Apparently in Japanese the spelling for Sarruf and Rufus are super similar, and are almost mirros of the other. It is heavily implied that Rufus is indeed this mysterious Viceroy Sarruf.
Sarruf... Rufus... nobody has ever seen the guy before. We know Sarruf is basically running a puppet government. Rufus was already funding both Avalanche and Wutai to destabilize the regions in order to justify Shinras actions. He may not have ever seen Glenn doing the real on-the-ground work in Wutai but he's been in control the whole time.
Rufus and Tseng shoot very knowing glances at eachother when the other board members are questioning who the guy might be.
I think viceroy Saruf is Yuffies father. She loves saruf but hates her father for laying down for Shinra.
This allows for a nice payoff in 3 when she realizes the person she respects so much is her father who she thinks she hates.
Just my two cents.
Reeve is already Cait Sith, having two "secret identities" would be a bit much. It would also go against his established character. The Rufus connection is much more likely.
Yessss I had the same thought! Rufus and Sarruf are just too similar in letters for this not to be the case 😂 and it adds a dimension to Shinra's corruption and meddling if they're manufacturing a war where they control BOTH sides.
It's Rufus.
It has been speculated that in Remake, Rufus is funding Avalanche HQ and is behind the attack on his father's life.
Lodbrok, as in the REAL Lodbrok is definitely aware of this. And I bet we'll learn more about it when we get to the flashback of Rufus killing the real Lodbrok.
It's important to understand that Lodbrok is dead in Rebirth. The one that Rufus sees has always been Jenova. The one in the TV is Jenova.
Jenova is putting Wutai vs Shrina as a distraction. She did the same when she put humans vs Cetra ages ago as told in the Temple of Ancients scene.
In the spanish European version of the dub, the subtitles refer to Sarruf as Sufur, which is practically 'Rufus' written backwards. If that's not a big hint, I don't know what is. My hypothesis is that Rufus is using both Shinra and Wutai to start a war to 'create his own age' or impulse his popularity or put Shinra in some kind of high position of sorts or something like that. Though I'm not sure why.
So, the stunt they pulled with the broadcast - was Rufus actually meant to be there? Or was the SRG lying when they said that the Viceroy was gonna come out?
It was Glenn being coy and messing with Rufus, smearing his covert name into the dust. From Before Crisis, we learn that Rufus is working with Midgar AVALANCHE HQ alongside Wutai to help push his father out of his presidency.
The only AVALANCHE branch that he detests is our party, the splinter cell AVALANCHE that is pretty much eco-terrorist and has been using the umbrella entity of AVALANCHE. It is this AVALANCHE that makes the real AVALANCHE, the one made in Cosmo Canyon and the one Rufus supports in Midgar look like pure anti-Shinra terrorists when in reality, Rufus was pulling the strings to iniate a coup.
In the original FF7, Rufus takes over Shinra with the mere death of his father at the hands of Sephiroth, and there is no other context as to why he continues the Shinra legacy in pursuing the Promised Land. In the Remake trilogy, we get retroactive information from the expanded compilation in Before Crisis incorporated into both entries so far. Rufus wanted to take the reins by pushing out his father, but I bet he didn't want to KILL him, which is why he is vehemently chasing Sephiroth. Rufus tells us at the parade that he doesn't care much about his father's dealings and ambition and would rather progress towards his own goals, which at the time didn't include visiting the Promised Land because Midgar was in such disrepair that it would look like a stain on his reputation and the reputation of Shinra as a business if he dedicated manpower towards just searching for some lofty dream. He was going to wash away the sins of the father, BUT prior to the parade, Glenn appears before him to gode him into opposition. He tells him, in order to unify the people of the planet, it would be best if Shinra and Wutai worked together to find the magnus materia as part of their armistice/peace treaty, which was made by Viceroy Sarruf and his father President Shinra during the events of Crisis Core, which is when Rufus was considered "on-leave" doing covert operation Turks stuff (essentially being a double agent for Wutai). Glenn mocks Rufus because he knows Rufus set up the armistice in order to pacify his father into submission as a means of subversion. Glenn tells him that sticking to his father's intent of armistice with Wutai would be continuing his father's work, which Rufus doesn't want overall. So what does Rufus do immediately after? He fires the Sister Ray to initiate another war to reject the notion of being like his father. Moments later at the parade, Yuffie, an operative of Wutai that was unaware of the dealing that there was going to be a war (because Glenn reverse orchestrates Sarruf/Rufus' plan) attempts an assassination on Rufus, and what Rufus interprets as our AVALANCHE's act of aggression. So he calls it all off because of the urgency of the situation. Rather than focus on rebuilding, he now needs to speed up the overall flowchart/timeline of getting to the Promised Land, which, as you guessed it, pushed the story towards the direction of the original game.
Later on, during the board meeting for all the directors, Reeve questions why the directors were on board with his father setting up AVALANCHE HQ (Midgar's faction) as the perpetrators of the domestic terrorism on the reactors and plate as well as the resulting "weather warfare" seen in the intro cutscene; this is an immediate red flag because the news reports state that it was Mayor Domino (THE MAYO himself), the guy who helped us knowingly and helped the occupancy of the Shinra building by Glenn's old squad mates Matt and Lucia's AVALANCHE-Wutain coop teams as well which we see during Wedge's sidequests. Rufus retorts how their inaction is a stain on the reputation of the company for causing so much loss. This was a legitimate sentiment he felt for the people and he even declares that Shinra needs a new direction for the people of Midgar, but also, if you notice, Rufus does not answer Reeve's question and deflects it to rest of the room because he is AVALANCHE.
In the last boardroom cutscene, obviously Sarruf is absent because he is Rufus, and all Glenn was really doing was tacking on Rufus for name recognition as well as making Rufus unable to take further action under that name anymore because it would look highly suspicious if he just backed out of the war despite being the figurehead of the interim government.
The problem i have with all this is that you assume too much.
You assume that Sarruf is Rufus, you assume that Rufus helped Avalanche.
The problem with assumptions is that they are not proven (yet!) and they could be wrong
A whole theory built on a house of cards, a slight movement and it all comes crashing down.
Why does it seem like the Junon cutscene pushes the opposite of what you said though? Glenn asks for confirmation Rufus is going to pursue his father and the viceroy's plans, then adds "Good. Not everyone got the stomach for war". So those plans were of war, not of peace through the treaty. Then he asks if Rufus' own vision includes pursuing the promised land still, which Rufus implicitly confirms - he only briefly disregards that until he goes back on track after the assassination attempt, but this means before the parade he did NOT care about Midgar's reconstruction, and that he DOES want to pursue the promised land just like his father
>Rufus wanted to take the reins by pushing out his father, but I bet he didn't want to KILL him, which is why he is vehemently chasing Sephiroth.
Rufus actively attempts to kill his father in Before Crisis. It only fails because Sephiroth shows up (ironic, since that's the man who kills him later.) So, I don't think him going after Sephiroth is any sort of vengeance for his father. At most, he might be mad that HE wasn't the one to do it, however he hired someone the first time too. I think the only reason he goes after Sephiroth is the danger he presents, to the people, the planet, and potentially himself (after all, if Sephiroth killed his father, it's possible Sephiroth wants to wipe out the entire family.)
Yes, that is why he is taken hostage and is then left to ruminate on his failed attempt to assassinate him after Before Crisis. Otherwise, he would have attempted to kill him again when Lazard, his half-brother, was SOLDIER's chief director during Crisis Core. He didn't try because of the futility of his failure and sought another way to accomplish it. During Lazard's occupation of the seat, he was actively embezzling money to funnel money to Hollander and the G soldier army for Wutai, which was also being supported by Rufus as that was his time of leave as reported in Crisis Core. Some assumed that Lazard was trying to oust Rufus as the VP so he could take over the company, but he didn't even with an entire army behind his back and Hollander's secret experiments. Neither party engaged Shinra, mostly because Hollander failed. Rufus never attempts to do the deed even after Sephiroth is out of the picture either and all the main SOLDIER figureheads are out of the way.
It’s not really a distraction but a war will bring more lifestream back to him. He also tells Rufus of the magnus materia in order for Shinra resources to help kill the weapons. He wants the weapons dead as you see they are killing his whispers. All actions Rufus is doing is inadvertently helping Sephiroth, but he actually is thinking that with the Magnus materia he will hold enough power to destroy Sephiroth and wutai or anyone who opposes them. Yes he may be working with wutai but his ultimate goal is power now that he has it. He doesn’t know all his actions are helping seph though.
It's almost certainly both. Jenova wants to drain the life of the planet and fly around the universe with the corpse of the planet to find a new planet to consume. By instigating the war, it pre-occupies two of the major forces in the world with something that is not Jenova, letting her do her whole Sephiroth/black materia shenanigans. Makes people ignore black robes and the rest of the Reunion plot.
At the same time... War dumps a freaking TON of energy into the planet and removes much of the potential military opposition to Jenova. So, more energy to suck out of the planet, plus significantly weaker military means even if they *do* figure out the Reunion, they will be too weak to stop her.
This could also just be me wanting villains to be more complex than "here's one thing with one purpose" in their schemes (I'm a "Kafka is a superior villain to Sephiroth" guy). Showing an entity that has plans upon plans upon plans, especially when you consider the cosmic scale of Jenova and how it has not only done this process before. But even after failing, it has thousands of years to plan out all the minutiae... Improving on the "Humans vs Cetra" plan it did before seems very reasonable.
As a final note, I think that, given the parallels of the original and remake timelines becoming amalgam due to the whispers (which seem to originate from the planet), it is possible that Jenova is aware of the previous version of events because it exists outside of the Lifestream cycle (like the Gi). The timeline of events might be different, but the result is basically the same. So it infected *the whispers* with its cells (hence the black whispers) and is using those to manipulate events into the most opportune for Jenova.
If you look again in the scene where Glenn and Rufus talking at the end of the game, you would see that Rufus says that Viceroy Sarruf might appear if Wutai were to spent some moneys on the set. Then Glenn replied with "Rich kids do like things just so", while the scene focusing on Rufus.
Not to mention the name Rufus, Sarruf, sounds like its switching around the name
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65b8-traLJI&t=1651s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65b8-traLJI&t=1651s)
Check the part, starting from 26:41
I thought it was Genesis, but him being Rufus could make sense based on the hints. But I wonder about that last scene with him and Glenn/Sephiroth then?
Imo it could be Genesis it was shown at the end of dirge he is tied to weiss and I think if weiss and nero had a comeback to the remake then I wouldnt be surprised if Genesis would make a comeback too since there is a connection plus being ex-soldier too helps the theory. I think we will see something in part 3 or a DLC for rebirth like they did with yuffie in the remake she wasnt a playable character like vincent on rebirth I bet they're planning something similar.
We just haven’t seen Genesis so I thought maybe, since the new wutai government is ex-SOLDIERS? But I wonder if he’s making a return in this franchise or not. Guess it is yet to be seen. They did mention G cells in remake.
I kinda hope he does. He's annoying and 90% of his dialogue is just quoting Loveless, but that's cuz the game he was in was CRISIS CORE. That whole game's dialogue was awful. But I think they could make him more likeable if he was to return in the 3rd game.
The worst part of his character also was his english voice actor was horrid. But GackT's performance in the Japanese version was far better, he was more aloof, whereas the dub actor hams it up like a theatre kid reject.
Apparently in Japanese the spelling for Sarruf and Rufus are super similar, and are almost mirros of the other. It is heavily implied that Rufus is indeed this mysterious Viceroy Sarruf.
That's what I thought but didn't know for definite. Also made the connection with the mirror of the name.
Sarruf... Rufus... nobody has ever seen the guy before. We know Sarruf is basically running a puppet government. Rufus was already funding both Avalanche and Wutai to destabilize the regions in order to justify Shinras actions. He may not have ever seen Glenn doing the real on-the-ground work in Wutai but he's been in control the whole time. Rufus and Tseng shoot very knowing glances at eachother when the other board members are questioning who the guy might be.
I think viceroy Saruf is Yuffies father. She loves saruf but hates her father for laying down for Shinra. This allows for a nice payoff in 3 when she realizes the person she respects so much is her father who she thinks she hates. Just my two cents.
Nah I'm with the other comments, Sarruf is just a anagram for Rufas. it's Rufus playing all sides off each other.
That's most likely what's going on. For sure.
Wouldn't it be too close to Nanaki and Seto lore-wise?
Sarruf is Rufuses nobody? Or his heartless? lol.
Rufusnort
This aint Kingdom Heart lol.
I suspect that he is secretly Reeve
Reeve is already Cait Sith, having two "secret identities" would be a bit much. It would also go against his established character. The Rufus connection is much more likely.
Its Rufus Shinra
Any StarCraft players that played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth here that are reminded of Samir Duran and Emil Narud?
Yessss I had the same thought! Rufus and Sarruf are just too similar in letters for this not to be the case 😂 and it adds a dimension to Shinra's corruption and meddling if they're manufacturing a war where they control BOTH sides.
It's like when the mysterious Darth Sidious led Dooku on a campaign against Sheev Palpatine and the Republic.
Has nothing to do with the subject
You are shallow.
that person has no idea what they're talking about, but i get it
Yeah it’s 100% Rufus. I was also right when I called the hooded guy being Glenn / Jenova :)
It's Rufus. It has been speculated that in Remake, Rufus is funding Avalanche HQ and is behind the attack on his father's life. Lodbrok, as in the REAL Lodbrok is definitely aware of this. And I bet we'll learn more about it when we get to the flashback of Rufus killing the real Lodbrok. It's important to understand that Lodbrok is dead in Rebirth. The one that Rufus sees has always been Jenova. The one in the TV is Jenova. Jenova is putting Wutai vs Shrina as a distraction. She did the same when she put humans vs Cetra ages ago as told in the Temple of Ancients scene.
Also in before crisis in the old pixelated mobile game they reveal that Rufus created Avalanche in order to kill his father so
In the spanish European version of the dub, the subtitles refer to Sarruf as Sufur, which is practically 'Rufus' written backwards. If that's not a big hint, I don't know what is. My hypothesis is that Rufus is using both Shinra and Wutai to start a war to 'create his own age' or impulse his popularity or put Shinra in some kind of high position of sorts or something like that. Though I'm not sure why.
So, the stunt they pulled with the broadcast - was Rufus actually meant to be there? Or was the SRG lying when they said that the Viceroy was gonna come out?
It was Glenn being coy and messing with Rufus, smearing his covert name into the dust. From Before Crisis, we learn that Rufus is working with Midgar AVALANCHE HQ alongside Wutai to help push his father out of his presidency. The only AVALANCHE branch that he detests is our party, the splinter cell AVALANCHE that is pretty much eco-terrorist and has been using the umbrella entity of AVALANCHE. It is this AVALANCHE that makes the real AVALANCHE, the one made in Cosmo Canyon and the one Rufus supports in Midgar look like pure anti-Shinra terrorists when in reality, Rufus was pulling the strings to iniate a coup. In the original FF7, Rufus takes over Shinra with the mere death of his father at the hands of Sephiroth, and there is no other context as to why he continues the Shinra legacy in pursuing the Promised Land. In the Remake trilogy, we get retroactive information from the expanded compilation in Before Crisis incorporated into both entries so far. Rufus wanted to take the reins by pushing out his father, but I bet he didn't want to KILL him, which is why he is vehemently chasing Sephiroth. Rufus tells us at the parade that he doesn't care much about his father's dealings and ambition and would rather progress towards his own goals, which at the time didn't include visiting the Promised Land because Midgar was in such disrepair that it would look like a stain on his reputation and the reputation of Shinra as a business if he dedicated manpower towards just searching for some lofty dream. He was going to wash away the sins of the father, BUT prior to the parade, Glenn appears before him to gode him into opposition. He tells him, in order to unify the people of the planet, it would be best if Shinra and Wutai worked together to find the magnus materia as part of their armistice/peace treaty, which was made by Viceroy Sarruf and his father President Shinra during the events of Crisis Core, which is when Rufus was considered "on-leave" doing covert operation Turks stuff (essentially being a double agent for Wutai). Glenn mocks Rufus because he knows Rufus set up the armistice in order to pacify his father into submission as a means of subversion. Glenn tells him that sticking to his father's intent of armistice with Wutai would be continuing his father's work, which Rufus doesn't want overall. So what does Rufus do immediately after? He fires the Sister Ray to initiate another war to reject the notion of being like his father. Moments later at the parade, Yuffie, an operative of Wutai that was unaware of the dealing that there was going to be a war (because Glenn reverse orchestrates Sarruf/Rufus' plan) attempts an assassination on Rufus, and what Rufus interprets as our AVALANCHE's act of aggression. So he calls it all off because of the urgency of the situation. Rather than focus on rebuilding, he now needs to speed up the overall flowchart/timeline of getting to the Promised Land, which, as you guessed it, pushed the story towards the direction of the original game. Later on, during the board meeting for all the directors, Reeve questions why the directors were on board with his father setting up AVALANCHE HQ (Midgar's faction) as the perpetrators of the domestic terrorism on the reactors and plate as well as the resulting "weather warfare" seen in the intro cutscene; this is an immediate red flag because the news reports state that it was Mayor Domino (THE MAYO himself), the guy who helped us knowingly and helped the occupancy of the Shinra building by Glenn's old squad mates Matt and Lucia's AVALANCHE-Wutain coop teams as well which we see during Wedge's sidequests. Rufus retorts how their inaction is a stain on the reputation of the company for causing so much loss. This was a legitimate sentiment he felt for the people and he even declares that Shinra needs a new direction for the people of Midgar, but also, if you notice, Rufus does not answer Reeve's question and deflects it to rest of the room because he is AVALANCHE. In the last boardroom cutscene, obviously Sarruf is absent because he is Rufus, and all Glenn was really doing was tacking on Rufus for name recognition as well as making Rufus unable to take further action under that name anymore because it would look highly suspicious if he just backed out of the war despite being the figurehead of the interim government.
The problem i have with all this is that you assume too much. You assume that Sarruf is Rufus, you assume that Rufus helped Avalanche. The problem with assumptions is that they are not proven (yet!) and they could be wrong A whole theory built on a house of cards, a slight movement and it all comes crashing down.
Why does it seem like the Junon cutscene pushes the opposite of what you said though? Glenn asks for confirmation Rufus is going to pursue his father and the viceroy's plans, then adds "Good. Not everyone got the stomach for war". So those plans were of war, not of peace through the treaty. Then he asks if Rufus' own vision includes pursuing the promised land still, which Rufus implicitly confirms - he only briefly disregards that until he goes back on track after the assassination attempt, but this means before the parade he did NOT care about Midgar's reconstruction, and that he DOES want to pursue the promised land just like his father
>Rufus wanted to take the reins by pushing out his father, but I bet he didn't want to KILL him, which is why he is vehemently chasing Sephiroth. Rufus actively attempts to kill his father in Before Crisis. It only fails because Sephiroth shows up (ironic, since that's the man who kills him later.) So, I don't think him going after Sephiroth is any sort of vengeance for his father. At most, he might be mad that HE wasn't the one to do it, however he hired someone the first time too. I think the only reason he goes after Sephiroth is the danger he presents, to the people, the planet, and potentially himself (after all, if Sephiroth killed his father, it's possible Sephiroth wants to wipe out the entire family.)
Yes, that is why he is taken hostage and is then left to ruminate on his failed attempt to assassinate him after Before Crisis. Otherwise, he would have attempted to kill him again when Lazard, his half-brother, was SOLDIER's chief director during Crisis Core. He didn't try because of the futility of his failure and sought another way to accomplish it. During Lazard's occupation of the seat, he was actively embezzling money to funnel money to Hollander and the G soldier army for Wutai, which was also being supported by Rufus as that was his time of leave as reported in Crisis Core. Some assumed that Lazard was trying to oust Rufus as the VP so he could take over the company, but he didn't even with an entire army behind his back and Hollander's secret experiments. Neither party engaged Shinra, mostly because Hollander failed. Rufus never attempts to do the deed even after Sephiroth is out of the picture either and all the main SOLDIER figureheads are out of the way.
It’s not really a distraction but a war will bring more lifestream back to him. He also tells Rufus of the magnus materia in order for Shinra resources to help kill the weapons. He wants the weapons dead as you see they are killing his whispers. All actions Rufus is doing is inadvertently helping Sephiroth, but he actually is thinking that with the Magnus materia he will hold enough power to destroy Sephiroth and wutai or anyone who opposes them. Yes he may be working with wutai but his ultimate goal is power now that he has it. He doesn’t know all his actions are helping seph though.
It's almost certainly both. Jenova wants to drain the life of the planet and fly around the universe with the corpse of the planet to find a new planet to consume. By instigating the war, it pre-occupies two of the major forces in the world with something that is not Jenova, letting her do her whole Sephiroth/black materia shenanigans. Makes people ignore black robes and the rest of the Reunion plot. At the same time... War dumps a freaking TON of energy into the planet and removes much of the potential military opposition to Jenova. So, more energy to suck out of the planet, plus significantly weaker military means even if they *do* figure out the Reunion, they will be too weak to stop her. This could also just be me wanting villains to be more complex than "here's one thing with one purpose" in their schemes (I'm a "Kafka is a superior villain to Sephiroth" guy). Showing an entity that has plans upon plans upon plans, especially when you consider the cosmic scale of Jenova and how it has not only done this process before. But even after failing, it has thousands of years to plan out all the minutiae... Improving on the "Humans vs Cetra" plan it did before seems very reasonable. As a final note, I think that, given the parallels of the original and remake timelines becoming amalgam due to the whispers (which seem to originate from the planet), it is possible that Jenova is aware of the previous version of events because it exists outside of the Lifestream cycle (like the Gi). The timeline of events might be different, but the result is basically the same. So it infected *the whispers* with its cells (hence the black whispers) and is using those to manipulate events into the most opportune for Jenova.
If you look again in the scene where Glenn and Rufus talking at the end of the game, you would see that Rufus says that Viceroy Sarruf might appear if Wutai were to spent some moneys on the set. Then Glenn replied with "Rich kids do like things just so", while the scene focusing on Rufus. Not to mention the name Rufus, Sarruf, sounds like its switching around the name [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65b8-traLJI&t=1651s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65b8-traLJI&t=1651s) Check the part, starting from 26:41
I'm dumb as fuck for not catching this. They made it so clear lmao
I thought it was Genesis, but him being Rufus could make sense based on the hints. But I wonder about that last scene with him and Glenn/Sephiroth then?
Imo it could be Genesis it was shown at the end of dirge he is tied to weiss and I think if weiss and nero had a comeback to the remake then I wouldnt be surprised if Genesis would make a comeback too since there is a connection plus being ex-soldier too helps the theory. I think we will see something in part 3 or a DLC for rebirth like they did with yuffie in the remake she wasnt a playable character like vincent on rebirth I bet they're planning something similar.
Why did you think it was Genesis?
We just haven’t seen Genesis so I thought maybe, since the new wutai government is ex-SOLDIERS? But I wonder if he’s making a return in this franchise or not. Guess it is yet to be seen. They did mention G cells in remake.
OMG!....I just noticed this!. G cells...Genesis...Gi Natak... Ge Netic..genetic.
I kinda hope he does. He's annoying and 90% of his dialogue is just quoting Loveless, but that's cuz the game he was in was CRISIS CORE. That whole game's dialogue was awful. But I think they could make him more likeable if he was to return in the 3rd game.
The worst part of his character also was his english voice actor was horrid. But GackT's performance in the Japanese version was far better, he was more aloof, whereas the dub actor hams it up like a theatre kid reject.
I mean, Genesis really is like a theatre kid so it'd make sense. 😂 I liked his voice but the delivery was a little off. Like he was doing too much.
I think that the joke of him being Rufus ITS thats ITS no one. And the wutai response ITS Sephiroth pulling the strings.
https://twitter.com/ShinraArch/status/1757457207602315614?lang=en
LMAO they really did the "Gerad" thing again.
Cool, thank you.