Cid Highwind - Final Fantasy
Cid Highwind is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII who makes appearance in a number of other game titles, spinoffs, and remakes including the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Also in In Final Fantasy: Advent Children, a computer animated film that takes place after the events of the game, he makes an appearance. Cid Highwind is one of many characters in the Final Fantasy series by the name of Cid, and he owns an airship called the Highwind. He is a common choice for Final Fantasy cosplay enthusiasts, often depicted in fan art, and has also inspired a number of figures. He is voiced by Chris Edgerly in English and Kazuhiro Yamaji in Japanese, and on March 3rd, 2020 will be recreated in the much anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Profile
Cid Highwind was a mechanical scientist who dreamt of sending a rocket to outer space but his wish never came true. Cid is skeptical of the Shinra Electric Power Company, and when an executive of the company attempts to hijack his plane, the Tiny Bronco, he joins forces with Cloud and his party in their battle against Shinra and permanently turns against the megacorporation. He is also the owner of the primary airship in Final Fantasy VII the “Highwind” in which the party uses to travel around the map.
Cid is best described as having a personality like a pirate. He often curses, is almost always smoking, and has a very short fuse. Despite this, deep down he is benevolent and is even selected as a temporary party leader when Cloud and Tifa temporarily left the party. Cid uses spears in battle, and his Limit abilities cause him to jump and land on enemies, dealing devastating damage with a number with attacks against multiple targets or a single target multiple times.
In Final Fantasy VII, Cid wears a dark shirt covered by a navy blue flight jacket over dark green, army style cargo pants. Around his neck he wears a white pilot's scarf which conceals most of his shirt. He has blond hair, blue eyes and some light facial hair. He wears a pair of goggles with a pack of cigarettes tucked under the band. Cid is a heavy smoker and lights up a cigarette after each battle is over. He wears boots, leather gloves, and uses a spear in combat, but he is a firearm enthusiast, evidenced by the AK-47 and two M-14s stored in his "engineering room".
Backstory
Cid is first seen working on restarting a rocket program that had been cancelled by Shinra because of the actions of his assistant Shera who was concerned about the rocket’s integrity. He blames Shera for the program being cancelled and does not believe her concerns were well founded, throwing a number of insults at her in frustration. In reality, her concerns about the oxygen tanks were actually shown to be correct when an explosion traps Cid during the attempt to launch the rocket against Meteor. Because of this, Cid forgives Shera. Cid makes an appearance in Before Crisis, Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. In Advent Children, he joins the party to fight against the Bahamut SIN. In Dirge of Cerberus, he helps the World Regenesis Organization in an attack against the Deepground headquarters, and later in combating the Omega WEAPON.
Creation and Development
Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega states that Cid's role in the story was basically unchanged since the same game's early production and development phase, his dream of going into space falling through the same as it is in the final version. However, there were some changes. For example, he was originally meant to join the party after the Meteor was summoned, his role being to pilot the rocket that would stop the Meteor with Materia payload. He was supposed to have been unaware the mission was a suicide mission, through the trickey of Shinra convincing him it was only a mission to the moon. The party was supposed to have hopped on the ship to save him, but would have been incapable of convincing Cid of the true nature of the mission until it was too late, and would make their escape with an escape pod, similar to the final version. His class was designed to reflect the “Dragoon” class, one of the original classes of Final Fantasy.
Trivia
- Cid Highwind’s name is the only character in the Final Fantasy franchise history to have a full name that is made from two separate recurring names “Cid” and “Highwind”. This portrays him being an airship pilot and has a battle role as a Dragoon.
- The North American Final Fantasy VII manual states that Cid’s weapon of choice, the spear is ‘handmade’. If this is true then Cid is the only known playable player that was capable of creating and forging his own weapon.
- In the English dub version of Final Fantasy, Cid is given a North American southern accent and there were many lines in that game that included curses, which in turn resulted in being censored and "bleeped" out, appearing as a jumble of symbols.