turbulence

Sephiroth

Of course, this does not absolve him of his own irredeemable actions. Sephiroth crosses a line when he chooses to direct his pain against innocent lives over those who sought to hurt him. The point isn't to say that Sephiroth is justified in wanting to destroy the world, merely to show how the cycle of violence grows and festers over time. Sephiroth is a monster. But he is a Shinra-made monster. And, in many ways, a victim. I think First Soldier made it pretty clear that Sephiroth would have been a decent, compassionate human being if he'd been granted a normal life. The fact that his natural inclination was tipped towards goodness shows that there was a mountain of potential inside of him.

Sephiroth is a textbook study in what happens when systemic, relentless abuse entirely hollows out a human being. He wasn't just born a monster. He was meticulously engineered into one by a callous, corporate machine that viewed him as property rather than a child.

Looking at his backstory in First Soldier and Ever Crisis, it’s heartbreakingly obvious that his natural inclination was toward goodness. He craved normalcy, looked for his mother, and genuinely wanted to protect people. But Hojo and Shinra subjected him to immense physical and psychological torment, forcing him to harden his heart and view ruthlessness as strength.

When you survive that kind of chronic, deeply ingrained trauma, your entire reality is built on a lie. When Sephiroth finally discovers the horrific truth of his origins at Nibelheim, it triggers a catastrophic psychological break. It’s the ultimate, tragic representation of a trauma survivor being forced to confront the reality of their oppression, and his mind simply shatters under the weight of it.

That being said, I completely agree with your nuance, too. Some people stop the abuse cyle, and some people just continue with it. He perpetuates the cycle of abuse on a global scale, becoming the very illness that infected him. But that’s exactly why his story is so terrifying and compelling.

sibling week: day 3 favorite brothers & sisters