What do you think Sephiroth's childhood was like?

[jazzflower92]

I think the bigger question is does Sephrioth think his childhood was abusive. 'Cause everyone has a different perception of abuse and what's abusive for one person is not necessarily abusive for another. And people's ideas about abuse can change.

Unfortunately people who may have grown up in abusive enviorments don't see it as abuse and just accept that it was everyday part of life.

 

[Roger]

I actually see Hojo raising Sephiroth in a very objectively abusive way.From day one Hojo thought of Sephiroth as a lifelong science project instead of his son.I sometimes see Hojo as an even more insane abusive version of Mother Gothel from Tangled.The difference is that Mother Gothel masks her abuse behind a cloak of faux kindness while Hojo would probably not care if his behavior was absuive or not.Hojo like Mother Gothel only cared about their child because they benefited themselves.Although for Hojo is just the benefit of an insane obsession with science.

We've gone over this, but I do not see Hojo raising Sephiroth. Hojo wouldn't go out of his way to be there for Sephiroth as a parent good or bad. I don't even get the impression that everyone in Shinra knew Hojo was his father at all, so after he supplied his successful Jenova Project specimen, I don't think Shinra looked to Hojo for responsibility in all things Sephiroth to begin with.

 

[jazzflower92]

He wouldn't be there for Sephiroth as a parent but he would only be there as a scientist who monitors a lot of things in his life.He is only interested in Sephiroth if he is proving to be successful or has positive results.

 

[T@ctic]

since he had a cold demeanor i guess his life was simple since people sayed away from himand sephiroth didnt really care about friends. i mean he WAS the perfect project. he probably reached SOLDIER 1st class at like 15 lol

 

[jazzflower92]

In my headcannon Sephiroth encountered Gast when he was three and the professor left after that age.Sephiroth has a strong impression from Gast is because he was probably the only person in Shinra that cared for him as a person.I think after that little time with him he formed a hero worship of the man.I also think when he first heard the news he had died when he was around eight he was probably heartbroken and wondered what was the cause of his death.Which leads me to also believe that Sephiroth might have secretly felt that Hojo might be have been behind his death but kept it to himself because he had no evidence.

Although we all don't agree what exactly took place during his childhood.I do have a feeling it was very lonley.

 

[ForceStealer]

I just think he saw through the fact that Hojo was a hack with an inferiority complex with regard to Gast.

 

[jazzflower92]

I just think he saw through the fact that Hojo was a hack with an inferiority complex with regard to Gast.

It would be observent on Sephiroth's part to notice that.I can imagine him as a child be kinda of deviant a bit when it was concerning Hojo.Even as a child he would be scornful of the half baked scientist who replaced Gast.

In Crisis Core a lot of the Science Department assistants have nothing but scorn for the man and always praise the efforts of Gast.It seems its not only Sephiroth who has a low opinion of the unethical scientist.

 

[Roger]

In my headcanon Sephiroth has fait memories Gast when he was very young too. Unfortunately the timeline doesn't really allow for this, Sephiroth is barely older then Aerith as of Crisis Core.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I think we discussed this in another thread a while ago and determined that even as a toddler he could have retained memories of Gast since he is able to recall the view from the window of the room where he was born. Something to do with Jenova cells and their ability to copy shit.

 

[Roger]

I think we discussed this in another thread a while ago and determined that even as a toddler he could have retained memories of Gast since he is able to recall the view from the window of the room where he was born. Something to do with Jenova cells and their ability to copy shit.

Vincent disappeared about 23 years ago counting back from FFVII, Hojo shot him when Vincent came to him about something that happened to Lucretia, Aerith is 22 years old in FFVII and Gast didn't knock up Iflana when he was still at Shinra either. Sephiroth could be 23 or he could be 27 depending on how long after his birth Lucretia disappeared but he barely remembers Nibelheim and he doesn't remember Lucretia. So how could he remember Gast who can't have stuck around any longer.

I mean unless Hojo and Lucretia just sent baby Sephiroth off to Midgar with Gast after he was deemed a successful experiment and didn't bother to go with him for years cause they just cared that little. Or Lucretia herself was just perfectly fine with telling her son his mother was Jenova.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I mean unless Hojo and Lucretia just sent baby Sephiroth off to Midgar with Gast after he was deemed a successful experiment and didn't bother to go with him for years cause they just cared that little.

Probably this is what happened.

ucrectia says she never saw Sephrioth after he was born because Hojo took him away. And Hojo was experimenting on Vincent at the time.

 

[jazzflower92]

Yeah,that brings up another question if anyone else in Shinra knew that Hojo was Sephiroth's father.Gast should have known because he was at Nibelheim and would have known about Hojo and Lucrecia having a child.I wonder if President Shinra knew or he was just as in the dark about who Sephiroth's parents were.

 

[Roger]

Probably this is what happened.

ucrectia says she never saw Sephrioth after he was born because Hojo took him away. And Hojo was experimenting on Vincent at the time.

Yeah, I was just ging thrugh the site's Let's Play and evidently Vince stuck arond long enough to know what SOLDIER is, which I assume was established after the success of the Jenova gene was proven with Sephiroth.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That's what we all thought when we played the original game, but SOLDIER was established long before Sephiroth's birth. They were just mako-infused warriors then (see: Deepground). Genesis was the prototype for the Jenova-type SOLDIERs infused with mako that would become the new standard, and Sephiroth was the success that got that whole thing greenlighted.

 

[Roger]

(see: Deepground).

Yeah, I did.

http://thelifestream.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2501

As a child, Sephiroth was endlessly experimented upon as the scientists strove to determine the abilities of a Cetra. After capturing the Planet’s last natural full-blood Cetra, Ifalna, interest in Sephiroth for his Cetran abilities diminished, but different tests began to be performed. When exposed to Mako, the cells inside Sephiroth reacted tremendously, revealing that a certain genetic balance between the two resulted in a phenomenal physical enhancement. Following these results, President Shinra ordered that an army of genetically altered warriors be established by exposing the strongest individuals to Jenova cells and intense degrees of Mako infusion. Such was the founding of SOLDIER; the elite faction of the Shinra Army.

In 1976, Shinra Electric Power Company began the construction of a Plate above the city of Midgar as a location to centralise the Company with a modernised Headquarters at the heart of the Plate. The vast upper-city was designed to house the growing support and investment base of Shinra, powered by eight enormous Mako Reactors around its circumference. However, unknown to most, commencement on the construction of a secret facility in the caverns below Midgar took place simultaneously. The complex was primarily established as an infirmary for injured SOLDIERs, powered by its own Mako Reactor – dubbed Mako Reactor0. All records of its existence were locked away, accessible only by the senior-most Heads of Department in the Company. The facility became known as Deepground.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Shin-Ra's rise to power -- i.e. their shift from a weapons developer to a power company -- began when they utilized mako-infused SOLDIERs equipped with materia to end an international war. In the aftermath, people had become dependent on their materia and mako, thus allowing them to become the monopolistic world power seen in the following years.

Furthermore, Deepground (which existed before Genesis and Sephiroth) was originally founded as a hospital for those very SOLDIERs. After Genesis was born, they began the inhumane exerpiments in the already existing Deepground facility that led to the birth of Rosso, Weiss and Nero.

Also, the Deepground SOLDIERs don't have Jenova cells. Just mako.

The whole thing with Sephiroth being the first was either retconned or a misunderstandng on the fandom's part all along.

 

[ForceStealer]

I...don't think I ever thought Sephiroth was the first SOLDIER? I dunno, I guess I never really thought about it.

 

[Roger]

I didn't think he was the first SOLDIER, I thought that his experiments were what gave rise to SOLDIER, that would've still been like, before he learned to walk.

That mako-infusing was a long established succesful practice long before Jenova which some of Shinra researchers thought helped bothers me though.

 

[Jarlix]

Would you say Sephiroth suddenly turning evil after that revelation was in character with what we know of him prior to that? I'd think he'd want to exercise a level of self control to prove his 'destiny' wrong.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

In light of his scene with Genesis in the Nibel reactor, his maniacal breakdown does look kind of odd, doesn't it?

 

[ForceStealer]

I guess it was always what he read in the library that truly set him off. His self-image was completely shattered when he left the reactor (with or without Genesis), and reading reports that basically told him he was the greatest thing since sliced bread sent him into a bloodthirsty...celebration?

 

[jazzflower92]

I think Sephiroth always had mental, emotional, and social disorders that he hid behind an appearance of self control and coldness.

 

[Jarlix]

I love ruining everybody's fun. j/k I actually find it more interesting to think about, when there's an error in writing logic you end up wanting to abridge it with sense and imagine what else must have factored in. What exactly would adjoin his heroic reputation, those scenes before the burning and with Genesis to his god complex? What is going through his mind while he's inside the planet and stringing along Cloud?

I would just love a remake with more focus on the surreal, insane, things that must be flowing through his unworldly mind. If he becomes more like a god, wouldn't that make him privy to a rather nihilistic impression of life, much like how a depressed person starts looking at everything like a bunch of toy blocks they're bored of playing with? After all his body is burnt.

Maybe his vengeance towards Cloud is his way of staying in touch with humanity, an emotionless passion he should have discarded.

That's more of a leap and more just something I'd like them to explore, the difference between people, who're trapped in cages barred by their human emotions and limitations in perception, and a god like Sephiroth who once took their shape.

Griffith in Berserk had something going on like that, except prior to the 'ascension' Sephiroth was more directly afflicted by Jenova cells that had their own motive. Genes come into it too, as well as altered consciousness.

Reunion is my favourite track in the game. It feels like a pro Sephiroth song, it's surreal, and yet it's somewhat 'devoid' of tone and of emotion even if it definitely is a pleasantly relaxing piece. It makes me think of how this all is from Sephiroth's enlightened and detached perception.

Still.

Before all that, he was a mad killer after being a loved hero.

It's probably the Jenova cells that made him act nuts.

Funny, he's been the best society has to offer and then the worst kind of person after, then a god. All because of forces out of his control. Perhaps he's a commentary on how life for some people is futile and they'll always be in the thrall of things beyond us, and then in trying to escape his predicament by taking control and being god, he actually accomplishes what Jenova might want.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Maybe his vengeance towards Cloud is his way of staying in touch with humanity, an emotionless passion he should have discarded.

Sounds perfect to me, after all his hatred of Cloud is all that keeps him from dissolving into spirit goo like everyone else post-death

 

[Jarlix]

Is that the truth? I wish I knew more about the compilation after OG. I loved the Case novels that I at least read actually a lot more than AC. I don't like being like a Cloud/Aerith fan and making shit up as I go long so what's the source for that? It sounds very interesting.