Miguel's Rufus Shinra review
Well, as I promised…I made my very own Rufus Shinra review. The entry below the lj-cut will discuss my opinions about his scene in Dirge Of Cerberus, what he was doing during the 2 years before Advent Children and why he uses the wheelchair. I know this topic has been brought up quite a bit, but this entry is somewhat of a closure for me about this topic. Of course I am always willing to talk about it if anybody else brings it up. Please keep on mind that what’s below is merely my opinion, and I encourage you to hold onto your very own views on the matter. I’m not forcing anybody to change views, just restating mine in a different way. ;) With that in mind, I hope you enjoy it. The entry is color coded by section, you’ll see what I mean. Just beware of the Dirge Of Cerberus Spoilers and Advent Children Spoilers. I look forward to your comment(s).
Enjoy!!!!
Rufus Shinra in Dirge Of Cerberus: After watching the opening scene in Dirge Of Cerberus and reading a Rufus Shinra article in www.wikipedia.com I strongly believe it reveals Rufus’ condition after the Diamond Weapon attack. Following this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DoC_Opening.jpg - will show you Rufus being carried on a stretcher by rescue workers hours after the incident. If you look closely, you will notice that his clothes don’t look all that bad. There is not one blood stain, his clothes are not torn up what so ever. The only difference is that it’s a bit ashy. To me, this answers the question regarding “his over condition right after the attack.” Seeing as how his clothes aren’t ruined (in fact, it looks like all it needs is a good washing :P) this hints to us that Rufus wasn’t struck by any, or large pieces of rubble. Not to mention the fire within the explosion looks like it barely even touch him, seeing as how it’s later revealed he has no scars.
As I mentioned before, Rufus claims he got out before the building fell on him. Seeing as how the building absorbed most of the impact, it must be some really enforced steel. So can you imagine if some of that steel was to fall on him? Not only would he have been forever injured, but he would have been pinned down, keeping him inside his office as it buckles in. But seeing as his clothes indicates no sign of things falling on him, I’d imagine he just got flung to the back of the office, then used his remaining strength to quickly crawl out. He must have gotten away within a matter of minutes. Notice Rufus’ voice in Advent Children, and how normal it sounds. There are many cases were a person’s voice box gets damaged if they remain in a place full of smoke for a while. So since his voice sounds just fine in the movie, I’d imagine he got out pretty quickly.
So with the points of Rufus not being pelted by rubble, how do some people still conclude he is crippled somehow? To me, it just doesn’t really add up. Not only did the blasts get weaker as it traveled a few miles to get to Midgar, but only a few of them even made a direct hit. If you watch the clip again, majority of them either miss, or struck around the building. Only a few of them struck the actual middle of .the office. Nevertheless, what is said in this entry is merely my opinion, and everybody is entitled to their own.
Where has Rufus been for 2 years: I find this topic to be one of the most interesting yet! Obviously he spent some of it, not most, recovering from Diamond Weapons attack. I’d say the healing process took about 3-5 months, 6 at the max. I mean come on, Cloud actually was killed in AC in a explosion and he came back fairly unharmed, Tifa got shocked by Loz with electricity strong enough to shatter a stone pillar, so I can’t see why Rufus couldn’t have survived without suffering any crippling injuries.
Anyway, as I was saying…he didn’t spend 2 years recovering from the incident in game, like some or many think. After he made a recovery, before year 1 was finished, I’d imagine Rufus was in utter shock. Can you blame him? He spent years scheming behind hid old man’s back, trying to have him killed so he can take over; this is known in FF7 Before Crisis. After his dad final kicked the bucket, Rufus became the President like he wanted only to have it taken away from him within a month. All that work, and for what? He probably couldn’t face the people until he had finally gotten over the shame. I still consider The ShinRa Company operating to some extent in Junon, but it will take a while to rebuild it to its full potential. I’m sure he spent many months pondering where he went wrong. Not to mention it must have been hard for him to admit to himself that majority of the planet’s suffering was his fault. Can you recall when Rufus was admitting to Cloud that it was his fault the planet is such in a sad condition? H e said “I acknowledge that ShinRa…owes the planet allot.” He took a pretty deep pause before finishing that line, not and his tone wasn’t all that strong. So I’m sure admitting that must have dealt a heavily blow to his ego a bit.
As for the 2 years thing, we only assume that Rufus was never heard of at all for two years because Cloud wasn’t aware. Perhaps Cloud didn’t know because he didn’t hear people talking about it, after all, he isn’t the gossip kind. And if he did hear it, he probably thought of them being a rumor.
I tend to think Rufus made an appearance of some sort before Geostigma claimed his body. As for when the disease kicked in, I like to think during the final stages of Rufus’ recovery, of course I believe he still recovered 100% seeing as how Geostogma probably wasn’t strong enough to stop the healing all together at the time.
To conclude this section, I believe Rufus spent the first few months recovering, the next few finding himself, and the last bit battling Geostigma.
The Wheelchair’s purpose: Geostigma, hands down. As I mentioned before, the Dirge of Cerberus clip shows us that Rufus didn’t suffer as much as we all though, or think. If rubble didn’t fall on him, the flames never burned him, then how can he be crippled? I can only imagine he could have hurt himself by the way he landed after the blasts struck, but I still find that unlikely. Once again, as we see in Cloud, the stigma cripples you pretty badly. Rufus is merely pretending to be wheelchair bound.
Some say it’s hard to tell the seriousness of Rufus’ Geostigma, but I think the movie does hint it to us. If you recall the scen were the SHM kidnap the children and take them to the Forgotten City. If you look closely, you will notice a boy wearing a beanie and part of his face is covered with a bandage, and that’s all. Then there is a girl with a bandage around her neck. But when we look at Rufus, he has them in BOTH places! This is indicating that he has it pretty bad. I’m not surprised, Cloud’s is probably less serious because his body is stronger then Rufus’ and he probably fought it off much longer. But Rufus’ body must have used all of its energy to heal him back to good health, meaning it didn’t put up a good fight against the stigma. Maybe that’s why his mutated a bit more then Cloud’s.
He’s obviously isn’t paralyzed in anyway, seeing as how he stood up, dodge the blast and shifted his body pretty well in midair. Not to mention his shotgun skills have increased, indicating he trained quite a bit. Besides, look at Cloud reaction when he finds out Rufus is alive. He wasn’t like “OH MY GOSH…It can’t be! How did you survive? There’s no way!” He merely said “Rufus Shinra?” And that was all. So to me, Cloud wasn’t all that shocked. So he probably thought it was quite likely he could have made it.
There are 2 important quotes stated by Nojima (The scenario writer for AC) that is related to this issue. A fan asked “Can Rufus really move like normal people?” Nojima’s response was “Rufus can move as much as Denzel can.” Pretty straight forward, I don’t think that quote needs explaining. Now, his second quote was “It’s still important to keep in mind that Rufus isn’t in perfect shape.” So here is where things get interesting. To me, Nojima isn’t implying that Rufus has crippling injuries, because that would obviously contradict with his first quote, “He can move as much as Denzel can.” Before I explain the second quote, there is something to keep in mind. Even though it’s merely my opinion, I tend to think that Rufus no longer needs the wheelchair after being cured of Geostogma, and that it no longer plays a role in his life. I believe Nojima’s second quote means that Rufus has a somewhat sensitive body. Meaning, despite the fact he can walk/stand as much as Denzel can, I tend to think Rufus may receive a brief jolt of pain throughout his body every now and again. Weather he wakes up in the morning, trains to hard, or even stress…I tend to think his body might get a bit sore for a brief moment. I don’t think the pain is so bad, he needs the wheelchair, it’s most likely bearable, other then that, I consider Rufus pretty much ok. Weather we believe he has long term injuries or not, one thing is for sure…we all can agree that he can walk up to some point just fine.
Hope you liked my Rufus Shinra review.