Cloud personality question

[Zeo]

In the original, Cloud isn't much of a sad boy, he is very overly confident and prideful, but since the Final Fantasy Movie the media and subsequent games (Kingdom Hearts) seems to portrait Cloud as a loner and sad/emo person... he does have a emotional spur during his personal quest but that's completely fine and understandable.

My question is, Cloud always was like this? I know that the 90's translation overall (and I'm talking about all games, not just FF) wasn't the best and maybe they failed to convey Cloud real emotions, Cloud pretty much is Squall Leonhart 2.0 at this point.

Thanks.

PS: I'm not talking about Cloud before meets with Zack, but Cloud after Zack and the one that we play during the game.

[Koby]

If you played the original game, you find out that the "overly confident and prideful" aspect was all an act.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by Koby:

If you played the original game, you find out that the "overly confident and prideful" aspect was all an act.

Not exactly, his head was a mess, before his fall he was desperate to beat Sephiroth and fallen into his trap but he was pretty much Zack.
Then we learn that the "real" Cloud was a average person, not very confident because in the end he failed to join SOLDIER, but was brave nevertheless, also we can say that he never had any problem with his party members before his fall as they already trusted him.

I never liked that in the movie he was all gloomy about Aeris death because in the game he already was past it.

[Weltall8000]

Cloud being overconfident and cocky was his defense mechanism for his inferiority complex. We see this both in the beginning of the events of FFVII and in the flashback to his childhood.

His early Midgar behavior wasn't a straight copy of Zack. More an amalgamation of his thoughts of Zack and what he thought an idealized SOLDIER would be like. Strong, aloof, nothing gets through. Yes, Squall was a lot like that, because he too was damaged.

Cloud was braver than he realized. But it was when he didn't overanalyze things and acted naturally, rather than get in his own way with his self doubt. Like when he followed Tifa across the bridge on Mt Nibel both times or when he asked her to the water tower or got revenge on Sephiroth at the reactor or faced Sephiroth in the battle of wills or saved Tifa from falling.

Cloud in Advent Children...struck me as a bit of a weird regression vs his arc in VII itself. It could possibly be explained away, but, w/e, I don't buy it. It just isn't where I think he would end up. But that's me.

I didn't play Kingdom Hearts, and don't really care about how they portrayed him there, but, if they are going with sad/emo, I don't think that is an accurate depiction of him from OG VII, and I personally find that not to be a believable progression of him, even if it is canonical from AC.

Getting back to your comments though, I do not think he was "pretty much Zack." Zack was confident and warm. Cloud's SOLDIER persona is more cold and standoffish. It is to protect himself and keep others at arm's length so that they cannot see his vulnerability and hurt him.

Cloud and Barret did butt heads a lot, particularly early on. Neither wanted to cede control, and both were overcompensating for their failures. Real or perceived. They got better rapidly after the beginning, when Barret eased off (and lost his minions).

Yeah, I think Aerith affected him greatly, but he had peace with it. The movie seemed like a forced regression to revisit the character at a less resolved state. Again, I do not buy that that Cloud could have evolved from end game FFVII Cloud.

[Dixon Sider]

Cloud was confident in the original? What game were you playing? Cloud has always been terribly insecure. Aeris brings his confidence out by being the polar opposite and cloud is totally into her. He is pretty accurate in this game besides the dancing part.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Cloud was confident in the original? What game were you playing? Cloud has always been terribly insecure. Aeris brings his confidence out by being the polar opposite and cloud is totally into her. He is pretty accurate in this game besides the dancing part.

I think that @Weltall8000 summed very well, the point is, while he may not be overly confident he acted like he is, also Cloud can be very assertive/flirt with the girls, since they are player choices I could say thats what Cloud may be thinking, Aeris respond playfully for the flirts while Tiffa is confused and thinks that youre joking (lol poor SOLDIER xD).

Also when speaking with the NPCs, Cloud strikes "Zack" pose all the time, showing confidence, or at least trying to show.

[Spooky Bunyip]

In the original, cloud was only acting calm, cool, and collected.
In reality, he was spiraling through an existential crisis not knowing who he was. Then, when he found out who he was, he realized he was too weak to ever fulfill his goals and that he was powerless against Sephiroth.

He spends, like, an entire chapter of the game moping about giving sephiroth the black materia .

[Pack 4 Potatoes]

I think that just is a result of certain expressions not translating through text based dialog. I also thought Cloud was a classic 90's rude dude like Bart Simpson. Turns out he really was just an edgy emo and the text wasn't conveying his demeanor very well to me.

[Dixon Sider]

I played the OG in 97 and I was 7 years old and I thought Cloud was always sad. Basically the same as FF8 Squall. I even have trouble remembering which name was which when I take a step back because I assimilated them as the same in my mind when I was a kid. I wasnt surprised to see how Cloud was here.

Normally sad or normally a tough guy, one thing I think we can all agree on. Aeris brought him out of his shell.

[valium]

Funny, Cloud has always been a bit of a blank slate, so this is all a bunch of projecting.

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by valium:

Funny, Cloud has always been a bit of a blank slate, so this is all a bunch of projecting.

Or is that projection?

[Water]

All the characters have body movements and phrases/grunts that no real person would use in real life, so I've found them to be weird in the OG and Remake. I think it's a characteristic of JRPGs, the Japanese or at least Square Enix must think people really act like this.

Barrett is the biggest change IMO. In the original he's just the tough guy, and his outbursts are short lived. In remake he is BY FAR the most annoying of them all, he won't STFU.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by Water:

All the characters have body movements and phrases/grunts that no real person would use in real life, so I've found them to be weird in the OG and Remake. I think it's a characteristic of JRPGs, the Japanese or at least Square Enix must think people really act like this.

Barrett is the biggest change IMO. In the original he's just the tough guy, and his outbursts are short lived. In remake he is BY FAR the most annoying of them all, he won't STFU.

Barrett also is annoying at the beginning in the original, but by the time you leave Midgar he becomes a real bro.

Basically he redirect his hate towards Shinra at Cloud, Cloud also doesn't help while everybody else is trying to warm up with him and it triggers Barrett even more lol.
Barrett, , Red, Cid and Aeris are my favourite characters of FF7, Vincent is too edgy (but his story is cool), Tiffa in the original is just a damsel in distress, Yuffie kinda don't have a reason to join us and Cloud gets better after his personal arc.