#HOJO ........

[crimson-sun]

Physical copies of the Shinra Photo Book have all been spoken for now, but you can pick up a digital copy for $5USD on my Patreon shop (you do need a Patreon account to access the shop but it's free to join).

44 pages with ~40ish images; you can check out more of the pics inside the book in this tag. Some of the older images have been updated with newer versions, which I’ve talked more about alongside other production notes on Patreon.

It was very cathartic to finally finish this project after eight or so years and share it with you all. Honestly hope folks like my version of events!

[altocat]

Gross question and I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable but where do you think sephiroth was conceived?

In the world of Sephcanons, Sephiroth is NOT Hojo's biological son. He's Vincent's. And he was conceived just a few weeks shy of when Hojo and Lucrecia first began to break ground in the Jenova Project.

Beforehand, Vincent and Lucrecia had entertained a vulnerable but otherwise passionate love affair behind the scenes. Sephiroth was conceived beneath the very tree where they'd had their picnic, one dark summer's night in Nibelheim. The encounter weighed heavily on Lucrecia afterwards though, fraught with lingering guilt over Grimoire. Consumed by regret and self-loathing, she abruptly breaks things off with Vincent, running to Hojo (who promptly takes advantage of her emotional frailty by manipulating her towards a GREATER goal).

Things move at a more rapid pace then. By the time Lucrecia realizes she is pregnant, she does not realize that the child is Vincent's. And by the time she DOES, it's already too late. The guilt of her actions becomes almost too much to bear, the thought of having tainted Grimoire's legacy, VINCENT'S child...she will hate herself for it until the day she dies. She never should have let Hojo sway her emotions, take advantage of her insecurities and fears. It was all too easy to lie to herself and disconnect, at least at the beginning. But as Sephiroth's due date draws nearer, she becomes more and more sick and regretful at her actions, and more and more determined to mold her child AGAINST the plans Hojo and Shinra have in store for him. She will give birth to a legend, a Cetra, a savior of the planet. As such, she will atone by way of being the best mother she can, teach her child to be BETTER than her, BETTER than the twisted mechanisms that created him. She will guide him along, help him reach his goals. She will nurture him, protect him, show him the love and mercy she feels she no longer deserves. And through him, she will be reborn.

Lucrecia conjures such an image beneath the tree where she and Vincent first came together. And it is under the same tree that she first feels the beginning contractions. Sephiroth is born at the inn shortly afterwards, and is immediately taken from Lucrecia before she has the chance to touch or hold him. The "death" of Vincent and the subsequent separation from her son are what ultimately drives her over the edge, unable to forgive herself, unable to foresee a future where she will ever be able to atone for her sins. She doesn't deserve to be called a scientist, a lover, a mother. She deserves to suffer. She deserves eternal anguish.

She deserves oblivion.

[risingoflights]

Dreams, the ones where you are fearless Can't break what's broken, you are tearless Steal back your innocence That's what they stole from you

You're gonna sleep like a baby tonight Not everything can be so black and white There are demons in the broad daylight But you can sleep like a baby tonight

[geekysteven]

[yingxtkm]

Need I say more?

[shinidamachu]

Kagome rejecting both Hojo, a full human, and Koga, a full demon, for Inuyasha is actually so meaningful. I wish it was better explored in canon.

[pen-and-umbra]

The second episode of the Remake, FF7 Rebirth, has proven to be a terrific experience thus far. SE obviously made a few big decisions here and there.

It is seemingly implied now that Jenova wasn't "brain-dead", and it is hinted that Sephiroth was addled during his breakdown.

It all begins with a strategically placed cut, when Sephiroth touches the door bearing the name Jenova and instructs "Cloud" to close the valve. The scene is merely functional for new fans, yet leaves a vacant space that Crisis Core players will quickly fill in with the inferred arrival of Genesis. Smart move that, leaving the interpretation to the player. Whether Genesis exists inside the Remake's continuity or not, the moment reads differently to each fan. Quite frankly, I was half-expecting “Cloud” to come across a banora apple, rolling on the floor, but I suppose that would be telling.

What's remarkable is that they give Sephiroth almost identical symptoms to those that Cloud has in the remake. Glitches and odd headaches superimpose themselves nicely over the original Crisis Core scene. And, as much as I loathe Tyler Hoechlin's acting in the game, he lends a tangible sense of rage to Sephiroth's disparaging remarks about Hojo and his experiments. You can hear the hatred, a touch of pity, and disgust directed at Hojo's work and the creatures he tortured. In Crisis Core, he refers to the test subjects as “abominations” with the same touch of bitterness.

Back to the point: glitches, pupil dilations, and headaches are visual cues for Jenovaroth's influence or proximity, as shown in the first part of the Remake. However, at this point, Sephiroth is still sane — cracking, but still himself — so the only agent who can exert influence on him is, well, Jenova.

Now, a widely established fan hypothesis maintained that Jenova was brain-dead or comatose. Bodily functions sustained, but brain activity plateaued. Rebirth, however, strangely suggests otherwise.

When "Cloud" returns to Sephiroth in the manor's basement for the second time, Sephiroth recites an excerpt from a journal purportedly written by Professor Gast: 

“The specimen, found in a strata dating back two thousand years, smiled with what could only be described as 'ethereal grace'… Though the truth eluded me at first, I later determined that she was an Ancient - or a 'steward of the planet', as they are referred to in legend”. 

Remembering the battles with Jenova Dreamweaver and Jenova Emergent, the creature is far from "graceful" or "ethereal". There is nothing graceful about her figure in the tube either, and she is not smiling. The game goes out of its way to lampshade the glaring contradiction by showing the flashes of Jenova’s fanged skull and grotesque body as Sephiroth quotes the passage. So how could Gast perceive her as such?.. The answer is most likely found in Jenova Dreamweaver's description given in Ultimania: the entity has the ability to induce hallucinations in individuals who come into proximity with it, which is further corroborated by Jenova Emergent description.

An ancient lifeform that Shinra Company has kept under strict confidentiality. Those who come into contact can have their conscience interfered as well as see illusions. Professor Hojo has dedicated half of his life to researching Jenova, and within the Shinra Company building's top floors lies a secret research center called the "Dome," where Jenova's cells are injected into lifeforms or machinery to conduct experiments. (Ultimania)

Gast even writes that “the truth eluded him at first”, but LATER he determines the specimen belonged to the race of Ancients, as if that answer was suggested. The implication is chilling: Jenova may have purposefully misled Gast in order to present itself as an Ancient. As Sephiroth later explains in the FF7Rb, Jenova is capable of seeing deep into one's soul and impersonating individuals you fear, love, or hate.

If ShinRA and Gast were determined to unravel the mysteries of Ancients and their Promised Land, it would make sense for Jenova to "scan" Gast and determine the best course of action: disguise itself as an Ancient in order to escape captivity in geological strata jail.

The scene in which Sephiroth reads Gast's notes is possibly the final time he is more or less himself, before Jenova's image intermingles with his for a brief moment. Again, I appreciate Tyler's voice acting in this particular section and the real rage he brought to it. Admittedly, I was concerned that with next-gen visuals, they would take a more gruesome approach, displaying Sephiroth conducting the Nibelheim carnage with sadistic pleasure, but they took a different route. Slow, zombie-like movements, and a glassy expression.

He speared the militiamen as casually as if he were spearing bugs, which is far more frightening from a narrative point. What jumped out was how they emphasized the possessed-like behavior: from snarling and flailing the book like a suffering person to an empty countenance and automaton-like strides, as if he was being beckoned. Which is what "Mother is waiting" implies.

The final segment of the Nibelheim flashback is likely the most essential as well. According to previous developer claims, Sephiroth's will took precedence over Jenova's, and he was in control — whether Jenova was brain-dead or simply of lesser willpower.  However, the Rebirth appears to suggest something different right off the bat. First, "Cloud" shouts, "I believed in you… No… Not you — whoever the hell you are!", highlighting the significant personality change and the resulting lack of recognition. But then "Cloud" sees Jenova's image superimposed over that of Sephiroth in a rapid, glitch-like succession.

In other words, he sees Jenova inhabiting Sephiroth's body as a vehicle to once again escape the confinements. Whatever that means, whether it suggests that Jenova is in control from the start, or whether Sephiroth is literally the greatest functional agglomeration of her cells, and therefore literally “becomes” Jenova. 

If Jenova's original body was severely damaged — either as a result of eons of incarceration or Hojo's tinkering — it stands to reason that, if she wished to carry out her plan, she would need a new body, one capable of moving at the very least. Perhaps Sephiroth, an able-bodied skilled Mako-infused fighter of considerable might, served as a better "vessel" than her original damaged one. 

But the crux of the matter lies elsewhere. The possibility of Jenova being conscious and influencing Gast is very terrifying. With the potential to affect others in close vicinity, she may have influenced the minds of the whole science team behind the Jenova Project, particularly those who had long-term contact with her tissue — Gast and Hojo. It could turn out that the whole idea to revive an “Ancient” was planted by Jenova in order to grow itself a powerful host. In fact, if it could "peer into one's soul," i.e. read minds and memories, it might have easily identified a pressure point to indoctrinate people who could forward her objective. It's one thing to inject tissue samples into an adult body; it's quite another to devise a plan to inject cells into a developing human fetus. Who knows. Perhaps Hojo is such an obsessed Jenova nutcase in large part because he fell under its spell; feelings of inadequacy and being overshadowed by his colleague may have offered a crack in his defenses.

One that Jenova easily took advantage of. After all, as Dirge of Cerberus implies, Hojo ended up implanting himself with alien organic material.

Again, Jenova's power to extract information from an individual when in proximity supports a bleak reading of the events leading up to Nibelheim's ransacking. A person who kept on carrying a photograph of his supposedly late mother and badgered others about his background, as suggested by Ever Crisis episodes, was literally wearing his weakness on a sleeve.

Perhaps the 30-something years of the Jenova Project were supposed to bring Sephiroth there.

Perhaps the chain of events had been nudged in that direction, starting from the very discovery of a derelict non-human lifeform. Nudged by an intelligence both cunning and incomprehensible. And that makes Jenova a much, much scarier presence in the remake than it was ever suggested in OG.

[jjinpang]

So this ☝️ was more what I had in mind when I drew 🤚this✋. but then tumblr kinda had me drawing this 👉 whole comic instead.

[deadmotelsusa]

[sleepy-edits]

[priceofreedom]

they skipped it so i'm adding it FF7 Rebirth 8 / ?

[crimson-sun]

Currently running an interest check for physical copies of the Shinra Photo Book - the project I've been chipping at on and off for about eight years. After all that time, it's finally ready.

You can check out more of the pics inside the book in this tag. Some of the older images have been updated with newer versions, which I've talked more about alongside other production notes on Patreon.

This is the first time I've run a public interest check, so do click on that link and lemme know if you're keen! Thank you so much for the folks who have responded thus far, especially those supporters on Patreon without whom none of this is possible <3

Interest check will close early November, and if all goes well hoping to open orders mid-late November in time to ship for Xmas!

[altocat]

so if sephiroth can actually purr was it something he ever did when he was little or has he never been happy enough to have a reaction until he actually has friends? how do people react if they hear it?

Sephiroth used to purr when he was very, very young, alone in his cell, trying his best to self-soothe after a stressful or traumatic experience in the lab. He had no idea he was actually doing it though. He was doing it instinctively. He stops doing it altogether once his "battle training" becomes more rigorous and brutal. And he spends most of his youth not even being aware of it.

Both he and Hojo don't discover his purring capabilities until he is a teenager. Sephiroth's close proximity to Angeal and Genesis has caused him to erupt with aggressively happy vibrations on more than a few occasions. Hojo finds it fascinating and spends an entire week using Sephiroth's collar to monitor and measure the frequency of the sounds so he can catalogue and dissect them later. Sephiroth, for his part, is slightly disturbed at this less-than-human quality and spends the upper half of the week fretting about it.

He eventually grows used to it though, assuming it's some sort of enhanced Mako mutation. And spends much of his time running like a motor while in Angeal and Genesis' company.

[risingoflights]

Your babyroth art makes my heart clench… just thinking about where he started and where he ended up is soo. I love your entire photo book series :,)

where he started vs where he ended up :'D

thanks for enjoying the book. it's nearly done!

[kharits]

Over complicated alignment chart I thought of while in bed (drawn in random styles)

[rosy-crow]

Hojo raising his kid for war