i have written about cloudâs behaviours in the original game before, but feel that i need to ramble about it in a little more depth, so thatâs what this will entail. basically, the common understanding is that throughout the course of the original game, cloud inherited zackâs past / memories  & behaviours. TO AN EXTENT,  this is true. for the most part, however, it is not. his memories are always ⊠hazy, and donât add up. there are things that he should know and doesnât, but really   ââ  nothing that he does know and couldnât possibly have found out or been told. what i believe, is that cloud is acting as though he was a first class SOLDIER;  not ZACK, but just some generic 1st class with what information heâs gathered about them. he does assume zackâs perspective in a couple of scenes, e.g. when heâs remembering the nibelheim incident  ( heâd have had to;  on the journey there, the only other SOLDIER there was sephiroth,  & if he was certain about anything ⊠itâs that he made SOLDIER ), but subsequently ⊠even that isnât quite right. because cloud still thinks that heâs CLOUD;  that he knew tifa, and that he grew up in nibelheim. what cloud envisions is his ideal perspective of things. he seems to conveniently forget that tifa wasnât actually his friend growing up  ( rather, an acquaintance ) ââ  &  that he was an outcast.
  in order to cope with the trauma of all thatâd come to pass, he created a fake persona based off of things that he had witnessed,  &  others that he just wanted to be true. cloudâs whole reason for joining SOLDIER was to become strong, so that he could be noticed;  ACKNOWLEDGED, and so that he could protect those he loved. sephiroth was the fixation of all that he aspired to be;  the person that heâd really most want to wind up working alongside. i think he put himself in zackâs place at times to compensate for the fact that  ( as an infantryman )  he never got to do that. more-so, cloud was certain he was a SOLDIER,  & that it wouldnât make SENSE for him to not have known / worked with sephiroth because of that. honestly, though ââ  i believe he was more himself than people seem to think. at the very least, he certainly didnât act like zack.
  letâs face it;  cloud wasnât exactly the most likeable guy in the original game.  ( which significantly parallels zackâs character and behaviours. how he was good,  & caring. HEROIC )  at least, not at the beginning. you could argue that in crisis core he wasnât so bitter and, arguably, arrogant ⊠but in crisis core he still had dreams and aspirations. his mother was still alive, sephiroth was still âalrightâ ââ  and things generally werenât so god-awful. even if cloud doesnât remember zack, or the four years they were experimented on ⊠ he  DOES  recall similar feelings of sorrow, despair  &  betrayal. heâs still himself  ( and if youâve played the og, you know that he isnât all brooding and entirely uncaring. heâs cocky, and a little selfish at times ?  but not a bad person. )  except, i think he maybe fell back on subconscious traits heâd sorta grown out of expressing. for example, NARCISSISM  and nonchalance as a means of guarding himself. aggression, too ââ  all traits he bore as a kid.Â
   ââ  cloud does recall this scene, except when he describes it to the squad in kalm he believes himself to be standing in zackâs position. this is still  ( ⊠blatantly )  sephiroth talking directly to cloud,  &  that  DID  happen, except the way he remembers it is slightly askew;  itâs tweaked to fit the belief he was in SOLDIER. basically ⊠most of what cloud recalls is a mix of his own memories, plastered in the unwavering belief that  ( regardless of any lack of evidence he may have to back it up )  he  WAS  part of SOLDIER, worked with sephiroth, and a man named zack fair never existed. heâs suppressing his trauma by creating a more bearable reality.
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