Turks (Final Fantasy VII)

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In the Square Co., Ltd. RPG Final Fantasy VII, the Turks (タークス, Tākusu^?) is the unofficial nickname of the Investigation Division of the General Affairs Department of the Shinra Electric Power Company (神羅電気動力株式会社総務部調査課, Shinra Denki Dōryoku Kabushiki-gaisha Sōmubu Chōsaka^?), mistranslated as the Department of Administrative Research in the English localization. They perform covert operations on behalf of the company, including espionage, kidnappings and assassinations. They also scout for potential candidates for Shinra's elite military unit, SOLDIER, and serve as bodyguards for the Shinra executives. Within the game, they serve as recurring antagonists throughout, although they are not above forming temporary alliances with AVALANCHE, the game's group of central protagonists. Final Fantasy VII's prequel, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, focuses exclusively on the Turks in the years leading up to the events of Final Fantasy VII.

They also appear in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, set two years after the original. Here, they serve as allies of AVALANCHE, as well as bodyguards to Rufus Shinra and aid in his self-appointed mission to restore the world's vitality.

Contents 1 Main members 1.1 Tseng 1.2 Elena 1.3 Reno 1.4 Rude 2 Former Turks 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Main members

The Turks are comprised of the following individuals:

[edit] Tseng

Tseng (ツォン, Tson^?) is the stern but polite and calm leader of the Turks. He has long, black hair and what appears to be a tilak in the middle of his forehead. Though he is young, he has been an active member of the Turks for more than 10 years,^[1] under the wing of the previous Turk leader Verdot. One of Tseng's first missions as team leader was aiding Zack, whom he befriended during the Genesis incident. Tseng attempted to retrieve Zack and Cloud in a nonviolent matter, but the presence of Shinra soldiers did not allow it. Prior to his promotion to leader, Tseng also met Aerith Gainsborough — for whom he seems to have had romantic feelings^[2][3] since she was a child. Despite his long-standing admiration for Aerith, there are hints that his affections later shift to Elena.

Tseng is the only Turk not fought at any point during Final Fantasy VII. He is wounded by Sephiroth during an investigation of the Temple of the Ancients. However, he re-appears in Advent Children, wherein he and Elena retrieve Jenova's remains from the Northern Crater before being attacked and captured by Kadaj's gang. After enduring torture at the villains' hands, he is rescued — along with Elena — by Vincent Valentine, and the two of them later show up in Edge to rescue Rufus. The only other time he appeared before that in Advent Children was on the picture of his I.D. Card, splattered with blood, which Kadaj dropped in front of Rufus. Tseng is voiced by Junichi Suwabe in the Japanese version of the film and Ryun Yu in the English version.

[edit] Elena

Elena (イリーナ, Irīna^?) is a junior member of the Turks, and the only female member seen in the original Final Fantasy VII. She is a young woman with short, blonde hair and brown eyes. In Before Crisis, she was a high school student whose father was a teacher in the Shinra Military Academy and whose older sister was a member of the Turks. Though she resented her sister and the other Turks for outperforming her in their status, a later encounter with them convinced her to join the group. Elena obtained her position as the newest recruit after Reno sustained injuries battling AVALANCHE in Midgar during Final Fantasy VII.

Elena is shown as naive, impetuous and somewhat overeager, with a loose tongue that sometimes causes her to inadvertently reveal secret information. She takes her work much more seriously than Reno and Rude do, and also became quite frustrated with their laid-back attitudes.^[4] She also has a crush on Tseng and temporarily holds Cloud's party accountable for the injuries he suffered while investigating the Temple of the Ancients. Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Elena appears briefly in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, wherein she is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version and Bettina Bush in the English version. Her role is less prominent than that of her colleagues, Reno and Rude, spending most of the movie off-camera recovering along with Tseng after being tortured by Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. The first time she appears in the movies is on her bloodied I.D. card, which Kadaj drops in front of Rufus Shinra after Cloud's visit with Rufus, the second time she appears is when she and Tseng both save Rufus when he falls pursuing Kadaj.

[edit] Reno

Reno (レノ, Reno^?) is a prominent member of the Turks. He sports a lanky physique, unkempt red hair terminating in a long ponytail and two symmetrical red tattoos on his cheeks. He is always seen wearing goggles on his forehead, an unzipped suit jacket and an untucked dress shirt. He is characterized as arrogant, cynical, and somewhat lazy, but is highly skilled and takes pride in his work. Reno also has a penchant for gossiping and is a competent helicopter pilot. In the japanese version of Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, he is portrayed as being somewhat less cynical, clumsy and more of a comical character. His fighting skills are obviously far above the level of a normal human, but he is defeated with relative ease by Loz and Yazoo, having landed only one blow. In battle, he wields a retractable, metallic stun baton.

Reno is first encountered in Final Fantasy VII when he enters a derelict church in the slums of Midgar's Sector 5 in an attempt to capture Aerith (where he instructs his subordinates to be careful not to step on the flowers after stepping on them himself). Not long after, he activates the bombs that blow up the Sector 7 support pillar before having a brief battle with Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart and Barret Wallace. This fight leaves him temporarily incapacitated, during which time Elena is promoted to Turks status. He later reappears outside of Gongaga with his long-time partner, Rude, having been assigned to intercept AVALANCHE. Despite the rivalry between the two groups, he is not beyond teaming up with Cloud and his companions in Wutai, where both parties had to work together after each had a member kidnapped by Don Corneo. After this incident, Reno's group receives new orders to search for Cloud but Reno decides not to fight Cloud on the pretext of being off duty (Reno, Rude, & Elena). Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Reno has a prominent role in Advent Children. Consistent with his attitude at the end of the original Final Fantasy VII, Reno possesses no true hostility towards his former enemies[1]. As of Advent Children, the Turks are on the same side as AVALANCHE and join the fight against the film's villains. Reno and Rude primarily serve as the film's comic relief. His comical role in Advent Children includes being locked out while Cloud and Rufus have an important talk, bringing out his weapon and accidentally hitting Rude in the head, being knocked back several hundred feet by Yazoo and landing on Rude, climbing a building to save Rufus and using Rude's head as support, stepping on and crushing Rude's trademark sunglasses, having a child stick his fingers up his nose while rescuing him from Bahamut SIN, insulting Jenova and then apologizing to Loz and Yazoo before he realizes what he said, and observing that since the bomb in the highway scene was "Shinra technology at its finest", Rude must have made it.

An interesting aspect of Reno's personality is his unique speech pattern. In the original Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII Reno frequently ended his sentences with the phrase "zo, to" or a slightly more formal "yo, to". The closest English equivalent to this pattern is adding "yo" to the end of a sentence. In the Japanese version of Advent Children, fans realized Tifa was talking to Reno in the beginning, because she mimicked his speech when speaking with him ("Oboeteru, zo to" "Yeah, I remember you, yo").

He is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese version, and Quinton Flynn in the English version.

[edit] Rude

Rude (ルード, Rūdo^?) is a tall, naturally bald^[5] man with a slight goatee. He always wears sunglasses and carries quite a number of spare pairs with him. Rude is rarely seen without his long-time partner, Reno, and is rather taciturn, tending to relegate the talking to Reno. He also becomes uncomfortable when brought into a conversation, as seen during the meeting with Cloud and later when meeting Yazoo and Loz in the Advent Children movie. Rude is a superb physical combatant and prefers to use his fists in battle. In one of his rare lines of dialogue in Final Fantasy VII, he reveals to Reno that he has a crush on Tifa Lockhart, a skilled martial artist like himself, though no close relationship develops between them. Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Rude has a prominent role in Advent Children always seen with his partner Reno. They are mainly used for comical effect, with Reno normally injuring Rude or when fighting Loz, a rather large road sign drops on him after Reno is kicked into it. During his confrontation with Loz he seems to put up a better fight than Reno against Yazoo, landing several punches. In the end, him and Reno use a massive explosion to take out Loz and Yazoo. Loz and Yazoo somehow survive the explosion and make appearance just after Cloud defeats Kadaj. Rude and Reno also survive the explosion and are shown standing around Rufus after Cloud's fight with Kadaj. Years ago, when there was war between AVALANCHE and Shinra, Rude fell in love with a woman named Chelsea. Unfortunately, she was an AVALANCHE spy who grew infatuated with Rude, but left him because they were on different sides. Rude did not take well to her departure, since he could not even say goodbye to her. Since then, he has been rather shy and refuses to develop any close relationships. He is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki in the Japanese version of Advent Children and Crispin Freeman in the English version.

[edit] Former Turks

• Verdot (ヴェルド, Verudo^?)^[6] is the previous leader of the Turks. He is very particular on matters relating to succeeding in missions and very unforgiving when it comes to failure. Tseng considers him a role model and eventually succeeds him. Though many of his subordinates are intimidated by his severity, they all deeply respect him. When Heidegger usurps his position at one point during the story, Verdot blackmails President Shinra into returning it. Formerly a resident of the town of Kalm, he had a daughter and wife that he believed perished when the town was razed due to his own misinterpreted commands. In actuality, his daughter survived, and is eventually revealed to be the leader of AVALANCHE, Elfé. He cares very deeply for the Turks, and does not wish for them to suffer any events similar to what he has; he also cares very much for his daughter, defecting from Shinra when he discovers she is alive. Verdot appeared only in Before Crisis, but is mentioned in Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.

• Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン, Vinsento Varentain^?) served as a gunman in the Turks until approximately 30 years prior to the events of Final Fantasy VII. While on a mission in Nibelheim during the later stages of the Jenova Project, Vincent was shot by Professor Hojo, who then used his body for experimental purposes, changing him into the Vincent of Final Fantasy VII and its sequels. Hojo's experiments altered Vincent's body to such an extent that he became capable of transforming into monsters and modifying his apparent age. Though he is chronologically 60 years old (In Dirge of Cerberus), he still appears to be 27.

• The main characters of Before Crisis are all Turks. The player chooses from eleven unnamed characters (five young men, five young women and one "legendary" Turk), each with his or her own backstory, personality, strengths and weaknesses. Six of these Turks also appear in Last Order, where they act as support for Tseng, Reno, and Rude, but none are given proper names and few have dialog. The female Turk with the short blond hair has been identified as Elena's older sister, however she has no canonical name and is only referred to as "Turk (Gun)" based on her weapon of choice. After barely surviving the pre-Final Fantasy VII events of Before Crisis, they make an appearance along with Verdot in Midgar during the coming of the Meteor disaster and assist the other Turks in evacuating civilians. Their whereabouts during the majority of Final Fantasy VII's events are currently unknown.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Shinra
• Rufus Shinra

[edit] External links

• Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω Translations FAQ - Translations from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω

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Advent Children • Before Crisis • Crisis Core • Dirge of Cerberus • Last Order • Lost Episode Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding Cloud • Aerith • Tifa • Barret • Red XIII • Cid • Yuffie • Cait Sith • Vincent • Zack • Sephiroth • Jenova • Rufus • Turks Characters • Locations • Terminology • Timeline Materia • Midgar • Shinra • One-Winged Angel • Soundtrack • Reunion Tracks • Piano Collections • Advent Children Soundtrack • Dirge of Cerberus Soundtrack • Before Crisis & Last Order Soundtrack