Sephiroth

## Voices

**Sephiroth** (セフィロス, *Sefirosu*) is depicted as Cloud Strife's archenemy and is seen as a symbol of Cloud's troubled past haunting 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 made him insane, causing him to be driven by a desire to destroy the world.

## Appearance

Sephiroth is a very tall, strong-built and very handsome man with a muscular build. His 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 . 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. In *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, he has a different belt buckle with a wing motif in the center and small black feathers hanging from it; yellow and green lights reflect from the slots, which may be materia .

He wields the Masamune (usually two-handed), a seven-foot-long ōdachi 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.

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. 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", referring 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. 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. 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. His pauldrons are changed to resemble Yoshitaka Amano's artwork of him. 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, referencing both Amano's artwork of Sephiroth and his wings as Safer∙Sephiroth.

## Personality

Before his madness, as shown in *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*, Sephiroth maintains an outwardly aloof and professional demeanor during his time at Shinra. He is known for hardly mingling with anyone besides his friends Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos, and being indifferent toward his fans. He can act humane and caring in contrast to his reputation, befriending Zack over their shared reluctance to hunt down their friends and desire to bring them back, and asking Cloud how he felt to be back in his hometown, having no similar experience himself. 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. He has a dry sense of humor. Sometimes, he can be frustrated and caught off-guard. As the strongest SOLDIER, 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 typical 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. All other interactions have him use *watashi*.

In the *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, Sephiroth still torments Cloud, gloating over his painful memories and failures. However, at the same time he encourages him to get stronger and survive his ordeals. He even beckons Cloud to join him and his cause to "save the planet" and implies he wants to alter his destiny. Rather than killing Cloud when he refuses, Sephiroth spares him and gives him a hint, letting him continue his journey.