Quote Originally Posted by Dante WolfWood
but for cid, when you get him, he's a mean old guy who cusses and at the end....cid is a mean old guy who cusses, now who developed more?
Cid is probably the most well developed character in the game besides Cloud. When you first meet Cid, he is an extremely pissed off, bitter person. By the end of the game, you can clearly see he has let go of most of his anger.

also, back in 1997, dark and mysterious wasnt so cliche
"Dark and mysterious" has been a RPG cliche since RPGs were invented. Remember Shadow from FFVI and Magus from Chrono Trigger? Both were very dark and mysterious characters, and both games came out before FFVII. Those are just two examples that popped into my head, I'm sure there are countless other RPGs with characters that fit the bill of "dark and mysterious" that came before 1997.