Sephiroth

Sephiroth (Japanese: &#12475;&#12501;&#12451;&#12525;&#12473;, Sefirosu) is the chief antagonist of the role playing game Final Fantasy VII, produced by Square Co., Ltd.. He is considered one of the most popular villains of the 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 each installment of the Final Fantasy series). He was the most famous member of SOLDIER, the paramilitary branch of Shin-Ra, 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 seiyu Shinichiro Miki in Ehrgeiz and Toshiyuki Morikawa in Advent Children. 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, however, he is voiced by George Newbern.

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Biography
Sephiroth was born 25 to 30 years before the start of the game (exact year left unknown) to Professor Hojo and Lucrecia of Shin-Ra. Even though some believe that Sephiroth may be the son of Vincent Valentine (whom the game implies had feelings for Lucrecia), the FFVII Ultimania Omega blatantly stated he is the son of Hojo, as does Hojo himself during the game. 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. Gast and Hojo injected cell samples from Jenova into the pregnant Lucrecia. Lucrecia then carried Sephiroth to term, his fetile 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 a "walking mass of complexes". 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. 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 was 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, 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, 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 the Northern Crater, searching for the Black Materia along the way as per instructions telepathically given to them by Sephiroth, whose body was now encrusted in raw materia in the Northern Crater.

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, 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.

Having decided to investigate the matter, 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 merge with Jenova and intercept this massive concentration of energy, absorbing it and the knowledge and power it carried, which he believed would make him a god.

Before Sephiroth could use the Black Materia, Aerith 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 Crater, 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. 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.

Advent Children
It has been two years following the defeat of Sephiroth, and a malady called "Geostigma" has spread throughout the game world, afflicting many with its ill effects of 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. Their leader, Kadaj, would later transform into Sephiroth after absorbing the contents of a case containing remains of Jenova. Sephiroth reveals that he endured the Lifestream and had taken Kadaj as his new vessel, using him and his group to gather those infected by Geostigma in a plan to take over the Planet and have it crash into yet another planet, thereby repeating the cycle started by Jenova. Sephiroth was defeated by Cloud's Omnislash Version 5 move, wherein Cloud's combined sword (the First Tsurugi, or "First Sword" as Director Tetsuya Nomura named it) is separated into individual swords (the individual swords could be combined by Cloud to form stronger and larger swords) in mid-air, and Cloud dashes through Sephiroth, grabs another sword and dashes through him again. This process is repeated until he had used 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'll 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 are 'evaporated' into the falling rain, brought by Aerith.

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

Manifestation
All manifestations of Sephiroth seen throughout the game — excluding flashback sequences and his real body at the Northern Crater — 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), smaller pieces of the body of Jenova under his control and with his appearance (at Nibelheim, the 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.

Sephiroth became what some call the newest stage of evolution for Jenova, and anything "Jenova" does in the game's present day is simply Sephiroth invoking his new powers. 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.

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.

One-Winged Angel
Safer Sephiroth is the final 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"). "Safer" 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 Safer 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 Sephiroth, 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.

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. 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.

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 hiimself 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 preceeding the battle against Safer Sephiroth features a musical backdrop entitled "Birth of a God" in a battle against what appears to be a large coccoon-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 colours 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 class of angels 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 travelling 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.

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

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. "The Birth of 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.

Other Appearances
Sephiroth has thus far made four separate notable appearances outside of his Final Fantasy VII role. The first is as a selectable character in the fighting game Ehrgeiz, which also features appearances by other characters from Final Fantasy VII. In this game, Sephiroth is controllable both in his normal appearance and the shirtless version that Cloud confronts alone at the end of Final Fantasy VII. The second is in the English and Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts, where he appears as an optional boss in the game's arena setting, and is widely considered to be he hardest boss in the game. A new orchestration of One-Winged Angel serves as the background music for this battle. The third appearance is as yet another boss fight in Kingdom Hearts II. 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. The fourth comes in the game Itadaki Street Special, where Sephiroth appears as a playable character along with Cloud, Aerith and Tifa from Final Fantasy VII.

Within his Final Fantasy VII role, Sephiroth has appeared in Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII and the OVA Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, both of which detail events before the events of Final Fantasy VII. He also appeared in the cinematic sequel to Final Fantasy VII entitled "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children." Finally, he makes a brief cameo appearance in a flashback during Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

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.
 * Part of 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 Celestrial Globe. His first word when arriving is "--phiros," as he is most likely brought to the world in mid-sentence. This is simply a translation error.
 * 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. 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.