Originally Posted by
Forsaken Lover
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.