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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're looking back at the history of Sephiroth, where he
00:17 came from, what he did and what he was capable of doing.
00:21 This is the villain origin of Sephiroth.
00:23 This should go without saying but spoiler warning ahead.
00:26 Before we continue, we publish content all week long so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:31 the bell to get notified of our latest videos.
00:35 To make the timeline of Sephiroth easier we will be discussing all of Sephiroth's appearances
00:39 in chronological order rather than the order in which the games and film were released.
00:43 That being said we will make one exception by quickly mentioning his first official appearance
00:47 now before we jump back in time.
00:50 There probably isn't a gamer alive who doesn't at least know the name Sephiroth, appearing
00:54 in not only Final Fantasy but also in games like Kingdom Hearts and Super Smash Bros.
01:08 But before these entries Sephiroth got his start by appearing as the main villain of
01:12 the game he is most well known for, Final Fantasy 7.
01:17 That might have sounded like a very condescending and obvious sentence but let's pretend like
01:20 some of our viewers know nothing before you masamune me through the p-hole.
01:25 For fans of Final Fantasy 7 Remake you may not know that in the original 1997 game it
01:30 wasn't until after leaving Midgar and making your way to Kham that Sephiroth made his first
01:35 on screen appearance.
01:37 When Cloud discusses his history with Sephiroth we enter the now famous Nibelheim flashback
01:42 sequence which shows us who Sephiroth was, what he became and how he became it, but we'll
01:47 talk more about that later.
01:48 The takeaway here is that Sephiroth was mentioned for a lot of the Midgar section but was never
01:53 actually seen, as opposed to the remake where he is seen constantly.
01:57 The only thing the player saw was the path of destruction he left, creating this sense
02:01 of dread leading up to his eventual appearance, and then surprise that he seemed to be just
02:05 a man.
02:06 But what kind of man is capable of lifting a three story giant serpent into the air and
02:12 skewering it with a tree?
02:14 Sephiroth that's who.
02:16 Sephiroth's younger years.
02:34 With the information provided within the games we know that Sephiroth was born somewhere
02:38 between 1977 and 1982.
02:41 Sephiroth was the product of Professor Hojo's Project S, one of the projects under Professor
02:46 Garst's Jenova Project begun under false assumptions that Jenova was a setra.
02:50 There are so many names and words there that are important to fully understand the world
02:55 surrounding Sephiroth, so throughout this video we're going to adopt a quick fire rule
02:59 where I can quickly try to rattle off hours worth of lore in a matter of seconds and you
03:03 guys aren't allowed to leave mean comments when I skip over stuff to keep this video
03:06 cohesive.
03:07 You got it?
03:08 Ok, let's go.
03:09 Professor Hojo who ran the Project S is a significant antagonist in Final Fantasy 7,
03:14 although his appearance there is obviously years after Sephiroth's birth.
03:20 Professor Garst worked closely with Hojo and although was a major player in the questionable
03:24 Project S, he was still considered morally good.
03:27 Jenova is an ancient organism that was retrieved to use in Project S to create another setra
03:32 like her, although as we previously mentioned it was later revealed that Jenova was in fact
03:36 not a setra and they had been working under false information and setra, otherwise known
03:41 as ancients, are an ancient civilization of people who are now long dead.
03:45 There are so few people with setra blood in their veins that a good chunk of Final Fantasy
03:49 7 antagonist activity is dedicated to kidnapping Aerith who is half setra.
03:54 Ok, back to Sephiroth's conception.
03:57 Lucretia Crescent, the assistant to Professor Hojo on the Project conceived Sephiroth while
04:01 Hojo injected the cells of Jenova onto Sephiroth while she was still pregnant with the goal
04:07 of creating a human with ancient abilities.
04:10 Without even having the chance to hold her own child, Lucretia and Sephiroth were instantly
04:14 separated after his birth.
04:16 Although Sephiroth didn't gain the abilities of an ancient as envisioned, he was deemed
04:20 a superior subject to Genesis and Angeal, two other babies conceived under similar circumstances
04:25 and research on Project S continued into the development of Soldier.
04:30 Wait a minute Matt, what the heck is Soldier?
04:32 Well my jubbly little friends, according to Wikipedia, Soldier is the elite fighting force
04:37 of Shinra Electric Power Company in the Final Fantasy 7 universe.
04:40 Its members are advanced super soldiers with superhuman strength, speed and agility, much
04:44 stronger than the Shinra peacekeeping troops and the Turks.
04:46 Shinra deploys Soldier for special missions that require the greatest use of strength.
04:51 Some call me lazy, I call me efficient.
04:54 And lazy.
04:55 Sephiroth's upbringing and education all took place under Hojo's guidance, where he observed
05:00 the belief that a proficient soldier must possess strength in body, mind and spirit,
05:04 viewing a steely resolve devoid of hesitation as signs of true strength.
05:09 To instill this, Hojo subjected Sephiroth to intense physical suffering, pushing him
05:13 to endure just a criminal amount of agony to unlock his full potential.
05:17 It doesn't take an advanced degree in family psychology to know that if you raise a child
05:21 in this environment, they're probably going to grow up with a passionate interest in taxidermy.
05:26 Luckily Sephiroth skipped all that and went straight to cutting people up on the battlefield.
05:30 Sephiroth's first field assignment was to the archipelago of Rador, once a Shinra ally.
05:36 His first engagement involved swiftly dispatching a legion of Radoran soldiers upon helicopter
05:40 insertion.
05:41 The soldier team already engaging in this battle were made up of veterans from Project
05:46 Zero, Glenn Lodbrok, Matt Winsard and Lucia Lin.
05:49 These are some of the original soldiers and Sephiroth on his first field assignment wiped
05:53 out their enemy in a matter of moments.
06:15 Due to his immense power and ability, Sephiroth took command of the team and led them in infiltrating
06:20 an underground Radoran base within the Logos ruins.
06:23 Throughout this mission, he grappled with the dissonance between Shinra's idealized
06:27 heroism and his personal desires for familial connection and normalcy and in particular,
06:32 finding his mother.
06:33 As the harsh realities of conflict weighed heavily on his conscience, Sephiroth found
06:37 solace and guidance from his comrades who encouraged him to wield his considerable power
06:42 with empathy.
06:43 His bond with Glenn and the team alongside interactions with the Radoran Rosin played
06:47 a pivotal role in shaping his character and future path.
06:51 Now I fully understand that this was a very quick way of explaining the deep and frustratingly
06:56 intricate story of his younger years and there is still so much we could dive into and I'm
07:00 still not totally convinced I shouldn't explain what Project Zero was but if we don't move
07:03 on we'll be here all day.
07:05 In summation, Sephiroth, strong.
07:07 But it's not fair because he was juicing in the womb.
07:10 Let's move on.
07:11 Sephiroth the War Hero
07:18 Sephiroth rose to notoriety as a celebrated war hero across the globe, handpicked to serve
07:23 as the face of a Shinra recruitment campaign aimed at sourcing candidates for the prestigious
07:28 Soldier Program.
07:30 This recruitment program and Sephiroth himself were at this time grabbing the attention of
07:34 a little-known video game protagonist by the name of Cloud Strife who would eventually
07:38 join Shinra.
07:39 Now, we're here to focus on Sephiroth but it's worth mentioning Cloud at this point
07:42 to show that the recruitment campaigns were working and grabbing the attention of small
07:46 town folk like Cloud and Tifa.
07:48 Even though Sephiroth displayed an otherworldly set of skills and strength, a myriad of achievements
07:53 and honors were concocted to portray him as a hero long before he ever even set foot on
07:58 the battlefield.
07:59 They were all achievable for him but fake nonetheless.
08:02 Forging close bonds with fellow first class soldier members Genesis and Angeal, the trio
08:07 frequently engaged in epic sparring sessions within the VR training room.
08:11 During one such session, Genesis insisted on a one-on-one duel with Sephiroth resulting
08:16 in a minor injury that triggered his degradation.
08:19 It's not worth our time to get into degradation as S-type soldiers like Cloud, Zack and our
08:23 dear boy Sephiroth do not suffer from degradation, it's G-type soldiers like Angeal and Genesis
08:29 that do.
08:30 So let's forget that word and focus on something else.
08:32 Oh my god look, Crisis Core!
08:35 Isn't it shiny and cool you guys?
08:36 Let's look at that instead.
08:38 Now that we're entering the era of Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core, we should talk briefly about
08:42 Zack Fair.
08:44 Zack Fair is a soldier you play as in Crisis Core.
08:47 Ok, moving on.
08:49 Zack is actually a major player in the lore of Final Fantasy 7 but the joke still works.
08:53 During the final days of the Wu-Ti war, Sephiroth intervened during Angeal and Zack Fair's raid
08:58 on Fort Tamblyn.
08:59 He rescued Zack from an Ifrit summoned by a Genesis clone and it was here that Sephiroth
09:04 suggested that both Genesis and Angeal had defected from Soldier and Shinra.
09:08 Angeal was a close mentor of Zack and this information left him in complete disbelief.
09:13 Sephiroth defended the Shinra building against two assaults orchestrated by Genesis' forces.
09:18 While tracking Angeal to Mako Reactor 5, Sephiroth proposed to Zack that they intentionally failed
09:23 to neutralize him, a plan to which Zack enthusiastically agreed to.
09:27 At the reactor, Sephiroth opened up to Zack about their shared history.
09:30 In facing another assault targeting Hojo, Sephiroth and Zack defended with Sephiroth
09:35 maintaining a sarcastic facade of indifference when a perplexed Angeal came to their aid.
09:40 The Nibelheim Incident
09:55 Not only is the Nibelheim Incident one of the most famous moments in Final Fantasy,
09:59 but it's one of the most famous moments in all of gaming.
10:01 The Nibelheim Incident with the universe of Final Fantasy 7 is the meeting point for a
10:05 lot of different games, the overlapping point for many characters and many experiences,
10:10 the end to some journeys, the beginning of others, the catalyst for events to follow
10:14 and the reason others came to a close.
10:16 And for this video in particular, the Nibelheim Incident may be the single most important
10:20 moment in Sephiroth's story.
10:23 Now as it becomes clear in the original version of Final Fantasy 7, the Nibelheim Incident
10:27 is described and visited a couple of times each, with slightly different variations and
10:32 claims from characters like Tifa that some versions of the story aren't accurate.
10:36 It's not till the ending of Final Fantasy 7 that we learn the true story.
10:40 The variations in story however never really affect what Sephiroth experiences at Nibelheim,
10:45 whether it's the original telling or the final telling, Sephiroth follows essentially the
10:49 same path.
10:50 For this video we're just going to focus on the truth, and not the different versions
10:54 of this story, so if you've yet to complete Final Fantasy 7 you may want to stop the video
10:59 here.
11:00 Towards the end of Crisis Core and 6 years before Final Fantasy 7, Sephiroth and Zack
11:05 received orders to investigate the Nibel Reactor, where reports of missing workers and soldier
11:10 operators as well as the presence of numerous monsters had surfaced.
11:14 The investigation team consisted of Sephiroth, Zack Fair and two infantrymen, one of whom
11:19 was Cloud Strife.
11:21 The team arrived in Nibelheim with Sephiroth inquiring about Cloud's feelings upon returning
11:25 to his hometown.
11:26 When Zack asked if Sephiroth had any family, Sephiroth evaded the question, simply stating
11:31 that his mother's name was Jenova.
11:33 The group was guided up Mount Nibel to the Nibel Reactor by a local named Tifa Lockhart,
11:37 during which a villager took a photo of Sephiroth, Zack and Tifa.
11:41 At the Mako Reactor, Sephiroth and Zack discovered remnants of Professor Hojo's experiments,
11:46 including pods filled with Mako Noids and the pod at the top of the room containing
11:50 Jenova.
11:51 Overwhelmed by the realisation that he might have been created in a similar manner, Sephiroth
11:56 experienced a breakdown.
11:57 Genesis then appeared revealing Sephiroth's origins in the Jenova Project and asking for
12:02 his assistance with his degradation.
12:04 Sephiroth rejected Genesis and left for the Shinra Manor basement where he obsessively
12:08 studied Hojo's project files for seven consecutive days.
12:12 Sephiroth, believing himself to be the last of the Cetra and resentful towards humanity
12:16 for an unspecified past disaster, unleashed his rage by setting Nibelheim ablaze, resulting
12:22 in the deaths of many, including Claudia Strife and Brian Lockhart, the parents of Cloud Strife
12:28 and Tifa Lockhart.
12:29 Tifa, wielding Sephiroth's blade, Masamune, found beside her father's corpse, attempted
12:34 to confront him but was swiftly disarmed and wounded.
12:38 Zack also engaged Sephiroth in combat but was ultimately defeated, relinquishing his
12:42 Buster Sword in the process.
12:44 Seizing the opportunity, Cloud took up Zack's sword and struck Sephiroth while he was momentarily
12:49 distracted.
12:50 In the ensuing struggle, Cloud impaled Sephiroth with the Buster Sword and was then himself
12:54 impaled by the Masamune blade.
12:56 Then using sheer anger and strength, he lifted Sephiroth into the air and hurled him into
13:01 the lifestream.
13:02 To conceal the truth of the incident, Sephiroth was declared killed in action while Professor
13:06 Hojo utilised the unconscious Zack and Cloud for an experiment to test his reunion theory.
13:13 Things get weird.
13:14 Over the ensuing years, Sephiroth's consciousness traverses the lifestream.
13:18 The fragments of his essence congregated at the Northern Cave within the North Crater,
13:23 gradually reforming Sephiroth's physical form within a cocoon of Mako.
13:28 From within, Sephiroth wielded control over Jenova's cells, using them as an extension
13:32 of his being to manipulate individuals injected with Jenova's cells, effectively turning
13:36 them into Sephiroth clones under his sway.
13:39 It's worth making clear from here on and for the majority of the original Final Fantasy
13:43 7 that you only ever face clones of Sephiroth, controlled by Sephiroth from his Mako cocoon
13:49 at the North Crater.
13:51 This fact isn't revealed till late in the game, but for all intents and purposes, Sephiroth
13:55 faced death that day in Nibelheim and only lived on through the lifestream for the events
14:00 following.
14:01 Basically, he sits on his ass for the rest of his story.
14:04 Final Fantasy 7 Approximately 5 years after his presumed demise,
14:27 Sephiroth initiated his scheme to manipulate the Sephiroth clones for his reunion, aiding
14:31 him in merging with the lifestream and seizing control of it to attain godhood.
14:36 So many non-Final Fantasy fans or Final Fantasy haters will shake their head at this plot,
14:40 exclaiming "what?
14:41 What does that even mean?
14:42 That doesn't make sense, that's so convoluted" and to those people we say "are you a tiny
14:47 baby?"
14:48 Towards the end of the Midgar section of Final Fantasy 7, Cloud and the gang storm the Shinra
14:53 building and it's in this section that Sephiroth uses the headless remains of Jenova to manifest
14:58 his form within the Shinra building, where he goes on to assassinate President Shinra,
15:02 free Cloud's party and leave a trail of destruction in his wake.
15:06 This version of Sephiroth will here on out be referred to as Sephiroth Jenova.
15:10 Progressing northward, the Sephiroth Jenova entity encountered and defeated a Midgar Zolem,
15:15 with Cloud's party in pursuit.
15:23 Further into the game and aboard a cargo ship bound for Costa Del Sol, Sephiroth Jenova
15:27 encountered Cloud's party but displayed no recognition of Cloud because, you know, he
15:32 doesn't really know who Cloud is and I just realised that information isn't pertinent
15:36 right now because I didn't explain any of the fake flashback stories.
15:39 Anyways, departing abruptly he left behind a mutated arm of Jenova, which transformed
15:44 into Jenova Birth.
15:45 The next time Sephiroth Jenova ran into them was when Cloud and the party visited Nibelheim
15:49 and encountered Sephiroth Jenova in the Shinra Manor basement, where Jenova urged Cloud to
15:54 follow.
15:55 I understand that we're jumping very quickly through Final Fantasy 7 but in my defence
15:59 the majority of that game is about Cloud and right now we DGA fuck about Cloud.
16:04 In search of the Black Materia, Sephiroth Jenova targeted the Black Materia from the
16:08 Temple of the Ancients, incapacitating Tseng and manipulating Cloud into relinquishing
16:13 the artifact.
16:14 Tseng is a member of the Turks and I understand that's a group we've spent zero time explaining
16:18 in this video.
16:19 Anyways, Sephiroth revealed his grand plan to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor,
16:23 compelling the planet to heal itself within the lifestream, allowing him to merge with
16:27 it and ascend to divinity, aka god status, aka Sephirjesus, aka Big Daddy Seph Seph.
16:34 With the Black Materia secured, Sephiroth Jenova proceeded to the North Crater.
16:39 Something else happens later in the game that involves Sephiroth Jenova…
16:43 What is it?
16:44 Something big…
16:45 Oh yeah, Sephiroth Jenova stabs Aerith through the fucking back while she attempts to summon
16:49 Holy, thwarting her efforts to save the planet.
16:52 Aerith was in fact successful in summoning Holy, but Sephiroth's influence restrained
16:56 its full potential till the reveal at the end of the game that it actually worked, because
17:01 ebbs and flows and storytelling and drama, you know.
17:04 Sephiroth Jenova engaged Cloud's party in combat within the Whirlwind Maze, ultimately
17:08 discarding the Sephiroth Jenova form in favor of Jenova death.
17:13 In a final act of manipulation, Sephiroth coerced Cloud into surrendering the Black
17:17 Materia to his Cocoon form, summoning Meteor and awakening the planet's guardians, known
17:21 as weapons, before descending deeper into the crater.
17:24 I should let you know, we've just jumped across about 10 hours of gameplay in a few
17:27 sentences.
17:28 The events culminate in the planet's judgement where Cloud's party confronts Sephiroth
17:32 at the core of the Northern Cave.
17:34 Sephiroth reveals his Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth forms, engaging in a fierce
17:39 battle against Cloud's party.
17:41 Though defeated, Sephiroth's consciousness persisted, engaging Cloud in a metaphysical
17:45 struggle for control until Cloud prevailed, causing Sephiroth to dissolve into the lifestream.
17:51 As Sephiroth vanished, Holi was released from the planet's core, aided by Aerith's
17:55 spirit, effectively neutralizing Meteor and averting the catastrophe.
17:59 The end, right?
18:01 Well, well, well, just as we thought Sephiroth was dead and we could end this video, we reveal
18:06 that once again, he continued living on, but this time through pure and unfiltered nerd
18:12 spazzing, Advent Children.
18:14 Sephiroth managed to evade dissolving fully within the lifestream by channeling his intense
18:18 hatred towards Cloud.
18:20 As the lifestream rose to confront the impending threat of Meteor, Sephiroth seized the opportunity
18:25 by dispersing his memories into the lifestream, thereby infecting the planet with Geostigma.
18:31 Utilizing these fragmented memories, he orchestrated the creation of the remnants of Sephiroth,
18:35 imbued with the memories others held of him, and dispatched them to seek out Jenova's
18:39 remains, facilitating his resurrection.
18:42 This was the nerd rage I was talking about.
18:44 In Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, the global spread of Geostigma ravaged the world.
18:49 The remnants of Sephiroth, Loz, Kadaj, and Yuzu pursued Jenova cells under the guise
18:54 of reuniting with their mother, unknowingly serving Sephiroth's agenda.
18:58 Kadaj, upon assimilating Jenova cells, transforms into Sephiroth, marking the rebirth of the
19:04 malevolent entity.
19:19 Sephiroth confronted Cloud once more amidst the ruins of Midgar, expressing disappointment
19:23 at Cloud's recovery from Geostigma.
19:26 Revealing his grand design, Sephiroth aimed to amass the souls of Geostigma's victims
19:30 to corrupt the lifestream and dominate the planet, intending to utilize it as a vessel
19:35 for interstellar travel in his quest for domination over new worlds.
19:40 I love Final Fantasy VII, but I'll admit it, Sephiroth's getting a little out of
19:44 hand here.
19:45 Despite heavily injuring Cloud by impaling him, Cloud ultimately emerges victorious,
19:49 vanquishing Sephiroth.
19:50 In his final moments, Sephiroth defiantly proclaimed his determination to transcend
19:56 mere memory before fading into oblivion, leaving a weakened Kadaj to perish in his place.
20:02 To wrap up this story, and with Sephiroth now defeated, Ereth's spirit invoked healing
20:06 rain to cleanse the planet of Geostigma's taint.
20:09 Congratulations gang, not only are we done with Sephiroth's story, but we also achieved
20:13 my lifelong goal of ending a Mojo video with the word "taint".
20:17 Did you enjoy this video?
20:18 Check out these other clips from Mojo Plays and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
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20:25 [Music]
20:35 (electronic chiming)