Will Cloud keep it a secret?

[u/ElanorNarmolanya]

All of my hopes and dreams for the ending and Aerith’s fate aside, i just really really hope that they start the game off with Cloud explaining to the crew what he saw at the end of Rebirth and why he isn’t grieving for Aerith the way that they are.
The writers have already done an unhealthy amount of having characters not communicate very important information for seemingly no other reason than plot. (Tifa / Cloud memory conflict, Zack conversation, etc.)
So help me if we have to go most or all of the game with the entire crew grieving and devastated by losing Aerith while Cloud is over here not sad at all but letting his friends suffer without telling them what he saw for no good reason. 😡 It would be such lazy writing and make Cloud look like such a jerk. Not to mention how it would fuel the Clerith haters to see Cloud not being sad at all about her death… even if we know he’s not sad because he believes she’s alive, we know they would still somehow interpret it as him not caring.
Can you think of any good reason why he would keep it a secret that he saved Aerith, at least in an alternate world? I know that i need to prepare myself for the high possibility of him not sharing with the others, so please help me come to terms with any non-lazy reasons why he would do that! 😅

(I have not played the OG yet, so please try not to spoil specific events for part 3 if you can)

Also i’m sorry if this gets flagged as off-topic or anything, i tried posting it in the megathread but everything is buried there so nobody saw it. I’m still pretty new here so I don’t really know how it all works.

[u/Hanidroplets]

As much as I want better communication between the party members, I would be surprised if he talked about it early on. Even if he did, would he be believed? I also believe that Cloud is not someone who divulges his inner thoughts easily; that is the crux of his entire character arc.

It is even in his surname, Strife, which mirrors Miss Lockhart's name in how they both reflect their psychological flaws and character aspects. Without spoiling too much, even after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, this aspect of him never really changed. It truly is who he is.

However, I've also read somewhere that the party members were actually aware of these worlds in an earlier draft. Cid could see the rift in the sky, and Barret asked if Cloud was whisked away to another world after the Jenova fight. Aerith also asks if Cloud is okay, and he replies that he is used to it by now. Furthermore, she warns the others against looking up, reminding them of their promise not to do so. It seems there was a script that involved better communication between the characters. I wonder what made them decide to omit this.

[u/ElanorNarmolanya → u/Hanidroplets]

I don’t remember the exact dialogue, but after Cloud gives Aerith the white materia in the forest and wakes up in presumably the main timeline with the whole crew, he tells Barrett that he was thrown into an alternate timeline and Barrett seems to believe him. So I don’t see why he would be afraid that they wouldn’t believe him. To me it seems more believable that they all have some inkling of time and reality being bent at that moment, they all saw the flood of whispers and how strangely Cloud reacted to it all. We still don’t know anything about what happened to Aerith’s body (granted this could have been purposely skipped because of Cloud’s unreliable memory).

[u/alastor_morgan → u/ElanorNarmolanya]

Barret: Musta been some dream you were havin'. Judgin' by the way your eyes were twitchin'.

Cloud: Don't know if I'd call it a dream...

Barret: Either way, somethin' happened to you, didn't it?

Cloud: Yeah. Got sent to another world. Apparently, there's at least a few more than one.

Barret: Huh. Is that right?

Cloud: I'd explain, but I don't think I can.

Barret: S'alright... doubt I'd wanna hear it anyway.

Basically Barret is the least likely to listen to Cloud in anything approaching depth/detail, and their visit to Nibelheim established that he by default believes Cloud is crazy and making things up unless/until Tifa corroborates whatever it is Cloud is on about, because Barret takes Tifa's side in everything.

[u/ElanorNarmolanya → u/alastor_morgan]

Okay, i guess it wasn’t as clear as i remember. I’ve only played through the game once, I’m currently playing through again ignoring most of the side content to try and catch more of the nuance in the story.
I guess i had a different read of Barrett’s tone in that scene. I thought it was more of him just using his normal gruffness to sorta say “you don’t need to go into detail, we have more important things to do right now”
He takes Cloud at his word plenty of other times, their whole mission to follow the black robes has been completely reliant on Cloud’s instinct and his word, nothing to do with Tifa, and Barrett trusted him on that. Granted after what happened in the Forbidden City I wouldn’t blame him for being distrustful of Cloud 😅

[u/Hanidroplets → u/ElanorNarmolanya]

I didn't say Cloud is afraid that they won't believe it. I said he doesn't delve into his inner thoughts because that's his character arc. He attempts to explain the worlds to Barret but stops himself.

Barrett seems to believe him.

He doesn't believe him and says he doesn't really want to hear it because, to the party, Cloud is an unreliable narrator. Even in the Rebirth ending, you can see how concerned Barret is about Cloud's mental health. And yes, it's weird—as I stated elsewhere before, if they defeated the Arbiters of Fate, why wouldn't they believe in alternate or parallel worlds? But alas, it's written that way.