Headcanon

[conflicts]

Last Updated: Jan. 1

Cloud is from Dissidia 012 and deviates from Final Fantasy VII canon accordingly.
This post will be updated as I play him and see what works and what doesn't.

WARNING: can haz words? tl;dr

Basics
→ Cloud remembers his home world and the events all the way into endgame.
→ He was summoned by Chaos before the events of Advent Children.
    → Basically, Dissidia is replacing AC (until he returns home).
    → Hence his personality being more AC than OG in the game.
→ He hasn't seen his friends (the FFVII crew) in a while.
    → MAJOR headcanon, as it's never officially stated how long each cycle lasts.

Duodecim
→ Cloud has participated in at least two cycles, maybe more.
    → As implied in Squall's Official Quest.
    → He also seems familiar with the other warriors and how the cycles work.
→ He hasn't died since being summoned, so he kept the memories he arrived with.
→ Cloud doesn't fight against Sephiroth because they're on the same side.
→ There's also no 'reason' to kill him in that world.
→ Sephiroth has approached Cloud before to talk about missing memories.
    → As implied in Cloud's Official Quest.
    → It seems to annoy Cloud, though.
→ Cloud's kinda chill with Kuja for the most part.

Fighting
→ He's used to being confronted by "heroes" AKA Cosmos' Warriors.
→ Because of this, he'll be a little more prone to fighting if there's a reason.
    → Even if that reason is something as small as being challenged to a fight.
→ His fighting style is based on Dissidia, not FFVII.
→ See here ("abilities before powercap") for more details.