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Cid Highwind is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII. He is part of a long tradition of Final Fantasy Cids.
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 an oyaji.
Since childhood, Cid dreamed of becoming the first human in space. He almost achieved this goal through the Shin-Ra Space Program sometime prior to the start of the game. However, just as the rocket Shin-Ra No. 26 was about to launch, Cid realized that an engineer named Shera had defied orders to run a last-minute recheck of the oxygen tanks. Continuing the launch on schedule would have killed her. Cid scrapped the launch in order to save Shera's life. In the wake of this disaster, Shin-Ra concluded that space exploration was not financially viable, and withdrew funding from the project altogether.
The hot-tempered Cid blamed Shera for destroying his dream, and Shera, being an extremely insecure person, accepted the blame completely. After the incident Shera devoted herself to doing whatever she could to atone for her mistake, although Cid continued to treat her abominably. However, her concern over the oxygen tanks is eventually proven to have merit when an explosion temporarily traps Cid in orbit during a later successful attempt to go into space. After this, Cid finally forgives Shera.
Aside from his ambitions as an astronaut, Cid designed a number of aircraft and was also a great pilot. Among his designs were the propellor plane Tiny Bronco and the airship Highwind.
In terms of traditional Final Fantasy character classes, Cid is a dragoon. Final Fantasy dragoons use spears and lances as their weapons, have special abilities that involve jumping into the air and coming down on an enemy, and are often associated with dragons. Cid wields spears and lances, and some of his limit breaks are Boost Jump, Dragon and Dragon Dive. Cid's name also seems to be a reference to the character Kain Highwind from Final Fantasy IV, who was also a dragoon.
Cid also appears in Kingdom Hearts as a store attendant and, true to his profession, a Gummy ship expert.
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