Do you think Cloud is Emo

[Wolf Kanno]

To be honest, I feel Cloud is only emo in the context that had VII been released today, that's what he would be labeled as. In reality, he's not emo cause emo wasn't really around then so its unfair to call him by that term, he's just angsty .

As for the "Angsty" Stu thing, this is something I feel the Cloud from KH and the Compilation represent. Cloud isn't delved into better to understand him more, he is instead transformed into an overly melodramatic characture(sp?) of himself from the original game.

AC easily could have gone into Cloud coming to terms with his terminal illness but instead he dwells on a topic that for all intents and purposes was already resolved. I feel since this is a gross misinterpretation of his character it may be fair to say Compilation Cloud is an "Angsty" Sue cause all he has for character development is overcoming emotional pain that is hardly his fault and has technically been resolved but he forgets it every
time a new title is released.

Cloud from VII is not like this, he's gloomy and self defeating but at least he's a bit more focused than his Compilation/Spin-off self. To be honest, I feel Sephiroth has also gone through a drastic change in his many incarnations as well. He went from a arrogant lunatic to a more sadistic and generally flawless* villainous mastermind whose intentions are just to make Cloud cry. Once again, he went from being a somewhat human character to a generic "I R EVIL" type of villain.

*By this I mean he's perfect. He's an evil genius, he's got the power of Super Saiyan lv. 5 and that's before he draws his sword, and he's virtually an unstoppable force despite getting his ass handed to him 3 times now. The mass difference in power he shows in VII in comparison to AC or CC is HUGE.*

We could easily go into the issue of labeling characters by certain terminology. We don't like it cause most feel it has a negative connotation to it. Its easy to say an older character like Terra or Barret are cliches but in reality they were the originals. As for Mary Sue, the wikipedia entry gives off the impression that its such a broad statement that it would be harder to name characters from anything that are not Mary Sues. Even legendary myth figures like King Arthur or Hercules could easily fall into the term. Sometimes we need the mythological though and its better to escape the reality in which we live in if we are following a rather flawless character that can inspire to better ourselves. I feel conflict only arises when we try to justify the human aspect of these type of characters and we see they are more mythic than reality.