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MAH-KO and JOO-NON

I can’t say I fundamentally agree with the notion that 7R wasn’t an opportunity for Nojima and co. to expand on what was already there for artistic reasons. If they didn’t see any artistic merit going in, they wouldn’t have agreed to it. And the results speak for themselves. They’re excellent. Different, yes, though in spirit with with the original and nonetheless excellent.

Sephiroth has narcissistic personality disorder. All on his own. Jenova is exploiting that. He believes all her promises for power and godlikeness. Narcissism is a type of psychosis so seeing her as mother/romantic interest is part of the delusional component. A sort of oedipus complex as well. He is a victim of Jenova. But a victim nobody feels sorry for.

I greatly appreciate your perspective on alien and divine lifeforms or beings. Thank you for bringing up the unknowable perceptions. God's, extraterrestrial lifeforms, trying to understand their motivations would be like a cat or dog trying to understand physics on a human level and our motivations to understand it. Humans often forget that the only perspective we have to go off of is our own.

Bravo

Woooow

Fantasic video

This guy .... GETS IT !!!! DAMN!!!!!! What an absolute banger!!!! IT's way more niased!!!

People are gonna hate me for this, but I think Sephiroth is an overrated and even a lame villain. Namely because by comparison, Jenova is actually morbidly intriguing since it's seemingly the only antagonist in Final Fantasy who is an alien, and I mean a proper inhuman, unknowable alien entity much like something out of a cosmic horror story or something right out of John Carpenter's The Thing (hence I refer to Jenova as an it, since it absorbs and assimilates other life-forms, meaning it doesn't have a true gender). While Sephiroth is this "cool", "hardcore", sexy and personality-less anime guy with long hair and a "cool" weapon who is somehow able to override the will and power of an entity that destroys entire planets, indicating it must be at least millions of years old on account how the planet in FF7 was likely not its first conquest. It's been confirmed that Sephiroth is in the driver's seat and that he overcame and even took control over the will of Jenova just because he was infused with its cells en-utero. Basically like an average human gaining control of Cthulhu because they drank its bodily secretions. Guess I could chock it on account that Final Fantasy seems to only want sexy or beautiful final antagonists with final forms overflowing with religious symbolism. Like imagine if Sephiroth's final forms were more grotesque to reflect what an absolute abomination of a "god" Jenova is. But this being Final Fantasy, they can't ever have body horror since they'd lose the appropriate age rating.

2:48 which mod or version of the game is this you are showing right now? I would be interested in getting a hold of that

If I may offer some irresponsible theorizing that strays from the point of the video, I always had the idea that The Planet was alive, but not conscious. It can make Weapons to respond to dangers, but they all seem aimless and none of them would have been equipped to stop Meteor despite all of their power. The Planet may well be alive, but healing the scar Sepiroth intended to make and creating the Weapons may have been more reflexive than intentional, meaning Materia like Meteor exist not through anyone or anything makind a deliberate decision and us just happenstance, like the other Materia. Kinda like how Nature is powerful in Princess Monoke but still vulnerable; dangerous to an extent, but still capable of being harmed by human actions. On the other hand, Nature being incomprehensible and better left alone than understood is a big part of Japanese writing and Shinra aren't the only humans who hurt The Planet, so maybe the Weapons aren't as aimless as they seem. Anywhoozle, cool video!

Thanks to Smash Bros it introduced me to cloud, final fantasy vii is my first time experiencing an amazing story not only this had an amazing story but this game was also in inspiration to me and I guess this is the part where I start admiring the game including other fans

I love how you emphasize that Jenova is a product of Cosmic Horror. One of the best videos on Sephiroth and FF7 I’ve watched.

Amazing video my man. I love this game. It’s so strange to think about when I played this game 20 years ago, that I had no idea how it would take a place in my heart. I love this game. It’s the best story of all time.

Sephiroth went crazy because he was deprived mommy's milk.

Love Nomura's original artwork

Thank you for using my art as thumbnail! Great vid 🥹❤️

Agree with most and great video but where you’re wrong is he most definitely shows every single symptom of ptsd and has been through plenty of trauma that would have triggered it.

I haven't played the remake games and don't plan to, so I have an interesting idea about Jenova in the original game. Part of me has the belief that the meteor that Jenova arrived on was summoned by a Cetra using the Black Materia. Yes we know the Cetra hid it to avoid its misuse, but it was still created, meaning someone intended to use it. It would be kind of ironic if that is what happened.

I have loved FFVII since I was a boy and it first came out, but dang, the way that Cloud kills Sephiroth during the Nibelheim Incident will never not be hilarious to me. Sephiroth, just let go of the damn sword! He should've gone le morte d'arthur on him, and just ran himself further through on the Masamune so that he could actually close the distance and get his hands on Sephiroth

This is great I hope you do more 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Great video. I really appreciate your read on their relationship. I like how you point out that Jenova Synthesis isn’t really complete and she’s proving herself a lying liar who lies, yet again. My own perspective of their relationship is a bit different and puts Jenova in control of the whole thing. But it also leans into theories that aren’t necessarily back up. But also nothing seems to go against it, so there’s that. My theory is that the scientists only dug up part of Jenova, leaving most of her behind in the Northern Crater. Outside of the chunk of body the scientists still have, Sephiroth is the largest collection of Jenova cells outside of the Northern Crater. In the Nibelheim flashback, Sephiroth is shown to be a level headed if aloof leader. He shows the brutal nature he must have had in Wutai and that Shinra has as a whole. But, being their poster boy, this is to be expected. The closer he gets to Jenova, the more he starts to question the company and his place in the world. In my view, Jenova wasn’t able to fully reach him telepathically or magically until he was physically closer to a bigger piece of her. He then flips a switch and goes crazy, grabs her head and probably intended to take that head to the Northern Crater for a Reunion, but that little Shinra grunt got in the way and killed him. Sephiroth died that day and does not come back. Being not from the Planet, the head of Jenova traveled the Lifestream and was able to come up with a plan to reunite herself, destroy the world and eat the lifestream. Cloud was then injected with so much Jenova cells that *he* becomes the largest concentration of Jenova cells outside of the Northern Crater. The headless body of Jenova in the Shinra tower was dormant until Cloud came close to it and had a reaction. After the reaction, Jenova realizes the best way to get Cloud to get the Black Materia and bring it to the Northern Crater is to mimic Cloud’s memory of Sephiroth and just guided him by the nose. Also, Jenova needs a human puppet to actually use materia to summon Meteor. So, while it looks like Cloud is giving the materia to Sephiroth, Jenova through Cloud is the one actually summoning Meteor. When Cloud falls into the Lifestream with Tifa, he’s able to put himself back together and reject Jenova. In the Northern Crater, Jenova Synthesis is all the scattered parts around the world back together as one, working to protect the main part. The main part still looks like Sephiroth because that image and fear is still so strong in Cloud that Jenova thinks it’s the best way to try an overpower him. Shirtless Sephiroth is the last bit of Jenova still in Cloud (along with his views of toxic masculinity) and Cloud is able to completely expel her and she is defeated. The Lifestream then pulls her apart completely and she is finally dead and gone. Pardon my first draft essay. 😅 Just wanted to get that theory out there. If anyone uses it to make fanfiction or something, let me know and I will happily read it.

47:24 I think when Sephiroth found out Jenova wasn't a Cetra he probably snapped even more since, rather than the benevolent being betrayed by humanity he originally thought she was Jenova was the monster who nearly destroyed it.

I am not a design 😂😂😂

I like to believe that Cloud is able to over power Sephiroth because Sephiroth is using his right hand for his sword in that scene. Iaido, which is how Spehi fights, is very dominant hand based, so using his right hand combined with the initial wound Cloud inflicted, contirbuted to Cloud being able to overpower Sephiroth when his dominant hand was holding Jenova's head. Any number of other factors could've also been involved, but use your less dominant hand against ANYONE using both of their hands and see what happens.

What game is that?what version of ffvii is this ?can someone tell me thanks

That secret of mana inspired intro immediately got my sub

As an adult who has become very interested in psychology, how our mind works, and Buddhist ideas, playing through Rebirth I realized how great of a character Cloud is. The examination of his identity crisis and mental state was always super interesting to me as a kid, but seeing it play out in 2024 (with some phenomenal voice acting) has hit me so hard. I can’t wait to see how this story finishes. And I say this all before even watching your video. Have just started it and will comment back once I’m done! Very excited to see what you have to say.

It is implied in Trace of Two Pasts (Nojima novel) that the fact that Cloud was disliked by the adults in his hometown is because his mother was a single mother. It is also stated that Tifa was educated to become a good wife, which she rejected by training under Zangan. Nibelheim is a conservative town. No wonder why Cloud wanted to appear like a man, and why showing emotion was labeled as a weakness.

Cloud, in the OG game, is definitely heavily coded with traits that reflect things like PTSD and dissociative disorder. Thats not the same as being literallt diagnosed with mental illness, but there's a reason Cloud was the JRPG poster child for mental health issues, even before the Compilation and Remake Also, to say that characters in FF7 are just built different bcs their world is plagued by monsters devalues the very real traumas that NPCs talk about in every location. Tifa and Cloud are clearly traumatized by Nibelheim,Tifa by her mother's death, and Cloud by his isolated childhood. Granted, the Compilation and Remakes do a better job of exploring this in detail (Aerith's encounter with the Eligor and Hojo are stonach churning) bcs of better graphics and deeper focus on character backstories. I think its fair to say that Cloud is PTSD and survivor's guilt-coded, especially in Advent Children and the Remake. In the AC novels, we learn that while Cloud initially bounced back, he fell into a depressive stupor in the years following Meteorfall. He drinks to cope, sleeps in Aerith's church, and is plagued by traumatic memories of the original game and visions of Sephiroth. On top of this, he has a terminal illness and isolates himself from his friends to avoid having to confront them about both his illness and unhealthy coping mechanisms in response to Aerith's death.

Bizarro Sephiroth is both Jenova and Sephiroth combined into a single being, that's the whole point of the reunion, that's is also why Jenova Synthesis is incomplete because it is another severed part of her body if not the remaining of it, remember that a single arm or tentacle can become a living organism with its own appendages and head, so the Jenova head is likely to still be with Sephiroth, and that's is also why we see another illusion of Sephiroth before the final battle, it is likely the Jenova head mocking and making everyone trip over themselves not just Cloud this time before merging with the real sephiroth. Sephiroth obviously being the one at the top due to his strong will overpowering Jenova's, after all he is an evolved being perfectly fused with the jenova cells, meaning that he is very much a second Jenova, not just a byproduct of the meddling with the cells. At the end i guess it doesn't really matter who overpowers who since the reunion is made to form a single organism not two not three but one, and using the lifestream to evolve into a godly creature was likely Jenova's plan and reason to go to the earth to begin with, the mother's plan carried out by her son, very much like president Shinra and Rufus, Ifalna and Aerith, or in a way Zack and Cloud. That's the point of the story, not pointing out who calls the shots at the end but who has the will to carry on the legacy of their predecessors for good or bad, because life still goes on after the death of people.

Great video. Just wanted to share: the red underline in the thumbnail confused me at first - I thought it was the red line that RUclips shows under a video thumbnail after you've completed watching it. I almost didn't click your video as a result!

My interpretation of the Jenova doll is that it’s like the pharaoh’s image on a sarcophagus, it’s an idealized vision of the individual contained within and likely represents what Professor Gast thought Jenova looked like. But the entire Sephiroth going crazy sequence also makes some sense as a holdover from a previous version in which Sephiroth actually was a Cetra. One theory I came up with is that during the Cetra’s battle with Jenova they used their ability to manipulate lifestream and form Materia to extract Jenova’s soul from her body and form it into the Black Materia, which they then attempted to seal away in the Temple of the Ancients. This would essentially render her remains into a mindless (or at least severely depowered) hunk of flesh, still capable of some instinctive behavior but without the cunning and powers of the full Jenova. Jenova Synthesis then is Jenova made whole, with the essence of the Black Materia (which we never retrieve at the end of the game) having been returned to her body. That lends credence to Sephiroth being the one in control for most of the game. But I also think rather than one controlling the other they were either working together or they were fused when Sephiroth dropped into the lifestream with Jenova’s head. With the Jenova reunion and why Sephiroth is helping it along there are a couple things to consider. The first is that Sephiroth himself has been cut in half, you can see this when he’s in the materia crystal in the Northern Crater and also infer this from both Sephiroth Reborn and Seraph Sephiroth as both seem to cut off at his waste. So it makes sense he would benefit from the Reunion restoring his lost cells to him. The other is that he loves Jenova, even if he doesn’t directly benefit from the Reunion he also has no reason to deny Jenova’s desire for the reunion.

I always assumed Jenova was like a virus for the body that is the Planet. Like how the Weapons, Omega and Chaos work like the immune system. I actually find the mirroring of the Lifestream and Jenova really cool. Dirge stated that Omega, in the event of a planetary catastrophe, can get Chaos to kill all life and ‘collect’ the lifestream from into a single location. And blast off to find another planet to inhabit. Which is actually very similar to what Jenova was believed to do. Except instead of bringing life, it slowly kills it. Which I really liked to think about. Neither the Planet nor Jenova have a ‘consciousness’ like a person does. And the actions taken are more by the people that act upon whichever biological source they originated from. But I’m just theory crafting at this point. Jenova has always been my favourite part about FF7’s more ambiguous storytelling. And like you said, it’s not *REALLY* important for the details about the biological functions of a sci-fi monster to be fully explored. That’s not what the point game is about.

I never thought about it much, but man, Cloud’s mother was truly a great person

Just a question. Does the thumbnail have a red bar at the bottom to make people think they've watched it before... Cause it worked on me and I instantly took notice. If not, do it again.

I think jenova and Sephiroth are two and the same just like God and Jesus is two individuals but also the same

i first played ff7 when i was 11, 24 years ago i was oblivious to who was in control and why i kept fighting spawns of jenova after encountering sephiroth. i played through it again at 14 and when i realized what the relationship between sephiroth and jenova truly was, it blew my mind. jenova was dead and sephiroth was dead but his will remained and it was pulling the strings and shapeshifting jenovas remains all along.

6000g is $1200?! I don't care how fun the gold saucer is, i am NOT paying $6,000 for a lifetime pass!

I like to think that creatures performing acts that resembled magic like breathing fire were absorbed back into the lifestream and that knowledge of how they performed it was what got condensed into the Green Materia.

I’ve believed for a long time that Jenova has always been the one pulling the strings. It’s thematically the only thing that makes sense. Sephiroth was either being manipulated by Jenova to act as a vessel of her will or Sephiroth actually IS Jenova , just after finally finding a suitable human form.

Pre-emptive materia 🤯

My favorite gaming protagonist ever

The theory that Jenova was unable to die because she was not part of the planet made a lot of sense because the Gi also suffered the same fate.

Never Meet Your Hero's is a trophy in Rebirth after completing the Nibehime section of the game. You got this game figured out dude. Good job.

Things to take into consideration also is during the fights with Jenova if one uses revive or cure on her it kills her or cause significant damage to her.

Yo, why you keep pronouncing "Mako" wrong? It's "mock-oh", not "make-oh". We've had official canon pronunciations for not just Mako but almost everything else for over a decade at this point, probably more like over two decades.

Jenova is a super interesting villain. It parralels the themes of pollution and identity that run through the entire game. Jenova is a cancer to the planet that comes from something unnatural. Its basically a body snatcher in every sense of the word and strips those who are infected by it everything they were before. Sephiroth is blatantly not the same dude before finally coming to face with his "mother" sephiroth WAS a hero and probably could be labeled as tragic a loss as everyone else whose lives were affected by jenova