#incredibly prone to questioning reality and manipulable all the time. and i hate it

[emberglowfox]

i hate having memory issues

[the-sapphire-general]

My Thoughts and Feelings About Sephiroth

Hello guys! Now I don't usually make discussions or rants, but this is Tumblr. I can express my opinions. As you can see, this post will be about Sephiroth. Sephiroth, the One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7, the FF game that pretty much made the franchise’s popularity skyrocket in the first place back in 1997. I love FF7, and like a lot of fans, I love Sephiroth, the main villain, and possibly the best video game villain I'll ever love (with Final Fantasy 15's Ardyn being second). Allow me to include a picture of the man himself.

What do you think? Does he look badass? Sexy? Cruel? Insane? Yeah, he's all of those things. However, it has come to my attention that Sephiroth is loved by his appearance more than everything else about him. I don’t know how many people do, but I am told it’s a lot. Yes, I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but really. Is Sephiroth just simple eye candy? Here's my answer. No. He is eye candy, yes, I can't deny it. He has a perfect, muscular physique and is incredibly alluring in appearance and he also has a deep voice that makes me swoon (I'm not kidding lol). But Sephiroth isn't just a walking sex god with great abs and muscles. A friend of mine, which I will not name out of respect and privacy, told me about this, and to be honest, it's sad. What about his backstory? His personality, both before and after he went insane?? What about his fighting abilities? His intelligence? There’s more than just his appearance.

Sephiroth is a complex character who was once a good guy only to be driven to insanity once he discovered his origins all because of everyone lying to him about everything. I may not be a longtime Sephiroth fan for I am technically a late bloomer that was introduced to him (and FF7) about two years ago, but I love Sephiroth for more than just his looks. I admit I fell in love right when I first saw him since I'm prone to love at first sight, but my focus on just his looks lasted only about a week when I checked out Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, the prequel to FF7. I did love Sephiroth for his appearance, but in time I actually got to know him as a person. In CC, Sephiroth was once a good person who grew up never knowing who his parents were (only knowing that his mother's name was Jenova), and was raised as a weapon without his knowledge. He was cold and distant, he was not one to express his emotions much, and he had only a few close friends, and guess what? I was able to relate to him. As I went through CC online (I don't own a PSP so I didn't get to play the game), I was able to see myself in Sephiroth before he became the villain we all know and love. He lost the only friends he had when they simply abandoned him and he didn't know why. It made me feel for him because I could sense how it bothered him. I mean, he didn't want to kill them when he was ordered to find them. Wouldn't you feel the same with your own friends if you were told you have to go after them? I also sympathized with him because people saw Sephiroth as just a cold man who kept his distance from others and this caused them to feel intimidated by him, but in reality, they didn't know the real Sephiroth. They didn't look past his appearance. Who knows how their opinions may have hurt him? Assuming things about others can hurt, you know. As the game progressed, his looks, the reason why I even checked him out in the first place, was no longer the main reason why I love him. I fell in love with his personality as I got to know him, and of course, this includes the truth about his past.

Sephiroth discovered his origins in a place called Nibelheim. One of Sephiroth's former friends, Genesis Rhapsodos, made him question himself when he and Zack Fair went to the mako reactor for a mission and found monsters in capsules. Finding out that he may be a monster isn't something a person can handle without feeling overwhelmed. Sephiroth, knowing that he was always different from everyone else, was in doubt about what Genesis said to him. That he was a monster. However, Sephiroth went to the ShinRa mansion's library in order to see for himself. And of course, after a week of endless investigation without sleeping or possibly eating, Sephiroth snapped. He lost it. Discovering that he was an experiment meant to serve ShinRa and manipulated all his life, out of pure hate and rage, Sephiroth burned Nibelheim, killing almost everyone in the village in cold blood.

Remember when I said he knew his mother's name was Jenova? Well, that's not true. His real mother is Lucrecia Crescent. His father is Professor Hojo. Jenova is an alien, or "the calamity from the skies" that arrived to the planet millennia ago and murdered the Cetra, beings who could communicate with the planet. But because Sephiroth has gone insane, he believes Jenova is his mother since Hojo injected her DNA into Lucrecia while she was pregnant with Sephiroth. However he thought he was a Cetra at the time. He later realized Jenova is “the calamity from the skies”, but that didn’t make much of a difference in his already unstable beliefs. Whether or not Jenova really is Sephiroth's mother considering they have a striking resemblance that even I can't deny anymore, I don't know. Maybe? But Lucrecia did give birth to him, so she is his biological mother. Back to the Nibelheim Incident. Sephiroth, believing that the humans stole the planet from Jenova, declared himself the chosen one to rule the planet. 

Zack failed to stop Sephiroth, so Cloud Strife, who was one of the infantrymen that followed them to Nibelheim, defeated Sephiroth by throwing him to his death. But that didn't stop there. Sephiroth revived himself in Final Fantasy 7, now wanting to destroy the planet after realizing Jenova isn’t a Cetra and that he gained a lot of knowledge when he was in the lifestream...He basically became more cruel, insane, and just evil. He summoned Meteor to wound the planet in order to absorb the lifestream and become god of the planet, and have everyone “become a part of him”. Of course, he was defeated again by Cloud. In the movie Advent Children, he sent his remnants, three men that represented parts of him, to reclaim Jenova's head. His goal was to return to life, destroy the planet, and use it to travel through the cosmos and find other planets to destroy. Kind of like Jenova tried to do. Cloud defeated him again, and although the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 hasn't continued since Dirge of Cerberus and Sephiroth himself didn't show up in the game (other than in an image of the Nibelheim Incident), it's certain that Sephiroth is determined to return and won't stop until he gets what he wants: the planet and the destruction of humanity. I apologize if I summarized some parts. Final Fantasy 7 is a massive game, and so are the other installments in the Compilation, so it’s a lot to cover. But I think I got everything in here.

Wow, that was a lot to type, but it's worth adding it to make my point. Sephiroth is more than just a sexy man, and unfortunately people overlook everything else about him. He's cruel, cold, calculating, distant, intelligent, cunning, arrogant, murderous, and vengeful. He used to be good but lost the only friends he had and everything he ever knew turned out to be nothing but a life of betrayal and lies. He discovered his origins and lost his mind and now wants to destroy everything. Seeing him as only an attractive man means that nothing else about him matters. That’s just shallow thinking if you like someone for only one thing. Outward appearances is fine to notice, but what about what’s underneath???

How do I see Sephiroth? Well he's attractive, yes, but he's not just that. Sephiroth's backstory got to me because he's a lot like me. Distant, quiet, intelligent, had a few friends, wasn't social, and that he was betrayed by those he trusted. It was like looking at a mirror, and I don't have to be an experiment, have others deceive me my whole life, or become insane just to identify with him. I don't have to try to rule the planet just to identify with him. I don't have to be cruel just to identify with him. Sephiroth and I may be vastly different, but that doesn't mean we don't have similarities. We do, and even some of the similarities we have can be different. I was betrayed by a few people while Sephiroth was betrayed by everyone he knew, for example. He descended into madness, and I was furious beyond how angry I usually get but I had people who care about me that stopped my anger from taking over. Despite that, in a way I developed a dark side towards certain people, but at least mine is less of a danger than Sephiroth's.

I love Sephiroth for both his appearance and personality. I also love how badass he can be alongside his sexy physique, and I am attracted to both his voice and intelligence. So I like a lot of things about him that aren't just related to his looks. Speaking of his personality, I find it annoying whenever I find Sephiroth acting out-of-character in some stuff. Now I'm not saying that whatever things that people write for him are automatically OOC such as him liking lemon drops or pears. I mean, besides what we know about him, Sephiroth is pretty much a blank slate in some aspects. That's what headcanons are for, to make our own portrayals of Sephiroth. I’ve seen several of them and they are pretty good. In fact, some people may find my Sephiroth a little OOC, but it doesn't matter. I do try to keep him in-character, but again, some aspects about him are unclear such as what he likes to eat or do during his free time (besides destroying and killing and fighting Cloud or anyone else lol), so it's my job to add to it. But that doesn't mean that everything I can include in him is okay. Making Sephiroth into a rapist is OOC to me. Making him act sexist, racist, or homophobic is OOC to me (unless he learns that it's wrong if this is Crisis Core Sephiroth; I grew up thinking that being homosexual is bad, for example, but I learned better). And making him hypersexual 24/7 is OOC to me. Yes, I have noticed these three examples, plus Sephirothslave's horrible portrayal of Sephiroth in her "stories". She's old news, however, so I will not discuss any of that.

Now it is said Sephiroth is seen as just a sexual being by others. As much as I enjoy making him sexual and love checking out sexy Sephiroth stuff, that isn't his entire character. I personally believe he would be sexual to someone who understands, supports, and loves him for who he is and not just for his appearance. Many people don't see him as being sexual at all, which is fine. I'm not attacking those who portray Sephiroth differently. I'm just saying that there's more to Sephiroth than just being sexy. He should be treated as a character, not a sex toy. It's an insult to Sephiroth and the fans who see everything that's behind his appearance, and even he wouldn't like this kind of attention. Then again, he wouldn't like a lot of things, but that's not the point. The point is don't judge a book by its cover. Sephiroth may be sexy, but when you look past appearance, you can see what he's like, and it’s clear he's not sexual in personality.

I now realize the sexual thing may be one of the reasons why I don’t do shippings on my Sephiroth blog. Yes, I don’t like him with anyone else since I get jealous. It’s silly, but hey, that’s one of my reasons. It doesn’t mean I hate the characters he’s with, I just don’t pair him up with anyone. I don’t want to do shippings because I could wind up having to act out sexual fantasies way more than RPs that actually have plot and character development. Doing that sort of thing could get tiresome. Sexy RPs every once in a while would be fine, but again, I’m not going to add shippings because I get jealous, I’m not interested in porn without plot 24/7, and I don’t want to be forced into going out of my comfort zone just to satisfy others. I’m not breaking my own blog’s rules. Also, I’m not confident in adding Sephiroth in romance yet, so I’m still practicing on my own regarding romance with a character of mine. I’m not saying I’ll include shippings eventually, but I don’t mind if others pair him up with anyone they like. I’m just not one of those people who ship him with Cloud, Vincent, Zack, Tifa, etc., but I’ll respect those who do. Just don’t shove them down my throat, please. If, and I mean IF I were to ever include pairings on my Sephiroth blog, I’ll let you know.

So that’s all for this rant. Sephiroth is a character that I love a lot. Opposites attract! I do hope others start seeing the full picture because he’s a compelling character to me. All the FF7 characters are (except Hojo, fuck him), though Sephiroth is my favorite one of all. I may love Ardyn as well, but Sephiroth can’t be dethroned from my heart.