Zidane was a good character to me, and one of the reasons I enjoyed playing IX so much.

I was thinking during a replay if the story writers in VII decided to say that Sephiroth was lying to Cloud in the Whirlwind Maze because the player may have been let down if Cloud really was a clone.

SPOILER!
Zidane, however, really was artificially created and he had to deal with it. He makes a great protagonist because he had a strong sense of morality, and having a Thief as the main character was a great changeup than just having a guy with a cool looking sword.