Why is Sephiroth so popular?

[Ergroilnin]

So guys,

this isn't by any chance a troll thread, a flame inducing thread or anything like that.

I honestly wonder, what does make Sephiroth so awesome of a villian to be almost worshipped by half of the FF fans?

Personally I finished FF7 three times (and played it plenty more) and I don't really think it's the best of them (or at least PSOne FFs) but I can see why people would think so and I by no means am going to argument about those points.

The only thing I can not understand is why is Sephiroth so worshipped by FF fans? To me he was pretty shallow. At first he was a superhuman and a hero of a mankind and took honor in that. Then by an accident he learned of his true origin and just because of that he went crazy and wanted to kill whole planet so they feel his superiority and pain.

I didn't really feel anything special about his motives, plans and personality.

Could you guys explain why he is so good of a character?

EDIT: Mind you, I only played FF7 and saw Advent Children (once) so if there is anything to the story in the other pre/sequels, I am oblivious to them.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'd take a wild guess here but I feel it has to do with a few factors.

1) He has a pretty strong back story which is something that was pretty unseen for FF villains at the time. Though it had the unfortunate implication of making players sympathize with him more than the creators intended.

2) He was an interesting take on Zemus' role in FFIV where he spent the majority of the time manipulating bodies to do his dirty work.

3) He was cool looking, I don't even care for the dumb sod but I'll admit he's got a sleek badass design that made me gravitate towards him back in the day.

[Jinx]

His gorgeous, white mane.

[Forsaken Lover]

You might as well ask why FFVII itself was so popular. Plenty of people will insist its characters weren't that good, its plot wasn't that original, its soundtrack wasn't that amazing, etc..

Sephiroth was presented really well. You always felt his presence and threat. They do a great job in Cloud's flashback of building up just how obscenely powerful he is. And of course this was coming on the wake of the horror show that was Shinra HQ after he was done with it. And right after Cloud's flashback you stumble upon this:


Cloud says something like "Sephiroth's strength is unreal. Everything you've ever heard about him doesn't actually do it justice." The game does a very nice job of constantly showing that in the early stages.

Hell, even the mystery of Sephiroth was well built up. First with President Shinra's line about him being too brilliant than Cloud's various little "freak-outs" in Midgar. By the time you get to Kalm you really want to know what the deal with this Sephiroth guy is.

Now, his development wasn't that good. I've addressed all that in this thread I made. But that doesn't change the fact Sephiroth looks cool, he is constantly in your face and he has a great theme song.

No one will ever forget the first time "Those Chosen By The Planet" kicks in with its creepy chorus just as he says "I'm going to see my mother." FFVII had such perfect cinematic direction. That song, that line, it all communicated to you that he had totally lost it.

[Sephiroth]

Sephiroth is the perfect result of mixing popular themes together. That automatically attracts a greater fanbase. He is the cool-looking anime villain with alround combat, magic, psychic DBZ immortality powers and was presented perfectly at the right time.

To put it in a nutshell.

Sabin....Suplexed.....*sigh* a mothersmurfin' train.....

He didn't and can't.

[black orb]

>>> Because he was the first truly bad-ass FF character, before Sephiroth we had?

[Bright Shield]

^Sephiroth gets owned by someone far weaker than himself on more than one occassion. Not what I'd consider badass...

[arenzi]

Maybe because it's FF7 and he's in FF7. I dunno. I don't care for him myself though.

[Forsaken Lover]

>>> Because he was the first truly bad-ass FF character, before Sephiroth we had?

Sabin....Suplexed.....*sigh* a mothersmurfin' train.....

[Sephex]

I think other people covered it well. He had a really good build up and his design was not only slick looking, but very different than other FF villains. I also think he--OH **** I DROPPED SOMETHING FROM MY INTERNET POCKET!!!

(SPOILER)

[Psychotic]

Sephiroth was presented really well. You always felt his presence and threat. They do a great job in Cloud's flashback of building up just how obscenely powerful he is. And of course this was coming on the wake of the horror show that was Shinra HQ after he was done with it. And right after Cloud's flashback you stumble upon this:

Cloud says something like "Sephiroth's strength is unreal. Everything you've ever heard about him doesn't actually do it justice." The game does a very nice job of constantly showing that in the early stages.

Hell, even the mystery of Sephiroth was well built up. First with President Shinra's line about him being too brilliant than Cloud's various little "freak-outs" in Midgar. By the time you get to Kalm you really want to know what the deal with this Sephiroth guy is.

Exactly right. The set up for Sephiroth is fantastic. The first part of the game is you having tussles with the Shinra, and Sephiroth is just some sort of myth. Then the trail of blood. Then the Kalm flashback. Then the Midgar Zolom. And you're chasing him but you're not sure that you really want to catch him.

[LunarWeaver]

Uematsu giving him One-Winged Angel probly helped.

[Forsaken Lover]

Uematsu giving him One-Winged Angel probly helped.

Ahem.

[Uchu]

When playing the game for the first time I hadn't been exposed to villains in the same way as RPG's feature them. So while I'm not on the Sephiroth train by any means, when playing the game he was mysterious and felt like someone/thing to be feared which left a big impression on me. I wanted to stop him, but at the same time felt unsure of what exactly was waiting for me when I would finally catch up to him. If i'm honest, i have never really thought about why he is popular, but I know I like him as a villain.

[Shiva95]

I think Sephiroth is so popular firstly because he's in FF7, but also because he's really mysterious. When I first play the game, when I was looking for him, I was really curious to see how he really was. I think he's a big part of FF7's success.