Part of me wonders if Sephiroth would have gone insane/turned violent the way he did if Shinra had actually treated him well during his time in captivity. Like, if they had been kind to him, had functioned like an actual guardian to him, had showered him with love and praise and validation...would he have become the villain? Taking Jenova's presence out of the equation, of course.
There's still a small section of the fandom that thinks that Sephiroth was being treated very well by Shinra in service of being a "hero". But we now have confirmation that he was being kept in pretty restrictive, uncomfortable conditions, on top of the daily emotional and psychological abuse. Sephiroth could not decidedly confirm why he fights for Shinra other than the fact that they were his only frame of reference in the world. But he didn't even believe in what they were doing. Throughout First Soldier and Crisis Core, he expresses a sort of exhausted resignation towards his lot in life. Shinra was not a loving guardian to him, they were callous, forceful, dehumanizing, and only rewarded him with empty platitudes and small scale privileges and not actual tangible affection that could heal him or positively shape him as a person. They were his PARENT. And they failed parenthood in every conceivable way.
If things had been different, maybe Sephiroth never would have lost himself to his own hatred. Because it isn't just the violation at learning that he's a science experiment, it's the violation at knowing that he's a science experiment and suffered all that damage for nothing. Shinra hurt him because they felt like it, because they MADE him, because they felt entitled in it. If they'd actually given him a decent upbringing? I have no doubt that not only would Sephiroth be slightly more psychologically put together, but he probably wouldn't have declared himself an enemy of the world. He'd be distraught, of course. He'd struggle with his identity and likely would be extremely resentful of Shinra. And probably would fall into a severe depression of sorts.
But he wouldn't be trying to nuke the planet with a meteor, you know?
Your assessment, Alto, aligns perfectly with the textual evidence found in both The First SOLDIER and Crisis Core, particularly when examining the dehumanizing nature of Sephiroth’s upbringing. This seems so apropos since I am in the midst of writing FS and CC whump right now for May. And I just woke up, so please feel free to ignore any typos, etc.
In The First SOLDIER, we see a young Sephiroth who is not a cherished child, but a high-stakes asset. Hojo’s tutelage is explicitly described as subjecting the boy to immense physical pain to unlock strength, teaching him that a hardened heart and ruthlessness are the only metrics of value.
This isn't parenting. It is the calibration of a weapon. When Sephiroth clings to the photo of Lucrecia it is a desperate search for a tangible connection in a life defined by cold labs and tactical briefings. Shinra’s failure is highlighted by the fact that Sephiroth thought it was normal to scavenge through corpses just to find it, showing a total lack of emotional safeguarding that Shinra had for Sephiroth as a child.
Crisis Core and The First SOLDIER demonstrate that Shinra's affection was nothing more than a series of empty, transactional rewards. Sephiroth’s status as a war hero was fabricated for recruitment drives long before he ever saw combat, meaning his entire identity was built on a lie designed to serve the company’s bottom line. Not love. That is ownership.
In his adult years, he expresses an exhausted resignation because his only frame of reference for existence is the corporation that owns him. When Elfe asks him in Before Crisis why he fights, his shaken reaction reveals a man who has never been given a reason to exist beyond being a tool for Shinra. I'm like 90% on this since it's been a while since I watched a BC playthrough, so I can be misremembering or confusing something I read on tumblr at the time. Even his few privileges, like the ability to refuse missions, are described as unofficial, reinforcing that any agency he has is a gift from the company that can be revoked at any time, rather than the natural right of a person. I use that in the HC that Shinra gave him a black card (which he never uses in my HC) for purchases to keep up the illusion of a hero, but they could rip it away if their perfect SOLDIER shows any autonomy. They own his money and can take it away at anytime, while pushing the propaganda forward for others.
The psychological toll of this upbringing makes his eventual breakdown almost inevitable, as he lacks the emotional foundation to process the truth of his origins. You are correct that a decent upbringing would likely have prevented the nuking the planet outcome. Throughout The First SOLDIER, Sephiroth displays a deep desire to save others and break cycles of hatred with compassion. He reluctantly carries out the mercy kill of Rosen not out of bloodlust, but out of a tortured understanding of duty and a desire to protect his only friends.
If Shinra had nurtured this inherent capacity for empathy instead of training him to endure pain and remain devoid of hesitation, he would have had the internal resilience to handle the revelation of Project S and the Jenova Project.
Without the foundation of love or a sense of self-worth outside of his utility, the discovery that he was a science experiment destroyed the only reality he had ever known.
As the lore notes, he was saddened by the rift between himself and Angeal, yet unable to address it, showing a man who was never taught how to process or communicate human emotion. If he had been raised by actual guardians rather than a callous corporation, his reaction to learning he was created in a lab would have likely manifested as a profound identity crisis and a rejection of Shinra rather than a total detachment from humanity.
By treating him as a monster-in-the-making, Shinra ensured that when his world finally shattered as it would have anyway, he would have no human part of himself left to hold onto, leaving only the perfect monster they spent decades perfecting.
And this is why I shall always defend FS and CC. Because it shows that he is not just a 'cool' villain with a 'cool' sword and 'Mommy Issues'. But a boy who was failed by those who should have looked after him.
