Rufus Shinra



Rufus Shinra is a character from Final Fantasy VII and one of the game's main antagonists. He acts as Vice President of the Shinra Electric Power Company through Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, and as President through most of Final Fantasy VII. He most likely gained the title due to the fact that he is President Shinra's son. Rufus is stated as being twenty-five years old during the events of Final Fantasy VII in the novella On the Way to a Smile: Case of Shinra.

Appearance and Personality
Unlike many of the characters in the Compilation, Rufus wears the same outfit in all his appearances: a white business suit with a matching jacket over a black shirt. Rufus has blue eyes and blond hair, and uses a shotgun as his weapon of choice. Though he is a normal human with no augmentations, Rufus is strong enough to wield the weapon with one hand.

Like his father, Rufus's main goals are to control the world through the Shinra Company, and increase the company's power. Unlike his father, however, Rufus uses fear to control people, playing on their suspicions of AVALANCHE and Sephiroth to manipulate them; in Final Fantasy VII, he makes AVALANCHE the scapegoats for the arrival of Meteor, and attempts to have them publicly executed to assuage the public's rage. Rufus seems to have no love for his father, and schemes to overthrow him on the seat of power.

In Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, Rufus appears to genuinely wish to atone for his crimes, and is hinted to be the one funding the World Regenesis Organization. However, he still wishes for Shinra to have a dominant hand in the world's affairs - when the city of Edge is being built, it is done using Shinra resources, and Rufus has a monument to Meteor placed in the center of the city to claim the city as Shinra's and secure their ownership of it in the minds of the citizens.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Rufus plays a major role in the mobile game Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-. He is the main financier for the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE, and feeds them key information to allow for their success. Along with the other Shinra executives, Rufus takes part in meetings and strategy, and has special access to his father, personally discussing key issues as the second-in-command. Rufus has no interest in the the Planet or its fate while funding AVALANCHE, rather, he is using the organization as a way to take power from his father. It is obvious early in Before Crisis that Shinra has a traitor, but it it not revealed to be Rufus until Episode 14 in Wutai.

The Turks capture Rufus in Episode 16 during the attack on the Old Corel. The Turks use Rufus as leverage with President Shinra so that they can save their commander, Veld, and his daughter, Elfé, the AVALANCHE's commander. Afterward, Rufus is neither killed nor stripped of his title for being a traitor; President Shinra merely orders him to be placed under house arrest in Junon. His absence is explained by claiming he is on an "extended assignment overseas".

Correction 15th March 2013: although it has become a widely believed piece of fandom lore that Rufus was held in Junon during his period of house arrest in Before Crisis, there is no canon evidence to support this belief. In Episode 17.3 of Before Crisis, Tseng tells the President that Rufus is "being held in the hidden room in the Turks' offices." All the evidence points towards this hidden room being in the Shinra building itself, where the Turks' offices are located. There is no reason to think that Rufus was taken to Junon.

President Shinra eventually saves him while the Turks are out searching for the support Materia and attempting to rescue Veld. Before the Turks are ordered to be executed for insubordination, Rufus interrupts and announces the Turks should be spared since Tseng "assassinated" Veld and Elfé.

Final Fantasy VII
During Sephiroth's attack on Shinra Headquarters in Midgar, the Shinra executive Palmer calls Junon for help. Rufus responds by taking a helicopter to Midgar to take command of the company. By the time he arrives, mostly everyone in the building is dead, including President Shinra.

After a brief fight against Cloud, during which he uses a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun and is accompanied by his guard hound, Dark Nation, Rufus flees the building. It is eventually restored and Rufus resumes normal operations as the President of the Shinra Corporation.

Rufus decides to go after Sephiroth, and follows him across the Planet with an entourage of Shinra executives. The next time Rufus is seen by AVALANCHE is when they board his cargo ship from Junon to Costa del Sol, but he never interacts with them. His attempts to take control of Cid Highwind's Tiny Bronco airplane are foiled when Cloud's crew help the pilot escape in said plane.

Rufus is encountered again when Cloud confronts him at the Northern Cave inside North Crater, which Shinra believes to be the Promised Land, but he and the other Shinra executives are forced to flee when the Weapons emerge from the crater when Sephiroth summons the Meteor. Afterward, he tries to have Tifa and Barret publicly executed to help calm the panic from the looming Meteor. His plans are foiled when Sapphire Weapon attacks Junon and causes enough confusion for the two to escape on the Highwind.

Rufus is seen one last time in Final Fantasy VII when he has the Sister Ray cannon moved from Junon to Midgar in order to destroy Diamond Weapon and the barrier surrounding Sephiroth. As he launches the cannon, Diamond Weapon launches its own attack on Midgar, which hits on-level with the President's office, from which he is overseeing the operation. Due to the damage, no one can reach the office to find a body, so he is presumed dead. The opening of Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- further reveals he was alive, being loaded into the helicopter during Meteorfall.

Novella
Rufus and the Turks are the central characters in On the Way to a Smile: Case of Shinra. Rufus escapes death in Diamond Weapon's attack by using a hidden escape tunnel his father built for when Rufus would need it. Taking refuge in Kalm, Rufus is taken prisoner by Mutten Kylegate while the Turks are absent, and is interrogated, where he reveals his plan to construct the city of Edge, in the east of Midgar, using the remains of the fallen buildings and the corrupted roads.

After escaping with the help of Kilmister, Rufus helps him recover Professor Hojo's research from Midgar to discover the origins of Geostigma, which Kilmister knows is connected to Jenova. Though Kilmister is eventually killed, Rufus still orders the Turks to locate Jenova's remains and keep them safe from being used by others.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children/Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete
In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Rufus reveals himself to Cloud and that he was under the Turks' protection for the two year period, living with them in the Healen Lodge in a wheelchair, covered by a white sheet, which is supposedly hiding his Geostigma, as he appears to be in the disease's final stages. Seemingly reformed and renouncing his past cruelty, Rufus explains his near-death experience opened his eyes to the truth and he now desires to undo the chaos his company brought onto the world. Near the movie's climax, he backs up his resolve as he removes the sheet and stands from the wheelchair, revealing the progression of his Geostigma is not nearly as advanced as he had pretended, the sheet only having been around him to hide the head of Jenova from Kadaj.

Rufus has something of a shoot-out with Kadaj after throwing the container off a ledge, with him and Kadaj plunging after it. Rufus is caught in a net thrown by Tseng and Elena, and thus saved, although Kadaj is the one to collect Jenova's remains. Like most of the characters, Rufus is cured of Geostigma at the end of the movie, prolonging the life of the Shinra family and Rufus's chance for further redemption.

In Advent Children Complete, in a new opening scene, after Kadaj asks Rufus why mankind bothers to constantly rebuild after destroying everything they make, Rufus tells him that people rebuild in order to "gild the past" and rid themselves of a recent problem. Kadaj assumes Rufus means Geostigma, something he says Shinra brought upon the Planet. Kadaj says Rufus fears the past. Rufus objects and says simply because he is forgetful. In the scene he is revealed, Rufus explains to Cloud Sephiroth's will in the Lifestream is the cause of Geostigma rather than the Mako energy, as the populace believes.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
It is hinted at in the game Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- that Rufus is secretly funding the World Regenesis Organization headed by Reeve Tuesti, who had a feeling his mysterious benefactor was someone who owed "a debt to the planet" (nearly quoting Rufus Shinra's words to Cloud from Advent Children word for word). His signature white jacket is seen in the opening of Dirge of Cerberus as Rufus is being loaded into an emergency transport while Yuffie is evacuating a sector of Midgar during Meteorfall.

Battle
Rufus fights Cloud alongside Dark Nation atop the Shinra Building early in Final Fantasy VII.

Development
In Advent Children Rufus was covered with a sheet so as to hide his face, and his voice was also made soft and deceptive to give him a sense of mystery. Toru Okawa, who voices Rufus in the film's Japanese version, stated he got the impression Rufus was the type of person always hiding something, and states that the scene where he rises from his wheelchair and casts off his cloak is one of his favorites, where Rufus reveals his secrets at last.

Okawa also noted that Rufus's line "a good son would have known" has become a fan favorite, and Tetsuya Nomura has joked the irony is that such a line comes from Rufus. Nomura said that Okawa's voice had an undertone of mystery and elegance, and was perfect for Rufus's part: "Only someone like Rufus, a big shot president, would be able to jump off a building without hesitation and expect his Turks to take care of everything".

Musical Themes
Rufus has one theme that plays during his initiation ceremony titled "Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony". The theme is also heard in Final Fantasy IX being played by a band on the Prima Vista after it is shot down by Queen Brahne. This version, called "Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony (Millennium Version)", is found on the Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack PLUS album. A piano arrangement of the theme is included on the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VII album.

Etymology
Rufus is a name of Latin origin, and means "red-haired".

Trivia

 * As revealed in in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Rufus is Lazard Deusericus's younger half-brother. An infantryman in the director's office tells Zack that he found Lazard to resemble "the V.P.".
 * In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Rufus is not seen throughout the whole game, but only mentioned in an email from Kunsel to Zack Fair that Rufus had become the company's Vice President.
 * In On the Way to a Smile: Case of Shinra, Rufus discovers his father's passkey used to unlock anything in the building was the date Rufus was born. Yet, the actual code was not presented, therefore, the exact date of his birth is still unknown.
 * Also in Case of Shinra, Rufus gave the idea of an escape route in the executive office in the Shinra Building when he was five years old when President Shinra showed him the blueprints. Much to the President's hesitation, it was built, and Rufus used it after Diamond Weapon attacked Midgar.
 * In the Case of Shinra, it was mentioned Rufus had a habit of choosing the farthest part of the room for a bed.
 * In the Novel Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright- it was revealed that President Shinra had another illegitimate son, Evan Townshend, a younger half-brother of Rufus.