The Anatomy of Sephiroth

so uh the last video was pretty good let's keep it up shall we ask just about anyone who their favorite character from a franchise is and you're more likely to hear that it's the antagonist there's a few different reasons why people like the antagonist whether it be their sheer relatability or persistent actions or chaos throughout the story and if I'm being honest I think for a lot of people it's subconsciously the latter the role of the antagonist tends to be less reactionary unlike their protagonist counterparts they make the story go but it wasn't always like that see when we were kids we viewed heroes and villains as part of a binary system where we root for the hero and root against said villain it was pretty simple it almost felt like an unbreakable law that is until we got older and either became sympathetic with the antagonist or just found them downright more interesting but the most fascinating of all villains come in the form of direct parallels to the protagonist the ones who the protagonist may or may not have been if they had taking the righteous Road their rivalry transcends any quarrel any physical altercation but instead it resembles a figurative through line it's a way of life I I don't want to kill you what would I do without you no no you you complete [Music] me ancient Dost believe in the philosophical concept known as yin and yang two opposing forces that complement and complete each other this concept is depicted through a symbol called taitu although in the symbol the light and dark sides defy each other each contains a piece of the other fundamentally embedded within together the opposing forces exist in a state of balanced equilibrium numerous examples of Yin and Yang exist in nature like sunlight during the day and the lack of it during the night or the brightest light creating harsh Shadows but even in nature amongst the living existed a similar yin and yangang rivalry mamoto Musashi and Sasaki kjo two Samurai that lived by the sword mamoto Musashi was a dualist who was well known for his battles when he was young and created a name for himself but kjo was a different Beast he was known as the demon of the western provinces a master swordsman born in the fukui prefecture he earned his nickname because of his skill with a long sword called the nochi since nochi were swords often depicted as something that a demon would use Legend also has it that kjo was a very flamboyant man but a man with cojiro skill didn't necessarily have to worry about what people thought of his look with the nochi kjo would cut down his opponents with relative ease and quickness he was refined while moushi on the other hand had a more methodical and rugged approach these two Rivals would duel with moushi coming out on top not with a sharp tool like a sword but a blunt primitive stick the Rivalry between these two and their differing ideologies was an antithesis however the scope of their realities brought them together two warriors fighting a figurative Duel of Yin and Yang their figurative duel would be an influence and live on through Modern culture manifesting itself within two characters in fiction Cloud Strife and Sethro [Music] Cloud carried on the ideals of Musashi with a blunt weapon in hand and rugged in every way but with sepo he was refined quick and Swift much like Sasaki Cojo tatsuya namura designed sephra with the intentions of creating the best villain and cast The Final Fantasy franchise has ever seen ever since Final Fantasy 4 the popularity of those characters has lived on the team did everything they could to improve with each installment and was no different seph was created to be Kaki in Japanese this means cool good-looking or handsome and seph's design reflects that he has long silver hair with bright San eyes with cat-like pupils as far as his attire goes he wears a black coat with metallic pauldrons the idea was to make him look as Sleek as possible and symmetrical to contrast with Cloud's asymmetrical rugged clothing whether it's the raw metal studs on his shoulder guard and bangal or his messy hair it gives the impression that cloud is someone who's rough around the edges while Sethro has himself quite put together with seven they wanted a deeper theme at Play the theme of identity and insecurities Sethro was born as a foil to Cloud strike with him rejecting his identity in order to fulfill his Destiny while Cloud reaffirms his selfworth amidst a similar crisis of identity this in itself enacted that symbolic duel and further pushed the identity allegory of the game's narrative Cloud comes to grips with who he really is and Sethro believes he's a literal God which is actually where his name comes from seph's name name was derived from the cabala in which the 10 sephr on the Tree of Life represent the 10 attributes through which God reveals himself with seph being a product of a biological experiment that combined the God's tissue and his human flesh it totally makes sense in early Concepts his role in the story went through tons of changes neur wanted sephra to appear early on in the game initially to be arth's sibling as indicated by their similar hairstyles later however he was changed to ai's past love whom she remembered upon meeting Cloud this character was then changed to Zack fair and after a while they just dropped seph's prior relationships with her which was a good idea in my opinion part of seph's character is him being lonely and weak something that gives him the motivation to keep going on his vicious Onslaught speaking of vicious onslaughts let's talk about his weapon of choice the masamune this blade is an elongated nochi that he learned to use during his days in Soldier the Masa mune it was named after a famous Japanese swordsmith Goron Nudo Masa mun whose blades were considered a national treasure in Japan seph's weapon of choice is undoubtedly the most iconic aspect to his characterization and remains a continuous staple to every appearance he's [Music] had Sethro the villain who started a Tren created this character archetype that we know in love to this day the calm kind and level-headed person with a superiority complex Square New his popularity would be far-reaching and influential even the music itself was influenced by his presence in the story in Final Fantasy 7 Sethro is the focus of two pieces written by the serious composer nabou uim Matsu his primary theme is those chosen by the planet a piece utilizing Bells low drums and a deep chorus it accompanies all of his appearances in the game [Music] in the final battle birth of a god plays while the player fights seph's first form Bizarro seph also known as reverse seph all [Music] the most well-known piece is one-wing Angel which is played during the final confrontation with SEO it contains Latin lyrics taken from the sections of the Carmin barana in an interview with GeForce game makers uim Matsu revealed that the piece was designed to be a fusion of musical styles of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and rock musician Jimmy Hendricks [Music] since then three official covers have been done of the song the first is an orchestration used in Kingdom Hearts arranged by series composer Yoko shimamura the second is used in Advent Children which plays throughout the battle between seph Roth and cloud and finally the third which plays in Final Fantasy 7 remake my favorite being the Avan children version the director for Avan children Yoshi noru kitasi believes seph's role in Final Fantasy 7 to be one of the main reasons for the game's popularity namora called him the ultimate antagonist of the Final Fantasy 7 Saga there can't be anyone else and regards him as an enemy from a previous generation in contrast to his remnants who appear in Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children for the film script writer kazos shig nojima thought that the plot would be less interesting without sephar off his Revival in the film was introduced in the early stages of development but the official decision to how they'd bring him back was not reached until later the team wanted him to appear at the start start but it was scrapped because they wanted Sethro to have an otherworldly presence such as the fact that he's never seen breathing or blinking and his voice is always so monotone and calm the staff stated that his strength had considerably increased to the point that he ascended to a new level of existence despite initially encountering problems as to who would voice him neora said that once Toshi Yuki marawa auditioned for the role they knew that they had their actor all the actors were instructed by the staff to speak seph's dialogue as if he felt Superior to all the other characters in the series I don't know what was going on in Kingdom Hearts 1 though the planet and I to be one I tile this it ends here over here lost your way their Mako energy levels are exponentially higher than yours yes the Shinra scientist Hojo was the one who created them our beloved planet is dying slowly silently painful this may be bold and I may be biased in saying so but it's my belief that Sethro is the greatest antagonist in video game history his Arc in the story of Final Fantasy 7 is highly effective as much of the time he isn't a character but rather a force of nature while we do get bits and pieces of character for seph RO throughout the story that isn't really the point seph in seven no longer considers himself human he's a shed all aspects of his former Humanity he's made himself intentionally unrelatable in preparation of his Ascension to godhood Sethro represents different themes of the story he represents Humanity's Folly in that he was created by them but his intent on bringing about human extinction this also plays into the theme of the world ending which is pervasive in seven I mean the logo is a giant meteor however to Cloud he represents everything he's not Cloud pretends to be calm and collected Sethro actually is cloud pretends not to care about people Sethro is a literal sociopath Cloud wants to be strong enough to protect people that he loves because he's weak Sethro is already strong beyond belief and wants to destroy everything Cloud loves all of these aspects culminate into a character that's not not only transcended the pantheon of gaming but created a template for every Future Villain to come it doesn't matter what pallet of media they exist in his presence is felt in other video games spin-offs movies and even if you're not a gamer you've heard his name in some way shape or form there's been thousands of video essays written about the man beyond comprehension and to top it all off he's cool as hell looking my introduction to seph was Advent Children in Kingdom Hearts I saw him as a complete force of nature someone who was not meant to be beaten but a character character who's constantly in the way of your succcess someone you struggle with even as I'm writing this video I found it incredibly hard to keep my focus and stay on track I guess he really is the video essay's final boss Sethro will continue to live on through culture as one of the most iconic characters of all time and as a villain who changed the climate of everything thanks for watching this episode of anatomy if you like the video Hit subscribe and stay tuned for the next episode until then [Music]

Channel: Artcade

Views: 3,104

Keywords: final fantasy 7, final fantasy vii, final fantasy 7 remake, sephiroth, cloudstrife, cloud strife, zack fair, final fantasy, advent children, sephiroth vs cloud, sephiroth crisis core, sephiroth advent children, sephiroth final fantasy 7, final fantasy 7 lore, sephiroth origins, sephiroth explained

Id: GnZPTvKLuS8

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024