Are you talking about being in his office when WEAPON attacks? It's probably the safest place in Midgar, where else could he go?
Outside Midgar, and he could have left Junon during WEAPON's attack there. Cell phone technology exists, he could have easily given orders from a secure location outside of the city or from a secure bunker somewhere. Even Barret acknowledges that Rufus is brave for facing off against WEAPON.
Well, there was the whole 'funding a terrorist group bent on omnicide' thing. His mistake almost resulted in the end of the world, before he ever came to power.
How is that relevant? My argument
isn't that "Rufus Shinra is good person who never did anything wrong ever" it's that he isn't personally responsible for the evils
Shinra Company committed, but he takes responsibility for them none the less.
But since you're bringing up BC, don't you think that's a little hard on AVALANCHE. More like "funded a group of freedom fighters bent on taking down an evil corporation that ruined their lives and was bent on destroying the planet" in the hopes of killing his father whose continued reign of power was not beneficial to anyone.
Elfe was the leader of AVALANCHE. There's no indication that she or Shears wanted to kill everyone. My understand was omnicide was Fuhito's goal which he didn't begin to work towards until after Corel. Rufus only aided AVALANCHE when it was under Elfe's leadership.
This does not excuse Rufus's actions. AVALANCHE was willing to kill civilians and Shinra personnel alike to achieve their ends and Fuhito committed human experimentation. He, along with Elfe's AVALANCHE have blood on their hands, but Rufus was punished for his actions and I believe he only did what he thought was necessary at the time.
But again, this is not relevant to his guilt for
Shinra's crimes.
You're forgetting something rather important here. He has geostigma! So he has to find a cure and stand against Kadaj, he has nothing to lose.
He began to make plans for Edge before he contracted geo-stigma. CoS indicates he never planned to run away from his responsibilities. After Advent Children, Rufus continues to fund the WRO.
Again, there's no way to know this. After sector 7, AVALNCHE doesn't have a fixed base, so he has no opportunity to destroy a town if he wanted to. Nor does he 'round them up', he stumbles across the party by dumb luck while chasing somebody else, and is fortunate enough that their only way out of the crater is his airship.
Capturing AVALANCHE alone isn't a particular indication of moral character. He had an opportunity, and he took it. That doesn't distinguish him from his father at all, in fact President Shinra locked up AVALANCHE once in the Shinra building himself... what do you think he was planning to do with them later? He didn't destroy any towns that time, because he didn't have to. Doesn't mean he wouldn't given the chance.
Rufus professes that he will do things differently than his old man and will rule by fear. Public executions to send a message is text book ruling by fear. I assume, if the President hadn't been killed he would have had AVALANCHE killed but probably would have not executed them publicly given that the reporter Scarlet speaks to finds public executions shocking we can reasonably infer they are not common place. Disappearances and reports of people being killed in conflict happened, but not public executions.
And given how many people AVALANCHE I killed, I don't think we can infer that he is concerned about collateral damage. I mean, how many 'less important people' died because he wanted to seize power from his dad, a power he would eventually have inherited anyway?
Here, BC is relevant. I don't think Rufus is against collateral damage if necessary, but I don't think he would throw away lives carelessly. He does what he thinks is necessary at the time.
I doubt Rufus would have risked everything for "power he would have inherited anyway" unless he had a reason. Perhaps he assumed his father would be overthrown before he could ascend to power so better to throw his hat in with the anti-Shinra people, maybe he thought Shinra's current policies were so troubling that a hostile takeover was necessary to ensure there'd be something left to rule once he took power, or maybe he just hated his father and needed to beat him. I'll repeat, Rufus is NOT a "good guy". He is willing to sacrifice others to achieve his own ends and he does so with ruthless pragmatism.
As with Tifa, how much blame Rufus bares for AVALANCHE's crimes is debatable since we do not know what degree of control he exercised (less than he thought given what happened in Corel). However, as I acknowledged Rufus does bare a blame. I never said Rufus was "good guy" or unwilling to kill. However, I don't think he does so flippantly.
He also is a much worse person in BC. He is punished and does become a better person. He then suffers more in CoS and continues to improve as a person.
I don't think you can call Rufus particularly brave because he doesn't want the world he rules destroyed. He spent five years scheming to gain power, do you think he's going to just abdicate once he gets it?
My point is Rufus is willing to put his own life/well being at risk when he does not necessarily need to. Joffrey didn't want Stannis to take over King's Landing, but he didn't fight on the front lines at the battle of Black Water. After Meteor Fall, Rufus no longer has power over the world, but he still takes responsibility for the world. Yes, he might do this in the hopes of getting back into power, because he wants power, but he still seems to have a sense of responsibility.
Again, Rufus isn't a "hero" or a "good guy". I think a heart he may be a 'good person' but all I'm really arguing is he isn't "evil" in the typical villainous ruler sense and has redeeming qualities. "Not as bad as Joffrey" is a pretty low bar to set here, but since Rufus is an antagonist the writers didn't have to give him any good qualities at all. They could have made him completely loathsome, but they didn't and he's more interesting because of that.
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