Talk:Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)/Archive 1
Nibelheim flashback
[edit]The descriptions in the Biography section concerning the events in Nibelheim are not a mistake, nor are they incorrect. The information detailed therein comes from Last Order: Final Fantasy VII and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, which presents the current canon version of these events.
I would have to disagree. I don't think the events in the Nibelheim reactor have been retconned, seeing as how the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Reunion Files book states in the Last Order section that Cloud's memories are quite messed up (or something to that effect) and that Last Order is one possible interpretation of the Nibelheim incident. Please correct me if I have misstated anything, as I do not have access to my Reunion Files book at the moment. Chibi Gohan 08:05, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
Biblical themes
[edit]You guys just mentioned one aspect of the biblical theme, but what about Sephiorth representing Jesus and Jenova representing J-hov-h? There are hints (albeit not many, but the info alluding on Sephiroth representing Satan/Lucifer is also full of speculation) on Cloud representing a Satan/Loki like figure (e.g. Nibelheim, the Fenrir bike). --Darthanakin 07:32, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
oh yeah and when Cloud and Sephy fight in AC, Sephy asks cloud to beg in forgiveness. Lateron, a big chunk of debris gets slashed by Sephiroth int he shape of a cross
{{spoiler}}
Hm. There's a problem with this page, but it would require a lot of reworking. The "Backstory" section is laden with information that is not "backstory". I mean, nearly half of that section is composed of spoilers about the game, not Sephiroth's background. I realize this is an encyclopedia, and the more information the better, but still - do we want to be ruining the game for people?
- Well, that's why a warning was placed in there. --Paul Soth 14:23, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, but the main Final Fantasy VII page doesn't even have spoilers. Why should Sephiroth's character page contain details about the entire game's plot when the main page only gives expository details?
- Because someone hasn't written it into that article. Sadly, you really can't talk about Seph's background without going into the plot of the game since he's so heavily involved with it. And it's nothing unique here. If you check the pages for other fictional characters, you'll see that those articles also go into depth about the plot of the character's sources. Hannibal Lecter and Agent Smith are good examples. --Paul Soth 16:06, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Okay, perhaps I'm just too much of a fan of this game and I don't like to see the story ruined, but these just seem ridiculous to me. Please explain why these two paragraphs are necessary to explain parts of Sephiroth's character that haven't been explained already, or could be explained otherwise. Oh yes, and what is the question mark in parentheses for?
- "Aerith Gainsborough, a flower vendor who is the last true descendent of the Cetra and has become enamored with Cloud and joined the heroes, learns that the mystical Holy can stop Meteor, and travels alone to the City of the Ancients in order to summon it. Cloud and the others race to find her, but only to witness Sephiroth drop from the air to drive his sword through her, killing her instantly.
- From there, Sephiroth manages to manipulate the self-deluded Cloud into performing the necessary tasks to complete his goals. However, Cloud is able to recompose himself with the help of Tifa Lockhart, and is able to defeat Sephiroth before his plans are fulfilled. Sephiroth did however, manage to summon Meteor but with the Holy spell to stop it the planet was restored, yet killing many people(?)." -- StellarFury 20:31, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Well, it's been rewritten now. One of the things I think this article should do is present information for those who have finished the game, but are still trying to clear up any questions they may still have. And for those who may want to play the game and have not, the spoiler notice is still there. Anyone reading past that point knows what they're getting into. --Paul Soth 21:46, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- All right, I suppose I can live with that justification. Although, perhaps we should just make a new page discussing any speculation/theories on the ending? I'd be willing to write it, but I haven't been in this wiki business long enough to know how to set up pages with the appropriate links and such. -- StellarFury 21:54, 12, Jul 2004
- Not a bad idea, really. Sounds like such a thing could easly be made part of the main FFVII article. Best thing to do is to bring it up on the Discussion page over there if you're not too sure what to put in it. --Paul Soth 22:15, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Who cares if the spoilers ruin the story for people. It's their fault for reading it. There shouldn't even be spoiler warnings. → JarlaxleArtemis 00:37, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)
- Some articles are so short that you're going to end up seeing things anyway, so spoiler warnings are good. Second, there needs to be a way for the information to be segregated, so that people can get around it with no problems; the spoiler warning, while not perfect, is a good way to help that. Third, there's no need to print everything and anything under the sun about a plot; otherwise it ruins the game/movie/book/whatever. If you'll look around, note that few of the articles on Wiki (or on any other encyclopedia) have a full exposition of a plot. That's the norm. People don't expect to see the plot pasted up, and we should be sticking to standard accepted norms. So I'm all for the edits and the spoiler warnings.--Mitsukai 01:28, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
That bit about President Shinra getting killed by Sephiroth is a bit iffy, as it's still being debated by fans; it's argued that it could have been a Sephiroth clone, an astral projection of Sephiroth, or JENOVA posing as Sephiroth. I wouldn't want someone reading this and thinking that's definitely what happened. Indeed, I do believe that a section/page pulling all of this speculation is in order.Mole 18:21, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- It's not really iffy. Every "Sephiroth" you see in the game is a clone or an instance of JENOVA, except for the Sephiroth in the Northern Crater - and he couldn't have killed the President, because that Sephiroth was inside a crystal. However, they are all being directly controlled by the original Sephiroth from the Northern Crater so, in essence, Sephiroth killed the president. And in terms of the "speculation" page, I suggested it on the main page and it was shot down. I don't really think we'll need it though, as long as we seriously revamp the FFVII group of pages. StellarFury 21:42, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
On the former argument of spoilers, the page devoted to Sephiroth spoiling the game is a moot point because someone who played the game or was interested in playing it wouldnt likely know who Sephiroth is and wouldn't search for and read the article. If someone did read an article on the antagonist before playing the game it is their own fault if the plot is spoiled.
Cleanup
[edit]Alright if it doesn't mean cleanup then just what the hell is this supposed to mean? "The Final Fantasy VII story line is extremely diverse and still leaves many questions; this, however, is a collection of ideas about Sephiroth, one of the most interesting villains of the Final Fantasy series, no matter how assumptious they may be." D. G. 13:01, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- You know, perhaps we should just yank that paragraph. --Paul Soth 02:46, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Well perhaps in a way, it was Sephiroth who killed the president. It seems to me that he was a kind of demi-god at any rate. Maybe he could be anywhere and everywhere and be aware of what was happening? Lord Sephiroth 21:10, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
I think that the information about Sephiroth from Last Order and FFVII itself should be kept seperate. The same applies to Before Crisis.
It wasn't Sephiroth whom kill President Shinra. Remember until you go to the Northern Crater and release Sephiroth himself he is frozen inside a giant lifestream rock like thing. What he did do though was use mind controll like Jenova to turn the clones into himself and acted out through them. I guess maybe in a sense it was him but not really him himself lol.
Ok for anyone who reads this I would like to give alot of credit to the person who took the time to write this. I will share it with you all. Please read it. It is over about 12 pages long so please if you have the time read it. http://www.angelfire.com/yt2/zforce6455/lit/ff7.html though this will spoil most of the game but it will give its true meaning to the game and make you think....
Resemblances
[edit]The character Sephirot borrows many characteristics from Arstein the Dark Knight, a character from the videogame Dragon Knight III (also known as Knights of Xentar).
Merger
[edit]I've suggested a merger of Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) and Safer Sephiroth. I understand the articles themselves are both pretty stout as it is, but they do contain information about the same person. It's not like we'd have seperate articles for Zemus and Zeromus, X-Death and Neo X-Death. ~ Hibana 18:36, August 4, 2005 (UTC)
- Agree - I'm surprised they're not the same article — CuaHL 19:15, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
- Agree - A separate article isn't really necessary for something we see for such a small part of the game. --Vyran 19:19, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
- Agree - For both the above mentioned reasons, I don't think much more can be said. – DarkEvil 22:09, August 4, 2005 (UTC)
- Agree - Though there's tons of stuff and some of the rambling needs to be trimmed down, probably. Or not. Still, it's pretty strange to have a separate article for just one form of the boss... --Wwwwolf 15:18, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
All right, five project participants is good enough for me. I'll go ahead and merge them and turn Safer's headings into subheadings. ~ Hibana 19:40, August 5, 2005 (UTC)
Name "Safer Sephiroth"
[edit]Speaking of "Safer Sephiroth", I think that, in the interest of canonicity over translation botches, "Seraph Sephiroth" should be the accepted default for the name, since that is the original, official name. Notes about Safer/Sepher Sephiroth would be mentioned on the side. Any for implementing this change? But, on topic, I think that the One Winged Angel page would be best merged with the main Sephiroth page, as well. -Reichu 01:16, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
- If "Seraph Sephiroth" was the original name, cite a reliable source supporting that. It would make little sense to me by default that it would be the original name, considering that it displays a shocking lack of an understanding of the name origin of "Sephiroth"; much more likely for an obscure word like "sepher" to be mistranslated than an amazingly common, obvious name like "seraph", after all. Likewise, more likely that the "seraph" comparison would arise later as fanboys tried to figure out the meaning of "safer", than that "seraph" would be the original name and just happen, totally by coincidence, to be almost identical to the kabbalistic phrase "sepher sephiroth". I'm not saying it's impossible, but where's the documentation?
- Anyway. "One Winged Angel" shouldn't be merged with this article, since it's about a very well-known and noteworthy song, not about an aspect or form of the character Sephiroth like the Safer Sephiroth article was. If it should be merged at all, it should be merged into a page or section on "music of Final Fantasy VII" or something like that. However, one thing that should happen is the removal of the lyrics to the song on that page; Wikipedia pages can quote a lyric or two if there's an important point to be made about it in the text of the article, but song articles are not supposed to have the full lyrics displayed, helpful as it may be. -Silence 05:36, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
- Not having the original version of the game, I cannot absolutely positively confirm this... But thanks for calling me on it. -_-; I did a somewhat more thorough search this time around, specifically looking for an enemy list for FF7, and this [[1]] is what the Almighty Google found. The final enemy listed is セーファ・セフィロス, or Sēfa Sefirosu for those who cannot read that. (This result can then be used to confirm 423 other Google results, all FF7-related, I b'lieve.) Then, I looked into the accepted katakana form of sepher, and the Google results are inconsistent: せフェル seferu, せ(ー)フェル sēferu, and セフィール sefīru. Hmmm... I'm really not sure what the heck to make of this, since "Sepher Sephiroth" makes infinitely more sense than "Safer Sephiroth". There remains the slight possibility that sēfa can be a more obscure (or possibly "incorrect", by Japanese standards) katakana rendition of sepher, although -er is almost always (by any example I can think of at the moment) rendered as a long アー ā. This would also apply to the word "safer" (which could be rendered at least two different ways, although セイファー is the only one that provides a SpaceAlc (one of my best friends) result [[2]].
- There is, however, a precedent within Final Fantasy VII for a vowel+r being rendered in katakana as a short vowel: Marlene is pronounced (and written) as マリン Marin.
- I'm not sure what to make of all this. What do ya'll think?
- In regards to the lyrics, I'm not sure they should be removed... Perhaps they could at least be relegated to one of Wikipedia's sister projects (although I don't feel like looking up the relevant one right now, heh)? Although, if you remove the lyrics, the article becomes quite short. I'm hard-pressed to think of a reason why it should not be merged with a more substantive article, whichever is deemed the most appropriate.-Reichu 17:19, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
- Would Wikibooks be appropriate? Most walkthroughs seem to include the lyrics anyway. =) --Wwwwolf 12:08, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
- The "official name" is whatever the hell Square puts in their translations, and our job is to consider which one is the one that is actually used. The gigantic debate over Aerith's (and Tifa's, to lesser extent) name has already proven that this is a really thorny issue.
- But whatever we do, we should not take the Japanese name and try to transliterate that and claim it's the official name. Transliterations are transliterations! There are competiting systems for Japanese transliterations. Would you prefer seeing Сêфа Сефиросу for instance? (Yes, that's as valid as anything.) Also, we should never, ever speculate on what was "intended" and choose that; If we speculate the true intentions on how to render the name, that should be clearly marked as such. Otherwise people are just confused ("What version had Heretic Hojo anyway? Mine said Helletic").
- On these grounds, I think the appropriate thing is to 1) use the name Safer Sephiroth, and 2) if necessary, provide Japanese name as well. These are the two names that are used in the game. (We can debate about the used punctuation though - see above on this talk page for more on that.) --Wwwwolf 11:59, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
- Actually, not this talk page. This talk page. sorry. --Wwwwolf 12:08, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
- Wwwwolf, if you want to get picky, the FFVII translation is Sony's, NOT Square's. This may be the only reason we ended up with Aeris, Shera, etc., although unless Square releases a new translation supervised by them, there's no way to know for sure. Additionally, when it comes to official transliterations, these are oftentimes provided in Japanese materials. If you have a canon material in Japanese, and you see "Aerith Gainsborough" written distinctly in the Roman alphabet next to エアリス・ゲインズブル, then this is the official transliteration regardless of whatever the American version says, because the Japanese version is the ORIGINAL and thus supercedes all else.
- It's when the official Japanese transliteration is inconsistent, or simply unavailable, that some sort of "consensus" much be reached among gaijin fans about which one should be the "standard". The only FFVII name I'm aware of that has the "inconsistency" problem is Barret's, since it is written "Barett" in the soundtrack booklet (I don't know about where else; hopefully I'll be able to secure additional materials once I have the $$$), but is "Barret" in the AC credits. In this case, we're obviously going to go with the one that is familiar.
- I do think that Wiki has a duty to respect the higher canon, which is why something like Aerith vs. Aeris should be a "no contest". In any case, I'm hoping the debate over that particular case is over... My point here is that, after investigating the matter in more detail, I agree that the case of the last boss is adequately ambiguous that we should just stick with what's familiar as the default, although, since the name problem has attracted so much attention, hopefully it won't be any problem if I detail the debacle somewhat in the article.
- BTW, Tifa is official and always has been. There has been a debate over this? o_O;; -Reichu 14:50, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
- *nods* Okay, this may have been one my famous Reactions again. Sorry if I sounded wrong.
- And yes, in case you didn't notice, there's been a slight problem with Tifa's name. Lockheart or Lockhart? =) --Wwwwolf 15:59, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
In the event that the matter comes up again in the future, I think it should be pointed out that "Safer" is Hebrew for "Book." This wasn't a mistranslation of "Seraph." Literally, "Safer Sephiroth" means "Book of Numbers." It was another piece of Jewish symbolism.
Ryu Kaze 16 January, 2006
There are a bunch of symbolic things in FFVII that you guys arn't looking at. Lets take Safer Sephiroth for example. Just like I mentioned about Bizzaro Sephiroth and how it is really Jenova. I do notice that Sephiroth's wing isn't black. Look closely and you notice it is Red Blue and Gree (Or something like that.) Each representing each cycle of Jenova. "Birth Life and Death" Safer or Seraph there is a meaning to exactly why it was named the way it was. Also Final Fantasy has alot to do with Celtic Mythology and there magic beliefs. In Celtic mythology it three was symbolized to have magical powers. Three and every multiple of 3. Nine being the most important for it always reverted back to itself (For example 9*2 is 27 2+7=9/ 9*5=45 4+5=9) Notice you have 9 Characters in the game you can play as excluding Sephiroth at one point (That goes deeper into another for of mythology and defines sephiroth's name more)You can only battle in parties of 3. The number of enemies total in the game is devisable by 3. Given that it isnt hard to believe Ryu Kaze about Safer Sephiroth means "Book of Numbers." Remember this game is a lie telling the truth. TO understand this game you must see past what is told and look around that for the answer.
True Main Antagonist?
[edit]Does anyone else think the tone of this section is inappropriate? I'm also not to sure about the constant references to Lord of the Rings. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 13:39, August 13, 2005 (UTC)
- I think that in this case 'Anthagonist' should be thought as 'Anti-hero'; Jenova still remains the anthagonist of the entire FF7's plot, but Sephiroth is clearly Cloud's evil counterpart. - Omar; August 24, 2006
- I personally think it falls under the category of original research. If there were some way to cite the fact that fans dispute the issue, I'd say we could reword it. Otherwise, I say we scrap the whole section. ~ Hibana 13:58, August 13, 2005 (UTC)
- I'm in complete agreement. At the very least, remove the pointless Lord of the Rings comparisons. Apostrophe 02:29, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
- I've gone ahead and removed the whole section. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 12:24, August 16, 2005 (UTC)
- Just in case no one involved in this is yet aware, the Final Fantasy VII: Ultimania Omega Guide has confirmed Sephiroth's consciousness as that which was active and plotting everything. Essentially, JENOVA was an instinctual creature without a consciously perceiving intellect, whereas Sephiroth -- as a Homo Sapien -- had such a mind. Thus, his mind became the consciousness for JENOVA, with he himself being something of an evolved form of JENOVA.
- I've gone ahead and removed the whole section. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 12:24, August 16, 2005 (UTC)
- I'm in complete agreement. At the very least, remove the pointless Lord of the Rings comparisons. Apostrophe 02:29, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
- Obviously you're going to want to wait for a good translation before/if putting this on the page, so I'll provide one at the earliest available time if anyone present feels that it's needed. - Squall of SeeD; September 26, 2005
- Just so you know, the proper notation is Homo sapiens. Make sure you tell all your friends!
- This tidbit is interesting... A form of advanced symbiosis, eh? I wonder how Sephiroth was singled out as the one to whom Jenova essentially... oh, cripes, this is way too confusing! Why would Jenova continue to exist as a separate entity, if Sephiroth became her consciousness? What precisely was the "phantasmic" Sephiroth that the heroes chase for the majority of the game, whose body eventually disintegrates because it "is no longer useful"? Why were forms of Jenova fought when this incarnation of Sephiroth was encountered, as opposed to Sephiroth himself? Hummm...
- In any case, I will have to get ahold of this book at some point. I'm actually capable of translating Japanese (provided the language used is straightforward, which I'm guessing it would be), so if nobody has made a citation by then, I'll take care of things. -Reichu 16:16, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Jenova was the true main atagonist. Jenova could control the mind of whomever she please. Sephiroth wasn't the only one she controlled. She controlled cloud as well. To put it easier though. Sephiroth controlled the clones that were running around making the reunion. That is how he came back to be. He was still trapped in the northern crater in the crystalized lifestream. Jenova though was controlling his thoughts and making him do what she needed to be done. Here is a good example of this.
After Sephiroth kills Aeris he tells Cloud, "Ha, ha, ha! Stop acting as if you were sad. There's no need to act as though you're angry either." He begins to float into the air, "Because, Cloud, you are..." He trails off, almost as if confused by something, leaving another Jenova incarnation to stall them. They kill the seemingly puppet creature and it is Jenova who finishes these five critical words, "Because you are...a puppet." This is the only time in the game that Jenova speaks. Why is it Jenova who says this? What does this mean? Well, I believe it means that Jenova is really controlling everyone. - Unknown
To the above, please sign and time stamp your comments. And according to square-enix, what basicly happened was it couldn't control him, and he found out that link can work both ways, and now controls jenova. Everyone infected with jenova is linked. During the game cloud has voices in hi shead, during the advent children movie kadaaj is able to use this link (under its influence) to show rufus whats a glimps of sephiroth, and at the very same instant cloud sees it and feels pain from his geostigma. They state that jenova is a creature of instict, its possable the previous "consciousness" of jenova would have been the pervious being it was merged with in the geological stratum proffesser gast released. - Ace 2006-05-23
I don't think any of you are seeing it correctly. HOJO is the main villain. Neither Jenova nor Sephiroth (well, maybe Jenova, she was evil, but not AS evil and Sephiroth certainly is more powerful than Hojo, but still..., aw, just continue reading!) were as evil as he. Who else agrees? No one?
Jenova
[edit]If "Jenova" isn't a portmanteau, that should probably be fixed on Jenova too... -Silence 19:18, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
- Jenova is probably a portmanteau (unless someone has a better theory where the name comes from), but if you're going to describe it as a portmanteau, you have to say which words it comes from. More than one. Important distinction. Anyway, I hope the wording is less clumsy these days as is. --Wwwwolf 11:09, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
- The edit I was responding to did mention the two words that Jenova may be a combination of: Jehovah and Nova. But OK, that doesn't have to be mentioned on this article, I just wanted to make sure we didn't say anywhere that it's a portmanteau if it isn't. -Silence 05:36, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
Acording to Sakaguchi san the name was crafted to mean "the new god". I asked him in person ^^ -randomfanboy, 5/23/06
Dirge of Cerberus
[edit]Someone added an entire section for Dirge of Cerberus just to mention the rumor that Sephiroth "finds a new vessel to inhabit" (the mysterious fellow in the trailers). While this is certainly possible (since Sephiroth just REFUSES to die, and all), I think this is inappropriate for the article at this time, so I've removed it. Hopefully ya'll won't find this objectionable... -Reichu 06:06, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
- Some people just don't get that Wikipedia is not a crystal ball. I'll put money down that he'll show up in some shape or form. Until then... ~ Hibana 01:41, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Katayoku no tenshi
[edit]Someone advocates in the article that 片翼の天使 (katayoku no tenshi) does not refer to something with just one wing, but something with "wings on one side". I'm not sure if this is entirely correct... I'll admit I'm not fully qualified to make a definite accessment, but I've taken the liberty (with the help of an old friend [3]) of looking for related uses of 片 kata- ("one-sided") + "body part" to see what the term precisely implies. Apparently, kata can imply the possession of only one of said body part (as in a leg or an eye) or is used in reference to an action in which only one of the available parts are employed (carrying something with one hand, baring one shoulder, hopping on one leg). I think this adequately demonstrates that whoever made this comment in the article was mistaken on the usage of the prefix kata-. Sephiroth is STILL the "One-Winged Angel" and it STILL doesn't make any sense (at the end of FF7, anyway). I'll fix this later unless someone objects.
Also, I've made a proposal for the Sephy page in FF7 talk. Take a lookie, please. ^_^ -Reichu 18:11, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
Anonymos
[edit]does anyone know that lucifer is an arc angel not a seraphim. it says in the bible it self.
HAHA RELIGIOUS FREAK!
- So, what are you getting at? And which version of the "bible" are you referring to? ~ Hibana 20:50, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
- Hey, in my bible it says he was a cherubim (messenger boy) ~ bible thumpin dude (kiding) 20:42, 09 June 2006 (UTC)—Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.229.144.68 (talk • contribs)
- In Jewish lore Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel are Seraphim. However Gabriel and Michael are then called Archangels in Christianity. This leads to some confusion as Archangels are rather low rank of angel but are the highest ranked ones that have contact with humans. In Revelations it speaks of the seven that stand in teh presence of God, the work of a seraph, but many refer to these as the seven archangels. One of the ways to reconcile this is that Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, etc. are all Seraphim and yet because they have contact with humans can also be considered Archangels. And on a side note, some versions of the story put Lucifer as a Cherub.
- The differences between various classifications and "choirs" of angels has always been a little hazy. Technically, very little canon material has ever been seen on the actual organization of the heavenly host. However, according to varying sources, Lucifer has been termed an Archangel, a Seraph (which is the singular form of the plural noun Seraphim), and a Cherub (similarly the singular form of Cherubim). The term archangel seems to refer both to 1) the second lowest choir of angels and 2) angels set over all other angelic beings in heaven, angels set over all other choirs. In this way, Lucifer could be both a cherub and an archangel, or a seraph and an archangel. And by the way, as far as I can recall, the term archangel is never used once in the Christian Bible. I can't speak for Jewish scripture and lore, but I'm pretty sure the term archangel is an invention of the Catholic Church, or one of its hazy predecesors.Spinto tenor 23:11, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Bizarro Sephiroth
[edit]Considering the age of the article, I find it out of place for me to say this, but I think an extra tid bit should be added about Bizarro Sephiroth. Though there's not at much discussion for this form of Sephiroth as there is "Safer," there are still quite a few things to point out. For example, the song which plays during this fight is called "Birth of a God" (I believe), which could allude to Sephiroth nearly reaching his goal. This form also seems to be a combination of both Jenova and Sephiroth, as there seems to be two heads upon the foe. The rather fish-looking appearance of Bizarro may also be inspired from a rather popular and powerful aquatic god whose name unfortunately escapes me =X. Thoughts and/or opinions on this? Or maybe some extra bits of information on the subject? MidnightWolf 08:20, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
Ok Something about this form of Sephiroth is that it sadly isn't sephiroth. It is Jenova. What alot of people don't know or notice about sephiroth is he lives a lie. He thinks Jenova is his mother when she isn't. Jenova is the "Crisis from the Sky" and when she came to the planet she befriended the Cetra by using mind controll. When she got to the point where all the Cetra trusted her she spread a disease. (which in my belief was geostigma. Watch FFVII Advent Children for more info)Well after that a few cetra survived and you know what happened after that anyways. Jenova can controll anyone that has jenova cells inplanted in them. This being Sephiroth and Cloud for two main examples. She can controll anyone (Given that she is like a god herself and in my belief made everything herself) Remember in the First reactor when cloud freaks. It was Jenova that was toying with him cause he was going against her will. She wanted to use the make reactors to drain as much Mako energy as possible then when it was right have someone cast meteor so when it hit the planet it wouldn't have enough energy to heal itself again. Well, she controlled Sephiroth the whole game and I think this form highly represents Jenova and how she controlled him. If you notice when its thier turn to attack and they attack. She moves her nads like she is controlling a puppet. She does this over Sephiroth's head. She is showing how she controlled him the whole time and how she was in controll. This also proves that Sephiroth isn't the true bad guy. He is merely a pawn in a bigger game. - unknown
- I presume this was the same person I responded to above..I signed for them as "unknown" since they didn't leave a name. - Ace 2006-05-23
- Of course, there's the fact that Ultimania Omega says Sephiroth was controlling Jenova, since he had a stronger will. urutapu 13:33, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
- Look, Sephiroth controlled Jenova. Sephiroth is the main villain. Sephiroth is the final boss. For God's sake, why do people insist on ignoring the Ultimania and saying that that giant bug is the antagonist behind everything? 16:38, 27 March 2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.209.131.242 (talk) 21:38, 27 March 2007 (UTC).
- It has been stated officially that Sephiroth was in control of Jenova. The above statements are inaccurate. However, the name, I believe, should be addressed. Square-Enix officially recognizes "Reverse Sephiroth" as the proper name for Bizzaro Sephiroth, NOT "Rebirth Sephiroth." Please see the Ultimania Omega guide and the Creatures Art Collection figures for more proof. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.252.250.8 (talk) 18:55, 14 April 2007 (UTC).24.252.250.8 18:57, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
- Look, Sephiroth controlled Jenova. Sephiroth is the main villain. Sephiroth is the final boss. For God's sake, why do people insist on ignoring the Ultimania and saying that that giant bug is the antagonist behind everything? 16:38, 27 March 2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.209.131.242 (talk) 21:38, 27 March 2007 (UTC).
Not a Mako Baby and the Jenova Project was not Hojo's
[edit]As of right now, the article makes two inaccurate statements pretty much from the get-go:
"Wishing to create a modern day Ancient, and believing that the blood of the Cetra was what would do this (rather than the lifestyle of the Cetra), Hojo injected cell samples from Jenova into the pregnant Lucrecia, along with Mako, the Planet's lifeblood. Lucrecia then conceived Sephiroth, ingraining the Mako and Jenova cells in his very DNA."
1) It was Professor Gast's Project, not Hojo's. Hojo says as much himself and states that THEY injected the cells of Jenova into Lucrecia together:
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!!"
2) Mako was not injected into Lucrecia's womb. Nowhere is this implied or indicated. Sephiroth likely received his Mako infusion at some time after birth. As of right now, there's no reason to believe that he was given an injection while in the womb.
Ryu Kaze February 4, 2006
One-Winged Angel Section
[edit]I've tightened the "One-Winged Angel" section up a great deal, which consisted of fixing some errors, rearranging some sentences that were totally out of place, adding information where needed, removing some pointless speculation, adding opposing views to relevant speculation, and generally making it more coherent and encyclopedic.
I also changed Sephiroth's birthplace from "Unknown" to "Nibelheim." Ryu Kaze 06:11, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
- Hold on, Sephiroth was born in Nibelheim? Are you sure? I thought he was 'created' in a generic Mako reactor. I didn't think it was confirmed to be the Nibelheim reactor. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 14:33, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
Uh... Sephiroth wasn't created at all. He was Hojo and Lucrecia's son. They were Gast's assistants on the Jenova Project, which, as you may know, was intended to produce new Cetra in the modern day. They had made a couple of errors with Jenova and the Cetra. Gast not only mistakenly identified Jenova as a Cetra, but Shin-Ra believed that being a Cetra was a genetic thing instead of a lifestyle thing. They didn't understand that a Cetra doesn't become a Cetra because of their bloodline, but actually because of how they live. So to trying producing a new Cetra, they injected Jenova cells into Lucrecia's womb, and they merged with his body when he was still a fetus. That's why everything happens as it does in the game.
And Sephiroth's born in Nibelheim for sure. That's where the Jenova Project was carried out. We even see Lucrecia collapse there at some point before giving birth. Ryu Kaze 01:18, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
Advent Children and Manifestation Sections
[edit]This is a request that editors please stop stating that most of the forms of Sephiroth seen throughout Final Fantasy VII were astral projections (the Ultimania Omega Guide has identified most of them as being Jenova's body and pieces of its body), and that they also not change the descriptions of Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz in Advent Children to identify them as Sephiroth clones. This is false. They are manifestations of his will and spirit, for he was able to pull out of the lifestream before being diluted thanks to his strong will, as has been gone over repeatedly on many forums across the internet since September, and was even documented extensively in an essay by a fan:
http://faqs.ign.com/articles/657/657331p1.html
The film even calls the trio "shinentai" ("body of thoughts/will"), and is mentioned in that essay. Please be aware of these things if you weren't before, and please cease and desist. We wish to keep this article as factual as possible, and while any and all attempts to contribute are appreciated, it's better to err on the side of caution when dealing with controversial matters that you don't have a reference for.
The reference for this info, by the way, is the FFVII Ultimania Omega Guide, Advent Children itself, and The Distance, the making of Advent Children. Ryu Kaze 00:40, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
Every fanboy and his brother has a theory about his favorite video game posted on a website. Since this is all apparently based on a translation of a single word (a translation that's not even used in Square's English adaptation), it should at least be identifed as fan speculation in the article, instead of being treated as indisputable fact. If, on the other hand, there's a straightforward quote from Square saying what they really are, then that's what should be cited as a reference.
--65.5.141.34 16:55, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
where?
[edit]{{FFVII character | menu image = [[Image:Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) menu image.png|20px]] | name = Sephiroth | aka = | job = Top ranking SOLDIER officer | weapon = [[Masamune (video game weapon)|Masamune]] | dob = Unknown | birthplace = Nibelheim | age = About 30-35 | height = 6'1 (1.85m) | blood = Unknown | }} How come I cant find the "Image:Sephiroth art.jpg" anywhere in the syntax of the infobox while it is clearly being used? -- Psi edit 22:05, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
- Apprently, the template constructs the filename using the name parameter.
[[Image: {{{name}}} art.jpg|200px|{{{name}}} artwork by Tetsuya Nomura]].
- This is probably not good form. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 18:44, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
- No, probably not. I created the template when I knew little about templates. However, I do now, and if there's any particular need for me to make it an option, it'll take no time at all. I don't see any point changing it for now though. — CuaHL ☺ 23:52, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
- I agree, there's no need to change it. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 00:32, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- No, probably not. I created the template when I knew little about templates. However, I do now, and if there's any particular need for me to make it an option, it'll take no time at all. I don't see any point changing it for now though. — CuaHL ☺ 23:52, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Then how do I expand the pixels of the large image? -- Psi edit 01:53, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- And stretch the template? Why? It would look ridiculous — CuaHL ☺ 02:04, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Is it fair to say that its ridiculous for such a large image that has been shrunk so you cant see any details? 250px looks better -- Psi edit 02:13, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Is it ok if I use your info box to increase the size? -- Psi edit 02:18, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- It hasn't been shrunk. We were going for a standard look. As you'll see, all the FFVII character profiles have the same standard look, and are all 200px. I understand what you mean, Sephiroth's sword is a bit annoying. How about a comprimise? I'll edit the picture so it is decreased (here)? Give me a few minutes, wait for the change, then tell me what you think. — CuaHL ☺ 02:31, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- Done. How's that — CuaHL ☺ 02:40, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- Ps. I'm sorry for being so rude. I'm tired and trying to sort out about 10 things at once, and I should have been more helpful initially :) — CuaHL ☺ 02:42, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Sephiroth's age
[edit]Being that the previous edits (check the history) were way off-base on Sephiroth's age (and who he is for that matter), I also became aware that what we had there before was wrong too. The FFVII Ultimania Omega identifies Sephiroth as being born 25-30 years before FFVII begins, but that's as specific as it gets. "30-35" is incorrect, as is what was just up there ("really 65"). Ryu Kaze 12:52, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- is it just me or does squares manga Full metal alchemist amin antagonist ed hav a similar hair style to sephiroth among others mayb we shud make a collection of square characters who share his hair style
- That would be original research, and rather extrinsic at that. Ryu Kaze 03:25, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
- Much like Vincent, his appearance probably does not age at a normal rate. 25-30years during the original FFVII storyline seems plausible to me. 75.41.29.57 21:52, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
- If you go by Vincent's age, he's around 29 in the video game's present time. That makes him 22 in Crisis Core and 24 during flashbacks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.252.250.8 (talk) 19:03, 14 April 2007 (UTC).
- And a newborn, at the oldest, at the time that Hojo performed those modifications on him. I think the "29" is probably supposed to be his physical age, or the number of years he's been active, rather than the elapsed time between his birth and the game's events.
Kingdom Hearts special
[edit]Whether this is noteworthy or not, I'll leave up to you, the experts. The special attack used by Sephiroth in the Kingdom Hearts series, which is often referenced as "Sin Harvest", is actually "Sins of a Heartless Angel". Due to using a sound program on the first game, and the fact that it is said more clearly in the second game, I have been able to verify this. The S 02:54, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
- No, it is "Descend Heartless Angel." 04:28 PM, 20 April 2006
- The attack name is "Sin Harvest". The in-battle vocal command for it is "descend Heartless Angel". urutapu 00:56, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
- No it is not! Never has Sephiroth had an attack called "Sin Harvest." It was a misunderstanding of Lance Bass' words when he used the attack "Heartless Angel." He says "Descend Heartless Angel." Read the Kingdom Hearts strategy guide and Ultimania Omega which lists Sephiroth's attacks. Read the Kingdom Hearts II Strategy Guide that lists Sephiroth's attacks...read the Ultimania Omega of KH2 and see Sephiroth's attacks...the attack is most definately "Heartless Angel."198.213.57.8 20:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- The anon is right. In the final battle of FFVII itself (vs. "Safer Sephiroth"), Sephiroth has an attack called heartless angel which does the same thing - reduces all members of your party to 1 HP. He uses it very rarely, so you may have to fight him several times or wait a bit to see him use it. Kasreyn 03:24, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
- No it is not! Never has Sephiroth had an attack called "Sin Harvest." It was a misunderstanding of Lance Bass' words when he used the attack "Heartless Angel." He says "Descend Heartless Angel." Read the Kingdom Hearts strategy guide and Ultimania Omega which lists Sephiroth's attacks. Read the Kingdom Hearts II Strategy Guide that lists Sephiroth's attacks...read the Ultimania Omega of KH2 and see Sephiroth's attacks...the attack is most definately "Heartless Angel."198.213.57.8 20:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- When you isolate Sephiroth's voice track from the first and second games, the words "Sins of..." can clearly be heard. The S 02:45, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
No.He says 'Descend'.He says it in other dubs too (which get translated directly from the script and not from what the translators hear.).It's most definitely 'Descend,heartless Angel'.84.134.216.114 18:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
possible POV
[edit]The new Jenova section seems a POV to me, especially the "The real Sephiroth was killed by Cloud before the game even began" section. Nothing in the game (as far as I remember) evidencies that Sephiroth is merely a manifestation of Jenova's will. Any thoughts?
- Doesn't FFVII Ultimania say that Sephiroth was controlling Jenova, since his will is apparently stronger? urutapu 13:48, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
- I got rid of that section. And, yes, the Ultimania Omega does say that. Ryu Kaze 14:25, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
Why is Last Order being considered the canon version of events? This is very misleading.
[edit]I don't really see why Last Order is being used as the final canon version of events in Final Fantasy VII when the game and the Ultimania Omega book contradicts it completely. It's like using the Kingdom Hearts manga as the final canon say so, instead of the Kingdom Hearts game or Ultimana itself. Or in a broader sense...using a video game movie's recollection of events rather than the actual game itself. Last Order is an entertainment piece, period. It isn't the actual game or story analysis of it.
First of all, the game shows that Cloud threw Sephiroth into the mako pool, and Sephiroth fell into it.
Secondly, the Ultimania Omega quotes in Sephiroth's bio he FELL into the mako pool. PLUS on page 180 of the story analysis section of the Ultimania Omega, where it talks about Cloud rememberance of what really happened in Nibelheim, it shows and describes Cloud TOSSING Sephiroth into the mako pool.
Here is a translation of Sephiroth's bio and information on page 211 in the Ultimania Omega care of the "Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Translations FAQ" on gamefaqs care of Ryu_Kaze.
"5 years ago, Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream holding the head of Jenova, going to the Northern Crater, where the Planet's energy is concentrated, and where he would begin the Reunion -- and assuring his restoration -- by focusing through Jenova's cells. This regeneration was to be carried out by way of the Reunion, as the scattered Sephiroth Clones (-->P.213) would begin migrating toward the Northern Crater."
I don't understand how you are using the Ultimania Omega as the difinitive source and reference to canon events and information to his biography, yet you then choose to disregard it and go with the Last Order OVA. It's only an entertainment OVA; I don't see how it's considered the new canon of events. It was only made for entertainment purposes, and it's NOT the game. It is *BASED* on the events of FFVII, but not completely accurate. If you want to include how Last Order recalls the events of the Nibelheim Incident of Sephiroth's bio go ahead and include it, however it's misleading to just have the Last Order events portrayed as canon when the Ultimania Omega book AND the GAME ITSELF provide a different telling of events. Very confusing and misleading. Use them side by side, or just have the game and Ultimania's telling of events...but just providing the Last Order recollection is not correct and should be cleaned up. I'm not going to edit it yet since I want to discuss this first but I really feel this isn't very consistent or correct.198.213.57.8 16:32, 26 April 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- I love how no one is discussing or acknowledging this issue I brought up... So is it that you don't care or is it safe for me to edit the article? I really want to discuss this since...you know, it's a pretty important issue how the events are seen. So why the silence?198.213.57.8 20:51, 29 April 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- LOL. Amazing. "Only made for entertainment purposes"? What about VII itself? It's the entertainment industry. Now you want to pick and choose what's canon and what's not?
- Trust me. For years, I've wished I had that same ability when it came to Star Trek. If only I could say "what Roddenberry did was canon, and what Berman and Braga have done is not". But that's not the rule. The rule is, anything officially produced and televised or screened under the Star Trek name is canon, and nothing else is. The rule for Square is a bit different: anything produced directly by Square is canon, and nothing else is. Since Last Order seems to conflict with a few points of VII's plot, we have to assume that they are deliberately changing the canon. Last Order was released last, therefore it reflects the most recent version of the canon as put forth by Square. Some of us might not like it, but that's just the way canon works when it comes to entertainment franchises. Last Order is canon because it was made by Square.
- Fwiw, though, I also disagree with using the Ultimania Omega guide. I've never even heard about it until two days ago, and I thought I'd read every FFVII guide there was (which was part of my research for writing my own). The best one I've found, other than my own, is Kao Megura's guide, hands down. No other guide comes close in terms of completeness. But then, I've not read the Ultimania Omega guide, so I don't know. Kasreyn 06:13, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
- Well the Ultimania Omega is the definitive guide to the story and plot to the game. It's created by the producers and story writters of Final Fantasy VII to answer questions and shed light on mysteries in the game. It is the most complete guide to the game because it covers every possible aspect, and it's straight from the game creator's mouths. It also contains interviews from the creators, various stats on all enemies, pictures of items and equipment, and other interesting bits of information..such as how FFVII has appeared in other games and what's next in the Compilation. Also it includes concept art, original plot ideas that were deleted, complete walkthrough, story analysis and more. Kitase, Nomura and the others all had a hand at it and it's produced by Square itself. It has only been released in Japan but there are numerous translations of it on the web. So when it offers information, such as Sephiroth being in control of Jenova from the start...that's how it was. And when it describes how Cloud was the one that pushed Sephiroth into the mako pool...I don't see how it can be ignored.
- I totally understand what you're saying and it makes sense...but when I say it was made for entertainmenet, I mean that it wasn't a new chapter, or definitive change in canon just because it was made and was done by Square. All it was, was an OVA of the events of FFVII that came as a bonus with the Advent Pieces set...I don't think it's the same thing as "Advent Children" which IS a contribution AND continuation of the FFVII timeline; the next chapter of the Compilation. But that's just me. I don't see how one OVA that was done as just a special bonus piece of animation overrides the actual game event itself AND the Ultimania Omega guide which is from the creators' mouthes and gives all canon analyses of the game. Again I equate it to taking for example...the movie adaptation of book as "canon" instead of the original work itself. Or to be more specific...the Kingdom Hearts Manga as the canon instead of the actual KH game itself. If the creators really wanted to change the game canon...why didn't they change it in the Ultimania Omega? It was released and created around the same time of the OVA so I would think if it was canon it would BE in there. But it is not.
- Now if you want to keep using the Last Order that's fine...but I would really suggest you give BOTH interpretations of the events to be fair and not cause confussion. Why completely disregard what happened in the ORIGINAL game? It wouldn't hurt to include both tellings of events and letting the reader decide for themselves right? I don't want to just edit this in without discussing and it though so let me know, I'd hate to just do it and not have it approved.198.213.57.8 22:58, 30 April 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- Sorry that I'm just now seeing this. It's not just Last Order that uses that version of events. Before Crisis uses it too, and it was overseen by Kitase and Nojima. The version of events seen in Last Order is canon. As for the Ultimania Omega, remember that it was only being written in regard to solely what was shown in the original game. You're supposed to read it as though you're in complete ignorance of the rest of the Compilation. Furthermore, it was released 5 days before Last Order, meaning that -- according to the system of canon -- Last Order is still canon because it's more recent. Ryu Kaze 14:24, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- Wikipedia's goal is to record all noteworthy human knowledge, not just all noteworthy human knowledge that continues to be gaming canon. Therefore we should include all significant versions of events, and properly label each divergence in the plot as being the result of a certain change or rewrite in a specific later Square publication, thus making it clear what the original sequence of events were in Final Fantasy VII and also making it clear what the later (and current) rewrites specified. This is the only way to bring this article in line with WP:NPOV by not decreeing that one version or another of the events is the absolute, inerrant canon (without a specific, definitive cite saying so—and even then providing the original version of events would be absolutely worth it): by providing the different versions side-by-side. This is also the method that will be the most beneficial to our readers, by far. -Silence 14:50, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- A good idea, but you'll have mixed results applying it. I'm sure it will work well here, but if you try to included non-canonical materials over at the Star Trek articles, they'll eat you alive. ;) I'm all in favor of it, as long as it's made clear which version is the official canon. The only stickler will be the notability standard. A non-canonical interpretation or history that is widely debated or followed will be much more likely to meet the notability standard than one person's theory off their personal blog. For instance, the speculation about the possibility of reviving Aeris is so wide-spread among FFVII fans (even though it's been thoroughly debunked), that it would definitely qualify as notable even though it's not canonical. A speculation on one guy's xanga about Reno and Rude being gay lovers (which I have seen) would be much less notable. :P The trouble is drawing the line. Kasreyn 17:37, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- "A good idea, but you'll have mixed results applying it." - This "good idea" (that information merits inclusion based on its noteworthiness and verifiability, not just based on whether someone claims that it is or isn't "canonical") is the cornerstone of the entirety of Wikipedia's encyclopedic content, so if you're saying that Wikipedia's core policies are good ideas, but generate "mixed results", I suppose I agree with you. :)
- "I'm sure it will work well here, but if you try to included non-canonical materials over at the Star Trek articles, they'll eat you alive." - Too bad. Wikipedia is quite explicit and unwavering in its requirement that noteworthy information, not just noteworthy canonical information, be included in the appropriate articles. If this was not the case, then just as elitist Star Trek fans could dismiss noteworthy information based on claims that it's not "canonical", so could elitist Christians dismiss noteworthy Biblical apocrypha and pseudepigraphy from Wikipedia on the grounds that it isn't part of the Biblical canon.
- Well, this was a few years ago before I'd gotten a user account, but they sure at me alive for adding something non-canonical. Who knows, maybe they're different now. Kasreyn 22:23, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- "The only stickler will be the notability standard. A non-canonical interpretation or history that is widely debated or followed will be much more likely to meet the notability standard than one person's theory off their personal blog." - Obviously. Verifiability is also vitally important too, though: just because someone claims that some non-canonical information is important and noteworthy doesn't make it so; it must also be backed up by citations, references, evidence, etc.
- "For instance, the speculation about the possibility of reviving Aeris is so wide-spread among FFVII fans (even though it's been thoroughly debunked), that it would definitely qualify as notable even though it's not canonical." - Exactly; that's why we do have a "Resurrection?" section in the Aerith article. Plus the very fact that this is such a common misconception and rumor makes it all the more important for Wikipedia to mention it to dispell the rumors; ignoring something because it's not canonical can only help spread false information. But, again, noteworthiness, verifiability and citations (to avoid original research) are what's most important in such matters.
- " A speculation on one guy's xanga about Reno and Rude being gay lovers (which I have seen) would be much less notable. :P" - And less verifiable. See Wikipedia:Reliable sources.
- "The trouble is drawing the line." - That trouble is present in all Wikipedia articles, and is actually much easier than it sounds. Let's start by gathering the available information in releases by Square, where they diverge on issues of plot, etc., and go from there in determining how best to organize and present the discrepencies, and the overall article. What matters is that we not exclude important, verifiable information just because it's not "canonical" (or people think it isn't canonical: as shown by the above discussion, in many cases determining canonicity is even more disputable and convoluted than noteworthiness). -Silence 20:26, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
- Wow...I see. I looked up the Before Crisis events and chapter summarys as well and yeah...they have it as canon too. Well I guess then if it's canon it's canon. I'm just surprised. Oh well...I do agree though with the user "Silence" it still wouldn't hurt to include both interpratations of events since they are both important. Just state that the Last Order event is canon. The FFVII events ARE important too eh? I'm glad someone finally discussed this, I was starting to think I was being ignored, LOL.198.213.57.8 23:15, 4 May 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
- On the issue of notability, these questions need to be considered:
- How is the change particularly notable?
- Is it a point of particular discussion among fans?
- Is it a point of particular dissention among fans?
- Does it in any way affect the actual plot?
- As far as I know, though there has been mixed reactions to the change, it's not been massive, and most people I've seen agree that it makes little to no difference in the end. Also, this isn't an issue of what people "think" is canon. When SE releases two new titles in the Compilation featuring the same version of events -- differing from the classic version -- this is indeed a retcon. I'm not necessarily opposed to both versions of events being included, but since the purpose of the biography section is obviously to present the actual biography of the character, there should be some kind of reasoning as to why a small detail of it that has been written out of continuity/changed is notable enough to appear. If included, it should also be in a way that doesn't break the flow of the section. Ryu Kaze 13:55, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
- All differences should be included. How major or minor the changes are is a matter of the point of view of the reader, and should not be something for Wikipedia itself to judge. "Is it a point of particular discussion/dissention among fans" is often an extremely subjective evaluation. Obviously, we should take the changes on a case-by-case basis, but I see no reason not to include such information wherever possible. It'll certainly be valuable information for all Final Fantasy VII players who haven't read up on the more recent Square releases (of which there are very, very many), and similarly valuable to anyone who is only familiar with the newer version of events and hasn't played Final Fantasy VII. Plus it's just noteworthy; Final Fantasy VII is one of the best-selling games in all time, and fans should know what areas of its plot are no longer considered "canonical". -Silence 17:29, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
- I'm willing to believe that this change is notable enough to warrant mention since the event itself would be mentioned either way, but not every change should be added, or we'd have a laundry list of irrelevant changes. Anyway, I'll add a reference to the retconned version in now. Let us know if you think it's okay. Ryu Kaze 14:55, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
- All differences should be included. How major or minor the changes are is a matter of the point of view of the reader, and should not be something for Wikipedia itself to judge. "Is it a point of particular discussion/dissention among fans" is often an extremely subjective evaluation. Obviously, we should take the changes on a case-by-case basis, but I see no reason not to include such information wherever possible. It'll certainly be valuable information for all Final Fantasy VII players who haven't read up on the more recent Square releases (of which there are very, very many), and similarly valuable to anyone who is only familiar with the newer version of events and hasn't played Final Fantasy VII. Plus it's just noteworthy; Final Fantasy VII is one of the best-selling games in all time, and fans should know what areas of its plot are no longer considered "canonical". -Silence 17:29, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
- On the issue of notability, these questions need to be considered:
- Wow...I see. I looked up the Before Crisis events and chapter summarys as well and yeah...they have it as canon too. Well I guess then if it's canon it's canon. I'm just surprised. Oh well...I do agree though with the user "Silence" it still wouldn't hurt to include both interpratations of events since they are both important. Just state that the Last Order event is canon. The FFVII events ARE important too eh? I'm glad someone finally discussed this, I was starting to think I was being ignored, LOL.198.213.57.8 23:15, 4 May 2006 (UTC)Makoeyes
Which Hand Holds The Sword
[edit]As far as all the other games with Sephiroth go, I'm not sure of what hand he holds the masamune with but in the game Final Fantasy 7, Sephiroth doesn't appear to use either hand dominantly. In one instance in The "Clouds Past" section towards the end, when cloud and sephiroth have their apparent showdown after sephiroth enters the jenova room, sephiroth is holding the sword in his right hand. In the Popular cinematic of sephiroth walking through the flames, he carries the sword in his left hand, and durring battle sequences he holds the sword in his left hand.
- I think it's a two handed sword because of its size, but may be used one handed.--Andeh 12:02, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
oh its obviously 2 handed but as far as which hand he generally holds it in, it changes in game depending upon circumstances, not too mention that, even if it is 2 handed, which hand he leads the sword with is a factor.
- With any two-handed weapon, it's possible to *hold* it in one hand even if fighting as such is impossible; in the official Sephiroth portrait used at the top of the page, his left is closer to the hilt, that being the opposite of traditional Japanese fencing (the sword is merely an exaggerated nodachi after all); he is shown to be consistently left-handed in Advent Children, as are his body of thoughts (Kadaj/Loz/Yazoo).
I would say, that he can use it as he weishes to. Or you can take the fight in the memory of Nibleheim, where Cloud (in fact Zak) fights alongside Sephiroth. If I can remeber clearly he holds his sword right-handed. -- Hurda
Can someone tell me how long is the swrord? -- Hurda
Nibelheim Reactor Sequence
[edit]Within the article, it is stated that Tifa takes up the Masamune upon finding her father slain outside the reactor chamber. However, earlier in the game (i.e. when President Shinra is found dead at his desk), it is also stated that only Sephiroth can wield the Masamune. Also, the sword that Tifa picks up is much SHORTER than Masamune; that sword is longer than Sephiroth is tall. Should we change this? --HubHikari 23:48, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
- I don't fully understand the flash back sequence, early in the game Cloud tells the story but is then regarded as incorrect later in the game, especially in Cloud's Mind part. This needs to be verified.--Andeh 10:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
{{spoiler}}
- It's explained early on Disc 2. Cloud is a failed Sephiroth clone made by Hojo, either using the body of the young Shinra trooper named Cloud Strife after he collapsed at Nibelheim, or simply by creating a brand new body. During his escape with Zack, this new Cloud seems to be mentally disturbed and have no personality. Zack loans him an outfit, talks to him about becoming a mercenery, and was once a SOLDIER. The new Cloud, not having a memory or personality to speak of, convinces himself he was in SOLDIER and takes on a lot of Zack's personality traits. He's like a dry sponge. (This is explained in a hidden cutscene available late on Disc 2; go to the Mansion Basement after Cloud rejoins your party) After Zack is killed, Cloud meets Tifa in Midgar, and she starts to awaken memories of the original Cloud - the one who joined the Shinra regular army after he washed out at SOLDIER and was too ashamed to go back home. Then Jenova begins to move towards the reunion, and Cloud chases what he thinks is a ghostly Sephiroth around the world (Disc 1). But he's not really chasing anything, as Jenova explains at the altar where Aeris dies: Cloud is a puppet, a Sephiroth clone, being drawn to Reunion like all the others. This is why Sephiroth is able to control Cloud - Sephiroth isn't really "there" because he died 5 years ago (his body is in the North Cave). What appears as Sephiroth in Discs 1 and 2 is simply Jenova using Sephiroth's form. To make a long story short, the version of the story explained in Cloud's Mind in Disc 2 is the correct version. The version he tells in Kalm and Nibelheim on Disc 1 is a delusion he subconsciously made up out of memories of Zack, because he had none of his own. Does it make more sense now? Kasreyn 16:28, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
- No. The fact that no one can use Masamune still holds true. Tifa sure didn't have much luck with it, did she? Masamune's Sephiroth-only nature isn't based on something that prevents anyone else from picking it up. It's just such an unwieldy, point-heavy blade that only Sephiroth is strong enough to use it properly. I'm not that strong a guy, and I'm sure I could pick up a claymore. It wouldn't do me any good, though, because I wouldn't be strong enough to swing it. The same principle applies to Masamune, except that no one but Sephiroth would have been strong enough. Tifa could pick it up, but she was as harmless as a kitten with it. As for judging by the appearance of the sword, that's a bad idea. Remember, the characters' heads in those sequences are bigger around than their torsos due to the stylistic choices made by Square! But in the CGI movies their proportions are more realistic. So we clearly can't judge from the in-game graphics things like length and other physical dimensions, because they could all just be stylistic changes for the moment. Official Square literature discusses Masamune, and we should stick to that. Kasreyn 16:28, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
- This is well and good, Kasreyn, but the dimensions of their heads and torsos remain consistent throughout, right? Given that, I think it is fair to say that the sword Tifa picks up is definitely shorter than Masamune, Sephiroth-only aside. --HubHikari 20:30, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- Well, one example is how, no matter what sword you have equipped, when Cloud is in a cutscene it always shows the Buster Sword. I think it's clear that in cutscenes they feel free to superdeform the characters and take stylistic liberties. Also, note that Tifa fails in her attempt to use the sword; Sephiroth then takes it and uses it. He is not seen carrying any other sword in the sequence, and Tifa says "Sephiroth did this" when she sees the sword by her father's body. How could she have known Sephiroth did it - unless the sword lying by her father was the one which could only be used by one man? I'd say some application of Occam's Razor is warranted here - the simplest explanation is that Square intended that sword to be Masamune and simply changed its appearance for stylistic reasons. The more complex explanation is that there was a whole different sword, identical to masamune except for length, which Tifa could instantly tell by appearance belonged to Sephiroth. That seems to assume too much. Kasreyn 22:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
- Actually, Cloud was a real person all along. The game reveals that the same Cloud who grew up in Nibelheim was the same one who Zack talked to. Sephiroth lied. Cloud had no personality at the time of Zack and Cloud's escape because he was suffering from Mako poisoning, which drowns out an insecure person's mind due to all the memories held within mako. And as for Sephiroth's sword...is it really shorter? I never noticed any difference between the field model of the sword in that scene and later in the game. It's obviously supposed to be the same sword, even if the field model looks inconsistent with the battle model. --Made2Fade 20:36, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Albino
[edit]Isn't Sephiroth an albino? He vaguely looks like one, white hair, bluish eyes, and other traits of albinism.Triple-Quadruple 00:28, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
- It's more like he's the perfect villian bishounen. Silver hair seems to be a real anime pretty-boy trait. Besides, there's been no such official statement on his being albino or not, so it'd probably be safe not to add that.—urutapu 01:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
- He likely inherited his silver hair from Jenova, who was a spacefaring alien, so probably not. --Made2Fade 10:59, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
I agree. I've never come across canonical evidence to suggest that his hair / skin tone were anything more than nuances by developers to have him more acutely resemble the bishonen ideal. --AaronOfAbsalom 02:23, 20 July 2006 (UTC) Aaron 7.19.2006
Correction: Biseinen. Bishounen are under nineteen years of age; and we know for a fact that Sephiroth is around 30, way beyonf his teens.
Theory
[edit]Ok a theory section is going to have to be made for this one.
1. Uncited and pure speculated statements riddle this article 2. Player theory's 3. inaccurate information
I already made an edit but its not enough and I dont want to start making major edits or deletions through the entire article so instead id like to ask for a theory section to be passed here. Ill give it a week all who agree please state it Kara Umi 14:25, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
- I don't think there's any legitimate reason to include a player theories section. Any information that looks like original research should be tagged with a cite needed. If a source is not found, the claim should go. The article is too long as it is. Only details from games, books, and movies within the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Square's Ultimania Omega Guide should be considered canonical. All claims which do not derive from those sources should probably go. I've written a guide to FFVII and have beaten the game about 15 or 16 times, so I know a good deal, I also have a copy of Advent Children... if you have any questions over whether something really happened in the game or Advent Children, just ask and I'll be glad to help you. :) Kasreyn 17:24, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
- P.S. Allow me to amend myself: if a third party makes a worthwhile (ie. notable) claim regarding the character, that could be included even if it isn't an official Square publication. Material like the bit on the Kabbalistic origins of the name "Sephiroth" are interesting but hard to source. You were right to remove it. If a third party has noted the similarity of the words, we could cite that. I find it an intriguing example of the careful thought Nomura put into his character design, and it would be nice to find a way to keep it if a source could be found. Kasreyn 17:31, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Yes, thank you kasreyn. I dont want to delete someones hard work if iam not going to put effort in trying to bring it back with a viable reason such as sources. Please would someone like to cite this just one official site and that would be enough, However if there is none we leave it deleted there some more work to be done but iam sure we can manage it ^^ Kara Umi 21:40, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
His mental existance for almost everyone
[edit]Sephiroth is a strong influence toward gamers and non-gamers vastly and also for the physical artwork designers i feel his character status will not disapear without a fight they gave him a great ground in the future as in the song "one winged angel" he does not wish to die so he becomes angry and raged and in all the characters in the world of gaming never will
- Ehh, what? Can someone translate this for me? --HubHikari 15:25, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
- I don't want to speak ill of the author of the original comment, but I don't think they're very skilled with English. I, too, am unable to make out what they're trying to say. That, or it was generated by an automatic script. Kasreyn 03:05, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Problems with the article
[edit]I hate to be a killjoy, but there are a number of (IMO) severe problems with this article as it currently stands. Most obviously, it suffers from a overabundance of weasel words. In particular, variants of the phrase "it is believed that..." show up repeatedly. Who believes it, and can we cite evidence of this fact? Going deeper, there is a lot of time spent on nontextual interpretation that generally wouldn't qualify as encyclcopedic, even if we were feeling particularly generous. The entire Interpretations section is rife with this sort of thing. Drawing parallels between Sephiroth and Satan, or speculation regarding Jenova's origins, is not really appropriate. If we can cite evidence that the developers intended these connections, then that's all right. Alternatively, if we can determine that this speculation is particularly common among gamers (or whomever), to the point that it actually becomes reasonably notable (i.e., several reliable, independent citations, not just one guy and some of his friends, for example), then the point can be argued. But that does not appear to be the case for most of this. To a lesser extent, I'm also a bit concerned about the length of the article, which is well over 40 KB now. I think it goes into a little too much detail in places: we spend more space recapitulating the plot of Final Fantasy VII (twelve paragraphs) than the FFVII article itself (which has a five paragraph story section), for example. Trimming down to a more managable size would be nice.
Unless there are major objections (and there probably will be...), I can try and sculpt this thing into shape. But I've not put as much time nor effort into the article as some, so if anyone else would rather do it themselves, that's fine with me. – Seancdaug 16:27, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
- I agree with you on all the points except "Length". Length is not a significant concern here. What matters is that the length be composed of noteworthy, relevant, verifiable information, not of dubious, uncitable speculation. If we need to deal with the length at some point, we can always create daughter articles for some of the sections of this page (e.g., we could recreate Sepher Sephiroth if that section grew too long). We should be worried about making the article accurate, accessible to readers, comprehensive, and well-written; if we can get all that out of the way, the various problems that can arise from long articles (such as trivia-bloat and rambling, poorly-written passages) will be solved along the way. Plus 40 KB isn't actually all that long. If Sephiroth has more detailed story information than Final Fantasy VII, that's a criticism of the FF7 article, not of this one. -Silence 16:42, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
- I disagree, simply because of what I perceive to be the purpose of an encyclopedia. That is, it should seek to provide a basic overview of a topic as clearly and concisely as possible. We should, in short, seek to aid those people who have no real idea who or what Sephiroth is when they come here. That hypothetical person should be able to look at the article fairly quickly, and to come to a solid, if necessarily basic, understanding of the material. Forcing the reader to wade through over a page of detailed background minutae is not useful: it makes it harder for the uninitiated to seperate the wheat from the chaff, and, more importantly, wastes his or her time for information s/he may not be interested in. If, after providing a basic overview, the reader still wants more information, that user should turn to a more specialized resource. In the case of a traditional encyclopedia, that would be a more scholarly text. For our purposes, that could be any number of fansites, or even something like the Final Fantasy wiki (where this level of detail would be far more appropriate. Obviously, this involves some level of editorial decision, which can get thorny. But this particularly case isn't really rocket science: anyone who is so well-versed in the material to begin with that s/he would want to look up information on Safer Sephiroth, specifically, probably won't come looking in Wikipedia. There are clearly better places for that kind of material. To everyone else, that information is little more than clutter, and the more clutter we have strewn about the place, the harder it is to find useful information. Or, to quote Wikipedia:Fancruft, "too much detail is present that will bore, distract or confuse a non-fan, when its exclusion would not significantly harm the factual coverage as a whole."
- And, for the record, I am firmly and unequivocally against subdividing this article: Wikipedia guidelines on fictional material, as well as accepted editorial practice, generally seem to discourage creating articles for fictional characters outside of the work in which they appear. That's obviously not a hard-and-fast rule, and plenty of notable fictional characters get their own articles. But creating two articles for a single fictional character is a little over-the-top, and pretty much screams fancruft and systemic bias. That's the same reason I bring up article size: 42 KB isn't emergency, this-must-be-reduced-NOW territory. But most articles on Wikipedia on comparable topics can manage perfectly well staying under the 32 KB informal limit, and unless a convincing case can be made as to why this article is different, and that reasoning can be adequately conveyed within the article itself (by making it clear why we need such a level of detail), I don't see a compelling reason for violating that practice.
- I agree (hence the "to a lesser extent" caveat above) that it's more important to tighten the prose, eliminate unneccessary trivia, and otherwise clean up the article than it is to take a pair of pruning shears to large segments of the piece. But I still think that it's too long and too detailed for a general reference source. It could be the most elegantly written example of descriptive prose on Wikipedia, and that assessment would still hold true. But, first things first, I know: better to have a well-written piece that's poorly suited for Wikipedia than a poorly written piece that's poorly suited for Wikipedia. – Seancdaug 18:14, 12 July 2006 (UTC)
- Sean, we've missed your help with cruft reduction. I agree with you wholeheartedly, as usual. We need to make full use of Wikibooks and Wikicities (now Wikia). I'm pushing for the same thing over at the Star Wars articles — priority on an out of universe perspective, with a succinct, 3-5 paragraph synopsis of the character and his or her role to round out the article. — Deckiller 06:22, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
- Definitely agree; it needs to be either condensed or re-written in a concise, informative, and (most importantly) factual manner. Such theories as those listed in Interpretations, while interesting enough, do not belong in an encyclopedia, online or not. There are other sources for "interpretation" of the motifs, themes, and general significance of Final Fantasy VII and of the characters therein, such as John Brittenham's well-thought-out (yet sometimes very bizzare) "FF7 Mythologies." -(Anonymous) 20:15, 01 August 2006 (UTC)
NPOV?
[edit]Will whoever added the NPOV tag please explain why they feel this article violates WP:NPOV? I see the above section by Seancdaug, but it seems to refer to weasel wording and fancruft, two issues which are only partially involved with NPOV. We need to have a real discussion of the article's alleged NPOV failure, or else we need to take the tag down. Kasreyn 04:47, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
- My specific problems (which I did mention above, actually, though I focused more on the weasel words there) is in the overabudance of meta-textual interpretation. This isn't exactly a fancruft issue, and it goes beyond weasel words. The appearances section is the worst offender, but it's not limited to that: the manifestation section states, as fact, what is, to my knowledge, interpretation. The brief section on OWA has some shining examples, too: "...adding to Sephiroth's mystique...", and "...a sort of mystic and terroric feel, as something of a 'Deus Celebri'...". The interpretation itself is problematic, that much of it is unlabelled as such is unacceptable. Does this explain it a little better? – Seancdaug 05:34, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
- Sure does, thanks for explaining... I'm certainly not against a trim, the article has swollen dramatically in recent months. How about you prepare a "trimmed" draft, removing all the POV crud like "Sephiroth's mystique", and link it here and we'll all go over it? My guess is a great deal of the extraneous material can be trimmed without upsetting anyone; most of it seems to be added by the anons who wander in and add their personal opinions. Cheers, Kasreyn 05:43, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
- I'll see what I can do. It might take me a while, though: my wiki-time will be limited in the next few weeks. If anyone else wants to make an attempt to whip this baby back into shape in the interim, feel free to do so. – Seancdaug 16:59, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
- Sure does, thanks for explaining... I'm certainly not against a trim, the article has swollen dramatically in recent months. How about you prepare a "trimmed" draft, removing all the POV crud like "Sephiroth's mystique", and link it here and we'll all go over it? My guess is a great deal of the extraneous material can be trimmed without upsetting anyone; most of it seems to be added by the anons who wander in and add their personal opinions. Cheers, Kasreyn 05:43, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
Kingdom Hearts attack: Heartless Angel
[edit]I'm just adding this here because I changed this on the main page: Seph's attack in KH is called "Heartless Angel", not "Sin Harvest". Lance Bass (ugh) mumbled his damned line. He's saying "Descend, heartless angel!", but the only syllables he doesn't mumble are "scend" and "har (mumble) est", so it's been widely mistaken for "Sin Harvest". As Safer Sephiroth in FFVII he uses Heartless Angel, which reduces you to 1 HP (I'm not sure, because he's only ever cast it on me once, but I think it only targets a single party member). I have heard on the Gamespot forums that Tetsuya Nomura himself has confirmed that the attack's name is "Heartless Angel"; most of the better gaming sites seem to refer to it as such. I will attempt to track down a source on Nomura's having said that. Kasreyn 22:58, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
- Well I agree with you on the attack "Heartless Angel" in both FFVII and KHII; however, there is no proof to my knowledge that Lance Bass mumbled that line. In fact, in the Brady Games strategy guide it is even mentioned that particular attack is "Sin Harvest." Also, another issue that came up was that since there was no Japanese version of Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts and he spoke English in Final Mix then it is possible that Sin Harvest was only in the U.S. localization of Kingdom Hearts. 15:28, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
- Localization, now I think you're on to something, that could explain the confusion. After all, Square is notorious for changing the FF games a great deal for the American release... why should the KH series be any different? Still though, when I listen to it, I can clearly hear him say "Descend", now that I know to listen for the soft first syllable. Turning the volume up helps. Cheers, Kasreyn 00:21, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
I don't know about those Bradygames guides,are they official?
Anyway,in other language dubs he says "Descend,Heartless Angel" or "Come,Heartless Angel" (in German KH1)too. So the line in the voice script must've been like this as well.84.134.220.117 20:39, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Well, it's clearly audible in KH2 as "Heartless Angel" to "Descend," and as we know that HA was an attack Safer Sephiroth just LOVED using, I think it's safe to say that the guides (as they are often not official) are wrong.
Profusion of tags?
[edit]I was wondering: how old are the mass of tags at the top of the article, and can any of them be done away with? Are there, for instance, ongoing debates over NPOV, weasel words, and writing style? Because currently not a bit of the article is "above the fold"; all the reader sees on first load is a pile of tags. Kasreyn 08:34, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Sephiroth's Eye Colour
[edit]Does anyone know Sephiroth's eye colour? It seems to change between green and blue, and I'm not really sure if they're meant to be green or not. Can anybody shed some light on this? - The preceding comment was made by Grevenko Sereth 0:04, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
- See this external image: [4] Or this one: [5] The correct term for that shade is turquoise, which is a sort of green-blue. It could also be considered a near-cyan. Yet in Advent Children, I think his eyes were a much greener shade. Of course, that was after his physical death and reincarnation as a Jenova-entity, so I'm sure he could have changed his eye color (he was able to grow wings, after all!). I would put turquoise for eye color, or failing that, green. Kasreyn 01:02, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
- If you see here - [6] Sephiroth's eyes are a silver/grey colour, however they change to a green/blue colour in combat. I think that the mixed influence of mako/Jenova changes his eye colour in a similar fashion to the SOLDIER's eyes glowing. Kat33auS 05:40, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
The original image of Sephiroth has his eyes as green. Telling that to those who make the plushies doesn't seem to have made a difference, though. :S
Sephiroth killing Aerith
[edit]Sephiroth did not kill Aerith. The assertion, "Aerith was murdered by Sephiroth" is made in the Biography section of the article. This is entirely wrong. Further down in the article, under Manifestations it is stated, "All manifestations of Sephiroth seen throughout the game — excluding flashback sequences and his real body at the Northern Crater — are Jenova cells manipulated through Sephiroth's will to take his shape." This is correct, and therefore Aerith was killed by Jenova in the form of Sephiroth. I understand why it would be said that Sephiroth killed Aerith. It is easily the most dramatic moment of the game, and ranks high among "great moments in gaming". Also, it looks like Sephiroth, is being controlled by Sephiroth, and is killing main characters like Sephiroth wants too-- so why not just say it is Sephiroth? It wasn't though. It was a Jenova-cell puppet. I'm not really saying it should be changed or the picture removed (Actually I think its a good picture to have in the article), just pointing out that it is not accurate. This is my first Wiki post ever, so any mistakes or presumptions on my part are not meant to offend. Thanks. CennB 05:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
- Now you're just splitting hairs. --Paul Soth 08:22, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
Before Aerith dies Cloud is in a mental fight against Sephiroth's will. He steps closer and closer to Aerith, raising his sword to kill her. It is only when Tifa calls out to him, that Sephiroth's hold is broken and Cloud regains his own will. What if Cloud had killed Aerith while under Sephiroth's control? Would we say Cloud killed her or Sephiroth? What about the Black Materia. Did Cloud give Sephiroth the Black Materia or did Sephiroth give it to himself (since he was controling Cloud)? On top of that, after Aerith is stabbed a fight follows where the party goes against a Jenova remnant. They are fighting Aerith's killer. Jenova. As I said above, I understand the reasons that the article says Sephiroth killed Aerith--but I think it is not factually correct.CennB 17:24, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
- "Factually", don't you mean "technically".EAB 04:05, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
I'd have to agree. If Cloud killed Earisu, Cloud would sport some of the blame. So yes, technically, Jenova killed Earisu. (See, I still like how Aeris sounds better, but this way you all can't tell me I'm wrong. :P) Seph didn't have any legs at the time, quite frankly.
A standard spelling
[edit]There is one version of Sephiroth mentioned in the article that is spelled several ways, and we should try to standardize it. I am referring to bizzarro and bizarro. The standard spelling for the Superman clone is Bizarro, perhaps that is the correct one?
Vandalisation/splinching?
[edit]This threw me off completely and needs to be corrected;
Quote" He is delayed by Gaara, whom Sephiroth is disarmed and wounded near-fatally by. Zack, a fellow 1st class SOLDIER, arrives to stop Gaara, but he too is dispatched and sent reeling from Jenova's chamber." EndQuote.
Gaara is from Naruto, so unless I'm missing something why in the bleeding hell is he even mentioned on this article? RBlowes 07:43, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
Qabalistic references
[edit]Why is nowhere in the article mentioned the fact that the name "Sephiroth", although being incorrectly used as a character name (it actually is a plural form) is a central concept in Qabala (or Kabbalah), the main system of Jewish occultism/exoterism?
Massimo80 03:31, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
- I mentioned it when I did the first major revision and expansion of the article (before it was just a sentence). Looks like it got lost over the past two years. Anybody got a good reason not to mention it? --Paul Soth 09:52, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
Sephiroth is not only a term from the Hebrew Qabalah, but "Safer Sephiroth" is probably a reference to "Sepher Sephiroth", a very famous Qabalistic book, whose title means "Book of Numbers". "Safer Sephiroth" is nonsensical; but could not the Japanese "Safer Sephiroth" be transliterated, instead, "Sepher Sephiroth"? ~~ C.M.Zedaker
A few Suggestions
[edit]Here's a few thoughts I had after reading the article. I may change some of it myself later if there are no objections:
- I think the "Dirge of Cerberus" section should just be a small part of the "Other Appearances" section. Also, the info conflicts with info in the opening paragraph. "He was also only mentioned by Weiss in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII" vs. "Sephiroth appears in a flashback scenario when Lucrecia slumps over and starts to see what her future son would do later on."
- In the "Other Appearances" section at the end, the article mentions a Sephiroth MUGEN character. I think it's mostly pov, and mentions other unrelated characters (Evil Ryu, Tom Hanks, Marvin the Martian etc.). I don't think powerful MUGEN characters are notable, as a great deal of them are. Maybe it could at least be trimmed down?
- How about mention somewhere of that Sephiroth appearance on Robot Chicken? Could go nicely in "Popularity" section.
- Hate to say it, but the Spoiler Warning needs to go up higher. "He is also responsible for the death of a major protagonist". It's still a spoiler. "a major protagonist" even links to the page of said protagonist. Granted, it's hard to read a Wikipedia video game article without ruining the plot, but a spoiler is a spoiler. Personally, I would like to see any spoiling plot removed from the opening paragraph. *Phew* --ScarletSpiderDave 08:08, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
- I did a few spot edits, but a lot more needs to be done. I mean, the flow and wording of the biography section has become a mess ("What have you done with my article!?! Gah!") I mean, a lot more has to be mentioned about JENOVA for starters. Yes, she has her own article, but we can mention more here. Also the wording should be a bit less stylized. I'm going to look it all over again. --Paul Soth 14:52, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
External Links
[edit]An anonymous person just added a link to a Wikia page. It's very similar to the Wiki page. Should it be removed? Kat33auS 08:38, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
- It is a transwiki project, designed to be a more fan based wiki of a certain subject. It probably does not have to be removed, but should be modified to look better. MythSearchertalk 08:51, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
Ummm, I know this question is totally irrelevant, but how do you add pictures? I wanted to add a Sephiroth picture.
Image used by
[edit]Edit performed by Joeymx 10:04, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
I changed the image of Sephiroth in the AC section of the page, as the image that was there previously is from the game itself - and so does not very well reflect Seph in the movie.
Joeymx 10:04, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
Was it Sephiroth or Jenova who killed the Shinra guards?
[edit]Take a look:
However, "Sephiroth" was actually Jenova's body taken over by Sephiroth's will and remolded in his image as his puppet in order to find and retrieve the "Sephiroth Clones", individuals who had undergone the same cell injection procedure as Sephiroth to prove Hojo's Jenova Reunion Theory.
Does this mean that in the Midgar part at the beginning of the game, when there was blood all over the floors, and loads of dead guys, that it was Jenova (appearing as Sephiroth) who killed them all? Or was there a third Sephiroth (seeing that it couldn't be the one encased in the Mako in the Northern Crater)?
And how did Jenova gain Sephiroth's sword the Masamune? Surely it would have passed into the Lifestream with Sephiroth at the Nibleheim incident? Or was it "part" of Sephiroth's puppetry of Jenova?
I think the clarification of this detail should be added to the article. :D —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Robertcathles (talk • contribs) 18:35, 29 March 2007 (UTC).
- EDIT: Plus, How does this explain the battle sequences - does it mean that Joenova changed shape when Sephy killed Aeris? And how did Sephy manage to carry Jenova's "arm" when on the boat to Costa Del Sol? - Surely then the Sephy puppet would have been missing part as well? --rjcuk 22:27, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
- I think that FFVII:AC answers some of these questions. The Masamune sword is part of the puppetry. I think that it must have been Jenova in Sephy's image all along. Or was it Jenova controlling Sephiroth? And was Cloud part of the Reunion, or did he go to Jenova/Sephiroth of his own will? Maybe this is getting a bit off-topic of 'suggestions' and more into 'original research'. I'll shut up now. --rjcuk 11:42, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
Citation on Yoshitaka Amano
[edit]I don't know if this page is acceptable by wikipedia's standards, but nonetheless it mentions that Sephiroth was designed by Yoshitaka Amano. On the sephiroth page in discussion, citation is needed at that reference, so perhaps the pages i'm suggesting could be used for that citation - http://internal.tbi.net/~max/ffxart.htm http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0023923/filmokey http://www.answers.com/topic/sephiroth-final-fantasy-vii Tresmius 14:50, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
Spoiler Alert?
[edit]May not be as important as I make it seem, and while it's a good image, the picture of Sephiroth stabbing Aeris may be a bit of a give-away if someone hasn't played FF7 before (or watched Advent Children, where it's made pretty clear she's dead). And, I know that stabbing doesn't necessarily indicate that he kills her, it -IS- a fairly important/unsuspected moment in FF7. Hanzolot 05:11, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
- I see no problem in this. Square originally intended to let everybody know this happens. If you insert disc 2 and press start game, it will show this movie clip, with Sephiroth stabing Aerith in the back, then asks you to change the disc. It is not a spoiler to tell that it happens, it is a spoiler if one tells how and why. MythSearchertalk 02:50, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
The Enix Influence
[edit]The truth is that all this kind of discussions began after Square was "assimilated" by Enix. Many contradictions to the story, thanks to Ultimania Omega book and new games, are the result of trying to expand the serie and boast the popularity of some characters. I too believe many "now questionable" details like that Cloud and company never meet the real Sephiroth until the final battle. In the PSX game, one can infer that Jenova escaped from Shinra lab and began the search of the black materia to give it to the real Sephiroth in North Crater where Jenova reunited all her cells (Jenova reunion) to be complete again, this explains why the Sephiroth on the Cargo ship to Costa Del Sol didn't remember Cloud (it was Jenova). Still, is debatable to believe that the Sephiroth's will was controlling Jenova or was allied with her. I accept that Square-Enix is trying to change the original story, but all this I have written is what can be inferred playing the original game of SQUARE.
This info is for keeping in mind ONLY , we have to accept all this changes and the the next ones to come.
- And all of these, are purely speculation from a player and is not from a reliable source. This so called truth you are talking about is nothing but pure fan cruff. It would be much more reasonable that some fans explaint the story one way, and the story creator explaint it another, and thus when more and more is revealed, these speculation and misunderstanding by some grow and take root and claim them as contradiction. I have seen these kind of things so many times, especially in translated material, where the story is obviously telling one thing, but some fans keep thinking of another and deny all explanation opposing their view, even when the explanations are from an official source. MythSearchertalk 02:43, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
- All I have to say is that the source of this Sephiroth/Jenova theory is the game itself. Its true that sources like the Ω Guide explains many things, but is true too that this kind of info comes because of this "Square-Enix factor" (that's the reason of this little paragraph). If some people don't want to see/accept it, they are free of doing it, but they are not in the right to not let anyone to consider it. One just need to play the game, observe Square actions post/prior the Enix events, and have common sense. Come on, it's not that hard to see it.
- Ultimania guides exist way before the merge of Square and Enix, your common sense and speculation are not standing on a firm ground. You can feel free to mention it in your own web site, a free forum, but not add it into wikipedia. It is against the policy to do so. MythSearchertalk 14:04, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
- That's right, the Ultimania guides exist way before the merge of Square and Enix, and the Ultimania Omega Guide of FFVII was released in 2005, 8 years after the FFVII release and 2 years after Square was absorbed by Enix because their financial problems after the disaster of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Is that hard to let other people consider the influence of Enix over Square? This section comments the possibility that this "marketing" move was probably influenced by Enix in an attempt to burn the ashes of FFVII, a move that Square by itself may have never done. This section don't look written like if it was a fact, but must a possibility. One more thing, the truth always comes to light by common sense and speculations. This will be my last comment because I don't have anymore to say about this subject, the cards are on the table and anyone is free of look, think, and decide by THEMSELVES. See ya.
- You do know the President of Square Enix and one of the most vocal partisan of "polymorphic contents" (i.e. milking FFVII and co.) is Yoichi Wada, don't you? Kariteh 21:56, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
- That's right, the Ultimania guides exist way before the merge of Square and Enix, and the Ultimania Omega Guide of FFVII was released in 2005, 8 years after the FFVII release and 2 years after Square was absorbed by Enix because their financial problems after the disaster of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Is that hard to let other people consider the influence of Enix over Square? This section comments the possibility that this "marketing" move was probably influenced by Enix in an attempt to burn the ashes of FFVII, a move that Square by itself may have never done. This section don't look written like if it was a fact, but must a possibility. One more thing, the truth always comes to light by common sense and speculations. This will be my last comment because I don't have anymore to say about this subject, the cards are on the table and anyone is free of look, think, and decide by THEMSELVES. See ya.
- jajaja ok, final comment: I know all the public details of Square- Enix, and that includes that mister Yoichi Wada is the president and CEO of this company, but that doesn't mean that he can't be influenced by the stakeholders of the dominant company (specially the shareholders and Yasuhiro Fukushima who is the founder of Enix and the current COB/honorary chairman of Square-Enix) and we don't know all the details about this assimilation, they don't have , or need, to say us all their moves. But I say (again) that this is a possibility ONLY, one that must be know by the fans of the serie. This kind of things happens all the time in the war between companies of all kind, in a world where companies live eating the weak ones and doing with them what they want, and Square is not an exception. Don't worry be happy, just live with it (as a truth or a lie), that won't change anything.
- You don't seem to be aware of Wikipedia's policies. Without any concrete evidence, it is just one possibility out of many (I could argue that Square Enix is influenced by Nintendo or September 11th, how do we make the difference?). But overall, the problem is not that we believe or don't believe you; the problem is that this "possibility" is Wikipedia:Original research. We can't include it for the same reason we can't make speculation about Matsuno's supposed "sickness" during the FFXII development. Kariteh 07:41, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
- Not to mention the overwelming stock holder Sony went into play? It is no use in this talk if one does not understand policies. MythSearchertalk 07:55, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
Seraph Comb
[edit]When you think of Red XIII's weapon, seraph comb, is it still possible that a mistranslation was the excuse of Sephiroth's final battle name? I don't know much about translating Japanese, but if they've correctly translated seraph once I don't think they'd make a mistake on the same word.