The roles of JENOVA and Sephiroth: The Puppet Master Theorem

The longest and most intensely debated matter of Final Fantasy VII in the
eight years following its release was this: Was JENOVA or Sephiroth in control
of the other during the events of Final Fantasy VII?

My initial belief was that JENOVA was in control, though I now think I took
this position mainly in defiance of the hardcore Sephiroth fanbase. Later, my
position would change in that I came to believe that there was little
distinction to be made between JENOVA and Sephiroth during the events of
Final Fantasy VII.

My thoughts then were that the two had essentially become one; that Sephiroth
was JENOVA in human flesh the same way Christianity sees Jesus Christ as God
in human flesh. Given the game’s extensive use of Judaeo-Christian symbolism,
that made the most sense to me at the time, and continues to be my
interpretation of things.

The official position of Square Enix on the matter is that Sephiroth was in
control of JENOVA. While his personality was unquestionably the dominant one,
I still believe that the virus-like behavior of JENOVA is reflected in
Sephiroth’s desire to assimilate the entirety of Gaia’s spirit energy and
become one with the planet.

Even in Advent Children, he speaks of assimilating Gaia, then traveling the
cosmos like JENOVA and finding a new world to assimilate. I believe that
whether he knew it or not, Sepihroth had the instincts of JENOVA and that
the two were, in all relevant ways, the same being by the time of the
events of Final Fantasy VII.

Certainly the possibility was present for such a merge to occur given that
Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream with JENOVA’s head, only for his own
body to be dissolved and then reconstructed, according to the Advent Children
Reunion Files (pg. 60) and FFVII Ultimania Omega (pg. 211). At any rate, even
the official position, as revealed in Final Fantasy VII’s Ultimania Omega
guide, is that it was by virtue of having JENOVA’s head with him in the
Lifestream that Sephiroth was able to influence the location of the Reunion
(pg. 212), if not altogether how he was able to take command of JENOVA’s cells
and power.

What are Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth?

Two frequently debated matters of Final Fantasy VII’s storyline were the
nature of Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth. A matter difficult to pin
down from the start due to neither form receiving any attention within the
narrative was rendered all the more difficult due to the graphical limitations
of the time of the game’s development.

However, from observing character designer Tetsuya Nomura’s designs of the
two bosses, a guess at their nature can be determined.

Bizarro Sephiroth is actually a pupa-like entity in Sephiroth’s form (its
bangs match Sephiroth’s hair — known among some in the fandom as “the Bangs
of Doom”) from which Safer Sephiroth was emerging, thus the name of the
background music for the Bizarro battle being “Birth of a
God.”

This certainly fits due to the angelic and heavenly appearance of Safer
Sephiroth. We can be certain that Safer Sephiroth was “hatching” from Bizarro
Sephiroth due to the torso of Safer Sephiroth protruding from Bizarro
Sephiroth’s head, as well as the wings of Safer Sephiroth extending from
behind the smaller torso:

The biggest indication of this rebirth of Sephiroth is that the katakana in
the name of Bizzaro Sephiroth could be written out to mean
“Rebirth Sephiroth” in addition to the “Reverse Sephiroth” meaning that lent
itself to becoming “Bizarro Sephiroth.”

(Note: Credit for understanding of this concept goes to my wife, Carys.)

Was Cloud a failed Sephiroth copy?

Perhaps the most frequently misunderstood aspects of Final Fantasy VII’s story
in the years immediately following its release were those related to the
matter of Cloud being a Sephiroth copy. Aside from misinterpretations that
this meant he was a genetic duplicate of Sephiroth, he was also usually
believed to have been a failure in Hojo’s experiment involving the
Sephiroth copies.

Where the confusion regarding this matter arises is from Cloud and Hojo’s
conversation in the Northern Crater before Meteor is summoned:

Hojo
“Ha, ha, ha… this is perfect!!!”
“It means that my experiment was a complete success!”

Hojo
“What number were you? Huh? Where is your tattoo?”

Cloud
“Professor Hojo… I don’t have a number.”
“You didn’t give me one because I was a failed experiment.”

Hojo
“What the–? You mean only a failure made it here?”

Cloud
“Professor… please give me a number. Please, Professor…”

Hojo
“Shut up, miserable failure…”

What was often overlooked about this is that it was CLOUD who told HOJO
that Cloud was a failure, and — bearing his lack of a numbered tattoo
as proof — Hojo believed him. For his part, Cloud believed that he was
a failure based on his lack of a tattoo, and what Sephiroth had told him
moments earlier:

Sephiroth
“Ha, ha, ha……”
“I want to take you back to your real self.”
“The one who gave me the Black Materia that day…”
“Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would prove so
useful?”
“Hojo would die if he knew.”

Cloud
“Hojo!? What does he have to do with me!?”

Sephiroth
“Five years ago you were…”
…constructed by Hojo, piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was
burnt.”
“A puppet made up of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the
power of Mako.”
“An incomplete Sephiroth-clone. Not even given a number. …That is
your reality.”

Deceived by this false information, Cloud believed that he not only wasn’t a
normal human being, being instead constructed from JENOVA cells infused with
mako, but that he was a failed experiment at that. This influenced what he
told Hojo, and subsequently, Hojo’s feelings toward Cloud. What Cloud failed
to recall at this time was that Zack broke himself and Cloud out of the Shinra
Mansion before Cloud could be given a tattoo, for Cloud was not the failure at
all. Zack was.

In defining who is and is not a failure in the experiment that Hojo was
carrying out, one must recall what Hojo was attempting to test with the
Sephiroth copies and how he was going about doing so. His Nibelheim
experiment was conducted for the sake of testing his JENOVA Reunion
Theory.

In order to conduct this experiment, Hojo had the survivors of Sephiroth’s
massacre in Nibelheim rounded up for experimentation. Once captured, they
were infused with Mako and injected with JENOVA’s cells. A body and mind
that displayed no response to the influence of JENOVA’s cells would
obviously be ill-suited for testing the validity of the Reunion Theory, as
their own will may override JENOVA’s attempt to call that individual.

With this in mind, only the weak-willed would be suitable for the
experiment, and, thus, successful. It was Cloud that had a reaction to
JENOVA’s cells, whereas Zack did not:

(From the Escapee Reports in the back of the Shinra Mansion’s library; note
that Zack is Specimen A (the former member of SOLDIER), while Cloud is
Specimen B (the regular))

Escapee Report No. 2
Description of the time of capture.
A – Former member of SOLDIER/Number ( )
No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova on
him.
B – Regular/Number ( )
Reaction to Jenova detected.

Note also that in the parentheses where the two would have had numbers, there
are blank spaces. They had not yet received numbers.

Further evidence for Cloud’s successful status comes from Hojo moments before
his death. Hojo himself declares Cloud to be the only Sephiroth copy that was
successful, as Cloud was the only one he saw at the Reunion:

Hojo
“Every time I see you, I…”
“It pains me that I had so little scientific sense…”
“I evaluated you as a failed project.”
“But, you are the only one that succeeded as a Sephiroth-clone.”

While Cloud was actually not the only successful copy — those in the
black cloaks were not seen by Hojo, as they had been killed moments before
and their bodies cast down into the Northern Crater to be assimilated by
JENOVA — this still confirms his status as a success.

For those interested in an official source on this matter, see pg. 213 of
Final Fantasy VII’s Ultimania Omega guide.

The answer to the once eternal question of Cloud’s failure or success as
a Sephiroth copy is that he was a success.

Was Aerith’s death necessary to summon Holy?

Another common misunderstanding from the old days of FFVII debate concerns
Aerith’s death and Holy. Namely: Was it required that she die to cast the
spell?

Posted under Advent Children Complete, Compilation General, Final Fantasy VII, Lifestream Articles Tagged as Advent Children Complete, Final Fantasy VII, Kazushige Nojima, Kitase, Nomura, Squall_of_SeeD Has 19 Comments - Add yours!