Never thought it was possible for Cloud to remember Zack and still cling to his Jenova cell inspired delusion but here the writers are, showing that's entirely possible.
Zack being erased in the memories never seemed necessary to me. Just that Fake Cloud essentially switched places with Real Zack, meaning that he thought of Zack as the grunt that Cloud was. That said, with CC Reunion and Cloud uh... oddly filling in some gaps with things only Zack experienced...
Does Cloud think he fought Genesis?
I haven't at all thought about this, but Mako, you're making a really good point. My read is that Cloud believes he experienced much more of Zack's past but obviously not all of it. He didn't think Aerith was his ex. So there is a limit, but he "lived" some of Zack's experiences from Zack's perspectives in ways that the grunt laying next to the burning home wouldn't have.
Sephiroth offering his hand to Cloud, and asking him to join him in defying destiny together. Also, the whole "embrace me, don't deny me" thing. That's classic cinematic foreshadowing.
s long as Cloud's not himself and under their mental control, he's susceptible to Sephiroth's influence and dominance, just like any other black robed Sephiroth Copy. His will is not completely his own, despite him not being aware of that.
I think we can take these two things together. So in the OG, Cloud snaps and loses control until Tifa puts him back together in the Lifestream and they can overcome Jenova's instincts/Sephiroth's influence. But something that completely strikes me as different in Remake is that Sephiroth
offered his hand to Cloud. He's asking him to
willingly join him. That could end up being totally nothing, but how much more powerful is this whole story if Cloud
joins Sephiroth out of his own volition? How hard would it be to "piece him back together" in the Lifestream?
Will Cloud do one of the original ideas and actually be the one to kill Aerith? All of this is probably not happening, but I do feel we have had some foreshadowing that Cloud will be the villain and that Zack or Second Cloud will take up the role eventually of protagonist. Heck, our Cloud could die in Aerith's place and Second Cloud inherit his memories like Krile taking on Galuf's powers in FFV. Nonsensical but.... well it
is Final Fantasy. I expect more teasing that Cloud will be a villain, no matter how temporary. I do expect to at least fight him in a boss battle when he's handing over the Black Materia.
The only unknown is with Zack, we're very clearly getting the OG story there.
I stand in the minority here, and I accept that. But I don't see how people can say we're getting the original story when we have such significant changes. Sephiroth clearly wants to change something about the OG. And Zack's existence here isn't insignificant. If he crosses the party at
any point, things drastically and seriously change. The original story can't be in tact with Zack.
Zack can completely resist Sephiroth's influence and should be able to to go toe-to-toe with Cloud. If Cloud attacks Aerith at the Temple of Ancients or gives the Black Materia over to Seph, or Seph goes to kill Aerith? Zack can completely interfere in those events if he's with the party.
And having him just chilling in Midgar with no influence on the story? That's entirely
pointless and raises questions as to why bring him back if he won't affect anything.
The story is heavily going to change from the OG, even if the skeleton stays the same. I don't think we're getting the og story at all.
