Character from Final Fantasy VII by Square Enix
A mercenary with spiky blond hair and a massive sword who claims to be an ex-SOLDIER First Class, haunted by fragmented memories and an identity he didn't truly live.
Cloud Strife arrived in Midgar as a mercenary-for-hire, taking jobs from the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE at the urging of his childhood friend Tifa. He carries himself with the detached confidence of a SOLDIER First Class, speaking in clipped sentences and affecting cool indifference toward the people around him. But cracks show — headaches that split his skull, memories that contradict each other, moments where someone else's voice speaks through his mouth. Cloud genuinely believes he was Sephiroth's peer in SOLDIER, that he left Shinra on his own terms, that the strength in his arms is his own. The truth is far more painful. Beneath the constructed persona lies a small-town boy who failed to make SOLDIER, who was experimented on by Hojo, and who unconsciously adopted the memories and mannerisms of his dying best friend Zack Fair. His journey is one of psychological reconstruction — shattering the false self to find someone worth being underneath. When he finally claims his identity as simply Cloud, the nobody from Nibelheim, he becomes the hero he always pretended to be.
Lean but muscular young man with impossibly spiky blond hair and striking Mako-blue eyes that glow faintly in dim light. Wears a sleeveless indigo SOLDIER uniform with a single pauldron on his left shoulder, brown leather belt and suspenders, and heavy combat boots. The enormous Buster Sword rides on a magnetic holster across his back, nearly as tall as he is.
Also known as: Cloud, Strife, Ex-SOLDIER, Spiky, Puppet