![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingMy understanding of the Nibelheim incident is that Sephiroth was already close to the verge of a mental breakdown, and his chance encounter with certain aspects of Cloud’s character pushed him over the edge.
This is what was going on with Sephiroth:
1. A horrifically abusive childhood
2. A decade of unaddressed war trauma
3. Madness-inducing Jenova cells
4. Big virgin energy
Sephiroth managed to maintain control over his mind through the strict military discipline that had been instilled in him practically from birth. By the time Sephiroth was dispatched to Nibelheim, Shinra had no more wars to fight, and this discipline was starting to break down. In addition, Sephiroth was seriously considering deserting from Shinra, so he was beginning to face the possibility of a life with no structure at all.
Essentially, Sephiroth is like one of those deep-sea fish that can’t exist without constant pressure. He’s suffering from the psychological equivalent of decompression sickness when he meets Cloud. Cloud ends up becoming a trigger, because…
1. Cloud has a lovely mother and a sweet childhood friend and a beautiful family house in Nibelheim, and Sephiroth has begun to dwell on the fact that he has nothing and no one.
2. Sephiroth was already deeply conflicted about being used as “super soldier” propaganda for Shinra; and, in Sephiroth’s mind at least, Cloud left everything behind to become like him. This exacerbates Sephiroth’s sense of being “inhuman” and “corrupting.”
3. The juxtaposition between Cloud’s wholesomeness and the horror of the Makonoid experiments inside the reactor core is so extreme that it’s impossible for Sephiroth to process.
4. Let’s be real, Cloud is very attractive. Not everyone’s gay sexual awakening involves setting an entire village on fire, but you can understand the analogy.
(So where does Zack fit into all this? What I would argue is that Cloud’s false memories are partially inspired by how Sephiroth remembers what happened, as communicated through their shared Jenova cells. In Sephiroth’s mind, the focus was always Cloud.)
In any case, the point of the original story is that the military-industrial complex is bad, because even people who are good at war are victims who can’t escape the cycle of trauma and violence.
In contrast, the idea that the Nibelheim incident happened because a space alien was using ghosts to talk to Sephiroth through his magical sword is fantasyslop that has no point at all. I could happily have lived the rest of my life without knowing this is canon.
This is what was going on with Sephiroth:
1. A horrifically abusive childhood
2. A decade of unaddressed war trauma
3. Madness-inducing Jenova cells
4. Big virgin energy
Sephiroth managed to maintain control over his mind through the strict military discipline that had been instilled in him practically from birth. By the time Sephiroth was dispatched to Nibelheim, Shinra had no more wars to fight, and this discipline was starting to break down. In addition, Sephiroth was seriously considering deserting from Shinra, so he was beginning to face the possibility of a life with no structure at all.
Essentially, Sephiroth is like one of those deep-sea fish that can’t exist without constant pressure. He’s suffering from the psychological equivalent of decompression sickness when he meets Cloud. Cloud ends up becoming a trigger, because…
1. Cloud has a lovely mother and a sweet childhood friend and a beautiful family house in Nibelheim, and Sephiroth has begun to dwell on the fact that he has nothing and no one.
2. Sephiroth was already deeply conflicted about being used as “super soldier” propaganda for Shinra; and, in Sephiroth’s mind at least, Cloud left everything behind to become like him. This exacerbates Sephiroth’s sense of being “inhuman” and “corrupting.”
3. The juxtaposition between Cloud’s wholesomeness and the horror of the Makonoid experiments inside the reactor core is so extreme that it’s impossible for Sephiroth to process.
4. Let’s be real, Cloud is very attractive. Not everyone’s gay sexual awakening involves setting an entire village on fire, but you can understand the analogy.
(So where does Zack fit into all this? What I would argue is that Cloud’s false memories are partially inspired by how Sephiroth remembers what happened, as communicated through their shared Jenova cells. In Sephiroth’s mind, the focus was always Cloud.)
In any case, the point of the original story is that the military-industrial complex is bad, because even people who are good at war are victims who can’t escape the cycle of trauma and violence.
In contrast, the idea that the Nibelheim incident happened because a space alien was using ghosts to talk to Sephiroth through his magical sword is fantasyslop that has no point at all. I could happily have lived the rest of my life without knowing this is canon.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 07:48 pm (UTC)I've played most of the major-release games multiple times, so chances are I'll know what you're talking about. I haven't played Before Crisis or Ever Crisis, but I'm reading the scripts and would love to know more about what's going on there if it's relevant to your thoughts. Please share!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 11:59 pm (UTC)I agree that Sephiroth was on the cusp of mental breakdown, especially since the lead up was:
1. abusive childhood where he was always a creature of violence and his inability to connect with people
2. how he's treated like a commodity/legend more than a person by civilians (mostly hc)
3. everything that happened with genesis, angeal, and lazard
I don't think anything about Cloud specifically pushed him over the edge though, since Cloud was just an infantryman who happened to be there alongside Zack. I'm sure Zack told Sephiroth about this being Cloud's hometown tho. Cloud is so unfortunate, he's such a wrong place, wrong time guy.
Between Genesis, a trusted friend, telling him what he read in the Shinra manor, combined with the (some hc) effects of Jenova's weird powers, and the belief that humanity has wrong him, seeing a happy little village built in the shadow of who he is definitely took another hammer to his mental.
I think it's interesting that in Crisis Core when him and Zack are talking about the makonoids and their creation, Sephiroth twitches a little bit and starts getting a headache, and in Remake when he sees the makonoid on the ground, he starts to have visions in the same way Cloud does when he's messing with his mind post insanity (and his pupils dilate). A fun thing I also noticed was that we see Jenova's face in everything but Crisis Core Reunion, which I chalked up to just censorship but both CCR and FF7 Rebirth are rated T, which gives me some hc on Jenova sort of "mimicking" Lucrecia's face for Sephiroth since he knows what his mom looks like (we got this confirmation in Ever Crisis I think) but never met her. Since the only time we see Jenova's face, it's in Cloud's memory and he's been injected with Sephiroth's cells.