President Shinra
Profile[edit | edit source]
Appearance[edit | edit source]
President Shinra is a short, elderly man with graying blond hair and mustache. He wears a burgundy suit with black stripes, white shirt and purple tie with white dots, and carries a cigar. He has a gold colored Shinra handgun model that he keeps in the drawer of his desk in his office.
Personality[edit | edit source]
President Shinra is an overly ambitious, greedy man, stopping at nothing to gain more money and power. Both callous and ruthless, President Shinra is unfazed at disposing anyone who might oppose him and his company. As the de facto ruler of the world, he exercises his power with impunity. His lifelong dream is to build Neo Midgar in the promised land, a place he believes is fertile with mako energy. His only soft spot appears to be his son, Rufus, whose behavior he forgives. Even his passkey at the Shinra Building is his son's birthday. He has a museum dedicated to his life in the Shinra Building complete with a gold colored statue, highlighting his obsession with wealth and power.
Before Final Fantasy VII Remake, the president was depicted ruling over Midgar and the rest of the Shinra-occupied world via handouts and misinformation. He promoted a prosperous future to garner more capital by putting spin on the narrative fed to the masses, showcasing a capricious and manipulative personality. In the Remake, his mindset on ruling the world better aligns with his son's: using his company's power to amass influence for egotistic reasons to dominate everyone under Shinra's survey with intimidation.
He has displayed frightening levels of sociopathy, his personal ambitions causing thousands of deaths.
Story[edit | edit source]
Early life[edit | edit source]
President Shinra has three known sons: Lazard Deusericus, Evan Townshend, and Rufus Shinra, but he only acknowledges the latter. Lazard and Rufus were given top positions in his organization, the Shinra Electric Power Company that has a monopoly on power generation in the world. Shinra started as a weapons manufacturer, and continues in the business with a private army it uses to conquer areas that reject Shinra's hegemony. The Shinra Building tour has a museum dedicated to the life of President Shinra that shows him building up the company in his younger years. Motivated by the growing sentiment against his company during Midgar’s war with Wutai, President Shinra secretly commissioned Shinra’s Deepground facility to conduct human experimentation and create an army of remorseless and obedient super soldiers to eventually replace SOLDIER.
