Why is Sephiroth praised as one of the best villians?

[Kelesti]

I think it's from mass effect Krogans have 4 testies, so instead of grow a pair it's grow a quad xD

....gross.

[Northern Goblin]

Bells, frogs, big cherries, Peter Pan, magic cheese SEPHIROTH


Can't unhear.

X-Box, Pekingese, Be a bear, Manatee, SEPHIROTH!

[Mavecryst]

X-Box, Pekingese, Be a bear, Manatee, SEPHIROTH!

Heh this version is funnier, i cracked a smile and truly, may not be able to unhear that for awhile. Lucky I'm already done with my most recent playthrough of the game.. Still though, I think Sephiroth still has one of the best boss soundtracks ever.

[Caiada]

They failed to survive time compression.

Also the Extreme is pretty damn awesome as far as a boss theme goes (though personally I love Maybe I'm a Lion better, that stage of the fight is amazing)

But I think any boss discussion thread needs to count in the following pair:



And while zeromus is shoehorned in, he does get one awesome theme.

That theme is so good, best part about him.

Dancing Mad and OWA may be better musically, but that theme fit the moment so well.

[Virothe]

It's because, like the rest of the game, he is over hyped. Nine was a better game by far (>o_o)>

[RiotDragonX]

Sephiroth is praised as one of the best villians of all time? Really? I wasn't aware of this. I always thought he was just a whiny emo kid with mommy problems.

You should try playing the game sometime.

---------- Post added 2013-04-12 at 04:59 AM ----------

Because many people will jump on any bandwagon they see instead of formulating their own opinion.

The irony of this post is amazing.

[jsilverio]

this is the first time i ever wrote anything about my opinion on the ultimate villain.

well someone here wrote that we have different views on who the ultimate villain is and i believe he is right.

but on the topic of who is the ultimate FF villain. i think only two would be rated as the top 2 villain in the FF world of all times.

1st is Sephiroth

2nd is Ultemecia

we can disregard Kuja,(one of the favorites in this site though) for a few reasons.

1st is i'll give kuja the highest success rate, but however, kuja never had a good adversity from the begining so we can say he only reached so far coz, Zidane is no match compared to the previews FF heroes.

2nd, in whatever way we see, Kuja is not nearly as strong as Squall(which i believe to be the strongest of them although not the coolest). Squall can dish out at least a minimum of 20011 worth of damage in a single turn (renzokuken + rough divide having a 255 STR rate) and kuja have only a 55,535 HP at lvl 76. so in 2-3 turns Kuja is dead meat.

3rd reason is Kuja is something i cannot call villain coz he's a puppet. he only thinks that he do what he did coz its what he wants. but how come a puppet thinks and do what he wants? pretty contradicting right. so basically he is programmed to feel that he really wants to do what he wants.


So my point being Kuja is out of the question.

Let's look at the top 2 contenders. Sephiroth and Ultemicia


in terms of success rate, i think that Ultemicia has the highest success rate even if compared to Kuja who almost took out the world. why? simple, because she was able to lock down the time even if it was not her real intention. she was able to make the cycle go on and on and on. because during the time compression and ultemicia died. she transfered her powers to Edea, when she was still in the orphanage. so the young squall will have to do the old squall again and kill ultemicia and go back in time to give her powers to Edea. so there was a lockdown. i would say its at least a 25% success.

however, on Sephiroth's defense almost half of the game he was able to manipulate the pursuers. he made a big gap between friendships and was able to deliver to himself the BLACK Materia w/c he was able to summon for a fact. in which case he almost succeeded if it werent for 1 simple miscalculation. Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen was the only miscalculation of Sephiroth because if Bugenhagen was not with the party, they would have not found the KEY to unlock the WHITE materia. So killing Aeris was the right choice for Sephiroth but not loosing the WHITE materia and more over not having Bugenhagen find the KEY. For the question about Sephiroth not remembering Cloud and what not, the answer i found is this. there are two possibilities. since the first few encounters with Sephiroth, it was not Sephiroth himself, it was only his memory imprinted on the Sephiroth Clones. so they were talking to clones Therefore have no memory of "insignificant things" like Cloud. Another theory is that since Sephiroth is controlling the clones remotely and he only known cloud the last minute before he died he had no memory of Cloud ever being in Nibelheim at all since cloud wear his mask all the time except after Tifa was sliced by Sephiroth. Since Cloud was supposed to be the 1st Sephiroth Clone, he is being pulled by the REUNION but then Zack gave Cloud his identity to save him before Zack died by saying that cloud is his LEGACY.


so my conclusion is this: based on the given facts,

Sephiroth is the ultimate villain for the following reasons.

1. He almost succeeded his plans. And one day when Cloud is no more, Sephiroth will win, as the one winged angel said, "I'll never be a memory".

2. Find a villain that wants do destroy the world for an unselfish reason? None right? Wrong! Sephiroth wants to destroy the world for an unselfish reason. "He finds the world and all beings that live in it as filthy. why? first is the Cetra, they destroyed Jenova why? i dunno but thinking as humanly as possible i can conclude that they destroyed Jenova because she's ALIEN. that's the most logical explanation. 2nd 2000 years later after Cetra extinction(well supposedly) people found documents that Cetra destroyed Jenova because Jenova is a calamity (as per Infalna)yet they implanted Jenova celss to the baby of Lucretia w/c led to the sin of Vincent. so he wanted to Threaten the life of the plnet to make the planet take all life forms including him so he can be at the center and maybe start over.

[Deleted]

Caius > Sephiroth

Haha, basically this.

While sephiroth has a rather cool aura, and an impossibly long sword, I don't find him THAT good in hindsight.

Personally, I have grown a liking to villains that aren't exactly evil. Like Caius. He isn't evil, it's just that his plan, driven by compassion, requires him to have you destroy the world. I hated the ending, especially the last 3 words. But Caius was badass, even more so since he thought that plan up.

Another example would be the final boss in Ar Tonelico 2 (though thanks to a myriad of plottwists and face heel turn heel face from basically everyone, it wasn't very clear who would actually BE the "big bad"). That was basically the only final boss I have ever defeated where I felt sorry for doing so. The BGM used for that fight didn't help it, either.

[ro9ue]

I'm a huge Sephiroth fan. I think he deserves the praise. That being said there are a few villains that I think are better.

I also feel shitty that FF7 was my first final fantasy because I hear amazing things about Kefka.

[Deleted]

Because this:

Seriously, what an amazing theme.

Also, Kefka was amazing.

[Moinaldo]

this is the first time i ever wrote anything about my opinion on the ultimate villain.

well someone here wrote that we have different views on who the ultimate villain is and i believe he is right.

but on the topic of who is the ultimate FF villain. i think only two would be rated as the top 2 villain in the FF world of all times.

1st is Sephiroth

2nd is Ultemecia

we can disregard Kuja,(one of the favorites in this site though) for a few reasons.

1st is i'll give kuja the highest success rate, but however, kuja never had a good adversity from the begining so we can say he only reached so far coz, Zidane is no match compared to the previews FF heroes.

2nd, in whatever way we see, Kuja is not nearly as strong as Squall(which i believe to be the strongest of them although not the coolest). Squall can dish out at least a minimum of 20011 worth of damage in a single turn (renzokuken + rough divide having a 255 STR rate) and kuja have only a 55,535 HP at lvl 76. so in 2-3 turns Kuja is dead meat.

3rd reason is Kuja is something i cannot call villain coz he's a puppet. he only thinks that he do what he did coz its what he wants. but how come a puppet thinks and do what he wants? pretty contradicting right. so basically he is programmed to feel that he really wants to do what he wants.


So my point being Kuja is out of the question.

Let's look at the top 2 contenders. Sephiroth and Ultemicia


in terms of success rate, i think that Ultemicia has the highest success rate even if compared to Kuja who almost took out the world. why? simple, because she was able to lock down the time even if it was not her real intention. she was able to make the cycle go on and on and on. because during the time compression and ultemicia died. she transfered her powers to Edea, when she was still in the orphanage. so the young squall will have to do the old squall again and kill ultemicia and go back in time to give her powers to Edea. so there was a lockdown. i would say its at least a 25% success.

however, on Sephiroth's defense almost half of the game he was able to manipulate the pursuers. he made a big gap between friendships and was able to deliver to himself the BLACK Materia w/c he was able to summon for a fact. in which case he almost succeeded if it werent for 1 simple miscalculation. Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen was the only miscalculation of Sephiroth because if Bugenhagen was not with the party, they would have not found the KEY to unlock the WHITE materia. So killing Aeris was the right choice for Sephiroth but not loosing the WHITE materia and more over not having Bugenhagen find the KEY. For the question about Sephiroth not remembering Cloud and what not, the answer i found is this. there are two possibilities. since the first few encounters with Sephiroth, it was not Sephiroth himself, it was only his memory imprinted on the Sephiroth Clones. so they were talking to clones Therefore have no memory of "insignificant things" like Cloud. Another theory is that since Sephiroth is controlling the clones remotely and he only known cloud the last minute before he died he had no memory of Cloud ever being in Nibelheim at all since cloud wear his mask all the time except after Tifa was sliced by Sephiroth. Since Cloud was supposed to be the 1st Sephiroth Clone, he is being pulled by the REUNION but then Zack gave Cloud his identity to save him before Zack died by saying that cloud is his LEGACY.


so my conclusion is this: based on the given facts,

Sephiroth is the ultimate villain for the following reasons.

1. He almost succeeded his plans. And one day when Cloud is no more, Sephiroth will win, as the one winged angel said, "I'll never be a memory".

2. Find a villain that wants do destroy the world for an unselfish reason? None right? Wrong! Sephiroth wants to destroy the world for an unselfish reason. "He finds the world and all beings that live in it as filthy. why? first is the Cetra, they destroyed Jenova why? i dunno but thinking as humanly as possible i can conclude that they destroyed Jenova because she's ALIEN. that's the most logical explanation. 2nd 2000 years later after Cetra extinction(well supposedly) people found documents that Cetra destroyed Jenova because Jenova is a calamity (as per Infalna)yet they implanted Jenova celss to the baby of Lucretia w/c led to the sin of Vincent. so he wanted to Threaten the life of the plnet to make the planet take all life forms including him so he can be at the center and maybe start over.

Your post dear sir, is really well done. I completely agree with it.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Because he killed Aerith.

[Skulljin]

First of all: It astounds me that this thread only seems to discuss Final Fantasy Vilians allthough the thread says "best villian of all time?" and not "Best Final Fantasy Villian of all time?".

About Sephiroth being one of the best vilians: In my opinion, he isn't. The only things he has going for him, apart from looks and "aura" are the fact that he killed Aerith. Apart from that, he is just an misled mommas boy who didn't even had success with what momma tasked him to do. Bad boy, Seph.

In terms of Final Fantasy Vilians, The Emperor, Kuja, Ultimecia, Kefka and Caius simply surpass him easily for reasons which got discussed in here plenty.

But of course there are other great Vilians.
MGS 3's "The Boss" for example. Such an awesome Character she was.

[OrcsRLame]

this is the first time i ever wrote anything about my opinion on the ultimate villain.

well someone here wrote that we have different views on who the ultimate villain is and i believe he is right.

but on the topic of who is the ultimate FF villain. i think only two would be rated as the top 2 villain in the FF world of all times.

1st is Sephiroth

2nd is Ultemecia

we can disregard Kuja,(one of the favorites in this site though) for a few reasons.

1st is i'll give kuja the highest success rate, but however, kuja never had a good adversity from the begining so we can say he only reached so far coz, Zidane is no match compared to the previews FF heroes.

2nd, in whatever way we see, Kuja is not nearly as strong as Squall(which i believe to be the strongest of them although not the coolest). Squall can dish out at least a minimum of 20011 worth of damage in a single turn (renzokuken + rough divide having a 255 STR rate) and kuja have only a 55,535 HP at lvl 76. so in 2-3 turns Kuja is dead meat.

3rd reason is Kuja is something i cannot call villain coz he's a puppet. he only thinks that he do what he did coz its what he wants. but how come a puppet thinks and do what he wants? pretty contradicting right. so basically he is programmed to feel that he really wants to do what he wants.


So my point being Kuja is out of the question.

Let's look at the top 2 contenders. Sephiroth and Ultemicia


in terms of success rate, i think that Ultemicia has the highest success rate even if compared to Kuja who almost took out the world. why? simple, because she was able to lock down the time even if it was not her real intention. she was able to make the cycle go on and on and on. because during the time compression and ultemicia died. she transfered her powers to Edea, when she was still in the orphanage. so the young squall will have to do the old squall again and kill ultemicia and go back in time to give her powers to Edea. so there was a lockdown. i would say its at least a 25% success.

however, on Sephiroth's defense almost half of the game he was able to manipulate the pursuers. he made a big gap between friendships and was able to deliver to himself the BLACK Materia w/c he was able to summon for a fact. in which case he almost succeeded if it werent for 1 simple miscalculation. Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen was the only miscalculation of Sephiroth because if Bugenhagen was not with the party, they would have not found the KEY to unlock the WHITE materia. So killing Aeris was the right choice for Sephiroth but not loosing the WHITE materia and more over not having Bugenhagen find the KEY. For the question about Sephiroth not remembering Cloud and what not, the answer i found is this. there are two possibilities. since the first few encounters with Sephiroth, it was not Sephiroth himself, it was only his memory imprinted on the Sephiroth Clones. so they were talking to clones Therefore have no memory of "insignificant things" like Cloud. Another theory is that since Sephiroth is controlling the clones remotely and he only known cloud the last minute before he died he had no memory of Cloud ever being in Nibelheim at all since cloud wear his mask all the time except after Tifa was sliced by Sephiroth. Since Cloud was supposed to be the 1st Sephiroth Clone, he is being pulled by the REUNION but then Zack gave Cloud his identity to save him before Zack died by saying that cloud is his LEGACY.


so my conclusion is this: based on the given facts,

Sephiroth is the ultimate villain for the following reasons.

1. He almost succeeded his plans. And one day when Cloud is no more, Sephiroth will win, as the one winged angel said, "I'll never be a memory".

2. Find a villain that wants do destroy the world for an unselfish reason? None right? Wrong! Sephiroth wants to destroy the world for an unselfish reason. "He finds the world and all beings that live in it as filthy. why? first is the Cetra, they destroyed Jenova why? i dunno but thinking as humanly as possible i can conclude that they destroyed Jenova because she's ALIEN. that's the most logical explanation. 2nd 2000 years later after Cetra extinction(well supposedly) people found documents that Cetra destroyed Jenova because Jenova is a calamity (as per Infalna)yet they implanted Jenova celss to the baby of Lucretia w/c led to the sin of Vincent. so he wanted to Threaten the life of the plnet to make the planet take all life forms including him so he can be at the center and maybe start over.

3 Things.

1. You can't look at in game stats to determine the most powerful Final Fantasy character. Your assessment of Squall being the most powerful FF character because he can deal 20k+ damage in one turn is rather silly, for several reasons. First off, tons of characters in multiple FF games can deal a lot more damage than that, including Squall with his Renzokuken + Lionheart, which can easily do 200k+ damage. There's also characters like Vincent and Barret that are capable of doing infinite damage. This is done with their respective legendary weapons Death Penalty and Missing Score. Death Penalty gives Vincent more damage based on the number of enemies he's killed. Missing Score gives Barret more damage based on the total AP of the materia slotted in Missing Score. Damage caps at 9999, but the game records damage over that number. The engine is only designed to record damage up to about 65k per hit, so once you reach that point, the game just assumes your attack dealt enough damage to whatever you hit, so it makes you deal infinite damage.

To get an idea of how powerful a character is, you've really got to look at what they do in lore. Cutscenes are particularly helpful. Most FF main characters eventually fight borderline invincible godlike entities, such as Ultimecia, Safer-Sephiroth, Necron, God Kefka, etc. It's pretty much Final Fantasy tradition, and it makes an exact comparison almost impossible. Forgetting the actual final battles though, Cloud has far and away the best showings, most notably everything in Advent Children. The battle against Diamond weapon is rather impressive also, because even though it happens in gameplay, Cloud and friends still stepped between Diamond Weapon and Midgar and beat him, despite it showing that Diamond Weapon shows he can blow up the damn Shinra building in the next scene.

2. Kuja was not a puppet. He did what Garland said only until he arrived on Gaia, then he did whatever the fuck he wanted. He eventually betrayed and pwned Garland, so saying that he's not a villain because he was a puppet is a little unreasonable.

3. The Sephiroth you encounter throughout most of FF7 is not a series of clones, it's Jenova herself.

[Ferocity]

First of all: It astounds me that this thread only seems to discuss Final Fantasy Vilians allthough the thread says "best villian of all time?" and not "Best Final Fantasy Villian of all time?".

I think it's because all other games have quite predictable villains. I'd also disagree on Sephiroth (I love FF7 too though) - he looks cool, but there is nothing special about him.

Yu Yevon and Yunalesca (FF10) on other side - they managed to brainwash entire Spira by their religion, feeding on Spira's population (shown in-game as neverending spiral of death) and "sacrifices" of summoners. All their villainous nature is being unveiled step by step. There is no other FF where the whole planet actually worships and sincerely adores the main villain, which makes situation completely doomed.

[Mordin Solus]

i think that people disregard the fact that it took the entire f****in planet to stop meteor and put a halt to sephiroths plot instead of just a group of people...

[Primetime89]

Cool hair and sword.

[grimsanta]

Sephiroth is the ultimate villain for the following reasons.

1. He almost succeeded his plans. And one day when Cloud is no more, Sephiroth will win, as the one winged angel said, "I'll never be a memory".

2. Find a villain that wants do destroy the world for an unselfish reason? None right? Wrong! Sephiroth wants to destroy the world for an unselfish reason. "He finds the world and all beings that live in it as filthy. why? first is the Cetra, they destroyed Jenova why? i dunno but thinking as humanly as possible i can conclude that they destroyed Jenova because she's ALIEN. that's the most logical explanation. 2nd 2000 years later after Cetra extinction(well supposedly) people found documents that Cetra destroyed Jenova because Jenova is a calamity (as per Infalna)yet they implanted Jenova celss to the baby of Lucretia w/c led to the sin of Vincent. so he wanted to Threaten the life of the plnet to make the planet take all life forms including him so he can be at the center and maybe start over.

Please, please go play FF6. I always kind of laugh at FF7 fanboys because that's when everyone got into the game. 4, 5, and 6 were just as good, 6 being my favorite. I honestly don't see how Sephiroth even rivals Kefka.

Kefka was a jester of the court to the emperor, working his way up and being in charge of the Magitek facilities, and gathering his own personal armies under the protection of the emperor. He breaks into the world of magic, which was a sealed off island, and him and the emperor conquer it with new magic that can instantly kill any magical being (called an esper). Once he has accomplished all this with the emperor, he throws the emperor off the floating island and moves 3 statues that keep the world in balance, effectively destroying the world. He then becomes the god of magic.

Sephiroth = Whiny guy who can't get over that he came from a test tube. Not only that, you are correct about him not being selfish, he's simply judging the world as bad. He's not really evil, just misunderstood.

Kefka = Pure evil, completely mad, but very smart and calculating. Constantly manipulates people around him, and actually conquers the world, and then destroys it, and then becomes a god.

I prefer the pure evil personally.

There's a reason people like the lich king more than illidian, and it's the evil.

[OrcsRLame]

Please, please go play FF6. I always kind of laugh at FF7 fanboys because that's when everyone got into the game. 4, 5, and 6 were just as good, 6 being my favorite. I honestly don't see how Sephiroth even rivals Kefka.

Kefka was a jester of the court to the emperor, working his way up and being in charge of the Magitek facilities, and gathering his own personal armies under the protection of the emperor. He breaks into the world of magic, which was a sealed off island, and him and the emperor conquer it with new magic that can instantly kill any magical being (called an esper). Once he has accomplished all this with the emperor, he throws the emperor off the floating island and moves 3 statues that keep the world in balance, effectively destroying the world. He then becomes the god of magic.

Sephiroth = Whiny guy who can't get over that he came from a test tube. Not only that, you are correct about him not being selfish, he's simply judging the world as bad. He's not really evil, just misunderstood.

Kefka = Pure evil, completely mad, but very smart and calculating. Constantly manipulates people around him, and actually conquers the world, and then destroys it, and then becomes a god.

I prefer the pure evil personally.

There's a reason people like the lich king more than illidian, and it's the evil.

You shouldn't assume that people that like FF7 the most just haven't played FF6. I've played 6 and I can't stand that game.

And for the record, Kefka and Sephiroth are practically the same character, just with a different coat of paint. Kefka = magitek knight that lost his mind because Cid basically lobotomized him. Kefka is a failed experiment that Gestahl kept around because he had his uses as a cudgel.

The part I bolded: Prove it.

[Pendulous]

we can disregard Kuja,(one of the favorites in this site though) for a few reasons.

1st is i'll give kuja the highest success rate, but however, kuja never had a good adversity from the begining so we can say he only reached so far coz, Zidane is no match compared to the previews FF heroes.

2nd, in whatever way we see, Kuja is not nearly as strong as Squall(which i believe to be the strongest of them although not the coolest). Squall can dish out at least a minimum of 20011 worth of damage in a single turn (renzokuken + rough divide having a 255 STR rate) and kuja have only a 55,535 HP at lvl 76. so in 2-3 turns Kuja is dead meat.

Um, gameplay elements have nothing to do with the quality of the villain. I'm not gonna go into a comparison, but these are pretty stupid reasons to disregard someone.

---------- Post added 2013-06-03 at 12:01 AM ----------

You shouldn't assume that people that like FF7 the most just haven't played FF6. I've played 6 and I can't stand that game.

The prospect of playing as Mog was not strong enough for me to finish that horrible game.