[RexNorton]

When Cloud and party reach the City of Ancients they try and save Aeris, but fail miserably, as evidenced when Sephiroth cleanly slides his sword through her spine, after failing to manipulate Cloud into doing it for him. Earlier in the game Sephiroth says, "The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the ancients, no, the Cetra. I am the one that was produced. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova project, produced me." This is down right eerie because shortly afterwards, in Icicle Inn, we find out that Professor Gast was also Aeris' father. Professor Gast who "produced" Sephiroth and fathered Aeris. This creates a kind of pseudo brother/sister relationship between Sephiroth and Aeris and thus reveals the third character triangle found within the game involving Aeris and Cloud. It also serves as a reminder too how disconnected Sephiroth is from reality.


After Sephiroth kills Aeris he tells Cloud, "Ha, ha, ha... Stop acting as if you were sad. There's no need to act as though you're angry either." He begins to float into the air, "Because, Cloud, you are..." He trails off, almost as if confused by something, leaving another Jenova incarnation to stall them. They kill the seemingly puppet creature and it is Jenova who finishes these five critical words, "Because you are... a puppet." This is the only time in the game that Jenova speaks. Why is it Jenova who says this? What does this mean?

The chase for Sephiroth begins again with them chasing him to the Northern Crater. When Cloud finally confronts Sephiroth in the Nibelheim illusion, Sephiroth unleashes another shocker, that Cloud is a clone with false memories, who was constructed by Hojo five years before in the laboratory of the Shinra Mansion. When Tifa, who knows that Cloud wasn't at Nibelheim, begins to doubt Cloud, he becomes agitated with her. Sephiroth tells Cloud, "Don't blame Tifa. The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words is the power of Jenova. Inside of you Jenova has merged with Tifa's memories, creating you. Out of Tifa's memory, a boy named Cloud might've just been part of them."
We tend to overlook this line, just as we over look the 'you are a puppet' line, because of the shock of the revelation Sephiroth makes to Cloud and Jenova doesn't really seem to be very powerful, but her abilities of illusion are obviously STRONG. Then again, there are a lot of things in this game that seem to be something while actually being something very different. Very interesting, indeed.

In the final battle between Cloud & Co. against Sephiroth, we face four separate entities. The first of these is Jenova noted by her face and two enormous tentacles, who is easily dispatched, and we've finally killed her for good, or have we?

In the second battle we face Bizarro Sephiroth, a monstrous form of Sephiroth that symbolizes Sephiroth's conversion with Jenova. Look very carefully at this monster. In the torso area, we can clearly identify Sephiroth's face, but look on top of the monster above Sephiroth, at the head, and you'll see Jenova, her two tentacles dangling in front of Sephiroth. Watch the monsters movement when it attacks. Jenova's two tentacles lift and begin dangling over Sephiroth's head, like a puppeteer controlling her favorite puppet.

In the third battle, the most difficult of the four battles, we face Safer Sephiroth. This angelic form of Sephiroth is highlighted by its monstrous wing where it's right arm should be. Note the colors of this wing, blue, white, reddish brown, and black, exactly the same colors that the three Jenova monsters spread through out the game consist of. This battle is the one that gives us the true indication of Jenova's aforementioned power of illusion, hence the ridiculously long Super Nova summon spell which shows a comet tearing through planets before detonating the sun, causing a super nova which eats up the rest of the planets. Also, take note of the translation of the final lyric in the aria sung during this piece.
Veni, veni, venias,
Ne me mori facias
...
(Come, come, O come,)
(Do not let me die)
(The winged one of the lower reaches.)


In the fourth battle, Cloud fights Sephiroth face to face, without the power of Jenova to contend with...and utterly slaughters Sephiroth. Yet, Sephiroth seemed so strong during the game. How can he be this weak? The answer is simple. Sephiroth seems weak because Sephiroth is weak. He is merely a puppet of Jenova, hence the revelation of the true villain of Final Fantasy VII.
So now that we know that Sephiroth's not the real villain, what exactly is Jenova, anyway? Let's journey to Icicle Inn, watch a certain videotape which just happens to be titled "The Original Crisis," and find out. When we go into Professor Gast's old house, we see a video of him and Ifalna. Ifalna explains that the Cetra were wiped out by something called 'the Crisis from the Sky.' This creature was an alien life form that came from outer space and insinuated itself into the Cetra's various cultures throughout the world, gained their trust, and then spread a plague into their society gradually killing almost all of them off. It also crashed something enormous into the Planet (possibly Meteor), causing a wound, at the northern crater, which was never able to heal. Ifalna describes the creatures appearance in this line, "When the Cetra were preparing to depart from the land they loved...That's when it appeared. It looked like ...our...our dead mothers...and our dead brothers. Showing us specters of their past." Whatever this creature was, it had the ability to reach into people minds and show them illusions, thus altering their memories.
It is interesting that Sephiroth calls the crater the Promised Land when he kills Aeris, when it is, in fact, an injury that threatens the planet (another one of the games illusions). After the plague, a few of the Ancients managed to survive, track the creature down, and seal it away. However they weren't able to destroy it because of its remarkable ability to replicate itself.
In the second video, we find out the name of this 'Crisis from the Sky' and the name is, surprise, Jenova. And poor old brilliant, but doomed Professor Gast, what can he do with this information but turn away from Ifalna, as if deeply disturbed by something? Hey, didn't he head up some scientific experiment for the Shinra called 'The Jenova Project?' or something? So now we know that Jenova killed off the Cetra, whereas as Sephiroth puts the blame on "those who appeared that disliked their journey" for their demise and believes he and Jenova to be the sole survivors of the Cetra as revealed in his revelation to Cloud/Zack in the Shinra mansion basement. Jenova was sealed away and forgotten. Two thousand years later and thirty years before the beginning of the game, Jenova is rediscovered.
In the years that immediately follow a huge world war breaks out and the first Mako Reactors are created. Is this a coincidence? When Sephiroth is in the Shinra basement, going insane, he reads aloud this document "Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor number one approved for use." Wow, the first Mako reactor was set up exactly at the time when the Jenova Project, and the creation of Sephiroth, was set into motion.
Jenova was not simply manipulating Sephiroth. She was manipulating everything. She was the founder of the Shinra (translated as 'God') Corporation. Remember when Cloud freaks out just before he sets the bombs up that are to destroy the Mako Reactors in Midgar? This is because he is going against the will of Jenova. She subliminally guided the scientists under her wing to create Sephiroth, her 'son.' She set up the Mako Reactors to weaken the planet and prepare it for its easy destruction. Look at the seal around Holy before the final battle and you'll see that it consists of a red colored rock structure, just like Meteor. Jenova used the power of the Black Materia in order to contain Holy. Remember how the Shinra originally were weapons manufacturers who grew in wealth from the war that occurred? She probably started that war as part of her plan to attain the wealth to build the Mako reactors, which would be her tool for her enslavement of the human race. She even implanted her cells into the most elite of her army, SOLDIER, in order to have a powerful fighting force of slaves to serve her. She accomplishes her ends in the present, just as she did in the past, by insinuating herself into the ruling society, taking control of it, and manipulating it, all the while keeping her true self and her efforts unseen.