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Main Villains
Sephiroth
Voiced by: Mike "Ovarku" Varker
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the games, Sephiroth always felt isolated from other people because of his background, but still made efforts to be sociable to his peers before his descent into madness and villainy. Here, he almost constantly agonized over his lack of direction, fulfillment, and most of all, a nurturing mother figure in his otherwise enviable life as an accomplished war hero. The result is a far more malicious and spiteful version of Sephiroth than his game counterpart, one who would singularly murder Cloud's mother so Cloud would experience the same kind of torment he himself endured.
- Adaptational Badass: The UI gives him 9999 HP and MP during Cloud's retelling of the Nibelheim incident, which is impossible in-game.
- BFS: His own seven-foot-long katana, Masamune. Apparently the wounds it makes can be mistaken for ones inflicted by Cloud's own Buster Sword.
- Big Bad: He takes the reins of main villain once he kills President Shinra and (inadvertently) frames the heroes at the end of season 1, resulting in a series-long manhunt from both sides.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Inverted. When Cloud's party encounters him on the ship to Costa del Sol, he says he has absolutely no idea who Cloud is or about his razing of Nibelheim, saying, "I think I'd remember something like that." However, when he and Cloud meet again at the rebuilt Nibelheim, he once again acts familiar with Cloud.
- Creepy Monotone: He speaks with an indifferent yet ominous baritone voice. This extends all the way to him screaming while falling into a ravine.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Taken to a tragic extreme with him, since he grew up never knowing anything about his mother except her name, Jenova.
- Fallen Hero: He was one of Shinra's most accomplished war heroes, not to mention Cloud's teenage idol. But then he found out he was a lab experiment created as Shinra's puppet to further their goals to Take Over the World, and it all went downhill from there.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: He didn't exactly take it well when he discovered he was spawned from the same alien life form as the Mako-infused abominations produced in the reactor near Nibelheim, nor that he was created as a tool to guide his employers to the Promised Land and secure their total control of the planet.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Sephiroth isn't obsessed with Jenova like his canon counterpart so much as the idea of meeting the mother he never knew. He also says at one point before his descent into villainy that he'd trade away all of his fame, glory, and status just to experience a mother's love.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unlike the hilariously inept and evil Shinra executives, virtually nothing about him or what he does is played for comedy, and he's had a direct hand in making Cloud and Tifa into the broken people they are at the beginning of the series.
- Leitmotif: He has two: the first is the Ominous Latin Chanting of his name from "One-Winged Angel" (his iconic boss fight theme), used as a Sting whenever he makes a sudden dramatic appearance; the second is his actual theme from the game, "Those Chosen by the Planet", which plays over his more extensive scenes.
- Mythology Gag: His first line ("Good to see you, Cloud") is a nod to his first line in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: He makes his mark as one of the series' most unsettling characters with his humorless nature, droning voice, and a torrent of disturbing images and sounds that floods Cloud's mind when he first makes himself known to the party.
- Not So Above It All: For all his exasperation towards Cloud's obnoxious fanboying, he admitted to liking one of his lame One-Liners ("Sorry to cut this meeting short"), and used it against Tifa.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He burned Nibelheim to the ground and murdered President Shinra when he came to believe he was the last remaining Cetra, created as a science experiment to help Shinra assume total control of the planet.
- Villainous Rescue: Sephiroth busts out Cloud's party when they get imprisoned at Shinra HQ. Subverted when this leads to them getting Out of the Frying Pan once they find he's also murdered President Shinra, giving Rufus the perfect incentive to pin the act on them.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His Start of Darkness in episode 11 paints him as a self-consciously empty and unloved man whose desire for a greater purpose than the life Shinra laid out for him eventually drove him insane. Not to mention he was partnered with an obnoxious Fanboy who'd rather squee over him than pay any mind to his existential troubles on the day he finally snapped.
- You Killed My Father: Cloud and Tifa respectively lost their mother and father to Sephiroth during the Nibelheim incident, and are driven to hunt him down and make him pay; Cloud especially, since Sephiroth personally revealed how he murdered Cloud's mother to spite him. Or so he recalls.
Jenova
- Greater-Scope Villain: She is the genetic mother of the Big Bad, and her legacy kicks off his Start of Darkness, yet she has little direct involvement in the plot otherwise.
- Knight of Cerebus: Like Sephiroth, the humor stops at the mere mention of her name.
- Mistaken Identity: Shinra assumed her to be a Cetra, the original natives of the Planet, which led her "son" to believe that he was the Planet's rightful ruler.
- Off with His Head!: Her headless corpse is kept on display in the top-secret 60th floor of Shinra HQ.
Shinra, Inc.
As a Whole
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original game, Shinra somewhat successfully maintain the ruse of a Villain with Good Publicity. Here, they don't try to hide how horrendous their actions are because they're that confident there's no one to oppose them.
- Beware the Silly Ones: They act like a bunch of Saturday morning cartoon villains, yet their actions directly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent lives across the planet, and could result in The End of the World as We Know It if allowed to succeed, making them no less of a threat than the Big Bad.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The lot of them practically wear the "I am an evil mega conglomerate exec" slogan on their sleeves.
- Incompetence, Inc.: Within a single quarter of a year, each member of Shinra's board of executives (sans Reeve) manages to go 700% overbudget, wasting billions of gil on their asinine activities simply because they're either that insane, or so they can set up an Incredibly Lame Pun.
- MegaCorp: They're supposed to be an energy company, yet their monopoly on Mako energy makes them influential enough to serve as a worldwide dictatorship, complete with their own armed military force.
- Nepotism: We have a vice president who is the original president's son and heir; the president's cousin is one of the board of directors; and said cousin's daughter works at the front desk of their building. Besides the son, who is the most competent of the bunch, one is a space-obsessed buffoon and the other is a casually racist airhead, making it clear that they weren't hired for their experience.
- Stupid Evil: The company's acts of villainy are not only absolutely absurd (e.g., crushing thousands of innocents in a failed attempt at killing five to six people), they are also incredibly costly and hurtful towards the company's image. Rufus makes efforts to upend this in favor of Pragmatic Villainy, which doesn't sit well with the more trigger-happy execs.
President Shinra
Voiced by: Graham Stark
The unscrupulous president and namesake of Shinra, Inc. who is not above using horrendous acts of terrorism to achieve his goals. Usually articulates his schemes with superfluous metaphors.
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: None of his dialogue is properly accented, with weird pauses and rhythm.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Cloud is personally familiar with President Shinra from his days in SOLDIER, but the president neither knows nor cares who he is. Justified, as Cloud was never really in SOLDIER.
- Death by Irony: Sort of. His last words to AVALANCHE were that the next time they see each other, one of them would be dead. Clearly, he didn't mean the dead one to be himself.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's presented as the Big Bad of Season 1 before Sephiroth murders him and becomes the primary Big Bad.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For what it's worth, he does seem to genuinely care about his family. He is patient with his cousin, Palmer, gave his niece a job as a receptionist, and refers to his son as his "special boy".
- Even Evil Has Standards: He mocks Reeve for his grievances on where Shinra's budget is going, but agrees with him that Palmer's Insane Troll Logic to buying spacenote is a legitimate concern.
Rufus Shinra
Voiced by: Xander Mobus
President Shinra's pampered son and Vice President who, due to an unforeseen vacancy, takes the reins from his father as head of Shinra, Inc. Although he's just as much an immoral dictator as his father, Rufus prefers to use a much less violent and costly approach to dealing with AVALANCHE and Sephiroth.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Zig-zagged. While he tells Cloud's party that he gets giddy over his father's acts of senseless violence and destruction, he also recognizes that they were more counterproductive than they had any reason to be.
Reeve Tuesti
Heidegger
Voiced by: Ty "Aramek" Konzak
The Executive Chief Director of Public Security who is responsible for Shinra's more senseless acts of destruction. Later becomes Shinra's head of social media.
- Ax-Crazy: Only he would come up with the idea to drop an entire section of Midgar's upper plate to crush the underground slums below, just to kill five or six people.
- Beard of Evil: He sports a thick beard, and is one of Shinra's more sinister members.
- Cycle of Revenge: Whenever Shinra's usual plan to bribe witnesses, judges, and police officers to overlook Heidegger's crimes of assault doesn't work, Heidegger's response is to assault the person who refused, causing new bribes to be issued.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Despite his outright insane problem-solving tactics, he doesn't think it's a good idea to invite people he and Rufus have never met onto their boat, especially since Rufus also plans on giving said group spare military and naval uniforms so they can blend in with the crowd. That said, he loses points when Rufus discovers that Heidegger found out about Cloud and company when they were fighting in the hold, but instead of trying to capture them, he makes several posts about it on social media.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: He's always keen on murdering his enemies in the most over-the-top and impractical ways possible. Thousands of innocents have lost their lives because of him.
Scarlet
Voiced by: Amber Lee "ShudoRanmaru" Connors
The Baroness (not Executive) of Weapons Development.
- All Women Are Lustful: Just about everything she says and does comes with a Double Entendre.
- Bad Boss: She kills one of her own Mooks for saying they're framing Barret and Dyne for the destruction of Corel. The others react in horror and she clarifies that he's new.
- The Baroness: By her own admission.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Her response to the meltdown at the Corel reactor is to destroy the village built next to it and frame the survivors, rather than conduct an actual investigation and admit that Shinra fucked up. This is why Barret went into the terrorism business.
- Evil Counterpart: Scarlet is Tifa's on the Shinra board of directors, being the sexy, manipulative lady member of the team. However, while Tifa does sincerely care about her friends under it all and doesn't intentionally manipulate Cloud with her sex appeal, Scarlet has no redeeming qualities and once had sex with Reeve just so she could crack a joke about how terrible he was at it.
- Evil Is Hammy: Not nearly as hammy as Palmer or Hojo, but Miss Connors still appears to be having a bit of fun in this role.
- Incoming Ham: Her rather loud Noblewoman's Laugh tends to be the giveaway for when she's about to enter the scene.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Her canonical name is spelled with a single "T", yet the credits call her "Scarlett".
Palmer
Voiced by: Ben "hbi2k" Creighton
The "Executive Chief Director of Space Akkisition and All the Cool Space Stuff".
Doctor Hojo
Voiced by: Edwyn "Omahdon" Tiong
- Arch-Enemy: Vincent harbors quite the murderous grudge against him, and joins Cloud's party for the express purpose of exacting his revenge against Hojo.
The Turks
Shinra's covert ops unit who don't know the meaning of the word "covert". They become a constant nuisance to the party while trailing Sephiroth.
As a Whole
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: They're just as ridiculous as their Shinra employers, yet they somehow always manage to stay one step ahead of the heroes.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Apart from their act of demolishing Sector 7 and killing thousands of innocents, they never really pose much of a threat to the party.
- Overt Operative: They're supposed to be The Men in Black, but with their quirky personalities and tendency to let their true motives slip, they could do a better job at it.
Tseng
Voiced by: Scott "KaiserNeko" Frerichs
- Annoying Laugh: He has a bizarre laughnote that's described by Scarlet as the sound of a dying penguin.
- Bad Liar: He does quite a poor job of dodging questions.Elena: How do you think Sephiroth takes his coffee, by the way?
Cloud: Wait, you guys are hunting down Sephiroth?
Tseng: Sephiroth? Who's Sephiro— SCATTER! - The Comically Serious: It doesn't get much more comically serious than announcing when your laughter is going to start and stop.
- Creepy Monotone: As an Alan Rickman parody, he most certainly fits the bill.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in a polite and sophisticated manner, even when announcing that the heroes only have one minute to live before Sector 7 falls.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tseng channels the voice of Alan Rickman, particularly from his role as Hans Gruber from Die Hard.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: He verbally expresses his emotions whenever he feels them. Probably for the best, since his lackluster tone of voice makes it difficult to tell.
- Would Hit a Girl: He strikes Aerith right when Cloud orders him not to lay a hand on her, just to prove he doesn't take orders from anyone.
Reno
Voiced by: Curtis "Takahata101" Arnott
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: It's his job to be this for Aerith while she's under house arrest, and boy does he hate it when she wanders off.
- Deadpan Snarker: He usually lays on the snark thick when forced to deal with a situation he hates.
- Fiery Redhead: He has the shortest fuse among the Turks, not helped by his duty to monitor Aerith, the biggest ditz on the Planet.
- Gag Penis: By his own claim, he's incredibly well-endowed. Unfortunately for him, half of his genitalia gets destroyed when Tifa shatters his pelvis.
- Ignored Epiphany: He has a Heel Realization that's Played for Laughs when he finds out how the falafel stand incident has affected his public standing. He's on the verge of rethinking his life before noticing Aerith and Cloud have escaped under his watch.
- Just Following Orders: He doles out this excuse for detonating Sector 7's upper plate and killing thousands of innocent lives.
- Noodle Incident: He's no longer trusted to do things on his own after an incident at a falafel stand. If it happens to be the one that the Shinra execs like, this would explain a lot.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During his second fight with Cloud's party, he runs away with his tail and surviving testicle between his legs once he comes face-to-face with Tifa again.
- Trash Talk: He and Cloud indulge in quite a bit of verbal back-and-forth whenever they appear together.
Rude
Voiced by: Marc Swint
- Cool Shades: Wears them even at night and in caves.
- Not So Stoic: Despite his cool demeanor, he doesn't have very much patience for Elena. He also turns to mush and backs away when pressed to fight Tifa.
- Only Sane Man: He's the only Turk—and very nearly the only character entire series—to lack any eccentric or unusual character trait.
- The Stoic: Remains calm and collected at all times, unless he's dealing with Elena.
- Villainous Crush: Just like in the game, he has a crush on Tifa and backs away in embarrassment when Reno orders him to "take her out".
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: His name makes him an easy target for Incredibly Lame Puns, to his dismay.Cloud: Wow, you are one mean dude!
Elena: Mean? He's 100%...rude! (giggles)
Rude: Please don't try to make that a thing...
Elena
Voiced by: Morgan Berry
- Cannot Keep a Secret: For a member of Shinra's covert ops division, she sucks at withholding their agendas and personal history to their enemies, such as their pursuit of Sephiroth or Reno's testicular surgery.
- Dumb Blonde: On top of being blonde, she doesn't quite grasp that she's no longer an intern, and doesn't need to get everyone coffee.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Her primary concern is figuring out people's coffee preferences instead of doing her job.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her voice sounds like an impersonation of Jenny Slate.
- Perky Female Minion: She's the most upbeat and energetic of the Turks, and a frequent annoyance to them.
Others
Don Corneo
Voiced by: Josh "Tomamoto" Tomar
- Depraved Bisexual: Cloud's attempt at pulling an Unsettling Gender-Reveal on him backfires for this very reason; turns out guys are his preference.
- Dirty Old Man: He's a plump, middle-aged man whose mansion doubles as his own private brothel, complete with a BDSM dungeon in the basement. He's also susceptible to revealing valuable intel if he thinks it'll turn people on.
- The Don: He's a big name in Wall Market in Midgar's Sector 6, and he has enough influence to figure out the location to AVALANCHE's hidden base, easy as it may be.
- Fat Bastard: He's quite bulky on top of being a perverted scoundrel.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Episode 22 reveals "Don" really is his name, and is short for "Donald".
- Sissy Villain: He speaks with a flamboyant lisp, wears a loud, red coat, and holds "auditions" for young women to whore themselves out for his pleasure. Not to mention, he turns out to be a Depraved Bisexual.
- Villainous Crush: He develops a bit of a soft spot for Cloud, a.k.a. "Thunderhead", even thinking that his real name is beautiful after finding out he's a man. Not that this stops him from dumping him down a death trap.
Ashton the Zolom
A 30-foot-long serpent that lurks in the marshes outside the Mythril Mines, always ready to pounce on unsuspecting travelers.
- Androcles' Lion: He grants Cloud's party passage through the marshlands after Aerith heals him.
- Artistic License – Biology: He makes the sounds of a rattlesnake, despite not having a rattle.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He's a colossal serpent with a two-pronged tail.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Ashton is a pretty ordinary name for such a dangerous monster.
- Non-Malicious Monster: He attacks the party not out of any killing intent, but grief over losing his mate to Sephiroth.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Subverted. His kind have a reputation as formidable, traveler-killing beasts, but he's quite docile once Aerith heals him.
Dyne
Voiced by: Jason Marnocha
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: He threatens to rid the world of every last man, woman, child, and dog. Barret doesn't take kindly to that last point.
- Arm Cannon: Just like Barret, he had the same operation to graft a gun to his arm after both of their hands were shot off.
- Cargo Ship: In-Universe; Dyne has a bizarre fixation on coal, to the point that every other line of dialogue he speaks has coal in it somewhere. So much so that when he's Driven to Madness, he eats coal, worships it as his "mistress", proclaims that he can hear the voice of coal itself compelling him to kill, and even calls his gun-arm a "coal gun."
- Deep South: After he goes off the deep end, Dyne's accent changes noticeably, making him sound like the villain in a Western movie. It would be Played for Laughs if not for how utterly deranged the man's become.
- Disappeared Dad: He is this for Marlene, believed to have died during Shinra's raid on Corel.
- Disney Villain Death: He kills himself by dropping himself off a cliff. And exploding.
- Driven to Madness: He goes from an ordinary enough guy to a psychotic gunman after seeing Shinra use his own coal-driven livelihood to burn his hometown to the ground.
- Driven to Suicide: Just like the game, he notes after Barret beats him that his hands are too stained to ever hold his daughter again, and he takes his own life after telling Barret not to succumb to blind rage.
- Evil Former Friend: He was once Barret's best friend before the destruction of his hometown turned him into a murderous psychopath.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: He speaks a chilling rasp in his throat when he loses his mind.
- Freudian Excuse: His reasons for going on an insane killing spree is given a little more clarity than in the games: with Shinra squandering the planet's resources and burning Corel to the ground for seemingly no reason, Dyne figured he didn't need his own reason to spread death and destruction as well.
- Knight of Cerebus: He's the only villain besides Sephiroth whose actions and madness are played with absolutely zero humor. The only thing remotely humorous about him is his absurd obsession with coal, and even that's played to a disturbing degree that only enhances how unhinged he is.
- Made of Iron: He not only survives falling into a deep crevice, but also somehow takes a direct hit from Barret's grenade launcher with minimal injuries, as Barret points out. Despite this, Cloud is certain he's dead when he is engulfed in a fiery explosion.
- Offing the Offspring: Like in the game, Dyne is so crazy that he thinks of killing Marlene so she can be with her mother. Luckily, Barret stops him before he gets anywhere near her.
- Precision F-Strike: In a series where everyone uses the F-word on a semi-regular basis (albeit with a Sound-Effect Bleep), he's one of the very few characters who says "Don't fuck up" completely uncensored.
- Redemption Rejection: Barret offers him a place in the party by his side with the promise of involving coal, but Dyne turns him down, saying "[his] coal's burnt out."
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Instead of specifically targeting Shinra for the destruction of his home, Dyne just kills indiscriminately. After all, if Shinra had no reason for their actions, he figures he shouldn't have one, either.
- Shadow Archetype: He serves as an example of what Barret could become if he let himself become consumed by anger and hatred, particularly towards Shinra. Barret is so shaken by his encounter that he changes his stance from just blowing up Mako reactors and sticking it to Shinra to genuinely trying to save the planet.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Shinra destroyed everyone and everything he cared about, which drove him to retaliate by senselessly attacking people at random.
The Tankceratops
Voiced by: Anthony "Antfish" Sardinha
A weird monster created by the fallout of the explosion of Gongana's reactor. Spends its time between fighting the party, trying to have an action figure at its effigy, and advertising its brand of cereals.
- Large Ham: It comes hand-in-hand with having No Indoor Voice.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A Mako-radiated mutant dinosaur...that's also a tank.
- No Indoor Voice: IT SHOUTS ALL OF ITS LINES!!!
- Villains Out Shopping: The third time it's seen, it's shown simply passing by in Gongana, all while saying that the Tankceratops cereals are "PART OF A COMPLETE BREAKFAST!!!" Please note that it does this while a woman mourns the death of her son, who died of lead poisoning from said cereal.
Gi Nattak
Voiced by: Jordan Woollen
- Friendly Enemy: He helps Barret and Red work out their family issues when he's supposed to be killing them.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Barret and Red "repay" him for mending their friendship with an agonizing, Phoenix Down-induced death.
- Playing with Fire: Constantly sets Cloud on fire when he tries attacking.
- Revive Kills Zombie: Him being an ancient spirit driven by rage, he is killed quite excruciatingly when Barret hands him a Phoenix Down.Gi Nattak: HOW CAN A FEATHER BE THIS PAINFUUUUUUL??!!
Materia Keeper
