[Case of Shinra Finished] Any news on the new OTWTAS entries?

[ForceStealer]

I think Rufus has the potential to be a genuinely good person. Sure, he's still Rufus, but come on guys, character development. Don't fall into the trap of writing aimed for children where NOBODY EVER CHANGES EVER NOPE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN NO SIR

I'm not, but if I lived in the FF7 world, I know I would have a very hard time EVER believing that Rufus had changed. Things like funding a terrorist organization in the hopes that your father will be killed by them aren't things you do on a whim.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I'm not, but if I lived in the FF7 world, I know I would have a very hard time EVER believing that Rufus had changed. Things like funding a terrorist organization in the hopes that your father will be killed by them aren't things you do on a whim.

That's the beauty of it. From the perspective of everyone in FFVII, he will always be a greedy, Machiavellian bastard, which makes the prospect of writing a character that is really trying to change and nobody believes him all the more exciting.

 

[Gale]

This really resparked my interest in Rufus and (some) hope of decently written material coming out of any future compilation titles.

The whole thing was a very satisfying examination of Rufus' character, and I'm glad that it seems that he's retained more of his more ruthless traits than I originally thought in AC.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That's the beauty of it. From the perspective of everyone in FFVII, he will always be a greedy, Machiavellian bastard, which makes the prospect of writing a character that is really trying to change and nobody believes him all the more exciting.

Agreed. That makes his actions -- such as funding the WRO -- all the more interesting.

There's certainly a number of things that Rufus says and does in Case of Shin-Ra and AC/C that he wouldn't be doing if he weren't genuine. Obviously Cloud doesn't entirely trust him, though, and -- as the point is made a number of times -- there are plenty of common people who don't either.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Frontpage'd.


X

I went ahead and edited your post such that the story is now in an article on our frontpage, but I don't know how to do page breaks within posts, and WordPress' site is completely useless in terms of finding out how to do most things.

So, if somebody could go ahead and do that, that would be great. Also, please let me know how you do it. XD

 

[ForceStealer]

There's also no question that he was hoping to manipulate Cloud though, remember. Regardless of whether his intentions were noble or not, as Reno points out, having the the leader of the heroes of the Jenova War would certainly bode well for reestablishing themselves/

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I went ahead and edited your post such that the story is now in an article on our frontpage, but I don't know how to do page breaks within posts, and WordPress' site is completely useless in terms of finding out how to do most things.

So, if somebody could go ahead and do that, that would be great. Also, please let me know how you do it. XD

<!--nextpage-->

(Found it by going into one of our older posts. If it needs to be more / less pages, lemme know).


I wanted to note that there's a subtlety that I think is missed in the English version of AC/ACC. When Rufus is trying to convince Cloud to join him at the beginning of ACC at Healin, he refers to "the world" (sekai). However, when he's confronted later on by Kadaj, for the first time he starts using the term "the Planet" (Hoshi). It's a subtle change in character, and I've always thought that it wasn't something done consciously, thus being an actual change in his character's outlook. Although it could just be a term used as a ruse to manipulate Kadaj, it's unlikely, since he's essentially him going off that he'll do everything in his power to stop Kadaj & any other "Sephiroths" no matter when they come, and it seems to be his one clear moment of motivation that's ever been revealed.

I think that he changed after what's happened in Case of ShinRa, combined with dealing directly with the threat in AC. This story sort of sets up the fact that I really think that he's more in tune with the reality of what's happening, and that The Planet is really alive, and not following his father's legacy. If he was responsible for Kilmister's death, I think that it goes to prove that point. He'll manipulate anyone to his own ends, but I think that his current goals are in tune with those of protecting the Planet by the end of ACC & in DoC.


X

 

[ForceStealer]

Did Rufus ever deny that the Planet was alive? Or did he just not care?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

As far as brains go, Rufus has more upstairs than most of the FFVII characters. He doesn't need to go through much of a character change to realise that it's wiser to work with the Planet rather than against it: as long as he/his company doesn't try to kill the Planet, the Planet won't interfere in his attempts to dominate the human world. If the Planet dies, there's no world for him to control. Therefore, to answer Forcestealer, my guess would be that he didn't understand at first that Shinra was killing the Planet. Maybe his father didn't quite grasp it either. Smart people don't trash the only home they have.

 

[Loxetta]

I think Old President Shinra at least had a fundamental grasp of Planet Life. He knew that mako/Lifestream was what made the world alive, and that was why he wanted to find the Promised Land to build a new city. His theory was that if he found the Promised Land, which as far as he knew was supposed to be incredibly fertile, he wouldn't have to use reactors to suck the mako out of the ground, as he figured it would come out on its own.

So he obviously wasn't all that smart

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Did Rufus ever deny that the Planet was alive? Or did he just not care?

I'm pretty sure he just didn't give a shit. This also applies to old President Shinra as well. They're both educated, intelligent people, so they don't have the 'whoops the Planet is a living breathing thing and it's important better not fuck with it'. They just didn't give a shit. They don't have ignorance to fall back on as a buffer for what they did, which makes Rufus' change of heart all the more significant.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

<!--nextpage-->

Sweet, thanks!

(Found it by going into one of our older posts. If it needs to be more / less pages, lemme know).

Looks good as it is.

I wanted to note that there's a subtlety that I think is missed in the English version of AC/ACC. When Rufus is trying to convince Cloud to join him at the beginning of ACC at Healin, he refers to "the world" (sekai). However, when he's confronted later on by Kadaj, for the first time he starts using the term "the Planet" (Hoshi). It's a subtle change in character, and I've always thought that it wasn't something done consciously, thus being an actual change in his character's outlook. Although it could just be a term used as a ruse to manipulate Kadaj, it's unlikely, since he's essentially him going off that he'll do everything in his power to stop Kadaj & any other "Sephiroths" no matter when they come, and it seems to be his one clear moment of motivation that's ever been revealed.

That's a great observation, and I agree with your interpretation.