else in the Planet so I don't think she and Cloud have a promising future.

They cannot have a future alive but this is a story in which the cliche "to live on in your heart" is literally true. They are both still really connected. Really, what does a shell mean? Nothing. Then they will never be physically together in life. So what.

But it's a mistake to say Aerith only liked Cloud because he reminded her of Zack. That's how it started off but soon she wanted to see the "real" Cloud. It's important to remember, and this is a thing a lot of people legitimately forget it seems, that Cloud is NOT a 1:1 copy of Zack. He has some of Zack's memories but his "fake personality" is nothing like Zack's. It's something he made up, probably trying to emulate his hero Sephiroth or the ideal SOLDIER.

Cloud had, at most, superficial similarities to Zack and Aerith spotted those. But she was perceptive enough, and there was enough "real Cloud" in the "fake Cloud" that she was attracted to something more than those superficial details.

Exactly. Cloud was confabulating and Aerith very well was able to differentiate between the characteristics he added to his personality and the remaining original characteristics that he did not supress. She wanted him to be fully restored and aware of how he normally is though and aware of his own life, with all the supressed part back on the surface and meet him in his fully restored condition.

I used to support Cloud/Tifa but I've come to really like Cloud/Aerith over the years. I'm not even sure why. I like both characters of course but I also like Tifa. I guess Aerith is just more interesting than Tifa to me.

Same here. Except the "I used to support .." part. I am aware of both characters and their connection with Cloud and that's it.