We all know the story. Zack is shot and killed on the outskirts of Midgar. A mako poisoned and jenova cell infested Cloud inches himself towards his fallen comrade to claim the Buster sword. Cloud's mind, still fragmented from the mako and jenova cells, searches for identity as all the other's have who succumb to Hojo's "cloning" experiments. Unlike the other who have nothing to cling onto simply lose their way and become mindless drones searching after Sephiroth for the reunion, Cloud manages to adopt Zack's persona to replace his shattered one. This is fueled not only out of neccessity but out of respect for Zack, as he was disappointed with his personal failure to become a member of SOLDIER. With Cloud's mind temporarily patched together, he begins where Zack left off and becomes a mercenary in Midgar. Much further down the line, the real Sephiroth, frozen in a huge glacier in the Northern Crater, manages to break the patchwork fix Zack's stolen persona provided and leaves him to drift through the lifestream, reintroducing extreme levels of mako and fragmenting his mind once again. Cloud and Tifa delve into his subconscious to reconnect and heal the scattered fragments of his own persona. When they finish, Cloud re-immerges as himself for the very first time in the game.
What I want to know is how much of Zack's persona did Cloud really take? We know he took his memories... but only dating back to his acceptance into SOLDIER. Cloud recalls his own mother and father early on in the game, showing that his mind is only fragmented... not completely erased. He is still Cloud but he's just adopted some of Zack's personality to fill in the missing pieces. I guess my question to all of you is which parts of Cloud were Zack and which were Cloud? I've heard a lot of people say that his personality was stolen, not only his memories. I'm sure that's true to an extent but which parts? Cloud was shy and loserly when he was younger and because of his timidity he failed often in life. Zack was confident and suave. Both were heroic, good natured, and generally good people. That might have been why it was so easy for Cloud to adopt Zack's personality. But what parts do you think he adopted and what parts do you think already existed in him?
What I want to know is how much of Zack's persona did Cloud really take? We know he took his memories... but only dating back to his acceptance into SOLDIER. Cloud recalls his own mother and father early on in the game, showing that his mind is only fragmented... not completely erased. He is still Cloud but he's just adopted some of Zack's personality to fill in the missing pieces. I guess my question to all of you is which parts of Cloud were Zack and which were Cloud? I've heard a lot of people say that his personality was stolen, not only his memories. I'm sure that's true to an extent but which parts? Cloud was shy and loserly when he was younger and because of his timidity he failed often in life. Zack was confident and suave. Both were heroic, good natured, and generally good people. That might have been why it was so easy for Cloud to adopt Zack's personality. But what parts do you think he adopted and what parts do you think already existed in him?
