Cloud Strife, the broody protagonist of Final Fantasy VII and its remakes, has a pretty elaborate backstory. He grew up in Nibelheim, went on to become a SOLDIER, and got mixed up with Sephiroth along the way. But after almost 30 years, we still don’t know who his father is. However, as Square Enix has expanded the universe with new games and other external media, fans think we might be closing in on learning who Cloud’s dear old dad might be thanks to a new light novel
Spoilers for Final Fantasy VII, Ever Crisis, and The First Soldier follow, as well as a general gesturing at something from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
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The theory that’s been picking up steam for the past year is that Glenn Lodbrok, a character in the games Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier and Ever Crisis. At a glance, the resemblance is there—both Glenn and Cloud are blondes with blue-green eyes. The timeline also seems like it could line up. Glenn is shown as an adult in The First Soldier, at a time when Cloud was only a few years old. So that’s some of the easy shit out of the way.
In the original Final Fantasy VII, Cloud simply says his father died when he was young, which is why his mother Claudia was living alone in Nibelheim. Glenn doesn’t die in The First Soldier, but he could also have “disappeared,” which seems to possibly line up with how the extended universe stuff talks about Cloud’s dad. Audrey Lamsam, the CEO of Aitai Japan Inc. and frequent Final Fantasy fan translator, posted about the new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth “World Preview” book. She hypothesizes that Glenn might be Cloud’s father based on a couple of intriguing lines lines.
According to her translation, Cloud’s father is described in the book as “an upbeat and optimistic guy” who would say, “hey, as long as ya got 2000 gil in your wallet, you can go anywhere you like and overcome almost anything.” Cloud and his mother each received 2000 gil from the wallet his dad left behind, adding up to 4000 gil in total. At one point in The First Soldier, Glenn is revealed to owe his teammate Matt 4000 gil. The amounts are conspicuously the same, which suggests Glenn used borrowed money to give Cloud and Claudia some cash in case he didn’t come back from wherever he went.
Lamsam also points out that the book doesn’t say Cloud’s father is dead, but says that he “left” or “disappeared.” In theory, this could be one of the diverging paths in the Final Fantasy VII Remake timeline. He might have died in the original Final Fantasy VII but simply disappeared in the Remake continuity.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does reference the events of The First Soldier, so if you have never played it, it might be worth watching some clips on YouTube or playing through Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, which contains the story of The First Soldier. Is an eventual Cloud Strife dad reveal in the works here? We can only speculate. But given that Final Fantasy VII Remake and its sequels are doing so many unexpected things with the source material, it doesn’t seem like a stretch.
