#sephcanons

THIS GOES SO FUCKING HARD THOUGH

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.

@nightmateria lol this is not the fanart I was talking about in my post but it is certainly one of the Seph wips I decided to finish 😅

I may have an obsession with those time travel fics where AC Cloud tries to murk CC Sephiroth, but is dismayed to find that his nemesis pre-nibelheim was basically a wet cat with clinical depression. And then Cloud's like Oh No He's Pathetic. I Cannot Kill Him.

(And then they make out- whaaat, who said that)

Note: I put him in a sweatshirt cause I wanted him to be comfy

I think it's one thing to recognise the fact that he is a tragic character and, before Nibelheim, was as 'nice' as he could've turned out considering his circumstances (especially when compared to someone with a similar background like Homelander). But it's a whole other topic when I see people referring to him as an actively good person, let alone a hero.

Remember- he was a WEAPON. Yes, he looked out for his comrades, yes, he absolutely has a lot of vulnerable layers to him and was a victim of Shinra groomed into becoming what he did. But he's also someone who was killing innocent people long before Nibelheim, even a key player in genocide (Rhadore) and colonialism (Wutai). He killed children without mercy, because that was what he had been trained to do. I think part of the tragedy is that Sephiroth never had the chance to be a good person- the potential was there, that's without a doubt, but he never actually was one.

He's effectively a biological weapon raised by and leashed to Shinra. He never really had a choice in what he was going to be. Regardless, no truly good person kills innocent people, or takes part in fucking GENOCIDE- I think that is a very basic thing we can all agree on. Especially since he wasn't killing for some greater good, or even because he was convinced Shinra was right- it was simply because that was how he was raised.

I consider this one of my pet peeves because it almost feels like a woobification of the character. The tragedy of Sephiroth is NOT that he was a real hero who fell from grace, it's that he was never given a chance to be anything more than a killing machine or a tool for Shinra. It's just that, instead of killing the innocents that Shinra orders him to attack, Sephiroth has grown more obedient to his rage than the company that created him. The 'personality shift' in Nibelheim was not a shift at all. He was simply doing what he'd been raised to do, because how else was a living weapon like him going to express his rage if not acting like a living weapon?

Note 1: And no, 'he was just following orders' is not an excuse, just an explanation. Nor does it suddenly turn him into a good person. Vash the Stampede is one of the best examples of a fictional character that tries to encompass what it means to be good imo, someone who refrains from taking life wherever possible. Sephiroth was raised to take it and never managed to overcome or defy that.

Dissidia Duellum Seph in modern wear! He looks so chill.

We're finally here, you guys.