#the highwind

The water tower promised in Nibelheim is framed through the lens of insecurity. Cloud isn’t confident. He feels inferior. His desire to join SOLDIER isn’t just ambition, it’s an attempt to become someone worthy of being seen. The promise he makes to Tifa reflects that mindset, "I’ll become strong, then I’ll protect you."

It’s aspirational. It’s a boy trying to define himself through achievement.

But the story systematically dismantles that foundation.

Cloud fails to become SOLDIER. He hides his face out of shame. He constructs a false persona built from trauma and borrowed identity. The “hero” he thought he needed to be turns out to be an illusion.

What remains after that illusion collapses?.... Tifa.

The Lifestream seq forces Cloud to confront the truth, he was never the version of himself he believed he had to be. And crucially, Tifa doesn’t reject him when that truth surfaces. She accepts the flawed, insecure boy he always was.

That shifts the dynamic entirely.

By the time the Highwind scene occurs, this is no longer about a childhood promise or a need to prove himself. Cloud is no longer chasing validation. He is choosing consciously and without performance, to be emotionally vulnerable with Tifa.

The difference is profound.

The water tower represents aspiration.

The Highwind represents self-acceptance.

As children, their connection was built on distance and longing. As adults, it is built on mutual understanding and shared truth. The narrative doesn’t leave them frozen in nostalgia, it allows them to evolve beyond it.

Cloud doesn’t fulfill the promise by becoming a perfect hero.

He fulfills it by becoming honest.

And Tifa doesn’t fall for an idealized SOLDIER.

She chooses the real Cloud — the one who finally stops pretending.

That’s not a regression to childhood feelings.

That’s growth into adult love.

Reference art : The Highwind

Yup, again art for my fic. (still only in french, I'm writing chapter 34, I don't have enough faith in my English skills to try and translate this monster). The team use the Highwind from time to time and I need to make sure I'm not writing stupid stuff about the layout of the airship. Also, the map on the original game make NO SENSE. I really hope the remake will deal better with that. (Come on Square, think of the fic writer who try to make sense with YOUR messes) (Yes there is some non FF7 names in the cabin, that 'normal', the fic take place in FF7 universe, but plenty of other FF's character are guest star and the Highwind's crew is stretching Cid's patience) Made with RPG Map Editor II ---

Référence : Le HautVent

The Highwind is an airship designed by Captain Cid Highwind, the chief aeronautical engineer in ShinRa.

In Crisis Core, there is a poster of the newly constructed airship in the Showcase Room. Presumably, the airship was in Cid’s possession up until the failed launch of the Shinra No. 26 rocket, at which point it was confiscated by the ShinRa company and then served as the company’s flagship. When passing through Junon after Rufus’ parade in the OG, the player can see it stationed in the airfield.

The first time the player is aboard the Highwind is once new President Rufus Shinra has taken command of it in the search for Sephiroth, taking it to the Northern Cave. In the seven day period where Tifa and Barret are held hostage on the Highwind, the crew organizes a mutiny and by the time they are set to be executed, Cid has rallied his former crew to leave Shinra and rescue them.

From that point forward, the airship replaces the buggy and Tiny Bronco for primary transportation, though the stables allow for the player to keep captured chocobos leading to the ability to breed them. In the command room onboard, there is a crewman who functions as a save point and can heal the party at no cost. The airship can land on any plains in the overworld map where there is enough space.

The airship can be used to track down and run into Ultimate Weapon to initiate a battle, the deck occasionally serving as a battleground. It is also seen during Cid’s ultimate Limit Break, Highwind, where the airship rains down 18 missiles on random targets.

During the final battle, two jet boosts are revealed at the back, replacing the propellers. When the party is stranded within the Planet after fighting Sephiroth, the Highwind dives into the crater to rescue them. From Cid’s reaction, it seems this was either at the independent action of the crew or that it was somehow pulled down. Once it is blasted out of the crater by Holy, it sustains damages that take off the tail and some of the outer shell. An emergency measure put in by Cid removes the rest of the load and creates another form with wings unfolding on the sides and a single engine, presumably for such an event where the airship had taken significant damages.

There is no further mention of the Highwind after the OG, as Cid has a new airship, the Shera, in both Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus.

There is a painting of a woman wearing a bikini on both the Shera and Highwind, which Cid calls “Lady Luck.”

The statistics of the ship, listed in the opening graphic, are:

Weight - 1,280 tons (2,150 loaded)

Length - 237m,

Width - 183m, 

Height (on landing) - 33m 

Max Speed -386 knots; 173 knots on patrol

Crew size - 4

Occupancy - approx 34

Weapons - N/A

Ascending Engine - Modified/Customized 16-s Ge engine (energy input: 15200hp x 4)

Ascending Aid - Shinra 3a upside down V shaped 12 circular air tube (energy input: 1900hp x 2)

Ascending Wingspan’s Fan - Radius 5.5m oil pressured, 4 oil tanks, and temperature: 30-80c

Accelerator - Modified/Customized Shinra airship accelerator (energy input: 22400hp x 2)

one thing i noticed one thing i noticed about the bridge of the Shera is that it has almost nothing in common with the design of the Highwind

rather, it more closely resembles the command deck of the Farenheit- it's even got a similar navigational globe

as it's stated elsewhere that the Shera is actually comprised of ancient technology and not fully understood, you have to wonder if the creative team behind Dirge was encouraging the "FFVII and FFX are the same continuity" theory even back in 2007

also of note, the decal on the floor of the bridge is the same one that Cid had painted on the side of the Highwind