Wikia

Yazoo

Japanese	ヤズー
Romaji	Yazū
Weapon	Velvet Nightmare
Race	Remnants of Sephiroth
Japanese Voice Actor	Yuuji Kishi
English Voice Actor	Dave Wittenberg
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Character

"I will not have you refer to mother that way!"

—Yazoo to Reno

Yazoo is one of the three Remnants of Sephiroth, along with Loz and Kadaj, who are the antagonists of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. He embodies Sephiroth's allure, and has a cool demeanor. Yazoo has the dubious distinction of being the remnant who plays the least important role within the film, but is nonetheless a potent fighter, battling alongside his brother Loz many times throughout the film.

Appearance and PersonalityEdit

"Just as soon as you give back Mother, that'll be the end of everything."

—Yazoo to Reno.

Yazoo wears a long black coat zipped up over his chest with black boots, shoulder guards and straps crossing over his torso. His silver hair is long and extends partway down his back, although not as far as Sephiroth's hair, and he has green eyes with cat-like pupils, the same as Sephiroth. He fights using a Velvet Nightmare handgun, and is the tallest of his brothers and is very lean. Because of his height, hair, and outfit, Yazoo resembles Sephiroth the most of the three remnants. His long hair made him, along with Tifa Lockhart and Sephiroth, one of the harder characters to animate, especially during fight scenes, which may be why he plays a relatively minor role compared to Kadaj and Loz.

Yazoo embodies Sephiroth's allure and cool personality, and pains were taken to differentiate his personality from Kadaj's while not making him like Loz, who was characterized as child-like. His voice actor, Yuji Kishi, was chosen to give Yazoo a shady, dangerous personality, and Yazoo has few facial expressions, limited to moments such as when Reno insults Jenova, or when Cloud Strife slices apart his Velvet Nightmare gun. His cool demeanor was also meant to provide contrast to the childish Loz, as evidenced by Yazoo teasing him for crying several times.

StoryEdit

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Yazoo first appears looking over the wasteland around Midgar with his brothers, and attacks Cloud with Shadow Creepers and Loz. Although they appear to gain the advantage, Kadaj calls off the attack after speaking to one of the Turks on the phone, but not before Yazoo shoots Cloud point-blank in the face, his shot deflected by Cloud's goggles, However Cloud still sustained a minor injury, which is shown as blood is seen trickling down his face.

While Kadaj and Loz go elsewhere to search for Jenova, Yazoo goes to Edge and rounds up dozens of children infected with Geostigma, promising to help cure them. In actuality, the children are needed for a Jenova reunion. Yazoo takes the children to the Forgotten Capital, where Kadaj takes control of them.

When Cloud arrives to save the children, Yazoo and Loz battle and easily overwhelm him, he is saved by Vincent Valentine who takes him to safety. The remnants and the children return to Edge, where Yazoo and Loz attempt to destroy a monument to Meteor, where they believe Rufus has hidden Jenova's remains. Reno and Rude attack them, and Yazoo easily defeats Reno. Kadaj summons Bahamut SIN to terrorize the city, and once defeated by Cloud, Rufus reveals Jenova's remains to Kadaj.

Kadaj and his brothers drive onto the highways into Midgar to flee Cloud, and Yazoo and Loz attack him to stall him. After steering Cloud onto a second highway from the one Kadaj takes, a high-speed battle takes place, both on their motorcycles and in the air above them. Reno and Rude arrive via helicopter to assist Cloud and destroy the section of highway the Remnants are driving on. This creates a ramp for Yazoo to launch his motorcycle off, passing through the helicopter's opened section, shooting off the control stick from under Reno's hand and knocking Rude to its outer edge, giving a high-pitched insane laugh all the while.

Cloud takes on both Yazoo and Loz with his sword later, forcing them to share a motorcycle and to lose their primary weapons. The Turks shortly after catch up in a second helicopter and use bombs to seemingly kill Yazoo and Loz. They, however, somehow survive, reappearing after Cloud defeats Sephiroth and shoot him. Yazoo and Loz then use many Materia to create an explosion before vanishing, killing themselves in the process.

Spoilers end here.

StrengthEdit

Yazoo is, like his brothers, strong and agile, although not as much as Loz. He is fast enough to not only evade Cloud's attacks with the Fusion Swords, but to momentarily step on the blades to leap away. He is also strong enough to defeat Reno in battle.

In battle Yazoo typically uses his agility to keep his distance and shoot his opponents up with his Velvet Nightmare - he is a skilled marksman and is able to shoot off Cloud's goggles at point-blank range while only scratching Cloud's face, shooting Cloud's sword into the air and keep it out of his reach, and uses the weapon's design to parry Cloud's sword strikes at close range. In this sense he usually battles alongside Loz, whose melee attacks and brute strength compliment Yazoo's agility and long-range tactics perfectly.

Other appearancesEdit

Final Fantasy Trading Card GameEdit

Yazoo appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

GalleryEdit

Yazoo attacking.

Yazoo in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

EtymologyEdit

Yazoo's name comes from the geological term, "yazoo stream", referring to a small river that runs alongside, and eventually joins, a much larger river. This likely refers to Yazoo's existence as a part of Sephiroth, although it may also refer to his eventual dissolution into the Lifestream.
Yazoo is also a popular British synthpop band fronted by Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet (known as Yaz in the United States) from the early 1980s. This may be relevant since there already are My Bloody Valentine and Velvet Underground references within Final Fantasy VII.