Obviously.
Considering when he was dashing full speed and two handed he had is sword over his hea, and when Cloud rose to meet him his sword was already in-strike.
Yes, he did do something about It, he swung at Cloud.
Notice when Sephiroth is dashing his sword was above his head.
When Cloud meets him, his sword meets Cloud half-way.
Meaning he swung at Cloud, double handed at full burst.
Who blocked him and then pushed him backwards.
Cloud didn't gather any energy when he pushed Sephiroth back in that instance.
You can clearly see he gathers energy
to his sword later on.
Cloud pushed Sephiroth back with no energy burst whatsoever, It was completely plain strenght.
Which falls very well with the creator's opinion on they're even power levels..when Cloud goes a bit more, he will push back Sephiroth, and when Sephiroth tries a bit more, he will push back Cloud. They're even on physical standards.
For example:
3:17 onwards.
Cloud legitimately outpower Sephiroth in a sword-lock.
3:34 onwards.
Cloud legitimately forces Sephiroth to dodge his downwards slash that produced fire.
And the fire producing is also a point into the direction of they're rivalry.
"Only the places where Sephiroth cut through were burning because those points were where all his power gathered before being scattered." -
http://ffviinovels.lhyeung.net/ffacinfo/commentary.php
That's a trait only ever given to Cloud and Sephiroth in AC, which supports the quote that says they are physicaly equal.
I doubt they would waste money trying to animate that, when they wanted to focus on pure sword skill.
Sephiroth only used that once in CC, and It was weaker than his full-power slashes, It would be illogical to use It on Cloud, who could more than likely shrug it off. Considering it only has better range, and was easily broken by Genesis, Cloud and Sephiroth were always face-to-face, the ability would be useless.
Besides, It's obvious ACC Sephiroth's slashes are MUCH more powerfull than any shockwave CC Sephiroth could produce(since he didn't burn things like AC Cloud and Seph).
Cloud also didn't use any of his limits during the battle before he got exhausted(which we saw very little of, but half of Midgar was burning because of It).
But It's obvious they were going physicaly all out.
All he gets in CC is a small greenish glow. But the ability in AC looks exactly like the slash(save for the glow, which is like Tifa's limits, which she used bu had no glow either, just like barret).
Strangely enough only Cloud had the glow in AC, and some of his limits didn't have the glow at all.
Heck, look at his stance before cloud Omnislashes, It's the stance of the Octaslash. It's more than likely that he used Octaslash to parry the Omnisalsh(but it was strictly parrying, considering he could only stand there and take It) but simply lacked the glow like anyone besides Cloud when limiting in AC.
And It fits with the creator's opnion that they were, again, on even terms and Seph needs to rise up a step to be beyond Cloud.
That's a good way to put It.
It's clear when they enter a stance they're preparing to umleash more strenght.
For instance they both entered stances before going full-out on the falling debris.
No one starts a battle going full-out.
No, It shows that Sephiroth was clearly in preparation for something big.
Sephiroth wouldn't be able to outfight Cloud without steping up a bit like Cloud does when he Omnislashes, look into my first points, Cloud was outstrenghtening him without any limits more than twice in the fight.
My theory is completely supported by the creator's opinion, btw.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/119tee.jpg/
Cloud and Sephiroth were equals up until Cloud became completely tired. Evident by how he could outstrenght Sephiroth on several ocassions of the fight.
Meaning when Cloud has to step above the normal, so does Seph.
As It was clear he was preparing to handle the attack, he braced himself and entered a stance.
Besides, this Sephiroth was empowered by the entire Negative Lifestream, which was covering Midgar at the time, he wouldn't need to glow when all his spiritual power was surrounding the city.
His spirit form was undamaged, this was stated in Maiden.
Cloud entered astral form and defeated his spirit in a spiritual battle in the afterlife.
That's basically what happened, not only is he Seph's rival in physical combat, but in existential force as well.
You are talking about FFVII Cloud.
AC Cloud is a whole new beast all-toguether, Sephiroth and Vincent both stated that Cloud was the only thing left that would be able to stop Seph's apocalypse, the rest of the party really made no difference.
It's actually very resonable that Cloud became that powerfull.
"When everyone wants to support Cloud, Vincent commands them to put their trust in Cloud's hands.
Not wanting to interfere, he believes that only Cloud has the power to destroy the curse from the past." -
http://ultimania.ff7compilation.net/profile/vincent.php
Vincent(who is in
full control of Chaos, FYI) admits that he dosen't want anyone to interfere because he thinks only Cloud has the power to tackle with Seph(something Sephiroth stated himself).
So yea, teh movie does lead one to believe that.
Sephiroth wanted Cloud dead from the first moment of combat. he strikes to kill with each attack.
Heck, mid-battle he almost decapitates Cloud.
And if it would've worked, he would have used It, considering he was failing to overpower Cloud through sheer physical force, becoming frustrated and losing his smirk, I'd think he would've used It if it would have any effect.
You don't get It. The theme of that scene is Cloud remembering everything that has to do with Sephiroth, wing included.
Sephiroth had that wing out as Safer Sephiroth remember? Cloud would remember that.
CC showed us that they have no boost in power, and all they are is a symbol of Jenova's cells. Gast had a wing, and It gave him no actuall boost in power.
Why didn't Genesis sprout his while fighting Sephiroth in the mako cannon? He was clearly going all out, but he merely uses his wing to fly.
So the thing is purely decorative.
Cloud reacted to Sephiroth's remnants closing in at him from both sides and has reacted to lightning and surprise attacks.
Sephiroth could teleport near him but there is a delay on the instant of teleportation and striking speed, Cloud wouldn't be take out so easily.
Heck, at one point in the fight, Sephiroth appeared in Cloud's sight out of nowhere, ready to strike and Cloud simply dodged.
That isn't logical with Sephiroth.
He was failing to overpower Cloud by sheer force, he had to tire Cloud out for 12+ hours.
I would think, in the fight where we saw almost nothing of and burned half of Midgar(which we never saw how it happened, but it did), he would've used his powers while he was getting frustrated(which he was, he even
lost his smirk).
I might agree that Sephiroth was holding back some of his haxxed abilities such as Telekinesis and teleportation, but he was clearly going all-out physicaly, as to the point where he got frustrated he couldn't overpower Cloud.
And how could tehy not be equals in physical prowess?
3:17 onwards.
Cloud legitimately outpower Sephiroth in a sword-lock.
3:34 onwards.
Cloud legitimately forces Sephiroth to dodge his downwards slash that produced fire.
7:50 onwards.
Cloud legitimately gets up and not only overpowers Sephiroth's incoming strike, but sends him flying.
This would'nt have been possible were they not equals in physical power
And conviniently, the creator's agree with me that for the duration of they're fight, they fought as equals.
I'm not exactly saying Cloud = Sephiroth, because Sephiroth > Cloud.
What I'm saying is Clouds's physical power = Sephiroth's. which the fight clearly shows us.
And his existential spirit force is also at least equal to his in AC.
Sephiroth however has other abilities(like infinite stamina) that would make him stronger.
The difference is that you can see the sun low on the horizon when Kadaj is beat.
Meaning it was sunrise, like 5'o clock.
It was at the same time Aerith called the kids to go to the church, where they all rushed out running to the church, and It was still morning then. Meaning they arrived at the church somewhere before 7, before Cloud woke up.
Now, you are speculating that they all waited 12 hours inside the church for Cloud to wake up, sleeping there overnight(it was alot of people) which is pretty unlikely.
And Cloud and Sephiroth had an all-out war, between the two strongest being in FFVII, that destroyed more than half of Midgar
by burning It with swords.
It's not surprising that a fight longer than the car chase, Bahamut and Kadaj's fight with Cloud(which all laster 2 hours each) would last much longer.
So...do we understand ourselves now?
I'm just aguing that Sephiroth and Cloud are equal on physical terms only(save for stamina), Sephiroth might not have used his special abilities as you said, but Cloud did fight Sephiroth's strongest version in a physical brawl equally for 12 hours before getting tired. That alone along with other things such as burning buildings easily puts him at second strongest.
So why don't we just agree to that and call It a day? It's a real pain-in-the-ass having to write these essays.
