Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth book could solve a major Cloud mystery
Square Enix's changes to the Final Fantasy 7 story are minor in its modern remakes, but certainly not insignificant. We needed a little something extra if the team was to justify stretching the single game into three remakes, and the trilogy's changes (so far) have been small shifts that indicate big changes to come.
Fans are already nervous that the big death at the heart of FF7 will come with a switcheroo that shifts the game's narrative hugely, and more changes are hinted at - but it seems that some new story details are about to come from a curious place.
SPOILER WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Cloud Strife's story and Final Fantasy at large
Final Fantasy 7 novel might reveal Cloud's father
Click to enlargeA new detail about the life of Cloud Strife may have been revealed by a strange means. First reported by Kotaku, the news comes courtesy of a new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth "World Preview" light novel and could solve a mystery that's been 27 years in the making.
A Final Fantasy fan translator has spotted a few lines in the book that could point to an existing character in-universe being the father of Cloud Strife, namely Glenn Lodbrok. If you need a reminder, Lodbrok was a character in Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier and Ever Crisis.
The theory has picked up steam, and with Cloud only being a few years old when Lodbrok appears in The First Soldier, the timelines work. With that out of the way, the Rebirth novel claims Cloud's father would say, "Hey, as long as ya got 2000 gil in your wallet, you can go anywhere you like and overcome almost anything."
Cloud's father is presumed to be dead but left Cloud and his mother 2000 gil each. It's a coincidence that in The First Soldier, Lodbrok owes teammate Matt 4000 gil. Putting the pieces together, it adds up that Glenn could've borrowed the money to give to Cloud and his mother before he vanished.
Final Fantasy 7 World Preview hints that Cloud's father isn't dead
Click to enlargeOne particularly interesting tidbit about this familial connection is that though we once expected Cloud's father to be dead, the book is reluctant to mention this fact. Instead, it refers to him having "left" or "disappeared." If that doesn't sound like a Game of Thrones-inspired return, nothing does.
Whether or not Glenn Lodbrok is Cloud's father remains to be seen, but the revelations from the book could indicate a new way that Final Fantasy's remakes can pad out their runtime and justify their existence. Maybe we haven't seen the last of Lodbrok - and maybe he's more important than we expected.
