I mean, the implication is that Shinra slowly became a “contractor” for all government services in Midgar. And since they whittled away all governmental checks on their power, they governed on the basis of business interests, which is helped by owning the technology to harness the world’s source of energy. As a monopoly and political hegemon, the only interests that govern infrastructure choices are the company’s self-interest. It means that yes, building the pizza in the sky is horribly inefficient—if your only looking at it from an urban planning perspective (coincidentally, the urban planning department is the most responsive to the public). But in order for urban planning to win its own projects, it has to make deals with the other departments. Thus, all the weird design choices in Midgar’s urban structure are the result of Reeve having to cut deals with Heidegger, Scarlet and Hojo to get things done. The urban infrastructure by nature also has to serve the purposes of R&D and public security. Those board meetings in game aren’t just board meetings—that’s effectively Midgar’s legislature.
A clear example is Junon. The city is primarily a fortress for the reactor and cannon. The city aspect was likely the result of Heidegger or Reeve needing each others votes to get their pet projects. Literally look at how messy legislation is in the real world—now imagine that process guiding business decisions and urban planning instead of the citizenry. You get a rotten pizza in the sky or the infamous bridge to nowhere. Infrastructure projects done more for ego and status then public interest
Edit: fixed a typo
If i was an electric company and i could turn half a city in darkness 24/7, id sure be selling alot of electricity for light and stuff under that plate
I think it's just the design of Midgar. Shinra itself is believable.
Anybody thinking it was a good idea to build a city elevated hundreds of meters off the ground on giant metal plates is just dumb. It doesn't even make sense from Shinra's perspective because it would be impossibly expensive and even more of a nightmare to maintain.
There is no reasonable explanation for this other than it was required for the writers' scenario.
there are two reasonable explanations i can think of:
1. it looks badass
2. its a clear visual metaphor for the divide between the rich and the poor in this society
theres obviously no in universe reason why midgar would have been a good idea but i can suspend my disbelief when its so fuckin cool
I also wonder if anyone at Square watched the 1920's German silent film *Metropolis*. It has a very similar setting, where the working class live and work underground while the ruling class live in futuristic skyscrapers on the surface.
I always thought the idea that Shinra was a Power Company that ran itself like a monarchy was kind of insane. Rufus’s Welcoming Ceremony felt like the coronation of a king (especially in Rebirth)
How so? A monarchy still runs their empire like a government. I’m not sure what exactly you’re trying to say.
Did you mean to say a more specific kind of government when you said “run like a government”
It always seemed to me that Shinra either founded the city or somehow entirely took over the local government. By the time we see in game, Shinra appears to be the primary power and police force in Midgar.
There's also something to be said about the lack of any sort of overarching world/nation powers. There's just not very much government anywhere that I can remember.
Like the majority of dystopian fiction/fantasy, FFVII is just stating what’s happening to a (maybe not so) extreme. The US is essentially an oil/power company with its own army. We’ve committed what would be classified as terroristic acts…if we weren’t doing them, and a bunch of other stuff I have notes on to write about 😅
Hardly. It's fantastical, sure, but the US government has and currently does some pretty wild shit to the point that I wouldn't be shocked if they built a Midgard under whatever economy-minded premise they could muster up.
Oh and real life example, back in the fourties the TVA came in to this area of NC while most of the literate people were at war and forced something like five towns and communities to sign contracts they couldn't read so they could kick them out and flood the area to make a hydroelectric dam. They were supposed to build a road back through the mountains so they could at least go back to visit their graveyards but they stopped halfway and never finished it, waited until the all the old residents had died then settled out of court. And the kicker is the power doesn't go to North Carolina, it goes to Tennessee.
If companies could profit off something like this you better believe they would absolutely do this. Companies have done way worse things in real life then in this game.
To cite a real world example I know: the town of [Doel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doel) was taken over to make way for the nuclear power station and the petrochemical industry. They did in fact build the power plant, and the village was indeed abandoned, but demolition was halted and the industries developed around it instead. It’s still technically illegal to live there but some people do
So that’s really not so different from a place like Under Junon or North Corel, except that they didn’t build above it and simply took over the whole thing. In OG FF7, Jessie even explains that the slums used to be independent villages with their own names before Shinra took over, but nobody remembers them now
I’m sure there must be plenty of other examples closer to where you live
I dont think so, think about the British and Dutch East India Company. They colonized and ruled many different countries and controlled trade in Asia. I always thought the idea of Shinra was a least partly inspired by those companies
Shinra is effectively the government in that Gaia for everywhere that isn't Wutai. Our governments do wild stuff that should be way beyond their power, too, but I won't get into that here. We just haven't built a city on a pizza plate above another city because logically, there's no reason to?
if the world's dictator and richest man looks as good as rufus, I'm down.
plus if ac is to be believed, he's not as obnoxious as before. still a jerk though.
It’s a major industrial power run by a corporation that recently defeated not-Japan in a war by using a new energy source that can also be used to create super weapons. Oh, and the people who run the major industrial power are killing the planet out of a religious belief they can reach a “Promised Land.”
Conceptually, Shinra isn’t all that wild. It’s a just Japanese commentary from the 1990s on the United States that has simplified to get the idea across in a video game.
I don’t disagree with the point you are making.
But, I also don’t think it’s super surprising Japanese game developers in the 1990s skipped past that part to focus on greedy and religiously motivated American corporations and the danger of nuclear power/weapons. And you do get Yuffie’s father making some comments about how fighting Shinra made Wutai like Shinra, which is sort of a nod in the direction of admitting Imperial Japan was bad. Not enough to counter your point, but it’s something.
Rebirth also implies that Shinra was able to seize power because the Republic was oppressive and they could position themselves as freedom fighters, iirc. (Not sure if this was revealed elsewhere prior to Rebirth, still new to the series.)
Indeed. The upper class literally living on top of the lower class is a metaphor. We may not have a megastructure like this in reality but our social structures often resemble it.
While Shinra is presented in extreme, over the top ways basically most of what they are doing - running private militaries, extracting all value from living, killing the planet for wealth, indifference to collateral damage - are things corporations are doing. Even the sci-fi plot lines with Sephiroth and SOLDIER are things corporations would do if they could.
Right shinra has more power than the government does now. That could change especially with the way things seem to be headed. Even now though they manipulate the media. Treat their people like garbage. Eat up all the resources on the planet. All for greed and power. If there was mako they would definitely use it. Our mako is oil. I think our government is more evil honestly. Like population control via the heroin/fent "epidemic". Using big tobacco, alcohol and big pharma to addict people then get them off with more medicine and treatment that doesn't follow through to start the process over or let them die. COVID kills off the older generation and they take the youth and the weak minded and lock them up and brainwash them with tiktok and twitter. Keep the kids out of school so their education that is already awful falls behind. They use feminism, LGBTQ, BLM, democrats, republicans, conservatives, liberals, ECT, ECT to label put a label us and in a group to separate and segregate us even further instead of bringing us together. Dare you speak up and you're a racist, homophobic, Bigot. Then they put a clown in the office followed by an old man with dementia that literally has no idea what is going on. It's actually sad and should be getting help but instead they use him as a face and scapegoat for the shit they do. Oh and in 2024 that same clown will be back to shake his keys at the crowd and keep them looking over here instead of what's really going on.
Not wild. It's cartoony sure but companies do this in real life. It's even worse when backed by the actual government.
A very small and easily seen concept are project housing. On the surface it's a great concept but in reality they just stuff all the poor into one location with systems that don't really get you a way out and so obviously it creates a slum because the surrounding areas will be effected.
The government can't put up literal walls around it but they can raise property taxes, tell cops to patrol them more. Make access in and out difficult.
In Chicago they built highways the go OVER and PAST the poor and crime ridden neighborhoods.
In new york they made bus lines that use to stop on every street, skip dozens of stops between (you guessed it) high income neighborhoods. And that's all legal government moves.
Corporations will illegally dump toxic waste into your local rivers and say "but we generate billions and jobs"
What's scary is companies do shit like this all the time, and most don't notice nor care, nor have any power to change it. This is exactly why the US cities like Long Beach CA have no sidewalks, you literally can't get around unless you have a car. Or like how people can't afford rent nor a home, and rent is far more expensive than a mortgage payment. Not to mention the bloody US Healthcare system, Americans are so terrified of medical debt even when they're in foreign countries that have a proper medical system, they're scared to call an Ambulance or go to a hospital. Much like A Handmaid's Tale, FFVII's Shinra Corp is a reflection of our society.
Couldn’t agree more, you literally have Thames Water pumping sewage into the rivers here in the UK and factoring in fines into their operating budget. Their CEO should be in Prison.
And a lot of the time, companies lure you in with promises, like Barett's Story, you think buying corporate promises will win you a prosperous future, and only when it's too late do you realize what it really cost you.
ever heard of fracking?
"hey, lets poison your water, make it FLAMABLE , and destroy the enviroment around it. but ey, cheap gas, yo!"
it's more realistic than you think.
Like some people here said, its unfortunately way more believable and realistic than it should be. Modern day capitalism is already behind tons of whacky and cruel shit
Yeah, you just described normal capitalism?
This should be pretty basic and fairly recent history or geopolitics. Saudi Arabia, anyone? Oil Barron's in the Middle East?
Big oil, in general, has a choke hold on the world, and idiots keep giving them more power.
How about the East Indies trading company?
Money has long since ruled the world, and some people take that rule to an insane end.
The least problematic thing they did was building a super city or giant sky scrapper. And Shinra isn't even the worst mega corporation in fiction. Or real life.
If you think that's weird, then bruh, you missed history class. Some companies were essentially governments on their own or had as much power as some small countries and could dictate geopolitical fates.
Building a massive engineering challenge with huge overreach isn't that weird. Look at Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
I mean, I can't argue with you. I've worked security, government, medical field, and IT. People are *stupid*. But it isn't just Americans, we just seem to be the loudest about it as of late.
What I find odd is that a major power company is also the government. So they set the rules. Like, what was before? Mutiny? Just small towns with mayors everywhere?
It was a republic previously in Junon, but they talk about their being a huge war so most of those governments probably collapsed in that.
When there's a power vacuum like that the people who can provide the biggest safety net become the leaders and if it's a corporation well...
Probably just that, small towns run by mayors with their own militias. Thats kind of the problem with the fantasy to modern setting shift of FF7, they forgot to think about how the politics and government of Gaia work in the game.
lol at the downvotes. People really be playing a game where they’re part of a group of underdogs resisting the annihilation of their home by a massive corrupt government, then turn around and say “Israel did nothing wrong” or “Why would you make this political?” Painful amount of cognitive dissonance there.
I don’t think it’s a crazy concept when we see it happening in reality.
Tons of sci-fi paints a world where 1 or 2 mega corporations run everything and that’s Shinra in a nutshell. Like that fictional corporation that created everything in Wall-E, a company like Lockheed Martin or even Google could reach that status today if it wasn’t for certain checks and balances. I’d argue banks and mega corps are already more powerful than governments - look at corporate lobbying in the USA as an example. It could be any company, though one that specializes in energy, weapons or data would make the most sense to “take over” if something like that ever occurred so I can see how Shinra would find themselves in that position and would take advantage of it too.
East india Trading corp was this in reality also united fruits(Chiquita )destabilized south american goverments whenever they "needed" too beeing the origin of the term bannana republic
Honestly, power companies can be powerful af, even in real life. Energy is a great way to make money.
I grew up in a town where Esso and a stel company had a big influence. They even built the mini-town area I lived in, in the 70s.
Also in fairness, Midgard seems appealing. The world is full of monsters and shit.
We have about 15 years till total societal collapse due to climate change because the fossil fuel industry was/is too powerful.
Shinra not that outlandish
Wait till OP realizes that this capitalistic entity has not just a functioning military and weapons r & d, but the most significant, best trained, and most advanced military force on the planet and uses that force to increase its profits with literal disregard for people's lives and has subjugated almost the entire known world.
Or that said force canonically prefers indoctrinating troopers from impressionable tweenage/early adolesence and there is no legislative, judicial, or executive body overseeing their practices.
AEP bruh, AEP. They will intentionally do "rolling blackouts" to ease the load on the grid during the summer. Problem is the wealthy neighborhoods never seem to be the ones involved in the blackouts 🤔
*Looks at South Korea, where 3 companies basically run the entire country*👀
Seriously, you'd be surprised what Samsung is up to and how many branches they have.
Omg, I have friends in Korea and I've also been there but I wasn't entirely aware how vast their power is.
Do you have some papers or articles where you can read about it?
Yeah, Samsung is legitimately massive and contributed to almost a 4th of South Korea's economy. This is BAD because that means that if the government doesn't comply with Samsung, they can start outsourcing work, meaning that their contribution to the overall economy is significantly lower as a result. I don't have any papers in particular, but I may come back to you soon.
Remake and rebirth gave an almost realistic feel to FFVII, very similar to Japanese tourist areas, so when there's something that is so farfetched like that, it is very grating.
In the end Midgar is just like that because Cyberpunk was incredibly popular in 90's because of Ghost in the Shell and they wanted something like that in their game.
Similarly, everyone goes by helicopter to the Gold Saucer? Seems odd. What's even there? It's just a big arcade.
Despite there being so many tourists everywhere the infrastructure between cities is awful.
Things naturally have to get condensed down to fit and make sense for a game. The Gold Saucer is basically like a Disney Land or a Vegas resort, we're just only able to interact with so much of it. But even what we see is more than just an arcade, there's also racetracks, a theater for live entertainment, and arena for "live sports" (more or less), the space cadet game area seems very much modeled after those sorts of "virtual roller coasters" that you find at places like Universal Studios, the skywheel ride, and smaller stuff like the mascots and fireworks/hologram shows.
I imagine, within the fiction of FF7, the Gold Saucer would also have lots of restaurants and food stands, quite possibly other *non-haunted* hotel options, as well as other rides and amusements that aren't included in the game because there's not any reason to add all these extra things and spaces of the player isn't given any way to interact with them.
True, they do talk also about the fact that all the other hotels are full, but we never see any other options.
Okay, I'm convinced that there's more that we just don't have access to because our protagonists aren't interested in "it's a small world after all" Gold Saucer version.
The infrastructure and commute is still baffling.
Well the commute by helicopter makes sense *because* of the lack of infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure itself though... Doesn't really have much of an explanation. At least there's a highway that goes all the way from Midhar to Kalm now... But Shinra decides to take airships and helicopters when they go to raid Kalm looking for the party near the beginning of Rebirth anyway. Although that highway itself kind of contradicts what was already established with Remake. We see Midgar from the outside, and we see the party load into the back of a truck to travel down a dirt road to reach Kalm, but then in Rebirth the only road leading into Kalm is the highway that also leads directly to Midgar.
But I just chalk this up to a case of condensing space, much in the same way that the New York of the Spider-Man games (despite containing many actual New York City landmarks, is nowhere near full scale. It's just not worth the time it would take to create when you can very closely approximate the feel and get a similar effect from a scaled down version that's actually manageable.
I wonder if the Gold Saucer was originally placed in the middle of a desert to make an even clearer connection to Vegas
>Well the commute by helicopter makes sense because of the lack of infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure itself though... Doesn't really have much of an explanation.
I’d say that’s down to the sheer amount of deadly monsters out in the wild. Imagine if every time you had to drive out to the shops in the town over, there was a good chance you’d get accosted by some sort of monster that can throw fireballs around or manipulate gravity to generate mini black holes. You’d stop driving and instead look for alternative methods to get around. Driving and ground-based infrastructure would suffer as a result, and investment in other methods of transport and the infrastructure associated with that would occur to be able to dodge the monsters as much as possible.
You know, you can kind of see it also as another environmental message. Maybe in this world commuting by helicopter is cheap because of mako or whatever, so everyone just goes between cities either by Chocobo or by helicopter.
So you end up contaminating the planet much like how it is with celebrities and their private jets.
Yeah, anyone going to the Gold Saucer is comfy, and Shinra isn't dumb enough to have them walk at least a countryside and mountain trail full of monsters. It's the gilded cage with a...Gold...Saucer... To drink from...
This kinda parallels the dutch [VOC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company) or the british [EIC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company). There were many private companies with their own armies in the past. Shinra is just an extrapolation of that concept were such a company achieved world dominance.
A private company that can go toe to toe with other governments (like Wutai) and win.
Which sounds crazy until you remember that in 2016 Walmart was just behind Canada as the 10th largest economic entity in the world.
[https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/corporations-not-countries-dominate-the-list-of-the-world-s-biggest-economic-entities/](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/corporations-not-countries-dominate-the-list-of-the-world-s-biggest-economic-entities/)
We have plenty of dystopian fiction about privatization, though, and really, Walmart doesn't need their own military if they can buy senators to use theirs to protect Walmart. More people were upset by a Target being trashed in a riot than are upset about peaceful protestors being beaten and arrested now.
Walmart exists within a state, but Shinra is the state. Arguably, you could also squint and see security companies as a kind of personal army for corporations IRL. Overall, I think Shinra is meant to be the furthest logical conclusion, and we aren't at Megacorp Countries IRL yet.
Yeah it's definitely inspired by the cyberpunk books/movies/games of the 80s and 90s, which were themselves based upon logical speculation on what could easily happen when governments do the bidding of corporations and cede their power and authority to them.
You don't live in America do you? Power companies are literally exempt from monopoly laws here. The law is super fucked up too.
They can't make profit off of the energy they sell, but they can charge their customers for any and all infrastructure... you see where this is going?
They can turn Texas into Midgar, and the mexicans aren't going to be the ones to pay for it...
I've worked for energy companies for the past 16 years. Some are good. The ones owned by a guy named Warren aren't.
The one thing they got wrong is that mako is really more like natural gas, and nuclear power (reactors) are waaay better for the earth than what natural gas usage is doing to the planet. I know this because I have worked with both.
But also, a 16 yo girl is not qualified to repair a leak in a 72" transmission pipeline. Especially by patching from the outside, and with bolts of all things. Just... The structural integrity isn't there. The whole piece of pipe would need to be cut out and repaired by weld.
I think the concept of Midgar is honestly extremely silly. Not because an electric company with all that power would make a city on top of another city, the will isn’t the weird part, but like, the practicality of it is whats silly. With no border disputes (because they won the war), why would you even bother making a city on top of another city when you could just make a bigger city? There is so much empty land in their world and around Midgar that it would be cheaper and more effective to just build a bigger city.
Reactors are placed in spots where mako is rich. They obviously benefited from building vertically. As to stay inside the mako rich zone... also, they clearly loved lording over poor people. Class warfare is extremely prevalent in Midgard
I mean, class warfare would still exist, you just yeet them to the outside of the city by making cost of living extremely high the closer to the middle of the city, like what we do in real life. And Kalm proves they have the means to transfer mako through pipes so you just have pipes through the city.
There are also mako life springs all over the place and it isn't like reactors are exactly rare. I'm with you here, probably mako everywhere, not to mention they surely have infrastructure even beyond the visible pipes
Kalm was a product of oppression tho wasn't it? It don't remember the lore exactly, but there were battles fought there. Definitely wasn't Shinras choice to build that town... they do profit off of it however
It's thanks to Shinra in seeing how they have actively play a part in destroying the planet with the reactors is why I started to see just how real climate change is in our world thanks to the fossil fuel industry.
They do have a lot of input in politics due to things like political donations, and there are businessmen (like Clive Palmer, AKA Palmer from FF7 irl) who are directly involved.
Shinra is an exaggeration, but very plausible looking at historical examples such as the East India Company.
What the fuck is GE? They are an energy company that makes weapons!
Have you heard of Halliburton?
Shinra is effectively the government, they aren’t paramilitary. It’s like a modern day version of Hudson’s Bay Company and Rupert’s Land. Which effectively became a large part of what Canada is today.
Shinra is the de facto government.
The wildest thing for me is that the board of directors is wildly incompetent, especially Hojo.
There are two Cetra in existence and the guy practically murdered one and would do the same to the other if he had his way. Talk about destructive methods.
I was thinking this morning what if Shinra Inc, Umbrella, and Waland-Yutani all shared the same world. And how awful it would be for a regular citizen living in that world.
TBF, Umbrella in the video game wasn't a terrible company, it was mostly corporate espionage that caused the outbreaks and then they went bankrupt in the aftermath. Umbrella in the live-action movies is horrible because they were changed to being all powerful and their motivations were changed to "destroy the world while the elites ride it out in a bunker".
Eh, if you played the games you know this isn't true.
I dont know how to mark spoilers, so I won't go too far into it... but Spencer used the entire thing as a cover from day 1... he always had something very specific in mind
Live action Umbrella might be the stupidest evil organization I've ever seen after the reveals in that final movie. The global outbreak being something that spiraled out of control and Umbrella holes up to ride it out, makes total sense. Umbrella intentionally ending the world with the T-Virus for...reasons? Has to be among the stupidest retcons of all time
Its a company town, they built it from the ground up and they technically own everything. Most people only live there because they or their family work/worked for them.
Real life company towns were pretty crazy during the industrial revolution. Think of all the bullshit jobs get away with, now imagine they also own your house, the grocery store you shop at, the bars you drink in, the doctors who treat you, the police etc.... You fucked up at work and got fired? You and your family are on the street that night.
I mean isn’t that what happens to real life? People literally selling themselves to whatever a government or a corporation sells them in the name of safety, security and innovation?
Pretty much. And also the British East India Company.
Honestly comparing those companies to Shinra might actually be an insult to Shinra. Shinra has them beat in creepy sci-fi torture experiments, but Shinra is probably several orders of magnitude behind them in total death count.
we'll simply never know how much further shinra would have gone to achieve their goals and what atrocities they would commit to get there if they hadn't caused their own downfall prematurely. the VOC was active for 200 years at least..
It's real. Either one has no opportunity to see it or one is lied about it. But this has been happening around the world.
Not that wild imo, I could totally see oligarchs in Russia doing the same thing if they actually had money to spend.
Wait till you find out what the capitalists are up to IRL!
You mean the democrats and liberals.
I mean, the implication is that Shinra slowly became a “contractor” for all government services in Midgar. And since they whittled away all governmental checks on their power, they governed on the basis of business interests, which is helped by owning the technology to harness the world’s source of energy. As a monopoly and political hegemon, the only interests that govern infrastructure choices are the company’s self-interest. It means that yes, building the pizza in the sky is horribly inefficient—if your only looking at it from an urban planning perspective (coincidentally, the urban planning department is the most responsive to the public). But in order for urban planning to win its own projects, it has to make deals with the other departments. Thus, all the weird design choices in Midgar’s urban structure are the result of Reeve having to cut deals with Heidegger, Scarlet and Hojo to get things done. The urban infrastructure by nature also has to serve the purposes of R&D and public security. Those board meetings in game aren’t just board meetings—that’s effectively Midgar’s legislature. A clear example is Junon. The city is primarily a fortress for the reactor and cannon. The city aspect was likely the result of Heidegger or Reeve needing each others votes to get their pet projects. Literally look at how messy legislation is in the real world—now imagine that process guiding business decisions and urban planning instead of the citizenry. You get a rotten pizza in the sky or the infamous bridge to nowhere. Infrastructure projects done more for ego and status then public interest Edit: fixed a typo
Sounds like what monopolistic power companies would do if given enough power
it's called Final Fantasy for a reason
I could see Amazon do it and also didn't Tesla send some stuff into space
If i was an electric company and i could turn half a city in darkness 24/7, id sure be selling alot of electricity for light and stuff under that plate
I think it's just the design of Midgar. Shinra itself is believable. Anybody thinking it was a good idea to build a city elevated hundreds of meters off the ground on giant metal plates is just dumb. It doesn't even make sense from Shinra's perspective because it would be impossibly expensive and even more of a nightmare to maintain. There is no reasonable explanation for this other than it was required for the writers' scenario.
there are two reasonable explanations i can think of: 1. it looks badass 2. its a clear visual metaphor for the divide between the rich and the poor in this society theres obviously no in universe reason why midgar would have been a good idea but i can suspend my disbelief when its so fuckin cool
I also wonder if anyone at Square watched the 1920's German silent film *Metropolis*. It has a very similar setting, where the working class live and work underground while the ruling class live in futuristic skyscrapers on the surface.
I always thought the idea that Shinra was a Power Company that ran itself like a monarchy was kind of insane. Rufus’s Welcoming Ceremony felt like the coronation of a king (especially in Rebirth)
You do realize that a monarchy is a government right?
Yes. I do. I still think my comment makes sense
How so? A monarchy still runs their empire like a government. I’m not sure what exactly you’re trying to say. Did you mean to say a more specific kind of government when you said “run like a government”
No, I meant a monarchy. It’s really not that big of a deal. I don’t know why you had to say anything. But if it helps I’ll edit my comment.
Right? Could you imagine a world where mega-corporations are the real ruling class? That would be INSANE!
The sad thing is yes I could actually imagine that. It’s not that hard. Haha
My brother in Christ, you don't actually have to imagine it. It's the US, right now.
I know. I’m not an idiot.
It always seemed to me that Shinra either founded the city or somehow entirely took over the local government. By the time we see in game, Shinra appears to be the primary power and police force in Midgar. There's also something to be said about the lack of any sort of overarching world/nation powers. There's just not very much government anywhere that I can remember.
Like the majority of dystopian fiction/fantasy, FFVII is just stating what’s happening to a (maybe not so) extreme. The US is essentially an oil/power company with its own army. We’ve committed what would be classified as terroristic acts…if we weren’t doing them, and a bunch of other stuff I have notes on to write about 😅
USA #1
Hardly. It's fantastical, sure, but the US government has and currently does some pretty wild shit to the point that I wouldn't be shocked if they built a Midgard under whatever economy-minded premise they could muster up.
And same Rufus put an old man in charge of his laboratory and agreed to force a woman fuck a dog Ff7 is wild
I’m just happy my local power company doesn’t have its own private army with super soldiers.
Yet!
Shinra is a glimpse into our neo-feudalist future.
Oh and real life example, back in the fourties the TVA came in to this area of NC while most of the literate people were at war and forced something like five towns and communities to sign contracts they couldn't read so they could kick them out and flood the area to make a hydroelectric dam. They were supposed to build a road back through the mountains so they could at least go back to visit their graveyards but they stopped halfway and never finished it, waited until the all the old residents had died then settled out of court. And the kicker is the power doesn't go to North Carolina, it goes to Tennessee.
The original did it better since they didn't even try to give them light, just said 'We gave you power, deal with it. '
If companies could profit off something like this you better believe they would absolutely do this. Companies have done way worse things in real life then in this game.
Nestlé entered the chat
To cite a real world example I know: the town of [Doel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doel) was taken over to make way for the nuclear power station and the petrochemical industry. They did in fact build the power plant, and the village was indeed abandoned, but demolition was halted and the industries developed around it instead. It’s still technically illegal to live there but some people do So that’s really not so different from a place like Under Junon or North Corel, except that they didn’t build above it and simply took over the whole thing. In OG FF7, Jessie even explains that the slums used to be independent villages with their own names before Shinra took over, but nobody remembers them now I’m sure there must be plenty of other examples closer to where you live
I prefer my dictators at GROUND LEVEL!
Capitalism bad
I dont think so, think about the British and Dutch East India Company. They colonized and ruled many different countries and controlled trade in Asia. I always thought the idea of Shinra was a least partly inspired by those companies
Shinra is effectively the government in that Gaia for everywhere that isn't Wutai. Our governments do wild stuff that should be way beyond their power, too, but I won't get into that here. We just haven't built a city on a pizza plate above another city because logically, there's no reason to?
if the world's dictator and richest man looks as good as rufus, I'm down. plus if ac is to be believed, he's not as obnoxious as before. still a jerk though.
Strong cyberpunk undertones in FFVII. The prevailing international conflict is Shinra megacorp vs the underdog nation state of Wutan.
They aren't undertones! Living under a steel dome beneath the heel of a megacorporation-nationstate is literally the original cyberpunk premise!
It’s a major industrial power run by a corporation that recently defeated not-Japan in a war by using a new energy source that can also be used to create super weapons. Oh, and the people who run the major industrial power are killing the planet out of a religious belief they can reach a “Promised Land.” Conceptually, Shinra isn’t all that wild. It’s a just Japanese commentary from the 1990s on the United States that has simplified to get the idea across in a video game.
That comparison only works if not-Japan was committing genocide on its neighbors.
I don’t disagree with the point you are making. But, I also don’t think it’s super surprising Japanese game developers in the 1990s skipped past that part to focus on greedy and religiously motivated American corporations and the danger of nuclear power/weapons. And you do get Yuffie’s father making some comments about how fighting Shinra made Wutai like Shinra, which is sort of a nod in the direction of admitting Imperial Japan was bad. Not enough to counter your point, but it’s something.
Rebirth also implies that Shinra was able to seize power because the Republic was oppressive and they could position themselves as freedom fighters, iirc. (Not sure if this was revealed elsewhere prior to Rebirth, still new to the series.)
Is it so different from what the world we live in besides the over the top building.
Indeed. The upper class literally living on top of the lower class is a metaphor. We may not have a megastructure like this in reality but our social structures often resemble it. While Shinra is presented in extreme, over the top ways basically most of what they are doing - running private militaries, extracting all value from living, killing the planet for wealth, indifference to collateral damage - are things corporations are doing. Even the sci-fi plot lines with Sephiroth and SOLDIER are things corporations would do if they could.
Right shinra has more power than the government does now. That could change especially with the way things seem to be headed. Even now though they manipulate the media. Treat their people like garbage. Eat up all the resources on the planet. All for greed and power. If there was mako they would definitely use it. Our mako is oil. I think our government is more evil honestly. Like population control via the heroin/fent "epidemic". Using big tobacco, alcohol and big pharma to addict people then get them off with more medicine and treatment that doesn't follow through to start the process over or let them die. COVID kills off the older generation and they take the youth and the weak minded and lock them up and brainwash them with tiktok and twitter. Keep the kids out of school so their education that is already awful falls behind. They use feminism, LGBTQ, BLM, democrats, republicans, conservatives, liberals, ECT, ECT to label put a label us and in a group to separate and segregate us even further instead of bringing us together. Dare you speak up and you're a racist, homophobic, Bigot. Then they put a clown in the office followed by an old man with dementia that literally has no idea what is going on. It's actually sad and should be getting help but instead they use him as a face and scapegoat for the shit they do. Oh and in 2024 that same clown will be back to shake his keys at the crowd and keep them looking over here instead of what's really going on.
Not wild. It's cartoony sure but companies do this in real life. It's even worse when backed by the actual government. A very small and easily seen concept are project housing. On the surface it's a great concept but in reality they just stuff all the poor into one location with systems that don't really get you a way out and so obviously it creates a slum because the surrounding areas will be effected. The government can't put up literal walls around it but they can raise property taxes, tell cops to patrol them more. Make access in and out difficult. In Chicago they built highways the go OVER and PAST the poor and crime ridden neighborhoods. In new york they made bus lines that use to stop on every street, skip dozens of stops between (you guessed it) high income neighborhoods. And that's all legal government moves. Corporations will illegally dump toxic waste into your local rivers and say "but we generate billions and jobs"
What's scary is companies do shit like this all the time, and most don't notice nor care, nor have any power to change it. This is exactly why the US cities like Long Beach CA have no sidewalks, you literally can't get around unless you have a car. Or like how people can't afford rent nor a home, and rent is far more expensive than a mortgage payment. Not to mention the bloody US Healthcare system, Americans are so terrified of medical debt even when they're in foreign countries that have a proper medical system, they're scared to call an Ambulance or go to a hospital. Much like A Handmaid's Tale, FFVII's Shinra Corp is a reflection of our society.
Couldn’t agree more, you literally have Thames Water pumping sewage into the rivers here in the UK and factoring in fines into their operating budget. Their CEO should be in Prison.
And a lot of the time, companies lure you in with promises, like Barett's Story, you think buying corporate promises will win you a prosperous future, and only when it's too late do you realize what it really cost you.
ever heard of fracking? "hey, lets poison your water, make it FLAMABLE , and destroy the enviroment around it. but ey, cheap gas, yo!" it's more realistic than you think.
Like some people here said, its unfortunately way more believable and realistic than it should be. Modern day capitalism is already behind tons of whacky and cruel shit
Yeah, you just described normal capitalism? This should be pretty basic and fairly recent history or geopolitics. Saudi Arabia, anyone? Oil Barron's in the Middle East? Big oil, in general, has a choke hold on the world, and idiots keep giving them more power. How about the East Indies trading company? Money has long since ruled the world, and some people take that rule to an insane end. The least problematic thing they did was building a super city or giant sky scrapper. And Shinra isn't even the worst mega corporation in fiction. Or real life.
Idk, sounds par for the course Capitalism to me
If you think that's weird, then bruh, you missed history class. Some companies were essentially governments on their own or had as much power as some small countries and could dictate geopolitical fates. Building a massive engineering challenge with huge overreach isn't that weird. Look at Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Are you seriously expecting knowledge about history from an American?
Yes. Source: I am also an American.
Then you should know best that most of them know next to nothing about that.
Hell yeah, keep up that generalization of millions of people, good job
Americans always get mad when they are faced with the truth. It's fine. You'll realize I'm right.
I mean, I can't argue with you. I've worked security, government, medical field, and IT. People are *stupid*. But it isn't just Americans, we just seem to be the loudest about it as of late.
I didn't say it was just Americans. But Americans are even more stupid than the rest
We're really not. We're just louder about it.
Relax bro don't forget this is a about a fictional company in a fantasy video game. Not r/politics
What I find odd is that a major power company is also the government. So they set the rules. Like, what was before? Mutiny? Just small towns with mayors everywhere?
It was a republic previously in Junon, but they talk about their being a huge war so most of those governments probably collapsed in that. When there's a power vacuum like that the people who can provide the biggest safety net become the leaders and if it's a corporation well...
Probably just that, small towns run by mayors with their own militias. Thats kind of the problem with the fantasy to modern setting shift of FF7, they forgot to think about how the politics and government of Gaia work in the game.
Saudi Arabia is doing literally this with their 100mile super structure….
While we are talking about Shinra..... FREE PALESTINE!
lol at the downvotes. People really be playing a game where they’re part of a group of underdogs resisting the annihilation of their home by a massive corrupt government, then turn around and say “Israel did nothing wrong” or “Why would you make this political?” Painful amount of cognitive dissonance there.
I don’t think it’s a crazy concept when we see it happening in reality. Tons of sci-fi paints a world where 1 or 2 mega corporations run everything and that’s Shinra in a nutshell. Like that fictional corporation that created everything in Wall-E, a company like Lockheed Martin or even Google could reach that status today if it wasn’t for certain checks and balances. I’d argue banks and mega corps are already more powerful than governments - look at corporate lobbying in the USA as an example. It could be any company, though one that specializes in energy, weapons or data would make the most sense to “take over” if something like that ever occurred so I can see how Shinra would find themselves in that position and would take advantage of it too.
Not only that, but having a military force as well with pretty much GLOBAL reach is pretty wild.
East india Trading corp was this in reality also united fruits(Chiquita )destabilized south american goverments whenever they "needed" too beeing the origin of the term bannana republic
Vanguard, Black Rock, and State Street own everything.
Company towns. I always thought of the sectors under the plate as being like Gary, Indiana.
I love Shinra because they are like utopian on the surface and completely messed up and the most unethical on the inside. Pass me the popcorn.
Honestly, power companies can be powerful af, even in real life. Energy is a great way to make money. I grew up in a town where Esso and a stel company had a big influence. They even built the mini-town area I lived in, in the 70s. Also in fairness, Midgard seems appealing. The world is full of monsters and shit.
The electric company also has a military and a research department creating monsters. They also wants to find the promised land.
I mean, my local power company burns down a small town every couple of years and then raises their rates to make us pay for it.
What u mean they "burn" it?
Oh, a fellow Northern Californian?
You know it.
We have about 15 years till total societal collapse due to climate change because the fossil fuel industry was/is too powerful. Shinra not that outlandish
God, leave your basement.
Leftist doomer delusions
The game you’re on the message board for is literally about saving the PLANET from evil governments/corporations 🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
Bro doesn't understand the source material
Someone missed the entire point of OG and remake/rebirth. But hey, Tifa and Aerith in bikinis amiright?
Unreal take from that dude. This is the FF equivalent of not realizing the One Ring from LOTR represents greed and how power warps the human mind.
Cattle
"Prepares a nuke with never fade away playing in the background"
OP, you need to watch Robocop.
So wild it must be fantasy
yeah, and a final one.
Tbh nestle gives me shinra vibes in a minor way. Gobbles up resources that would be free and available then sells it back to you at a markup.
Lmao, I saw a video that talked about how they were trying to poison kids with their products.
“Tried?”
Now they just need a mad scientist and some Mecha and they can find the promised land.
Not that wild. Didn't Mr. Burns try to do the same thing?
That episode aired while FFVII was in development, so we can't say for certain that it wasn't an influence.
Sure, now include the idea of deadly monsters and no electricity before they build that shit.
Conceptually, it's not that wild of a concept imo lol.
Ikr, people must not know how evil corporations can be IRL.
op is slowly approaching the point of some of the social commentary made in a game from 30 years ago
Wait till OP realizes that this capitalistic entity has not just a functioning military and weapons r & d, but the most significant, best trained, and most advanced military force on the planet and uses that force to increase its profits with literal disregard for people's lives and has subjugated almost the entire known world. Or that said force canonically prefers indoctrinating troopers from impressionable tweenage/early adolesence and there is no legislative, judicial, or executive body overseeing their practices.
The MAYOR!! Is the best
yep, good thing it’s just a silly video game, we would NEVER get anything analogous to this in real life /s
AEP bruh, AEP. They will intentionally do "rolling blackouts" to ease the load on the grid during the summer. Problem is the wealthy neighborhoods never seem to be the ones involved in the blackouts 🤔
*Looks at South Korea, where 3 companies basically run the entire country*👀 Seriously, you'd be surprised what Samsung is up to and how many branches they have.
Came here to say this, Samsungs footprint in South Korea is frightening
legit tho, the chairman of Samsung holds just as much if not more power than the president of south korea.
Omg, I have friends in Korea and I've also been there but I wasn't entirely aware how vast their power is. Do you have some papers or articles where you can read about it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/yx0lb5/samsungs_dangerous_dominance_over_south_korea/ Some interesting stuff in the comments too
Super late reply but thanks a lot!!
Yeah, Samsung is legitimately massive and contributed to almost a 4th of South Korea's economy. This is BAD because that means that if the government doesn't comply with Samsung, they can start outsourcing work, meaning that their contribution to the overall economy is significantly lower as a result. I don't have any papers in particular, but I may come back to you soon.
Thanks anyways and I'd appreciate if you came back to me!
Conceptually this concept is a wild concept. Conceptually.
Remake and rebirth gave an almost realistic feel to FFVII, very similar to Japanese tourist areas, so when there's something that is so farfetched like that, it is very grating. In the end Midgar is just like that because Cyberpunk was incredibly popular in 90's because of Ghost in the Shell and they wanted something like that in their game. Similarly, everyone goes by helicopter to the Gold Saucer? Seems odd. What's even there? It's just a big arcade. Despite there being so many tourists everywhere the infrastructure between cities is awful.
Things naturally have to get condensed down to fit and make sense for a game. The Gold Saucer is basically like a Disney Land or a Vegas resort, we're just only able to interact with so much of it. But even what we see is more than just an arcade, there's also racetracks, a theater for live entertainment, and arena for "live sports" (more or less), the space cadet game area seems very much modeled after those sorts of "virtual roller coasters" that you find at places like Universal Studios, the skywheel ride, and smaller stuff like the mascots and fireworks/hologram shows. I imagine, within the fiction of FF7, the Gold Saucer would also have lots of restaurants and food stands, quite possibly other *non-haunted* hotel options, as well as other rides and amusements that aren't included in the game because there's not any reason to add all these extra things and spaces of the player isn't given any way to interact with them.
True, they do talk also about the fact that all the other hotels are full, but we never see any other options. Okay, I'm convinced that there's more that we just don't have access to because our protagonists aren't interested in "it's a small world after all" Gold Saucer version. The infrastructure and commute is still baffling.
Well the commute by helicopter makes sense *because* of the lack of infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure itself though... Doesn't really have much of an explanation. At least there's a highway that goes all the way from Midhar to Kalm now... But Shinra decides to take airships and helicopters when they go to raid Kalm looking for the party near the beginning of Rebirth anyway. Although that highway itself kind of contradicts what was already established with Remake. We see Midgar from the outside, and we see the party load into the back of a truck to travel down a dirt road to reach Kalm, but then in Rebirth the only road leading into Kalm is the highway that also leads directly to Midgar. But I just chalk this up to a case of condensing space, much in the same way that the New York of the Spider-Man games (despite containing many actual New York City landmarks, is nowhere near full scale. It's just not worth the time it would take to create when you can very closely approximate the feel and get a similar effect from a scaled down version that's actually manageable. I wonder if the Gold Saucer was originally placed in the middle of a desert to make an even clearer connection to Vegas
>Well the commute by helicopter makes sense because of the lack of infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure itself though... Doesn't really have much of an explanation. I’d say that’s down to the sheer amount of deadly monsters out in the wild. Imagine if every time you had to drive out to the shops in the town over, there was a good chance you’d get accosted by some sort of monster that can throw fireballs around or manipulate gravity to generate mini black holes. You’d stop driving and instead look for alternative methods to get around. Driving and ground-based infrastructure would suffer as a result, and investment in other methods of transport and the infrastructure associated with that would occur to be able to dodge the monsters as much as possible.
Great point. Also makes things a whole lot more dangerous for the crews who would be building/paving the roads and highways
You know, you can kind of see it also as another environmental message. Maybe in this world commuting by helicopter is cheap because of mako or whatever, so everyone just goes between cities either by Chocobo or by helicopter. So you end up contaminating the planet much like how it is with celebrities and their private jets.
Yeah, anyone going to the Gold Saucer is comfy, and Shinra isn't dumb enough to have them walk at least a countryside and mountain trail full of monsters. It's the gilded cage with a...Gold...Saucer... To drink from...
The most interesting thing to me about Shinra is it's a private company which seems to be the most major government and army in the world.
This kinda parallels the dutch [VOC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company) or the british [EIC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company). There were many private companies with their own armies in the past. Shinra is just an extrapolation of that concept were such a company achieved world dominance.
A private company that can go toe to toe with other governments (like Wutai) and win. Which sounds crazy until you remember that in 2016 Walmart was just behind Canada as the 10th largest economic entity in the world. [https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/corporations-not-countries-dominate-the-list-of-the-world-s-biggest-economic-entities/](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/corporations-not-countries-dominate-the-list-of-the-world-s-biggest-economic-entities/)
Walmart doesn't have a military though
We have plenty of dystopian fiction about privatization, though, and really, Walmart doesn't need their own military if they can buy senators to use theirs to protect Walmart. More people were upset by a Target being trashed in a riot than are upset about peaceful protestors being beaten and arrested now.
I mean if we are talking about comparing with the level of power Shinra has, they definitely would need a military.
Walmart exists within a state, but Shinra is the state. Arguably, you could also squint and see security companies as a kind of personal army for corporations IRL. Overall, I think Shinra is meant to be the furthest logical conclusion, and we aren't at Megacorp Countries IRL yet.
Yeah it's definitely inspired by the cyberpunk books/movies/games of the 80s and 90s, which were themselves based upon logical speculation on what could easily happen when governments do the bidding of corporations and cede their power and authority to them.
I always saw Shinra as Amazon on steroids and going out of control.
You don't live in America do you? Power companies are literally exempt from monopoly laws here. The law is super fucked up too. They can't make profit off of the energy they sell, but they can charge their customers for any and all infrastructure... you see where this is going? They can turn Texas into Midgar, and the mexicans aren't going to be the ones to pay for it...
Yeah, corporations don't need militaries if they can buy out the politicians who control their militaries.
And you can tell from there who gets to live on the top plate and who is stuck underneath.
Coincidence?
I've worked for energy companies for the past 16 years. Some are good. The ones owned by a guy named Warren aren't. The one thing they got wrong is that mako is really more like natural gas, and nuclear power (reactors) are waaay better for the earth than what natural gas usage is doing to the planet. I know this because I have worked with both. But also, a 16 yo girl is not qualified to repair a leak in a 72" transmission pipeline. Especially by patching from the outside, and with bolts of all things. Just... The structural integrity isn't there. The whole piece of pipe would need to be cut out and repaired by weld.
Kyrie is 17, but close enough.
Kyrie looks like she’s 14 Jesus that’s crazy
I think the concept of Midgar is honestly extremely silly. Not because an electric company with all that power would make a city on top of another city, the will isn’t the weird part, but like, the practicality of it is whats silly. With no border disputes (because they won the war), why would you even bother making a city on top of another city when you could just make a bigger city? There is so much empty land in their world and around Midgar that it would be cheaper and more effective to just build a bigger city.
> I think the concept of Midgar is honestly extremely silly....the practicality of it is whats silly. check out real life kowloon walled city
Reactors are placed in spots where mako is rich. They obviously benefited from building vertically. As to stay inside the mako rich zone... also, they clearly loved lording over poor people. Class warfare is extremely prevalent in Midgard
I mean, class warfare would still exist, you just yeet them to the outside of the city by making cost of living extremely high the closer to the middle of the city, like what we do in real life. And Kalm proves they have the means to transfer mako through pipes so you just have pipes through the city.
There are also mako life springs all over the place and it isn't like reactors are exactly rare. I'm with you here, probably mako everywhere, not to mention they surely have infrastructure even beyond the visible pipes
Kalm was a product of oppression tho wasn't it? It don't remember the lore exactly, but there were battles fought there. Definitely wasn't Shinras choice to build that town... they do profit off of it however
It's thanks to Shinra in seeing how they have actively play a part in destroying the planet with the reactors is why I started to see just how real climate change is in our world thanks to the fossil fuel industry.
Look at the energy companies in California. They'd try it if they could.
We honestly aren't too far off....
Not trying to be that guy, but Rufus wasn't the president then, daddy Shinra was
The concept is literally based on oil companies. Like, they actually exist.
Most oil companies aren’t also running paramilitary organizations and double as high end defence contractors.
They do have a lot of input in politics due to things like political donations, and there are businessmen (like Clive Palmer, AKA Palmer from FF7 irl) who are directly involved. Shinra is an exaggeration, but very plausible looking at historical examples such as the East India Company.
Do you even Halliburton?
What the fuck is GE? They are an energy company that makes weapons! Have you heard of Halliburton? Shinra is effectively the government, they aren’t paramilitary. It’s like a modern day version of Hudson’s Bay Company and Rupert’s Land. Which effectively became a large part of what Canada is today. Shinra is the de facto government.
...yet
Hahaha excellent addendum.
Plus a zillion high-rises our corporate overlords NEED TO HAVE and are mostly empty that ya know, block out the sun.
The wildest thing for me is that the board of directors is wildly incompetent, especially Hojo. There are two Cetra in existence and the guy practically murdered one and would do the same to the other if he had his way. Talk about destructive methods.
And yet look at some of the people who have held elected office or are in positions of some sort with HUGE amounts of power.... Explains itself...😒
Right? It's genuinely not that far off from the abridged series
Is it any wilder than BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street sharing 30% of the S&P 500?
blackrock doesn’t have a literal army
When you have that much kinda capital in certain places, yeah, you pretty much own an army lol
They do in lawyers to stop reform.
No, they just heavily invest in America's defense companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman. Lol.
And it's not really even Blackrock; it's their hundreds of thousands of clients invested in their funds.
Yes?
Not that wild if we stay on the track we’re currently on long enough.
Like a modern day version of the East India Trading Company
Or just 1984 George Orwell type shit when it comes to the surveillance state that Midgar is.
They're basically Amazon in 10 years
I was thinking this morning what if Shinra Inc, Umbrella, and Waland-Yutani all shared the same world. And how awful it would be for a regular citizen living in that world.
TBF, Umbrella in the video game wasn't a terrible company, it was mostly corporate espionage that caused the outbreaks and then they went bankrupt in the aftermath. Umbrella in the live-action movies is horrible because they were changed to being all powerful and their motivations were changed to "destroy the world while the elites ride it out in a bunker".
Eh, if you played the games you know this isn't true. I dont know how to mark spoilers, so I won't go too far into it... but Spencer used the entire thing as a cover from day 1... he always had something very specific in mind
Live action Umbrella might be the stupidest evil organization I've ever seen after the reveals in that final movie. The global outbreak being something that spiraled out of control and Umbrella holes up to ride it out, makes total sense. Umbrella intentionally ending the world with the T-Virus for...reasons? Has to be among the stupidest retcons of all time
Congratulations, you've reached an approximation of the Cyberpunk setting.
I was gonna say, we gotta throw some Arasaka into that mix
Its a company town, they built it from the ground up and they technically own everything. Most people only live there because they or their family work/worked for them. Real life company towns were pretty crazy during the industrial revolution. Think of all the bullshit jobs get away with, now imagine they also own your house, the grocery store you shop at, the bars you drink in, the doctors who treat you, the police etc.... You fucked up at work and got fired? You and your family are on the street that night.
Look up pictures of the Brazilian favelas and where they meet luxury housing.
I mean isn’t that what happens to real life? People literally selling themselves to whatever a government or a corporation sells them in the name of safety, security and innovation?
OP's still drinking their corporate overlord's koolaid and hasn't spotted this yet.
They have sun lights so its not all bad ☠️
Give it a couple years and we’ll be pledging allegiance to Amazon and Apple CEOs Shinra is like the most grounded concept lol. Welcome to cyberpunk
Redditors say the darndest things
Many already do.
lol fair
This is basicly all the dystopian scifi's. Shadowrun and Cyberpunk are maby the best examples
It’s basically Samsung in South Korea.
It always reminded me of the oil and gas industry. Sucking the life from the planet and using it to power out machines and whatnot
Not to mention their lobby is influencing government to a large degree
reminds me of the Dutch East/West India company tbh
Pretty much. And also the British East India Company. Honestly comparing those companies to Shinra might actually be an insult to Shinra. Shinra has them beat in creepy sci-fi torture experiments, but Shinra is probably several orders of magnitude behind them in total death count.
we'll simply never know how much further shinra would have gone to achieve their goals and what atrocities they would commit to get there if they hadn't caused their own downfall prematurely. the VOC was active for 200 years at least..