If you enjoy Crisis Core that's fine, I'm not going to make any kind of editorialized statement against you. You're allowed to like whatever you like for whatever reason you like it. However my standard of media analysis is that a piece of art should be appraised within the context of its original release, rather than incorporating elements invented after the fact in subsequent media releases or even paratextual sources. I do not take anything invented by Crisis Core, a game written ten years after the fact by a completely different creative team who were operating contrary to the standards and values of the most important guiding artist responsible for the original game, into consideration when analyzing this scene from the original Final Fantasy 7 released in 1997. (although the voice acting mod I'm using did decide to throw in a CC reference at the very end there lol oops).
So Zacks. We know precious little about him, up until this point the only real things we knew were tidbits disclosed by Aerith. Zack mostly functions as part of the twist reveal about Cloud not being the person he presented himself as. He matters less as a character in his own right than what his character represents for Cloud's development. Literarily, Zack is a shallow narrative device to enable the story the game is telling about Cloud. But we can still make extrapolations ABOUT his character from this short single scene we have of him.
We know for example that Zack grew up in a backwater town that lived in the shadow of Shinra's irresponsible business practices. Possibly due to Gongaga being centered so primarily around a Shinra power plant, he ended up wanted to become a SOLDIER. The fact that Gongaga was later devastated by Shinra's negligence is thematically appropriate considering Zacks own fate. In fact, timeline wise, Gongaga's reactor most likely suffered its critical meltdown on the day of Zacks death, even more directly tying that theme together for his character. Even before we properly learn about Zack as an individual, he is presented by the narrative as a tragic victim of Shinra who sees individuals and communities as disposable commodities.
Zack joined SOLDIER and eventually rose the ranks to become 1st Classic, just like Sephiroth. But by then, the war with Wutai was already over and there were no more great battles to fight and develop a heroic reputation of his own, something he desired to attain. His youthful excitement and desire for fame is contrasted against Cloud, who never achieved his own dream of even joining SOLDIER, and against Sephiroth who (before he goes insane) is more world weary and grounded about the reputation his exploits have garnered. We also learn from Aerith that he was prone to macking on the ladies, but he had enough charisma that she was serenaded by him despite describing him as a ladies man. Zack is, to a degree, sheltered and naive and perhaps a little full of himself.
That's all what we can glean about him before this scene, by other characters dialog about and in relation to him and from what deductions we can make regarding the content of the Kalm flashback.
In the flashback here, we see Zack and Cloud were experimented on by Hojo in the aftermath of the Nebehliem incident. Zack was uneffected by the experiments, because he was already a SOLDIER who had been subjected to mako before, and thus was able to escape his confinement. Cloud was severely physically augmented by the mako bath and Jenova cell injection, turning him into the equivalent of a SOLDIER who was subjected to the enhancements on a more official capacity, but the experimentation combined with his recent traumatic experience leaves him SEVERELY mentally deteriorated almost in a catatonic state. Despite the fact that Cloud was reduced to the point that many might consider him a lost cause, a shell of a human being, Zack still went out of his way to save Cloud and escape with him even though it decreased the likelihood of his own survival.
Zack manages to secure a ride for himself and Cloud to Midgar thanks to the kindness of a stranger with a truck. During the drive Zack seems oblivious to Cloud's state of mind, but we can easily interpret this as him choosing to overlook that and treat Cloud as he normally would in the hopes that he would recover. (Mirroring the way Aerith talks about Barret during their initial visit to the Golden Saucer). Zack seems to have completely divorced any association with Shinra from his mind - he is on the lamb and is aware of it, trying to formulate a plan of who he might reach out to for support and how he'll be able to financially support himself and Cloud. He humorously takes a very lateral and self serving interpretation from their drivers advice, whether this is because he's so head in the clouds that he genuinely missed the point or because he was deliberately contextualizing the advice in a self serving way is also something we can make up our own minds about.
Zack continues to drag Cloud along with him on his journey to Midgar, even when it becomes apparent they are being pursued by Shinra. Zack tries to fight them off, but ultimately dies. Horribly and brutally being gunned down like a dog, and Cloud being left for dead. The voice acting mod aside, in the text of FF7 Zack has no final words for Cloud. He is gunned down, he dies, and that's that. Cloud takes his Buster sword, and in his fractured mental state he subsumes what he has observed about Zacks personality and his own internalized conception of what a SOLDIER 1st Class should be, and with Zack's final words about becoming a "jack of all trades" in his mind he proceeds to stumble his way into Midgar and is soon found by Tifa whom in meeting her brings him back into lucidity.
And thus ends Zack's presence in the narrative of Final Fantasy 7. And it's fascinating to me how even in this short optional scene, we can make so many conclusions about his characterization such as it is. Zack didn't have to save Cloud. Rationally, it was a mistake to try and do so, since it lowered his own chances for survival and by all appearances Cloud was just a limp body with scrambled eggs for brains. And yet Zack still chose to save him, and in doing so ultimately made it possible for Cloud and his gang to go on to save the planet from Sephiroth. Zacks act of self sacrificial kindness allows him to posthumously become the hero he always desired.
Even in the little material we have in this game, Zack was a sufficiently well rounded character. He had shortcomings and downsides, and virtues and motivations. He made mistakes, and was mistaken about things. His story is tragic, as he will not be known or celebrated the way he had wanted. And yet despite it all, he is more than just a footnote in Cloud's story. He lived, he loved, he fucked up, he persevered, and in the end he dies a hero who is partially responsible for helping to save the world.
I don't need a prequel game to be able to understand enjoy and appreciate Zack's character as it existed in the original game.
