Cloud Strife's Origins Explained (Birth to Hero) ► Final Fantasy 7 Lore

although in recent years Square Enix has started to rely on other characters such as lightning and now noctus looses Calum it's hard to ignore the profound effect Cloud Strife has had on the Final Fantasy franchise but his influence extends far beyond that he was the poster boy for the best-selling character based video game on the original playstation and he's appeared in some form or another in plenty of other video games and even popular cartoons not least because of his rather iconic weapon the Buster Sword but also his spiky hair he's also the character the II requested we cover next in our new origins series highlighting just how popular he still is within the fanbase but what's the story of Cloud Strife how exactly the D go from being an aspirational kid with an attitude who had dreams of becoming a superhero to to the cold arrogant man who ended up becoming the leader of party who saved the world well that's what we're going to be running through today as we're going to explore the origins of Cloud Strife and some pretty granular detail and by the end I think you'll hopefully agree that cloud has a pretty tough time of it as I quit reminder before you begin though if you enjoy what we do please be sure to subscribe to funnel fancy Union to make sure you get notified when we publish new content also be sure to throw in the comment section who you'd like us to cover in our next origins video so Cloud Strife was born in the small village of Nibelheim on the 11th of August 1986 during the MU era however soon after his birth his father disappeared and was presumed dead and as a result he was raised solely by his mother during his childhood cloud struggled to connect with the other children in the village and he often felt quite isolated however it wasn't through a lack of effort he wanted to join in but the other kids he would hang out in a group that included Tifa Lockheart would actively choose to exclude cloud from their activities as a result he started to develop a superiority complex and over time he became convinced that the other children weren't worth his time he felt they were childish and immature often laughing at silly jokes that they were essentially inferior but despite this he can completely shake the want to bowl long years later after tifa's mother died she became convinced that she would be able to find her somewhere in Mount Nebo trekking with the same group of children that often excluded cloud they headed for the mountain the cloud decided to follow him behind however as the rest of the group gradually abandoned tifo due to the perils that they might encounter on the mountain cloud continued to try and catch up with her and when he finally did she tripped causing them to both fall of defining the two children passed out tifa's father became convinced that it was all clouds idea and blamed him for the fact that she had almost died to compound this thief his father also banned cloud from even approaching her in the future it was something that hit quite hard for cloud who at the time was only nine years old the short-term effect was that it shook his bullish self-confidence perhaps he wasn't superior to the other kids after all if he was stronger he would have been able to save tea fur from harmon none of this would have ever happened the guilt ate away at cloud and over the next few years he gradually lost control of himself becoming more and more angry about his perceived weaknesses he constantly got into fights with other kids in the village four five years later he felt like he might have found something that could give him the direction focus he needed having heard about the heroic exploits of a first-class soldier named Sephiroth who was at that time fighting in the wood thai war he was sure that joining soldier would help him to become stronger he could become a hero and stop bad things from happening to the people he cared about before leaving the village he told tifa of his grand plans of the water tower and she made him promise that if he ever became famous and she needed rescuing that he would come to her aid true to his word the next spring cloud left nipple high with the hope of joining soldier however despite enlisting and displaying plenty of confidence in himself he didn't make the cup and was instead assigned to the regular Shinra infantry the year into a service with the shimmer infantry but while still only 14 years old cloud was ordered to protect professor Rowley with two other grunts she was a researcher he worked for shimmer on the soldier project and was a prime target for the first iteration of the anti shimmer organization called Avalon during the mission Avalanche attacked and after some initial skirmishes cloud chose to stand his ground and fight against increasing odds so his two comrades could escape with Professor Rolly however despite managing to fight his way back due to the assistance of the Turks he witnessed the two other infantry men perish at the hands of death magic which was cast by a Raven Avalanche then managed to escape with Professor Rolly on the train but as it was leaving cloud jumped on to try and mount a rescue attempt by himself despite fighting his way through to where she was being held he was ultimately outnumbered and defeated though saved again by the Turks cloud escaped with professor Raleigh but Avalanche caught up to them again and cloud was defeated by a raven with the situation getting more and more dire cloud motivated himself to do better by proclaiming that if he can't save one person's life then he definitely doesn't belong in soldier in the fight that followed cloud acted on instinct and showed extraordinary skill striking down two Avalanche soldiers with a single blow and as a result he was able to successfully protect professor Raleigh from harm me a month later following his 15th birthday cloud was sent on a mission to Madeo Heim alongside first class soldier Zack fair and sang a member of the Turks however on route their helicopter was shot down and they had to walk the rest of the way it was during this time that cloud and Zack started to become friends initially bonding over the fact that they were both country boys upon arriving at the outskirts of medea home they found plenty of evidence that Genesis was conducting activities in Titan abandoned Macko excavation test site keen to learn more Zack infiltrated the warehouse and found genesis threatening dr. Hollander as he was becoming increasingly antagonized by the lack of success in treating his degradation Zack freed Hollander and cloud who had followed Zack inside the warehouse attempted to restrain him for questioning however he was thrown to the ground and Hollander escaped Zack then held of Genesis so that cloud could also get free from the warehouse after meeting up with sing outside cloud then chased Hollander into medea home but upon reaching the town both he and saying were attacked and defeated by angyeo copies who was ultimately rescued by Zack after this encounter cloud made his way back to Midgard continued to perform his duties as a Shinra infantryman being called into action a year later while Genesis attacks deunan however despite meeting up with Zach due to suffering from nausea from the helicopter ride he wasn't able to provide any assistance later that month cloud was selected to go on a mission with Zach and Sephiroth to nibble Heim where they were to investigate the Matco reactor and on the way cloud again suffered from motion sickness when they arrived at the village Sephiroth allowed cloud to visit the friends and family that he wanted but cloud chose to hide his identity as he was embarrassed by his failure to join soldier the next day they headed up Mount Nebo with Tifa Lockheart as their guide and upon arriving at the macro reactor cloud was chosen to stand guard as Zach and Sephiroth headed inside however Genesis crashed the party in cloud while trying to protect heetha was incapacitated after recovering cloud lamented the fact he couldn't do more but now was a new perspective after witnessing the shocking conversation with Sephiroth in Genesis Zach warned him off joining soldier to change the subject Zach chose to ask loud if he knew Tifa and he got him thinking he emailed Zach the next day asking if he'd come and try his mother's cooking as he wanted to go home but he felt it would be uncomfortable if he went by himself cloud ultimately did end up going by himself though and although he can remember the conversation fully he remembers they spoke about girls and clouds inability to cook but because Zach wasn't there he also couldn't bring it upon himself to tell her that he hadn't made it into soldier soon after returning from the nipple home reactor Sephiroth locked himself in the Shinra mansion and upon learning of its origins he attacked the village in a fit of rage cloud sent an email to Zach to ask for help but it came too late and as he tried to stop Sephiroth he was defeated not one to be deterred cloud mustered up the strength to avenge his village he headed for the reactor and inside he saw both Zach and Tifa wounded cloud once again acted on instinct he grabbed Zach's Buster Sword court Sephiroth by surprise and stabbed him while lamenting the loss of his mother Tifa and his town feeling as though Sephiroth had been sufficiently dealt with cloud decided to go back to ten to Tifa and to keep the promise here made her earlier however Sephiroth wasn't finished he wanted to leave which a Nova's decapitated head Zack urged cloud to kill Sephiroth so he left Tifa and ran after his former idol but before he could do anything Sephiroth stabbed him through the chest and hoisted him up into the air cloud though as he had exhibited before was not just an ordinary shimmer infantryman he had something special inside him that came out in times of desperation and this time he surprised Sephiroth by shimmying down the Masamune help muscling him and tossing him into the debts of the Makah reactor due to the injuries he sustained though cloud was unable to move and soon after professor Hojo arrived and he gathered up anyone and everyone who was still alive in both the reactor and the village for his next experiment which will be based around the reunion theory the subjects would be exposed to Macko in a similar way to those inducted into solider and they were also injected with Sephiroth cells the only person to escape this horrible fate was Tifa who was rescued by her mentor Zhang gang before Hojo arrived while other inhabitants of new behind became Sephiroth clones devoted to Genova at Sephiroth zack and cloud would deemed failed experiments by Hojo Zack resisted to his manipulations due to being part of soldier while cloud went too far the other way and was so weak he developed Macko poisoning because of this neither of them were given numbered tattoos and were held in the shimmering mansion for years until they were able to escape thanks to the efforts of Lessard to Circus once they had escaped duty his clothes being soaked in Macko zack gave cloud a soldier uniform to wear but in the time that followed cloud struggled to recover from the extreme macro exposure hoping his friend would improve though Zack protected the tore them from Shinra for over a year but they were eventually caught and chimra forces defeated and killed Zack choosing to ignore clouds due to his lack of mobility in general lack of threat after they left cloud managed to drag himself over to Zack his friend who entrusted the Buster Sword to him and told him that he would be his living legacy saying my honor my dreams they're yours now it was something that cloud based on all the trauma he had been through to quite literally it meant that all the spirit says they had shared all the memories zakat imparted about his life they became clouds experiences and clouds memories alone within his subconscious cloud became Zach and upon arriving at Maga he attempted to present himself as a former first class soldier who was a mercenary for hire Zach's planned for once he arrived in Midgar but cloud was still struggling from everything that had happened he found himself in the sector 7 train station when he was stumbled upon by tithi his old friend from NIMH behind seeing her joked clouds memory somewhat but Tifa was very concerned she thought that while there was some consistency with what cloud was saying there were things he didn't know that he should have known and things that he did know that he shouldn't have however instead of correcting these lapses and discussing with him TV decided to just keep an eye on cloud and to help make him stick around she requested that he joined the new incarnation of avalanche which was led by Barret Wallace as part of his new role cloud who claimed that he was only interested in helping avalanche for the money took part in a successful attack on the sector one reactor however after a somewhat successful follow-up attack on the sector five reactor cloud was separated from t from Barret falling from the upper plate into a church down below it was here that he officially met Aerith Gainsborough having run into her before of course during his escape from the sector one reactor but before he could become too well acquainted they were joined by Reno a member of the Turks he came accompanied by numerous Shinra infantrymen with the objective of capturing Aerith but earth asked cloud to be her bodyguard exchange her taking him on a date and they managed to escape after taking Arif the safety cloud attempted to make his way back to the sector 7 Psalms to regroup with Barret and Tifa but they learnt of shimmers horrific pass to drop the sector's haven't played in order to destroy avalanche they were collectively able to mobilize quickly to try and stop Shinra but in the aftermath Aerith was captured as she took marlene Barrett's daughter to safety knowing what Arif did to save Marlene the group decided to assault the Shumer headquarters to try and rescue her and they were ultimately successful but during the mission cloud encountered things that would start to shake his weak psyche even more he would come face to face with the headless remains of Jim / that was moved there after the nimble home incident and following the death of president Shinra he'd become convinced that Sephiroth was still alive due to the appearance of the Masamune after the party regrouped at the village of calm clouds fractured memory would become even more apparent as he incorrectly retold the events surrounding the new boeheim incident again despite knowing what he said to be incorrect Tifa chose to stay silent cloud then headed off with the group in search of Sephiroth a quest which saw them visit numerous towns and villages however it's only once their journey took them to NIM behind the cloud once again became confused despite him seeing the town in flames years before as part of Hojo's cover-up it was now completely rebuilt leading cloud to question whether even happened in the first place the villagers who had been hired by shimmer as part of the cover-up also even denied knowing cloud and within the basement of the Shinra mansion cloud was confronted by Genova who under the control of Sephiroth asked cloud to take part in the reunion but also proceeded to guide him north of mount nibel however it wouldn't be until later at the temple of the Ancients where Sephiroth again via the proxy of Genova would start to exert his influence over cloud following a brief conversation where cloud revealed his overarching plan cloud lost his mind and started to become delirious laughing hysterically recounting words like black materia and meteor and wrestling with his mind about both his identity but also his memory cloud then convinced the party to take the black materia despite the difficulty involved his rationale to the party was that it was the only way to prevent Sephiroth from obtaining it as he had lots of flunkies who would throw their lives away to get it for him but soon after solving the puzzle of the temple of the Ancients cloud again lost his self-control and gave the black materia straight to Genova in the aftermath Aerith tried to console a horrified cloud but he became enraged and lashed out of Erath which led to the rest of the party getting involved knocking him unconscious it was here that cloud encountered a strange dream where Aerith told him of her plan stops her froth and suggested that cloud take care of himself so that he would hopefully avoid having breakdown and after awaking cloud attempted to take her advice he couldn't trust himself to stay in control and said he wanted to take a break but the group refused to let him sell in the sidelines a Barrett decided to offer some tough love he blamed cloud for everything that had happened called him a jackass from running away from his problems and suggested he was scared to find out more about himself teeth on the other hand was a little bit softer encouraging him to settle his school with Sephiroth ultimately though their approach worked as cloud decided to not be afraid of what might happen he chose to pursue earth to the Forgotten capital upon arriving they found Aerith praying at an altar but despite their earlier promise to watch over cloud closely to make sure he didn't lose control they allowed him to approach Aerith alone and as he got closer his worst fears came true and he lost control again fortunately just before striking Aerith down calls from both Barra and Tifa broke the hold and he came to his senses perhaps anticipating this Genova manifesting a Sephiroth then descended on the altar killing Aerith in front of clouds eyes after putting arathor s cloud again had serious doubts about his own mental state telling the party that he was afraid of himself that there was part of him that he just didn't understand that he'd realized that there was something inside of him a person he wasn't him this time Barret also had reservations about whether cloud should carry on with his quest against Sephiroth but cloud managed to convince himself that he could recover the black materia before Sephiroth used air they therefore headed to the northern crater where the reunion was taking place and upon defeating Genova death they obtained the black materia this time cloud entrusted it to someone else in the party before he went forward to try and defeat the real Sephiroth however as he approached Sephiroth attempted to break clouds resolve once again this time he tried to convince cloud that his memories weren't his own by protecting a more truthful illusion of the real events that led up to the nipple home incident he showed Zach fair taking his rightful place instead of cloud but he also made it seem as though cloud wasn't there at all he then told cloud that he was an incomplete Sephiroth clone construe did piece-by-piece in the aftermath of the nibble home incident cloud though was unshaken by Sephiroth's words he had gained a stern resolve but it was actually teeth his lack of confidence that made him starve the question in what he knew and again he was sent on a downward spiral as he dug deeper and deeper he realized that although he could remember some things he couldn't remember the crucial parts like when and how did he actually join soldier with clouds resolved broken once again he became convinced that he was nothing more than a clone a servant of Sephiroth and after apologising to the party for not being the real cloud he then proceeded to give the black materia straight to Sephiroth and fell into the live stream a week later cloud washed up on the shore of medea he was again suffering from some extreme maca poisoning and returned to the same state he had been when travelling with Zack just a year before this time it was Tifa who stayed to care for him and she remained with him when ultimate weapon attacked the village as he tried to get them both to safety the two of them fell into the live stream and it was here that we learnt the truth about clouds past us together with Tifa he pieced together his memories it was a process that helped to surface cloud real identity he remembered that although he had left the village looking to join soldier he didn't ever make it and he confessed that he had managed to create an illusion of himself based on the life of zack securing the knowledge that he wasn't a clone and that his memories were now his own cloud resolved once again to stop Sephiroth and save the planet from meteor their first attempt saw them try to use his materia but once this failed they decided to attack Sephiroth head-on in the northern crater cloud descended to the planet's core with his friends where after defeating the final form of Genova they were able to defeat sephiroth's god-like form however cloud would have one final duel as Sephiroth attempted to take control of clouds mind once again this time however plow was able to resist Sephiroth and was able to rejoin his friends to watch wholly and the live stream stop meteor but as this was happening cloud was infected by geo stigma a plague created by Sephiroth that he seeded out through the live stream but cloud chose to conceal this from his friends and he started to try and build a new life with Tifa in a new city formed outside Midgar called edge as part of this new life he set up a business called strife delivery service and they also ended up looking after Marlene and Denzel a child they found who had also been infected by geo stigma however despite the secure setting cloud started to become consumed by guilt of the deaths of Erath and Zack he started to believe that he could have prevented them and chose to move away from Tifa to give himself space this spiraled further and cloud ultimately became depressed often avoiding calls from his friends however after receiving a call from t4 about a job from the Turks he agreed to meet with RINO he then discovered that Rufus was still alive having survived the assault from diamond-- weapon Rufus had also contracted geo stigma and was looking to form an alliance to fight the mysterious trio of men the manifestations of sephiroth's will who had also attacked cloud however when they spoke about rebuilding Shinra cloud declined their offer but clouds tio stigma was worsening and it caused him to collapse but after learning that Marlene and denzel had been kidnapped by kadaj laws and Yazoo he decided to try and rescue them despite his weakened state and after confronting him in the Forgotten capital he was bested fortunately saved by Vincent Valentine back in Edge kadaj summoned bahamut's in to attack the city and after ensuring that Marlene and Enzo was safe cloud with the help of his old friends was able to defeat the summon he then squared off against law's new zoo destroying both of their weapons before confronting kadaj in aerith's Church where his tus take note was cured by water sprouting from the flowerbed now back to full strength cloud was able to defeat kadaj but not before he was able to absorb the novus remains bringing back Sephiroth once again the two joel but Sephiroth was able to best cloud often toying with him however as Sephiroth tried to manipulate clouds mind once again he became inspired by thought to his friends living and dead and as he had displayed many times in the past he was able to summon incredible strength and overwhelm Sephiroth defeating him once again as things return to normality cloud felt much happier in the knowledge that Aerith and Zack were watching over him and he continued with his delivery service while other members of his original party found their own causes to fight for he did however take part in the ground assault on Midgar as Vincent Valentine and the world Regenesis organization fought against deep ground toward the start of the conflict clouds squared off against roasted the crimson but as they both appeared later in separate scenes it suggested that their duel ended in a tie towards the end of dirge of cerberus cloud was seen cheering for Vincent to succeed in his battle against a mega weapon and we learned that after the battle cloud spent time searching for Vincent trying to give his friends news that he was safe but that was the last we heard of this iconic hero from within the compilation of Final Fantasy 7 I hope we can all agree that cloud story is one that's actually pretty harsh he suffered numerous instances of mental trauma and hardship throughout his life but was still able to fight through and ultimately save the world on numerous occasions I think that's why he resonates with quite a few people is often described as weak throughout the story but that weakness became the basis for his strength and after lots of support from his friends both living and dead he was able to find his purpose hopefully you guys enjoyed this origin story it was certainly longer than the previous one where we looked at several let us know in the comments below what you thought about it and please feel free to suggest the next character you'd like us to take a deep dive into also as a reminder if you enjoy our content please be sure to hit that like button and subscribe to our Channel and if you really enjoy what we do why not become a patreon supporter and help us grow not only do you get your name at the end of videos like these awesome folks but you can also get to choose what videos will make all right guys thank you for joining me on this deep dive into the lore of Final Fantasy 7 this is Daryl signing out I'll see you next time for more fun on Fantasy videos [Music] [Music]

Channel: Final Fantasy Union

Views: 1,022,857

Rating: 4.938765 out of 5

Keywords: cloud strife, final fantasy 7, final fantasy 7 remake, cloud strife vs sephiroth, cloud strife character analysis, cloud strife explained, cloud strife final fantasy 7, cloud strife ff7, cloud strife advent children, cloud strife buster sword, cloud strife crisis core, cloud strife zack, cloud strife history

Id: l4vvoXZfFEc

Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2017