Quick turnaround for this video! It's been a while since I covered FF7 and wanted a change-of-pace. If you enjoyed this, consider subscribing and/or following me on my other social media platforms.
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"Worlds strongest marshmallow." Im stealing that.

Zack loves Cloud unconditionally it’s a brotherly love but still definitely unconditional love from Zack

Honestly when Aerith said she was trying to find him in Rebirth. That line alone hurt my heart because she saw what everyone else just couldn’t. Having one person see through to the real him and that person be Aerith was just heartbreaking since we know what was to happen.

Great stuff, the lonely masculine figure angle is a home run and great analysis. When you talk about the unconditional love theme it makes me immediately think about Aerith handing over the black materia to only say “no matter what happens, I’m here for you”.

You need to make more FF7 content since you did Cloud justice, got me teary-eyed, and that I can’t get enough Clerith💔

Cloud is a very difficult character to write about, and oddly, the one that I can identify most with- the real Cloud.  
He is a rusted wheel and never moved on.

Aerith is my number one favorite character in any FF game because of her whimsical spirit and the way she crumbles Cloud’s walls and most importantly, includes him in her life as soon as they meet again.  She gives him unconditional love for sure.

I can always appreciate Aerith playfully teasing Cloud to where he unexpectedly laughs or smiles at the things she says.  And Aruuu acting like Madam M 🤭 I can appreciate that too!

As a soft hearted, socially awkward person, I understand Cloud on a fundamental level. He's also one of my favorite video games characters of all time and I wish more people could understand his character. Good video.

It's crazy how flanderised he got in KH and Dissida, all his depth reduced to "cool emotionless guy". Literally the opposite of his whole arc, so love the remakes for bringing him back

I always resonated deeply with Cloud but didn't really understand why. Now I do. Thank you for this masterpiece man.

Your video described exactly how I see Cloud. Our man deserves a happy ending with his love after all that shit ❤️

For some reason I have always seen Cloud this way since the OG days. I don't even actually relate much to it but it was pretty obvious to me. But I am very surprised at men being unabashedly stating the truth about this. I think most feel better just relating to the easier parts of gaming and feel uncomfortable with these types of scenarios, either because it hits close to home or they have closed off those parts of themselves for so long. And I don't blame them.

I dated a Cloud and I turned out to be more like a Tifa 🥲

Cloud be us.

1:50 "Cloud is actually not cool, you know"

Cloud: dodges bullet with the neck lean

loved that

This is the ultimate video in explaining Cloud Strife. He's just a kind hearted little boy inside who wants to love and be loved. But when the world chews you up and spits you out you become a cornered puppy. Lashing out at anyone who dares to get close, so you can protect what love you have left.

It's such a universal theme you can also see it in character's like Barret, Red, and Cid too. All of them have some gruff exterior to protect a warm person underneath.

I also love how you relate this to men in the real world. I have male family members who can be described as sterotypically cranky or irritable. The sad truth is it's not because they want to be that way, but because they feel like they have to be that way. That if they show their kindness it will just be abused. It hurts to watch them be in such pain.

It's a struggle I too fight everyday. One made easier by the existance of characters like Cloud and Aerith; and by videos like this. Thank you Merriwether. Know that you aren't alone in how you feel, keep up the fight.

THANK YOU! Finally someone actually understands how much of shy awkward baby deer Cloud actually is.

This is a great videos everything spot on especially the struggle men go through I’m subscribing

Cloud Strife maybe the only fictional character besides Spiderman I relate to. Personality wise, I couldn’t be more like Cloud. Troubled past, inferiority complex, odd man out left to be a loner with social problems, a desire to be strong and protect the ones that matter to me, finding something that looks like it can help you achieve that dream only from them to confirm your worst fear and tell you that you’re not good enough, and hiding in shame not wanting others to know you failed. All that with a quiet demeanor, strength achieved with hard work, and a goofy side often hidden. Really all I’m missing is his handsome face, blonde hair, green eyes, big sword, absent father, beautiful women after my heart, seeing my best friend die, and getting experimented on. Like Cloud, I’m trying in my own way to find my real self, because I do mimic ppl I admire in an attempt to be well received like them. I know I need to be me, but that person has no face to me because no one really pays any attention to me. So I’m on a journey to be better, and like I said, I’ve done this before and was rejected. And I’ve hidden my failures because I don’t want to be seen as the one who fails at everything. I want to be admired, respected, idolized, and loved. I wish I had someone to help me like Cloud does. Maybe one day I’ll find myself and there will be someone who wants the real me.

I'm glad someone else understands the character that I've always known since 1997! It's very frustrating to see other people paint the character as something he's not. And it's why I always related to him the most and why he's my absolute favorite character in all of fiction

Good video. I'mma hit that Like button and add my two cents.

One detail that deserves mention is that Cloud being treated awfully by Nibelheim's townspeople stems from how those same people treated Claudia. Traces of Two Pasts doesn't shy away from the concept that Nibelheim is a town with conservative values, where a woman's highest aspiration is being a housewife to a Capable Man and that's it. Claudia was a free spirit when she was young. The townspeople thought she was looking down on them with her attitude. Then she met a guy and "settled down", except... she had to have had Cloud at 16, since she was only 33 when she died. Cloud was probably had out of wedlock. No one knew who the guy was; he rolled into town and vanished without a trace. Cloud is quite literally a bastard child and in the eyes of the townspeople, inherited his "freewheeling" parents' sins, whatever they were.

In that "small town" environment where "everybody knows everybody", Cloud was an unknown factor. He was unfairly treated and not given the kindness of a normal childhood. He likely had to "be the man of the house" and grow up fast. He was scapegoated, criminalized, treated like a school shooter without a gun. (Tifa glibly recounts that the other kids called Cloud a "menace to society" and how he was excluded from the Four Fiends. As if that's normal.) His situation wasn't at all helped by the Mt. Nibel incident, and he was like, what, 9 years old then? After all that, it makes sense Cloud would want to be strong like "Sephiroth, the War Hero" so that he wouldn't be hurt the way he had been for most of his life. Sephiroth is literally the only adult man he "knows" who doesn't hate his guts by that point. Which is a wild thing to think about; Tifa's Dad hated Cloud too! Cloud had no boys to be peers to in order to forge his personality via friendship, and no men were present in his life to offer guidance and a model for who he could grow up to be. His mother loved him for sure, and was proud of him no matter what, but a single person cannot meet 100% of a child's needs all of the time. Sad shit.