Loz



Loz (ロッズ, Rozzu) is the third member in the group of three Remnants of Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. He is described as being the embodiment of Sephiroth's physical strength, as well as his fondness and emotional instability concerning "Mother" that Sephiroth shows during the Nibelheim incident. While physically the strongest of the three, Loz has a real soft spot, especially on the topic of Jenova, as he apparently cries a lot, a fact that Yazoo points out, often in mockery.

Loz is voiced by Kenji Nomura in Japanese and by Fred Tatasciore in English.

Appearance
Loz is physically very bulky and muscular, akin to the likes of Barret Wallace. His silver hair is short and slightly spiky with sideburns, and he has green eyes. He wears his weapon, the Dual Hound, on his left arm and uses a Velvet Nightmare handgun otherwise. His torso is also covered over with crossing black straps and shoulder guards.

Character
Of the three Remnants, Loz is the most child-like, which led to his lines about crying and his connection to Jenova. Nomura stated that Loz was meant to be a stylized version of Sephiroth's strength, but grudgingly admitted that he could easily be described as "all brawn and no brains". His voice actor Kenji Nomura was specifically told to make him sound like an idiot, after his original assumption that Loz was a cool character based on his battle with Tifa. His overall personality is that of a child, and writer Kazushiga Nojima admitted that Loz's lines about "playing" with Tifa were inspired by his own son. Loz's fight scenes were also deliberately made very dynamic to be "over-the-top" and draw back to his child-like persona.

Story
Loz first appears watching Cloud Strife drive through the wasteland around Midgar, and attacks him with Yazoo and Shadow Creepers summoned by Kadaj. Although the battle turns in their favor, Kadaj contacts Rufus Shinra and calls back the Shadow Creepers, and Loz and Yazoo also leave.

While Kadaj goes to see Rufus, Loz goes to the Sector 5 Church, believing Jenova may be there. Tifa Lockhart and Marlene Wallace are already there, and when Tifa claims she doesn't know where Jenova is, Loz requests she "play with him". Although Tifa gains a momentary advantage on Loz, he rises unharmed from her attacks, and after a phonecall from Yazoo, he exploits his speed to easily defeat her. Loz subsequently kidnaps Marlene and takes a chest of Materia orbs Cloud had been keeping at the church, and returns to the Forgotten Capital with his brothers.

When Cloud arrives at the Capital he battles the three, and Loz and Yazoo together easily overwhelm him by combining their abilities. Cloud is eventually saved by Vincent Valentine, and the three brothers proceed to return to Edge. While Kadaj meets with Rufus again, Loz and Yazoo attempt to destroy a momument to the fall of Meteor, but are interruppted by Reno and Rude of the Turks. As Kadaj summons Bahamut SIN, Loz battles and defeats Rude.

When Cloud and his friends defeat Bahamut SIN, Rufus reveals Jenova's remains to Kadaj. Retrieving them, the three remnants drive onto the highways leading into Midgar, pursued by Cloud. Delaying him from reaching Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo battle him and Loz is exceedingly reckless in his attacks. At the end of the chase, the Turks have arrived ahead of their path via helicopter. Cloud, having gained a lead, drives by, and Loz and Yazoo are subsequently caught in the explosion of the bombs Rude and Reno brought with them.

Assumed dead, Loz and Yazoo return at the end of the film as Cloud defeats Sephiroth, and attack him with dozens of Materia orbs forced into their bodies. Already dissolving in healing rain called down by Aerith Gainsborough, the two are consumed in the explosions of their own spells and are destroyed at last.

Strength
Loz's great strength is his primary characteristic, and is demonstrated several times in the film. He is able to shatter trees at the Forgotten Capital, fling Rude through the air with ease, stop the runaway Fenrir in its tracks with one foot by simply bracing himself, and in his motorcycle chase with Cloud, digs his Dual Hound into the asphalt while riding, and flips his entire vehicle through the air towards Cloud. Loz's strength is accented by the Dual Hound, and with it he can apparently unleash jolts of electricity, as seen in his battle with Tifa. Although she defeats him easily at first, Loz then exploits usage of his speed and the Dual Hound and knocks her unconscious in moments. With the Dual Hound, Loz is able to shatter stone with a punch, and by driving it into the ground can unleash a shockwave through the dirt.

Loz's other asset is his speed; he is so fast he glows blue when moving, and almost appears to teleport. Loz's great speed forced the film staff to create a new CGI tool just to animate his fight scenes properly, which they called the "Loz Warp Tool". The tool was used to slow down the film for the other characters but Loz, so he would be able to move much faster than them.

Trivia

 * The entire fighting sequence between Loz and Tifa has been duplicated in the music video for the Korean pop singer Ivy MV's "Temptation of Sonata", albeit with minor changes, such as small parts of the fighting choreography being altered due to the absence of Loz's Dual Hound, and Tifa's victory by snapping Loz's neck at the end. The music video was banned on TV and singer Ivy was sued by Square Enix.
 * Loz's ringtone is the Victory Fanfare, as heard when Yazoo calls Loz while he is buried underneath rubble, during his fight with Tifa.
 * During Kadaj's speech to the kidnapped children in front of the lake, although it appears that Marlene is holding onto Loz's side of her own choice, she is actually trying to push herself away from him, as can be seen while zooming in to the scene - it looks as though she is holding onto him because she is distracted by Denzel's arrival, as well as Kadaj's speech, and forgets to keep pushing against his leg.