Aerith is an odd character. People seem to either automatically love her or dislike her. I'll admit - her clinging annoyed me during the video game. She was very insistent on being with Cloud, straight up until the end and at the time I felt as if I had to keep prying her proverbial fingers off of my fictional, vicarious video game arm. I like loyalty and determination but as a single girl who's lived her life without men quite comfortably there was something bothering about Aerith's blatant pursuit of Cloud no matter what he or anyone else said or did. For a long time afterward, she was, as you said, just easier to ignore for me than to try to deal with in the FFVII world. The fact that so many of her fans turned her into either an emotionless, flawless martyr or a Disney princess didn't help either. But you can't write in the FFVII world and not at some point have to deal with Aerith. I was surprised what I thought once I went back and looked at her through glasses other than the 'get OFF of me, woman!' frustration of the game. And - because what fun would any character be if they didn't have enough depth to enjoy picking through, once I started exploring I was surprised by what I found. Surprised and rather pleased.

That isn't to say I can let myself get too close to those Disney princess fans before I start feeling annoyed again but I can enjoy Aerith for who she seemed to be to me in the game and beyond on my own. So - I'm right there with you. I'm all for being upfront about being attracted to a guy or being straight forward and honest about a relationship - but Aerith in the game came across as overbearing in her chase and that was the difference to me. Maybe because I've had guys act that way in their pursuit of me and it never ended well for them...