Why is Cloud your favorite character?

[Dungeonmaster]

I like him because he's always hungry all the time, but he's strong.

I hate food... i hate commercials, i hate the whole Coca Cola company and every fake smiles of people who cynically is ok with it. I hate food that is promoting salt and sugar, fast food or anything like that. I just cant stand it.

He has a mom who's not saying "yeah eat this chocolate" she's just asking if he's eating right, as in if he's alright and not feeling ill.

 

[fancy]

He's not my fave, but I empathised with his lonely childhood cause I struggled with making friends as I am painfully, painfully shy and had my own set of bullies to pester me. I also empathise with his feelings of inadequacy in AC and just feeling "good enough" in general has been my version of "the SOLDIER exam."

He shouted something about everything being precious to him, again, in AC which appeals to my inner hippie, and I like to think of Cloud as having a self deprecating sense of humour, which I think was the intended trait for him, but sort of gets lost in his flanderised emo-ness. But speaking of flanderised emo-ness, I believe a common theory about Cloud's general mopiness in AC is that he was suffering through an episode of

Spoiler: depression

even though I'm almost certain 'depression' isn't a condition that's recognised in Japan?

which HEY! Guess who's else undergoes that??

So, yeah, whilst he ain't my fave, I like him plenty because I empathise a lot with try character. Of course, I'm probably just projecting my own personality onto him, but then, I think everyone does that to an extent with fictional peeps.

 

[Sprites]

I like him because he's always hungry all the time, but he's strong.

I hate food... i hate commercials, i hate the whole Coca Cola company and every fake smiles of people who cynically is ok with it. I hate food that is promoting salt and sugar, fast food or anything like that. I just cant stand it.

He has a mom who's not saying "yeah eat this chocolate" she's just asking if he's eating right, as in if he's alright and not feeling ill.

........what the fuck?

 

[Ite]

........what the fuck?

Yeah this has been happening for a few days now.

 

[Random Nobody]

Ms Master stay bamboozling people, and honestly these posts are the best thing I've read this year, month, century.

 

[Random Nobody]

For the record, I also hate food, I hate it with my life, it will not leave me or my wallet alone.

 

[Dungeonmaster]

What i ment with the Coca Cola or chocolate conspiracy is that they are fine with promoting it with a smile. Like Coca Cola, taste the feeling...(some chump smiles while drinking it) thanks for the diabetes.

But try to imagine this "Heroine, taste the feeling (smiles while snorting cocaine)"

I mean... i just find it unethical that companies do this?. I mean heroine and alcohol, thats bad, but obesity, no problem, it only tastes good its not a problem... unless you are skinny with good genes of high burning calories, if not then you are screwed.

But yeah... I guess it was sort of childish using Cloud a fictional character to promote it... But i just like the character i guess. Because like him he suffers from Mako poisoning, i suffer from commercial poisoning.

 

[Animexcel]

I like food, it helps me to live. I like Cloud because he also likes Tifa.

 

[Dungeonmaster]

Well Tifa is more a helper to Cloud than Cloud is to Tifa i feel. But Cloud always give it all when he wants to help people. Its more selfless action, i mean he's not like a relater type, its like, oh someone is in trouble, better save them without no question asked. While Tifa just want to help him with any trouble he may suffer. Which i consider a good relationship.

 

[MoonSkull]

He's not really but I suppose out of many fictional characters, he probably is sort of one of my favorites. There's something sort of iconic about his spiky blonde hair and giant buster sword and dark clothes that make him really memorable as well as the overall setting and theme of the game.


I can oddly enough relate to the general and overall settings and themes of the game because I have experienced similar things in my life and it does a good job capturing those feelings and sensations. I also loved the way he was animated in Advent Children, and how emotive his facial expressions and eyes are...

He kind of strikes me as an emotional person that keeps it all on he inside and which is generally what I do I suppose.

 

[Blade]

I'm stumped as to why people hate Cloud so much on SiliconEra.

Like it's a congregation of Anti-Clouders or something, ever since that newsbyte with Tabata.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

...I'm trying to figure out it Dungeonmaster Hater Of Food was banned for spamming about hatred of the comestibles industry or for unrelated reasons.

But speaking of flanderised emo-ness, I believe a common theory about Cloud's general mopiness in AC is that he was suffering through an episode of

Spoiler: depression

even though I'm almost certain 'depression' isn't a condition that's recognised in Japan?

which HEY! Guess who's else undergoes that??

So, yeah, whilst he ain't my fave, I like him plenty because I empathise a lot with try character. Of course, I'm probably just projecting my own personality onto him, but then, I think everyone does that to an extent with fictional peeps.

XD Especially game protagonists like Cloud.

AC Cloud is written as <em>pretty severely</em> depressed imo, which is actually kinda...not great considering they pretty clearly did it to have an excuse to make the movie not a team story, and they don't explain or contextualize anything well in the theatrical cut, and they chose to have Tifa yell at him about not having enough determination or caring enough about his loved ones when he is literally dying of death and treat it like a pep talk and then...left her behind for no reason while he went to another continent to rescue a bunch of children at her insistence?

And the expanded materials basically state that you make yourself vulnerable to Geostigma by being sad and afraid to die, which I generally choose to ignore because it's bullshit. Not a great treatment of the subject. :[

But I do love Cloud, and his awkward grouchy goofy goodness. I'm glad AC showed him being good even if they were also all blame-you-for-the-weakness-of-being-susceptible-to-trauma.

 

[Roger]

Kadaj in the movie implies depression is a common sympton of Geostigma.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

Really? Cool. I missed that. But yeah, as a symptom it makes perfect sense, but I was told 'On The Way To A Smile' defines it (and 'fear of death') as the primary risk factor, which...I would be more okay with if the main group of sufferers we see weren't little kids.

comorbidity blah blah

 

[Blade]

Somebody just told me that character development =/= character strength.

Like SPIT it isn't!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Really? Cool. I missed that. But yeah, as a <em>symptom</em> it makes perfect sense, but I was told 'On The Way To A Smile' defines it (and 'fear of death') as the primary risk factor, which...I would be more okay with if the main group of sufferers we see weren't <em>little kids</em>.

comorbidity blah blah

I see your point, but they were all left in a ruined world, and usually with dead loved ones. It works in the context of the setting and story because the villain who caused all of it is also utilizing their despair to make himself stronger (i.e. they die, their spirit energy gets corrupted by his will and added to his Negative Lifestream).

Were it just a biological disease caused by a neutral organism, I could maybe see more reason to be annoyed with it, but we are talking about a malevolent spirit who revels in the suffering he's caused, is actively working to cause more, and is feeding off it where he succeeds.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

You're not wrong, I just...there's a thread of victim-blame running through the whole use of concept that I really dislike.

When Cloud said he suffered mako poisoning because he was 'weak' I didn't take him at his word, you know? It's one thing to have him blame himself, it's rather another for the narrative to back him up, and Tifa's 'snap out of it' speech was really... It's not framed as 'you've been hurt and that makes you vulnerable' so much as 'you let this happen to you.'

 

[Blade]

Really? Cool. I missed that. But yeah, as a <em>symptom</em> it makes perfect sense, but I was told 'On The Way To A Smile' defines it (and 'fear of death') as the primary risk factor, which...I would be more okay with if the main group of sufferers we see weren't <em>little kids</em>.

comorbidity blah blah

I see your point, but they were all left in a ruined world, and usually with dead loved ones. It works in the context of the setting and story because the villain who caused all of it is also utilizing their despair to make himself stronger (i.e. they die, their spirit energy gets corrupted by his will and added to his Negative Lifestream).

Were it just a biological disease caused by a neutral organism, I could maybe see more reason to be annoyed with it, but we are talking about a malevolent spirit who revels in the suffering he's caused, is actively working to cause more, and is feeding off it where he succeeds.

The whole concept of "Evil that feeds on Suffering" is probably the biggest issue people have with storytelling nowadays. Like tragedy isn't tragic enough.

But realistically you can't expect Rainbows and Unicorns from a story setting like FF7, and I think there's far too many unreasonable expectations of that magnitude going around.

The problem as I see it is that people don't WANT dark emo character types to represent the "Light" of a story. They want something more braindead obvious they don't have to analyze.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

...please don't tell me you think the final cut of AC leaving out at least a third of the storyline including all the context made it a more intelligent movie. It really didn't. Making your audience work to understand what's even going on is a cheap way to pad a straightforward narrative, and sometimes it's actually useful and productive, but it's never the same as being deep.

Cloud became a less complicated character by writing his depression covering everything for the entire movie. I'd respect it more as a writing choice if the way it was executed didn't look suspiciously like a hack to make the movie easier to create.

 

[Random Nobody]

Tifa's 'snap out of it' speech was really... It's not framed as 'you've been hurt and that makes you vulnerable' so much as 'you let this happen to you.'

I'm not sure I'd see it as her telling him to "get over it" or that he was responsible for it do much as an admonition for deciding to give up. Whilst his behaviour is understandable, it's not possible to get better if you no longer care to try.

Otherwise, I agree. Never bothered me tho, because this is AC, whose writing (noah fence) is so good, that it takes, like, three supplementary materials to make sense of what's happening on screen, even if you did play the game prequel.

 

[Roger]

It's not possible to get better, period. There was no method on the Planet that could have spared Cloud and Denzel's life, and Tifa and Marlene could wake to find Denzel's horrific oilridden carcass any day now. Only question left is if Marlene is gonna be put through that with Cloud as well. That is the picture the supplementary materials paint. Doesn't really make Tifa's attitude more agreeable to me.

 

[Random Nobody]

I'm talking about depression and psychological health in general. It's of note they were having issues long before Denzel came along, and before Cloud realised he was infected.

In any case, a dim prognosis doesn't mean "give up" either. Particularly when the method of doing as much is to just vanish without a word.

 

[Kieron_ODuibhir]

Yeah but see...yelling at people who are depressed for 'giving up' to 'snap them out of it' is widely recommended and a really bad idea. In terms of their health, I mean. It's just pressuring them to suppress their symptoms to perform health for your comfort; it makes things worse and increases their sense of self-blame, which raises more barriers to recovery. It's like yelling at someone with bad legs to get out of their wheelchair and make do with crutches because there's stairs.

Now, in the midst of an emergency you are totally within your rights to be some degree of mad at someone for letting their personal issues get in the way of fulfilling their obligations, especially when no one else can, and Cloud was being unusually difficult at a difficult time so I don't particularly hold it against Tifa that she lost her temper and brought in her larger issues with his conduct at that moment, even though it was the opposite of helpful. Or at least, I wouldn't if she was coming along to the Northern Continent, leading the charge like she always did when doing her insensitive kick-Cloud's-ass-into-gear thing in the OG.

(Her staying behind in Edge was so bullshit I cannot describe it, possibly even more bullshit than her making the call that Cloud should fight a one-one-one sword duel without magic for the fate of the Planet while the rest of them watched from an airship. Tifa gets jerked around by the writers so bad in everything she appears in, it's ridiculous.

Are we going to be told Fenrir is a special trans-oceanic teleporting motorbike that can't carry two adults or something? No, we're just going to cut to the glowy forest inside the hidden city inside the enchanted forest. How Cloud got to this continent or how he knew to look here or where Tifa is are all filed under don't ask stupid questions.)

But as a writing choice, and as a metaphorical treatment of how to manage depression, especially depression in reaction to terminal illness which is a very real thing that real people have to deal with, Tifa's dilly-dally speech was offensive and inappropriate.

Also lmao I can't actually tell if that was a sarcastic 'so good' on AC's writing Nobody-san. Like I think it should be, but I could have it backwards.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

So, this is more of kind of poll than a response, in regards to all the AC stuff that creeped into this thread...when discussing or thinking about Cloud's character, do you include AC, or just the original game? The original plus Crisis Core, or one of the other spinoffs, but not AC?? Fucking...Super Smash Bros?? I'm genuinely curious.

 

[Roger]

Crisis Core, Before Crisis, original game, Final Fantasy Tactics, On The Way To A Smile, Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. His fighting and racing game appearances don't count for me.