Cloud

Links: Character Tag

Age: 23

Height: 5'7


Notes:

Usually pretty quiet too

Has Extreme Knowledge of Darkness/Shadows/etc.

Though actually this all comes from experience and not extensive amounts of research so he’s not quite…. exactly right… about everything…

Likes kids but has no idea how to act around them

Cloud tries to do everything By Himself

He’s like the main advocate for Do Things By Yourself No One Else Should Get Hurt club

As you can guess, generally tries to keep friends/everyone out of his battles

Also sorta is bad at expressing himself, like Leon

Cloud can be as blunt as Tifa though

And as inconsiderate

Slightly out of touch with everything—or so he appears—but tends to notice the little details??

source

History:

Zack + his death + traveling with Zack

Sephiroth + having a Shadow in general + dealing with it
Growing up an outcast on his world

Sort of past with Olympus

Fighting style:

Fights with Zack’s Sword aka the Buster Sword aka huge two handed thing

Lot of sword attacks BUT knows plenty of magic too

Incapable of any light OR darkness attacks

Relationships:

Tifa

source (I know this is ff7 canon but it's SUCH a good picture!!!)

Cloud and Tifa know each other pretty well, growing up in the same small-ish town. They weren't exactly best friends (and perhaps not even that, right away) until their teenage years, when they started talking because Tifa got sick of all the other guys being rude to her, and Cloud wasn't rude, (or, not rude about her body, ya feel?)

When he left Nibelheim he didn't exactly expect her to follow him, which is why when he and Zack visit Aerith's that one time and Tifa's there he goes "WHAT" and she just goes "HI".

He was partially confused because he didn't know Tifa left home, and also confused because WHY IS TIFA OF ALL PEOPLE HERE. I NEVER THOUGHT I'D RUN INTO HER AGAIN.

They got to know each other really well after meeting up again in Radiant Garden, partially because when you're not at home you bond with other people who are from home, and also just because Zack dying and Sephiroth existing pushed them together.

(I also mentioned on Tifa's profile that Cloud/Zack/Tifa traveled around the worlds together for a bit, most likely.)

Cloud didn't exactly want to involve Tifa with his darkness troubles and so he pushed her away and made sure to never stick around long in part so Sephiroth couldn't find him, and in part so Tifa couldn't either. Even after Sephiroth was gone and Tifa following him was more of a nuisance than a I-REALLY-WANT-TO-AVOID-HER he still kept moving just so that she'd have a harder time catching up.

He's fine now, when it comes to his darkness, and she understands that, which is why come All that Remains they're actually traveling together, and not traveling with Tifa three steps behind Cloud. 

Aerith

I don't have much to say about the Cloud/Aerith dynamic but I know they are pretty good friends (everyone in the HB gang is at least DECENT friends with Cloud and Tifa) and knew each other largely through Zack, and probably spent very little time hanging out together WITHOUT Zack before he died, if any time at all.

After Zack's death he avoided her more than he avoided anyone else because he blamed himself for Zack's death and it was hard talking to her while carrying that blame on her shoulders---She, of course, forgives him (it was never really his fault), but it took him a long time to forgive himself.

Zack

source

He and Zack were fairly good friends and after helping Cloud out with some bind Zack offered to just let Cloud travel the worlds with him

They got to know each other really well

Cloud probably REALLY looked up to Zack

Plus they were from the same world and from backwater parts of it so they REALLY bonded over that

I regrettably haven’t thought about their relationship in depth but I know they were good friends and I know that when Zack died Cloud was absolutely RUINED

Sora

It’s KINDA like a Tifa-to-Kairi mentor sort of thing but not exactly

Cloud knows a lot about Shadows and darkness but specifically Shadows and he feels like he should tell Sora because otherwise it’s a waste of his knowledge

Sora seems too young to be dealing with this—Cloud was at least five years older—so he’s gonna help the kid out

It isn't to make up for past failures like Tifa with Kairi

It's because that’s just how Cloud is---he’s not gonna turn away someone he needs help, especially not when he can help them so specifically

When he has knowledge in their specific problems

It’s just who he is

Sephiroth

source

He hated Sephiroth so much hated Sephiroth and the memory of him and honestly

He probably can feel Sephiroth’s left behind presence and hatred like a claw around his heart—like Shad left his love to Sora, Sephiroth left his hatred to Cloud

Sephiroth made Cloud feel inadequate. The blow of Zack’s death was bad enough as is—not being able to do anything and then have Xehanort tell him, the boy he was after, that he wasn’t good enough? And killing his friend to boot?

The guilt and horror of it was enough to spawn Sephiroth

The perfect warrior

Designed to make Cloud feel inadequate

(likely so he’d give into the to the strength of the darkness)

And Sephiroth did just that

Went around

Making Cloud feel inadequate

Torturing him and his friends

(if he wouldn’t fall for desire of strength, he’d fall to protect his friends)

Learning Cloud’s strengths and weaknesses

The usual Shadow stuff

The relationship between them was built as it should be

Hatred

But understanding of each other

Perhaps Cloud didn’t want to kill Sephiroth in the end—though not for as nearly sappy reasons as Sora—but he knew it was for the better, even if he was doing off with such a big part of himself