I've read that "True Meaning of FFVII" thing before. It is not nearly as "insightful" as the author seems to think it is. First off. He is blatantly wrong. Jenova is not the main villain, Sephiroth is. Also his thing about Cloud being cured of his Jenova cells is wrong. We know this because of his Geostigma in AC. I can agree that in the end Aerith played her part and saved the world, but this certainly doesn't make her the main hero of the story. If it weren't for the work of Cloud and party, she would never have been able to do what she did in the first place. Then he gets into that whole numbers thing and that's when I really begin to discount this guys credibility. Overall, that article is untrue and pretty much irrelevant to this discussion.

Now, Ryushikaze, I must say that you refuted my points pretty well. Plus I misunderstood something that you said about AC. When you brought up the point about Tifa and Cloud being lovers in another thread, I thought you just meant that it was supposed to be quite obvious that Tifa loved Cloud. Now I see that you mean that their love had been spoken, and they were indeed in a relationship. If this is true, then I digress. In AC, Cloud and Tifa were together. However, I have now gathered some evidence from the game.

Okay, I was playing FFVII yesterday (because I finally got my copy of it back. YAY!) and there was one line in particular that I heard that I thought would be just perfect in this arguement. When you visit Cosmo Canyon for the first time, at one point, all of the party is sitting around the Cosmo Candle being silent. You then proceed to talk to all of the characters. When you talk to Aerith, she says something about being alone, and then Cloud says this line: "I'm... we're here for you, aren't we?"

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like he was about to say, "I'm here for you." This can be construed as him just being nice to her, but his quick change to "We're" is what makes me think that he's trying to mask some feelings. I don't know. Maybe I'm looking too deep, but that sounds pretty sentimental coming from Cloud. And his quick cover up definitely makes it seem like there is more there than meets the eye.

I'll post again when I have more, but for now that's all I got. Can't wait to see your thesis Ryushikaze. Should be good, knowing you.