Zidane was just a lame wannabe Locke and you never really know anything about him until the last 15 minutes of the game. Pretty much every other character was great in FFIX...and two daggers, cool...the thief blade...lame.
Cloud was a clod, plain & simple. Sure, he had memory retardation, but that's no excuse for being that clueless. When I am ten steps ahead of the protagonist (and he's not silent, of course), that's when I call foul. Buster sword...equally lame (though neither weapon is as lame as Squall's gunblades).