The Black Materia

[Sephiroth]

There is no evidence for JENOVA being the controller all over the time. Sephiroth simply calls "JENOVA" by its name because it is named like that in the story. He doesn't always call it "mother" and nothing else. And you want your evidence? I post that evidence all the time. Hojo did researches concerning the reunion. He was the one who found out that Sephiroth is the controller. He says "But as the genius I am I have noticed immediately. It was all Sephiroth. Sephiroth's will and JENOVA's reunion ... brilliant. " And to guarantee you there is not translating error: I have the german, the english and the japanese version.

What you think is the same as a popular theory, the Brittenham Theory which is know for ten years. But it has been proven wrong automatically by Final Fantasy VII itself and by the Ultimania Omega of Final Fantasy VII.

While Sephiroth is in Nibelheim he says to Cloud, JENOVA is in the mountain range. And YES, there is a reason for Sephiroth to change his speech.

1. His speech itself does not change that extreme at all, he always spoke intelligent before.
2. Sephiroth is shown to use all ability of JENOVA to show that he has fully learned to use of of her abilities.
3. Sephiroth is extremely arrogant, that's his only weakness. He knows how powerful he is and he has a grudge against Cloud since Cloud beat him. After that he always tried to show his power. And even though the story itself already proves it:

The Ultimania Omega of Final Fantasy VII states Sephiroth has an inhuman and majestic speech to show that he is way more than just a human being, way more powerful and way more intelligent.

Like I have already mentioned. The creature you meet IS JENOVA. But it is not JENOVA which controls the body. Sephiroth commands it. In the Forgotten Capital JENOVA says its only line in the story to show that it is not the true body of Sephiroth. But even that was corrected in Advent Children to make it clear so Toshiyuki Morikawa, Sephiroth's voice actor said it. And like I have also mentioned - in Advent Children he also uses JENOVA's cells to build himself a body.

"There is every indication, from glimpses of the past to the player characters' reactions, that the Sephiroth of the past (the real Sephiroth) has a different perspective (and philosophy) than the Sephiroth of the present (actually Jenova). For instance Sephiroth thinks that Jenova is his mother and that she is a Cetra and that the Cetra were sacrificed for humanity's sake. Sephiroth does not want godhood, he wants revenge. Jenova, on the other hand, does not connect itself with the people of this planet at all and therefore feels that it should be the god of the planet (hence Jehovah + nova = Jenova)."

That's just wrong. Sephiroth already became god-like in the five years he travelled through the lifestream. Sephiroth absorbed a great amount of knowledge (and also the knowledge that JENOVA is not a Cetra). He just wanted to get even more powerful and absorb the planet. Sephiroth is the only being whose will is strong enough to absorb the complete knowledge of life without breaking (except JENOVA - "she" always did" with all the other planets). Sephiroth is explained to be a super-powerful being which became even more powerful, more inhuman and more like a monster, more like JENOVA after he decided to go that path. And Sephiroth only wanted to kill all humans five years before the story because he read Hojo's false documents. The Cetra did not sacrifice for humanity's sake. The Cetra became human. Cetra are human beings but with special powers. When the were almost completely eradicated by JENOVA they stopped wandering around, lost their contact to the planet and their powers (almost completely, not completely which is also the reason why Iphalna and Aerith have their powers) and so they became the human race. The Ultimania Omega even explains AVALANCHE to become like Cetra once they learned to listen to the planet at Cosmo Canyon. Oh and by the way you are wrong with the "JENOVA feels ... JENOVA is not connected ... JENOVA thinks it is the god of the planet" thing because:

1. JENOVA does not feel anything. That's stated in the Ultimania Omega. JENOVA is completely emotionless. And even Sephiroth became emotionless (since he became more like JENOVA) after he has become so mighty. The only joy he feels is when he can show his power to Cloud (which is because of his grudge - yes, you may think it is childish, but Sephiroth was an extremely proud person).
2. JENOVA has no interest in becoming the god of the planet. JENOVA only follows the desire to absorb and reunite. JENOVA is almost completely an animal (I know, "animal" is a bad word here - "instinctive" is what I want to say with it) uses her intelligence to fool other beings and to absorb them. But she does not do that because she thinks like a human being.

Sephiroth travels through the lifestream and absorbs a great amount of knowledge, including a great amount of the Cetra's knowledge. He surpasses JENOVA and learns about the Black Materia. Then he plans to absorb even more energy and plans to do that with the Black Materia. He regenerates in the Northern Crater and activates the reunion with JENOVA's head to call and command all the other Sephiroth clones. Meanwhile he builds himself a body with the headless body he has also called and commands this body to do what he does. When he transforms it back to JENOVA Birth, Life and Death of course he does not fight you. It is JENOVA which fights you (at least it is not proven that he still controls JENOVA while you are fighting her). He gets the Black Materia and kills Aerith who is dangerous for him since she learns how to call Holy (she learns it in the City of the Ancients, she does not know it before, but Sephiroth knows she is potentially dangerous for him). Then he continues with his plan and reunites JENOVA (almost - at least there are missing parts like those which became Sephiroth himself, which are inside Cloud, which were inside Zack, which are inside Hojo, which are inside Lucrecia, et cetera). He calls Meteor and begins with his metamorphosis. Cloud and the others face him before he is able to absorb the planet, and interrupt his metamorphosis after they have destroyed JENOVA, but Sephiroth already has absorbed a great amount of life energy (also while he travelled through the lifestream in the past 5 years) and he begins to mutate. He becomes Sephiroth Rebirth. A Sephiroth cocoon. On top of the Sephiroth cocoon there is another Sephiroth. The reborn Sephiroth. Safer Sephiroth who is about to break out of his cocoon. After the cocoon is destroyed, Safer Sephiroth, the reborn version - still not as powerful as he would have become once he would have absorbed the whole lifestream, but powerful enough - and destroy him. Sephiroth's mind is in the lifestream. But Sephiroth is too powerful for the lifestream - that's also stated in the Ultimania Omega and also the reason why he can remain in the lifestream and do all that - so he can decide if he wants to remain as Sephiroth or if he wants to be reborn as a new being with a new personality (which is normal for this Planet's Life, but then Sephiroth would not be Sephiroth and he wants to be Sephiroth). He uses his contact to Cloud and sends his mind into the lifestream were he fights him. But Cloud is able to break Sephiroth's control (that makes no sense since Sephiroth is explaned as the being with the most powerful will while Cloud is explained as a being with a very weak will, but Sephiroth should have been finally defeated in 1997 so this was how it ended). Cloud finds his way back to Tifa. But Sephiroth still remains inside the lifestream. Weakened, so the lifestream tries to make him part of it. But Sephiroth is still able to control himself. He links his mind and memories with Cloud's and so he is able to "find himself" and to exist even if the lifestream would take all of what Sephiroth is. With this method he is able to regenerate the core of his existence. But he doesn't even need that. He remains inside the lifestream and "pollutes" it by strengthening the hatred inside the lifestream. Aerith notices Sephiroth does that but she is afraid of coming closer. he notices Aerith and just laughs at her. With her purity she is able to "clean" some souls full of hatred but Sephiroth is too powerful. She cannot do that with all. So she asks some Cetra remaining in the lifestream to help her. Nevertheless Sephiroth is more powerful than those - even though they are able to help a great amount of souls to return to the planet - and wants to show Cloud that it was all his plan. He wants to appear ghost-like on Gaia, but he cannot remember what he looked like once befoe so he wants to use JENOVA's cells again and while he creates Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo combining his will with Geostigma he wanders around as the three of them (with a new personality - they don't know they are Sephiroth, they know he returns by fulfiling the reunion, but they don't know, why) and restores his memory about his original body while reading the minds of those who remember him. Then Kadaj uses JENOVA cells and Sephiroth rebuilds his body.

He fights Cloud and tells him he intends to follow JENOVA's meaning of life: Travelling through the universe and absorbing life. This way he would become even more powerful. He wants to determine his fate like that.

Then Cloud destroys his body and Sephiroth says "Watashi wa ... omoide ni wa nara nai sa." which means "I will never become just a memory." which means nothing but "Well, now you've seen me again. But that was not the last time. Adios, amigo."

"Which means, in the end, that I wish I hadn't dug any deeper, because now I realize how horrible and empty <acronym title="Final Fantasy VII">FFVII</acronym>'s plot and characterizations are, and how miserably the direction was for this game (though to give them credit, it was a progressive and risky undertaking)."

You just don't understand it. And that is all. Final Fantasy VII's story and characters are very good explained. You just need to read the lines. But obviously many people don't do. Otherwise they wouldn't even think of such wrong interpretations about Sephiroth and JENOVA like that guy did who was thought to be some Final Fantasy Guru as if Final Fantasy would be something like science.