Final Fantasy Wiki:Featured Articles/Jenova

Jenova was a Calamity that fell from the sky a long, long time ago, and tried to destroy the planet...

Marlene Wallace

Jenova (ジェノバ, Jenoba?) is an extraterrestrial life-form in Final Fantasy VII that also appears in a retellings of sections of the game in the rest of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Jenova serves as a major antagonist in the world of Final Fantasy VII, and experiments on its cells have produced many of the other antagonists as well, including Sephiroth.

Jenova's genetic structure is a two-way conduit: it can both take in the traits of its prey, and insert its own genes to turn other organisms into violent monsters. Once Jenova lands upon a planet it will destroy every form of life it finds. Jenova can absorb its prey's memories and form, hiding as their loved ones to destroy them.

As stated in Professor Hojo's Jenova Reunion Theory, once Jenova's cells have been separated from the main body they will seek to reunite. If they are inside a host body they can influence its mind and body to join the Reunion — sometimes so severely the host organism is killed. For an unknown reason organisms affected by Jenova often grow a single wing capable of flight and the pupils of the affected can change into a cat-like slit, though the rest of the eye remains unchanged.

In Final Fantasy VII Jenova is fought four times. Jenova∙BIRTH is fought on the Cargo Ship. Jenova∙LIFE is fought in the Forgotten Capital at the end of Part I. Jenova∙DEATH is fought at the Whirlwind Maze, and Jenova∙SYNTHESIS is fought at the end of the game in the depths of Northern Cave.

It has been suggested from the material present in the Ultimania Omega that rather than there being several Black Capes, there was just one, Jenova, who was cutting off bits of its body as it journeyed towards Sephiroth until all that remains is a heart. In the original version the party would catch up with the Black Cape in the Whirlwind Maze, and the figure would remove the hood to show it has no face, and then take off the cloak to show it is nothing but Jenova's heart floating midair, the final piece, which would then transform into a monster. (more...)

Recently featured: Mog - Mysidia - Yoshitaka Amano - Trance - Terra's Theme - SeeD