Characters / Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged - Main Characters

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Dragon Ball Z Abridged | Hellsing Ultimate Abridged | Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged (Main Characters)

The main characters in Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged. For the source material, Remake or Rebirth, see the FFVII and VII Remake character subpages.

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Cloud Strife

Cloud Strife, a.k.a. "Blonde Zack", "Croudo-kun", and "Thunderhead".

"Trust me! I was in SOLDIER!"

Voiced by: Justin Briner

The main hero of the series, who claims to be a former First Class member of SOLDIER, Shinra's elite task force. Doing Tifa a solid, he works as a mercenary for AVALANCHE until he botches his first mission, and is forced to join them.

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• Adaptational Wimp: The normally badass and aloof Cloud from the game is played like a confused, naive, whiny kid who's in way over his head. He does have his moments to shine, though.
• All Men Are Perverts: A big contributing factor as to why Cloud began hanging out with Tifa when he was twelve was because she had "pretty eyes"; an adult Cloud admits that he was definitely not looking at her eyes.
• Anime Hair: Lampshaded quite a bit in Episode 2; Barret notes that it makes him instantly recognizable from an otherwise laughably crude police sketch, while Tifa brings it up during her Prison Rape threat to Cloud, saying there's "so much to grab onto".
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Ends up beating out Tifa and Aerith in Corneo's mansion. Hearing about his misadventures while crossdressing is the only way Tifa can cheer Barret up during his Heroic BSoD.
• Awesome Mc Cool Name: Barret comments on it in Episode 25.
  Barret: Hold on, your last name is Strife? That's a Bad. Ass. Name.
• Badass Boast: He drops a legitimate one before flinging Sephiroth into a wall by the Masamune that was skewering him at that moment.
  I'm Cloud... from Nibelheim... ...and I'm SOLDIER, damnit!!
  • Follows it up during his final mental battle with Sephiroth:
  Sephiroth: Who the hell do you think you are...
  (Cloud tears him to shreds with Omnislash)
  Cloud: I'm Cloud... never forget that...
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Back in his SOLDIER days, Cloud's dream was to be just like Sephiroth, and he made it no small secret to his hero. Sephiroth made good on this by making him motherless, just like he was.
• BFS: His Buster Sword; its evident impracticality is discussed in Episode 10.
• Bottled Heroic Resolve: Does some drugs to get into the right mindset to get Disguised in Drag and save Tifa. Unfortunately, they make him so loopy that he wastes two hours in the changing booth and comes down before going in.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Cloud was a fan of Sephiroth (at fanboyish levels) in the past. That it until Sephiroth went insane and slaughtered everyone in his hometown, including his mother, which he rubbed in Cloud's face.
  • His friendship with Caith Sith massively goes south after spotting him with the Keystone and giving it to Tseng, and revealing that he was a Sixth Ranger Traitor and not a fortune teller. Everyone else, sans Tifa, is on the boat with Cloud on this one. They eventually reconciled after this.
• Butt-Monkey: There isn't an episode that doesn't make a joke at his expense. The jokes center around his apparently girly appearance, his inability to back up any of his threats, and how he always seems to cause trouble for AVALANCHE in some way. Lampshaded by Cait Sith in Episode 25:
  Cait Sith: Welcome back, Cloud! We were worried that if you didn't show up, we'd have to move all our insults to Vincent.
  Cid: F*** that! That dude eats people!
• Calling Your Attacks: Does this in Episode 3, much to Barret's exasperation.
  Cloud: SOLDIER Bolt!
  Barret: (whispering) I can't believe you named it...
• Character Catchphrase: "I was in SOLDIER, damn it!" It even extends to him prefacing his attack names with "SOLDIER".
• Childhood Friends: True to source material, Tifa and Cloud are childhood friends, though it seems that Tifa took advantage of Cloud as a kid to do stupid stuff for her. As it turns out though this is subverted with the revelations made in episode 29 about Cloud's memory issues. While Cloud and Tifa were neighbours growing up the two didn't really know each other that well and Cloud didn't have any friends in Nibelheim. The first time the two really interacted was when he visited her after Tifa's mom died and the water tower scene, which Cloud believed was the first time the two meet, was actually the last time they interacted before Cloud left to join SOLDIER.
• Character Development:
  • After a whole season of enduring Tifa's abuse and bad influence, episode 10 gave rise to Cloud giving her "The Reason You Suck" Speech after one insult too many.
  • A generally dark example. Cloud begins the series as a wimpy, accident-prone ditz who spends most of his time in the first season being a victim of circumstance and rarely getting to make his own decisions in life. By the beginning of Season 2, he increasingly puts on a brave face and adopts a condescending attitude to prove to others and himself that he's as strong as he thinks he is. This leads him to piss off his friends for no good reason, jump into danger without a second thought, and erodes the dorky, genuinely nice traits that make him likable. His increasing focus on revenge for Sephiroth's atrocities lead him down a path of callousness and practicality that strains his relationships with Tifa and Aerith especially. When Aerith is killed off at the end of Season 3, the character that was once a friendly, outgoing Nice Guy has become the kind of stoic, serious leader his game counterpart was typically Flanderized into becoming.
  • After his mind is restored, Cloud comes to terms with what really happened in the past and becomes a lot smarter when it comes to planning. He's also gotten over the need to be recognized as a former member of SOLDIER, realizing that they were just bullies who wanted power for the sake of being powerful, whereas he and Zack wanted power to protect others, to be true heroes.
• Compensating for Something: He gets rather defensive when people call his Buster Sword a "hunk of metal on a stick".
• Creepy Monotone: Following Aerith's murder, barring the battle with Jenova-DEATH, he's pretty much stuck in no-nonsense monotone, showing the depths of his anger. Once Sephiroth breaks him that he has Fake Memories, he goes full on robotic in tone.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Cloud is whiny and fucks up a lot, but rather skilled and strong in combat when allowed. The others have no idea he took out a pair of guards in a matter of seconds while treating their attacks as if they were minor annoyances.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has plenty of moments of making snarky comments at his companions. Especially when he's fed up with them.
  Tifa: Ever since the Shintranet was invented, I've been ranked number three on badbarbitches.biz, ok?
  Cloud: You own that bronze medal, Tifa...
  Tifa: At least I won something!
  Cloud: Does that night at Don Corneo's not count?
• Did They or Didn't They?: Much like in the original game it's left ambiguous if Cloud and Tifa consummated their relationship during their night under the Highwind before the Final Battle with Sephiroth. Red even lampshades it by loudly asking if the two fucked.
• Disappeared Dad: Lampshaded and Played for Laughs during his conversation with Red in Episode 19.
  Cloud: "My dad... well he was—"
  Red: "—never around?"
  Cloud: "Well, yeah. But that was because I never knew him in the first place."
  Red: "Because he abandoned you."
  Cloud: (Trying to sound sardonic) "WHAAAT? Nooo! (sniffs) I mean if he did, I'm sure he had a good reason."
  Red: (venomously) "The reason was because you were born."
• Disguised in Drag: For the Don Corneo's mansion infiltration, of course.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He was called a beautiful girl by Aerith's mom, and Don Corneo's henchman finds him attractive.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Out of everyone in the party, Cloud seems to take the news of Cait Sith being a Shinra Spy the hardest, feeling genuinely betrayed instead of angry.
  Cloud: brink of tears I don't even f***ing know you anymore, man…
• Even the Guys Want Him: Many of the characters from both genders are shown to be attracted to him, including Aerith, Don Corneo, and Don Corneo's doorman.
• Explosive Stupidity: Technically averted, in that Cloud never manages to kill himself or his teammates with explosives, but he comes pretty darn close several times. His first major, and memorable, f#@$-up was during the Reactor-1 bombing when he set the bomb timer for 5 minutes instead of 10, and then setting it for ONE minute when he tried to fix it.
  • In Season 4 when Cloud starts trying to disarm A Giant Materia bomb, loaded on a ramshakle rocket, in SPAAAACCEE!!! Barret, who's nowhere near where this is going on, starts to get jumpy. Thankfully, Cloud had learned his lesson by that point, and lets Cid deal with it. While something does blow up later, it legitimately isn't Cloud's fault.
  Tifa: Barret, is everything alright?
  Barret: I sense... a disturbance...
  Cuts to Cid and Cloud
  Cid: You let me take care of that.
  Cloud: Yeah, good call.
  Cuts back to Barret
  Barret: F**k up averted.
• Fake Memories: In which Zack calls him out on, since he asked Cloud if he remembers it correctly.
• Freudian Excuse: Cloud's obsession with both strength and SOLDIER started when he failed to save Tifa from falling off a bridge on the way to Mount Nibel causing the both of them to fall hundreds of feet. While Cloud only scrapped his knee, Tifa fell into a coma from her injuries. Tifa's father blamed Cloud for Tifa's near death experience, yelling it's no wonder all the kids hated Cloud when he was so weak and told Cloud to stay away from his daughter.
• Friendless Background: Episode 29 reveals that Cloud didn't have any friends growing up with Tifa just being a neighbor he hung out with time to time then a friend. His first real talk with her was him telling her that he was leaving.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Cloud has been shunted into this role due to fucking up the first mission, making practically everyone in AVALANCHE see him as an annoying hindrance that they have no choice but to keep around. Even Tifa, who cares about Cloud deep down, treated him like shit. Aerith and Red XIII are the first characters who actually treat him well. Cloud's status as The Friend Nobody Likes progressively dies down during Season 2, and is definitely gone after episode 29 (barring a Produce Pelting Lame Pun Reaction, though the smirk on his face beneath all the tomatoes says it was Worth It).
• Hearing Voices: He frequently hears a mysterious voice in his head that tells him what to do and constantly brings up his past. It's Zack, due to having absorbed his memories and personality.
  • Played much more comedically in episode 22 when Cloud has gone mad from being stranded in the ocean and decides he can only trust Jojo, the talking Chocobo only he can hear. Though reading Jojo's Sdrawkcab Speech reveals a more sinister truth to this case.
• Hero Worship:
  • Cloud considered Sephiroth his hero when he first joined the SOLDIER program and Shinra. But after he lost his mind, Cloud has nothing but disdain for him. Episode 29 reveals that he worshiped Sephiroth for his strength, fame and popularity which Cloud didn't have as a child.
  • He seems to have adopted this view for Cid, following his introduction. Cloud is left in awe by Cid's ferocity, foul language and his Rousing Speech to the point he wants him to be a part of their group, even though he doesn't even have a reason to join them.
• Heroic BSoD: After the Internal Reveal about the Awful Truth is shown to Cloud, he basically shuts down completely. Hojo calling Cloud a "failure" has Cloud agree immediately.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Cloud seems to really dislike Shinra Security with him calling them the cheapest, laziest and unreliable security force with special disdain for Ramirez in episode 16. "Ramirez" doesn't exist, and was actually Cloud as viewed through his altered memories.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: In the second season, in his bid to be more of a badass, Cloud has a repeated habit of acting like a insensitive Jerkass to the rest of the party. It blows up in his face hard and he promptly apologizes to Aerith for it in episode 23. Thankfully, she doesn't take it against him.
• I Hate Past Me: This is why Cloud wanted to join SOLDIER. Tifa went up Mount Nibel to find her mother after she died, and when Cloud went after her, a bridge collapsed and they fell hundreds of feet. Cloud miraculously only scraped his knee, but Tifa was in a coma for a week and her father told Cloud that if he wasn't a weak nobody, it wouldn't have happened. His words struck a chord with Cloud, and when he found out about the SOLDIER program, he told Tifa he was going to join and promised that once he returned to Nibelheim, he'd be strong enough to protect her. Unfortunately, he didn't get into SOLDIER and wound up as just another dime a dozen Shinra MP. He was ashamed of himself, believing he broke his promise to Tifa, and after he absorbed Zack's memories, he projected all of this guilt and self-loathing onto his "Ramirez" persona.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: The whole premise of Cloud's character here is his attempts to come across as a badass SOLDIER, which only make him seem insufferable and pathetic. If you know the story from the game, this isn't that inaccurate to Cloud in canon, just exaggerated to make it funny. He gets over this after his true memories are restored, even to the point of brushing off the idea of being SOLDIER, knowing that being badass isn't the same thing as being a hero to look up to.
• I Resemble That Remark!: When Yuffie identifies him as the "little brother who throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way", he responds with a particularly whiny remark.
  Cloud: I do not throw tantrums!
• Identical Stranger: The "Blonde Zack" title isn't a one-off joke. Even Zack's parents note that Cloud looks just like him, except blonde.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Cloud is left a watery eyed, running nose mess by the trashing of the buggy, lamenting the loss of the seat warmers.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: As Barret states in Episode 12, he is driven to prove his strength to not only everyone around him, but also to himself.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Compared to the others, his is given special attention due to the effort required to getting it. Unlike in game, he doesn't get it from killing Ultimate Weapon. Rather, Ultimate bequeaths it to him as recognition for AVALANCHE being recognized by the Weapons as actual saviors rather than threats to the Planet.
• Informed Flaw: He is the butt of many Dude Looks Like a Lady jokes, but he doesn't look that effeminate in his profile pic.
• Innocently Insensitive: A lot of Cloud's idle comments and remarks can be pretty insensitive towards his companions, like casually telling Barret to get over the loss of his village, and stating that the buggy is "dead and never coming back" after Aerith learned about Zack's death. However, most of it is unintentional and just a result of Cloud's hiding his Hidden Heart of Gold and utter cluelessness. He admits he believed this was a trait of a badass, and subsequently drops the attitude.
• It's All My Fault: Episode 29 reveals that Cloud's desire to join SOLDIER was because he blamed himself for failing to save Tifa when they both fell off a bridge in their youth.
• Kick the Dog: Makes several insensitive remarks to the party as the series goes on, but his biggest instance is in episode 22, where he coldly states that Yuffie's no longer a priority to them after she steals their Materia and leaves. He only retracts his opinion after Tifa and especially Aerith voice concerns about her.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Parodied. He cheerfully proposes stealing as a viable option to solve Tifa's poisoning, despite Barret’s objections, and later ignores his "Wallace Wisdom" to steal a pair of sunglasses just so he can look cool. Engages in Hypocritical Humor when it comes to Yuffie.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": His younger self does this in his flashback to how he met Sephiroth. Sephiroth is amazingly chill about it, until he "makes [Cloud] just like him" by showing him what it's like to not have a mother.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • He seems to have a bit of trouble with other people's tragedies. Given that lack of empathy is a sign of Disassociation, which Cloud has a Mako-induced and drastically exaggerated case of, it makes a lot of sense it'd be one of his biggest flaws.
  • When Sephiroth muses about the tragedy of the dragon they killed in self-defense likely having children that will die without their mother, he brushes it off to hype up Sephiroth's combat skills.
  • When Nibelheim is razed and Tifa stands next to the body of her murdered father, begging him to wake up, he asks in awe about Sephiroth's sword. When she is critically injured, he's audibly trying to not Squee because Sephiroth used one of his one-liners. He only shows indignation at the situation when Sephiroth reveals he wronged him personally by killing his mother.
  • When he learns Barret's backstory his response is to just tell him to get over it which causes him to explode on him and Red, who didn't deserve it. He keeps this going well into Barret's dramatic showdown with Dyne, which gets him bitten twice by a legitimately annoyed Red XIII.
  • When he meets Zack's parents in Gongaga, he tells them right to their faces that Zack is dead and never coming home. Aerith, who is revealed to be Zack's ex-girlfriend, just silently walks out of the house and spends the rest of the episode visibly depressed, while Zack's mother is understandably pissed and venomously tells Cloud to Get Out!.
    • To Cloud's credit he's clearly ashamed about this one in Episode 19, his voice becoming awkward around Aerith.
  • Even in Season 1, he displayed this to a degree, with his response to Tifa being angry at how casually he's treating SHINRA dropping a section of the city on top of the section she lives in being to point out that, of the three people there, she's the only one that lives in that section.
  • Tifa explains the reason for her kindness to Aerith is because she knows the pain of losing someone important and how important it is to talk to someone. As Tifa starts to talk about her father, Cloud brushes her off and walks away.
  • When Yuffie brings up the Wutai war and how many of the Wutai died in the war, Cloud is not only flippant of the deaths but even laughs as he remembers it. Though he does regret his actions the second when Yuffie reveals Wutai is her home. And Zack's memories were giving him almost zero context behind what actually happened.
  • He drops this after his date with Aerith, admitting to her that he believed this trope was the sign of a badass, except it just hurt people around him. It's definitely gone after episode 29, and is show throughout the finale movie to be better at empathy than he used to be, such as wordlessly signaling Barret to give Red time alone with his dying grandfather.
• Loser Protagonist: He screws up the simplest of tasks, shows next to no battle experience, and gets ditched, extorted and berated by his "friends" on a regular basis.
• Made of Iron: Credit where it's due, Cloud is rather durable in spite of all of his bragging. He's been able to walk off gunshot wounds and falling from extreme heights. He was like this even as a kid, when he fell off a hundreds-feet-tall cliff, only getting a scraped knee.
• Meaningful Name: Parodied. His mom apparently named him because she wanted him to shoot for the stars, but expected him to only get half-way.
• Mistaken for Gay: Aerith's comments about "making him a girl" lead several people to believe that Cloud is transgender. They're all supportive, and help him without further question.
• Momma's Boy: Despite their bickering, Cloud says he loves his mother. So much that, when he revisits Nibelheim, one of the first things he does is barge into his house while calling for her. When Cloud found out Sephiroth killed her, he loses his respect for him and swore revenge.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Aerith tells him that Zack was her boyfriend — right after he'd told Zack's parents right to their faces that he's dead — Cloud unironically realizes he f**ked up.
• Nice Guy: In his own way. But episode 11's Whole Episode Flashback reveals that he was like this, and the poor guy lost Kowalski, who was his best friend. Now jump to the present, and we see Cloud taking huge levels of Jerkass, which manifests in Season 2. After coming to terms with his Fake Memories and the truth of his past in Season 4, he regains this status once more. In fact, after clearing up his past with the party, he then sets it aside to ask about them, showing he's no longer as concerned with feeling important.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Let us count the ways he "fucks up" in the first two episodes: he neglects to hide the bodies of the guards he kills, sets a time bomb to explode in 1 minute instead of 10, and he conspicuously struts around and sarcastically labels himself an AVALANCHE member, thus leaving him stuck with them (and vice versa).
• No-Respect Guy: Starts as this in Season 1 - Barret and Tifa constantly abuse him, and the rest of AVALANCHE is shown not to care when he seemingly dies. He starts losing this towards the end of Season 3, when the truths about him start to unravel, and, after his own Character Development, it pretty much disappears.
• No Social Skills: Cloud has little to no ability to pick up other people's feelings and read social cues, causing him a lot of problems.
  • His attempt to cheer up Barrett in episode 16, tell him to get over it. Unsurprisingly it ended horribly.
  • Cloud keeps making smart-alec comments during Barret's confrontation with Dyne, causing Red XIII of all characters to bite him to shut him up.
  • His worst example is badmouthing Zack in front of the guy's worried parents and his former girlfriend. He does apologize for it later, admitting that this trope is somewhat invoked on his part because this made him seem badass.
  • Regaining his memories have him finally avert this trope, given that he was the one who silently cued Barret to let Red have his time with the dying Bugenhagen, something that would've been uncharacteristic of pre-episode 23 Cloud.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his protestations about the crossdressing thing being done to save Tifa, the whole reason he agreed to it to the first place is because Aerith genuinely told him he'd look great in a dress (and better than Tifa), and he even admitted that his dress is actually really comfortable.
• Not What I Signed Up For: When he agreed to do a "solid" for Tifa, he didn't expect to do it by helping a terrorist cell blow up factories run by the Planet's chief energy provider.
• Only Sane Man: Usually, in his less wimpy moments. His most notable moment being referring to AVALANCHE's activities being terrorism.
• Pretty Boy: Implied by Tifa, called a girl by Aerith's mom, and the door guard at the Don's mansion implies he'd hit it.
• Pungeon Master: Cloud really loves to use puns but they're rather horrible to Tifa and Barrett's annoyance. Cloud loves them so much he even congratulates a very unhinged Dyne on his use of a pun.
• Rage Breaking Point: In Episode 10, Tifa's comment about how Cloud "feels safest when he's next to me" causes Cloud to flash back too all the bullshit she put him through all season, capped off with a bell dinging as if to say his fury is at capacity.
  • Also, Sephiroth taunting him over Aerith's death, which leads to him saying this quote:
  Cloud: The only thing I'm going to break... is your neck! And I don't care if you can control me, I'm going to get free and take you out myself! And that's a promise that I'm going to keep!
• The Scapegoat: Cloud becomes the face of AVALANCHE, thanks to a combination of his own bravado and Barret throwing him under the bus.
• Seadog Beard: Cuts off bits of his hair and attaches them (explicitly without glue) to his face in order to make one of these while the party is stranded on the Tiny Bronco in the middle of the ocean.
• Survivor's Guilt: When Cloud goes to see Tifa to go find her mother at Mount Nibel, a bridge collapsed and they fell hundreds of feet Cloud only scraped a knee but Tifa went into a coma. Her father chews him out for it, calling him a "weak little shit". He then decided to join SOLDIER for her.
• Theme Naming: A lot of his attacks include SOLDIER in their names.
• Third Wheel: Non-romantic example. Barret goes to confront his mad former friend Dyne with Red XIII providing moral support... and Cloud is there just because. He proceeds to spend the whole dramatic encounter making stupid comments until Red bites him to shut him up. Really, this trope applies to most of the story events of the rest of the cast due to gameplay limitations.
• Took a Level in Badass: Cloud exhibits more of a backbone against Tifa and Barret throughout the first season, culminating in a rant directed at the former for her horrible attitude towards him. Gains this for real along with his taking levels of kindness during Seasons 3 and 4, becoming legitimately more competent as he drops his Leeroy Jenkins habit. Solidified in the movie where he one-shots Jenova Synthisis in a very apro manner.
  Barret: Did you just launch that bitch into space?
  Cloud: F#$@ng right I did!
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Cloud's increasing confidence as of Season 2 also makes him more abrasive as a person. An example being that he recruited Yuffie just to piss Tifa off. Also, his way of cheering Barret up after his past is revealed is just saying 'get over it.' And in episode 18, he states very insensitively to Zack's parents that he's dead.
  • Played the straightest following Aerith's death, as Cloud loses almost any happiness or positivity and acts much closer to his brooding, somber video game counterpart.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • When Tifa says Cloud feels safest with her, he flashbacks to her threats and is quietly pissed. Barret immediately realizes that This Is Going to Suck.
  • After Sephiroth kills Aerith, everyone else in the group is feeling sad or depressed, whereas Cloud is focused and determined, talking only with quiet rage.
• Unreliable Narrator: A lot of Cloud's recollections of his past, from his friendship with Tifa, joining SOLDIER, and returning to Nibelheim, are all unreliable due to his Fake Memories and trauma he received five years ago. It's only at episode 29 that Cloud truly remembers his past, and by association, the audience.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In this version, he sets Sephiroth’s breakdown in motion when he points out that the “Jenova” in the Nibelheim reactor has the same name as his mother.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Episode 12, the others get tired of Cloud's obsession with trying to kill the Migard Zolom, his constant screw-ups with the Chocobo-catching, and constantly mentioning how he was in SOlDIER, with Tifa loudly calling him out on wanting to fight a giant monster who's been kicking their asses and could probably easily kill all of them simply because he wants to prove to himself he's stronger than Sephiroth. It has enough truth that even Aerith is willing to reluctantly admit she has a point.
  • Telling Barret to get over his past causes Barret to blow up on him and Red. Tifa and Yuffie of all people calls him out for his insensitivity.
  • Red XIII bites Cloud and tells him to read the room after one too many irreverent comments during the Dyne fight.
  • Overall is rather insensitive to Zack's parents when he tells them outright how their son is dead which leads to Tifa calling him out and demanding he apologize to Aerith. Sadly this continues when Aerith as she reveals to him that Zack was her former boyfriend.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ever since episode 1, Cloud is noted to be deathly afraid of heights. As of the Cave of Gi, he's also afraid of spikes. Falling from hundreds of feet as a child, and only getting a grazed knee while the girl you were trying to save ending up in a coma might do that to you.

Tifa Lockhart

Tifa "The Liar" Lockhart

"YOUR METAL DICK IS MINE, MOTHERF*CKER!!!"

Voiced by: Sarah Anne Williams

Cloud's childhood friend who insults and threatens him on a regular basis, but seems to care for him deep down. Carries serious issues from her past.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: Compared to The Heart of the team she is in the original game, Tifa is a crass, salty, manipulative bitch who tricks Cloud into doing stupid stuff for her. She also happens to be a traumatized wreck of repressed tragedy and bad memories. Seasons 2-3 helped mellow her out once she starts to talk to someone without being abrasive. Unless your name is Reno.
• Admiring the Abomination: Despite Tankceratops being a dangerous mutated creature thanks to the fallout of Gongaga Village's mako reactor, Tifa admires how absolutely cool it looks. It serves as a Brick Joke when she decides to free it from captivity during her drunken stupor when the gang revisits Gold Saucer.
• Affectionate Nickname: Cid has taken to calling her "Fists".
• The Alcoholic: Comes from working as a bartender. In episode 15, she downs multiple shots of whiskey at Costa Del Sol, and spends at least two scenes visibly drunk.
  Tifa: Alright boys! This here is a drink I call a Roundhouse Blitz. That's where you take your nearest bottle of whiskey and keep pouring until I say "when."
  Bartender: You will say "when", right?
  Tifa: Ah ah ah! Less talky, more poury!
  (later that episode)
  Bartender: (sobbing) She said she'd say 'when' but then 'when' never caaaaame!
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's still the Ms. Fanservice like in the original, but now she has a very unpleasant personality.
• All Women Are Lustful: She certainly seems to be less worried about the idea of her and Cloud being forced to have sex than he is. She even casually states that when they do it, she will be the one in charge.
  • Her reaction to hallucinating that a wall is covered in dicks is to lick it.
• Ass Shove: Has threatened this twice. First her threat to jam her arm "shoulder deep" up Cloud's ass, and later to shove Reno's staff up his.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • For what it's worth, Tifa does seem quite genuinely concerned for Cloud whenever he's in mortal danger or having a Freak Out. Unfortunately for her, this isn't enough for Cloud to look past her immeasurably bitchy attitude in comparison.
    • Episode 29 confirms this, her attitude largely being or started out as a Jerkass act to throw off Cloud noticing her being unusually concerned for him after meeting him again after five years. Reason being that Tifa didn't want to send Cloud into a Heroic BSoD while he was a barely-functional wreck already.
  • This can extend to the rest of the party too, even Yuffie, as shown by her In Vino Veritas moment in Episode 15 where she becomes much friendlier to the rest of the party while she's sloshed and has less inhibitions holding her back.
  • Episode 22 has Tifa open herself up to Yuffie after realizing that they're not that different, and Yuffie is moved to tears by it.
  • In late Season 2 and throughout of Season 3, Tifa has shown that she's grown past her initial jealousy and annoyance towards Aerith in comforting her in Gongaga about Zack and listening to her words when she has her "Not So Different" Remark with Yuffie, Episode 25 gives us the biggest moment when, among all the party members' reactions to Aerith's death, hers is given special attention^note Yuffie crying into Cloud's arms was cut, but Tifa running in tears was kept intact and, when the party trods off to continue chasing Sephiroth, she goes back to lay a bouquet of white and yellow flowers at Aerith's resting place.
• Big-Breast Pride: She offhandedly admits that she's aware she's very stacked when it comes up, but in a nonchalant way that makes it clear she doesn't see what all the fuss is about. She thinks her legs are much better. She does however mention in episode 14 that she believes her well-endowed 'girls' to be a national treasure. She even sarcastically shoots down one of Cloud's insults.
  Cloud: Now I know what it's like to be one of your shirts.
  Tifa: Oh, sick burn, Cloud. I have huge tits.
• Broken Bird: Episode 10 outright states she's as messed-up as she is because of the trauma of watching her father's murder; before that, she might have just been a normal girl. Then again, if her comment about jeopardizing Cloud's future when they were kids is any indication, Tifa has always been like that, and hasn't matured past her teen years. Cloud points out in the Season 1 finale that she's let her father's murder prevent her from maturing.
• Butt-Monkey: When she's not dishing out the pain, she's second to Cloud in suffering it the most.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She's pretty well-endowed, and her breasts are often commented on and a part of why Cloud's attracted to her.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Though she's attracted to Cloud, she often self-sabotages attempts of vocalizing it, including killing the moment with sex jokes and making Freudian Slips about Cloud's rant about being horngry for revenge.
  • Played for Drama with her inability to tell him the truth (or at least the truth she remembers) of the Nibelheim Incident. When it all blows up in her face after Cloud learns the Awful Truth, Tifa is completely crushed.
• Character Catchphrase: "Could you do me a solid?" and any variations thereof. Episode 11 reveals that she picked up this phrase from her father.
• Character Development:
  • Tifa lets slip that she might actually care about Cloud as the show continues, expressing some genuine worry when he performs risky actions. Her insults also become much less profane, though this doesn't save her from Cloud's rant during the first season finale.
  • Her relationship with Yuffie starts out with her punching the ninja in the face and constantly being annoyed with her like Barrett and Aerith, but over time she softens up and seems to genuinely enjoy her company like a little sister.
  • Despite still being abrasive, she becomes much more sensitive to other peoples' feelings over the course of Season 2, expressing empathy for Barret after he recounts his history, and Aerith when she becomes depressed after learning of Zack's fate...and berates Cloud for his insensitivity in responding to both of these.
  • She also helped Cloud get over his ruined buggy by reminding him that defeating Sephiroth is their top priority. When Cloud is seething in anger that Sephiroth escaped him, she shows genuine worry on how utterly pissed and wrathful he was.
  • In general, back in Season 1, she threatens Cloud with various Ass Shove threats should he even try to leave AVALANCHE, and many colorful threats that even Barret takes aback to. Once Cloud stands up to her, she stood silent. In Season 2, her abrasiveness is only reduced when she has to (except Reno) and call out Cloud's behavior when it's actually warranted. She also Took a Level in Kindness this way by mellowing out and allow other people to open themselves to her when they need to talk about their own issues.
  • Tifa eventually recognizes that her Manipulative Bitch behavior from Season 1 was not a good way to cope with the deaths of her parents, and that it almost got her killed. She even manages to convince Yuffie that it's not a good way to seek revenge on Shinra, admitting to Yuffie that they're similar and encouraging her to move past it. Yuffie accepts it and is genuinely sorry, showing Tifa's attitude has had a lot of positive development on her. Likewise, she later realizes that defaulting to it to throw off Cloud's suspicion towards her uncharacteristic concern towards him was counterintuitive to ensure he was safe with her and just did more harm to their relationship for a good amount of time.
  • By Episode 26, she's basically pretty much similar to canon Tifa, the snippiness only showing up when expressing her exasperation at Jenova-DEATH's appearance. That being said, it's likely due to the emotional stress after Aerith's death and her constant worry for Cloud's deteriorating mental well-being, and having the Awful Truth revealed and the fully-enthralled Cloud pretty much shut her voice out of his mind.
  • Even by Episode 25, she advises Cloud without any hint of her attitude, that they need to get some sleep after fruitlessly searching for Aerith, as they need to be rested and ready if and when Sephiroth does show up.
  • With her and Cloud's issues fully resolved by Episode 29, by the movie, her general vitriolic nature is completely gone, having evolved into a slightly rougher kind of Team Mom. Even when guilting Yuffie into at least trying to reconcile with her father before the end, she still does it in a calm and rational way, a far cry from the abusive person we were introduced to. As before, she's only openly annoyed at things that test her patience, but not really more beyond that. All throughout the movie, she's mostly warm towards Cloud.
• Childhood Friends: With Cloud, unfortunately for him. It is a two-way street, but Tifa's a bit of a messed up person. The crux of her development in Season 2 is her realizing how bad of a friend she's been. Episode 29 reveals however that the two were never really friends growing up, just neighbours in Nibelheim, and that they never had a real conversation with each other until their water tower scene. That said she did want to become friends with Cloud after he tried to save her while the rest of her "friends" ditched her on the climb to Mount Nibel.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Implied, as Tifa gets increasingly offended by Aerith's presence around Cloud. Comes to the forefront in Episode 10, when they actually have a spat over her wanting to make sure Cloud gets out okay while the others escape.
• Combat Pragmatist: When Yuffie engages them in combat, she doesn't even wait for her to finish talking before landing a cheap shot to the face and ending the fight early.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: At first glance, she seems like that character common in Abridged Series that acts nothing like they do in canon for comedic effect. However, with her Freudian Excuse, it's done in a way that makes sense within canon (Tifa gradually losing both of her parents before she became a young adult).
• Depending on the Writer: Her characterization, especially in Season 1, was all over the place. The writers couldn't seem to decide if she cared about Cloud, but was bad at showing it and was generally oblivious to the anguish she was causing him, or a borderline sociopath who enjoys making Cloud miserable.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Much like in the original game it's left ambiguous if Cloud and Tifa consummated their relationship during their night under the Highwind before the Final Battle with Sephiroth. Red even lampshades it by loudly asking if the two even... well, f*ed.
• The Dreaded: Becomes this for Reno after she shatters his dick. When they next meet, he doesn't run right away and still trades verbal barbs with her, but he does try to get Rude to fight her for him.
• Due to the Dead: She leaves behind a bouquet of flowers for Aeirth after the latter's death.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • She's utterly disgusted when she learns what Hojo does to his test subjects.
  • For all her vexation over Aerith, she's appalled to see Tseng slap her and threatens to slap him harder for having done that.
  • Cloud's rather callous mocking of the deceased Zack ticks her off, both because she thought he died during the Nibelheim incident and because she was able to pick upon how much it hurt Aerith.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In Episode 22 Tifa is furious at Yuffie for her behavior and as she lists why it's wrong, she realizes how much it resembles her own behavior in Season 1.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • She's as messed-up as she is because of the trauma of watching her father's murder.
  • Episode 22 reveals that most of her Manipulative Bitch behavior stemmed from the death of her mother, and that she didn't have a proper coping mechanism for it. Her father's death made it worse after he was killed by Sephiroth's blade, and it almost got her killed.
• Groin Attack: Tifa's preferred attack on her enemies.
• Gone Horribly Right: When Cloud notices that she's being unusually concerned and accomodating towards him when they meet again in Midgar, she consciously reverts to her natural bitchy attitude to deflect suspicion that things aren't as Cloud remembers them. Problem is, since it is her natural attitude anyway, she stops being conscious about it being a Jerkass Façade, which causes more friction and tragedy between them and culminates in Cloud giving her "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and worsening his own personality for a time.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set her off, whether it's Cloud refusing to obey her, or Aerith being a ditz.
• Hidden Depths: Despite Tifa being a crude and aggressive Jerk with a Heart of Gold, she has a lot of love for dolphins.
• Hypocritical Humor: She's disgusted by how Scarlet uses Reeve and then belittles him for it. Given her track record for doing the same to Cloud...
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: As kids, she could easily order Cloud around for this reason.
  Past Tifa: Hi, my name's Tifa! Wanna do me a solid?
  Twelve-year-old Cloud: Your eyes are pretty.
  Cloud: Curse you twelve-year-old Cloud! You know damn well you weren't looking at her eyes!
• I Will Wait for You: Before he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER Cloud told Tifa that he'll be gone a while but might come back if he's sent on a mission on the area, she says she'll wait for him.
• In Vino Veritas: In episode 15, while completely hammered on whiskey, she admits that Yuffie annoys her, but sees her like a little sister.
• Informed Flaw:
  • Cloud always calls her "Tifa the Liar," yet she only acts on this twice: first (to Cloud's knowledge), when she recruits Cloud into AVALANCHE, she stretched the truth about what they did. The second time she did lie was when she kept Cloud in the dark about his past.
  • This is likely Justified however as Cloud’s fake memories might have made him think that she was a pathological liar.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tifa outright tells Cloud and Aerith to stop flirting and generally wasting time in Episode 7 — especially after Aerith named the "Aps" sewer monster "Sebastian" against her orders. Then again, she'd rather not lose her livelihood by wasting time when Shinra is threatening to drop a section of Midgar onto another section of Midgar — the one she lives in.
  • Straight up tells Cloud that he owes Aerith an apology after his bluntness in telling Zack's parents that Zack is dead and never coming back.
• Jerkass Realization: A major one in Episode 22 as she chews out Yuffie and tells her she can't just manipulate and lash out at others, only to realize they're not that different.
  • A subtle, unstated one happens in the background from the ending of Season 3 onwards. Tifa clearly regrets being such a bitch to Aerith. Her line in the movie of missing her clearly shows that she did enjoy having Aerith around, and likely regrets that they couldn't get to truly be friends.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all of her faults and insults, Tifa does genuinely care about her friends, especially Cloud. It just takes quite a bit to bring this out in her. Her heart of gold starts to become more apparent as she spends the next two seasons bonding with her traveling companions and learning how to move on from her father's death. By the time the movie starts, she becomes a full blown Nice Girl, being more similar to her original counterpart in the original source material.
  • She went back to lay flowers in memoriam to Aerith after her death.
  • This persona was given more of a look in episode 29. She deliberately pretended not to care about Cloud as much as she did to avoid giving him a Heroic BSoD after realizing that he had Fake Memories. Though she does admit to taking it too far.
• The Lad-ette: She's loud, boisterous, snarky, loves drinking, loves to fight, and deliberately avoids any "feminine" traits.
• Lady Swearsalot: Pretty much every sentence has at least one swear word. Even before her father was murdered, she was pretty crude.
• Leg Focus: She believes her legs are her best feature and loves to show them off. Cloud disagrees.
• Mama Bear: Essentially becomes one to Yuffie. The moment Rude informs her that Yuffie's been kidnapped by Don Corneo, she is quick to bend open the cage Yuffie had trapped her in.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Her reaction as a child to falling hundreds of feet and going into a coma for a week is to nonchalantly brush it off as no big deal that it could happen to anyone.
• Manipulative Bitch: She has her ways of getting favors out Cloud against his better judgment, even going so far to imply he'd get arrested and gang-raped in prison unless he sticks with AVALANCHE. She herself even fully embraces her title as "The Liar", albeit begrudgingly and in response to Cloud continuously lying and screwing up.
• Meaningful Name: Machinabridged Tifa's characterization adds an additional layer to her surname "Lockhart" on top of the canon significance that still applies here. Her abrasive, mean-spirited, and vulgar personality hides a a good and caring heart, just locked away behind immature childishness, emotional stunting, and not knowing how to react to Cloud's Fake Memories. This is best shown in a flashback to his being recruited into AVALANCHE in Episode 29, when Tifa puts up a facade of her usual personality to hide her unusual concern over him and the inconsistencies of the memories when they last met. We also see this earlier when she does show to care for Aerith a few times in spite of their rocky relationship, with Yuffie, and her general concern for people.
• Moment Killer: Despite being incredibly attractive, Tifa has a gift for completely ruining the mood. This is first demonstrated when she spoils her chance to interrogate Don Corneo with a bad metaphor, and later when, after waiting behind to make sure Cloud is okay causes him to rethink his opinion of her, she starts blurting out sex jokes in a fit of nerves.
• Ms. Fanservice: Ironically, she's not actually that great at seducing guys. When Don Corneo clearly shows an interest in her looks, she quickly manages to turn him off with a badly-done fruit metaphor.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Tifa can destroy a man's groin with a single punch but doesn't seem to have any noticeable muscle mass.
• Never My Fault: In episode 12, she chews Cloud out for fighting the Midgar Zolom because of his Inferiority Superiority Complex, and yet she seems to forget that she was a huge contributing factor to said Complex. Finally averted in episode 27 when she tearfully admits that, yes, she's very responsible for Cloud's complex.
• Nice Girl: According to the flashback detailing Cloud's backstory, Tifa was this (albeit with a crass side) until her father was murdered by Sephiroth.
  • By the end of the series she’s become this again especially when she takes the role of The Heart after Aerith dies.
• No Social Skills: Tifa lacks any tact when it comes to making jokes and has zero self awareness for how manipulative she can be. In Episode 10, Cloud outright states it's because she's emotionally stunted from her dad dying when she was a teenager.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Despite how she treated Cloud and the few times he's willing to express how much she doesn't appreciate it, she spent the majority of Season 1 believing that Cloud still viewed her as a friend. When she expresses this at the end of Season 1, it triggers his Rage Breaking Point. It's because she was under the impression she was keeping him safe from what could happen if he found out his memories weren't real, but her Jerkass Façade was her real personality, so she forgot that acting as her normal self was supposed to be a ruse.
• Odd Friendship: She's skeptical of Cid when they first meet, thinking he's abusive of Shera. When she discovers that's not the case, she encourages Cid to follow his dream even when it seems hopeless. He takes to calling her "Fists" and even confides his doubts to her when he leads the party in Cloud's absence.
• Oh, Crap!: When she learns that the owners of the house she's in are Zack's parents:
  Tifa: F*ck.
• Only Sane Man: When Cloud isn't filling this role, it's usually her taking the reins.
  • As mentioned under Jerkass Has a Point, she is the one most on task in Episode 7.
  • She's the only one suspicious of Cait Sith, and the only one to see his obvious tells that he works for Shinra.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: For all the posturing she makes, she is really bad at being mature about sex. It's sometimes justified (Hojo's breeding program squicks out everyone), but most of the time not (Floor 69, trying to get into Don Corneo's trousers by spouting fruit facts at him).
• Pet the Dog: Despite her dislike of Aerith, she was disgusted by Cloud's attitude towards Zack in episode 18 and demanded that he apologize to her.
• Properly Paranoid: She's suspicious of Cait Sith the second she meets him. And for good reason, as he turns out to be spying on the group for Shinra.
• Proud Beauty: She knows that she's beautiful and is willing to show off.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Implied and deconstructed. In a different sense from Aerith, she's acts more like a whiny teenager than a grown-up, and is prone to savagely insulting or threatening her friends. Cloud attributes this to her being unable to get over her father's death in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Thankfully, she eventually comes to realize how destructive it was to her and her friends and starts to finally get her act together.
• Rage Breaking Point: After stating that she can be friends with Yuffie "with effort" in Episode 13, Tifa finds that effort much harder to sustain when she starts singing after Barret's backstory is revealed to the group.
  ...I am going to f*cking kill her.
• Second Episode Introduction: She's formally introduced in the second episode of the series.
• Ship Tease: While Cloud and her insult and fight each other, they show that truly care for each other. Tifa seems annoyed whenever Cloud and Aerith get along and Cloud has made it very clear that he's attracted to her on a purely physical level. Plus, Tifa occasionally lets slip hints that she finds Cloud attractive too.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Tifa's abrasive attitude hides and is the result of a one-two punch of trauma related to losing both of her parents. Even before her father being murdered by Sephiroth turned her into the snippy bitch she is now, Tifa did not... healthily cope with her mother's death growing up, from bottling up her feelings, to the myriad of stupid stuff she roped Cloud into. At the same time, she DID hold Cloud in certain regard after he left town and was sad that he wasn't among the SOLDIER operatives sent to Nibelheim, her facade having slipped in the real photo taken. Little did she know that he was actually there as "Ramirez," deliberately hiding himself out of shame for not getting in.
• Straw Loser: Whenever she and Aerith go at each other's throats, Aerith always comes out on top.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Cloud asks her if he's remembering the Nibelheim incident correctly after some prodding from Zack, Tifa goes from previously being pissed at him to stuttering and nervously telling him that of course it happened exactly like he remembers it, 100% with nothing weird, and the two of them did not f*ck under any circumstances.
  Tifa: Is it weird that I said that?!
  • Also angrily tells Cloud "he wasn't there," before adding that she means "when Zack died," so Cloud has no way of knowing whether he went out like a punk. Of course, she's verbally backspacing so she doesn't reveal that Cloud wasn't present during Zack and Sephiroth's final battle. Though in episode 29, it turned out that Cloud was there, just not in the way his memories told him.
• Talk to the Fist: Yuffie's surprise attack is spent on an intro speech that Tifa is far too eager to silence. Yuffie's portrait is marred by the aforementioned fist.
• Team Mom: This aspect of her comes once she Took a Level in Kindness in the middle of Season 2. Once she further mellows out, she decides to encourage the group with the best of her ability, and Yuffie even lampshades her status in Episode 22. Fully has become this by the finale movie, calmly and rationally guiding Yuffie into at least trying one more time to reconcile with her father, not once showing her former bitchy aggravation a single bit, at worst expressing calm frustration when it goes nowhere then south.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The "tomboy" to Aerith's "girly girl".
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the second season while she's still crude and violent, she's letting more of her kinder side show with her sympathy for Barrett and Red and even getting along with Yuffie and Aerith. Episode 20 even has Tifa successfully giving a gentle pep talk to Cloud without belittling or threatening him, while in Episode 22 she's the one to get through to Yuffie.
  • She can still be the snippy, violent bitch she was in Season 1 if sufficiently angered enough, and even then, it's now only directed towards Shinra, Scarlet in particular. But since this is Scarlet we're talking about, it's perfectly justified. Even then, she's willing to merely leave it as a threat if Scarlet backs off. Naturally, she doesn't and the (un)expected happens.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Tifa is frequently emotionally manipulative of Cloud. Even in one of her nicer moments, in which she tries to comfort Cloud after he gets triggered by seeing Jenova, she's encouraging him to repress the bad feelings, not cope with them. Of course, this is justified, considering Tifa is deathly afraid of what would happen if Cloud regained realized his memories were not as real as he hoped, so her encouragement to repress is more of a desperate attempt to keep Cloud mentally stable.
• Tsundere: Sure, she extorts Cloud since childhood, belittles him any chance she gets, and threatens him on a regular basis, but it's shown that she does in fact care about him. For some reason, however, she tries to hide the softer parts of her personality such as when she derails her own heartwarming moment with Cloud after waiting for him to return from his fight with Rufus Shinra. She was even this as a kid after saying she'll wait for Cloud to come back to Nibelheim before backpedaling it's because she wants to use him to practice her dolphin blow.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • If Cloud's story is accounted for, she wasn't a manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but a Nice Girl until her father was murdered.
  • Episode 22 eventually reveals that the death of both of her parents was the reason for her behavior in Season 1. Her mother died when she was still a kid, and she didn't have a proper coping mechanism for it. Her father's death at the hands of Sephiroth made her emotional state even worse, and things went south from there.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Goes on one on Bizarro Sephiroth, unleashing her full Limit Break chain. The fact that she manages to lift his gigantic ass up in the process is pointed out.
• Verbal Backspace: When Cloud guesses that Zack died like a punk bitch, Tifa angrily snaps that Cloud wasn't there (referring to the Nibelheim incident), before adding that she means when Zack died.
• What the Hell, Hero?: At the end of Episode 10, Cloud finally gets fed up with Tifa constantly belittling him and furiously calls her out on blackmailing him into joining AVALANCHE despite claiming to be his friend, followed by him accusing her of treating him so poorly because she hasn't gotten over her father's murder yet.
  • She ends up getting even when she calls out Cloud for insensitively telling Barret to get over his past and reminding Aerith of her dead boyfriend.
• With Friends Like These...: Tifa is an Ax-Crazy psychobitch who's been extorting Cloud since childhood and threatens him with various forms of Ass Shove if he doesn't follow through. While she does genuinely care for him underneath all that, Cloud wonders why they're friends.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Tifa states that Yuffie of herself when younger when completely wasted in episode 15.
  • Tifa reveals the reason for her sympathy for Aerith in episodes 18 and 19, she understood the pain of having lost someone they cared for deeply.

Barret Wallace

Barret "Mr. T" Wallace

"Don't f*ck up. Cuz if you do f*ck up, you're gonna have to answer to me! And being Tifa's bestie will NOT save you from the wrath of Barret!"

Voiced by: Antfish

The angry, loud and violent leader of AVALANCHE with a gun for an arm. He believes that destroying Shinra's Mako Reactors is the best way to stop them from killing the planet.

---

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: If his reaction to Tifa trying to comfort him about his backstory by telling him that his daughter Marlene is still alive is any indication, either Barret's far more torn up about the fact he's been raising Dyne's daughter in her father's absence than Barret in canon, or he had a biological daughter in Corel. Had.
• Affectionate Nickname: In one of Barret's flashbacks, Dyne calls him "Brother". He keeps calling Barret that after he goes insane, but the way he uses it is anything but affectionate.
• Arm Cannon: Barret's main weapon is still his gun arm. It makes for a painful bludgeon as well.
• Atomic F-Bomb: He lets one out at the end of Episode 8 when Hojo reveals he's the one who locked the 60th floor door, especially after the party ran all those flights of stairs to learn that the hard way.
• Berserk Button:
  • Never insinuate that he's a bad father.
  • Don't use his Character Catchphrase either.
  • Refusing to abide by common sense also sets him off.
  • Talking shit about Bahamut and his many, many, variations.
  Barret: Don't talk shit about Bahamut, muthaf*cka.
• Break the Cutie: Would you believe he was a Nice Guy four years before everything went to hell and changed him?
• A Boy and His X: Desperately wanted a variation of this as a child:
  "Let me tell you a tale. When I was a wee lad, every day I would go to my church, get on my knees, and pray to whatever god would listen. I'd say 'God, are you there? It's me, Baby Barret.' Now there's only one thing I want in this world more than anything. Now I don't care if you take my arm, my friends, or the home in which I sleep! What I want is a talking dog best friend! Now here I stand, armless, friendless, and homeless. *sheds Single Tear* But not... TALKING DOG BEST FRIEND-LESS!"
• Cerebus Retcon: His obsession for blowing up Mako plants took a dark turn. See Dark and Troubled Past below.
  • His continued focus on, and chewing out of, Cloud for "Fucking up" can be seen as this. It's quite possible Clouds personality and mistakes remind him of his own past failures.
    • It also turned out to be Dyne's last words to him before he fell into the abyss.
• Character Catchphrase: Quite a few are dropped by him in various episodes.
  • "Biggity-bounce," and any variation thereof.
  • "I'm about to drop some Wallace Wisdom upon yo' ass..."
  • "Don't f*ck up", "Did you just f*ck up?", "You f*cked up", etc
  • Shared with Red: "AVALANCHE TIME, MOTHERF***ER!" Actually, "AVALANCHE ____" in general.
• Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder: Gets stuck watching Red while the party waits for him to come down from the Chocobo greens.
• Cuteness Proximity: His first reaction to Red XIII is shock, before quickly becoming overcome with glee at getting to meet a talking dog.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Four years prior to the series, a Mako Reactor was installed in his hometown of Corel, and he believed it was a "peachy-keen idea". It went up a week later, and three days after that, it blew up. Shinra blamed the village, and destroyed Corel, killed its people, and framed Barret and Dyne as terrorists who blew up the reactor, all so they wouldn't have to admit they fucked up. As Barret agreed to the building of the reactor, the survivors of North Corel blame him for the massacre. Worst of all, his entire backstory is played completely straight, with little comedy (the only comedy being Dyne whining about coal).
• Everyone Has Standards: Barret threatens Cloud in many ways, but the more colorful imagery invoked by Tifa will unnerve him as much as anyone else.
• Fan Boy: He really loves the Bahamut line of summons.
• Freudian Excuse: The events of Corel, in which he witnessed his friends slaughtered by Shinra and lost his wife, turned him into the abrasive person he's now.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Dyne threatening dogs is what finally makes him snap and one-shot his former friend.
• Heroic BSoD: He suffers from one in Episode 7 after Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are killed. Tifa recounting Cloud's previous cross-dressing exploits is what snaps him out of it.
• Hypocrite: He constantly warns Cloud "Don't f*** up", and while Cloud does f*** up, what ultimately destroys AVALANCHE is his careless use of a pinball machine to hide his hideout, something Cloud warned him against. Also, Barret personally feels that he f***ed up in regards to the disaster at Corel.
• Hypocritical Humor: He keeps calling Elmyra Aerith's fake mom when he learned she adopted Aerith when he adopted Marlene.
• Interspecies Friendship: Ever since he was a little boy, he'd always wanted to have a talking dog as a friend. He gets his wish when he meets Red XIII (who may or may not actually be a cat).
• Jive Turkey: He initially comes off like this, until we visit his hometown Mt. Corel in Episode 15. Turns out everyone in the village talks like that, meaning it's just his natural accent.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a foul-mouthed, short-tempered jackass who isn't all that nice to Cloud and manipulates him into staying in AVALANCHE with Tifa's help, but he adores his adopted daughter Marlene and his Talking Animal friend Red XIII, and he cares deeply for them both.
• Late to the Punchline: AVALANCHE slip into Shinra because the front desk receptionist mistakes him for an executive of Urban Development. Only once he's in the elevator does he realize why she made that assumption about him.
• Leeroy Jenkins: A lot of his plans involve either shooting or blowing up something.
• Mistaken for Murderer: He's suspected of going on a killing spree at Gold Saucer when multiple Shinra guards are found shot to death. Turns out he isn't the only person with a gun for a hand and a murderous grudge against Shinra.
• My Greatest Failure: He originally supported Shinra's plans to install a Mako reactor in his hometown, against the objections of his best friend. Not only did the reactor explode, but Shinra pinned the blame on the townsfolk and burned everything to the ground, killing his giant wife, leaving his friend for dead, and costing him an arm. From then on, Barret swore to live by his friend's (supposed) last words to never "f*ck up" again. Thankfully, after he saves North Corel from Shinra's Huge Materia operation turning them into "a literal ass trainwreck", the townsfolk admit to him they're just as equally to blame for the whole thing, so they were wrong to treat him like crap for it.
• Odd Friendship: He is incredibly happy to have a talking dog best friend, and he and Red get along great.
• Only Sane Man: For the most part, he serves as this role to the rest of the party, what with being Surrounded by Idiots and all.
  Barrett: [after Cloud sums up who Sephiroth is and why they're after him] Oh my God, why am I following you guys?
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Whereas he just goes along with the group as one of the few consistently sane individuals, Episode 15 has him want to take a different route to Gold Saucer that doesn't involve going back to North Corel. From that moment on, he is much more somber, even echoing his common complaint to Cloud.
  ... I f***ed up.
  • Him blowing up at Red XIII and calling him a "bad dog" in episode 16 showed just how mad he was when Cloud told him to get over it.
• Papa Wolf: He's very protective of Marlene. He even gives her a loaded gun so she can protect herself when he isn't around.
• Profiling: A frequent victim. One of the last jokes of the first season involves news anchors describing him as a well-armed minority as AVALANCHE escapes Midgard in a pickup truck.
• Rage Breaking Point: After Cloud tells him to "get over" the deaths of his wife, many people he loved, and his childhood friend Dyne, Barret hits this and explodes. It's such a bad case that he even breaks his friendship with the entire party, including Red XIII, off and runs away.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he gets REALLY mad, he gets bloodshot eyes.
• The Scapegoat: Just like the original, Barret is blamed by the surviving Corel townsfolk for his role in letting Shinra build the reactor. Unlike in the original, they were pinning all the blame on him when they were just as complicit in the idea, which they admit to him when he saves them.
• Series Mascot: Of a sort, despite Cloud being the main character, as Barret is voiced by series creator Antfish, and thus is the most easily available member of the main cast to promote stuff for the show, followed by Red XIII, Cait Sith, and then Cid, also the only other members of the main cast voiced by TFS members.
• Shoo the Dog: After renouncing his friendship with Red in episode 16, Barret explains that because all of his old friends were killed on his account, he couldn't bear to lose anyone else he cared about. After getting over the initial heartbreak, Red refuses to hear any more of that.
• Sparse List of Rules: Barret lives by his "Wallace Wisdom", a list of advice that numbers as high as 420(Don't eat any of Red's snacks).
• Summon Magic: He's very informed on summoning Materia, and he really likes the Bahamut line. Maybe too much. Yuffie supplying the party with a new one when she returns all the Materia she stole convinces him to forgive her immediately. Later, for stopping the Huge Materia train from destroying Corel, the citizens apologize to him and as a token of that and for saving them, he gets another one.
• Supporting Leader: He calls the shots in AVALANCHE, while Cloud is the main protagonist. Starts phasing out by the time of Season 3, where he and pretty much everyone else defer to Cloud as the leader of the party. He does try to take over again, when Cloud is comatose in Mideel and Tifa electing to stay with him, but is overruled by Cid on grounds of using the latter's airship as their means of transportation, though he still plays this role to the letter.
• Surrounded by Idiots: After the rest of AVALANCHE dies, he's less than impressed with his new team's fighting skills. Especially Aerith's tendency to heal monsters that they're currently fighting.

  Barret: WHY?! Why'd do you do that, sweet flower girl?!

  Aerith: It looked hurt!
  —->Barret: NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo...

• Stunned Silence:
  • Well, less "silence" and more of "too stunned to speak straight", but he has this reaction after Cloud's epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Tifa in the last moments of Season 1, as he vainly struggles to keep his composure to do the requisite end-of-season thanking and plugging in the YouTube release of Episode 10.
  • Even better, he could see the explosive rant incoming the moment Cloud reacted to Tifa's words with quiet vitriol, and was audibly scared of what Cloud was about to unleash.
• Took a Level in Cynic: He became the cynic he is due to the events of Corel. After losing his arm, he swore for the first time in his life.

  Doctor: Okay, so we got a few options. First, we have this new bronze gauntlet—
  Barret: I wanna f***in' gun...
  Doctor: ...How big do you want it?

• Took a Level in Kindness: While remaining a huge jerk, Barret gradually cools off on his treatment of Cloud as the first season progresses. He also tries to protect Aerith and Red from harm, seeing them as too innocent to be caught up in the events that are transpiring.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed for laughs and unintentional. After Gi Nattak helps Barret and Red through their troubles, Barret throws him a Phoenix Down as a gift.
  Barret & Red XIII: *sport shades out of nowhere after Gi Nattak is destroyed* AVALANCHE time, motherf***er!! *cue explosion*
• Verbal Backspace: He refuses to let Yuffie back in the party after her Wutai Theft, right up until she offers another Bahamut materia, which causes him to correct her on the name and say she's forgiven.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice got lighter and more nasal in Season 2, and he shouted much less too. Antfish explained that was intentional so it was less harsh for him to perform.
  • Noticeably, the other citizens of Mt. Corel have the same nasally voice trying to imitate Barret's accent.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs. One of the Running Gags of the series is telling Cloud he "fucked up".
  • It becomes Played for Drama during at least two scenes: during his character arc and when Cloud (under Sephiroth's influence) hands over the Black Materia.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Barret is quite afraid of spiders. This gets comical when Vincent joins the proceedings.

Aerith Gainsborough

Aerith/Aeris Gainsborough

"You apologized, so I must forgive you."

Voiced by: Kira Buckland

A girl selling flowers whom Cloud meets after he falls from "Heaven". She is the last of an ancient race called the Cetra. Very naive and not very bright, but very friendly.

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• A-Cup Angst: Grumpily mumbles that Tifa's boobs aren't that big when the subject comes up.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: She's the very first character introduced in the original game. Here she's introduced during her formal introduction to Cloud after the Mako 5 Reactor mission (which is Aerith's canonical third scene), with their first encounter appearaing only in a flashback.
• Adaptational Wimp: Compared to her game's counterpart, her supernatural powers are heavily downplayed. Justified, as in this continuity she's in heavy denial about her abilities as a Cetra and represses the thought that she's anything extraordinary. It's only after she starts to accept who she is that her powers progress beyond her occasional insight about the planet.
• Ambiguous Innocence: To the very end, it's difficult to say how much of her childlike enthusiasm is genuine, and how much is an act. She alternates between bouts of childish ignorance that puts herself in danger (accepting a chopper ride from the Turks just because she could) and moments of genuine insightfulness such as her advice to Tifa to help reconcile with Yuffie. She admits in private to Cloud that she's aware of more than she lets on, but it's unclear if she's always been this way, or it was something she gradually came to realize.
• Art Evolution: Her character portrait is updated in Season 2 to give her a more cartoony look, with a bigger mouth and eyes, and a skinnier neck.
• Beware the Nice Ones: This is mostly seen with her interactions with Tifa, showing that Aerith MAY have a bit of a Yandere problem when it comes to their love-triangle with Cloud.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Safer Sephiroth has Cloud and gang on their knees after an intense Curb-Stomp Battle, Aerith heals the group with her Great Gospel Limit Break, saving them from the brink of death.
• Character Catchphrase: "All is forgiven."
  • This winds up being her last words. Worst of all, Sephiroth doesn't give her the chance to finish her sentence.
• Character Death: She's killed in Episode 25 by Sephiroth stabbing her through the stomach with his sword. She also gets a Really Dead Montage, along with Cloud telling her to Please Wake Up. However, telepathic communication before her murder implies that she knew Sephiroth was going to kill her, since she mentions how she Never Got to Say Goodbye to Cloud.
• Character Development: At the beginning of the series, Aerith is a flighty, hyperactive Cloudcuckoolander who seems to be oblivious to the dangers around her. As she endures her capture by Shinra and starts to adventure with the party, it becomes apparent that a lot of her ditzy qualities are self-enforced as she's reluctant to acknowledge her Cetra powers and her growing jealousy with Tifa. Over time, she starts showing her inner doubts and begins opening up to Tifa about Zack. By the end of her arc, she's grown into a wiser, more serious young woman who fully understands the danger Sephiroth poses to the planet, and willingly sacrifices herself to keep her friends safe and kickstarts a plan to give the world a fighting chance.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: The most negative traits she's shown all relate to her envy of Tifa. Her refusal to heal her when poisoned and claim that she's out of mana when her MP bar is clearly full seems to indicate that she's trying to hasten Tifa's demise to have Cloud to herself. Her dislike of Yuffie also seems to stem more from the ninja's admiration of Tifa and potential to be a rival for Cloud, rather than any hatred for Yuffie herself. And then in Episode 14 she goes as far as to break the Shiva materia because both Cloud and Tifa were in awe of how beautiful she was, she drops this after Tifa comforts her about Zack.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She believes in fairies, thinks a jungle gym is a perfectly great house and tries to make friends with things trying to kill her. Aerith isn't that normal.
• The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: In Episode 12, her tendency to heal the enemy and talk to them actually works, much to the shock and annoyance of her friends.
• Compressed Vice: Early on in Season 2, she started acting more malicious, like refusing to heal Tifa from the Zolom's venom or breaking the Shiva Materia. A few episodes later, this aspect of her character was dropped.
• Covert Pervert: Despite her naivete, episode 10 reveals she might be this in regards to Cloud.
  Cloud: F*ck off, Tifa.
  Tifa: We might have to! Isn't that scary?
  Aerith: Goodness, how horrifying.
  Tifa: What did she say?
  • In episode 11, she audibly laughs upon hearing that Tifa's master taught her the Dolphin Blow attack in his Dungeon of Fisting.
  • She also finds Zack's compliments to his parents about her butt sweet.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not for the most part, but her digs at Tifa are some of the driest snarks in the show.
• The Ditz: She doesn't realize that flowers can't break falls and believes in fairies. She also willingly goes along with the Turks just because they offered her a helicopter ride.
• Easily Forgiven: A trademark of her character, to the point of being her Character Catchphrase. Less so when Cloud openly mocks Zack's death in front of her, Tifa, and Zack's parents. While she does forgive him and means it, it's clear that one took some effort on her part.
• Expy: Her speech delivery is clearly patterned over a Disney Princess.
• Foil: In terms of personality, Tifa and Aerith are polar opposites. Tifa is a crass, cynical, violent psychopath who treats Cloud like crap, but she does have a Hidden Heart of Gold. Aerith is a flighty, gentle airhead who refuses to swear and gets along great with Cloud, but she also hides a bit of a nasty side. They've also both witnessed the death of a parent. This is even addressed in Episode 19.
• Friend to All Living Things: To the point of healing an enemy boss. The only exception is Tifa, though Aerith did at least try to be cordial at first, and occasionally tries again but with little success. It takes Tifa making the effort in Episode 19 for their dynamic to take any real positive turn.
• Genki Girl: Aerith is nothing if not enthusiastic.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Aerith uses the word "blank" to substitute actual curse words in her first appearance, and cuts off Tifa's use of "fuck" with "fairy tale" before she can say it.
• Happily Adopted: As in, happy being adopted while her previous mother was dying in front of her. Though that was a flashback from Elmyra's viewpoint, and Season 2 suggests that she doesn't actually remember being adopted.
• Hartman Hips:
  • In Episode 9, Red XIII refers to her as the "girl with the butt" as opposed calling Tifa "boob girl".
  • Zack's parents heard from him that his girlfriend (AKA Aerith) had quote "a booty that won't quit!"
• Heroic Sacrifice: Unlike the game where it's ambiguous whether she knew she would die or not, in this adaptation, Aerith willingly goes to the Forgotten Capital to summon Holy despite knowing she'll be killed by Sephiroth.
• Homeschooled Kids: She says she was homeschooled immediately after correcting Barrett and telling him that marijuana is a natural sedative, not a drug.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She doesn't get that the Turks are not nice people and have ulterior motives for wanting her safe. She also doesn't get that Hojo has nasty plans for her, too, even after he attempted them on her.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lampshaded by Cloud when he notes that Don Corneo and his goons will probably eat her alive, and not necessarily metaphorically.
• Inconsistent Spelling: An in-universe running gag is whenever she's in battle with the group, the result screen will write her name as "Aeris" despite the characters referring to her as "Aerith".
• Jerkass to One: The normally sweet and bubbly Aerith is much frostier to Tifa, although this ultimately stops following Episode 19.
• Karma Houdini: She's never given any grief for refusing to heal Tifa when she got poisoned by the Midgar Zolom.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Cloud almost hits her with his Buster Sword, but stops himself. Just as she starts to tell him "All is forgi-", she's run through by Sephiroth.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Deconstructed; she's sweet, flighty, ditzy, a huge Cloud Cuckoolander, has elements of a Magical Girlfriend, and is the first person to be nice to Cloud in a long time, but all of those traits combine into a character that Cloud can't help but find weird. Reconstructed anyway, since The Dulcinea Effect is in full throttle and she's eventually shown to be a positive influence to Cloud and the party in general.
• Medium Awareness: She appears to notice the bleeped-out swearing to some degree when she quotes the sailor-mouthed Reno.
  Aerith: We always invite Mr. Reno, but he says his Turk blank-hole bosses never give him a day off, and should get off his blanking blank.
• Nice Girl: She's the kindest and most forgiving character in the series, and one of the very few who doesn't (intentionally) give Cloud crap. Unless you're a potential rival, which causes her Yandere tendencies to come out, although even then she still can be nice to them.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: When the party is at their weakest in the final battle with Sephiroth, Aerith restores their health to full. This prompts a Villainous Breakdown from Sephiroth.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Aerith is somehow able to meet up with Cloud after he runs away from her house. This is lampshaded by Cloud, who questions how she was able to move that fast.
• Out-of-Character Moment:
  • Despite usually being all sugar and rainbows, she's standoffish to Tifa even before she knows the two of them are shaping up to be rivals for Cloud's affection, and downright rude and mean to her by the end of the first season and into the second.
  • Barret quickly notices she's no fool when she and Red trick him into volunteering to test whether or not the front door is guarded.
  • She starts off hating Yuffie more than nearly any other member of the party does save for Barret in Ep. 13, while Cloud is more amused and Tifa is just annoyed, all seemingly because of Yuffie's undying admiration of Tifa. On the overworld map when Yuffie is leading the way, Aerith's portrait is in a noticeable annoyed frown the entire time and staring at Yuffie while Red's high, Cloud and Barret are arguing, and Tifa's just bored. By Ep. 20, though, the two are on better terms.
  • After asking Cloud to look at a Shiva Materia he was given, she immediately destroys it totally by accident to both Cloud and Tifa's shock.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When the party confronts Sephiroth in Episode 14, she seems to realize just how frighteningly powerful Sephiroth is, fearfully telling Cloud that something is wrong.
  • She gets noticeably depressed for the rest of Episode 18 when she realizes her former boyfriend Zack is dead and hears Cloud stating it to his parents so insensitively.
    • There is also the fact that she doesn't use her catchphrase and forgive Cloud until next episode. For that to happen, Cloud had to give a heartfelt apology to her as soon as he realizes just how badly he fucked up this time.
  • She is completely out of the picture in Episode 19 when Bugenhagen finishes telling her that Elmyra and Hojo's "fairy tales" are in fact reality.
• Pet the Dog: In regards to her rivalry with Tifa, she does occasionally try to make nice with her, but Tifa's never having any of it, usually prompting some nasty form of revenge by Aerith later. Tifa gets better about it, and it's Aerith who helps her epiphany towards her own behavior, and neither woman is seen reacting negatively afterwards.
• Ship Tease: She clearly has feelings for Cloud, while Cloud in turn seems to enjoy her company and occasionally flirts with her, even if he finds her a bit weird. This has not passed Tifa's notice.
  Tifa: Ugh, would you two stop flirting?
• Tempting Fate: When wondering about escaping Shinra, Aerith muses that maybe an angel would save them. They are saved by an angel.The one-winged kind.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Played with in Season 2: she's still largely the same Nice Girl from Season 1, but her nastier side in regards to Tifa seems to be coming out into the open more, to the point that she's outright cold to Yuffie for no other reason than that Yuffie admires Tifa, and obliterates a materia because it summons the buxom ice spirit Shiva.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The "girly girl" to Tifa's "tomboy".
• Turn the Other Cheek: It is her creed to forgive those who apologize for their actions. Even when they nearly get her killed, and even in her last moments.
• Vocal Evolution: Hand in hand with her Character Development, her flighty, airy tone of voice is quick to deepen when things get serious. In the latter portion of Season 2 and beyond, the high pitch has almost entirely vanished, only to resurface when the scene calls for her to lighten the mood. By her final appearance, the sobriety in her voice is almost unsettling.
• White Mage: Exaggerated, she's never seen casting anything other than healing spells, to the point of casting them at her enemies when ordered to fight.
• Womanchild: She acts like a character out of a program for young girls, with tremendous enthusiasm and a very emotional attitude.
• Yandere: Aerith eventually develops an attraction to Cloud, beginning to openly flirt with him after a time. However, this comes with a darker side, as she eventually comes to want Cloud all to herself.
  • Dips into this in Episode 12 when she refuses to heal Tifa after being poisoned by the Zolom in spite of being the healer with full MP. Aerith claims she's "out of mana" as to why she can't, but it's under her breath.
  • Aerith shows a surprising amount of dislike for Yuffie seemingly less for her annoying nature and more for how much she worships the ground Tifa walks on.
  • Episode 14 also makes it pretty clear that giving her a closer look at materia of female summons is also a bad idea, since Cloud commenting on the beauty of Shiva has Aerith "accidentally" smash the Summon materia to call Shiva with.

Red XIII

Red XIII, a.k.a. "DogCat", "MeowBark", and Nanaki

"I'm splendid!"

Voiced by: Takahata101

A dopey and pleasant creature from Cosmo Canyon resembling a dog and a cat. He was one of Hojo's test subjects who joins Cloud and his friends after being freed by them.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: Zigzagged and downplayed. His ingame models still show his right eye permanently shut, but when animated, both his eyes are open and intact, though the differently-colored irises suggest the right eye is still non-functional.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Exceptionally so. In the original game, Red was a stoic, wise character who knew much about the planet and the Lifestream, and generally had a reserved demeanor. Here, he is a bumbling dork who at times screws up the team's plans by, for example, eating a Chocobo they were planning on riding across a swamp and getting high off the drugs they were going to use to catch another.
• Admiring the Abomination: After Vincent transforms into a werewolf and devours the Materia Keeper boss monster. Everyone is visibly shocked with the exception of Red, whose first action is to hit on him.
  Barret: [To Vincent] Can we go back to the part where you ate a giant f***ing bug monster?!
  Red XIII: That's hot...
• Age Lift: Not him, though, but the two cubs with him in The Stinger 500 years later aren't his children as in the original, but his grandkids.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Even he develops his limits on what Cloud says or does, prompting him to bite his hands.
• Big Eater: If there's anything on Red's mind that isn't about sex, it's food.
  Tifa: Are you always thinking about food or sex?
  Red XIII: I'm in a constant state of "horngry".
• Break the Cutie: Red defends Cloud by saying he's sure Cloud didn't mean anything by telling Barret to get over his past. Barret is still grieving and angry and explodes on him, taking away his pass to call him "Black", and calls him a bad dog. Red is so depressed, he feels he doesn't deserve to have fun. Poor guy.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: His unfailing peppiness is just the tip of the iceberg.
• Daddy Issues: Even himself off-handedly mentioning his father sends him into a snarling rage. Episode 19 reveals he hates any father and considers them all horrible people. He eventually grows out of it and admits it was just him being "juvenile".
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Due to his Daddy Issues, he loathes his birth name and would rather be called Red XIII instead.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Red has this in episode 16 when he realizes that calling Barrett black isn't the most sensitive thing to do as Barrett yells at him.
  "What? What's wrong with referring to someone by the color of their—ohhh... Did I just Cloud it?"
• Extreme Omnisexual: Clearly, Hojo's experiments have had some effects on his psyche. In the beginning of Episode 11, he states his intention to have sex with a Motorbike monster, and his question about the horrifying Jenova mutant is asking if it was hot.
  • He even flirts with friggin' Bahamut in 'The Movie'.
• Extreme Omnivore: Red will eat pretty much anything, including floor-falafel, corpses, giant bug monsters, and ghosts.
• Fish Eyes: As the profile picture shows, he has these whenever he's animated on screen.
• Hidden Depths:
  • To Barrett's surprise and disturbance, he turns out to have some serious daddy issues that he refuses to elaborate on.
  • In general, despite his Simpleton Voice and dopey nature, he's still as remarkably intelligent and insightful. It just gets lost among his "horngriness"
• Hypocritical Humor: In Episode 12 after Aerith said the Zolom talked to her, he states animals can't talk. Granted, he previously stated that Hojo's experiments led to his ability to speak.
• Innocent Bigot: When Barret calls him red, Red XIII calls Barret black (Red refers to the male characters by their hair colors, including himself). Barret probably gave him a pass because of this trope. Red starts to realize the problem with the nickname after Barret takes the pass away while at the gold saucer.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: He not only enjoys violently mauling and devouring things pleasant, but is flat out attracted to other creatures that do it.
• Jerkass Ball: Episode 19 has Red returning to his hometown and acting less pleasant with his party members after issues regarding his father start to come to the surface. It isn't until he learns the truth behind his father's actions that he goes back to his usual self and more determined in helping his friends save the planet from SHINRA and Sephiroth.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Not exactly a Jerkass. More just proving his point. During a debate with Barret about all fathers being rotten, Red XIII is quick to reprimand Barret for leaving Marlene back in Midgar. To be fair, Barret's actions aren't too different from what Red's father did and leaving Marlene in the care of a drug-addled woman isn't the smartest move.
  Barret: "Okay, Red, real talk: You, thinking all fathers are terrible people, is pretty f**ked up. I'm a father, and I'm a damn good one at that!"
  Red XIII: "So good that you abandoned your child."
  Barret: "So you think just because I left Marlene in Midgar, instead of bringing her along this dangerous quest, you think I abandoned her!?"
  Red XIII: *condescendingly* "Well if the adopted child left in the care of a drug dealer fits..."
• The Load: He spends most of Episode 12 getting in the way, from eating the wild Chocobo they caught and eating the drug Cloud spent all their money on.
  • Though it is pointed out that these are just as much, if not more, Cloud's fault as they are his, since all of these could have been prevented had Cloud not been actively sabotaging their efforts to catch a Chocobo. Red was simply doing what a dog would normally do, Cloud is the one who specifically set up the scenarios so that Red would get in the way.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: A bit. The lovable part comes from him being him, and the "sex maniac" part comes from being the center of Hojo's sick experiments.
• Mars Needs Women: Hinted/Played with. He did refer to Aerith as the "girl with the butt" and Tifa as "boob girl". In Episode 10, he even stated that he was going to miss Shinra headquarters due to having an "exceptional amount of sex" when he used for Hojo's "cross-breeding experiments".
• Meaningful Echo: In Episode 17, when Barret tries to drive a wedge between him and the rest of the party, insisting he has no friends, Red repeats Barret's speech of always wanting a talking dog best friend word-for-word to help him see the light.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Characters would often debate on whether he is dog or cat.
• Moment Killer: When Cloud and Tifa decide to relax under the Highwind, Red asks if they fucked yet.
• Mushroom Samba: Eating Chocobo greens in Episode 12 has him tripping balls all the way through Episode 13.
  "I can smell the COOOOOOOOSMOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!"
• The Navigator: Thanks to his sense of smell, he serves as the party's guide as they try to find Sephiroth. When he gets high on Chocobo greens, the party is at a complete loss on where to go until Yuffie shows up.
• The Nose Knows: Tracks Sephiroth by smell, and can even smell the presence of corpses (as in, ones that existed miles away and years ago) and tragic backstories. Based on that, the above quote might actually be true…
• Nice Guy: He's a pretty jovial guy to be around and is very happy to be Barret's best friend. He's also one of the only members of the party alongside Aerith who doesn't chastise or belittle Cloud for sport.
• The Nicknamer:
  • Seemingly, as he has yet to refer to the main characters by name. Thus far, Aerith is "Girl With the Butt", Tifa is "Boob Girl", Barret is "Black", Yuffie is "Ninjandit", and Cloud is "Blonde One".
  • He even does this to himself. He tells the party to call him Red XIII because he's "the color red, and they carved the number thirteen into my flesh." Justified, given he hates his birth name due to the connection to his father.
• Nightmare Fetishist: During the Season 3, he refers to Vincent eating the Materia Keeper alive as "hot".
• N-Word Privileges:
  • Barret is so happy to have a talking dog friend that he gives Red a pass on calling him "Black."
  • Said privileges expire by episode 16 when he calls Barret "Black" again, and Barret, who was already having a bad day, promptly tells him that he doesn't get a pass this time.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but he does seem to have some sharp wit about him when they need it. In episode 10 he (along with the equally goofy Aerith) immediately knows to not volunteer to step outside the main door of Shinra HQ, getting a lampshade from Barret. In episode 16 he's one of the first to notice Barret hasn't been himself once they started nearing Coral and is worried for him after his backstory is revealed. In episode 17 he behaves in a much more composed way when he helps Barret snap out of his heroic BSOD, and when Cloud interrupts Barret's dramatic showdown with Dyne, he irritably shouts at him to "read the room" and bites Cloud's hands to shut him up when he doesn't listen.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mention his dad and he grows vengeful and spiteful.
• Playing with Fire: Knows fire magic and uses it against a Shinra robot. Barret claims it doesn't help.
• Simpleton Voice: Taka voices him slightly in this way, fitting his relatively naive characterization.
• Stepford Smiler: Lampshaded by Barret.
  Barret: Oh, Red. Only now do I see that underneath your happy-go-lucky demeanor, hides a troubled soul.
  Cloud: That's a lot of words to say "has Daddy Issues".
• The Stoner: Gets high off Chocobo "greens" (outright called "drugs" by Barret) at the tail-end of Ep. 12 and spends the entirety of Ep. 13 still under it.
  • It's likely not new to him because the residents of Cosmo Canyon apparently use Chocobo Greens all the time.
• Talking Animal: He claims it's because of Hojo's experiments. Kind of glossed over when they reach Cosmo Canyon and no mention is made he communicates with Bugenhagen and the rest of Cosmo Canyon with no problem.
• They Have the Scent!: Red XIII's skills at tracking help keep the gang on track and he can even smell things that should have no scent like tragic backstories.

Yuffie Kisaragi

Yuffie Kisaragi a.k.a. "The Great Ninja Yuff—"

"I just can't stop stealin'! Pens, giant shurikens, kisses, materia! You name it, I steal it!"

Voiced by: Mystic Pyro Freak

A young, kleptomaniacal ninja from Wutai who bumps into the party to steal their stuff, only to join up with them after being enamored with Tifa's punching skills. She's mostly viewed as an annoyance by the group.

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• Adaptational Nice Girl: While still regarded as annoying by her teammates, she's more a hyperactive (but mostly kindhearted) Genki Girl than a bratty teenager in this version. Her theft of the party's Materia is shown in a more sympathetic light, and after she returns them she's genuinely repentant and apologetic while in the original game it's hinted she'd try to steal them again if another opportunity arose.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Immediately starts crushing on the brooding, mysterious, spider-infested Vincent.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Tifa eventually comes to see her this way, noting that while Yuffie is incredibly irritating, she actually reminds Tifa of her younger self.
• Anti-Hero: Regularly steals what isn't nailed down, is rather brash and inconsiderate, and can be downright bratty at her worst, but she's also a kindhearted Genki Girl who's quick to make friends. Even her theft of the party's Materia had a sympathetic motive behind it, and she returns them later.
• Ascended Extra: She was an Optional Party Member in the game so didn't get as much screen time as the main characters, which Barret lampshades when Cloud convinces Tifa of have her join them. In this series, she gets far more screen time, even playing a role in Tifa's Character Development.
• Bad Liar: She utterly fails to convince Barret that she's not going to steal the party's materia, or the Old Man that they're not Shinra's most-wanted.
  Yuffie: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No I'm/we're not!
  • Played for Drama in episode 22, where she starts crying after Tifa connects with her emotionally, claiming she's not crying when asked about it.
• Badass Normal: Among the existing Kisaragis, she got the short end of the stick of her family's Recessive Super Genes, but, through her journey with AVALANCHE, is still strong enough to rival her father, who despite his more-than-rusty state, is implied to still be a dangerous and fearsome warrior not to be trifled with.
• Berserk Button: Don't call her annoying or imply that she's Just a Kid.
• Birds of a Feather: Admires Tifa, who has more than a few traits in common with her. In episode 22, Tifa admits how alike they are.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Downplayed. While not the typical annoying brat, she's such an exaggerated Genki Girl that she gets on everyone's nerves. Although she does play it straight when she grabs the Jerkass Ball during episode 22.
• Character Catchphrase: "What? No I'm not!" when being accused. Also leaves any scene she's in with a smoke bomb with "Yuffie out!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: She sees nothing wrong with beginning her surprise attacks by yelling "SURPRISE ATTACK!" until Tifa points out the inherent flaw of her strategy and one of her fight moves involves throwing "invisible shurikens".
• Comically Missing the Point: It comes hand-in-hand with being Sarcasm-Blind.
• Daddy Issues: Yuffie ends up having a more justified reason for having these than Red, since it is revealed that her father isn't exactly the best father
• Easily Forgiven:
  • When Yuffie apologizes for stealing the materia and give it back, Barret makes it clear that he doesn't intend to forgive her so easily. Then she gives him a new materia called Bahamut FighterZ, which causes Barret to correct her on how she pronounced it and forgive her.
  • Likewise this to Cloud, as a former member of SOLDIER that likely participated in the Wutai War, mostly because he's on her side now, and he was never really in the War anyway, even as a Shinra grunt^note given what Crisis Core shows, Cloud was not likely to have been any of the grunts present in Wutai. Initially, she still thinks lowly of him like the rest, but the movie shows she wants him around along with Tifa for emotional support when she confronts her father again.
• Everyone Has Standards: Insensitive as she can be, though maybe that was due to the Jerkass Ball she was holding for episodes 21 and 22, even she is not amused by a doctor tastelessly trying to make light of Cloud's vegetative state.
• Foreshadowing: In episode 11, Barret asks if anyone bought any materia while they were at a shop. Tifa notes that the shop's stock was stolen before they could. Yuffie is a known materia thief.
• Freudian Excuse: Her dad isn't exactly the best role model and her relationship with him is very sour, her mom (according to him) is in rehab (that or she left him), and Shinra crushed her home during a deadly war before turning it into a tourist attraction, actions for which she wants to take revenge. She does concede, however, that her father's surrender ultimately saved more lives in the long term.
• Freudian Slip: After stealing Barret's grenade, Yuffie admits to being a kleptomaniac and starts listing the various types of items she steals, including materia. When Barret accuses her of planning to steal their materia she unconvincingly tries to deny that that's her motive for joining the party. Guess what happens in Episode 22.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She was one at first. Even Aerith didn't like her due to Yuffie's hero-worship towards Tifa, as well as believing her to be another rival for Cloud's love. Cloud was the only one who really wants anything to do with her (and it's partly because she annoys Tifa), while Barret and Aerith wanted her out. Tifa was in the middle, having started out being annoyed at her but growing to genuinely enjoy her company at the Gold Saucer like a little sister. And even then, Yuffie's singing about their trip to the Gold Saucer after hearing out Barret's backstory sorely tested Tifa's patience with her. Red at least tolerated her, but then again Red's nice to just about everyone. Though this aspect disappears during the last episodes of Season 2, with Tifa and later Aerith shown to having warmed up to her. In Season 3, this aspect is completely gone, save for the brief period during which she stole everyone's Materias. At the end of Episode 22, after she apologizes, everyone joins Tifa in a Group Hug centered around Yuffie when the latter admits that they have become something akin to a Family of Choice.
• Fuuma Shuriken: Mentions stealing these alongside many other things.
• Genki Girl:
  • Deconstructed. She's very upbeat and energetic, but rather than being endearing, it tends to annoy the living shit out of everyone around her, making her The Friend Nobody Likes.
  • Seemingly Reconstruction later on, as Tifa is starting to warm up to her.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: She literally announces her surprise attacks, and takes the time to brag about herself before attacking, giving Tifa the opportunity to counterattack.
• Hero-Worshipper: She regards Tifa with great admiration after being on the receiving end of one of her punches, much to Tifa's annoyance, Aerith's disapproval, and Cloud's amusement.
• Hypocritical Humor: Yuffie calls out Cloud on his inability to read social cues in episode 16 while not picking up on Tifa's rather obvious annoyance with her.
• Implausible Deniability:
  • Denies that she will steal the party's materia seconds after admitting that she steals materia. Nine episodes later...
  • She also blurts out this little gem when the group reaches Junon:
    Yuffie: Great, now we have to kill them both before they tell anyone we're Shinra's most wanted!
    Old Man: Wait... you're Shinra's most wanted?
    Yuffie: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No we're not!
• Ironic Echo: When forcing herself into the group. "You do me a solid, and I'll do you a solid." Cloud is quick to appreciate the irony of the situation.
• Jerkass Ball: In episode 22, she acts a lot more hostile to everybody, especially Tifa, though it's supposedly because Tifa called her a dumb kid last episode. She gets better by the end after Tifa realizes what Yuffie has been going through.
• Just a Kid: The others constantly treat Yuffie like she's just a dumb kid. As Episode 22 reveals though, Yuffie hates being belittled like that.
• Large Ham: Very loud and energetic. It's rare to find her speaking in anything softer than a yell.
• Nightmare Fetishist: While the others find Vincent gross, in no small part due to the spiders living in his skin, Yuffie is completely enamored by him and gushes over him every time. She also finds him turning into a Werewolf to kill the Materia Keeper "hot."
• Ninja: As per usual.
• Ninja Brat: The natural consequence of being both a Ninja and a Bratty Half-Pint. Although, just as the latter trope, it tends to be downplayed as she's more annoying due to being a hyper Genki Girl than due to being a bratty teenager. The exception is Episode 22 where this trope is played straight, due to her holding the Jerkass Ball during most of it.
• No Indoor Voice: Yuffie screams virtually ALL her lines!
• Parental Neglect: A victim of it. From what little we see of him, Yuffie's father is a neglectful asshole who squanders what money she can scrape together to send to him back home. It's not hard to see why she left.
• Perpetual Smiler: Her character portrait sports a big, toothy grin, and given her constant cheerfulness, it's pretty safe to assume the smile is equally constant.
• Pet the Dog: And towards an actual dog (maybe). In Episode 16, after Barret had an outburst and told Red that he's not his talking dog best friend, she seems genuinely sad for Red XIII and tries to comfort him by offering him some GPs to have fun with her and Tifa.
• Robbing the Dead: She reveals she has no issues with this, even when the "dead" are an unconscious Tifa and Cloud during the Mideel incident.
• Running Gag: Yuffie getting punched in the face, even by herself.
• Sarcasm-Blind: She never realizes when Tifa or Cloud are being sarcastic with her.
• Ship Tease: She spends a lot of Episode 20 saying how attractive Vincent is, and thinks him turning into a werewolf in Episode 21 was hot.
• Smoke Out: She does this whenever entering or leaving scenes suddenly. The extra-large smokeout in Episode 22 is cover for jacking the party's materia cache. At the Northern Crater, Cid somehow manages to hijack this gimmick to forcibly replace her in the party upon finding out Jenova being an alien, and she merely shrugs when asked how he did that.
• Sticky Fingers: See the quote above.
• Stepford Smiler: Episode 22 shows that she has a lot of resentment and pain over what happened to Wutai hiding behind her energetic cheer.
• Third-Person Person: "Yuffie out!"
• This Loser Is You: Just about all her dialogue with Vincent is subtle-as-a-nuke references to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, seemingly as a teasing jab at the fans who thought Vincent would be played as a Takahata101 voiced Alucard Expy.
• Token Mini-Moe: The youngest member of the party at 16.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The comparative girly girl to Tifa's tomboy.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In episode 21, she makes snide remarks about Sephiroth setting a town on fire, in which Tifa gets onto her for. 22 has her very singing condescending remarks about Tifa reminiscing about her father, in which it results in a fight between the two. Though it's heavily implied that since Aerith tells Cloud to "kick [Sephiroth's] butt SOLDIER-style was her trigger, since she states Shinra and SOLDIER took Wutai. She does later apologize for her behavior after Tifa manages to get through to her. Compare Episode 27 where she negatively reacts to the doctor monitoring the mako-poisoned Cloud tries crack a joke at the man's expense.
• Vampires Are Sex Gods: She certainly thinks that way about Vincent... It's also probably a nod to their rather popular pairing in the fandom. Played for Laughs because she finds him sexy even after it's revealed that living spiders crawl in his body.
  Yuffie: (smitten) Aaaah... He's filled with so much brooding mystery...
  Aerith: And spiders!
• With Catlike Tread: Announces her surprise attacks by literally shouting "Surprise attack!"

Cait Sith

Cait Sith, a.k.a. "Ket Shee"

"Lemme ask you something, Cloud. When we're drowning in the tumultuous sea that is life, how do we stay afloat? ... With a friend, who understands your pain."

Voiced by: Lanipator

A cat-like creature who rides a stuffed Moogle named Mog. He allegedly works as a fortune teller at the Gold Saucer, but when he and Cloud hit it off over their shared desire for people to respect them, Cloud asks him to join the party. In truth, he's Reeve Tuesti, Shinra's Head of Urban Development, remotely piloting a robot body from Shinra HQ to reluctantly spy on the party. At first, anyway...

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• Accent Relapse: Once his nature as a spy has been revealed, at his most sombre, Cait Sith's accent disappears, Reeve speaking with his regular voice.
• Actually a Doombot: When the party wants to pay him back for spying on them for Shinra by gutting him, he points out that they'd be wasting their time.
  Cait Sith: The only thing inside Mog is fluff and gears.
  Mog: Don't forget the guilt. That's internal.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Not only is Mog named in this version, he's also capable of speech. Mostly to make nihilistic quips, though he does converse with his rider every now and then.
• Armor-Piercing Question: The first half of the quote above that stunned Cloud, causing him to simply mutter, "I don't know…".
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • The second half of his Establishing Character Moment is Cait saying that The Power of Friendship will drive him forward, which caused Cloud to immediately ask Cait Sith to join him.
  • He follows this up in episode 24 when Tifa asks him why he's still with the party after having betrayed them. Cait gives a Precision F-Strike that "I fucking hate my job", with the F-bomb going uncensored. Cait continues that he can't just sit back and do nothing as Shinra ravages the planet anymore.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Though he nervously questions the group's eagerness to kill Rufus, when asked to offer an alternative, he eagerly suggests they kidnap him, torture him till he gives them what they want, and maybe ransom him.
• Birds of a Feather: Cait Sith says he feels like he's lost control of his life, wants some respect and is working with someone that's mocking them all the time. This gets Cloud to like him and asks him to join their group instantly.
• Blatant Lies: Cait states he's never heard of Sephiroth...right after asking if Cloud meant Sephiroth after Cloud described a guy with a black cape, silver hair and big sword.
• Character Catchphrase: "Holy kitty litter!" — used whenever he expresses his shock, which is roughly equivalent to "Holy shit." Since kitty litter is essentially shit.
• Chekhov's Gun: His walkie-talkie he uses to report back to Shinra. It works both ways, and in Season 4 (after his defection) he uses it to listen in on meetings Rufus has with his board of directors.
• Deadpan Snarker: A lot of his dialogue is often wry.
• Defector from Decadence: It turns out that the reason Cait Sith still wants to help the party after he reveals himself to be a spy is because he's officially had it with Shinra abusing their power and making others suffer and wants to do whatever he can to stop them.
• The Dividual: The cat and moogle have their own names and seemingly juxtaposed dispositions and squabble somewhat between eachother, but are collectively just called Cait Sith by the party. Once the cat is out of the bag about his motives and identity, however, Cait Sith and Mog are treated collectively as just Reeve. Mog is once mentioned independent of Cait Sith when Cid makes a quip that Red notes is something Mog would nihilistically say.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears on Warker in Episode 15, albeit without Mog.
• Easily Forgiven: Double Subverted. After revealing that he was a Shinra spy, and not a fortune teller, he expected the group to forgive him after he reveals the truth. They do not, as even Tifa tells him it doesn't work that way. But by Episode 25, no one seems to harbor any animosity towards him anymore, though that might partly be more due to more pressing matters at the moment. Barrett still gives him shit about it even when he's genuinely tries to help the group.
• The Eeyore: Mog, of the existential variety.
• Establishing Character Moment: Everything you need to know about Mog comes from the first three words he speaks on camera.
  Mog: Existence is pain.
• Foreshadowing: A lot of his predictions just seem to be parts of Reeve's diary, like Reeve crying about Sector 7's destruction. The one that doesn't hint at this instead foreshadows Aerith's death.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When choosing his name during introductions, you can briefly see the name Reeve before it's deleted.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Briefly becomes one in Episode 24 after he betrays the party by giving the Key Stone to Tseng, while still forcing the others to keep him in the team. Even though he sincerely regrets his actions, the others are understandably angry and distrustful towards him. He makes up with Cloud and Aerith at the end of the episode, when he volunteers to sacrifice himself to get the black materia, along with the rest of the party by the following one. However, Forgiven, but Not Forgotten comes into play, as Barret still rubs his spy status in.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Played With. He does sacrifice himself to get the black materia for the others... but since he's only a remote-controlled robot, a Cait Sith 2.0 is quickly sent to replace him afterwards.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In Episode 16, Cait Sith asks what kind of person would work for Shinra and Mog states a sad, pathetic excuse for a man. Considering it's Reeve controlling Cait Sith...
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: Tries to laugh off his blatant walkie-talkie as being his private psychic phoneline.
• Must Make Amends: Episode 24 has him monologue about how he wanted to make the world a better place, but just ended up making it worse, and how he needs to do what he can to save the planet. This is much sadder when you realize that in the expanded universe Reeve was the one who discovered how to refine Mako energy. So despite his good intentions, not only was he responsible for Shinra's rise to power and all pain and suffering that came with that, but he's also indirectly responsible for dooming the planet.
• My Greatest Failure: In Episode 23, Cid encourages everyone to close their eyes and imagine the world they want to see as a means of calming everyone down. When asked what he sees when he closes his eyes, the audio of the Sector 7 plate dropping plays, indicating that failing to stop it counts as this for Reeve.
• Named by the Adaptation: Mog is nameless in the original game, with his name being taken from a commonly reoccurring Moogle character in the franchise.
• Negate Your Own Sacrifice: As in the source material, he "sacrifices" himself in Episode 24, only for Cait Sith 2 to pop up almost immediately. "Robots, am I right?"
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His voice appears to be an impression of comedian Ed Wynn. Who is perhaps best known for playing the Mad Hatter from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.
• Not So Stoic: Usually speaking monotone, Mog has notably raised his voice three times. In Episode 30, he excitedly responds to the idea of Cid opening a window in the submarine while underwater in case Red farts. Then, during the fight against Hojo in Episode 31, even he reacts with disgusted horror at Hojo mutating himself, and then is in as much awe as its rider and Cloud when Vincent transforms into Chaos.
• Only Sane Man: Cait Sith notes that it makes no sense for Dyne to be killing random innocents instead of Shinra and is concerned he seems to be the only one who thinks that's strange. Fits right in with Reeve being Shinra's own Only Sane Man.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: He is spectacularly bad at hiding the fact he's Reeve, and a spy.
• Precision F-Strike: Joins Dyne, Tifa and Cid on the list of characters who get an uncensored F-bomb during an Armor-Piercing Response in Episode 24. Cait says that he can't stand what Shinra is doing, and that he can't change it from the inside, and that he's going with the party despite the fact that they don't trust him.
  Cait: Do not call [Shinra] my friends!
  Tifa: Then why, Cait?! Why is your greedy, corporate, fat-cat ass even here?!
  Cait: BECAUSE I FUCKING HATE MY JOB!!!
• Redemption Equals Death: After he finally joins the heroes for real he willingly sacrifices himself so Cloud and Aerith could get the Meteor Materia, parting after a heartfelt speech and hoping that his actions here could redeem him even just a bit...And then Mog 2.0 pops out at the end of the episode. He is just controlling a robot after all.
• Regretful Traitor: He honestly wants to make up for deceiving the party and giving the keystone to the Turks, and doesn't want to resort to blackmail to stay on the team.
• Rhymes on a Dime: He lets out some pretty impressive wordplay during his fortune-telling.
  Cait Sith: Hold on to your britches, will this couple gain riches?
  Cait Sith: Bachelorhood buried, let's see if they get married!
  Cait Sith: Attention audience members, will this girlie be remembered?
  Cait Sith: With all they endeavor, will [Aerith and Cloud] last forever?
  • Even when asked a question he doesn't exactly want to answer, he gives... a percentage of an effort.
  Cait Sith: Uh… Yadda yadda yadda, sloth, where's Sephiroth?
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Aerith is predictably taken with him and Mog.
• Sad Clown: Invoked. Cait believes that sometimes you have to laugh when faced with death. (And in Mog's case, cry at life.)
• Significant Double Casting: Lanipator voices both Cait Sith and Reeve. This is likely intentional as the two are actually the same person.
• Straw Nihilist: Mog seems to hate the world, constantly talking about how death would free him from pain and that life is meaningless. Considering that Mog is Cait Sith's internalized feelings, it really says a lot about what goes on inside of his head. Lampshaded by Cid and Red:
  Cid: [responding to Corel's miners plan to hide from Meteor underground] Digging your own graves? Great idea.
  Red XIII: Hey, that sounded like something Mog would say.
  Cid: Yeah, it does!
• Take This Job and Shove It: When Cloud offers Cait Sith to join them, this is his reaction for his fortune telling job. While Cait Sith never had such a job in the first place, it's implied that Reeve wishes to do this to Shinra. He pretty much acts on this in Episode 24, staying with the group even after his cover is blown because he hates working for Shinra. Surprisingly, Tseng doesn't blame him for it.

Vincent Valentine

Vincent Valentine, a.k.a. "Alucard"

"Welcome to my home! You're the first real company I've had since all me spider friends crawled into me flesh and laid eggs."

Voiced by: Faulerro^note Curtis "Takahata101" Arnott for about 10 seconds

A former Turk turned immortal shapeshifter by Hojo's experiments. He is awakened from his slumber beneath Nibelheim by the party and joins them for a chance to get revenge against Hojo.

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• Adaptational Badass: Chaos was only accessible from Vincent visiting Lucrecia in her cave in a sidequest, and awakened via input from her^note Dirge of Cerberus says that the "manual" for the Chaos Limit Break was Chaos awakening in the cave as it was meant to, triggered by the Protomateria found there and placed within Vincent. Here, he simply does out of his own sheer hatred of Hojo.
• Adaptational Ugliness: In a sharp contrast to his Tall, Dark, and Handsome canon self, this Vincent is drawn with a sickly pale, sunken face and a large hooked nose. To say nothing of the grosser parts of his character.
• Affably Evil: He's a frighteningly creepy Shapeshifter with plans to murder Hojo in the absolute worst way possible, but comes off as pretty amiable guy.
• Alliterative Name: Vincent Valentine.
• Bait-and-Switch: Trailers made it seem like Takahata would be voicing him as an Alucard Expy, matching up with some fan theories on how he would be adapted. Instead he's voiced by Faulerro sounding like he's doing an impression of Richmond.
• Body Horror: He makes multiple references to the spiders living in his flesh.
• Captain Obvious: When everyone threatens to kill Cait Sith should he betray their trust again.
  Vincent: I think they hate you…
• Cold Ham: His lackadasical Creepy Monotone doesn't stop him from speaking in a very flowery manner. Turns out Lucrecia speaks just as flowery.
• Creepy Good: He thinks of nothing but killing Hojo and has spiders sleeping in his skin, but he's rather friendly (albeit in a lackadaisical way).
• Creepy Monotone: Excluding when he speaks Hojo's name, Vincent can't ever seem to change his tone, whether to express his own anger at Cait Sith's betrayal or his Big "NO!" when trying to stop the brainwashed Cloud from killing Aerith at the Ancient altar. Until episode 31
• Dissonant Serenity: He retains his casual, lackadaisical tone when talking about the vicious tortures he intends to inflict upon Hojo.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Possibly. In Episode 11, a creepy moaning is heard from his room when Cloud is running by and screaming for Sephiroth during the flashback.
• Everyone Has Standards: He may be a walking spiders' nest of a corpse that creeps everybody out, but even he is absolutely disgusted at Hojo mutating himself with Jenova cells into an even worse sin against nature.
• Expy: For approximately his first ten seconds of screentime, he's clearly meant to be taken as one for Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate Abridged. Once he gets over his cough, however, he transforms into Richmond.
• Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: He's still got the crimson overcoat and clawed metal gauntlet of his game counterpart, but he's a thoroughly chill and easygoing bloke who's friendly to basically everyone, except for Hojo.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Probably the most straight example in the series. No one in the party seems to be very fond of him due to his nightmarish characteristics, although they usually simply ignore him instead of being aggressive towards him. However, Red XIII and Yuffie appear to be exceptions.
• Goth: He's a "pale motherf*cker", seems far happier about being infested by spider eggs than he should, and his mode of speech is very much like Richmond from The IT Crowd.
• Horrifying Hero: In his first fight, he turns into a Werewolf and eats the Materia Keeper alive. He's still on the heroes' side though.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Episode 23 implies Vincent has eaten people before, since when he asked Cloud if he knows what humans taste like, Vincent answered his own question with "Chewy."
• Last Episode, New Character: Introduced mid-way through the Season 2 finale.
• Mr. Exposition: He tells the party all about how he was Gast, Hojo, and Lucrecia's bodyguard, that Lucrecia is Sephiroth's biological mother, and that Sephiroth was injected with Jenova cells while in the womb.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: His homages to horror films are even more apparent here, with him casually talking about his desire to murder Hojo, the sounds of screaming and stabbing with dripping blood when he's being named, and having spiders he refers to as his friends living within his skin.
• Not So Stoic: He drops the Creepy Monotone for a much more menacing voice when he sees his opportunity to finally murder Hojo.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vincent says he's not a vampire, but shares so many traits with common depictions (including sleeping in a coffin, wearing a red cape, and having a gun) that Yuffie and Aerith keep calling him one. Also he has spiders living under his skin that he's not too bothered about.
• Out of Focus: While the rest of the party have all played notable roles in the story, and at least one episode focusing on them, for a long time Vincent's only notable contribution to the story was giving some information about the Jenova project in his debut, and after that, is only brought attention to for jokes that rarely last for longer than a minute. He finally gets the spotlight in Episode 31, though he still shares it with Cait Sith, when they confront Hojo.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He makes no secret that he plans to make Hojo suffer. Horribly. However, since Hojo is basically the worst human being that has ever existed... when the time comes to finally kill Hojo, however, all he does as Chaos is anticlimactically end the man's life in one strike. Then again, Hojo had just turned itself into a disgusting abomination that awfully disgusted even him...
• Sleepyhead: Slept in a dungeon for thirty years and naps during battles. He even sleeps in the Haunted House at Gold Saucer, scaring the crap out of some park visitors when he wakes up.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: He also calls the secret library/laboratory under Shinra Manor a "libratory", just like Cloud.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: He tends to use "me" where "my" would be more syntactically correct.
  Vincent: You're the first company I've had since all me spider friends crawled into me skin and laid eggs!
• Vampires Are Sex Gods: Played for Laughs: Yuffie sees him as a Mr. Fanservice, despite him being a rather creepy guy with spiders living in his skin.
  Yuffie: (dreamy sigh) He's filled with so much brooding mystery...
  Aerith: And spiders!
• Verbal Tic: By virtue of his hatred for the man, he literally always pronounces a certain doctor's name as "HOOOOOOJOOOOOOO...". Once he kills Hojo in ep. 31, he drops the menancing tone and pronounces his name normally.
• Warrior Poet: In spite of his usual dopey demeanor, he can be rather eloquent when he wants to be. His reunion with Lucrecia sounds like something out of a gothic romance novel.
• The Worm That Walks: Sort of: while not actually made of spiders, he constantly brings up that his spider friends have been laying eggs and living in his skin for 30 years.
  Vincent: (referring to three spiders currently sitting on Barret's face) They came out of me eye socket!
• You Need a Breath Mint: Sleeping for thirty years results in one hell of a case of morning breath, inexplicably making him sound like a certain other gunslinging vampire in red.

Cid Highwind

Cid Highwind

"There's gonna be people in your life that'll tell you that your dreams are unattainable. That you should just wear a tie, sit your ass behind a desk, and tell the world "I give up." But you don't give up. You get out of your seat, burn that tie, walk up to those people who told you your dream's dead... And you tell them to F**K OFF."

Voiced by: Brienne Olvera

An expert pilot and mechanic from Rocket Town who used to work for Shinra's Space Program in the hopes of being the first man to go to space. After Rufus refuses to revive the Space Program, he joins the party on their hunt for Sephiroth since he's got nothing better to do.

---

• Adaptational Nice Guy: His behaviour towards Shera might still be pretty abusive, but at least here it's a front for their BDSM relationship, having already resolved his issues with her long ago. It's to the point where he's willing to make innuendos about her, showing he certainly appreciates having her around. He's also less abrasive towards the other members of the team, and quick to give them Rousing Speeches to lift their spirit.
• Adapted Out: As a result of the above trope, his original Story Arc of forgiving Shera and being nicer to her is excised due to being redundant. The events aboard the rocket are changed to him just being more appreciative of her heroism.
• Aggressive Submissive: He's verbally abusive to Shera, but she's actually a dominatrix who pays him back with interest during their private time.
• Ambiguously Bi: He confirms Zangan (Tifa's old fighting teacher) was his former dom. This doesn't necessarily mean their relationship was sexual, except Zangan used to make frequent references to fisting.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: His relationship with Shera looks gruff on the surface, but as evidenced by him calling her a "beautiful science bitch" during their BDSM sessions he really does love her.
  • Unlike in canon, her helping save Cid from the exploded oxygen tank isn't treated as a change of heart for Cid. He just ends up appreciating her even more for her resolve to do what she can to foil Shinra's plan, implying that their issues with each other had already been resolved via their kinky arrangement long before the series started.
• The Chains of Commanding: Somewhat parodied, since, unlike in the game, he forcibly takes command of the remaining party rather than Barret promoting him^note Barret has no qualms about being leader, unlike in the game, but Cid argues on the grounds that he's the captain of the ship ferrying them around, but the misadventures of the Corel mission make him quickly regret the decision. Oddly enough, instead of foisting the role back to Barret, he confides to Tifa about the strain of leadership.
• Cool Big Bro: Cloud certainly seems to view him as one, much like how Yuffie views Tifa. He's in constant awe of Cid's attitude and advice that he demands that he become a part of their crew simply on account of how cool he is.
• Cool Uncle: Lampshaded by Yuffie, who refers to him as "the uncle people are nervous about inviting over for the holidays".
• Cool Old Guy: Downplayed. Cid is only 32, but shows all the traits of this trope, and is bursting at the seams with crass language, gruff attitude, and overall awesomeness. He's also got plenty of stories up his sleeve.
• Determinator: Just take a look at his quote above. If he says he's going to space one day, then he's going to space, goddammit.
• Early-Bird Cameo: His first line is at the end of Episode 20, before he makes an onscreen appearance.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Cid doesn't believe in gods, even though he lives in a world where magic blatantly exists. He even calls them "imaginary friends" to rile up Barret.
  • Even when Barret directly summons Bahamut and speaks with him personally in The Movie, Cid just seems annoyed like he'd rather be doing anything else.
  Cid: This is f*cking stupid...
  Barret: SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'M GROVELING!
  • Nay-Theist: What he is by the end of the audience with the dragon. He recognizes their existence, but doesn't find any reason to revere them, especially when Bahamut himself tells them that it's not the gods' job to save the world, but humans themselves.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In the past, he had to make the call to save Shera or go into space like he always dreamed. Mission Control only gave him ten seconds to wrestle with the issue before choosing Shera.
• Hope Bringer: He gives astoundingly effective Rousing Speeches on dreams that can pick damn near anyone up, and giving one to Cloud is the reason he's on the team in the first place. Given what's coming they're going to need him.
• Hot-Blooded: Much like his gamer counterpart, Cid is driven, passionate, and has one hell of a mouth.
  • He's also not one for "finese" when it comes to fighting.
  Cloud: "Alright guys, game plan! Tifa, you distract it with a barrage of attacks while I prepare Soldier Bolt, then Cid wil-"
  Cid: (pulls out a stick of dynamite) "WELCOME TO EARTH, BITCH!!!"
  (BOOM!)
  Cloud: .... "Yeah, pretty much that."
• Incoming Ham: "Shera! Make some goddamn tea! I'M GOING TO SPAAAAACE!!!"
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Cait Sith describes him as "The foul mouthed pilot with a heart of gold". He most definitely fits the foul mouthed description, and he willingly cancels his dream to prevent Shera from getting killed.
  • Being the Aggressive Submissive to Shera in their BDSM sessions somehow manages to show this side of himself better if one thinks about it: it allows him a means to control himself to avoid being actually abusive to her as he is in canon, as well as a fairer way to vent out his resentment for ruining his dream.
  • He is noticeably nicer to Cloud when they first met. Where Cloud was shoved into The Friend Nobody Likes especially by Barret, the first thing he does is telling him if he has a dream, then he should accomplish them. This gains Cloud's approval of him while Tifa wasn't as receptive.
• Large Ham: From minute one!
• Last Episode, New Character: Introduced in the final scene of the Season 2 finale.
• Legacy Character: Him being one for the franchise gets Lampshaded as a Running Gag, with all other Cids as his ancestors regaled through stories.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Since he's the last member to join the party, he's missed everything about Sephiroth, Jenova, Hojo, Reunion, and the Nibelheim Incident.
  Cid: Hey y'all? So I know I'm the new guy here, but I think I speak for everyone when I say… I don't know what the f*** is going on.
• Meaningful Echo: He makes a Rousing Speech to Cloud about the world wanting to end your dream and put you in a desk job with a tie, only for you to tell them to "F*** off". When Rufus offers him exactly that, Cid responds accordingly.
  Cid: Well, with all due respect, Mr. Shinra… you can just f*** off.
  Cloud: So cool!!!
• The Nicknamer: Calls Tifa "Fists".
• Not So Above It All: He's the reluctant drag-along to their duo, but eventually, Cid goes along with Barret and Red's antics. He even does the "AVALANCHE TIME!" cheer with their during the final battle with Sephiroth in The Movie.
• Odd Friendship: Tifa doesn't like him at first because she thinks he's being abusive to Shera. When she finds out that's not true, he's inspired to join the party when she encourages him to not give up on his dream. Considering the true nature of his relationship with Shera, it figures he'd respect a strong woman. It also helps that they both knew Zangan, though Cid is more aware of what Tifa's master really taught.
• Only Sane Man: Foul mouth aside, he's probably the most level-headed of the team. He's also the only party member unhindered by emotional baggage due to having solved his grievances long before the series started, meaning he's the only one who's emotionally well-adjusted from start to finish.
• Opposites Attract: Cid is a hot-blooded, adventurous pilot who's in a relationship with meek rocket scientist Shera. This even extends to their BDSM relationship, with Cid being an aggressive sub and Shera being a sweet but firm dom.
• Precision F-Strike: Due to the below trope, this would have no effect. However, one of his (many) F-bombs gets uncensored in episode 24 when he's trashing Cait Sith^note Lani and Ben reveal during the live premiere, however, that there was supposed to be only one uncensored F-bomb this episode, implying this was an accident.
  Cid: I bet the fucker called up the Turks to say we were coming so they could ambush us!
• Replacement Pedestal: He becomes one in Cloud's eyes, although Tifa isn't very won over by his character and just think Cloud sucks at picking role models.
• Rousing Speech: He makes these quite alot. In fact, Cloud wants him to join their team after he gives a big one about following ones dream no matter how much everyone might oppose it.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Even moreso than he does in canon. He drops a lot of F-bombs in his onscreen debut.
• Shout-Out: His very first line is a reference to his infamous "Goddamn Tea!" line.
• Smoking Is Cool: Cid loves his smokes and is seen as the greatest man. By Cloud.
• The Smoking Section: Smokes so many cigars he fills up a giant space rocket with second-hand smoke all by himself. His naming screen is even covered in smoke!
  Cloud: All that smoke is coming from one guy? How's that even possible?
  Villager: Son, we're a town full of rocket scientists and even we don't know.
• Take This Job and Shove It: Happily goes along with Shinra's plans if it means he gets to go to space, until Rufus says he's shutting down Cid's space program and relegating him to a desk job.
• Third Wheel: Like Cloud, non-romantic example and for the exact same reasons. He gets dragged along with Barret and Red's AVALANCHE Time starting with the Corel mission. Most definitely in the movie, since he didn't need to be brought along when they summon Bahamut, and he clearly sounds like he'd be doing anything else. Eventually, he does warm up to AVALANCHE Time enough join their cheer.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: During his reunion with Rufus.
  Rufus: Cid, ol' boy! How's the unemployment line?
  Cid: Not as long as the shadow of your daddy you've been standing under. [Beat] Ya' bitch.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Shera's tea. Sorry, Shera's GODDAMN TEA!
• Tranquil Fury: When Rufus informs him of shutting down the space division, effectively taking away any chance he has of going to space, Cid is beyond furious, but doesn't raise his voice like he normally does.

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