Opinions on Zack Fair (probable SPOILERS)

[Sephiroth]

Zach was just an Agent of Soldier who was unfairly screwed over by Shinra. In the original game, it took 2 or 3 soldiers to gun him down, making his strengths as a character underestimated. In Crisis Core, it took almost half an army to kill him off which was contradictory to the FF7. All in all, he was a great character that filled in some gaps of back story in the original game and set the stage for Cloud.

It is not contradictory when you fill a blank space that just was not shown. Only slight alterations.

Zack's a standard shounen protagonist, Cloud's much more interesting. Definitely on the "only original game is canon" philosophy side, I dislike the retcons in the later releases. They miss the tone of the original, often wildly.

It is not up to you to decide what is canonical though. And Shield, if you'd just have read what I said you would have known that you are wrong. "Blank space" and "slight alterations" says it all.