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Individual Villains
Jenova
Jenova
- "Because, you are... a puppet."
An alien creature who descended on Gaia 2,000 years before the events of FFVII. It single-handedly devastated the Cetra, and nearly destroyed the planet, before being sealed in a geological stratum in the Northern Crater. Unearthed by Shinra scientist Gast Faremis who mistakenly identified it as a Cetra and gave it the name "Jenova", it indirectly played a huge role in Shinra's rise to power as the source of the genetic material they use to create members of SOLDIER, their elite super-soldiers with which they conquered the world. Sephiroth calls it "Mother".
- Actually a Doombot: The "Sephiroth" hunted throughout Discs I and II is really a Jenova mass in his form and directed by his will.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Jenova is a genocidal monster from space that is completely impossible to reason with, and even the lifeforms she doesn't personally kill can be corrupted or destroyed by proximity to her.
- Ambiguous Gender: Zig-zagged. Nearly everyone refers to Jenova as “she”, and she has a female body, but Ifalna calls Jenova a “he” or “it” depending on what version of the game you’re playing. As she can alter her form at will, it’s not even confirmed if the body we see in Nibelheim is actually her true form.
- Ancient Evil: She is an ancient being who came to Gaia two thousand years ago, and who almost caused The End of the World as We Know It, consumed almost all of the Ancient Cetra, and plans to consume all the energy in the planet and then depart to another planet to do it again.
- Angelic Abomination: At the Nibel Reactor, Jenova's container is covered by a metal effigy which resembles the torso of an angel, with "wings" (industrial tubing) obscuring the rest of the container. Connected to the ceiling are cables bearing the appearance of golden hair. When Sephiroth arrives to free her, he poses like Christ and says he's taking her to the Promised Land.
- Applied Phlebotinum: SOLDIER was a spin-off of Project Jenova, an attempt to produce a human-Cetra hybrid using her cells. Since only the heartiest can withstand Jenova's influence (and not go insane), SOLDIER has a reputation for producing the best of the best.
- Arch-Enemy: The Cetra and, by proxy, Aerith.
- The Assimilator: Jenova released a virus upon the Cetra (in actuality, its own cellular material), which drove the Cetra mad and transformed them into monsters. By the time of Final Fantasy VII, this starts happening to members of SOLDIER as well.
- Beam Spam: The first form of Jenova fought in the game, Jenova-BIRTH, uses a multitude of beam attacks including its own version of the Guard Scorpion's infamous Tail Laser, which it can actually use twice in a row and at any time (the Guard Scorpion only uses the laser when attacked while its tail was up).
- Bishōnen Line: Jenova's body looks incomplete in her early boss battles. Much like Hojo, she gains flight ability and a more streamlined appearance in Disc 3.
- Body Horror: Among other things. She has an eyeball on her breast, and her innards float in the tank outside her body.
- Brain in a Jar: The top of Jenova's cranium is missing, leaving her brain exposed.
- Bright Is Not Good: All of Jenova’s forms are brightly colored, but the exact shades evoke corpses and mutilation: bloody browns and reds, bruised blues and purples, pinkish whites and rotten greens. This stands in contrast to both Sephiroth and the warmer-colored AVALANCHE.
- Combat Tentacles: Jenova-SYNTHESIS. She has twin tentacles that self-regenerate and "slap" the party for around 1,500 HP each, along with inflicting Silence and Fury with repeated whacks. These tentacles can be killed temporarily, but they do count towards Jenova's overall health.
- Crater Power: The Northern Cave formed from the impact of her arrival. The lifestream burst forth to heal the 'wound' caused by Jenova, but was unsuccessful in fixing it (thanks to the deaths of the Cetra). This gives the appearance of a crater within a crater.
- Dead Person Impersonation:
- Once the creature emerged from the impact site and approached the Cetra settlement, it read their minds and adopted the forms of dead relatives to get close to them.
- Hojo duped Sephiroth into believing this thing is his real mother. Thanks to the Jenova cells in her body, Lucrecia was unable to die, though; instead she fled, eventually winding up in the Crystal Cave where she turned herself to crystal (as a penance and, perhaps, to stop herself from mutating).
- Death from Above: Personified; she struck the planet in a meteor and caused massive death. In the Cetra language, her name translates as "Calamity From The Sky".
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: Fell from the sky two thousand years before the game began. No one knows where it came from, but it's speculated that it may have landed on & devastated other worlds in the past.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Literally; her second incarnation of Jenova-LIFE, which attacks you after she/Sephiroth attacks and kills Aerith, is the very last fight on the first disc of gameplay.
- The Dragon: She is this to Sephiroth. During the story he used Jenova as a puppet while fighting Avalanche, and Sephiroth also used Jenova to disguise as himself and serve as the second to last boss before the heroes fight Sephiroth himself.
- Dug Too Deep: A small band of un-mutated Cetra mounted a final assault on the alien, sealing her body at the point of arrival: the North Crater. Two thousand years later the alien would be excavated by Shinra Electric Power Company.
- Eldritch Abomination: She came from the heavens in a meteor to destroy humanity, can shapeshift, bestows a variety of incredible powers on those exposed to her cells, and is stated to have no gender.
- Evil Is Visceral: In her original and final forms, Jenova's body is sprouting from a giant heart. Her "body" is haphazardly put together, as though by an alien which doesn't understand human anatomy.
- Expy: Jenova and some of her offspring (Helletic Hojo, especially) were based on the titular alien in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982).
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: The original specimen has an eye where her right nipple should be. Along with a second eyeball coming out of her abdomen.
- Four Is Death: The player has to face Jenova 4 times in Final Fantasy VII, including one last time before facing Sephiroth at the end of the game.
- From a Single Cell: Jenova has powerful regenerative and shapeshifting abilities, making it difficult to permanently destroy her.
- Fusion Dance: With Sephiroth, to the point that he's taken her originally instinctive destructive goals and infused them with his own conscious intelligence.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Jenova's not completely in charge of Sephiroth or his actions, and due to the nature of her being cannot be directly confronted. In fact, whether she's even alive is up for debate. But the facts remain that if she hadn't come down to earth two thousand years ago, most of the events of the game wouldn't have happened.
- Humanoid Abomination: Resembles a deathly pale woman with eyes and veins in places where they should not be, but is an ancient, shapeshifting, planet eating entity from the depths of space.
- In-Series Nickname: "Heaven's Dark Harbinger" and "The Calamity from the Sky" to the Cetra, "Mother" to Sephiroth, "Jenova" to Gast, which several other characters use. The entity is never referred to by its true name, assuming it has one.
- Leitmotif: Jenova's main theme is a creepy, fast-paced alien theme with violins called "J-E-N-O-V-A". This theme plays over two of the boss fights with her (Jenova-BIRTH and Jenova-DEATH) plus the fight with Hojo and the two screens inbetween passing FFVII's Point of No Return and the Jenova-SYNTHESIS boss fight (the Jenova-LIFE boss fight has Aerith's Theme over it and the fight with Jenova-SYNTHESIS uses a different theme called "Jenova Complete/Jenova Absolute"). A rendition of "J-E-N-O-V-A" plays over Cloud's fight with Kadaj over Jenova's head in ''Advent Children".
- Living MacGuffin: When Dr. Gast found the remains of Jenova, he mistook it for a Cetra—naturally, since Jenova took the form of a Cetra to infiltrate and destroy them. The Jenova Project was an effort by a number of Shinra scientists to use Jenova's cells to create a human-Cetra hybrid who could lead them to the "Promised Land." Shinra was unsuccessful at cloning a Cetra, but those treated with the cells proved to be super-soldiers, which led to Sephiroth going mad and Cloud losing his memory.
- Losing Your Head: Knowing Jenova can repair herself (and even recover her lost body parts), Sephiroth hacked off her head with the Masamune. When Sephiroth took a tumble into the Mako pool, he took his mother's scalp with him. She rears her ugly head again, pun intended, in the Northern Cave. This is presumably the last of the Jenova segments.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: For some reason, organisms that are exposed to the Jenova cells mutate into grotesque abominations and often grow a wing-like appendage from their backs. When Hojo shoots himself up with her DNA, he turns into a writhing mass of flesh, with a tattered labcoat and glasses.
- Making a Splash: The second form of Jenova, which AVALANCHE fights immediately after the famous scene of Sephiroth killing Aerith, attacks with only water. A Water Ring can be picked up and equipped not too long before this fight, which will absorb the attacks and make it impossible for Jenova to kill you.
- Metaphorically True: As Vincent says to the rest of the party when they meet, the claim that Jenova is Sephiroth's mother is true in a sense, since her cells made him what he is, although it was actually Dr Lucrecia Crescent who gave birth to him.
- Monster Progenitor: Experiments with her cells have produced most of the major antagonists of the FFVII Compilation.
- Mysterious Past: What Jenova did before landing on Gaia remains a mystery.
- No Name Given: "Jenova" is a name the character received from Gast Faremis, the character's real name if one exists is unknown.
- One Bad Mother: In a way. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, and Sephiroth all address her as "Mother" anyway.
- Outside-Context Problem: Compared to Shinra, who are sucking the planet dry for money, and Sephiroth, who wishes to destroy the world and remake it In Their Own Image. Jenova is an eons-old, planet-eating Eldritch Abomination of questionable sapience.
- Parts Unknown: It is never specified where the mysterious entity originated from beyond being from space.
- People Jars: Jenova's remains are kept in cold storage in Hojo's lab.
- The Plague: The Geostigma of Advent's Children is the result of the human body's immune system trying to cure itself of her cells and overcompensating, causing pain, weakness, lesions, and ultimately death.
- Planet Eater: The only antagonist whose motives are completely unknown and unknowable, mostly due to being a cosmic horror. According to the Cetra, Jenova feeds on entire planets and then converts them into a vehicle to invade new ones.
- Playing with Fire: The third form of Jenova the team has to kill uses only fire attacks; having a Fire Ring equipped will make this battle a cinch.
- Power Floats: Jenova-SYNTHESIS is the first and last incarnation to float.
- Pre-Final Boss: Before the party can face off against Sephiroth, they have to fight Jenova one last time in the form of Jenova SYNTHESIS.
- Pulling Themselves Together: Jenova is hacked to pieces before the game starts.
- Recurring Boss: AVALANCHE has to fight Jenova 4 times as the game progresses (3 of which are palette swaps); with the right equipment, only the first and the last battles will require some effort.
- Rule of Symbolism: Her name is a combination of "nova" and "Jehovah", and thus approximately means "New God".
- Shapeshifting: Jenova would shapeshift into the loved ones of her victims to get close to them. In the modern day Sephiroth uses this power of hers to form new bodies in his own image to act through.
- Silent Antagonist: She has exactly one line of dialogue attributed to her, providing her quote above. All other times it's Sephiroth speaking through her.
- Tainted Veins: Her veins pulse blue.
- Taking You with Me: After Jenova-SYNTHESIS loses enough health, she begins charging up an Ultima attack to try to wipe out the party; if the team is unable to kill it before it fires but survives the attack, Jenova self-destructs.
- The Virus: People and animals who are injected with Jenova's cells become victims of numerous side effects, including mutation and susceptibility to Mind Control. She's The Virus incarnate.
- White Hair, Black Heart: While her hair looks blue due to the color of the fluid she's in, it's actually white. As for the black heart, she's a planet-eating Eldritch Abomination that mutates people into monsters.
- Xenomorph Xerox: Final Fantasy: Mobius game gives Jenova∙LIFE a Gigeresque makeover with segmented tentacles, an elongated eyeless head, and a ridged black-and-red exoskeleton.
- Zero-Effort Boss: The second and third encounters with Jenova can become completely trivial if the player equips a specific accessory prior to these boss fights due to these two forms using only elemental attacks (water for the second form, and fire for the third; equip a Water Ring that you can find just prior and a Fire Ring respectively and it becomes impossible to lose these fights.)
Don Corneo
Don Corneo
A mafia don in the slums of Midgar, he abducts Tifa as a candidate for his "special lady" for the evening. Cloud and Aerith infiltrate his mansion to rescue Tifa and find out what the Don knows about Shinra's schemes.
- Appears in: VII
- All Men Are Perverts: The Don and his cronies are all lustful for Cloud and his companions.
- Asshole Victim: The novella "Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright-" reveals he survived his fall in Wutai, but is now confined to a wheelchair due to the injuries he sustained. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
- Bald of Evil: He's bald aside from a wisp of blond hair.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He returns during the Wutai subquest.
- Dirty Old Man: He's an aging crime boss who kidnaps women looking for someone to spend the night with. When presented with Aerith, Tifa, and the crossdressed Cloud, he's ecstatic at the idea of having a choice, and gives the two he doesn't choose to his men to enjoy. Even when on the run from the Turks in Wutai, he can't help but kidnap Elena and Yuffie (the latter of whom is sixteen) the second he spots them, which bites him in the ass when Cloud and the Turks come gunning for him.
- Disney Death: Though Reno drops him off a mountain in Wutai, "Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright-" reveal he's still alive by the time of Advent Children.
- Disney Villain Death: He meets his apparent end falling off Wutai's mountain.
- The Don: His title and position.
- Expy: Of Jabba the Hutt. He's a gluttonous, lecherous crime boss who feeds his harem and people who cross him to a giant beast he keeps at the bottom of a trapdoor.
- Fat Bastard: He's overweight and a perverted crime boss.
- Fate Worse than Death: He survives his apparently deadly fall in Wutai, but ends up crippled and living in a wheelchair. The reason this is a fate worse than death for him is that it means he can no longer have sex, rendering his whole existence empty.
- Groin Attack: Cloud, Aerith and Tifa get him to spill the beans about Shinra's plans by threatening him with this.
- He Knows Too Much: After spilling the beans to the party about Shinra's plans, he flees the city pursued by the Turks who plan to silence him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He made a decent attempt to escape from the Turks in Wutai, but he couldn't help himself and kidnapped Elena and Yuffie out of lust. This led to an Enemy Mine situation between Cloud and the Turks that led to his Disney Villain Death.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He's just this side of Palmer as the most pathetic villain in the series. He's cowed into submission by one ex-SOLDIER and two civilian women (albeit, both of whom are capable fighters). He does have "pets" which he siccs on the party in Midgar and Wutai, but even those don't help increase his threat level.
- Leitmotif: "Don of the Slums", which plays in his mansion and when he reappears in Wutai.
- Punny Name: In Italian, corneo means horny, as in "made of, or resembling horn." In English, horny can mean "made of, or resembling horn" but is also very common slang for sexual arousal.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He sexually assaults countless women up until he runs into Cloud and his crew, including Leslie's wife Merle. In A Turks Side Story, Evan Townshend is revolted by his actions and informs Leslie that Corneo is using the pictures as blackmail material. Leslie promptly worms his way back into the Don's good graces simply so he can burn his mansion and the evidence to the ground.
- Shout-Out: His name is obviously inspired by Don Corleone.
- Too Dumb to Live: When you're the run from the Turks, kidnapping one of their members isn't a good idea, to say the least. He also ran off with the friend of the guy who caused him to be on the run in the first place, so things could only end badly for him.
Dyne
Dyne
The birth father of Marlene, a close friend of Barret. After a Mako Reactor blew up, Shinra mistakenly blamed their town and destroyed it, turning its ruins into a prison. Dyne survived and, believing his friend and family dead, became a murderous psychopath. When Cloud and his friends were trapped in the prison Dyne and Barret reunited as they needed his permission to leave. After the two battled, he committed suicide after allowing the group to leave.
- Appears in: Final Fantasy VII
- Arm Cannon: Had a gun grafted onto his arm, just like Barret.
- Asshole Victim: Averted in Barret's case, but after realizing that Dyne was killed, at least one of the Corel Prison employees, Mr. Coates, only feels relieved that the place can be calmer and better without Dyne around.
- Ax-Crazy: By the time you find him, his sanity is just about gone. He regularly goes on murderous rampages, claims he can hear voices in his head, and even expresses a desire to murder his own child.
- Disney Villain Death: Suffers this twice. The first time, he and Barret were shot by Shinra/Scarlet, but he survived minus his left arm, which became a gun. The second time, he jumps in himself, and this time, he dies for real.
- Driven to Madness: After the destruction of Corel, Dyne goes insane. He has his arm replaced with a machine gun and he regularly goes on murderous rampages in the hope of one day killing everyone.
- Driven to Suicide: He jumps off a cliff after being defeated by Barret, believing he had too much blood on his hands to ever have the right to hold his daughter again.
- Duel Boss: The reunion between Dyne and Barret in the Corel Prison leads to him forcing Barret to fight him alone.
- Evil Counterpart: To Barret. Both of them lost everything to Shinra, both lost a hand, both replaced it with a gun, and both are filled with a lot of murderous rages. However, while Barret was able to maintain some decency within himself, in large part thanks to Marlene, Dyne was completely consumed by his anger.
- Evil Former Friend: Was Barret's close friend before he went off the deep end. Much more one-sided on Dyne's part though.
- Offing the Offspring: Upon hearing that Marlene survived the destruction of Corel he wanted to kill her to reunite her with her mother.
- Properly Paranoid: He was the only person in Corel to protest Shinra constructing a Mako Reactor. When the first incarnation of AVALANCHE blew the reactor up, Shinra blamed Corel for it, burning the town down and killing almost everyone; the few survivors left outside of Barret, Dyne and Marlene settled in North Corel.
- Taking You with Me: Possibly. Once his HP hits zero, he has a 50/50 chance to use Molotov Cocktail before keeling over. That means if you could get wiped out by it, you have to hope luck is on your side.
- These Hands Have Killed: He turns down Barret's offer to unite him with his daughter, citing that a man with hands as blood-stained as his shouldn't ever hold a child. However, Barret gives him a "Not So Different" Remark in anguish that his hands aren't clean either, as he was too late to prevent Dyne jumping off a cliff.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Losing his home, friends and family turned him into a bitter shell of a man who wants only to wipe everything from the face of the earth.
Zirconiade
Zirconiade
Appears in: Before Crisis
A legendary "Ultimate Summon" also known as "The World Burner". Zirconiade is said to be strong enough to destroy all life on the planet, but the energy needed to summon it is so great that the base Summon Materia cannot muster the energy, four support Materia is also needed.
- Artifact of Doom: The Materia to summon it can end the world in the wrong hands.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: A variant; the Zirconiade Materia itself is intact, but its support Materia are scattered around the planet.
- Eldritch Abomination: Its a giant mass of spikes, blades, and wings.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Weapons. While Zirconiade is a Summon Materia that will destroy the planet, the Weapons exist to protect it. Zirconiade's name parallels the Weapons; while they're named after precious stones, Zirconiade takes its name from Zirconia, as in "cubic zirconia", fake diamonds.
- Final Boss: Of Before Crisis.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: It'll destroy the world if unleashed.
- Spikes of Villainy: It's very, shall we say, "pointy".
The Remnants of Sephiroth
The Remnants of Sephiroth
The Remnants of Sephiroth
"So what if I'm a puppet? Once upon a time, you were too!"
— Kadaj
Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo are physical manifestations of Sephiroth's will. Each of them represents a different aspect of Sephiroth's personality, but they share a fanatical obsession with Jenova.
- Artificial Human: They're formed out of pure tainted Lifestream energy by Sephiroth's will.
- Berserk Button: Some handle it better than others, but they all get annoyed whenever someone brings up Jenova in a flippant manner.
- Beta Test Baddie: They're each incomplete copies of Sephiroth, and their drive to find Jenova is out of a need to reunite with her so Sephiroth can be reborn properly.
- Cain and Abel: They consider Cloud their "brother" through Jenova, and fight and try to kill him several times since they view him as a traitor to her.
- Car Fu: The only thing more impressive than their martial skills is their ability to combine that with their riding skills. Not only can they make precise attacks while riding a motorcycle, they can use their motorcycles as makeshift projectiles.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In a very twisted way. They actually think Jenova is their mother and want to find her and be with her again. Kadaj goes so far as to consider children infected with Geostigma, which is a result of them being infected with Jenova cells, as his "brothers", which makes them all a family.
- Faux Affably Evil: When they ask people for Jenova's location, they tend to do so in a way that's both polite and menacing. They also frame their reunion with Jenova as more benign than it really is and call the Geostigma disease their "invitation" for their "siblings" to join in. Their mask shows its cracks when people refuse to give them the answers they want or when Jenova is insulted.
- Flanderization: They're the result of Sephiroth undergoing in-universe Flanderization. Allowing his own memories to fragment and be stripped away, Sephiroth had to rely on memories of how other people saw him to create the remnants, resulting in each of them being an exaggerated depiction of a different aspect of his true character.
- Freudian Trio: Loz is the Id, being a Manchild with simplistic emotions, Kadaj is the Ego, being the comparatively level-headed leader but prone to fits of rage and anger, and Yazoo is the Superego, being always calm and collected.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Each wears a black leather outfit that, in different ways, mimic Sephiroth's iconic attire.
- Hellish Pupils: All three have slitted, catlike pupils, emphasizing their nature as Sephiroth's incarnations.
- Literal Split Personality: They each embody a different aspect of Sephiroth. Kadaj has his cruelty and insanity, as well as his preference for katanas, Loz has his speed, physical strength and obsession with Jenova, and Yazoo has his charisma, aloofness, and with his longer hair bears the closest physical resemblance to him.
- Omnicidal Maniac: They're in full support of Jenova and Sephiroth's goal of destroying the planet.
- Powers as Programs: While all fighters in the compilation can use Materia, the Remnants are able to absorb Materia into their own bodies instead of attaching them to equipment.
- Psychopathic Manchild: While Kadaj is the most blatant example, all three are fiercely devoted to their "mother" and are more than a bit unstable and destructive in their search to find her.
- Siblings in Crime: They're all brothers, and occasionally bicker or banter with each other during the film.
- A Sinister Clue: All of them, much like their "progenitor", wield their weapons in their left hands and share his contempt for the world.
- Strong and Skilled: They're not as strong as Sephiroth, but they're still stronger than the majority of the party and the Turks, all while being proficient in multiple kinds of weapons. They're also capable of coordinating their attacks while riding motorcycles.
- Summon Magic: They can summon monsters from tainted Lifestream called "Shadow Creepers".
- Terrible Trio: Kadaj is the leader and the one with the most knowledge of Sephiroth's plans, while Loz and Yazoo carry out efforts to find Jenova and do most of the fighting as Kadaj watches.
- Unwitting Pawn: They're just incarnations of Sephiroth's will meant to find Jenova so he can be reborn. Loz and Yazoo have no idea of this, while Kadaj has some measure of understanding, but is still unaware of his true purpose.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Being they're each embodiments of Sephiroth, they share this key design trait.
Kadaj
Kadaj
"I've never known Sephiroth. I just... I sense him there. It's unbearable to think that Mother might want Sephiroth more than..."
- And Then What?: Kadaj isn't sure what to do once he has his hands on Jenova's head. Cloud lampshades this is because he's just a remnant, he's driven by instinct with no understanding of what he's doing.
- Big Bad: Of Advent Children, where he's after Jenova's cells to try and bring Sephiroth Back from the Dead. He may be a pawn, but he's nonetheless The Heavy.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Sephiroth was a world-famous Fallen Hero with a BFS, while Kadaj is a nobody with a smaller, double-bladed sword. Sephiroth worked largely alone and through his control over Jenova, while Kadaj works with his independent "brothers". Finally, while Sephiroth will always be Cloud's Arch-Enemy, he ultimately ends up with the hero's pity.
- Dark Messiah: Presents himself as one to the children with Geostigma, declaring they are a family chosen by the stigma, and that he can heal them and take them to their mother to take back the planet together.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's The Heavy of the film and the leader of the remnants, but is defeated by Cloud just before he triggers Sephiroth's rebirth. The Complete Updated Re-release makes it clearer that he's just Sephiroth's pawn long before this is revealed at the climax.
- Dying as Yourself: In the final battle, he takes enough blows for Sephiroth to lose control, causing Kadaj to spend his last few minutes of life as his old self.
- Enfante Terrible:
Word of God is that the youngest remnant was made their leader to give viewers the sense of an insane, unstoppable child. - Fusion Dance: Merges with Jenova's cells, allowing Sephiroth to shapeshift Kadaj's body into his own and be reborn for real.
- Humans Are Bastards: In the Complete version of the film, he's introduced mocking humanity for their self-destructive tendencies, saying that they wrecked everything they've ever made.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Wields Souba, a katana with two parallel blades.
- No Body Left Behind: Dissolves into Lifestream energy upon his death.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Kadaj himself lampshades that Cloud knows all about being Sephiroth's puppet, confused and unsure of what to do and who he really is."So what if I'm a puppet? Once upon a time, you were too!"
- Redemption in the Rain: The most sympathetic and tragic remnant dissolves into rain calling for his mother as he lays in Cloud's arms dying.
- The Unfavorite: Considers himself such, sensing that his "mother" Jenova loves Sephiroth more than him. It's unclear how much of this is actually Jenova's will and how much is Kadaj interpreting Sephiroth's control of Jenova.
- Villainous Breakdown: Lets out an anguished wail and then quiets into sobs when he sees the "mother" he's been pursuing is a puddle of genetic goo. After this Cloud arrives and he attacks him furiously.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kadaj has just enough understanding of what he's doing to realize he's just The Pawn for Sephiroth's resurrection, but he doesn't understand how. At heart, he's a Psychopathic Manchild who's trying to find his mother and reunite his "family". When he finally does get his hands on Jenova and sees that the "mother" he's been looking for is just a puddle of genetic goo, he begins to cry and scream in anguish. Even Cloud seems to pity him, muttering "[I guess] a remnant wouldn't really know" when he realizes Kadaj really has no grasp of what he's doing.
Loz
Loz
"Mother will know. When she gets here, she'll decide what's best."
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's prone to voicing out sound effects, cries over Jenova, and calls the Turks meanies for insulting his mother. In spite of his Laughably Evil traits, he's still a dangerous Lightning Bruiser who can easily defeat Tifa and the Turks.
- The Brute: The most physically dominating of the remnants and easily the most powerful.
- Dragon Their Feet: Loz and Yazoo appear shortly after Cloud defeats Sephiroth and Kadaj returns to the Lifestream intending to kill Cloud before they fade away too. They shot him while his back is turned and overload their Materia causing an explosion that seemingly kills Cloud though fortunately Aerith and Zack bring him back to life saying that it's not Cloud's time yet.
- Dumb Muscle: He's very stupid and childish, making sound effects when he rides his motorcycle and crying over Jenova at times. Word of God says they intended him more as a Manchild rather than plain stupid, but admit he ended up being this trope too.
- Lightning Bruiser: His physical strength is immense, allowing him to punch apart trees, and he moves so fast he appears to Flash Step in a blur of white light.
- Manchild: His defining trait is his childish behavior. His movements and emotional states are deliberately exaggerated to emphasize this.
- Power Fist: His weapon is the Dual Hound, a spiked taser-like gauntlet that adds electric shocks to his punches.
- Super-Speed: Can move so fast his body is covered in white energy. A special animation tool was even designed by the staff that let them slow down the movie for the other characters while Loz moved normally, resulting in this trope when the film played normally.
Yazoo
Yazoo
"I will not have you refer to Mother that way!"
- Creepy Monotone: Barely raises his voice beyond a soft and easy rhythm.
- Dragon Their Feet: Loz and Yazoo appear shortly after Cloud defeats Sephiroth and Kadaj returns to the Lifestream intending to kill Cloud before they fade away too. They shot him while his back is turned and overload their Materia causing an explosion that seemingly kills Cloud though fortunately Aerith and Zack bring him back to life saying that it's not Cloud's time yet.
- Gun Fu: While they're used much more often for shooting, the Velvet Nightmares have blades running along their length and are sturdy in design, and they're used as melee weapons when needed.
- Guns Akimbo: Occasionally uses both his own and Loz's Velvet Nightmares at once.
- The Gunslinger: Wields a gunblade called Velvet Nightmare. Loz has one as well, but Yazoo uses his much more often while Loz relies on his fists.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Yazoo uses a broken bridge as a ramp to take his motorcycle up to the Turk's helicopter, and then shoots the cyclic stick while his motorcycle is flying through the helicopter.
- The Stoic: Calm, cool and collected.
AVALANCHE
Elfé
Elfé
"You found me when I was wandering all alone, without my memories. I was raised by AVALANCHE. You're all like my family. That's why I'm going to fight with everyone and repay my debt."
The leader of the original incarnation of AVALANCHE in Before Crisis, she's a swordswoman with a fierce devotion to her warriors and is driven to save the planet from Shinra by any means necessary.
- Action Girl: Sephiroth of all people is impressed with her skill when she manages to endure his attacks.
- Anti-Villain: She really does want to protect the planet from Shinra. She's just willing to go to extremes to do it, albeit not to the same extremes as Fuhito.
- Badass Cape: Wears a dull grey cloak.
- Big Bad: As the leader of AVALANCHE, she's the primarily antagonist of Before Crisis. At first.
- A Father to His Men: She cares for AVALANCHE as her own family and fights alongside them on the front lines, unwilling to sit back and let them fight for her.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first encounter with her is impossible to win.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Her weapon of choice is a katana, though of a more practical size than Sephiroth's.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: She has no memories from before she joined AVALANCHE.
- Luke, You Are My Father: She's Veld's daughter, presumed dead.
- Not Quite Dead: Three times in fact. Veld assumes Felicia dead when their hometown is attacked, but she's retrieved and used as an experiment by Hojo. He decides she's a failure and orders her disposed of, but Fuhito takes her to safety. And then at the end of Before Crisis, she's assumed dead due to the Zirconiade Materia finally taking its toll, but she and Veld are taken care of in secret and eventually go into hiding together.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: Her real name is Felicia instead of Elfé.
- Power Degeneration: Has common, standard superpowers due to the Zirconiade Materia imbedded in her arm. It also happens to be draining her life force and will eventually kill her.
- The Stoic: She doesn't show a lot of emotion.
- Unwitting Pawn: Fuhito was just using her and AVALANCHE for his own schemes.
Shears
Shears
- Amazon Chaser: Thinks so of Elfé.
- Barefisted Monk: He fights with his bare hands.
- Co-Dragons: With Fuhito, he's Elfé's second-in-command.
- Defeat Means Friendship: He used to lead his own rebellion on Shinra, until he ran into Elfé. She kicked his ass, and he and his men joined AVALANCHE.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Veld abandons the Turks to try and help Elfé, Shears leaves AVALANCHE to try and help him and the Turks.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Part of his reason for ditching AVALANCHE is because Fuhito pushed him to the bottom of Corel's Reactor, causing him to realize that Fuhito was using him and Elfé all along.
- Mutual Kill: He helps the Turks fight Fuhito, but is severely wounded by Fuhito's One-Winged Angel form. Despite that, he finishes off Fuhito at the cost of his own life.
- Recurring Boss: He's fought several times throughout the game.
Fuhito
Fuhito
- Co-Dragons: With Shears, he's Elfé's second-in-command.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Or rather, prequel antagonist. Fuhito is a Mad Scientist like Hojo, but while Hojo has no illusions about his morality and only cares about scientific achievements, Fuhito is a zealot who wants to use his scientific knowledge to save the Planet at the cost of all life.
- Evil Counterpart: Fuhito and Barret both perform terrorism in the name of Planetology, but while Barret uses that ideology as an excuse for his own revenge and to compensate for his own guilt in being a former Shinra supporter, Fuhito has no backstory and is instead only characterized by his fanatical devotion to the Planet. Ironically, having a "purer" motivation actually makes Fuhito worse, since while Barret cares enough about people to want revenge in the first place, Fuhito has no regard for anyone and is willing to sacrifice all life on the Planet for the sake of his environmental goals.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Like Hojo, he wears glasses. He's also just as evil and amoral.
- The Heavy: He's behind most of AVALANCHE's plans in the game.
- Knight Templar: He's a fanatical believer in Planetology and twisted its teachings to justify sacrificing all life in order to save the Planet as a whole.
- Mad Scientist: He idolizes Hojo, and orders an AVALANCHE attack on Shinra's headquarters in the hopes of being able to meet him and show off his Ravens.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's the real force controlling AVALANCHE.
- Mask of Sanity: He acts like a composed and polite AVALANCHE operative, but is also crazy enough to believe that wiping out all life on the Planet is necessary to save it.
- Moral Sociopathy: He believes the health of the Planet should be maintained no matter what, but he has no empathy for his fellow humans and believes they should all be sacrificed so that they'll return to the Lifestream and heal the Planet.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Believes that the Planet is too weakened thanks to Shinra's actions and wants to kill all human life so their energy will return to the Lifestream and the Planet can heal without their interference. This is why he wants to summon Zirconiade, because it will be his tool to do the job.
- One-Winged Angel: He merges with Zirconiade to fight you in the final chapter.
- Recurring Boss: You fight him over and over during the game.
- The Starscream: After Shears leaves the group and Elfé is too weak to do it herself, Fuhito takes over command of AVALANCHE. As it turns out, he was using Elfé and Shears as sacrificial pawns for his own plan to wipe out all life on the Planet.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He tries to pull this on AVALANCHE's benefactor. This is also his eventual goal for all of AVALANCHE, Elfé and Shears included.
