Zack Question

Is it true that Cloud completely inherited Zack's personality at the start of the game?

Is there any eveidence in the game or elsewhere to either support or contradict this as I am curious about it and want to find the true answer?

It wasn't so much a transfer of personality, more a history transfer. This evidence is that Cloud claimed to have been a member of SOLDIER and all the stories which accompanied this claim.

yeah. cloud and zack have certain similarities but their personalities aren't identical.

cloud is more quiet and zack is a lot more outgoing and confident. it shows this in the flashback where cloud is saved by zack and zack just keeps on talking and being friendly.

Cloud had his memory wiped out so all he could hear was Zack thus he became like him and remembered things about him which eventually he came to think were his memories.

I think Cloud looked up to Zack; he wanted to be like him and become Sepiroth´s "war buddy". That´s why he thought Zack´s story was his own.

Nah, becoming a pathological liar (lying to yourself and others so much that you believe it yourself and forget that you were lying) does not mean your actual personality has changed.

While we're on the subject though, has anyone come up decent proof as to who's voice Cloud can hear in his head in the first few hours of the game? It seems likely to be Sephiroth, but it seems equally feasible that it was his "child-self" as manifested when he's handing over the Black Materia at the temple then again in the lifestream in Mideel. Or perhaps it was no voice in particular and he was just schizophrenic.

That voice is Cloud, the one he reveals in the Lifestream sequence.

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Originally Posted by Cloudane

Nah, becoming a pathological liar (lying to yourself and others so much that you believe it yourself and forget that you were lying) does not mean your actual personality has changed.

While we're on the subject though, has anyone come up decent proof as to who's voice Cloud can hear in his head in the first few hours of the game? It seems likely to be Sephiroth, but it seems equally feasible that it was his "child-self" as manifested when he's handing over the Black Materia at the temple then again in the lifestream in Mideel. Or perhaps it was no voice in particular and he was just schizophrenic.

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I always assumed that he was experiencing flashbacks, being the the reactor room in Midgar triggered memories of being in the reactor in Nibelheim.

Question: When Cloud was telling the story about him, Tifa and Sephiroth at Nibelheim five years ago, why didn't Tifa say he was telling it from Zack's point of view?

She was afraid of what would happen - she says that in the Mideel bit. She probably thought it'd trigger a breakdown or something.

He does experience flashbacks, but he has conversations in his head too - when he falls into the church, when he's sleeping at Junon etc.

Come to think of it, when you go to the top-left room at HoneyBee you meet up with a ghostly manifestation of Cloud, so yes it probably is his real/other/younger consciousness rather than Sephiroth or whoever.

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Originally Posted by Cloudane

She was afraid of what would happen - she says that in the Mideel bit. She probably thought it'd trigger a breakdown or something.

He does experience flashbacks, but he has conversations in his head too - when he falls into the church, when he's sleeping at Junon etc.

Come to think of it, when you go to the top-left room at HoneyBee you meet up with a ghostly manifestation of Cloud, so yes it probably is his real/other/younger consciousness rather than Sephiroth or whoever.

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Confirm that bit. Cloud talks to himself in those parts of the story. A few hints you should've picked up: he sometimes avoids retelling his past with lines such as "let's leave it alone for now" or "let's go on with the story".

He's lied about his identity, but it's also true that he's a "failed experiment" (Hojo attempted to make a Sepiroth clone out of him). You could say that this whole mess was a mix of his lies and Jenova's power to engineer memories.

One more query i've been getting from mates was the Nibelheim "fire or no fire" question. There WAS a fire in Nibelheim and Shinra was responsible for restoring the town to its original state. Actors were hired to play the parts of citizens as if nothing ever happened. You can make up your own mind on the matter by reading the letter on the desk in Tifa's room which explains the situation in Nibelheim and the Sepiroth clones.

Yep. Not that I could ever fathom how Shinra knew exactly how each house was decorated, placed the piano in the same place, even restored the sheet music and the hidden stuff between the sheet music etc. But that was the explanation given.

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Originally Posted by Cloudane

Yep. Not that I could ever fathom how Shinra knew exactly how each house was decorated, placed the piano in the same place, even restored the sheet music and the hidden stuff between the sheet music etc. But that was the explanation given.

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well mabey tifas house didnt burn completly and the rearanged it like it was

I'm pretty sure the voice in Cloud's head is Sephiroth, as he was controlling all those with Jenova's cells like chess pieces into his plot, hence why Zack and Cloud wanting to go to Midgar at the same time "1" does. The voice comes up again to explain something to Cloud at the Ancients' Capital.

Cloud didn't know anything of what was going on. He had a bad reaction to the Jenova cells, his body went through torture, he was on the verge of mentally and emotionally collapsing. Sometimes our minds naturally use certain memories to subconsciously cover up unwanted emotions.

Correction on that statement. Sepiroth wasn't too much different. Everyone including him were drawn to the Jenova reunion (therefore, every living organism that was injected with Jenova cells was being summoned/controlled). The evidence supporting that is also shown in FF7 AC. Cloud's allucinations were given by Jenova's residue cells. The Children were also under Jenova's control after drinking Kadaj's black water (which was nothing more than Jenova cell infected water). Jenova's reunion is what controls Cloud as well as Sepiroth, who only gains full control of the situation around the end of the first FF7.

That 'voice' is Cloud. I mean, the real Cloud, not the one that says he was in SOLDIER and everything else.
He didn't 'inherit' Zack's personality, he was just imitating him to the best of his abilities, which weren't that good. But hey!, if you believe something is true, without a doubt, then your going to follow that belief completley. He thought he was Zack=him acting like Zack. In the end however, he's most definitley 'Cloud'.

Now the real question is how the hell did he manage to fool himself into thinking that he was Zack? It was never explained in the game.

Don't know how accurate Wikipedia is, but this is what it says happens after the Nibelheim mission.

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Zack and Cloud are retrieved by Shin-Ra forces and kept in custody. They are subjected against their will to biological experimentation involving genetic material from Jenova, under the supervision of Professor Hojo. Eventually, Zack breaks out and literally drags Cloud with him during their escape. Zack gives Cloud some of his clothes and gets them transport to Midgar. During this time, Cloud is weak, groggy and somewhat delirious, as he had reacted more strongly to the experiments than Zack did. However, Zack talks continuously to the unresponsive Cloud about his life and his plans to become a mercenary in Midgar, get rich and be with his girlfriend. When they finally arrive outside of Midgar, the Shin-Ra security force that have been searching for them finally catch up. They try to detain the escaped prisoners, but Zack fights back to defend both Cloud and himself. The Shin-Ra troops, armed with machine guns, shoot Zack to death and leave Cloud for dead after seeing his vegetative state. However, Cloud manages to recover. The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes him snap, and he adopts Zack's persona, combining it with his own. He believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack's role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim. Cloud takes Zack's buster sword and continues on to Midgar. Upon his arrival, Cloud seeks work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. This is where Final Fantasy VII begins.

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Originally Posted by stoners-lunchbox

He's lied about his identity, but it's also true that he's a "failed experiment" (Hojo attempted to make a Sepiroth clone out of him). You could say that this whole mess was a mix of his lies and Jenova's power to engineer memories.

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Doesn't every one believe he is a failed experiment until the last time you beat HoJo where he says something like, I always though you were a failier but your not becasue Cloud was made stronger by fighting off the infection of jenova cells rather than embracing them and becoming a puppet/clone. like ohers..... or i may have just made this up myself lol. I relly need a recap of the whole story lol.

If it really was Sephy, then he'd aim for Cloud's previously skimmed knees, thinking they were Cloud's weakness. Lol.

Seriously, I believe that the real Cloud was talking to him. May I say that this is MY opinion and I believe this to be right. If I'm wrong, people, inform me. The closest person to the Jenova Cloud (Cloud after he was implanted with Jenova's cells) was the real Cloud. I think that he was pushed aside by both Jenova's cells and Cloud's admiration for Zack, therefore pushing Zack's memories into his head. Cloud did develop in terms of character because of what happened with his liberation of Shinra Mansion and Zack's death. (We can't pretend that Cloud wasn't aware of Zack dying) After discovering his past and his memories, he learned that his developed memories were a combination of his and Zack's. After all, Cloud was there too when Sephiroth massacred Nibelhiem, so it all just can't be one big lie. I believe that Sephiroth has little contribution to Jenova Cloud. That's all Jenova, but it's no surprise, being Jenova brothers, Sephiroth anticipated that Cloud would regroup to the Northern Crater for the Reunion. He may have been aware what Cloud has been thinking because a) They share Jenova's cells and b) He was there too. Don't forget that Sephiroth was traveling with Cloud during that mission of which they needed to exterminate monsters 'round Nibelhiem's reactor.

That's my theory, so if I'm wrong, then tell me your opinion.

I always thought it was Zack's voice. Like how Aeris follows cloud in AC. Sometimes I though it switched to Sephiroth or Jenova.