Multi-form boss fights are a staple of the genre, but Sephiroth’s break with the standard progression in an interesting way. While fights with Seymour or Ultimecia have bosses that become progressively more monstrous at each stage, each of Sephiroth’s forms become progressively more human.
Typically, the bosses get bigger for dramatic effect, to invoke the feeling that you’re going up against something impossibly powerful. Sephiroth’s inverted form progression has a different dramatic arc, one that feels like we’re slowly cutting to the heart of the matter. This echoes the rest of the Cloud’s story, which is similarly about pulling back layers and facing reality. It makes for a much more fitting confrontation with a cathartic conclusion – while still managing to maintain throughout the sense that the Sephiroth you’re facing is a true threat.
From our first introduction to him in Nibelheim, they’ve shown us that a human Sephiroth is still incredibly powerful – and that Cloud has stood in awe of him. We’ve had the whole game to see the ways in which he himself is monstrous, whatever his human vulnerabilities, and the ways in which his corrosive influence over Cloud is so much more terrifying than any giant monster form they might have thrown at us.
Another thought… if you’re one of the people who believes that last fight is in Cloud’s mind, that would mean the final form of Sephiroth is how Cloud views him. In reality, Sephiroth has taken on the monstrous forms of bizarro-Sephiroth and safer-Sephiroth, but in Cloud’s mind human Sephiroth was the biggest monster of all.
LMAO. As a Sefikura shipper, the fact Cloud IMAGINES Sephiroth SHIRTLESS is too awesome. XD
Jokes aside, perhaps Cloud doesn’t perceive this as being the most ‘monstrous form’. Sephiroth was never a ‘monster’ to begin with. Rather, he was a broken man who sought to merge with everyone and everything since he’d been empty his entire life. Those he cherished or trusted had abandoned him (from his alleged dead mother, to Dr. Gast, to his two close friends).
People will argue that Sephiroth was a monster through his actions. Yet, not many consider why he did what he did. Like Prince Imhotep in the Mummy series, Sephiroth does not perceive death as an absolute. It’s merely a step toward something bigger. Death gives way to new life.
Within FF7′s story, you find quotes like this:
“There, I will become a new being by uniting with the
Planet. As will this girl…………”“Only death awaits you all. But do not fear. For
it is through death that a new spirit energy is born. Soon, you will live again
as a part of me.”Even within Dissidia, we see how Sephiroth perceives death differently than everyone else; he is the only one to kill himself. He does this out his strong held belief that death will ‘open the door’ – which actually works since he recovers many of his memories. 😛
Thus, this final battle isn’t about Cloud battling a ‘monster’. Rather, it’s about Cloud getting to the source of Sephiroth. Sephiroth isn’t this Godlike being after all. Rather, he’s a vulnerable man filled with sadness (a sadness Cloud himself mentioned during their mako reactor confrontation). Sephiroth is lay bare and vulnerable to us all. Hence why Sephiroth is shirtless.
I am intrigued by this Shirtlessness = Vulnerability symbolism.
It’s Purple Nurple time.
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