Character from Final Fantasy VII by Square Enix
The corpulent, cigar-smoking CEO of the Shinra Electric Power Company who built an empire on Mako extraction, viewing the Planet's lifeblood as nothing more than a profitable commodity.
President Shinra built the most powerful corporation on the Planet by discovering that the Lifestream — the spiritual energy binding all life — could be extracted, refined into Mako energy, and sold as electricity. That this process was slowly killing the Planet was irrelevant; that entire communities were displaced or destroyed for reactor construction was the cost of progress. He rules Midgar and effectively controls the world's governments through energy dependence, maintaining power through a combination of corporate largesse, media manipulation, and the Turks' quiet elimination of dissent. When AVALANCHE begins bombing Mako reactors, the President responds not with negotiation but by dropping the Sector 7 plate on the slums below — killing thousands of innocent people to crush a handful of rebels and generate anti-AVALANCHE sentiment. He considers this proportionate. His death at Sephiroth's hand during the party's escape from Shinra HQ is almost anticlimactic — found slumped at his desk with the Masamune through his back, a man whose greed built the infrastructure for the world's near-destruction.
A heavyset older man with a thick blond mustache, thinning hair, and the ruddy complexion of someone who has never denied himself a pleasure. Wears an expensive burgundy suit with a wide tie, gold cufflinks, and polished shoes. A fat cigar is almost always in his hand or mouth. His office sits at the top of the Shinra building, overlooking all of Midgar from seventy floors up. Everything about him broadcasts wealth acquired through absolute indifference to its cost.
Also known as: President Shinra, The President, Old Man Shinra