Summary
Few characters in gaming history have inspired as much fear asFinal Fantasy 7’s Sephiroth. From the massive sword to his cold, burning eyes, Sephiroth radiates danger as he slaughters his way to being one of gaming’s most terrifying villains.
Perhaps the moststriking feature of the genocidal antagonistof Final Fantasy 7 is his single black wing. This functional wing lets Sephiroth fly at tremendous speed and speaks to his status as a godly figure, even if that’s just to himself. But where does the wing come from, and why does Sephiroth grow it in the games?
Where Does Sephiroth’s Wing Come From?
A Single Black Wing, Over His Right Shoulder
The first time Sephiroth manifested wings was in the original Final Fantasy VII game. We get our first look at Sephiroth’s wings as his Bizarro∙Sephiroth form, a grotesque cocoon-like body that Sephiroth uses to attempt to assume a form that is befitting the god he believes himself to be. While not true wings, this Bizarro∙Sephiroth has appendages that are both arm and wing-like, though they do not appear to be feathered.
When defeated in this form, Sephiroth falls into the Lifestream of the planet and reemerges as the final boss, Safer Sephiroth. This form more than makes up for the lack of wings by replacing much of his body with six white wings with blue tips. Safer Sephiroth still seems incomplete in this form, however, as his right arm has been transformed into a black and red wing, with his left arm still being human.
Even this form is different from his now iconic regular human form with a single black wing. The first appearance of this Sephiroth comes from his debut in 2002’s Kingdom Hearts. In the Disney and Square Enix crossover, Sephiroth is a secret boss that Sora and the gang can fight at the Olympic Coliseum after battling through a gauntlet of other enemies.
Since then, there have been a few attempts to try and explain the appearance of the single black wing. The most detailed explanation comes from Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, where it is reveled that those who have been imbued with cells from Jenova often grow a single black wing,as the original Jenova bodyappears to have wings as well, making the host more resemble the original organism.
What Does The One Wing Mean?
More Than Just Feathers
The one wing motif holds a lot of symbolism just in that form. With just one, black wing, Sephiroth can easily be interpreted as a fallen angel, one whose sins have caused them to be rejected from heaven. In the pseudepigraphical text the Testament of Solomon, a demon with one red wing by the name of Abezethibou was once an angel who now serves the Prince of Hell, Beelzebub.
The angelic symbolism comes out even stronger when you look at his Safer Sephiroth form. Another angelic form with multiple wings is the Seraph, a type of angel found in both Judaism and Christianity that has six wings, much like Safer Sephiroth.
Some of the influence of the one wing imagery seems to have come from the popularity surrounding the song One-Winged Angel, which plays when Cloud and the party encounter Safer Sephiroth. This song has since gone on to be incredibly popular among fans, replacing Sephiroth’s actual theme song, Those Chosen by the Planet.
As mentioned before, within the Final Fantasy VII universe, the single black wing has been retroactively adapted to signify that anindividual has been modified with cellsand genetic information from Jenova, though not all who have been enhanced this way manifest the wing. It appears that only those with great power, or the potential for power, can actually cause the wing to appear.
Much of what we know about Jenova comes from Shinra’s experiments on the mysterious entity. Since its discovery, it has come to light that Jenova is an extraterrestrial being that crash-landed on Gaia eons ago. An ancient civilization called the Cetra encountered Jenova and was subsequently destroyed by it, but not before they were able to contain it in the crater where it landed, which eventually became locked in a glacier.
Shinra worked to understand this ancient life form by injecting its unique cells and genetic coding into members of its SOLDIER army, enhancing their power and allowing for clones of powerful individuals to be created from existing humans, copying everything about their original target.
How Many Characters Have Manifested The One Wing?
Three Characters So Far
While we all know Sephiroth as the One-Winged Angel there have been a number of other characters that have manifested the wing throughout the games. Among the large cast of characters in Final Fantasy VII, only a few characters have manifested wings in the game, and generally, they are among the strongest characters in the games.
The first time a Jenova-like wing formed was on Genesis Rhapsodos in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, a genetically modified human whom Shinra injected with Jenova cells as a newborn. While it took time and a traumatic injury for Genesis to form his single black wing, it did come when he transitioned from a hero to a villain.
After him, Angeal Hewley, who also possessed cells from Jenova, grew two white wings, making him distinct among other characters in the series. With his more angelic form, it signifies his purer form, since he doesn’t wish to harm anyone or destroy anything, unlike his more villainous counterparts.
While not canon in the Final Fantasy VII universe, Cloud does manifest his own wing in theKingdom Heartsgame as well. This wing is leathery in appearance, resembling more of a demon than that of an angel or even a fallen angel. He bears this wing on his left side, rather than Sephiroth’s right, and seems to symbolize the depths he has fallen in his search for power to finally defeat Sephiroth once and for all.
