Cloud Question

Well, Cloud hails from Nibelheim (a name very similar to Niflheim, the realm of mist in Norse cosmology). He has blonde hair and blue eyes (pre-Mako) so he possesses what people often consider to be some of the typical Scandinavian features. Nordic lore appears to have been thought about by Square to some extent when creating Cloud and Nibelheim. Even the fact that he is called Cloud might be a reference to the ‘realm of mist’ where he was born.

They doubled down on this in Advent Children by naming his new motorbike ‘Fenrir’ and making the Fenrir wolf his symbol in the redesign. They also don’t appear to be abandoning these allusions in the Final Fantasy VII Remake either as Tifa’s gloves have been shown to be decorated with runes (which is appropriate considering that Nibelheim is also Tifa’s hometown).

In fact, Norse mythology has inspired many, many other things in Final Fantasy VII beyond Cloud. Midgar represents Midgard (the realm of men), and the ‘Midgar Zolom’ which haunts the marshes near Midgar is actually Jörmungandr (AKA Miðgarðsormr), the World Serpent.

There’s an entire book about this subject coming out in late April written by M. J. Gallagher (titled Norse Myths That Inspired Final Fantasy VII), so I would imagine that these and a multitude of other references will be explored in that. In fact I have seen a preview of some of the artwork for it already so I know for a fact that this stuff is covered.

Out of curiosity, which features are you picking up on which give you this impression about Cloud?
 
You basically listed the things that I picked up on. Nibelheim, Fenrir, the blond hair and blue eyes, using a giant donkey sword big as him...Tifa having Nordic runes on her gauntlets though was a pleasant surprise.

Now I don't feel like a moron putting cultures where they don't belong. HEY FANFIC.NET! GET READY FOR VIKING CLOUD! *Runs off with keyboard and pencil in paw!*
 
You basically listed the things that I picked up on. Nibelheim, Fenrir, the blond hair and blue eyes, using a giant donkey sword big as him...Tifa having Nordic runes on her gauntlets though was a pleasant surprise.

Now I don't feel like a moron putting cultures where they don't belong. HEY FANFIC.NET! GET READY FOR VIKING CLOUD! *Runs off with keyboard and pencil in paw!*

Yeah. It’ll be interesting to see where they take these references in the Remake. The Nordic runes themselves appear to be gibberish and don’t actually say anything, but their presence still signals an intention for us to imagine Tifa’s Nibelheim heritage. It helps with character building and deepens the lore.

You're certainly not putting cultures where they don't belong. While Square Enix sometimes access Western mythologies (and other mythologies) via some indirect routes at times, they do genuinely base a lot of concepts on myths and arguably they do appear to be taking a deeper interest as time goes on. I've spent a lot of time looking into this stuff over the years (sometimes while writing articles for this site) and I've noticed a lot.
 
I'm also curious if we're going to get a Fenrir summon. Though I would also be curious what element it would potentially be if they did. Or if he would be a hidden boss, getting a unique weapon for Tifa called Tyr's Hand....that would be pretty cool if they did that...
 
I'm also curious if we're going to get a Fenrir summon. Though I would also be curious what element it would potentially be if they did. Or if he would be a hidden boss, getting a unique weapon for Tifa called Tyr's Hand....that would be pretty cool if they did that...

I wonder about that too. The team have said that certain things in the Compilation will not be considered as canon in the Remake but I'm not sure if that'll extend to the importance of Fenrir when it comes to Cloud. A Fenrir summon could be a nice and harmless nod to that whilst still being its own thing.

When Fenrir has appeared as a summon in previous FF games, they haven't really been very consistent with elemental affinities. Unlike Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, etc, Fenrir seems to be fairly experimental in each appearance. In FFVI the element isn't really clearly defined, as far as I'm aware, and he casts the Image status effect. In FFIX he is sometimes dealing Earth damage (when teamed with Titan) or Wind damage. In FFXI I believe he is mainly Dark elemental.

Quite often Fenrir is associated with a full moon because he's a wolf. In the case of the FFVII Remake, however, I wonder if they'd have to avoid some of that because Red XIII has also traditionally been associated with full moons and howling during some of his battle animations. It might be deemed too similar, so that aspect of Fenrir might have to be suppressed. Maybe.


Tyr's Hand as a weapon for Tifa is an excellent idea! Here is hoping that they have thought about this or something similar.
 
Back
Top