Current Events > Is Sephiroth a well written character?

(+) Yeah! (+)

OG and/or Remake versions

In the OG, yeah.

Honestly probably on 5% of people who play the game understand what he actually is.

So no

I think if you create a villain that manages to eclipse the protagonists in popularity then yeah, you've fundamentally written a good character.

JRPGs have such weird and convoluted stories though so I try not to squint at it too much

For the most part. There hadn't really been many major villains with a sympathetic backstory in gaming at that point.

Final fantasy is not a well written series.

FF7 is very poorly written

I like his build up as a villain in the OG game.

in the remakes he pops up like a ghost like oooo look Cloud.we will meet sooooon from time to time. Its kinda goofy.

I have yet to play Rebirth so maybe some stuff got addressed but

I think they short changed the Nibelheim stuff in the OG, even in Crisis Core, and kind of handwave why he had his mental break so bad.

Like i know he thinks of himself as an Ancient (or the heir to) after the Nibelheim incident but I feel like more explanation would have benefited as to why he wanted the Black Materia to summon Meteor to destroy the planet. <_< Maybe I wasn't paying attention but it just felt like he was doing villain things because that is what villains do.

I think so

I wouldnt have said so.

Speaking just of the OG version...that's a tricky one. The character himself is a typical stick-up-ass mommy's boy with delusions of grandeur who only appears onscreen in his actual physical form like two times in the current-year story. The buildup of in-world hype surrounding the character is quite good, though; from his sword mysteriously sticking out of the back of your primary antagonist up to that point, to Cloud's line of "his strength is unreal, he's far more powerful in reality than any story you've heard about him," to the shot of him leaving a tree-impaled Midgar Zolom in his wake, etc. He's a character who's much cooler to have other characters talk about than to actually appear on-screen.

I think it's fair to say though that he wouldn't be half as memorable if Aeris' death was factored out of the equation.

wackyteen posted...

Like i know he thinks of himself as an Ancient (or the heir to) after the Nibelheim incident but I feel like more explanation would have benefited as to why he wanted the Black Materia to summon Meteor to destroy the planet. <_< Maybe I wasn't paying attention but it just felt like he was doing villain things because that is what villains do.

The original game did explain it, though you might have glossed over it since so much was already happening at the time.

But Sephiroth wanted meteor to hit so that (he theorized) the planet would use the Lifestream energy to fix the damage. But it would be a lot of energy, that Sephiroth was planning to be in the center of to take for himself and become similar to his "mother," Jenova.

Irony posted...

FF7 is very poorly written

Man has mommy issues, takes it out on the world by summoning a world ending meteor.

It's not poorly written, just barely written at all.

Irony posted...

FF7 is very poorly written

This

wackyteen posted...

I have yet to play Rebirth so maybe some stuff got addressed but

All of the things that you have wrong were addressed in the original as well. For instance, the Ancients were the original people of the planet while Jenova is a space alien. So Seph is, quite literally, the second furthest being on the entire planet from being the heir to the Ancients/viewing themselves as an Ancient.

Nazanir posted...

Man has mommy issues, takes it out on the world by summoning a world ending meteor.

It's not poorly written, just barely written at all.

You do know that he summoned meteor ofr other reasons, right?

For its time, I thought he was one of the best villains. Now, he isn't the best written but he sure is iconic.

Jenova is a more interesting villain imo

I always thought his descent to evil was way too extreme, but I guess that kind of defines his character, everything taken to the extreme.

He's hot, so yeah

If you take all the subsequent story built around him, yeah for sure. He is a well written character whose actions make a lot of sense honestly.

Also I like the "theory" that he never slept once in all his time studying in the mansion. He literally stayed awake for days, weeks... however long they were there. That's why he becomes more and more unhinged as he reads. First just the reality of who/what he is, the rage at basically being a company experiment, that he gave EVERYTHING of himself, killed his only friends, all for a company that made him a science project. Then, you don't sleep for like, weeks? Just stewing in what it all means? Eventually he just kinda snapped which is why when seeing it from Cloud/Zack's perspective, he goes from being annoyed and angry to homicidal. He snapped.

ellis123 posted...

All of the things that you have wrong were addressed in the original as well. For instance, the Ancients were the original people of the planet while Jenova is a space alien. So Seph is, quite literally, the second furthest being on the entire planet from being the heir to the Ancients/viewing themselves as an Ancient.

I based it off a DMW flashback(totally missable lol) and maybe a comment he makes somewhere in Crisis Core. He states that the JENOVA project was an attempt to create a human being possessing the great powers of the Cetra. As such, he was created.

https://youtu.be/po4IiTE-MgM?t=138

Though he is, possibly out of ignorance, calling JENOVA an 'Ancient'.

I do think he states elsewhere in CC that he is heir to the Ancients/the planet. Or I took his comment of him being the chosen one to mean the same thing. <_<

Not particularly.

He's iconic because of his role and appearance.

IMO, not really.

SPOILERS

He went crazy because he found out he was genetically created with Jenova and was a "monster" and then read up what Jenova and the Ancients was and created this narrative that he's Jenova's son and should do her bidding by greatly harming the world and then use it as a vessel to conquer other planets.

Only he was defeated and then fell into the Lifestream where he gain massive knowledge about literally everything but his plan was still unchanged. With the knowledge that he really isn't Jenova's son he still wanted to do what she wanted. His goals and motivation is dumb. In a way, he was mentally weak.

MarcoRubio posted...

Honestly probably only 5% of people who play the game understand what he actually is.

So no

He's the personification of Cloud's insecurities, but also the metaphorical child of authoritarian capitalism and corrupted noblesse oblige.

creativerealms posted...

Final fantasy is not a well written series.

Irony posted...

FF7 is very poorly written

Agreed.

wackyteen posted...

I based it off a DMW flashback(totally missable lol) and maybe a comment he makes somewhere in Crisis Core. He states that the JENOVA project was an attempt to create a human being possessing the great powers of the Cetra. As such, he was created.

Though he is, possibly out of ignorance, calling JENOVA an 'Ancient'.

I do think he states elsewhere in CC that he is heir to the Ancients/the planet. Or I took his comment of him being the chosen one to mean the same thing. <_<

That is in reference to his eventual plans to take all of the Lifestream's power from the planet. That was the point of Meteor: to cause a wound on the planet that would cause the Lifestream to bunch into a singular point to fix the planet, at which point he would absorb it. In that vein the only people, prior to him, with the ability to really manipulate the Lifestream were the Cetra. Thus in that way he is becoming the new, bastardized, heir to the Ancients. It isn't a literal thing, he nor Jenova are Cetra in any physical form.

Of course not. He goes full psycho mode after reading a book full of false information.

Then he used said false information to justify his actions and plans.

Is he even a character? In the OG

Turbam posted...

He's hot, so yeah

https://youtu.be/NNfSwpPaR74?si=JBHswItnKx1I-08h

Fairly certain sephi, like shinra, thought he was a manufactured ancient in the original while he still had anything like rational thought

Hell of a lot more well-written and interesting than Kefka.

Hayame_Zero posted...

Hell of a lot more well-written and interesting than Kefka.

Kefka's popular because he's essentially The Joker in Final Fantasy flavoring. The nihilistic variant from the DCU. Though notable in that he did get most of his goals accomplished.

While Sephiroth's goals, when broken down all the way, basically amount to him wanting to become a god, the method for it and how he psychologically torments the hero on a personal level helps a bit more.

I can understand why people put Sephy into a box descriptor by saying he has "mommy issues," but thinking about it, it's kind of incorrect.

"Mommy issues" imply he's had trauma from his would-be mother, when his actual blood-mother had little to do with him, and Jenova...he just imprints himself on as he drove himself off the deep-end.

BombermanGold posted...

Kefka's popular because he's essentially The Joker in Final Fantasy flavoring. The nihilistic variant from the DCU. Though notable in that he did get most of his goals accomplished.

While Sephiroth's goals, when broken down all the way, basically amount to him wanting to become a god, the method for it and how he psychologically torments the hero on a personal level helps a bit more.

Yup. Kefka tends to be revered in terms of how successful he was. But outside of that, he's just another clichd maniacal overlord who wants to rule the world.

Sephiroth does become a similar demigod bent on destruction, but has actual motives that are fleshed out beforehand.

Hayame_Zero posted...

Yup. Kefka tends to be revered in terms of how successful he was. But outside of that, he's just another clichd maniacal overlord who wants to rule the world.

Slight correction on that. Dude is a super nihilist. He just wants to destroy everything, including himself at the center of it.
At the time of FF6's release, there were at least two others before him (Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath) who essentially wanted the same thing. Kefka's just number 3 on the list who was going full-omnicide.

Calling his motivations fleshed out before hand is pushing it

He's in a jrpg so no

specialkid8 posted...

He's in a jrpg so no

I wouldn't generalize.

I feel the Church and Altima made for damn good villains (plot and motivations) in Final Fantasy Tactics.