Cid

Cid Highwind is a character from Final Fantasy VII, who makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. He is voiced by Chris Edgerly in the English version of Kingdom Hearts II (having never spoken outside of text boxes in the original) and Kazuhiro Yamaji in the Japanese version.

Kingdom Hearts
''Owner of an accessory shop in Traverse Town. A highly skilled engineer and a first-rate pilot. When the Heartless invaded his world, he escaped to Traverse Town on a gummi ship he'd built himself. He is an expert on gummi ships. "Final Fantasy VII"''

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A gifted pilot who saved Leon and the others from the Heartless when they were just children.

Cid lives in Traverse Town now.

Kingdom Hearts II
''An engineer, tech wizard and first-rate pilot. He met Sora as a castaway, while he was running a shop away from his hometown.''

Now that he's back home, Cid is an active member of the town's Restoration Committee.

Kingdom Hearts
In the original Kingdom Hearts, Cid is one of the first characters that Sora befriends in Traverse Town. He first owns an accessory shop in the center of the town's 1st district. Cid sends Sora out to deliver an old, broken book (The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) to Merlin. Later on he owns a shop which specializes in Gummi Ship parts. This is true to his Final Fantasy VII counterpart, as he is an expert on air travel. In fact, most incarnations of Cid in the Final Fantasy series have been associated with airships and mechanics. Like Leon, Merlin, and other important characters met in Traverse Town, Cid was originally from Radiant Garden.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A memory-based version of Cid appears in Chain of Memories.

Kingdom Hearts II
In Kingdom Hearts II, Cid is a member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee who resides in Merlin's home with the other Radiant Garden characters. Cid seems to have a rivalry with Merlin because Cid favors technology over magic while Merlin favors the exact opposite. He is a computer expert, and manages to create a program which helps Sora and Tron defeat the MCP.

Trivia

 * The name suggested by Riku for the raft in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts (the "Highwind") is Cid's last name in Final Fantasy VII and also the name of his Airship.


 * Already the most uncouth of the Final Fantasy VII characters present in the series, the Cid of Kingdom Hearts is actually a toned-down version. The original Cid Highwind, though he had a good heart, constantly swore or said foul words (such as when Cloud and AVALANCHE first meet him. Otherwise, his foul language would appear as symbols, as is usual for swear word text in other media). He also had a toothpick in his mouth in place of his trademark cigarette holder, which was used for a few of his Limit Breaks in the original game.


 * He is one of five Final Fantasy characters featured not have a featured weapon, the others being Aerith and the Gullwings. He is also the only Final Fantasy character not seen participating in any battle, whereas Aerith served as healer and the Gullwings managed to defeat an Armored Knight through a team effort. If he does have a weapon, then it is likely his custom-made spear. (However the Kingdom Hearts manga briefly showed him attacking Heartless with a flamethrower.)


 * However, his most defining trait, as is per most of his fellow Cids in Final Fantasy, is that he specializes in airships, or in this case, Gummi Ships.


 * Although there are many "Cid"s in the Final Fantasy series. He is based on the Final Fantasy VII incarnation, most likely because it is one of the most popular incarnations in the series.