#flashback event

I wake in the water what seems a bit subliminal...

Was I searching for someone..?

I have thoughts!

Ok, this is actually far more simple than people have made it and it needs looking at from the right pov: Cloud’s mom. It also needs to putting within the correct context, that of a past moment. Applying current feelings to something that hasn’t happened doesn’t work. It implies that Claudia has meta knowledge of Aerith’s future role in Cloud’s life. 

Cloud has just met Aerith’s mom, who is very protective and loving and reminds him of his own mother. What you gotta think about is there’s very few maternal figures that age who Cloud meets. One is Marle, whose advice gets him to lower his guard towards Tifa. The other is Elmyra, who lives in the most idyllic house and whose warmth towards Aerith evokes memories of his own mother.

Ok, there’s your set up.

It’s night time and Cloud has spent the evening likely listening to Aerith and Elmyra talking before he’s sent to bed. So, now he’s thinking about mothers. And the last time he saw his mother was during the Nibelheim incident. 

Cue flashback.

Cloud was 16 during that and it’s the first time in 2 years that his mother has seen him. She’s naturally excited and wants to know everything he’s been up to, but she’s also a mother and Cloud is a kid in the big city. She’s worried. That’s her little boy, her baby. So much emotion all mixed up, but she knows her boy and that he’ll dismiss any concern she has -- which he does.

She’s proud of him and asks about girls because -- now this is the simple bit -- a girlfriend will take care of a boyfriend. That’s what she’s after. She wants to know someone is taking care of him because she’s in Nibelheim and can’t do it. Her son is 16. A younger girlfriend can’t look after him. I would laugh my goddamn ass off if anyone implied a kid can take care of a kid in the way that Claudia means. So, she says an older girlfriend would be best, because someone older than Cloud -- at that point -- is more responsible and mature, who is more capable of looking after him than someone his age or younger.

What she’s not saying is “oh hey, this girl you just met who happens to be one year older than you is totally your type.”

And tbf, Aerith isn’t exactly responsible. I mean look at all the things she gets up to. She gets Cloud in more trouble than anyone else in the game. She throws herself gleefully into situations because she wants to experience life. It’s just part of her free spirited personality.

Tifa, at the time Claudia says this, is 15. Okay. She’s younger than Cloud and even though she’s mature and responsible for her age, she’s in Nibelheim and Claudia likely knows she can’t leave because of her responsibilities to her family and town. Tifa isn’t a contender in this situation and I also doubt that Claudia knows about Cloud’s long-term crush. 

Now, Cloud’s just come back to Nibelheim and been unable to re-approach Tifa, so that combined with Cloud’s childhood avoidance of Tifa due to backstory plot stuff -- I did a promise analysis about this that covers my thoughts here -- Cloud’s mom likely didn’t even consider that Cloud at this point in time was harbouring a great stonking crush towards Tifa. This is why he’s so dismissive of the moment and that’s why it’s not a nod or approval towards Aerith.

At the time of this event Cloud likes Tifa. So, even if by the weirdest of convoluted reasoning Claudia was saying she prefers Aerith, Cloud doesn’t. Cloud at 16 likes Tifa and he would be dismissive towards Aerith because of that. 

But there’s a lot that I’ve been keeping from you. I should have told you this sooner.

“They didn’t think it would go this far. 

They didn’t think I would go this far. 

They were wrong.”