Critical Characterization Failure - Sephiroth

[MJN SEIFER]

Here's my two cents on the matter; Bare in mind, I haven't read any ultimania guides, but from what I've heard they explain nothing that isn't explained in the game (they just dumb it down), but when I played VII, I got that Sephiroth's background actually quite well written, and intriguing. For a start was born normally - excluding the Jenova experiment, he wasn't "made" from an experiment like what was originally documented - his mother (not Jenova) was injected with Jenova Cells, as where the Sephiroth Clones later - that's how they were clones.

In Cloud's corrupted memory (this close to the truth) Sephiroth finds the reports on the Ancients and makes the assumption that he is (at least in someway) a descendent of the Ancients, and everything goes on from there.

Five years pass, to present time; The Sephiroth that is scene throughout the game is represented by Jenova, but it is still Sephiroth in mind, even though he's in Life Stream (that was the only thing that I needed to check on, it is apparently in the Ultimania) when he first emerges, he is apparently still set on the Promised Land and kills President Shinra off screen, but in the scene on the ship his mind is set, and he doesn't seem to know where he is, or who's talking to him - I think the two minds aren't complete yet, I could be wrong, but that's the impression I got.

The next time Cloud sees him, he is more focused on what he is saying and seems more aware of who Cloud is, I think he recognizes that Cloud has Jenova cells, and it can be used, but it's to early to do so, because they're just in the mansion - there's no way Cloud can be put to good use, even though we've seen that something is affecting him from past scenes. By this time he has learned Jenova was not an Ancient but something else, we later learn from Gast's report that Jenova deceived the Ancients, eventually making some of them evil. We don't really get told if Sephiroth knew any of this, or if Jenova continued to corrupt his mind - maybe Sephiroth views the history of Jenova differently? Maybe to him Jenova had every right to do what she did? He obviously has some of Jenova's memories as well. He is even more set in his goals in The Temple of The Ancients, and actually does use Cloud here, as he tries to later in the City of the Ancients, and in the North Cave (although why Cloud chooses that moment to say that Sephiroth found him boring is beyond me - possible translation error?)

The thing I find the most intriguing is that, in reality it didn't matter who Sephiroth was, he was not a descendent of the Ancients, and he wasn't really a descendent of whatever Jenova is - he was just another person, who's mother happened to be injected with Jenova cells, and was then infused into the Life Stream - it could have all been avoided, if the Jenova Experiment had never took place.

Pretty good writing in my book.