Yazoo

Yazoo is one of the three Remnants of Sephiroth, along with Loz and Kadaj, who are the antagonists of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. He embodies Sephiroth's allure, and has a cool demeanor. Yazoo often battles alongside his brothers and is the quietest remnant.
==Profile==
===Appearance===
Like the other embodiments of Sephiroth's will, Yazoo has green cat-like eyes and silver hair; his hair is long and layered, extending partway down his back. Yazoo is the tallest of his brothers and has a lean yet muscular build.
Yazoo wears a long black leather coat, boots, and trousers. He wears his coat zipped to his neck and the lower half zipped up above his knees, though he opens it up when riding his motorcycle. The image of a single wing is sewn on the back of his coat as an allusion to Sephiroth. He wears black leather gloves and shoulder guards with straps crossing over his torso. He fights using a Velvet Nightmare handgun and carries it in a holster on his lower back. Because of his height, hair, and outfit, Yazoo resembles Sephiroth the most of the three remnants.
===Personality===
Yazoo embodies Sephiroth's allure and cool personality. Calm, soft-spoken, and reserved, Yazoo has few facial expressions and rarely shows strong emotions, limited to moments such as when Reno insults Jenova, or when Cloud Strife slices apart his Velvet Nightmare gun. Despite his aloof demeanor, Yazoo's more playful side shows when bantering with his brothers, particularly when light-heartedly teasing Loz, or maliciously taunting the Turks. Yazoo is somewhat more expressive and sadistic when fighting, often coldly smirking and quietly laughing. He displays crazed excitement during his takedown of the Turks' helicopter before recomposing himself, which hints at a shade of instability.
===Abilities===
Yazoo is a skilled marksman, and usually fights from a distance. He is still competent in fighting in close-quarters and, in such situations, favors using kicks. Yazoo relies on his agility to dodge blows in close range, being swift enough to both evade Cloud's attacks with the Fusion Swords and to momentarily step on the blades to leap away. Due to his connection to the negative Lifestream, Yazoo can summon hordes of Shadow Creepers.
==Story==
Yazoo manifested within the North Crater as the Turks were collecting Jenova's remains. Two other remnants of Sephiroth manifested alongside him, Kadaj and Loz. They defeated Tseng and Elena, before deciding to locate Jenova's head, which the remaining Turks had escaped with. The trio subsequently tortured the two Turks they had caught for Jenova's location before heading to the City of the Ancients, which they decided make their base-of-operations.
Yazoo and his brothers traveled to the Midgar wasteland and attacked Cloud while he was out riding his motorcycle, believing he might knows where Jenova's remains were. While Kadaj called one of the Turks over the phone, Yazoo and Loz fought Cloud with their Shadow Creepers and interrogated him about Jenova. They gained an advantage and Yazoo shot Cloud at point-blank, though it was deflected by Cloud's goggles, only giving him a minor injury. Before their Shadow Creepers could overwhelm Cloud, Kadaj recalled the monsters, signaling Yazoo and Loz to retreat.
While Kadaj and Loz went elsewhere to search for Jenova, Yazoo headed to Edge and rounded up dozens of children infected with Geostigma, promising to help cure them. In actuality, the children were needed for a Jenova reunion and Yazoo took them to the Forgotten City, where Kadaj took control of them and activate the latent "reunion instinct" in their Jenova cells. When Cloud arrived to save the children, Yazoo and Loz easily overwhelmed him, but Vincent Valentine saved him and took him to safety. 
The remnants and the children returned to Edge, where Yazoo and Loz attempted to destroy a monument to Meteor, where they believed Rufus had hidden Jenova's remains. While Kadaj met with Rufus, Yazoo and Loz were interrupted by Reno and Rude of the Turks. As Kadaj summoned Bahamut SIN to terrorize the city, Yazoo battled and easily defeated Reno. After Cloud and his friends defeated Bahamut SIN, Rufus revealed Jenova's remains to Kadaj, who retrieved them.
The remnants drove onto the highways into Midgar to flee from Cloud, and Yazoo and Loz attacked him to stall him. After steering Cloud onto a second highway from the one Kadaj took, a high-speed battle ensued, both on their motorcycles and in the air above them. Reno and Rude arrived via helicopter to assist Cloud and destroy the section of highway the remnants were driving on. This created a ramp for Yazoo to launch his motorcycle off, passing through the helicopter's opened section, shooting off the control stick from under Reno's hand and knocking Rude to its outer edge, giving a high-pitched insane laugh all the while. Cloud took on both Yazoo and Loz with his sword later, forcing them to share a motorcycle and to lose their primary weapons. The Turks caught up in a second helicopter and used bombs to seemingly kill Yazoo and Loz. 
They survived and reappeared shortly after Cloud defeated Sephiroth and shot at him, wanting to take Cloud down with them. Already dissolving due to Aerith Gainsborough's healing rain, Yazoo and Loz used many materia to create an large explosion to kill all three of them, but only succeeding in hasting their deaths and returning to the lifestream.
==Other appearances==
===Pictlogica Final Fantasy===
PFF Yazoo Illust.png|Portrait.
PFF Yazoo.png|Sprite.
Yazoo-Enemy-PFF.png|Boss sprite.
===Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade===
;Ability Cards
FFAB Shadow Flare - Yazoo SSR.png|Shadow Flare (SSR).
FFAB Shadow Flare - Yazoo SSR+.png|Shadow Flare (SSR+).
;Legend Cards
FFAB Shadow Flare - Yazoo Legend SSR.png|Shadow Flare (SSR Legend).
FFAB Shadow Flare - Yazoo Legend SSR+.png|Shadow Flare (SSR+ Legend).
===Final Fantasy Record Keeper===
===Final Fantasy Brave Exvius===
===Mobius Final Fantasy===
===Final Fantasy Trading Card Game===
Yazoo appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.
==Behind the scenes==
Yazoo's long hair was a difficulty to animate due to its layers and length, and along with Sephiroth his hair was animated by hand during fight scenes because a simulator would not be accurate enough. The staff wanted to make Yazoo stand out on his own without being too much like Kadaj or Loz, and gave him his unique appearance from either of them as part of this. Despite having a cool personality, Yazoo was made to banter with Loz to provide comic relief from the film's generally dark tone.Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children -Reunion Files-
Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story reveals that Kadaj encountered Kyrie Canaan and adopted his name from one of Kyrie's deceased friends. Likewise, Kadaj may have bestowed the name "Yazoo" to his brother in-universe.
===Voice===
Yazoo is voiced by Dave Wittenberg in the English release. He shares his voice actor with Kefka Palazzo in the Dissidia series and Amodar in Final Fantasy XIII.
He is voiced by Yūji Kishi in the Japanese version. Tetsuya Nomura wanted a shady, dangerous quality to Yazoo's voice, rather than a cool or charismatic voice. Kishi notes that Yazoo's fight scenes were difficult for him, as he had to get the timing of the breathing just right, and the film would be played for him with his mouth superimposed over Yazoo's as an aid.''
==Gallery==
FF7AC Kadaj & Yazoo.jpg|CG promotional image of Kadaj and Yazoo.
FF7AC Yazoo & Loz.jpg|CG render of Yazoo and Loz.
Yazoo-is-insane.png|Yazoo attacking.
yazoo1.jpg|Yazoo in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
==Etymology==
"Yazoo stream" is a geological term referring to a small river that runs alongside, and eventually joins, a much larger river. This likely refers to Yazoo's existence as a part of Sephiroth, although it may also refer to his eventual dissolution into the lifestream.
Yazoo is also a popular British synthpop band fronted by Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet (known as Yaz in the United States) from the early 1980s. This may be relevant since there already are My Bloody Valentine and Velvet Underground references within Final Fantasy VII.
==Citations==
pt-br:Yazoo
ru:Язу
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Category:Antagonists