Characters / The Fifth Act

This is the character page for The Fifth Act. Canonical characterization applies here until it does. List only tropes coming from the work, canon tropes go here.

Cloud Strife

• Aesop Amnesia: Being forced back into the past and being rejected by the one ally he tried to connect to (Vincent) pushes Cloud to try to save the world alone, forgetting the lesson of Advent Children where Cloud had to depend on others.
• Advantage Ball: Cloud consistently has the advantage over the others due to having a decade of experience and better equipment. Although he loses this when he gives the Ribbon to Kunsel
• Almighty Janitor: Cloud is lowest ranking Soldier and is the strongest Soldier of ShinRa, but doesn't give a shit about promotions. This makes him a darling to the high command, who ironically promote him to get him go on more missions by himself.
• Bad Liar: Cloud is not great at lying and mostly uses people's assumptions of him to get by. His lies do not hold upon closer inspection.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Being experimented on by Hojo, unbalanced by the truth of his origins and seeing Sephiroth burn down the Shinra Mansion allows Jenova to possess Cloud in Nibelheim
• Berserk Button: Being called a puppet drives Cloud to immediate violence.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Cloud, who's very quiet and antisocial, is the most powerful man in Shinra and can surpass Sephiroth in a straight fight.
• Big Brother Instinct: Cloud becomes protective of Zack and Kunsel, trying to watch out for them the best he can.
  • He also becomes protective towards young Cloud and Yuffie.
• The Big Guy: Especially in the Omakes; his passivity and inability to plan well means that he serves as the muscle for Cissnei/Shinra/Kunsel/Zack/Yuffie/whoever is ordering or dragging him around.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Despite all evidence to the contrary, he fully believes that Sephiroth will go insane and evil and it's up to him to put him down before he commits the atrocities the past Sephiroth committed.
• Broken Ace: Cloud's the perfect SOLDIER - good at all forms of combat (powerful and fast with powerful, fast, versatile Materia), obedient, uncomplaining, unambitious and a workaholic. However, he's traumatized by his past, surrounded by triggers, and such an unambitious doormat that several people fear he's a Death Seeker.
• Broken Pedestal: Is looked up to even with the First Classes as the strongest and most skilled among them. He falls off it when they find out that he was essentially planning a murder-suicide. This ends up for the best, they put him on suicide watch and finally get past barriers to befriend him.
• Combat Pragmatist: When Genesis took Sephiroth to meet Cloud for the first time, Sephiroth tries to introduce himself and Cloud springs immediately to attack him to not give him an opening.
• The Comically Serious: Cloud is dour and stoic throughout the entire story. So of course, the omakes put in embarrassing situations like having him cross dress, rescuing Yuffie from increasingly dangerous situations and meeting Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo again.
• Death Seeker: ShinRa command at one point is worried that Cloud is passively suicidal. There's a hint of truth as Cloud acknowledges that he doesn't have much of a reason to live beyond kill X and save the world. Proven right when he attempts a murder-suicide.
• Defrosting the Ice Queen: Cloud slowly becomes less cold due the influence of Zack, Aerith and Kunsel.
• Didn't Think This Through: Cloud tends to make hasty decisions without any good plans. He shows up on the Wutai Front but didn't bother to check if Sephiroth was even there, he tries to bribe terrorists but without an advocate he goes nowhere, he joins Shinra but has no plan to get at Hojo, etc etc.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Cloud refuses to see that Sephiroth has changed and not become the monster he was. He also refuses to answer the question of what will he do if he succeeds.
• Drives Like Crazy: According to a few of the one shots, the other Soldier Firsts have come to have a healthy respect for the way that Cloud handles his motorcycle.
• Dumb Muscle: What keeps Fifth Act Cloud from becoming the overpowered Peggy Sue of other time-travel fics. He's still a One-Man Army Master of All but his inability to plan well or lie causes a lot of problems for him.
• Future Badass: Cloud, odd variant where the badass is the protagonist. This is for good and for bad, good in that he now surpasses Sephiroth bad in that Jenova and Hojo now find him the superior model.
• Guilt Complex: Cloud carries a lot of baggage, blaming himself for things that happened in the future and being unable to change the past.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: His anger is very easy to set off, especially around Sephiroth.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Cloud wants to stop Sephiroth from getting possessed by Jenova and causing many tragedies, he ends up getting possessed by Jenova himself.
• Heroic Bastard: Cloud turns out be one of President Shinra's illegitimate children.
• Homeless Hero: When Cloud gets to Midgar, he's homeless due to the fact that all his allies are gone and had no money to buy a place to stay. He ends sleeping in Aeris' church and this is rectified when he's recruited for Shinra.
• Ineffectual Loner: Cloud doesn't accomplish much on his own. He gets as far as he does through the help and charity of others.
• Internal Reformist: Cloud joins ShinRa because it will get him closer to Hojo, Jenova and Sephiroth and allow him to destroy the company from the inside.
• Missing Steps Plan: Cloud's plan consists of 1. ????? 2. Murder Sephiroth/Jenova/Hojo 3. ??????
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Cloud tries to kill Sephiroth several times, and he fails. He would have killed Lord Godo for refusing to surrender, if Yuffie hadn't stole his Fire materia.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Due to his S-cells, Cloud can sense where Sephiroth and uses it to avoid him. Once Sephiroth's S-cells awaken, he uses his to track Cloud down.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Cloud's decision to stop the Midgar Zolom instead of running away from it gets him sent back in the past.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Inverted. Cloud is surprised to find that he's exceptionally powerful for SOLDIER when previously he viewed himself as a weakling who never made it into SOLDIER and can't keep up even after Mako enhancements. Of course, his basis for comparison is Sephiroth and Zack, both at the height of their strength and powers so his viewpoint is skewed.
• No-Sell: Due to his Ribbon, he is completely unaffected by status effects which adds to his reputation as The Ace. He loses it when he gives it to Kunsel for him to escape.
• Peggy Sue: Cloud becomes one after he breaks a Time materia. Subverted as Hojo explains that he didn't travel to the past, he created a new timeline.
• Protectorate: Cloud wants to change the past to protect Zack, Aeris, Nibelheim (including his mother and his younger self), the member of Avalanche and ultimately the world. As can be expected, such a heavy burden with no reward takes it's toll on him. And as Zack and Aeris state, they're strong and perfectly capable of protecting themselves and the people around them.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: While Cloud is helpful and generous to others, he grows more embittered and frustrated as his journey continues. He gets blinded by his hatred of Sephiroth, frustrated at his glacial progress in tracking down Jenova and Hojo and increasingly aware of his own power. He becomes mentally unbalanced after he is tortured and experimented on and finds out that President Shinra is his father. His mental instability combined with his previous frustration and knowledge of the truth allows him to easily get possessed by Jenova.
• Sanity Slippage: Once he is freed from Hojo, his sanity is in the tank and he hears the Planet goading him to kill Sephiroth. It's actually Jenova, who taking advantage of Cloud's madness to wipe out the inferior model.
• Shipper on Deck: Fully supports Zack and Aeris. A major motivation is protecting their happiness.
• Taught by Experience: Cloud flashbacks to how he didn't have formal training as a SOLDIER meaning that all of his skills were learned on the hunt for Sephiroth often resulting in Achievements in Ignorance. For example, he didn't know that Shinra-issued materia (represented by the Crisis Core materia system) were weaker and less flexible than natural materia (represented by the FFVII materia system) hence his superior magic skills.
• The Stoic: Cloud to everyone else. To the point Zack thinks its a big deal when Cloud smiles more than once a week.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Has a noticeable one especially when he gets lost in past memories.
• Took a Level in Idealism: Cloud becomes more hopeful and optimistic when he realizes that things aren't as bad as they were before and despite his doubts he did accomplish something.
• Trauma Button: Being sent to the past is not good for Cloud's emotional health. Pretty much everything and everyone he interacts with forces a flashback or pushes a Berserk Button or otherwise reminds him of his past. He starts getting frequent nightmares as a result.
• The Unfettered: Cloud was approaching this territory as he was willing to go through extremes to achieve his goals. To him, it doesn't matter that he works for a company that he despises and goes against his ideals. It doesn't matter that he gains fame or gets many friends. He's willing to throw all of it away if it means Sephiroth, Jenova and Hojo die.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: All Cloud wants to do is to prevent the tragedy and destruction that afflicted his timeline. While everyone agrees that he's right in wanting Jenova and Hojo dead as the two are genuinely dangerous and continue to do so. However, most people believe that he crosses the line with his open desire to kill Sephiroth because as far as they know, Sephiroth has done nothing to earn to his hatred.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Cloud is called out on attempting to kill Sephiroth when the latter never did the crimes his past self committed and for attempting a murder-suicide.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In-universe, he is considered quite pitiable due to what little they know of him. He desires to kill Sephiroth and all that is known is that he lost all of his friends and family before coming to Midgar. Even more so when they find out the truth.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Cloud believes that he's doing the right thing by planning to kill Sephiroth to prevent the tragedies the man causes. Not remotely realizing until the very end of the story that the Power of Friendship and his kindness toward Genesis has done far more in changing the timeline and he's on his way to becoming someone worse than Sephiroth.
  • Unlike FFVII, Shinra is at it's height and fighting the company won't work. Instead, navigating Shinra requires allies and careful politicking. Cloud's original mistake was rejecting Lazard's overtures, something that could have given him access to Hojo and Jenova. Without political protection, Lazard gives to him to Hollander. Cloud thought he was in the La Résistance plot of FFVII when he's really in the MegaCorp politics of Crisis Core.

The Soldiers First Class

Genesis Rhapsodos

• Character Development: He has a lot of this in the fic. He is initially a resentful, pretentious and self-centered jerk who hid his terminal illness out of an misguided attempt to seem strong. When Cloud cures him, Genesis' priorities take a major shift. His begins to be more optimistic, appreciate his friends more and moves past his resentment and jealousy. He overall becomes a more positive and nicer person.
• Character Witness: Cloud gives him the cure when Genesis was in crippling pain without expecting to get anything from it despite Genesis picking a fight with him. This act pays off big time. Genesis gets Sephiroth to come to Wutai, he serves as Cloud advocate to Shinra, he helps search for Cloud when he goes missing and in the end is the one to kill Jenova.
• Chekhov's Skill: Genesis always tries to cast status effects on Cloud, only for them to never work. Once Cloud gets possessed by Jenova, Genesis's reflexive casting stopped Cloud without them having to kill him.
• Commanding Coolness: Genesis holds a rank/position of a commander. He is widely considered an idol among the Continent.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Genesis is torn between his desire to help Cloud, to find more of the spring water to give to Angeal and to protect his friends from Cloud.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Genesis reflexively cast status spells on Cloud, even though he does know it doesn't affect Cloud. Inverted when they have to fight a Jenova-possessed Cloud, Genesis casts a Sleep spell on Cloud and non-lethally takes him down because Cloud lost his immunity.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has a quip on hand in all times.
• Drama Queen: He is very melodramatic and can overreact very frequently. He frequently speaks in LOVELESS quotes, a habit that's constantly lampooned in the fic.
• First Time Feeling: Genesis is nearly moved to tears when he is cured because he can finally feel heat again.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Genesis is resentful that Sephiroth is more stronger and more adored despite of Genesis' hard work. While he never truly gets over it, Genesis does improve greatly. It helps that he's seen as a hero and that Sephiroth is now second best to Cloud.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Genesis wants to surpass Sephiroth. He ends up more famous than Sephiroth as he becomes the Hero of Wutai due to never defecting.
• I Owe You My Life: Cloud saved Genesis from a very painful and slow death and Genesis knows it.
• Koan: Genesis's quoting of Loveless are this and are often relevant to the situation.
• Large Ham: Really his dramatic moments.
• Magic Knight: Genesis is the materia user of the group (rivaled only by Cloud) but can use the sword when it's necessary.
• Melodrama: The man goes through life like it's a giant Loveless play
• Pyromaniac: Genesis likes his Fire materia a little too much.
• Team Mom: Genesis is called a "mother chocobo" for his constant fussing over his friends' health and checking over them.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Best illustrated when Genesis admits that he no longer likes Loveless' tragic endings and begins to like the more happier endings.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Genesis is a much more pleasant and easy going individual when he is cured of his degradation and gains a new lease on life. He becomes more appreciative and concerned for his friends and less resentful of Sephiroth.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Genesis had one before it is healed by Cloud's gift of the healing spring water.

Sephiroth

• Beneath the Mask: The fic explores Sephiroth's POV showing that beneath his arrogant aloof exterior, he's deeply lonely, disconnected man. The omakes also show him take great pleasure in letting loose and causing havoc.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Sephiroth has a habit of talking and snarking during fights. It really pushes Cloud's buttons because he often comes across as not taking the fight seriously and mocking him.
• Character Development: It's a toss up between him or Genesis as to who grows the most over the course of the fic. Sephiroth starts to value his friends more, he apologizes to Cloud (whereas he use to suffer from Never My Fault), he shows more moments of empathy and starts watching what he says. Essentially, he becomes more emotionally mature.
• Deadpan Snarker: Notable as it's a character flaw. Sephiroth has no social skills and an inability to time his quips which combined with Cloud's past means that he will often say something unintentionally hurtful.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: Sephiroth gets dreams of the original timeline.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: When Sephiroth tries to apologize to Cloud, he's at a loss what to do because he never had to apologize for anything.
• Everyone Has Standards: Sephiroth can be so insensitive that Heidegger can think he's thoughtless.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While Genesis, Angeal and Zack like Sephiroth, they don't trust him, at all. Angeal and Genesis kept their terminal illness a secret out of shame and resentment of him. Genesis and Zack initially keep Sephiroth out of their investigation of Cloud's disappearance in fear Sephiroth would turn on them as he is loyal to ShinRa. And Cloud's disappearance is a company cover-up. Sephiroth himself notes how no one trusts him.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Sephiroth wants to befriend Cloud, who can surpass him in strength. Too bad the latter hates his guts.
• Innocently Insensitive: Sephiroth has a habit of accidentally pushing Cloud's Berserk Buttons by echoing his future self.
• Large Ham: Less noticeable than Genesis but definitely there and likely where main game Sephiroth gets it from. Of note is his dramatic speech in the Nibelheim reactor, which echoes his evil self so much it triggers Cloud.
• Let the Past Burn: Burns down Shinra Mansion in order to destroy Hojo's research. It was rather cathartic for him, burning down a terrible memory of his past.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Sephiroth has no idea that Angeal is dying and that Genesis was dying until it was too late.
• Lonely at the Top: Sephiroth, as the top SOLIDER didn't have anyone to sympathize with or challenge himself. Which is why when Cloud shows up, Sephiroth desperately wants him as a rival.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Due to his S-cells, Sephiroth can get a general weak feeling of where Cloud is. Once Sephiroth's S-cells awaken, he uses his to track Cloud down.
• Not So Above It All: One of the omakes has Cloud and Sephiroth trapped in a time loop. Sephiroth takes the opportunity to cause as much havoc as he can (burning down Shinra HQ, quitting SOLIDER etc) and enjoys it immensely.
• Not So Stoic: Sephiroth is always calm and in control especially when fighting. The only time he breaks this calm wisecracking exterior is in the final fight against Cloud where he's losing and in danger of dying. He is notably strained when talking to Zack and his eyes widen in fear when Cloud tries to pull a mutual kill.
• Pyromaniac: Depending on how you count the Extended Universe, Sephiroth seems to like fire materia also as much as Genesis.
• Unknown Rival: Sephiroth believes that he and Cloud have a rivalry however when he's not trying to kill him Cloud wants nothing to do with him.
  • Makes for a funny moment when Sephiroth realizes this is how Genesis feels about him.

Angeal Hewley

• The Atoner: He does everything he can to make up for his actions, as limited as they are. He rescues Kunsel and gives young Cloud a chimera to protect them. He gives the others clues to find Cloud.
• Honor Before Reason: Holds his honor with extreme importance.
• Must Make Amends: Angeal tries to help younger Cloud, Kunsel and the others to make up for his betrayal of Cloud.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Angeal is horrified when he realizes that Hollander has no interest in curing him, and he doomed Cloud to experimentation for nothing.
• Only Sane Man: Is initially the only SOLDIER who thinks that they should watch out for Cloud and that there's something wrong with Cloud. He's also the most grounded of all the SOLDIERS.
  • Not So Above It All: That all goes out the window when he finds out that he's dying with no way to cure it. He shows that he's willing to go to considerable lows.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sure, he succeeds in kidnapping Cloud and sold him out to Hollander in order to find a cure. He then finds out that Hollander has no intention of curing and fully intends to experiment on Cloud to find out what made Cloud superior. Then Hollander is killed and Cloud kidnapped again with no cure to show for it. He betrayed Cloud's and his friends' trust, is now a fugitive and has completely betrayed his ideals. It's only when he does his best to atone for his mistakes that he's finally cured.
• Redemption Earns Life: Angeal finally gets Aeris' healing water to cure him and gets to live and recover after he nearly accepted his fate.
• Team Dad: Is always the one who has to break up fights and does the boring, day-to-day business. He is actually perceptive in judging the emotional states of others.
• Unwitting Pawn: When he becomes desperate to save his own life, he is easily manipulated by Hollander to kidnap Cloud for him.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Angeal receives one when Sephiroth accidentally wounds him when Angeal tries to break up his spar with Cloud.
• Younger Than They Look: Degradation ages him quite badly. He is noted by Zack to have aged thirty years in the span of six months.

Soldiers Second Class

Zack Fair

• Bash Brothers: The few times Zack fights with Cloud, they work very well together. Mostly due to Cloud's inherited memories.
• Brains and Brawn: Zack is the brawn, while Kunsel's the brain.
• Break the Cutie: Zack sees the dark underbelly of ShinRa when his beloved mentor disappears and both of his best friends go missing.
• The Heart: Zack serves as the Morality Chain/Morality Pet to most of the First Class and even some of the Turks. He befriends and defrosts Cloud and is hinted at doing the same to the rest of his friends. He's also the one most likely to advocate doing the right (if reckless) thing compared to the more cautious cynical characters. It's his presence snaps Cloud out of Jenova's control.
• Manic Pixie Dream Guy: Constantly drags Cloud around and tries to cheer him up.
• Odd Friendship: Genesis views the friendship between the cheerful and loud Zack and the dour and quiet Cloud as one.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Replace "gun" with "materia." Zack once tried to cast a fully mastered materia, indoors, without knowing what it is. Cloud takes it away as the materia was Comet. According to Genesis, Zack has one of the worst records of materia safety in all of ShinRa.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Cloud and Kunsel's Blue.
• Skilled, but Naive: Cloud sees Zack as this now that he's the older one as he lacks the hardness in character that his Zack had. His optimism is untempered and he still had faith in ShinRa company. Although Zack is still strong enough to become a First Class.

Kunsel

• Almighty Janitor: Kunsel is a only Second despite building a massive information network and being acknowledged as one of most knowledgeable members of SOLIDER. Had he been a Turk or in any other department, the man would have gotten far. However, SOLIDER is a group that values brawns over brain and Kunsel's habit of planning and overthinking is more of a detriment.
• Ascended Extra: Kunsel, who becomes Cloud's friend over the course of the story and gets captured by Hojo for experimentation, although he does manage to break out.
• Brains and Brawn: Zack is the brawn, while Kunsel is the brain.
• Dismotivation: Kunsel initially didn't try for First Class as he has a comfortable position teaching (and gathering information) and thought he was overshadowed by people such as Zack. It isn't until Cloud starts encouraging him and teaching him materia does Kunsel decide to aim for First Class.
• Foil: While he can be just as excitable as Zack, he's less impulsive and tends to use his head more. Whereas Zack prefers to take action, Kunsel prefers caution and waits before taking action.
• He Knows Too Much: While the Turks didn't mean to give him specifically to Hojo for human experimentation; anyone who took the mission to Nibelheim would have sufficed. It works out for them because he found out too much already.
• Hero-Worshipper: To Cloud.
• Knowledge Broker: Kunsel in Crisis Core was a well informed and vaguely gossipy Mr. Exposition. The Fifth Act upgrades to him having a vast information network, being everyone's go to guy for information and in the Omakes, being better informed than the Turks. Results in a Funny Moment during a one shot when Kunsel, during a "Groundhog Day" Loop is convinced by Cloud to put every bit of info that he's ever gathered on their version of the internet. Results in the Turks trying to kill him, among other things.
• Person as Verb: In the Extended Universe, "pulling a Kunsel" means being very sneaky.
• The Smart Guy: Kunsel is probably the best planner in SOLDIER.

ShinRa

Lazard Deusericus

• Luke, I Am Your Father: He turns out to be Cloud's paternal half-brother
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To an extent. Lazard cares about his SOLIDER subordinates, he's at least worried about Cloud's Death Seeker tendencies and his objections to Cloud joining SOLIDER are reasonable. That being said, this is ShinRa and it's unclear how much of a role he had in Cloud's kidnapping.
• Slimeball: How he comes across to Cloud. He is seen as being as very manipulative and never states his intentions outright so he could have Plausible Deniability.

President Shinra

• The Baby Trap: Hojo notes that many women tried using this with no avail.
• Disappeared Dad: Pretty much abandoned all of his illegitimate children. Lazard grew up in the slums and Cloud's mother was left in Nibelheim
• Greater-Scope Villain: Unseen throughout the story but makes a huge impact.
  • It's pretty heavily implied that he was the one who authorized Hojo's killing of Hollander and repurposing of Cloud
• I Was Quite a Looker: Implied since the older Cloud looked similar enough to pass as his father's younger brother.
• Jerkass: Doesn't lift a finger to help any of his illegitimate children.
• Karma Houdini: Suffers no direct reprisal for abandoning his poorer illegitimate children or for his support of Hojo. That said, his top SOLDIERs know what he's capable of and several of his own executives are working toward improving ShinRa.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He is Cloud's biological father.
• Nepotism: At the same time the only time he helps is when his illegitimate children work for him such with Lazard and Scarlet.
• Really Gets Around: He doesn't seem to use protection as he has a lot of illegitimate children with different women, the known ones are Lazard, Scarlet and Cloud.

Tseng

• Karma Houdini: Suffers no consequences for his part in Cloud and Kunsel's kidnapping.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To an extent. Yes, he is concerned over Cloud's Death Seeker tendencies and allows some concessions to his recruitment into ShinRa. But he and the Turks cover up Cloud's disappearance and give Kunsel to Hojo for experimentation.
• With Us or Against Us: He makes it clear that going against ShinRa or not joining would mean getting hunted down by the Turks if Cloud refuses.

Others

Young Cloud Strife/Mini/Spike

• Ascended Fanboy: He looks up to Genesis Rhapsodos and wanted to join SOLDIER ever since he learned about it. He becomes a cadet in SOLDIER and has the personal attention of five First Class SOLDIERS. In the Extended Universe he even gets materia tutoring from Genesis.
• Badass Normal: Young Cloud, who's not enhanced at all and is a normal kid, manages to travel from Nibelheim to Midgar by himself carrying the mako-overdosed Kunsel in tow in hopes of finding older Cloud.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Young Cloud had the same personality of the elder Cloud when he was the same age. While he's just as determined as his uncle, he's a lot more cheerful and expressive as he doesn't have the Dark and Troubled Past. His inferiority complex hasn't grown to the severity of his uncle's due to "Uncle" Cloud had due the latter's encouragement and the fact he did got in SOLDIER. Since he idolizes Genesis instead of Sephiroth, he's aiming to become a Magic Knight and is well-read due to becoming a fan of the Loveless play to the point that he can quote it from memory.
• Hero-Worshipper: Cloud's younger self towards Genesis, due to Future!Cloud's meddling. When Genesis finds out Cloud and his "nephew" are the same person, he's thrilled.
• Heroic Bastard: Same as his older self.
• Nom de Mom: "Strife" turns out to be Cloud's mother's surname since she never got married. This becomes important when the time-traveling Cloud poses as his younger self's paternal uncle, his surname goes unnoticed until Genesis pulls the thread and realizes that Cloud has the wrong surname for a supposed uncle.

Aeris

• Affectionate Nickname: Mr. Nobody for Cloud. Also serves as a Something Only They Would Say when Aeris tries to contact Cloud
• Chekhov's Gunman: Cloud askes Aeris to try to recreate Great Gospel to summon the water to cure degradation. Near the end of the story Aeris asks to pass a message to Mr. Nobody telling Cloud that she had a breakthrough. Then she pulls a Big Damn Heroes by contacting Cloud through the Lifestream
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Like Sephiroth, Aeris can also tell where Cloud is and predicted him coming to the Church. Though this is more due to the Lifestream taking an interest in Cloud.
• Nostalgia Filter: Cloud sees Aeris as a pure hearted, kind, innocent young woman who is too good for Midgar. (Oddly enough like the Flanderized version of herself) In the story, Aeris is still pure hearted, kind and spiritual but smarter and stronger than Cloud expects.
• Older and Wiser: Inverted. Cloud notices how both she and Zack are young and innocent, so unlike the wiser, harder and stronger Aeris and Zack of his time. Though that's Cloud's Nostalgia Filter working, it's abundantly clear that Aeris is Wise Beyond Her Years.
• Spell My Name With An S: Aeris not Aerith
• Wise Beyond Her Years: Aeris is a teenager but already shows great power and a strong spiritual connection to the Planet. She's also highly empathetic, able the read Cloud's moods and the story drops hints about her Dark and Troubled Past with ShinRa.

Yuffie

• Bratty Half-Pint: The eight-year old Yuffie, who is overly cocky and constantly stealing everyone's materia.
• Bullying a Dragon: Yuffie is constantly stealing the materia of and insulting high ranking SOLIDERs.
• Free-Range Children: Despite Yuffie constantly ending up in random, increasingly improbable, life threatening situations, her guardians and father never bother locking her up or restricting her movements.
• Noodle Incident: Her Treasure Princess adventures. Exaggerated when she ends up in the Northern Crater.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the Extended Universe, she only once actually thinks she's in over her head. Funny enough, it's when she runs into Vincent and Sephiroth who merely wonder how she got to Lucretia's cave.
• Royal Brat: The eight-year old Yuffie.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only physically appears in two chapters yet she makes a huge impact in Cloud's dealings with Wutai and in turn the whole war.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Yuffie believes she's a great ninja that can take down ShinRa, when she's a little girl that can be stopped by Cloud holding her by the scruff of her robes.
• Spanner in the Works: Yuffie accidentally saves her father's life by taking Cloud's materia, which prevented Cloud from assassinating him and forcing Cloud to work a diplomatic solution.
• Too Dumb to Live: In-Universe. At one point in the Omakes, Cloud wonders how neither he or Godo managed to install any idea of self-preservation into Yuffie.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In one omake, she's insulting Cloud, Zack and Angeal, while they are saving her from being eaten by a Midgar Zolom.
• Unreliable Expositor: As Cloud finds out to his annoyance. Yuffie described her father, Lord Kisaragi, as cowardly and peace-loving when the actual man is stubborn and very honor-bound.

Vincent Valentine

• Chekhov's Gunman: He is quickly ditched by Cloud early on with his only way to contact him is to Cloud's PHS. He returns when Genesis and Zack answer Cloud's PHS when he calls. He is pivotal in helping the First Classes turn the Turks against Hojo and shoots Hojo to death. He also warns them of Jenova.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he's up for revenge, he thinks that killing Sephiroth for crimes he might commit is excessive.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: He joins the SOLDIERS in their search for Cloud a few chapters before the Finale.
• Flaw Exploitation: His love for Lucrecia and his desire to make amends with her is used against him when Cloud tells him how to find her cave so he can remove Vincent as a obstacle to his plans.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Cloud leaves Vincent behind when he refuses to kill Sephiroth on vague hints. Thus he warns the SOLDIERS of Cloud's plan to kill Sephiroth half a year afterwards.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't appear often, but is pivotal in helping the Soldiers turn ShinRa against Hojo.
  • He's also the one to kill Hojo

Ms Strife

• Dark and Troubled Past: She was discriminated for years for falling for the moves of a handsome man that didn't care for her. Her reputation was tainted by association and her son hated as a result. It doesn't help that her son wants to join that man's company.
• The Gwen Stacy: She and Nibelheim serves as this to the elder Cloud. Their presence in the past is a source of pain and a remainder of all that he lost.
• Mama Bear: Cloud's mother tried to shoot Cloud, thinking he was trying to take her son away.
• Protectorate: Cloud's reason for changing the past is to protect his mother and stop Nibelheim from burning

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