REASONS?;
................Y U U S H A

I've always been bothered about the lack of Zack shrines and all the attention turned to Cloud or Sephiroth. To me Zack was critical to FFVII. You can't imagine my joy when I heard of Crisis Core and how impatient I was for this game to be released (and how much more grateful I was for taking the time to take up Japanese in university).

Without Zack, there would have been no Cloud. For the longest time I hated Cloud's character because I felt he stole everything from Zack, I felt him to be arrogant and selfish for this. After playing Crisis Core I realized just how wrong I was...

With his dying breaths, Zack requests that Cloud live his portion of life-- to take up his hope, dreams, aspirations, and live them all out for him. In that way, it would be as if he never died. Maybe it was because, for the bereaved Cloud, it was easier to do what Zack asked and to take him in completely. To the extreme that, to Cloud, if he became Zack, Zack wouldn't have died, he could forget the real Zack because he would become Zack and carry on where Zack was cut short. Thus he went on to Midgar to become a mercenary. Cloud knew that Zack was everything he wanted to be, well liked and strong in every sense of the word-- everything he wasn't. And because of him, this man he respected so much and befriended, was dead. As he takes Zack's sword, he whispers almost to himself' [ore ha..omae ga ikita akashi] 'I am... the proof that you lived'. I think Cloud didn't do what he did as much as to forget his own sorrow, but it was the only think he thought he could do. Become his friend and live his life. It's well documented the extreme measures the human psyche in order to survive and process horrible situations.

I was confused as to why Zack went out of his way to save Cloud. Many sites, I think even the official books oon FFVII, say that they were best friends. But in Crisis Core they only meet a handful of time. Of all the lower class Shinra soldiers, I'd say Kansel was Zack's best friend. And Angeal, his best friend and mentor. It was Angeal constant instilling of pride that made Zack do what he did. Usually when one thinks of 'pride' nowadays, it carries negative conotations, however, if you think of pride from a soldiers viewpoint, it because easy to understand. To serve and protect. Zack saved Cloud because there would have been no pride or honor in a soldier leaving a wounded comrade behind. Ask any soldier serving and they will tell you the same thing.

What was the most painful, was the number of people waiting for Zack to come back. The Soldier's and Turk's whose lives he touched, his friends, his parents, his girlfriend, even children he befriended in the slums. Zack had an affect on people that was astoundingly positive, he was that ray of hope in dark times. Honestly, I still can't understand why Nomura decided to do this to Zack's character, but I think only adds to the the rawness of Final Fantasy 7. The greed of the Shinra company, and the lack of compassion or humanity displayed by the scientists that took away or destroyed so many innocent lives, snuffing out their futures and dreams. It makes the game more relatable to they way real life is. There aren't always happy endings. The hero doesn't always get the girl and ride off into the sunset. Zack become famous, not in the sense that everyone knew his name, but he lived very strongly bound to honor and pride, he lieterally gave it his all.

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