All good! I actually really like your view on OG Sephiroth because it’s refreshing and it’s what I have tried to convince OG fans is the case at times, but there is so often the one view that “OG Sephiroth was a cold, lofty creature” and this river scene is always used as evidence against my arguments. I hadn’t yet found a way to deny it beyond insisting it was open to interpretation or by saying that it was in character for Sephiroth to prioritize his remaining team’s success and mission when necessary, but when they changed the tone on a surface level in Rebirth, I admittedly was worried that my softer judgement of the OG scene had been biased.
Because why would they put more emphasis on Sephiroth’s concern if they didn’t feel it was shown properly in OG?
But again, this is one of those topics where I think the ambiguous nature of the FF7 story saves us from objectivity in interpretation. The OG fans who insist that Sephiroth was cold and ruthless in OG can’t disprove your take on the OG river scene. There are missing blanks. Pieces to be filled in. That’s how it was written. I think your view is valid and your way of thinking is not strange to me at all. It’s insightful.
I don’t see OG hero Sephiroth as cruel either. Even when I first went in blind to see the story, I saw no signs of hidden evil in him.
I agree with you that he comes off reserved and aloof at worst, but he’s even tame compared to a character on the “good guy team” like Barret, who says much harsher things to Cloud the start of the game. There is bias against hero Sephiroth because of his inevitable downfall. People look for signs of evil and misinterpret introverted behaviors or tactical efficiency as inherent evil lurking below the surface of his character. I even witnessed this when watching some people play Rebirth for the first time.
They only have known or approached Sephiroth as the iconic villain, so even when he behaves twice as sweet or docile in the Rebirth flashback, they would say things like, “Oh he’s faking it. He’s secretly evil,” as if he were always ready to snap at any given moment and cast aside a facade of humanity. But the exact opposite is true.
He was always meant to be a fallen hero. A decent person corrupted. Someone who turns around completely. Not a cold, arrogant man waiting to step into a god complex after being confirmed as someone beyond human. Yet that’s the interpretation that so many run with.
Even Tifa looks back on Sephiroth and remembers his aloof nature that she believes suits his current status as a cruel enemy (Dissidia played into this not too long ago). Sephiroth’s downfall causes an assumption to rise in both the characters and fans that he must have always been somewhat evil, born corrupted, or mad in a dormant sense.
But before First Soldier, we never even saw Sephiroth’s POV. Everything about him is told or witnessed through the eyes of others, including the actual fans. We didn’t really “know” him yet, so we only had those interpretations of who he was.
And if I’m going to be cocky for a minute, who was right in the end about Sephiroth? The fans who interpreted his OG behavior as cold and superior or secretly already evil? Or the fans like you whose judgements of his character were doubly validated by scenes like this in Rebirth, where the writers beat us over the head with “He was a good person at heart and at least tried to care for others despite being raised separately and in an inhumane world?”
So, even if I call this a retcon/addition, I say it lightly. As in, they took a good faith interpretation of an OG Sephiroth scene (like yours), and made it a sure and undeniable reality. I feel validated, and I’m glad you’ve been validated too.
And who knows, I could also be dead wrong. Maybe all the way back then, they intended to show Sephiroth in that sympathetic light but it wasn’t delivered with as much clarity. Either way, you were right and I can finally point to the Rebirth version as evidence for both of our takes, if necessary.
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