About Sephiroth

[ravenzero2000]

You guys really wanna know why Sephiroth is immune to all those things, well its because.....

He's Freakin SEPHIROTH! ULTIMATE BADASS IN ALL OF FINAL FANTASY! ENOUGH SAID!

[Masamune·1600]

Okay, a little clarification:

Sephiroth's flashback materia combinations link Ice with All, Lightning with All, and Earth with All. Fire is not attached to anything, and Restore and Revive are linked, obviously to no additional effect. Everything he has is mastered.

There is no Elemental Materia attached to Fire, which is in his Masamune, and not his Gold Armlet, anyway. The fact that he is impervious to Flame Thrower should not be linked to the FMV sequence of him walking through the flames; rather, note that he is impervious to all attacks, physical and magical. Also, since Stare Down fails, it can be assumed he is immune to all statuses, at least for the purpose of the flashback. Finally, Sephiroth never loses MP, no matter how often he uses his spells.

There are several probable reasons for this. For one, there would be some sort of logical inconsistency if one's party were to be destroyed in a flashback. Cloud is obviously alive when he's telling the story, and it makes more sense to have Sephiroth be invincible than proto-Cloud (who didn't really exist, but that's a topic for another time). In any case, an invulnerable Sephiroth prevents the problem.

Also, from a statistical standpoint, Sephiroth is very similar to the playable characters when they are at the same level (Lv. 50). Much of Sephiroth's high (for the time) attack power can be attributed to the 99 attack rating of the Masamune. His HP is unremarkable. Therefore, from the story standpoint of conveying Sephiroth's power, invincibility is almost necessary (although this would be retroactive, since it is very unlikely that anyone is near level 50 at the time of the flashback).

As to the FMV sequence, he quickly walks through some flames, and essentially disappears into the distance. This is meant to look cool, and in some ways to define Sephiroth. It has nothing to do with immunity to fire.

As to Sephiroth and the Lifestream (MAJOR SPOILERS ahead):

Cloud's flashback never actually happened. Or rather, it did, but the "Cloud" in the flashback was actually Zack. After Sephiroth went on his rampage, both Zack and Tifa were stabbed by our villain. Cloud came along, and was also stabbed by Seph. However, Cloud, in reality only a grunt soldier, somehow managed to take the Masamune by the blade and throw it and its wielder into the Mako depths of the reactor.

Sephiroth, however, did not die. He floated through the Lifestream, probably absorbing some of the knowledge of the Ancients, and ultimately ended up in the North Crater. Physically, he remains there the entire game. You only actually see Sephiroth when Cloud gives him the Black Materia in Disc 2, and during the final battles.

However, even though Sephiroth was physically confined to the crater, he was able to influence the rest of the world. There is some debate as to the actual mechanics of how this happened. It has been suggested that the Sephiroth chased throughout Disc 1 was actually one of the Nibelheim Clones, mentally controlled by the real Seph. Similarly, some maintain that the Sephiroth being chased was a psychic projection of himself. There are theories that, using his body as a template, Jenova or Jenova cells took on Seph's form. This is not really improtant though; what is important is that Sephiroth in some way managed to control an image of himself, and was followed by the characters. So, even though he wasn't physically around, he was manipulating much of what was happening.

[Camanche]

Thank you very much. That cleared up a lot of things that I have been wondering about.

[udsuna]

Don't forget... Sephiroth was a powerful warrior in his own right. Used to going from warzone to warzone, and slaughtering everything in his way. He's not a weakling, and he's probably used to things like napalm and getting ifrit called down on his ass. He can take the heat, and he wouldn't be dumb enough to wear flamable clothing. Besides, it's anime, those never make sence.

[Shuyin.Sephiroth]

Although sephiroth is very cool, the resistens against fire isn't because of his superiority, cause if it was he would be immune to al element, at least that would be logik, probably has some kind of bracelet.

[Shoden]

Sephiroth is a suped up cooler and better version of Jesus

[Camanche]

Jesus. Yes, Jesus....