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Cloud Strife

Voiced By: Cody Christian (English), Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese)Foreign VAs
Young Cloud Voiced By: Major Dodson (English), Yukihiro Aizawa (Japanese)Foreign VAs

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chara_full.png

"I'd worry less about the Planet, and more about the next five seconds."

The main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. A former First Class member of SOLDIER, the Shinra Electric Power Company's elite task force.

Now working as a mercenary, he accepts a job to help the anti-Shinra resistance, Avalanche, take down his former employers by sabotaging one of the mako reactors powering the city of Midgar. In battle, Cloud wields the Buster Sword, a massive broadsword nearly as big as his body.
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  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Cloud's swords are capable of effortlessly slicing through steel and concrete without losing their edge.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: A story element that was not in the original game but added in Remake and expanded in Rebirth is that SOLDIERs eventually experience physical and mental degradation after the process that turns them into what they are. With this new element, Cloud spends a large part of Rebirth wondering if he is starting to experience this degradation, as he starts coming into conflict over the fact that he knows things he shouldn't know and doesn't know things he should know, experiences frequent headaches, and starts to be affected more and more by Sephiroth's influence, leading him to do and believe things he wouldn't in his sane mind.
  • Adaptational Badass: The original game had Cloud be relatively realistic with his capabilities despite his SOLDIER status. This game puts on his Super-Soldier traits in full force, displaying abilities more akin to his Advent Children tier of skill and power, such as great leaps, avoiding bullets, tangling in physical combat with and beating immense foes and even holding his own against Sephiroth. Granted, he couldn't do much to Sephiroth in the end, but even that level of struggle would be out of his original self's league. Though that may have partially been due to them fighting in a realm where the laws of reality were not quite in place.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: In the original Final Fantasy VII, Cloud wasn't out to screw with things unless the others dragged him into it or Sephiroth was involved, and he barely cared all that much about Avalanche overall. But in Remake, when Johnny gets captured by Shinra security for questioning and ratting out Jessie, which could jeopardize the whole group, Cloud immediately jumps to wanting to kill Johnny - which horrifies Tifa and causes her to plead for him to back down. Notably, unlike in the original where Barret rehires Cloud for the next mission, Cloud's bad attitude leads Barret to choose not to rehire him for the Sector 5 mako reactor job, forcing the Arbiters of Fate to intercede, and the people who hire him for side-quests often berate him lacking altruism. In Rebirth, he is a lot less concerned over his increasingly worsening grip on reality and vulnerability to Sephiroth's power than he was at that same point in the original game. Where he was so concerned in the original that he wanted to stop and was completely transparent that Sephiroth could control him, here he only says to Tifa that he fears cellular degradation is hollowing him out and not that Sephiroth is able to communicate with his mind. Then he outright breaks a promise he made earlier that day to Tifa that he'd bring up any odd thoughts he was having when he hides the Black Materia he found in his belongings in the Buster Sword unbeknownst to the rest of the party, when before he did not trust himself to hold it and immediately gave it to someone else.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: He's a bit less abrasive in the early part of Remake than he was in the original. Instead of arguing with Barret over money, he agrees to help Tifa out with the filters in exchange for the rest of his payment for the Sector 7 job, and doesn't ask for more money than he'd originally been promised. Rebirth removes a scene of him attacking Aerith in anger and confusion, but otherwise fully conscious of his actions, after giving the Black Materia to Sephiroth and instead changes it to him non-violently coercing her to hand over the Black Materia while under Sephiroth's thrall. The one time he does attack a friend, Tifa, it was under mako induced delirium.
  • Adaptational Ugliness: Heavily downplayed. While Cloud is still depicted as good-looking with a lean yet muscular physique, he now has very pale skin, lines, and slight discoloration under his eyes. It results in enough of a stressed, sleep-deprived appearance that his landlady, Marle, will ask more than once if he is getting enough rest.
  • Afraid of Needles: Cloud isn't fond of needles. When Doctor Sheiran asks for a blood sample of his (to help him study the connection between SOLDIERs and the black-robed men, Cloud instantly shoots him down, despite knowing it's important. Sheiran notices it and doesn't push the matter.
  • Always Save the Girl: Cloud tends to go out of the way to protect Tifa and Aerith whenever they're in danger, especially during cutscenes where he's often physically pulling them out of danger or dragging them to safety. It's even a recurring theme in his relationship with them since he made a Declaration of Protection with both women: The promise to help Tifa when they were children and being "hired" as Aerith's bodyguard when they first met.
  • Always Someone Better: Both within and outside the party Cloud, is considered especially gifted in just about anything he puts his mind to, often beating those who had put in a lot of time, effort and persistence in their own fields. This is also Played for Drama, for the fact that Cloud is so much stronger than everyone means that the times he succumbs to Sephiroth's will get much more frightening for the party, as they cannot actually do anything to stop him.
  • Amnesiac Hero: By his own admission in Rebirth, he has no memory of what happened between him and Sephiroth during their confrontation in the Mako Reactor, and when Tifa attempts to ask him what he has been doing in the 5 years since that happened, he admits he can't tell her.
  • Animals Hate Him: At first. Wedge's cats all hiss at the sight of him, and Betty's cat friends all run away when he draws near. The surviving cat warms up to him after they save Wedge.
  • Anime Hair: His hair is as spiky and gravity-defying as ever, consisting of several spikes jutting into the air which never change no matter the situation.
  • Anti-Hero: A stoic mercenary perfectly willing to resort to more unsavory measures if that's what it takes to keep his loved ones safe. He demonstrates his protectiveness early when he moves to kill Johnny to silence any potential information leaks that could hurt Tifa. His Character Development sees him slowly begin to grow out of this and shift more into the genuine, noble hero his true personality is by the second half of the original game.
  • The Artifact: Despite certain Final Fantasy series (and other certain JRPG franchises) having switched to more realistic hairstyles for their protagonists (compare him to Noctis from Final Fantasy XV, Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia, or Joker from Persona 5), Cloud still retains his gravity-defying spikes because they’re one of his many iconic traits (and will likely remain that way).
  • Ascended Fanboy: Played With. He became a SOLDIER First Class so he could be just like Sephiroth, whom he idolized when he was a child back in Nibelheim, but he's about as far from a Fanboy of Sephiroth as he can get by now, with Sephiroth being a massive Broken Pedestal to Cloud due to the Nibelheim Incident.
  • Attention Whore: Downplayed; it isn't a prominent aspect of his character, but Cloud likes receiving praise and adoration from others, and part of the reason for his "cold, professional badass" attitude is to make people take him seriously and respect him. Rebirth calls attention to this with Biggs, who directly says he's trying to impress people acting this way. On other occasions when Cloud is the center of attention, such as leading the Seventh Infantry at Junon or fighting Dio at the Gold Saucer, he's caught off-guard when he gets praised for his performance, but once it sinks in what's happening he smiles and eagerly enjoys the moment.
  • Attractive Bent-Gender: When Cloud is forced to crossdress in order to get into Don Corneo's mansion everyone at Wall Market is in awe at how attractive he becomes. When Cloud makes his way through the streets, several NPCs talk about how hot Cloud is or openly flirt with him. Talking to Chadley when Cloud's in a dress reduces Chadley to a blushing, stammering mess. Even Cloud acknowledges he makes a hot girl, telling Tifa he 'nailed it'.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • The size of Cloud's BFS becomes a problem at a few points. When Cloud first investigates the apartment next to him, he tries to draw his Buster Sword against an apparition of Sephiroth. Given that Cloud's standing in the doorway, his sword ends up hitting the door frame. Also, when Cloud rests, he has to either completely remove his sword or tilt it out of the way so he can sit down.
    • Cloud's Nail Bat weapon gives fantastic increases to critical hits. Unfortunately, it has poor stats all-around and in Punisher Mode, it's the only weapon not to have a combo. Instead, Cloud will do a single strike (though this can send an enemy flying back).
  • Back from the Dead: Maybe. It's subtly implied by the presence of Whispers of Fate as well as the content of his dream while falling from the reactor into the church that he actually died hitting the ground and had to be brought back to life much like Barret would later experience.
  • Badass Biker: He has inexplicably awesome bike-riding skills. He drives a bike twice in Remake, and ends up destroying a bunch of Shinra bikes, a truck, and even duels Roche while both are riding their bikes. Some of Cloud's dialogue indicates that this is a standard for members of SOLDIER. In Chapters 17 and 18 of Remake he pulls some insane stunts with his motorcycle that go far beyond he did in the original game or even in Advent Children.
  • Balance Buff: While Cloud was a very strong party member in Remake, Rebirth shores up a few of his weaknesses, giving him the ability to fire sword beams off for when he's forced into ranged combat, and also significantly improving his aerial abilities over Remake; not only can many of his moves now be used in midair, but he also gains access to a dedicated midair stance.
  • Bash Brothers: In spite of their differences, Cloud and Barret work very well together in a fight, even striking a Back-to-Back Badasses pose at one point. Their offensive synergy ability "Partners in Pain" could easily be an alternative name for the trope! In Rebirth, he's also this with Zack when they team up against Sephiroth at the end of the game.
  • Batter Up!: A weapon he can obtain from the kids at the Leaf House is a baseball bat covered in tape and nails. Fittingly, it alters the animations of his Punisher Mode attacks, winding up before delivering a powerful swing as though he were a baseball player.
  • Beam Spam:
    • Rebirth adds him the ability to attack enemies with several weak blade beams, to make air combat more manageable for him.
    • His Synergy ability with Aerith, Firework Blade, involves Aerith casting magic on Cloud's BFS to turn it into a Spell Blade, which he then unleashes with several ranged blade slashes before they both finish off their enemies with a Sword Beam and fireball combo.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In Chapter 8 of Rebirth, he gets ambushed and knocked out cold by being smacked in the face with a baseball bat covered with nails. When he wakes up, his face doesn't have a scratch on it.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Cloud becomes especially caring of and protective towards Aerith throughout the games, not just because she goes out of her way to express how much she sincerely appreciates him for who he is, warts and all, even when others would rather shun him or want nothing else to do with him due to his standoffish attitude, but the fact that she very patiently guides him out of his shell and encourages him to experience the simple joys of life - from socializing with other people and gaining their friendships/respect, to earning new accomplishments and accolades for himself that increase his self-esteem - experiences that Cloud deeply craves, but would otherwise never take the first step to fulfill on his own. It's also implied that he is subconsciously aware that he's destined to lose Aerith as decreed by fate, causing him to feel even more protective towards her, so strongly that he's able to break free of Sephiroth's seemingly impenetrable mind control, as well as the Black Whispers' attempt to hijack his body, through his own willpower the moment he sees Aerith in great danger.
  • The Berserker: His Punisher Mode is much less choreographed than his Operator Mode but dishes out more damage per hit. He can even imbue the "Berserk" status effect on himself naturally in Punisher mode by charging his attack, but it will only last a few seconds.
  • BFS: As to be expected, Cloud's starting weapon is the iconic Buster Sword, which is nearly as large as he is. His other weapons are also swords that are just as large.
  • Big Damn Heroes: After Cloud's fight against Rufus in Remake, Tifa comes to his rescue at the last second when he's about to fall off Shinra Tower.
  • Big "NO!": At the climax of Rebirth, Cloud yells the word in defiant fury as he breaks free of the Black Whispers and swings his sword to block Sephiroth's attack meant to kill Aerith.
  • Black Knight: Downplayed. While he isn't a "knight" in the traditional sense, he shares a lot in common with the Dark Knights of previous Final Fantasy games and can be considered an adjacent to them. Cloud doesn't particularly use dark magic, but he tends towards dark aesthetics and weaponry, formerly worked for an evil (corporate) empire, is brooding and introspective, and struggles with his sense of self — all traits of Final Fantasy Dark Knights.
  • Blade Spam: His Ascension Limit Break involves him attacking at high speed sword strikes too fast for the human eye. Downplayed with Triple Slash, a rapid 3 hit combo that can flow into another Triple Slash for decent effect.
  • Blue Is Heroic: He wears a blue outfit and is the main protagonist of the game. At the same time, it should be noted that the outfit he wears is a modified version of the evil Shinra's SOLDIER uniform.
  • Bodyguarding a Badass: Zig-zagged. Aerith originally 'hired' him mostly as an excuse to keep Cloud around and flirt with him, with it being pretty clear that she doesn't need his protection getting around the slums, and against regular thugs she is more than capable of defending herself. However, Aerith is still vulnerable to certain threats like Hojo and Sephiroth, and so Cloud's protection does serve a useful purpose.
  • Broken Ace: Cloud excels at just about anything he puts his mind to. He's an elite Super-Soldier, can beat veteran bodybuilders in squatting competitions, is a Badass Biker, and performs some truly spectacular dance moves in Wall Market and at the Gold Saucer. Rebirth also adds the ability to play a piano, skill at both formation marching and drilling troops, a top chocobo jockey, and an expert Queen's Blood player. He's also dealing with a lot of repressed trauma from his Dark and Troubled Past. Notably, he's quick to learn new skills on the fly, and grows stronger as both a swordsman and a warrior at an alarmingly fast rate, with even Sephiroth acknowledging near the end of Remake that Cloud has yet to reach his full potential. This growth, however, is compounded by Cloud's insecurities as a person, leaving him weak and vulnerable from a mental standpoint despite his many talents.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Just like in the original, Jenova cell experimentation has caused him to become subject to Sephiroth's machinations, most notably when Sephiroth hijacks his mind and compels him to retrieve the Black Materia for him, with Cloud turning into a possessed madman until seeing Aerith in danger snaps him out of it.
  • Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The brooding, stoic, and troubled Cloud shares this dynamic with the gentle and compassionate Tifa and with the equally compassionate though more assertive Aerith.
  • Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Cloud's massive Buster Sword displays his often blunt and confrontational thought processes on the outside. Lampshaded by Marle, who says he is all sword and no skill. Rebirth emphasizes this, giving him violent looking cross guards and jagged blades at the nadir of his Sanity Slippage as Sephiroth exerts his control over him.
  • Can't Drop the Hero: Played With. As the main character of the game, the player can never voluntarily remove Cloud from the party, though there are story sections where he isn't the main controllable character. Rebirth does eventually allow the player to remove Cloud from the party, but only on New Game Plus.
  • Car Fu: He's quite able to fight with his BFS while riding a motorbike and he employs the bike itself as a weapon when escaping the Shinra building, barely missing Heidegger with the bike's wheel.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "Not interested." Cloud's cool and aloof nature leads to him pushing people away when they try to get close to him. He says a lot of lines similar to "not interested" when they do, but that exact wording is the most consistent way he says it.
    • "Ex-SOLDIER." Several people identify Cloud as a SOLDIER due to the mako infusion in his eyes. Cloud becomes a minor Phrase Catcher with "Are you in SOLDIER?" from a lot of people, though Cloud is quite quick to correct them that he quit. Even his default outfit is labelled at "Ex-SOLDIER: First Class" in the Costa del Sol changing booths. This gets deconstructed in Rebirth when Cloud meets Dr. Sheiran in North Corel, who tells him that being a SOLDIER isn't just a mere job, but also something that he'll carry with him for the rest of his life.
  • Character Development: Cloud starts off as aloof and cold, but through his interactions with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Barret, Tifa and Aerith he slowly defrosts and becomes more openly compassionate. However, it's gradually shown in Rebirth that while he's like that to Avalanche, he doesn't share the same level of consideration towards strangers and usually needs to be egged on by someone to accept a job.
  • Chick Magnet: Even more so than the original game. Other than Tifa, Aerith, and Jessie, several female background characters are attracted to him, like his two fangirls at the Corneo Colosseum and the Honeybee girls. And when he wears a dress, he becomes a Dude Magnet. In Rebirth, if Yuffie happens to be his companion on the first visit to the Gold Saucer, she lampshades the trope when she finds out Cloud knew Jessie, and says it's his destiny to be surrounded by "hot chicks".
    Yuffie: This way, babe magnet.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: If Cloud's Relationship Values with Tifa is high enough in Rebirth, they get a Relationship Upgrade on the second Gold Saucer date where they share a Big Damn Kiss, many years after they parted ways as kids.
  • Childhood Friends: With Tifa. According to her recollection, they grew up in the same small town and used to play together before Thea Lockhart's death, of which afterwards they didn't hang out as much, shown in Cloud ignoring Tifa who calls out to him and keeps walking in a flashback. One of their biggest interactions was right before Cloud left to join SOLDIER when he asked her to meet him on the water tower that night.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Cloud goes hard back into the unreasonable version when Tifa persuades him to start taking random jobs to build up his reputation, and the other members of Avalanche instead tell everyone that Cloud will do 'anything' - leading to him doing rat exterminations, hunting for cats, rounding up kids for school, talking to old people, playing music discs to cheer up depressed people, winning squat contests, and so on. In his case, it's less that he feels responsible for everything and more along the lines of the whole scenario where someone is forced to do underpaid work in the hope of building enough of a rep to start a proper business - he is rude to everyone asking him to help them and complains about the menial quality of the work almost the whole time.
  • Chuunibyou: Remake focuses more on it being the consequence of his trauma, but has fun with it by having those around Cloud immediately clock his behavior as a childish affectation, comparing him to local children or outright calling him on his bullshit. He even spreads the syndrome to people around him, with young people in Sector 7 rushing out to buy "big-ass swords" and imitating his rude mannerisms, and the children of Sector 5 making homemade Buster Swords. By Rebirth, the rest of the main characters have all seen through Cloud's exterior to know that he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but let him keep up the act because he's The Ace of their group and because they know what a good person he is on the inside.
  • Close-Range Combatant: As a swordsman, Cloud's strength is to be in the thick of things up close and personal. This is mitigated by the long reach of the Buster Sword (or whatever he currently has equipped) and Cloud himself is capable of quick bursts of speed, via lunging or dashing, allowing him to close the distance. Rebirth loosens up on this and gives him the ability to throw sword beams at no cost, greatly increasing his long distance capabilities.
  • Closest Thing We Got: Why Cloud is designated The Leader of the group from Rebirth onward. He clearly has memory problems and some unknown (to the others chracters) mental issues, but he was SOLDIER and has worked for Shinra for years, which makes him the more experienced of the group compared to Tifa (who is a great martial artist, but very much not an actual military person), Barett (impulsive self-taught terrorist leader), Aerith (flower girl and White Mage) and Red XIII (escaped lab experiment).
  • The Comically Serious: Cloud's dour attitude is played for comedy by putting him in the most ridiculous situations imaginable in the Wall Market. Rebirth has him playing this role more often in side content, with his aloofness being contrasted by the wacky shenanigans, quirky NPCs, and minigames he interacts with.
  • Companion Cube: Cloud jokingly dips into this when he puts his sword away after finding a hotel at Costa del Del, telling it to hold down the fort while he's gone.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In both Remake and Rebirth, Cloud manages to be contrasting the main character of both mainline Final Fantasy games that came out before him.
    • Noctis looks like a dreary guy with a dull color scheme but is actually rather sociable and excitable, with a close-knit band of friends trying to reclaim his birthright as king and reunite with his fiancé. Cloud has a dull disposition in spite of his more colorful hair and eyes, works with a terrorist cell to fight his former employers and is never far from one of his love interests but has a hard time pinning down how he feels about either of them.
    • Clive is the chosen vessel of the alien overlord Ultima to take the power of the Eikons and create a new world, but rebels and successfully creates a world without magic. Clive's life and idyllic hometown was destroyed by his mother's machinations, but he finds new purpose with his brother and childhood friend, and possibly sacrifices his life to give them a new world. Cloud is the main but by no means only person Sephiroth manipulates so that he can gain the Black Materia to create his own world, a fate Cloud is still on his way to fulfilling at the end of Rebirth. Cloud's hometown and mother were destroyed by Sephiroth, but Cloud found new purpose alongside his friends and ambiguously may have given Aerith a new life that he cannot be a part of at the moment. Notably, they have opposite poses with their swords: Clive has a knightly pose where he touches the ground with the point, while Cloud has a personal pose where he brings it up to his face.
  • Cosmic Plaything: This time around, Cloud increasingly shows frustration with how he doesn't seem to have any control in his life, such as his monologue on the train. It makes him an easy target for Sephiroth's manipulations since this Sephiroth makes sure to rub it in every single time Cloud fails. Despite hating Sephiroth for killing his mom, he briefly considers joining his enemy when Sephiroth offers to let Cloud make his own fate.
    Sephiroth: [after Sector 7 is destroyed] You have failed again, I see.
  • Counter-Attack:
    • In both Remake and Rebirth, Cloud can do counterattack automatically by guarding in Punisher Mode, and a fair number of opponents are most easily defeated by simply turtling up and letting them beat themselves up. It even triggers unique interactions during his Duel Boss with Rufus and Darkstar in Remake.
    • Cloud's Counterstance weapon ability in Remake and Rebirth has him pause and assume a defensive stance, and if attacked he'll absorb most of the damage and retaliate with a powerful sword slash that deals much more damage and stagger than the basic counter-attack move. This move works on attacks the regular counter won't, like magic and earthquake attacks.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Unlike his main love interests who are usually more subtle when they're envious, Cloud being... Cloud shows his jealousy much more overtly.
    • In Remake, when Cloud and Aerith escape from the church, he gets noticeably pushy when asking how Aerith knows Reno and Aerith teasingly asks if he's mad when he gets annoyed by her dodging the question.
    • In Junon, while Red (using his natural voice, represented in subtitles as ???) and Aerith are conversing privately in her room, he not only eavesdrops, but when his presence is noticed he outright asks Aerith immediately who she's with, and seems quietly relieved when he finds out it's Red.
    • If Cloud is either by himself or with Tifa during the first Gold Saucer date sequence and speaks to Aerith, she makes a comment about finding someone else to accompany her. This works spectacularly, with Cloud immediately over-reacting, and then coming up with a weak excuse about Shinra spies to justify why she shouldn't. Aerith (and Tifa, if present) clearly doesn't buy it for a second.
    • When Aerith brings up Zack in Gongaga, Cloud asks her if she still has feelings for him. Aerith is even caught off guard with how on the nose Cloud is. To make matters worse, he even goes as far as calling Zack a loser for leaving her in the dark for five years, then doubles down by saying Zack is probably dead.
    • During the second Golden Saucer date, if Cloud dates either Aerith or Tifa he gets jealous when Zack is brought up. On Tifa's date, he notes that Aerith must still have feelings for Zack and seems displeased, and on Aerith's he noticeably relaxes far more after Aerith clarifies that despite the initial similarities she noticed between them she wants to be with Cloud for who he is.
  • Crippling Overspecialisation: Potentially. While Cloud is generally a Jack of All Stats, with the right builds he can focus entirely on physical or magical damage if you so choose, at the expense of ability with the other.
  • Critical Hit Class:
    • Using the Nail Bat in Remake transforms Cloud into this as the weapon boosts its critical damage and hit rate without increasing its base damage of 30 to both physical and magical attack stats even after improving the weapon.
    • The Crystal Sword in Rebirth gives Cloud boosts to his critical hit rate and damage, while being a powerful weapon in its own right. The tradeoff being that it doesn't have many materia slots, so Cloud becomes much more reliant on weapon abilities.
  • Custom Uniform: Cloud's customary SOLDIER uniform has been modified to remove one of the pauldrons and attach three bolts to the other.
  • Dash Attack: The Focused Thrust weapon ability in Remake and Rebirth has him lunge forward several yards in a single stab attack with his sword. This attack specializes in increasing the enemy's stagger bars.
  • Deadpan Snarker: To a bigger extent than in the original game. Cloud is full of snappy remarks in the remake, most of them aimed at Barret (though not even allies and enemies are spared). And given how much he retorts, their relationship becomes straight-up Snark-to-Snark Combat.
  • Death Glare: After the Turks seemingly kill Biggs and Jessie during their attack on Sector 7's pillar, Cloud lunges at Reno with a furious glare. He also looks murderous when he overhears Hojo talk about his plan to make Aerith reproduce.
  • Declaration of Protection:
    • As a child, he made a promise to help out Tifa when she was in trouble, and despite it being a silly promise between children, both Cloud and Tifa put great value into it.
    • He becomes Aerith's bodyguard after he happens upon her being accosted by Turks in the slums, which kickstarted their relationship and makes him protective of her even after his "job" is over.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype:
    • As in the original game, of the Mercenary '90s Anti-Hero. He's strong, charismatic, handsome, brooding and does lots of cool stuff like riding motorcycles, doing backflips and spouting curt one-liners. It's all a part of his bravado, after all, and one that fools only a few characters. When he becomes Aerith's bodyguard, it quickly becomes clear Aerith doesn't actually need his protection and she just plays along as an excuse to keep him around and flirt with him. Even Tifa easily sees through the tough guy persona he puts on as well. Rebirth further deconstructs this, as his need to be a badass is one of the ways Sephiroth manipulates him, causing him to attack Tifa because a part of him couldn't think he had been wrong about her surviving. Despite multiple people and his own memories making him remember Zack was a SOLDIER in the Nibelheim incident, Cloud's need to be the man in charge rationalizes Zack as the trooper who died rather than the actual SOLDIER and that Cloud was the trooper who lived. It also becomes more and more clear it literally is a façade; a false persona that Cloud himself doesn't know he has on.
    • As in the original game, the very notion of a player character. Cloud is aloof, anti-social, but nonetheless impresses all around him with his general badassery and history of being one of the most elite forces on the planet and has women hanging off of him left and right, sometimes literally. However, despite all he has going for him, Cloud is just as much a pawn of the forces around him as the player themselves, and whenever his air of badassery is not impressing those around him or is challenged he has a tendency to shut down and have a hard time of it, much like the player themselves over a part of a game where fighting isn't the answer. He also tends to disregard the parts of his history that don't conform to being impressive, most crucially that his superhuman strength is not the result of being a SOLDIER but a similar experiment that made him more vulnerable, not less, to malevolent influence. Lastly, his worst moments are brought about by him thinking and doing things for himself, while a number of his most crucial accomplishments are due to finding strength in others, not just his own.
  • Defrosting Ice King: Cloud starts the game being aloof and making it clear he's a merc who's Only in It for the Money. Over the course of Remake, he warms up to the people he hangs around with and teams up with for Avalanche as time goes on, defrosting more and more.
  • Demonic Possession: Unbeknownst even to himself, Cloud's will is vulnerable to being hijacked by Sephiroth thanks to the Jenova cells planted inside him. The otherworldly villain's hold over his psyche gradually becomes stronger, to the point where Cloud starts behaving a lot colder, more abrasive, and more bloodthirsty upon reaching the Temple of the Ancients.
  • Determinator: One of Cloud's most defining traits. No matter the odds, no matter the risks, and no matter how much others try to dissuade him from trying to accomplish something that seems impossible, he stubbornly refuses to bend and sets off to do exactly as he wants. In Remake, he successfully pulls off a three-man rescue mission to save Aerith from Shinra's headquarters by storming the heavily guarded building itself. Throughout Rebirth, even with Sephiroth's control over his mind heavily weighting him down, Cloud is determined to push through and stop the villain's malevolent plans from coming to fruition. Upping the ante from his 1997 counterpart, this Cloud actually willpowers his way past the Whispers' stranglehold and stops Sephiroth from killing Aerith at the climatic moment. Even though timeline distortions causes Aerith's fate to rewind to its intended outcome, it's also implied through tell-tale signs that one version of her does survive in a newly created branched timeline as a direct result of Cloud's actions. On the unfortunate end, Cloud's determination is also deconstructed, because while he is naturally self-driven, his actual confidence is often a product of being under the illusion that he's more of an accomplished badass than he actually is, and whenever this construct isn't directly propping him up, or it gets challenged, his resolve wavers until he or someone around him finds a way to either prop it up again or help him with it. While his single-minded focus, for the most part, is his own willpower, he is also drawn by the will of Sephiroth egging him on to "join the reunion". It's heavily implied that saving Aerith was only half the reason he stormed Shinra headquarters, as immediately after she is safe he tries to get to Jenova and collapses. In Rebirth, his determination to get the Black Materia gets so bad that the only way to get him back on track when he wants to slaughter the Turks is to convince him that there are better things to do. Worst of all, this means that he shrugs off most of his mental episodes in the simple belief that he can just power through them.
  • Dimension Traveller: At the end of Rebirth, Cloud may have become this as a result of being summoned to a different timeline by an alternate version of Aerith, which also likely involved merging his consciousness with that of his other self from that timeline. His actions are shown breaking reality apart into several possible branches, and he's able to perceive the golden breach in the sky that signifies a doomed world in the final cutscene. Whether he saved Aerith or not in one of these possible timelines is anybody's guess at the moment, but the reactions of the party strongly hint that she died in their version of reality.
  • Disappeared Dad: According to Trace of Two Pasts, Cloud's father was a Wanderer, a man "Like the Wind" who never stayed in one place for long. He'd shown up in town one day and had a brief romance with Cloud's Mother, Claudia, but he was never well-liked by the rest of the community. After Cloud was born his Father became restless, and stared taking longer and longer forays into the Mountains. Then one day he never came back; all that was ever found of him was a few of his belongings.
  • Disguised in Drag: Disguises himself as a woman to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion, just as in the original game. Progress in sidequests related to the gym can determine what he ends up wearing.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: He tries to keep a straight face, but Cloud does stutter around other women if he's attracted to them.
    • In Remake, he stares in awe at the red dress Aerith wears to Don Corneo's place and fumbles his words when she comes over to talk to him.
    • In Rebirth, Cloud tries not to stare at Tifa in her swimsuit or her chest, something Tifa seems to notice and teases him about his shyness. He also stutters again when blaming this on the heat and telling the girls they should put on sunscreen.
    • In Rebirth, if the player gets the Aerith date, Cloud will stare in awe at her when she sings the title theme of the game.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: Played for Drama, but Cloud doesn't seem fully aware of his enhanced Super-Strength and ends up hurting Tifa when he hugs her too hard during her optional scene in Remake's Chapter 14.
  • Double-Edged Buff: In both Remake and Rebirth, holding down the attack button in Punisher Mode will have Cloud unleash a Sword Plant attack that will grant him the berserk status effect for a few seconds, increasing his attack but lowering his defense.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: The fact he's dressed in a SOLDIER uniform makes several NPC in Shinra Tower simply assume he's still a loyal employee of the company. In Rebirth, he dresses up as a Shinra Trooper in Upper Junon in order to sneak into the Shinra-8.
  • Dub Name Change: His Climhazzard Limit Break was renamed Ascension in the English localization, though the Japanese version keeps the original name.
  • Dull Surprise: Generally tries to keep a cool appearance by rarely reacting much to anything around him, and it reflects in both English and Japanese voices. However, read between the lines and it's clear he's just a tad bit incredulous in more crazy circumstances, or subtly panicked in others.
  • Easily Forgiven: After attacking Tifa thanks to Sephiroth's manipulations in the Lifestream, Cloud is horrified by what he did and stays by her side until she recovers. Once she wakes up, Cloud immediately tries to leave unable to look at her after what he did. Tifa, however, doesn't hold it against Cloud knowing he would never consciously do such a thing as the two reflect on a childhood incident where she nearly died climbing Mt. Nibel and Tifa remembering that Cloud was the only one who stayed to save her, contrary to her prior belief that the incident was his fault thanks to buying into the other village kids' lies. After apologizing for putting the blame on him when they were kids, she, in return, vows to do even better by him from now on.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: All members of SOLDIER are Mako enhanced, but those in the 1st Class division are further enhanced with Jenova cells which grants them far greater combat abilities. In Cloud's case, he never made it into SOLDIER, but Hojo's experiments have granted the same effect.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Following the example of the original, the first few minutes of gameplay with Cloud display his aloof, snarky and uncaring demeanor, but as the bombing mission goes on, he also does show concern for Jessie, seems to have a mysterious mental episode before planting the bomb, and demonstrates a little bit of a cocky smile when complimented on his super-human capabilities. All these traits work together to show a stoic out for his pay on the surface, and someone that has a young streak and potential issues beneath the cool facade.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: As Cloud is a World-Class Beauty, other characters frequently remark on how good-looking he is, including male characters like Chocobo Sam, Rude and the hoodlums who come to assassinate Barret. Andrea definitely takes an interest in him, inviting the ex-SOLDIER to the Honeybee Inn to do a live dance performance on stage with him. And after he puts Cloud in a dress, all the other men take an interest in him too. Cloud even ends up with an LGBT Fanbase at one point, getting his own fanclub, with the chairman being gay-coded enka singer AKILA, who sends him flowers.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: He gets specifically called 'Blondie' a lot as a complement and tends to get attention from all types of people, such as the folks working in the Honeybee Inn who loved him when he performed.
  • Exact Words: He has a tendency to use these and other vague declarations when pressed about his life in SOLDIER.
  • Experienced Protagonist: Cloud was hired by Avalanche to be the team's muscle due to his experience with combat, and most of his dialogue during the tutorial mission consists of him giving combat advice to both Barret and the player. Shown in gameplay as well, as his starting level is six going on seven rather than one.
  • Famed In-Story: Becomes this, should he perform enough sidequests. The people of the slums, whom Cloud helps, start recognizing him as "that really powerful and helpful merc" after a time. Cloud also becomes famous in Wall Market after winning the Corneo Cup with Aerith, with a few people calling him "champ" for a while.
  • Fake Memories: Rebirth makes it clearer much sooner that he's an Unreliable Narrator to the events of the Nibelheim Incident, with Tifa revealing to Aerith that she doesn't remember Cloud being there at all, and an entire subplot revolves around her trying to confront Cloud about his bizarre recollection of events.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: His First Class uniform has a single pauldron on his left shoulder, extra armor on the left hand then on the right and he has a piercing on his left ear.
  • Flash Step:
    • Utilised by Triple Slash if the enemies are within a certain distance. In Rebirth this also extends to him flash stepping into enemies in the air.
    • In the final battle in Remake he attempts to speed-blitz Sephiroth but is countered and disarmed.
    • Rebirth shows that he gets fast enough for this to be one of his regular attacks in punisher mode.
  • A Father to His Men: In Rebirth, Cloud proves to be one to the Midgar 7th Infantry during his time posing as a Shinra Trooper in Upper Junon, inspiring such loyalty in the soldiers under him that they insist on fighting alongside him and stick by him even after they figure out he's the enemy spy they've been ordered to capture and/or kill. When they part ways, the soldiers salute Cloud and say it has been an honor serving under him, and that they hope to see him again.

    G-Z 
  • Gibberish of Love: He has a tendency to become tongue-tied and begins to stutter when he gets distracted by the girls.
    • If Cloud sees Aerith in her fancy red dress at the Wall Market, he's left tongue-tied for a few moments.
      Cloud: That's really... Y-yeah... 'Scuse me...
    • When he first sees Tifa and Aerith in bikinis in Costa del Sol, his speech quickly deteriorates as he tries to play it cool.
      Cloud: It's just hot... in the sun... Speaking of which, you guys should probably put on s-sunscreen.
  • The Gift: The games make a good showing of how impressively multi-talented Cloud is at just about anything he puts his mind to when given enough drive to accomplish it; so good that nobody questions that he was an elite SOLDIER. In particular, his swordsmanship skills evolve at a frighteningly fast and efficient pace, going from a rough Mighty Glacier in Remake to more of a Lightning Bruiser in Rebirth, with even Sephiroth acknowledging that Cloud still has plenty of untapped potential.
  • Glowing Eyes: His eyes naturally glow due to his mako-enhancements, a trait that several people notice and comment on.
  • Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Cloud's best dress when disguising himself to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion sees him donning a pimped out violet dress. Cloud's projected composed demeanor during that point in the game also adds to the demure appeal, which seems to be partly why Corneo picks Cloud as his "bride".
  • Hair-Contrast Duo: Cloud's short golden Spiky Hair that reaches upwards contrasts him with his rival Sephiroth, who has long silver hair that flows down to his waist.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Cloud has blonde hair and is the main hero of the story. Despite being initially rude and aloof, he becomes nicer as the game goes on, and he also proceeds to display a sense of justice— in spite of his initial selfishness and apathy towards the plight of the Planet.
  • Hairstyle Inertia: Downplayed, while the Nibelheim flashback shows that he had that same Spiky Hair as a child, he also used to have a ponytail.
  • Harmful to Minors: In this version, Sephiroth decided to slice up Cloud's mother Claudia while Cloud could do nothing but watch during his rampage in the Nibelheim Incident. His illusion describing how it felt to kill her combined with a mockery of Claudia's last words sends Cloud into a murderous rage.
  • Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: He can wear a Chocobo-themed Hawaiian shirt while in Costa del Sol in Rebirth.
  • Heroic BSoD: In Rebirth, Cloud is manipulated by Sephiroth to attack Tifa, making him believe she isn't real. Once Cloud comes to, he is horrified by what he did and falls to his knees screaming her name in anguish, thinking he killed her. While the others try to rescue her from the Weapon, Barret tries to smack some sense into Cloud, but Cloud is so broken he barely responds, though he eventually regains his composure after she is saved and makes a full recovery.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Cloud is The Hero of the story, and it just so happens a BFS is his weapon.
  • Heroic Safe Mode: One way to interpret what's happening to Cloud at the end of Rebirth is that his mind has become overwhelmed by trauma, with Aerith's death being the last straw. His brain fills in her passing as a mere departure from the party, and he acts like things are normal to cope with his immense grief. However, given the implication that he's gained the ability to peer between worlds and the vagueness about whether or not some version of Aerith still lives in another reality, it's not so simple as saying he's merely lost his mind.
  • Heroic Willpower: Cloud demonstrates this twice in Rebirth by shaking off the influence of Sephiroth and the Black Whispers to save Aerith, first when she falls at the Temple of the Ancients, and later at the Forgotten Capital when the Whispers attempt to force his hand to strike her down.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Despite protesting that he doesn't dance, he's quite good at it — as shown during his dance-off against Andrea at the Honeybee Inn in Remake.
    • Rebirth goes on to confirm that he's quite skilled at the piano, and knows some Shinra Sign Language due to it having been developed from Shinra military hand signals.
    • He gets surprisingly rather into Queen's Blood as a card game, enough to be confident enough to egg other players into taking him on.
    • He's shown to understand sign language, a skill he attributes to his time in the military.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Cloud is aloof and cold at most times, as symbolized by his icy blue eyes — which are said to glow as a result of his Mako enhancement.
  • Iconic Outfit: He wears a customized version of the blue/purple SOLDIER outfit with a single shoulder pauldron from the original game. Though he wears other outfits during other story sequences, that always remains his default one.
  • Iconic Starter Equipment: Cloud's Buster Sword is his most iconic weapon, and the one pre-rendered cutscenes always show him using in both Remake and Rebirth. Remake even gives it Magikarp Power properties so that it stays viable even after the acquisition of other swords, whereas in the original Final Fantasy VII you'll ditch it and never look back as soon as you get another sword. Rebirth has you starting with only the Buster Sword too, with all the previous weapons that could be acquired in Remake being inexplicably gone and Rebirth similarly has mechanics that allow it to be a viable weapon choice for the rest of the game.
  • I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: When Cloud meets with Aerith on the way to Sector 6, he is struck by one of his headaches as he watches Aerith walking ahead of him. Unlike times before, the vision he experiences is not shown, but heavily implied to be related to Aerith's fated death. Cloud clutches his head, his breath hitches, and he suddenly sheds a Single Tear. He's left both surprised and bewildered, not understanding why he just cried.
  • I'm Having Soul Pains: Tends to happen when getting close to Jenova or Sephiroth:
    • In Hojo's lab, just after meeting Red XIII, getting too close to Jenova triggers something in Cloud, causing him to stumble forward slowly towards the elevator before collapsing. During this time, Cloud is Hearing Voices of Sephiroth, telling him that "they have come again."
      Cloud: Je... No... Oh... Ah... Mo... ther... [collapses]
    • When facing Sephiroth in front of Jenova's tank, Cloud has a similar reaction, stumbling towards Sephiroth while clutching his left arm.
    • While exploring Shinra Manor, Cloud stumbles on a room where Hojo is keeping samples of "S" cells, almost certainly Sephiroth cells. Just entering the room causes another mental episode, stumbling towards the containers while muttering that he's "nearly there." Tifa has to help him back out, and the migraine subsides as soon as he leaves the room.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: As a little boy, Cloud despised being compared to the other boys in his village, seeing them as stupid and immature, and when many of them also left town to find work, he made sure to point out that he is "not like them" and had loftier goals in mind for himself. He also never misses a chance to point out that he wasn't just a SOLDIER; he was a First Class. In other words, he comes off as someone who desperately clings to the parts of his identity he's proud of, and isn't at all confident in himself otherwise, trying to use his title in place of his lack of social graces. Unfortunately for him, this is one of the strings Sephiroth is most easily able to pull, as Cloud's need for validation is so strong that he will consider even the most outlandish words at least a little. In Rebirth, Sephiroth is able to gaslight him into thinking Tifa is an imposter because a part of him could not believe he was wrong about her not surviving her wound, despite her showing him the scar she got from it and meeting the doctor that treated her.
  • Infinity -1 Sword:
    • The Twin Stinger in Remake is initially the best-balanced stat sword that Cloud has. It starts with 4 materia slots and pretty decent stats, and it's the final weapon Cloud unlocks normally. When you get it, it's a pretty good weapon for its base stats. But by the time you've gotten all of the skill tomes and maxed out your weapons, the Twin Stinger is inferior to the Buster Sword, Cloud's starting weapon, in every category except extra MP, and not by much.
    • The Slipstream Saber in Rebirth has solid all-around stats, multiple materia slots no matter the weapon level and the useful Counterstance ability, allowing Cloud to keep up if the player didn't get a whole lot of levels or side quests. After maxing out manuscripts, it excels only in its counterattack power next to the rest of his weapons.
  • Insistent Terminology: Whenever someone refers to him as a member of SOLDIER, Cloud immediately chimes in with "Ex-SOLDIER."
  • I Reject Your Reality: One way to interpret Rebirth's Gainax Ending is that Aerith truly was killed, and Cloud does not take her death very well. He believes she was just unconscious after their fight against Sephiroth, and is just deluding himself that she later wakes up to see Cloud and the others off as they journey on to the Northern Crater while she stays behind to continue praying for Holy on safer grounds. What makes this situation ambiguous is the fact that no burial scene is shown, and the other party members' reactions are carefully left open to interpretation. Notably, only Cloud interacts with Aerith at the end while the others don't seem to acknowledge her presence, except for Red XIII and possibly Barret.
  • I See Them, Too: At first, the Arbiters of Fate are only visible to Aerith, but when she touches Cloud, he also starts seeing them.
  • Improperly Paranoid: In Rebirth, Cloud is constantly goaded by Sephiroth's apparitions into believing that Tifa is a Jenova impostor (due to Cloud's belief that she was fatally wounded by Sephiroth), eventually culminating in him throwing her into a pool of mako at Gongaga.
  • Instant Expert: Cloud is inexplicably good at dancing after a single practice session with the Honey Bee Girls, and is able to keep up with a skilled dancer like Andrea with little issue.
  • Jack of All Stats: Cloud is fast and strong but not as fast as Tifa who can pull off quick and powerful combos and has a much better maneuverability to avoid incoming attacks, yet he also hits harder per hit and outshines her when it comes to dealing raw damage against multiple enemies at once. He can take a decent amount of damage but not to the extent of Barret who has higher defense and HP to withstand a lot of punishment before going down. He can also deal a fair amount of magic damage but not as high as Aerith who possesses a very high Magic Attack. Despite all that, Cloud does have his Stance System which allows him to switch between Force and Finesse on the fly, thus enabling him to stay on the playing field. By using different weapons, Cloud can also focus on certain areas, allowing him to fill any role in the party. He won't be the best at many of these, but he's an extremely versatile party member.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His lack of social graces and insistence that he's Only in It for the Money make him come off as particularly abrasive, but he'll always turn around to do the right thing, even if he has to make up an excuse for it. He also softens up noticeably from spending time with Tifa, Jessie, and Aerith. Rebirth allows the player to play up the "Heart of Gold" aspect depending on dialogue choices, especially around Aerith and Tifa, and to a lesser extent Barret and the other party members. Cloud being, well, Cloud, he can still easily put his foot in his mouth, but at other times he can be surprisingly tactful and encouraging, displaying a great deal of empathy. Even when unsuccessful, there are multiple occasions where his teammates appreciate the fact that he tries.
  • The Leader: Takes over from Barret as this during the events of Remake, and is the uncontested leader of the party in Rebirth due to the combination of his individual power and skill, and his expertise with Shinra from his time in the military, calling the shots on the party's goals. As a leader, Cloud's strongest traits are his levelheadedness and ability to keep calm and make good decisions in stressful situations (unless Sephiroth is involved), as well as being very driven and brave, though these weaken as his mental health deteriorates over the course of the games and especially during Rebirth.
  • Lethal Joke Weapon: The Nail Bat has poor stats all-around, but its Batter Up! unique heavy attack is very effective against enemy types that go into a pressured state after a certain damage threshold. Because it's the strongest single non-ability hit in the game, it can stun-lock them over and over until staggered. This can turn certain fights like Fat Chocobo into a complete joke.
  • Lightning Bruiser: He's fast, strong, and can take quite a lot of punishment before going down. This is best showcased in the cutscenes, particularly the one before the final battle with Sephiroth in Remake, where he acrobatically leaps through the collapsing ruins of a skyscraper and effortlessly cleaves through massive chunks of rubble a la Advent Children.
  • Like Parent, Like Spouse: What the player sees of Claudia shows her to be quite like Aerith in the present — an earnest and loving soul who caught the eye of a passing wanderer. It is played up in that Aerith has many traits Claudia wanted for him in a girlfriend, with Cloud even reminiscing about the day she brought up the subject after having spent a whole day with Aerith and enjoying her company.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: While he isn't quite aware of it, Cloud is one to Tifa. As the closest connection to their shared childhood, he is somebody she needs to keep going and to live for. This is best shown when Tifa falls into the Lifestream in Rebirth, where she is bombarded with memories of their lives together and she pleads to Cloud that she needs him, and that her greatest fear is losing him to Sephiroth.
  • Loners Are Freaks: As a child he was anti-social and constantly got into fights with Tifa's friends because of his All of the Other Reindeer status and Inferiority Superiority Complex, making him something of a pariah in Nibelheim.
  • Magic Knight: Most of Cloud's swords allow him to fight with magic and swords with equal measure, while the Mythril Saber is the most effective at boosting his magic at the cost of physical strength. His sword beams specifically deal magic damage, making him one of the few characters in the party who can consistently deal both physical and magical damage.
  • Manchild: While he tries to come across as a gruff Super-Soldier badass making it on his own, often his facade slips to show that he is really an insecure dolt with loneliness issues more akin to a moody teenager than a young man, which is appropriate because he mentally is one.
  • Manly Tears: He's seen shedding these as he cradles Aerith after she's seemingly killed by Sephiroth at the end of Rebirth, though things get a lot murkier in the following scenes.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • The name "Cloud Strife" essentially describes this young man's conflicted outlook and his inner struggles, having lived a life full of uncertainties and turmoil. For all his bravado and physical prowess, he remains unsure of himself and doesn't have a clear path of his own, often looking to others for direction and the strength to keep moving forward.
    • In gameplay terms, starting with Rebirth, Cloud Strife is the foremost anti-air specialist of the close combatants, with the easiest time getting into the air as well as moves that work best while in the air, including one that only works in mid-air.
  • Mighty Glacier: His Punisher Mode makes him into this. Cloud attacks deal much more damage here than in Operator Mode, both in terms of raw damage and the number of hits per attack. In addition, guarding in Punisher Mode makes him counter enemy melee attacks, he's harder to stagger, and he takes slightly less damage. As a trade-off, Cloud's speed plummets to a crawl, and he can't block long-range attacks anymore. A combat roll will also take him back to Operator Mode so that it can't be used as a movement option.
  • Missing Mom: Cloud's mother Claudia was killed by Sephiroth during his rampage through Nibelheim five years prior, which the villain uses to taunt and torment him.
  • Mistaken for Flirting: In Rebirth, once the team arrives in in Costa del Sol and gets changed into swimsuits, Yuffie teasingly asks Cloud if he's "captivated by [her] bodacious beach bod". If Cloud sarcastically replies that's correct, Yuffie assumes he's actually hitting on her.
  • Moment of Weakness: While usually a badass, antisocial, Ex-Soldier ready to persevere through the harshest of trials, nearly killing Tifa in the Gongaga reactor in a mako-induced gaslighting by Sephiroth causes him to crumble. Afterwards, he cannot bear to talk to her when she wakes up until she asks him to stay and for the first time opens up about his fears of losing himself to the degradation and his conflicting memories.
  • Momma's Boy: He was raised as a single child by a single mother, so she means an awful lot to him. This is also shown in Cloud's personality where he has a lot of social issues from not having a strong male figure in his life such as his inferiority complex. It also makes him spontaneously both susceptible and resistant to Sephiroth's manipulations. He quite easily can be manipulated to refer to Jenova as a "mother", but, unlike the other Sephiroth clones, he is always reminded of his actual mother when Sephiroth appears to him personally. Sephiroth has to resort to mocking Cloud about Claudia's death to manipulate him instead.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Cloud is a well-built Pretty Boy with a Troubled, but Cute appeal. Even In-Universe several characters tend to pine or lust after him. In Rebirth one of his beachwear costume options is a pair of swimming trunks that leaves him shirtless.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution:
    • When Johnny rats out Jessie after being captured by Shinra security, Cloud is perfectly willing to kill him to stop Johnny from jeopardizing all of Avalanche. When Tifa objects, Cloud settles for just telling Johnny to leave Midgar and never come back.
    • At the Temple of the Ancients, Cloud stops holding back and kills the wounded soldiers and tries to kill the Turks after their battle. It gets so bad Tifa has to give him a Cooldown Hug to spare them and get them back on track.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: DownplayedTrope. Cloud does have an athletic, muscular physique, but on the lean side of things, built around endurance and stamina instead of raw strength, which is how real-life soldiers are supposed to be. He technically lacks the size and bulk necessary to be able to swing around the Buster Sword the way he does, let alone heft it. Justified by the fact that he has gained Super-Strength from being subjected to advanced Super-Soldier experimentation.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In Rebirth, Cloud, being manipulated by Sephiroth into believing Tifa is an imposter and not real, attacks her during a mako induced haze, causing her to drop into the Lifestream and be eaten by a Weapon. Once Cloud comes to, he's horrified by what he did and shouts her name in grief thinking he killed her. Once she's safely returned by the Weapon, he takes it upon himself to watch over her until she recovers and immediately wants to inform the others, implicitly because he doesn't want to be forgiven.
  • Mysterious Past: Cloud's past is one of the biggest mysteries in Remake, and it stays that way for all of Part 1 due to Cloud's standoffish personality. All that the player is told for certain is that he grew up in the same town as Tifa, but he left at some point to join SOLDIER. Whatever happened in the years since then he refuses to elaborate on, but it's clear that something (or several somethings) occurred that made him leave Shinra... and left a few scars on his psyche.
  • New Meat: In Remake, he's a recent arrival in Midgar, and the other Avalanche members aren't too sure of what to make of his aloof persona, with Barret being the most frustrated by Cloud's aloof attitude and openly distrusting him during the entire first bombing mission. Cloud slowly manages to win them over through the course of the game.
  • Never Be Hurt Again: Cloud's childhood angst over being the odd kid in Nibelheim has caused him to become antisocial and withdrawn in an effort to avoid being hurt by his ties with others again. Unfortunately, this did nothing for him but create a vicious cycle of loneliness: lashing out and then experiencing even more rejection and hurt. These problems got significantly worse when he tried to stop a naïve and heartbroken Tifa from scaling Mt. Nibel in a fruitless effort to find her deceased mother, failed, and got blamed for the disastrous outcome by Tifa's fair-weather friends. It's heavily implied that Cloud subconsciously knows but represses the true memory of when he lost his best friend, Zack, and is scared of losing the new bonds he has made the same way. His new friends, Aerith in particular, take great strides in opening up his gates despite the pain he might feel because of them.
  • Noble Male, Roguish Male: Noble to Barret’s Roguish. Cloud is a formally trained ex-military whose every action is tempered with discipline. Barret is a self-taught rebel fighter who revels in being as reckless and in-your-face as possible, not caring much for any long-term consequences.
  • No Social Skills: He is rather awkward around others. He tries to put up a cool and disinterested front to hide this, but most people see right through it. Aerith in particular has a lot of fun teasing him about it. That said, he is making a genuine effort to try to be more open with others as of Rebirth and feels bad over his lack of communication, particularly with his party members.
  • Not in This for Your Revolution: The words "not interested" are tied with him for a reason. Cloud makes it clear to Barret that he is only working with them for money and is not a full-blown supporter of Avalanche's cause. In fact, he is openly dismissive towards Barret's passionate speeches about the evils of Shinra and how the Planet is dying.
  • Not So Above It All:
    • Gradually, Cloud's aloof attitude is chipped away, and he'll eventually become a bit more willing to engage with others even when it's something strange or something he doesn't outwardly express enjoyment or interest in.
    • During the opening bombing mission, Cloud keeps any and all banter to a minimum with the other members of Avalanche. As time goes on, however, he begins to joke with them more and even smiles at their antics.
    • While he is very much not interested in the shenanigans of Wall Market, he absolutely will kill it on the dance floor when required to. And he knows he pulled off that dress.
      Cloud: Nailed it, I know. Thank you. Moving on.
    • When he gets turned into a Moogle by the Moogle Merchant in Rebirth, he actually has fun with it and even adds "Kupo" to the end of his sentence when asked if he enjoyed it.
    • While he knows that Tifa and Aerith prefer to be seen as their own people and not for their attractiveness, their beauty often puts him in a state of Distracted by the Sexy. In Remake, he is left dumbfounded for a while after seeing Aerith's red dress, and in Rebirth, seeing Tifa and Aerith in bikinis leaves him stammering and staring and can barely pass it off. During Johnny's sidequest, Yuffie suggests cloning party members for extra hands, and Cloud immediately vetoes everyone else but cannot begin to form an answer when she suggests Tifa, and in fact never vetoes the idea in the end.
    • If he's accompanied by Aerith during their first visit at the Gold Saucer, he plays along with her when she pretends to be a race caller at the Chocobo Square.
      Aerith: This is some kinda race today, folks. In all my years in the booth, only seen couple this close! So, Cloud, which bird do you think is gonna take home the win?
      Cloud: Well, Aerith, considering their plumage and breeding, I think the choice is clear.
  • Not So Stoic: Cloud attempts to maintain an air of disinterest or aloofness as often as he can. He only truly loses his cool when Sephiroth shows up.
    • Cloud encountering Sephiroth after the reactor bombing causes Cloud to deny what he's seeing is real, especially since Cloud says that he killed Sephiroth with his own hands. When Sephiroth insults Cloud's mother and reminds Cloud that he killed her, Cloud screams "You bastard!" and goes for an overhead swing. When it's revealed to be all just an illusion, Cloud quickly pulls himself together.
    • When he encounters Sephiroth in Hojo's laboratory, Cloud completely loses it, screams at the top his lungs, and charges Sephiroth in a blind panic.
    • While he's normally brusque with Yuffie, it's shown with his interactions he can act like the aloof big brother who occasionally plays along with her childish antics. Their "date" at the Gold Saucer is a big example of this.
  • Oblivious to Love: In Rebirth, he often doesn't realize when girls are flirting with him, or if he does he brushes it off. Aerith particularly teases him very often and is forthright with her interest in him, but her flirtations typically go over his head.
    • When helping models design beachwear, Aerith asks Cloud what kind of bikini he'd be interested in; Cloud responds with an explanation of how he'd want something non-absorbent and allowing for full range of motion, just in case you'd have to fight underwater in it.
    • If Cloud is alone during the Gold Saucer date sequence in Chapter 8 and runs into Aerith, she blatantly hints that she'd like to explore the park with someone. Ironically, in this instance it causes Cloud to get jealous, meaning he's unknowingly jealous of himself.
    • Aerith herself lampshades this if she is accompanying Cloud during the same sequence.
      Aerith: You can be pretty dense when it comes to [this] kinda stuff. [...] You, young man... still have a lot to learn.
  • Occult Blue Eyes: In several cutscenes, as well as certain times in-game when the lighting is dim enough, Cloud's eyes have a noticeable, eerie glow due to his mako exposure, which is one of the physical traits of members of SOLDIER.
  • Ominous Message from the Future: After meeting Aerith in Remake, Cloud has repeated visions of future events that have not yet occurred, such as the Sector 7 plate collapse and Aerith's predestined death.
  • Only in It for the Money: If Cloud's being paid to do a job, he'll do it to the best of his ability, but that's as far as the relationship between him and anyone who hires him goes. Much like in the original game, he gradually grows out of this as Cloud finds reasons to fight other than money.
    • As Cloud makes clear multiple times throughout the opening bombing mission, he's "not interested" in anything that Avalanche plans to do or why they're doing it. He's only there because he's been promised money for it. This attitude initially gets him cut from the Sector 5 bombing mission, forcing the Arbiters of Fate to intercede by injuring Jessie so that Cloud has to fill in for her.
    • On completing a few sidequests, an NPC might casually ask him to do something else, only for Cloud to ask for more money to do it. Notably, after visiting a woman's grave to pay respects in her husband's stead, Cloud tells the old man to bring the graveyard's key back to the kid Cloud bought it from. The old man asks Cloud to do it for him, but Cloud says it'll cost five thousand Gil to do it. The old man immediately grumbles about how stingy Cloud is being.
    • Even when a group of Leaf House orphans asks Cloud to defeat a "toad king" that's been kidnapping them, Cloud still charges the kids money to rescue the others. However, Cloud tells the kids he's "running a special on toad king jobs" when they ask this of him, and only charges the kids three gil.
    • Later on, he doesn't quibble too much about Aerith teasing that she'll pay him with 'one date' for helping her escape Reno and Shinra from the Turks. The number of sidequests both she and other characters rope Cloud into further cement his Defrosting Ice King persona.
    • When the plate collapse crushes Seventh Heaven, Barret and Tifa briefly discuss rebuilding it. When Tifa asks if Cloud will help, he quips 'for the right price', which comes off more like an in-joke at this point, since he and the group are becoming True Companions at this point in the game.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • During the Nibelheim flashback in Rebirth, Cloud is portrayed as remarkably chattier and peppier than usual, and treats Tifa with less familiarity, which is a hint that Cloud's version of events are not entirely reliable.
    • Witnessing Roche's transformation into a Robed Man leaves Cloud visibly shaken and on the verge of another breakdown, not helped by Roche's ominous last words to him that there is no escape from the degradation. He only snaps out of it because Aerith reassures him with faithful confidence that he will never succumb to that situation.
    • When going through the Temple of the Ancients, Cloud becomes noticeably colder and obsessed with reaching the Black Materia. He cuts down a SOLDIER pleading for his life without any hesitation and almost does the same thing to the Turk's Elena, callously shrugs off an emotional pep talk from Aerith, and can be heard quietly chuckling during the fight with the Demon Walls. It's indicative that he's being influenced by Sephiroth's will and personality.
  • One-Handed Zweihänder: While he mostly wields his BFS with two hands, he's also shown to be more than capable of brandishing it with only one, and there are more than a few moves and combos that have him utilizing just his dominant right hand. There's also his iconic Victory Pose where he casually twirls his huge blade with one arm. When forced to engage combat while riding a motorcycle, he relies solely on one hand to fight while using the other to steer the bike.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
    • Cloud may be blunt and sarcastic, but other times when he tries to be genuine he can be incredibly tactless. His interactions with his party members showcase this throughout Remake and Rebirth, because he's a socially awkward young man with zero experience in relationships with the occasionally charming responses, and lost five formative years of development, he has a lot of difficulty expressing his true feelings. Probably the best example of this is a disparaging comment he makes about Zack to Aerith while the team is in Gongaga, referring to him as a "loser" for not keeping in touch with Aerith or having the decency to end their relationship to allow her to move on note ; while meant well, it's an extremely tactless and inappropriate comment for the situation.
    • Another example in Junon: while conversing with Tifa, she picks up on his lack of interest in the topic she's reminiscing about, and he admits he isn't. He quickly realises how this sounds and expresses a genuine willingness to listen anyway, but Tifa is naturally hurt and doesn't want to continue. Cloud's reaction as he lingers outside her door shows he knows how badly he screwed up.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: He's a man who wears a blue SOLDIER uniform which contrasts with Girly Girl Aerith who wears a pink dress.
  • Playing with Fire: Starts off with Fire materia - a contrast to how he had Thunder and Ice in the original, but in line with the original Dissidia duology.
  • Please Wake Up: After driving off Sephiroth in the Forgotten Capital, Cloud heads towards where Aerith is lying down and asks her to wake up. Unlike most examples of the trope, she opens her eyes and smiles, though it's left unclear whether or not this Aerith is a figment of Cloud's imagination or the one he ended up saving within a branched timeline.
  • Practical Taunt: Pressing and holding down the attack button during his Punisher combo string causes him to interrupt his combo with an overhead Sword Plant which naturally doesn't do that much damage and looks more like he's showing off but doing so temporarily increases his physical damage. This attack also flinches foes that can be flinched by Cloud's Focused Thrust, making it an alternative if players don't have ATB for Focused Thrust or want to save ATB.
  • Pretty Boy: Cloud is quite a beautiful man, having several effeminate features. This makes it easy for him to pass as a woman while crossdressing.
  • The Promise: Before he decided to leave Nibelheim to become a SOLDIER, Tifa had him promise that when he achieved his dream, he would come and save her if she was ever in a pickle. So far, he's kept that promise.
  • The Protagonist: Cloud is the main character of the story, being the character the player controls most often outside of battle and the one the story centers around.
  • The Quiet One: He rarely speaks without being spoken to, though he talks a bit more in combat. He becomes more talkative as the story progresses, and by Rebirth he even participates in banter and often talks to NPCs.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The stoic, introverted, (initially) aloof, and distant Blue to Barret’s brash, loud, and hot-headed Red.
  • Renaissance Man: Cloud is a ridiculously multi-talented individual who frequently catches the interest of professionals in their respective fields due to his latent potential. Outside of being a first-class fighter, Cloud is also a skilled motorcyclist, dancer, pianist, Queen's Blood player, gamer, and Chocobo jockey. Parodied in that, somehow, he can understand and translate Shani the Chocobo. Even the game itself calls it inexplicable.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: In Rebirth, after nearly killing Tifa by accident and her miraculous survival, Cloud does surmise correctly that it feels like there's multiple people inside of him and that he's not really sure who he is. But because he lacks the bigger context to Jenova's cells being in him or all SOLDIER, never mind why Sephiroth is able to mess with and control him, he thinks it's entirely because of SOLDIER cell degradation like with Broden, only a short distance from the truth.
  • Sanity Has Advantages: The game often demonstrates that a mentally sound Cloud is at his best in both combat and leadership. This is essentially why Sephiroth prefers corroding his sanity with a combination of taunts, threats, and gaslighting. It comes to a head at the end of Rebirth when Sephiroth's attempt to drive Cloud insane with rage by killing Aerith is ruined once the latter perceives her as alive instead.
  • Sanity Slippage: In Remake, it is shown several times he has a shaky relationship with the abject reality thanks to Sephiroth's manipulations, often slipping into a state where what he sees and what is real gets hard to tell. It steadily gets worse in Rebirth, to the point where his friends cannot get though to him and he falls for Sephiroth's illusions despite them trying to help him. By the end, he is seeing and doing things on his own even when relatively lucid.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Upon entering the inn at the rebuilt Nibelheim, Cloud begins to remember who Zack is and that they were both at Nibelheim 5 years ago. He remembers them both being SOLDIERs at Nibelheim, and then later when he and Tifa pass the spot where they fell into the river after the bridge collapsed years ago, his memory changes the soldier that was swept away to being Zack. As the game heavily hints, this is all Cloud's mind desperately filling in the blanks in his memories that still lets him continue to believe that he was ever a SOLDIER and not just one of the grunts that accompanied Sephiroth and Zack to Nibelheim.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend:
    • In Remake he gets asked multiple times by people what his relationship with Tifa is, and his response is usually a hasty "we're just friends". When he's teamed up with Aerith, he sometimes has to point out they weren't a couple. It gets inverted when Tifa asks what his relationship with Aerith is, though he doesn't answer that time.
    • Rebirth adds another instance of this, whereupon seeing Jessie's portrait on the Gold Saucer theatre wall in Chapter 8's date sequence, Aerith (if selected as Cloud's companion) will ask if Cloud was involved with her, which he denies. Aerith comments that it might not be as clear as Cloud makes out, since he "can be pretty dense about that sorta stuff". There is also an aversion in this same sequence; if Cloud is being accompanied by one of the girls and speaks to Madam M in Chocobo Square, she will tell Cloud to go and spend more time with his girlfriend. Since Cloud's response is a dismissive "Whatever" instead of denying it, it can also be read that by this point he's tired of correcting people.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Cloud has some signs of PTSD. Seeing a burning building acts as a trauma trigger and he flashes back to another burning town. He's also shown to be a very light sleeper, with even a small noise causing him to not only wake up but also become instantly alert and ready to fight.
  • Shoot the Dog: He comes very close to killing Johnny after the latter blabs about Jessie to the Shinra soldiers, knowing full well his loose lips will pose trouble for AVALANCHE. It's only on Tifa's insistence that Cloud spares him.
    • He does this again when he attempts to kill a defeated and surrendering Reno in the church, but the Whispers intervene and save him.
    • Becomes a recurring problem in Rebirth to indicate Sephiroth's influence is growing. At Gongaga, Cloud adopts Sephiroth's sword stance before killing a group of mooks far more brutally than usual and in the Temple of the Ancients begins repeating Sephiroth's favorite ominous phrase 'it's not death, it's a homecoming' before slaughtering someone.
  • Significant Birth Date: Cloud's official birth date is August 11th. This date marks him under the Zodiac sign as a Leo, which is very appropriate for him personality wise as someone who is a bold, intelligent, born leader with a fire motif who blazes a trail for others to follow. The fact pinning him down to one spot is a hard task is actually reflective of Leo's as well. This also plays into his relationships with Tifa and Aerith, as their Taurus and Aquarius signs form an Isosceles triangle on the Zodiac calendar with his Leo. Those born under the Leo sign and exhibit its personality traits are typically known to develop strong and harmonious relationships with those of the Aquarius mold, who balance out a lot of their qualities, but tend to have much more difficulty getting along with Taurus due to their similar but clashing temperaments, though can still work out their differences with enough discipline and understanding.
  • Skyward Scream: Has this in Rebirth when Cloud attacks Tifa and nearly kills her at Gongaga due to Sephiroth manipulating his mind. When Cloud regains his composure, he screams her name at the top of his lungs in despair, thinking he killed her.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: As shown by the demo and the opening mission, Cloud gets this dynamic with Barret quite a bit. This is thanks to their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, owing to Cloud being Only in It for the Money whereas Barret is doing it for the sake of the planet. He occasionally gets into this with Aerith, but he is always on the losing end.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: What Cloud truly is. Despite putting on the facade of a cold, distant mercenary, he's essentially someone who's not good at socializing. This is often demonstrated during Rebirth.
  • Spiky Hair: Cloud naturally has the spiky hair that he's famous for, but not many characters bring attention to it in Remake. Rebirth does have some characters commenting on how his hair resembles a Chocobo.
  • Stance System: Cloud has two fighting styles in Remake to switch between in combat. The first is Operator Mode, which is more mobile and defensive, allowing him to block and dodge attacks. The second is Punisher Mode, which hits harder and allows him to counter melee attacks but slows down his movement and prevents him from blocking ranged attacks. Rebirth gives him prime mode, an even harder hitting stance that requires ATB to enter.
  • Starting a New Life: The reason Cloud came to Midgar in the first place was to start over as a mercenary. This is why Barret's small crew was able to afford his services, and why he spends a good chunk of the game doing odd jobs in the slums; he's trying to build up his credibility. If the player invests in the sidequests, then he builds up a good reputation as a trustworthy merc in Sectors 7 and 5.
  • Still Wearing the Old Colors: Cloud is still wearing a modified SOLDIER First Class outfit even though he's no longer working for Shinra.
  • The Stoic: Cloud is very calm, collected and almost always keeps his emotions in check; it's even an elaborate part of his mercenary image that he tries to cultivate and becomes known for. Given how absurd some of the things that surround him can be, however, the facade can occasionally falter.
  • Strong and Skilled: He's a Super-Soldier imbued with mako enhancements that give him enough Super-Strength to casually wield a BFS. And he's noted for being a skilled and graceful swordsman despite the size of his weapon.
  • Strong as They Need to Be:
    • His swords. One example is during an early cutscene where he fails to draw his sword when the blade gets blocked by a concrete doorway... yet much later, Cloud is seen cutting down giant rocks, train parts, and other heavily sturdy objects like they're made of paper. Possibly justified, at least when he does that during the final confrontation with the Whisper Harbinger and Sephiroth. Said Final Boss happens in a Singularity, where the laws of physics are distorted.
    • His physical capabilities also seem to change depending on the scene. During the raid on the reactor at the very beginning of the game, at one point the catwalk Cloud is on collapses and he's able to jump up about 6 feet to safety without any issue, but later on when a bridge collapses beneath him again, he isn't able to jump nearly as far and only avoids falling because Aerith sticks out her staff for him to grab onto.
    • How much stronger Cloud is than the rest of the party changes from scene to scene. During fights with the Turks in particular he doesn't come across as any stronger than the other members of the cast, while some others like the Sephiroth Reborn fight make him out to be stronger than the rest combined.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: A flashback shows that he looks like a male clone of his mom, hair shape and all. His cross-dressing self in Wall Market could almost pass as a younger version of Claudia.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Cloud tries to cultivate the image of The Stoic, often coming across as rude, cold, and abrasive. He's also quite dismissive, and quickly shuts down most conversations unrelated to his work. However, cracks in his cool-headed persona show themselves more often than not. As the game progresses, Cloud shows his more heroic traits, as well as genuine emotion. He can even be quite gentle, such as when he holds Biggs' hand after the latter receives mortal injuries, and based on three optional scenes, either gets into a heart-to-heart talk with Barret (where they bury their past animosity), embraces Tifa when she cries, or comforts Aerith when she visits him in his dream.
  • Super Breeding Program: Completing the trifecta of people Hojo considers viable candidates for superior offspring, the Hojo AI informs him with his trophy that he has begun compartmentalizing his data for offspring creation. Worryingly, his choice in words implies he has already started to work on it....
  • Super-Soldier: Cloud claims to be a former SOLDIER First Class, an elite task force of super-soldiers engineered by Professor Hojo, and these claims are backed up by his superhuman strength, durability, and agility. However, Hojo reveals that Cloud was never in SOLDIER... before the Whispers whisk him away to prevent him from revealing Cloud's true past too early.
  • Sword Beam: The Blade Burst attack, granted by the Mythril Saber, has Cloud slam his sword into the ground and send shockwaves of energy forward, based on his Blade Beam Limit in the original game. He can also fire arcs of Razor Wind from his sword while riding a motorcycle.
  • Sword Plant: In both Remake and Rebirth, his charged attack in Punisher Mode has him planting his sword in the ground, dealing high damage while also giving him the berserk status effect for a few seconds.
  • Tearful Smile: Cloud cries while cradling Aerith in his arms after she appears to be mortally wounded by Sephiroth in Rebirth. She then opens her eyes and touches Cloud's cheek, telling him it is alright. Cloud responds by calling out her name with a relieved smile through his tears.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In the opening mission, with Barret. Cloud holds Barret's mission and obsession with the planet in contempt, while Barret is openly suspicious of Cloud's skills and loyalty.
    Cloud: Should've asked for more money.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: During Rebirth, this is Cloud's default reaction to realizing he is going to deal with one of his headaches from Midgar, like Kyrie, Roche, and Johnny.
  • Three-Point Landing: Often strikes this pose when landing, as his BFS means he has to distribute the weight to one side to compensate.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: Cloud suffers from frequent migraines, which are often accompanied by hallucinations of Sephiroth, flashbacks to his traumatic past, and visions of possible future events. One way to interpret his continuing to see Aerith alive and well after a version of her dies in his arms is because he's fallen to madness, unable to accept her loss, though evidence suggests that there's a lot more going on due to the existence of branching timelines and the fact that Red XIII also acknowledges Aerith's presence, albeit in a subtle and ambiguous manner.
  • Too Much Alike: A root problem in Cloud and Tifa's relationship is that the two of them are often too alike for their own good. Rather than their similar positive traits reinforcing each other, it's their negative traits that drive a lot of their conversations, causing them to stall on topics they don't want to talk about lest they hurt each other or their conflicting and false preconceptions of each other break the bonds they mistakenly created with them. A good amount of their bonding sessions revolve around them getting to admit that they aren't what the other was expecting, but that doesn't mean they don't have a good relationship and that they can make it better.
  • Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Downplayed. In Rebirth, while Cloud is still grappling with Sephiroth's influence, his true self—being a shy and awkward guy—starts to emerge more around his friends. He even begins to tease back and comfort others. He also joins in on the fun with Queen's Blood card game, alongside Red, during the cruise.
  • Trauma Button: Cloud's personality undergoes a radical shift anytime Sephiroth enters the picture; going from cold and aloof to alarmed, terrified, disbelieving, and wrathful. His first response is to attack Sephiroth the moment he appears before him, usually screaming at the top of his lungs (and often to little effect).
    Cloud: Sephiroth?! You bastard!!
  • Troubled, but Cute: Cloud’s aloof and surly attitude doesn’t stop women from swooning over him.
  • True Sight: One way to interpret what's going on with Cloud at the end of Rebirth is that he's been granted the ability to see past the veil between realities thanks to being the only one to successfully breach Fate's constraints and create an Alternate Timeline where Aerith lives after successfully blocking Sephiroth's killing blow, shown by the tell-tale rainbow effects surrounding him as he cradles the living Aerith in his arms (the very same effects that occurred when Zack made the crucial choice to help either Biggs or Cloud), whereas the other party members remain "locked" in their world's constraints. This is further hinted at when Cloud looks up and sees a giant scar in the sky while recalling the words said to him by the version of Aerith he met at the start of Chapter 14, something the rest of his party members could not.
  • Tsundere: He's arrogant, rude, abrasive, and downright stubborn... but if you're a kind soul who needs aid, he'll help you with your problems despite his incessant complaints about money, and in the case of Avalanche or particularly Aerith and Tifa, show hints of a deeper kindness buried inside his crude exterior.
  • Unable to Cry: During especially traumatic events like seeing Jessie die in Remake, Cloud can be seen trying to feel sadness and working up the tears to grieve, but is unable to. It's heavily implied to be a defense mechanism, as being reminded of the last time he cried at Zack's death would undo his mental state and reduce him to the hollow state he was before. Sephiroth taunts him for it in Rebirth, showing the destruction he went through in Midgar could not elicit a response other than hatred and asking Cloud why he cannot shed tears. At the end of Rebirth, thanks to what appears to be a timeline distortion, Cloud sees one version of Aerith die, causing him to break down and shed tears of sorrow, while another distortion shows Aerith seemingly surviving her fate, eliciting a Tears of Joy reaction from Cloud instead.
  • Unknown Rival: Has this dynamic with Roche, who's utterly obsessed with fighting Cloud in both Remake and Rebirth, while Cloud only sees him as an annoyance and just another opponent to defeat.
  • Unreliable Narrator: He's this In-Universe when he recounts the Nibelheim Incident at the beginning of Rebirth. While she doesn't correct him during his retelling, Tifa confides in Aerith afterwards that a few things in Cloud's retellings don't add up. Tifa does prod Cloud about it later, but Cloud is shown to have a Self-Serving Memory about the incident. Upon entering the inn at the rebuilt Nibelheim, Cloud begins to remember who Zack is and that they came to town together, but Cloud's mind fills in the blanks in such a way that his memories let Cloud continue to believe his own version of the events.
  • The Unsmile: In Rebirth Chapter 10, Cloud can try giving Aerith a reassuring smile as she gives a speech in Cosmo Canyon. What actually appears on his face is an awkward grin that looks like a cross between a Slasher Smile and a lecherous smirk. Aerith is not won over.
  • Weapon Twirling: His Victory Pose has him twirling his BFS over his head (with one arm) before sheathing it across his back.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Cloud gets annoyed and incredulous when Elmyra and the party suggest they shouldn't try and rescue Aerith from Shinra right away, given everyone is well aware of what Shinra is capable of at this point.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: When the mako-induced glow in his eyes is not scaring people, he gets this reaction due to their unusual color.
  • What You Are in the Dark: An early scene in chapter 3 of Remake designed to endear players to the character faster than the original shows Cloud taking care of some of Don Corneo's men who go asking around about Avalanche, and he never mentions it to anybody else looking for credit or worship. This comes after spending a whole day being stand-offish and abrasive with the team, showing he cares more about them than he lets on. Eventually, everybody starts to see that the "tough guy" act is but a front, and that Cloud is a decent person on the inside.
  • When He Smiles: Cloud rarely smiles throughout Remake, though it's merely because he tries to maintain an aloof, cold persona. When he lets his mask slip, he's prone to cracking genuine, friendly smiles, and others will frequently take notice of it and encourage it.
  • White Male Lead: Cloud is the white caucasian handsome male protagonist in a noticeably diverse main cast, with a black man (Barret), an Asian woman (Yuffie), three women (Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie), and two non-humans (Red XIII and Cait Sith).
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: There's no other way to say it: The man looks gorgeous in drag. Even funnier is his outright refusal to disguise his voice, and the subsequent times that everyone around him gets fooled despite it.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Badass former SOLDIER Cloud admits "Ghosts aren't my thing" and displays reluctance to go into Train Graveyard, having to be encouraged by his female companions holding onto both of his arms and guiding him in.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Played for Drama. In Rebirth, Sephiroth mind controls Cloud into slaughtering Shinra's personnel at the Temple of the Ancients, and almost kills Elena in cold blood if not for Tifa stopping him. Later, once Sephiroth gets his hands on the Black Materia and gives it to Cloud to give it back to him, Tifa tries to stop Cloud again, but this time, he coldly shoves her to the ground due to Sephiroth's hold over him getting stronger. Sephiroth then orders Cloud to strike down Aerith to get the Black Materia, though before he does, Aerith willingly relinquishes it and Cloud's Heroic Willpower kicks in and he regains control of himself before allowing Sephiroth to use him to hurt her further.
  • You Killed My Father: Sephiroth murdered his mother Claudia and even brags about it, fueling Cloud's hatred of him.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: Cloud is an introverted young man who often tries to compensate for his lack of social finesse by playing the part of a know-it-all badass, even if he's not consciously aware of it, in hopes that it would draw people towards him. While his impressive abilities and feats do help him stand out, his try-hard cocky attitude doesn't really do him any favors when it comes to building relationships, and it's only when he drops the act and displays his naturally awkward but sincere gestures of kindness that he starts to win people over.
  • Zombie Infectee: In a manner of speaking. Like with many other SOLDIERs, Cloud had been exposed to Jenova cells which contribute to his super human abilities. However, these cells also make him susceptible to Sephiroth's control, and are slowly turning him into a Sephiroth Clone. What's worse is Cloud seems to be in denial over how the cellular degradation is effecting him, possibly as a result Sephiroth's influence. This is arguably best shown when Doctor Sheiran requested a blood sample from Cloud to compare it to the blood of the cloaked men, but Cloud adamantly refuses despite the potential of giving Sheiran a large clue to figuring what is wrong with the hooded figures.

Alternative Title(s): Final Fantasy VII Remake Cloud

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