Cid Highwind

Cid Highwind is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII. He is part of a long tradition of Final Fantasy characters named Cid. He is the most uncouth of the protagonists; he constantly swears and loses his temper, and chain-smokes cigarettes. Despite this, he has a good heart, and is even voted temporary leader of the party at one point. He fits into the archetype of a father-type character.

Appearance
In Final Fantasy VII, Cid wears a navy blue jacket over a dark shirt with dark green pants. He wears a white pilot's scarf that covers most of his shirt. He also wears a pair of goggles with a packet of cigarettes strapped underneath the band. Cid is a chain-smoker, and ends each battle in Final Fantasy VII by lighting a new cigarette. He wears leather gloves and boots and carries his weapon of choice, a long spear. Cid has blond hair and blue eyes, although compared to the eyes of Cloud Strife, they are not as bright or noticeable. He also has a very closely cropped beard.

Despite his use of the spear, Cid also has an affinity for firearms as noted by an AK-47 and two M-14s in his "engineering room". The AK is on the crate, and the M-14s are wall-mounted.

In Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, Cid wears a light blue T-shirt with a sweater tied around his waist and his green pants. He also still wears goggles, but his cigarettes and smoking habit are absent in Advent Children - though in the ending for Dirge of Cerberus, he is seen lighting a cigarette and saying "All in a day's work". His face and chin also looks slightly thinner than it was in Final Fantasy VII. Nomura has said that Cid's appearance was designed with working clothes, and he does not care about fashion, and Nozue said Cid's T-shirt was deceptively hard to render. In Kingdom Hearts, Cid wears blue pants with a belly warmer and a white T-shirt. He does not smoke in the series, likely due to its younger age bracket, but chews a toothpick to give the same type of imagery.

Character
Cid is well known among fans for his foul mouth, and he curses a blue streak at several points in the game. Several of his lines are even "bleeped", appearing as a jumble of symbols like "#*$&amp;#!". As shown in a flashback, Cid was always a bit crude, but not to the same extent. Thus, it seems his attitude and foul language are an effect of him losing his dream of spaceflight. However, Cid does not always mean his insults in a negative way: he refers to Cloud and his allies as "numbskulls" for opposing Shinra, but admits he likes the idea. His personality is pretty much the same throughout the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Despite his attitude, Cid is not cruel and is actually rather kind-hearted. He is angry over losing out on his dream, but sacrificed it deliberately to save Shera's life. Although he verbally abuses her afterwards, once her concerns about a faulty oxygen tank prove founded, he apologizes. In fact, Cid names an airship after her. After finally going to space and returning, Cid gives a heartened speech to the party about how he saw the planet as "a sick little kid", and Sephiroth as a disease inside it that it was their job to protect it from.

Story
Since childhood, Cid dreamed of becoming the first human in space. He almost achieves this goal through the Shinra Space Program sometime prior to the start of the game. Aside from his ambitions as an astronaut, Cid designs a number of aircraft and is also a great pilot. Among his designs are the propeller plane Tiny Bronco, and the airship Highwind, both constructed sometime before Final Fantasy VII. Shinra later built a rocket, Shinra #26, fully intending to launch it into space with Cid at the helm.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
On the day Shinra #26 is to launch on April 11, 2003, Rufus Shinra is overseeing the celebratory ceremony, although he finds the idea of space travel pointless. Cid accuses Rufus of being too cynical compared to his father. At this time, AVALANCHE attempts to steal the Tiny Bronco, and Rufus' bodyguard, a member of the Turks, saves it.

AVALANCHE moves on to attack the rocket, led by Shears. AVALANCHE steals an oxygen tank to stop the launch, and Cid tells Rufus and President Shinra to continue the launch even if it is not safe to do so. The President agrees, so AVALANCHE resorts to kidnapping Cid. Cid is rescued and the launch proceeds to countdown.

At this time, it is revealed that Shera is still doing a safety check. Unwilling to let the rocket launch and kill Shera in the blast, Cid hits the emergency shut down and stops the launch. Inside the rocket, Cid silently vows to take care of the rocket and wait for another chance to launch. However, the failure of the launch and the prohibitive costs causes Shinra to cut funding to the space program, and the Shinra #26 is abandoned. The rocket would eventually become a tourist attraction, which spawned the village Rocket Town.

Final Fantasy VII


The hot-tempered Cid blames Shera for destroying his dream, and Shera, being an extremely insecure person, accepts the blame completely. After the incident at the launch, Shera devotes herself to doing whatever she can to atone for her mistake, although Cid continues to treat her abominably. Cid becomes increasingly bitter and irate over the years as his dream continues to grow more distant.

Cloud Strife and his party meet with Cid in Rocket Town during their search for Sephiroth sometime in December 0007. Their visit coincides with a visit from Rufus Shinra, now President, who Cid hopes is planning to restart the Space Program. However, Rufus is not interested in the Space Program at all, and merely wants the Tiny Bronco to track Sephiroth. Cid refuses to give up his airplane, and Shera tells Cloud and the group that if they want the plane they will have to talk to Cid's boss, Palmer, who is with it. They fight Palmer and jump onto the plane as it takes off, pilotless. As they fly over the house Cid runs to jump onto it, but Rufus orders his soldiers to shoot it down. They manage to get as far as the sea, where they crash into the water. His hopes dashed anew and having no reason to return to the town, Cid decides to join Cloud and his allies. Cid continues to travel with Cloud, until he is separated from the group at the Northern Crater, and the rest of the group is held captive in Junon. Cid commandeers the Highwind for the party's use, and under Tifa's guidance, begins to look for Cloud. When Cloud is found, Tifa leaves the group to care for him, and Cid is appointed leader in her place.

Shinra attempts to load Huge Materia onto Cid's rocket and launch it at Meteor, hoping to destroy it. Cid spearheads an attack on two reactors to stop Shinra from collecting the Huge Materia there, then returns to Mideel to see Cloud. After an attack by Ultimate Weapon, Cloud recovers, and Cid lets him take back the leader position.

Unwilling to let Shinra go ahead with the launch, Cid attacks them, and is stuck aboard the rocket with Cloud and Shera as Palmer launches it. Finally relishing his dream realized, Cid and the party go to an escape pod after an oxygen tank explodes. Realizing Shera's fears had been founded, Cid apologizes for his rude treatment of her, and the group returns to earth safely.

Cid joins with the party to finish Sephiroth off in the Northern Crater in late January 0008, and takes the Highwind's controls to escape the fall of Meteor.

Aftermath
In On the Way to a Smile, Cid makes an appearance in Case of Barret. He and Shera are now working on his new airship at Rocket Town, and Shera is in charge of operating a refurbished oil drilling rig to provide fuel. Cid acts as a confidante of sorts to Barret, helping him find a new purpose in life. Barret also suggests that Cid could use his new airship to help people with Geostigma reach medical attention, which Cid agrees to but only if a suitable fuel for the ship could be found.

Advent Children
In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which takes place one year later in 2009, Cid uses his new airship, the Shera, and helps out Cloud and the others in the battle against Bahamut SIN. He carries the other AVALANCHE members into the Shera, and Barret later  orders him to land so they can help with the battle between Cloud and Kadaj. He tells Barret to jump if he wants down.

Dirge of Cerberus
The following year, 2010, during the events of Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, Cid works as the leader of an airship division with support from the World Regenesis Organization and participates in the Battle of Midgar against Deepground and Omega while helping out his old friend, Vincent Valentine.

Equipment and Stats
Cid's roughly fits the description of a Dragoon, as he uses spears and lances in battle and can use Jump attacks in his Limit Breaks. He also has high defensive stats. Cid's spears have high power, and one of them, the Scimitar, is one of only two equipment pieces in the game to give Triple Materia Growth. His ultimate weapon, the Venus Gospel, grows stronger as his MP is closer to full.

Limit Breaks
Cid's Limit Breaks often hit multiple enemies or hit multiple times, letting him do massive damage. His strongest Limit Break, Highwind, could potentially do 9999 x 18 damage, a feat only Barret Wallace's Ungarmax can match - even Cloud's infamous Omnislash cannot do this much damage. Cid also learns his Limit Breaks fairly quickly. All of Cid's Limit Breaks use his physical strength to determine their power.

Musical Themes
"Cid's Theme" plays when Cid first introduces himself in Rocket Town, and during his realization of being the first man in space. Connected themes are "The Highwind Takes to the Skies," and "Launching a Dream into Space".

Development
According to the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, during the game's early production phase, Cid's role in the plot was largely the same as before, with his dream's going into space being ruined the same way it is in the final version. Shera was originally going to be an older woman, 35. Also, Cid would only have joined the party after Meteor was summoned, as he was to be the pilot of the rocket that would destroy Meteor with the Materia payload. However, he would not have been aware the mission was a suicide mission, but being tricked by Shinra into thinking it was a mission to the Moon. The party would have hopped on board with him to save his life, but they would be incapable of convincing Cid of the truth until it was too late. They would all escape using an escape pod just like in the final version.

Cid's Job Class was originally listed as "Pilot (Dragoon)".

Battle
Cid is fought as a boss in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-.

Kingdom Hearts series


Cid makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts as a Gummi Ship expert, engineer, and merchant. He is an ally of Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon, but largely takes a passive role helping Sora with Gummi engineering and construction. Cid is also considerably older in the series, being forty-two in the original Kingdom Hearts.

A memory-based version of Cid also makes a cameo in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In Kingdom Hearts II, Cid is in charge of the Hollow Bastion security systems, and is instrumental in restoring the world by creating a program to allow Tron to destroy the MCP controlling the world's computer systems. He retains his subtle distaste of the supernatural, as he openly criticizes Merlin and his reliance on magic. Otherwise, his swearing is toned down, and while he does not smoke, he chews on a toothpick to provide the same sort of imagery. Cid is also in the mobile phone game, Kingdom Hearts coded.