MANIPULATIVE, CALCULATING: as mentioned above, tseng is a strong strategist, and with that ability to strategize comes an ability to manipulate situations for the outcome he wants. there's one particular cutscene in remake that i think demonstrates this well, and that's the cutscene in the turk lounge just after the sector 7 plate is dropped. first, a note on the timing here: platefall takes place something like 3-4 days after the turks are saved from execution by a rufus shinra hail mary, so tseng is operating in a very narrow margin between "loyalty to rufus & the turks" and "what he has to do to keep the shinra execs happy and keep his people alive." he's told to drop the plate, so he drops the plate, but afterward we have this cutscene of rude and reno stewing in guilt and self-doubt while tseng puts his head down and oes paperwork. when the tension in the room finally boils over, and rude and reno begin to question what it is they've done, tseng puts his pen down and starts to offer increasingly absurd excuses for the mass murder they've just committed. none of these excuses hold any water, and tseng knows that, but what they do achieve is taking the turks' guilt and turning it into anger at tseng instead. he assesses the situation, identifies the problem, and then fairly straightforwardly manipulates his people to reach the result he wants. RUTHLESS: whatever the situation calls for, tseng will do what must be done. take, for example, the scene in the sewers in before crisis. in this scene, tseng has made a deal with rufus for the location of verdot, who is being held by scarlet in a secret facility until he can be executed on trumped-up charges. he and the turks have found verdot and his daughter, elfe, but are outnumbered and outgunned by shinra troops sent to track them down. the only path that's available to tseng is this: shoot verdot and elfe, and shinra will consider not executing the turks for their insubordination. so what does tseng do? he points his gun at verdot and elfe and he shoots them both dead, one after another. he doesn't hesitate; he executes them both, because the choice is either to kill them and save the turks, or to refuse and kill them all. even though tseng was in possession of a full cure materia at the time, which would allow him to revive verdot and elfe to full health, i think the fact that he didn't so much as blink before shooting them each through the head demonstrates that he's able and willing to do brutal things if that's what the situation calls for.
LOYAL: one thing about tseng is that he is absolutely loyal. his trust has to be earned, and that isn't always an easy process, but once someone has given him a reason, tseng will never waver. when the turks are on the hunt for verdot and his daughter, who are being held by scarlet as mentioned above, they know that verdot is being held but they don't know where. but rufus does know where, which makes it an easy thing for rufus and tseng to cut a deal: verdot's location in exchange for terms that rufus will only discuss in secret with tseng. it's not known exactly what the terms of that deal were, because it happens offscreen, but the outcome is clear: from that moment forward tseng and the turks are loyal to rufus shinra, and rufus shinra only. this isn't a decision made blindly—tseng took a look at the situation, discussed with rufus, and came out of that discussion feeling that he could dedicate himself and his subordinates entirely to rufus' protection. this is actually quite a slick move, too, because it allows tseng to align several of his priorities at once—he can remain loyal to shinra, but also protect his people, which is something he's always struggled with balancing against his need to complete missions as assigned. (see below for more on that.) IDEALISTIC: as a rookie, tseng was actually quite idealistic about his role as a turk. in his early days as a member of administrative research under verdot's guidance, he had a pretty rosy view of the job and at least once proclaimed that he thought there was nothing in the world with more value than a human life. he struggled to balance the demands of the mission with his desire not to let anyone be hurt or killed, and would sometimes put his missions in jeopardy by trying to rescue everyone even when it wasn't possible to save them all. after a mission that failed because tseng prioritized saving verdot's life over actually completing the mission, verdot gave tseng a thorough dressing-down. verdot ultimately had to teach him that to a turk, the mission must come first every time, no matter the human cost. this was a difficult lesson for tseng to learn, and he had a hard time reconciling it for a number of years to come. SENTIMENTAL: even after tseng has learned the brutal lesson that the mission must always take priority, he still finds it a little difficult to fully accept. there are parts of him that remain sentimental despite his best efforts to kill them, and i think this comes across most clearly in his relationships with zack and aerith. tseng and zack are friends, which makes it complicated for tseng when he's given the order to take zack and cloud to nibelheim for experimentation by hojo; he doesn't like the order, but he executes it anyway, because his loyalty is to shinra and he's by now learned the lesson that the mission must always come first. however, the sentimental part of him still exists, which means that when zack asks tseng to take care of aerith in his absence, tseng does that the only way he knows how: by collecting all 88 of the letters that aerith gives him for zack and keeping them safe until such a time as they can be delivered. of course, they never do end up being delivered.
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