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Shinra Electric Power Company

The power company that discovered the secret to mako energy, which allowed them to create an unparalleled energy monopoly. Their headquarters is in Midgar, where their influence is strongest, and the entire city is under their control.

General

Adaptational Badass:
- Compared to their Disc-One Final Boss status in the original game Shinra has a far more prominent role in Remake and their overall competence and threat level is much higher. Individual characters such as Rufus, Scarlet, Reno and Rude are significantly more dangerous than they were in the original game and Shinra collectively poses a much greater challenge to the heroes until Sephiroth arrives.
- In the original game, its implied that outside of Wutai, Shinra's conquest of the planet was relatively peaceful and achieved through benign socio-economic factors, namely that their mako reactors generated cheap electricity that gradually made everyone dependent on Shinra to live. Expanded worldbuilding in Rebirth explains that before Shinra's rise to power, there were regional governments in places like Kalm and Junon, and Shinra went to war with and conquered them despite only being a weapons manufacturer and power company.
Adaptational Nice Guy: It's subtle, but their urban planning is somewhat more practical than in the original game. This time, they have gaps in the plate to allow sunlight into the slums, with large sun lamps to supplement it for the slum dwellers' benefit. Your workers still need Vitamin D after all.
Adaptational Villainy:
- If you thought they were bad in the original game, then you'll love them here. Along with their actions from the original, such as the dropping of the Sector 7 Plate and killing thousands in the process they also intentionally destroy Reactor 1 when Avalanche's bomb merely disables it, causing great deals of destruction and causing mass panic in order to make the group come off as Bomb-Throwing Anarchists instead of Well-Intentioned Extremists. Their motivations behind these actions, which in the original can be seen as them simply going overboard in their attempts to stamp out Avalanche, are also considerably worse, with them framing Avalanche as being allies with Wutai so they can have an excuse to launch another war against them and ignite the populace of Midgar to support their efforts, which knowing them is likely so they can make more Gil. There's also the fact that the reason for their poor running of the Midgar is less out of genuine idiocy (probably) and more so because they plan to abandon Midgar and everyone in it so they can build a newer, bigger city in the Promised Land.
- In Rebirth a big piece of the worldbuilding is the wars Shinra led against the Kalm and Junon republics to conquer them. Wars recent enough that you meet veterans of said wars and they are all middle-aged. In the original game, though there's precious little about the world geopolitics (to the point where it's not clear if there are any other nations outside Wutai, or if the world is just a collection of villages and towns) and history, outside of the Wutai war and Shinra's various operations against insurgencies and AVALANCHE there's no real indication that Shinra's take over the world was particularly violent. What we do learn, about the origin of Midgar and Barret's own backstory, implies it was anything but - Shinra's economic might basically rendered local governments impotent (as it did Mayor Domino) or obsolete as towns welcomed Shinra for the economic benefits and the promises Mako brought.
Always a Bigger Fish: Initially the biggest threat to the heroes, Shinra is instantly outclassed and overpowered the moment Sephiroth shows up despite forming a Big Bad Ensemble with him and still being a threat.
Anti-Villain: Yes, really. Shinra may be run by greedy assholes, but they're only a few in a company that employs thousands of workers. The majority of these are regular people; folks who are just trying to earn their paycheck and care for their families. Furthermore, Shinra is the source of many quality-of-life services that civilization can't function without: i.e. medicines, infrastructure, rescue services, etc.
Arc Villain: They collectively act as the main antagonists of the first part of the remake, as Sephiroth's machinations are downplayed until the game's late hours.
Big Bad Ensemble: With Sephiroth at the end of part 1, while they’re still a threat, Sephiroth himself becomes the main enemy after he reveals himself.
Big Brother Is Watching: A recurring theme is that they have cameras and spies everywhere. While this is natural to expect in Midgar, the city they built and control, it also goes for the rest of the world — as Cloud points out to Yuffie at one point, Shinra is a huge company with a long history, so logically they'd have hundreds of ex-employees around the world. In turn, this means they have any number of contacts they could get information from, willing or otherwise. Add in their fleet of helicopters and airships that let them mobilize quickly, the intelligence gathering skills of the Turks, and the number of Shinra facilities around the world that they still monitor, and there's very little that Cloud and his allies do on their journey that Shinra is not aware of in part.
Corporate Warfare: Shinra has a private army consisting of rank-and-file security officers, grenadiers, riot troopers, flametroopers, helitroopers, pharmaceutically augmented shock troopers, and shock troopers clad in Mini-Mecha. The crown jewel of Shinra's military is SOLDIER, a Super-Soldier program that recruits only the best of the best and pickles them in mako to grant them inhuman combat abilities — ostensibly at the cost of having a greatly-decreased life expectancy.
Deconstruction: Of the Megacorp. Shinra ticks all the boxes handily; they run their own city, have their own private army, are ridiculously wealthy and powerful, and their leadership is corrupt and self-serving. However, the business practices that allowed them to become so powerful are shown to be self-destructive — being ruthless, amoral expansionists means they don't care about the problems they cause with their actions, their corporate infrastructure is extremely inefficient, and they're reliant on controlling the masses with propaganda and fearmongering, which only works so far. Finally, their ultimate goal is to just become even more rich and powerful than they already are, even though they effectively rule the world already, and their plans to achieve this are based on old legends they don't even know are true or not. All in all, Shinra is controlled by short-sighted fools who are making their position even more precarious with their own reckless, pointless greed, and it's dubious if the company is sustainable in the long-term.
Deliberately Bad Example: In Rebirth, after Yuffie torpedoes a truce that Rufus Shinra was trying to negotiate with the party, Barret later comments that this was probably for the best since Shinra just can't be trusted. While there is no evidence of insincerity on Rufus's part, the game pretty much vindicates this mistrust with both Hojo's antics in Costa del Sol and Scarlet's actions in Gongaga, making it clear that a confrontation with Shinra would always be inevitable regardless of whether or not they accepted the offer.
Didn't See That Coming: By all means, their plans to demonize Avalanche as being pawns of Wutai to re-engage another War for Fun and Profit had been going swimmingly, and all the boxes had been ticked towards the endgame. Then the Jenova-Sephiroth abruptly kills the President, completely undermining everything they had been working towards and forcing a complete shift in priorities.
Even Evil Has Standards: Heidegger, Palmer, and Scarlet are nasty pieces of work for sure, but even they're visibly disturbed by Hojo's suggestion that they turn Aerith into a Breeding Slave.
Evil, Inc.: While some of their rank and file employees are decent people, Shinra's executive board aside from Reeve consists of power-hungry, greedy bastards who care nothing about the common people.
Evil Tower of Ominousness: Their headquarters is a 70-story skyscraper towering over Midgar.
Incompetence, Inc.: It's evident that even without Avalanche's attacks, Shinra is barely holding itself together. Their reactors don't produce enough power to run all areas of Midgar, infrastructure areas are poorly maintained while others still under construction have been abandoned and materials and equipment left behind, and monsters infest the slums and the underplate meters under the footsteps of the civilians above. This is at least partially intentional negligence, since they plan to abandon Midgar for the yet-to-be-built Neo Midgar, and President Shinra ignores Reeve when he attempts to push for reconstruction efforts. Rebirth further explains that older generation mako reactors were highly inefficient and many have been shut down or are only partially functional, they were often understaffed and not properly regulated, and at least two (Corel and Gongaga) experienced catastrophic system failures, and Shinra's response was to just abandon them. They also have surprisingly horrible intercommunications with their subareas, Junon has very little members realize that Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith are Avalanche members, and even the Gold Saucer needs posters physically flown in.
Meaningful Name: According to Yoshinori Kitase, the word "Shinra" derives from the word "myth" in Japanese (神話, shinwa) tying into how Shinra, and many people associated with them, were all about becoming gods and gaining control over everything.
MegaCorp: They're a power company that also runs Midgar, operates security and military forces for it, and manufactures robots and consumer products.
One Nation Under Copyright: Technically, Midgar has a mayor, but he lampshades he's basically powerless and Shinra are the ones who control Midgar.
Punch-Clock Villain: The remake establishes that for all the evil of Shinra's leaders, many employees of the company are ordinary people who work for Shinra because it is the largest employer in Midgar and many of them are horrified at the destruction Shinra has caused, albeit believing those acts to be the work of Avalanche and Wutai rather than their bosses.
Revenge Before Reason: In order to completely stamp out Avalanche, they destroy the pillar holding up the Sector 7 plate, destroying a significant part of Midgar and killing tens of thousands of people. Numerous characters, including some of Shinra's own employees, refuse to believe they'd actually do such a thing, because it just doesn't make sense to do such an inhumane and extreme thing for such a reason. The actual explanation? They want to start ANOTHER war with Wutai as an excuse to wipe them out. Stamping out Avalanche is only a side-goal.
The Rich Want to Be Richer: A MegaCorp that has influence over the entire planet, providing power by draining the Mako (lifeforce) of the Earth itself, and selling weapons, vehicles, and even the services of their Super-Soldier creations, all for a major profit. But the majority of the company's leadership wants more, planning on locating the legendary Promised Land, a place rich in Mako energy, where they can build Neo Midgar, and charge people a fortune for the chance to live there.
Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Between the seven of them, the executive group runs the whole gamut. It ranges as follows:
- Reeve is the Token Good Teammate, being evidenced by him being only director to object to dropping the Sector 7 plate and the only one to do the proper narration at the museum. He is also the man controlling Cait Sith, helping the party through him and changing the photos on AVALANCHE's wanted posters.
- Palmer is an ineffectual Butt-Monkey, with his department getting skeletonized leading to him not doing much. He is at most required to do menial tasks such as distributing wanted posters and reserving hotel rooms, and the party would've likely been slaughtered by the Anuran Suppressor if not for him not really knowing how to pilot it.
- Rufus is ruthlessly pragmatic but still somewhat humane. Shinra under his leadership has a strange relationship with AVALANCHE, in which they are still at odds like during his father's rule, but both see each other as lesser enemies compared to their goals of hunting Sephiroth. He also acts more bellicose towards Wutai to the point of starting a war and is focused on finding the Promised Land, but also refuses to have an injured Tseng tended by Hojo and even offers a truce with Cloud and the party (though it is called off when Yuffie tries to assassinate him).
- Scarlet and Heidegger are pretty awful but do have some lines they won't cross. Scarlet is responsible for Barret losing his villiage, wife, and hand, and Yuffie losing her mission partner, but she gets disgusted at what Hojo wants to do to Aerith and never insults her foes for their physical appearance. Heidegger is the mastermind behind making AVALANCHE's disabling of Reactor 1 turn into a full on destruction, but he also takes a shuriken to the back protecting Rufus from an assassination attempt by Yuffie.
- President Shinra has no such lines meanwhile. The founder of the company, he is responsible for the numerous crimes it has committed, from bringing Junon and Wutai to their knees with war to killing tens of thousands of people through the Sector 7 plate collapse. At the end of Remake, he even states that he has no principles and only does action on self-interest.
- Finally, there is Mad Scientist Hojo. In addition to being a root cause to many of the major characters' woes (keeping Aerith, Ifalna, and Red XIII in his lab, experimenting on humans that ultimately caused Sephiroth to go insane, et cetera), he's enough of a Hate Sink that even most of the other executives distrust him.
Stupid Evil: Hand-in-hand with Incompetence, Inc., Shinra's higher ups are so pointlessly cruel and power-hungry that it's almost self-sabotaging. Aside from Reeve (and Palmer, who doesn't do anything anyway), Shinra's board of executives treat their employees like dirt, they're afraid they may lose their jobs (or worse) over any petty or perceived sleight, and even if they do their jobs competently, they'll get no recognition for it and more likely be ignored. They're also apathetic about the damage they do to their own city in their fight with Avalanche because they plan to abandon Midgar to build Neo Midgar in the Promised Land, even though they don't know if it actually exists. And they callously destroy a sector of their own city out of petty spite against Avalanche despite it not benefiting them in the slightest and as Cloud points out, it would cost them a fortune to rebuild. In Rebirth, following Rufus Shinra becoming the new president, he calls out the executives on this behavior and questions why they never spoke up against his father for his own reckless and short-sighted behaviors.
Villain Has a Point: As bad as their draining of mako is in the long term, even Cloud acknowledges that mako energy genuinely has improved the standard of living for people in Midgar.
Villain with Good Publicity:
- They control the news media everyone in Midgar relies on for information, which Shinra makes sure is favorable to them and paints their enemies in the worst light possible.
- Zig-Zagging in Rebirth as the populace of different towns naturally all have their own independent views on Shinra, as the company has improved certain areas but left others in ruins. For examples, the upper city of Junon, Costa Del Sol, and the Gold Saucer are all pro-Shinra as they benefit the most from the mako energy that is given to them. These areas tend to treat Shinra's upper-brass like celebrities. While places like the under city of Junon, the Crow's Nest, and Corel are generally anti-Shinra as they suffered the most due to Shinra's machinations. The people in these places would like nothing more than to see Shinra fall.
War for Fun and Profit: Their main conflict with Wutai is the main instrument they use to keep the populace in the check and earn gil, while most of the higher-ups are gleefully excited at the thought of slaughtering the Wutaians.

Leadership

President Shinra

Voiced By: James Horan (English), Genzo Wakayama (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

The President of the Shinra Electric Power Company, the mega-corporation that rules Midgar and most of the world thanks to its energy monopoly and its own private military. While Shinra began as a powerful heavy arms manufacturer, it was his ruthless leadership and expansion into Mako energy that allowed it to become a global, fascist superpower that controls much of the Planet with an iron first.

Adaptational Curves: In the original game he was a Fat Bastard, while he's much slimmer in the remake.
Adaptational Intelligence: The expanded Midgar sequence shows off more of his cunning and manipulative nature. He uses his control of the media to tell the narrative he wants people to hear, and he regularly twists Avalanche's actions to cast them as terrorists and Shinra as the city's benevolent defenders.
Adaptation Personality Change: In the original game, Rufus claimed that his father used promises of wealth and stability to keep the loyalty of the civilian populace. In Remake we see that he actually rules more like Rufus by using fear to control the common people, via propaganda that exaggerates the threat that Wutai and Avalanche pose to Midgar and convincing them only Shinra can protect them.
Arch-Enemy: He announces via propaganda that Wutai is "wicked" and "our sworn enemy."
Asshole Victim: Considering the high number of crimes against humanity that his company have carried out over the years under his orders, nobody is expected to mourn for him after his murder by Sephiroth's hands. Even Rufus, his own son, doesn't seem all that bothered upon learning of his demise.
At Least I Admit It: In his and Barret's stand-down, he calls out Barret for caring more about his own self-interests, by way of clearing Avalanche's name, than the noble "save the planet" cause he proclaims to be fighting for, calling out Barret's talk about his so-called vaunted principles as mere vain indulgences. When Barret tries to turn it around on President Shinra by asking him what his vaunted principles are, he outright admits that he has none: He's all about indulging his own self-interests and vanity.
Bad Boss: He's a dictatorial tyrant, and is willing to sacrifice countless lives to literally crush those who oppose him — being shown sporting a cruel smile as he watches the Sector Seven plate collapse.
Big Bad: For part one of the game. He's the leader of Shinra and directly has a hand in several of the game's incidents. Taking him down is the primary motivation of the heroes.
Big Bad Wannabe: Like in the original game, he’s ultimately killed by Sephiroth before he could achieve his goals.
Bling-Bling-BANG!: If you wanted any more proof that he's an elitist, his personal weapon is a custom-made, gold-plated handgun. Though really it's just another way of flaunting his wealth, best shown when he holds Barret at gunpoint.
Break Them by Talking: A preferred strategy of his. In both his confrontations with Avalanche he hits them with speeches intended to deconstruct their moral stances, as well as dropping unsettling facts like telling Cloud that SOLDIERs will die young from celluar degradation.
Call-Forward: His comments to Barret about who the people could turn to in case of a natural disaster if Shinra wasn't around, and questioning whether they would accept Avalanche in their stead, foreshadow the events of Advent Children and its tie-in media: after Meteorfall, the world does indeed have trouble rebuilding without Shinra's resources and oversight, and a lot of people blame Avalanche for the state of the world even though they were the ones who saved it.
Card-Carrying Villain: Downplayed - he's fully aware that he has no principles, and he blatantly admits as much to Barrett in his At Least I Admit It speech, but he's pragmatic enough to make himself a Villain with Good Publicity.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: The President of the Shinra Corporation, President Shinra is shown to be a greedy and ruthless tyrant who rules over Midgar through fear, crushing those who oppose him with his corporation's private army and the Turks.
Destination Defenestration: When the party follows the trail of Jenova blood to his office, they discover a hole in one of the windows, with President Shinra dangling off a railing outside, calling out for help. It is all but stated that Sephiroth attempted to kill him by throwing him through the window.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original game, he was Killed Offscreen after capturing the AVALANCHE members who raided Shinra HQ, and the party finds him impaled with Sephiroth's sword, thus confirming that he was the killer. In the remake, he actually survives Sephiroth's initial rampage, and manipulates AVALANCHE into rescuing him before holding them at gunpoint. It's at this point that Sephiroth shows up again and finishes him off in full view of the party.
Dirty Coward: He is quick to beg for his life when dangling off a building, even asking Avalanche for mercy. But once he grabs a gun, he's quick to talk tough again.
Disc-One Final Boss: Despite Sephiroth's early appearance President Shinra still drives a great deal of Remake. At the end of Remake he dies and Sephiroth becomes the more direct antagonist of the party, while Rufus assumes his place as head of Shinra itself.
The Emperor: Like in the original. Officially he is the owner and CEO of a conglomerate, but in practice he is this. Wields absolute, unchecked power? Check. Is the boss of a superpower? Check. Is in control of large amounts of the planet? Check. Has expansionist and conquest policies? Check. Commands vast armies? Check. Controls politics? Check. Can hand it all off to his kid? Check. The fact that Barret explicitly calls Rufus the "heir to the throne" is practically just lampshade hanging.
Even Evil Has Standards: Implied. Following Professor Hojo's suggestion that they forcibly impregnate Aerith and turn her into their own Breeding Slave, he quickly adjourns the meeting and refuses to discuss the matter any further. It's probably the only example of him possibly displaying any kind of morality in the entire game, and even then it's quite questionable...
Godhood Seeker: While he never makes any direct claims of godhood, his goal is to fulfil the legends of the Ancients, find their Promised Land of limitless mako, and build a utopia there that he will rule over.
Gold-Colored Superiority: President Shinra has many gold adorned and accented items in his posession and scattered throughout the Shinra building, including a gold-plated Desert Eagle pistol. A massive golden statue of himself even looms over visitors to the Shinra Museum inside the tower. All of which symbolize his self-proclaimed position at the top of the global hierarchy.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He smokes a cigar during the board meeting and is very, very evil.
The Hedonist: A more Corrupt Corporate Executive version of the trope than usual but President Shinra outright admits that he has no principles aside from "I know what I want, and I take it." This pursuit of self-gratification leans heavily into his role as a Straw Nihilist: He doesn't care about any higher values except furthering his own self-interests and vanity. It even plays into his long-term goals of Godhood Seeking: It's all just to indulge his greed and elitist desire to live an even more opulent life.
Hypocrite:
- During the confrontation outside Mako Reactor 5, Barret accuses the President of having brainwashed the populace into compliance. President Shinra denies this notion, claiming that it's beneath him to resort to such methods... only to then immediately reveal his plan to use propaganda to make the populace believe an Avalanche/Wutai conspiracy is responsible for the terrorist attacks so that the people will be fine with reigniting the war again. The fact that he owns the media and liberally uses them to make himself a Villain with Good Publicity really stretches the notion that he's not brainwashing people.
- Calls out Barret for caring more about Avalanche's reputation than actually shutting down the reactors, calling concepts like truth, honour, justice, and freedom "vain indulgences"... These accusations coming from a man holding a Bling-Bling-BANG! gun and who has a golden statue of himself displayed as a prominent showpiece a couple of floors down, it more so emphasizes his own nihilistic hypocrisy than the actual point he's making. Given that this is a part of his At Least I Admit It speech, this is likely intentional: At least he's honest about being an unprincipled narcissist.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Like the original, this is his fate at the hands of Sephiroth, as he gets stabbed through the back with his katana and left to die. Unlike the original, the party is actually around to witness it.
I Was Quite the Looker: Hard as it may be to imagine, there's an old picture of him from his days as an upstart young businessman that shows he was the spitting image of his son. Years of living a life filled with bloodshed and corruption has clearly taken its toll on Shinra Sr.
- In fact, all three of his children, Rufus, and his two bastard sons Lazard Deusericus and Evan Townshend, are incredibly good looking men, owing a lot to their father in that respect.
Jerkass Has a Point: During their initial confrontation at Reactor 5, Barret accuses him and his company of sucking the planet's lifeforce dry. Shinra dryly notes that it's true, but it's also no secret. Everyone knows where Mako comes from, and the vast majority of citizens consider it a fair trade for the convenience electricity brings. He notes that Barret should be as angry towards them as he is towards Shinra, since they are effectively complicit. He's absolutely right on this. Not only is Shinra's immense power only possible because people readily, eagerly buy their electricity while knowing how it is made, but ambient dialogue from NPCs around Midgard shows the majority of them are in favor of the reactors.
Narcissist: The man has an entire museum dedicated to himself right beneath his office, complete with a huge gold statue right at the front entrance.
Non-Action Big Bad: Unlike his son and heir Rufus, he doesn't appear to have any knowledge or proficiency in combat. That said, guns (at least in cutscenes) are a great equalizer and he is able to have Barret at his mercy after getting the drop on him with a handgun.
Only One Name: His first name is never once mentioned in the story, with everyone else simply referring to him by his title.
Pragmatic Villainy: He is very stern on the forces of Shinra and Hojo not physically harming Aerith, since as the last Ancient she's valuable to him beyond measure. Abduct her and experiment on her using whatever means get the job done, but don't risk killing her.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Claims that Avalanche is working with Wutai to destroy Midgar, giving his company an excuse to wage war again. In the INTERmission DLC, it turns out that agents of Wutai are working with Avalanche, though they aren't backing Avalanche as much as Shinra claims, and are operating in a much smaller capacity.
Self-Made Man: He single-handedly raised the company up from a small arms manufacturer to a massive conglomerate.
Shrine to Self: An entire floor of the Shinra building is dedicated to a gaudy museum of the CEO, with a massive solid gold statue of the man in the entrance.
Slouch of Villainy: He's first seen watching a screen Barret and his crew infiltrating Mako Reactor 1 while slouching in his chair a top of Shinra Tower, surrounded by other Ominous Multiple Screens.
The Sociopath: He has no qualms with dropping the Sector 7 plate, killing thousands of people who live on or under the plate, for an excuse to start a war with Wutai, and plans on abandoning Midgar to build a new city in the Promised Land. When Barret confronts him and demands to know what principles he has, President Shinra coldly declares that he will use anyone and anything at his disposal to get what he wants and discard those who are no longer useful to him, and that "There is no room for sentiment or guilt."
Straw Nihilist: He mocks values such as truth, honor, freedom and justice, believing them to be "vain indulgences", as he describes them. In particular, he calls out Barret's demands for clearing Avalanche's name, saying that Barret is ultimately more interested in preserving Avalanche's reputation than saving Midgar or the planet. In keeping with the trope he's also The Hedonist and The Sociopath.
Trumplica: President Shinra in the original game acted as a stand-in and gross exaggeration of many contemporary famous 90s billionaires and business tycoons, Donald Trump among them. The Remake emphasizes the comparisons (actual or imagined) in the wake of Trump's ascension to and fall from the United States Presidency, and all the power and pageantry that office represents. Remake Shinra even looks vaguely like Trump, to further the allegory.
The Unfettered: As he puts it in his grand speech towards Barret; when he sees something he wants, he takes it.
Ungrateful Bastard: Towards the end of the game, Barret begrudgingly saves President Shinra from falling off the roof of his own skyscraper, demanding that he pay this act of kindness back by confessing his wrongdoings. Shinra then proceeds to pull a gun on him and mock his sentimentality. It only earns him a sword through the back courtesy of Sephiroth.
Villain Has a Point:
- He points out to Barret that everyone in Midgar knows the exact nature of mako and the lifestream and yet they are perfectly fine with Shinra exploiting mako for power if it means they benefit from it by having easy access to electricity; thus, every person in the city is complicit in Shinra's deeds.
  President Shinra: Picture it! Picture a world without Shinra. Without Mako energy. A stagnant, impotent world. Now picture a natural disaster. Who would help the people? Help them recover and rebuild? You? With their old world ruined, will they thank you for the new?
- When Barret saves him from falling to his death off the top of the Shinra headquarters, his demands (when the President had offered him anything he wanted to save him) are to make a public broadcast admitting Shinra were the ones who dropped the Sector 7 plate, and Avalanche is an independent anti-Shinra group with no connections to Wutai. Once he has a gun and feels more confident, the President points out that Barret could have demanded they shut down the mako reactors, but all he asked is for the President to clear their names. He directly calls out that having such priorities shows Barret's true interests and motives are self-interest, covered by a veneer of altruism and heroics.
Villain with Good Publicity: He's much more successful at framing Avalanche as terrorists working for Wutai while playing up Shinra's rescue efforts. Most of Midgar's residents thus have a much worse view of them than of Shinra. It helps that he owns the news.
Villains Want Mercy: Near the end of the game, when he's dangling off the roof of the Shinra Building, he begs Avalanche to save him. Barret begrudgingly does so on the grounds he clear Avalanche's name in regards to the destruction of Sector 7; instead, the minute he's back on solid ground, he pulls a gun on him.
Xanatos Gambit: His handling of Avalanche's attacks on the mako reactors. If Avalanche is stopped, Shinra continues business as usual, with some good publicity for stopping a terrorist attack. If the attack succeeds, Shinra destroys the reactors themselves (while maximizing collateral damage) and frames Avalanche, turning public opinion against them.

Rufus Shinra

Voiced By: Josh Bowman (English), Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff7r_rufus.png

Darkstar

Shinra's Vice President, who holds the position by virtue of being the President's son. While he holds many of the same ambitions as his father, they do not see eye to eye and he is a far more ruthless and clever man who relies on strategy and patience rather than brute force to get what he wants. Despite not being a SOLDIER, he is an exceptionally gifted combatant who can easily hold his own against SOLDIER First Class warriors with nothing more than his rifle, a few trick coins and his loyal hound Darkstar.

Adaptation Dye-Job: In the original game, his hair was of orange shade. Here, it's more of a platinum blonde.
Adaptation Name Change: Not him but rather his guard dog, Darkstar, who was named Dark Nation in the original.
Adaptational Badass: In the original game Rufus was a very unremarkable boss: his only move was a shotgun blast that did mediocre damage, he was reliant on support from his attack dog Dark Nation to give him defensive buffs and attack Cloud, and he had pitiful HP compared to other bosses around the same time. In Remake, Rufus is a fully capable combatant in his own right, able to use Gun Kata to parry Cloud's attacks and jet around the arena, he utilizes trick coins to create laser blasts, explosions, and smoke fields, and his shotgun is a Combo Rifle that can split into two capable of rapid fire. He's even more dangerous with Darkstar by his side, as the two can protect each other and combo their attacks together, such as Darkstar knocking Cloud into the air for Rufus to shoot back down.
Adaptational Heroism: Only in a relative sense. Rufus's introductory speech from the original game about controlling the masses through fear instead of Bread and Circuses makes no appearance in this incarnation, with his father absorbing most of that leadership style for himself and leaving the question of how Rufus will run Shinra much more up in the air in Remake. Most of his screentime is instead spent on building up his status as a worthy opponent to Cloud. In Rebirth, Rufus has his priorities enough in order that he tries cutting a deal with the party to leave each other alone until the much more pressing problem of Sephiroth is dealt with, calls out the board of directors on going along with his father's insane plan to destroy Sector 7, and while he still mistakenly believes that there's a Promised Land for him to find and conquer, Rufus does want to confirm that it actually exists before he stakes everything on it. All of this seems to be in keeping with Rufus' Hazy-Feel Turn in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, as well as subsequent Compilation media that have consistently painted him as more inclined towards Pragmatic Villainy than his father's Stupid Evil. He also basically tells Hojo to back off in Chapter 14 when Hojo suggests that he be allowed to have a look at Tseng's injuries, something which didn't happen in the original game. His tone suggests at least some level of contempt for Hojo and his experiments.
Adaptational Nice Guy:
- In Remake Rufus is complimentary to Cloud during his boss battle and seems to respect that Cloud was giving him a real fight. He also seems to have some degree of legitimate affection for Darkstar, given he refers to it as "D" and motions for it to retreat after it's been critically beaten by Cloud.
- In the original game, Rufus's take over of the company is seen as the Tyrant Takes the Helm, as Rufus wanted to control the world through fear, as opposed to his father's Bread and Circuses approach. However, in Rebirth, Rufus is treated as the less evil leader than his father, as he outright calls out the executives on their questionable actions throughout Remake under President Shinra's leadership.
Adaptational Intelligence: In the original game when Cloud's party infiltrated Junon disguised as Shinra Grunts, Rufus walked right up to them after the parade and didn't even notice. In Rebirth he (along with Tseng) are able to easily see through their Paper Thin Disguises but let them approach him as a means of communicating with them in order to cut a deal with them. At the end of the game, he also realizes that "Glenn" is actually working for Sephiroth and using the brewing Wutai-Shinra war to keep Rufus from being able to do anything about Sephiroth, although he doesn't realize that Glenn actually is Sephiroth until the latter drops the ruse.
Adaptation Personality Change: In the original game, Rufus wanted to rule the Planet through fear, as opposed to his father's "costly" method of controlling the masses through Bread and Circuses. However, the remakes seem to have flip-flop their leadership styles, with President Shinra being the one to rule his citizens with fear through the looming threat of a war, while Rufus seems more focused on spectacle and improvement. It shown throughout Rebirth that Rufus would rather be loved by the masses than feared as the company sell merchandise of Rufus in Junon, he fires the Junon canon during his inauguration parade partially because he knew many of the onlookers wanted to see it action, outright tells the party that he would like to spend his time repairing Midgar than expend resources chasing around both them and Sephiroth, and enters the tournament at the Musclehead Colossuem while taking a moment to wave at the cheering spectators. It is subtly implied that this version of Rufus is trying use his fans' admiration and his employees' loyalty as a substitute for the lack of love he received from his father, something that Glenn calls him out on.
Affectionate Nickname: Refers to Darkstar as "D" when issuing certain commands.
Age Lift: He was 25 in the original, but was aged up to 30 in Remake.
Ascended Extra: Both Rufus and his pet Dark Nation/Darkstar get this.
- Compared to the original, far more focus is given in Rebirth to how Rufus tries to keep other Shinra directors under his control and deal with the upcoming war against Wutai. In addition, his rivalry against Cloud is played up as he goes out of his way to duel the ex-SOLDIER in both Remake and Rebirth.
- Dark Nation/Darkstar goes from a single-battle support during Rufus' boss fight in the original and Remake to his faithful canine companion/attack hound that is consistently by its master's side throughout Rebirth.
Attack Animal: For his duel with Cloud, he is accompanied by his guard dog, Darkstar.
Authority in Name Only: Despite being the Vice President of Shinra Inc., Rufus was functionally living in exile Reassigned to Antarctica after running afoul of (and attempting to assasinate) his father President Shinra. As such, his vice presidency was a ceremonial position granted only because he was the President's son. Heidegger initially tries to reinforce this by calling him "Mr. Vice President" after Rufus assumes control of Shinra Inc. during the epilogue to Remake, but Tseng quickly refutes it calling him "Mr. President", to which Rufus responds "That's right."
Badass Normal: Even more than in the original. While Darkstar is genetically engineered and equipped with magic spells, Rufus himself doesn't have any supernatural abilities that even the Turks demonstrate here and there. Armed with a highly-modified shotgun and some trick coins, he's able to square off surprisingly evenly with Cloud even after sending Darkstar away.
Baddie Flattery: He thinks quite highly of himself, but he considers Cloud a Worthy Opponent and is completely frank about how much exertion the ex-SOLDIER is requiring him to expend during their battle.
Big Bad Wannabe: Albeit, an extremely effective one who always appears to be on the cusp of being the Big Bad. For all his ability, and the constant threat he poses to Avalanche, he's ultimately just another pawn to Sephiroth's machinations. For what it's worth, he's just about the only character who seems to make Sephiroth sweat, as he goes through a hell of a lot of effort into manipulating him, engineering an entire war just to prevent turning him into a potential enemy. Not half bad for a Big Bad Wannabe.
Blinded by Rage: Rufus does not do well when angered to put it mildly. When Glenn is revealed to be a Robed Man under the illusion of Glenn, his response is to empty his clip in his face, with the subtext everything he is doing is as Sephiroth planned. This carries over to his rematch in Rebirth, Rufus can parry Cloud with a clear head, but if he takes a hit he reflexively tries to shoot Cloud despite this just making him vulnerable to another attack and wasting ammo if he fails.
Chick Magnet: Maybe not to the same extent as Cloud, but Rufus has his fair share of in-universe fan girls all across the Planet as many of the NPC comments on how handsome he is when brought up in conversation.
Cold Ham: Rufus rarely raises his voice above a bored sounding monotone, but he speaks with the eloquence and confidence befitting the President of Shinra.
Combat Pragmatist: After demonstrating how he can shoot coins out of the air to produce deadly attacks, he flips more coins but this time, when Cloud's eyes follow them into the air, Rufus uses them as a distraction to allow himself to close and attack Cloud directly.
Combination Attack: Rufus has many attacks that he can use with Darkstar for the first couple phases of his fight.
Combo Rifle: His new shotgun can now split into a pair of automatic Hand Cannons.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Rufus is an arrogant man who's spoiled by Daddy's money, and upon finding out Cloud is a SOLDIER says that this means he "owns [him]".
Counter-Attack: Rufus can respond to Cloud's physical attacks and skills by parrying them and opening him up for a free shot in the back, limiting how reckless Cloud can afford to be regarding CQC. Rufus can't counter while he is preoccupied using skills or staggered and if he's out of bullets he's forced to reload instead of attack after the parry.
Deadpan Snarker: He's got quite the silver tongue, particularly when it comes to his duels with Cloud, who he smugly still refers to as an employee of his despite Cloud quitting (and being explicitly defiant against) Shinra.
Rufus: (referring to Darkstar) As you can see, he's very loyal.
Cloud: Yeah. You don't bite the hand that feeds.
Rufus: And yet here you are.
Dragon Ascendant: He becomes the new president of the company after his father is killed.
Dual Boss: He's fought alongside his dog, Darkstar. In a twist, you are required to deplete Darkstar's HP before you can even drain Rufus' HP.
Rufus: Just the two of us... Well, maybe three.
Duel Boss: Darkstar leaves in the final phase of his battle, so Cloud faces Rufus one-on-one.
Cloud: It's on for real now?
Rufus: Yeah. You should be honored.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- He seems to care for his pet, Darkstar, as he sends it away from the fight once its HP is gone. And Rebirth shows that the feeling is mutual as after Rufus takes enough damage during his fight with Cloud at the tournament, Darkstar will jump in to assist him.
- Averted in regard to his father, who he cares so little for that his ascension to the position of President upon the old man's death matters much more to him than the loss of his father did. Of course, given his father is a sociopathic scumbag…
Even Evil Has Standards:
- Would-be fascist dictator he may be, but in Rebirth he calls the Shinra board of directors out on not having the guts to stand up to his father, especially when it came to his more ruthless actions like destroying Sector 7.
- In Chapter 14, when Hojo offers to tend to an injured Tseng, Rufus turns him down, preventing Hojo from turning Tseng into another Sephiroth clone like Roche.
  Hojo: Tseng is in grave condition... Perhaps I could help?
  Rufus: No. The medical team will see to him. (Beat) I think you have enough "material."
  [cuts to Roche as a Sephiroth clone]
Explosion Propulsion: Rufus' guns are powerful enough that he can use the recoil to zip around the arena by shooting behind himself.
Foe Romance Subtext: Less so "subtext" and more like outright text, where both Cloud and Rufus both lay it on thick with the Ho Yay, to the point where their backhanded compliments sound like full-blown flirting.
Cloud: Think you got my number?
Rufus: Not at all, you're making me sweat. [Pulls two coins out of his pocket] Good thing I came prepared.
Foil: Rebirth makes him out to be one for Sephiroth. Both are heirs to power and prestige, with an intense rivalry with Cloud, and a tendency to destroy that which does not aide their agenda. Glenn calls him a Pig-headed, Daddy hating child, whose ambitions only lead to his loneliness, when after all is said and done could be just as much said about Sephiroth, which is notable because Glenn is Sephiroth puppeteering a black robe to look like the real Glenn.
Glass Cannon: As a boss, Rufus hits hard and can easily knock down or stun-lock Cloud, and he counters most frontal attacks. On the other hand, he has really low HP for a late-game boss, and reloading his guns leaves him so vulnerable that he instantly staggers with a single Braver — which may be enough for Cloud to pummel him to death even without a Limit ready.
Gun Kata: His gun lets him parry blows from Cloud and fight him in melee range.
Guns Akimbo: Rufus can split his shotgun into a pair of Hand Cannons to unload bullets onto Cloud. It's even the skill name.
Guns vs. Swords: The fight against him becomes this once Darkstar leaves, pitting his guns against Cloud's sword.
The Gunslinger: Rufus is one of the most skilled gunfighters in the world, able to give Cloud a run for his money.
Hand Cannon: Two of them, though he usually wields them combined into a single shotgun.
Hates Their Parent: Rufus makes no secret he despises his father. At the Temple of the Ancients, his only thought of his father was to hope he saw him be victorious where he failed.
I Call It "Vera": After his fight with Cloud in Remake caused his guns to go missing of off Shinra Tower, Rufus gets himself a new gun he calls Kamui for their rematch in Rebirth. It looks nearly identical to his original gun, but can also be used as a tonfa.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Rufus's Bright Lights attack has him toss two coins in the air and then shoot those coins out of the air with his guns, sending them hurtling towards Cloud at an insane velocity.
I See Them, Too: Rufus is so far the only non-party member aside from Sephiroth and as of Rebirth, Scarlet and Cissnei, who has been able to see the Arbiters of Fate. How this is possible and what it means are current unknown.
Kryptonite Factor: Like most bosses in Remake, Rufus has both an obvious one of these and one that's left to the player to ascertain. If you Assess him, the description mentions that striking him with "a certain special move" when he's reloading will stagger him. That move is Braver, which instantly fills Rufus's entire stagger gauge. His more subtle weakness is a one-time vulnerability each to Sleep and Stop, which allows Cloud to easily land a Braver hit.
Let's Get Dangerous!: For the first while of the fight, Darkstar is the one that uses the more dangerous attacks while Rufus keeps his distance providing support fire. Then when Darkstar's HP starts to drop, a cutscene plays where Rufus admits Cloud is giving him a challenge, and he pulls out his first pair of trick coins and shoots them to send a pair of laser blasts at Cloud. From then on, Rufus starts using his own special attacks freely, and makes it clear he's the one to worry about, not his pet attack dog.
Let's You and Him Fight: It's suggested in the ending to Rebirth that Sephiroth manipulated Rufus into starting a war with Wutai to prevent him from pulling an Enemy Mine with Cloud and the gang.
A Lighter Shade of Black: While he may be a villain in his own right, he's much less of an amoral slimeball than his father, and he's not impressed with some of what the late President pulled, such as dropping the Sector 7 plate - he even calls the department heads out on this, figuring that if they truly gave a shit, they would have stopped him.
Light Is Not Good: He wears all white, but he's far from a man with good intentions.
Money Mauling: While his primary weapon is his shotgun, in later phases of the fight he produces new attacks by pulling coins out of his coat, tossing them around and shooting them mid-air to produce explosions, obscuring smokescreens, and high-power kinetic projectiles. He also has a Combination Attack where he'll toss coins for Darkstar to electrify with thunder, creating fields of thunder damage.
Mythology Gag: In the original game, Dark Nation was able to cast Bolt. In Remake, Darkstar retains the Thunder spell but with a new utility; it can strike Rufus' gun with lightning to let him fire an electrically charged blast at Cloud, or zap some of Rufus' coins with lightning to create electrical fields on the ground that stun Cloud.
Nepotism: As noted in the description above, he's the VP of the Shinra company by virtue of being the President's son. The fact that the Shinra company owns and runs a substantial part of the world emphasizes the similarities between corporate nepotism and hereditary monarchy, with Rufus' position being closer to that of the son of an evil emperor. Barret lampshades this by referring to Rufus as the "heir to the throne."
No Cure for Evil: Averted for Darkstar at least who often prioritizes using Curaga on Rufus should he take any damage. That said, it will never heal itself.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While Rufus is normally smug (with some moments of annoyance at the other department heads), it's after he realizes the ploy of pitting Shinra against Wutai again that the visual of Glenn and Sephiroth starts glitching between the two as Glenn/Sephiroth sarcastically claps. Rufus actually briefly panics, shooting Glenn as he was about to walk away. Glenn then mocks Rufus about shooting him from behind again, and Rufus angrily immediately rapid-fires his shotgun empty into what is revealed to be another Sephiroth clone.
Overlord Jr.: The apple didn't fall far from the tree; though Rufus bears no affection for his father, he's inherited every bit of his corporate degeneracy. He's as much of a Corrupt Corporate Executive as his father.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Due to his Adaptational Badass and Adaptational Intelligence, Rufus is a far more capable antagonist than his original counterpart. Not to mention having a greater personal rivalry with Cloud than in the original game. In any other setting, Rufus would be the Big Bad of the games. Unfortunately, he is once again competing with Sephiroth, who not only underwent his own Adaptational Badass, but has knowledge of the events of the original game that he uses to stay one step ahead of this more competent version of Rufus.
Paper-Thin Disguise: It's all but explicitly stated that "Viceory Sarruf" is just an alias for Rufus.
Pet the Dog: His guard dog, Darkstar, is supposed to be willing to give its life to protect Rufus. However, Rufus wordlessly motions for it to retreat once Cloud's dealt enough damage to it, ensuring Darkstar's continued survival while Rufus now has to face down the ex-SOLDIER all by himself. It's unclear whether he's being empathetic to it or simply pragmatic about fighting with an injured attack dog that they also presumably put a lot of resources into genetically engineering. Rufus does the same during his match with Cloud at the Gold Saucer arena, calling off Darkstar after being critically beaten by Cloud.
Pragmatic Villainy: During the Junon parade, Rufus actually offers Cloud and Co. an Enemy Mine. If they are willing to go after Sephiroth (which they were already planning on doing) Rufus is willing to look the the other way and stop chasing after them. The reasoning behind it is pretty simple: it would simply drain too many resources to continually pursue the party and if they can get rid of a much bigger threat to BOTH of them, then they're better off not getting in each others way. The deal gets ruined by Yuffie, but the fact is he was willing to put aside his pride in order to ask Cloud for his help.
Progressively Prettier: While Rufus from previous entries was certainly no slouch in the looks department, Remake downplays a lot of his sharper features, making him look considerably younger.
Puzzle Boss: If you do not Assess him and don't manage to figure out what to do against him, the fight against Rufus can easily last over ten times the time it may take to beat him with the puzzle figured out.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Played straighter than his original incarnation. During his battle with Cloud, he showcases some fairly elaborate Gun Kata moves and in general, spends a lot of the fight essentially toying with the ex-SOLDIER.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He's definitely not the most scrupulous individual, but Rufus is probably one of the most logically-minded and reasonable individuals in the entire organization, next to Reeve. When presented with the reality of Sephiroth's threat, he's even outright ready to pardon Cloud and the Avalanche party to recruit them for hunting the man down — though Yuffie's failed assassination attempt on him squashes that rather quickly.
Reassigned to Antarctica: Was placed in charge of an unspecified project across the ocean from Midgar, but those in the know know he was in fact exiled from Midgar by President Shinra.
Recoil Boost: His gun can give him one to help him get around quickly. It's effective enough to double as a sort of improvised Flash Step.
Removed Achilles' Heel: In Rebirth, Rufus loses his former vulnerabilities to Sleep and Stop, and adds a number of close-range moves to his arsenal by using his rifle as a tonfa, while the larger arena makes it even harder than before to hit him while he's reloading. This forces Cloud to change tactics and instead strike Rufus with ATB moves when he's about to attack in order to Pressure him, a much more difficult and risky opening.
Right-Hand Attack Dog: Darkstar is a panther-like fiend that Rufus has trained to follow his orders, with it fighting alongside him.
The Rival: By the time of Rebirth, he clearly considers himself Cloud's rival as he enters the fighting tournament just to have the opportunity to have a rematch with Cloud.
Running Both Sides: During Rebirth, it is heavily implied that Wutai's Viceroy Sarruf, which is just the characters that make up his name in Japanese backwards^note, is actually him under a pseudonym. This is similar to his role in Before Crisis as one of AVALANCHE's top financial backers, even using the organization to try an assassinate his father, an event referenced at the start of Remake.
Shock and Awe: Darkstar utilizes Thunder magic which Rufus can use for certain Combination Attacks.
Shotguns Are Just Better: An elaborate single-barrel shotgun, replacing the classic double-barreled Sawed-Off Shotgun from the original game. He mostly uses it on Cloud at fairly close range, but he has several tricks to keep Cloud at a safe distance from him while still dealing out heavy damage.
Smug Smiler: The arrogant heir to the Shinra Company is rarely seen without a self-confident smirk on his face. He's smiling for the entirety of his fight with Cloud and while he's willing to admit Cloud's a strong enemy, he never really acts as if he's in any real danger.
Spared by the Adaptation: Dark Nation was originally killed like any other monster at the player's discretion, but once Darkstar's Hit Points are depleted, Rufus simply motions for it to leave the battle to him, and it flees.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Rufus' Think Fast attack scatters several coins which he then shoots to trigger a chain of explosions.
Took a Level in Badass: When he returns for a rematch with Cloud in Rebirth, he's clearly taken their rivalry to heart and made an effort to improve. With a new rifle, Rufus is able to jet up and down into the air, has a number of new melee attacks to engage Cloud at close quarters, and he's much harder to pressure consistently and is able to break out of combos and counter Cloud's attacks easier.
Too Many Belts: His redesigned long coat now comes equipped with several belt straps below the waistline that serve no functional purpose whatsoever.
True Sight: When the Whispers surround Shinra tower, he sees them while Tseng cannot, making Rufus the only person along with Cissnei, as of Rebirth, besides the main characters so far who can do so.
Undying Loyalty: Good ol' "D" is always at Rufus' side and ever-ready to assist and protect him in battle.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Like in the original, he escapes his battle with Cloud via helicopter looking no worse for wear in Remake. In Rebirth, after fighting Cloud he uses a smoke bomb to cover his escape.
Villain Holds the Leash: Rufus is plenty strong on his own, but Darkstar is capable of both dishing out attacks and keeping his master healthy.
Villain in a White Suit: The despicable Rufus Shinra is in an impeccably tailored long white suit.
Villainous Breakdown: At the end of Rebirth, upon finding out that Sephiroth had been in disguise as Glenn Lodbrok the entire time and played Rufus for a fool, he empties his gun into the Black Robe controlled by Sephiroth.
Villain with Good Publicity: As opposed to his original counterpart, this version of Rufus apparently wants to be loved by his citizens rather than feared. Even among upper echelon within the company, Rufus noticeably stands out as being very popular in the pro-Shinra locations due to his good looks and charisma. It is mentioned that he has a fan club in the upper city Junon, and that his merchandise sold very well during his inauguration. When he makes an entrance at the Musclehead Colosseum, his appearance is met with thunderous cheering, to which Rufus takes a moment to soak in the admiration.
Weak, but Skilled: There are actual mooks in the game with more HP than Rufus, but his skill and ability to counter your attacks elevates him to a threat level befitting one of the endgame bosses.
Weaksauce Weakness: He has two in Remake, unfortunately by Rebirth he has wizened up and no longer has these weaknesses.
- His phase with Darkstar has a surprising weakness to Triple Slash. Seemingly it breaks his script so that he moves to defend Darkstar but takes a hit breaking their link putting the dog in pressure. Wail on it, build another bar and repeat.
- His second phase's Assess entry alludes to the need to strike him with Braver while he's reloading in order to stagger him, but he deliberately makes sure to dash away from Cloud whenever he needs to reload to prevent Cloud from hitting him. He doesn't resist the first use of Sleep or Stop on him though, and Braver striking him while he's frozen by one of those works just as well as if he was reloading.
Worthy Opponent: Surprisingly, Sephiroth of all people seems to consider him a dangerous adversary to his endgame. So much so that he puts in considerable effort into crafting a false-flag ruse with Wutai as a means of manipulating Rufus into war with them ,solely to prevent Rufus from becoming Cloud's ally. If Sephiroth still retains his memories from Advent Children, it would certainly explain it as Rufus was Kadaj's biggest obstacle from completing the Reunion. It definitely helps that Rufus is a much, much more capable and shrewd man than his father ever was.

Heads of Department

Heidegger

Voiced By: John DiMaggio (English), Katsumi Cho (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"An enemy spared is an enemy who will repay your 'kindness' with blood."

Shinra's Director of Public Security (i.e., its military), and President Shinra's right-hand man. A boisterous, brutish and vicious man who commands the endless legions of Shinra soldiers, he will almost always choose the path of violence as his first option even if it's not the best one.

Adaptational Attractiveness: He is much slimmer, and his facial hair is much more trimmed compared to how he was in the original game.
Bad Boss: He's constantly seen insulting and belittling his underlings while ignoring what they are telling him. When one protests too much, he gives an Implied Death Threat of sending the poor guy out to get slaughtered by Avalanche just to get rid of his second-guessing their plans.
Beard of Evil: His beard is much shorter and groomed than his original appearance but still just as evil.
Colonel Kilgore: Once a high-ranking soldier and now the commander of Shinra's private military, Heidegger is ruthless and cruel, advocating for the use of extreme force and caring nothing for any civilian casualties that may ensue.
Corporate Warfare: He's the head of Shinra's Public Security division — that is to say, its military. He's also a cruel and ruthless man who advocates the use of extreme force in response to threats and sneers at those who balk at civilian casualties.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's one of the highest-ranking members of the Shinra corporation, and is just as corrupt as most of them, using horrible methods in order to keep Midgar's population in line.
Demoted to Extra: He is this in Part 2 as he is the only one out of the Shinra executives who does not make any personal engagements with Cloud's party; in contrast, Rufus, Scarlet, and Palmer fight them in boss fights, Hojo attempts to capture them in Costa del Sol with a robot, and Reeve travels alongside them as Cait Sith.
The Dragon: He has been President's Shinra's right-hand man since the early days of the company. The president trusts him implicitly, which has made Public Security the most powerful division within Shinra.
Even Evil Has Standards: In Rebirth, when he notices Yuffie's shuriken flying towards him during an assassination attempt, he dives to push Rufus out of the way and takes the blow himself. It's surprising that he'd personally put himself in harm's way to protect Rufus, especially given their relationship is much rockier than Heidegger had with his father.
Evil Laugh: Heidegger is prone to letting out his signature bellicose laugh "GYAHAHA!" whenever he's doing something particularly cruel.
Failed a Spot Check: When Rufus summons Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith at the Junon Parade for the commendation, Heidegger doesn't realize it is them until they remove their helmets at his request. In contrast, Rufus and Tseng noticed immediately.
General Ripper: He's practically the general of the Shinra forces, obsessed with crushing Wutai and the AVALANCHE resistance by any means necessary.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has an ugly looking scar going through his left eye, indicating his wickedness, although it is slightly more subdued than most examples.
The Heavy: For Part 1. President Shinra is the Big Bad of the story, and Sephiroth is the Greater-Scope Villain, but most of the plot is caused by his attempts to expose Avalanche and smear their name.
Irony: He's the head of "Public Security" despite being Shinra's main enforcer in maintaining its tyranny over the people.
I Shall Taunt You: During the Airbuster boss fight, his projected Hologram will be constantly taunting the party.
Lack of Empathy: He directly tells his subordinates that he doesn't care about civilian casualties in their operations against Avalanche, and when one starts to protest, Heidegger cuts him off and threatens to fire him and his squadron if they have a problem with his orders.
Nerves of Steel: We only briefly see him in a combat situation, but it's enough to demonstrate that despite all his other flaws, he's not short of physical courage. When Cloud whips the rear wheel of his motorbike into Heidegger's squad, he simply leans back slightly and grimaces as the rubber passes his face by inches while the soldiers around him stumble, panic and flee.
Rugged Scar: He used to be a commanding officer in the military and has a scar over his left eye that suggests he saw some combat.
Stout Strength: Notable in the original game for tossing his underlings about like toys, he retains that quality in Remake but is now more of a traditional Brute rather than a Fat Bastard.
Taking the Bullet: The shuriken, in this case. When Yuffie tries to assassinate Rufus at his inauguration, Heidegger tackles him out of its trajectory and takes the gash in his place.
Stroke the Beard: His official character render has him stroking his beard in a pensive manner.
Undying Loyalty: Implied to have this in regards to President Shinra, as he continues referring to Rufus as Vice President after President Shinra’s death, and has a notable look of displeasure when Rufus affirms Tseng’s correction that he’s the President now.
The Unfought: Despite coming into contact with the party several times, they never actually fight. The closest they get to crossing blades is at the end of the Shinra headquarters segment, which sees him leading a bunch of mooks to surround the party, only to be swept aside by Cloud on a stolen motorcycle. Heidegger himself only comes out unscathed because Cloud just barely misses hitting him in the face with his wheels.
Villainous Valor: Warhawk braggart though he is, he does seem to hold a genuine appreciation for his men, handing out their awards personally, though it might be just because of how impressive they look in formation, which by proxy makes him look good as their boss. Less ambiguously in Rebirth, he doesn't hesitate to put himself between Rufus and Yuffie, the new president's would-be assassin, sustaining a gory wound in the process.
Virtue Is Weakness: As evidenced by the quote above, Heidegger believes showing mercy to an enemy is just giving said enemy a chance to attack again.
Warhawk: When Avalanche's bomb disables the Sector 1 Mako Reactor, Heidegger causes the reactor to completely self-destruct and then tells the public that Avalanche is a Wutai-affiliated terrorist organization in order to stoke the fires of another war.

Scarlet

Voiced By: Erin Cottrell (English), Masako Katsuki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"Your timing is impeccably atrocious."

Shinra's Director of Advanced Weaponry, and the only female member of its board of directors. A cruel, contemptible engineer and scientist who has committed nearly as many atrocities and war crimes in her long career as the many weapons and mechs she has invented, she is directly responsible for tragedies both Yuffie and Barrett have had to suffer through. In addition to Advanced Weaponry, she also spearheads Shinra's research into Materia.

Ace Custom: She uses a lot of personally designed equipment and firepower, most of which sports her red colors. Even her Relnika is a unique model, much larger with an expanded cargo bay for moving her weapons and experiments, though it doesn't have a custom paint job.
Ace Pilot: She's a proficient Mini-Mecha pilot and even has her own Ace Custom mech in The Crimson Mare, which she pilots during her Boss Battle in the INTERmission DLC and during Rebirth chapter 9.
Adaptational Badass: In the original, the fights we see are her fight with Tifa in a comical slap battle and fighting Cloud and the others in the Proud Clod with Heidegger’s help. In here or specifically in Yuffie's DLC she became a Boss Battle towards Yuffie and Sonon, albeit by piloting one of her machines without Heidegger’s help. Additionally, in Rebirth she’s capable of taking on the entire party minus a barely conscious Cloud and keep them on the ropes until Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie are able to flank her.
Alpha Bitch: She's basically a high school queen bee if that high school queen bee became a scientist at a MegaCorp and learned zero lessons in humility.
Arc Villain:
- She acts as the main antagonist of Yuffie's DLC mission, being the Head of Department that is in charge of creating the Ultimate Materia she is trying to steal, and being a personal nemesis for Sonon since one of her out of control mechs killed his sister. She even fights Yuffie and Sonon in a mech as a boss.
- In Rebirth she is the main villain of the Gongaga chapter, attacking the reactor to capture the Weapon there and facing the party as they interfere. Despite the Whispers and Sephiroth being in the fray most of the plot happens as a consequence of her actions.
Arch-Enemy: For both Barret and Yuffie:
- In Barret's case, she's the one directly responsible for convincing all of Corel to make the transition to Mako, failing to keep the resultant Mako reactor maintained, and then pinning the blame for its critical failure on anti-Shinra insurgents, with her personally torching and murdering the town in order to cover it up. Barret lost everyone he loved except for his best friend's infant daughter, as well as his right arm.
- Yuffie saw her actively try and kill both her and Sonon - and when she failed, she sent Deepground operatives and Nero on them, who succeeded in murdering Sonon in front of her very eyes. Yuffie makes it clear to Barret that when the crew gets their chance at Scarlet, she wants to be there to see the witch die.
Ascended Extra: Compared to the original, she gets far more screentime throughout the remakes as the vicious baroness who provides constant challenge to the heroes' party.
Awesome, but Impractical: While she's a Gadgeteer Genius, her mech creations often favor extravagant designs that emphasize form over function.
Bad Boss: Scarlet using one of the Shinra soldiers as a footstool while he crouches on all fours should be a clear indication that she's this. When an experiment to create Huge Materia goes awry, she casually walks out of the lab as the experiment goes critical and blows up with her scientists still inside. Interestingly, her shooting a grunt for having bad aim during the razing of Corel is Adapted Out.
The Baroness: She was already a nasty piece of work, but the Remake seems to be taking her character into absurd levels. She clearly enjoys wielding power over others, as seen in the Bad Boss entry above, and she also has a fascination with the weapons she creates.
The Beastmaster: One top of her own weaponry, Scarlet is shown to be able to command the monstrous experiments given to her by Hojo, like Specimen H1024.
Beauty Is Bad: As you can see, she's as beautiful as she is wicked.
Brutal Honesty: She is a blunt woman who does not care if her remarks hurt or insult others.
Camera Abuse: In her introductory scene, she knocks over the cameraman that was with the man interviewing her for no discernible reason other than to appear hostile.
Climax Boss: Scarlet and the Crimson Mare mark II serve as Rebirth's climax boss. She is engaged at a climactic point in Gongaga with the female members of the party while mako poisoning disables Cloud. Seeing Tifa in danger gives Cloud the motivation to try help but the poisoning makes him vulnerable to Sephiroth's manipulations, making him attack Tifa. This causes her to be eaten by a Weapon and learn vital parts of Sephiroth's plan and the vital role of the White Whispers and Weapons.
Color Motif: Red. She's called Scarlet, her iconic outfit is a red dress and many of her personally designed mechs and weaponry tend to also be colored red.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: She's one of the highest-ranking members of the Shinra corporation, and is just as corrupt as most of them, creating various weaponry and machinery which the company uses in warfare.
Cultural Posturing: She doesn't have a high opinion of Wutaians, and refers to Yuffie and Sonon as "savages" several times.
Dark Action Girl: She might not be much of a physical or magical fighter, but as long as you give her a robot to pilot or a loaded gun, she isn't afraid to get down and dirty, as Yuffie and Sonon can attest to.
Dominance Through Furniture: Introduced using one of her Mooks to rest her feet on. When she gets up, said Mook follows after her, ready to take up the role again wherever she goes.
Dominatrix: Strongly implied, and not of the Safe, Sane, and Consensual variety. There is a very sexual air about her, she uses a soldier as a footstool, and when they leave the room he crawls behind her like a dog.
Even Evil Has Standards: In addition to her sharing in her colleagues' revulsion towards Hojo's plans for Aerith, she tells Yuffie that mocking someone's physical appearance is beneath her. While one might dismiss her claim as a quip, it's worth noting that she has indeed never done so.
Evil Counterpart:
- As the games go on the narrative makes her one for Tifa. As the most physically attractive member of their respective parties the two have a lot in common but utilize these strengths in vastly different ways, Tifa doesn't lord her beauty or charm to get her way while Scarlet is a Proud Beauty who literally uses infantry as footstools. Both have red as part of their color motif, but Tifa uses both black and white on top of red, while Scarlet is covered shoulder to foot in red. They are often the lynchpin of their group but Tifa uses her position to help uplift the other party members while Scarlet takes what she wants from Heidegger and Hojo. Tifa learned to fight with her own strength, Scarlet pilots a Mini-Mecha. Sent up in Chapter 9 of Rebirth where both have a close encounter with a Weapon, Scarlet is amazed by its power and tries and fails to take it by force, while it willingly takes Tifa on a tour of the Lifestream to see Sephiroth's designs and may have given her a part of its power.
- To a lesser extent, she could be consider one to Yuffie due to them both being prideful women who thinks highly of their own appearances, and have an obsession with materia. They both even share similar reaction of amazement when seeing the Weapons for the first time, and expressed a desire to claim the large materia in the creatures' chest. Otherwise, Scarlet is more a traditionally Foil towards Yuffie, since she is a middle-aged woman who fights with a Mini-Mecha and wears primarily red clothing, while Yuffie is a young teenage ninja who wears green.
Faux Affably Evil: Scarlet feigns politeness to Yuffie and Sonon throughout the former's DLC. At first she makes a legitimate effort while talking with them in the elevator, but after that she becomes more openly condescending. Additionally, while very much a Bad Boss Scarlet tends to speak to her subordinates politely, even though their lives mean nothing to her.
Femme Fatale: She's a dangerous woman with a seductive demeanour who uses her sex appeal to keep her subordinates wrapped around her fingers.
Fetishized Abuser: She's often abusing people in fetishizing manners (such as using one of her subordinates as a foot stool) but it's played as fanservice, and at least one of her subordinates actually seems to like the treatment.
Gadgeteer Genius: Scarlet is the Head of Weapons Development at Shinra and in charge of designing Shinra's various mechs and robots, and also performs experiments on materia. And it's clear she's no mere figurehead and designed quite a lot of them herself.
General Ripper: Doubling as a horrific Front Line General, but when the infantry is burning Barrett's village, she's 'personally leading the attack from the front, and she even grabs a rifle from a Shinra grunt and begins participating herself, all with a sadistic smile.
Hate Sink: Is generally presented to be one of the more despicable members of Shinra's Heads of Department, and is personally, even gleefully responsible for the tragedies of Barret, Yuffie, and Sonon's pasts. The only thing that prevents her for being on the same level as Hojo is that she lacks his overall depravity.
High-Heel Power: She wears high heels and is a dominating woman who enjoys putting her subordinates in submissive positions.
I'm Standing Right Here: When she first meets Yuffie in the elevator, she immediately starts insulting Wutai and even asks her for a comment. It's pretty clear she figured out who she was at first glance and was having fun before getting out of harm's way.
Just Between You and Me: Scarlet gleefully tells Yuffie about Shinra's plan to drop the Sector 7 plate on the slums and blame it on Avalanche and Wutai. Justified since Yuffie wouldn't have been able to do anything about it by that point, and given the anti-Wutai sentiment in Midgar nobody would believe her. Moreover, Yuffie doesn't seem to fully understand what she's talking about.
Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: In the INTERmission DLC and Chapter 9 of Rebirth, she pilots The Crimson Mare in her Boss Battle while still wearing her fancy dress.
Know When to Fold Them: Despite her desire to acquire one of the Weapons, with a damaged mech, losing personnel and interference from the Whispers she retreats from the Gongaga reactor when she realizes how untenable her position is.
Lack of Empathy: She's clearly unbothered by the casualties of the Sector 7 plate drop and acts dismissive about Reeve's plans to rebuild the destroyed sections of Midgard during the directors' meeting.
Lady in Red: Dresses in a red dress, which also shows off her cleavage.
Leitmotif: "Scarlet's Theme", which plays during her introductory scene in the Shinra Building. Unlike most Leitmotif in the game, hers actually have lyrics.
Mad Scientist: Scarlet can't hold a candle to Hojo in this regard (and it's unlikely anyone on the Planet could), but Yuffie's DLC shows her to be obsessed with developing and improving weaponry. In fact, she views her weapons similarly to how Hojo views his specimens — though to a far saner degree.
Ms. Fanservice: She is a Head-Turning Beauty with a Buxom Beauty Standard figure who wears an opulent red satin dress that is slit on the side, cut low on that back and has a plunging neckline that prominently displays her cleavage and makes it obvious she's not wearing a bra. She also tends to act like a Dominatrix and is portrayed as a Fetishized Abuser while mistreating her own men.
Mythology Gag:
- In Crisis Core, an NPC in the Shinra Building will mention that he wouldn't mind being stepped on by Scarlet's high heels. In this game, she's seen using a man as a footstool.
- During the INTERmission DLC she pilots a mech to battle Yuffie and Sonon that looks suspiciously like Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy VI. The fact that Scarlet wears a red dress and has blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and rides the Crimson Mare in a Slouch of Villainy, completes the image of a sinister mirror of Terra Branford.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her dress has a plunging neckline that prominently displays her cleavage.
Nerves of Steel: Even after she's taken hostage by Yuffie and Sonon, with the latter having every reason to want her dead, she doesn't bat an eyelash. Although she'd already called Deepground for backup, they still could've easily killed her.
Noblewoman's Laugh: Her Evil Laugh is this, as per the original game. She gives an impressive one after the Crimson Mare is destroyed.
Older Than They Look: She looks like she's in her early to mid-thirties, but she is actually forty years old.
Pet the Dog: A very minor example, but she's sincere when she compliments Yuffie's looks. The one thing that she refuses to do is attack people on their appearance, after all.
Politically Incorrect Villain: On top of her other wonderful traits Scarlet makes several degrading remarks about Wutians, including calling them monkeys, and insinuating that they are both foolish and weak.
Proud Beauty: The lyrics of her Leitmotif make it clear she greatly values her natural beauty.
Red Is Violent: Her red Color Motif hints are her sadistic tendencies.
Recurring Boss: She's fought multiple times across the games while piloting versions of her Crimson Mare mecha.
Rich Bitch: She's a smug, cruel, and condescending bitch who is incredibly rich and tends to look down on other people.
Robot Master: Her department is in charge of creating most of the robot enemies that Shinra uses, and she has designed quite a few of them herself.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the original game Scarlet is technically Barret's main nemesis (along with Heidegger, to an extent), but the remake pits her against Yuffie and gives the latter a personal reason to hate her too. However, Scarlet retains her role in Barret's backstory.
Sadist:
- She's more than happy to suggest to Hojo that torturing Aerith is not a problem, yet when he proposes letting members of SOLDIER turn her into a Breeding Slave in the name of "science", that proves a bridge too far even for her.
- In Rebirth her encounter with the party consists mainly of her forcing them to squirm under her heel and her enjoying every minute of it.
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her red dress leaves most of her back exposed.
Sexy Slit Dress: Her opulent dress has slits on the side of her legs. Although it also has a practical reason, as she hides a panic button on her leg, and the slits make it easy to reach.
Skewed Priorities: After being defeated by Yuffie and Sonon, Scarlet dismounts her mech and begins analyzing its weaknesses so she can improve it in the future, as if her foes weren't even there. Yuffie calls her out on this.
Smug Smiler: She's often giving smug smiles and almost always has an expression of confidence or condescension.
Smurfette Principle: The only female member on the Shinra board of directors.
Statuesque Stunner: She's a Head-Turning Beauty that when in heels, she stands even taller than Heidegger.
Stocking Filler: Under her dress, she wears black thigh-high stay-up stocking.
Taught by Experience: Her battle in Gongaga shows how she learned from her encounter with Yuffie and Sonon. First, she softens up the party with some of Hojo's experiments before attacking with the Crimson Mare mk II. Secondly, the new mech has a flight pack to shore up the original's speed issues and allows her to make the most use of their remote functions to attack independently. Third, she has a personal rocket launcher to fight without the mech's equipment. All this makes her such a threat the entire party has to fight together against her and the Shinra forces to get a win.
Terms of Endangerment: During the INTERmission DLC, she clearly enjoys talking down to Yuffie and Sonon while using fake politeness and insincere compliments.
Woman Of Wealth And Taste: Her clothes look extravagant and lavish, and she's seen working while reclining in an opulent chair while forcing one of her subordinates to serve as a footstool.
Women Are Wiser: While she still has her eccentricities, she seems to keep them in check much better than her male colleagues and is portrayed as more sensible and capable. She's more competent than Heidegger and Palmer, saner than Hojo, and less hamstrung at Shinra than Reeve.
Would Hurt a Child: Acknowledges that Yuffie — and Sonon, presumably — are teenagers and attempts to murder them personally.

Reeve Tuesti

Voiced By: Jon Root (English), Banjo Ginga (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"Please, Mr. President, I'm asking you to reconsider — no, begging!"

Shinra's Director of Urban Planning. Unlike his fellow board members, Reeve genuinely cares about Midgar and only wants what's best for its people. A kind, but incredibly shrewd man, he realizes he too must sell some of his soul if he's going to make any kind of difference seated in a boardroom with the most morally bankrupt people in the world.

Anti-Villain: One of the Urban Planning division's primary missions is supplying the residents of Midgar with mako energy, which makes him complicit in a greater evil. However, it is clear that he is ultimately a good man who has the people's best interests at heart and is opposed to the immorality going on around him. Given the option, he would likely not even be opposed to letting the mako stay in the ground and going green.
Beauty Equals Goodness: In sharp contrast to Scarlet, Reeve is a handsome man with a good heart who finds himself working working with a lot scummier people.
Benevolent Boss: Shown in a scene with his assistant whilst writing the report on Sector 7's collapse. He is nothing but polite and cordial towards her, making him stand out in further contrast to Heidegger and Scarlet. The feeling seems to be mutual, with Reeve's assistant showing noteworthy concern over his well-being while also warning him of Saying Too Much.
Foreshadowing: Rebirth doesn't give The Reveal just yet, as in the original game it didn't occur until the party's return to Midgar, but it does hint that Reeve is the one who controls Cait Sith. After Cait joins the party, a scene shows Reeve in his office, humming Cait Sith's theme to himself, as he casually changes the pictures on Avalanche's wanted posters. The scene is also sure to linger on a spare Cait Sith robot on a shelf in his office, hinting both that Reeve is the one who made and controls the cat, and that he has a back-up ready if something happens to the one accompanying the party.
The Heart: Almost explicitly so among the Shinra heads, what with the Urban Planning division's symbol on the company logo being a heart-shape and all. However, since this is the Shinra Company we're talking about, he finds himself being a sadly inefficient and overlooked example: The other directors find far more unity in their shared heartlessness than in his attempts to appeal to their non-existent better natures.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: In Rebirth, Reeve—through Cait Sith—joins Avalanche's party and makes no secret of the fact that he's spying on them for Shinra, though he lies that he's just an unimportant middle-management grunt. Nevertheless, he goes out of his way to sabotage Avalanche's wanted posters—his secretary noting he's in a good mood for the first time in a long while. He's forced to double-cross them by stealing the key to the Temple of the Ancients, which leaves him devastated when even Aerith condemns him for his betrayal, but makes it up to them by using Cait Sith to buy them time to escape the collapsing Temple.
Hidden Depths: One can gleam some interesting personal details about Reeve by analyzing Cait Sith. While it's always been ambiguous how much of the "Cait Sith" personality is directly Reeve and how much is a robot with the ability to function semi-autonomously, Reeve at the least designed and built him, as indicated by the extra Cait Sith robot in his office. This means this stern, serious man, who oversaw the construction of Midgar and sits on Shinra's board of directors, built and programmed a robotic cat to be a fortuneteller with a Scottish accent who rides a giant stuffed Moogle and likes making cat puns and rhymes. Reeve certainly has a silly side to him.
Honest Corporate Executive: He does his best to improve the living standards of the general populace in Midgar, even extending this to the people living in the slums, and even attempts to play the part of an Internal Reformist by pleading with President Shinra not to go through with decisions that could or would harm the people. This, unfortunately, makes him the only corporate executive on Shinra's board of directors who plays into this trope rather than the other one.
Only Sane Man: Reeve's arguably the only Shinra executive who takes his job seriously, as his interests aren't seriously warped by a lust for power, greed, or far worse. He is also the only executive who questions the plan to build Neo-Midgar in the Promised Land, pointing out the farfetched nature of building a new city in a place that might not even exist.
Nice Guy: Unlike all of the Shinra higher ups, Reeve stands out for actually being a decent guy.
Refuge in Audacity: Reeve hacks into the Shinra network in order to help the main party by doctoring their wanted posters to resemble strangers in order to keep their identities secret. He does all this from his work computer in his office while cheerily humming a tune, with his assistant noting that he's in a good mood; even Tseng who shows up later, doesn't clock his behavior as odd.
Token Good Teammate: He just wants what's best for Midgar, best seen when he desperately tries to convince the President not to go through with the plan to destroy Sector 7. This is best seen in contrasting his reaction to the fall of the Sector 7 Plate with President Shinra - while Shinra smiles from his office window, watching the plate and slums below burst into flames; Reeve (through the remote controlled Cait Sith) falls to his knees and pounds the ground, having rushed to the scene too late to stop it. This is ultimately deconstructed, as being the only good person on a board of the most morally bankrupt people in the world results in Reeve's department being perpetually neglected and ignored. As such, Midgar is falling apart in places and the slums are half-buried in literal mountains of junk and scrap. Since he doesn't agree with Shinra's decisions, Reeve himself has about as much power as Midgar's figurehead mayor despite being in an executive position, and he and his entire division are kept as a showpiece to convince the populace that Shinra cares about the city when they obviously don't. He's so ineffectual that Rufus lumps him in with the other directors who never spoke a word against President Shinra's more vile actions.
Walking Spoiler: Though fans of the original game will already know this, Rebirth does not yet reveal that he's the man controlling Cait Sith.

Palmer

Voiced By: William Salyers (English), Naoki Tatsuta (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"Oh dear, oh dear! A man of my refined tastes, running out of butter."

The Director of Shinra's Space and Aeronautics Division, and the most useless buffoon this side of Shinra. Due to the advancements made in Mako, mechs, and Materia, the Space and Aeronautics Division has been benched indefinitely, leaving Palmer with....not much to do, apart from some occasional menial tasks no one else wants to bother with.

Adaptational Badass: In the original, he was more of a Zero-Effort Boss. In Rebirth, he pilots an Anuran Suppressor to get an edge, and despite making an ass of himself, he does puts up much more of a fight.
Adaptational Intelligence: A marginal example. He's still mostly presented as an inept buffoon, but compared to the outright Manchild who was prone to ridiculous childish antics from the 1997 game, this version of Palmer comes across as slightly less embarrassing. He at least tries to act the part of a man hailing from upper-class society (key word being "try"). He also correctly deduces that the rebels that fought against the Junon Republic wouldn't be pleased about the new Shinra dictatorship over the region. He still loses points, though, because the other executives aren't pleased by his description of Shinra.
Adaptational Jerkass: In the original game he was a bit of a Manchild, and despite his callous indifference to his company's atrocities, he personally wasn't much worse than Reeve. This time around, however, he's more of an Upper-Class Twit, giving him a higher degree of competence that makes it clear he has no problem living a comfortable life on Shinra's dime. Most notably, he giggles childishly when Hojo suggests using psychological torture on Aerith, though looks vaguely disgusted when Hojo clarifies he plans to have SOLDIERs forcibly impregnate her.
Affably Evil: Yes, really. Despite his indifference towards Shinra's atrocities and having laughed at the idea of having Aerith tortured during a board meeting, he is not as much of an outright Jerkass as the other executives can be. He is not really shown to be abusive or mean to his co-workers or subordinates the way the other executives are, and when surrounded by women at the Gold Saucer Chocobo Raceway, he seems to treat them decently and doesn't really make any sort of unwanted sexual advances or attempt to trick them into anything the way Hojo does. He simply enjoys their company and seems more focused on enjoying the smoothy he is served. Additionally, when being told that the rooms he booked at the Ghost Hotel, he does not even really yell or get angry at the Turks or the bellhop, instead calmly brushing it off (as it can't be helped) to go and find a drink. He only goes after Cloud's party after a series of humiliations, including his security getting shot up by a gunman with Barret's description (though he does not know Barret did not do it) and losing his bet to Cloud in the Chocobo Race.
Animal Motif: Palmer is frequently associated with frogs and amphibians, his facial features are reminiscent of a frog and he pilots an amphibious mech in Rebirth. As frogs are well known for moving from environment to environment, fitting for the head of Space and Aeronautics Division. They are also not known for thriving in toxic environments, as Shinra is no longer looking into space flight his division has languished for years and he is the company Butt-Monkey, he also has a terrible time in the Gold Saucer and is fought in the deserted wastes of Corel, a terrrible place for a frog.
Beware the Silly Ones: He is a bumbling, childish, twit whose antics border on comic relief, to the point he is essentially a Harmless Villain. In Rebirth, a string of humiliations he experienced - ranging from being in charge of handing Wanted Posters (a menial work), his booking at the Gold Saucer hotel cancelled courtesy of Cait Sith, his security forces being slaughtered at Dyne's hands, AND losing the Chocobo race track by having his betted racer be put on last place - caused him to finally snap at the lack of respect he receives as one of the Heads of Department, and vows to make Cloud and co pay by personally stepping facing them and attempting to crush them with his Anuran Suppressor(a Mech). He actually ends up putting up a decent fight.
Butt-Monkey: If something can happen to humiliate Palmer, it will happen. During his boss fight in Rebirth, even the Anuran Suppressor takes time to bully him by bashing its hatch shut while he's leaning out of it to taunt Avalanche.
Cassandra Truth: He tries to warn the other executives that Sephiroth is back, but no-one except Hojo believes him.
Dirty Old Man: He's a disgustingly fat senior citizen, and is first seen chasing a Honeygirl around a private room in the Honeybee Inn. In Rebirth he surrounds himself with women while taking in the chocobo races at the Gold Saucer.
Enemy Posturing: He'll frequently exit the Anuran Suppressor to moon Avalanche in his boss fight. Not only does it force the mecha to stop moving, but it also adds an additional hitbox on Palmer himself.
Fat Bastard: He's a rotund executive of an evil MegaCorp who is formally introduced complaining to himself about a lack of butter and that without it his tea is nothing more than "boiled pond water".
Gonk: His facial features bring more to mind a clown mask than an average human face. He looks like an evil Mayor Meanswell.
Hidden Depths: Despite his buffoonery Palmer actually gives a pretty succinct explanation as to why the SRC would be working against Shinra by pointing out that their members once fought the Republic of Junon for its liberty only to be saddled with new oppressors when Shinra appeared, noting that it's no surprise that the SRC hates them. Unfortunately for him this rare moment of introspection only gets him scorn by his colleagues, so he quickly shuts up afterwards.
Kavorka Man: During the Chocobo race in Rebirth, he flirts with two ladies who fawn over him despite his looks.
No-Respect Guy: Due to a combination of his department being shelved indefinitely and for being an Upper-Class Twit Palmer isn't seen in a very favorable light by his colleagues who view him as an embarrassment. By Rebirth Rufus assigns him to handing out wanted posters of Avalanche despite being one of Shinra's executives. It really says something for how low on the totem pole Palmer is that even Reeve is willing to screw with him by canceling his hotel reservations and giving them to Avalanche.
Oh, Crap!: He almost has a heart attack when Sephiroth nonchalantly walks past him, but he's almost more upset about spilling his tea.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: As Palmer's museum hologram admits, the Space and Aeronautics Division of Shinra isn't really doing anything, since they have plenty of mako on Earth and don't see any need for space exploration. What he does for Shinra in the meantime is unclear.
Powers Do the Fighting: He's definitely not a skilled pilot like Scarlet since the Anuran Suppressor does most of the work in his boss fight thanks to its AI, eventually overriding his control in its last phase. Really, it says more about the Anuran Suppressor than Palmer himself that it can be legitimate threat in spite of him trying his best to break the mech from the inside from sheer incompetence. Its description even notes this.
Reassigned to Antarctica: Rufus sends him to the Gold Saucer to hand out some wanted posters and thus get him out of the way, saddling him with two Turk babysitters for good measure.
Small Name, Big Ego: He demands that people show him respect because he's a director, never mind that his division is for all intents and purposes dead.
Tempting Fate: Having narrowly avoided Dyne's assassination attempt because he happened to go to the bathroom at that moment, Palmer believes he's the luckiest man on the Planet and boasts that the Chocobo he bet on will win the race. His Chocobo finishes dead last.
Upper-Class Twit: This version of Palmer has shades of this, dressing in a neat suit and speaking in a cultured voice, while at the same time being obsessed with food and lacking in intelligence.
Villainous Breakdown: He goes through being humiliated multiple times all throughout Remake and in the early chapters of Rebirth, but after he goes through the Humiliation Conga that is his entire time at the Gold Saucer from the moment he was ordered to go there, he finally snaps and tries to handle things himself. Personally confronting the party in a war machine, and starting his boss fight by going off on a massive screeching rant about everything he's been through up to that point.
Palmer: Hand these posters out, Palmer. Booking's cancelled, Palmer. Security's been slaughtered, Palmer! Your chocobo came LAST, PALMER!! I've HAD IT! And YOU'RE going to PAY! I'm a DIRECTOR! And you will show me some RESPECT!!
Villain Has a Point: When Tseng informs that the SRC (Shinra Resistance Committee) that Glenn created is made up of forces that emerged after Shinra overthrew the Junon republic, Palmer points out that this is expected, since such forces fought for freedom and the company in the end replaces their oppressor instead of freeing them. Although his statement is not appreciated by the rest of the board and Palmer immediately shuts up, it remains valid.
Palmer:... Well, who could blame them? They fought against the republic in the name of freemdom... but when the smoke finally cleared, they found themselves under the heel of a new oppressor. Why, I'd be more surprised if they didn't hate us!

Professor Hojo

Voiced By: James Sie (English), Shigeru Chiba (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff7r_hojo.png

"All thanks to me, and my singular genius. I stand at the forefront of science— my brilliance a guiding light!"

Director of Shinra's Research and Development Division, and the man who masterminded the SOLDIER program. An utterly detestable human being - if he can be even called that, there is absolutely no low Hojo won't stoop to in the name of science. Unlike most at Shinra, he is fully privy to the true nature of Jenova, and holds secrets even the President and Rufus are unaware of, following his own agenda and foray into mad science.

Abhorrent Admirer:
- Towards Ifalna and Aerith, though not in a sexual or romantic way. He regards them more like delicate, priceless pieces of art that need to be treated with the utmost care — at least physically.
- He swiftly becomes this for the rest of the party, seeing their use as promising test subjects for, among other uses, combat data. Him giving them the run around for their experiments gets pretty much everyone in the party after him.
- In a lesser extent, he is this towards Fran, Naomi, and Yorda, his attendants at Costa del Sol. Hojo views the trio as good candidates to be used as Breeding Slaves for his next attempt at create a "hero," apparently wanting conveniently attractive women so that his test subjects can inherit their mothers' beauty. Although they fawn over Hojo, they were smart enough not to take up his offer in becoming his lab assistants. If Cloud talk to three women once Hojo leaves Costa del Sol, they will reveal they were never interested Hojo to begin with, and were just hired to be his Paid Harem.
Arc Villain:
- For most of "Chapter 17: Deliverance from Chaos" in ''Remake," where he traps the party in The Drum and forces them to fight his creations.
- He acts as the main antagonist of the Costa del Sol section in Rebirth, "Chapter 6: Fool's Paradise," as the climax of the chapter ends with him launching an attack on the coastal town in an attempt to capture the Sephiroth Clones and Cloud's party to be used as his test subjects.
Adaptational Ugliness: While Hojo has never been a looker, he at least looked relatively normal in the Compilation. His updated design in the remake saga emphasize his Villainous Cheekbones, give him Perma-Stubble, visibly greasy hair and skin, and in general he looks very gaunt and unhealthy.
Adaptational Villainy: Hojo was an amoral sociopath in the original game and its expanded universe, but he's even worse in the remakes.
- His misanthropy is more exaggerated to the point he barely even notices, much less cares, when Shinra is attacked by Sephiroth, and instead uses the chance to pit the party against a gauntlet of his experiments in his lab, and taunts them all the while too.
- When he sees the mutations of the robed men when his monsters fuse with them, he muses about experimenting on them further by capturing them and having them mate, a situation he actually puts Aerith and Tifa in.
- He always put Aerith's life over seeing her die for his research, if only for the value a living ancient would be and the need Shinra has of her. His dialogue when capturing her with the Glasptropod suggests his desire to study her cellular structure overrides his sense of pragmatism on both accounts.
- His reason for visiting Costa Del Sol is no longer a simple vacation, but instead a pretense for him to carry out what is basically a terrorist attack, bringing a Shinra robot with him that unleashes monsters to absorb the black-cloaked figures and terrorize the townsfolk. He also uses this opportunity to try and capture the heroes, not just Aerith, something he never tried to do in the original game. And in his dialogue with the beach girls fawning over him he suggests they could "give birth to the next great hero", implying he wants to repeat the experiment that created Sephiroth by finding more women willing to let him impregnate them and experiment on their babies.
- In the original continuity, the men in the black robes are implied to largely consist of the survivors of the destruction of Nibelheim that Hojo experimented on. In the remake continuity the group is much larger, with dozens and dozens of victims, and its implied the Nibelheim survivors were just the first batch and Hojo has conducted the same experiments on numerous others in the intervening years.
- Hojo seemingly has a massively increased body count of victims in other areas, too - in Remake the gang find an underground facility under Midgar that is full of tens of discarded, failed experiments. They are all humanoid - and tanks behind the walls reveal they all used to be people. He also kidnapped children off the streets to be lab assistants before creating Chadley, an android, for his purposes. And even Chadley was not the first - Rebirth reveals he is the seventh in a line of other androids and despite being machines Hojo was still unable to program them to be perfectly loyal, since Chadley escapes and begins to aid the player, something Hojo tries to punish him for. But that's still not all - the Shinra manor is also full of other discarded experiments, not just Vincent; and it's taken further still when Vincent reveals in a sidequest that Hojo's experiments also included the murder of countless people in the combat simulator who died while he was trying to get combat data.
Admiring the Abomination:
- Hojo has dedicated decades of his life to studying Jenova, who is the centerpiece of his bioweapon production facility.
- When the Arbiters of Fate appear to drag him away before he can reveal the truth about Cloud, he calls them a "fascinating phenomenon".
- When seeing the footage from the Shinra-8, he is amazed by the mutations of the Sephiroth Clones fusing with fiends and hopes to study their genetic structure.
- Hojo is absolutely ecstatic when he sees footage of a WEAPON, salivating at a chance to dissect it so he may understand how it ticks.
Animals Hate Him: Darkstar growls at him when he gets too close during a meeting.
Baddie Flattery: Just about the only way Hojo compliments the party is that he finds them good test subjects. Considering how the rest of his subjects are treated, they are not impressed by the attention.
Brutal Honesty:
- His presentation for Shinra’s Science Division doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he finds it a waste of his and the tourists’ time. He also openly admits that his research is beyond their comprehension.
- For better or worse he is completely honest about his intentions for the party, even telling Barret that while he doesn't have any particular plans for him but saying that the data of him fighting his creations should still be interesting.
Call-Forward: In Rebirth, it's revealed that he left behind an AI version of himself in the Shinra Mansion to act as an overseer/caretaker of sorts. A similar replication of Hojo will later mastermind the events of Dirge of Cerberus.
Character Check: In Rebirth he suggests to his aides and Tifa that they help create a new hero before sending the latter into a tank of mutated men in robes. While disgusting on its own, and a call back to suggesting using Aerith as a Breeding Slave with Soldiers, it does give the players a reminder Once per Episode that he has an interest in impregnating women to create superhuman offspring.
The Comically Serious: While he is easily the most loathsome humanoid in the entire Compilation, much humor is mined in Remake and Rebirth over the fact that Hojo's brain works at a completely different wavelength compared to other people. His brain simply doesn't function like that of most people, causing him to occasionally come off as weird and spacey, despite the fact that he himself essentially has zero sense of humor.
Creator's Apathy: In-Universe, he can barely be bothered to even half-ass his museum speech, and calls the viewer an ignoramus who is only wasting his time.
Darwinist Desire: In both Remake and Rebirth he expresses belief that stronger offspring should be created by breeding ideal candidates, unfortunately he considers lifeforms crafted through fusing with the power of Jenova with humanity a part of said candidates. Aerith he proposes to the board creating a stronger offspring by having her breed with SOLDIER candidates and privately muses to himself the potential of a union between Aerith and Sephiroth. At Costa del Sol he proposes to his aides that they birth the next hero before mutating some of the robed men and mockingly extends that invitation to Tifa before dropping her in a tank with the experiments, the implications he wants them to mate and create offsping with their outward beauty and the experiments' strength. The fact that his genetics are in there somewhere likely influences his decision. Even his AI gets in on it, after Cloud completes his trials, the trophy sent to Johnny's Inn says that his data has passed conditions for a viable candidacy for suitable offspring. Disturbingly, he implies he is already working on it.
Desecrating the Dead: He takes great delight in gloating to Aerith's face that he retrieved her mother's corpse and dissected it down to the cells. Considering how he changes his words when capturing Aerith, that his interest is only cellular compared to using Tifa as a Breeding Slave, with the Grasptropod, it's heavily implied he wants to repeat the procedure with her.
Dirty Old Man: Out of scientific interest than lust. While he doesn't try to put any moves on Aerith himself, he plans to psychologically torture her and then have elite SOLDIERs have sex with her in order to create hybrid specimens. He laughingly even considers the offspring Aerith and Sephiroth might have, when he is told Sephiroth is in Shinra HQ with them; the fact that Hojo is Sephiroth's father makes it even creepier. In Costa del Sol, he will ask Fran, Naomi, and Yorda, the women of his Paid Harem, if they would be interested in joining Shinra as his assistants and giving birth to the "world's next hero," via the same method that created Sephiroth. He also implies that he wants to use Tifa as a Breeding Slave to create a new "hero" when she is captured by his drones during the fight at Costa del Sol, apparently by mating with the mutated men in black he had just captured.
Enigmatic Minion: Unlike his fellow Shinra directors, Hojo's clearly up to something unrelated to the company's goals and knows far more about the plot than he's letting on, which is first made explicit in Remake where he allows Sephiroth to rampage through Shinra's headquarters unchecked, resulting in him assassinating the President and taking Jenova out of the facility. Tellingly, when Rufus demands the directors' loyalty during a meeting in Rebirth, Hojo is the last to stand in agreement and does so very disinterestedly.
Establishing Character Moment:
- His first appearance proper in Remake has him questioning a captive Aerith in his laboratory, presenting a calm and civilized front even as she refuses to cooperate. The facade immediately slips once Hojo brings up Aerith's late mother, Ifalna, revealing he had her body taken away for study and subject to extensive dissection, spiraling into an impassioned rant pertaining Ifalna’s “elegance” as a specimen whilst sporting an expression most depraved, before suddenly reverting back to his Mask of Sanity as he remarks Aerith to carry that same “elegance”. That he explicitly states his interests differ from Shinra's and reacts with annoyance when his pager reminds him of the board meeting also establish another key trait of his (see Enigmatic Minion).
- His first appearance in Rebirth is also very telling. After Captain Titov contacts Shinra and is diverted to him, he observes the fusion of robed men and fiends with rapturous delight, enticed by their genetic makeup and telling Captain Titov that he should be honored to become a test subject and to mark his own body for identification. All showing his cruelty, lack of empathy and desire for scientific achievement at the expense of all life.
Evil Genius: Hojo is very intelligent and perceptive, and leads Shinra's Research and Development division with little regard for morals.
- There's also a bit of zig-zag in the "genius" part of the trope: Following Cloud, Tifa and Barret's defeat of Specimen H0512, Hojo attemts to guage their strength based upon the data he got from the battle and... sends in a squad of Shinra grunts that he, based upon the data, is fully convinced will be more than enough to defeat the three fighters that just took down a superhuman abomination... This is the first clue that while Hojo may be pretty tech savvy, and an undeniably brilliant biologist, he is quite incompetent outside of his fields of specialized expertise. He encounters the exact same problem years earlier when Zack continuously defeats his combat data, with Hojo making excuses that the settings were faulty. His lack of ability to understand or empathise with other people also harms his plans - instead of making their stay at Shinra at least bearable, his treatment of Ifalna and a young Aerith led to the two of them escaping, and the experiments were bad enough that Ifalna did not survive long after the escape, costing Hojo and Shinra the last pureblooded Ancient and resulting in them merely observing Aerith from a distance until she got older, likely to avoid a repeat performance of the tragedy.
Evil Laugh: He's heard uttering a long and depraved laugh as he gleefully examines the aftermath of Sephiroth removing Jenova from the Drum. In Rebirth, he's in the habit of delivering these in nearly every scene he's in.
Evil Sounds Raspy: In contrast to Paul Eiding's shrill, cackling tone, James Sie gives this version of Hojo a deeper, harsher voice.
Evilutionary Biologist: Hojo's favourite field of mad science revolves around splicing living beings with the genetic material of Jenova, an Eldritch Abomination, creating men with superhuman power as well as beings of just plain monstrous nature for the sick heck of it.
Faux Affably Evil: He usually maintains a veneer of civility during most of his interactions, while making it clear that he's a deeply twisted and depraved person beneath it all. Instances include his interrogation of Aerith, where he puts up an affable front before going on a sadistic monologue of what he did to her biological mother (and what he plans to do to her), the matter-of-fact manner in which he proposes forcing Aerith to mate with elite SOLDIERS to Shinra's board of directors, and his calm demeanor when AVALANCHE initially catch him off-guard and hold him at gunpoint even as he's plotting to turn the tables on them.
Fish out of Water: As a head of department, he has a section devoted to him during the Shinra tour, including a holographic message from the man himself. He is transparently annoyed and uncomfortable about being made to waste his time addressing idiots about topics they won't understand and sees the whole thing as pointless flair, complaining that he has far more important things to do.
For Science!:
- He conducts his highly unethical experiments just for the sake of advancing his scientific work. He directly tells Aerith he doesn't care about Shinra or their goals, he just gives them the data they want to continue with their operations so he can be freed to continue his experiments on their dime.
- He starts acting in his own interests and not Shinra's once he realizes Sephiroth is in the building, allowing Sephiroth to do as he pleases up to stealing Jenova and killing the President because he might get some interesting data out of it, being the only one to know that Palmer wasn't just spouting bullshit. He also is likely aware that it is most probably a clone assuming the image of Sephiroth rather than Sephiroth himself, and plays towards his Reunion theory.
- His behaviour towards the group runs on similar lines - he could have called for reinforcements to recapture Aerith and kill the others, but instead forced them to run around in his lab defeating specimens so he could get combat data. As Cloud puts it, 'we're all just meat and numbers to him'.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: More pronounced than in the Compilation, as his glasses are tinted, partially hiding his eyes.
Gruesome Grandparent: Hojo fortunately doesn't have any grandchildren, but when he muses on the possibility of forcibly breeding Aerith and Sephiroth, he is completely unconcerned with the fact that he is talking about this own hypothetical grandchild. Considering his knowledge of the clones and statements on creating the next hero to his aides and Tifa, he is fully aware that mating them with the mutated clones is in effect creating Sephiroth's children both biologically and in spirit.
Hate Sink: Everything about this man is repulsive - even Aerith hates him, and for good reason. Even Sephiroth shows some personal contempt for him (or at least he did in the past). This trope is discussed in "Rebirth" during the party's visit to Costa Del Sol when they encounter him again - dialogues with the party revolve around their shared revulsion for the man, and the player has the option to reassure Red XIII and Aerith especially that their trauma and anger regarding Hojo is warranted and understandable.
Hated by All: There is not a single person in the world that even remotely likes Hojo. He’s loathed by many, including his own son Sephiroth (before he went insane), for his sociopathic cruelty and his repulsive experiments. Frankly, the Shinra Board barely tolerates him and even they are disgusted by some of his suggestions.
Hidden Agenda Villain: Hojo's experiments with mako and Jenova may have furnished Shinra with SOLDIER, but he is revealed to have his own enigmatic goals centered around his Reunion theory.
I Have You Now, My Pretty: He has less-than-kind intentions for Aerith once she is in his lab. He also has just as unkind intentions for Tifa when the Grasptropod captures her.
Insufferable Genius: Hojo can hardly get through a conversation without boasting that he's the most brilliant scientist on the Planet, even if the only person he's talking to is himself.
I Want Grandkids: While he never says this to Sephiroth directly, it's highly implied that he finds the prospects of his children fascinating, if only for the scientific value they would have. In Remake the idea that he may be in Shinra tower makes him consider what an offspring of Aerith and Sephiroth would be like. In Rebirth his obsession with the genetics of the mutated robed men is implied because he knows that they are almost exactly Sephiroth at the genetic level. Immediately after, he sets out to create more mutations and asks his aides and Tifa if they would help create a new hero before putting the latter in a holding tank with the mutants, the implications being that he wants them to bare Sephiroth's genetic children.
Kavorka Man: Despite being anything but handsome, his time in Costa de Sol is spent with a couple of beach babes hanging off his arms. Subverted when it's revealed that the mayor hired them to butter him up in order to suck up to Shinra.
Kick the Dog:
- His first scene has him sadistically taunt Aerith about how he dissected her mother's corpse.
- Considering how fast he drops the idea after the fight, it's implied that his remarks about giving birth to a new hero are just him getting under Cloud's skin.
Labcoat of Science and Medicine: He is always seen in a white labcoat, fitting for a Mad Scientist.
Lack of Empathy: Hojo cares about nothing and no one except for how they can benefit his work. As Cloud puts it, other people are just meat and numbers to him. Completing Chadley's missions reveals he abducted small children off the street to turn into emotionless cybernetic living computers that would obey his every command. Why did he do something so disgusting? He was annoyed that he couldn't find an adequate lab assistant.
- In Rebirth, the Nibelheim flashback shows the reason Sephiroth and Cloud were dispatched to the mako reactor was due to Hojo tampering with it for an experiment. Given this is the Nibelheim reactor, though, where JENOVA was held, either Hojo deliberately used it for his experiments in the hopes Sephiroth would be deployed there and discover his origins... or he completely failed to care about or consider the possibility. Either way, Sephiroth found the numerous journals about the project left lying around the manor and the destruction of the entire village was the result.
- In Rebirth, the captain of the ship the party is taking to Costa del Sol reaches out to him for assistance with the monsters and robed men threatening his crew and passengers. Hojo more or less tells him they should all prepare to die, even suggesting he mark his own body for later identification.
- Later on in Rebirth he notes that "nothing of value" remains in Shinra Manor. This is despite it being the place where he oversaw the JENOVA Project (i.e. his research partner and wife had his child, Sephiroth, and he also shot Vincent and left him in the basement after experimenting on him). The only thing he says that's remotely sentimental about the place is that the facility has a place in his heart and for the party to leave it as they found it, though the only thing he considers 'unfinished business' is one of his experiments (not Vincent) serving as a boss fight for the party (which he set them up for).
- Has displayed a pattern across both games of discarding subjects when they no longer interest him — he left behind Shinra manor and all his research notes once Sephiroth was born, leading to all the notes on the JENOVA Project sitting around in the basement for an older Sephiroth to stumble across. He also abandoned numerous other experiments which the party find and fight in Rebirth. Remake shows he presumably had a similar attitude to all the experiments abandoned in the facility under Midgar, and Traces of Two Pasts outright states he became brutal in his treatment of Ifalna — which led to her death — after he realized he had a 'spare' Cetra in Aerith, who had begun to hear the voices from the Planet. Had he followed through with his plan to crossbreed Aerith with other SOLDIERs, she could have been subjected to the same fate as her mother.
- In Rebirth he tries to get the mutated Sephiroth Clones fused with fiends to mate with Tifa and openly talks about his hopes that the aides Mayor Kapono provided him with will let him sticking them in the same tank. Despite the lack of sexual activity from fiends, Sephiroth Clones, or any concerns that the process would leave their reproductive capabilities intact.
Laughing Mad: When Hojo sees that Jenova has escaped her stasis tank he lets out a gleefully maniacal laugh. The AI Hojo in Shinra Manor lets out a similarily shrill laugh upon dropping Cait Sith, Barret and Aerith down into the secret labs under the basement.
Leitmotif: Hojo now has a leitmotif, "Cultivating Madness", that is fittingly based on the opening of the Jenova battle theme.
Mad Scientist: Professor Hojo is the director of Shinra's Research and Development division, the mastermind behind the SOLDIER Program and has no regard for human life in his highly unethical experiments. During a Shinra executive board meeting he casually suggests forcing Aerith to have sex with members of SOLDIER in order to create "hybrid specimens" for him to study, a plan that even most of the other board members are uncomfortable with; and after observing Cloud's interactions with Sephiroth he gleefully states that his Reunion Theory hypothesis has been proven correct. He also just throws his failed experiments in a decommissioned lab under Sector 7, which Shinra abandoned allowing them to run amok below Midgar. In Rebirth he escalates his depraved experiments by deliberately fusing fiends to Sephiroth clones and unleashing the subsequent gestalt monsters on Costa del Sol in the hopes of capturing some to study, capturing most of the party and dropping them in the same tank for research data with the subtext that he wants the women to be impregnated for a new specimen; injecting Roche with Sephiroth's DNA in order to corrupt him into a Sephiroth clone; expressing excitement at the thought of vivisecting a Weapon, and surreptitiously facilitating Sephiroth's plans in order to further his own goals. Rebirth makes a point of mentioning that, despite his titanic ego, Hojo was just a protégé to Shinra's former head scientist Professor Gast, with the implication that his "genius" is owed more to his complete lack of scruples than anything.
Mask of Sanity: Hojo presents himself as a composed yet amoral scientist, but there are moments where his mask slips to reveal a malevolent psychopath beneath, such as when he's speaking to Aerith about Ifalna, and when he's mocking the party immediately after releasing Specimen H0512. As Rebirth progresses, he lets the mask slip far more often, seemingly only bothering to maintain it around Rufus; and even with Rufus, he drops it when presented with the chance to dissect a Weapon.
Medical Rape and Impregnate: Hojo's original passing mention of plans to attempt to breed Aerith with Red XIII have been Adapted Out. Instead, he goes headfirst into ideas to pair her with elite SOLDIER members, and later wonders if there's a way to get her and Sephiroth to breed a hybrid. In Rebirth, when his drones capture Tifa during a fight at Costa del Sol, he does imply that he wants to use Tifa as a Breeding Slave to "bring a hero to life" through a similar process that created Sephiroth by having her mate with the mutated men in black he had put into the same tank. After completing the trials in the Shinra Manor, the Hojo AI implies that he has already begun working on a possible offspring of Cloud's after he proved himself a suitable candidate.
Metaphorically True: He says in his presentation for the Shinra Science Division that his research is beyond the tourist’s comprehension. Given that his research involves creating bioweapons using an Eldritch Abomination, he’s not completely wrong.
Mood-Swinger: His demeanor takes an abruptly psychotic turn while he's explaining to Aerith how he retrieved and harvested her mother's corpse, but he returns to his usual smug, collected self right afterwards.
Nerves of Steel: Being held at gunpoint seems to mainly just annoy him. He even tries to shoo his assailants away like one would an annoying house pet.
Nightmare Face: As he explains to Aerith how he's harvested Ifalna's corpse, he gets up right in front of the holding tube and gives a terrifying look, complete with crazy eyes and an unhinged smile.
Nightmare Fetishist: He lives for immoral and cruel human experimentation because of his fascination with Jenova and her cells. He takes delight in imagining and creating hybrid species, and is particularly thrilled when planning out all the brutal things he wants done to Aerith.
Non-Action Guy: When Barret threatens him at gunpoint, he complains that he is not used to physical violence.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Hojo admits to Aerith that he joined Shinra for convenience, not because he cares about any of their goals. They give him the funding and resources he needs for research, he gives them the monsters and SOLDIERs they want, and everyone walks away happy.
Number of the Beast: His lab at the Shinra tower is located at the 66th floor.
Obviously Evil: His slumped, sickly appearance, revolting Lack of Empathy, and tendency to break out into fits of shrieking laughter at least once a scene leave little doubt as to Hojo's intentions.
Oh, Crap!: When the Arbiters of Fate attack him to prevent him from revealing Cloud's true past to the party, he's shocked and briefly terrified, before expressing the desire to study them further.
Opaque Lenses: His glasses are tinted dark and conceal his eyes most of the time.
Paid Harem: Much like in original game, he's surrounded by bikini-clad women when encountered in Costa del Sol in Rebirth. However, it is clarified that the women with Hojo are employees of Mayor Kapono who were asked to attend to the Shinra executive during his stay at the beach resort. If Cloud talks to Fran, Naomi, and Yorda after Hojo leaves, they will admit that they have no real interest in Hojo, and they thought buttering up a company bigwig could help their fashion business.
Perma-Stubble: He sports a five-o' clock shadow, though unlike most examples, it more highlights his disheveled Mad Scientist characterization than serves to make him attractive in any way.
Quizzical Tilt: Instead of Hojo's hunched, shuffling walk from the original game, he now has a few physical tics, one of the most notable being tilting his head to the side when talking to others or thinking aloud to himself.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Hojo suggests making Aerith a Breeding Slave and asks the rest of Shinra's executive branch what they think, the rest of them turn away from the table in disgust. While President Shinra doesn't openly object, Hojo's remark may even be too much for him, as he adjourns the meeting shortly afterwards, cutting short any discussion of the matter.
Shared Family Quirks: Calling them "quirks" is very much an understatement, he and Sephiroth have much more in common then Sephiroth would like to admit. Both feel entitled to the world and all in it to do with as they please, discard that which no longer amuses them and hyper fixate on what does. Just about the only thing they have never had in common is Hojo's desire to create new and perverse forms of life.
Slasher Smile:
- Gives an impressive one after releasing Specimen H0512 to kill the party.
- He gives several watching the party go through his various traps and upon seeing Sephiroth steal Jenova over the security cameras.
The Sociopath: Hojo is a sadistic mad scientist with an utter lack of empathy, and delights in performing horrific experiments on others. His sadism is best highlighted when he gleefully tells Aerith that he dissected her mother's corpse down to the cells and asks if she'd like to see what's left of her, and plots to turn her into a Breeding Slave. He even briefly muses on forcibly breeding Aerith with Sephiroth, his own son, and thinks about his hypothetical grandchildren purely in terms of their research value.
Super Breeding Program: The one consistent thing about Hojo is that he wants to create super humans with superior candidates. In Remake he wants to breed Aerith with SOLDIER candidates, and privately wonders what an offsping of Aerith and Sephiroth would be like. In Rebirth he implies to his aides and Tifa that he wants to create a new hero by having them mate with his mutated robed men. His AI at the Shinra manor is so impressed by Cloud completing his trials that his trophy afterwards informs him that he passed muster for offspring consideration. Worryingly, it implies that work has already begun on that project.
Talking to Themself: He tends to do this a lot, as befitting his Mad Scientist archetype.
Terms of Endangerment: Addresses Aerith as "my dear" while talking about how she is as exquisite as her mother, whose corpse he took from the streets and dissected after years of experimentation. In Rebirth he and his AI at Shinra Manor call the party his beloved specimens, which they know is not something to appreciate.
That Liar Lies: Noticing Cloud's superhuman abilities, Hojo asks if he was a member of SOLDIER. When Cloud says that he was, Hojo recognizes him and smugly informs Cloud that he never was a member of SOLDIER. Before he can go into more detail, the Whispers intervene and throw him out of the room.
Torture Technician: Psychological torture is one of his methods of conditioning his specimens, exemplified in how he plans to show Aerith her friends' corpses in order to break her.
Tranquil Fury: When Barret shoves him for the first time after he's taken hostage, he's clearly livid but obviously can't retaliate given the circumstances.
Troll: Though the Shinra Manor in Nibelheim has been long abandoned by the company, Hojo left several AI holograms in place to communicate with anyone who comes snooping around. Said AIs are just as condescending and snide as the real thing, and repeatedly offer to let the intruders that activated them go, but instead dumps them into a trap or unleashes an experiment that was left behind to attack them. When the party ends up dealing with the AI Hojos during their trek through the manor, they are not amused at all.
Villain Takes an Interest: It doesn't take long for Hojo to have an interest in the party's capabilities as specimens in his experiments and labor for the rest of his tests. It also doesn't take long for the party to get sick of the interest.
Villainous Cheekbones: They are especially pronounced given how skeletal his face looks in general. If one looks closely at their respective models, his facial bones resemble a much older and wrinkled Sephiroth.
Yes-Man: Invoked. He tells both President Shinra and Rufus exactly what they want to hear, notably telling Rufus that Shinra should start dreaming bigger after the events at the Temple of the Ancients, but it's all an act.

Shinra Public Security Forces

In General

The military mass that enforces corporate rule over the territories administered to by the Shinra Electric Power Company, the Public Security Forces do not take no for an answer when it comes to demanding compliance from consumers.

Corporate Warfare: It's in the name. The Public Security Forces form the majority of Shinra's hired guns. They've even managed to fight entire nation-states into rubble.
Faceless Goons: Their helmets cover their upper face and eyes, leaving only their mouths visible. When Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa don trooper uniforms, their faces are fully visible, but normal NPC troopers have their faces fade into shadows under the helmet.
Hollywood Tactics: Most of the time, the grunts fail to keep their distance from targets who attempt to kill them with melee weapons. Not surprisingly, they are easily killed in droves by Cloud.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: It's a miracle that the grunts can actually hit anything most of the time, as their assault rifles lack buttstocks. Whenever they do successfully shoot any major character, they do so at a range where the intended victims can easily counter with a melee attack.
Interservice Rivalry: Units from different cities have a tendency to dislike each other, especially the regiments from Midgar and Junon.
Mooks: While most people would easily be killed by the average trooper, the average trooper would easily be killed by any major member of Avalanche.
Punch-Clock Villain: The majority of the grunts are just following orders and tend not to question the motives of their superiors. Very unfortunately, this also leads many of the grunts to their deaths in the grand scheme of things.
We Have Reserves: No matter how many troopers get killed, Shinra always has plenty more to throw at Avalanche.
What Measure Is a Mook?: On occasion the games will go out of their way to remind the player (and possibly the heroes) that beneath those helmets is a face. Individual troopers are shown to be a diverse group as far as character goes, and in one of Remake's late-game scenes, a random grunt turns out to be an old friend of Cloud's that remembers him from basic training years ago. It's just that they're largely so blindly and fearfully loyal to Shinra that they usually shoot first and ask questions later, but on rare occasions one or two troopers can be reasoned with. Though the party rarely gives any thought to mowing them down by the dozen in the heat of battle, other story scenes show they're aware of the blood on their hands and cope with it in their own ways.
Zerg Rush: Whenever Cloud and co. are around, the Public Security Forces seem to resort to human wave attacks if massed volleys of assault rifle fire doesn't do the trick. Not surprisingly, Cloud easily cuts them down once they're within reach of the buster sword.

Midgar's Seventh Infantry

The Seventh Infantry as a Whole

A division from Midgar scheduled to perform at Rufus's inauguration ceremony in Junon.

Ascended Extra: They are based on the squad that Cloud joins when going through Junon and got just enough characterization to be recognized later in the game. Their impact on the plot is significantly larger and their commander has a unique appearance to stand out more.
Black Sheep: One trooper mentions that, after the parade incident, the Seventh Infantry has been treated badly by their colleagues due to suspicion they've been "fraternizing with the enemy" (Avalanche), which is why no one would agree to give them reinforcements to deal with the Hell Rider II.
The Dividual: Despite how many of them there are, they're all Faceless Mooks who are similarly friendly and loyal towards Cloud.
Everyone Has Standards: Unlike the majority of the troops stationed in Junon, the Seventh is quite concerned about civilian casualties when a bioweapon is let loose from an underwater research facility.
Friendly Enemy: Cloud and his friends develop a genuine bond with the Seventh Infantry during their brief time disguised among their ranks. Even after the Seventh Infantry figures out that Cloud and others are enemies of Shinra, they still aid in Cloud's escape from Junon. Afterwards, the Seventh Infantry are nothing but cordial to Cloud and the party when they reunite later in the story.
Gameplay Ally Immortality: You can lose two troopers in the Junon escape sequence. After that, the three remaining infantrymen will be invincible. This is due to their appearance in certain cutscenes and would otherwise render a future sidequest inaccessible.
Guest-Star Party Member: After the inauguration ceremony, five infantrymen will act as uncontrollable party members since Cloud is still disguised as their captain. As Cloud separates from his friends to distract Shinra's forces, the five infantrymen accompany Cloud and help him make his escape from Junon.
It Has Been an Honor: The troops part on good terms with Cloud even after he's outed as an enemy of Shinra, and both sides say it was an honor spending time together.
Jack of All Trades: The Seventh is made up of 5 platoons of regular security officers, 2 platoons of grenadiers, 2 platoons of riot troopers, and 1 platoon of flame troopers.
Permadeath: If any two out of the five troops accompanying Cloud lose all their health while he's on his way to the port, they can't be revived and won't appear in the farewell cutscene. These troopers will stay dead when you reunite with the Seventh at a sidequest later into the story.
Red Armband of Leadership: Members of the Seventh can be identified from other soldiers by their red armbands.
Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: Somehow, the troopers of the Seventh managed to corner Hell Rider II, a Mini-Boss of a bioweapon, with little more than their small arms. That takes guts and more...
Undying Loyalty: Despite only knowing "Captain" Cloud for one day, they all become firmly loyal towards him, and even keep addressing him as captain after they know he's wanted by Shinra.
Video Game Caring Potential: The five nameless troopers helping Cloud escape are capable of permanently dying should their HP drop to zero, but they can be healed with MP or items. While they are expendable temporary members of the party and three of them will survive no matter what, the game encourages you to keep all them safe throughout the sequence.
- Roche's parting gift will also change depending how many are alive; All 5 surviving nets you an elixir, a pendant and a plush of Shinra mascot Stamp. 3 or 4 only provides the elixir.
Villains Out Shopping: Cloud is tasked with gathering them up for the parade, which means walking in on them doing things like shopping, taking photos, and partying at the bar.

The Commander

Voiced By: Tara Platt (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Laëtitia Lefebvre (French)

The Commander of the Midgar 7th Infantry Unit.

Commanding Coolness: She's a cool and composed officer who holds the title of Commander, which apparently denotes she's in charge of an entire infantry regiment within Shinra's army.
Commissar Cap: She wears a red commissar cap as a symbol of her military rank.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She's never given a real name and is known only for her job as The Commander.
Failed a Spot Check: Despite grabbing Cloud's face and closely examining him, she doesn't notice his Mako-enhanced eyes. It's only when they meet again later that she notes Cloud is a SOLDIER.
Glory Seeker: She has been training and pushing her unit hard to perform well at the parade because she really wants to win that commendation.
Iron Lady: She's the commander of the Seventh and is a strict lady with little tolerance for carelessness.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: She wears a red officer uniform to denote she's the highest-ranking officer in the unit.
Mad Libs Catchphrase: She likes to threaten subordinates with monster-related perils. Incidentally, one such threat involving a room full of Tonberries accidentally comes true when the party fights ten Tonberries at once in the Musclehead Colosseum.
Noble Demon: Despite working for Shinra, The Commander is an honorable, reasonable woman who cares deeply for both her soldiers and the civilians of Junon. In fact, her employers aside she's never seen doing anything remotely villanous.
Not So Stoic: The only time she'll break her stoic facade is if she wins the commendation at the parade, where she'll drop the stoic attitude and cheerily wave to the crowd, something even the reporter notes is odd from her.
Reasonable Authority Figure: While she seems harsh and cold at first, she promotes Cloud to parade captain on the spot based on his talent alone and is immensely proud of what her unit does at the parade under Cloud's leadership, and even when she (much later in the game) figures out that he's one of the suspected terrorists that she's supposed to be hunting down, she intentionally turns a blind eye due to knowing that Cloud and Avalanche are not the monsters the top brass had painted them to be.
The Stoic: Usually has a composed and unflappable demeanor.
Tall Is Intimidating: She's a tall woman who towers over her men, which helps her image as an intimidating Iron Lady commander.
Villainous Face Hold: When she's first introduced, she grabs the undercover Cloud's chin to inspect and intimidate him. Downplayed since while she's an officer from Shinra, she becomes an ally to the party.

The Commander's Adjutant

Voiced By: Chris Tergliafera (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Éric Peter (French)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commander_adjutant.jpg

The Adjutant to the Seventh Infantry Commander.

Commissar Cap: He wears a blue commissar cap as a symbol of his military rank.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: He has the typical demanding and harsh attitude of a drill officer and acts like this to the troopers (especially the undercover party), doing things like screaming at their faces and calling them insults like "maggots".
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's never given a real name and is known only for his job as the Commander's Adjutant.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: He wears a blue officer uniform to denote he's the second highest-ranking officer in the unit.
No Sense of Personal Space: Part of his act as a Drill Sergeant Nasty is to shove his head right to his recruit faces.
Number Two: He's the adjutant to the commander, meaning it's his job to be her right-hand man and help her lead the Seventh Infantry.

The Turks

In General

The Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department, unofficially known as the Turks, is Shinra's covert ops unit. They carry out assignments that are kept out of the public eye such as assassinations, blackmail, espionage, and forced recruitment of potential SOLDIER candidates.

Adaptation Dye-Job: The Turks wore navy blue suits in the original Final Fantasy VII, but they're changed to black suits in Remake.
Badass in a Nice Suit: The iconic Turk uniform is a sharp black suit, and they carry on their assignments dressed like that. It's not great keeping cool in the desert though.
Badass Normal: As far as is known, the Turks receive no special surgical procedures to enhance their abilities beyond normal human limits, but they're strong enough to go toe-to-toe with a SOLDIER like Cloud.
Black Helicopter: They're a Black Ops unit who have black helicopters as their most common form of transportation, to the point that being able to pilot one seems to be a requirement.
Charles Atlas Superpower: The harsh training of the Turks gives them great physical conditioning that rivals the actual members of SOLDIER. Elena is able to jump from a damaged helicopter onto the party's buggy with no injury, Rude blocks direct strikes from Cloud's massive Buster Sword, and Reno is fast enough to dodge around Cloud despite him routinely parrying bullets. Tseng and Rude also have Ki Manipulation abilities and Reno electrical abilities with no clear origin, presumably products of their training or very well-concealed equipment.
Corporate Samurai: They're highly talented and professional elite operatives of Shinra who are meant to discreetly deal with the company's dirty business.
Dual Boss: They tend to work in pairs and fight the party as a duo.
Elites Are More Glamorous: They're a small elite group of Black Ops agents that work for Shinra who wears stylish suits, ride Black Helicopters, and have more characterization and focus than the other large organizations within Shinra.
Evil Counterpart: In Rebirth, the Turks are distinguished from most other bosses by having their own synergy skills to match the ones the party can use.
The Men in Black: Serve as a corporate version of the trope working under Shinra rather than the more common governmental version, but this is still basically what they are.
Mood Motif: As of Rebirth, each Turk now has a specific instrument associated with their character on the soundtrack when they appear in battle: Reno is guitar, Rude is precussion, Elena is piano, and Tseng is saxophone.
No Cure for Evil: Averted in Rebirth on Hard Mode, where the Turks can use Phoenix Downs on each other.
Quirky Mini Boss Squad: They're recurring antagonists and bosses that the main character constantly encounters throughout the series, and they each have quirky personalities.
Only One Name: They all only have one name, which according to Cissnei in Crisis Core: Reunion is just a Codename.
Overt Operative: They're supposedly a covert unit, but their distinctive suits make their identity as Turks very overt to the point where even civilians recognize them in Rebirth.
Professional Killer: Assassinations are just one of the many jobs they perform for Shinra.
Punch-Clock Villain: They commit terrible and awful acts as Shinra's Black Ops unit, but are rather affable when off-duty.
Resignations Not Accepted: Due to the nature of their job they're privy to quite a few company secrets, so any Turk that resigns is considered a security risk.
Sinister Spy Agency: They're an espionage agency that work for an evil MegaCorp.

Tseng

Voiced By: Vic Chao (English), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

^{Click to see him during Crisis Core Reunion.}

"You led us on a merry chase, Aerith."

The head of the Investigation Sector of Shinra's General Affairs Department, the company's covert ops unit which is better known by their unofficial nickname, the Turks. A cold, dispassionate man, he is Aerith's constant shadow and rationalizes much of the dirty work the Turks are tasked with as lifting a burden from the conscience of others, including repeatedly harassing her and her mother. He was once a close friend of Zack Fair, but following his death his personality took a turn for the darker...

Adaptational Badass: Unlike the original game, Tseng is not The Unfought here and is a Dual Boss alongside Elena where he shows off his chops as both a martial artist and a gunman. He's also able to get up and escape the Ancient Temple on his own after getting impaled by Sephiroth, unlike in the original where he collapsed and had to be rescued.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Marginally. He doesn't slap Aerith as he did in the original, tries to assuage Reno's guilty conscience, and offers him vacation time. It's also mentioned by Elmyra that the Turks knew Aerith had to come to them willingly, so they've not been constantly trying to kidnap her, more just constantly nagging and harassing her.
Adaptational Villainy: In the original game, Tseng's villainy tends to be fairly offscreen. Here he straight up executes a wounded robed man as a means to intimidate the party.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original game, it was implied that Tseng had affection for Aerith, and Elena was interested in him and he eventually reciprocated. The Remake games downplay his romantic interest in the former by making it far more subtle (and less outright abusive) and making his reciprocated interest in the latter all but non-existent as-of Rebirth. Part of that likely has to do with him being 5 years older than he was in the original game (25 vs. 30), making him have a much larger age gap with both women.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Barring an attack or two where he attacks with his handgun, he will primarily attack with martial arts and Ki Attacks.
Benevolent Boss: More out of pragmatism than anything. Tseng is smug and aloof towards his enemies, but when he notices Reno and Rude are troubled by having carried out the order to drop the Sector Seven plate, he attempts to assuage their guilty consciences. He also orders Reno to take medical leave, ostensibly so he could recover from his injuries. However, what Tseng's not saying, though implying through his expression and tone, is that he knows that Reno had a breakdown during the mission; not something you want the higher-ups finding out about.
Combination Attack: Halfway through his bossfight, he and Elena will synchronize their attacks with a flurry of martial arts and gunfire.
Consummate Liar: After offering his team several justifications for their role in the Sector 7 collapse, Rude asks him if he really believes this. Tseng just shrugs it off.
The Dragon: To Rufus. Whilst the Turks work for Shinra, they are ultimately loyal to the Vice President and Tseng is the first to acknowledge Rufus as the new President following his father’s death.
Elemental Punch: His Vortex Kick ability sends a shockwave of wind at enemies with a kick.
Lack of Empathy: Of the three Turks involved in the destruction of Sector 7, Tseng is the only one who doesn't display even a speck of regret for what they've done, though he does recognize that Reno and Rude feel guilty about it to the point of trying to assuage their consciences, even if his justifications are flimsy and not indicative of how he actually feels.
Loophole Abuse: Aerith has to willingly agree to return to Shinra. Cornering her minutes before the collapse of Sector 7 and banking on her conscience to ensure a child's safety by trading her own freedom for that child's sake technically isn’t threatening her into doing anything against her will.
Kamehame Hadoken: His Instant Chi Blast ability will fire a hadoken esque ball of chi at enemies.
Necessarily Evil: He tells Reno and Rude that if they hadn't dropped the Sector 7 plate someone else would have, and to think of it as balancing the cosmic scales by giving Lifestream back to the Planet to partially make up for Shinra sucking it up to make mako. Neither of them believe it.
Never My Fault: When Barret holds Rude and Elena hostage in chapter 3 of Rebirth in order to take them to account for the fall of Sector 7 Tseng says that if the party wants to blame someone it should be themselves for their own actions. This argument doesn't exactly hold water since Shinra deliberately escalated the situation with Avalanche by helping to blow up the Reactors and the fall of the Sector 7 plate was orchestrated by President Shinra to stir anti-Wutai sentiment around Midgar.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: When he spots Aerith in Sector 7, he corners her in the Seventh Heaven in an attempt to use the impending collapse of the Sector 7 plate to get her to willingly go back to Shinra - however, Aerith is the one who offers to go with him provided they get Marlene to safety first, rather than Tseng making that offer first.
Odd Friendship: Insofar as much as a nearly emotionless Turk could, but it becomes pretty clear through Crisis Core Reunion that he comes to regard Zack as a close friend. At the very end of the game, he personally sends Reno, Rude and Cissnei out to find him and Cloud before the Shinra troops loyal to Hojo do - even outright praying that Cissnei will find them.
Older Than They Look: Tseng looks young, and the official artbook states his age as 30 years old. But he's seen in a flashback to Aerith's youth when she's just a small child, looking the exact same as he does now. Even Aerith's mother, Elmyra, looks much younger in that flashback.
- A younger, late teenage-looking Tseng was in fact modeled for that cutscene and appears deep within the game's files, but dummied out of the final version for whatever reason.
Only a Flesh Wound: Takes several feet worth of Sephiroth's Masamune blade right to the stomach, complete with Blood from the Mouth and everything, and then immediately gets up and walks away like it was nothing. That said, he IS seen later being helped along by Rude, Reno and Elena, so it wasn't THAT minor of a wound.
The Stoic: To the point that he almost comes off as closer to The Sociopath; Tseng carries himself with a professional and unflappable air, never expressing any form of agitation, stress, sorrow or joy. Unlike Reno and Rude, he even appears completely unaffected by the drop of the Sector 7 plate.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Compared to how he was in Crisis Core Reunion, he took several levels. It's strongly implied that Zack's death affected him, and he became a far colder and crueler person afterwards.
The Unfought: Averted after 27 years. Tseng is never fought in the original Final Fantasy VII, but finally gets to partake in a boss battle in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.
Villainous Crush: Carried over from the original in regards to Aerith, but played with. While no longer as physically abusive with her as he could be in OG VII (Where Tseng had no problems beating Aerith whatsoever despite his feelings), Remake Tsung is far more relaxed, but at the same time, far more subtly possessive of Aerith through his approach, mannerisms, and words, at one point smugly telling Cloud to "Keep (her) safe for me" in a way that you would refer to someone you were particularly close with. That said he's still fairly polite to Aerith despite her obvious displeasure at his actions and demeanor towards her, doesn't go out of his way to actively antagonize her outside the parameters of his job, and unlike Rude's case with Tifa, when he comes to direct confrontation he notably DOESN'T pull his punches against Aerith when it comes to throwing down against her, Yuffie, and Red XIII. It's notable that despite his actions throughout their history and who he's working for, Aerith genuinely doesn't hate him and is legitimately concerned when he's seemingly at death's door after encountering Sephiroth. Arguably his characterization in Remake/Rebirth compared to the original has him come off as more of a self aware Hopeless Suitor, (though considering this version of Tseng is 5 years older, making the 8-9 year age gap more considerable, it's likely just as much for implication concerns as it is for the players.)
Weapon Specialization: Unlike his cohorts, Tseng is notable in that he doesn't use specialized, custom gear but a normal, cadet gun. According to the Ultimania this is because he believes a Turk should be able to complete missions, no matter the circumstances.

Reno

Voiced By: Arnie Pantoja (English); Keiji Fujiwara [Remake], [Rebirth, recycled audio] (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"If you're gonna bullshit me, at least try to make it believable..."

Rude's best friend and a member of the Turks. Competitive, violent, and a bit of a brute, Reno nonetheless has certain lines he doesn't like crossing, but also realizes he probably doesn't have enough of a conscience left to try to moralize about it either.

Adaptational Badass: In the original game and Advent Children, Reno was certainly persistent and swift but hardly a superhuman badass, being more often treated like a joke than an actual threat. Now, on the other hand, he's able to casually dodge Cloud's attacks, close distances of dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, and use his electromagnetic rod along with EMP mines to turn a battlefield into a storm that would earn Ramuh's approval. That said...
Adaptational Nice Guy: A marginal case. Compared to Reno's flippancy of dropping the Sector 7 plate in the original, he expresses disgust at having to go through with it here, but then shrugs off whatever guilt he may have felt by rationalizing that "it's too late to grow a conscience", though that doesn't stop him from expressing guilt over it anyway.
Adaptational Wimp: In the original, Reno's boss fight at Sector 7 had him fighting a full party by himself, and even after losing, still manages to activate the plate separation sequence while escaping on his own. Now, he's fought early and defeated by Cloud in a Duel Boss and his second boss fight against Avalanche has Rude joining him. Both fights also end with him nearly being killed by Cloud if not for outside interference. He's shown afterwards covered in bruises and bandages with Tseng recommending he takes some time off to recover from all the beatings and emotional distress from helping to drop the plate.
Adaptation Personality Change: He's noticeably more careless and fight-hungry than his 1997 self. The Reno of old was a tactical and pragmatic man who knew when to retreat every time he sensed he was gonna lose. This Reno, in contrast, seems intent on fighting till he drops, not wanting to admit defeat. This causes him to suffer critical injuries in the aftermath of his battle with Cloud, Barret and Tifa on top of the Sector 7 plate.
Anti-Villain: He willingly works for Shinra and happily goes to town on Avalanche, but is disgusted by the order to drop the Sector Seven plate — even if he and Rude comply with it.
Badass in a Nice Suit: All of the Turks wear a custom suit and are the ones who handle Shinra's dirty work.
Bad "Bad Acting": Let's say that his ultimatum to Avalanche operatives defending Sector 7's plate pillar needs more work to be convincing, especially when people in the slums can hear him mess up his lines. Even worse, his tone of voice during the warning is not that of a concerned policeman stopping terrorists, but that of a lazy part-time actor who hasn't rehearsed at all.
Containment Field: Reno retains his Pyramid ability from the original game, imprisoning a character in an energy field that you must destroy.
Climax Boss: The battle against him and Rude at the end of chapter 12 could be considered as one, moments before the plate collapses and the plot shifts into high gear towards the endgame.
Disproportionate Retribution: During Chapter 12, still sore from his earlier defeat to Cloud, Reno attempts to shoot him down with a machine gun in the Turk's Helicopter after spotting him trying to ascend the Sector 7 tower.
Dual Boss: He'll call on Rude to fight alongside him during the second half of the fight on top of the Sector 7 pillar.
Duel Boss: Faces Cloud in the Sector 5 church.
Epic Flail: He can tether one of his EM Mines to his baton and swing it around with his EM Flail.
Expy: Recursively, with Axel from Kingdom Hearts. Where Axel was originally directly based off Reno, this incarnation of Reno absorbs many of Axel's personality traits in turn, in particular his more aggressive streak, his vocal distaste for the icky jobs, and his struggles with his guilty conscience when the job suddenly gets a whole lot ickier than he was expecting.
Facial Markings: He has two red stripes under his eyes which at first glance could be mistaken for strands of his hair.
Fiery Redhead: His bright red hair compliments his hotheaded personality.
Foreshadowing: Reno's rather flippant reaction to Cloud stating that he is an ex-Soldier First Class is a clear giveaway that what Cloud is claiming isn't actually true. Reno being a Turk, aka a Special investigator, for Shinra would know more than anyone else who is actually a First Class.
Fragile Speedster: Reno is incredibly fast and he hits hard, but he leaves himself open between attacks, allowing him to be easily staggered if the player can capitalize on that moment. This is emphasized in the Dual Boss fight with him and Rude; while both will move around the battlefield, Reno practically is teleporting around which makes him easier to stagger, while Rude will prefer to stick in one place for a bit.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and his partner Rude rarely go anywhere without each other and are close friends. In particular, Reno is visibly distraught when Rude has seemingly perished during the fight on Sector 7's support pillar, then expresses relief when Rude turns up alive seconds later.
It's Personal: He develops a grudge against Cloud after losing their duel in the Church, going out of his way to target him over the course of the story.
Reno: [getting ready to attack Cloud] It's nothing personal, bitch.
Lawman Baton: Corporate thug Reno uses a baton with a built-in taser to assert his authority.
Mr. Fanservice: The top part of his shirt is unbuttoned, revealing a muscular chest.
My God, What Have I Done?: Subdued, but he clearly is struggling with the guilt from his role in dropping the Sector 7 plate. Tseng attempts to soothe Reno's conscience by arguing that their carrying out the order was in a way a sacrifice on their part, as it means they will carry the burden of that guilt rather than whoever else Shinra might have assigned the task to, but it's clear that Reno isn't moved by the flimsy justification.
Mythology Gag:
- Reno's appearance is lifted almost completely from Advent Children, albeit with a slightly different suit and his shirt being more open.
- Reno's battle with Cloud in the Sector 5 church has parallels to Tifa's brawl with Loz in Advent Children, with Reno using an electrified weapon and frequent Flash Steps to catch Cloud off-guard.
Navel-Deep Neckline: A rare male version. He leaves the upper buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, completely exposing his chest.
Nonchalant Dodge: Most of Reno's dodging maneuvers has him simply take a half-step out of the immediate way of an attack, or even just slightly turn his body a bit so the attack will miss.
Punch-Clock Villain: He's affable towards Aerith and protests the order to drop Sector 7's plate, even though he and Rude do carry it out.
Reno: Hate doing cleanup, but I'm damn good at it!
Put on a Bus: He’s on vacation (to help recover his prior injuries) and not present for most of Rebirth. Doubly justified from the game's production as his Japanese voice actor had passed away and Square Enix chose not to quickly recast out of decency and respect.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Rude's blue.
Ride the Lightning: Reno's Flashfoot ability has him dash covered in lightning and leaving behind trails of electricity that can damage you.
Shock and Awe: Reno favors the lightning element in battle, his baton and mines and magic all have electrical properties and high resistance to the element being used on him.
Shock Stick: Reno's baton can be charged with electricity as well as fire thunder spells and electromagnetically link it with his mines to make an improvised flail.
Smug Snake: This guy's always so full of himself before a fight, talking like he has a guaranteed win even when faced with an enemy he already lost to before. His arrogance is so thick that he still has the nerve to act smug while steadily losing consciousness, right after being on the receiving end of a brutal beatdown.
Sore Loser: Unlike Roche, he really doesn't like losing and being humiliated by Cloud, enough to form a petty grudge against him. Makes sense as in Reno's eyes, Cloud is little more than a Wannabe. Which makes it even more annoying that Cloud kicked his ass.
Speed Echoes: He moves quickly and will leave behind afterimages.
That Liar Lies: Bursts into laughter when Cloud claims that he's ex-SOLDIER and was First Class to boot. Reno even notes that he almost believed Cloud, if not for the claim about his rank. Every time the two cross paths after that, Reno mockingly refers to him as "SOLDIER Boy".
Trick Bomb: Reno's equipped with electrical explosives along with his baton.
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Reno uses this trope preceding the second fight against him, assuring Cloud that "it's nothing personal" to emphasize the fact that, yes, it fucking is.
Underestimating Badassery: Due to realizing that he isn't actually a First Class SOLDIER, his interactions with Cloud usually consist of mockingly calling him "Soldier Boy" and picking fights with him. However, Cloud beats and almost kills him the first time they fight, and their rematch at the Sector 7 Plate with the help of Rude, albeit while Cloud is with Tifa and Barret, has a similar outcome.
Villainous BSoD: It's subtle, but if you look at Reno's behavior during the Sector 7 raid, he comes across as a man whose mind isn't on his work. In fact, he nearly botches the mission. Right as he's about to drop the Plate he...doesn't. Instead, he turns around and picks a fight with the party. Rude's forced to finish the job after the ensuing fight nearly gets both of them killed.
Villains Out Shopping: Reno spends most of Rebirth on vacation (or rather, recovering from his prior injuries), with Rude partnering with Elena. He does show up near the end of the game for one last boss fight with Cloud and co. alongside Rude.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Reno exists to beat it into the players' heads how to use Cloud's Punisher Mode Parry ability. If you've already gotten the hang of that ability, then Reno's fight is fairly easy. If not, then he can be an extremely challenging fight.

Rude

Voiced By: William Christopher Stephens (English), Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"No, I'm not bad. But like it or not... I sometimes have to do bad things."

Reno's best friend and another member of the Turks. While he has a capacity for kindness, he will nonetheless do what needs to be done to complete any mission. Despite his imposing figure, being a stoic bad guy doesn't exactly come naturally to him. As a result, he comes off as quite awkward and quirky more than anything else.

Adaptational Attractiveness: While his physical appearance hasn't changed much, in his original appearance Rude's suit was a few time bigger than him, giving the impression of a kid wearing his father's coat. In the remake his suit appears to be tailored, with it fitting him much better than his original did, and he wears a stylish black shirt and tie, making him look less like a poor man's Agent Smith, and more like an Elite Shinra Officer.
Adaptational Badass: Compared to Reno, Rude is portrayed as being very strong and more dangerous. While Cloud nearly killed Reno in their first fight, Rude only stopped fighting Cloud and Aerith because he was called off, with it being treated less like a victory, and more like a draw of sorts. Notably, when he shows up to fight alongside Reno, the game paints it as being much more serious now.
Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original, Rude isn't met until the party infiltrates Shinra HQ to rescue Aerith and isn't actually fought until they run into the Turks at Gongaga. Here, Rude is introduced during Cloud's duration in Sector 5 and is fought in the same encounter.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Aerith outright says that despite being a Turk, he's not a bad person. His first fight with Cloud and Aerith is not because he wants to kidnap her but rather to avenge Reno who was just defeated by Cloud. However, he is the one that finishes dropping the plate in this version.
Anti-Villain: He willingly works for Shinra but battles Avalanche with professionalism rather than malice, and, like his partner Reno, is disgusted by the order to drop the Sector Seven plate — even if he and Reno comply with it.
Badass in a Nice Suit: All of the Turks wear a custom suit and are the ones who handle Shinra's dirty work.
Bald Head of Toughness: Though he has always been portrayed as a competent hand to hand combatant in the original game and subsequent spin-offs, cool-headed and bald Rude's portrayal as a Mighty Glacier in the remake, who shrugs off blows, hits hard, and can suplex Cloud with ease, takes this to a different level. Compare his battle with Cloud to Cloud's battle with Rude's partner Reno: Cloud nearly kills Reno, whereas his fight with Rude only ends because Reno calls Rude away, ending more or less as a draw.
Bald of Evil: Not a single hair on this Turk. Downplayed in that he's not really "evil" per se, just a normal guy who happens to do dirty work for a very evil company. He's even a member of a private pub in Junon that serves only bald patrons, complete with their own poses, drinking songs and revelries.
Bare-Fisted Monk: While all the Turks are skilled at hand to hand combat, he alone will only use martial arts while the others are also armed with guns, batons and explosives.
Baritone of Strength: A large part of what makes him a man of imposing stature and reputation is his voice. It is the deepest voice of nearly, if not all, of the characters in Remake, courtesy of William Christopher Stephens in English and Taiten Kusunoki in Japanese.
Combination Attack:
- With Reno during their boss fight. The two strike the ground together at the same time and point, creating a large lightning Ground Pound.
- He also has one with Elena, where they combine his Atlas Stance with her Petite Powerhouse.
The Comically Serious: Despite his best efforts, "stoic and intimidating" just aren't traits that come naturally for Rude. His attempts to sound authoritarian have a tendency to either backfire or simply fall flat, causing him to get flustered. Some characters even make fun of him because of it.
Contrived Clumsiness: When Rude notices Tifa coming up the stairs of the pillar, Reno grabs the helicopter control to fire on her. But Rude suddenly jerks the helicopter to the side intentionally, causing Reno to slam his head on the door's glass and making his gunfire miss.
Reno: Dammit! Mind explaining yourself partner?
Rude: Uh... Hand slipped.
Cool Shades: Never seen without a pair of sunglasses. When one pair is damaged during his first fight with Cloud, he immediately takes a moment to pull out a new pair and replace them. They're also used as a subverted Dead Hat Shot when you blow up his helicopter during his second fight.
Dual Boss: The second half of the boss fight on the Sector 7 plate consists of fighting him and Reno.
Even Evil Has Standards: Rude doesn't like using excessive force on women - during chapter 12, when Reno attempts to gun Tifa down from their helicopter, Rude silently protests by intentionally moving the helicopter so Reno would miss. This even extends to both of his boss fights as he will use lighter attacks to stun Aerith or Tifa if targeting them - and, in Rebrith, he'll say to himself that he has no choice but to go all out if the players switched to either Tifa or Aerith for the first time during their (technically) third fight with him.
Gameplay and Story Integration: The Turks are supposed to keep tabs on Aerith and keep her safe until she agrees to come to Shinra. So when fighting Rude with Cloud and Aerith, he'll very rarely uses his abilities against her, preferring to stun and/or sleep her, forcing you to switch to Cloud.
Grievous Harm with a Body: He can throw your characters at other party members.
Ground Punch: Rude can do these to launch a Ground Wave or three at the party as well as summon energy geysers from under them.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Reno. They're often seen around each other, and Rude fights Cloud the first time to avenge Reno, who Cloud had defeated earlier.
Hidden Depths:
- His first encounter with Cloud has him feeding some doves, before he challenges Cloud to a fight.
- He's part of a private bar in Junon for bald patrons, who sing and dance together.
Ironic Name: His codename is "Rude", yet compared to the cocky and foulmouthed Reno, or the cold and elitist Tseng, Rude is practically a nice guy, no matter how hard he tries to look otherwise.
Just Following Orders: His reasoning for dropping the Sector 7 plate, telling Reno that "orders are orders" when he protests, even when Aerith tried to talk Cloud out of fighting Rude and claims that he's not a bad person, Rude agree with her point, but said that his job requires him to do "bad things sometimes". He later shares Reno's regrets and becomes angry alongside his partner with Tseng's attempts to morally justify the action.
Mighty Glacier: Rude hits hard and is very durable, and if you try to attack without paying attention, he can counter or No-Sell attacks. At the same time, he isn't very fast, meaning once he gets into an attack position, he generally remains there for a time, leaving him wide open for ranged attacks. This is emphasized in the Dual Boss fight with him and Reno; while both will move around the battlefield, Reno practically is teleporting around which makes him easier to stagger, while Rude will prefer to stick in one place for a bit.
Mythology Gag:
- Like Reno, his appearance is lifted from Advent Children, but with a slightly different goatee, sideburns, and an all-black suit.
- When his sunglasses are destroyed in his first fight with Cloud, he pulls out another pair to replace them - just like in Advent Children. This becomes something of a running gag, as whenever his sunglasses break or even just fall off, he simply pulls out another pair.
- Though not yet explicitly stated, Rude's crush on Tifa seems to have remained intact. The Sector 7's pillar fight being a Shout-Out to the Turks boss battles in the original where Rude targets the other members if Tifa was in the party and if she was the last one left, he'd either skip his turn or use his basic attack instead. Now, in Remake, he'll try to specifically focus on Cloud and Barret and do his best to only guard against Tifa. In Rebirth he has to fight her in full, so he apologizes, but during their brief Enemy Mine will prioritize looking out for her.
Pet the Dog: When Elena gets stuck combing the Corel Desert in search for Dyne, she calls up Rude and demands that he hurry up, find everyone, and bring her ice cream. While Rude does hang up on her, in the next scene Elena is in the helicopter with him enjoying a popsicle.
Punch-Clock Villain: He hounds Aerith and opposes Cloud because it's his job to do so, and Aerith asks Cloud not to pick a fight with him for this reason. Rude himself notes that he's not a bad person, even if he sometimes has to do bad things.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Reno's red.
Stronger Than They Look: Rude has the physique of a man who is in good shape but not particularly muscular or strong, but he's strong enough to whirl Aerith around by her ankles and send her flying, carries Reno over his shoulder like it's nothing, and can out-muscle Cloud, who is explicitly a Super-Soldier. Dio invokes the trope by name in Rebirth; he was last seen grappling with Rude and now is covered in bruises and has his arm in a sling, making it clear Rude won their struggle in spite of Dio being as ripped like a bodybuilder.
Sunglasses at Night: Rude, as usual, doesn't take off his shades for any reason. He even carries a bunch of extras on his person in case he loses them.
Tap on the Head: If Rude specifically targets Tifa or Aerith in Remake, he will subdue them with a non-fatal chop to the back of the neck. Averted in Rebirth, where he goes all out against them, even apologizing for doing so.
Token Good Teammate: Invoked, Out of the three Turks introduced in Part 1 (Tseng, Reno, & himself), Rude is by far the nicest of the Turks but is still antagonistic.
Unlikely Spare: A Mythology Gag from Advent Children, when his sunglasses break during a fight or even just fall off, he always has a few spares tucked away.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played With. In Remake, he'll use the bare minimum force against them, as evidenced by his refusal to do more than light restraining moves against Aerith and Tifa, which is partially justified as his superiors want the former safe and he has a crush on Tifa. In Rebirth, he'll have no issue with going all out against a female opponent (to the point that, if switched to either Tifa or Aerith for the first time, he'll muse to himself that he doesn't have a choice).
Wrestler in All of Us: His move set includes a giant swing to toss party members into each other, a suplex, and a running tackle.

Elena

Voiced By: Piper Reese (English), Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

The newest member of the Turks who appears in Rebirth. Extremely eager to prove herself, she is nonetheless unlucky enough to either be saddled with repeated crap details, or repeated encounters with Cloud's party. Both hardly end well for her.

Ace Custom: Has a bright pink and silver submachine gun complete with a cute little keychain charm on the grip.
Adaptational Badass: Unlike in the original game, where she only used grenades and kicked during battle, Rebirth shows her to be an outright brawler. That said in the original game, stats-wise, she was the strongest of the Turks when stacked up against Reno and Rude.
Adaptation Personality Change: In the original Elena tends to come off more as a newbie still learning the rope and a bit more insecure. She blurts out Shinra's plans to find Sephiroth in front of the party in the Junon mines, Tseng has to rebuff her for talking too much. Here she's far more sure of herself, assertive, and competent - to the point where her bravado actually seems to annoy Rude. She also successfully sends the party falling down the mine with a grenade despite an attempted save from Red.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original continuity, she was romantically interested in Tseng and he eventually reciprocated and invited her to dinner. In Rebirth, neither of them has any romantic interest in the other and Elena's enthusiasm about working alongside Tseng is more about proving herself to her boss in the field.
Baby Of The Bunch: She's only 18 years old which is much younger than the rest of the Turks.
Badass Normal: Relative to the other Turks, Elena is the only one who doesn't display obvious supernatural powers of any kind, instead relying on a gun and a seemingly endless supply of grenades to supplement her martial arts.
Beneath the Mask: In an optional encounter in Junon where she's drinking herself silly, you can hear her lament that she thinks Rude and Tseng both hate her, implying her brash cocky attitude is an air she puts on.
Bratty Teenage Daughter: This is basically her disposition throughout Rebirth; while confident and zealous about carrying out her Turk duties, Elena is quick to rant and complain about most of the misfortunes that befall upon her, to the point where Rude (who is temporarily paired up with her while Reno was recuperating) privately wishes his old partner would hurry up and recover.
Butt-Monkey: Elena's status as the overly enthusiastic newbie who's walking around with a high-strung attitude leaning heavily towards her taking her job way too seriously while also clearly being way too inexperienced to live up to her own standards of seriousness opens her up for a lot of humbling experiences over the course of Rebirth's story.
Combination Attack: She has one with both Rude and Tseng where they will synchronize their martial arts skills to inflict a powerful beatdown on your party if you don't stagger one of them out of it.
Dark Action Girl: She might be a newcomer, but she packs one hell of a punch and has plenty of grenades to back her up.
Does Not Like Spam: While she does want ice cream to deal with desert heat, she will reject vanilla-flavored ice cream.
Drowning My Sorrows: She can be found in a bar in Junon, getting drunk and lamenting that she thinks Tseng and Rude both hate her.
Enhanced Punch: Her Elena Knuckle ability has a lengthy windup before she dashes at you with a powerful punch, she doesn't exactly stick to the follow-up attack however.
Evil Counterpart: A Naïve Newcomer to their respective groups? Both energetic, have some sorts of cockiness and are the youngest members? Elena is literally Yuffie if she was a fighting for Shinra instead of for the good of the world.
Gun Fu: Downplayed to most examples, but she still has a dodge attack where she will fire with her SMG at you midair.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Downplayed, but still noticeable; though she'll still get scrappy with punches and kicks, mostly Elena tends to hang back and attack with grenades and her handgun in various ways. Justified given that in all of her boss fights she's partnered with either Rude or Tseng, who are simply stronger and more skilled in melee combat than her, so she acts as ranged support for them until it's time for their team-up attacks.
Mythology Gag: If her Elena Punch misses, she goes tumbling away just like she does in the original game if her punch misses Cloud at Icicle Lodge.
Naïve Newcomer: She's way more enthusiastic than the Turks actually require.
New Meat: She's been newly promoted, and she is clearly trying to impress everyone way too hard.
Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: She reluctanly obeys Tseng when he orders her to ignore Avalanche and focus on their mission. That lasts until Yuffie calls them chickens and starts clucking mockingly.
Older Than She Looks: She looks like a high-schooler and has a petite appearance, but she is old enough to drink (and get herself drunk) at Junon's bar.
Only Sane Man: Her high-strung enthusiasm combined with her inexperience notwithstanding, Elena is still the only member among the Turks who objects to being sent into the Temple of the Ancients for what is effectively a suicide mission, and she's also the only one willing to remark on the stupidity of Rufus himself tagging along to the Temple of the Ancients basically just to be on-site for the event.
Perky Female Minion: Elena is nothing if not energetic and eager to do her job, much to the annoyance of everyone around her. To her credit, she is a good enough fighter to work in tandem with Rude and later Tseng.
Screams Like a Little Girl: When the receptionist at the Haunted Hotel at the Gold Saucer swoops down with his usual cackle, Elena completely loses her composure and starts screaming at the top of her lungs.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She's the brash, confident girl to contrast Rude's coolheaded professionalism.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Elena retains her penchant for explosives from the original game and has several attacks that throw grenades at you.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Dresses in a sleek straight-edge suit and is just as much of a consummate professional Heavy as her three male counterparts, yet has an adorable pretty pink princess submachine gun as part of her arsenal.
Twisted-Knee Collapse: After all the drama fighting the party in the Corel desert, Elena drops between her knees after Tifa barely avoids running her over with the Dune Buggy at the end of it.

SOLDIER

Roche

Voiced By: Austin Lee Matthews (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

"Wanna ride to the end of the world with me?"

A SOLDIER Third Class, also known as "Speed Demon" due to his obsession with motorcycles.

'80s Hair: He's sporting an undercut mullet. Though admittedly, having slicked back hair would make a certain amount of sense given he's a Speed Freak who likes to ride around without a helmet.
Advertised Extra: Promotional materials feature him prominently and imply he's going to become a recurring rival to Cloud. In the game proper, he only appears in Chapter 4 and completely leaves the plot afterwards, although not without a declaration that We Will Meet Again. He does get a bigger role in Rebirth as he is fought two more times in the remakes' second installment.
Affably Evil: A strange case, where he is nice to everyone EXCEPT the people on his side, as Roche will haphazardly kill the other Shinra motorcycle troopers without a second thought during the bike chase, but he will politely chat with Cloud all the while. Roche doesn't even seem to really want to kill Cloud and rather is only looking for a a good fight during their duel. If Yuffie talks to him, he will genuinely refer to Cloud as his friend; not to mention he's very polite to her and can even play a game of Fort Condor with her.
Agent Peacock: He is flamboyant and hammy as hell but also a skilled and highly dangerous fighter as befitting someone who underwent the SOLDIER program.
Alas, Poor Villain: Considering Roche wasn't really all that bad to begin with, his fate of becoming a Sephiroth Clone after his final fight with Cloud is treated as a very somber moment. Cloud is particularly shaken up by the loss of his Friendly Enemy, and the reminder that he could one day share Roche's fate.
Almighty Janitor: Well, "janitor" is relative since he is a SOLDIER, but he's only ranked Third Class despite being pretty badass. You even face other SOLDIERS later on and they're only somewhat stronger than the standard mooks they fight alongside. Roche was able to fight Cloud to roughly a draw and shows much more skill on a motorcycle than his fellow Third Class SOLDIERs do. Rebirth reveals that he is The Captain of Midgar's mobile unit, implying he is the best biker Shinra has to offer. One has to wonder if all his shenanigans are the only things holding him back from achieving a higher rank, or perhaps he got kicked down due to his reckless behavior.
Ambiguously Bi: He's got some very camp mannerisms and borderline flirts with Cloud during their confrontations but makes a point of acknowledging Jessie's comments because she’s an attractive woman. Nothing concrete is ever said, however. Rebirth, on the other hand, has him blowing a flamboyant kiss to Cloud.
And Then John Was a Zombie: Becomes a Sephiroth Clone after succumbing to a combination of the cellular degeneration from the procedure that turned him into a SOLDIER, Sephiroth's cells that were injected into him by Hojo to increase his performance in preparation for his Last Dance, and the wounds from his final battle with Cloud.
Arc Villain: Of "Chapter 4: Mad Dash" in Remake, being the main pursuer among Shinra's forces to chase after Cloud and Avalanche as they make their way up to the Sector 7 plate.
Ax-Crazy: A strangely friendly example. He ends up killing quite a few of his fellow Shinra troops in his stunts and explosions to make himself look awesome. He's a lot nicer to Cloud and Avalanche as he sees them as way too much fun to have around as people to fight, to the point where the Shinra forces are more scared of getting in Roche's way than facing Cloud.
Badass Biker: A renegade SOLDIER Third Class, Roche loves motorcycles and high speed, and is shown using his bike to engage in Car Fu with some Shinra security officers.
Bad Boss:
- During the first motorcycle sequence of the game, troopers pursuing Cloud are alerted that a SOLDIER has been dispatched to their aid, but they hope it's not "him". He makes his entrance by taking out a subordinate trooper's bike just because it was in the way of his stunting.
- He later makes a dynamic entry into the sequence at the Shinra warehouse, driving through crowds of Shinra troops to challenge Cloud to a duel. After Cloud beats him, he makes his leave while destroying the remaining security mechs as a parting gesture of good will.
- Seemingly Averted with his leadership of Midgar's Mobile Unit in Rebirth, which he recognizes as his "own band of brothers".
Blood Knight: He's very enthusiastic at the prospect of fighting Cloud one-on-one, to the point of attacking people on his own side so they can't interfere.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He's able to go toe-to-toe with Cloud, who has the skills and strength of a 1st Class SOLDIER, but Roche is only a 3rd Class. According to the Remake Ultimania, he's been offered promotion in the past but turned it down because he prefers to be at a lower rank where he can pick and choose missions that excite him, and his superiors dislike his questionable loyalties and reckless behavior. It's implicit that Roche could possibly be a 1st Class himself, if he only cared to follow the rules and apply himself.
Canon Foreigner: He is an original character invented for the Remake.
The Captain: Of Midgar's mobile unit.
Casting a Shadow: In his second fight in Rebirth, most of his attacks manifest dark flames and have ominous names to them, like Stygian Chains, Soul Cleave, and Sinister Slash. Makes sense, since he's been given an infusion of Sephiroth's cells to gain greater power.
Chaotic Stupid: Roche is so beyond the pale just plain weird that even people like Cloud and Jessie, who are used to the fantastical weirdness a world like Final Fantasy VII Remake's throws at them on a daily basis just cannot process him at all. There is a definite air of "okay, that sure happened..." hanging over the denouement to Chapter 4 after he leaves.
Combat Sadomasochist: His lines when being attacked show that he enjoys getting hurt as much as he enjoys inflicting it. To him, it's all part of the thrill.
What a wonderful gift you've given to me!
Oh ho, that's the stuff!
Once more!
Simply marvelous!
Deadly Upgrade: After Cloud trounces him for the second time at Junon, Roche volunteers to undergo experimental enhancements courtesy of Professor Hojo—which make him exponentially stronger at the cost of him undergoing Sanity Slippage and eventually ending up just another Sephiroth Clone.
Death from Above: In his fourth battle, at half health he will attack Cloud with Cursestar, a rain of dark energy projectiles.
Disease Bleach: In his fourth battle with Cloud in Rebirth, he has a streak of white through his hair now. It's a dead giveaway that he's been infused with S-cells by Hojo.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: As the cellular degradation starts to take its toll on his body during his second and final battle with Cloud in Rebirth, Cloud notices and begins showing concern, but Roche shuts down any sympathy or concern, wanting nothing more than to have his last battle with Cloud.
The Dreaded: Mainly to those who work with him. His Remake bio states that he is ostracized by others in Shinra's security due to his "antics and general disregard for anyone's safety".
Dub Name Change: In the Japanese and French version, his name is written and pronounced "Rochey".
Duel Boss: Late in Chapter 4 of Remake, he shows up for a rematch with Cloud and fights him one-on-one without the interference of either his own Shinra mooks or Cloud's friends in Avalanche. In Chapter 4 of Rebirth he shows up again to challenge Cloud as he escapes Junon, after getting a Deadly Upgrade he shows up one last time in Chapter 11.
Fashionable Asymmetry: In his last fight Roche has his left sleeve and pauldron converted into a robe, showing how close he is to turning completely.
Fighting from the Inside: Despite his degeneration into another hood, he still mutters out "My... friend..." when encountered in that form in the Temple of the Ancients, showing that there's still a part of him in there somewhere... which arguably makes it worse.
Flash Step: When he gets off his motorcycle to duel Cloud, one of his abilities lets him lunge at Cloud in the manner of a Single-Stroke Battle.
Foil: Roche couldn't be any more different from Cloud if he tried. Both characters are SOLDIERS (or ex-SOLDIER in Cloud's case), have blond hair, are master swordsmen and extremely skilled bikers, and some of Roche's attacks are mirrors of Cloud's own moveset. But in contrast to the stoic and silent Cloud, Roche is loud, bombastic, and over the top. Cloud never misses a chance to remind someone he was First Class, while Roche is heavily implied to be as skilled as a First Class his antics and attitude means he passed up promotion but doesn't care about class Also, while Cloud gains a following of friends despite his antisocial demeanor, Roche's manic behavior and general disregard for the safety of others make him an outcast among most Shinra troops. Roche is also obsessed with tracking down and fighting an ex-SOLDIER he considers his arch-rival, but unlike Cloud he's willing to do extremely dangerous things to come out on top. Even their names get in on it, Cloud Strife is a troubled man who metaphorically lives in the clouds, while Roche means rock, an Ironic Name for someone who lives as fast as him. During his last fight with Cloud, Roche trades out a sleeve and pauldron for a piece of a robe on the opposite side of Cloud's bare shoulder.
Four Is Death: Roche appears to be synonymous with the number 4 as he serves as the final boss in Chapter 4 of both Remake and Rebirth. Throughout the story, he fought Cloud a total of four times, twice in Midgar, once in Junon and finally in Nibelheim, wherein he is branded with an SC4 tattoo. Upon his last defeat, he is turned into a Sephiroth Clone after succumbing to both his injuries and cellular degeneration.
Friendly Enemy: For all his crazed aggression, Roche doesn't hold any genuine animosity towards Cloud, instead of viewing their battles as but a means to satiate his never-ending lust for an adrenaline release. He even goes out of his way to screw over his fellow Shinra by helping Cloud and the other Avalanche members escape certain death, all just to ensure that he and Cloud can someday cross paths again. In Yuffie's DLC, he can be found looking for Cloud in Sector 7, and Yuffie is a bit weirded out by how he talks about Cloud.
The Friend Nobody Likes: According to his bio, Roche's reckless, manic behavior and general disregard for the safety of others makes him disliked among Shinra troops. That said, he seems to be much more popular in Junon, where he has an entire audience of troopers who help him set up a gladiator match with Cloud and cheer him on as they watch.
Gameplay and Story Integration: By the time he fights Cloud a fourth time in Rebirth, he's adopted a slower kind of fighting style that makes more use of Spell Blade-type attacks that utilize darkness, as he's been given an infusion of Sephiroth cells to increase his power. But when he gets to low HP in this fight, he'll begin attacking slower and will perpetually be in the Pressured state, a sign that his degradation is worsening as his physical health declines, and he can barely muster the energy to fight.
Graceful Loser: Although disappointed, he takes his losses to Cloud with sportsman-like dignity, preferring to think of them as extra motivation for him to train harder so that he'll stand a better chance the next time they cross swords.
Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version, where he constantly calls Cloud "my friend" in English.
The Hyena: Roche becomes a raving lunatic whenever he's on the motorcycle, doing all sorts of crazy stunts while laughing his heart out.
An Ice Person: He wields Blizzard magic in his second fight with Cloud.
Ironic Name: Roche means rock in French. Not a very fitting name for a Speed Demon.
Jacob Marley Warning: His last words in Rebirth, just before succumbing to his cellular degradation, are warning Cloud that the degradation will claim him as well.
Large Ham: This man always seems to be in a perpetual state of hyperdrive, screaming and moving around with all the subtlety of a jackhammer as he makes his intentions known. The only time he tones it down, somewhat, is whenever he starts waxing poetic about the thrill of competition.
The Last Dance: In Rebirth, it's revealed that he's dying from the cellular degradation caused by being infused with Jenova cells, so he decides to go out in one last blaze of glory by having a final duel with Cloud.
Laughing Mad: Roche spends about 75% of his screentime giving off deranged laughter.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: On Normal difficulty, he feeds Cloud an elixir before their duel so they can have a fair fight. On Hard difficulty, you aren't so lucky.
Military Maverick: A member of SOLDIER, he's ostracized by many in the organization due to his antics and general disregard for anyone's safety — with the security officers chasing Cloud, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge making sure to fall back when he joins the chase.
Mirror Boss: Roche's attacks in his second battle with Cloud are mirrors of Cloud's own moves. His Combustion Sword is basically Cloud's Braver skill, his Vacuum Wave and Ignition Flame is Cloud's Blade Burst skill, and he can use some of the same magic Cloud can. His fourth battle, meanwhile, uses moves inspired much more strongly by Sephiroth's moveset, a sign of his impending fate.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: After the second battle against Cloud, Roche displays this attitude, dispatching a group of Street Sweepers set on mowing down Cloud, Biggs and Wedge while telling the former to "try not to die" before their next duel.
Playing with Fire: His Ignition Flame skill has him drag his sword along the ground and releasing a wave of fire in Cloud's direction. On Hard Mode, he'll send out three.
Power Floats: His ultimate attack in Rebirth is Cursestar, a move so powerful Roche floats in the air as he rains down dark projectiles on Cloud.
Punch-Clock Villain: During Intermission he can be found hanging out in the Sector 7 Slums, he doesn't exhibit his usual Ax-Crazy behavior and, while still extremely loud and eccentric, is perfectly capable of blending in with the locals.
Pungeon Master: Being a Speed Freak, he can't help but pepper his speech with references to vehicles.
Roche: You turned the key... The engine roars with excitement. It hungers to be set free!
Red Baron: He's aptly named the "Speed Demon," owing to his insane prowess at motorcycling.
Red Ones Go Faster: His SOLDIER-Class Motorcycle is colored red which matches his fiery personality and his speed demon tendencies.
Sanity Slippage: In Rebirth, his sanity starts nosediving after he volunteers for one of Hojo's experimental procedures, ending with him being reduced to just another Sephiroth clone after his final defeat.
Shock and Awe: He has lightning materia equipped, and uses it liberally during the motorcycle duel segment.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Despite technically being one of Cloud's adversaries, Roche is usually one of the biggest sources of humor throughout the remake games due to being a hilarious Large Ham. In Rebirth, his transformation into a Sephiroth Clone at the end of Chapter 11 is the first big indicator that the game is going to progressively take a darker tone going forward.
Sword Beam: He fires barrages of Razor Wind crescents from his sword during his motorcycle-duel with Cloud. Also, in his second fight, his Vacuum Wave skill also has him fire one of these.
Sword Drag: When Roche challenges Cloud to a duel, he's shown dragging his SOLDIER longsword along the ground.
Symbolically Broken Object: The first hint that his fourth fight with Cloud is his last ride is that he trashes his prized red bike just before the fight begins. Sure enough he has his last drive then and there.
Team Killer: Once he gets on that bike, Roche will maim, if not outright slaughter, anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way of his crazed driving without care or remorse. That includes his fellow Shinra troopers just doing their jobs.
This Cannot Be!: If the player gets a high enough score for the Junon parade minigame and wins the award for outstanding performance, Roche will scream "No, say it ain't so!"
Unfriendly Fire: Roche happily runs over a Shinra grunt during his introduction sequence just so he can have the pleasure of dueling Cloud all by himself. He does it again in their second encounter, this time by taking out three Street Sweepers who were about to execute Cloud and his Avalanche allies, for roughly the same reason.
Villains Out Shopping: During the events of Intermission, Yuffie can find him and challenge him to a game of Fort Condor, while odd he is perfectly personable to her and if you defeating him he will declare her as his friend and hopes they can play again in the future.
Wild Card: The manic and unpredictable Roche quickly establishes himself as a strong and highly skilled warrior. As a SOLDIER, however, he leaves a lot to be desired, being far more concerned with seeking out hedonistic pleasures than doing his job properly. He'll even turn on his supposed allies in the blink of an eye for any given reason. The only thing consistent with him is that he's willing to lend a hand to anyone who earns his respect, no matter which side they're on.
Worthy Opponent:
- He lets Cloud, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge get away due to seeing Cloud as a worthy opponent and wanting another rematch. He even tosses Cloud an Elixir before their personal duel, as he wants to fight Cloud at his full strength. Averted in Hard Mode however where he doesn't toss one to Cloud.
- In Episode INTERmission, he begins to also view Yuffie as a worthy rival after she defeats him at Fort Condor.
Wrecked Weapon: Roche spends the fight in Junon atop his red motorcycle and even attacks directly with it more than once. At the battle's end he rushes Cloud in a massive Death or Glory Attack that ends up getting his bike cut in half. He takes the loss well all things considered.
Your Days Are Numbered: Rebirth reveals that he's dying from cellular degradation, allegedly caused by his Mako infusion but actually due to Hojo deliberately overdosing him with Jenova cells, and so he decides to spend his final moments with one last duel with Cloud. Sure enough, once the fight ends, he dies shortly after and becomes one of the robed ones.

Deepground

In General

A top-secret research facility located under Midgar, performing clandestine and unethical experiments on humans and monsters.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original timeline, Deepground didn't appear until the events of Dirge of Cerberus. The Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania confirms that the secret laboratory where the Failed Experiment and Type-0 Behemoth are fought is part of Deepground, and in Yuffie's episode in Intergrade, Deepground soldiers as well as Nero are sent against her and Sonon, and a digital recreation of Weiss appears as an Optional Boss.
Elite Mook: The Deepground SOLDIERs are much more powerful than the Third Class SOLDIERs, including having the ability to turn invisible. They're also portrayed in cutscenes as being far more competent than their peers, able to swiftly corral Yuffie and Sonon into an enclosed space using group tactics much more professional than anything the Shinra rank and file are ever shown to be capable of.
Malevolent Masked Men: The rank-and-file Deepground Troopers are shown wearing full-face masks with an eye motif in the trailer for the Intergrade DLC.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the original timeline, Deepground was involved with Genesis Rhapsodos and Vincent Valentine. While Genesis is confirmed to exist in the remake,^note the Interlude DLC has Deepground troopers attack Yuffie and Sonon when they infiltrate Shinra's HQ.
Super-Soldier: Deepground is a top-secret Shinra research facility where clandestine experiments with Mako and Jenova cells are performed, ostensibly in order to refine and improve the SOLDIER Program. The Failed Experiment and Unknown Entities, as the former's moniker suggests, were deemed failures and put into stasis; while the more-successful Deepground Soldiers and Weiss appear in the Intergrade DLC.

Weiss the Immaculate

Voiced By: Daman Mills (English), Joji Nakata (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Xavier Fagnon (French)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weiss_from_ffvii_remake_render.png

A white-haired SOLDIER who is the leader of Deepground. He appears in the Intergrade DLC for the PS5 version of FFVII Remake.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original timeline, Weiss didn't appear until the events of Dirge of Cerberus, which is set several years after the events of Final Fantasy VII; with a brief cameo in Crisis Core being his chronologically-earliest appearance. In the trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade, he is shown ordering Deepground Soldiers to hunt for Yuffie, but in the episode itself he gets little more than a brief cameo.
Adaptational Modesty: In Dirge of Cerberus, Weiss was chronically shirtless. In Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade, he's shown wearing a white jacket over his bare chest.
All Your Powers Combined: In his combat simulator battle he can shift to using Azul's cannon and Rosso's sword as the fight wears on.
Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear whether the Call-Forward is just a reference to Dirge of Cerberus, a memory that already happened with the implication that Weiss knows about the future, or perhaps even worse, a demonstration that Hojo has already uploaded his mind into Shinra's network and may have already hijacked Weiss' body. The latter seems unlikely as the trailer implies that Hojo is still active on his own so Weiss and Hojo are pretty much separated at this point.
Anime Hair: Weiss is shown to have hair even spikier than Cloud's.
Badass Boast: After Chadley creates a data replica of him, suffice to say, he thinks really, really highly of himself and his abilities. Crosses over with Awesome Ego.
Chadley: What do you think of your new form, Weiss? We've replicated everything about you, from thought patterns to stress responses. You should, however, notice some improvements due to my latest update. Indeed, I'd venture to say you're stronger now than you've ever been.
Weiss: Stronger than I've ever been... A big claim, little man.
Barrier Change Boss: Each of Weiss' forms have different weaknesses and strengths that need to be tackled. His regular mode is nearly invulnerable unless hit after certain moves that did not connect. His Azul phase has invulnerability to physical attacks but much worse to magic. His Rosso phase trades out any invulnerability to deal high speed slashes that can reach across the room.
BFG: After losing half of his health, Weiss ditches his swords in favor of a rapid-firing heavy machine gun, trading mobility for sustained long-distance firepower.
Blood Knight: He's clearly enjoying himself in battle: at the start of his fight he delivers a To the Pain speech of the many ways he's going to kill you. He's also irritated to learn that, as a VR simulation meant only to test his opponents, he won't be able to actually kill them.
Weiss: They shall be slashed, strangled and slaughtered. Beaten, stabbed and crushed... Garroted and impaled. Shot and executed...without mercy. Now...let the hunt begin!
Call-Forward:
- The cutscenes bookending his boss fight are loaded with references to Dirge of Cerberus. Before the fight, he directly quotes his threatening monologue from that game; after being defeated, he alludes to Hojo's Brain Uploading plot, interspersed with images of Weiss shirtless and Hojo. The significance of these allusions, if any, are unclear.
- His Azul phase has a number of calls to Azul in Dirge of Cerberus. Azul's Arch form was based on a militarized version of the recurring monster Behemoth and Azul was taken down by being impaled on his gun and blasted. One of Weiss' moves during the phase is to sprout Behemoth horns at the end of the gun to grab enemies at the end of the barrel and blast them. Twice over Azul recovered when left alone after taking damage, Weiss can recover health if he isn't stopped in time. And lastly, Arch Azul was invulnerable to normal attacks so using magic was the best measure against him, Weiss' Azul phase cannot be physically damaged but lacks extra defense against magical attacks.
The Dreaded: He and the rest of the Tsviets are one of Shinra's best kept secrets for a good reason. Even Chadley, who casually recreates Summon data and materia, was extremely reticent on having data of Weiss recreated.
Dual Wielding: In battle, he wields two gun-katanas.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Weiss seems to care about Nero. During their shared scene, he asks him if he slept well and if he looks forward to his future hunt. Unlike the way he talks to others, referring to them as idiots, he speaks to Nero as his equal in a gentle, respectful way.
Glass Cannon: In his Rosso phase he becomes even faster and stronger, rapidly moving across the arena in flashes of light to perform deadly sword combos. However, unlike his other forms he has no means of damage resistance at all and all attacks hit at normal power, which also means he's more vulnerable to his Stagger gauge getting built up.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: His Immaculate End is him sheathing his sword before striking as he draws it.
The Juggernaut: In his boss fight he is obscenely hard to take down: he resists all forms of damage, moves and attacks extremely quickly, and his attacks pack a big punch. It's only once he's staggered that he loses his damage resistance, giving players a small window to wail on him before he recovers.
Katanas Are Just Better: Weiss is shown with his signature dual katanas crossed behind his back in the Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade trailer.
Lightning Bruiser: He moves fast, hits hard, and it takes a lot of punishment to take him down.
Living Emotional Crutch: Implied to be one to Nero. His younger brother is considerably less erratic in his presence and Nero even calls him his "only light". Whenever Nero is hurt during his battle with Yuffie and Sonon, he also calls for Weiss like a child would do.
Mirror Character: As presented in Remake, Weiss is very much like Sephiroth — an arrogant and condescending swordsman who is one of the most powerful members of Shinra's military, and both are distinguished by their usage of katanas, white hair, and No Shirt, Long Jacket outfits. However, they also contrast sharply — Weiss is more emotive than Sephiroth, he dual-wields two normal-length katanas with gun barrels instead of the Masamune, his hair is spiked and short instead of long and flowing, and his coat is white while Sephiroth's is black, their signature moves also contrast, Weiss' Immaculate End is a single powerful strike, while Sephiroth's Octoslash is a Blade Spam multi-hit display. Word of God is that this trope is why Weiss was included as a new boss in the Intergrade DLC, because he's a powerful enemy aside from Sephiroth that fit the role of an Optional Boss in the combat simulator. Notably, in Rebirth a virtual reconstruction of Sephiroth is used as the final enemy in the new combat simulator.
Mix-and-Match Weapon: Weiss's main weapons are a pair of gun-katanas, while his secondary weapon is a high-tech machine gun equipped with retractable pincers.
Optional Boss: In the Intergrade DLC he's added to Shinra's combat simulator as a new challenge for Cloud and his allies. The real Weiss however is not fought, either by Cloud or Yuffie.
Pet the Dog: He talks to Nero in a polite and respectful way.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Weiss' first appearance in Dirge of Cerberus pitted him against Vincent Valentine, while the Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade trailer shows him and the rest of Deepground coming into conflict with Yuffie Kisaragi. In the game itself, however, he only makes a brief appearance and isn't directly fought at all.
Slasher Smile: His expression when his face is revealed in the Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade trailer.
Smug Super: When Chadley claims that the digitized copy of Weiss has been upgraded to be even stronger, Weiss is skeptical of the idea that a digital version of him could possibly replicate his full power to begin with, much less enhance him further.
The Starscream: Although he's a part of an organization that makes him subservient for Shinra, he has no respect for their personnel, and his official biography implies he's waiting for a chance to turn on Shinra and seek revenge.
Superboss: The strongest enemy in Remake Intergrade, who can be challenged in the main story after Yuffie's episode is cleared.
Super-Soldier: Weiss is a product of Deepground — a top-secret facility used to create elite SOLDIERs — and like Sephiroth his white hair is an indicator of the superior power he possesses as a product of the experiments performed on him by Shinra.
Total Party Kill: If the party isn't doing well enough against him, he'll use Immaculate End to instantly deal 9999 unblockable damage to them. Downplayed in that barriers will mitigate this down to a survivable 7499, making it possible for a hardy and reinforced character to survive, and it won't work past Reprieve.
White Hair, Black Heart: Weiss is an elite member of SOLDIER and an arrogant warrior, as emphasized by his snow-white hair.

Nero the Sable

Voiced By: Sean Chiplock (English), Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nero_intergrade.png

A black-haired SOLDIER and a fellow member of Deepground who is Weiss's brother. He has the power to manipulate darkness and is usually kept in a straitjacket to restrain his power. He appears in the Intergrade DLC for the PS5 version of FFVII Remake.

Adaptational Jerkass: In Dirge of Cerberus, Nero was cruel, but he was more focused on his goal to revive his brother and just absorbed his enemies that stood in his way. Here he is constantly Laughing Mad while tearing his enemies and allies alike and enjoys inflicting pain as much as receiving it. However, considering Weiss is still alive during the events of Intermission, this might just be what Nero is like when he isn't guided by a specific objective.
Adaptational Wimp: In Dirge of Cerberus, Nero simply absorbed Yuffie with his darkness and the only reason why Vincent could defeat him was because he was immune to darkness due to Chaos's power in him. Here, Yuffie and Sonon are able to hold on their own against Nero in a boss battle. They actually even managed to damage him and force him to remove his limiters. However, while he does acknowledge them as Worthy Opponents, his Laughing Mad indicates that he wasn't going all-out due to wanting to take his time to toy with them first, and he ends up faking that they defeated him only to then reveal himself to be alive and fine and stab Sonon and force Yuffie to escape.
Adaptation Personality Change: In the original, Nero was very quiet, calm and collected. While he showed pleasure in killing, he cared more about his goal and only snapped whenever his brother was threatened. Here, Nero is way crazier, nihilistic, shows delight in freely slaughtering his opponents and allies alike, is prone to Laughing Mad, and loves pain inflicted on himself and others. His attitude is way closer to his comrade Rosso the Crimson in Dirge of Cerberus. Furthermore, in Dirge of Cerberus, Nero was able to work in team to revive his brother and simply let Azul die when the latter failed against Vincent. In Intermission, Nero kills his allies and admits that there is no team in Deepground. However, this change may be explained due to Intermission happening three years before Dirge of Cerberus events so Character Development may have happened.
Ambiguously Bi: Beside his obsession with Weiss and his comments that may sound not-so-brotherly sometimes, there is also his behavior toward Sonon and Yuffie during battle, especially his line focusing on their lips when he grabs one of them. He also grabs Sonon and embraces him in a quite intimate way before taking him into darkness after fatally injuring him.
- His line in Rebirth, takes step further when Yuffie has a vision of him with Sonon.
Nero: If you don't come to claim him, I can always keep him for myself.
Ax-Crazy: Nero is a sadistic nihilist who delights in suffering and death, both his own and in causing it to others.
Barrier Warrior: His Veil of Woe skill has him conjure a barrier of darkness that repels attacks.
Berserk Button: Do not interrupt him when he's in the middle of a good fight. The scientists observing his battle with Yuffie and Sonon learn this the hard way.
Big Brother Worship: His shared scene with his brother involves Weiss telling him that scientists wish to digitally replicate him. Nero said that they would never be able to replicate the real Weiss. It displays how much Nero admires his brother.
Blood Knight: Like his brother Weiss, he enjoys a good fight, telling Weiss that it's been too long since his last hunt. During the boss fight, when his powers start going out of control and the scientists attempt to restrain him, he lashes out and kills them all for interrupting his fight.
Bound and Gagged: Played With in his appearance. His main outfit consists of a straitjacket and muzzle, but if anything, they are more symbolic as he is easily capable of breaking out his "bonds" and his muzzle doesn't prevent him from actually speaking. It may help to show that the scientist that believed they had him contained really had no control of him whatsoever.
Casting a Shadow: Nero fights using darkness-based abilities, which he can use to create Combat Tentacles and a health-draining status effect. He can also empower his weapons with dark energy. His Umbral Shell skill has him enhance his pistols to fire darkness-enhanced bullets and he can empower his wings with dark energy to turn them into Abyssal Wings, making them larger to increase the strength and range of his physical attacks. He can also create solid objects out of darkness, with his Salvo skill having him creating two pistols made from darkness to use in conjunction with his regular pistols.
Combat Sadomasochist: He finds the pain that Yuffie and Sonon inflict upon him during their battle to be exquisite.
Combat Tentacles: His darkness powers typically manifest as shadowy tendrils that can consume and absorb anything they touch.
Cradling Your Kill: Subtle but he does this to Sonon before taking him along in the darkness.
Damage Over Time: The main gimmick of his boss fight. Nero's darkness attacks can inflict a status effect that will rapidly drain Yuffie and Sonon's health and should their health reach critical, he'll use his Soul Erosion skill to finish them off by applying the effect directly. In the third phase of the fight, he'll unleash his Dark Matter skill, temporarily covering the entire floor with darkness that will drain the party's health.
Death from Above: His Disembowel skill has him dive at the party with his wings.
The Dragon: To Scarlet in the Intergrade DLC who summons him from Deepground in order to kill Yuffie and Sonon.
Dragon with an Agenda: While he acts as The Dragon for Scarlet, his last scene involving him taking Sonon away may imply that he has plans in mind. What his plans are remain to be seen.
Establishing Character Moment: His very first scene has him having a pleasant conversation with Weiss, showcasing their brotherly bond. The next scene with him has him killing his fellow Deepground troops by absorbing them with his darkness, showcasing his ruthless and sadistic nature.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he doesn't view such things as "team" and "allies" in Deepground, it's pretty clear that Nero loves his brother very much.
Faking the Dead: After being defeated, Nero is seemingly sucked into his own black hole-like attack, leading Yuffie and Sonon to assume he's dead. However, the moment they turn their backs he reforms and attacks Yuffie with shadow tendrils, leading Sonon to sacrifice himself to save her.
Fantastic Nuke: In the third phase of the fight, he'll periodically use his Dark Matter skill, launching a large orb of darkness that will coat the entire floor in darkness, which will rapidly drain Yuffie and Sonon's health.
Final Boss: Of the Intergrade DLC focusing on Yuffie.
Finishing Move: If Nero manages to get Yuffie or Sonon's health to critical, he will use his Soul Erosion skill to directly inflict a Damage Over Time effect and finish them off.
Glass Cannon: Nero is incredibly fast and agile, and his ability to cause Damage Over Time with his darkness attacks allows him to rapidly inflict damage. But he is nowhere as resiliant as his brother Weiss in his boss fight and can be pressured easily.
Grapple Move: His Binding Talons skill has his grab Yuffie or Sonon with his wings before kicking them into the air.
Guns Akimbo: His weapons are twin pistols that he can wield with his Razor Wings. He can also conjure guns made from darkness with his Salvo skill.
Hellish Pupils: Close-ups of his face reveal that he — like Sephiroth — has vertically slitted pupils, likely as a result of the experimentation done to turn him into a SOLDIER.
Humanoid Abomination: He looks human, but the experiments Shinra performed on him has given him strange and mysterious darkness-based abilites. Tellingly, when using the Assess skill on him, it will say "Unable to Read", which is only said on the Whisper Harbinger and Sephiroth, implying that he isn't just merely human anymore.
Incest Subtext: His obsession with Weiss seems to go beyond brotherly love sometimes. While his comment about Shinra scientists not being able to replicate Weiss may sound like Big Brother Worship, he repeatedly makes some not-so-brotherly comments about his brother during his battle scene ("Oh, Weiss. This is it! This is it!" And "Oh, Weiss! I feel so alive").
- He also calls Weiss his light at some point and say no one shall keep them apart.
Institutional Apparel: Nero is so Ax-Crazy and dangerous that he's introduced bound in a straitjacket, with a Hannibal Lector-esque mask covering his head.
Kick the Dog: Slaughtering Deepground soldiers for no other reason than thinking it is fun.
Knight of Cerebus: The introduction of Nero at the end of Intermission was the point where the episode took a major turn for Darker and Edgier, giving Yuffie and Sonon a hard battle and then basically tricked them into believing they won, only to pull the rug right out from under them and savor their despair.
Laughing Mad: A lot. It makes him even creepier than his older brother.
Moral Myopia: Nero holds Weiss dearly and names Deepground as their playground, but he has no qualms about slaughtering people, whether they are enemies or allies. Nevertheless, his treatment of Sonon after having killed him and watched his memories involving Melphie might imply a twisted level of respect and understanding, probably due to the sibling angle.
Pay Evil unto Evil: He kills the scientists that monitored him during his battle. However, since these scientists were completely willing to let him slaughter Yuffie and Sonon, no one will feel sorry for them.
Pet the Dog:
- In a twisted way. When he kills Sonon, seeing his memories involving Melphie, which probably reminds him of his own love for his brother, rather than instantly killing or making him suffer as much as the other DG soldiers and scientists he killed, Nero instead lets him experience his memories with his sister first to make peace with his fate and at least find solace that he'll see her soon before finally killing him. Notably, he stops his sadistic laughing and remains silent through the entire ordeal, as if to show his respect and not distract Sonon from his memories. Furthermore, he treats Sonon's body with utmost care as he leaves, taking the corpse rather than absorbing it outright. Compared to what he usually does to others with his powers, this act is quite merciful.
- Furthermore, after fatally injuring Sonon, he does not go after Yuffie while he definitely could have teleported and kill her too. While it could be pragmatic, it is also possible that he did this because he respected Sonon's willingness to sacrifice himself for someone who wasn't exactly his sister and just reminded him of her and decided to spare Yuffie's life at that moment.
- Just like in Dirge of Cerberus, he is loving toward Weiss. That's probably his most humanizing trait.
Power Limiter: His straitjacket limits his power to manipulate darkness and once they are removed his power will increase.
Psychopathic Man Child: Far more than in "Dirge of Cerberus". Even his older brother, who is referred as depraved and sadistic, looks even more reasonable near him. Even if it is just an embodiment of her trauma in her trial, Yuffie has a vision of him in Rebirth, playing with Sonon like a puppet in the same way a child would play with a newfound toy.
Razor Wings: Nero's weapons are a set of wing-like blades that collapse on his back. The wings are equipped with hands to grab objects while his real hands are bound. In the third phase of the fight, he'll empower his wings with dark energy and turn them into Abyssal Wings, increasing the strength and range of his attacks, as well as gaining two new attacks. Crippling these wings will instantly stagger Nero.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Weiss' Blue. Nero is more emotional and more prone to kill scientists while Weiss is way calmer and more cool-headed and simply indulged in whatever experiment they have in store. It contrasts with Dirge of Cerberus where Nero was the Blue to Weiss' Red as he was way quieter and unemotional than Weiss was, even if he was still sadistic.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: He rarely raises his voice above a cold, sinister whisper even as he's threatening his opponents.
Teleport Spam: In the third phase of the fight, he'll begin using Spatial Shift, teleporting around the room in an portal of darkness.
Villain Respect: Hinted at during his battle against Yuffie and Sonon.
Yandere: His Ax-Crazy behavior, his addiction to pain and his comments about Weiss in the battle imply that Nero may be one toward his brother. Neverthless, this trait was much more obvious and pronounced in "Dirge of Cerberus''.

Employees and Associates

Chadley

Voiced By: Sean Ryan Petersen (English), Shuichiro Umeda (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1545.png

^{Click here to see his appearance in Remake}

A young intern at Shinra's Research and Development division, who works to undermine Shinra by developing Materia.

Beyond the Impossible: He creates Summon Materia — something he notes that was thought to be impossible, enabling Cloud and co. to summon legendary deities like Shiva, Fat Chocobo, Leviathan, and even BAHAMUT!
Character Catchphrase: "That's it! I've come up with a new materia!"
Commonality Connection: Finishing his quests reveals his lack of control over his life, which mirrors Cloud's own frustrations.
Cyborg: Beating the Hard Mode-exclusive Optional Boss in the VR simulator reveals that Chadley is actually a cyborg made to assist Hojo with his research. Unlike most examples, he yearns for his independence and collects battle data from Cloud in hopes of undoing the Restraining Bolt imposed on him. If Cloud completes all his assignments, Chadley is able to do so and leaves Shinra.
Didn't Think This Through: Chadley opens Rebirth with having created MAI, an Exposition Fairy that's essentially the Shinra Building's propaganda tour guide expanded into a full character, and then spends much of the game coming to realize he's created someone he finds extremely annoying.
Foreshadowing: Talk to him while Cloud is wearing a dress and he's surprised at having an emotional response, hinting at his artificial nature.
Good Counterpart: To Hojo. Chadley shares the professor's desire to collect data and learn more about the world. He also provides the heroes important intel and resources in exchange for help with his research, much like Hojo with Shinra. Considering that in Rebirth it is revealed that Hojo is secretly influencing Chadley via a computer and Chadley's true physical body in Hojo's lab, it would explain why Chadley would have similar interests as the Mad Scientist.
Hard Light: A protorelic sidequest in Rebirth implies the body that Cloud and company meet is really a hologram capable of physically interacting with the world. His physical body is still in Hojo's lab. It's also implied by how Chadley always contacts Cloud with a vr background, instead of an outdoor environment.
Has a Type: Across both Remake and Rebirth it is indicated he has a thing for blondes. If Cloud comes across him while crossdressing, Chadley will have his first emotional response and wonder what his feeling is. In the Gold Saucer, he can be found taking in a poster of a blonde actress.
High-Class Glass: He has a high-tech monocle on his left eye.
King of Games: In the Intergrade DLC episode, he turns out to be the Grandmaster of the Fort Condor game. This extends to Rebirth where he is the Rank 3 challenger in the Queen's Blood Tournament
Mission Control: In Rebirth he graduates to Cloud's mission control ally, guiding him in discovering "World Intel" as Cloud explores each region. He is a frequent source of dialogue when traversing the world and making note of its many discoveries, giving lore to the player about various places and monsters.
The Mole: He works for Shinra's R&D department, but supplies Cloud and Avalanche with materia he develops.
Offscreen Teleportation: Chadley always manages to get from Sector to Sector ahead of Cloud and Avalanche. Justified in that he has a neural connection to Shinra's surveillance network and a cybernetic body that he's using to chase Cloud, which is why he knows way more about Cloud than he should when they first meet. As a side note, this is used as a bit of Foreshadowing; Aerith's data is all encrypted to the point where he can't track her or even know she exists, which initially makes him surprised to see her. Anyone familiar with her true nature will immediately know why.
Science Hero: Rebirth sees him using his newfound freedom to travel the globe reactivating old communications towers to further understand the Planet.
Sibling Rivalry: He tends to bicker with his "sister" and creation, MAI, over their shared role as Cloud's Mission Control in Rebirth.
So What Do We Do Now?: In the conclusion to his arc after revealing he's a cyborg and that Cloud helped him be free after using him for combat data, Cloud asks what he's going to do with his new freedom. Chadley's not sure, but he's glad not knowing something for a change.
Teen Genius: He is just a teenager, but he is able to develop new forms of materia — including Summon materia, something thought to be impossible — using combat data obtained by Cloud's team.
Unwitting Pawn: The sidequest in Rebirth reveals that Chadley is not as free as he thinks - Hojo is able to access what Chadley sees and is in control of Chadley's real body, meaning Chadley is unwittingly allowing Hojo to keep track of Cloud's party through their interactions.
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: For Cloud hilariously enough, as he can't tell that Cloud crossdressing isn't a beautiful woman and he's just learning what emotions even are.

MAI

Voiced By: Grace Lu (English), Manaka Iwami (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mai_8.png

An AI that was created by Chadley to assist the party in Rebirth.

A.I.-cronym: She's an artificial intelligence who goes by MAI, which is an acronym for her function as a Monster Assesment Instrument.
Distaff Counterpart: Appearance-wise she's a female version of Chadley.
Exposition Fairy: MAI is an AI that was created by Chadley to help guide the party in their travels by giving hints and exposition about the ecological features of the places they travel.
Genki Girl: She is overly peppy and eccentric to the point where even Chadley is annoyed with her.
Mission Control: Shares this role Chadley by acting as an Exposition Fairy to Cloud in Rebirth.
Sibling Rivalry: Tends to sometimes bicker with her creator and "brother" over who's better at acting as Cloud's Mission Control. A lot of their humor comes from MAI and Chadley trying one up each other over providing useful information to Cloud.

Damon

A reporter for the Daily Buzz, a pro-Shinra tabloid. He's seeking to write an exposé on the Angel of the Slums, framing her as a dangerous criminal mastermind.

Heel–Face Turn: If you talk to him after the final Angel of the Slums related sidequest, he decides to quit his job and go independent. He also seems to have developed a much higher opinion of the Angel and wants to write a more flattering article on her as his first assignment.
Intrepid Reporter: Damon is tasked with writing an exposé on the Angel of the Slums, and sets out to the Sector 5 slums in order to do so. The Angel rigs a trap thinking he'll be more interested in Going for the Big Scoop than in his personal safety, but he instead hires Cloud to check out the Angel's lair for him.
Large Ham: He gets excited quite easily and gets rather loud when doing so.
Loving a Shadow: In his final scene, he declares he has fallen in love with the Angel of the Slums and wants to help her, despite not even knowing what she looks like.
Mythology Gag: He seems to be heavily based on the detective character that appeared in an older concept for the original Final Fantasy VII.
Paparazzi: Damon writes pro-Shinra drivel for a tabloid that everybody — even Aerith — hates, and is a recurring thorn in Mireille's side due to his current job being to frame the Angel of the Slums as a dangerous criminal mastermind.
Propaganda Machine: He works for a pro-Shinra tabloid.
Putting on the Reich: He wears a Shinra armband that looks eerily similar to the swastika armbands worn by Nazis.
The Rival: He can usually be found bickering with Mireille Dudley, a supporter of the Angel of the Slums who actually is said Angel.
Ungrateful Bastard: After Cloud and Aerith destroy a trap the Angel of the Slums set to have Damon put out of commission, he ends up getting distracted by another lead and stiffs Cloud on his payment. Mireille picks his pocket and gives Cloud what he's owed.

Shinra Middle Manager

Voiced By: Brian Maillard (English), Eiji Hanawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

An employee working for Shinra that bumps into Cloud and the gang fairly regularly. Though he wears fine clothes, he lives in the Sector 7 slums together with his wife and daughter.

Allegorical Character: He represents the normal civilians who just happen to work for Shinra to make ends meet, and serves to challenge Barret's view that everyone associated with the company is fundamentally evil.
Badass Pacifist: When Barret tries to intimidate him, he responds by quoting the Shinra creed: "We will not submit to intimidation or violence! But work together for peace and prosperity! That is how civilized people change the world!" Sure, he is scared off almost immediately after doing it, but that's about as badass as you can expect a regular joe to be.
Benevolent Boss: He's shown to care for the employees working under him, who all seem to respect and appreciate him. At the end of Rebirth's final sidequest, he returns to Shinra despite realizing he's unhappy working for them so he can protect his subordinates from Shinra politics and bureaucracy.
A Day in the Limelight: He's the focus of the final sidequest in Rebirth, which develops his motivations and personality.
Defector from Decadence: He quits working for Shinra in Rebirth after realizing how evil Shinra is. Despite returning to work for them later, it's not because he wants to help Shinra's cause.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's never given a name and is only known by the description of his job: Shinra Middle Manager.
Good Parents: Learns to play Fort Condor against Yuffie, not to become good enough at the game to win, but to become good enough to lose on purpose convincingly so that he'll be able to play and lose against his daughter without upsetting her.
Hidden Depths: He may not look it, but he is an expert Chocobo jockey and gamer.
King of Games: In Rebirth, he manages to put up high scores on every game available to the player, and is one of the most challenging opponents in 3D Brawler.
Look Ma, I Am on TV!: In Rebirth, when he is interviewed by a reporter, he excitedly uses the camera to greet his wife and daughter, and keeps trying to talk to them even when the reporter tries to leave.
Middle-Management Mook: It's literally in his name.
Punch-Clock Villain: Though he instigates the second quarrel with Barret in Chapter 5 of Remake, he's not so much a jerk as he is an ordinary civilian brainwashed by Shinra's corporate propaganda, genuinely believing that Shinra does what's best for the world. He's living proof that not everyone in Shinra is inherently evil, and there are people inside worth saving, which pays off after Tifa, his supposed enemy from Avalance, saves him as she doesn't want him or anyone else to get killed, leading for him to cooperate with her by looking after the other passengers, and he eventually denounces Shinra.
Recurring Extra: He somehow keeps encountering Cloud and the others by sheer coincidence throughout their journey despite him simply being a completely ordinary citizen, which is treated as a Running Gag. It reaches a point where they have a level of familiarity with each other, with Cloud referring to him as the "Shinra paper pusher".
Sharp-Dressed Man: A nice suit and a red necktie for a man worthy of his Middle Manager name.
Throw the Dog a Bone: In Rebirth he is given a rather well-deserved vacation after the insane events of Remake and while he's still a bit high-strung, he seems to be sincerely enjoying himself. He eventually masters all the attractions at the Gold Saucer to the point where he is proclaimed the Ultimate Party Animal.
Token Good Teammate: Not so much in Remake as he willingly buys into Shinra's propaganda and help their cause, albeit he has his own scruples, but he's fully this as for Rebirth as he now acknowledges how evil Shinra was, while returning to work for them only to protect his people and families.
Took a Level in Kindness: While in Remake, he is a willing and knowing bureaucrat in a fascist and oppressive corporation, albeit protective of his employees and stands up to Barret to denounce violence of any kind, in Rebirth, he finally becomes fed up with Shinra's atrocities and quits, though he eventually returns just to look out for his people and families.
Worthy Opponent: Cloud of all people ends up considering him one after he gives our hero a serious challenge in various games at the Gold Saucer.

Stamp

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_3160_4.png

A cartoon dog that serves as Shinra's mascot.

Mascot: He was designed to be a cartoon mascot for Shinra, as a loyal dog soldier whose antics and adventures serve as pro-Shinra propaganda.
Ripple Effect Indicator: Stamp appears as different breeds of dogs depending of the timeline. The main timeline's Stamp is a beagle, and so far 4 other different variants have been shown.
- In the timeline where Zack survives, and later goes to the Shinra building to find a cure for Cloud, Stamp appears as a Yorkshire Terrier.
- In the branching timeline where Zack goes after Biggs, Stamp appears as a pug.
- In the branching timeline where Zack stays behind and waits, Johnny can be seen holding a stuffed toy of Stamp as a corgi.
- In the timeline where Cloud meets the alternate Aerith, Stamp is shown to be a chihuahua.
Show Within a Show: Is considered a popular cartoon character In-Universe, with several children knowing about him. Even Barret and Yuffie, despite their hatred of all things Shinra, adore Stamp, with Barret more upset that Shinra would turn an innocent character into a Propaganda Piece.
Signature Headgear: Loyal Little Stamp is never seen without his helmet. The variants seen across Remake and Rebirth have their own pieces of headwear (a patrol cap, bucket hat, and military scarf for the Yorkshire, pug, and chihuahua Stamps respectively).

Characters / Final Fantasy VII Remake – Shinra Inc.

Shinra Electric Power Company

Leadership

Voiced By: James Horan (English), Genzo Wakayama (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Josh Bowman (English), Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Heads of Department

Voiced By: John DiMaggio (English), Katsumi Cho (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Erin Cottrell (English), Masako Katsuki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Jon Root (English), Banjo Ginga (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: William Salyers (English), Naoki Tatsuta (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: James Sie (English), Shigeru Chiba (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Shinra Public Security Forces

Midgar's Seventh Infantry

Voiced By: Tara Platt (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Laëtitia Lefebvre (French)

Voiced By: Chris Tergliafera (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Éric Peter (French)

The Turks

Voiced By: Vic Chao (English), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Arnie Pantoja (English); Keiji Fujiwara [Remake], [Rebirth, recycled audio] (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: William Christopher Stephens (English), Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Piper Reese (English), Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

SOLDIER

Voiced By: Austin Lee Matthews (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Deepground

Voiced By: Daman Mills (English), Joji Nakata (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Xavier Fagnon (French)

Voiced By: Sean Chiplock (English), Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Employees and Associates

Voiced By: Sean Ryan Petersen (English), Shuichiro Umeda (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Grace Lu (English), Manaka Iwami (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Brian Maillard (English), Eiji Hanawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

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Characters / Final Fantasy VII Remake – Shinra Inc.

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Shinra Electric Power Company

Leadership

Voiced By: James Horan (English), Genzo Wakayama (Japanese)Foreign VAs Bernard Métraux (French), Helge Heynold (German)

Voiced By: Josh Bowman (English), Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese)Foreign VAs Bertrand Nadler (French), Nils Weyland (German)

Heads of Department

Voiced By: John DiMaggio (English), Katsumi Cho (Japanese)Foreign VAs Gabriel Le Doze (French), Thomas Balou Martin (German)

Voiced By: Erin Cottrell (English), Masako Katsuki (Japanese)Foreign VAs Marie Zidi (French), Gisa Bergmann (German)

Voiced By: Jon Root (English), Banjo Ginga (Japanese)Foreign VAs Frédéric Popovic (French), Andreas Otto (German)

Voiced By: William Salyers (English), Naoki Tatsuta (Japanese)Foreign VAs Gérard Boucaron (French), Peter Wels (German)

Voiced By: James Sie (English), Shigeru Chiba (Japanese)Foreign VAs Arnaud Arbessier (French), Axel Gottschick (German)

Shinra Public Security Forces

Midgar's Seventh Infantry

Voiced By: Tara Platt (English), Unknown (Japanese)Foreign VAs Laëtitia Lefebvre (French)

Voiced By: Chris Tergliafera (English), Unknown (Japanese)Foreign VAs Éric Peter (French)

The Turks

Voiced By: Vic Chao (English), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese)Foreign VAs Stéphane Fourreau (French), Oliver Schmitz (German)

Voiced By: Arnie Pantoja (English); Keiji Fujiwara [Remake], [Rebirth, recycled audio] (Japanese)Foreign VAs Jérémy Prévost (French), Martin Sabel (German)

Voiced By: William Christopher Stephens (English), Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese)Foreign VAs Bruno Magne (French), Dirk Hardegen (German)

Voiced By: Piper Reese (English), Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese)Foreign VAs Alice Orsat (French), Samina König (German)

SOLDIER

Voiced By: Austin Lee Matthews (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese)Foreign VAs David Krüger (French), Cédric Cavatore (German)

Deepground

Voiced By: Daman Mills (English), Joji Nakata (Japanese)Foreign VAs Xavier Fagnon (French)

Voiced By: Sean Chiplock (English), Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese)Foreign VAs Romain Altché (French), Ferdi Özten (German)

Employees and Associates

Voiced By: Sean Ryan Petersen (English), Shuichiro Umeda (Japanese)Foreign VAs Benjamin Bollen (French), Marco Rosenberg (German)

Voiced By: Grace Lu (English), Manaka Iwami (Japanese)Foreign VAs Claire Baradat (French), Lisa Dzyadyk (German)

Voiced By: Brian Maillard (English), Eiji Hanawa (Japanese)Foreign VAs Jean-Pascal Quilichini (French), Matthias Keller (German)

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Voiced By: James Horan (English), Genzo Wakayama (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Josh Bowman (English), Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: John DiMaggio (English), Katsumi Cho (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Erin Cottrell (English), Masako Katsuki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Jon Root (English), Banjo Ginga (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: William Salyers (English), Naoki Tatsuta (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: James Sie (English), Shigeru Chiba (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Tara Platt (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Laëtitia Lefebvre (French)

Voiced By: Chris Tergliafera (English), Unknown (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Éric Peter (French)

Voiced By: Vic Chao (English), Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Arnie Pantoja (English); Keiji Fujiwara [Remake], [Rebirth, recycled audio] (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: William Christopher Stephens (English), Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Piper Reese (English), Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Austin Lee Matthews (English), Kenta Miyake (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Daman Mills (English), Joji Nakata (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs} Xavier Fagnon (French)

Voiced By: Sean Chiplock (English), Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Sean Ryan Petersen (English), Shuichiro Umeda (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Grace Lu (English), Manaka Iwami (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced By: Brian Maillard (English), Eiji Hanawa (Japanese)^{Foreign VAs}