Oh, and one final FFVII note, Rusted: Cloud and Tifa are involved romantically after the events of the original game, though one could be forgiven for not perceiving this as definite from "Advent Children." Supplementary materials and interviews confirm it, but even having verification about it, that's not to say it was all sugar and rainbows for them.
Well, as to that, I guess it comes down to whether one considers Word of God to be sufficient to establish something that is itself not an integral part of the work, even if the outside info seems to clash with what is suggested in the work itself. Without jumping either way on that question, I will say that I was ever of the opinion that they weren't 'romantically involved': Tifa is clearly still holding a flame for Cloud, and Cloud seems forever on the cusp of reciprocating (in his angst-ridden, unbearably emo kind of way), but is held back by the fact that he is still consumed with guilt and unresolved feelings regarding Aeris and other elements of hsi past that make him conflicted. They clearly care for eachother, but what I was alluding to previously in responding to Dante is that I don't think they were "together" as a couple, even by that point, in any significant sense.
That's actually one of my main problems with FFVII:AC: not that they are not together--I really don't give a shit about 'shipping' characters and honestly, at that point, I feel Tifa could do better anyway, but rather that in many ways it is just a more boring, shorter retelling of all the same plot and character arcs of the original game. We catch up with the characters for the first time years after the events of the game and so much seems to have just been switched back to the status quo ante. Now, I agree that sometimes it can add an element of realism to show that people can still get stuc in their same self-destructive habits and that the world at large doesn't necessarily shift to a perfect state after the 'happy ending' you were initially shown, but for much of that movie I found the hand-holding that Cloud was still having to get from everyone in order to move on and begin having some perspective a bit much at that point.
Are you sure you're thinking of Aerith? "Innocence" would probably never come up for me were I compiling a list of attributes for her.
I've been told that her character has changed significantly in FFVII:R, so I wonder if maybe you are having some recentism impact here. I don't know that I'd call the Aeris of the original FFVII 'innocent' precisely, but of all the principle protagonists (with the possible exception of Red XIII), she is presented as by far the most sagely, restrained, and peaceful one:
Even in a game where the mechanics pretty much turned all characters into generalists in combat, she had a strong bent towards healing. Her weapon was the least lethal of any playable character. She frequently espoused a desire to live in peaceful coexistence (and this is presented somewhat as the way of her people and the cause for their downfall). She would typically offer little to now resistance on the multiple occasions she was abducted (granted, this was clearly partly just for plot convenience). Her means of making her way in the world was to grow flowers in an old church. Her musical ques are all soft and melodious. Even her presentation suggested a softer and kinder disposition relative to the harsh quasi-steam punk of the rest of the cast. And of course, when put to the ultimate test, rather than looking to continued violence as a solution to the problems beleaguering her world, she decided instead a different path, which she may well have known would end with her own blood sacrifice.
Now, would I call her 'innocent' exactly? No, because while there are shades of apparent naivety to her when we first meet here, as the backstory gets more revealed, we learn that she has as much reason as anyone in Midgar to know how dirty and brutal the world can be. Responding to that ugliness with serenity and an dedication to others is simply how she rises to meet it. But I definitely can understand what Fox is driving at there when he uses that descriptor: Aeris has a good heart that has weathered the unkindness that has been shown to her. Now, as I understand it, that has been retconned, maybe even to an extreme extent, in the remake. Both of the people who have played the remake whom I have talked to about it have made a point of saying she's even a little bloodthirsty in this one, which if true, would be rather a dramatic re-read on that character, albeit one that can be justified by everything she has been put through by the time the story opens up. I think it was also suggested to me that she seems to know a lot more about her ancestry and what happened to her people this time around? I don't know: I'm reserving judgment until I've played it myself.
