< Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII/Characters


A list of characters from Final Fantasy VII and associated works.

Protagonists/Playable Characters

Cloud Strife

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all... there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Steve Burton (English)

A former top-ranking member of Shinra's elite paramilitary unit SOLDIER. Now working as a mercenary-for-hire, Cloud takes a job with the anti-Shinra organization AVALANCHE to bring down his old employers. Actually a low-level Mooks whose troubled childhood and failure to qualify for SOLDIER left him with severe self-confidence issues. He then gets put through so much mind-scrambling experimentation that he confuses his own memories and achievements with those of his best friend (and SOLDIER 1st Class) Zack Fair. After the truth is revealed, he suffers a Heroic BSOD, but thanks to a Journey to the Center of the Mind, he comes to terms with who he is and rebuilds his persona from the ground up.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Before Crisis.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Final Fantasy Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts, Ehrgeiz, Final Fantasy Tactics.

  • Adorkable: At times. He says things like "let's mosey" and has never been on a date before.
  • Always Save the Girl
  • Angst: Boatloads of it. Most of it's justified too.
  • Animal Motifs: Wolves, specifically Fenrir, the name of the wolf that follows him in Advent Children and of his Cool Bike, which debuted in the same movie. However, this only applies to that movie.
  • Anime Hair
  • Anti-Hero: Classical Anti-Hero Type I who pretends to be Type III. He arguably evolved into an actual hero (or at least a Type II antihero) by the end of the first game.
  • Badass: See Determinator below.
  • Badass Biker
  • Badass Normal Back when he was just a mook, as evidenced when he managed to defeat Sephiroth despite not even being part of SOLDIER.
  • Becoming the Mask
  • BFS: His Buster Sword is emblematic of this trope.
  • Bifurcated Weapon: His First Tsurugi in Advent Children is six BFSs in one.
  • Bishonen
  • Blade Spam: Omnislash, one of his Limit Breaks, in a series of fifteen sword attacks.
  • Blow You Away: Finishing Touch, one of his Limit Breaks, launches a tornado at opponents.
  • Blue Eyes: They also glow because of his Mako infusion; this is a mark of all members of SOLDIER.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy
  • Break the Haughty: As a child, Cloud avoided the other village children because he thought of himself as superior to them and like most boys his age, tried to become a hero like his idol Sephiroth by joining SOLDIER and was promptly rejected. However, it seemed like his claims of superiority was more a case of him trying to justify his own loneliness.
  • Broken Hero: He's one of the poster boys for this trope.
  • Chick Magnet: Tifa, Aerith and Jessie have feelings for him. If you choose Yuffie as the Golden Saucer date, she kisses Cloud on the cheek on the gondola ride.
  • Colony Drop: Meteorain, one of his Limit Breaks, shoots small meteors at opponents.
  • Courier: His career after the events of the main game.
  • Crash Into Hello: Granted it was a roof, not a person, but it's how Cloud and Aerith got formally acquainted.
  • Deadpan Snarker: "You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow."
  • Dead Person Conversation: With Aerith and Zack in Advent Children.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Cloud's essentially been copying an actual SOLDIER named Zack through most of Final Fantasy VII.
  • Determinator: Holy shit, HOW! In his pre-game fight with Sephiroth. Sixteen years old, relatively untrained, no super powers or super strength, 5'7" tops (assuming he didn't grow between ages sixteen and twenty-one) and maybe 100 pounds soaking wet and fighting against Sephiroth: half a foot taller, probably at least twice his weight, genetically manipulated, trained from birth, insanely strong (and just insane). Cloud is knocked out while his town burns, but gives chase, eventually fighting Sephiroth, getting impaled by Sephiroth, and while still impaled on the man's blade and hoisted several feet in the air, somehow manages to get the upper hand and send Sephiroth flying into a pit of Mako. Badass indeed.
  • Disappeared Dad: Was raised by his mother instead.
  • Disguised in Drag: The infamous crossdressing quest in Wall Market.
  • Doomed Hometown: Including the dead mamma, but it's not his motivation.
  • Fake Memories: Though it's something of a journey to figure out how and why he has them.
  • Flanderization: If you haven't played the original game, you'll be surprised at how non angsty Cloud was. He did angst and express hesitation and insecurities, but only at key points and for good reasons, and at the end of the game seemed perfectly fine. In his appearances since, he has been an angsty brooding loner. Square Enix states outright in The Reunion Files (basically the Ultimania for Advent Children) that they regressed his personality back to a mindset they thought fans would be more familiar with, making this a case of Pandering to the Base. In all fairness, it'd be downright absurd to think he'd just be emotionally fixed by the end of the game. Anyone who might go through what Cloud went through might need a few years to fully reconcile. Like 30 of them.
  • Guest Fighter: In Ehrgeiz, an obscure fighting game made by Square in late 1990s.
  • The Hero: Of the Five-Man Band.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: BFS's are preferred, although he does have a few katanas. As an infantryman, however, he favored an assault rifle and police baton.
  • His Heart Will Go On
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: More in Advent Children than in the game.
  • Ill Girl: Well, Ill Guy. In Advent Children, Cloud is suffering from Geostigma which also causes some ugly seizures. Let's not forget when he was afflicted with Mako Poisoning in the game.
  • I Will Protect Her: He promises such to Tifa, and later becomes Aerith's bodyguard.
    • In Advent Children, he feels this way towards his entire family, which causes problems as his track record of success isn't very impressive.
  • Jack of All Stats
  • Jerkass Facade
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Subverted. Cloud isn't actually a jerk, his personality created after the events leading up to Zack's death is.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Most definitely in Advent Children. Can arguably become this in the original game as it goes on.
  • Limit Break
  • Loners Are Freaks: As a child.
  • Meaningful Name
  • Mook: In his true past.
  • Mr. Fanservice
  • Only I Can Kill Him: Spin-offs seem to give him this role regarding Sephiroth, who shrugs off beatings from the Warrior of Light or Sora.
  • Parental Substitute: To Denzel. In Advent Children, he even becomes a Disappeared Dad.
  • Promotion to Parent: Raises Marlene and Denzel with Tifa after the events of original game.
  • The Quiet One: On his own Cloud is a fairly shy and silent figure.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Initially, what draws Aerith to Cloud is his resemblance to Zack.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: So.... pretty....
  • Super Soldier: SOLDIER was comprised of humans who were exposed to large amounts of raw Mako (giving them their distinctive Glowing Eyes) and, in some cases, injected with Jenova cells, granting them superhuman strength, speed, and agility. While Cloud was never in SOLDIER, Hojo's experiments were similar, if not identical, to the process of creating a SOLDIER.
  • Sword Beam: Blade Beam, one of his Limit Breaks, fires a blast of energy from his sword.
  • Take Up My Sword
  • This Loser Is You: He is a Deconstruction of RPG protagonists at the time.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: See Dead Person Impersonation above.
  • Too Many Belts: In Advent Children. The retconned SOLDIER 1st Class costumes from Crisis Core that he wears has two.
  • Troubled but Cute
  • Unknown Rival: Hojo doesn't remember who he is when they have their last battle.

Cloud: At least remember my name!

Barret Wallace

"You gotta understand somethin'... I don't got an answer. I wanna be with Marlene... but I gotta fight. 'Cause if I don't... the planet's gonna die. So I'm gonna keep fightin'!"

Voiced by: Masahiro Kobayashi (Japanese), Beau Billingslea (English)

The boisterous leader of AVALANCHE, a group of eco-terrorists trying to prevent Shinra from draining the planet's life energy in the name of profit. His cause is actually a cover for a personal vendetta against Shinra. He later comes to terms with his grudge and accepts responsibility for the damage AVALANCHE caused, vowing to save the planet the right way.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus.

Tifa Lockhart

"Uniforms, soldiers, war. I hate 'em all. They take away the things and people you love... I wish they'd all disappear."

Voiced by: Ayumi Ito (Japanese), Rachael Leigh Cook (English)

A member of AVALANCHE and Cloud's childhood friend. She also owns a bar called "7th Heaven" in Sector 7 of Midgar. Though she realizes that something is very wrong with Cloud's memories, her indecisiveness prevents her from saying anything until it's too late. She vows not to let the same thing happen again, gaining the strength to help Cloud rebuild his persona.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim, Kingdom Hearts, Ehrgeiz.

Aerith (Aeris) Gainsborough

"Just hang in there. Someday we'll look back at these hard times and laugh."

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Mandy Moore/Mena Suvari/Andrea Bowen (English)

A young woman who sells flowers for a living in the slums of Midgar. Her years on the streets have given her a outgoing, street-smart but caring attitude. She is the last living Cetra, a precursor race who were driven to extinction by JENOVA. Having dated Zack Fair for a number of months, she finds herself attracted to his shadow in Cloud. Her independent nature leads to disaster when she decides to take the burden of defeating Sephiroth all by herself, abandoning the party and traveling to the City of the Ancients alone. This leaves her vulnerable to attack, and she is killed by Sephiroth.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Crisis Core.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Kingdom Hearts, Dissidia 012.

Red XIII (real name: Nanaki)

"What a fascinating story..."

Voiced by: Masachika Ichimura (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)

A strange wolflike (or possibly lionlike) creature who joins Cloud's group after being rescued from the Shinra HQ. Red XIII was the name he received as a specimen designation while held captive and experimented upon by Professor Hojo. Even though he is 48 in human years, his age is comparable to around 15 to 16 years old by his own species' standards and is very wise. He fights alongside Cloud and his allies to fulfill his duty to the Planet to defend it as a warrior.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus.

Cait Sith

"There's plenty of stuffed toys like my body around, but there's only one me!"

Voiced by: Hideo Ishikawa (Japanese), Greg Ellis (English)

A cat riding a giant stuffed toy Moogle, working as a fortune-teller in the Gold Saucer. He is really a puppet controlled from far away by Reeve, Shinra's head of Urban Development. Even though Reeve works with the evil Shinra, he develops a keen interest in saving the planet. He is useful to the party, as he knows all about the Shinra's plans. Despite his playful and care free persona in the form of Cait Sith, Reeve is actually a sombre and serious man, though he does harbor a good heart with a natural worry for others.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core (as a summon).

  • Cats Are Mean: Double subverted. He has a very cheery personality but is an extreme Jerkass in the beginning. Later, it's completely subverted.
  • Death From Above: His Toy Box Limit Break drops a random object on enemies to crush them, including meteors.
  • Head Pet
  • Healing Hands: Mog Dance.
  • Heel Face Turn: Goes from being a mouthy Shinra-supporting Jerkass to a good guy who pulls his weight to save the planet.
  • Jerkass: He eventually gets his heart of gold. And then loses the Jerkass part almost entirely.
  • Limit Break
  • Luck-Based Mission: His Slots and Dice both do random things.
  • Make My Monster Grow: Transform.
  • The Mole: Cait Sith is actually controlled by Reeve of Shinra, but still decides to remain with you once discovered. The trope is later inverted when he essentially becomes a spy for AVALANCHE within Shinra despite starting the other way around.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: His name seems easy to pronounce, but it's actually the name of a Gaellic mythological creature pronounced 'Kett Shee'.
  • One Hit KO: Game Over kills all enemies, bypassing death protection.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: This was how Reeve is exposed in the Japanese version of the game. Reeve speaks with a Kanto dialect and Cait Sith with a Kansai dialect. When stressed due to Hojo taking over the Mako Cannon, Reeve inadvertently speaks to Scarlet and Heidegger in Kansai, then Cait Sith speaks to Cloud and the others in Kanto. Thus they realize that he's Reeve.
  • Reverse Mole
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter
  • Status Buff: Lucky Girl makes all the party's attacks critical hits.
  • Team Pet: Probably the only one who has their own Team Pet (his giant moogle).
  • Total Party Kill: Death Joker, often the result of a failed attempt at Game Over.
  • Welcome Back, Traitor
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Barret for his bombing missions from earlier in the game. It comes off as somewhat hypocritical, however, since he's... y'know, with the Shinra, but Reeve was never crazy about the killing of innocents to begin with.

Cid Highwind

"Sit your ass down in that chair and drink your goddamn TEA!"

Voiced by: Kazuyuki Yama (Japanese), Chris Edgerly (English)

A gruff airship pilot with dreams of going into space. He is the most uncouth of the protagonists; he constantly swears and loses his temper, and chain-smokes cigarettes. Despite this, he has a good heart, and is even voted temporary leader of the party at one point. He fits into the archetype of a father type character.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Kingdom Hearts, minus the swearing.

  • Ace Pilot
  • Artistic Age: He is really 32 years old. You wouldn't think so considering his appearance in the game. In Advent Children, he looked more his age.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the fact that he verbally abuses his girlfriend Shera constantly throughout the game, he really does deeply care for her. He even names his new airship after her, and finally marries her throughout Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus.
  • Badass:
    • In Advent Children, he made a freaking Bahamut Summon flinch by stabbing it on the head!
    • His Big Brawl Limit Break is one of the most powerful in the game. Does he use gigantic blasts of energy, magical powers, summon the very elements to fight his foes? No. He just runs into the middle of the enemies and hits them. A lot.
    • He tries to look it too: his victory pose consists of him going to dance around in joy. But instead, he stops himself and just takes a drag of his cigarette.
  • Badass Bookworm: He doesn't show too much of it, but it requires a lot of patience, technical knowledge and general intelligence to fly and maintain any aircraft. Cid's seen to be competent with light aircraft, a zepellin-like airship and a jet-type one and was hand picked to be the world's first astronaut and man in space. Plus, he controls an entire fleet and his home is filled with machinery, including a half-built car in what looks to be the sitting room. It's fairly safe to assume that he's the most booksmart playable character in the series.
  • Badass Normal: One of the most prominent examples. He doesn't have innate magical powers, an assault weapon for a hand, combat training or genetic enhancements. He's got a home made spear and dynamite.
  • Berserk Button: Cid's pretty protective of his toys, such as the Tiny Bronco and the Highwind. He's also extremely upset about Shinra's decision to cancel its space program.
  • Blade on a Stick
  • Boisterous Bruiser: One of his reasons for joining the party is because he likes the idea of "numbskulls" fighting Shinra. Plus, he can back every word of his boasts up.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: He's much worse about this than Barret.
  • Death From Above/Jump Physics: Boost Jump, Hyper Jump and Dragon Dive, where he leaps and descends to attack enemies.
  • Goggles Do Nothing
  • Grumpy Old Man: Well, he's only 32, but that's old by Japanese anime/video game standards.
  • Improbable Piloting Skills: He can pilot almost everything.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He swears, smokes, is verbally abusive to pretty much everybody, but he gave up his dream to save Shera, genuinely tries to make amends to her, fights tooth and nail for the planet, joins the WRO, and gives a passionate speech about the need to protect the planet.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: He certainly has this attitude, even if he doesn't actually ruin any plans for the party, as shown by his gung-ho attitude about fighting Shinra.
  • Life Drain: Dragon drains HP from enemies to heal him.
  • Limit Break:
  • Mythology Gag: He is pretty much a meta-reference to Final Fantasy IV, from appearance to moves.
  • Science Hero: Openly puts his faith in science, and his piloting skills are vital to the party.
  • Senior Sleep Cycle: Depicted as having one in-game, apparently as part of his grumpy old man portrayal. When the party is forced to stay at the Ghost Hotel in the Gold Saucer, Cloud's speech apparently puts him to sleep. Later, he is seen napping on the bridge of the Highwind just before Barret declares him to be the new leader. Finally, if the player chooses him to accompany Cloud on a gondola ride at Gold Saucer's Round Square, he will doze throughout the entire ride.
  • Sir Swearsalot
  • Smoking Is Cool: Except when it's censored out... and yet still clearly visible.
  • Spam Attack: Big Brawl is a series of rapid slash attacks.
  • Team Dad
  • Throw Down the Bomblet: Dynamite has him throw a stick of dynamites at enemies.
  • You Are in Command Now: His brief stint as team leader in Disc 2.

Vincent Valentine

"Cool, huh? I guess that's just the way I am... sorry."

Voiced by: Shougo Suzuki (Japanese), Steven Blum (English)

Main character of Dirge of Cerberus. He is a former member of the Turks with a mysterious past that ties him to Cloud and his group.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus.
Spinoff/other game appearances: Ehrgeiz.

Yuffie Kisaragi

"I am the champion of the earth and the sky. I am the conqueror of evil. The single white rose of Wutai... Yuffie Kisaragi!"

Voiced by: Yumi Kakazu (Japanese), Christy Carlson Romano/Mae Whitman (English)

An outlandishly-dressed ninja girl from the Japanese-lookalike town of Wutai. As a rebellious and cocky tomboy, Yuffie desires to restore her homeland Wutai to the glorious nation it was before being conquered by Shinra. Despite her sometimes obnoxious personality, she is friendly, helpful and willingly helps the party in their battles.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Kingdom Hearts, Ehrgeiz.

Zack Fair

"Boy oh boy... the price of freedom is steep."

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Rick Gomez (English)

An energetic SOLDIER 2nd Class with dreams of becoming SOLDIER 1st Class. Popular enough to get his own spinoff, generally the best received of the Compilation.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Crisis Core, Before Crisis.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep as the most adorable hero-in-training ever, Ehrgeiz.


Antagonists

Sephiroth

"Ha, ha, ha… my sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet."

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Lance Bass/George Newbern (English)

A famous war hero and SOLDIER 1st Class, Sephiroth is a living legend within Shinra. After going AWOL for several years, Sephiroth suddenly reappears to murder the President of Shinra and blaze a trail of death across the world. He was the end result of a Super Soldier program designed to harness the power of the Ancients. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding causes him to be infused with the cells of the malevolent, virus-like alien Jenova instead. He stumbles across the truth of his origins and is driven insane, his madness catalysed by the influence of Jenova. Coming to the conclusion that he is The Chosen One of the Planet and that the broken body of Jenova is his biological mother, he initiates a terrifying plan to absorb the Lifestream into himself and become the successor of Jenova. Although Cloud delays this plan in the short-term by throwing Sephiroth into the Lifestream, in the long-term it allowed Sephiroth to absorb the knowledge of the Lifestream to the point where he could influence the world psychically, manipulating those with Jenova cells and creating solid astral manifestations of himself.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Before Crisis.
Spinoff appearances/other series appearances: Ehrgeiz, Final Fantasy Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts.

  • All There in the Manual: You really do need to get into the side materials if you want to fill in the blanks this guy's story has.
  • And Then What?: Until the Compilation, it wasn't explicit as to what Sephiroth was actually going to do with his godlike power after obtaining it, with interpretations ranging from Take Over the World to Omnicidal Maniac. According to Advent Children, the ultimate result was the Planet's destruction, it's hinted that he intended to use the Planet as a vessel similar to Jenova, and basically lead him towards a new planet (his "Promised Land") and rule it as a god.
  • Audience Surrogate: In a comedic way during Crisis Core, for those who don't like LOVELESS. He's not the biggest fan of it, and he's not afraid to mention that he's bored of Genesis "beating it into (his) head".
  • Back from the Dead: Technically speaking, Cloud killed him before the game began, but he persisted within the Lifestream. Then he came back in Advent Children.
  • Badass: His appearance isn't for showing off. Remember that gigantic snake that gave the party problems earlier in the game, which you had to get a chocobo to outrun? Sephiroth had to go through the same area, but he didn't bother with the bird. He impaled the snake on a tree.
  • Badass Longcoat
  • BFS
  • Big Bad: Of the original game and Advent Children.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In Crisis Core, he arrives out of nowhere and saves Zack from Ifrit.
  • Bishonen
  • Bishonen Line: His Bizzaro to Safer transformation. He resumes his original body for the final confrontation with Cloud.
  • Blade Spam: In more recent iterations of The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII as well as Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia Final Fantasy, Sephiroth seems to be able to strike his opponent several times with only a few tactically-placed slashes of his Masamune. In Kingdom Hearts II, he possesses a move called Flash, where he dashes past Sora: if you don't use the Reaction Command, Sora eats about 7-9 slashes. In Dissidia, his slashes inflict upwards of four blows at a time (his Octoslash, in particular, hits eight times in spite of Sephy only swinging five times).
  • The Chessmaster
  • Cloning Blues
  • Colony Drop: His plan to strike the earth with Meteor.
  • Cosmic Horror: He's a Humanoid Abomination made from the remnants of a genuine Cosmic Horror and a human fetus. Following the events at Nibelheim and his own "death", he fuses with Jenova and corrupts the Lifestream becoming a full-on example.
  • Defector From Decadence: He was considering to leave from Shinra due to growing distrust from the organization. Unfortunately, he ended up doing more than that.
  • Depending on the Artist: The Masamune was originally about as long as Sephiroth was tall, maybe slightly longer (six-seven feet long). In other games, like Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia, it reaches lengths twice that length. It is closer to a retcon than an artist attribute. Every successive iteration will clock the sword at three meters long.
  • Depending on the Writer: Let's just say his role in every game after the original tends to vary and leave it at that.
    • Similarly, his exact level of dominance regarding his "mother" Jenova seems to fall victim to this trope as well, with there being conflicting sources between the Ultimania and Dissidia 012 about whether Sephiroth was in control of Jenova or vice-versa.
  • Disney Villain Death: This is how Sephiroth is first defeated: when Cloud attempts to finish off Sephiroth at the reactor and ends up being impaled by him, Cloud ends up using his own body as a lever, and then hurls Sephiroth down the shaft of the Mako Reactor. Unfortunately, he hadn't exactly died afterwards.
  • Dissonant Serenity: With the notable exception of the Nibelheim incident.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • To Cloud, as an ex-member of SOLDIER, but later it turns out that he's actually Aerith's Evil Counterpart, since Cloud never was a member of SOLDIER and Sephiroth and Aerith have more traits in common: both are children of Shinra scientists involved in the Jenovas Project, both use seraphic symbolism, both are capable of avoiding dissolution in the Lifestream, and both are linked to one of the Ultimate Magics. Furthermore, Sephiroth believed that his mother was an Ancient betrayed by humans whereas Aerith's mother actually was one. During development, they were even considered to be revealed to be siblings or lovers, driving their connection deeper.
    • Expanded upon in the novellas. Both Aerith and Sephiroth retain their forms within the Lifestream. Aerith keeps hers due to being a Cetra, Sephiroth keeps his due to his immense power and sheer force of will. The novellas paint them as the supreme forces of light and darkness within the Lifestream, Sephiroth tainting the Lifestream with his Jenova cells and Aerith trying to purify his corruption as best she can. In the Case of the Lifestream - White, Aerith even considered creating her own Remnants to oppose Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, but decided it was more important to contact Cloud in person and let him handle it.
  • Fallen Angel: Invoked by his Safer Sephiroth and One-Winged Angel appearances.
  • Fallen Hero: He definitely fell, and hard, but given who his employers were, the "hero" part might be shadier than we realise (although it is implied in various scenes that he actually didn't know about some of the dirty secrets of the company).
  • Faux Affably Evil: In the side materials, there's no denying that he's just as evil as in the original game (post-madness), but he seems more Affably Evil as he does everything with a calm demeanour and never insults anyone in the way that, say Exdeath does. In the original game, however, when while he may be calm and collected, it's clear that he's enjoying mocking Cloud's insecurities and his status as a "puppet" and takes the opportunities to do so with gusto.
  • Final Boss: He's the last battle in Final Fantasy VII.
  • Flanderization: Invoked in-universe. After his second death at the end of Final Fantasy VII, he survives dissolution in the Lifestream by focusing on his hatred of Cloud and his desire for vengeance, giving him a strong enough emotional core to maintain his sense of self at the cost of letting less-focused traits be stripped away. This is why, come Advent Children, he's completely absorbed in rubbing his revival in Cloud's face.
  • Flash Step: Uses these liberally throughout the Compilation and his spinoff appearances.
  • Freudian Excuse: Let's see, his childhood friends were apparently beginning to defect from Shinra, as well as their dying, he then learns that his "mother" was allegedly a cosmic horror monster found in a stratospheric crater that nearly spelled doom and that his creation was related to research made by Hojo relating to monsters already in the Nibelheim Reactor, which, in Crisis Core, the former part of this discovery was told to him by his former friend Genesis, and reads the accounts from Professor Gast, all of this causing his mind to completely snap and become vengeful. That qualifies for one, all right.
  • A God Am I: His original goal, according to the first game, was to become a god by absorbing the lifestream and conquering "the Promised Land". As for what it is in the Compilation, well... it varies, but is generally this but with the twist of finding a new planet to build a utopia in his image.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Probably a posterboy for the trope, especially when it comes down to the revelation that he was created from Jenova's cells.
  • Green Eyes with Hellish Pupils
  • Guest Fighter: In Ehrgeiz.
  • Guinea Pig Family: He was conceived and born solely to serve as a test subject for the Jenova Project, which both of his parents worked on.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather
  • Humanoid Abomination: It turns out that being injected with the cells of a dead alien god while you were a fetus will do this to you. His very presence is a threat to the world, he contaminates the Lifestream dead or alive, he refuses to stay buried, and his nickname is The Abomination.
  • Human Popsicle: When Cloud and the others discover his body at the Northern Crater before Cloud, due to Sephiroth's earlier statements as well as Hojo, ends up giving Sephiroth the Black Materia again, he is seen to be in a mako-cocoon in stasis.
  • In-Series Nickname: The Abomination. In Advent Children, it seems he's earned the title "The Nightmare".
  • Japanese Pronouns: Before Sephiroth went insane, he used the arrogant term of "Ore", but after after the Niebelheim Incident, he always uses the formal and polite term "Watashi", alluding to the fact that he has devoted himself to his "mother's" cause.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Played straight.
  • Lack of Empathy: Averted (pre-madness, at least). Sephiroth has shown himself to possess empathy (though when Tifa met him she thought he was "rather cold"). Notable examples are his encouragement for Zack to not have to obey Shinra's command for him to kill Angeal earlier in the game, as well as giving Zack permission to return to Midgar so he could see Aerith as he knows he's worried about her. Post madness, on the other hand...
  • Laughing Mad: In Cloud's flashback, Cloud/Zack goes down to the basement of Shinra's mansion at Nibelheim and locates Sephiroth a few days after the incident at the reactor, only to hear Sephiroth chuckling dementedly. This is the first sign that Sephiroth went mad from the revelation that he might have been created as a Jenova clone.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Flash Steps all over the place but he can do major damage with only one hit.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: One of the prevailing theories as to why, once he took over (or was taken over by, Depending on the Writer) Jenova's consciousness, he began acting a lot like she did, trying to eat the Lifestream... that's probably just how Jenova's species's hunger instincts work.
  • Mr. Fanservice
  • My Death Is Only the Beginning: After falling into the mako reactor, he ends up becoming somewhat stronger, or at least more knowledgable. Also, Word of God states that his revival in Advent Children had him becoming much stronger than before, and it is also implied that Sephiroth might return after the second defeat (specifically "I will... never be a memory").
  • No Shirt, Long Jacket: With suspenders.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Maybe. His goal in the first game was a bit confusing to some. Though it's a given that his plan requires all life on the planet to be obliterated in order to make a wound big enough for the lifestream to come out to mend.
  • One-Winged Angel: Trope Namer. He goes through Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth before reverting to his own body. In later appearances, he has become a literal one-winged angel.
  • Our Angels Are Different: His Safer Sephiroth form is clearly intended to resemble one of the Seraphim, with a single black wing in place of one of his arms. Later appearances feature him with that same wing on one of his shoulders, channelling Fallen Angel for all it's worth.
  • Out of the Inferno: Nibelheim, of course.
  • Post-Mortem Comeback: By focusing on his hatred of Cloud, Sephiroth prevented the Life Stream from assimilating him, while using Kadaj and his gang to find what was left of Jenova to bring about Hojo's reunion theory, thereby allowing him to be reborn.
  • The Power of Hate: How he survives between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children: he concentrates on maintaining and building up his hatred of Cloud so he can maintain his own identity in the lifestream and resist being absorbed into the collective.
  • Posthumous Character: In the original game, Cloud had already killed him long before you even pick up the controller. Up until the very end of the game, you only ever see him in flashbacks, and what you're chasing around are really clones/hallucinations/pieces of Jenova/physical representations of his willpower/whatever.
  • Psychotic Smirk: Gives a very nasty one after he's killed Aerith. And after the Nibelheim incident (although Crisis Core retcons this to a slightly sorrowful/rageful expression).
  • Retirony: Variation (according to Crisis Core): he was considering retiring from Shinra and SOLDIER after the Nibelheim mission (the reasons are implied to be a growing distrust of the organization and guilt from his friends' deaths). Instead, he gets his Start of Darkness while there and goes totally off the deep end.
  • A Sinister Clue
  • Start of Darkness: Made very, very clear, as opposed to the other bad guys in the game, who are just kinda evil from the get-go.
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: Crisis Core gives him this personality pre-madness: he's composed, aloof and professional, but he's also capable of being loyal and worried about his friends. He can also be pretty considerate, as evidenced by Zack once the two start to become friends. Comes complete with several Pet the Dog moments, such as the end of Chapter 7, when Sephiroth informs Zack that Genesis copies have been sighted in Midgar, particularly noting their presence in the slums, and gives him permission to return to the city because he knows Zack is worried about Aerith and wants to see her. Another example is, when Zack has doubts about trying to kill Angeal after the latter turned traitor, Sephiroth agrees with him and also encourages Zack to not carry out his duty (The fact that Angeal was also Sephiroth's childhood friend helps a lot). Also, it makes sense that in order for him to become as emotionally warped as he eventually did, there had to be something there to warp.
  • Super Soldier
  • Tyke Bomb: He was genetically altered in the womb and raised pretty much from birth to be a Super Soldier.
  • Unwitting Pawn: It is heavily implied in both the original Final Fantasy VII and the novellas that Sephiroth was this to Professor Hojo for the sake of research in the main plot. Although not even Hojo realized what Sephiroth was capable of. In fact, he reluctantly admits that science was meaningless before him.
  • The Virus: Is the cause of Geostigma in Advent Children. Hinted at in the movie, outright stated in the novellas. The virus was created through his tainting of the Lifestream from within. After he first noticed he could do it, he kept doing it for the sheer enjoyment of tarnishing everything. There are even hints he had been further breaking Cloud's psyche via Cloud's Geostigma infection. Once he was infected, he let Sephiroth in.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: The front of his jacket is always open, exposing his chest. During his Final Boss battle with Cloud, he sheds the trenchcoat, and attacks him wearing only his pants and boots. Heads straight into Fan Disservice, given that he's covered in blood and sporting a Slasher Smile at the time.
  • Where I Was Born and Razed: Although Sephiroth himself doesn't seem to realize it (he mentions that he "has no hometown"), it is implied in the games (and confirmed via Word of God) that Sephiroth's hometown was actually Nibelheim, the very same place he ended up burning to the ground.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: See Freudian Excuse above.
  • Would Hit a Girl: After his descent into insanity, as Tifa learned the hard way when she attempted to avenge her dad. He'd also kill a girl, of course.
  • Zero Effort Boss: The Sephiroth vs. Cloud final boss fight was infamous as impossible to lose. The only reason he's considered better than the other Final Fantasy Zero Effort Boss, Yu Yevon, is because Sephiroth was fought beforehand in his One Winged Angel form where he was indeed a difficult boss, unlike Yu Yevon.

Rufus Shinra

"I'll control the world with fear. It takes too much to do it like my old man. A little fear will control the minds of the common people. There's no reason to waste money on them."

Voiced by: Tohru Ookawa (Japanese), Wally Wingert (English)

Son of the president of the Shinra Corporation.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children.

The Turks

Left to right: Rude, Reno, Tseng, and Elena.
"A pro isn't someone who sacrifices themselves for a job. That's just a fool."
—Reno, Final Fantasy VII

Voiced by:
Tseng: Junichi Suwabe (Japanese), Ryun Yu (English)
Reno: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese), Quinton Flynn (English)
Rude: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English)
Elena: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Bettina Bush (English)

The Department of Administrative Research, unofficially known as the Turks, are Shinra's Black Ops unit. They carry out assassinations, blackmail, and the forced recruiting of potential SOLDIER candidates. Their roster consists of Tseng (leader), Reno, Rude and Elena. Before Crisis introduces Tseng's predecesor as the leader, Veld, and eleven more Turks, one of which is named Cissnei to take a prominent role in Crisis Core.

All of them appear in: Before Crisis, Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children. Tseng, Rude and Reno appear in: Crisis Core.

  • Ambiguously Brown: Rude, though described by Word of God as somewhat resembling a person of South American descent rather than African American.
  • Ascended Extra: The Before Crisis Turks were interchangeable aside from small background details... until Crisis Core used one of them (the shuriken girl a.k.a. "Cissnei") as a main character.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Except for Reno: well, they all wear the same thing, but Reno wears it like he just woke up after a one night stand.
  • Bald of Evil: Rude.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Elena, even though she's not very evil... at all.
  • Characterization Marches On:
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Tseng for Aerith, sort of. They were never friends, but he was one of the few people Aerith knew when she was a child, and he's had an unrequited thing for her all the time since. Some have the wrong impression that Tseng was a childhood friend of Aerith due to a mistranslation in the original game ("I've known him since we were little", rather than "since I was little"), even though we see a flashback of Tseng, as a teenage member of the Turks first meeting Aerith, who is a preteen girl, thus they never were little together nor were they friends.
  • Cool Shades: Rude.
  • Dark Chick: Elena.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Reno.
  • Determinator: In Advent Children, Rude and Reno are clearly out of their league against Kadaj's gang. They don't care. They just keep fighting.
  • Evil Redhead: Reno, but only in the original game.
  • Fiery Redhead: Reno could be considered a male example.
  • Four Is Death: Played straight in the first game, where they're something of a legitimate threat (until Sephiroth shows up, at least). Subverted in the film, given their Heel Face Turn.
  • Goldfish Poop Gang: Reno and Rude quickly devolve into this in the original game. They only become dangerous again in their last battle when accomponied by (previously thought to be incompetent) Elena.
  • Leitmotif
  • Loveable Rogue: Reno.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: The effect of Reno and the Turks following through with the command to drop the Sector 7 plate, killing hundreds or thousands of people has noticeably less impact on the characters in the long-run than Aerith being killed before their eyes.
  • Minion with an F In Evil: Elena. Even if she manages to punch Cloud unconscious in Icicle Inn, her immediate response is feeling regretful about it and just leaving him behind to recover rather than apprehending him.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: Tseng. Lampshaded in Crisis Core when Zack finds a camera with Tseng's name on it, and thanks to the odd spelling doesn't realize who it belongs to: he then wonders how one pronounces the name. Also "Reno" is derived from the romaji "Reno", and should therefore rhyme with Leno, rather than be given the Nevada pronunciation. "Rude" could confuse as well: some refuse at first to pronounce it the obvious way.
  • Punch Clock Villains: To the point that they even agree to help the heroes when they are found off-duty in Wutai. They'll still commit atrocities when ordered to by their boss, but hey.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad
  • Ship Tease: Between Tseng and Elena, Zack and Cissnei. You could also mention how Tseng likes Aerith and Rude likes Tifa, but in that case, it's kind of one-sided.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Before Crisis reveals that Elena's older sister was a Turk, and Elena resented her for outperforming her: she refused to join the Turks while her sister was a member. She joined after her sister retired along with many other Turks from that game, following their defeat of Zirconiade and decision to follow Veld's lead.
  • Skippable Boss: The only times they have to be fought is the first Reno fight and the fight with Rude at Rocket Town. All others can be skipped or those areas passed over. Even the final confrontation is skippable, if you've completed the Wutai quest.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": The official Romanizations [in Japan] of Elena's and Reno's names were, once upon a time, "Yrena" and "Leno" [specifically in the Official Establishment File artbook].
  • Stalker with a Crush: Tseng towards Aerith and Rude towards Tifa, so much that Rude will refuse to attack Tifa during boss fights. Subverted by Elena, who has a crush on Tseng but doesn't actively pursue him.
  • The Unfought: At no point does the party ever actually engage Tseng, the leader of the Turks, in combat. He can, however, be fought in the Training Mode in Before Crisis.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Whatever happened to Cissnei?

President Shinra

"These days, all it takes for your dreams to come true is money and power."

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Previously, the president of the Shinra Arms Manufacturing Company. The discovery of Mako energy catapulted him to the position of de-facto world dictator.

Heidegger

"Ghaa haah hah hah!"

Heidegger manages the Shinra Public Safety department, and bungles it up nicely too.

Stop that stupid horse laugh.

Hojo

"Hojo of Shinra, Inc. ...An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist. He was a walking mass of complexes."
—Voiced by: Nachi Nozawa (Japanese), Paul Eiding (English)

Appears in Final Fantasy VII, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core.

  • Abusive Parents: He injected Jenova Cells into his son Sephiroth and never even allowed his mother Lucrecia to hold him.
  • Big Bad: He returns as the main antagonist in Dirge of Cerberus, commanding the Tsviets through the body of Weiss. Along with Jenova in the main game, he's the source of everything evil in the story.
  • Card-Carrying Villain/Obviously Evil: Look us in the eye and tell us your Evil Radar wasn't going off when he first appeared. He also admitted to being one when Cloud confronts him. See For Science! below. This is also one of the few examples in the former trope where it isn't intended to be funny.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He is particularly snarky with Cloud whenever they meet.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side
  • Evil Genius
  • Evil Is Sexy: In-universe. The bikini girls at Costa Del Sol seem to think so.
  • Evil Laugh: He is fairly restrained in the original game, until the final confrontation, during which he was pretty close to a complete break with reality. In Dirge of Cerberus, however, he gives Kefka a run for his money.
  • Evilutionary Biologist: A textbook example.
  • For Science!: He admitted this is the motive behind his treatment of Sephiroth in the first game. When Cloud calls him out on it, he simply responds with "It's my desire as a scientist."
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul
  • Grand Theft Me: He takes over Weiss the Immaculate's body prior to Dirge of Cerberus. If the Novellas are anything to go by, he also did this to Sephiroth between his own death and Sephiroth's fight against AVALANCHE.
  • Guinea Pig Family: He's Sephiroth's father.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Hojo attempted to defeat the party by injecting himself with Jenova's cells. However, this resulted in him being defeated due to losing his sanity as a result. In Dirge of Cerberus, it is also revealed that the specific reason for him injecting himself with Jenova's cells was to strengthen his body enough for him to possess Omega, but this attempt predictably backfired on him due to losing his mind and then being killed, and thus resulted in him uploading his consciousness into the World Wide Network.
  • Kavorka Man: Somehow managed to win Lucrecia over from Vincent. This is definitely demonstrated on the beach.
  • Lack of Empathy: When Lucrecia asks to hold Sephiroth during an argument that was implied to be Sephiroth being shipped off to Shinra, as well as Lucrecia's attempts to help Vincent in recovering from Hojo's experiment, he mocks her and also pulls a Not So Different on her.
  • Laughing Mad: See Evil Laugh above.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: He reveals that he is Sephiroth's father near the end of the game.
  • Mad Scientist: His first appearance in the game involves him attempting to breed Aerith and Red XIII.
  • The Man Behind the Monsters: Aside from Jenova herself, all of the antagonists of the Final Fantasy VII universe can be traced back to his experimentations. He's responsible for the creation of Sephiroth and Genesis, his experimentations on Elfé is what lead to her getting her superpowers and forming AVALANCHE, and he's also the one controlling Deepground in Dirge of Cerberus, as well as the fact Deepground began as an off-shoot of SOLDIER, which of course was based on Hojo's research.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Naked People Are Funny: Inverted: Hojo never takes his labcoat off... even when getting a tan.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Two of the experiments he was involved in nearly resulted in the end of the world, and it is heavily implied that the planet's destruction was exactly what he was hoping for.
  • One-Winged Angel: Like father like son, eh?
  • The Starscream: It is implied in Before Crisis that Hojo intended to fake a kidnapping so he could "defect" to AVALANCHE (who aren't nearly as good as their successors).
  • Villainous Breakdown: By the time the party faces him, he's completely lost what sanity he ever had. Dirge of Cerberus takes it even further.
  • Villains Out Shopping: The group can run into him chilling on the beach in Costa Del Sol.

Cloud: "What are you doing...?"
Hojo: "It should be obvious. I'm getting a tan."

  • You Killed My Father: He killed Professor Gast, Aerith's father. He also places Aerith and her mother into seven years' worth of inhumane experiments, which eventually resulted in her mother's death shortly after she gives Aerith to her foster mother after escaping Shinra.

Scarlet

"Kya ha ha!"

Responsible for the Shinra Corporation's Weapons Development department, Scarlet specializes in creating Glass Cannons.

Palmer

"Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra, la, la! And please include our Space Program in the budget!"

The director of the Shinra Space Program. Unlike the other executives, he is almost totally useless.

  • Butt Monkey: He seems to be this for Shinra.
  • Demoted to Extra: He was the least important of the Shinra executives in the original game and is the only one not to appear in the Compilation.
  • Disney Death: Apparently being hit by a truck was not enough to actually kill him.
  • Fat Bastard: The man likes lard in his tea...
  • Fat Idiot: He's so pathetic that he's left alive by the end of the game; not even worth killing. He's the only Shinra executive to survive, other than Reeve, who turned good, and Rufus, who got caught in a massive explosion and was thought to have died.
  • Harmless Villain
  • Hot-Blooded: He's extremely hyper, to the point where his idle combat pose looks like he's tap dancing.
  • Shout-Out: You know how he narrowly managed to avoid being chopped to bits by the Tiny Bronco after the party's fight against him? Well, aside from the aftermath, that was taken word for word from the demise of that German Mechanic that Indiana Jones was fighting in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Stupid Evil: Played for Laughs.

Jenova

"Because, you are.... a puppet."

Jenova descended on Gaia 2,000 years before the events of Final Fantasy VII. She single-handedly devastated the Cetra, and nearly destroyed the planet, before being sealed in a geological stratum in the Northern Crater. Unearthed by Shinra scientist Gast Faremis, she indirectly played a huge role in Shinra's rise to power.

  • Big Bad Duumvirate: With Hojo.
  • Bigger Bad: Jenova's not completely in charge of Sephiroth or his actions, and due to the nature of her being cannot be directly confronted. In fact, whether she's even alive is up for debate. But the facts remain that if she hadn't come down to earth two thousand years ago, almost none of the events of the game would have happened.
  • Body Horror: Among other things.
  • Cool Mask: Is sometimes show wearing a steel mask over her face.
    • Wearing might be too charitable—the Shinra Corporation put a strangely elaborate female bust/doll/death mask directly in front of Jenova's tank in the Nibelheim Reactor, for reasons never explained, which is torn away by Sephiroth. Jenova never wears it, since that form's never shown engaging in any sort of movement.
  • Cosmic Horror: She's an ambiguously living Eldritch Abomination who fell to earth millennia ago and tried to drain it of life. Why she does this, what she wants, and where she came from are a mystery to everyone except maybe her offspring/successor Sephiroth. Talk about alien.
  • Dead All Along: Died well before the events of the game. May have been resurrected by Sephiroth. It's hard to tell.
  • Death From Above: Personified: she struck the planet in a meteor and caused massive death.
  • Diabolus Ex Nihilo: Fell from the sky two thousand years before the game began. No one knows where it came from, but it's speculated that it may have landed on and devastated other worlds in the past.
  • Expy: Jenova is basically Lavos shaped vaguely like a woman, and eating the world from the outside in rather than the other way around. Amusingly, this would make Sephiroth analogous to Queen Zeal. Unlike Zeal, however, Sephiroth isn't controlled by Jenova (not completely, at least). It actually becomes the other way around: Sephiroth overtakes Jenova's will. On the other hand, some of his monologues as well as Dissidia 012's museum bio (Final Fantasy VII section) of Sephiroth stating that he returned as an agent to carry out her will would imply that Sephiroth was indeed controlled by Jenova to a certain extent.
  • Evil Matriarch: In a way. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz and Sephiroth all address her as "Mother" anyway.
  • From a Single Cell: Jenova is consciously aware of all of her cells, enabling her to regenerate into Sephiroth a "Reunion".
  • Fusion Dance: With Sephiroth, to the point that he's taken her originaly instinctive destructive goals Up to Eleven and infused them with his own conscious intelligence.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Resembles a deathly pale woman with eyes and veins in places where they should not be. Sometimes wears a steel mask to hide this.
  • In-Series Nickname: Heaven's Dark Harbinger, The Calamity from the Skies, Mother.
  • Obliviously Evil: It's been suggested that Jenova, while wicked and cruel, was originally just a creature that instinctively sought to destroy. Her fusion with Sephiroth combined her instincts with his powerful will and intelligence.
  • The Plague: The Geostigma of Advent's Children is the result of the Lifestream trying to rid human bodies of her cells and overcompensating.
  • Planet Eater: Drains them of life anyway.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Her name is a combination of "nova" and "Jehovah", and thus approximately means "New God".
  • Shapeshifting: Jenova takes on the form of her previous victim, in order to approach the next one.
  • Silent Antagonist
  • Tainted Veins
  • The Virus: People and animals who are injected with Jenova's cells become victims of numerous side effects, including mutation and susceptibility to Mind Control. She's The Virus incarnate.

The Remnants of Sephiroth

Left to right: Yazoo, Kadaj, and Loz.


"So what if I'm a puppet? Once upon a time, you were too!"
—Kadaj

Voiced by:
Kadaj: Showtaro Morikubo (Japanese), Steve Staley (English)
Yazoo: Yuji Kishi (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)
Loz: Kenji Nomura (Japanese), Fred Tatasciore (English)

All three appear in: Advent Children

Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo are physical manifestations of Sephiroth's will. Each of them represents a different aspect of Sephiroth's personality, but they share a fanatical obsession with Jenova.

Kadaj

  • And Then What?: As Cloud notes, Kadaj isn't really sure what to do when he finally gets his hands on Jenova.
  • Cool Sword: Souba, his double-bladed sabre, which can take a hit from the First Tsurugi and not break.
  • Dark Messiah: Kadaj pulls this off in the scene where he brainwashes the kids, channeling "cult leader" for all he's worth, while ranting about how the world has tried to reject all of them (them being victims of Jenova). Even his obsesssion with reuniting with Jenova has vaguely religious overtones.
  • Disc One Final Boss: He's the Big Bad of the Terrible Trio and is behind most of Advent's Children's plot (even facing Cloud in a Sword Fight near the end), but he's still a pawn in Sephiroth and Jenova's endgame, and is replaced by the former during the film's finale.
  • Enfante Terrible: Was made the youngest remnant to invoke this.
  • Evil Counterpart: The staff envisioned him as a reminder of what Cloud was—Sephiroth's Unwitting Pawn.
  • Fragile Speedster: At least when compared to Lightning Bruisers Cloud and Sephiroth. He's actually quite strong in addition to being freakishly quick, but both of them are much, much stronger.
  • Mommy Issues
  • No Body Left Behind: Dissolves into the Lifestream.
  • Not So Different: "So what if I'm a puppet? Once upon a time, you were too!"
  • The Pawn: He's not quite unwitting, since he realizes that he probably won't come out on top, but since it's all for "Mother", he's willing.
  • Peek-a-Bangs
  • Redemption in the Rain
  • The Unfavorite: He worries that Mother might love Sephiroth more than him. She does.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Has a minor one when he gets his hands on Jenova's head, then has a larger one when Cloud points out he's just Sephiroth's pawn.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy

Yazoo

Loz


All Three

Elfé

"You found me when I was wandering all alone, without my memories. I was raised by AVALANCHE. You're all like my family. That's why I'm going to fight with everyone and repay my debt."

The leader of the original incarnation of AVALANCHE, and the main antagonist of Before Crisis.

  • Action Girl: Sephiroth of all people is impressed with her skill when she manages to endure his attacks.
  • Badass Cape
  • Big Bad: At first.
  • Hot Amazon: Shears thinks so at least.
  • Katanas Are Just Better
  • Known Only By Their Nickname: Her real name is Felicia.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: She's Veld's daughter, presumed dead.
  • Not Quite Dead: Three times in fact. Veld assumes Felicia dead when their hometown is attacked, but she's retrieved and used as an experiment by Hojo. He decides she's a failure and orders her disposed of, but Fuhito takes her to safety. And then at the end of Before Crisis, she's assumed dead due to the Zirconiade Materia finally taking its toll, but she and Veld are taken care of in secret and eventually go into hiding together.
  • Stock Super Powers: Super Reflexes, Super Senses, Super Speed, Super Strength.
  • The Stoic
  • Power Degeneration: Has Stock Super Powers due to the Zirconiade Materia imbedded in her arm. It also happens to be draining her life force and will eventually kill her.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Fuhito was just using her and AVALANCHE to gather the pieces of the Zirconiade Materia, knowing all along she had one herself.

Shears

Elfé's right-hand man in AVALANCHE.

Fuhito

A scientist in the employ of AVALANCHE, he's the mastermind of their elite shock troops the Ravens, Evil Counterparts to SOLDIER.

Genesis Rhapsodos

"My soul, corrupted by vengeance, hath endured torment to find the end of the journey, in my own salvation and your eternal slumber."
—Voiced by: Gackt (Japanese), Robin Atkin-Downes/Oliver Quinn (English)

A former SOLDIER 1st Class who deserted from the Shinra Corporation. He had a friendly rivalry with Angeal and Sephiroth as well as some other similarities to them, and his main hobby is reciting quotes from LOVELESS. A lot.

Appears in: Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus.

  • Author Appeal
  • Badass Longcoat
  • Beta Test Baddie: To Sephiroth. Interestingly, they both go mad.
  • Bishonen
  • Cool Sword: And it's flaming.
  • Disney Death: A rare villainous version: Genesis fell into a reactor, yet it becomes apparent later on that he survived.
  • Easily Forgiven: Zack lets him live.
  • Evil Redhead: Subverted because he isn't so much evil as he is a pretentious Jerkass.
  • Expy:
    • Of Sephiroth. Besides the obvious similarities in appearance as seen in the accompanying image, Genesis is also a 1st Class SOLDIER and a spawn of the Jenova Project, he eventually sprouts a black wing over his shoulder, he was seemingly killed via Disney Villain Death in a Mako Reactor but turned out to be Not Quite Dead... you get the picture.
    • Invoked Trope: Partially. Genesis idolized Sephiroth as a child and wanted to be a hero just like him. Emulating Sephiroth's appearance and giving it his own personal flair was likely a conscious decision.
  • The Heavy: In Crisis Core.
  • Ink Suit Actor: His appearance was based on his voice actor, Gackt (yes, the same Gackt who portrayed Lau in Bujingai the Forsaken City). In Dirge of Cerberus, they didn't even bother with the ink suit.
  • Karma Houdini: He instigated a war, killed his own parents, basically wiped out his hometown's population, subjected an immense amount of innocent people into becoming his clones, and helped make Sephiroth go nuts, and he ended up getting away with it, even getting his degeneration removed.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Sephiroth notes that he enjoys beating LOVELESS into his and Angeal's head.
  • Meaningful Name: "Genesis" of course parallels Sephiroth's name, but it also means "birth" or "origin". Combined with the origin of his last name, he is "the original epic poem", referring both to his obsession with LOVELESS, and the idea that in-universe he was the original rebel SOLDIER and commited acts that Sephiroth would later repeat.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: His appearance is based on Gackt Camui: he's also voiced by Gackt, Gackt had a hand in the design of his outfit, and Gackt portrayed him live action in Dirge of Cerberus's secret ending.
  • One-Winged Angel
  • Playing with Fire: Throws a definite preference for fire spells like Flash and Energy.
  • Power Degeneration
  • Psycho Prototype: To Sephiroth.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over
  • Remember the New Guy?: I'm sorry, why weren't you mentioned in the original game's flashbacks, again?
  • Self-Made Orphan
  • Sissy Villain: His English voice actor goes down this route, and the Bishoneny appearance, flamboyant hand gestures and constant recital of LOVELESS just add to it.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Angeal's mother.
  • Wicked Cultured


Tsviets

Group picture to save page space. Background: Nero, Rosso, Weiss. Foreground: Shelke, Azul.

Weiss the Immaculate

"The pure will be "spared" for the cause, while the tainted will be hunted down and exterminated. They shall be slashed, strangled, and slaughtered. Beaten, stabbed, and crushed. Garroted and impaled. Shot and executed without mercy. The time has come to cleanse this world."
—Voiced by: Joji Nakata (Japanese), Dave Boat (English)

Leader of the Deepground, the secret special forces of the Shinra Company made to replace SOLDIER.

  • Bad Boss: See above.
  • Big Bad: In Dirge of Cerberus. It's revealed that he was just a host to Hojo, the true Big Bad.
  • Big Brother Complex: He's very close to his little brother Nero.
  • Computer Virus: It's how he died.
  • Dead to Begin With
  • Disney Death: It's implied in the 100% ending with all Genesis reports collected that Weiss is not actually dead.
  • Dual-Wielding
  • Evil Laugh: While possessed by Hojo. He does this in the online mode as well. It's just him.
  • A Father to His Men: Averted SO HARD. In the Online Mode, Weiss was more than willing to have Shelke execute a plan that would eliminate another Tsviet.
    • Not to mention having Shelke herself nearly executed later on, even though that was technically Hojo and not Weiss who ordered that.
  • Grand Theft Me: He is a host to the mad scientist Hojo, and it was with the help of Nero that he became free. He later grand thefted OMEGA.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first one. Vincent, however, gets the help of Shelke/Lucrecia to match him.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Both muscular and very fast.
  • Meaningful Name: "Weiss" means "white" in German, and his subtitle Immaculate refers to the Roman Catholic belief of the Immaculate Conception where someone is born completely without the stain of original sin.
  • Omnicidal Maniac
  • Pure Is Not Good: He was originally created to not be made of tainted lifestream, which is why Hojo possessed him and planned to use him to fuse with Omega. Even when he regained control of himself, he was still not a nice guy.
  • Slasher Smile: Pulls these off with gusto.
  • Slouch of Villainy
  • The Social Darwinist
  • Super Soldier
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Oh yes, please and thank you.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Though he's no relation to Sephiroth.
  • Wild Hair: It's even bigger and spikier than Cloud's!
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
    • Did this to Nero after he became alive again and Hojo took control of him.
    • Also did this to Shelke, ordering Azul to terminate her.
    • Don't forget how he treated the player Tsviet in the online version.

Nero the Sable

"Dear Weiss, powerful Weiss. The only person who ever loved me, and the only person I will ever love."
—Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu (Japanese), Mike Rock (English)

Second-in-command of the Tsviets. Also Weiss's biological half-brother.

Azul the Cerulean

Voiced by: Tessho Genda (Japanese), Brad Abrell (English)

One of the Tsviets, the commanders of Deepground, high-ranking soldiers, and he is its field commander.

  • BFG: Or a BFC, a BIG FUCKING CANNON, big enough to blow up Cid's ship.
  • Blood Knight: Literally the only reason he willingly joined them, and even then only after realizing why they attempted to capture him.
  • The Brute
  • Catch Phrase: "Hail Weiss" in a way. All of Deepground says this, but Azul says it the most, even acting as his final words.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Azul is Spanish for "blue". Cerulean is a specific shade of blue. Therefore, his name means "Blue the blue". QED.
  • Disney Villain Death: After he was impaled.
  • Genius Bruiser: He ain't just all muscles, he's also a competent field officer.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: With his own cannon when Chaos took over Vincent.
  • Laughing Mad: He does that, an memorable one right before he died.
  • Playing Possum: After he was "beaten" by Vincent, he pretended to have died in order to destroy the W.R.O.'s headquarters from inside before the second Deepground force attacked.
  • See You in Hell: He tells Vincent that before he died.
  • The Stoic: He usually speaks some few words, and acts rather "stonely". It's only when he fights Vincent that he shows how much Hot-Blooded he is for fighting.
  • Super Soldier

Rosso The Crimson

"I shall not give you the pleasure of killing Rosso the Crimson!"
—Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)

Another Tsviet. Due to experimentation done on her when she was a child, she's quite mentally unbalanced. The only pleasure she gets out of life is killing her enemies.

  • Ax Crazy
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: She committed suicide when she was defeated by Vincent by throwing herself out from the Shinra tower.
  • Dark Chick
  • Evil Redhead
  • Freudian Excuse: It is heavily implied that the very reason why she even takes enjoyment in doing her assignments in similar ways to a psychopath is because she was raised that way by Shinra.
  • Happy Rain: In a twisted way. Rosso, while standing in the rain in Edge, muses that it was the first time she had ever felt rain on her skin. She seemed happy, but she's a Tsviet, so happy could just as easily mean "on the brink of murder."
  • Laughing Mad: Probably a much bigger use of this trope than even the trope namer.
  • Mundane Luxury: In the online mode, Rosso desperately wanted to see the sky and would embark on mass murders of her fellow soldiers in response.
  • Psycho for Hire

Shelke the Transparent/Shelke Rui

"I have no acquaintances in the W.R.O."
—Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese), Kari Wahlgren (English)

Yet another Tsviet. Was ordered to be terminated by Weiss and consequently left the Tsviets.

Shelke: "It's not what you think... I'm simply providing this service for my own benefit."
Vincent: "I didn't say anything."
Shelke: "I... Anyway... *goes on to other topics*"

  • Evil Genius: She was Deepground's computer expert and a major tactician alongside Azul. When she becomes a ally of W.R.O., she becomes The Smart Guy of the bunch.
  • Fragile Speedster: What she lacks in strength and endurance, she makes it up with both extremly fast speed and agility.
  • Full-Name Basis: She does this. Frequently.
  • Heel Face Turn: She joins the W.R.O. after she was betrayed by Deepground.
  • Karma Houdini: See her Manipulative Bastard entry below. After that, her happy ending seems sort of like this.
  • Manipulative Bastard: In the sadly-Japan-only online mode, it's revealed that the Tsviets were manipulating the player character all along. Shelke was in charge of using her hacking skills to mind-screw the protagonist into believing s/he had a Dead Little Sister killed by someone the Tsviets wanted dead, and also created a fake mentor to push hir along. When the protagonist is struck down at the end, Shelke stops to tell hir all of this and then mocks hir as s/he lays dying.
  • Medium Awareness: In the game's online mode, she tells the player character that her special attack uses "a lot of MP".
  • Morality Pet: To Vincent. Vincent himself could be her morality pet as well.
  • The Stoic: For the most of the time. Only at the near ending does she begin to show off her more emotional sides.
  • This Thing You Call Love: After she had spent ten years with Deepground, it ain't no wonder that she hasn't learnt what love is. So when Shalua sacrifices herself for her, and Vincent tries to be her friend, she first reacts with coldness and surprise, and then with curiosity. She eventually learns what love is by the end.

Argento

"The ones who are strong disguise themselves as the weakest, and in effect we are too weak for you to battle with."

A character found only in the online mode. Acts as a mentor in Deepground.


Other Characters

Lucrecia Crescent

Voiced by: Rio Natsuki (Japanese), April Stewart (English)
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus.

Angeal Hewley

"Embrace your dreams. If you want to be a hero you need to have dreams... and honor."
—Voiced by: Kazuhiko Inoue (Japanese), Josh Gilman (English)

Zack's superior officer in SOLDIER.

Appears in: Crisis Core.

Marlene Wallace

"Sadness was the price to see it end. It's been two years since they told me that."
—Voiced by: Miyu Tsuzurahara, Sumire Morohoshi (Japanese), Grace Rolek, Ariel Winter (English)

Barret's young daughter. Her biological father was his old friend Dyne, who supposedly died when their hometown Corel was massacred by Shinra.

Appears in: Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children.

Denzel

"He'll come back. He said that he would."
—Voiced by: Kyousuke Ikeda, Kazumu Izawa (Japanese), Benjamin Bryan, Aaron Refvem (English)

A young boy living with Cloud and Tifa.

Appears in: Advent Children.

Minerva

The goddess of the planet and the embodiment of the Lifestream's will. She's the goddess spoken of in LOVELESS and can be fought in Crisis Core's final mission as the game's Bonus Boss.

    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.