Kadaj



Kadaj (カダージュ) is the primary antagonist of the novel Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright- and the secondary antagonist of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. An embodiment of Sephiroth's will manifested from the Lifestream, his goal is to find Jenova, who he considers his mother, and bring about a second Jenova Reunion to revive Sephiroth in physical form.

The novel Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright-, written by scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, sheds some light in the events that happened prior to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Appearance and personality


Kadaj was designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Like the other embodiments of Sephiroth's will, he resembles Sephiroth to a great degree and is described by Vincent Valentine as a "larval" form of Sephiroth. Kadaj wears black leather clothing with gauntlets and a coat, which he keeps zipped up. The image of a single wing is sewn on the back of his coat as an allusion to Sephiroth. He has shoulder-length silver hair that partially covers his face and green cat-like eyes. Kadaj's weapon in battle is the Souba, a katana with two parallel blades that he carries in a sheath on his lower back.

Kadaj embodies Sephiroth's cruelty and insanity. He is completely devoted to Jenova and dedicated to finding her, but is unaware of Sephiroth's influence over Jenova. As a result Kadaj is insecure over Jenova "choosing" Sephiroth over him, and though he does not fully understand who Sephiroth is, he tells Rufus Shinra he can sense his presence somehow. Kadaj is arrogant and mocking to Rufus and the Turks, laughing at them at times, and thinks of Cloud Strife as his "brother" through Jenova, and for the same reason considers him a traitor to their cause. When driven to anger Kadaj attacks with great fury, attempting to kill Rufus when he reveals Jenova to him and attacking Cloud when Cloud reminds Kadaj he is only Sephiroth's pawn. Nomura describes him as "talking quickly, then speaking slowly or breaking into laughter for no apparent reason".

Kadaj is voiced by Steve Staley in the English version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and by Shotaro Morikubo in the Japanese.

Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright-
Kadaj was born in a pond of blackened water near Nibelheim. He saves Kyrie from sinking in the pool, and ends up conversing with her at Dr. Drake's office, with the latter also seeing him as a friend who died in a fire, due to Kadaj's ability to mimic the appearance of one's dead relatives, a trait he shares with Jenova. Kadaj later disguises himself as Dr. Drake and Fabio, and also takes away Evan's pain from the surgery when his arm was shot.

When confronting him at a cabin on the mountain, he gives him back his ability to feel pain. Kadaj later attempts to manipulate Kyrie into supplying him information on Jenova's remains, but Kyrie shoots at him. Kadaj attacks a Turk helicopter and tricks it into shooting itself down with a missile. He later goads Kyrie into going into one of the crevasses and pursues them in the caverns, only to end up diving into the Lifestream and dissolving after Evan kicks a still-living remain of Jenova into it.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children


Unfortunately, his trip into the Lifestream, like Sephiroth before him, does not kill him. He eventually revives himself inside the Northern Cave Crater as the Turks are collecting Jenova's head, as well as having two more Remnants of Sephiroth, Loz and Yazoo, come to existence alongside him. They effortlessly defeat the Turks, before deciding to locate Jenova's head, which the Turks managed to escape with.

Kadaj appears on the Midgar Wasteland to summon Shadow Creepers to attack Cloud while he is out riding his motorcycle. After speaking to one of the Turks over the phone, he recalls his monsters and sets off to find Rufus Shinra. Arriving shortly after Cloud leaves Rufus, Kadaj reveals that the plague Geostigma is caused by the remnants of Jenova in the Lifestream, and that those infected are part of a plan for a second Jenova Reunion that will recreate Sephiroth. However, Geostigma alone isn't enough, Jenova's remains are needed, and Kadaj believes Rufus knows where they are.

With a group of infected children brought to the Forgotten Capital, Kadaj proceeds to tell them that Geostigma is caused by their bodies rejecting Jenova's influence, and that her presence makes them brethren. Kadaj has the children drink from a pool of dark water, activating the latent "reunion instinct" in their Jenova cells. Cloud arrives and battles Kadaj and his brothers. Outnumbered and weakened by his own Geostigma infection, Cloud is defeated but is saved by Vincent Valentine, who reveals to Cloud the true nature of Geostigma, and the impending rebirth of Sephiroth it could mean, although he does not yet reveal Kadaj's connection to Sephiroth.

With the reunion instincts of the children to guide them, the Remnants go to Edge to look for Jenova's remains. Loz and Yazoo battle the Turks and Kadaj summons Bahamut SIN to attack the city. During the attack, Kadaj confronts Rufus and confirms that Sephiroth is about to be reborn. After Cloud and his friends defeat Bahamut SIN, Rufus reveals Jenova's remains in a box concealed under his cloak.

Casting the box off the building where they are standing, Kadaj leaps after it catching it mid-air. The ensuing chase between the Remnants and Cloud along the highways into Midgar apparently kills Yazoo and Loz. Kadaj gains the lead and stops at the Sector 5 Church to inspect Jenova; he is promptly horrified at what is left of her and cries. Cloud bursts in, and an enraged Kadaj attacks him. Aerith calls a geyser of healing water to erupt from the flowerbed, wounding Kadaj and causing him to flee. The water also cures Cloud of his Geostigma.

Cloud confronts Kadaj outside the ruins of Shinra Headquarters. Kadaj is unaware of what to do with Jenova's remains now that he finally has them; when Cloud points this out, he attacks. Now that he is cured and back to his full strength, the battle ends with Cloud as the victor and Kadaj hanging from the edge of a tower. With no other option, he leaps into the air and absorbs Jenova's remains into his body, leading to the recreation of Sephiroth moments later.

After Sephiroth is defeated, a mortally wounded Kadaj is reformed from his dissolving remains, and attempts a halfhearted attack on Cloud, but instead collapses into his arms. Weakly calling him "brother", Cloud holds him while Aerith speaks to Kadaj from the Lifestream. Believing her to be Jenova, Kadaj calls her "mother" and happily dissolves into the Lifestream with her guidance.

Abilities
Kadaj is a highly skilled swordsman and is able to battle Cloud competently one-on-one. When Cloud is weakened due to Geostigma, Kadaj is able to match and defeat him, and is strong enough to defeat both Reno and Rude alone. Kadaj can summon hordes of Shadow Creepers from the Lifestream, and uses Materia to summon Bahamut SIN. In Advent Children Complete, Kadaj is also able to infiltrate Healin Lodge by transforming into a black mist.

Upon walking into the water at the Forgotten Capital it turns dark and the Jenova cells within the children become active when they drink it. This may be some form of Limit Break, as Kadaj glows in a manner similar to other characters in the film when they use their own Limit Breaks.

In Turks ~The Kids Are Alright~, Kadaj appears before certain individuals under the guise of deceased individuals from their past with the hopes of manipulating them to help him search for Jenova, reminiscent of Jenova's transformation power. He is able to vanish and quickly reappear in another location, and to become immune to attacks from firearms, likely extensions of his ability to disperse into mist. He also demonstrates an ability to take away people's physical pain as well as re-grant it, as evidenced by his "mending" Evan's shoulder wound and his encounter with Evan in the mountains.

Unlike most antagonists with great physical and magical power in the Compilation, Kadaj does not have any Jenova cells, and he does not acquire materia until about halfway through the events of Advent Children. His unusual magic abilities are derived from the negative Lifestream that makes up his body, while his great physical strength and combat proficiency come from the fact that he is a personification of Sephiroth's memories.

Development


Before Kadaj was given a name or his brothers were designed, the character model and artwork for Kadaj were called "Lost Name". Kadaj was the first remnant to be shown in film footage, appearing during the Tokyo Game Show in a short trailer in which he fights Cloud, who is armed with the Buster Sword as the Fusion Swords had not been designed yet. For this scene Nomura attended the motion capture session and modeled for Kadaj himself to demonstrate his fighting style using a bamboo sword. At this point Kadaj was referred to as "the mysterious enemy". He was eventually made the youngest remnant and their leader to provide the psychological terror of an unstoppable child.

Shotaro Morikubo's voice helped shaped Kadaj as a dazed youth with an insanity streak. Nomura chose Morikubo as he felt Kadaj would have some sort of accent, and Morikubo had a peculiar speech pattern that he found fitting. Morikubo joked that Kadaj's lines were difficult to get right due to the sudden shifts in tone his insanity called for, and it was only after failing to get them right and "losing his cool" that the desired effects would be achieved. Co-director Takeshi Nozue described Kadaj being easy to model as the strength of Morikubo's voice work gave a strong impression of how Kadaj should look.

Two scenes featuring Kadaj - his conversation with Rufus during the attack on Edge, and his death scene where he hears Aerith - were going to be cut from the final product, but Nomura pushed for them to be included to expand on his character. The staff envisioned Kadaj as a reminder of what Cloud once was - a puppet to Sephiroth's will - which led to the inclusion of the line in which Kadaj reminds Cloud of this. The line endeared Kadaj to the staff, which led to the development of more scenes featuring him.

Etymology
Kadaj's name is derived from the Persian word khadaj, which means "incomplete", in a referral to Kadaj as a remnant of Sephiroth.

Trivia

 * Kadaj and his brothers could be the youngest villains in the Final Fantasy series; though physically in their teens, the trio had only been alive for two weeks when they attacked Edge.
 * In a promotional poster of Advent Children, Cloud is holding Kadaj's wounded body as he did Aerith's when he laid her body to rest.
 * Before he dissolves into the Lifestream, Kadaj appears to reach up to grab someone's hand, presumably Aerith's.

Kadaj