livvyplaysfinalfantasy:

It’s taken a long time for me to get my thoughts coherent on this subject. Words are still sort of floating around in my brain, so I hope you’ll forgive me if some things just don’t make any sense. As always, feel free to shoot me a message if you have questions or need clarification.

What it comes down to is this: Cloud isn’t a real protagonist.

Cloud is, in the words of The Oatmeal, a protagonist that gamers can “put on and wear.” He suffers not from a lack of characterization, but from too much of it. The player controls nearly every one of his minor decisions. The player decides who he gets to date, who he talks to, and even how polite he is on any given day. Cloud can be either a really sweet and misunderstood guy, or he can be a real jerk. It just depends on how you play the game. He’s a reflection of the player, a completely customizable protagonist. Even the materia battle system makes it simple to give him any and all abilities that you would like him to have. Just equip the materia and you’ve got your Cloud Strife exactly how you want him.

Aside from the player-determined dialogue and interaction sequences, the game also throws out so many “alternative” personalities for Cloud. This may be a character trait of Cloud, or it might have been Zack’s all along. Cloud himself doesn’t have a solid idea of who he is, so why should the player? Terra Branford went through a similar pattern of self-discovery in VI, but it was clear from the beginning that she was a kind but scared young woman. That’s because the player has only one set of dialogue to interpret. VII’s actions and dialogue are multifaceted, which is part of what makes it such a masterpiece. But it does no favors to Cloud’s “canon personality”, because he doesn’t really have one.

And then there’s Advent Children. Cloud’s personality went through something of a regression in between the end of the game and the beginning of the movie. But why is that? Because everyone who played VII finished the game with a “different” Cloud. At least, every player has his or her own different feelings about Cloud. Putting a “canon personality” on a character that had been so nondescript was sure to create negative feelings for some. Some fans say he was too emo in Advent Children. Others say he wasn’t emo enough. The same thing goes for Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia and what have you.

What it comes down to is that Cloud represents whatever the player wants to see. That goes for shippings, battles, pretty much anything. And you know the Final Fantasy fandom: whenever something isn’t the way we like it, we throw a bitchfit. It’s impossible for us to be fully satisfied with any new Cloud appearance, just because we’re the ones who created Cloud in our minds to begin with.