Is Smash's Sephiroth An Anti Villain

Sephiroth enters Smash Ultimate by impaling Galeem, walking through fire, and demanding you beat him before you can play him. The reveal, the challenge mode, the sword reach, the operatic music. All of it makes him feel too mythic, too elevated to be just another villain. Smash's presentation treats him like an anti-villain, a figure with moral weight and tragic grandeur. But here's the problem: Final Fantasy VII never gave him that complexity. His goal is planetary extinction. His motivation is revenge dressed up as transcendence. The fandom has never once defended him. So the question isn't whether Sephiroth is an anti-villain. The question is whether Smash's framing was strong enough to make players believe he could be, and what it means that spectacle can create the impression of depth even when the substance isn't there. The wildest part? Essays titled "Sephiroth Was Right" don't exist. Reddit threads defending Meteor aren't part of the discourse. Smash gave him the aesthetic of an anti-villain without the narrative. And when you make a villain feel mythic enough, players start searching for the mythology. And if they don't find it, they'll build it themselves.