Sephiroth

### Age

Approximately 20 years old at the start of Crisis CoreApproximately 27 years old in Final Fantasy VII

## Credit Thanks To

### Credit

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/DISH WASHER

### Source

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Sephiroth

## Do I Claim Ownership?

### Do I own said character?

No

**Sephiroth** is the main antagonist of *Final Fantasy VII* and *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, and one of the major antagonists in its extended universe. In spin-off appearances, Sephiroth is depicted as Cloud Strife's archenemy, and is seen as a symbol of Cloud's troubled past that haunts him. Sephiroth is a former renowned SOLDIER, who became twisted.

Before his fall from grace, Sephiroth was one of the most lauded success stories of the Shinra Electric Power Company's SOLDIER program. His successes in the field of battle during the conflicts surrounding Shinra's bid for global domination led to his status as a celebrity war hero and the poster boy for both the Shinra Military and the company's SOLDIER program. Learning of his true origins drove him insane, causing him to be driven by a desire to destroy the world.

Sephiroth is briefly a party member during a flashback in the original *Final Fantasy VII*, and is both the penultimate and final boss.

## Biographical data

As Sephiroth's records were sealed by Shinra, most guides do not give any personal details on him. The European and North American manuals give his details as "unknown," except his job as a top ranking SOLDIER officer, that he fights with Long Swords, and his height. Japanese manuals omit even these details. The *Final Fantasy Art Museum* cards from 2001, and the *Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega* released in 2005, also give these details as "unknown," and do not list a height. His birthplace is listed as unknown. The *Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania* gives his birthplace as a "?", but later in his section states he was born in Nibelheim. Volume 2 of the *Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania/Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive* released in 2012 lists his birthplace as Nibelheim.

It is unknown where the height from the localized manuals originated. This is the same for Red XIII whose height is absent in all the aforementioned Japanese publications, but present in the English manuals.

Although Sephiroth's exact age has never been stated, it can be approximated with evidence from the timelines.

### Appearance

Sephiroth is a tall man with a muscular build. He wears a long black coat with silver pauldrons, black boots and black trousers. The top of his coat is open to reveal his chest, with his leather SOLDIER suspenders crossed over it. Sephiroth's long silver hair has bangs parted to either side of his face. In *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*, the bangs are shorter. Sephiroth has green cat-like eyes and wields the Masamune, a seven-foot long katana he is rarely seen without. His battle stance with the sword is to hold it over his left shoulder with the blade curving downward, known in the Japanese sword stance as *Te Ura Gasumi No Kamae*, which is primarily used in Ninjitsu and *Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū*, the latter of which is one of the oldest extant martial arts.

Sephiroth usually wields the Masamune two-handed. In later appearances a single black wing emerges from his right shoulder. Sephiroth is left-handed, but has been depicted wielding his sword in his right hand in many pieces of art and merchandise.

In the *Compilation of Final Fantasy VII*, Sephiroth's uniform remains the same as in *Final Fantasy VII*, but his coat has several buckles instead of just one, and the original SOLDIER logo in his belt is replaced with the redesigned version for the *Compilation*. According to a *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-* fan letter mailed to Zack, Sephiroth uses an entire bottle of both shampoo and conditioner to wash his hair. Both are provided by the Shinra Company and are scented with thirteen kinds of perfumes. In *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*, a Sephiroth fangirl in Midgar mentions she would "love to see him stripped to the waist," a reference to how he appears during the final scripted battle in *Final Fantasy VII*.

In the *Kingdom Hearts* series, Sephiroth retains his core design of silver hair and a black coat, but his clothing is given red linings and is of different shape. His sleeves have small red wings, and he bears a dark blue and black wing over his right shoulder. He bears two additional wings underneath his coat in *Kingdom Hearts II*, alluding to his boss form from *Final Fantasy VII*. Unlike his other appearances, Sephiroth has blue eyes, and other characters comment he looks like Cloud, as the *Kingdom Hearts* incarnation is implied to be an embodiment of Cloud's inner darkness.

In *Dissidia Final Fantasy*, Sephiroth's design in his base outfit is similar to his *Final Fantasy VII* design, but his pauldrons are changed to resemble Yoshitaka Amano's artwork of him, and his coat is closed by a belt as in Tetsuya Nomura's design. Beneath his coat are two white sashes with lavender on the edges, a reference to both Amano's artwork of Sephiroth and his wings as Safer∙Sephiroth.

### Personality

Prior to his madness, as shown in *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*, Sephiroth maintains an outwardly professional demeanor during his time at Shinra. While his cold exterior and professional attitude turn people away, he is not anti-social and can act humane and caring in contrast to his reputation, valuing his friendship with Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos.

Sephiroth is intelligent and respects those he deems worthy—he considers Professor Gast a great scientist, but scorns Professor Hojo. Well-spoken and graceful, Sephiroth is calm, collected, and in control, and has a dry sense of humor. Rarely, he can be frustrated and caught off-guard. As the strongest SOLDIER alive, Sephiroth is confident to the point of arrogance, yet has no interest in personal glory, as he tells Genesis, who envies Sephiroth's reputation, that he can have it.

After learning of the experiments that led to his birth, Sephiroth falls into insanity, becoming murderous, ruthless and vengeful yet retaining his calm and cold demeanor. He develops a messiah complex, proclaiming to be "the chosen one" destined to lead the planet. He becomes sadistic and enjoys mentally torturing Cloud. Sephiroth is devoted to Jenova and her cause, even though her body serves as little more than his avatar. He has become an agent carrying out Jenova's will.

In the Japanese releases, Sephiroth uses the pronoun *ore* prior to his insanity, a common masculine pronoun used by confident males. Following the Nibelheim Incident, he begins to use *watashi*, a more formal pronoun that is genderless in formal context, likely because he now sees himself as superior to everyone else. This post-madness mannerism carries into his spin-off appearances, such as *Dissidia Final Fantasy*. In the *Remake*, Sephiroth uses *ore* at the ending, as he states he will not let himself end, though all other interactions has him use *watashi*.

In the *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, Sephiroth beckons Cloud to join him and his cause to "save the planet," and implies he wants to alter his destiny. He still torments Cloud, but encourages him to gain strength from his loss. Rather than killing Cloud, Sephiroth spares him and gives him a hint, letting him continue on his journey.

### Abilities

The full extent of Sephiroth's abilities is unknown. The official book *Reunion Files* states that the Sephiroth seen in *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* has "ascended to a new level of existence" and is stronger than before. Though Cloud and others have battled him competently, it is implied that in most of these fights Sephiroth was not fighting at his full potential, his power being somehow limited or he was holding back.

Sephiroth is the greatest SOLDIER 1st Class of all time and the strongest swordsman. He is regarded as unbeatable and is said to be the only one capable of effectively wielding his Masamune, a nodachi that is longer than he is tall, which he uses effortlessly with a single hand to outmatch the likes of Zack, Cloud, Angeal and Genesis. Although rarely shown, he is proficient in hand-to-hand combat. In his boss battles in *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-* and *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, he can teleport and cast powerful blades of energy by swinging the Masamune and empower the blade with energy. Though preferring swordsmanship, Sephiroth had perfected magic use via materia even before his immersion in the lifestream and had the ability to manifest materia to fight alongside him, but after absorbing the knowledge of the Ancients, he no longer needs materia to use magic.

**Spoiler warning: *Plot and/or ending details follow.*** *(Skip section)*

After gaining the Black Materia, he can use the most devastating destructive magic of all: Meteor. In the *Remake*, Sephiroth appears to summon a meteorite even without the Black Materia and can perform elemental infusion to cast powerful spells and resist elemental magic and create black force-fields that paralyze and damage his foes. His special attack is Supernova, which has been described as his Limit Break. His use of Supernova is powered by despair, and it can even affect multiple dimensions. Sephiroth even has the power to seal Holy, preventing it from launching and destroying his Meteor.

Sephiroth had great resilience even before his ascension to something of an immortal being. Even after his physical body is destroyed, his will persists. Having been injected with Jenova cells while still a fetus, and thus exposed to pure Jenova cells undiluted by human DNA, the abilities Sephiroth gained from such a direct method of exposure make him the superior specimen of the Jenova Project. His success inspired Shinra to create SOLDIER, his power still vastly surpassing all who came after him. As his genome cannot be broken down, Sephiroth does not degrade, but he also cannot be copied as a result. However, Genesis believes Sephiroth can pass on his immunity to degradation to cure him.

After overpowering Jenova's will Sephiroth gained the ability to exert his influence through her cells, able to construct avatars in his likeness, as well as other eldritch entities, enabling him a physical presence in the world of the living and attaining a sort of immortality. He can remotely control Jenova cells inside living organisms, control the thoughts and actions of those injected with her cells, and in severe cases can outright puppeteer their bodies. In *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, he can shapeshift others with Jenova cells into his visage and transform them into monsters. His ability to project his will through these avatars is limited, but is compounded by the subject's willpower (or lack thereof), and intensifies over shorter distances, being strongest at the North Crater (the site of his physical body).

Being immersed in the lifestream has granted Sephiroth psychic powers, allowing him to read others' minds, making him adept at emotional manipulation, preying on his opponents' dark emotions. He can communicate with others telepathically and project illusions. He can levitate objects and even people, and manipulate matter in *Final Fantasy VII Remake* by breaking down debris and fusing it. He can fly even without his wing, an ability he already displayed in *Crisis Core*. Sephiroth can summon the Masamune at will and erect an impenetrable energy barrier to cover an entire crater.

In *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, he can warp reality, as he slices a dark tornado caused by the Whispers to create an entrance to the "singularity." He takes himself and Cloud to the Edge of Creation in a flash of light. However, how much the surreal experiences Cloud goes through in his battle against Sephiroth are illusions projected by the latter is ambiguous.