Final Fantasy VII Characters

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Barret Wallace

Vital Statistics

Age	35
Height	197cm
Occupation	Leader of AVALANCHE
Weapon	Gun-Arm
Birthdate	15 December
Hometown	Corel Village

Biography

Barret is the tough and temperamental leader of AVALANCHE, a rebel group devoted to the fall of the Shinra Corporation. His most distinctive feature is the prosthetic "Gun-Arm" which replaces his right hand and acts as his primary weapon.

Barret lost his wife Myrna when Shinra destroyed North Corel, and he maintains a thirst for revenge that borders on the obsessive. His hatred of the corporation is surpassed only by his love for his adopted daughter Marlene, the daughter of an old friend. He often regrets that his work with AVALANCHE keeps him from spending enough time with her.

Aided in his quest by three commoners, Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie, as well as Tifa, the proprietor of the 7th Heaven bar, Barret decides to strike at Shinra's prized mako reactors - the lifeblood of the corporation. Towards that end, he enlists the help of a mysterious SOLDIER-turned-mercenary named Cloud Strife...

Additional Information

Barret's hatred of Shinra is very much a product of the loss of his wife, but it goes even deeper than that. In years past, he was a diligent coal miner in North Corel, living a simple life alongside his best friend Dyne. With the advent of mako technology, coal was becoming a thing of the past, and the people suffered as a result.

Seizing the opportunity, Shinra contacted the village leaders and proposed the construction of a mako reactor in the area, which would bolster the economy considerably and propel the dusty backwater town into a more modern age. Though some people - including Dyne - had their misgivings about Shinra's intentions, it was eventually agreed that the reactor would be more of a blessing than a curse. It was built in short order, and from that time on it seemed that things were looking up for North Corel. Barret, who had been an advocate of the reactor, settled himself into a new and happier life.

But it was not to be. An accident caused an explosion at the reactor, and an anxious Shinra was quick to blame it on a terrorist attack. Using the inhabitants of North Corel as a scapegoat, Shinra executives ordered the town destroyed and its inhabitants murdered as punishment for their supposed negligence. The village was razed to the ground while Barret and Dyne were away, and when they returned they could only watch in horror as the flames consumed everything that they held dear - including Barret's beloved wife, Myrna.

Suddenly, the two friends were attacked by Shinra's soldiers, knocking Dyne off of a steep cliff. Barret barely managed to save his friend by a timely grasp of the hand, but the soldiers opened fire on both of them, mutilating his arm and forcing him to let go. His friend plummeted into the ravine towards certain death.

Somehow, Barret managed to escape, having lost his family, his best friend, and the use of his own right arm. He later returned to the devastated remains of North Corel, angry and confused at the suffering that his good intentions had wrought. In the depths of his despair, he discovered a spark of life amidst all of the destruction - that of Marlene, Dyne's daughter, who had miraculously survived the attack. He took her in as his own child, resolving to raise her as Dyne could not.

Beyond his newfound love for Marlene, there was only one constant in his life now: his hatred for Shinra. He was spurned and abandoned by the survivors of the incident, who blamed him for the tragedy. Thus rejected, he moved with Marlene to the city of Midgar, where he formed AVALANCHE as a tool for the revenge he so desired.

Some time later, the party returns to North Corel, now in worse shape than ever before. They soon discover that Barret is indeed the object of intense hatred; the villagers have not forgotten what they perceive as his ultimate betrayal. Only when Barret saves Corel from a runaway train do they manage to forgive him for his wrongdoings.

Eventually, Barret is also reunited with his old friend Dyne, who is in fact alive after all these years. However, it is not a happy meeting. Dyne's sanity never fully recovered from the destruction of North Corel, and now he believes that he exists only to destroy everything. Interestingly, Dyne has also grafted a Gun-arm onto the arm that he lost, making him a formidable fighter. After a fateful duel between the two former friends, the badly wounded Dyne offers Barret a pendant to give to Marlene as a keepsake of Eleanor, her real mother. Thus satisfied, he kills himself, leaping once more to the death that Barret thought he had died so long ago.

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