The Curious Case of Sephiroth 

Sephiroth went from being exploited by Shinra, to being expolited by Square Enix.

Funny thing... Sephiroth is the PHYSICAL villain we (as consumers) see as the Big Bad... but we often times forget that the one individual who set all this in motion, whether Shinra would ever give the Green Light or not, is the deranged Dr. Hojo. He was the one who created Sephiroth, and messed with his head enough to push Sephiroth on that edge of sanity and madness. After Nibelheim, Sephiroth became the monster we see him as today, though Hojo is the true monster behind it all. Even in Dirge of Cerberus, Hojo was, yet again, behind the creation of Weiss, and this is the reason why most who know the lore of FF7 dictate that, in the eyes of Cloud and Crew, Sephiroth is a big bad guy, but we, as the players, see Sephiroth in that weird blurred area between Victim and Monster, due to how Hojo had created him and subsequently raised Sephiroth.

Sephiroth in the flames of Nibelheim will always be there in my mind forever.

I don't think Sephiroth was ever depicted as a bad guy who became worse in the original. I think he was simply A Guy who you knew nothing about, who had a psychotic break and did some truly evil things.. and then died... and came back as something completely inhuman, who never talks TO anyone except Cloud, who he treats as if he's simply an inanimate toy on a shelf for him to have one sided conversations with himself at. And there's argument to how much of that was Jenova and not... but I think Sephiroth, in Nibelheim, was pretty human... but neither really good nor bad, just a soldier doing his job without notions of judgement on it as moral or not. It simply wasn't his place to decide and he had no reason to believe, as far as we know, that it was immoral. He seems disgusted with Hojo's experiment with the mako compressors and the once-people inside them... but not surprised, because he always had little respect for the man. Then as he reads the mansion's library he truly see's the horror of what his company does, and it shatters him to the point where (and this is important) he believes in the legacy of the _Cetra_ as being his legacy, because that's what Shinra thought Jenova was, and that's all he knows about it. But he doesn't just become angry, he becomes someone who isn't even human, and is outraged on behalf of a culture _he doesn't even belong to_ figuratively or literally. Not only is he not Cetra by birth because he's a piece of Jenova, he's more a member of humanity than anything else, by culture. Of course... if the people you were a part of undeniably, did something so reprehensible as a what he believes humanity did to the Cetra, would you really be able to own the fact that you are a member of that culture? Or would you, in a desire to completely disown it and not accept even the slightest possibility of being a minor contributor to the blame as a tiny part of it... decide the entire thing needed to go, and in fact you were always a member of the oppressed instead, and just didn't know it? That's why Sephiroth went insane and killed everyone... he couldn't accept that he WAS still human, because he didn't WANT to be human, but he didn't want to be a monster made from a human either... so he decided that he was a victim and used it as justification for a psychotic _mindless, and pointless_ rampage... and then was killed. But his anger survived like a curse, except that now, in the lifestream, he had access to the full knowledge of what he truly was... and what he _wasn't..._ and having that omniscience, removed any sort of human will or intent from him. He no longer saw people, or thought of them, he instead saw humans and other living things the way we see bacteria... not as individual lifeforms, but as a vague mass of some stuff that's on an organism, in this case, the planet. And he treated them as if they were bacterial cultures in a petry dish. Monologuing near them, but only to himself, because he knew they couldn't respond or comprehend him. From the time he entered the lifestream, Sephiroth ceased to even be "a person" in the original game's portrayal. Neither relatable nor unrelatable... he was simply a disaster happening to the world, rather than a person trying to do something to it... but an intelligent disaster with a will of its own, just not one... that could be called a person. He wasn't a Machiavelian manipulator... he was more of a second author, who had nothing but spite for the story the earth was writing, and wanted to edit it into oblivion. He stopped being a character in the story and started writing in competition with the actual author. But that's all hyperbole, not literal... but it does describe his portrayal. His... original game portrayal. Even if it wasn't what was intended for his portrayal, it was what they created.

I miss Sephiroth being scary but since they seem determined to market the heck out of him I am SURPRISED they never greenlit a game where you play as him. I can see him as a main character for a game in the spectacle action genre (Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, God of War, Metal Gear Rising etc)

The build up and mystery behind Sephiroth up until the flashback sequence in Kalm, and even some afterwards was one of the best setups for a big bad in all of fiction.

i felt the addition of sephiroth in the remake so early really undid a lot of his spooky, otherworldly energy. ive come to understand the sephiroth we see in the remake is not the same sephiroth from the original FF7, which adds a different type of mystery. i do appreciate his characterization in Ever Crisis, how hes just an isolated kid who wanted to live a normal life, how Hojo really fucked with his head by giving him a photo of his real mother, but purposely giving him the wrong name. it really highlights how, despite sephiroth being the driving force behind the plot, hojo is the true villain setting up most of the pieces to move to his desire. im intrigued to see where Ever Crisis goes with young sephiroth, and how it will tie in to the first scene of Glenn interrupting him trying to call Genesis.

Sephiroth is without doubt one of the best villains ever conceived. He's up there with Vader, for me. He's always imposing even down to the seemingly effortless way he fights. Always looks like his opponent is trying their best to stand toe to toe with him and for Seph its just another Tuesday.

I think Kingdom Hearts fills in a crucial piece as to how Sephiroth continued to become so well-known and popular

Sephiroth’s madness was ALL preplanned Hojo’s doing. He was the one to ok his mission to Neibelheim told him that Jenova was his mom and had all the documents he read in the basement and to find Jenova in the chamber with monster people. Had EVERYTHING planned so he could use his cells and see what happened during the Reunion theory. They need to hit this home in Rebirth and next one. This kind of thing happened before from Ifalna’s recollection so it makes sense Sephiroth might not be the only final boss.

5:31 "...Jaws having seldom appeared on the screen..." This is how I wish FFVII Remake handled Sephiroth. The fear of the unknown - horror before the terror/payoff when you finally confront him.

Wow, this has got to be one of my favorite videos you've made. Really great information about Kitase and details of how the cinematography of jaws inspired him.

It's interesting that Sephiroth was originally going to be Cloud's appearance but they changed it to the antagonist because they thought that his appearance worked more as a villain, and now they are slowly changing Sephiroth into becoming more and more of a hero/anti-hero, ironic huh? How things go around.

The issue with overusing any villain is that they lose their presence as they constantly get beaten by the heroes. Overusing Sephiroth will eventually make him about as threatening as Doctor Robotnik.

I love some part and hate others but for Remake, I had a bit of a stroke when they revealed "There are 4 Sephiroths you see" and then explaining each one, I understood something, so we have a shark (the OG still is there following its original path), a vengeful spirit (The one you fight at the end, the one that made things go awry), a murderous clone (Jenova possing as Sephirot from the OG) and something compleatly different from all that was (The one who talks to Cloud at the end, the one who uses Ore instead of Watachi) in 1 game

Sephiroth will always be one of THEE greatest villains of all time. Every time he shows up in any game, anytime I hear the starting notes of his theme, there's a flash of fear, followed by a rush of excitement.

Imagine a world with a good guy Sephiroth.

Personally, when I first saw Sephiroth it was on Kingdom Hearts at the Colosseum. He was strong and I never got to beat him. Then I got to play FFVII. He's a strong character and I think that's what appeals to me the most about him. His backstory was mysterious though I wasn't curious about Sephiroth himself. I was and still am more curious about his past than his personality. I mean I do like his personality but it's his mysterious past that got me thinking about him a lot. Particularly, the research and experiments Professor Hojo did. It all roots down to Jenova and the mystery of why it is the way it is.

As much as I liked the original FFVII upon release, I always thought it was weird how he went from mentor/hero to mustache twirling villain so quickly in the flashbacks and I have appreciated the expansion and fleshing out of his character over the years.

I like seeing Sephiroth be humanized, it makes following his story feel more tragic and his descent into madness and pure evil feel heavier. Force of nature bad for the sake of being bad type characters are good too, and I know plenty of people prefer that, but I personally enjoy a good fall from grace. It's part of why I like Seymour from FFX as a villain too, he's incredibly similar to Yuna with the main difference being he was shunned and not shown acceptance by anyone (on top of his mom essentially killing herself in front of him to become his aeon when he was like 10). It gives you room to imagine how differently things could've gone had the villain's upbringing and circumstances been just a little different.

Sephiroth is so awesome and i'm really happy that we will learn more about him in "ever crisis". 🖤

1) Cloud's personality change makes sense. It shows he is human, and because so many have relied on him and still do, he feels preasure, like he has to push himself ever more. He reaches a breakingpoint, but even then he is *still* trying to find a cure for Geostigma. Throughout the film we see him regain confidence until he's back to his old self. 2) Sephiroth's role in Remake is perfect. He's not the same Sephiroth from OG. This one, in this universe, has knowledge the previous Sephiroth didn't. That is why he is so fixated on Cloud whereas the OG one didn't even remember who Cloud was, seeing him as insignificant. So even if the decision for Sephiroth to be so prevelant was due to concern for newcomers, the lore reason he is so prevelant is far better understood by us who knew the original world.

It was nice to see him actually be "human" in a sense. Before it all went to hell. Hojo never gave him a chance to be normal.

Theory time: Ever Crisis is trying really hard to make Sephi sympathetic. I am expecting him to be a protagonist beyond the flashback sequence in Rebirth, probably in Zack's playable chapter that they alluded to having in the Rebirth. Either that or he (actual Sephiroth, not Jenova) is going to block Cloud's sword when Cloud swings on Aeirith and we are going to have a huge WTF moment before credits roll, making him a potential ally in the third game against Jenova.

Demure is _not_ a word I would use to describe Sephiroth. Maybe Tifa, just a bit with Cloud, but on the other hand she owns a bar where she bartends so in the other parts of her life she isn't.

I find past Sephiroth, the one we finally get to be playable in rebirth, the best of all. We really need to get more of him, how he got the Masamune, what he did during utai war, how he connected to Angeal and Genesis. I can’t wait to see that happen. Btw, what is the music playing? I found the remixes really good.

The crazy thing about jaws is that you were supposed to see the shark, but it didn't look real enough, so they were forced to keep the shark from being shown much.

Sephiroth is a victim of Hojo and Jenova. He's destined to become evil. I feel bad for him

Sephiroth's voice always creeped me out, but in a good way. The sinister, but calm tone made it seem like he wanted to be seen as a good person who had to do bad things. Even before his fall, the voice was the same and the lack of emotion meant no predicting what happened next. George Newburn had the best voice in my opinion because he sounded older and more mature like a proper movie villain. Tyler Hoechlin's version is still good, but not as mature.

Ive always been a fan of Sephiroth and so I'm enjoying the greater look at him form his backstory to his motivations and quite looking forward to seeing how the further show his "future"

Seeing Sephiroth as Jaws is now forever in my mind, and if they kept him silent, he would be like Michael Myers (The Shade) from Halloween. Honestly, I think that would have been best as well to keep his horrorific demeanor.

I say more Sephiroth as a character is always a good thing, especially when you consider the whole compilation, including the Remake trilogy, one continuity. But that's just me.

Great video, FFU! A Sephiroth-lead game would be very interesting. I would also love to see a Metal Gear game played through the eyes of Ocelot.

Sephiroth is amazing and i like seeing more of him. Crazy for me to think that's he's been around for 26 years. Most video game villains don't enjoy quite the long run.

I don't know if the specific mention of Robotnik, Bowser and Ganondorf is a deliberate Big Bad Bosses reference or not but if it was then I'm absolutely here for it

Sephiroth is a prime example of living long enough to become the villain 😮‍💨

That intro was *fire*

Didn’t watch yet but I would like to Sephiroth never lost his mind. Because he was so cool and smart guy.

Was absolutely thinking the same thing after seeing the newest trailer. Having a game where you could play as Sephiroth and explore his backstory would be unreal

I follow just the right amount of content creators on YT. But everytime I got a notification about a new FFU video I'm excited to see what they cooked for us!

My obsession w/ Sephiroth as become a well known facate of my identity. Since middle school. Years, before CC, or AC, released. Just on the source alone. The further expansion, and growth of his presence. Only further cemented, my own personal fanaticism, going as far as a Sephiroth tattoo, and basing my model in First Soldier. Around my likeness, just wearing his clothes, and weilding a similar sword.. He was strong, not just in body, but in mind. Had that confidence, cloaked in chill. He was, and still is, a major role model for me as an adult. Sephiroth, always knew something was off about himself, until post nibelheim. There I think, he finally figured out. His true nature.

The Sephiroth fight in AV is one of my favorite fights in cinema history, but I always wished I could play it. And Remake gave me that. So whatever complaints I could have of “too much” Sephiroth, it doesn’t matter cause I got what I always wanted in the end.

All i know is that i want to kill Sephiroth. It's not a hope or a dream, it's like a hunger, a thirst. Chaos-ehh i mean Sephiroth will die.

I was thinking about this when you mentioned a sephiroth centric game. Imagine we basically play all of ff7 the original but in sephs perspective. Where he is what hes doing foiling the plans of the crew etc slowly going more and more mad. I could see it actually being very compelling

I did the whole thing a bit backwards so my first introduction to Sephiroth was not FF7 or Crisis Core or even Advent Children. My first intro to Sephiroth was Kingdom Hearts, and my first impression was “he seems interesting, wonder what’s up with him?” From there I largely transitioned not into OG stuff, but fanfiction which, ngl, is where most of my FF7 knowledge comes from (plus enough wiki crawls to figure out what’s cannon and what’s not). With that context, FF7R feels a lot like just more of the same. Although that might just be my preference for time travel fix-it fics speaking. To some extent, it is sad what they lost by treating the story this way, but I at least find it even more exciting to wonder what’s going to happen next.

Of all my childhood villains, Sephiroth is a stand out. No video game antagonist had actually made me afraid like he did.

I would have absolutely loved a revised localized script for the original FF7, so we could get a better idea of the story jn gsme, as it's happening rather than having to break immerison to get things right, like the times when Jenova took the form of Sephrioth. As much as I'm excited to see Rebirth, i would also love a proper remaster of rhe original. But that's just me.

My prediction for the 3rd installment will be titled Final Fantasy 7: Reunion /Reconciliation /Reunite /Resolution or something similar :D If anyone remember the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within which came after FF7 OG, I believe the ending will be similar. This movie is about the struggle of the people locale to the planet against an alien spirit. The alien spirit is basically not compatible with the spirits of the planet and the former slowly devours the latter. These 2 spirits can be compared to the current state of the lifestream in FF7, The pure lifestream against the corrupted (geostigma). When Sephiroth says combining both worlds, I believe he was referring in reconciling this 2 lifestream. In the movie, if I remember correctly, the protagonist was searching for a new life form because the spirit of that life form represents reconciliation of the 2 contradicting spirits and is the key. I think the entire Remake Project will be something similar and I believe Cloud will be the catalyst that wasn’t triggered in the OG and Sephiroth found a way on how to do so.

I feel like its a shame to not mention the powerful effect of Kingdom Hearts as a multiplier and turning point in the Sephiroth mythos and development. It was the introduction of SOOO many people to him and so accurately fits the Jaws analogy - a ????? option appears, you enter into a strange arena where the insanely epic theme plays and this insanely powerful superboss who it seems (with how health displays in the game work) where it feels like you are doing no damage no matter how long you wail on him and beats you in 2-3 hits was jaw dropping. I feel like almost as many people were intorduced to the FF7 characters through that game, and their decision to go with emo Cloud from before the lifestream shaped so many peoples perception of Sephiroth as this devastating, terrifyingly beautiful force and Cloud as a "so edgy" emo, especially conpared to Squall/Leon getting the "cool guy mentor" role.

because how well known sephiroth is, its hard to really do much with him in his original role that i know quight a few amount of people knowing a general story of FF7 without playing it including a good chunk of details about sephiroth.(im actually one of them to, i have yet to fully play 7, but even before my inital attempt at playing the game i still know who and what sephiroth is). there is some understanding of this with all the story points of basicly all the different media around 7 as as whole wont mean much because of whats already known out there, so the change in how even the fundemental parts of the plot is, there will be differences and intreeg, especially considering there is aknowladgement of the originals plots existance.

Remember, it's all Hojo's fault.

I recently found this gem of a channel, and have been binging content ever since.

I prefer Sephiroth being more of an enigma. it’s more terrifying when the motives and predictability of a villain are unstable or unknown

Remember when Amano had a strong role in the design of bosses way back in the day? Final bosses and antagonists have come so far in the Final Fantasy series. I sure would love to be a fly on the wall during the development of Final Fantasy VII!

I feel like Sephiroth being explored further in Ever-Crisis is cool, I'm not so keen on him being centre stage so early in the story of the Remake trilogy. Sure, new fans might be confused, but that's on them, if you care so much, you'd play the original... simple as that. I feel like making Sephiroth playable is a bad decision, since they could have used that time to make him appear more awesome and powerful to let the player know what they are up against, having control, is instead going to make the player feel powerful, which I think will not translate well to an understanding of this being the villain.

Why did Shinra send him on a mission to where the secret jenova reactor was? In the same town as the secret lab?🤣

I'm a simple man. I see a video about Sephiroth and I watch it. Don't need context. Don't need a reason.

I like to imagine Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud and the rest in an NFL Football team

Sephiroth may have been the bad guy, but that doesn't mean he was a bad guy

Yo I can't just help to imagine how super freaking exciting FF7 Rebirth would be if Sephiroth wasn't in FF7 Remake and on any Rebirth promo material. Just imagine the launch trailer of Rebirth ending by the back of Sephiroth without showing it's face and a few criptic lines 😶

More FF7 content? Yes please 😍

i love how well thought out and executed he is in the original game. only to destroy all the aura of tension and fear surrounding him forever after that. Edit: except for advent children

Considering a lot of FF7's main topics are becoming more and more relevant today, including the consequences of systems that are set in place and big corporations benefitting from exploited workers, as well as destroying nature, I believe that putting an emphasis on Sephiroth's humanity makes a lot of sense. Doesn't necessarily mean him getting a redemption arc, that's up to the writers, exploring that side of him. He didn't choose his life as a soldier, but also later on, he harmed a lot of people, and both statements can co-exist.

I think there were a lot more villains that were on the tier of Sephiroth back in that era. You had Kazuya, Heihachi, and ogre from Tekken. You had ganon from ocarina, you had liquid, ocelot, and gray fox from metal gear solid. Hell, Andross from Star Fox, and also the villains from the earthbound/mother series. There was so many villains that had just as much depth, intrigue, and status as Sephiroth during that era…

I think sephiroth is going to suffer the same fate as the xenomorph from the Aliens franchise. It's no coincidence that the original Alien and, to a lesser degree, Aliens draws heavily upon Jaws and that you mentioned Jaws in your video. Ultimately the tchotchkyfication of a character like Sephiroth, who's motivations are inscrutable and whose presence is largely absent, is going to erode the function of Sephiroth himself in much the same way it has happened on Cthulu over the years. The character of Sephiroth risks becoming a parody of itself.

The antihero arc had been trending well lately. Suicide squad, venom, Joker, etc. I think making a game with Sephiroth as the main protagonist would be a stroke of genius

I personally loved sephiroth as a mystery compared to him being seen as a constant haunting. I feel like it doesn’t provide the same emotion that it depicted within the original game.

Sephiroth will always be one of the greatest villains of all time for me. His design is fantastic- tall, stong, and handsome with flowing hair but the pale, bloodless skin and slits of his eyes hinting at the malice and evil just below the surface. At every turn he makes things worse for Cloud and by the end has absolutely ruined his life.

I have never experienced a mandela effect until I noticed that lines of dialogue in this game seem to have changed...

Sephiroth 🥺🥺❤️

I've been thinking of this lately, too. Sephiroth has gone from being Jaws to becoming Beetlejuice.

I’ve played that og ff7 midgar section a billion times and I just don’t feel the same level of buildup for him like others seem to do Well outside of him taking out president Shinra That being said my introduction to him was KH, cc, Dissidia and advent children so that exposure could’ve muddled the impact As a fan of these later appearances it’s no surprise I didn’t mind any of his shenanigans in ff7r

10:19 damn so they werent even going to have the Cloud v Sephiroth rematch in the movie, Nomura saved this movie

Narratively, it's probably best less is said about Sephiroth to keep the mystique/keep the story simple. But I can't lie and say I'm not happy to get more content and information, as with this whole remake series.

i like it honestly- think about it this way- FF7 had the time to put him in the background and slowly build up- and worse all of it would be predictable and thus less effective for old fans. by changing how sephiroth messes with the party reintroduces that unhinged creepy unknowable menace and its not actually disruptive to the narrative even if much happens the same. you always have to guess what theyll change or not- how much of that is just sephiroth fucking with louds head?

They have big plans for Sephiroth. Idk what but it's gonna be crazy

As long as we never see child sephiroth I think we’ll be okay.

I really appreciated the way Sephiroth was originally portrayed like a horror movie villain: only catching glimpses of him and seeing/hearing what he's capable of, but not meeting him face-to-face until much later on. Cloud is gripped with "we need to get out of here NOW" terror at seeing the Masamune impaling President Shinra, being (more or less) the only one to understand the significance of it at that time, until he can explain the Nibelheim events later on. It's also interesting to see how he used to be a fairly nice guy before going completely insane. In the Remake, Sephiroth is showing up all over the place (whether it's Cloud hallucinating or not), and as much as I enjoyed the final fight against him, it all seemed rather excessive, considering how early in the story it is. I'm still intrigued to see where the new story will go, but I think the original game portrayed him the best.

“Momma’s boy” - Kefka I just hope remake does him Justice and that I can stop listening to mouth breathers who have only played the first part of the remake whining about how he “rUiNs ThE MyStErY”

Please keep up the good work! I love what is presented FF7EC.

I'm one of the quiet majority that thinks the "Remake" part of the FF7: Remake series is awesome. I love that they're not just doing the same story all over again but updating and evolving the story. Especially because a lot of the spin off media was just kind of lame or cringey fanservice.

This is actually so meta, what a poor guy: Not only in the game he is the poster boy for Shinra, but also in the real world for Square Enix. Just let him rest and be in peace

I prefer my sephy to be mysterious, yet at the same time I want a wutai war game with a playable young seph

he isnt only the coolest villain i know but also the best looking charc i ever seen not in terms of attractivenis to me but just his desighn is so good,and as someone that loves long hair his long silver/white hair is nothing i ever seen on a charcs before. normaly i like charcs but am thinking i would do this or that diffirent in terms of look but with sephiroth i wouldnt not do annythig diffirent realy he is exacly how i would create a charc. i hope in ever crisis they eventualy add a playable adult sephiroth,i also hope that at the end of ff7 remake they redeem him that he becomes atleast back to his good self like in crisiscore.

What an intro

On a totally different FF villain, I would LOVE to see FFVI get a remake. Seeing Kefka portrayed in a similar fashion would be amazing.

What i loved about FF7 is that you thought Shin-Ra was the bad guy...and bam..someone even bigger arrives and opens the world up past midgar.

Hojo was the real villain in FF7 , if only Sephiroth had met Lucrecia Crescent , none of this would have happened.

"Over compensating wrapon" 😂 sir are you trying to say something about Sephiroth???😂😂😂😂 I really wish they would have kept Sephiroth a mystery. It was so foreboding in the OG. I mean I fangirled amyway when I saw him in Remake but I loved how they didn't show him but made him a threat. After CC came out I loved how they depicted him as the definition of "a monster is not born; they are made"

I think you can see Sephiroth's exposure in marketing directly correlating with his relationship with Cloud as well. A shocking revelation in the original game was that Cloud finally meets the actual living Sephiroth after appearing to him in so many visions and memories, and the first thing my man says after waking up was "Who are you and why are you in my house?" It could maybe be justified that Sephy would be concerned with Cloud after he foils his plans and all, but for the remake it just seems a bit much. At this point Sephiroth may as well be digging through Cloud's trash and keep locks of spiky blond hair in his pocket. Perhaps it is my boomer mindset and me just playing FF7 until my hands were bones but I am annoyed with these directions they keep taking with the remake. The last thing I would wanna do is prevent anyone from enjoying any of the FF7 remakes and or spinoffs. However, after decades of cynicism from Square especially regarding FF7 I think it's fair to be a little jaded by some of the major plot elements in the remake. Sephiroth is kind of representative of not just the weird directions of Square, but pop culture as a whole. It is absolutely hilarious that he canonically uses an entire bottle of both shampoo and conditioner every time he washes his hair. Did not need to know that. Don't get me wrong, thinking about Sephiroth in the shower is a regular thing for me. But the fact that Square acknowledges that cheapens it. Their attempts to appeal the character have only served to tear down their original presentation of the character, in my opinion. When you barely survive passing the snake, only to see it mysteriously impaled as you make your way through. Like a genocidal Gary Oak, always one step ahead of you. Unlike a genocial Gary Oak, has no regard for your presence. The one threat to him was Aerith, and when she was taken care of he barely saw you as an obstacle. To me, all their attempts to flesh him out will never make him as real as the looming terror did in the original. When you see his conviction. His ability. The fact that he was integral to the conflict of the story, and ultimately Cloud wasn't. Not being chosen but choosing yourself is the central message that I feel FF7 was trying to impart after many chosen one narratives. Sephiroth was the challenge to that, seeing himself as a chosen one. Now I don't even know what message the remake is trying to give. It is a heck of a lot of fun to play, so I guess that's enough. sorry to any 30-40 year old fujoshis who may have been triggered by the use of Sephy

you've done it again FFU!

Sephiroth is in my top three favorite villains.

Excellent deep dive into the history of the character and how the creators have changed him in the Compilation. One of the big issues I have with the FF7 compilation stories is retroactively changing Sephiroth to be more a more empathetic "fallen hero" type of character. (as described around @13:00 in the video) And it seems pretty transparent to me that these changes were made because the character became very popular after the release of the original game, so they wanted him to be more marketable and/or likable before he "suddenly turns evil" at Nibelheim. So that some of the fanbase could feel more comfortable liking the character and thinking "there was some good in him once". But in my opinion, the more SE tries to humanize Sephiroth and give him a backstory showing his downfall from good guy to bad guy (similar to Anakin/Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequels). The more they actually take away from the original purpose he served as a villain. ("A bad guy who became even more bad" as mentioned in the video.) In the original story, Sephiroth was simply meant to serve as the personification of pure Narcissism/Ego. Someone who was so gifted in everything he ever tried that he saw everyone else as inferior and beneath him. There was not much of a "character" shown to us and there didn't need to be. If we wanted to we could theorize that his incredible strength/abilities alienated him from his peers and made him distant and uncaring about other people's struggles and achievements. But that extra step isn't even necessary to understand his role in the story. He was just the perfect SOLDIER who was far better than anyone else who came before or after him. His status and the origin of his power is all you need to know about him. What made him such a great villain is that he and Cloud are 2 sides of the same coin. Cloud grew up as an average kid from a small village with dreams of becoming a hero. And his own Ego (and shame) allowed him to lie to himself and pretend that he did. He was too ashamed to admit to Tifa and his own mother that he never made it into SOLDIER. He saw himself as a failure who couldn't live up to his dream. But then Cloud suffers his mental breakdown at the Northern Crater, falls into the lifestream, and his friend Tifa later helps him rediscover who he really was and accept his own failure as a part of himself. To let go of that ego and recognize that it's OK to fail. It's OK that he didn't realize his dream. In contrast, when Sephiroth found out the truth about himself at Nibelheim, he lashes out and assumes that he must still be "special" and "the chosen one" somehow. This is why he latches on to Proffesor Gast's (mistaken) research about Jenova being an Ancient. Because it reaffirmed what he already believed about himself for his whole life up to that point. That he was superior and more important than other people. But then he finds out that Gast was wrong about Jenova when he falls into the lifestream, that his power really is a result of him being a successful lab experiment. But Sephiroth STILL can't accept this and comes to the conclusion that he's more important than all living creatures on the planet and literally tries to absorb the entire lifestream into himself to become a God. If he was ever a "Good guy" at heart, he wouldn't take his villainy so far as to believe that he was more important than all life on the planet. The character was a pure Narcissist. That was his role in the story. And the more Square Enix tries to humanize him and try to portray him as "Once he was a good guy" the more it takes away from the contrast between him and Cloud and his overall purpose in the original story.

Sephiroth is a Legend.

I can only say how I feel about Sephiroth after the trilogy is finished.

Perhaps this is the logical direction for Sephiroth. Because this is a remake, most people already know Sephiroth. Even people who havent played the OG know who he is. Perhaps making him a mysterious figure wouldnt work as well. The cat's out of the bag, so to speak. And keeping that mystery would be very hard in a three part series like this. Having the main villain just not be around for almost 2 whole games would be tough. I could see people getting frustrated. Im still not 100 percent sold on Sephy's direction for the remake, but if they can make him genuinely interesting and flesh him out more completely like the rest of the cast has been in this remake, then I'll be happy. Just don't try and have it both ways.

What makes Sephiroth "likeable" is that he is so isolated, its just him and his crazy mind

I think Rebirth and the unreleased 3rd, probably called Reunion, is gonna reveal some next level shit. People have to understand that the game isn’t called Remake because it’s a Remake of the original… this is about Sephiroth “remaking” the original to make sure he is victorious.

I'm still so surprised that after so much time,almost nobody really understood who Sephiroth really is and what his story really is.....But let's wait till the end if the trilogy,and maybe it will clear to everyone....let's hope.

He basically lost his mind and humanity after discovering his birth origin and let jenova will to guide him in his actions. He retained some of his remaining leftover personality and memories but have no attachment to it anymore.