Fair Weather Zack/Cloud Club.

Torrie

Torrie

astray ay-ay-ay
Found this video on Twitter a while ago, and it's been giving me countless goosebumps ever since.
The lyrics are amazingly fitting, and the singer's smooth voice creates a completely different atmosphere.

 
Torrie

Torrie

astray ay-ay-ay
Something different for a change: a collection of fanfiction.

Back and Forth With you - not only "the zakkura holy book everyone's obsessed with" as someone commented on Twitter, but also a really, REALLY well-written prose. I've already read a few chapters; it makes you gasp, it makes you cry, it makes you smile, it makes you empathize. The narration jumps from the post-AC events to Cloud's past in Shinra, and it's so beautifully written and so believable that I vote for this fic to be a new canon.

Hello Once Again - people keep recommending it, but it's still on my reading list, so can't say much at the moment.

Some of the fanfiction was written for the "Slice of Clack" event on Twitter back in July this year.

A Mother's Wish - Zack visits Cloud's mother in Nibelheim during their shared mission.

Under the Starry Sky - Cloud takes Zack out to celebrate the latter's birthday.

Bouquet for a Sunflower - Zack finds a bouquet of flowers on his doorstep after a particularly difficult mission.

Last Stop ‘til Midgar - The two finally make it to Midgar and find a bench for a quick breather. Not a healing bench though. Just a bench.

Falling in Love - AU where Zack still works for Shinra and Cloud does his deliveries, and their paths converge.
 
Torrie

Torrie

astray ay-ay-ay
I've come across the following picture on Deviantart framed as a demotivator: "Tetsuya Nomura — Has obviously never seen the fan-made yaoi." Jokes aside, the quotation drew my attention.

Безымянный.jpg

Part of the direction we wanted to go was to modernize not just the gameplay, something by which today's standards would be considered stale and uninteresting, but the story as well. We all thought very long and hard on this and then the idea came to me: we'll alter the relationship between Cloud and Zack. For many years after its initial launch and subsequent sequels there had existed a triangle between Aeris, Cloud, and Zack. However no one had really considered the possibility that if you were to remove Aeris as a love interest you could have a much more modern love story focusing on just Cloud and Zack.

— Tetsuya Nomura (Gamespot interview)
Click to expand...


However much I would love to think that Nomura did say that, I decided to find the original interview... and failed. It's nowhere to be found, be it on Gamespot website (where, however, some of Nomura's older interviews are still available) or just by googling. Maybe you'll have better luck? I assume it was either taken down at some point, or someone just made the entire thing up. The quotation can't be older than the Compilation and was posted in 2016, and what's more, features the Remake Cloud in the background, so it must have appeared in 2015 or 2016. But Aerith is referred to as "Aeris", which looks pretty suspicious.

Conclusion: the quotation may be a fake, but I can't wait to see our boyzz in Part 2 and run all over the place like this little dude: :aah:
 
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kathy202

Pro Adventurer
That quote made me laugh haha pretty sure it's fake, but nicely faked.

And err off topic but... Aerith, Cloud, Zack... Aerith, Cloud, Tifa... Aerith, Tseng, Rufus... (Okay, the last one is not even canon, not the Rufus part at least). Why is Aerith involved in every possible love triangle? And here I was, thinking that Cloud had too many girls :P
 
Torrie

Torrie

astray ay-ay-ay
So, ugh, hardly anyone reads this thread, so I thought I'd just talk to myself a little longer, and I hope I don't regret posting this. I've been thinking about this sudden obsession that has hit me hard this year. I didn't use to actively ship anyone, let alone same-sex couples because it was always an unexplored and therefore mysterious territory for me. I have friends who write fanfiction of various quality about characters from TV series and relatively famous musicians with various degrees of LGBT NSFW contents, but I wasn't particularly interested unless it was exceptionally well written. And then all of a sudden - BAM! - Zakkura arrived.

I didn't really notice how I drifted from browsing FF7R-related stuff towards watching more on Zack, his origins, his role in Cloud's life, their shared scenes, and, eventually, him and Cloud being viewed as each other's love interests, which was... weird at first, but quickly getting genuinely exciting. Twitter turned out to be a treasure room which revealed tons of incredible art, AO3 links, and a loving community, who are not fighting over the love triangle but simply adore the two soldiers quietly and happily. But all this time I couldn't stop thinking why, oh god why I developed such a deep connection with this ship. As I looked deeper, I figured it's not a crush, it's an emergency landing.

If we look at Zack and Cloud, especially at the way they're portrayed or rather headcanonned in the community, we'll see that comfort plays a significant role in their relationship. Let me digress here and post a link to a curiously misplaced discussion about whether the two really were best friends in the Compilation. Licorice and Makoeyes give perfectly reasonable arguments why they think the boys were or were not close by the end of Crisis Core, and the truth is probably somewhere in-between. If SE wants us to believe they were best friends, they definitely failed to portray it properly throughout the game, because it lacks episodes showing Cloud and Zack opening up more to each other or simply spending more time together. Basically, the case of Noctis and Luna: the player is told they're in love but isn't given enough screentime to invest in the pair emotionally and therefore is left in disbelief. So the community picked up the pieces and reconstructed the picture giving ZC all the time in the world. So we have Cloud who is a walking mass of complexes, socially challenged, and in need of someone who would accept him the way he is. And we have Zack who is willing to befriend everybody and envelop them in his bursting energy. Extremes meet, don't they? A perfect opposing dynamic where one is charging and comforting the other, whereas the other needs to be charged and comforted.

I have always been a bit Cloud-ish in every relationship. I know he was designed to mirror some common weaknesses and anxieties, and, unfortunately, I can relate too. I've had a few fantastic friends in my life, and every time I'm not the leading one but the one being led. I end up thinking I don't deserve their friendship because why would such cool people keep hanging out with me, the uncool one. Especially now that it's been a good six years since I made friends with this girl; she's absolutely wonderful. She's really too good to me. We've been through all sorts of adventures, travelling together, meeting people from all around the world, making our own running jokes, and typing the same things at the same time in various chats. We always support each other and talk about mental health things and difficult life choices. She lives in a different city, so the pandemic separated us even further. This year's been really painful for both of us. We've only met once since March. And I found myself thinking recently that maybe... maybe I love her a little more than I should. I mean... I don't know... My brain generates mixed signals, and it's starting to feel more romantic than platonic, and I'm conflicted, because... We're friends, right? And another thing is... She's a FF7 fan too, played Crisis Core on PSP when it came out. We've been to Norway together to see the northern lights partly because they look like the Lifestream. And, most importantly, Zack is still one of her most favourite characters of all time. She even says she would be a lot like him if she was taking antidepressants. So you can see the parallels, right? I'm a Cloud, and she is a Zack in our own dynamic. She meets all my needs in a friendship, and I still think sometimes that I'm not cool enough to deserve it, even after all those years. So that must be the reason why Zack/Cloud is my guilty pleasure: not only because their story is eventful, unique, and of psychological interest, but also because they subconsciously remind me of us so much. It's a substitution for all the adventures we can't have anymore and for the desire to be near the person who means the world to you.
 
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kathy202

Pro Adventurer
Hello, I'm hardly anyone!

Looking at that really old thread, I must admit it never occurred to me that the writers intended for Cloud to be Zack's best friend. Zack was like everyone's best friend... I can see why he would be very important to Cloud though. And that opposing dynamic you mentioned, yeah, sounds more like a form of romance than friendship to me, at least where fiction is concerned. :monster:

And yeah, this whole covid thing's been a real pain on RL relationships, and just about anything. About friendships and relationships in general, I don't think you should ever have to feel like you don't deserve someone. I'm sure the other person doesn't feel that way. Most people don't look at people around them and think "do they deserve me?" because relationships are more about sharing than giving or receiving (the ones worth having anyway).

That's all I gotta say I guess. Hang in there and one day we'll get out of this pandemic and things will be back to normal again.
 
Torrie

Torrie

astray ay-ay-ay
kathy202 said:
I must admit it never occurred to me that the writers intended for Cloud to be Zack's best friend. Zack was like everyone's best friend... I can see why he would be very important to Cloud though.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is probably the best interpretation. Also, as cheesy as it may sound, what might have helped was that Cloud's face was just too pretty for Zack to let him go so easily, hahaha.

kathy202 said:
About friendships and relationships in general, I don't think you should ever have to feel like you don't deserve someone. I'm sure the other person doesn't feel that way.
Click to expand...
That's what I keep telling myself too. There's an amazing book called "Waffle Hearts" by Maria Parr, a Norwegian children's writer. The story is about two nine-year-olds Trille, a boy, and Lena, a girl. The girl is energetic and mischievous, and she keeps dragging the shy and introverted Trille into all sorts of adventures. Even if they spend almost all their free time together, Trille can't accept the idea that Lena is his best friend because she never talks explicitly about her feelings. But he comes to this conclusion eventually and figures out that friends complement each other, which helps them stick together and learn from each other. It's a really powerful concept, and it may be obvious to the reader, but it takes a lot of mental work to apply it to real life. But I think I'm improving.

And thanks :properhug:
 
looneymoon

looneymoon

they/them
AKA
Rishi
I get you @Torrie . The way I see it, is if Tifa wasn't a character, Zack would be the one to fulfill that Tifa role for Cloud. Not really the whole marital status stuff, but being the key to the secrets of Clouds heart etc.

Zack/Cloud is very wholesome shipping
 
C

Cloudypon

Lv. 1 Adventurer
AKA
Xpon
I'm surprised this ship isnt more popular. I get Seph x Cloud due to clouds childhood idealization of sephiroth & sephs? jenova induced inability to leave cloud alone lol. But this ship fits so perfectly like a puzzle piece.



Lyrics:
Lying next to you, I’m holding your hand
Gentle eyes of beauty bringing peace to me now
The silent peace so soft it passes right through my arms
I’m wishing that this moment lasts a little bit more

You saved me through the rocky roads
You gave me half of your precious soul
I wanna hear you laugh some more
Don’t wanna see you go

chorus I:
All the times we fought, we’re together as one
Even when we part, you will never be gone
Look into the sky and see the dream we never lost
Can’t you see it coming true?
We made it through
I share this time with you






I wanna see your smile

Close your eyes, you’ve gone through so much, my love
All the past is now a cloud of floating memories
The sunlight shining through the long and dark nights we’ve walked
All that’s left to do is rest and heal our hearts

Every step along the way
You gave me strength to stand my ground
There’s so much to say to you
But now it’s time to go

Chorus II:
All the times we fought, we’re together as one
Even when we part, you will never be gone
As the times go by, there’s something that I realize
There was not a single thing
That I could do
If I didn’t have you

The price to pay to be right where we wanted to be
It wasn’t so easy to achieve
What we needed to find the way to freedom
I learned so much through it all
But you’re the reason I stand tall
Together we embrace one dream:
Protecting our honor

Back to Chorus I

All the times we fought…

Now I give you all my heart
take it all it’s just for you
I’ll never forget the love you gave us all
In my eternal memories
I wanna see your smile
 
C

Cloudypon

Lv. 1 Adventurer
AKA
Xpon
Lying next to you, I’m holding your hand
Gentle eyes of beauty bringing peace to me now
The silent peace so soft it passes right through my arms
I’m wishing that this moment lasts a little bit more

You saved me through the rocky roads
You gave me half of your precious soul
I wanna hear you laugh some more
Don’t wanna see you go

chorus I:
All the times we fought, we’re together as one
Even when we part, you will never be gone
Look into the sky and see the dream we never lost
Can’t you see it coming true?
We made it through
I share this time with you






I wanna see your smile

Close your eyes, you’ve gone through so much, my love
All the past is now a cloud of floating memories
The sunlight shining through the long and dark nights we’ve walked
All that’s left to do is rest and heal our hearts

Every step along the way
You gave me strength to stand my ground
There’s so much to say to you
But now it’s time to go

Chorus II:
All the times we fought, we’re together as one
Even when we part, you will never be gone
As the times go by, there’s something that I realize
There was not a single thing
That I could do
If I didn’t have you

The price to pay to be right where we wanted to be
It wasn’t so easy to achieve
What we needed to find the way to freedom
I learned so much through it all
But you’re the reason I stand tall
Together we embrace one dream:
Protecting our honor

Back to Chorus I

All the times we fought…

Now I give you all my heart
take it all it’s just for you
I’ll never forget the love you gave us all
In my eternal memories
I wanna see your smile
Click to expand...

So the things I outlined above seem on the nose gay/yaoi subtext imo. Not the i give you all my heart no or the you saved my lyrics. It"s more gratitude that Cloud is expressing.

Even in canon its implied clouds" done it all before" to jhonny, in wall market. The fact you can even date barret implies some bisexuality. Of course cloudxtifa or cloudxareith is canon & i accept that. Is it possible that its just lgbt pandering? idk
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Zakkura is literally the only ship that actually matters to me in FFVII. This is why I find it extra hilarious when people think I have some kind of bias. I ran across fanfiction (poorly written IIRC) of the pairing when I was a young teen and let's just say it was formative :monster:

This was pre-AO3, pre-tumblr. Pre-Compilation. I didn't know what "Yaoi" was. I didn't know that fanfiction even existed. The internet was fairly novel in the family home, not everyone had access. Pretty sure I was on 56k dial up on AOL (a free CD-ROM install version from ASDA, which is a subsidiary of Walmart here in the UK). Guarantee I'd be embarrassed to read it now (I could find it if I wanted to).

But lil teen me needed that representation for sure, and I'm glad I found it at the time.
 
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