| “ | Whether your words... are lies created to deceive me... Or the truth... that I have sought all my life... it makes no difference. You will rot. | „ |
| ~ Sephiroth to Genesis |
| “ | Ha, ha, ha... my sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet. | „ |
| ~ Sephiroth |
| “ | I will... never be a memory. | „ |
| ~ Sephiroth's last words and most famous quote |
Sephiroth (in Japanese: セフィロス, Sefirosu) is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII, the deuteragonist of its prequel Crisis Core and the overarching antagonist of its film sequel Advent Children.
He is the self-proclaimed "Chosen One of Jenova" who seeks to remake the universe in his own image. He is possibly the franchise's most famous villain, alongside Kefka Palazzo. He is also the arch-nemesis of Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart.
In Japanese, he has been voiced by Shin-ichiro Miki in Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring and Toshiyuki Morikawa in all other appearances. In English, he has been voiced by Lance Bass in Kingdom Hearts, George Newbern in most appearances, and Tyler Hoechlin in the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, losing all of them by the end of his story. He is just a simple delusional harbinger of rebirth who was willing to kill billions (including former friends and children) and has no concern for really anyone but himself.
- Even though his biological father Professor Hojo is arguably worse, Sephiroth easily surpasses him due to having a high kill count and attempting to commit omnicide while having a lot of personal villainy toward Cloud and Tifa as he killed their mother and father respectively.
Final Fantasy VII[]
- Upon realizing his true origins, he burns down the small mountain village of Nibelhiem, massacring its people, including Cloud's mother.
- When entering the Mako Reactor to find Jenova, he killed Tifa's father.
- When Tifa tried to attack him with his own sword, he slashed her across the chest, causing her to nearly die from her injuries.
- Upon finding Jenova, he planned to take her to the Promised Land, hoping for them to gain the power to reclaim the planet in her name and wipe out all the humans for their transgressions against him due to him believing he was "Chosen" to rule the planet.
- Using Jenova as a conduit, he entered the Shinra building and slaughtered much of the staff, including President Shinra.
- While President Shinra was evil, not only did Sephiroth not kill him for altruistic reasons, but he killed many of the staff who were only guilty of being associated with the company.
- He planned on obtaining the Black Materia so that he could summon a Meteor to create a massive wound in the planet to cause an overflow of Life energy so he could absorb it and become a god, not caring that it would kill all life on the planet.
- He brainwashed his Sephiroth clones to go look for the Black Materia, not caring for their safety or if they killed themselves working for him.
- He stabbed Tseng at the Temple of the Ancients simply for being in his way, which would have led to his death if he were not saved by Cait Sith.
- He controls Cloud into giving him the Black Materia, causing Cloud to suffer a mental breakdown from what he had done and attack Aerith in a rage.
- He attempted to control Cloud into killing Aerith for him to stop her from casing Holy, which would have prevented Meteor from working.
- He personally murders Aerith in cold blood and mocks Cloud's emotions over her death, telling him his feelings are fake and that he is nothing but a puppet.
- He psychologically breaks Cloud by revealing to him that his memories of being in Nibelhiem were fake and convincing him that he is just a clone of the original Cloud, causing Cloud to breakdown and accept being Sephiroth's' puppet.
- He has a broken Cloud deliver him the Black Materia, summoning Meteor, and then leaves Cloud for dead, causing him to fall into the Lifestream and become Mako poisoned, needing to be wheelchair bound and insane.
- He attempts to kill Cloud and his friends when they try to stop him from destroying the planet.
- After dying physically, he attempts to kill Cloud using the remnant of himself inside of Cloud's mind.
Advent Children (Complete)[]
- He infects the Lifestream with the Geostigma virus, which he uses to infect people on the verge of giving up on life, causing them to spit out black liquid and die in agony overtime, something he delighted in doing all so he could ensure he was never forgotten by Cloud and to one day take back the planet, which caused thousands if not millions of deaths over the 2 years the virus existed without a cure.
- He creates Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo to seek out Jenova's head so he can use its power to give himself a new body.
- This also makes Sephiroth responsible for their crimes, including the torture of Tseng and Elena, the kidnapping of children, and the unleashing of Bahamut Sin on Midgar.
- Upon being revived, he planned on using Geostigma to kill everyone on the planet and turn it into a vessel for him to sail the cosmos with so he could continue his Mother's work by finding a new planet to conquer and genocide.
- He brutally stabs Cloud (at least once in both versions, and many more times in the Complete cut) during their battle and taunts him about how he will take away everything and everyone he cherishes most for his own personal pleasure.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth[]
- To complete his plan to become a god, he tried to merge all timelines into one, which would result in all of them being wiped out and billions, if not trillions of lives being lost in the process.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- As heinous as his actions are, and the fact that he has no redeeming qualities, he is way too tragic and sympathetic. To summarize, he was deprived of a healthy childhood, as he was deceived about his mother's fate and identity, all while being bio-engineered into a child soldier by his biological father and Shinra Inc. Furthermore, he was noted to possess genuine noble and altruistic traits behind his initial aloofness, having expressed disgust with Professor Hojo's callous experiments as well as being able to maintain a few connections with others, with Angeal and Genesis serving as his few close friends. Upon discovering his actual origins in Nibelheim, and after losing Angeal and falling out with Genesis during Crisis Core, he descends into darkness. This is played sympathetically as every installment he appears in makes him increasingly more tragic to the point where he never subverts it.
Trivia[]
- He and his Everyone is Home version are the only two incarnations of Sephiroth to be Inconsistently Heinous.
- His murder of Aerith is one of the most infamous Moral Event Horizon crossings in the history of video games.
- Originally Aerith was supposed to be Sephiroth's sister, as their designs resembled each other. Had this been kept in, it would've made him even worse since he would have committed sororicide.
- Since the final installment of the Remake trilogy is not released yet, whether it removes him from IH or not remains to be seen.
- Contrary to his IH status, he's the reason as to why the "Draco in Leather Pants" trope exists, which is where people portray villains in a more sympathetic light way more than how the story does.
External Links[]
- Sephiroth on the Villains Wiki
- Sephiroth on the Final Fantasy Wiki
- Sephiroth on the Super Smash Bros. Wiki
- Sephiroth on the VS Battles Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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