by Cloudslash

 

 

 

 

First of all, Lunar Phoenix's editorial title seems somewhat misleading.  While she does give plenty of information about the two characters in question, the editorial itself provides no direct comparisons or even constrasts between them at all.  And what's worse is, while Lunar's final statement about Cloud, One doesn't have to be better then others to have friends, is a very truthful and moralistic one, her reasoning seems to have taken certain aspects of FF7's story out of proportion.  Too bad, because her editorial started out promisingly enough.

 

 

I was throroughly enjoying Lunar's editorial until I read this section of the paragraph.  I doubt that she intended it, but this is a clear distortion of Cloud's motivations regarding his past.  Cloud did not ever truly think that he actually was Zack.  He was greatly ashamed of his humiliating failures and used Zack's story to fabricate a more pleasant past in which he wasn't a weakling.  Seeing that this was desireable compared to admiting a life of failure to everyone, he lived out his charade and eventually came to despise his true past so much that he couldn't even talk about it.  After all, who would ever truly admit that their life is a failure?

 

I must say however, that the next paragraph is the one that really irked me.

 

 

Ok, first of all, the question of whether or not Aeris's death is justified is completely off-topic, and quite frankly, I'm a little disgusted that Lunar feels that Aeris deserves to die for the same reason that she defends Cloud's very existence (i.e. living a fantasy).  What's worse is that Aeris wasn't even trying to live a fantasy in the first place.  She seemed to me as one of the more realistic characters in the story.  When Aeris learn's that Elmyra's husband dies, she tells her without sugar-coating the news at all.  And when she learned that Sephiroth was going to summon Meteor, she knew that the only way to save the Planet was to pray for Holy, and she does this knowing full well that it could cost her her life.  And guess what?  She goes off alone to do this, without Cloud to "bodyguard" her because she knows that only she can do it.  If that's not being realistic, I don't know what is.  Perhaps she was a bit more cheerful than some of the characters, but that's no reason to accuse Aeris of being a delusional and obsessive manipulator.

 

As far as Zack goes, Aeris's own words seem to indicate that her relationship with Zack didn't even end that well.  She never once refers to Zack by name, and when Cloud asks if they were serious, Aeris flat out tells Cloud no.  Furthermore, assuming that Cloud dates Aeris at the Golden Saucer, she voluntarily tells Cloud that she was bothered by the fact that he was similar to Zack.  I'm not saying she didn't like Zack, even if she only liked him for a little while, I'm just saying there's no way that she could have liked him enough to for the physical similarities between Cloud and Zack to be her only motivation for her aggressive romantic actions towards Cloud.  I think she truly does love Cloud, assuming that he's nice enough to her (i.e. gets enough "love points").

 

As for the next paragraph, the only thing left to point out is that Tifa never brought up Cloud's past for a far simpler reason than Aeris's presence.  She knew he might have a psychotic breakdown if she mentioned it, and she says so countless times throughout the game; something to the effect of "I didn't know what might happen if I'd brought it up."  And even if Aeris had been the reason, Tifa had plenty of time to discuss it before Cloud even learned Aeris's name, and did she bother bringing it up until long after Aeris died and Cloud's own life was in grave danger.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, I do agree with Lunar's conclusion, "One doesn't have to be better than others to have friends," and I even agree that it applies very well to Cloud.  I just agree for totally different reasons.