Lurker > Xcarvengerx

Aerith: “I’ve never thought badly of you. You came for me, didn’t you? That’s plenty right there.”

Here, we’re back in the city of Edge, where Yazoo and Loz are trying to bring down the monument in the middle of town—the meteor constructed by Rufus as a symbol of the survival of the people in Midgar. Tifa also finds out that Denzel is not his normal self—still under the influence of Kadaj—and tries to shake him out of it. Further, we learn that Kadaj is on the roof of a building with Rufus and has summoned a hideous monster to attack the city… Bahamut-Sin. The people begin desperately running around trying to avoid being killed by the beast. Tifa is still trying to get Denzel to get his consciousness back while Reno and Rude seem to be confronting Loz and Yazoo. It’s a most chaotic time but Cloud is nowhere to be found, it seems. Bahamut-Sin then flies into the air and shoots down a huge blast that destroys the Meteor monument and knocks out/kills many people in the process. Denzel is finally back to his normal self after waking up from Bahamut’s attack. Angered that Tifa was injured in the process, Denzel tries to attack Bahamut himself, but out of nowhere, Barret comes to quickly knock him out of the way and attack the beast. Red XIII and Yuffie also come flying down with a parachute to help out Barret. While they’re distracted, four creatures attempt to attack the defenseless Tifa and Denzel. But now Cid comes jumping down from his new ship—the Sierra. Vincent also passes by the two casually as he prepares to take on the monster as well—the entire group is back and ready to defend the city from Bahamut-Sin. Now enters the newly changed Cloud riding up on his motorcycle beside Tifa and Denzel. He gives a very meaningful quote too…

Cloud: “It feels lighter. Maybe I wore it down by dragging it along so much.”

From this comment, we can see Tifa looking at Cloud and starts to smile. She can already tell that he’s no longer the same Cloud who had shut himself off from everyone these past few years. He now had that strength… that same strength that he had two years ago. Cloud was back.

Here we can see that the entire party is going at it against Bahamut-Sin, all at the same time, but they don’t appear to be very effective at all; in fact, none of their attacks appear to be doing any damage at all to the beast. Fortunately, Cloud quickly arrives onto the scene by saving Barret from a blast. It’s now that the entire group pulls back and lets Cloud handle the situation and he does so with ease. This is where we truly begin to see that Cloud has suddenly taken a jump in strength. For all the party’s attacks, Cloud manages to do more damage and faster. He goes head-to-head with Bahamut-Sin, eventually knocking him straight into the ground. Bahamut, sensing that he is not in an advantageous position, goes flying up far above the city and starts to create a blast that would be enough to destroy everything for miles. However, Cloud isn’t about to let that happen. He jumps up to chase after Bahamut, but he cannot get there by himself. The other party members serve to send him higher and higher into the sky, but even with all their power, it still is not enough. The last person needed is Aerith. As seen in Final Fantasy VII, Aerith extends her hand to Cloud and gives him the remaining boost or energy needed to reach the flying monster. Bahamut launches his attack directly at Cloud—it’s huge, FAR, FAR larger than Cloud himself—but luckily he manages to pierce right through its center unscratched! He then jabs the sword into Bahamut’s head and goes running down its spine. Cloud had done it; he had defeated the beast and saved the city of Edge. More than anything, he had proven that his strength was back, that HE was back. He was moving on, overcoming his “sin” and most importantly, being to show his caring toward everyone.

Marlene: “I don’t care about you anymore, Cloud! Why don’t you listen to what we’re saying?!”

This feeling isn’t just with Marlene either. Tifa shows feelings of being fed up with Cloud not listening to them either. He has shut off everyone for so long that they cannot take it anymore. But this is where we begin to see that Cloud is starting to have a breakthrough in his character. He tells Marlene to wait just a little longer, that the fight will be beginning soon. Vincent then questions Cloud, asking him whether or not it is about the fight. Cloud begins to think back to just a few hours back when he had the conversation with Tifa.

Tifa: “Don’t run! I know you are! Even if you find the children, you might not be able to do anything. They might be somewhere that we can’t them back. You’re scared of that, aren’t you? But you have to react now, to more of this! A burden? Well, there’s no helping that, it’s a heavy burden! Unless you want to live all alone, you have to deal with that! You don’t want to be alone, do you? Even though you never answer, you always have your phone with you.”

I felt that was one of the best lines in the entire movie. Tifa really brought up everything that had been going on. She knew Cloud, what he was thinking and how he was feeling. But she couldn’t just stand by and let him act this way, she knew that he really didn’t feel this way truthfully and that deep down he wanted to help the children, he wanted to help everyone, but he was afraid of failing them. His constant fears of failure lead him to not want to try anything. Tifa, I feel, is one of the biggest characters in bringing forth Cloud’s character. She’s always there for him, caring for him and reassuring him—even when he doesn’t ask for it—that he must at least try to accomplish these things, because she’s knows he is capable of completing them. After this scene, we see Cloud back with Aerith in what would appear to be the Promised Land, or an environment of heavenly nature.

Cloud: “But… we just let her die.”

Aerith: “Really, always drifting… Hey, why don’t you forgive yourself?”

We are now back at the Forgotten Capital, where Cloud questions whether or not a sin can be forgiven. Vincent tells him that he’s never tried. At this point, Cloud has clearly changed in his attitude. He’s different from before, he’s willing to try, and he’s willing to put himself out on the line again to try to help people. He tells Marlene that they’re going home and also says to Vincent that he’ll try it and get back to him with the answer. This next scene just furthers to reinforce the change in Cloud. We see his cellphone that had fallen out of his pocket earlier slowly falling in water. We hear all sorts of different unanswered messages from Reeve, Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Tifa, Reno, etc. All of his friends had tried to contact him, but he never answered. He preferred to live in by himself… alone. But now anymore, Cloud had changed. To signify this we see Cloud’s phone hit the bottom of the lake and die—the death of his “lonely” attitude and the beginning of the Cloud that was going to move on, going to move past his fear of failure and overcome his “sin.” There are also some very useful words from Aerith…

[Two Years Later…]

Lifestream… The flow that governs the life of the worlds. It is the source of all the worlds and all life on those planets. The Shinra Company found a way to take the Lifestream and use it as a resource. Because of that, we were able to lead rich and plentiful lives. But that wore away at the life of the Planet. There were a lot of people who thought Shinra tried to use force against those who stood in opposition.

Shinra had as special force called “SOLDIER.” They were the ones, who long ago, took the falling calamity from the sky to destroy the world—Jenova—and buried her. There was one among them named Sephiroth, who was an excellent SOLDIER. But when he found out he had been born in a horrifying experiment he came to hate Shinra… and then he finally came to hate everything—Shinra and those who stood against them. Sephiroth, whose hate for the world was so great that he tried to destroy the world and those who tried to stop him.

There were many battles. There was sadness in the sheer number of battles—one who I loved also became apart of the Lifestream. And then one day…a fated day… the world’s power itself stopped all of the battles. The world used the Lifestream as a weapon. The Lifestream, gushing out all over the world, took battles, ambition, and sadness… it took everything and swallowed it up. In exchange, everything stopped. These things… they happened two years ago… but the world seems to have been much, much angrier than anyone believed. The Geostigma…

In the two years that have passed, Cloud Strife—the former savior of the Planet—has gone into solitude. He stopped contact with his friends and eventually stopped visiting them, even Tifa, all together. One might wonder why it is that Cloud decided to separate himself from everyone else. But over the course of those two years, Cloud had lost his strength… that feeling he had in the last battle against Sephiroth had vanished. He felt that he could not save anyone—the lingering thoughts of Aerith still troubling his mind—and that he would become a failure if had attempted to do anything. In order to prevent his largest fear, he stopped communication with everyone. Not only does he live with his “sin” but he has also contracted the fatal, and incurable, Geostigma virus that is currently infesting the Planet. Cloud Strife, the man who had overcome all the odds just two years ago, was in one of the worst positions of his life… he was dying.

As Advent Children begins, we can see that Cloud has received a call from Tifa, but he did not answer the phone. Instead, he only hears it through the voice mail of his cellphone. Tifa had told him that Reno had wanted to talk to him in the Healin Lodge for an unknown reason. Cloud decides to head toward the Lodge to see what it is that Reno wants, but three silver-haired men who are unknown to him—Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo—managed to encounter him. Taking on both Yazoo and Loz at the same time, a motorcycle chase rages across the barren land near Midgar. Cloud, despite the Geostigma bringing him down and his unwillingness to fight, manages to hold both of them off long enough for Kadaj to call off the attack, but not before taking a fair beating himself. Being rather shocked by these recent actions, Cloud heads toward the Healin Lodge.

Upon his arrival, he is met by Reno, who tries to attack him but ends up locked outside, along with Rude, who also tries to attack him. Cloud, however, points his sword directly at the throat of Rude forcing him to back down. Suddenly, a man in a white cloak and wheelchair comes into the room. Cloud realizes immediately who it is… Rufus Shinra. Rufus talks about him looking into the aftereffects of Sephiroth’s influence and also give a brief description of Kadaj’s crew. The main reason that Cloud had been summoned here was to be asked to assist them in rebuilding the world and preventing Kadaj’s group from reaching their goal. However, Cloud has no interest in such things and leaves quickly.

Before the final battle, Cloud gave—what is to me, the greatest “speech” given by a character—an amazing talk to his comrades…

Cloud: What are we all fighting for? I want us all to understand that. Save the planet... for the future of the planet... Sure, that's all fine. But really, is that really how it is? For me, this is a personal feud. I want to beat Sephiroth. And settle my past. Saving the planet just happens to be part of that. I've been thinking. I think we all are fighting for ourselves. For ourselves... and that someone... something... what ever it is, that's important to us. That's what we're fighting for. That's why we keep up this battle for the planet.

I know why I'm fighting. I'm fighting to save the planet, and that's that. But besides that, There's something personal too... A very personal memory that I have. What about you all? I want all of you to find that something within yourselves. If you don't find it, then that's okay too. You can't fight without a reason, right? So, I won't hold it against you if you don't come back.

......Aerith. She was smiling to the end. We have to do something, or that smile will just freeze like that. Let's go all together. Memories of Aerith... ...Although she should've returned to the planet by now, something stopped her and now she's stuck...... We've got to let go of Aerith's memory.”

I was really touched by these statements from Cloud. He had made such an amazing progression from having no confidence, a constant feeling of fear, to someone who was ready to take on Sephiroth and bring peace to the world. He once never cared for the Planet, but now he was the hero who was fighting to save it. Throughout the course of Final Fantasy VII there was no character that could come close to touching Cloud’s development and complexity; this very statement still holds true today, perhaps even moreso. From here, Cloud would go on to face Sephiroth, along with his friends, in one final battle for the Planet. He knew what he was fighting more and he knew the goal he had to complete. Despite the high probability of failure, Cloud was unwavering in his confidence to overcome this task. He had optimism and strength that he had lacked before. This very strength that would propel him to defeat Sephiroth and set things straight in the world. This… this was Cloud Strife.

When he tries to fully piece everything back together, things become jumbled up and mixed. He thinks he is Zack, but purposely. It only makes logical sense that Cloud would assume he was a SOLDIER First Class. He has the mako infused eyes, he recalls the incident in Nibelheim, he recalls setting out to become a SOLDIER, and he’s wearing the uniform of SOLDIER. Everything pieces together for someone in Cloud’s state thinking it was all him. It’s clear that he doesn’t start to fully regain awareness until he’s already in Midgar. There’s no way for him to remember Zack the person, as he wasn’t aware of his death.

When Cloud arrives in Midgar, he is hired for a job by AVALANCHE—an eco-terrorist organization out to stop Midgar from “killing” the Planet. Due to Cloud’s complete indifference toward both sides, he joins up with AVALANCHE in order to gather his pay. At the beginning, Cloud is quite cold, saying that he’s only in this for the money and he couldn’t care less about what happens to the Planet. This matches up quite nicely with his childhood, with Tifa and her friends. And the criticism that this is where Cloud matches up with Zack is quite unfounded. Zack’s personality was nearly the complete opposite of this—a lighthearted, kind, caring, talkative fellow. After completing the mission, the group, along with Cloud, head back to Sector 7 to visit Tifa back at her Seventh Heaven bar. It is here that Cloud finally gets to meet back up with Tifa, who had not seen since the Nibelheim incident five years ago. The two share some memories of Cloud promising to always be her hero in her time of peril and even though Cloud was only signed on for one mission, Tifa persuades him to stay for at least one more.

Tifa: Whenever I’m in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once.

Cloud: What?

Tifa: Come on—!! Promise me—!

Cloud: All right...... I promise.

After destroying the Sector 5 Reactor, Cloud met up with a young woman by the name of Aerith Gainsborough in a church. He had landed on her flowers, which broke his fall, but she greeted him as if nothing had happened. From the get go, there was something about Aerith that Cloud was just mesmerized by. The more they spent together, the more Cloud became attached, but that would not last, unfortunately. Their time together, going through this quest, was brought to an abrupt end when Aerith decided to run away and save the Planet on her own by summoning Holy. She ran to the City of the Ancients, but in a dream-like sequence, Cloud had seen her heading toward there. He also saw Sephiroth, who said that Aerith was becoming a problem that needed to be dealt with. When Cloud had awoken, he was actually reluctant to save her. Why? Because he had given up the Black Materia to Sephiroth before, he was losing the ability to control his body whenever he got near Sephiroth. Many people like to blame this on Cloud’s weak mind, but that is most certainly not the case at all. As we know, Cloud was injected with an abundance of Jenova Cells, but the experiment was NEVER completed.

Zack: “Oh, here!! Put on this. It smells a little though; don’t complain. You look pretty good with that. Well…”
Zack: “Yo! Old guy! We at Midgar yet?”

Driver: “Shaddup! You’re lucky I even gave you a ride!”

Zack: “What’re you gonna do when we get to Midgar?”

Cloud: “…”

Zack: “I got a place I can crash for a while. No wait, the mother lives there to... Guess that’s out…”

Cloud: “…”

Zack: “Yep…gotta change my plans! Hmm… No matter what I do, I need some money first… hey, wanna start a business? But what could we do? Hey, Cloud. Think there's anything I'd be good at?”

Zack: “Hey, old guy. What do you think I’d be good at?”

Driver: “What’re you yappin’ about? You're still young ain’t ya? Young folks should try everything! You gotta pay your debts while you’re still young. Go out and look for what you really want.”

Zack: “Try everything...That’s easy for him to say... HEY! Of course! I got a lotta brains, a skill that other guys don’t. That settles it! I’m gonna become a mercenary! Yeah! Thanks, Pops!”

Driver: “Hey… didn't you even hear a word I said?”

Zack: “Listen, I’m gonna become a mercenary and that’s that. Boring stuff, dangerous stuff, anything for money. I’m gonna be rich! So Cloud. What are you gonna do?”

Driver: “No, wait…you got it all wrong.”

Cloud: “Uuhhh…”

Zack: “Just kidding... I won’t leave you hanging like that. We’re friends right? Mercenaries Cloud, that’s what you an’ me are gonna be. Understand Cloud?”

We can see here that Cloud got the idea to become a mercenary from Zack, but he’s clearly still suffering from the increased exposure to Jenova Cells—he’s incomplete in a sense, he’s got his own cells and then he has the Jenova Cells, which is not mixing well, the fact that he’s alive this long is an accomplishment in itself. When they finally arrive at Midgar, they are found on top of a hill overlooking the huge city. Zack quickly notices that Shinra has caught up to them and decides to lay Cloud down on the ground. He grabs his Buster Sword and takes on wave and wave of Shinra MP’s. While going back to make sure Cloud is safe he is shot in the back. From there, he is shot multiple times from point blank and dies there, beside his friend Cloud. The Shinra soldiers see that Cloud is not a threat due to him going in and out of consciousness—the expectation is that he would die soon enough anyway—and decides to leave him there.

“Escapee report no.3
Concerning their disposal.
A - Shot for resisting.
B - Escaped during A's resistance.”

“Escapee report no.4
Other.
B's whereabouts is currently unknown. But, we submit there is no need to pursue him, due to his diminishing consciousness. Awaiting further instructions.”

You can see from the continued logging in the Shinra Basement that they had eliminated Subject A (Zack) while leaving Subject B (Cloud) there due to his “diminishing consciousness.” After this incident, we are at the very beginning of Final Fantasy VII. But, first there is a serious criticism that needs to be addressed here. Often times, a major “flaw” people point out is that Cloud stole Zack’s personality in order to make himself look better, but that is not the truth at all. Cloud never stole Zack’s personality, at least not intentionally. When we see Cloud finally regain the ability to move on his own and something of consciousness, he gathers Zack’s Buster Sword and begins to head toward the city of Midgar. Due to his incapacitated state, he cannot accurately recall everything that had happened. It’s obvious that he recalls the incident during Nibelheim, escaping with Zack, and then hearing Zack’s stories of becoming a mercenary—he’s even wearing the uniform of a SOLDIER, the very same that Zack wore.