Cloud

We can tell a lot of things about who Zack was to Cloud. Zack was the only person Cloud ever refers to as his friend. Cloud looked up to Zack enough to emulate everything about him when Zack died. Zack was something of a role model for Cloud, having achieved everything he wanted to.

There’s not a lot to draw from to know how Zack felt about Cloud, though. We can only see his feeling by his actions. Cloud may have looked up to Zack, but Zack obviously respected and liked Cloud enough. For one, Zack didn’t really have to have anything to do with Cloud, if he didn’t want to. Cloud never made it into SOLDIER. Why was never given, but it could easily have been that he simply was good enough to get in.

Another point here is Zack’s belief in Cloud. Maybe it was just optimism, maybe just desperation, but Zack encouraged Cloud to go take care of Sephiroth in the reactor. Perhaps Zack figured Sephiroth would underestimate Cloud--in such case, he’d be right. There really was no good reason why a 5'7" Shinra recruit should have been able to kill the most powerful General of all time. Perhaps it was because Zack believed in him.

Lastly, when Zack escaped from Nibelheim, he didn’t have to take Cloud with him. I suppose any ‘good’ person would have freed someone else who was imprisoned with them, but that’s not all Zack did. Zack could have wandered down to Cosmo Canyon and dumped him in a hospital or something and continued on his way. That would have been the smart thing, the safe thing to do, as well as being all justified and good. No one was going to hold him in any lower regards because of that. Not to mention the fact that Shinra was after them. Zack had a much higher chance of survival if Cloud wasn’t with him.

But he knew that Shinra was after them, and he didn’t want Cloud to have to go back to that hell they just escaped from. He brought Cloud with him because he cared about what happened to Cloud. That’s not just someone you say hi to when you walk by them on the way to drills. That’s not just someone you go to the bar with on Friday nights. That’s someone who looks out for you. That’s someone who honestly gives a damn about what happens to you.

Zack gave up everything for Cloud. Because he cared. Not because he was a nice guy, not because it was the right thing to do.

I like to think that there was maybe something more between them than what is shown to us. I like to think that maybe there was something of a romance between them, and what Zack did was because he loved Cloud. I’m also a hopeless romantic. I don’t know. There’s no proof one way or the other, and it’s not as though you can quick ask Cloud a minute. I’m willing to submit to the possibility that, yeah, they were just really good friends. It’s really all just how you interpret it, I suppose.

Then again, it doesn’t really matter. The point is basically that Zack must have had strong feelings for Cloud to have done everything that he did. And that’s all.

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