Sephiroth

Sephiroth (Japanese: &#12475;&#12501;&#12451;&#12525;&#12473;, Sefirosu) is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII. He is considered one of the most popular villains of the Final Fantasy series, and has appeared in five other games: (Ehrgeiz, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Itadaki Street Special and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII), the first four being, relative to Final Fantasy VII, non-canonical, and also in the CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and the anime midquel Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-. His appearance was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, who also designed other characters in the game. His name comes from the Kabbalah, in which the ten sephiroth on the Tree of Life represent different aspects of God.

Sephiroth appears as a tall, handsome character with long silver hair, bright emerald green eyes, a long black coat, and metallic shoulder guards. He carries the sword Masamune (a weapon that has appeared in every installment of the Final Fantasy series). Sephiroth only had 2 friends, Angeal Hewley, and Genesis Rhapsodos. He was the most famous member of SOLDIER, the paramilitary branch of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, until he mysteriously disappeared five years prior to the start of the game. He then returns to enact a sinister plot which threatens the game's world, one which the game's heroes must stop.

In Japan, Sephiroth's voice was provided by seiyuu Shinichiro Miki in Ehrgeiz and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II. In the English version of Kingdom Hearts, his voice was provided by Lance Bass of *NSYNC fame, a decision that was received negatively by some fans. In the English version of Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II, however, he is voiced by George Newbern.

Biography


Sephiroth was born 25 to 30 years before the start of the game (exact year left unknown) to Professor Hojo and Lucrecia. The subject of Sephiroth's father has lead to confusion in many gamers, as Hojo himself states in the game that he is the father of Sephiroth, while at the same time there are numerous implications that Sephiroth may actually be the son of Vincent Valentine. However, the confusion was cleared in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania book, which officially stated that Hojo is indeed the father of Sephiroth. Before Sephiroth's birth, Hojo and Lucrecia were working as assistants to Professor Gast, Shin-Ra's top scientist, on the Jenova Project. The project studied the remains of an extra-terrestrial entity known as Jenova, which was mistakenly thought to be one of the Cetra, an ancient people of the world that the game takes place in. Hojo injected cell samples from Jenova into the pregnant Lucrecia. Lucrecia then carried Sephiroth to term, his fetal form merging with the cells of Jenova as it developed.

After his birth, Shin-Ra raised Sephiroth to be a supersoldier, and told him nothing of his mother except that her name was "Jenova." He was not aware his father was the Shin-Ra scientist 'Hojo' whom he referred to as "inexperienced". He proved to be an incredibly strong and effective member of SOLDIER, gaining worldwide fame for his exploits such as his role in Midgar's victory against Wutai. He was later sent by the President Shinra to deal with the newly formed AVALANCHE when they raided Junon, and then went after the group when they "kidnapped" Professor Hojo.

In the events of Crisis Core and Last Order, taking place five years before the beginning of Final Fantasy VII itself, Sephiroth was ordered to inspect the Mako Reactor outside the town of Nibelheim with a small entourage, consisting of one other member of SOLDIER and a few Shin-Ra MPs. Among this group was SOLDIER 1st Class member Zack and his buddy, a 16-year-old Shin-Ra trooper named Cloud Strife. Nibelheim was Cloud's childhood home, but he avoided showing his face and revealing himself to his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart out of shame over not becoming a full-fledged member of SOLDIER as he had sworn to do several years earlier.

At the reactor, Sephiroth found several pod-like chambers containing monstrous creatures, apparently former humans, possibly mutated by injection with Jenova cells and exposure to Mako. Deeper inside, he found a larger chamber labeled "JENOVA," which contained a very strange feminine-looking creature. However, Crisis Core shows the true events to the Nibelheim incident, and Genesis Rhapsodos, former friend of Sephiroth, plays a large part in Sephiroth's madness. During this time, Genesis tells Sephiroth that he was born from the Jenova Project, which was used to produce a 'monster'. Going in more depth about Jenova, and the Jenova Project, Genesis states more facts, but Sephiroth himself does not understand all of what Genesis tries to tells him. Deeply disturbed by the fact that the creature had the same name as his "mother" and by the idea that he himself might have been created in an experiment similar to the one that created the monsters in the pods, Sephiroth made his way to the mansion that had been occupied by Shin-Ra researchers and began reading the research notes that were located in the basement library.

As a result of what he learned, Sephiroth became enraged and psychotic. Based on the Shin-Ra reports, he came to believe that Jenova was a Cetra, and therefore that he himself, Jenova's "son," was the last survivor of the Cetra. He also believed that the human race had betrayed the Cetra 2,000 years earlier, leaving them alone to defend the Planet from a calamity it had faced (eventually revealed to have been Jenova itself), and resolved to take vengeance for his "ancestors." He burned Nibelheim to the ground, killing nearly everyone within the village, including Cloud's mother, and then returned to the Mako Reactor in the Nibelheim Mountains. He was pursued by some surviving villagers, including Tifa and her father. Cloud and Zack, as of yet unharmed, also followed. When Tifa arrived at the reactor, she found her father dead with Sephiroth's Masamune left beside his body. In anger, she took the sword and charged Sephiroth outside the pod room; however, he took his blade back from her and cut her down, nearly killing her.

A moment later, Zack arrived and rushed up the stairs in the pod room to Jenova's chamber, attempting to stop Sephiroth. Zack was sent reeling out of the doorway of the chamber and onto a pod. Sephiroth attempted to take Jenova with him, but before he could do this, Cloud charged into the room, carrying Zack's large Buster Sword, and taking Sephiroth by surprise stabbed him through his abdomen from behind with it. Believing Sephiroth was finished, Cloud went to tend to Tifa.

Due to Sephiroth's enhanced anatomy, however, he survived Cloud's assault, though wounded greatly. He then removed Jenova's head for reasons known only to himself. He prepared to leave, and to launch an assault upon the human race to symbolically "take back the Planet" for the Cetra. Before he could leave the Reactor, Cloud pursued him once more. This time Sephiroth took Cloud by surprise, turning quickly and sliding his sword into Cloud's stomach. But Cloud's desperation proved greater than Sephiroth's strength, and he lifted Sephiroth off the floor using the blade in his chest as a lever and his own body as a pivot, flinging Sephiroth over the edge of the catwalk upon which they stood, and down into the Mako pool beneath the reactor, from where Sephiroth's body would be carried into the Lifestream and eventually to the great Northern Crater, the Planet's 2,000 year old wound that was formed by Jenova's landing. In Last Order, it was reckoned that Cloud only managed to fling Sephiroth into the wall, and that Sephiroth jumped into the Lifestream as a means of escape. This was the last time Sephiroth would be seen for five years.

Following this, Shin-Ra sealed the records on Sephiroth and rebuilt Nibelheim in order to cover up the incident, populating it with Shin-Ra employees paid to act as the town's citizens. Hojo meanwhile decided to make use of the surviving residents of Nibelheim, and so commissioned them against their wills to take part in an experiment that would hopefully prove his Jenova Reunion Theory, a theory stating that when Jenova's cells are separated, they will seek to reunite. This was done by injecting some of Jenova's cells into the survivors and then infusing them with Mako, two procedures that had been carried out on Sephiroth himself (the difference being that the procedures were done on Sephiroth when he was still developing in the womb, causing them to merge with his DNA and grow with him as he developed). Thus, the subjects of the experiment were dubbed Sephiroth "clones", though this term has often been misinterpreted by Westerners due to the "genetic duplicate" connotation carried by the term "clone."

Cloud and Zack were two of Hojo's subjects for this experiment, and they would spend the next five years as his prisoners in the Shin-Ra Mansion of Nibelheim. Shortly before the main events of the game begin, Zack broke free and took the semi-comatose Cloud with him. Around this point in time, the call of the Reunion began to go out, and the Sephiroth clones began making their way toward Midgar, where Jenova was transfered to after the Nibelhiem incident. As for Sephiroth, through the years, he began to understand the true nature of Jenova was absorbing Jenovas' head and being encrusted in raw materia, deciding to use the knowledge of the Cetra obtained from the Life Stream for his ambitions.

The hero party of the game, known as AVALANCHE, was captive in Shin-Ra's headquarters at this time, having made a daring raid on the facility in an attempt to rescue a captive ally. During the night, Jenova's body contained now in Hojo's lab in the building, breaks out of its containment vessel through Sephiroth's influence, taking on his appearence, and slaughters much of the Shin-Ra personnel in the building. At some point, Cloud's prison cell was opened, either by Jenova itself or by an electrical malfunction occurring as a result of massacre. It is also probable that Sephiroth himself opened the lock, possibly because he views Cloud as one of his "clones". AVALANCHE found their guards slaughtered, and President Shinra impaled against his desk by a sword that apparently belonged to Sephiroth. As a result of this, Sephiroth clones began changing direction toward the Northern Cave, where Sephiroth's actual body is located.

Having decided to investigate the matter, encountering "Sephiroth" on the way, AVALANCHE discovered that Sephiroth was attempting to use the Black Materia, an item that would call forth a manifestation of the Ultimate Destructive Magic: Meteor. Sephiroth intended to use this to deal a potentially fatal wound to the Planet, at which time it would then send out large amounts of spirit energy from the Lifestream in order to heal that wound. Sephiroth planned to be at the center while bringing the Reunion to the Northern Cave so they can absorb the scattered remains of Jenova in the clones and intercept this massive concentration of energy, absorbing it and the knowledge and power it carried, which he believed would make him a god.

Aeris Gainsborough, the true last survivor of the Cetra, tried to use the White Materia given to her by her mother to summon the force called Holy, the only power able to counter Meteor. During her attempt to call forth this Ultimate White Magic, Sephiroth had a piece of Jenova in his form fall from above and impale her with his sword, killing the flower girl almost instantly. This was part of Sephiroth's manipulation and mental torture of Cloud, possibly destabilizing him so that he might be easily manipulated. Though Aerith had successfully called Holy, it was now being held back within the Planet by Sephiroth, preventing it from moving with his will, as augmented by Jenova's power.

He continued manipulating Cloud until AVALANCHE reached Sephiroth's body inside the Northern Cave, by which time Sephiroth had so whittled away at Cloud's mind that he believed he was nothing more than a cluster of Jenova's cells that had assumed the form of a real person named "Cloud." He then willingly handed over the Black Materia to Sephiroth, which Sephiroth used to call forth Meteor. Afterward, AVALANCHE and the Shin-Ra executives that were present were forced to flee from the collapsing area. Sephiroth then erected a field of energy around the Crater to prevent entry, which was later penetrated by Shin-Ra. Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE then descended into the chasm to defeat a mutated Sephiroth, his body hatching from a pupa-like material (Bizarro Sephiroth) and preparing to absorb the Lifestream (Safer Sephiroth). After destroying Sephiroth's body, his spirit made a mental assault upon Cloud, attempting to overcome his will as easily as it had done in the past and take Cloud's body as his own. However, Cloud's mental defenses had grown and he triumphed over Sephiroth's spirit with his ultimate technique, Omnislash, at which time Sephiroth's spirit was seemingly reclaimed by the Lifestream.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
It has been two years following the defeat of Sephiroth, and a fatal malady called Geostigma has spread throughout the world, afflicting many with extreme fatigue and open sores on the skin. The now-reclusive Cloud finds himself confronted by a strange trio of silver-haired men who are the physical manifestations of Sephiroth's will and spiritual energy, his powerful will having allowed him to pull out of the Lifestream before being fully diluted. However, without a great abundance of Jenova's cells, Sephiroth can not be fully reborn. Their leader, Kadaj, becomes the vessel of Sephiroth after absorbing the contents of a case containing remains of Jenova, transforming into the man himself. Sephiroth reveals his intent to use those that die of Geostigma to bend the Lifestream to his will, take over the Planet and use it to travel to another world, thereby repeating the cycle started by Jenova. Sephiroth is defeated by Cloud's Omnislash Version 5 move, wherein Cloud's First Tsurugi sword is separated into individual swords (the individual swords could be combined by Cloud to form stronger and larger swords) in mid-air. Cloud dashes through Sephiroth, grabs another sword and dashes through him again. This process is repeated until he uses all six components of the First Tsurugi. Sephiroth remains floating in the air as his single black, feathered wing then appears. His final words are "I will...never be a memory," and his single wing wraps around him. The wing fades away, revealing what is left of Kadaj's body as he falls to the ground. The weakened Kadaj is then accepted into the Lifestream as his body and soul 'evaporate' into the falling rain, Aeris' Great Gospel.

A revised "One-Winged Angel" theme, "Advent: One-Winged Angel" (Sairin: Kata Tsubasa no Tenshi), including heavy rock and orchestral elements, with new lyrics written specifically by Tetsuya Nomura, is played throughout the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth.

Manifestation
All manifestations of Sephiroth seen throughout the game — excluding flashback sequences and his real body at the Northern Crater and Core of the Planet — are Jenova's entire body under his control and with his appearance (the forms of Sephiroth seen from the Shin-Ra headquarters to the cargo ship that left Junon, at Nibelheim, the Temple of the Ancients, City of the Ancients, and in the Whirlwind Maze at the Northern Crater) and astral projections (the illusions seen at the Northern Crater prior to Sephiroth calling forth Meteor). The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide, littered with information directly from the creators of Final Fantasy VII, stated that Sephiroth "was not content to become a mere puppet and assumed position of her mind and will." This implies that Sephiroth's appearances stem from him invoking his appearance through Jenova's cells, which are also stated to have shapeshifting properties.

In the game, Cloud's final confrontation with Sephiroth is purely mental/spiritual and takes place in the Lifestream, a final battle of wills. Sephiroth is defeated, and his soul dissolves back into the Lifestream. Even so, Sephiroth's true fate was revealed in Advent Children, as he sought to continue his "mother's" ghastly mission.

Sephiroth, the New Evolution of Jenova
Sephiroth became the newest stage of evolution for Jenova, and anything "Jenova" does in the game's present day is simply Sephiroth invoking his new powers ("the will of Jenova as a human is the result of it channeling Sephiroth's spirit"). When Sephiroth came into the picture, the minds of the two joined, and Sephiroth made himself the core of the viral entity that Jenova was, with his ambitions being fueled by its parasitic instincts and his desire to destroy all the humans he despised. Thus, his will manifested through Jenova's extensive psionic powers.

Birth of a God
Bizarro Sephiroth is the first form of Sephiroth that Cloud and his party face at the end of the original game. It is a mistranslation, being 'Rebirth Sephiroth' in the original Japanese. Although many explanantions abound, it is sometimes assumed that this is a cocoon state that Sephiroth uses to prepare for his ultimate form. Bizarro has five parts: Head, Right Magic, Left Magic, Core, and Torso. The Head poses no real impact in the battle, but the Left and Right Magics act as a barrier that raises the Core's defense. Once they are brought to inactivity, the Core's defense drops. After the Core is defeated, the Torso then becomes more vulnerable. The difficulty of the battle depends on the assortment of parties the player can make. Bizarro's attacks range from the self-healing (and quite annoying) Bizarro Energy to Heartless Angel which brings down every character to 1 HP. After Bizarro is defeated, it opens to release Sephiroth's ultimate form.

One-Winged Angel
Safer Sephiroth is the second ultimate form of Sephiroth seen in the original game. Though one more battle follows Safer Sephiroth's defeat, it is a staged, un-losable battle purely for plot purposes, so the fight with Safer Sephiroth is essentially the final battle of the game as far as gameplay itself is concerned. It follows the battles with Jenova SYNTHESIS and Bizarro Sephiroth. After Safer Sephiroth is defeated, only the staged battle, a lengthy final cutscene, and the credits follow.

The Safer Sephiroth battle is unexplained and leaves many questions unanswered, adding to Sephiroth's mystique and prompting much speculation about the battle's significance to the plot of Final Fantasy VII and its symbolic meaning. The song played during the fight also gives a sort of mystic and terroric feel, as a sort of "Deus Celebri" ("praise to God").

Names
It is often believed that the name "Safer Sephiroth" is a mis-romanization of the boss' name when translating from Japanese, as was the case with Helletic Hojo (which should have been translated as "Heretic Hojo)." A common rumor is that "Safer" is a misspelling of "Seraph" due to Safer Sephiroth's angelic appearance. Although this rumor is disputed, Sephiroth does bear many similarities to a seraph, as seraphim are described in the Hebrew Bible as being humanoid angels with six wings: "With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." Safer Sephiroth can easily be interpreted as bearing the appearance of a seraph with an additional wing added in place of his right arm. However, the origin of the name "Safer Sephiroth" is Hebrew, just as "Sephiroth" alone happens to be (the boss' name as written in Japanese is "セーファ・セフィロス," or "Sēfa Sefirosu"; note that "safer" can also be transliterated as "sefer," "sapher," and "sepher"). "Sepher" is Hebrew for "book," while "Sephiroth" is Hebrew for "Numbers," and, thus, the boss's name translates to "Numbers Book," or, more accurately, "Book of Numbers." The Book of Numbers is one of the many Kabbalistic references in Final Fantasy VII, it being the name of a book of the Torah, as well as a book of the Bible. The Sepher Sephiroth is a Kabbalistic treatise concerning the evolution of God from a being of inactive rest to one of active creation. It deals with the ten Sephirot, a central concept of the Kabbalah. This may relate to the origins and purpose of Jenova or the Lifestream, and the concept of "numbers" most obviously alludes to Sephiroth's "clones," each bearing a numbered tattoo. However, the ten Sephiroth are the divine emanations of God, and the ultimate purpose of kabbalists is to become one with God, or to attain Godhood as a part of God, reunited with the deity.

Safer Sephiroth is also known as the "One-Winged Angel," "One-Winged Angel" being the name of the well-known song which accompanies the battle with Safer Sephiroth. The title is also significant to Sephiroth's character due to its "fallen angel" connotation, a title given to those who have fallen from grace. To some, the name "One-Winged Angel" seems strange, as Safer Sephiroth has a total of seven wings. However, the original Japanese name is "片翼の天使 (Katayoku no Tenshi)," which means "an angel with wings on one side," rather than an angel with only one wing. However, One-Winged Angel is most likely referring to Sephiroth's one black wing in place of his right arm.

Appearance
Safer Sephiroth is memorably strange, appearing as a deformed, tanned, lop-sided, angelic being. He is unclothed, and all of his body below his torso has been replaced by a cloud-like formation with six white wings (two normal ones between two larger ones with decorative frills) emerging upside-down from where Sephiroth's legs would normally be. There are also two large, interlocked rings on his back, forming a symbol of the Empyrean Halo aka the "Celestial Rose," the final Heaven and the abode of God in The Divine Comedy. Also, believed by a select few, in one cutscene of Final Fantasy VII it showed Sephiroth inside the raw materia, sliced in half at the waist. This could be a possible reason why he has six wings beneath the cloud he rests on during the Safer (Seraph) Sepiroth battle.

His left arm is normal, but his right arm has been replaced with a large purple and gold wing -- colors some find reminiscent of Jenova. The prominent bangs normally seen in Sephiroth's hairstyle are not present here, his hair slicked back and billowing as though blown by wind.

The image is completed by the background for this battle, which -- despite the battle taking place in the bowels of the earth -- is a kaleidoscopic ring of clouds in a blue sky, offering the illusion that the battle takes place in a heavenly plane of existence, called the Twirling Heavens. This may be a result of the battle taking place within the Holy magic that resided in the background of the former battle. However, it may also be another allusion to the Celestial Rose, as this layout of clouds is reminiscent of how the concept has been illustrated in the past., in which it appeared as a throng of angels encircling God, who was shown as a sun-like entity in the middle, a formation that symbolises God's perfection and radiance. Indeed, not only does Safer Sephiroth lie at the center of this swirl formation, but when using Super Nova, the shockwave from the Sun's destruction emerges from behind Safer Sephiroth.

In Sephiroth's cameo appearance in Kingdom Hearts, though not bearing a large resemblance to Safer Sephiroth, appearing instead in Sephiroth's original form, he does have a single, large, feathered black wing behind his right arm, dramatically alluding to the "One-Winged Angel" title. He also takes this form in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. In Kingdom Hearts II however, he has been shown with two additional wings sprouting from his waist/hip area.

Sephiroth was not the first final boss to appear in an angelic form. Kefka Palazzo of Final Fantasy VI appeared as an angel in the final battle of that game.

Interpretations
The significance of Safer Sephiroth's form to Final Fantasy VII ' s story is difficult to deduce and open to interpretation because, like many unusual final boss forms, its nature is never explained or even discussed in the game. Some believe that this form of Sephiroth is the closest he ever comes to reaching his goal of becoming a god by absorbing the Lifestream, or that he assumed a heavenly appearance in preparation of ascending to godhood. Others believe that this form is a result of Sephiroth giving in to his Jenova heritage, and speculate that it may give a hint to the true form of Jenova's race: If a human with Jenova genes appears as a bizarre half-angel, is Jenova's race a race of true angels?

This latter theory, however, is met with much criticism due to official materials stating that the being Jenova lacked the higher intellect associated with homo sapiens, and was, instead, an instinctual beast, most commonly believed to have been a large colony of viral cells of unknown extraterrestrial origin. It's also doubted by some due to the appearance of "Project G" in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, an individual with no known inheritance of Jenova cells, but with bright Mako Eyes and a large angel wing (a wing actually larger than Sephiroth's, and on the opposite shoulder). This leads some to speculate that angel wings may simply be a result of exposure to a high quantity of Mako. As support for this notion, it has been cited that Omega WEAPON (as seen in Dirge of Cerberus) sprouted large angelic wings composed of Mako when absorbing the Planet's Lifestream. Then again, when observing the summoned creature 'Bahamut ZERO,' one can clearly deduce that it would be impossible for the creature to fly in space, unless it flew using the sun's 'waves.' Or, Perhaps the same holds true for mako, that it radiates and can be manipulated through the use of special wings. At any rate, it surely cannot be usage of air, because one wing would be incapable of lifting Genesis or Sephiroth, and as large as the wings on Omega are, he would not be able to fly with them either.

Also, considered of note is that Sephiroth's "mother" is Jenova, whose name is a portmanteau of "Jehovah" (an adapted version of the Hebrew name of God) and the Latin word "Nova" (meaning "New"). In other words, this creature's name is "New God," and Sephiroth himself is often considered to be an evolution of this being, having his own ambitions to become a godlike entity. Indeed, the battle with Bizarro Sephiroth immediately preceding the battle against Safer Sephiroth features a musical backdrop entitled "Birth of a God" in a battle against what appears to be a large cocoon-like object bearing Sephiroth's face, from the top of which Safer Sephiroth can be seen emerging. It's also of note that the wing that replaces Sephiroth's right arm in his Safer Sephiroth form bears colors reminiscent to those of Jenova, possibly hinting that he has mutated closer to her form, or that the two have fused and become one.

From a symbolic perspective, Sephiroth's angelic appearance in this battle combined with his obsession with becoming a god and his appearance as the "One-Winged Angel" could be viewed as a reference to Sephiroth's symbolic role as a "fallen angel" - like Milton's Satan, Sephiroth is a once majestic being that fell from grace and became twisted and evil. Further notable is that Safer Sephiroth bears a strong resemblance to the Biblical description of a seraph angel, the highest choir of angels and the one to which Satan is said to have belonged before his fall.

The image of Supernova as well could be taken as such an allusion, due to its display of certain mathematical formulas and religious text-pieces with the backdrop of a meteor destroying the solar system one Planet at a time before finally crashing into the sun, as Satan was said to have fallen from Heaven as a bolt of lightning or a meteor. This same symbolism could be applied to Jenova's arrival on the Planet, being that it arrived within a meteorite, scarring the Planet. Further, the destruction of the sun and surrounding Planets could be taken as a symbol of the disruption of order and the defiance of God's authority in the universe.

Further still, Sephiroth's journey around the world as a "man in a black cape" in his normal form can be interpreted as a parallel to Satan. A popular image of the Devil -- specifically in the Middle Ages -- was that of a man in a black cape traveling the world, leaving despair and destruction in his wake. "Chasing the Man in the Black Cape" is also one of songs in the game, a reference to AVALANCHE's pursuit of Sephiroth. There also may be significance to Sephiroth's left-handedness, especially since virtually every other character in the game is right-handed and left-handedness has traditionally been connected with evil (e.g. the Latin "sinister," left-handed), and, in Christianity, Satan.

Finally, there are two allusions to the Celestial Rose in this battle, as described above under "Appearance."

Strength
Even after appearing in both Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, Sephiroth's true strength is still unknown. It's stated in the official book "Reunion Files" the Sephiroth we see in the movie "ascended to a new level of existence" and is much stronger than before. But the book states that he never exerted himself in the final fight against Cloud, and because of that we still don't know his true potential.

But we can have an idea of it, because of statements from Kitase and Nomura in the AC Director's Comentary of the Japanese DVD. "Kitase said that Sephiroth's existence and will is extremely powerful. There is nothing stronger, nothing above him." and "Producer Kitase decided that they couldn’t make any other character stronger than Sephiroth in the world of FFVII."

It is known that the incarnations of Sephiroth seen in Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children are far more powerful than he was prior to the Nibelheim Incident. In the short, playable section of the flashback scene shortly before the Incident in which he supposedly perished, Sephiroth is shown to be level 50 and having 3,264 hp, much weaker than any of the members of AVALANCHE can become by the end of the game and still weaker than Cloud was by the end of Advent Children (even having lost much of his skill with a buster sword that he had at the end of the game.) Therefore, Advent Children Sephiroth was much stronger than he was the last time he fought with the Masamune.

Musical Themes
Sephiroth is also the focus of three pieces of theme music written by series composer Nobuo Uematsu. His primary theme song is "Those Chosen by The Planet", a piece utilizing bells, low drums, and a deep chorus, which accompanies Sephiroth's appearances throughout the game. Birth of a God accompanies the battle against Bizarro Sephiroth, the first of Sephiroth's final two forms. The most noteworthy piece (and a lingering fan favorite) is the one that plays during the final confrontation with Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel. One Winged-Angel, in the English translation of the song, reflects on Sephiroth's violent burning rage inside of him, while the second and third verses reflect on how he does not want to die. A new version of this song was composed for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It utilizes rock elements such as electric guitar and drums. New lyrics accompany these, emphasizing how Sephiroth will not remain a memory.

Final Fantasy VI
A 2D sprite of Sephiroth, modeled after Final Fantasy VI style sprites, occasionally appears in the loading section of the Final Fantasy Anthology port of Final Fantasy VI.

Ehrgeiz


In this fighter game, Sephiroth appears together with some other Final Fantasy VII characters. Sephiroth is controllable both in his normal appearance and the shirtless version that Cloud confronts alone at the end of Final Fantasy VII.

Kingdom Hearts
Sephiroth also appears in the English and Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts, where he appears as an optional boss in the Olympus Coliseum world, and is widely considered to be the hardest boss in the game. A new orchestration of One-Winged Angel serves as the background music for this battle. In the Final Mix version of the game, extra scenes are revealed including one where Aerith reveals that Cloud wasn't looking for her, but Sephiroth. A bonus scene is also shown after Sephiroth is defeated, where he has a face off with Cloud.

Kingdom Hearts II
Sephiroth reappears in Kingdom Hearts II, again as an optional boss. In this title, his role is expanded beyond its status in the original Kingdom Hearts, as he is involved in a side story involving Hollow Bastion resident Cloud Strife, whom Sora confronted in the first game, he attacks with a meteor like attack, dark orbs, columns of fire, and a long Masamune combo. Once again he is considered one of the hardest bosses of the game.

Itadaki Street Special
Sephiroth appears as a playable character along with Cloud, Aeris and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII.

Itadaki Street Portable
Sephiroth also appears as a character in Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable.

Dissidia -Final Fantasy-
Sephiroth will be a playable character in Dissidia -Final Fantasy-. When the trailer ends, he is about to face off with the original Final Fantasy's Warrior of Light.

Trivia

 * Sephiroth was unanimously voted #1 by the Electronic Gaming Monthly staff in the Top 10 boss Video Game Bosses of their October 2005 issue.
 * Sephiroth's name is actually mentioned in Final Fantasy Tactics. As a secret character, Cloud Strife is brought into the game's setting Ivalice by a device called the Celestial Globe. After his arrival, Cloud suffers from a sudden headache and mentioned the name Sephiroth.
 * In Kingdom Hearts, Sephiroth is shown with his sword, the Masamune, in his right hand. However, in previous games, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Kingdom Hearts II, he is shown with his sword in his left hand. Despite his difficulty in the game, many fans consider him (and Cloud) to be weaker incarnations. It is possible Sephiroth could be wielding his sword off-hand against Sora (similar to Cloud having his sword taped up) to make the match sporting. Aside from that, after the battle in Kingdom Hearts 2, Sephiroth doesn't appear to injured or even tired. The video of he and Cloud clashing in battle in similar forms at the end of Final Mix makes this questionable forever, along with his energized form.