I just was reviewing my write-up above, and realize that I condensed a huge amount of Sephiroth exposition into a tidy package. It's not that cleanly written, and there's enough ambiguities that I'm not sure I understand the whole "thousands of years ago" backstory, but, here's two more bits of Why Sephiroth Snapped.
First, he didn't actually snap when he saw what was being incubated in the reactor. That just shook him out of complacency. His slide into insanity over the course of perhaps a week went like this:
1) He saw Jenova in the Mako reactor and began to suspect that he wasn't actually human. He's rattled, but he really doesn't understand what's going on; he just tells cloud that ever since he was a child, he's felt special, different from other people. At this point Sephiroth stalks back to Shinra Manor to check its library.
2) He starts reading Professor Gast's notes. The first time Cloud goes down to talk to him, Sephiroth has still not snapped. Sephiroth reads aloud that Jenova was found in a 2000 year old stratum, and that Gast identified it as an Ancient. (oops.) Then he reads that Gast started a "Jenova Project." Sephiroth asks rhetorically, "My mother's name was Jenova. Was it a coincidence?" So until this moment, he didn't realize that his mother wasn't human.
3) Sephiroth remains in the basement for many days, apparently not coming up for food and water. Cloud finally comes downstairs -- maybe a week later -- and greets him as an "Ignorant Traitor." He starts off ranting, "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra..." etc etc, then, "They [the humans] took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving back one whit in return!" Also, he has now learned that Professor Gast "produced" him as a new Ancient, an heir of Jenova. So he not only believes he's not human; he also believes that the humans stole the planet from his ancestors.
4) When Sephiroth reaches Jenova's tank and yanks it open, he says that Jenova should have been the ruler of the world, but that peons somehow took it away from her. So, extrapolating wildly from Gast's notes, Sephiroth has built up Jenova into the ruler of the Ancients (she wasn't!) and therefore the rightful ruler of the world. As is he, since he's Jenova's heir. So he's trying to restore Cetra supremacy and his birthright. The boy who's always felt special, different, and alienated from those around him now has a a myth to explain why he feels that way. It's given him a mission and a purpose, a feeling of power, that he lacked as Shinra's lackey.
Finally, we have to remember that Sephiroth was raised by Hojo, and that he's spent his life working for Shinra. All of which would reinforce his idea that most humans are greedy vermin, a plague on the planet who don't deserve to reach the Promised Land. And I'm sure that Hojo could give any child mental instabilities and insecurities.
All of which is rather convoluted and grandiose, but fwiw, it's at least more developed than Kefka's "I want to destroy the world because I can!" in the previous game.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-09-30 02:34 am (UTC)First, he didn't actually snap when he saw what was being incubated in the reactor. That just shook him out of complacency. His slide into insanity over the course of perhaps a week went like this:
1) He saw Jenova in the Mako reactor and began to suspect that he wasn't actually human. He's rattled, but he really doesn't understand what's going on; he just tells cloud that ever since he was a child, he's felt special, different from other people. At this point Sephiroth stalks back to Shinra Manor to check its library.
2) He starts reading Professor Gast's notes. The first time Cloud goes down to talk to him, Sephiroth has still not snapped. Sephiroth reads aloud that Jenova was found in a 2000 year old stratum, and that Gast identified it as an Ancient. (oops.) Then he reads that Gast started a "Jenova Project." Sephiroth asks rhetorically, "My mother's name was Jenova. Was it a coincidence?" So until this moment, he didn't realize that his mother wasn't human.
3) Sephiroth remains in the basement for many days, apparently not coming up for food and water. Cloud finally comes downstairs -- maybe a week later -- and greets him as an "Ignorant Traitor." He starts off ranting, "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra..." etc etc, then, "They [the humans] took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving back one whit in return!" Also, he has now learned that Professor Gast "produced" him as a new Ancient, an heir of Jenova. So he not only believes he's not human; he also believes that the humans stole the planet from his ancestors.
4) When Sephiroth reaches Jenova's tank and yanks it open, he says that Jenova should have been the ruler of the world, but that peons somehow took it away from her. So, extrapolating wildly from Gast's notes, Sephiroth has built up Jenova into the ruler of the Ancients (she wasn't!) and therefore the rightful ruler of the world. As is he, since he's Jenova's heir. So he's trying to restore Cetra supremacy and his birthright. The boy who's always felt special, different, and alienated from those around him now has a a myth to explain why he feels that way. It's given him a mission and a purpose, a feeling of power, that he lacked as Shinra's lackey.
Finally, we have to remember that Sephiroth was raised by Hojo, and that he's spent his life working for Shinra. All of which would reinforce his idea that most humans are greedy vermin, a plague on the planet who don't deserve to reach the Promised Land. And I'm sure that Hojo could give any child mental instabilities and insecurities.
All of which is rather convoluted and grandiose, but fwiw, it's at least more developed than Kefka's "I want to destroy the world because I can!" in the previous game.