Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34553226-20180504204625/@comment-10380701-20180710103512

See, the Sephiroth comparison is pretty apt, but as much as I want to agree with you, I can't.

For starters, Sephiroth is magnitudes more interesting than Cinder characterization wise. Before he does the stabby, you're presented with this nigh unstoppable badass who's back from the dead and is always ahead of you in every way. Then Cloud establishes how personal his conflict is with Sephiroth via the Nibelheim flashback.

By the time the stabby happens, you're not even just angry at him at that point. You're also afraid. Because he can swiss cheese you easily like he did that fucking dragon. It's a rollercoaster of emotions.

More importantly, that happened almost two decades ago. The guys who hated Sephiroth's guts have grown up already and Aerith's death is a borderline spoiler meme in this day and age. By RWBY Volume 14, I'm sure the Cinder hate would have fade down, too.

It also probably helps that once you get to know Sephiroth further in Crisis Core, you kinda understand where he's coming from and what caused him to spiral into ending the world moreso than the Nibelheim flashback.

Meanwhile, Cinder just does her thing and she's not given enough depth for me to care. All her conflicts are not even personal. Just ask Jaune. Her main beef was with Ruby and she got taken out by her sister's mom instead.

Sure, Raven vs Cinder was hype, but I was not invested on who wins. It'd be nice if Raven wins but eeeeeh.

So when it comes down to it, she comes across as this easily hateable villain who has no redeeming (in terms of writing, not moral) qualities whatsoever. To most people, Cinder's Chibi incarnation is basically how they view her.

The hate for Cinder is a culmination of her not being clear on what the hell her driving motivations are (POWAH is a thing sure. but what led to mindset that tho) and being this dickhead who killed two popular characters, one indirectly.

Honestly, that comparison just made Cinder look more badly written compared to Sephiroth. And I'm not even a fan of FF7. I prefer FF10.