#.nibelheim

[cloud-hc]

Growing up in Nibelheim, there was not much that offered a future beyond this backwater town.. though in his youth, Cloud wasn’t really concerned about his future. He was more surviving the day in a town he hated because it hated him. He did want to leave.. he also just didn’t know where to go if he could. Other boys were already making plans to join SOLDIER to model themselves after Sephiroth.

At the time, Cloud had no such plans nor was he star-struck by Sephiroth. This all changed when Tifa climbed Mount Nibel. Cloud went after her, wanting to save her from something terrible that was bound to happen… and it did. They both fell, Tifa suffering from a head injury that’d result in a coma, while Cloud came out with only a few scratches. 

He was too weak to do anything about it. The adults blamed him, but not more than he blamed himself. He was trying to help. Once again, Cloud is ostracized from his community not by the other children this time, but by the adults too, and he’s never allowed near Tifa again. Developing an anger issue after Tifa’s injury, his helplessness, and his treatment following, his reputation only got worse with him picking fights and beating up the other boys, going out of his way to do so. Rage was his only outlet.

If he were as strong, as smart, as quick - anything more than he was, she wouldn’t be in a state she may never wake up from. This is when his eyes would finally land on Sephiroth. If he made SOLDIER… no, FIRST CLASS SOLDIER - nothing like that would ever happen again. It’d prove them all wrong. Since then, all he focused on was doing whatever it took to get employed by Shinra, and work up his ranks, blow past everyone, and come back a SOLDIER.

This was less of a captivated fan of a hero, and more of what that hero represented; strength, popularity, coolness, being revered - yes, Cloud’s motivations were self serving, as were how he saw the motivations of those he looked up to ( naturally lacking the understanding as child has that there exists more than their own understanding of the world ).

[chunlo]

I just really like Sephiroth PRINTS

[rocketbirdie]

so close yet so far

[the-moogs]

i just think they were so gf coded in rebirth

[sillysharkk]

From a screenshot off twitter.. 😭

[soggy-fishsticks]

[angel-sephiroth]

Careful now. That which lies ahead...does not yet exist.

Our world will become a part of it...one day. But I...will not end.

Nor will I have you end.

[gomacave]

Taps mic. Hi guys. im introducing u to my 70s shoujo flavor toxic yuri sfkr au where they go to all girls catholic boardiing school and seph gets obsessed w the virgin mary statue in the school chapel (JENOVA) and tries to ascend to meet her. Cloud is manipulated into helping her because he has a massive crush also. Thank you.

(Nobody claps) (audience is dead silent)

[tifa-simp]

The Nibelheim gang!

[altocat]

Deleted dialogue from the original Nibelheim sequence. Here, he's shown comforting a motion sick trooper (Cloud) during the ride over.

He was a good guy as far back as the OG.

[the-prima-vista]

[cloud-hc]

     Being from far out east and even further from city-life and culture, Nibelheim was slow to catch up with a changing world. Rigid, binary gender roles were well established and taught generation to generation. While Cloud’s parents left Junon to escape exactly that, few options left Claudia but to stay. Boys were expected to be tough, play in the dirt and mud and swords, take on jobs young, and promote traditional idea’s of masculinity. 

     Cloud’s mother would attempt to each Cloud better than this, but one person, even if it was his mother, was not enough to stop him from absorbing his culture and subsequently sexism along with it. As a child, this would be reflected in some more innocent things like Cloud promising to be Tifa’s hero one day, and other more harmful showcases of toxic masculinity by getting into fights with boys he knew had a crush on her.

     When he would visit Nibelheim along with Sephiroth and Zack, he didn’t think Tifa would have a job ( as women rarely did; it wasn’t encouraged ) and thought he could get in and out of Nibelheim undetected. Horrified that she’d be their guide, Cloud would pull Zack aside and beg him not to use his name or reveal his identity in any way, disclosing he’d come back a failure and couldn’t face her. He wasn’t good enough to face her, as a failed “hero” or as a man. 

     This would still bleed into his 20′s; though he made no comment about Jessie ( not his rebel group, not his business who’s involved ), he would directly question Tifa why she came with them the second time instead of staying behind to look after Marlene. Later on, he’d show hesitation about getting help from Aerith because she is a woman…. which very quickly got him chewed out by her, and her bulldozing his way to help him anyway. 

    The misogynistic society was still stuck with him. Girls didn’t flirt with boys back home - it was the boys who were supposed to show they were interested. When Jessie began flirting heavily with Cloud, this was extremely off-putting and inappropriate to Cloud - it just wasn’t something that happened back home among the kids having crushes or the adults in their dating and marriages. When Aerith would later do the same, this was also strange and off-putting at first, though Aerith would quickly become enduring and charming because of how different she was than what he was used to, and her not hesitating to call him out.

     When one of his friends ( who are women ) are in trouble, the culture Cloud grew up with demanded he get involved and ‘help’, “acting like a man” should. Because of his mother’s own influence, he isn’t nearly as far up his ass as other boys he grew up with, but it still took time to relearn awful habits, and trust the women in his life to handle their situations and they didn’t need him to come and save the day. More than not, they were the ones saving him.  

     Not being neither tall and overtly masculine himself, Nibelheim’s values taught Cloud he needed to compensate for what he lacked. As a kid until adulthood, he didn’t like how he looked as he was oven remarked as “pretty”, usually in a derogatory and non-flattering manner, and didn’t think anyone would show him any attention because of it. When he got to Midgar, he’d cut his hair from his ponytail and tried to wear uniforms that were slightly too big for him in efforts to make him look larger than he was. It was a culture shock to find.. Midgar really didn’t care about that; if anything, he was getting positive attention for the first time because of his more soft appearance. At first, he thought it was a joke and he was being pranked on, but the crushes that would develop on him would eventually teach him otherwise. There was, in fact, a world outside of Nibelheim.

[branules]

defying the forgotten morals where the victim is the prey

[rocketbirdie]

meanwhile, in another timeline

[cchanticleer]

i have created something wonderful

from the front it appears to be an ordinary flame shirt. cool but not remarkable.

BUT BEHOLD