#daikini-san

All hail Sephiroth

The huge problem I have with Genesis is how he treated Sephiroth. This man chose jealously over friendship and Sephiroth could careless about his 'status.' Then there's that Niebelheim incident where he has the audacity to ask Sephiroth for help after he belittled him. Hate to say, but I do not like Genesis at all.

I mean... those are all good reasons not to like him. 

Have to admit, when I’d first watched through Crisis Core with very little knowledge of either Genesis or Angeal other than the vague idea that some people thought they were ‘huge retcon characters’, and that one person’s favourite line of Sephiroth’s was telling Genesis ‘you will rot’ in Nibelheim, I went in prepared not to like Genesis.

And. I didn’t like him. I went through the game liking Angeal and hating Genesis and my heart crying for Sephiroth and loving Zack and Aerith and Cloud all the way.

It was only afterward that I started thinking about him in a different light, and focusing on his thoughts, motivations, and emotional state during the game, at which point I remember quite clearly going ‘why do I like him. why. I do not want to like this asshole.’

All of which leads to the point I’m at now - where Genesis, whether I like it or not, whether anyone else likes it or not, is currently one of my favourite Final Fantasy characters in general, not really so much because of his canon portrayal but because of everything I see that he could be from it. 

Which also means that I see the things he says and does in canon and I go ‘Why did you do that. Seriously, why. You are being way more of an asshole than you need to be. Stop that.’ And one time, when making a post, I considered tagging it with ‘I bully Genesis’ because I just was like... I love you but you are a massive idiot, not one thing you’re doing is working, you’re being counterproductive here.

On that post you’ve replied to, though, I noted how Genesis had accepted that his past motivations were petty, so he’s probably moved on at least in part. But thing is... something I actually find fascinating about writing him, is that he’s not an altruistic person, he’s not a ‘do what’s right just because’ type of person, he also grew up potentially in a situation where he wasn’t taught ways around this, so acting in ways that thoughtlessly hurt other people isn’t something he ever unlearned from childhood. And right here, he just wants to live, to survive, and that’s the same as later on, too. He’s mainly thinking of himself. Which is why in his final appearance, his goddess tells him that no, he’s not the hero he’d thought himself to be.

I guess I always walk this fine line of hurting for both of them, because I can understand both of their viewpoints, and neither of them are perfect.

[CC]“I prefer silence... I suppose I can agree on the researching though.”

He’d spent more hours than he dared to admit on the search for his parents and various other topics. What else is one supposed to do when alone? He had liked reading as a child. They would further his thirst for knowledge and tell him many things about the outside world, tales of the Ancients in particular. Usually those were followed by questions he couldn’t answer and that left him feeling like he had somehow failed them. At some point he hadn’t wanted to answer the questions anymore; then they had stopped. The books and tales had stopped coming either.

DOWN WITH THE SHINRA