splinteredstar | ....this totally counts as yesterday

OH SHIT I FORGOT. This is what happens when I read fanfiction for four hours.

So. Right. I've gotten into FF7 fanfiction. Unlike usually, I actually like the main slash pairing - Cloud/Sephiroth is at this point almost canon. They're stalking each other. And it's hot and all sorts of bondagey and angry and full of angst and tension even if they're both sane and not trying to kill each other.

However.

I do not like how it's normally written. Cloud will not just forget all the stuff Sephiroth did. And. I have to capslock this but CLOUD IS BADASS. LET HIM BE. STOP MAKING HIM A WUSS. Seriously, he's a bundle of twitchiness and anger and fighting instincts that probably makes the Turks go, "...dude."

Also, I like bondage and bdsm more than most souls, but Cloud is not going to sub for Sephiroth easily. He spent most of the game trying to stop that you know? Even if Sephiroth isn't trying to control him, he's still going to lash out from sheer instincts.

...it doesn't help that I'm one of like six people who likes sub!Seph, but that's another rant.

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Strangely enough, despite my love for teh gay, there aren't a lot of gay pairings in FF7 that I like. I like Cloud/Aeris/Tifa a lot, and I like Cloud/Barret (though despite being probably one of the best candidates for yaoi in FFVII, there's not a lot of stuff about it.) I hate Cloud/Zack mainly because I hate Zack, all thanks to Crisis Core and Advent Children Complete. Turk love is kinda meh for me. I love the Turks as characters (in the original game) but am kind of ambivalent about them being romantically involved with one another.

Cloud/Seph is more like, guilty kinky pleasure reading. I like dark fic with them, or "that time in SOLDIER when Seph took advantage of the young guard" type storylines. I have a hard time being convinced of them as an actual COUPLE, sans something really dark and likely non-con (which I do like to read, anyway). I can see Cloud having a crush on Sephiroth, or being all hero-worship about him, but post-Nibelheim I should imagine Cloud's first thoughts about Seph are whether or not he'll ever be his boyfriend.

So I guess, I like Cloud/Sephiroth, but it would have to be written in character. And I don't see that done successfully unless it's really a dark fic, or done at the right point in the game. It has a lot of potential to be interesting, but I still can't see it as realistically being anything other than really messed up. ^^

I actually don't like Cloud/Tifa/Aeris in any combination. First of all, I feel like... well, yeah, they were attracted to him, but. His feelings weren't quite... It's just... okay, my headcanon is that Cloud is gay. I mean like, really gay. Any hetrosexuality in that boy was probably Zack. I swear I must have spent like ten minutes as I played through the opening of the game going, "...Cloud, you do realize that Jessie is flirting with you, right? ...no, no you don't. ....come out of the closet, blondie, it'll be easier on everyone." He's just... really gay in my head. So most of the het pairings for him don't really appeal.

...besides, lately I've been nursing a quiet guilty Tifa/Barret interest, which isn't ever going to be written by anyone.

I am kind of fond of Zack, but I haven't seen most of the compliation. Maybe my feelings will change. But at any rate, I ship Zack/Aeris - and am convinced that any romantic attraction to Aeris was probably Zack, and if not Cloud would feel so incredibly guilty about it that it'd do a lot of damage.

(Reno/Cloud = wtf? I can see Reno trying to molest Cloud for lulz, but Cloud's kind of appalled by this in my head.)

Young!Cloud bores me, honestly. He's cute, yes, and his OH GOD IT'S SEPHIROTH flailing would be fairly adorable, but he's not someone that I'll read fic about often. Besides, he's too young for me for me to read porn about without feeling guilty, you know?

Honestly, what I always hope to find.... PostAC!Cloud with Sane!Sephiroth. I know it's unlikely but it has happened (thank god for timetravel fics) and it's probably my favorite combination. Because I'm fascinated by both of them, and all the twisted emotions involved, and Cloud's an angry little chocobo-wolf-thing, so. It wouldn't be fluff and I don't really want fluff. Hatesex = a okay.

...of course, we do not speak of Yuffitine.

Ooh, really? Well, I don't think Cloud is gay, if only because he had a huge crush on Tifa in his childhood, and I thought he definitely had a thing for Aeris! Maybe that's not canon, though. ^^; I do think Cloud is bisexual. I figure since he can go on a date with Barret in the game, and considering the whole Honeybee Inn scenario, the game had to be poking fun at Cloud's sexuality and I like to think of that as indicative of his bisexuality.

I'm also biased in my hatred for Zack so I hate Zack/Aeris. I concede that he was Aeris's first serious boyfriend, but who honestly is still in love with their first boyfriend? My head!canon is that Aeris has long since moved on and it's just a whimsical memory. Stupid Compilation and its stupid stupidness. lol

I'm also, if you didn't realize this about me, super pro-Aeris biased. lmao When I was young and first played the game, she was my hero and the kind of person I wanted to be. Though I like to think I've matured out of idolizing fantasy characters, she's still my favorite girl so naturally if I don't like a character, she clearly doesn't either. :P Yup, I've matured.

I don't think personally that Aeris was only attracted to the Zack. I know it's a popular theory, but Cloud's personality isn't really like Zack's much at all - the "Zack", I believe, only gave him confidence because he believed he had succeeded when he had not. Though I mean it definitely helps when another SOLDIER using the same weapon pops into your life. ;) But alas, fans have been arguing about this for a decade.

I didn't mind Zack in the original game (which is the only canon as far as I'm concerned *elitist bitch, yup*) but then again, he was hardly in it. I think what I resent is that the Compilation decided to make him more important than he actually was. The premise of Crisis Core isn't even that bad - I've always thought a prequel would be interesting. But I think it's that Zack is so obnoxious. Hell, Shinra's management is so goody two-shoes and obnoxious. It's like, Zack is a SOLDIER, obviously Shinra is doing a lot of dirty work and they're quite corrupt, and Zack throughout all of acts like an ignorant puppy dog. Zack should've been... a lot cooler, a little darker and more composed about things. He is working for the "bad guys", for goodness sake. :P But that's another rant.

And CURSE YUFFENTINE! The only reason it exists is because "lol let's pair the two optional characters together!" Yuck, yuck, Yuffie's 16 and Vincent is fucking oooolld. (can you tell I have an opinion on this? LOL)

But yeah, I'm in agreement with you. Though I think Young!Cloud's story is interesting, and am kinda interested in the fan!canon that Seph might've taken advantage of him, I can't take that too far because Sephiroth canonically hardly noticed Cloud. Because in the game, he doesn't even remember who Cloud is! So to me, their story is that maybe Cloud was pining and hero-worshiping Sephiroth, and possibly Sephiroth slept with him one night but never thought anything of it. He doesn't think anything of Cloud until he realizes that Cloud's the one that actually "killed" him in Nibelhiem. And when he realizes how strong Cloud is... It is a very interesting dynamic, I agree. And I like dark, even disturbing stuff, and this pairing kind of assumes that.

I just honestly haven't participated much in the FF7 fandom since I was 13ish. lol So, though I've read a few, I haven't actually read too much Cloud/Seph. I'd love to find more, but hate to wade through all the Compilation fic. ;-;

(hinthint... any recs? LOL)

Hmm. I think Cloud probably would have crushed on anyone who gave him the time of day, if my reading of his childhood is accurate - but yeah, it could go either way, but no way is that child straight.

Hah, okay. What I meant was that the part of Cloud that was attracted to Aeris was probably Zack, if that makes sense. Not that Aeris was seeing Zack in Cloud, but rather that the Zack in Cloud was seeing her.

Cloud's brainmeats are complicated.

Yeah, I haven't played through CC - though I've started to be fond of some of the characters through fic, and any development of Sephiroth is good in my book - but yes, Zack does seem to be kind of.... a bit of a brain damaged puppy, really.

Vincent/Lucrecia has been my otp since I was fucking 12. You have no idea how much I fucking hate Yuffentine. When I first played it the game was all about Vincent, mind. I don't think half of the other characters even registered until I wandered back towards the fandom later. You wanted to be Aeris, I wanted to be the creepy psudo-vampire dude who spouted poetry at random moments.

I almost think the whole Cloud/Sephiroth dynamic is more poignant if Cloud was never actually in contact with Sephiroth more than once or twice until Nibelhiem. - while the lovers torn apart storyline has its own appeal, I feel like Cloud's heartbreak was the death of innocence and dreams. If he had any time to get to know Sephiroth as a real human being and not as a hero, it would change the experience completely. It wouldn't hurt as much - Cloud's cry isn't "I loved you!" as much as "You were supposed to be perfect!"

Hah, I'll look around. See how much Compilation you can tolerate - I threw one cc timetravel one at you, but I'll look around. I have to wade through all the messy "You're my true master Sephiroth please let me be yours!" fics, because they made my inner Domme want to hurt things. (Stockholm's syndrome is not love. How many times do I have to tell you idiots.)

....this totally counts as yesterday

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