Clad Strife

A packed character

Character with the last disorder, Clad is introduced to the beginning of the play like a mercenary having been member of the SOLDIER , the crack corps of the company Shinra), before becoming mercenary. It is as such as it accepts, at the beginning of the play, a work within the group of terrorists ecologists AVALANCHE , carried out by Barret Wallace and Tifa Lockheart. AVALANCHE fight precisely against the tyrannical company, which pumps in a ill-considered way a strange substance in natural reserves of planet: the Mako, kind of spiritual energy which animates any thing living on the ground.

The terrible personality disorders of Clad and the progressive redécouverte of its hidden past are two of the engines of the play Final Fantasy VII. If it seems from the start not very concerned by the main cause of AVALANCHE , Clad is however justified by the hatred which it tests towards a shade which emerges then from its past: legendary the Sephiroth, old floret of the SOLDIER mysteriously disappeared nearly five years before.

In the engagements, Clad is a very balanced character, who illustrates himself so much by his capacities of combatant than by his control of the magic. The pace physical of the hero, vigorous and youthful, his hair in battle, its paramilitary behavior and especially its massive sword (the crushing sword ) reflect the warlike power of the character. It is initially remote and distant, even cold and without emotion, then packs history progressively.

Genesis of a creation

According to Tetsuya Nomura, the first version of the character had black hair gominés and combed behind, without points, to contrast with those of Sephiroth long, silver plated and floating. To accentuate the role of leader of Clad, Nomura finally gratifié it of an extravagant fair hairstyle, in spades, characteristic of the mangas.

The original English name of the character (Cloud Strife) evokes his personality and its psychological disorders, but also its mysterious last. The verb “to cloud” and the word “strife” assembled give as well the idea of an interior fight as misty memories, filled up mysteries. But “cloud” - “English cloud” - also returns to the basically soft and peaceful original character of the character, of an almost childish innocence, become warlike by accident if one can say, and easily prone to the melancholy, even with - state depresses which heavily handicaps it in the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

A complicated past

Clad is a particularly weak and introverted little boy. It passes its childhood in the same village as his friend Tifa, with Nibelheim, and is high only by his/her mother (it loses his father very early). Contrary to Tifa, very popular in its village, it is the scapegoat of the inhabitants who do not hesitate to make him endorse the responsibility for various incidents and to make him undergo brimades. By spirit of revenge and to cause the admiration of his friend, it decides at thirteen years to engage in the prestigious crack corps of the Shinra, the SOLDIER , whose Large Sephiroth - its adulated model - is then officer as a chief, and leaves his birthplace for the mégapole Midgar. But it fails in this ambition and must be satisfied with a station of simple guard.

A drama does all then to rock: it accompanies one day Sephiroth at the time of a mission with Nibelheim during which this one, discovering that it is only the fruit of odious genetic engineering, dark in a fatal madness and starts a fire which devastates the birthplace of Clad - and the death of his/her mother causes - before disappearing in the depths from the ground… When during the play it proves that Sephiroth is always alive, Clad is obsessed only by one thing: to kill.

During its search at the sides of AVALANCHE , Clad ends up discovering with the assistance of Tifa that its memories concerning its past of member of the SOLDIER are false: it is in fact suitable the identity of called a Zack Fair, SOLDIER of 1st Class and friend of Clad when it was useful in the army of the Shinra. At the conclusion of the catastrophe of Nibelheim, which they survived, they were both imprisoned to be used as guinea-pigs to the professor Hojo, the insane scientist of the Shinra. This last injects then in Clad of the Mako as of the cells of Jénova - entity extraterrestrial arrival 2000 years before during the fall of a meteor and discovered at the time dune scientific expedition - with an aim of renewing the experiment of Sephiroth. The scientist the sequestration with Nibelheim in the Shinra manor and inflicts this treatment during five years to them…

But Zack succeeds in one day being released from the claws of Hojo and well badly takes along with him Clad in point. While fleeing, they are caught up with by the army of the Shinra which cuts down Zack and leaves Clad for death. Insane pain, Clad seizes with its alarm clock the massive sword his/her friend and ends up reaching Midgar, completely lost. The scientific experiments which it has just undergone make him unconsciously assimilate the life of SOLDIER of Zack, which becomes his. The weak character who it was then leaves the place to the hero who it always wanted to be.

Anti-hero and exceptionally gifted

Clad Strife is representative of a generation of characters close to the anti-hero. Its initially advantageous appearance tarnishes when his past is discovered. He is fragile and silent child in turn, anonymous guard of escort living in the shade of an exceptionally gifted friend, amnesic mercenary being caught for another, even simple pawn wandering in a disillusioned world and energy of bad surprise in disasters. Undoubtedly this apparent brittleness contributed to give of Clad Strife the indication of a character sensitive and tortured who caused from the start the sympathy of the players of the whole world, even their identification. Its fight against large the Sephiroth takes sometimes forms of interior conflict: Clad fears to be only one incomplete copy of Sephiroth, to which it should have resembled if the experiment of which it is the object in the history had not failed.

However, far from opinion scorning of Hojo with its regard (opinion which reflects only its disappointed ambitions), Clad is well a specimen with share. Its marginality with respect to other creations of Hojo watch its capacities - and even its destiny - to reverse the system. Able to show an authority considered and posed, it takes quickly the head of AVALANCHE in the place of impulsive the Barret Wallace. And especially it is that which resists best the psychic capacities of Jénova, contrary to Sephiroth which remains constantly under the influence of the monster and its intentions, even in death.

Contrary to Zack Fair or Sephiroth, it takes a certain time for Clad Strife to appear. Clad however has a superhuman force which natural, is hidden to him with the subsoil of its being and which breaks out only in the extreme situations; in the history this one appears for the first time during the incident of Nibelheim when Sephiroth impales the young still anonymous guard at the end of its long sword and suspends it above the vacuum. Besides Sephiroth remains the principal instigator of these spectacular overrides which, doped thereafter by the experiments of Hojo, make of Clad the only being able to demolish the old animal of war of the Shinra and implicitly the essential actor of the survival of a world whose Jénova, by the means of its champion, thinks only of vampiriser energy.

The Fallen angel and the Elected official

Before its disappearance with Nibelheim, Sephiroth is a famous and adulated hero, being used as advertizing ambassador with the order in place which employs it as well like super-warrior as like brand image. But a fault appears gradually during the play between this triumphal front and the slides of one spirit to the painful history, condemned to a tragic destiny. False-not inescapable is enough at the extraterrestrial present in its body by the means of cells injected, “to take the orders”. Jénova resounds like the commun run of Midgardiens at this time: it seizes that which with the eyes of all is strongest. The master card of the opposing party - Clad Strife - leaves then a long period of gestation and appears with its adversary only at the exact moment when this one consumes its fall: it is the famous scene of animated Last Order, on the platform of the engine of Nibelheim.

Clad and Sephiroth form an indissociable binomial. Each one is one to put forward for the other, this would be only on the visual level (even if it is traditional japanimation to associate hair in spades and hair very long). They know similar tests, in the slides of the Shinra in particular; they have a common “relationship”, Jénova. And especially they are one like the other the showpieces of a scenario which exceeds them and which opposes two distinct parties: the terrestrial party (the Planet, Cetras and their ambassadress Aeris) and the extraterrestrial party (Jénova). After the crisis of Nibelheim, the destiny is indeed given the responsability to mitigate the deficiencies of the future herald of Planet: during the experiments of Hojo, the insurance and the know-how of the 1st Class Zack Fair infuse in its body and its spirit during five years, like catching up with a missed trajectory. The achievement of new Clad is total besides only after the elimination of Zack in the history.

Mythological references

In the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, a foreign reason with the play makes its appearance. Clad Strife indeed carries on its shoulder staples metal representing a head of wolf. The same applies to its earrings and the edge of its gloves. Impossible to tame, the wolf is with the Japan as well a symbol of loneliness as of insubordination. This one advantageously replaces curious bindings which Clad in Final Fantasy VII raises, by which the authors wanted to express his mental instability, even “the dissimulation of its past”.

The imposing named black motor bike Fenrir which Clad in film has embroiders on the same topic. In Scandinavian mythology, Fenrir is the name of a wolf with which one prophesies that it will take part in the Ragnarok, a combat which must see the destruction of the Gods before the end of the world. Being afraid of this prophecy, the Gods kidnap Fenrir and ask Asgard to supervise it. Fenrir is extremely wild and it is impossible to tame it; only Tyr, God of the War, dares to approach him (and its arm leaves there!). When Ragnarok takes place, Fenrir is released finally and devoured until Odin in person. It is the son of Odin, Vidar, which will avenge his/her father by killing the wolf.

Considered to be dangerous and unceasingly thorough with end, Fenrir is the subject of ceaseless attempts at handling by the Gods to be controlled, but in vain. Clad, in a similar way, faces with final its various manipulators: Hojo, Jénova and of course Sephiroth, which is the interface of the evil during the essence of the play. Besides to note that at the time of this ultimate battle Sephiroth revêt more pace of a god - with double aureole and multiples pairs of wings - who that of an human being.

Other appearances

One finds this character in Ehrgeiz (Playstation), Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation), Kingdom Hearts (PlayStation 2), Kingdom Hearts 2 (Playstation 2), Kingdom Hearts Chain off Memories (PSP and GBA), Itadaki Street (PlayStation 2) and as a character hidden in Chocobo Racing (PlayStation). One of course finds it in the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children as principal hero, like like supporting character in animated the Last Order: Final Fantasy VII at the sides of Zack Fair.

Doubling

In Japanese, Clad was doubled by Nozomu Sasaki in Ehrgeiz then by Takahiro Sakurai in the remainder of its appearances (Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Advent Children, Last Order, and Dirge off Cerberus).

the English voice of Clad is that of Steve Burton; one hears it in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Advent Children, and Dirge off Cerberus (Last Order Na not doubled in English).

the French voice of Clad is that of Tanguy Goa.

Internal bonds

Characters of Final Fantasy VII

External bonds

Enix Public garden - the company of video games creative of the character of Clad Strife
Homage to Clad Strife - the site of Stacey Anne
Schism - Site dedicated to Clad Strife
Parts off Discharge - Forum of admirors of Clad Strife
cloudstrife.com - the site of an admiror of Clad Strife
DeviantART - most beautiful fanarts inspired by the character of Clad Strife on DeviantART
Eternal Coils - All on Clad & Tifa
Hikari - All on Clad & Aerith

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