Quote Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover View Post

First off it should be pointed out that I don't think Cloud was ever considered a villain like Dark Knight Cecil. Even in his false memory SOLDIER Cloud was just that - a soldier. He wasn't going around slaughtering innocents and plundering their crystals. While it's true in the main that he "worked for the bad guys," he never did anything bad for them so i don't see the similarity with Cecil. That's probably because Cecil's whole tale is one of redemption while Cloud has nothing to be redeemed for. He was never a bad guy in either his false memory or reality.
While the player certainly never sees Cloud as the bad guy, it doesn't really stop Barret from flaunting it in Cloud's face from the get go but I agree that Cecil and Cloud's situations are different in that Cecil actually committed terrible acts because his supposedly good kingdom had turned evil, whereas Cloud just happened to work for the villains organization from the get go but one look at VII's world and no one would blame him for the choice.

Now onto the reason I feel a greater connection between Fei and Cloud.
Both stories are ultimately one of piecing together a fragmented and forgotten past and discovering who you are from that past. Both of them would obviously rather forget their pasts too as the reason it's all a blank is largely due to trauma. They have Dark and Troubled Pasts they want to move on from. Similarly they both have "a dark half" in them that make them do evil. Sephiroth can control Cloud's "real self" that he has shut away and Id can hijacK Fei's body.

The true climax of both their characters is realizing who they are. One of the best moments in VII is when Cloud removes the helmet and you realize that Shinra Grunt was him all along. And on the XG side, Fei learning what happened to Karen and merging together all his personalities was just as memorable.
I don't disagree with this but I would point out they handle their situations differently. Cloud is not actually aware in the beginning that something is wrong with him, it's only after he's been body snatched by Sephiroth or had a heart to heart with his real self that he begins to question who he really is until Sephiroth breaks him and Tifa finally helps the real Cloud uncover who he is.

Fei on the other hand is well aware that something is wrong with him from the beginning, his search for his identity is something that starts early but Fei is genuinely afraid to learn the truth. Course blacking out only to wake up and find out you murdered countless people and being chased down by a Darth Vader wannabe who wants you to help him destroy god would make most people a bit antsy about finding out the truth.

What's important here is the point of their conflicts because the true kicker about Cloud's story is the revelation that he's an everyman who found himself in extraordinary situation and ultimately became the hero he wanted but never believed he could be. Fei on the other hand is more of a typical hero who embodies The Call Knows Where You Live. Fei's revelations are more dire and go back to traditional themes of discovering heroic divinity or some other nonsense my Lit teacher would try to sell. Fei's story is kind of an allegory for both Gnostic, Hinduism, or Buddhist teachings about breaking the cycle of suffering or ascending past the material realm by finally fulfilling ones divine duty. Fei is trapped in an infinite cycle of suffering through the wheel of reincarnation. In every lifetime Fei runs away from his duty or lets the world corrupt him before he can fulfill his duty, leading to more and more suffering and these sins come back to haunt every future incarnation. Abel failed to stop Cain and his disciples, leading to them to go on and create Solaris, he creates Esmerelda whom Krelian later uses to short cut Deus' resurrection, Lacan's grief created Grahf and set in motion the current world political situation that Fei finds himself in.

Cloud does share similarities to Fei, but I would argue that Fei's story goes beyond his current situation and spans generations of mistakes, hardships, and lost opportunities. In truth, I feel Cloud's real counterpart in gaming is Ashley Riot as both men share the fact that they believe their false personas because neither of them can accept their true identities. Granted Cloud's got some supernatural elements that is helping him along the way, whereas Ashley's issues are largely self-inflicted. Fei also is afraid of who he is but the Fei we know isn't real and unlike Cloud, he isn't based on anyone either. He is an artificial construct that grew to become its own being and unlike Cloud who eventually embraced his true self and returned to it, Fei wins out over his two real selves and becomes the dominate if now complete persona. Ashley interesting enough rejects his true self and decides to embrace his new self because he can live with him better, though this is all left rather ambiguous and this could all be my own interpretation of events.

Now obviously Wolf is smarter than me in these matters and I'm sure a lot of you are as well. But this was my reasoning for making that initial statement. I'd like to read more walls of text from Wk and anyone else who is interested.
I'm not smarter on these matters, I just waste my free time thinking about this stuff more than any sane person should when I could be putting my mind to better uses.