Let's take a look though the famous Strife Manifesto and all the places where it just totally doesn't work.

Feel free to correct me in places I'm wrong, or to add what ever you feel I may have missed.

No matter how often I attempt to clarify the matter, the problem keeps arising: swarms of gamers totally misinterpret Cloud, possibly the most finely crafted Final Fantasy character yet.
Another "Everybody is going the wrong way except me!" statement. I love that stuff.

I’ll be the first to admit, the game does not do much to steer the gamer in the right direction.
Which is one of the major points of the game. The game itself pulls the woolo over your eyes. Why should the player know what's going on? The character's don't.

You could go through the game, start to finish, without ever seeking out the side-quests and flashbacks that fully reveal his past. Yet I’m not inclined to believe most gamers neglected to do such.
Actually, a good deal of gamers missed out of this stuff the first time they played though.

Why, then, do people keep making up theories about Cloud’s inadequacy and his “inferiority complex” when the truth lies right in front of them?
Perhaps because he DOES have an inferiority complex. A well earned one as well. Thoughtout the game, whenever the chips are down and he's the only one you can turn to, he fails. Sephiroth killed his home town, Mother, sliced up Tifa, killed Aeris, he watched Zack die, he couldn't make it into SOLDIER, his rescue attempt with Tifa had them dropped into a sewers, his rescue attempt with Aeris got them all locked up, the Plate was dropped on the city, three of the original AVALANCHE members ended up dead, that's a lot of failure for one person to put up with.

But it continues to happen.
And it will continue to happem, because Cloud doesn't just view himself as a faliure, he IS.

Before I go on, I want to make a few points clear. Cloud was never refused from SOLDIER. He never applied, out of fear of rejection.
So he left his town, everybody he knew, his entire life up until that point, joined Shinra, got a job and became friends with a high ranking SOLDIER, but never actually bothered to try to make the cut.

Now correct me if I'm remembering this wrong, but doesn't Cloud actually say during the game that he wasn't good enough? I could have sworn he did.

Virtually, there is no way Cloud would have been denied entry: his performance throughout the game proves that he is more than SOLDIER material. He was simply too afraid to put himself on the line, and settled for ShinRa Regular Infantry.
Note that you actually see Cloud in battle twice before his treatment in the Shinra mansion. You see him fight along side Sephiroth and you see him ctach Sephiroth by suprise.

In the first case, Cloud almost always gets killed easily and repeatedly. Sephiroth is the person who gets you though those battles, not Cloud. Cloud typically folds after a few hits.

In the second case, Cloud caught somebody whose mental conditions weren't well by surpruise when that person wasn't expecting any further sort of attack. Cloud still almost gets himself killed at this point.

Not exactly SOLDIER matierla if you ask me.


Also, Cloud’s name was originally conceived of in the Japanese language, not English. There is no relevance between the katakana construction “ku-ra-u-do” (Cloud) and the potential form “could,” which is indicated by a different verb suffix. If anything, the significance of Cloud’s name comes from the fact that Aeris’s name was supposed to be “A-i-ri-su” (Iris), and clouds, as we all know, hide the sunlight. But even that’s speculation—my main point is that Cloud and “could” were never intended to be associated, and I sincerely doubt the connection occurred to any of the game’s developers.
There could be many possible meaning for Cloud's name, however Aeris's name was NOT meant to be Iris. That was a poor translation printed in a gaming magazine when FF7 hadn't even been released in Japan yet. She was also indtifed around that time as Eris, Earith, Earis, and Irith.

With that said, let me begin by stating that everything I say from this point forward is presented inside of FFVII. None of this is my personal interpretation: it’s all there, in blue and white.
No. Everything you said is your personal interpretation. Everything I'm saying is mine. Everything the games creator says is his.

On the 3rd disc, you have the option of returning to Nibelheim. Once there, if you enter the mansion basement, you are treated to the following flashback, taking place immediately after Sephiroth’s descent into madness. I will describe the scenes prior to the flashback as well, for the sake of continuity.

After discovering the experiments performed on him in the mansion’s basement, Sephiroth goes insane. He kills a good portion of the townspeople, sets fire to the mansion, and then goes to reactor to “free” JENOVA. Zack and Tifa pursue him, but Cloud takes a moment to care for his dying mother.
No. He actually tries to save her life, and FAILS. That's not exactly "trying to care for her."

When Sephiroth reaches the reactor, Zack and Tifa try to stop him from entering the JENOVA room. He knocks both of them out easily.
This guy has a funny way of saving things. I would have put, "nearly kills them" instead of "knocks both of them out." Again, there's a difference.

Cloud then arrives, and after moving Tifa safely away, challenges Sephiroth. Sephiroth runs him through with the Masamune, but then Cloud uses the blade as a lever and flings Sephiroth into the Mako reactor below. I want to make sure everyone understands this. Cloud kills Sephiroth. From this point on, Sephiroth is dead.
Except for the fact that later in the game you find out he's still alive.

Cloud, suffering from heavy blood loss, passes out. Zangan (Tifa’s tutor) arrives on the scene and whisks the wounded Tifa away to safety. Begin flashback.

We next see Cloud and Zack imprisoned in Nibelheim’s basement. A few scenes later, Zack manages to break free of his holding cell and decides to rescue Cloud. Strangely enough, Cloud is unresponsive. Throughout their escape, he sags and stumbles—almost like he’s been drugged. (Haven’t we seen Cloud act like this somewhere before?) Yet Zack is the picture of health. The SOLDIER ignores it, and easily carries his listless companion out of the mansion.
There could be any number of reasons for this. perhaps the prior SOLDIER treatment Zack got meant he was already accoustomed to the feel. Perhaps he was being used as the controll subject and nothing was really done to him.

Clearly this chain of events leaves many questions to be answered. Why was Cloud detained in the first place?
At this point, Cloud and Zack were both probably declared to be legally dead. What better human test subject that a person that legally no longer exists? Another possibliity is that it was reported that they managed to take dwon Sephrioth. This would almost certainly get Hojo's attention and he'd want to further expiremnt to fully see what tehy were capable of.

Why wasn’t he able to move properly, or try and defend Zack? More importantly, why wasn’t Cloud killed along with Zack? That’s certainly not ShinRa’s style.

The journals in the adjacent library provide our explanation. I must infer from this editorial, and countless others like it, that most gamers did not take the initiative to search the bookcases in the back. They describe the escape and subsequent pursuit, but they also show that while Zack did not experience a reaction to JENOVA treatment, Cloud did. We discover that the soldiers let Cloud go, (they say he “escaped” in the report), because of his “diminishing consciousness.” He’s not considered a threat, because his treatment was incomplete.

You have to remember that the Shinra were infamous for falsifiny their records, especially Hojo. After all, Ghast didn't just "retire" now did he?

My belif is that whatever Hojo or his men did to Cloud, he knew about it fully. At this point, you need to remember that Sephiroth was belived to be dead. If he planned on continuing the Reunion project of his, he needed more specimens. Cloud was almsot assuredly left alive on purpose in order to be observed at a later date.

(Didn’t you ever wonder why Cloud had glowing eyes, even though he was never a SOLDIER? There’s your answer.)
I'm pretty sure that they say the mako treatment is why a SOLDIERS eyes look the way they do, and by the time we learn that Cloud wasn't a SOLDIER, we've learned that he WAS exposed to mako.

Here’s the clincher—Cloud never “thinks” he’s Zack, at least not in the conscious sense. He is subjected to experimentation that leaves him physically and mentally instable. We have no idea how long he was kept in the basement, so there’s no real way of measuring the damage done.
We know there's a five year time period between them Cloud collpases after fighting Sephiroth and when he joins AVALANCHE. True, we don't know how long he was in the basement, but considering that they never moved him out of Nibelham into Midgar in all that time, he was probably there the full five years.

And unlike Zack, Cloud has a reaction to JENOVA—in fact, he’s SO reactive that Hojo takes him to Phase II of the experimentation! (Unfortunately, Phase III grants stability and conscious control over the JENOVA—and Cloud escaped before he could be given the third injection.)
I saw nothing in the game to confirm or even suggest this.

When he finally regains a semblance of autonomy, he’s face-down in a mud puddle, holding Zack’s sword, lying in front of Midgar. Everything else is a blur. He obviously does not remember the experimentation—the only things he does remember are entering Nibelheim and leaving it, both with Zack. Earlier in the truck, while still dazed, he overheard Zack’s plans to become a sword-for-hire. Logically, Cloud assumes he IS Zack, because all of the cues point towards this conclusion. (He’s got the sword, he’s wearing the uniform, and although he sees Zack’s dead body, he doesn’t seem very affected by it. He doesn’t actually regain facility until he’s left the body far behind. This is made further evident by his “ugh” and “ah” dialogue right after Zack dies.) This is not the result of an inferiority complex—Cloud has no idea what’s going on and tries to piece together his past. He does so incorrectly but not deliberately.
Close, but no cigar. Cloud never thinks he is Zack. He never acts like Zack, he never claims to be Zack. Cloud's past was extremely traumatic. In cases such as his, it's common for the mind to try to convince itself that things weren't as bad as he remembered. Combine that with whatever they have have done to him in all the time he was kept there, it's a wonder he was even able to peice things together at all.

Nah. He didn't watch his friend die. He never had a friend. Yeah, he beat Sephrioth. No. he wasn't nearly killed and left in a tube for five years. You'll notice that whenever he gets close to remembering what realy happened or constradictiing himself, he has sort form of breakdown.

I'll agree that it wasn't deliberate, but by no means does he think he's Zack.

With this information in mind, Cloud’s “insecurities” fall apart. He doesn’t cower in front of Sephiroth because he’s some craven lackey that can’t live up to his own lies.
On the contrary, he's upset because he's not entirely sure Sephrioth ISN'T telling the truth. By this point his own mind is so messed up, he can't tell up for down,. It doesn't help matters that the info he does get from Sephiroth and Hojo does contain some fragements of truth.

The Sephiroth we see is simply a physical manifestation of JENOVA, one she’s able to maintain because the Lifestream is too weak to prevent it.
It's not a physical manifestation of Jenova. They establish early on that Sephiroth has a number of cloned bodies with numbers marked on their hands. the clone they're following fits this criteria. As for whether or not Jenova was controlling it, that itself is subject to debate.

Still, if Jenova was controlling a cloen, why wait so long for it to free her and why does the Clone keeping referring to Jenova as his mother instead of just saying that it's Jenova herself?

Now with Sephiroth, we have a reason why he would wait. Sephiroth was badly injured and nearly dead. That alone would take a long time to get over. Also factor in being trapped in Mako. While it does seem that it ampted up his powers, he would have had to wait a decently long time before he was actually powerful enough to really do anything.

JENOVA uses Sephiroth’s image to stop the last of the Centra from invoking Holy and saving the planet from impending destruction. (And succeeds.)
Didn't look like he succeeded to me. Yeah, he killed her, but she was still able to invoke it.

This explains Cloud’s helplessness. He’s two-thirds of a Mako experiment, people. He’s completely subject to outside interference. His cells are incomplete. He can’t consciously control them; his body lacks the chemical stability to do so. He’s unaware they even exist in the first half of the game! Faced with JENOVA, Cloud is virtually powerless to exert his own will. Only in situations of extreme duress can Cloud force his body to obey his commands, rather than JENOVA’s. (This speaks VERY highly of Cloud’s physical and mental discipline, because according to Hojo, Cloud shouldn’t be able to exercise free agency at all.)
Again, nothing to confirm this. Sephiroth is able to take control of Cloud, yes. However we're unable to learn why. More likely than not, when Hojo was referring to him as a clone, it meant he was created to be the next Sephiroth. Now, if he already has some of Sephiroth's DNA or Jenova cells in him, Sephiroth should be able to take control, however there's more to it that that.

Sephiroth thoughout the game is shown to have other mental abilites as well. he can cast illusions, talk to people telepathically, and move objects with his mind. These abilites are seen to affect real solid inorganic objects as well as people other than Cloud.

Keep in mind that none of what I’ve said so far is opinion—I’m going off solely what the game provides. But there’s still one question left unanswered. Why is Cloud able to reject Sephiroth’s control at the end of the game, if it wasn’t simply psychological?
Whose to say it wasn't?

As for him being able to resist Sephiroth, you'll notice that even when his mind wasn't completley healed, he was able to resist Sephiroth, at least temporarily, when it came to killing Aeris.

This shows me that Cloud can over come him on pure strenght of will. Sephiroth never gaisn total control of Cloud.

At the end of the game, Cloud's mind is fully intact again AND he's fighting not only for revenge, but so that Aeris's sacrifice won't be in vain.

Now if Cloud can fight back Sephiroth when he's not fully enraged and when his mind is still screwed up, when he's purely incontrol of himself and his willpower is just about as strong as it could get, Sephiroth is completley unbale to control him.


Our answer lies in the northern crater. After Cloud collapses when he realized he cannot remember how he joined SOLDIER, Ultima Weapon wakes up and starts going berserk. This causes the crater to collapse, and the companions barely escape-Cloud does not. The party flees, and eventually makes its way to Mideel, where they find Cloud washed up on shore, babbling incoherently. (Hmm... does this seem familiar?) When Tifa takes him to the resident doctor, he’s diagnosed with Mako poisoning. In fact, it’s so severe that the doctor says Cloud should not have survived. Now, Cloud is one tough SOB, but that’s not why he pulls through.
It's worth noting that we learn that the lifestream itself is fighting against jenova. Now if the Stream won'ty accept jenova, it's also quite possible that it doesn't want anybody with Jenova cells either.

Also, who at this point do we know that's actually residing in the Lifestream that has a personal intrest in making sure Cloud doesn't get fried. I'll give you a hint. Pink dress, ribbons in her hair, dead and STILL fighting to save the world... I think you can figure it out.

Also, Cloud IS one tough SOB.

He already had Mako in his bloodstream from the earlier experiments. News flash, ladies and gents: Cloud just got his third injection.
No. Swimming in a substance is not the same as getting injected with it. Ask your doctor about that one. If anything, a Mako injection would be much weaker and actually designed NOT to outright fry the person alive.

This has devastating psychological implications. Now that the haze over Cloud’s memories has been lifted, he’s presented with two contradictory memories: reality, and the illusion his mind crafted in order to make sense of the world. Cloud is torn between the two, and that is why the memory sequence with Tifa is necessary. She helps him piece his world back together—especially after JENOVA shattered Cloud’s self-image by controlling his incomplete cells. But this is all possible because he’s chemically stable. From this point on, we see a marked change in Cloud’s behavior. He refuses Sephiroth’s (and thus JENOVA’s) control because on a molecular level, he is finally able to reject outside influence.
I think I've already addressed most of these points and the ones that are left are pure bull.

Now at this point, Cloud's mind probably is healign somewhat, but it's also been nearly fried and has sucked up some of the essence of everyone that's lived. There's probably too much info in there for Cloud to actually heal byhimself.

This is really the one point in the game that Tifa is actually needed by Cloud. He needs an anchor to set his mind right, a person to set him back down the correct path.

Of course, even with Tifa there, I doubt ANOTHER trip into the Lifestream would have been safe if they hadn't had somebody looking ut for them. (Green eyes. Pointed bangs, long hair, NOT Sephriroth. I think youc an figure that one out too.)

Now to address the counter-arguments. First and foremost will be the argument that subconsciously, Cloud was ashamed of himself.
Pretty much.

Everyone seems to believe that he’s some sort of weak fool who couldn’t cut it in SOLDIER,
Didn't look he could cut it to me.

so he created this alter-ego to soothe his pride and impress his hometown sweetheart, Tifa.
No. He didn't create any alter ego. his mind mearly mixed up it's memoriezes to keep him from going crazy and wallowing around in pain. You'll notice that when he first joins AVALANCHE he really doesn't seem to give a damn about Tifa anymore and is ready to walk right out the door.

It’s common knowledge that he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER and convince the world that he wasn’t a loser. His childhood is characterized by rejection from peers and condescension from adults.
Well, the guy got this part right.

So, this theory follows, Cloud modeled himself after those he thought were powerful, (Zack and Sephiroth), and lied about his history because he was too ashamed to admit he was weak.
Again, no. He doesn't outright lie about anything. He's just to messed up to know the difference. Also, he may have idolized Sephrioth when he was younger, but he doesn't model himself after Sephiroth or think that he is Sephiroth. In that manner, he doesn't think that he's Zack either.

He's just Cloud. He's a Cloud that never went though the pain and suffering of the REAL Cloud.

He submits to Sephiroth’s will because he’s rendered so helpless with fear of the truth that he’ll do anything to avoid it.
Again, no. He's not afraid of avoiding the truth, he just doesn't know it.

I can’t even begin to say how wrong this theory is—and I’d like to slap the hell out of whomever originally thought of it
Personally, I'd like to slap the hell out of this person. he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about but acts like he's the ONLY person that does.

Subconsciously, Cloud knows that Sephiroth is dead—Cloud killed Sephiroth himself! Although these memories are muddled by the haze of experimentation, they never really go away.
Cloud didn't know that Sephiroth was dead. His mind wasn't letting him access that part of his memmories. You'll also notice who quick he was to accept the fact that Sephiroth wasn't dead.

As evidenced by Cloud’s breakdown in the crater, his true self is constantly trying to emerge but is consistently held back by his chemical instability.
Mental instability, maybe. Not chemical.

This new Sephiroth isn’t really Sephiroth at all: the original died five years ago, in the Nibelheim reactor. It isn’t until now, with the Lifestream drained to critical levels, that JENOVA can maintain a physical presence in the world. Naturally, she chooses Sephiroth, because he was the most successful experiment (actually, Cloud is, but we’ll get to that later) and she already assimilated his body when he fell into the reactor.
First, she didn't assimilate anything. he was absorbed and encased in Mako energy, forming a sort of huge Sephrioth materia with him trapped inside.

He didn't die. He was hurt really bad, but he lived.

The Sephiroth you cahse around the game is a clone. They firmly establish that the body is a cloned body. Jenova had nothing to do with it.

Jenova Already HAS a physical prescence in the world. You fight it several times. if a small body part can transform into a huge monster, she defintley could have restored herself if she had choose to.


So, when Cloud confronts Sephiroth, he’s really facing JENOVA, and he’s incapable of rejecting her influence because he’s still incomplete. It isn’t until he falls into the Lifestream that his cells are made whole, and it’s then that we see him come into his own.
Not even remotley close to being true on any level.

Also, I want to cite quantitative evidence to further discredit this asinine theory. Cloud killed Sephiroth. By himself. Let that one sink in for a moment. Cloud killed the strongest man in the world by himself.
While Cloud was enraged, and Sephrioth was out of his mind, distracted, and paying no attention to Cloud, and Cloud still nearly died.

Not only that, but has anyone ever bothered checking Cloud’s progression through the game? [/colors]
Stats have little to do with story evidence.

[color=red]He is easily the strongest character in the party. Why else would Hojo continue experimentation on him, if he wasn’t ripe with potential?
Finally. Something I can agree on. All Hojo would have known was that this person had taken down Sephiroth. Sounds like a good test subject to me.

Even when Hojo calls Cloud a failure, we know this to be untrue: Hojo expected Cloud to die after he was denied the last phase of the injections. That Cloud could survive this long, much less grow into a powerful warrior who is capable of resisting (albeit marginally at times) JENOVA’s control, completely disproves Hojo’s theses about JENOVA usage.

Funny. I don't remember that part at all.

JENOVA experimentation was originally intended to make easily manipulated superhumans, like Sephiroth.
You're thinking of Mako injections. Not Jenova cells. The Sephiroth expirement was more of a "let's see if this works," kinda deal.

Sephiroth was the perfect soldier until he discovered what had been done to him—before that, he followed his orders without question.
I wouldn't call him the perfect soldier. The ride to Niebelham showed he had some doubts.

All of the SOLDIERs did the same:
In the real world, most soldiers do follow orders like that. It's part of their training. You don't want a soldier that won't follow orders.

most people cast Zack in a favorable light, but we’ve no way of judging him morally. For all we know, he was responsible for oppressing the citizens of Midgar. Even when they flee Nibelheim together, Zack doesn’t express any desire to strike back at ShinRa for its crimes.
He barely got away with his life. Do you blame him for not wanting to mess with them again? You saw what happened the next time he foguht against Shinra, right?

Cloud does not fall into this mold. He constantly struggles against JENOVA’s influence. Clearly, in Hojo’s eyes, Cloud is a failure—but only because he far surpasses anything Hojo set out to create. By the end of the game, Cloud is far and away the most powerful character in the game. While we don’t know how much this has to do with the JENOVA in his bloodstream, it’s ignorant to assume it had no effect.
All theory, and with nothing to really back it up.

Given all of this, how could you begin to believe that he wasn’t good enough to make it into SOLDIER? Cloud is an excellent fighter. He’s not weak. His childhood has stripped him of a lot of his confidence and he’s afraid of rejection, but he is certainly not weak. Even after he emerges from the Lifestream whole, he blames himself for the incident—and not without good reason. He failed himself, because he was too afraid to try for SOLDIER, and then too afraid to admit his failure to Tifa when he came back to Nibelheim. But Cloud never tried to be someone he wasn’t. When Sephiroth goes on a rampage, the first thing Cloud does is make sure Tifa is all right. Although he wasn’t who he wanted to be, he’s still the same Cloud. On the airship, he admits that he can’t live in the world he created for himself after Nibelheim, but this is a moot point. He doesn’t have to anymore. He’s finally a whole person.
Why does this person keep repeating himself? It makes me have to repeat myself.

Cloud WAS weak. He didn't make it into SOLDIER.


Another vocal faction has been the “he did it all to impress Tifa” believers: that his false reality stems from this childhood desire to be close to her. Judging Cloud emotionally, I don’t see that the Tifa sub-plot has much relevance.
Agreed. She probably hurt him more in the long run than helped him. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Tifa has casually mentioed Zack while Aeris was around, or even if Aeris had pressed him for info on her old boyfriend.

The only theoretical part of this editorial is that the third Mako injection made him stable, and not the memory sequence: everything else is just a reiteration of what the game gives us. To say that Tifa is the reason he pretends to be Zack is unfounded. It may have been a significant factor in keeping him from realizing the truth sooner, but throughout the game we see the “real” Cloud come through sporadically, whenever Sephiroth confronts him. It wouldn’t make sense to say, if Tifa were the real reason he was upholding the façade, that seeing Sephiroth would throw a wrench into the act. Sephiroth affects him so acutely because when the JENOVA inside of him reacts, his suppressed memories try to come forward.
Blah blah blah. More Jenova is repressing Cloud stuff.

Unfortunately, Cloud lacks the control to reach out and meet them. There isn’t enough evidence presented in the game to say that Tifa is the sole reason he pretends he’s someone else. It is, perhaps, one of the defining aspects in understanding why he acts so strangely around Tifa, and why his portrayal of Zack is more akin to Sephiroth than it should be, but it cannot be the sole reason for his assumption of this new personality.
Cloud ISN'T pretending to be somebody else and he doesn't have a new personality. He's still Cloud. Check the flashbacks. He's still very restrained and somewhat moody. He never claims to be anyone he's not at any point. He's Cloud. Sure some of his memories aren't right, but he's still Cloud.

And that, my friends, is the truth behind Cloud.
Umm... no. It wasn't.

All of this is derived from in-game dialogue and flashbacks,
And the cheap booze you were drinking. Don't forget that.

so there’s not much to be left to opinion.
Except for the opinion that most of what you said was complete bull.

Most of it isn’t discovered in the natural course of the game, so I suppose that is why so many people misinterpret one of the most complex characters Square has created. His history is incredibly deep, however, and ties the game together admirably. For that, Cloud deserves a place in the annals of gaming history, as the first truly complicated main character.
Again, a rare thing. Something I agree with you on.