Shinra Corporation, of course, represents capitalism in decay. The villages serviced by their reactors are losing their identities, the very economy is dependent on a propagandist "Rufus Effect," and their power plants look as if they are covered by a thin layer of mold. In a philosophical sense, they are a great nihilistic force, sinning against nature and slowly but inexhorably destroying human civilization, both by usurping traditional power structures and by canceling the world's only space program, counterintuitively undermining technological progress.



What's less obvious is what is signified by Sephiroth. Analyzing his thematic significance becomes easier when you compare his status as a feudal ubermensch with the bourgeois ethic of Shinra Corporation. Sephiroth, with his anachronistic garb, polymath intellect, and sword that for reasons unexplained can not be touched by anyone but him, is a mythic, untouchable Great Man of Legend, the will to power made flesh. He controls his followers through sheer force of will, and can serve as a great symbol of the lure of fascism as a kind of nuclear revolt against the decadence of capitalist society in all its forms, provincial(Nibelheim) or urbane(Midgard).



Sephiroth's status as a fascist ubermensch is made even more clear when one takes into account a fairly common socialist analysis of fascism. According to sources as diverse as anarchist scholars and Benito Mussolini himself, fascism is created by a desire on the part of corporations to cement their power and profit in society. To help secure their authoritarian rule, the fascist corporations will often put in power a dictator, a Man of Destiny, to mobilize the populace and create a simple, easily understood object of loyalty and obedience. And indeed, Shinra corporation does just this by creating Sephiroth out of Jenova's cells. The dictator is originally put in power to serve the interest of capital, but eventually, either he or the state apparatus gains enough power and control of the economy to permanently damage the interest of the moneyed interests that created the regime. And indeed this is exactly what happens when Sephiroth rebels and seeks out the Black Materia in a bid for Armageddon.



Cloud and his party essentially represent a bourgeois revolt against Shinra Corporation. Every single party member aside from maybe Aeris, Yuffie, and Red XIII was, at one time, an employee of Shinra who has fallen from the corporation's good graces. This brings to mind a quote regarding the French Revolution: "It wasn't a revolt of poor people, it was a revolt of poor lawyers." They're not opponents of the order so much as people smarting from being cast off. The only character who represented a viable counterpoint to fascism and technocracy was Aeris, and she gets killed brutally.



The theme of FF7 is, ultimately, a conservative one. You can have your individual identity(which is a product of the corporate state anyway), but you can never get what you want out of life or stand up to society with any degree of success. Cloud never gets The Girl or becomes The Guy, Tifa never gets Cloud, Red XIII never de-petrifies his dad even though Soft can be bought for like 50 gil, Aeris the Nature Girl is killed arbitrarily and for thematic reasons, etc. etc. etc. And Shinra Corp is more stable than ever, as seen in Advent Children.