#ff7 og

Meanwhile, all the game manuals and guides that released literal days after and before the official game dropped in 1997:

A fine furry boy for this month's portrait!

You have a universe where it’s just as lore-appropriate for a character to send emails via cellphone as it is to scorch dragons with concentrated lightning or fire. There’s never a moment where the presence of technology dampens the fantastical elements because they’re so seamlessly interlaced that the story couldn’t function without the other balancing it out. Mako alone bolsters so much of the plot: AVALANCHE’s dangerous advocacy, ShinRa’s motivation and source of power, SOLDIER enhancements, Cloud’s poisoning, thematic dilemmas on how it’s used to power everyday life vs. how it’s leeching the planet, and the general existence of mutation and non-animal creatures in the FF7 world.

Not even Sephiroth’s story could’ve played out without advanced genetic experimenting and an ancient entity who couldn’t be absorbed into the spiritual lifeblood that veined the planet in which it crashed upon. Cloud’s story would never be the same without being trapped in a horrific sci-fi lab and grappling with a spiritual poison that rendered him comatose on the way to Midgar. There’d be no spirit-fueled Reactors for AVALANCHE to bomb, no WEAPONS to defend the planet, and no war for ShinRa to engage in order to spread their influence; Vincent wouldn’t have inner demons, Lucrecia wouldn’t be in a purgatorial crystal, Nanaki wouldn’t be captured by twisted scientists, and Aerith wouldn’t be studied by the Turks for her spiritual connection to a mako-rich Promised Land.

So, why do I think Sephiroth was just nasty after that 7 days before he burnt down the town? And this is totally not me avoiding calling in refills because my avoidance is high today. Surely, not that.

Sephiroth spent seven sleepless days obsessively reading through Hojo’s files. When the human body undergoes extreme sleep deprivation, it enters a prolonged "fight-or-flight" state. Cortisol (the stress hormone) spikes dramatically.

One of the direct side effects of surging cortisol and adrenaline is hyperhidrosis: excessive sweating, specifically from the apocrine glands. Unlike regular cooling sweat, apocrine sweat is thick, full of lipids and proteins, and reacts with skin bacteria to create a sharp, pungent body odor.

Furthermore, he never changed his clothes. He was locked in that basement wearing his full SOLDIER uniform: heavy leather, thick pauldrons, a long coat, and combat boots. Leather doesn't breathe. For seven days, he was marinating in a sealed microclimate of high-stress sweat, dead skin cells, and body heat.

Sephiroth’s floor-length silver hair is his signature, but hair is a magnet for environmental filth. Shinra Manor is a decrepit, abandoned estate full of dust, mold, and decay. Sephiroth wasn't gently turning pages. He was frantically tearing through old, dusty, most-likely mildew-ridden paper files left behind by Hojo. All of that subterranean dust and paper debris would have settled straight into his mane.

More importantly, let’s talk about sebum. The scalp naturally produces sebum (oil) to protect the hair. After seven days without a wash, that oil builds up heavily, starting at the roots and traveling down. Because Sephiroth is infused with massive amounts of Mako, his biological processes are amplified. It’s highly likely his sebaceous glands were working overtime under stress. His pristine, fluffy silver hair would have turned into a heavy, dark, stringy, oil-slicked mess, stuck to his face and neck with sweat.

The Shinra Manor basement is not a ventilated, climate-controlled library. It is a stone dungeon built directly over underground caverns, likely damp, humid, and heavy with the scent of stagnant water and old stone. There is no air circulation. Any smell Sephiroth generated didn't dissipate. It hovered in the air around him, settling back into his clothes and hair.

By day four or five, the sheer lack of hygiene would cause a breakdown of the skin barrier. Combined with the smell of old paper, rot, and leather, he would have smelled less like a legendary hero and more like a man that had been trapped in a swamp.

The psychological break is the final piece. Sephiroth was experiencing a complete existential collapse. He stopped perceiving himself as human, transitioning into the mindset of a god/Cetra hybrid. When someone is in the middle of a massive psychotic break, basic human functions—like noticing you are covered in grease, that your boots are full of sweat, or that you haven't washed your face—completely vanish. He didn't care that he was disgusting because the human standard of cleanliness no longer applied to him.

So, when he finally stepped out to burn the town down, he wouldn't have been a flawless icon. He would have been a terrifying, bloodshot-eyed specter with matted, oily hair, smelling of ancient dust, heavy sour sweat, and leather, making his descent into madness look—and smell—downright feral. Not to mention the matted hair from lack of brushing.

It's incredibly suspicious that one of the two leading men in the Jenova project ended up marrying the last living Ancient and having a child after studying their kind for years. Gast also forms enough of a bond with Sephiroth for him to remember him fondly, too. Gast stuck his finger in every Cetra pie he could find.

If not then let me share a very sad connection I made. In this Lucrecia moment she says about her baby (Sephiroth):

“watashi no kawaī kodomo”

This means along the lines of “My cute baby…” or “my sweet little child.” The use of “kawaī” by Lucrecia is the key point because it shows her affection. “Kawaī” is used for cute little things like a kitten or darling baby.

Now here is what the dream version of Lucrecia in The First Soldier calls Sephiroth:

可愛いセフィロス。こっちへいらっしゃい。

“Kawaī Sephiroth. Come here.”

She fawns over her son with a phrase like “Cute, little Sephiroth” and then hugs him. You can interpret it as “sweet” or “darling” as well and that’s how they came up with “my sweet little boy.” It works just fine because “kawaī” is for precious little things.