Transcription
[Music] Oh, Final Fantasy 7 was nothing short of a landmark in the history of video gaming. Nothing like it had existed prior, and video gaming changed forever afterwards. A game on such a scale with such a strong narrative pushed the conversation of video games as an art form.
The game was also a risk. The future of Squaresoft, and to some extent the budding PlayStation console itself, rested upon its shoulders. Its experimental nature made sure it was anything but a safe bet. But for one of those very rare times in video gaming history, the game not only lived up to the hype, but the finished product actually far exceeded it. It pushed the JRPG genre through the stratosphere, cementing it into popular culture and enthralling a generation of gamers.
That success was in no small part, more than a little, attributed to the game's protagonist, Cloud Strife. First, he was the poster boy for the game. Then, he was the poster boy for the PlayStation console itself, alongside the likes of Crash Bandicoot and later Solid Snake. Now, he remains the poster boy for the JRPG genre as a whole. Gamers across the world found a lot that they could relate to in Cloud, beyond his compelling design. Being one of the first truly three-dimensional or complex characters in console gaming.
Subsequent Final Fantasy 7 media has augmented the character compared to what we saw of him in the original game, and he has developed a reputation for having a more morose and melancholy disposition and lost some of the complexity. However, this is beyond the scope of this video. I wanted to explore and discuss the psychology of Cloud in the original 1997 Final Fantasy 7, to look at where his motivations and character traits come from, and how he develops as a character throughout the course of the game. Starting from his childhood, through the Nibelheim incident, past the events of the main game where his identity becomes confounded with Zack, and reuniting with his real identity again in the Lifestream. We will explore how the events in Cloud's life shaped his psychology and how they have dictated his actions.
However, I don't intend to do a full forensic psychological history of Cloud. Firstly, because we don't have enough information about him to do so. And further, the developers of FF7 almost certainly weren't professional psychologists or psychiatrists, so attempting to do that would end up with a hyper-analysis. But that's not to say that they didn't write him with care, drawing from natural intuition and life experiences on what makes a person tick and how they develop their identity.
Before launching into the video proper, for those who aren't familiar with FF7 or need a little refresher, here's a brief synopsis of events, particularly pertaining to Cloud. You play 90% of the game from the perspective of the main protagonist, Cloud Strife. He represents himself to be an ex-member of a Special Forces Unit named SOLDIER. In a flashback sequence told by Cloud, we see how 5 years previous to the game events, he returned to his hometown on a mission led by the war hero Sephiroth. Whilst there, Sephiroth learns that he was created in an experiment involving an extraterrestrial being named Jenova by the science wing of the world's most powerful corporation, Shinra. Sephiroth destroys the town and kills most of the inhabitants. Cloud is unsure how he survived but vows to settle the score with Sephiroth. You travel the globe pursuing the reemerged Sephiroth, battling both him and the Shinra Corporation. As time passes, doubts and inconsistencies appear regarding Cloud and who he says he is. This begins to crescendo when it appears Sephiroth is able to control Cloud against his will at certain points.
Cloud's confusion reaches a climax whereby he loses his identity completely due to physical and mental manipulation from Sephiroth, and Cloud is lost to the rest of the characters for some time, with his fate being unknown. He is found later, however, now being in a catatonic state. Following this, Cloud and his childhood friend Tifa both fall into the Lifestream, a well of the planet's spiritual energy. In this metaphysical plane, Tifa and Cloud slowly piece together Cloud's true identity and the truth of what took place in Nibelheim 5 years previous. During this, it is revealed that Cloud never made it into SOLDIER like he claimed. However, he did return to his hometown 5 years ago, but as a lowly infantryman in the Shinra Army, not as an elite SOLDIER. So, he used the mask of his uniform to hide his identity from everyone in the town.
Following the Nibelheim incident, Cloud was experimented on whereby he was injected with Jenova cells and remained in containment until not too long before the beginning of the game's events. Cloud believed he has been pursuing Sephiroth all this time for revenge, but with this revelation that he has Jenova cells within him, it becomes harder to disentangle that from his biological compulsion to attend the Jenova reunion. Once escaping containment, Cloud, due to his experimentation with Jenova cells, is in a vegetative state. His mind attempting to reform his identity after all the insults it has undergone, confounds his identity and past with that of his friend and fellow SOLDIER, Zack. Zack was the SOLDIER who came to Nibelheim with Sephiroth in the past, not Cloud.
After finding himself in the Lifestream, Cloud reconciles with his fractured identity and rejoins the rest of his team and leads them to eventually defeat Sephiroth in order to try and save the [Music] world.
Cloud was born in Nibelheim 21 years before the beginning of the game. We know that his father died when he was very young, but do not know any further details. Cloud there was raised in a single-parent family by his mother. We do not know the effect the absence of a father had on Cloud. From the way he describes it, we can infer he doesn't even really remember his father, perhaps having no siblings and being the man of the house in the absence of his father from a young age. He had to fulfill a certain role within the household younger than he would have liked. Perhaps he was also often lonely, as his mother was busy providing for them both. This in turn could have made Cloud lonely growing up, making him feel like an outsider.
Of course, a lot of this is just conjecture, and also, I am in no way insinuating that anyone who grows up in a non-traditional mother-father household has an increased propensity to develop any psychological deficits or any of that nonsense. In fact, from what little we see of her, Cloud's mother seems to be very caring and emotionally available to her son. Cloud describes her as full of energy, and she gives him lots of words of affirmation, expresses interest in his life, and lets him know she worries about him and will always be there for him. All in all, a paradigm of the perfect parent.
If we look at the interior of Cloud's house, we can see that it is smaller than all the other houses in Nibelheim. It is the only house with only one floor, and it is just one open-planned space with no separate rooms like the other houses, with some of the belongings simply being stored in wooden crates. Also, compared to the other houses in Nibelheim, the Mako conduit that we see in a lot of houses in the world of FF7 is turned off in Cloud's house, suggesting that they are not wealthy enough to have it running often. Given this, and the fact that the world of Final Fantasy 7 seems to be in the latter half of its first century of industrialization and capitalism, not having a male breadwinner in the family probably took a heavy toll on the Strife household. Cloud and his mother were at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum within the village of Nibelheim and probably had little social equity or standing. This is compounded by the fact that we can see that the world has slipped into a measure of ruthless capitalism. Barrett mentions at the beginning of the game his savings are for Marlene to be able to go to school. So, in a world where even a child's education must be paid for, it is fair to assess the Strifes were struggling. Although perhaps things work differently out in the sticks than they do in the metropolis of Midgar.
Speaking of the sticks, let's discuss what we know of Cloud's hometown and its place within the world. Although Cloud's past detailing the Nibelheim incident is fabricated, we can disentangle some truths from it by paying attention. The old man who owns the inn discusses the past of Nibelheim, and although we know that Cloud would have not actually have spoken to this old man at the inn as to conceal his identity, we can infer that Cloud made up this conversation using genuine knowledge of the history of the town. Also, it acts as a vessel for the player to gain more knowledge about the world, and there isn't any reason for this information to be false or misleading.
Nibelheim is doubtlessly a village in decline. It once flourished during the building of the first Mako reactor in Mount Nibel, even having a mansion constructed especially for Shinra employees to stay in. And in fact, we can infer that the reactor at Mount Nibel was the first ever Mako reactor, as Sephiroth refers to it as reactor number one when reading the books in the library. We also know that Midgar has a reactor called reactor number one, but I think this is a different Nibelheim to coincide with the sectors of Midgar. It wouldn't make sense for the Jenova project to be shipped between reactors. Furthermore, we see that that Jenova project took place in Nibelheim during Vincent's flashback in Lucrecia's cave. The old man goes on to describe that those were affluent times, but as it seems with Mako reactors, once built, they don't seem to require much staffing or maintenance. And as well as the decline of all the plant life from the mountain, so too did the affluence of the village decline, seeing perhaps a slight resurgence during the Jenova project. We also know that the truck at the entrance to Nibelheim that has fallen into disrepair is the only one in the village, another sign of the village's economic and cultural deprivation.
Looking at the position of Nibelheim on the world map, we can see it resides in somewhat of a remote dead end. Behind it sits Mount Nibel, of which it is said that no one crosses alive, as is mentioned when Tifa and Cloud recount the day that Tifa's mother died. Furthermore, it is somewhat cut off by a large river to the South that cannot be traversed by foot. Cloud and Tifa never mention or show any indication that they have ever heard of Cosmo Canyon in the South or Rocket Town on the other side of Mount Nibel to the North. By all accounts, giving the impression of an isolated backwater village.
It is worth noting, however, that of course, video game locations and depictions of locations are actually abstractions of more dense and complex locations. It helps to think of video game locations the same as the concept of the cortical homunculus. The cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human body to proportionally represent how much of the brain is dedicated to the motor and sensory functions of a particular portion of the body. As you can imagine, certain body parts are accentuated greatly when compared to the realistic proportions. Video game abstraction of geography can be viewed the same way. We are not supposed to believe that the FF7 world has only 20 locations of interest and less than a dozen settlements. These areas are accentuated as they are vastly more relevant to the plot of the game, whilst other areas that supposedly exist are omitted entirely. Zangan himself describes how he has 128 students in places all over the world. So perhaps the Nibel area of the world map has more towns and villages within it and is not so utterly remote, but we don't know.
Moreover, it is unlikely that the village of Nibelheim has literally only six houses. It is, of course, an abstraction to represent a larger settlement. A six-house village wouldn't warrant a general store or an inn. Furthermore, the innkeeper and the general store owners also need somewhere to live. There are five children in Nibelheim that we know of when Cloud and Tifa were children, and they would have each had a house with the rest of their family somewhere, and on and on with examples like this. The FF map of Nibelheim is also a condensed facsimile of the real Nibelheim, with important points of interest given representation. Tifa does state, however, that she's the number one tour guide in the town, implying the town is big enough to have more than one tour guide, but further implying that Nibelheim does get some visitation from tourists. However, this could of course be a factious remark from Tifa, given everything we've discussed so far.
What do we know about a young Cloud, and how can we see why he was the way he was at 8 years old and prior? Cloud described himself as rebellious and stubborn, two traits that, combined with what we learned before about his home life, are not conducive to making friends. He mentions that he always felt awkward around other people as well. Perhaps Cloud was always busy helping his mom to become comfortable socializing with other people. We can also gain some insight into what the other people in the village thought of Cloud. When Tifa and Cloud fall from the Rope Ridge in Mount Nibel, they immediately assume it was Cloud's fault and that he brought Tifa there. They also just leave without taking Cloud with them, having no concern for his safety. Given his personality traits and the probable social standing of the family, Cloud seems not to have been thought very well of in the community.
Given this perception of Cloud within the community, we see the beginnings of him developing an inferiority complex, believing himself to be weak because of his unsociable traits. We then very quickly see that he begins to compensate and cover for this inferiority complex with a superiority complex. Even though he so desperately wanted to be included with the other children, he convinced himself that he thought of them as idiots and immature. Also, perhaps because of his home circumstances, Cloud was forced to grow up faster than other children and was less able to revel in childhood, as we sometimes see in children in real life living in difficult circumstances. So, by comparison, the other children seemed immature. However, at the same time, he coveted this immaturity and wished himself to be able to play like the other children.
Despite these traits, I think we can also infer that a young Cloud was also, deep down, a caring and empathetic child. The first time he actually attempts to hang out with the other kids is the day that Tifa's mother dies. Why did Cloud pick this day? Could it be because he heard of what had happened and, having had lost a parent himself, sought to see if there was anything that he could do to make her feel better? I think you could make a strong argument for this. When the children set off over the mountains with Tifa as she wants to try and find her mother's spirit, Cloud also demonstrates greater bravery than the other children, as one by one they turn around to go home, with only Cloud sticking behind, following Tifa. This is despite it being known by the children as a scary place where people have died and having the Mako of the mountain that no one crosses alive.
After this, Cloud demonstrates great altruism by deciding to put his own life at risk in an attempt to save Tifa when she falls from the bridge. It is also worth noting here that Cloud demonstrates amazing physical resilience. A person who would later become, for all we know, the greatest practitioner of martial arts in the world, is rendered comatose for a week and almost dies from the fall. Here, Cloud, on the other hand, only scrapes his knees. At this point, when he was 8 years old, we have the first inciting incident that changed the course of Cloud's behavior and psychology. He blamed himself for not being able to reach Tifa in time and stop her from falling. He blamed his own weakness. This manifested into anger and frustration, and Cloud began getting into fights with anyone, probably as a form of self-punishment, but also as a way to try and prove to himself that he was strong.
Shortly after this, Cloud first heard about Sephiroth, the hero of the war. Sephiroth became his idol, something to aspire to. He felt that if he could become strong like Sephiroth, then other people would accept and take notice of him, especially Tifa. The next knowledge we have of Cloud, we fast forward to him being 14 years old and leaving home to attempt to join SOLDIER. We can assume that Cloud's relationships and standing within the village did not improve within the past 6 years, as Tifa recalls this is her first memory of him. Also, she notes that he was short for his age back then. This probably did nothing to help Cloud with his inferiority complex. Cloud asserts that he's not like the others and aims to be the best of the best, another demonstration of his superiority complex masking his inferiority complex.
Following this meeting at the water tower, Cloud travels to Midgar in an attempt to join SOLDIER. We know that he fails to get in, instead becoming a regular Shinra infantryman. The details of the selection process for SOLDIER are not known, but Cloud later states that only the strong will can enter SOLDIER. Whether or not Cloud was truly weak, or what exactly Cloud's weakness was, we'll have a dedicated section later in the video. However, I think an element of Cloud's weakness was that, as he perceived himself to be weak despite having attributes that suggest to the contrary, his belief that he was weak became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When discussing the Nibelheim incident, we know at this point that Cloud is an unreliable narrator because who he was in the narrative is untrue. However, we know that Cloud was actually there, and I think it's safe to assume that the developers of the game intended many bits of information we get during it to be true. One of the first things that we notice is that Cloud suffers from motion sickness, something that he probably didn't know about until he left home and decided to travel to Midgar. This probably did nothing to stem his perception that he was a weak person, especially compared to Zack, who we can infer from what we see of this time that Cloud had also began to look up to, as well as Sephiroth.
If Cloud felt so ashamed that he didn't make it into SOLDIER that he wore his helmet and mask so that no one would recognize him when he returned to Nibelheim. If we pay close attention to this scene at the entrance to Nibelheim, watch how the character who is actually Zack practices his signature pose with the unnamed SOLDIER on the left. This animation of one foot coming forward and the opposite arm resting on the hip. Watch how the infantryman, who we know to be Cloud, on the right also pays attention and copies this pose. This demonstrates how Cloud is already silently looking up to Zack and trying to emulate him. Also, however very subtly, notice that during the events of the main game in the present day, whenever Cloud strikes this pose, he is going into full Zack emulation mode, with his behavior becoming more confident and cocky.
If we speak to the infantryman we know to be Cloud throughout the incident, he constantly describes being nervous. He plays it off to Zack as if he's nervous about a monster showing up, but I think he is masking the fact that someone might find out his identity. He is also nervous, of course, because he's working alongside his idol, Sephiroth. If we read the letter from Tifa's friend who has also left town for Midgar, we can learn that people's opinions on Cloud have not much changed from childhood, but also that the person writing the letter has failed to get a job and in fact couldn't even get a job working for Shinra. Although failing to get into SOLDIER, we know that Cloud at least outperformed this other Nibelheim boy because he did get a job with Shinra.
Talking to the residents of Nibelheim after Sephiroth gives us leave to do so, we can get insight into how Cloud wanted to be thought of by the residents of his hometown. As we know that these people would not have had these conversations with Zack, and that Cloud wasn't around for them, we can assume that these are made-up conversations for which Cloud wished the people of Nibelheim would think of him. They tell him, "You've really made something of yourself. You've grown up strong. You've really moved up in the world." In this fantasy, the people of Nibelheim are giving Cloud the attention and plaudits he felt he deserved and has proved himself in their eyes.
However, I think we can infer that the scene that takes place between Cloud and his mother genuinely happened. Cloud remembers it as the last time he slept in a proper bed. When he stays the night at AVALANCHE's house, it demonstrates that he felt close enough with his mother to reveal himself to her. Also, it is likely that Cloud decided to reveal to his mother that he wasn't actually in SOLDIER during one line of dialogue. His mother asks him, "Is that what a SOLDIER uniform looks like?" Cloud replies, "Mom, listen, I..." and then the scene changes, as we, the player, are not supposed to know yet that Cloud never made it into SOLDIER. So, even though he was very ashamed he didn't make it, he felt comfortable to confide in his mother and tell the truth, giving us further insight into their relationship. And in the subsequent scenes between them, it appears it does not bother her at all, another testament to her character.
If we move forward from here to after Sephiroth decides to destroy the town and slaughter the town's people, we next see Cloud laying injured outside his mother's house. The obvious implication is that Cloud attempted to protect his mother from Sephiroth's murderous intent. However, he was unable, and his mother is killed. We see that he's trying to get up but cannot, and all he can say is "Sephiroth." Cloud then pursues Sephiroth to the reactor, somewhat behind Tifa and Zack. He manages to surprise Sephiroth and runs him through with Zack's Buster Sword. This was probably helped by Sephiroth being distracted by first meeting his mother, Jenova, and also, as we know, the Buster Sword had preemptive material on it for a bit of diegetic game design. Cloud then cares for Tifa, who is badly wounded, and confronts Sephiroth once again. This time, it is Cloud who is skewered on the injured Sephiroth's sword. However, unbelievably, Cloud takes hold of Sephiroth's sword, turning the tables, and lifts Sephiroth up by it and flings him off the gangway into the Mako beneath the reactor.
This short chain of events is a testament to not only the physical potential and resilience of Cloud, but once again, a testament to his bravery that we also saw from when he was a child. The saying goes, "Never meet your heroes," and this couldn't be any truer for Cloud, who witnessed his childhood hero massacre everyone in his village. Despite witnessing this, Cloud found the resolve to continually pursue Sephiroth and defeat him.
There exist lots of theories as to how exactly Cloud was able to defeat Sephiroth on the reactor gangway. Some people believe that Cloud reached Limit Break, as is described in Beginner's Hall. Some believe it was the adrenaline of the situation that allowed him to do such a feat. Other people believe it was the rage he felt at the destruction wrought by Sephiroth. All of those theories could lend themselves to the truth, but we can't know for certain, as the game never informs us. Either way, however, I think this scene exists to demonstrate to us, the player, that perhaps Cloud was never as weak as he thought he was, and in this pivotal moment, he showed us his true potential.
So now, we finally actually move on to discuss the present-day Cloud that we see from when we press "New Game" in the main menu. Unbeknownst to us, in the 5 years since the Nibelheim incident and after being gravely wounded, Cloud has been experimented on by Hojo by using Jenova cells and has probably spent a lot of that time not even being conscious. Zack and Cloud escaped from the lab from where they were being experimented on, but due to the strong reaction Cloud has had to the Jenova cells, he is basically catatonic. We can see that whilst in this state, traveling with Zack, Zack regales Cloud with tales about himself, of his past and his ideas for the future. It is not until he was found by Tifa at the Sector 7 train station after Zack's death and being left for dead just prior to the beginning of the game that Cloud's mind manages to rouse itself from its stupor.
Once we start the game, it is equipped to represent Cloud as both cocky and apathetic in equal measure. He seems to not care for the mission or the people with him, just the money he'll receive. However, if you actually pay close attention to the script, this persona of Cloud's actually begins to dampen down during the second bombing mission to Reactor 5. And once the plot really picks up pace around the time of Shinra's scheme to drop the Sector 7 plate, Cloud has become a much more balanced and neutral in his dialogue and his actions. I understand the reasoning behind this. After the first couple of hours of the game, Cloud's persona has been fully established, and as he is the avatar for the player to learn more about the people in the world around him, he is more the conduit through which we receive information, especially as the story begins to go at breakneck speed. Cloud is more reacting to events and asking questions rather than pushing his personality in his dialogue. That's not to mention that it would start to become irritating for the player if Cloud was constantly represented as someone inherently unlikable or constantly seeming disinterested and arrogant.
Perhaps also, with the passage of time since recovering from his vegetative state, Cloud is slowly putting his mind back together, and the cocky, Zack-esque personality recesses more and more. By the time of the closing of the Temple of the Ancients, where Sephiroth first begins to try and control Cloud, the cocky persona has evaporated entirely, and Cloud begins to admit to feeling afraid.
Speaking of the Zack-esque personality, as I previously mentioned, take note of Cloud emulating Zack's signature pose when we play through the early portion of the game. When Cloud is most embodying Zack's personality, he also strikes exactly the same pose when he feels he needs to exude confidence in a certain situation or his persona gets called into question. His body language changes, and the Zack persona comes out in full force.
So, with this fabricated backstory, was Cloud lying? I think there is sometimes some understanding. Whether Cloud consciously constructed the persona he is during the larger half of the game, I think it's safe to infer in any conscious sense, Cloud was not lying. Having been experimented on with Mako and Jenova cells for 5 years, and as we know, having a strong reaction to it, his sense of self was shattered. We can see that the other Sephiroth copies are husks of people who can only talk about Sephiroth and do his bidding. Just prior to this experimentation, he went through a series of traumatic events. He has to return to his hometown ashamed that he didn't meet the aspirations he set for himself. His hero, Sephiroth, razed his village to the ground, killing most of the inhabitants, including Cloud's mother, who he was unable to protect. The girl he cared about most seemed to be fatally wounded, and Cloud himself suffered a horrendous injury. Due to these physiological and psychological stresses, Cloud's mind slowly pieced together a fake persona and personal history, doing its best to become whole again and protect Cloud. Cloud obviously mixed in his life story with Zack's, as Zack talked endlessly about himself on their journey to Midgar whilst Cloud was mentally lost and catatonic, and this confounding also helped him turn away from his shame at not making it into SOLDIER.
I think it is hard to argue that someone who reacts like this when undergoing cognitive dissonance is simply lying. However, we could argue that Cloud was lying to himself, in a way, by not being more proactive in confronting the truth. Throughout the first third of the game, Cloud is often visited by his inner self, often in moments when he is alone or his persona is vulnerable, during times of reduced [Music] consciousness. Over the course of a few scenes, it gently and then more proactively tries to get Cloud to confront the incongruencies in his character and gaps in his memory. To his credit, Cloud mostly tries to engage with these voices but then quickly forgets and tries to reinforce his persona. The voice urges Cloud to seek help, both from within and from other people. [Music]
Things come to a climax in a couple of scenes within the Temple of the Ancients, where the three-way tug-of-war between Cloud's fabricated persona, his true identity, and the power of the Jenova cells within him begins to physically manifest. The final time we see Cloud's inner self before piecing his psyche back together in the Lifestream, towards the latter third of the game, is when we see it physically represented as Cloud's child self, as he urges himself not to be afraid of Sephiroth, demonstrating the inner bravery we can recall from his childhood.
Following giving Sephiroth the Black Materia against his will, Cloud is so utterly confused and frustrated at his lack of understanding of his mind that he lashes out and begins to assault AVALANCHE. Following this, Cloud's mind actually actively confronts the fractured nature of his mind. Perhaps he put it off as he knew how upsetting and scary an experience it would be, as he confesses to Tifa and Barret in the following scene. Only at this point does Cloud finally allow himself to begin listening to his subconscious. However stubbornly, he is still sticking to his belief that he is an ex-SOLDIER, and instead of trying to internally confront this dissonance, he misguidedly and speciously externalizes it by deciding to continue to pursue Sephiroth for answers. This is not unlike people who try to solve issues they are having in real life. Instead of seeking change from within, they externalize that change, deflecting the fact that the genesis of their problem lies within themselves. Consider when, in reality, people will often geographically move during hardship to make a fresh start of things. The only problem with that is, no matter where you go, there you are.
A common interpretation of what Cloud goes through during this time is that people ascribe him to specific mental illnesses. Although I understand why people do this, I think it is mostly incorrect. Mental health diagnoses have long since permeated popular culture as a way of labeling certain behaviors, often as hyperbole, and often become mutated into being something different than the strict medical definition. I'm sure that you know of someone, and perhaps even you yourself, who likes to have things ordered and tidy, and they describe themselves as, "Oh, you know, I'm a little OCD." Chances are, they definitely do not have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. As someone who is currently working on a psychiatry rotation, a manifestation of OCD is actually much more intrusive and debilitating. Simply liking things neat and tidy.
A common diagnosis ascribed to Cloud is that he is suffering from schizophrenia. The understanding of which within popular culture tends towards some sort of split personality presentation. Actually, schizophrenia is actually quite different from this, and Cloud would be suffering from much more debilitating symptoms if he had it. The other condition commonly ascribed to Cloud is that he has PTSD. And again, I would have to disagree with this. Yes, Cloud has some traits or symptoms of PTSD, but not enough to warrant a diagnosis. This isn't helped by the fact that Cloud's psychological problems are heavily influenced by science fiction elements in the plot, which makes translation into real-life conditions much more difficult. Also, we need to remember the kind of world that FF7 takes place in. It is a world much more harsh and dangerous than our own. The world has only just recently come out of a large global conflict. The only two characters whose childhoods we have knowledge of both lost parents before they were teenagers. In this world, it is not unusual for people to leave home at 14 to join the armed forces or make a life for yourself elsewhere. People have to lock themselves in their homes for fear of attack from monsters or quit their place of work because it becomes infested with monsters. You cannot journey from one section in Midgar to the next without fear of being mugged or attacked by a murderous, transforming house. You cannot travel from Midgar to Kalm without being accosted by roaming packs of thieves and wolves. Therefore, the people of the world of FF7 are probably far more resilient to traumas than we are in our comparably much more safe and comfortable existence. Someone suffering from PTSD or schizophrenia would be very unlikely to be able to fight in one battle, let alone the hundreds of battles the characters get themselves into over the course of the game. They simply wouldn't be able to face such adversity being in such a fragile state.
However, with that all said, that is absolutely not to say that what Cloud goes through in Final Fantasy 7 is not allegorical and symbolic of mental illness in general. Nebulous parallels can definitely be drawn with any condition which makes us question our sanity, our identity, or our [Music] mood.
So, as previously mentioned, Cloud's personality seems to change after the first time Sephiroth takes control of him. Understandably, after this point, Cloud becomes filled with more self-doubt, and the confident persona has almost vanished entirely. He expresses fear about the part of himself he doesn't understand. With each subsequent encounter with Sephiroth, Cloud spirals further into despair. He admits to being afraid of losing himself. Perhaps that's why he still clings so tightly to the idea that he is an ex-SOLDIER. This reaches a climax when, in the Whirlwind Maze, Sephiroth takes advantage of Cloud's uncertain memory of events and doubts about his identity, manipulating him into believing that he is a Sephiroth copy created by Hojo 5 years ago and that all of his memories are false. Cloud's fragile mentality shatters under this weight, and he submits to being controlled by his Jenova cells and hands Sephiroth the Black Materia.
Cloud is then lost from the story at this point until later, when he is found by Tifa after having washed up far away and is in a catatonic state due to Mako poisoning, and he does not rejoin the party until him and Tifa fall into the Lifestream during a natural disaster, and his identity has been correctly mended within a metaphysical plane by both himself and Tifa. The events of the reforming of Cloud's mind have previously been covered in the video. So then, we turn to what Cloud becomes going forward, once he has once again become his real self. The differences are actually quite subtle, and Cloud's overall personality doesn't differ from what we see for most of Disc 1, i.e., after the Wall Market section up until the Temple of the Ancients. Barret even affirms this after Cloud's speech explaining himself to the party after regaining his identity. This leads us to believe that Cloud's illusion always borrowed far more from Zack's backstory than ever it did from his personality. This is except in certain instances already mentioned.
Furthermore, the apathetic and uncaring part of Cloud's personality that is demonstrated at the beginning of the game, we come to find, is not really an aspect of Zack's personality at all. During the flashback where we see Zack in the back of the truck chatting to a catatonic Cloud, Zack has much more of a cheerful, goofy persona and actually comes across quite caring in his speech. In the briefing room of the Highwind, we can see that Cloud has reached a catharsis with his failings and what he perceives to be his weakness. He is also much more in touch with his flaws, like when in the submarine we see him having a miniature freak out due to his motion sickness and claustrophobia from being in the submarine.
Cloud's reasons for fighting have also shifted. Firstly, he cites the reason of making amends for being the reason Meteor is being summoned. His motivations have also evolved beyond that of simple revenge and settling the score with Sephiroth, although he does cite that Sephiroth needs to answer for what he's done, and that this is a deeply personal reason for him. This reasoning of Sephiroth paying for his crimes is more nuanced than simple revenge. Also, he explains that he doesn't want Aerith's sacrifice to be in vain, and his desire to save the planet is now just as strong a purpose as getting back at Sephiroth. He also becomes a more well-rounded, empathetic leader. He implores the rest of the party to go and think about their reasons for fighting and to go see those that they care about before the final battle. We can also see how he helps Yuffie with her motion sickness by drawing on experiences from one of his own perceived weaknesses. His reassurance to Tifa in the scene beneath the Highwind is that they must believe in themselves, and if they do, they can find the answers someday.
Perhaps Cloud's biggest weakness all along was his lack of self-belief. Cloud at various points in the game describes himself as weak and blames some events he was unable to change on his weakness, and this is central to his character and psychology. But what exact was Cloud's weakness? Cloud originally had the idea to get stronger after failing to save Tifa when she fell from the Mount Nibel rope bridge, but evidence to the contrary demonstrates that Cloud's weakness was never a physical one. As an 8-year-old, he fell from a great distance and only ever scraped his knees, whilst Tifa went into a coma. As a 16-year-old, he fell from the same bridge again, and the other Shinra infantryman who was with him did not survive, but Cloud did. Also, Cloud was defeated by Sephiroth outside his mother's house, but not killed. He was also able to heft and wield the Buster Sword to stab Sephiroth. He then went on to lift Sephiroth up by his own sword after being speared by it and flinging him across the room. It is worth noting that at this point, he had not been experimented on and had no enhancements beyond that of a normal person. Cloud, even as a child, was physically very strong and durable. It is likely he misunderstood his mental weaknesses and misinterpreted them as a physical weakness. This manifested into needing to prove how strong he was by always getting into fights and pursuing a career in joining SOLDIER.
At 14, we know that Cloud never made it into SOLDIER, but we know nothing about the selection process and how Cloud failed to make it. Given what we know about his physicality, it was likely that it was a psychological screening that Cloud didn't manage to pass. Cloud states that only the strong will can enter SOLDIER, but was Cloud not strong-willed? We can see that from his life up until 14 in Nibelheim, he demonstrates bravery, compassion, and is very motivated. When comparing him to Zack, who we know made it into SOLDIER in a similar story to Cloud's, we can see that Cloud was not as good around other people, and also suffered from motion sickness and did not exude a natural confidence like Zack. However, I don't think these traits alone would be enough to preclude one from joining SOLDIER. I think Cloud's weakness was a prison of his own making. Because of his lack of social skills and failing to save Tifa, he believed he was weak. As a consequence of this, he developed an inferiority complex, which he tried to cover with a superiority complex. This belief he was weak became a self-fulfilling prophecy and hampered Cloud from fulfilling his potential. Because of this, he struggled with having a strong sense of identity, not being sure of who he was, and had no strong self-belief in himself to succeed. This is why he didn't make it into SOLDIER.
We know that the process for creating SOLDIERs is to bathe them in Mako and inject them with Jenova cells. We know that Mako poisoning could make someone catatonic, probably because the Lifestream contains elements of the consciousness of all the people who have ever lived and died. So, it is possible for one to lose their sense of identity from exposure to it. Compounding this is having the cells of an extraterrestrial within oneself, which may itself have its own form of sentience. This is evident from the Sephiroth copies we see throughout the game. Perhaps these procedures make the person undergo a form of ego death, and they must be strong-willed enough to find themselves again. Therefore, the process of becoming a SOLDIER could be seen to be analogous to when, in real life, a person takes hallucinogenics. When a person takes hallucinogenics, it is commonly believed that a person can either have a good trip, an eye-opening, pleasantly experience, or a bad trip, an oppressive nightmare. The distinction between people who have good trips and bad trips is often posited to be whether they have a good understanding of themselves and are at peace with most elements of their psyche. People who have skeletons in their closet, issues about themselves that they have yet to work through, or cognitive dissonances about their sense of self are more likely to have a bad trip. When screening for SOLDIER candidates, it is likely they picked up on these issues with identity with Cloud, and therefore deduced he wouldn't be able to handle it.
But we must also remember that Cloud was not as utterly weak as he supposed. Although he did initially have an extreme reaction to being experimented on, eventually he managed to scrape together a persona and start functioning as a human being again. He was also largely able to resist being controlled by Sephiroth for some time. This is evident when we compare Cloud to the other Sephiroth copies, who never regain any sense of identity and become mumbling slaves to Sephiroth. Even ex-SOLDIER members are susceptible, as we see the former SOLDIER member turned shop owner in Junon begin to wear a black cape.
At the climax of Cloud and Tifa finding Cloud's true identity in the final third of the game, it is revealed that Cloud defeated Sephiroth single-handedly whilst wounded. I think this feat is a symbolic representation of the game demonstrating to us that, in actuality, Cloud was never weak. The resolve needed to accomplish this feat is astounding. Cloud's weakness was a self-imposed lack of self-belief and confidence in his identity. He always had the potential for great strength of will, and in overcoming Sephiroth here against impossible odds, demonstrates that.
I began by saying that Cloud was the poster boy of Final Fantasy 7 and was a vital component to the success of the game. However, I don't think it was because of his eye-catching hairstyle, badass sword, or early-game Mr. Cool personality. It was more due to the fact that the story arc of Cloud Strife is fundamentally a story of identity. No matter where you are from or how old you are, this is an inherently relatable human issue. We all must reconcile who we are with the influences that shaped us in our formative years, both positive and negative. Reconcile who we are with those who we aspire to be. Reconcile who others identify us as compared to how we identify ourselves, and try to be more defined by our strengths than our weaknesses.
After the dust has settled and the party has defeated Sephiroth in the final epic battle for the fate of the Earth, the rest of our heroes file out, hoping that they have done enough to save the world. However, for Cloud, the fight is not yet over. Cloud's final confrontation was never going to be on some grand battlefield contested over strength. It was always going to be a battle of wills. Due to his vengeful spirit, strong will, and Jenova cells, a remnant of Sephiroth's consciousness stubbornly remains within the Lifestream. Cloud's consciousness senses this, and he is transported for a final showdown. Cloud is uniquely, perhaps the only entity that exists, that is capable of definitively destroying Sephiroth. He, like Sephiroth, has Jenova cells within him. He has also been a traveler of the Lifestream, like Sephiroth, overcoming his severe Mako poisoning and perhaps now being resilient to it. And now, he is the only person to have ever existed who has defeated Sephiroth before. Sephiroth, the person who Cloud aspired to be, that then destroyed everything in his life, and then manipulated and controlled him, had perhaps the strongest influence on Cloud's identity. Only by definitively destroying Sephiroth, his dark shadow, can Cloud's character arc end, and he can solidify his sense of identity.
Cloud narrows his eyes with determination as he sees Sephiroth awaiting him in the Lifestream. During this staredown, the game incrementally gifts us with Cloud's final Limit Break, Omnislash, even if we have not taken the steps to acquire it before this [Music] point. Using this Limit Break, this representation of his newly found willpower, Cloud overwhelms Sephiroth, destroying him once and for all and overcoming his [Music] [Music] weaknesses.
The saying goes, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The former represents Sephiroth, born as the result of a science experiment to create people with the power of the Cetra. The intervening represents Zack, another of Cloud's influences, who, with a similar background to Cloud, achieved greatness by becoming a SOLDIER First Class, something Cloud attempted and failed at. The latter, and personally, I feel to be the most compelling, those you have greatness thrust upon them, represents Cloud. Cloud was a victim of circumstance. He had no choice in whether to lose everything in the Nibelheim incident or whether to be experimented on and injected with Jenova cells. However, in the end, he overcame the machinations of Sephiroth and Shinra, rose to greatness, and saved the [Music] world. [Music]