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Part 1: Enter, Ex-SOLDIER! [A Complete Analysis of Final Fantasy VII]
Masterlink here.
Welcome! This is the first post in my chapter-by-chapter analysis of the entire Final Fantasy VII. Each chapter will be primarily based on the original 1997 game, with discussion of the compilation works where relevant – ie. when they pertain to the original (OG). Aside from a spoiler-warning for the entire FF7 (this is the only warning I’ll give), I want to note a few things before we start.
Keep reading
Cloud’s special bond with Aerith
Everyone knows by now that Cloud and Aerith have a special bond, even those that deliberately ignore it. We know that Aerith can see Cloud for who he is, despite he himself not even understanding it at that point, due to her unique abilities. I want to examine this a bit further, however. I think that Aerith could sense “the real Cloud” for an even deeper reason than the fact that she was the last Cetra. Why? Well… Cloud and Aerith are soulmates! And the Lifestream backs me up on this…
Let me explain. I know the narrative simply necessitates that some of these moments are the way they are but… it’s written like that for a reason, no?
Aerith has no real reason to be in Sector 8 so late at night selling flowers, does she? She says herself, or at least insinuates, that almost no one stops to buy them, anyways. Probably not a very good marketing strategy, huh? She knows her stuff, too! The guys in Wall Market even compliment her on how good of a business woman she is. So then… Why does she linger around Sector 8 after an explosion and when people are running around chaotically and pushing her over?
I think it’s because she could sense that she was going to have an important meeting with someone. She was listening/talking to the Lifestream in an alleyway before moving out into the street and sticking around for who-knows-how-long while Cloud and Avalanche were blowing up Mako Reactor 1, right? What other reason does she have for sticking around if no one is buying her flowers and she doesn’t even realize what’s going on?
She lets Cloud buy one of her precious flowers for only a gil, indicating that she’s at the very least attracted to him … or maybe she’s just happy he isn’t trying to ask her on a date? Maybe it’s because she knows that he’s going to be important to her later on.
Cloud falls from Mako Reactor 5 and into the abandoned church that Aerith tends flowers in. Talk about a hell of a coincidence, huh… She instantly recognizes him and even remembers whether or not he bought a flower from her.
Now… everything up to this point could be attributed to Aerith recognizing Zack’s sword and armor and maybe even general demeanor and SOLDIER-y-ness (y’know… the stuff she admits to later during their date) but I think there’s something more there.
Suddenly, she asks if Cloud has any materia. Weird thing to bring up outta the blue… She just wanted to talk about her materia, for whatever reason. It could be a reference to the beginning of the game when she was talking to the Lifestream, since she says she knows how to use it but that it doesn’t do anything. She brings up her birth mother to an absolute stranger, clearly feeling safe enough around him to mention a topic she has issues with talking about. She certainly didn’t talk about her birth mother with Zack.
She asks him to stick around and talk to her for a while since they’re “meeting again and all”. Cloud’s presence makes her feel safe and secure and I think, even if she doesn’t know how important he’s going to be to her later, that she can sense that she needs to stay near him. She lets him in on little details about her life like her mother and her materia but doesn’t want him to know that she’s a Cetra just yet. Probably the plot just foreshadowing that there’s something special about her, I guess.
After he escorts her home and she volunteers to take him to Sector 7 the next morning, her mother, Elmyra, tells Cloud to leave because Aerith “doesn’t need her feelings hurt again”. Cloud leaves and then finds Aerith waiting for him near the entrance to Sector 6. She doesn’t know that much about him at this point… they’ve only hung around each other for half a day at most… so why would she know he was going to go on his own? I think this one could be attributed to her hearing Elmyra, though. Even though… she already knows the name of Tifa’s bar without Cloud ever having mentioned it.
Then they end up in the park where Aerith and Cloud tall about the first guy she ever liked. He asks her what his name was, citing that he probably knew him, and she said it doesn’t really matter. Then, Tifa comes through the gate in the back of the chocobo carriage and, after Cloud yells out to her, Aerith goes running after her all on her own. What reason would she have for running after a complete stranger that this other almost complete stranger knows? I think she doesn’t hesitate because Cloud has already become important to her and any friend of his is a friend of hers.
Marlene, too. Aerith endangers herself to go find the daughter of a man she hasn’t even met just because she’s important to Tifa who Aerith has only known for a few hours… I don’t think it’s because she’s selfless, though she is. Tifa recognizes that Aerith was always looking forward to the future more than any of them and undoubtedly wanted to live. Aerith is selfless, but only when it comes to the people who are important to her.
Aerith’s story becomes very focused on her history and finding out everything she can (usually on her own) after the party leaves Midgar. Though Cloud can see she’s feeling lonely and struggling with being the last Cetra and the weight that puts on her soul, everyone is too busy worrying about Sephiroth and Shinra to notice how upset she truly is. The important thing is that Cloud recognizes that she feels alone and that he tries to rectify that after her death by putting his feelings aside and finishing the job for her.
Cloud’s heart is in shambles after she is taken away from him. Aerith can feel Cloud’s heartbreak and sorrow, even after her death. Sounds to me like they have a stronger bond than just “platonic friends who are sad about not being together anymore”. It’s stated that her consciousness lives on inside of him… but “how is that possible exactly?”
Well, let’s look at this from Cloud’s side now.
What’s special about Cloud is that he has insane amounts of mako energy inside of him, even more than a regular SOLDIER. As we all know, mako energy is just the Lifestream turned into a renewable energy source. Aerith is able to directly communicate with the Lifestream. That’s how her consciousness, which moves on into the Lifestream after her death, is able to live on inside of him. That’s how Aerith knows that Cloud’s current ex-SOLDIER persona isn’t his real self. They can communicate through their souls by way of the Lifestream.
Cloud can feel Aerith (and Sephiroth) in his soul. He can hear Aerith calling to him from faraway places. He can share dreams with Aerith. He instinctively knows where to find her. All of this indicates that they have a strong bond within, not only themselves but, the Lifestream, too.
So why is that important? Tifa puts Cloud’s shattered mind back together in the Lifestream, after all. The Lifestream reveals the truth about everything. It is also where all of the souls from Gaia come to rest after their deaths. If Cloud and Aerith could communicate their real feelings through the Lifestream before her death and his breakdown, then they clearly have a strong bond to the Lifestream and each other, no? Tifa was mostly just a bystander while Cloud repaired his own fractured psyche, she said so herself.
It’s probably due to Aerith that neither of them died when they entered the Lifestream, seeing as how she can control the ENTIRE energy of the planet to stop a meteor from crashing into it, all because she loves her friends.
So! The Lifestream is the reason behind Cloud and Aerith’s deep soul bond and the reason that they aren’t parted, even after her death. That’s why they’re soulmates :)
Cloud Strife Headcanons, Because I Can
SPOILERS for the entire original continuity.
Cloud has a Cetra great-grandparent on his father’s side. Being one-eighth Cetra isn’t nearly as useful as being half Cetra, but it does impact how he reacts to high levels of mako exposure; he’s more susceptible to mako-induced catatonia (i.e. he is more easily “taken into the Lifestream”), but he will survive mako-induced catatonia far better than a purely human person and has a far higher chance of recovery long-term.
Cloud’s greatest talent–that he is completely unaware that he has, by the way–is being a ridiculously quick study; he can do almost anything moderately well after one or two demonstrations provided he has the physical capability to do it (strength, dexterity, etc.). This is how he knows how to wield swords despite never having received any training in bladed melee weapons (and how he learns a complex choreographed dance with one practice round), but also why this skill doesn’t help him in combat during his active Crisis Core years: Cloud didn’t have the bulk yet to effectively use any of the cool tactics he observed the older, taller, heavier men using.
Cloud applied to SOLDIER before he turned fifteen. He was rejected due to bone scans revealing that he wasn’t anywhere near finished growing (seriously, look how tiny fifteen-year-old Cloud is compared to seventeen-year-old Zack when they first meet, then compare their sizes when twenty-two-year-old Zack is carrying twenty-year-old Cloud five year later; our boy was a late bloomer) and would be too vulnerable to growth plate fractures. [Growth plate fractures are fractures that occur in children and teenagers in the part of the bone that is growing. If they are not set properly before they start to heal, they will permanently stunt bone growth. Because SOLDIERs heal extremely quickly, a growth plate fracture would be nearly guaranteed to heal wrong. This would permanently disable a SOLDIER, which means Shinra loses on its investment. While I don’t believe Shinra cares about their employees as people because they hired a fourteen-year-old to be in their military, I do believe they care more about making financially-sound decisions than making decisions that specifically disregard human quality of life.]
Cloud’s rejection from SOLDIER was a “try again next year, kiddo” rejection that he took way too hard, being a Very Sensitive and Angsty Teenager ™. Zack was right that Cloud was on the right track to be a SOLDIER and just needed to keep doing well for another year or two.
Cloud was kept sedated the entire time he was in Hojo’s lab and thus never knows was done to him beyond the vague summary revealed to the player in the original game. In reality, Hojo–who is a terrible scientist from a methodology standpoint as well as an ethical one–just started pumping higher and higher concentrations of mako into him until Cloud finally started showing symptoms of mako poisoning. He was dubbed a “failure” because Hojo couldn’t determine why Cloud broke at the mako level he did (see first headcanon for why). Hojo was too much of a know-it-all egotist to do anything other than label an experiment with an inexplicable outcome a failure.
Cloud chooses to never have biological children due to the fact that he doesn’t know whether the effects of Hojo’s experiments could be inherited, i.e. whether any biological child of his would also be a Sephiroth clone and/or have SOLDIER characteristics. He is perfectly content with his role as a foster/adoptive father, though, and adores the children he raises.
Cloud takes Marlene’s comment “How can you take care of your family if you can’t take care of yourself?” in Advent Children very seriously and starts therapy shortly thereafter (bonus headcanon: the WRO backs no-cost therapy for Shinra victims because the last time a Shinra experiment victim’s mental health was neglected, they tried to destroy the planet). Cloud is in an ideal place for therapy: he has a supportive social network, he has the flexibility in his living situation for therapy, and he is willing to put in the work to make changes (because, again: Cloud adores his foster/adopted kids and is determined to be the best dad he can be). It’s not 100% smooth sailing, but he has a great fit with his therapist, and it tremendously reduces his survivor’s guilt.
fun + cool cloud strife facts
cloud has an autopsy scar, aka a y-shaped incision down the torso. cloud also has no memories of where it came from :)
cloud’s had a snapped neck before and should’ve died right then and there but the power of j-cells™ renders actual death impossible.
cloud sometimes phases through walls and floors. also levitates at random intervals.
the roman numeral seven is tattooed on cloud’s neck. cloud is completely unaware of this tattoo, and it’s rather unfortunate that hojo had forgotten about it, too…
HOWEVER, cloud does occasionally respond to being called “number 7″, usually in the midst of a mental breakdown (and in rarer instances, “number 7″ will be the only thing cloud responds to!)
cloud may or may not have attempted to merge with one or two of the other clones in nibelheim.
cloud still thinks about the reunion from time to time, and there’s always that urge to go to it…
cloud always referred to jenova as “mother” (and still does, sometimes), despite knowing that it’s wrong to do so.
and one extra fun last one:
cloud doesn’t know what it’s like to not hear voices all the time.
Many sacrificed all for the King, so must the King sacrifice himself for all.
𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬
1. WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE SMELL LIKE?
According to his official eau de toilette “A mix of refreshing floral, fruity and oriental scents.”
In reality, he probably smells like someone who has not changed their clothes in over a year, doesn’t know when they’ll get their next shower, hair spray, sword cleaning polish, and traces of mako that will forever cling to his skin.
2. WHAT DO YOUR MUSE’S HANDS FEEL LIKE?
If Madame M is to be believed “The strong, firm hands of a fighter. Yet they possess a certain elegance and grace.”
3. WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY EAT IN A DAY?
Cloud forgets to eat most days, then claim SOLDIERs don’t need as many calories as the average person (liar). Since the party is normally on the road, resting at a local Inn or camping outside under the stars, Cloud will eat just about anything put in front of him regardless if he likes it or not.
He does however have a fondness for homemade cooking, especially his Mother’s Stew and whatever Tifa can whip up.
4. DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE A GOOD SINGING VOICE?
No. Cloud doesn’t speak very often and when he does it’s delivered in this same tone that’s blunt and straight to the point. He hasn’t exercised his vocals cords enough to get any real range out of them.
5. DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE ANY BAD HABITS OR NERVOUS TICKS?
He crosses his arms when he’s feeling defensive and occassionally taps his foot when idle for too long. If he fails to come up with a witty comeback then he does this adorable pout and go “hmph!” (Does that count?)
6. WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY LOOK LIKE / WEAR?
Cloud spends most of the game wearing whatever he has on hand, which is either his old infantryman uniform in Crisis Core or the SOLDIER uniform gifted to him by Zack. Advent Children is when we see Cloud actually wearing what he wants; all black outfits with many belts and wolf patterns, and an unnecessary half-skirt that matches Tifa’s own garb.
7. IS YOUR MUSE AFFECTIONATE? HOW MUCH? HOW SO?
Cloud does not show affection in the traditional way. The lack of social skills he learned as a kid and the trauma he suffured in Hojo’s lab have emotionally stunted him. This is best illustrated in FF7R when Tifa breaks down in front of Cloud in Aerith’s garden and Cloud doesn’t know how to help, so he mimics what he saw Barret do for Tifa when the plate fell, he hugs her. This gesture doesn’t come naturally to Cloud and he sorta ruins it by hugging her too tightly.
Instead, Cloud shows affection by caring for the physical well-being of his loved ones. He offers Tifa advice like a coach would, he steps between Barret and a possible threat, goads NPCs into making better life choices, goes along on Jessie’s side quest, and in the case of Aerith, he doesn’t stop to consider how ridiculous it is to offer to walk her back home after she just went through the trouble of escorting him to Sector 7 in the first place.
Cloud acts tough but has proven that he will drop everything if someone needs help. He’s kinda like your dad, isn’t too good with the emotional support stuff, but great at doing these small acts of kindness that make your day slightly less shitty.
8. WHAT POSITION DOES YOUR MUSE SLEEP IN?
He’ll initially sleep on his back but at some point in the night curl up on his side. Sometime he’ll even fall sleeping sitting up with one leg drawn to his chest.
9. COULD YOU HEAR YOUR MUSE IN THE HALLWAY FROM ANOTHER ROOM?
Cloud has been proven to be quite stealthy, despite what the giant hunk of steel on his back would have you believe.
Tagged by Stolen from: @theomachst
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I just love him 😩🖤