Headscratchers / Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged

• If all of the Cids in the various final fantasies are Cid Highwind's ancestors, then is every Cid in this verse a Highwind? Also, since this Cid can't be Cid the Seventh, as he explicitly states that Cid the Eighth was a headmaster of a mercenary school, Cid the Sixth created magical technology but won't take off his banana suit, Cid the Ninth got turned into an oglop, and Cid the Tenth fought a flying whale, how far down is he along the Cid lineage?
  • Perhaps Cid’s lineage involves multiple, accidental time- and dimension-jumps? Or maybe he’s just making it up because he finds people’s reactions to his nonsensical ramblings about his supposed “ancestors” (particularly Barret’s frustration) amusing?
• In episode nine, what did Tifa mean when she said if she has to sleep with Cloud, she'd be in charge since, not that she doesn't trust him, but she can't trust him?
  • Well, either Tifa feels Cloud would be bad in bed and on top, wasting time trying to get in her, bad at foreplay, and just make the experience a bad one. Or she is still confused as to whether this is the real Cloud and wants to keep him close, but won't trust him in certain situations.
  • For some people, letting someone else 'take charge' in sex makes them feel vulnerable, and they're only comfortable feeling that way with certain people. Tifa's saying that she doesn't believe Cloud would take advantage of her, but she's not mentally prepared to give him that kind of control.
• Why was Tifa surprised that Cloud called her out for how she treated him in season 1 when season 4 reveals her Jerkass behavior was all an act to preserve Cloud's memories? Season 1 showed she was pretty oblivious to the anguish she was causing Cloud on a good day, and enjoyed it on a bad day, even when it put Cloud on the verge of tears. This revelation just makes her actions even more horrible in retrospect.
  • It's part of the tragedy of her character. In her desperate joy in seeing Cloud again after seven years, she almost did go out of her way to be nice to him, because she missed him that much. However, when it became clear to her there was something wrong with his memories, and that he noticed what he believed to be an Out-of-Character Moment for her, she panicked and defaulted to her usual bitchy attitude so as not to throw him off. And because she used her real attitude as her mask, it stopped being a conscious mask, while still thinking she was protecting him from his own memories. Tifa didn't mean to, but when one looks at this way, she fucked up in quality compared to Cloud's quantity.
• So, Barret considers Cloud a fuck-up, right? So, why does he still want him in AVALANCHE despite being such a huge liability? He obviously can't let him go since he was sighted at the scene of Sector 1, but considering he leads a terrorist organization, he's obviously not above killing him because He Knows Too Much (which was also the reason Wedge had to join).
  • Considering that his organization numbers six people total, coupled with abrasive personality, it seems like he was just that desperate for help.
  • He doesn't get the chance to bump him off before the Sector 5 reactor. By the next time they team up, they're working together only to save Aerith from Shinra,and gets dragged along because Sephiroth is now involved. Plus, it's unlikely Barret could easily execute him anyway, since we see throughout the story that Cloud is really Made of Iron.
• Why did Ultimate Weapon commit suicide by falling to his death after bequeathing Ultima Weapon to Cloud? Did his words of "I know you won't [fail]. Because you can't." imply that AVALANCHE was now more capable of the Weapons in defeating Sephiroth, and if they fail, they all die anyway?
  • Two theories on this. The first being that the Weapons aren't meant to be a natural part of the world's ecosystem, just an emergency response, so once the Weapon is no longer useful, it removes itself from the equation. The other is that in order to give Cloud Ultima Weapon, Ultimate Weapon had to sacrifice its life force in order to create the blade, and perished shortly after.