![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kadaj, a Remnant
Jan. 27th, 2014 03:07 pmCharacter Information
Name: Kadaj
Source Canon: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Age: Indeterminate, Late teens
Role In Canon: Major Antagonist
Personality:
Given life by will, Kadaj is a construct -- and an incomplete construct at that. A Remnant of Sephiroth's will, his essence, he embodies the former General's intelligence and cruelty, both of which are great. Kadaj has never been his own person. He has never been fully a person at all.
What will Kadaj has comes from his origins-- it comes from Sephiroth, and from Jenova, from a place of madness and hunger. Along with his brothers, the other Remnants, Kadaj is the child of an unnatural union. What he has always wanted most was to be complete-- to return to his Mother, his brothers (a group in which he includes Cloud Strife), to finally achieve Reunion. Then to transform the life of the Planet. These were Sephiroth's desires, and so they were Kadaj's desires.
Though technically ageless, Kadaj appears to be in the last years of his teens. Like a teenager, he can be mature one moment and childish the next. Gifted with incredible destructive power and a willingness to sacrifice anything to his goals, he loves and hates Sephiroth, admires and resents him. The most intelligent of his brothers, Kadaj does everything for the sake of the Reunion and his Mother's desires, while knowing that Sephiroth is his Mother's favorite, the chosen one. This insecurity only increases Kadaj's emotional volatility. During his fight with a recently healed Cloud, Kadaj unites with his Mother on his own only as a last resort. He would rather have waited for his brothers, for the perfect Reunion, but forced to his limits, he embraces his Mother's remains-- the Sephiroth that emerges is not what he should have been, and is defeated by Cloud.
In the end, dying, his Mother lost, Sephiroth gone, his brothers absent, Kadaj dissolves into the Lifestream. Only able to understand the wholeness he feels in terms of the goal he failed to reach, Kadaj calls Aerith, the spiritual voice of the Planet, "Mother".
It's from this point in his canon, the ultimate point, that Kadaj will enter the Game. Given that the acceptance and comforting oneness he felt on his death will have disappeared, his reaction is likely to be one of explosive rage. He believes that Sephiroth failed him, failed them all-- and that if he had only had his brothers with him, there would have been perfect Reunion, and Cloud would have been defeated. He is probably right.
Kadaj is a creature of brilliant madness-- Sephiroth's brilliance on and off the battlefield, and Sephiroth's madness of knowing, of his anger and betrayal. It isn't enough that Kadaj is a puppet, his intellect won't let her ignore the fact, or forget it. Emotionally, Kadaj is unstable-- an amoral child.
He could easily have made an end of the Shinra, as seen in his visit to Healin Lodge, but Kadaj is petulant and vindictive as well as brilliant. Having taunted Rufus Shinra with the knowledge that he and his brothers had captured and tortured half of his Turks, at Healin Lodge on his own, he disables the other half quite easily before Rufus's eyes. Afterwards, he alternately gloats over and threatens Rufus, but fails to understand his motivations and capabilities well enough to predict his actions. Though he despises the Shinra, the higher, more human emotions evade Kadaj's understanding as motivations, and so he fails to see through Rufus' ruse.
Kadaj sees human beings as lower lifeforms who exist only to be transformed to his Mother's will. He doesn't emulate human behavior and has no desire for intimacy of any kind with the human inhabitants of Gaia. What he does desire is Reunion, and if he were to be intimate with anyone, either emotionally or physically, it would be his brothers. Of course, being parts of a split psyche makes that difficult, and the Remnants fight amongst themselves in a fashion reminiscent of human siblings.
The urge for Reunion in always calling out within Kadaj, but without the drive of Jenova, the will of Sephiroth and the influence of the Lifestream, Kadaj will continue to seek that which is like himself, and be doomed to failure. When disconnected from his whole, he is faced with his identity as incomplete construct. Should he encounter any other being carrying Jenova's cells, one he knows from Sephiroth's memories, he will be drawn to them, seeking union-- how he'll express that desire is another matter.
Believing as he does that fulfillment can only come for him by returning to his mother, the essence of Kadaj's personality lies in his thwarted desire for a union that would obliterate him as a being. It's hard out there for a Remnant.
Abilities:
Kadaj shares some abilities with Sephiroth, of course, but he's an incredibly powerful, merciless killing-machine in his own right. He has great skill with the sword (a double katana called Souba) and with different sorts of Materia based magics, both summons (including Bahamut SIN) and attacks. On Gaia, he's able to summon monsters known as Shadow Creepers from the tainted Lifestream, without Materia-- but of course in the Game, without the Lifestream, this would be a no go. Kadaj can also transform himself into a black mist-- he's able to do this at will and uses the skill to gain access or avoid confinement whenever it's necessary.
Preternatural strength and speed are his, of course, as is the ability to think ahead of most human beings. It isn't precisely mind reading, but it can come very near.
Kadaj is a thing made from rage, sorrow, madness, and alien urges-- his physical being itself is his greatest weapon. Due to the lack of poisoned Lifestream, his powers as expressed in the Game would have certain limits, since Kadaj is not only made in part of that poison, but draws on it and manipulates it as well. He is intelligence and cruelty personified-- and unleavened.
Name: Kadaj
Source Canon: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Age: Indeterminate, Late teens
Role In Canon: Major Antagonist
Personality:
Given life by will, Kadaj is a construct -- and an incomplete construct at that. A Remnant of Sephiroth's will, his essence, he embodies the former General's intelligence and cruelty, both of which are great. Kadaj has never been his own person. He has never been fully a person at all.
What will Kadaj has comes from his origins-- it comes from Sephiroth, and from Jenova, from a place of madness and hunger. Along with his brothers, the other Remnants, Kadaj is the child of an unnatural union. What he has always wanted most was to be complete-- to return to his Mother, his brothers (a group in which he includes Cloud Strife), to finally achieve Reunion. Then to transform the life of the Planet. These were Sephiroth's desires, and so they were Kadaj's desires.
Though technically ageless, Kadaj appears to be in the last years of his teens. Like a teenager, he can be mature one moment and childish the next. Gifted with incredible destructive power and a willingness to sacrifice anything to his goals, he loves and hates Sephiroth, admires and resents him. The most intelligent of his brothers, Kadaj does everything for the sake of the Reunion and his Mother's desires, while knowing that Sephiroth is his Mother's favorite, the chosen one. This insecurity only increases Kadaj's emotional volatility. During his fight with a recently healed Cloud, Kadaj unites with his Mother on his own only as a last resort. He would rather have waited for his brothers, for the perfect Reunion, but forced to his limits, he embraces his Mother's remains-- the Sephiroth that emerges is not what he should have been, and is defeated by Cloud.
In the end, dying, his Mother lost, Sephiroth gone, his brothers absent, Kadaj dissolves into the Lifestream. Only able to understand the wholeness he feels in terms of the goal he failed to reach, Kadaj calls Aerith, the spiritual voice of the Planet, "Mother".
It's from this point in his canon, the ultimate point, that Kadaj will enter the Game. Given that the acceptance and comforting oneness he felt on his death will have disappeared, his reaction is likely to be one of explosive rage. He believes that Sephiroth failed him, failed them all-- and that if he had only had his brothers with him, there would have been perfect Reunion, and Cloud would have been defeated. He is probably right.
Kadaj is a creature of brilliant madness-- Sephiroth's brilliance on and off the battlefield, and Sephiroth's madness of knowing, of his anger and betrayal. It isn't enough that Kadaj is a puppet, his intellect won't let her ignore the fact, or forget it. Emotionally, Kadaj is unstable-- an amoral child.
He could easily have made an end of the Shinra, as seen in his visit to Healin Lodge, but Kadaj is petulant and vindictive as well as brilliant. Having taunted Rufus Shinra with the knowledge that he and his brothers had captured and tortured half of his Turks, at Healin Lodge on his own, he disables the other half quite easily before Rufus's eyes. Afterwards, he alternately gloats over and threatens Rufus, but fails to understand his motivations and capabilities well enough to predict his actions. Though he despises the Shinra, the higher, more human emotions evade Kadaj's understanding as motivations, and so he fails to see through Rufus' ruse.
Kadaj sees human beings as lower lifeforms who exist only to be transformed to his Mother's will. He doesn't emulate human behavior and has no desire for intimacy of any kind with the human inhabitants of Gaia. What he does desire is Reunion, and if he were to be intimate with anyone, either emotionally or physically, it would be his brothers. Of course, being parts of a split psyche makes that difficult, and the Remnants fight amongst themselves in a fashion reminiscent of human siblings.
The urge for Reunion in always calling out within Kadaj, but without the drive of Jenova, the will of Sephiroth and the influence of the Lifestream, Kadaj will continue to seek that which is like himself, and be doomed to failure. When disconnected from his whole, he is faced with his identity as incomplete construct. Should he encounter any other being carrying Jenova's cells, one he knows from Sephiroth's memories, he will be drawn to them, seeking union-- how he'll express that desire is another matter.
Believing as he does that fulfillment can only come for him by returning to his mother, the essence of Kadaj's personality lies in his thwarted desire for a union that would obliterate him as a being. It's hard out there for a Remnant.
Abilities:
Kadaj shares some abilities with Sephiroth, of course, but he's an incredibly powerful, merciless killing-machine in his own right. He has great skill with the sword (a double katana called Souba) and with different sorts of Materia based magics, both summons (including Bahamut SIN) and attacks. On Gaia, he's able to summon monsters known as Shadow Creepers from the tainted Lifestream, without Materia-- but of course in the Game, without the Lifestream, this would be a no go. Kadaj can also transform himself into a black mist-- he's able to do this at will and uses the skill to gain access or avoid confinement whenever it's necessary.
Preternatural strength and speed are his, of course, as is the ability to think ahead of most human beings. It isn't precisely mind reading, but it can come very near.
Kadaj is a thing made from rage, sorrow, madness, and alien urges-- his physical being itself is his greatest weapon. Due to the lack of poisoned Lifestream, his powers as expressed in the Game would have certain limits, since Kadaj is not only made in part of that poison, but draws on it and manipulates it as well. He is intelligence and cruelty personified-- and unleavened.
