Final Fantasy VII's Cloud and Sephiroth are a part of one of the most iconic rivalries in gaming history, even over 20 years later. The PS1 original game released during the earlier days of the internet, but in an age where it has become so widely used by billions of people every second, it is hardly surprising there exists a huge collection of memes featuring them at this point.
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These two have been bickering over who has the better hair-do and cooler sword for over two decades, and there's no better way to enjoy this eternal rivalry than through countless, hilarious memes.
10 The Minimum-Wage Struggle
Cloud Strife, an elite, first-class member of Shinra's SUBWAY group spends his day slaving over sandwiches for the advancement of Midgar. Meanwhile, Sephiroth, the villainous, corporate overlord who pulls the strings from his high-rise office in upstate New York, simply laughs at Cloud from afar as he messes the customer's footlong meal.
A servant to Shinra's hungry workers who flood the Skyview Hall every lunch break, Cloud struggles to pay for rent even in the slums of Sector 7, where he's forced to use the dim light from his Materia to illuminate his depressing dinner after a 12-hour shift. Final Fantasy VII has always had real-world issues baked into its deep story, but this amplifies it even further.
9 The Redemption Arc
Sephiroth has now embraced the full power of his alien mother, R-O-N-A-L-D, and has risen to a status worthy of a God. Fast-food workers live in fear of Sephiroth's immense power and await a true hero to defend them. Cloud stumbles upon a man named Colonel Sanders, a member of the resistance group known as KFC that combats Shinra's attempts at corporate domination.
After intense training from the Colonel himself, Cloud finally has the ability to stand up to Sephiroth with the power of his Kentucky-Fried Summoning Materia to call forth the legendary Chocobo, Finger-Lickin' Kweh.
8 A Touching Reunion
Final Fantasy is no stranger to having characters be hit with literal skyscrapers flying at hundreds of miles an hour and walk away with nothing but a few scratches, but Final Fantasy VII is definitely the biggest source of this ridiculousness.
In both Crisis Core and Advent Children, Cloud gets impaled straight through the chest by Sephiroth with his Masamune and is lifted into the air like a toddler playing airplane. As Cloud states, it only happened twice, but it's astounding that it even happened at all.
7 Oh No She Has Headphones On
This kind of meme has been used for everything at this point and does a perfect job of explaining one of the most memorable scenes in gaming history. It's not that Sephiroth has the ability to fall from the sky with utmost stealth, Aerith simply forgot to take off her headphones.
Aerith prefers to pray while listening to the new amazing jams in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, hence why her accessory slot was taken up by a nice pair of wireless gaming headphones. One can just imagine Cloud screaming for Aerith to take off her headphones while Sephiroth takes advantage of the situation.
6 The Lord of Death
Sephiroth doesn't just wear his signature black attire to let everyone know that he has a membership to Hot Topic, but for the very reason mentioned in the meme above. On the off-chance that someone asks Sephiroth whose funeral he's attending, he has the absolute perfect response to give.
This isn't just a simple joke or bluff, either, as Sephiroth would have absolutely no trouble wiping out anyone he so desired in a room full of people in the blink of an eye, as seen with his swift assassination of President Shinra.
5 Size Matters
These two, no doubt, have some of the most ridiculous weapons in gaming history at their side. Instead of being an overly-flashy, rainbow-colored stick of metal with a million different pieces sticking out of it, they show that in the realm of fantasy swordplay, size certainly matters.
Cloud wields the Buster Sword and watching videos of blacksmiths attempting to wield their recreations in real-life shows just how impossibly heavy and cumbersome it would be to even lift off the ground. Sephiroth's Masamune is around seven-feet long, which is much taller than him standing at 6'1", which he uses to slice through buildings like butter.
4 Happy Mother's Day
Final Fantasy VII memes and Mother's Day are often brought up in the same sentence due to Sephiroth's affiliation with the alien creature, J-E-N-O-V-A. He frequently refers to it as his "mother" due to various story-related reasons, and it's even more common within the Remake.
The original FF7 features a scene in the underground library with Cloud and Sephiroth, where Cloud is told to stand by so he can see his mother. Sephiroth simply wanted to bring some gifts to J-E-N-O-V-A for Mother's Day.
3 Awkward, Polygonal Poses
Watching Aerith's death scene in 1997 was an absolute shock to most players, especially with the pre-rendered cutscene showing off the full potential of the PlayStation. This scene is still impressive and memorable to this very day, but things get a little weird when the cutscene ends.
The game cuts back to the usual overworld models and Sephiroth decides to awkwardly stand there while Aerith dies in Cloud's arms. This is even funnier in later ports of the game, where he stands there with his mouth gaping open and stares off into the distance while asserting his dominance.
2 Cloud, Pay Attention
Twitter user Ralukiz took advantage of how much the Remake has been memed in terms of Aerith's brutal usage of a metal chair to allow her the chance at revenge against Sephiroth. She uses this chair during the events of Wall Market and shows that fancy magical staves or big swords simply aren't needed with the presence of a chair.
As Sephiroth peacefully prays (probably to his beloved mother), Aerith takes her max stats, full-Materia slot infused foldable chair and lets anyone foolish enough to write-off the flower girl know that she isn't playing around. Cloud could learn a lesson or two from Aerith.
1 Cloud's Visions
The original Final Fantasy VII mostly leaves events with Sephiroth out of the Midgar section and occur much more frequently once the player reaches the overworld map. However, since the entire first part of the Remake takes place in Midgar, Sephiroth just kind of appears whenever he wants to.
His appearances are largely only seen by Cloud, where everyone else around him watches him yell at the air and swing his sword at nothing. It isn't until the end of the game where the rest of the party can finally see what Cloud has been dealing with for the entire adventure.