However, there’s an uncertainty that lingers over Sephiroth in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, where fans know that something happens to turn him into the villain he’s known to be. The cold, yet ultimately kind Sephiroth who can be seen worrying himself sick over Genesis and Angeal’s transformations is only temporary, and it makes his villainous future rather sad.
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How Sephiroth Became the Iconic Villain
Sephiroth marked the start of the SOLDIER program, and while he always felt like his existence was a special one, he never understood why. That question lingered in the back of his mind as he was raised by Shinra and the researchers who he would eventually learn helped create him. The only information he had about his past was that his mother died when she was younger, and her name was Jenova.
Once his friends Genesis and Angeal abandon Shinra after finding out they’re monstrous experiments, Sephiroth begins to question if he’s the same. Genesis reveals that he is at the end of the game, and he’s the best of them all as a result of Jenova Project S. This leads him to abandon his friends and look into the answers for himself, at which point he burns Nibelheim down and aims to rule the planet by Jenova’s side.
Sephiroth is a Monster Made by Shinra
When Sephiroth first hears the news from Genesis, fans watch his bravado shatter as he’s shocked by the truth - taking some time to accept his fate. He even looks to suffer from similar headaches to the ones that Cloud gets, ultimately caused by his Jenova cells. This is on top of the stress of being worried about Angeal and Genesis, to which Angeal once says he “looks thin;” implying he was so distraught that he wasn’t eating.
It’s clear from his actions and words that Sephiroth never wanted this. It makes him into yet another victim of Shinra, misunderstanding what Jenova was - trying to recreate the Ancients’ abilities. Instead, he was born a “monster,” and he has to accept the fact that everything he knew from childhood to adulthood was a lie.
With the headache Sephiroth suffers, there’s a chance that part of his revelation is due to his S Cells that can change a carrier’s mind; as seen with Cloud in almost every main FF7 project. In the end, Jenova may have taken Sephiroth over, in a sense. However, unlike Cloud who suffers and inwardly struggles against what his cells turn him into, Sephiroth embraces it in the wake of learning that everything else he knew was either a sham or taken from him by the same research.
It’s hard for fans to not feel sorry for Sephiroth, and the kinder Sephiroth has never come back from his change of heart. It has been 15 years since Crisis Core first released, and even though there’s a sad truth to Sephiroth’s role as a villain, there haven’t been any steps toward bringing that version back. If anything, he’s only grown more ruthless as Final Fantasy 7 Remake might deal with him destroying the timeline in order to fulfill his destiny. As tragic as it is, the old Sephiroth is gone, and only the monster remains.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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