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These days, all it takes for your dreams to come true is money and power.
President Shinra
President Shinra leads the Shinra Electric Power Company in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, and Final Fantasy VII. He plays a minor and unseen role in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, only mentioned in emails and some dialogue.
President Shinra has three known sons: two illegitimate sons and Rufus Shinra, the heir to Shinra's fortune. It is implied President Shinra has a wife, but she has never been depicted.
Profile
Appearance
President Shinra is a short stout man with thinning blond hair and mustache. He wears a burgundy suit, white shirt and purple tie and carries a cigar. His age is never disclosed, but is thought to be somewhere in the sixties.
Personality
His lifelong dream is to build Neo Midgar in the Promised Land, a land he believes is fertile with Mako energy. President Shinra is unfazed at disposing anyone who might oppose him and his company, and has become the de facto ruler of the world. His only soft spot appears to be his son, Rufus, whose traitorous behavior he forgives. Even his passkey at the Shinra Building is his son's birthday. Otherwise President Shinra is callous and ruthless, stopping at nothing to gain more money and power.
Story
Early life
President Shinra has three 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. Whether President Shinra started the company himself, or if he perhaps inherited it, is unknown.
The traitor within Shinra
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In Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- President Shinra gives a speech at Junon. The eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE attacks and he escapes, but is shot by the AVALANCHE scientist, Fuhito. Surviving, President Shinra calls in the premier SOLDIER member Sephiroth to attack the AVALANCHE commander, Elfé.
President Shinra begins to suspect there is a traitor within his company. This train of thought is fueled by his son, Rufus, who is suggesting the same. The President wrongfully accuses the leader of the Turks, Shinra's intelligence division, Veld, and replaces him with an incompetent military head, Heidegger, for a mission based in Junon to eradicate AVALANCHE. Heidegger's position proves to be only temporary as the President brings Veld back after Heidegger's strategy at Junon almost destroys the city and Veld blackmails President Shinra with classified information, possibly about the Deepground project.
President Shinra later discovers the real traitor is Rufus, who had been funding AVALANCHE to have his father killed to take over the company. The Turks capture and use Rufus as leverage with President Shinra to save their commander Veld, and his daughter, Elfé, who leads AVALANCHE. Rufus is neither killed nor stripped of his title however, as President Shinra merely orders him to be placed under house-arrest in Junon. Rufus's absence is explained by claiming he is on an "extended assignment overseas".
Oppressor of AVALANCHE
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President Shinra looking at the destruction of Sector 7.
When the second generation of AVALANCHE attacks the Sector 5 Reactor in Final Fantasy VII, President Shinra prepares an ambush. He addresses Cloud before setting Air Buster on him and his friends and leaves by helicopter.
During the Shinra Headquarters infiltration, AVALANCHE overhears a conversation between President Shinra and some of his top executives, including Heidegger and Professor Hojo. He plans to not rebuild Sector 7, which the Turks destroyed as a counter-attack to finish off AVALANCHE.
The death of President Shinra.
The party meets the President again in person when they are brought before him after being captured while trying to escape with Aeris. After a brief conversation, the President sends the party away to be locked up. When the party arrives at his office during the night, they find him impaled by a large sword. Palmer, a Shinra executive who was hiding during the assault, claims Sephiroth killed the President. Rufus arrives and assumes the role as the head of the company.
Found in the Lifestream
Template:Sideicon In the novel Hoshi o Meguru Otome Aerith's spirit in the afterlife finds a blank place in the Lifestream where it does not flow properly, and discovers President Shinra. The President's spirit is joyous to have met her and tells Aerith he would have given her a life of luxury if she had cooperated with Shinra instead of living in the slums. He tells her how he took Shinra to where it was and became a king over Midgar with his control over Mako and the people's dependency on it, and asks Aerith if she does not consider her life miserable in comparison to his as they have both ended up to the same place. Aerith realizes the President is clinging to the ambitions and wealth he had in life and this is why the Lifestream cannot take him.
Gallery
Etymology
In a March 4, 2020 interview, Yoshinori Kitase explained that the word "SHINRA" derives from the word "myth" in Japanese (神話, shinwa?) because SHINRA was about becoming god and controlling everything.
Trivia
- Both of President Shinra's known sons were made high-ranking executives in the company, however, neither were loyal to their father. Rufus funded the first AVALANCHE insurgency, and Lazard secretly supported Genesis Rhapsodos and Dr. Hollander's escape and their war on Shinra.
- In On the Way to a Smile: Case of Shinra, it is stated that President Shinra always had the same passkey for unlocking anything within the Shinra Building. The passkey was Rufus's birthday.
- When the player visits the Honey Bee Inn in Midgar in Final Fantasy VII, they can find out President Shinra is a regular customer. One of his "fetishes" is to dress as a king.
- During the scene when Sector 7 is destroyed, President Shinra is shown observing the events from his office and the music he is listening to is Joseph Haydn's "The Creation".