During your recent run of Final Fantasy VII, or one of the Remake titles, did you ever stop to wonder, “Who’s this dude’s dad?” Well, many have tried to uncover the truth, and none have been successful. Until now. We’ve scraped the bottom of Midgar and have found ten potential suspects and dissected their backstories to uncover the true secrets of Gaia. So, come with us as we take you through the 10 potentially neglectful dads who could have donated their DNA to our boy Cloud.
Suspect #1: Cid Highwind
Next to Barret, Cid gives off the most dad energy in the main party. They are similar in that they are both bold and brash, but rest assured, they do not belong in the trash. He does have a caring streak, which he expresses a lot with Cloud. Bonus points to the fact that they are both blonde with blue eyes. However, this theory is quickly disproven with Cid only being 11 when Cloud was born, which would be a tad bit problematic.
Suspect #2: Palmer
He loves butter in his tea, and who do we know that had butter coloured hair? Well, half the cast, honestly, but also Claudia! It just makes sense.
Suspect #3: Andrea
Don’t you find it suspicious that Cloud, all stoic and traumatised and doesn’t allow himself to have any fun, can suddenly turn around and become a savant dancer and Honeybee Inn superstar? Mighty suspicious, I think. And that’s precisely why Andrea is a key suspect in this case. The loving and longing way he spies Cloud and just knows that he would get the choreography down so quickly just screams fatherly values. It’s clearly in Cloud’s genes to be a fabulous star, and maybe in another timeline this would be his calling. There are no key details to disprove this theory, so he remains a suspect.
Suspect #4: Vincent
He was stationed in Nibelheim for years, and he was always a dramatic, edgy boy who needed looking after. Remember Cloud’s mum telling him he needed an older girl to look after him? Some parallels there. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. The fact that he got shot and turned into a vampie boy might explain why Cloud’s dad is missing, too. They’re both broody as hell, they seem to vibe in Advent Children, and Cloud inherited Vincent’s entire fit in Kingdom Hearts. This definitely feels like a guy helping out his son.
Only hitch here is that Vincent was always pretty hung up on Lucrecia, but she’s a bitch anyway, so I don’t mind if he found some fun elsewhere.
Suspect #5: President Shinra Snr
He was the most powerful man in the world with a mansion in Cloud’s hometown, and he’s known to be at least fertile since Rufus exists. Speaking of, there are some definite visual similarities between Cloud and Rufus. It’s like Square really likes their blonde twinks and twunks in this game for real. Claudia might not have even known who he was if we’re going with this theory, since we know Shinra likes to dress up from the scene we see in the Honey Bee Inn. Maybe he was in disguise?
Suspect #6: Hojo
This one is a little meta, admittedly. Besides the obvious, that he was present in Nibelheim at roughly the right time to have been involved with Claudia, Hojo being the dad could be very thematic. Hojo is already Sephiroth’s father, and through the course of the game, Cloud and Sephiroth are revealed to both have Jenovah cells, with Sephiroth counting Jenovah as his mother. That seems pretty poetic that they would be so closely related and be fated to clash.
There’s also the fact that the dev team toyed with the idea of Sephy being related to a main character already, with an earlier version of the story having Aerith and Sephiroth being siblings. It doesn’t seem insane that they could have transferred that idea to Cloud as a hidden detail.
Suspect #7: Angeal
What if the Buster Sword was meant to be handed down from father to son, and Cloud was destined to have it rather than Zack? Well, I really think Angeal could make for a loving dad, teaching him to wield and properly take care of his sword. But we all know how Cloud mistreats the sword and swings it around haphazardly. Angeal would be incredibly disappointed and would lecture Cloud for hours on end; no son of his would be so reckless with his baby.
Suspect #8: Zack Fair
Now, I know what you’re thinking: how would this even be possible? And I will stare you firmly in the eyes and utter; Time Travel. Yep, some time manipulation nonsense has happened here, and Zack caused the birth of Cloud, who, in turn, stole his dad’s identity, creating the cycle of trauma throughout the VII series. Now, have you ever heard of dumbapples? Because this author has been eating a few too many of them, if they think this is at all a plausible theory.
Suspect #9: The Hell House
Am I seriously considering the evil robotic shed to have laid some pipe and somehow produced a stoic blonde twink of a child? Yes! Does this make sense? No, but what happens in the Hell House stays in the Hell House. Maybe Claudia wasn’t chosen to be Don Corneo’s wife and settled for an even more homely gentleman to take her in with open doors. Look at him. He puts the dom in domicile.
Just imagine finding out your dad, who abandoned you, was residence evil, and was also in an underground fighting arena. Yeah, makes sense why Cloud would put a stop to it.
Suspect #10: Whisper 37
Final Fantasy VII has an underlying message about respecting the environment. We need to give back what we take from Mother Nature and maintain some independence from the megacorporations lining their pockets and cultivating John Carpenter’s The Thing at our expense.
Having said that, while I appreciate that Cloud’s mum uses a rag instead of tissues, maybe she should have done her due diligence and made sure it wasn’t a fertile time ghost first.
Conclusion
Well, it appears this wasn’t as clear-cut as we thought. Any of these guys could be Cloud’s dad, and we didn’t even talk about Sephiroth! Hope you had fun with our silly antics and will offer your 100% accurate fan theories on who Cloud’s dad is in the comments. Or our Discord.
Video game completionist and 3D platformer connoisseur, Riley is a fan of the whimsical frenzy of bright and colourful characters that blessed us in the late 90's. Their favourite game's are Spyro, Persona 5 and Super Mario Sunshine.
You'll see me everywhere here. Mostly I stream and fix things when they break. You might find me writing an odd article or two too. Hope you enjoy the site!
He/Him
A flamboyant ultra nerd, Dave participates in the Underlevelled Tournament both for the thrill of the fight, and to avenge the orphans lost in the climax of the previous tournament.
Born: London
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