don't you think cloud's words after aeris' death was him expressing for the first time his feelings on his mothers murder, at the hands of the same man? feelings until now due to everything that happened and all the ways cloud has suppressed his true self, he never had the opportunity? shall we say, to express? that with the shock of aeris' death came undone?
yes he felt extremely guilty about all the ways he felt he caused this death but also you know how aeris and elmyra at times made cloud think of his own mom? he thought he was hearing claudia when aeris was trying to wake him up in the church.
and you're right about claudia feeling like a throw away character when compared to all the ways the other mothers affect the story and the party members. I think it makes sense to think about it this way especially considering claudia dies the exact same way hironobu sakaguchi's mother was killed, in a fire when she was the only one at home and this loss affected so much of the plot.
in nibelheim he's only able to express rage at sephiroth for his actions, I suppose because he had no time to process any other emotion at the time among all that chaos. I would think his words in the forgotten city mirror the grief he's been feeling over his mothers death.
I can't say I particularly agree with this, but it did teach me that Sakaguchi's mother died in a fire. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150426013925/https://ch.nicovideo.jp/indies-game/blomaga/ar772866
Anyway, posted for the consideration of others.
