Cloud Strife

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## Relationships

### Parents

Claudia Strife (Mother) †
Unnamed Father †

### Children

Sora (Son)
Roxas (Son)
Ventus (Son)

## Voice Actors

### English

Cody Christian
Major Dodson (Young)

**Cloud Strife** (クラウド・ストライフ, *Kuraudo Sutoraifu*) is an expert swordsman and mercenary who claims to be a former member of SOLDIER, as well as the childhood friend of Tifa Lockhart.

## Description

*Former First Class SOLDIER. After defecting from Shinra, Cloud began work as a mercenary for hire in Midgar. With his trusty broadsword in hand, he always gets the job done.*
### Appearance

Cloud is a handsome young man with a lean and toned build, and spiky blond hair. Cloud has blue eyes, which glow due to him having being exposed to mako. Because "mako eyes" are iconic to members of SOLDIER, Cloud is often assumed to be one. Cloud carries a large broadsword as his weapon of choice, with his three trademark weapons being the Buster Sword (a massive sword over five feet long), a set of Fusion Swords (six individual interconnecting swords that form one similar to the Buster Sword), and the Hardedge (another large broadsword with a different shape). He also has a silver earring in his left ear.

Cloud's outfit is the standard uniform for 1st Class SOLDIER: indigo pants with a sleeveless shirt, and a belt. Cloud wears brown boots, gauntlets with a pauldron over his left shoulder and a SOLDIER band in his left wrist. This is the uniform he wears for most of his other appearances, with slight variations. He has a silver earring in his left ear.

In his mid-teens, Cloud had a ponytail and wore a white loose t-shirt with a blue trim, dark blue jean shorts, and shoes.

### Personality

On the surface, Cloud Strife presents himself as a hardened warrior, cocky and headstrong, coldhearted and disinterested in anything beyond completing the hired job at hand. He tells others, often dismissively and with snark, that he has no interest in larger causes, such as the plight of the planet, and appears unshaken by the devastation the bombings he helped carry out cause. He is cool-headed, and mostly carries himself as an expert and professional. Beneath the surface, Cloud is socially awkward, being well-intentioned but unsure how to carry himself in conversations, having difficulties to express himself. Many who are close to him begin to see through the cracks in his hardened persona, recognizing he is softer deep down. Through it all, Cloud is steadfastly loyal to his friends, harboring guilt if he feels he has let them down, and strives to be a hero. He is willing to go through any lengths, from fighting off powerful enemies alone, to crossdressing despite the discomfort to don a disguise, to keep them safe. This, too, does not fool some of his friends, who in turn look out for him when they believe he is out of his depth.

Though most traits core to Cloud — battle-hardened attitude, awkwardness, loyalty to his friends, and striving for heroism — do not change, Cloud's surface-level presentation and warmth shifts drastically throughout his life, based on his own yearning for a true identity. Many of these traits began to form as a child, as seclusion from the others children and guilt at being unable to help Tifa at Mt. Nibel motivated him to better himself and become a hero, inspired by Sephiroth. While serving in Shinra's military, Cloud had a shy but happy-go-lucky attitude, eager to prove himself, and often got excited when Zack, who became a mentor to him, noticed him.

Following Hojo's Sephiroth Clone experiments which led to his sense of self being completely shattered, Cloud as a mercenary developed an arrogant personality, where he presented disinterest in a broader cause beyond collecting a paycheck (though interest in a common good occasionally slipped through and he harbored vengeance toward Shinra). Around this time, he also suffered many mental breakdowns upon being reminded about his past, up to the point of doubting he was even a real person, submitting to being a puppet for Sephiroth. After Tifa repaired his mind, Cloud was finally a fully-formed person, accepting who he was, resolving to being a hero not out of being special, but having a cause to believe in. He became warmer and more open-minded towards others, as well as a more confident leader, though the awkwardness would still shine through at times.

Due both to Cloud's awkwardness and his tough presentation, Cloud struggles in forming interpersonal relationships. This is particularly evident with Barret; though Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie take more kindly to Cloud, Barret initially dislikes his attitude and questions his loyalties, leading the two to be rude to one another. After Barret sees through Cloud and gains respect for him, he begins to be able to open up with him and connect with him emotionally. Cloud was also not close with Tifa when the two grew up, although he felt an obligation to protect her. The two became closer and more reliant on one another after losing their home and reconnecting following the Nibelheim Incident. Cloud tried to atone for his perceived failure to protect her at Nibelheim, and Tifa in turn protected him as the last reminder she has of her home, looking out for him when she felt he is out of his depth. Cloud opened up more easily around Aerith, who was more flirtatious and playful with him from the start, though he would often respond stiffly and awkwardly to her advances. He still showed his softer side around her, more willing than others would to entertain her antics when she communicated with her flowers. Cloud is very protective of her and wishes to keep her out of trouble, though this grates on her. By contrast, Cloud trusts Tifa more to handle herself, confident in her combat ability, though he is still concerned for her well-being.

Cloud is greatly haunted by Sephiroth, a man he once idolized who became his bitter enemy. After the Nibelheim Incident, Cloud envisioned Sephiroth mocking him and urging him to make the wrong decision. This led up to Cloud giving in and believing he was little more than a puppet for Sephiroth, though after Tifa repaired his mind, Cloud resolved to rid himself and the world of Sephiroth. Following Sephiroth's defeat, Cloud became a surrogate father to Denzel and Marlene, but had become detached. His guilt at his own perceived failures to save Aerith and Zack, and trauma following his plight against Sephiroth, led him to feel helpless, becoming somber and brooding as he isolated himself from his new family, in contrast to his younger self before where it had fueled him to strive to do better. However, with encouragement from the friends and family he had tried to let go, he came to forgive himself and moved on.

## Powers and Abilities

Cloud's greatest strength is in his swordsmanship. Though Cloud fell short of the standards of candidates admitted into SOLDIER, his swordsmanship nonetheless impressed one of the Turks. As a result of mako experimentation by Hojo, Cloud was greatly enhanced as a supersoldier, with superhuman strength, speed, and agility. This, coupled with him incorporating Zack Fair's fighting abilities into his own, made him capable of easily handling other SOLDIER members and Turks.

In time, Cloud developed skills on his own, independently from Zack. Cloud has many swordsmanship techniques, seen most prominently in his limit breaks. The most potent and noteworthy of these is Omnislash (and Omnislash Version 5 with his Fusion Swords), in which Cloud performs a quick succession of powerful strikes from his sword. Cloud's abilities also allow him to use magic from his sword, seen in the form of firing a blast from his sword with Blade Beam, summoning meteors with Meteorain, or a tornado with Finishing Touch. Beyond this, Cloud is potent with using spells, being well-versed in how to use materia.

Cloud can ride a motorcycle, and demonstrates particular feats of skill with it, able to use his sword while riding and battle nearby drivers. He can also ride a chocobo or a snowboard, and Zack notes he is adept at scaling a snowy mountain. Cloud has also shown himself adaptable in a variety of situations, reviving a drowned girl with CPR in Junon, or dancing at the Honeybee Inn.

Cloud's interpersonal skills are initially very poor. When he matures and becomes fully formed, he becomes a confident party leader, motivating the party with speeches before their big battle with Sephiroth.

## Etymology

* In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol comprising a visible mass of minute liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or particles suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body.
* The names "Cloud" and "Strife" are English words referring to weather and difficulty respectively. Tetsuya Nomura has stated Cloud's name contrasts with Zack Fair's and the idea of "fair weather", in that Zack led a peaceful and happy life while Cloud's has been full of turmoil.
* The kana in his name can be also read as "Claude Strauss", which is a real-world German name, but were intentionally read as Cloud to fit the theme of his character arc.