Sephiroth's Role and the True Villain of FFVII

by Kyle Asay 

Recently, during the debate about what an RPG villain should or should not be, there has arisen some controversy as to Sephiroth's true nature. Though I may be wrong as to what Square intended the story to suggest, I feel obliged to share my personal opinion on Sephiroth. Which is this: Sephiroth was NOT the real villain.

In fact, the true Sephiroth was not really evil. And he was not what you killed in the Northern Crater at the end of the game. The true Sephiroth died five years prior in Nibelheim. Think about it. Though very reluctant to talk about himself, and probably questionable in his actions in service of Shin-Ra, he seemed almost friendly in his actions toward Cloud (later revealed to be Zack). But once he stepped inside the reactor, doubts, probably long ignored in his mind, began to surface about who he really was. Cloud said that he had never seen Sephiroth like that. And his sudden disappearance... and reappearance in the Shin-Ra mansion... reading... "as if possessed by something." And on the fateful day... "Sephiroth seems different." The confrontation in the reactor... "You're not the Sephiroth I once knew."

Which begs the question: Who was it?

My answer: Jenova. Medical science tells us that our bodies are often quite open to physical sickness during periods of mental sickness, such as deep depression. Or perhaps, Sephiroth's troubled state, in greater and greater doubt as to who he really was. And that's when it happened- the Jenova cells in Sephiroth's body began to multiply. To consume Sephiroth. He lost control of his actions- became "possessed"- and his self-consciousness, his identity as Sephiroth, simply faded away. When Cloud faced him in the reactor, there was no humanity left. Only Jenova.

Cloud could have succumbed, too. He was in doubt about his identity just as Sephiroth was. He began to lose control, posessed by his Jenova cells. He was nearly gone in the Northern Crater, when "Sephiroth" finally got control of the Black Materia. And in the wheelchair in Mideel, no longer given commands by Jenova cells, he was left mindless. But with the help of Tifa in the Lifestream, he was able to find his true self again, and be free from Jenova. Sephiroth was not so fortunate.

Remember that the glow in the eyes of Soldier members, orignally thought to be Mako, turned out to be from infusion with Jenova cells? Now, look back at the cinema of Sephiroth rising from the flames in Nibelheim. Look at how brightly they glow, standing on their own even in the light of the fire. Sephiroth's body became simply a host for Jenova. I imagine Jenova as a collective consiousness akin to the Borg of Star Trek. The parallels are surprising. As the Jenova cells multiply, like the robotic parts of a Borg, the lose their own consiousness and their body becomes a host, like Sephiroth's, for Jenova's consiousness. Remember the clone of Sephiroth that led Cloud, Black Materia in hand, to the Northern Crater? He jumped straight into a pit, saying "This body is no longer of use to me." Just another outlet for Jenova.

But wait! Wasn't Jenova dead? Didn't Shin-Ra's Jenova Reunion project, for the purpose of reviving her, fail, as all those twisted creatures fell into the Crater? Yes, the Jenova Reunion did fail. But she was still revived. In Sephiroth's body. Recall, if you will, the metal likenesss of Jenova in the Nibelheim reactor that "Sephiroth" ripped off to see what was left of her. It had wings. It looked almost... like an angel. Can you see where I'm headed? Seraph Sephiroth (rendered "Safer" Sephiroth by the poor translation), the game's final boss, The One-Winged Angel. Now that Sephiroth had mentally been lost to Jenova, his body was slowly mutating into Jenova as well. Jenova revived in total.

If the theme of FFVII is Life, than Jenova is a metaphor for Death. And not death as a pathway into rebirth in the Lifestream, but a final, ultimate Death of all things. Jenova in her first incarnation eradicated the Cetra with Meteor. Now, living through Sephiroth and the clones, she sought to wipe out the humans, again with Meteor. After the clone lured Cloud with the Black Materia to her, she stripped him of his Jenova cells, no longer having a use for him. It left him in the state he was in Mideel. And she forgot him. She sought her triumph in leaving the planet cold and lifeless, again summoning Meteor. But Cloud came back... with the hatred in his heart of all that she was, and all that she did to him... his friends... his family... and destroyed her. And in the end, without her poisonous, corrosive power to feed it, Meteor was overwhelmed by Holy, and life on the planet was saved.

Jenova, in my opinion, served her purpose brilliantly as a villain in FFVII. Many have argued that villains should engender total hatred. Others say that's too one-sided, that they should have moral conflict, etc. I think there's room for both. But Final Fantasy to me has alays been good old-fashioned Good vs. Evil. A "pure evil" villain like Jenova can still have interesting depth to that evil in the ways in manifests itself. And the thing I love about Jenova is that she fits so well into the Life & Death theme as discussed above. FFVII is a triumph for Square, IMHO, in the respect that they were able to develop the key characters, settings and story all to work as metaphors for that theme.

And so now we can see the true place of one in that story. Let us remember a fallen hero... a victim of a corrupt government's projects... consumed whole by an evil for whom he was given life... a mighty and valiant soul suddenly lost in a struggle he never fully comprended in his lifetime... Sephiroth.