Can Cloud be happy with someone else?

Two caveats right off the bat before someone gets angry:

• This is not in any way pushing or endorsing non-Clerith ships (and it is definitely not pro-Cloti. Lord no).

• This isn't me arguing that this should happen or that it's something I want to happen. It's more of a theoretical thought experiment/character examination.

Having gotten that out of the way, do people mostly believe that a Cloud without Aerith spends the rest of his life, if not miserable, than at least actively pining for her?

It's pretty obvious that there is a certain substrata to this ship that is 'Clerith by any means' - people who believe that we're better off with both characters deceased and reunited (supposedly) in the Promised Land than apart.

I don't buy that. Death is an awful thing - particularly when it comes for the young. We shouldn't want death for either character... and if it comes for one, we shouldn't desire it for the other. Much less for any other reason than this: Aerith wouldn't want that for Cloud.

But, moreover, do most people think that a Cloud without Aerith could (or, perhaps more pointedly, 'would') eventually move on?

And I don't mean to Yuffie... and CERTAINLY not to Tifa. I'm talking in more theoretical terms: 'a' girl (just because a given Cloud does not end up with Aerith doesn't default him into the arms of either Yuffie or Tifa. Gaia is a big place - there are other young women around).

As an example, I liked Jessie a lot. She was very different from Aerith, but I think her heart was in absolutely the right place, and she had a lot of happiness potentially in front of her. While I didn't quite ship Cloud and Jessie, I am very happy that they shared the small romance they did, if for no other reason than to make the last days of her life that much more vibrant (I think it also helped to flex Cloud out of his post-Hojo-confinement cocoon. I believe that Jessie, strangely enough, helps make Clerith possible).

If Aerith didn't exist... or if Cloud never met her, then yes, I do believe he could have been happy with Jessie. She's obviously not his soulmate - she doesn't tick all the little boxes that way; she doesn't fill in every piece that he's missing like Aerith does. But she clearly liked him, admired him, and wanted to make him happy.

Could another girl do that for Cloud?

Perhaps not the Cloud in the remakes (who we still hold out so much hope in Clerith for), but maybe the OG Cloud? Is that man just condemned to wander forlorn for the next 70ish years? Or does he eventually find a form of happiness with that 'a' girl?