#sephiroth thoughts

[nightmateria]

thinking about how Sephiroth’s story is not only one of profound tragedy but also profound horror - never once in his life or his afterlife is his body ever his own. he was injected with Jenova cells without his consent and already belonged to Shinra before he was even born. the company kept him locked up and allowed Hojo to do whatever experiments and tests and conditioning he wanted to Sephiroth as long as he didn't kill him. his image was used for Shinra's propaganda against his will. he's not even a person with a body to them - his body is a machine and by extension so is he, and he knows it.

he never knew bodily autonomy his entire life and then he is killed, and the horror still doesn't stop but now he welcomes it because that's all he knows. his body was never his to begin with, and he loves Jenova, so he's ready to give her anything she wants or needs. and so Jenova uses his likeness and the two become fused to a point where it's near impossible to say where he ends and she begins. and then he is killed again and ends up not being able to remember what his body even looked like anymore. to reconstruct it, he needs other people's memories of his body. and even then, it's Jenova's will that briefly brings him back into a body despite the fact that without a full reunion with all three remnants, he wouldn't be at full strength. and then he is killed a third time and loses that body as well.

his body was an experiment to create, a machine to use, an image to project on, an offering to his "mother", and then finally nothing but someone else's memory.

it wasn't his before life, in life, or after life. he never knew any other way to be, and now he never will. and because of that he's unable to even realize what it is that has been taken from him and what he's wilfully given away.

[nightmateria]

now that we know for certain that Sephiroth grew up in a windowless cell in the labs and only ever got to leave the Shinra building for missions and business trips, I wonder if there's another layer to the VR room training scene in CCR

when the flashback starts, we see that Sephiroth isn't standing where Angeal and Genesis are but seems to have chosen a vantage point where he can see the (fake) scenery better. it appears as though he is enjoying seeing the (fake) sky and feeling the (fake) wind and sunlight—which makes a lot of heartbreaking sense if you consider that he never got to just go outside. when he's send out of the Shinra building or gets flown out of Midgar, it's because he's working, and there's no time to enjoy anything.

it fits really well with him commenting on the Nibel mountains' natural beauty in Rebirth: "I've seen a lot of reactors in my time, but none with such a breathtaking view—who could tire of it?" experiencing such a view in the real world is rare and precious to him because most of the time, he is essentially locked up. but he still can't really enjoy it even then because he's working and the mission has to come first.

so getting to spend time with Angeal and Genesis in the VR room would be extra special to him not just because he'd get to "play" and have fun for once with his only friends—it would be the closest he could get to being outside under the open sky on his own terms.

this opening shot of him also fits tragically well with the Loveless line Genesis is reading aloud: "Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess/ We seek it thus, and take to the sky". how often must Sephiroth have longed to do exactly that, to be able to take to the sky like a bird and be truly free? it's so ironic that it's only after he has broken down and lost his mind that he discovers his wing. and even then, having given himself to Jenova, is he truly free?

the fake sky he seeks in the VR room really feels like a foreboding omen in this sense. no matter how much he longs for real freedom—and real love, for that matter—he seems to already be doomed to never attain it and forever chase the illusion of it instead.

[nightmateria]

I've finally picked my Rebirth rewatch back up, so these are some neat little silent storytelling bits I've noticed in Fall Of A Hero.

1) Now that we know Sephiroth lived in a cell in the lab and that most of the furniture in it apparently consisted of crates, I find it very telling that the first time we see his sane self in FF7R, he is also sitting on a simple metal box. So many things have happened since he was a child, but his living and working conditions under Shinra - they way they're treating him as a tool and a weapon - seem to not have changed at all. Since Shinra owns him, he is, essentially, inside a cell wherever he goes.

As an aside, these boxes look even less comfortable than the ones in his "room" in the lab. You could of course argue that maybe the front seat next to the driver is simply too cramped for someone of his size, but everything about how this scene is presented immediately tells the audience that it's apparently routine for him to be sitting with his men and in the same uncomfortable conditions.

By contrast - at least if Cloud's warped memories of this scene are correct - Zack is on his feet throughout almost the entire scene. While Sephiroth stays on the same "level" as the troopers the entire time until there are hostiles blocking the road. Only then does he join Zack up front by moving into a protective position.

2)

I love the way the reactor is looming over the village, looking even more threatening than the jagged mountaintops. I wonder, and that might be more spec than analysis, if the villagers put up the Nibelheim sign after the reactor was built, in the expectation that now lots of visitors and merchants and business venues would want to come to their village. The reactor being built lifted the village out of poverty, but iirc that didn't last very long. Hence the sign now being all rusted/dirty and not really standing out anymore against the brown/gray backdrop of the town, to show that any fame and attention that Nibelheim once may have gotten has long since been lost completely.

Also, and this is probably overanalyzing it, but I really like how the spiky mountaintops of the sign resemble flames 😈

3) I've analyzed both the bridge scene and the reactor scene to death, so I'm skipping straight to the library.

I'm 100% certain many other people have pointed this out, but this shot where the camera slowly zooms out of the library is so good with how it shows the cracks in the ceiling - symbolizing the way both Sephiroth’s worldview and his sanity are slowly "cracking".

This might be overanalyzing things again but while the shot slowly fades to black, the overhead lights almost look like stars, or a star constellation. Which could be argued to symbolize Sephiroth’s shift in alliance from humanity to the calamity from the stars.

4) This isn't silent storytelling, just something that occurred to me recently that I've found hilarious in some ways - Sephiroth disgustedly calls himself the crowning glory of Professor's Gast's wondrous experiment. Gast's. Not Hojo's. Imagine Hojo hearing that 🤭

[nightmateria]

Ifalna comforting Aerith:

"Don't cry, sweetie. I'll always be with you. Always and forever."

versus Sephiroth comforting Jenova:

"But there's no need to be sad, Mother. Because I'm here for you - now and forever."

I think about this so often because like - the hand placement. the carvings on the mask in front of Jenova's tank that look like tear tracks. the fact that these dialog lines are almost identical.

Ifalna says these words because she wants to soothe Aerith's fear and heartbreak, and also because they are true since the both of them will continue to be connected through the lifestream even after she dies.

Meanwhile for Sephiroth it showcasts the way he projects his human emotions onto a creature that does not have them and only mimics them to use and manipulate him. he is the one who is sad about what has been done to him, the one who has been desperately wanting to hear that someone will stay with him forever.

Unlike Ifalna and Aerith's genuine connection and love, Sephiroth is talking to and comforting a reflective mask, with fake tear tracks, that can do nothing but reflect his own feelings back at him without ever returning them. he is, essentially, talking to and comforting himself. in embracing the creature that he thinks feels about him the way he feels about it, he's doomed himself to continue to be what he desperately wanted to escape - exploited and lied to and alone.

[nightmateria]

been thinking about how first soldier has shown that Sephiroth longed for a mother that would protect him from Shinra's abuse and always want to be with him and care for him, and how that perfectly fits into the later delusions he develops when he finds out the "truth". more than that, he creates a perfect "excuse" for his mother's actions and inactions and for her absence - of course she didn't consent to him being an experiment, she was treated like a specimen and was used. of course she never gave him to Shinra willingly, she was held captive and hidden away. of course she could never protect him like this. of course she could never take care of him like this. it was only because she had been kept from him. if they had been together then his mother would have loved him and kept him safe, because she is a perfect mother. she is just like he had always imagined.

I don't know how he'd react if he was ever confronted with Lucrecia, but I can imagine that the mere facts that she actually did consent to him being experimented on and actually worked not only for Shinra but together with Hojo would make him reject her outright. she cannot be his "real" mother. his mother is perfect and would never do that to him.

that Lucrecia genuinely thought she was doing a good thing and didn't know she would be kept from him probably wouldn't register as an explanation for him, much less count as an excuse. the idea that his mother could be partly responsible for the abuse he suffered his entire life would be unbearable, and so it can never even be entertained. his mother is Jenova. his mother is innocent and would never hurt him. it was everyone else that hurt him but not her. he loves her. she is perfect and she loves him. she loves him she loves him she loves him.

[nightmateria]

horrible thought I had last night: Masamune acting as a replacement for Sephiroth's locket. his new comfort item that he takes with him everywhere. which is horrible because at least the locket still somewhat connected him to his real mother Lucrecia, seeing as it had her picture inside it. though Sephiroth thought she was named Jenova, at least there was some truth to it being his mother. a tie to his humanity and to his heart. but Masamune is not connected to Lucrecia in any way whatsoever, and only to Jenova instead.

Sephiroth fights tooth and nail to get Masamune, and then he's so happy to hold it in his hands. more than that, the fact that he can summon it at will means it won't be as easy for someone to take it from him or for him to lose it, like the locket. finally something that is just his and that stays his. something that feels like it truly belongs to him and like it's a part of him.

which is perfect for Jenova, because it subconsciously makes him trust her and depend on her even more. she's invaded yet another part of his mind and another part of his life, biding her time until the day when, to Sephiroth, she will be all there is. he will not even be able to imagine anything else in her place, much less reject her, because she has surrounded him on all sides and filled every part of his mind.

Sephiroth thought Masamune was his, that he'd earned it through a lot of trial and pain. but in reality it was just another systematic step on the way for him to be emptied out like a shell for Jenova to crawl inside like a hermit crab. for the two of them to become one forever.

[nightmateria]

every time I watch the bridge collapse scene in the Nibelheim flashback I wonder how quickly Sephiroth must have had to calculate if the rest of the bridge was going to going down and what the best plan of action was. we can see that the support pillars were about to give in

but from where he was, Sephiroth couldn't actually see this, as this is the perspective we're shown as he looks up

it seems that he could tell that the bridge was about to break apart completely though, because this is right before he lets himself fall

which Cloud/Zack reacts to with alarm and confusion, probably because he had thought they might be able to climb back up. but it's only seconds later that Tifa loses her grip and then the rest of the bridge falls down

this is pure spec, but I always wonder if Sephiroth let himself fall first not only because he correctly deduced that the rest of the bridge was about to give way but also because he calculated that if he was further down the river by the time the others fell, he would be able to save them, since he would realistically be able to withstand a fall into raging currents from such a height the easiest. which is what happens, since he's only able to save Tifa because he was already further down the river and had found a foothold by the time Tifa was carried toward him

if it hadn't been for how strong the current was, he very likely would have been able to save the nameless trooper also

idk, I just find it interesting given that the title is "Fall of a Hero in Nibelheim", that the literal fall we see is actually a heroic one. Sephiroth lets himself fall and only through that decision is able to save Tifa, and almost the trooper as well. it's through his metaphorical fall into despair and rage and pain and Jenova's sway that he stops being a hero. followed again by a literal fall, though this time not a voluntary one as it's Cloud who attacks him and throws him down into the "river" of the lifestream

[nightmateria]

this is mostly crack, but sometimes I think about how Sephiroth's personality and emotions were split between his three remnants in AC. and how he was supposed to have a reunion with all three of them plus Jenova's leftover cells, but then only had it through Kadaj. which makes me wonder if, since Kadaj mainly represented his rage and insanity, if Sephiroth would have acted any different had things played out as he'd planned to.

this is where the crack comes in, because inevitably I started thinking about what if he hadn't merged with Kadaj...but only with Loz 🤭

like, the peanut gallery (Avalanche) just had this whole convo about how Cloud needs to fight Sephiroth alone to regain his confidence and so on. Cloud's got his blades out, ready to go at it and fight to the death...but then the dust clears, and Sephiroth is just sitting there like I got mommy back 🥹 I'm happy now 🥰 Cloud, I want to go to the playground and play together ☺️

Cloud would rather they were fighting each other than having to deal with this of all things. Sephiroth doesn't even fit on the slide and he wants to hold hands the entire time. so embarrassing 🙄