Darc Requiem said:
LMU Uncle Alfred said:
If he was the puppet master he'd be able to control Sephiroth and make decisions for him. But Sephiroth was an experiment that went out of his hands. He's just an onlooker past being the catalyst. Do you know what a puppet master even is?
"Let's not forget he was felled by Soldier washout.....a lowly Shinra guard." Irrelevant, and narrow minded when it comes to testing whether or not a villain is truly impactful. It's not what you do (or don't do) , it's how it happens and how it all impacts and flows through a story.
It's nice to have a check list of things that a villain has done or feats they have accomplished, and Sephiroth has a lot of those; but that pales in comparison to any unique qualities a villain can bring, or qualities that impact a story as a continous stream of events that not only build as time goes on, but grows. I'm not referring to "big events" or "important characters being offed" . I'm referring to how the story progresses in relation to a character as well as how involved said character is, how relevant, how much detail even depending on the nature of the story and if more detail works for it. In FF7's case it does as it is a more cerebral story than other FF games.
Sephiroth was a very effective villain off and on screen. When he's talked about, it's in fear or reverence in the game and we are gradually introduced to him and see his work at hand but never quite meeting him. He's one of the few FF villain to this day that has a presence off screen and the only one that has such a nature of fear impacting a FF game's story off screen. Sin didn't even put that much malice into FFX's story. Why? That just wasn't how the story was presented. Sin was personal for one character, but served more as a vessel of destruction.. Manipulation is another thing. One of the many effective qualites Sephiroth had going for him throughout the game. Complete manipulation, over Jenova, over Cloud and just a presence of fear for anyone trying to get in his way that remained omnipresent as the story went on.
|
Hojo is the most influentual character in FFVII. Sephiroth isn't even present most of the game. Hell even Cloud's theft of Zack's identity is the result of Hojo. You take Hojo out of FFVII and there is no FFVII. Sephiroth is the flash. Hojo is the substance.
|
Bolded: Already went over how effective of a villain he is off screen in great detail. Not repeating it.
It's important to keep in mind point of views in a story. FF7's story was told from Cloud's point of view, and through Cloud we see a personal vandetta against Sephiroth, not Hojo. And that being said it wasn't Hojo who did what Sephiroth did and what the story focuses on. If you're really going to stick with the idea that "whoever put the things into motion first" is the most influential person in a story is you might as well say the first human that existed in the world of whatever fictional movie/game/book was the most influential in said thing, because that person started all the events that happened between all the characters in that book/movie/game...even though they are never mentioned once; or if they are it's not as relevant to how the story is told unless that was actually the focus of the story.
The universe a story is set in can be bigger than the scope of the story contained within, but it's irrelevant in comparison to the story and ironically in this case it's missing the forest for the trees.
If you're going to try and argue who was the most impactful villain or most influential you'll have to play ball by the design a story was created with. You can't get there without doing so, otherwise you're not taking the story as it is but rather what you wish the story was designed as because you have a different opinion on how it should have been structured. You can try to argue all day about not liking a character or what the story's design is, but the original design will still remain as well as the content within.
