Since ancient times, there has been a relationship between good and evil. Just as where there is light, there will be shadows, and without evil, there will be no justice.
Good and evil are like light and shadow, living in harmony with each other
As a result, in contrast to countless highly infectious and appealing righteous partners, many charming and impressive villains have also emerged, becoming an alternative but equally beautiful landscape.
Today, I will take you to know one of the most famous and popular villains in the history of video games , Sephiroth.
The evil smile in the fire is a classic shot of Sephiroth
When I first saw Sephiroth in junior high school, the level of production of Final Fantasy VII: Children of Advent was simply amazing, which immediately caught my eye.
The level of production of "Children of Advent" was absolutely top notch at the time
Fourteen or fifteen-year-old boys, most of whom still retain a lot of childishness, are easily attracted to cool things, and are also keen on all kinds of "fights and kills". Because of this, if for many people, the image corresponding to FF7 is Tifa, then for me, this image is Sephiroth.
The Watch of The Beauty
Like many "silver-haired characters", Sephiroth is a typical "strong and beautiful" being, and his strength, whether as a "Shinra 1st Special Forces" or as a later villain BOSS, has been fully reflected; and his beauty lies not only in his handsome appearance and extraordinary temperament, but also in the flowing and oppressive fighting style that fits with him.
Sephiroth's appearance and fighting style are very attractive
In his left hand, he uses an ultra-long taiko sword that is far taller than his height, and his moves are fast and gorgeous, and he is very Japanese kendo style, making him look at any opponent with ease. Such a "sword saint" type of image is far more powder-absorbing than the protagonist Claude's giant sword two-handed combat style.
The "Sword Saint" type of character in Japanese games has a long history, and the flowing and handsome moves are their biggest features (pictured is the "Fire Emblem" series)
Than strong is not necessarily strong (after all, the protagonist aura), than handsome, I Safiros will not lose
Not only that, in addition to the regular image, Sephiroth also has a "flappy angel" shape with black wings on the back and a more exaggerated, god-like "blazing angel form", which makes his compulsion and handsomeness rise a notch.
Sephiroth's Winged Angel (Top) and Blazing Angel (Bottom) forms
In the midst of misery
From fighting for the "justice" he believes in, to being distorted by hatred and anger after learning the truth of everything, becoming the agent of Genova's will on the road to extinction, as a character who is not born evil but from hero to demon king, Sephiroth's experience itself is a legendary tragedy of "dragon slayer warriors eventually become evil dragons". And the seeds of this tragedy have been planted from the day he was born. Because of this, even if Sephiroth does a lot of evil as the villain BOSS, it is difficult for players to really hate him.
Sephiroth was an unmitigated tragic figure, and this was almost predestined from the time of his birth
Everything begins with Shinra's attempt to create "super soldiers" in order to protect its own interests. The plan, aimed at creating warriors with the abilities of the "Ancient Species" of the Guardians of the Planet, who were almost extinct in the "Catastrophe That Fell from the Sky" 2,000 years ago, ultimately led to the rebirth of the alien parasitic life Ofnova, the culprit of this terrible catastrophe, which has to be said to be a great irony. And Sephiroth, with The Genesis cells and the expectation of the "strongest warrior", is at the heart of this ironic tragedy.
Genova, the true "mother" of Sephiroth, is also the source of all strife and tragedy
"From the very young age, I knew that I was different from others and that I was a special being." Sephiroth, who has been symbiotic with Genova cells since embryonic time, did not resist Jénova cells as foreign objects and was therefore protected from them, becoming one of only five successful Genovas parasites (Sephiroth, Lucrecia, Claude, Zax, and Treasure Bar).
The Genova cells brought Sephiroth great resilience and greatly strengthened his body, making him the most powerful warrior and the hero admired by all.
However, behind these brilliance and glory, there is a lingering shadow.
On his last mission as a Warrior of the Gods, Sephiroth saw a monsterized person who had been soaked in magic for too long in Nibulheim, the furnace of Claude and Tifa's hometown. Because all The Shinra warriors enhance their physical abilities by soaking in the magic, Sephiroth's doubts about his unknown origins become so strong that he locks himself in the Shinra Reference Room, trying to find answers from countless information books.
In the Shōra Reference Room in Nibühlheim, Sephiroth found an answer about his own origins, but this answer was not correct
Seven days later, Sephiroth finally walked out of the reference room, and the first thing he did was to burn the whole of Niebourheim into a sea of fire.
Sephiroth in the fire
It turned out that through the information in the book, Sephiroth deduced that his "mother" Jenova was not a human, but an ancient species, and that he himself was made from the cells of the ancient species. And then what he had previously believed in collapsed. Once Sephiroth, firmly believed that his fate was to become the most powerful warrior in mankind, as a man who believed in fate and was full of responsibility, he had also been fighting for it; and for Sephiroth at this time, his fate had become to take back the entire planet from human hands and become the king of the planet.
If it was an ordinary person, in the face of all this, he would probably choose to bury it deep in his heart, after all, the ancient species at that time had almost completely disappeared, and accepting the "guidance of fate" meant being the enemy of the whole world.
After the Nibelheim Incident, Sephiroth broke with Shinra and began to turn against the entire world
But Safiros, how could he be an ordinary person?
It's the wrong path, but it's also the path that only heroes choose.
The turn in the fire of Nibelheim represents the death of the hero Sephiroth and the birth of the villain Sephiroth
With this choice, the choice after learning the truth about Genova in the future became logical. Sephiroth believes in fate and dares to accept it, and whether the end of the path of fate is success or destruction, he will take firm steps without hesitation.
Perhaps, even if he knew that as a villain, the final outcome would only be failure, he would still make the same choice. Even if he is given countless opportunities to re-choose after failure, his choice will not change in the slightest, and he will make a comeback again and again whenever possible.
After all, as he told Claude before he became the stream of life, "Rest in your memories." Response:
"I'm not going to be a memory."