Jenova

Jenova is one of the antagonists of Final Fantasy VII. She also appears in a retelling of a section of the game in the animated film Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-, and in flashbacks in the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Throughout the game, although Jenova is often referred to as "she", there are no 100% conformations that this is the case. In fact, based on Ifalna's description of Jenova's approach to the Cetra and Sephiroth's statement to Cloud concerning Jenova's abilities, it's known that Jenova can change its form, even from male to female. (Note: Ifalna calls Jenova "he" in the Playstation version, yet refers to the creature as "it" in the PC version of the game, and Jenova is referred to as "she" by Ifalna in the Reminiscience of FFVII on the English subtitles of the Advent Children DVD)

Her name is said to be a portmanteau of "Jehova" and "Nova," a historical mistranslation of the Hebrew name of God and the Latin word for "New." Thus, Jenova's name means "New God," a point of symbolic significance. Jenova is indicated to be an alien lifeform.

It is also known as the "Calamity from the Skies" and "Heaven's Dark Harbinger."

In the game, many of the main characters, including Sephiroth, Cloud Strife and Zack Fair, have been injected with Jenova cells at some point in their lives. All the members of SOLDIER were also given Jenova cells, as were the Sephiroth 'clones' in Nibelheim, and all these individuals were also infused with mako. This strange experiment makes them stronger and more resilient to physical attacks, but the cells and mako can also have various effects on a person's mind.

Arrival
Approximately two thousand years before the main events of the game, Jenova arrived on the Planet, having traveled through space on a meteor. Its landing caused a giant wound to the Planet that would later came to be known as the "Northern Crater," a blight on its surface that the Planet would channel its Lifestream to in an effort to heal even up to the beginning of the game.

After its arrival, Jenova emerged from the Crater and approached the Cetra (also known as "the Ancients"), using its mimic abilities to glean the memories and emotions of the Cetra, and then shifting its form in response in an effort to get close enough to them to infect them with its own cells, which then drove those infected insane and turned them into monsters. This was accomplished by taking on the forms of their deceased loved ones.

Most of the Cetra were mutated in the time that followed, though the survivors attempted to defend the Planet despite their dwindling numbers. They were abandoned in the defense of the Planet by their common human cousins (those descended from the Cetra who gave up their Planet-revering lifestyle and subsequently lost their close relationship with the Planet), though a small band of survivors mounted an assault on the Calamity from the Skies and managed to defeat it nonetheless. The creature effectively rendered neutralized, it was sealed away in the Northern Crater. As a result of Jenova's onslaught, only a few Cetra would survive into the modern era.

The Jenova Project


Approximately 30 years before the main events of the game began, Professor Gast excavated the creature and mistakenly identified it as a Cetra. Being Shin-Ra's top scientist, the Jenova Project was approved under his guidance and carried out in Nibelheim. This was a project that was intended to produce an individual with the abilities of the Cetra in the modern era, and that would result in the birth of Sephiroth, child to Gast's assistants (Hojo and Lucrecia), and inheritor of Jenova's power. Some time after the birth of Sephiroth, Gast was informed by Ifalna, one of the last Cetra, that Jenova was not an Ancient, and he fled from Shin-Ra in regret of what he had done. However, Hojo continued Gast's research and would later use it to augment select candidates for becoming members of SOLDIER, Shin-Ra's elite force.

Only 5 years before the game would begin, Sephiroth would learn of the JENOVA Project and read the flawed reports identifying Jenova as an Ancient. Further, he would misinterpret them as stating that he was produced from Jenova's genetic material. Believing himself to be the sole survivor of a race abandoned to death by the species that currently dominated the Planet, he lashed out in rage and razed the village of Nibelheim, also slaughtering most of its citizens in his blind wrath. He then attempted to retrieve the remains of Jenova from the nearby Mako Reactor, but due to the interference of Cloud Strife, only managed to escape with the creature's head, retreating with it into the Lifestream. In the time that followed, Sephiroth would gain mastery over Jenova's powers, essentially acting as an evolved form of the creature. Its own mind -- that of an instinctual virus seeking to replicate -- ceased to be and the mind of Sephiroth was all that remained.

After drifting through the Lifestream, Sephiroth arrived at the site of Jenova's impact. While in the Lifestream, he had absorbed the knowledge of the Cetra and now set in motion a simple, yet devastating plan--scarring the Planet, so that when it healed, he would be situated in the middle of the wound. He would then absorb the Lifestream's energy and be reborn as a "god," becoming the Planet itself. Jenova's body was moved to the Shin-Ra HQ in Midgar, where it remained for five years until the events of Final Fantasy VII, when Cloud tried to save Aeris. It was then that "Sephiroth" reappeared and took Jenova's body after murdering President Shinra and a multitude of the Shin-Ra personnel working in the building.

In the time immediately following Sephiroth's departure into the Lifestream, Hojo, believing Sephiroth dead, began experimentation on other humans, specifically the survivors of the Nibelheim Incident. Injected with Jenova cells and showered with mako, all but Zack suffered from mako poisoning. Due to their escape, neither Cloud nor Zack were numbered with tattoos as the later subjects were. The results of the experiment were known as 'clones', but this was only for their similarity to the Sephiroth experiment, not for being genetic copies.

Hojo's Jenova Reunion Theory
The Jenova Reunion Theory was postulated by Professor Hojo concerning Jenova cells. His theory states that if Jenova's cells are separated, they will instinctively strive to gather together again. It was believed that this "Reunion Instinct" would act upon any living thing -- whether it be a human or an animal -- injected with Jenova cells, influencing it to travel to the place where the Reunion was being called.

The core plot of Final Fantasy VII revolves around the Reunion where the Sephiroth 'clones' all seem to be gathering into one location in the Northern Crater, where Sephiroth's body lay, after Jenova's body was brought there from the intended location at Midgar. Sephiroth seems to have been able to exert control over these individuals (including Cloud,) using them to perform tasks in the world; for example, the retrieval of the Black Materia. The clones were drawn to the Northern Crater's Whirlwind Maze for the Reunion, where the Jenova cells were reassimilated by the main body of Jenova through the murder of the Sephiroth clones and the casting of their bodies into the Crater itself. Cloud was the only clone to arrive at the site of Sephiroth's body, deep within the Northern Crater.

In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, three 'sons' of Jenova attempt a Reunion, using children infected with Geostigma to find Jenova's head. Unlike the Sephiroth 'Clones', the three are actually the physical manifestations of Sephiroth's divided spirit. Once Kadaj, the leader of the three, absorbed the remnants of Jenova's head it allowed Sephiroth to live again by taking over Kadaj's body and remolding it in his image before fighting Cloud once again.

Control
There has been much debate in the past over the nature of Jenova's influence on Sephiroth and vice versa. However, this was prior to the publication of the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide, which is endorsed and published by Square Enix as canonical. It states that Sephiroth's will and ambition were stronger than Jenova's, allowing him to control it.

Some still claim that Sephiroth seems to be controlled by -- or at least influenced by -- the Jenova cells inside of him. Others say that while he wishes to carry out his own plans, he instinctively-- by virtue of the high concentration of Jenova cells in his biological composition -- wishes to carry out Jenova's plans in a different form, which is speculated to be one possible reason for his desire to become one with the Planet. Jenova, seemingly being an instinctual super-virus, sought to infect and transform other lifeforms with its cells, replication and survival being the core drive of viruses. In becoming one with the Planet, Sephiroth would be the core of the life cycle, essentially allowing him to replicate constantly on a planetary scale.

It was also previously debated that Sephiroth was at first driven insane by his proximity to Jenova in Nibelheim, compounding upon his already stressed mental state due to what he read in the Shinra Mansion's library. However, Jenova was incapacitated at that time, and Sephiroth's psychopathic killing spree in Nibelheim was "justifiable" as vengeance for Sephiroth's assumed ancestors being abandoned to destruction by the ancestors of the common people.

Some also argue that Sephiroth could be considered the evolved version of Jenova.

Encounters
Jenova is seen twice before the characters actually fight her. The characters first see the headless corpse of Jenova in a containment tank in the Shin-Ra building. Jenova (as a torso) takes the form of Sephiroth and forces its way out of the Shin-Ra building. The damage pattern shown on the tank does indeed show that it was opened outwards. Though it is not entirely clear in the game if Jenova can assert itself as Sephiroth, or if it is the other way around and Sephiroth can assert control over Jenova, most of the story suggests the latter, and the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide as well as the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children -- and director commentary -- confirm this.

Jenova is first revealed in full in form of a flashback: Cloud tells of Sephiroth's visit to Nibelheim. At that time, Jenova was contained in the Mako Reactor at Nibelheim. Throughout the game, encounters with Sephiroth are parts of Jenova.

Jenova is seen stored submerged in liquid in a large glass tank in the Nibelheim reactor, and appears to be human-sized and quite humanoid in form. She is wearing a helmet that has a plaque with the word "JENOVA" and some English text under it. For a long time, fans debated on what reads on the plaque. Many believed that it was a joke meant for easter egg hunters; the high resolution version of the game cutscene from Advent Pieces finally reveals that the plaque inscription reads "Made in Hong Kong; All rights reserved 1996; Squer Company Limited." The helmet has different inscriptions in both Advent Children, where the plaque only has dates of Jenova's discovery and sealing to the container, and Last Order, where the plaque reads "Strict secrecy; Scientific inquiry section; Shin-Ra Company Limited."

The first three forms of Jenova that the characters have to fight in the game are similarly shaped. Jenova has a generally humanoid monstrous shape, but she doesn't have distinguishable arms and legs - instead, she has winglike appendages.

Jenova-BIRTH is encountered in the cargo ship on the way from Junon to Costa del Sol. Jenova-LIFE is encountered in the Forgotten City, and uses water-based elemental attacks. Jenova-DEATH is encountered in the Whirlwind Maze, and uses fire-based elemental attacks. In each of these encounters, "Sephiroth" is encountered before leaving part of its transformed self -- or the transformation of that entire form of Sephiroth -- which the player then must battle. For example, Jenova-BIRTH is an arm of Jenova, which the player can clearly see. Jenova-LIFE and Jenova-DEATH were both random parts of Jenova's body transformed to look like Sephiroth (as confirmed by the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide). Jenova-LIFE is the only version who has a line in the game--it says to Cloud, "You are a puppet." Jenova-SYNTHESIS, the last form, is found in the depths of the Northern Crater. She looks different from the three other forms; appearing now as a single, smaller feminine form, with a large, hollow spherical fleshy shell behind it, and two tentacles in front. SYNTHESIS is the result of the combination of what remained of the main body of Jenova, Jenova's head, and a large Reunion of Jenova cells, minus those still in SOLDIER members, in Hojo, Cloud, Sephiroth and any number of Hojo's experiments (as also confirmed by the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide).

Music
Jenova has two signature soundtracks in Final Fantasy VII. One is J-E-N-O-V-A, which is heard in fights with Jenova-BIRTH and Jenova-DEATH, and also in the stairway in the end of the game. (J-E-N-O-V-A is not played during the battle with Jenova-LIFE, and is instead replaced with Aerith's Theme due to the emotional circumstances.) The first song is also heard when the characters fight Hojo, due to the fact that he is strongly tied to Jenova, and goes through Jenova-esque transformations during the fight. The second track is Jenova Absolute, which is heard during the fight with Jenova-SYNTHESIS.

The soundtrack of the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children includes a heavy metal arrangement of the J-E-N-O-V-A track. This plays during the final battle between Cloud and Kadaj.

Moreover, The Black Mages recorded another heavy-metal version that is featured on their first album. A piano version appears on the Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections.