Sephiroth

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For fighter info, see Sephiroth (SSBU).

Sephiroth
{{{content1}}} {{{content2}}} Official artwork of Sephiroth from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Dissidia Final Fantasy.
Universe	Final Fantasy
Debut	Final Fantasy VII (1997)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)
Console/platform of origin	PlayStation
Species	Human (augmented with Jenova cells)
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Nibelheim
Created by	Yoshinori Kitase Kazushige Nojima Tetsuya Nomura Hironobu Sakaguchi
Designed by	Tetsuya Nomura
Voice actor	Toshiyuki Morikawa
Article on Wikipedia	Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)

Sephiroth (セフィロス, Sephiroth) is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII, its high-definition remake and other related media. The archenemy of Cloud Strife, Sephiroth has become Square Enix's most iconic villain from the Final Fantasy series.

Sephiroth will make his Super Smash Bros. debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable character via downloadable content in December 2020.

Origin

Sephiroth was created as part of a series of experiments led by Shin-Ra known as the Jenova Project. The project made use of the cells of the extraterrestrial being known as Jenova, mistaking her for a member of the humanoid race known as the Cetra. Jenova's cell samples were injected into the fetuses of participating women working alongside the scientists, Gillian Hewley and Lucrecia Crescent. The project birthed three powerful swordsmen, with Gillian's contribution being that of Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos, while Lucrecia was forced to participate thanks to Professor Hojo, giving birth to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth became an exceptional member of Shin-Ra's military branch SOLDIER, taking part in a war with the nation of Wutai and being hailed as a hero. Sephiroth also took up missions alongside Angeal's pupil, Zack Fair, most notably in a campaign to hunt down a now renegade Genesis and his "father" Professor Hollander. During the campaign, Angeal was killed by Zack out of mercy for his friend and mentor.

A year later, Sephiroth and Zack were sent to check up on one of the Mako Reactors in Nibelheim, with a young Cloud working alongside them. However, the mission to Nibelheim forever changed Sephiroth from a heroic warrior into a living nightmare upon the people of the Planet. Zack attempted to get answers as to what Sephiroth was doing, to which the man in the black coat responded: "I'm going to see my mother..." In his wake to the reactor, Sephiroth set the entire town on fire, with Zack catching him standing in the flames with his back turned. Upon entry into the reactor's innermost chambers, Sephiroth finally made contact with Jenova. However, he was stabbed in the back by Cloud with Zack's Buster Sword, impaling him from behind through the abdomen. The severely wounded Sephiroth decapitated Jenova and stumbled across the room, and is again attacked by Cloud. Sephiroth stabbed him with his Masamune, but Cloud used it as a lever to hurl Sephiroth into a pool of mako below the reactor. Sephiroth vanished with Jenova's head still in his grasp, apparently falling to his death. This Nibelheim Incident would later be covered up by Shin-Ra, rebuilding the town and planting actors to behave as if nothing had happened.

Five years later, Sephiroth's consciousness resurfaced after he had merged with the Planet's Lifestream, allowing him to control beings made of Jenova cells, including one sent in his form to murder the President of Shin-Ra while Cloud and his party made an attempt to rescue their friend Aerith. During their adventure, Cloud's group learns of Sephiroth having sealed himself in a crystalline cocoon in the Northern Crater, initiating a reunion of all of Jenova's cells. The last component he needed was that of the Black Materia, which had been transformed into the Temple of the Ancients in order to keep it safe. While Cloud and his group went after Aerith who went to the Forgotten City to activate the White Materia, Sephiroth appeared and descended upon her while she prayed, killing her by impalement. But her prayers were enough to activate the White Materia, a catalyst to the ultimate White Magic Holy, a counter to the Black Materia's Meteor. The Black Materia ends up in Sephiroth's hands when he broke Cloud's mind by saying that he was a clone of the real Cloud.

Thanks to Tifa, Cloud was able to overcome his shattered mind and proceed to fight Sephiroth in a final battle. After two transformations, Sephiroth's consciousness attacked Cloud's mind where he was finally defeated though not for good as he will always come back as long as Jenova Cells still exist and he maintains his sense of self so the lifestream can never claim him.

One year later in the Advent Children timeline, Sephiroth's remnants appeared upon the Planet's surface as three aspects of his personality; Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. Coinciding with their arrival was an outbreak in Geostigma, a disease that has started when Cloud defeated Sephiroth back in the Northern Crator. The white-haired men began their mission to resume the "reunion" by kidnapping several children infected with the disease, with the intention of using the Jenova cells within them to revive her. Cloud confronts the trio but is outmatched; he is rescued by Vincent, who reveals that Geostigma is a plague caused by Jenova cells.

Kadaj eventually leads an attack on Edge to find the remains of Jenova. The former members of Avalanche reunite to face him, and Cloud manages to cure his Geostigma using Lifestream-infused water flowing in Aerith's old church. Cloud encounters Kadaj and defeats him in the ruins of Midgar, but Kadaj merges with Jenova's remains to resurrect Sephiroth. The two duel once again and Cloud emerges victorious, resulting in Sephiroth fading away while his manifestations die immediately afterward. Sephiroth's final words to Cloud before fading away were "I will never be a memory..."

Sephiroth appears as the main antagonist in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but his role in the story has changed drastically from the original. Sephiroth takes a much more active role earlier in the game, first appearing after Mako Reactor 1 explodes. He pleads with Cloud to abandon Avalanche and to "live to fight for the planet." There are other occasions where Sephiroth says Cloud needs to live, implying that he is important for whatever plan Sephiroth has. He also says that he is Cloud's everything, implying that both need each other to survive.

The main characters encounter several Sephiroth clones that are taken over and attack them, with a notable occurrence being a clone named Marco attacking and almost killing Cloud before Tifa intervenes. Aside from occasional disembodied taunting, Sephiroth reappears in the Shinra VR theater as a trap for the main characters. After the group escaping from the trap and continuing on their main quest, Sephiroth uses Marco to hurt President Shinra in someway before leaving him to hang of the side of Shinra Tower. When the group comes back and sees this, a Sephiroth controlled Marco kills President Shinra and stabs Barret before turning into the boss Jenova Dreamweaver. After the boss is defeated and turns back into Marco, another Sephiroth clone comes to take him away and escapes.

After the group escapes Shinra, Sephiroth appears on the Midgar Expressway and explains his plan to "protect the planet and all its creatures." He then slices open a rift and walks through it, challenging Cloud to follow. After defeating the many boss characters in this new abstract world, the group fights Sephiroth himself. After defeating him, he transports Cloud and himself to another dimension he calls the "edge of creation." Sephiroth initially asks Cloud one more time to "defy destiny" with him. Cloud refuses and the two square off in what appears to be the final battle of the original game, but Sephiroth cuts the battle short and says it is too soon. He spares Cloud and transports him back to Midgar with the rest of the group. Sephiroth's current whereabouts and master plan are still unknown.

Being both the penultimate and final boss of Final Fantasy VII, he is often seen in spin-offs as Cloud's arch-enemy, a symbol of Cloud's past.

Sephiroth was originally voiceless in his game of origin. He is voiced by Shin-ichiro Miki in the PlayStation version of Ehrgeiz, and in his appearance as a hidden boss in the international version of Kingdom Hearts, he was voiced by Lance Bass of the band NSYNC. Starting with the release of the movie sequel Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Sephiroth has consistently been voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in Japanese. In English, Sephiroth was voiced by George Newbern from Advent Children up until Final Fantasy VII Remake, with Tyler Hoechlin replacing Newbern as the English voice from Final Fantasy VII Remake onwards.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Sephiroth is mentioned in the description of the Omnislash trophy. Cloud's All-Star Mode congratulations screen references Sephiroth's actions in the Nibelheim Incident, where Cloud watches as Palutena walks through flames in a similar manner to Sephiroth's iconic scene. In Cloud's reveal trailer, Cloud's defeat of Sephiroth with Omnislash is recreated with Ike standing in for Sephiroth. Ike is also wearing his black alternate costume to further resemble Sephiroth.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a playable character

Sephiroth, as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Sephiroth is part of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 as Challenger Pack 8. He was revealed on December 10, 2020, during The Game Awards 2020.

Gallery

• 

  Coatless Sephiroth as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	セフィロス, Sephiroth
English	Sephiroth
French	Séphiroth
German	Sephiroth
Spanish (PAL)	Sefirot
Spanish (NTSC)	Sephiroth
Italian	Sephiroth
Chinese (Simplified)	萨菲罗斯, Sephiroth
Chinese (Traditional)	賽菲羅斯, Sephiroth
Korean	세피로스, Sephiroth
Dutch	Sephiroth
Russian	Сефирот

Trivia

• Sephiroth is both the second fighter from the Final Fantasy franchise and from Final Fantasy VII specifically, the first of both being Cloud.
• Sephiroth is the first character from an already-represented third-party universe to not be a clone of another character.
• Sephiroth is the first fully playable third party villain in a Smash title.
  • Sephiroth is also the first DLC fighter to be a major villain, as opposed to a minor enemy like Piranha Plant.
• Sephiroth is the second playable third-party fighter to be mentioned in a game prior to their debut as a playable character, after Ken Masters. Unlike Ken, however, Sephiroth is only ever mentioned by name.
• Sephiroth is the third fully playable antagonist whose franchise does not hail from the original Super Smash Bros., following Wario and Dark Pit.
  • However, he isn't usually portrayed as an anti-hero, unlike the other two.
• While neither of Sephiroth's English voices are in Smash, both George Newbern & Tyler Hoechlin have portrayed Superman in the past. The former voices Clark Kent in many forms of media (including the DC Animated Universe from Justice League onwards as well as the Injustice series of fighting games), while the latter portrays Clark in the CW's DC universe (from Supergirl onwards).

External links

• Article on the Final Fantasy Wiki