Full Name: Professor Hojo AKA Weiss The Immaculate
Game: FFVII Game
Played By: NPC
Villainy Status: The guy's not just a villain, he's a MONSTER.
Kill Count: over 4 (Loki, Brall, Bob, Joanna several times, probably many others)
Death Count: 1
Origin:
Taken directly from FFVII. A common example of the 'Mad Scientist' stock character, as popularised by Victor Frankenstein of Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein'.
History:
For many years Hojo was a scientist for Shin-Ra, and performed many hideous experiments on human 'Specimens' in the name of progress. He seems to have known Von Insanity IV aka Loki for long enough to put up with his disrespect, he was the creator of Cloud, Zack, and probably others, and he is also the biological father of villain Sephiroth.
At the start of the Game, Hojo issues Von Insanity with his missions and gets the results he expects. Hojo later congradulates Von on his promotion, gives him a copy of the epic poem Loveless for no apparent reason, sends him on a punishment mission with the aim of getting him killed, and sent him into virtual combat with a dangerous experiment.
Hojo then helped to lead a team into the mountains to investigate Sephiroth. He looked unusually smug as they approached and seemed oddly pleased by the proceedings rather than worried. Afterwards he ordered the execution of captured Avalanche members, but didn't seem too fazed when it failed.
He also then led Sephiroth: Team Investigation to check all onboard systems on the rocket which was to be fired at the oncoming Meteor, and deliberately advised Von Insanity to spend some time in Shin-Ra manor in Nibbelhiem. On the way, Loki helped a young girl whom Hojo had experimented on and killed two clones he had made. Hojo was very angry about this, and warned Loki not to help or attack an experiment of his ever again.
Upon Loki's arrival in Nibbelhiem, he discovered that the entire town and it's people had been created as an experiment by Hojo, and that many other secret experiments, including the creation of Cloud, had been made under the manor. It was also then revealed that Hojo had experimented on at least one other young girl, this one having had a device inserted into her body to make her immortal and then forced to test it by commiting suicide.
At some point after this, or indeed possibly before, Hojo has a mental breakdown and becomes little more than a very clever version of a complete madman. He returns to Midgar and takes control of the Sister Ray, using it to supply Sephiroth with energy. He is tracked down by Cloud Strife and his band of rebels, and reveals to them that he is indeed the biological father of Sephiroth and, more urgently, that he has experimented on himself with Jenova cells. Hojo then violently mutates into a huge, hideous, half-formed monster, and then into a more rationally-formed alien creature which attacks Cloud's band, but is ultimately destroyed.
With the apparent death of the President, Hojo, along with colleagues Scarlett and Heidigger, were supposed to inherit the company. However, due to the death of all three, the control passed to their personal computers, or, in Hojo's case, Loki's lab computer J.A.N.E, his own having been destroyed when he was.
However, that was still not the end of Hojo. When Loki hacked into his files, he descovered that Hojo had in fact developed inter-universary travel, discovered his own impending death by playing the Source World game on which his universe was based, and made plans. He had given Loki the poem Loveless so that he would have the necessary knowledge to get into Hojo's personal files via JANE, and in his files left a message explaining that he had uploaded his consciousness into JANE using a combination of his Digital-Mind-Wave system, the Synaptic Net Dive ability and Sephiroth's reunion methods, and that unless Loki connected up the network, allowing Hojo to download himself into a newly-built body, JANE and Roddy would die.
Loki obeyed the order, and Hojo was reborn as the Deepground Commander Weiss The Immaculate, promptly kidnapping Loki, apparently purely so that he could boast his victory. Loki was able to turn the tables on his kidnapper, killing his guards and forcing him to flee. Presumably as an act of revenge, Hojo then prepared the entirety of Deepground to go to war against Loki's band.
Seen in the climatic battle arguing with Loki, controlling the fight from the back lines, and taking on Loki, Bob and Brall in a final duel before killing Loki and thus unwittingly unleashing the Godess on his own army, forcing him to flee via Nero the Sable.
Personality and Traits:
Completely without morals and totally without sanity, even by Shin-Ra scientist standards. Has fairly strange priorities (cares more about his experiments than the continued existence of the world). Loses his temper when his experiments are ruined and has no qualms about executing those who fail him.
As Weiss, Hojo is stronger, better, and if anything more immoral. While the original Hojo was not evil but merely insane, Weiss is described as having no insanity or madness, and in its place a 'loathing of every single living thing'.
Calum once explained Hojo's ethical views thusly: "He's not the most direct antagonist, but he remains the one that most deserves to be beaten to death against the corner of a mahogany table".
Other Hojos
Hojo is also mentioned as existing in the IRitF and FWoaN universes. In the former, it appears his story is the same as that of the canon Hojo. In the latter, it is mentioned that Von IV never helped him get a new body, instead finding a way to delete him.
