Final Fantasy VII (1997)
- Cloud grew up obsessed with Sephiroth and as an adult is chasing him down like a Stalker with a Crush. When Sephiroth vanishes and Cloud yells at him to reveal where he is, Sephiroth says "So cold. I am always by your side."
- There's a mission where Cloud has to dress as a woman to infiltrate Don Corneo's mansion. Aerith is very keen to help him find the right dress and be the prettiest "girl" possible. Make of that what you will.
- Cloud and Barret:
- Barret can take Cloud on a date. There is an Achievement for this, called "Best Bromance".
- The Barret date is mostly achieved by being horrible to the girls, though Cloud also does get the opportunity to flirt with him on several occasions. Some of which, like teasing Barret for being worried about him, the player doesn't even get a say into.
- You can even have Cloud tell another character that he's in love with Barret, although as part of a scheme to fish information out of them. (It makes his date more likely to happen.)
- Barret is, in general, weirdly fixated on Cloud and Cloud's opinion of him despite the fact that he claims to find Cloud annoying. As soon as Cloud heads off to save Aerith, giving the faintest indication that he's not a bad person, Barret, who is otherwise a highly judgemental person, takes this as a redemption and apologises for the way he'd been treating him, only for Cloud to shoot the apology down. (If you happen to be on the stairs when they have this exchange, Tifa will even start giggling at Barret's crushed reaction, and Cloud gets defensive, as if to imply she's Shipper on Deck for the two of them.) Even when talking to Red XIII in his prison cell, Barret can't go for a minute without bringing up how Red's personality reminds him of Cloud. When Cloud jokingly compliments Barret's appearance, Barret yells at him, then sneaks off to lock himself in a bathroom with a mirror and check himself out for what's implied to be hours. When Cloud betrays the party, he's easily as heartbroken as Tifa, swinging between grief, self-comparison, and fits of rage at the suggestion that Cloud still matters at all... and when Cid suggests the party go after the Huge Materia, Barret consents only so he can 'see the look on Cloud's face' when Barret shows the Materia to him. Aww.
- In the Honeybee Inn, Cloud can share a hot tub with male prostitutes. The dialogue keeps it suggestively ambiguous as to what they're actually doing in there - whatever it is, Cloud doesn't seem to be particularly into it, although he does his best, counting to ten to see if he gets into it by the end.
- Cloud and Zack:
- Zack was one of the most formative people on Cloud, as his first true friend and the person he believed himself weak in comparison to. Zack protected Cloud at great risk to himself, when Cloud was so sick that even a team of professional killers told to wipe him out just left him for dead, and ended up dying for him. The trauma from this is a factor in why Cloud then uses Zack's memories as his own to become a functional person, not even changing his uniform or fighting techniques (which are modelled on Zack's) after finding out the truth about himself.
- After getting Cloud out of his clothes, Zack dresses him up in a SOLDIER uniform and tells him it looks good on him.
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
- Cloud and Sephiroth:
- Sephiroth maintained his selfhood in the Lifestream by focusing on his feelings towards Cloud, the person who killed him, resulting in his return to life as a deeply homoerotic bad guy who now tells Cloud things like "On your knees" and making rainbows by hitting their swords together.
- Cloud tells Sephiroth "there's not a thing I don't cherish", meaning not just the world, but Sephiroth as well. Upon killing Sephiroth, his body melts into his vessel, Kadaj, who Cloud cradles in a Pietà Plagiarism to emphasise his tragic feelings towards Sephiroth.
- Sephiroth tells Cloud that he will never go away as long as Cloud is still alive, implying a death for Cloud later to prevent this happening. However, Cloud being healed of his disease at the end of the movie doesn't appear to make him upset about Sephiroth's potential to return, instead just being grateful for more life with the people he loves, which apparently includes Sephiroth.
- Cloud and Zack:
- Cloud is a secondary Love Interest in Crisis Core, with Zack's quest to save him having a heavy romantic tone through music and dialogue. Like in the original story, Zack carries Cloud across the whole of the Planet with him, defending him from enemies in quiet and moody sniping missions. He has a moment of wavering on if he can even support a seriously ill Cloud, and how much doing it would spoil his plans, but does not ever waver in the value of saving him anyway. Zack dies in a heroic Last Stand where, unlike in the original game, he hugs Cloud to his bloodied chest and tells him that he is proof of his existence, and to 'be my living legacy', setting up the events of the original story (while a bittersweet jangle-pop song plays).
- The Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics for "The Price of Freedom" are about Cloud's feelings for Zack (sung by a girl singer), but with an explicitly romantic tone, mentioning Zack's "gentle eyes of beauty" and "you gave me half of your precious soul".
- When Cloud and Zack first meet, they banter a little over the stupid name of Zack's hometown, over a bed of fluffy bouncy string quartet music, before Cloud gets a dramatic scene of Shaking His Hair Loose while Zack gazes at his face in adoration.
- Cloud writes Zack several soppy emails, one saying that it was only Zack's words that inspire him, and another asking him to come home and meet his mother, and taste her cooking, because he'll only feel strong enough to face her (and own up to his failures) if Zack is with him.
- Cloud and Barret:
- In Advent Children, Cloud is helping raise Barret's daughter, and Barret is wearing a copy of Cloud's ring. Cloud and Barret get a little scene together when fighting Bahamut, with Cloud literally pulling Barret out of danger and the two sharing a look. When Cloud is fighting Sephiroth on his own, Barret is the most eager to jump in the fray with him, and only agrees to wait a few minutes before helping.
- In On The Way To A Smile: Case of Tifa, Cloud, Barret and Tifa are all living together (with Barret's adopted child) and building a pub. Cloud won't say he loves Tifa but apparently knows all about Barret's plan to leave, while it comes as a shock to Tifa.
- Reno and Rude in the bridge scene in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has them talking about a bomb, admiring the size, telling each other 'you love it', and so on.
- Dirge of Cerberus, the Final Fantasy VII spin-off, has strooooong Weiss… and his brother Nero, whose relationship with Weiss is hard to read as anything but incest. Strong, strong incest.Nero: Let us become one. Let us come together, so that none may ever tear us apart. [Nero hugs him]
Weiss: Yes. Let us… Let us go join him.
Nero: Weiss…
Weiss: Nero… - In Crisis Core, Genesis and Sephiroth have a rather chaotic friendship, where Genesis joined SOLDIER to make Sephiroth drink his apple juice (no double-entendres there). Genesis's defection throws Sephiroth into turmoil, and Genesis also coaxes Sephiroth off the deep end by tempting him with an apple.
- Genesis's feelings towards Zack in Crisis Core also spill out into the homoerotic in weird, fetishistic ways, with Genesis doing creepy things to him like tearing out a bundle of Zack's hair and eating it, and Zack reciprocating by holding a surreal picnic with the unconscious bodies of Genesis and Cloud where he feeds them both apples.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Cloud's dressing as a girl is ramped up in the remake.
- Cloud does a sexy dance performance with a gorgeous male dancer named Andrea, who flirts with him for the entire scene. The choreography is designed to give the impression of a rising romantic relationship between them as Cloud starts out flubbing his cues and finishes in perfect sync with Andrea, telling him after the performance, "I'm in love." Aerith claps appreciatively for most of the performance, but when Cloud appears in full drag, she’s utterly floored, and actually gasps out loud! She gushes over how pretty he is and even checks out his rack.
- Cloud dressed up is very attractive to every man in Wall Market, including Chadley, who has a What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? reaction he cannot understand.
- Even Cloud acknowledges he makes a hot girl, telling Tifa he 'nailed it'.
- Cloud and Sephiroth:
- Sephiroth tells Cloud that Cloud killing him was 'the highlight of our time together', mounting his body outside Cloud's bedroom, acts really interested in Cloud becoming strong, and touching his bare skin... a lot.
- Before their duel at the edge of creation, Cloud is having another of his episodes when Sephiroth grabs his hand and gently pulls him up. Then Sephiroth asks Cloud to defy destiny with him and when Cloud rejects his offer, Sephiroth actually looks hurt at the rejection. Finally, when he disarms Cloud, despite Cloud being very easy to kill at that point, he instead has his face near him and delivers a cryptic message before he disappears.
- Cloud and Barret:
- Barret teasingly suggests that he'll be fine 'with SOLDIER-boy with me', and makes a conscious decision to emulate Cloud's cool-headedness to keep himself from freaking out. In Tifa's Resolution Scene, according to Word of God, Cloud's attempt to hug Tifa is him trying to copy what Barret did with her in an earlier scene, showing he's taking cues from him, too. Barret and Cloud call each other "SOLDIER-boy" and "big man" and, once they make friends, Cloud starts complimenting Barret on his fighting, giving Barret the opportunity to act aloof, which makes Cloud audibly annoyed. During the staircase scene, Barret's highly concerned Cloud is there to watch over him, and asks him to slow down and wait for him. At the end of Barret's Chapter 14 Resolution Scene, Barret reaches out tenderly to take Cloud's shoulder, grinning at him.
- When Barret's fighting the Shinra employee on the train the second time, he's asked if he has a problem and flies off into a rage before Cloud puts his hand on Barret's arm, says "he doesn't", and moves him away. The expression of the bystanders suggests they're mistaking them for a couple.
- Aerith and Tifa's relationship is amped up compared to the original, to the extent it's hard to even remember they're supposed to be in a love triangle with Cloud.
- Tifa and Aerith promise in the sewers to go on "a date" together (with Cloud tagging along as their "pack chocobo"). Cloud spends the section being left out of the girls' while acting like a third wheel and trying not to sulk obviously about it.
- Tifa ends up rescuing Aerith a few times throughout the game both physically and emotionally, being the first person to rush in to protect Aerith when reliving her childhood fears in the Psychological Torment Zone. Aerith made sure to protect Tifa from her fear of ghosts.
- All of the times that they both hold their hands and gaze into each other's eyes, and giving each other hi-fives (contrasted with Aerith's difficulty giving Cloud a hi-five).
- Cloud and Johnny's 'boy's night out' involves some rather homoerotic bro-code behaviour, like Johnny taking Cloud to rent a room with him in a seedy hotel (the Barker even assumes Johnny and Cloud are a couple). He then tells Cloud to 'whip it out', to which Cloud irritatedly insists he's 'done this before'. The achievement for doing all of the Johnny storyline is called "The Johnny Experience" (as in 'the girlfriend experience').
- While up for interpretation due to being a Mind Screw (with a Mind Screwdriver planned for later instalments), the ending of the game appears to show Cloud changing the timeline to save Zack's life.
- In the original, Cloud challenges Rufus to combat and Rufus responds by saying "we won't become friends, then". In Remake, Rufus turns on the Gay Bravado, checking out Cloud, saying the fight "just the two of us" (apart from his scary dog, anyway), telling Cloud "I own you", and having "naughty, naughty!" as a battle line. Cloud's smirky and playful body language gives the sense that he's into it, acting far more sexual and turned on by Rufus's attraction than he does with any other character in the game, including the girls he's supposed to be into.
- As Cloud is a World-Class Beauty, other characters frequently remark on how good-looking he is, [including male characters like Chocobo Sam, Rude and the hoodlums who come to assassinate Barret. Cloud also gets called 'Blondie' a lot. Cloud even ends up with an LGBT Fanbase at one point, getting his own fanclub, with the chairman being gay-coded enka singer AKILA, who sends him flowers.
Loose Canon, Cameos etc
- Sephiroth's storyline in Mobius Final Fantasy is full of it. When Echo teases Wol about Cloud having something about him, Wol points out that Cloud "only has eyes for Sephiroth". Cloud, by his own admission, can't remember Tifa, but knows a lot about how he felt to see Sephiroth's sword the first time, and how cool Seph was to work for. When Sephiroth appears in Mako City Midgar, he tells Cloud that there is a voice inside Cloud trying to drive him to be with Sephiroth - "calling to its kind", in a way that makes it sound like he's trying to make Cloud realise he's attracted to men. There is also multiple I Have You Now, My Pretty moments, one after stabbing him and one after capturing him at the end, where he cups Cloud's face suggestively and cuddles up to its side to whisper in his ear (which is so popular with Sefikura shippers that it's nicknamed "the Mobius Pose" and used in various fanart).
