The Aerith effect

[Sephiroth]

I still feel people get Aerith's relationship with Cloud completely wrong. I don't think it was romantic or flirting really at all. She sees his facade, and wants to tear it down. She doesn't love him because she doesn't know him. She sees that he's broken, that his mind is warped and shattered, and she tries to fix it. That's why she's constantly digging at his personal life, or trying to get him into a position where she can talk to him seriously and in private.

She know's something's up with him, from very early in the game. She's constantly questioning his thoughts and making him rethink his facade. And isn't she the voice that causes him to question himself at the inns and the other rest times?

She's an Ancient. She knows that something's wrong with Cloud, and she has an urge to fix it. She also has an instinctual knowledge of the Lifestream and the afterlife, so she knows her own love is waiting for her there, and she can still go meet him.

While she misses Zack, she also wants to meet the real Cloud and really is interested in him. The heart-breaking crying scene in Gongaga shows that. Cloud himself is, even though he can be very arrogant, also very shy. He wanted to meet Tifa in Nibelheim but care about her friends being around, thinking they were dumb and so tried to meet her alone and all. Aerith is way better in taking the initiative and just because she is interested in some guy first especially because he reminds him of her first love there is no reason why she shouldn't want to experience what he really is like. He was not in his "Zack swap" role all the time. His memories were just not what they should be. Nevertheless he showed some of his real Cloud characteristics all the time - his arrogance was not justified all the time, when it comes to it being based on the thought of being an ex-SOLDIER, of course. But Cloud shows very much characteristics which were really based on his normal personality and so Aerith also had a reason to like what she experienced about the real Cloud. As I have said, the prophecy was one of the saddest parts of it. And Cloud just is not the "Hey, babe, I love you" guy; his romantic feelings are shown not like normal, most of the time the actions themselves show what his feelings are about her and just a few of his lines show what he feels while Aerith is careful but knows what she is doing and similiar to Rinoa who dragged Squall to the dance floor is not afraid of taking first steps (I know that Rinoa was just around because she wanted to talk to Cid, that is not the point here).