Sephiroth in the Nibelheim Flashback
So this was an impromptu argument on the discord. I figure it be easier to gather together all the evidence in one place to make it very clear what the narrative intended.
I understand subtext can be a bit tricky but this takes very little reading comprehension given our hero himself spells it all out for us.
But let's begin at the beginning.
Sephiroth notes he has no hometown:
Sephiroth: How does it feel? It's your first time back to your hometown in a long time, right? So how does it feel? I wouldn't know because I don't have a hometown...
He doesn't even really know who his mother and father are:
Sephiroth: My mother is Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father... What does it matter...?
He has no real sense of connection to anyone or anything, having been alone all his life. Given both what we know of his creation and Shinra's overall inhumane methods, safe to assume his abuse since before he was born and then after his birth as well. Nobody has told him anything, they've just used him as a human weapon.
So the entirely clueless of his origins Sephiroth happens upon one of Hojo's mad experiments in Nibelheim Reactor. (We can ask why he was sent to Nibelheim in the first place. Cloud might elude to the answer later) Sephiroth, wh is clearly plagued by these uncertainties, wonders if he's a horrific abomination just like these creatures.
Sephiroth: N... no...... ...Was I? ...Was I created this way too? Am I the same as all these monsters...... You saw it! All of them... were humans... ...I've always felt since I was small... That I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this...
And Sephiroth, to try and finally find out the truth of his origins, embarks on an obsessive study of what he can find in the Mansion. Again, most convenient for Sephiroth to be sent to the place with all these records. The result is this:
https://youtu.be/yPindmUNoOM?t=1253
Sephiroth: My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova Project... Is this just a coincidence? Professor Gast... Why didn't you tell me anything? ...Why did you die?[/i]
Strange art direction indeed to have somebody stand all alone in the throes of mental anguish and confusion as sad music plays if you're not supposed to care one iota about their pain.
But moving on. Of course, following this, Sephiroth embarks on the destruction of Nibelheim. He goes from to HAHAHA in about five seconds, narratively speaking. Why? He's happy now to discover he's a freak of nature? Or should we listen to our hero who lays it out in very explicit terms:
Cloud: What about MY sadness!? My family... friends... The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me!? It's the same as your sadness!
Sephiroth: Ha, ha, ha... my sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet
"B-but Sephiroth says..." Because characters never lie to themselves, right? Somebody who has completely lost their mind following seeming confirmation that they are a monstrosity is clearly in touch with how they feel.
No, Cloud makes it even more explicit:
Cloud: Sephiroth... I trusted you... No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!
This is not the aloof, stoic man who had no sense of himself or where he belonged. He's cracked, flipped his lid, lost his trout, as the despair of what he is has consumed him.
Which is driven home when you confront Hojo:
Hojo: Ha, ha, ha... I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project. When Sephiroth was still in the womb, we took the cells of Jenova... HA, HA, HA!!
Vincent: You......!
Cloud: I can't believe you're the one who did this... The illusionary crime against Sephiroth...
Hojo: Heee, hee, hee, hee! No you're wrong! It's my desire as a scientist! Heee, hee, hee, hee!
Vincent: ...... I was...... wrong. The one that should have slept was... ...You, Hojo!
The root of Sephiroth's evil, as is the root of most evil in FFVII, was Hojo. Sephiroth is in the extensive category of Victims of Hojo, along with Cloud, Aerith, Vincent, Lucrecia, Ifalna, and god knows how many more. Was it just a supreme coincidence Sephiroth was sent to Nibelheim where "the nightmare began?" Or was it Hojo's machinations all along as Cloud seems to imply?
In the end Sephiroth becomes a monster, that is undeniable. But he wasn't always a monster, nor was he inevitably going to end up as one. Malevolent forces and circumstances combined to break him, make him go insane from the "truth" of his horrific creation. That is what the Nibelheim Flashback was all about.fic creation. That is what the Nibelheim Flashback was all about.
