OPN: Info Post
Your name: Fox
Other characters played at Passing: Sephiroth [V1]
Character name: Reno
Character fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Version: V2
Canon point: Shortly after Advent Children.
Background: Wiki link
Changes from canon, if AU:
In genderswapped Reno's universe, Reno and Rude are both women, in part because women who are partners and also friends is always a good thing to have more of in fiction, and they're inseparable enough to genderbend together. Their partnership is close and equal, and they spend a lot of their time together, even outside work, having girls' nights out, and painting the town red (maybe even literally, if things get rough). Rude's stable influence grounds Reno, just as Reno gets Rude to lighten and open up.
Where the plot of FFVII is concerned, there are not numerous differences between her and her male counterpart, largely because Reno's role in the story is defined by violence and her job, two things that would not have changed. The most significant changes would involve Reno's background, and also subtler things, relating to how Reno deals with men and women and her coworkers.
Reno grew up in the slums, in an environment that was quite exploitative of young people, especially women. She was orphaned at a young age. There were few opportunities for women of her age and social status. She was surrounded by violence and crime, and she soon became interested in both. She was ambitious and clever, but not particularly industrious or brilliant, and she saw criminal activity as the fastest and surest means of getting more money and more power. Not wanting to be on what she saw as the losing side of a power dynamic, and especially not wanting to do what anyone else said, she was scornful of the men who offered her money or protection for sex. She joined and eventually took control of an all-girl gang. The violence was something she enjoyed, but there was a desperation in the situation as well, which made Reno more reckless and vicious--and thus, more feared. The Turks, always monitoring the slums, were not ignorant of the local politics. They took an interest in the ruthless young woman and eventually recruited her off the streets. She saw Shinra as her way out and didn't look back.
When relating to other women, she tends to see herself as the dominant female until proven wrong. She thinks she's the best "man" for the job, even when she doesn't want the job. She tends to assume men are stupid--again, unless they prove otherwise. Tseng has clearly proven otherwise. As her Turk superior, she actually listens to him, something she rarely does for anyone else. She had tolerated or even liked other men before, but he and Veld were the first men she saw as figures worthy of respect, and that is one of the reasons she began to be loyal to the Turks. As for Rufus, she initially saw him as a brat, but over time she has come to have something like a crush on him, although she would not willingly admit to this (not that Rude doesn't realize and tease her about it). As a Turk, she has grown devoted to him, though she makes sure that her manner is never too respectful.
Like her male counterpart, Reno is confident, aggressive and pleasure-seeking. This informs her sexuality as well. When much younger, as a skinny, androgynous girl, she disguised her gender because it was safer, but when she grew older and better able to defend herself, she began to flaunt her sexuality more--as it was a way of manipulating people, she saw no reason not to. Besides, sex is fun. Having been raised in a heteronormative environment, this Reno is much more likely to flirt with and hit on the men she knows. She does prefer men, though she is something of a sexual opportunist and doesn't allow gender to limit her. The person she has the strongest feelings for, emotionally speaking, is Rude, and she doesn't see why she shouldn't be sexually involved with one of her friends if she wants to be. She is not traditionally feminine and does her share of what could be called "macho posturing", but she sees herself as an attractive woman and is often vain about it.
Female Turks are not unusual in canon, and there is no reason Reno could not attain the same rank as a woman. Turks aside, the old Shinra had a rather predictable corporate boys' club atmosphere, with its institutionalized sexism, but Reno was not thoughtful enough to analyze it. In situations where she has to deal with sexism, she usually eyerolls or laughs it off. If someone takes it too far, she'll turn hostile, but she is more likely to be derisive toward "asshole men" and mock them instead of fight them, unless she's in the mood for a fight.
Personality:
Upon first meeting, in an everyday setting, Reno appears to be easygoing, funny, and even friendly, if a sardonic way. She's gregarious and loves talking to and about people, fond of teasing and flirting and yes, gossip. Some say she talks too much, as she frequently fails to consider what she's saying before it pops out of her mouth, which gets her in trouble. Reno seems like someone who could be a lot of fun to hang out with, as she can be charming when she wants to be, though it's a rough charm rather than a polished one. This appearance isn't a put on, as Reno is genuinely all of these things, but there are other, darker, aspects to her personality, which aren't necessarily evident at once. After getting to know Reno better, one might begin to realize that this outgoing, seemingly laid back woman is both potentially dangerous and largely remorseless.
As a Turk, hired killer is part of her job description--if not officially. Reno is capable of taking a life without regret, and she relishes the more violent aspects of her job. She has a sadistic streak and sees no reason why she should shy away from illegal or immoral activities if they benefit her. Personally, Reno gives a shit about very few people. Yet she is loyal to those she feels deserve her loyalty because they've earned it: mainly, Rufus Shinra and her fellow Turks. She does her duty, but otherwise, she dislikes authority figures and resents being told what to do, which causes her to flout even Rufus and Tseng's authority at times. Because of this, she is difficult to manage, even by those who are capable of managing her. She's reckless, sloppy, and impatient, often rolling her eyes through the "boring" parts of work, when she can get away from it. She never wears her uniform in the regulation style.
No one's ever called Reno a humanitarian. She's cynical and has a dim view of human nature in general, but there are two notable areas in which her cynicism is absent: the first is how she feels about the Turks, and the second is her inflated view of her own strength and abilities, which makes her cocky. She refuses to carry any healing Materia with her, because she thinks it's a show of weakness, but at the same time, she's more than willing to allow Rude to heal her whenever she gets hurt. She simply rationalizes this hypocrisy--Hey, Rude likes healing me, so why shouldn't I let her? Whenever her self-estimation is conclusively shown to be puffed up, she is very good at explaining this away (to her own satisfaction, if no one else's), claiming to be victorious even when losing a fight.
As immoral as Reno may be, she is not amoral and not without a capacity for change. In some ways, she uses her position to shield her from legal repercussions for her less socially acceptable actions, but she does take genuine pride in her work and in her role as a Turk. Initially, her pride was more selfish, but after the events of FFVII, particularly Meteorfall and the ensuing chaos, the horrors she witnessed, as well as the courage of the citizens of Midgar pulling together in the wake of calamity, caused her to mature somewhat. Hardship can bring out the best in people, and in Reno's case, it had the effect of mitigating some of her antisocial tendencies and emphasizing her better traits. She's not reformed, but her cruel streak is less evident now, her loyalty greater. Seeing the results of Shinra's actions made her realize that they had made mistakes and that they needed to stick together to make things better. She doesn't go so far as to feel regret for the deaths she personally caused, but she has grown more reflective. She's able to admit that Meteor was Shinra's fault. She can also be civil (for her) to her former enemies, because that was just business, right?
Ultimately, though she can easily play the role of a villain, Reno is not necessarily one. She's certainly no hero, either. She inhabits a much more gray moral area. She can be involved in the deaths of thousands of people and crack a joke about it, yet she'll risk her life to save a kid. She'll follow the most reprehensible orders without hesitation, yet if she's off duty or not in the mood, she'll decide to let her opponent go without trouble. She might break your kneecaps, but she's more likely to ask you out for a drink (but you're buying).
Abilities:
A skilled and well-trained fighter, her favorite weapon is the Electro-Mag Rod, and she is quite skilled with it. She's been trained in the use of many other weapons as well, like any Turk. Though compared to someone like Cloud, she doesn't have a lot of brute physical strength or great endurance (she thinks her endurance is much greater than it actually is), she is extremely fast and nimble and can scale walls with little trouble, making her an expert in parkour. She also has a Pyramid attack: she can place a magical pyramid on someone, effectively immobilizing them. These annoying pyramids can only be escaped by someone else striking their exterior quite hard. She is resistant to lightning attacks. She can also fly a helicopter, and she believes she is the best damn pilot in the world. Take that, Cid Highwind.
Addendum/Further Changes:
Personality:
Though she identifies as female, Reno is androgynous and in some ways boyish, whereas male Reno is someone who adopts more traditional gender roles. As a woman who acts and dresses outside of her gender, she has to deal with being called unfeminine and a tomboy, but she doesn't see how her actions or appearance make her any less a woman, so she has more of an awareness of such matters than her male counterpart. She has to deal with being hit on or being called "mannish", which she finds irksome. In her own strange way, though she is not quite aware of it, and certainly wouldn't put it in these terms, she is a sex-positive feminist.
She prefers men, but she's as likely to hit on women, though usually she does it to be annoying or intimidating, as she has a compulsion to pester and an urge to troll.
As someone who was born both a woman and a member of the lower social strata, Reno had to fight that much harder. In her youth, she was physically smaller and less strong than a lot of the males she had to deal with, in a dangerous, competitive environment. This led to her developing a different way of revenging herself upon her enemies, as it took her time to build the speed, strength, and skill with weapons that allowed her to use brute force. This secret weapon was The Art of the Prank, which, unexpectedly, was to change a major world event. Never underestimate the power of a prank.
Because of this upbringing and her youthful development, Reno tends to be more subtle than direct than male Reno in some ways. It's not a huge change, and no one ever called her "diplomatic", but she's more likely to pretend to be nice if she can get something out of it, and she doesn't always make a straight-on attack--either figuratively speaking or in literal battle. She still cannot defeat Cloud, but while male Reno might have more muscle mass, female Reno may be more likely to get the jump on him.
Relationships:
Scarlet:
As shown in her dealings with Tifa, Scarlet has issues with the way she relates to other women, not that she relates to anyone well. While she was able to ignore the quiet Rude, and the other, more sober female Turks, to an extent, the loudmouthed Reno was another matter. Reno did not take kindly to being called a bitch. This lead to a sharp enmity and many bitter words between them. Not a good enemy to have, Reno would go out of her way to inconvenience Scarlet, often taking this to extremes. As she shows in her actions during the game, she often puts her own wishes before those of ShinRa (especially before Rufus takes power), and her annoyance with Scarlet overrides her ability to follow the rules. This leads to her going so far as to sabotage the Proud Clod, meaning that Scarlet and Heidegger were not killed in the blast as it exploded, as it quite simply failed to function. Instead, they were arrested and imprisoned, which Reno finds hilarious. She sometimes goes to "visit" them in prison.
This rivalry also lead to Reno illegally snooping through Scarlet's files (for dirt and ammunition for pranking, obviously) to the extent that she found out about Deepground long before anyone other than the involved executives did in canon. Reno being loyal to the Turks, she immediately informed Tseng. They could do nothing while President Shinra was sill in power, as he was involved in the experiments and approved of them, but once Rufus came to power, he was also informed.
Deepground was therefore dismantled before the events of Advent Children, and the events of Dirge of Cerberus will not occur as they do in canon. Deepground was not able to abduct citizens to form an army. Instead, there is a slow and painful decommissioning, lead by Reeve and the WRO. As a Turk, Reno isn't directly involved, and the operation is kept largely secret and below ground. Reno is more concerned with the seriously ill Rufus at the time and not particularly interested in events that don't involve her. She doesn't know many details about the parties involved and is unlikely to reference them unless someone else brings them up, except to say something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, I figured that shit out." There are still conflicts between the WRO and the Deepground forces, but on a much smaller scale. Many of the Deepground "experiments" are rehabilitated, though some are so damaged that the WRO has no choice but to kill them in combat. Rosso is killed. Hojo does not possess Weiss. Nero and Weiss both survive and are allowed to remain together, though the road to rehabilitating them is long and rocky and as yet unfinished. Vincent Valentine is involved in the rehabilitation and deprogramming efforts, recruited by Reeve.
Heidegger:
He hit on Reno at some point early in her career, and she considers him pathetic. She rolls her eyes at him and mocks him now that he is in prison.
Reeve:
Reno initially teased and flirted with Reeve mercilessly, finding him an easy target. This lead to the infamous (among ShinRa employees) "Prank War" between Reno and Cait Sith, which was waged for many long and tedious months and lead to a lot of property damage. Reno and Cait remain on uneasy terms, and while Reno claims to have won the Prank War, everyone else likes to say she was defeated by a robot cat. (The Prank War continued to break out in minor skirmishes from time to time, which ultimately lead to Reno being banned by Rufus from communicating with Cait.) She refers to Cait as "that cat" and "your pussy" (when talking to Reeve).
When Reno became aware of the fact that Scarlet was also giving Reeve a hard time, she decided to be nicer to him--mostly to annoy Scarlet. Yet this had the result of her eventually becoming genuinely friendly with Reeve, a feeling which was strengthened when he helped the Turks during the events of Before Crisis. Although she still teases him, she considers him to be "all right", especially after his actions in FFVII and his rebuilding efforts with the WRO. She admires Reeve's displayed ability to lie to everyone and more or less treats him as a "bro".
Not that everything is sunshine and roses between them, because she's still not sure how much of Reeve is Cait and vice versa, and she remains suspicious of him, because she knows he's a "tricky motherfucker".
Rufus:
At first, Reno finds Rufus a spoiled brat and doesn't care about him, as her loyalty is to the Turks and not the executives, but after the events of Before Crisis, in which Rufus saves the Turks from being executed for insubordination, she is surprised to find that she starts respecting him--and she starts to disrespect President Shinra, who would have allowed the execution to be carried out. From then on, she supports Rufus and looks forward to his rise to power.
It wasn't until Rufus became older, however, that she began to find him attractive. This annoyed her, as she isn't used to having feelings to the point of a "crush". She thinks romance is ridiculous and useless. Her emotion serves to make her a bit more insubordinate than she might otherwise be, just to prove it does not exist, although she is no less loyal. She rashly expressed her affection while Rufus was ill with Geostigma, and kissed him shortly after he was rescued from his kidnappers, but she is of a mind to never mention it again, although tension remains between them. If she ever decided to pursue him, she would deny it all the while.
Rude finds this hilarious. As does Elena, since Reno makes fun of her for her feelings for Tseng.
Veld:
As a young woman, Veld was the first man (and one of the few people in general) who actually impressed Reno, and that is part of the reason she felt her first true loyalty toward the Turks. Veld is her first male role model, and even something like a surrogate father figure--though she wouldn't state it that way. She sees the Turks as the closest thing to a family unit she's ever experienced, with Veld as the father and Tseng more like an uncle. She tends to compare any men to these two, if only subconsciously, and they rarely measure up to the point where she accepts them as peers. (Rufus and Reeve are two of the few exceptions.) Reno tends to be a bit dismissive of men otherwise, though it's possible she sees women as generally superior because she is one.
Rude:
Though they fought at first, while working together, Reno and Rude earned each other's respect and came to be very close as partners. The two women more or less do everything together. Reno, as she tends to do, disavows any "romantic" feeling between them, but the two of them are sexually involved, an aspect of their relationship which was initiated by Reno.
In spite of her assertions that they are just friends, Reno does become very jealous at times where Rude's time and affection are concerned, which was part of the reason Reno followed Rude on her date with Chelsea. The two of them are both quite openly bisexual--though Reno is more blatant about it and more promiscuous, as she likes to shock the more conservative people she encounters.
Zack:
Reno thought Zack was damn fine.
Elena:
Reno's relationship with Elena isn't much different than in canon. She had to haze her as the newbie, but as she undeniably outranked Elena, she didn't feel like she needed to assert dominance over her in any way. She does like to hit on her and tease her, because she finds it funny, but that's just Reno's way.