The_Oathkeeper
Why so serious?
In FFVII, Sephiroth was able to use his telekinesis to restrain eight powerful warriors for about a minute or so. The entire party is visibly in pain, Red XIII is just the only one who pointed it out. That pain is the result of his body being pulled apart by Sephiroth's telekinesis. If all he did was restrain them, they wouldn't have been in any sort of pain. They just would've found themselves unable to move of their own free will. However, that's not the case. Red XIII announces to his teammates that it feels as though his limbs are being ripped off, which means that Sephiroth is using telekinesis to pull on their bodies and, thus, cause them pain.
Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that his mental powers were spread amongst eight people. That means Cloud only received about 1/8th of the full effect. Yes, he did get stronger between the end of FFVII and Advent Children, but he obviously didn't get eight times as strong as he used to be. That's just ridiculous. So, if 1/8th of Sephiroth's mental abilities can keep Cloud restrained and in pain for a full minute, just imagine what he could do if all of his abilities were focused on Cloud. It's safe to assume that he could quite literally rip Cloud's body apart.
And yes, Sephiroth can no longer control Cloud's mind using his JENOVA Cells. That's not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about Sephiroth's telekinesis. Over the course of FFVII, Sephiroth uses his power over JENOVA Cells to take over Cloud's mind. Despite this, at the end of the game, Cloud is able to outwill Sephiroth and regain control of his own body. However, I'm talking about Sephiroth's ability to manipulate Cloud's physical body using telekinesis. It took the entire party a full minute to break free of Sephiroth's telekinesis. That means that all eight of them, working together, were able to free themselves after sixty seconds. How could Cloud do the same on his own before Sephiroth can cleave him in half?
Yes, he does survive those attacks in FFVII, but only because Sephiroth isn't focusing solely on him. Rather, he's dealing with Cloud and two other fighters. There's strength in numbers. I don't think you realize just how big an advantage Cloud and the party had during that fight. The fact that it was 3-on-1 means that Sephiroth's focus is split, not to mention that he has far more raw power to deal with. Honestly, the fact that Cloud and the party survived the fight against Safer Sephiroth says almost nothing about Cloud as an individual. All it says is that Crisis AVALANCHE, as a team, was able to defeat Safer Sephiroth.
And yes, the fact that Sephiroth only used his telekinesis once does make a difference. First off, he only used it to save himself some time, not because he had to. Second, you never answered my question. How do you think Cloud could survive an attack from Sephiroth if he can't even move? If Sephiroth had chosen to focus his telekinetic powers on Cloud, he would've been, at best, frozen in place and, at worst, ripped to shreds right from the get-go. The fact that Sephiroth refused to do that says that he doesn't take Cloud seriously at all.
Against Zack, Sephiroth used his full range of abilities. He didn't hold anything back. Against Cloud, Sephiroth held back the vast majority of his available powers, instead choosing to focus solely on swordsmanship to prove to Cloud that, even on his own terms, he was still better. Tell me, then, Jimmy, if Sephiroth was taking Cloud seriously, why didn't he use his telekinesis to restrain him? Why didn't he turn intangible? Why didn't he use Magic or Supernova? If he thought of Cloud as a threat, I would think that he'd have used everything at his disposal to finish him off as quickly as possible. But he didn't. Instead, he messed around with Cloud as much as possible, ignoring several opportunities to end the fight.
The fact that Safer Sephiroth was stronger than Bizarro Sephiroth definitely doesn't mean that he wasn't fatigued by his previous battle with the party. Yes, Safer Sephiroth has far more raw power than Bizarro Sephiroth, but that doesn't change the fact that he was damaged by the party's attacks during the previous fight. Just because his attacks were more powerful doesn't mean he had more stamina. Without any outside influences, Safer Sephiroth is more powerful than Bizarro Sephiroth in every conceivable way. However, there were outside influences that effected the stamina Sephiroth had by the time he actually reached that stage. Safer Sephiroth was still faster, more powerful, and more durable, but he had sustained injuries from his battle with the party.
And yes, at the time of FFVII, Cloud was the strongest member of the party. But just because Cloud was the strongest doesn't change the fact that the other party members helped. Regardless of who it is you're up against and who you're allying yourself with, an 8-on-1 fight is definitely not a fair battle. Even with that being said, the party members are all strong fighters in their own right and could definitely provide Cloud with more-than-sufficient help. Regardless of whatever you have to say about them, the fact remains that Sephiroth wasn't up against Cloud alone. He was up against Cloud, who was being aided by seven powerful warriors.
Yes, Cloud is able to defeat Sephiroth...after his body had been ripped to shreds by Crisis AVALANCHE. Sephiroth had just spent the last couple of hours getting his ass kicked by eight fighters armed with Materia. He was already exhausted by the time Cloud came in to finish him off.
Yes, that's two victories for Cloud against Sephiroth...neither of which he actually earned. Those victories were handed to him by Sephiroth's inability to take him seriously.
