Zack’s story is really the backstory to Cloud’s story. Stop reading here if you don’t want spoilers…
Cloud and Zack were friends, but only Zack was in Soldier, First Class. Cloud tried out and wasn’t good enough. In fact, Zack is kind of everything Cloud wished he could be. A better fighter, a more earnest and nicer personality, both from small towns. Cloud’s excuse for having a bitter and cynical personality in FF7 is that he has major major PTSD not only from being impaled by Sephiroth (a scene in crisis core) trying to help Zack AFTER Sephiroth had already killed Cloud’s mother and Tifa’s dad, but also afterwards Cloud is poisoned by Mako energy by a Shinra mad scientist wanting to turn him into another Soldier weapon like Zack
So at the end of Crisis Core Cloud’s brain is basically melted by Mako energy, so he can’t help as Zack gives his last words “the price of freedom is steep” and Zack dies in an un-winnable fight against an insurmountable amount of Shinra troops
The really sad part was that Zack was trying to get back to his gf, Aerith, who hadn’t seen him in 4 years while him and Cloud were being experimented on by the mad scientist. But Zack dies before he can get back to her. Cloud crawls over to Zack as he is dying, and Zack says “you will be my living legacy” and part of him imprints on Cloud’s Mako-poisoned mind. This is why Cloud believes he was a Soldier First Class, because Zack imprinted on him during his death. The entire plot of FF7 is actually Cloud trying to discover who he is
The really sad part, and the reason I cried, is because Aerith being an ancient can sense the lifestream. So when Zack dies and Aerith suddenly looks up from tending her flowers (in the video)…even though she hadn’t seen Zack in years and was still waiting for him, she just sensed at that moment that Zack died
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10-21-2021, 08:48 PM
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