Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

Cloud Strife’s 6 Piece Sword

For those of us who have seen the movie, one of the coolest and also most stupefying elements in it was Cloud’s sword. It was a sword that actually comprised of 6 individual swords that could be combined to form one big one. Through the movie Cloud used this to his advantage especially during the final battle with Sephiroth.

However, some are confused as to how this sword combines the 6 individual swords and more so, what the 6 individual swords are. Did Cloud use all of them during the movie? Yes he did, and I’m going to show you all of them and how they integrate into the main weapon with screenshots from the movie.

The Base Sword (first sword)

The base sword is the most complicated of all the other swords so I’m going to be spending the most time talking about it. It’s the only sword (outside the 2 switch blade swords) with moving parts. The base sword has 5 stages to it and each stage is defined by how opened or closed the blade is.

The first stage is the one in which the blade and the hand guard are closed. Below is a screenshots of the sword in the first stage. Notice in the first screenshot that the hand guard is closed and diamond shaped. In the second and third stages the hand guard opens up via these pivot points (marked in red) and becomes rectangle in shape. More on this later. In the second screenshot, though it’s not very clear you can see the blade (green) and the hand guard (red) are closed. This stage is the mainly to allow the sword be carried easily in the sheath, as seen in the first screenshot:

The second stage of the sword is what I like to call the battle ready stage. In this form the sword’s blade (red) and the hand guard (green) are fully extended. Cloud tends to use this form the most in battles:

In this screenshot the pivot point for the hand guard can be seen very well (red). Do you also see the little piece of metal on the inside (yellow)?

It can be seen a little more clearly here (yellow). Those are what hold the hand guard to the blade. Also it’s the main mechanism that allows the hand guard to expand:

I’ll try to explain here to the best of my ability with the diagram below how the hand guard thing works. Basically, the piece of the handle that the metal pieces connect to has a spring-loaded rotation ability. When Cloud sees fit he can activate it and it will rotation and push the metal pieces out which in turn forced the pivots on the hand guard to move outward as well and form the rectangle hand guard. With the rectangle hand guard the sword can now fit the other 5 swords in the assembly.

I’ll explain the 3^rd and 4^th stage of the base sword later on in the guide.

The Impact sword (the second sword)

I call this sword the impact sword because in the assembly is becomes the main impact blade. The sword itself is hollow and can be seen below (red):

Even the handle is split (red), which allows the blade to wrap comfortably around the first blade:

Now for the assembly. Here are the swords before assembly. Notice the gap in hand guard of the first sword (red) and the fact that the sword is expanded (green):

Now the 2 swords are together. The gap has closed and the first sword has contracted and the second sword is fitting snuggly in its position (yellow):

Last but not least, the second sword is slid down to lock in place (yellow). Notice that the 2^nd blade does not connect to the center of the base sword but in fact to the right section of the blade (from Cloud’s point of view). Now the base sword is in its 3^rd stage which I call the Phase 1 assembly stage in which the blade is closed, the hand guard is expanded and the gap at the base of the hand guard is closed:

Now the gap at the base of the hand guard is filled by 4 metal plates that fold out from inside the hand guard itself. One can slightly be seen here (yellow). It is noticeable due to the fact that it is a slightly different color from the actual inside of the hand guard:

When all four are down it looks like this. Notice the dividing points that indicate that there are in fact 4 (yellow):

The 3^rd and 4^th Swords (have no good name for them)

The 3^rd and 4^th swords are identical. In the assembly they occupy the same place except on opposite sides. Below is a screenshot of the 3^rd and 4^th blades before being assembled (red). If you look to the right you’ll see the first 2 swords already in the assembly (yellow):

Now for the 4^th stage of the base sword. The base sword needs to be in this stage in order for the 3^rd and 4^th swords to be assembled. In this stage (Phase 2 assembly) the base sword’s blade is slightly expanded (red) and the hand guard remains as it was in the 3^rd stage. Now why does the base sword need to be slightly expanded at this point? Well, you cannot lock the door till you’ve closed it. More on this analogy later.

Getting a good picture of the 3^rd sword after assembly is only as hard as getting a picture of the actual assembly because it happens so fast and in the middle of the Bahamut battle. If you look closely below you will see the 3^rd sword connected on the left side of the assembly to the top. The blade of the 3^rd sword itself is facing down (green) the blunt end is facing up (red) and the handle is locked into the base of the hand guard (yellow):

Here is a screenshot of the 4^th sword just before being assembled (red). This happens as Cloud’s friends are boosting him up the sky to hit Bahamut the final blow.

This is the 4^th sword as it is being assembled on the right side of the main sword (red). It’s as clear as day here:

And here is Cloud snapping the 4^th sword into the locked position. Notice that the base blade is still in the 4^th stage:

Now that the first 4 swords are assembled the base sword can be put into the 5^th and final stage (Phase 3 assembly). In this phase the base blade is complete closed, so in essence it’s the same as the 3^rd phase. Now what this closing of the base blade does is 1.) It locks the impact sword and the 3^rd and 4^th blades together (red) and 2.) Now permits the 2 switch blades to be placed in the assembly:

Here you can see that the blade for the impact and the 3^rd and 4^th swords connect seamlessly. This also points out more accurately how the tips for the 3^rd and 4^th swords are shaped:

The Switch Blades (5^th and 6^th swords)

The switch blades are also identical to one another and are the smallest of all the other swords. They are also the only 2 swords whose handles flip up before being assembled (hence, switch blades). Now there is a lot of complications and mysteries surrounding these blades. The first one being that the assembly of the 5^th sword is almost impossible to spot but after reviewing the footage over and over again I’ve finally found where it occurs.

First of all, this is the 5^th sword (red) and the 6^th is still in Fenrir.

You have to really pay attention to see the assembly of the 5^th. It occurs just after Cloud throws Loz off his bike in the tunnel. Here you can see there is no switch blade on the main sword on this side (red), plus a piece of the 5^th sword sticking out behind Cloud (yellow). This is a screen just as Loz is jumping off his bike onto Clouds.

Here we can see there is also no switch blade on the other side of the main sword (red). I know it’s hard to see but play back your own copy in slow motion here and you’ll see for yourself.

Now look really closely at Cloud here. This is just as he has thrown Loz into the air. You can see the main sword on his right (red) and the 5^th sword in his left (green). It is at that moment when Loz is landing back on his bike and Yazoo is shooting at Cloud that Cloud assembles the 5^th sword and takes the 6^th out of Fenrir.

Here is the 6^th (red) and the 5^th sword in the main sword assembly (yellow).

Here I’m just showing how the switch blades pivot. Notice the pivot point (red). The handle will swing in (yellow) when it is being assembled.

Here is nice screenshot of how one of the switch blades looks in the assembly. Do notice the how the handle has flipped up on the 5^th sword in the assembly (green):

Here is the 6^th sword being assembled during the tunnel battle (red):

The assembly for the switch blades is not very complicated. All it requires his for Cloud to close the handle (red) and slide the blade into place (green). I should point out that the 5^th and 6^th blades at NOT interchangeable. By that I mean, there is one made for the left side of the sword and one made for the right. Same applies for the 3^rd and 4^th swords:

So now you know how all 6 swords work in Cloud’s assembly. I have to admit it was pure genius of them to make his sword in such a way. It made the final moments with Sephiroth very interesting to say the least.

Advent Children blooper 1:

I found this little error in the movie while doing my research for the above. Thought you would like to see this. For the fight scene at Ajit Cloud pulled swords 1 (red) and 3 (yellow) to start fighting original, and you can clearly see sword 2 (green) resting comfortably in Fenrir, as seen below:

However after Cloud falls and he loses the first sword, look at what sword he ends up holding instead of the 3^rd sword:

Yep, that’s sword 2. People have asked if it was possible that the 2^nd sword just happened to fall out of Fenrir but it’s not possible. Fenrir’s sword compartments were closed when he fell and the way in which he fell made it so his left hand was underneath him so it would have been hard for his to even try it, if not impossible.

Advent Children Blooper 2:

Alright, this is not exactly a blooper. Then again, the first one wasn’t either. I believe what happened here to be a conscious decision by Square. Why? I’ll explain later, first for the observation. It involves the 2 switch blades, the battle with Kadaj and the battle with Loz and Yazoo in the tunnel. Now as I explained before the switch blades are not interchangeable. The one designed for the left side of the main blade cannot be used on the right side and vice versa.

To start with the 6^th sword is in Cloud’s sheath (first shot) and the 5^th is in the assembly (second shot) at the beginning of the final Kadaj battle:

Now notice here that the 5^th sword is still on the right side of the main blade just as Kadaj is about the fling the sword out of Cloud’s hands:

But as the blade lands on the side of the building, do you notice something? The 5^th sword has disappeared from the right side!

Where oh where has the 5^th sword gone? Why on the other side of the sword of course. The 5^th sword has decided to become a lefty in the middle of the battle and now it can be seen here (red):

But wait, the amazing switch-a-roo isn’t over yet. Check out the 6^th sword in Cloud’s hand in this screenshot. Notice that the blade is actually designed for the left side of the main blade (i.e. the fancy copper quarter circle thing is on the left side of the blade). You’ll note that they don’t really show you the main blade in this shot because they didn’t want people to notice that they had 2 switch blades designed for the left side of the main blade in the same picture:

However, if you look here, the 6^th blade has miraculously become a right side blade!

Take your time and think about it. Visualize the blades in your head with the quarter circle pieces and where they are suppose to be from just before Kadaj flings Cloud’s sword to the very scene above. You’ll see its undeniable. Basically, between these scenes Square has gradually moved around the 5^th and 6^th swords. Now why did they need to do this? Well here is why.

It was done to make this scene here with Cloud and Kadaj, where Cloud uses the main sword and a switch blade to tie up Kadaj,

And this scene where Cloud ejects one of the switch blades to block Loz and Yazoo’s double attack work:

You see, the Loz and Yazoo fight scene was rendered first and Square thought it’d be interesting to have Cloud eject this switch blade for the final blow. However, they didn’t really think it mattered which blade he ejected so they choose the right one (Actually there is more to this but I’ll explain that later). However, when they reached the fight scene with Kadaj and Cloud needed to use the switch blade as he did above they realized he had the wrong switch blade in hand. So rather than redo the fight scene with Loz and Yazoo to eject the left switch blade they decide to switch them around while nobody was looking, and it would have work too, if I wasn’t see damn analytical =P

But wait, there is more. Square did a lot of strange things in the tunnel scene which is why they found themselves in that predicament in the Kadaj fight to begin with. First of all, they could not decide just how many switch blades they had and secondly they couldn’t decide which ones they wanted assembled or not from scene to scene.

Here we have an example of there being 3 switch blades in one scene. Below we have a clear shot of the right side switch blade assembled (red):

Now here we have Cloud swinging at Yazoo with the left switch blade (red):

But wait a minute. As Cloud comes back around with the main sword, you can see there is already a left side switch blade already in the assembly (red)! This is all in the same scene so there is no mistaking the fact that there are 3 switch blades:

Now for some more disappearing switch blades in the tunnel scene. As I explained a lot earlier the 6^th sword gets assembled just before Cloud slices through Loz’s bike. So at this point all the swords are suppose to be assembled. However, once again, Square has done some strange things in this scene.

Now remember when I said earlier that Square chose to have Cloud eject the right switch blade for the Loz/Yazoo double attack? Well apparently they had planned to use the left side first. If you look here you’ll see the left side switch blade (red) just before ejecting:

And here it is being ejected:

However as it opens out in the air above Cloud you’ll notice it’s now become a right side switch blade (just think about it. Close the blade in your mind and imagine which side it would fit). You can also see the right side blade on the main sword is gone (red):

But as Cloud grabs the blade and blocks Loz’s attack, it magically becomes a left side blade again (once again, orient the blade in your head, you’ll see I’m right):

And the right side blade is still missing (red):

So we have a scene where there are 3 switch blades, a scene where a switch blade keeps changing its orientation and a scene where one has complete disappeared, all in the same tunnel battle.

Then we have Cloud outside the tunnel and here you see the left side switch blade in the assembly (red):

And the right side one in the assembled (red). Look real close:

And, of course, by the time Cloud reaches Kadaj for the final fight the left side switch blade will be out the assembly and Cloud will put it in his sheath, while the right side one is still in the assembly. So you see, there is a lot of drama with these 2 switch blades. Pay very close attention between the tunnel and the end of the Kadaj fight and you’ll find all the weird disappearances, reappearances and duplications.

Advent Children Blooper 3:

Once again, not really a blooper, just another Square shortcut. It concerns Cloud splitting off the impact sword in the Sephiroth battle. You see here the sword fully assembled:

And here you can see it slicing right through the hand guard, which is not really possible:

After is has cut through the hand guard:

Interesting Notes 1

See this pink ribbon? (red):

Well everyone in Cloud’s group has one:

Well, that’s all for now. I plan to switch out these screenshots with dvd screenshots as soon as I get the dvd, so you’ll have a better view of everything.

Email any comments you have to raven_237@outlook.com