RPG Discussion (Formerly; Earthbound or Chrono Trigger?)

[TomGuycott]

In all honesty, Sephiroth isn't BAD, he just isn't necessarily my favorite villain. He actually ranks pretty higher in terms of believable villainous personality. And even though he wasn't my FAVORITE design, it was a breath of fresh air from villains that had been building up in Final Fantasy games. I mean, look at Golbez, who is a big, faceless suit-of-armor guy (admittedly I love villains like that, but it can get old, especially considering Garland was already like that in the first game), and then Exdeath, who's the transitional period between IV and VI, where he has the facelessness and ridiculous armor of Golbez meshed with the flamboyant color scheme of Kefka.

Oh god, this is turning into a pointless wall of text, so let me list some pros and cons:

Pro:
-Big samurai sword
-Originally thought to be a "good guy" (I use the term VERY lightly)
-Turns insane and evil through an existential dilema/bizarre alien-genetic birthright mumbo jumbo instead of just being born evil incarnate
-Has a considerably eerie presence throughout the first half of the game after he is introduced (In fact, the whole way he's introduced is just creepy, finding President Shinra skewered on his sword and not even seeing him)
-Has tremendous power reaching far beyond his captive body at the NORTH FUCKING POLE
-The scene explaining HOW he became frozen in mako is AWESOME, and it is literally one of my favorite scenes in any Final Fantasy ever. (Where he stabs Cloud and lifts him up, but Cloud's still alive, throws the sword out of his chest and sends Sephiroth falling into the core of the reactor)

Cons:
-The sissy hair makes him a bit less threatening (Though admittedly he'd just seem bland without it)
-No fight against him in a sword-wielding form (That shirtless bullshit at the end certainly does not count)
-His "Bizzaro" and "Safer" forms are just rehashes of concepts of other final bosses (See Neo Exdeath for Bizarro and see Kefka for Safer)
-Advent Children turned him into a cardboard cutout, no matter how hardcore he fights he has no personality and has no reason to even be in this movie other than service to fanboys.
-His mommy issues downplay his kill-kill factor
-The whole Aeris dies thing making him suddenly the most hateable enemy ever. Seriously, the ONLY reason this was sad is because she had sex appeal. Weird, low-polygon sex appeal. If you had thrust Tellah, Galuf, General Leo or anyone else under that sword. Seriously, she was such a pointless character, I hated her so much, and all she did was die while praying. Tellah at least used Meteo. Come oooon.

So yeah, he's not that bad of a villain, he just has his quirks.