What if Kefka never betrayed Gestahl?

[Wolf Kanno]

Before time and the internet made this plot twist well known, most gamers felt that the final battle in FFVI was going to be against the Emperor instead of his upstart subordinate. So let's say for the sake of argument that the writers decided this was true and instead of betraying and taking over, Kefka just sat their like a good boy and served Gestahl for the rest of the game as his number 1. What do you think the second half of the game would look like and do you feel it would improve the game or make it worse?

[Sephiroth]

Kefka had so much screen time he never felt to be less important than Gestahl and him not being the main villain as in "also final boss" would have been a bad surprise for me.

[Jiro]

I think Gestahl would've been more proactive in trying to stop the remnants of the Returners. Kefka was content to sit around thinking he was invincible; Gestahl was craftier, he would track them down. This could add a sense of time-challenge: rescue your party members before the Empire gets to them first. Or perhaps it could limit who you could save: some of them get captured or killed.

Of course, depending on whether or not they moved the statues (I think that was the intent all along?), the world might not be ruined.

[Slothy]

Gestahl didn't seem to notice things like Kefka standing between the statues to avoid magic attacks and didn't seem like he was going to move the statues out of alignment, so I honestly think that if Kefka hadn't done anything then the party would have either killed them both and ended it there, or they would have been killed by Gestahl and Kefka's superior magical abilities and the rest of the group would have been hunted down and slaughtered if they weren't all killed on the airship.

Either way, I'm not sure there's be much of a second half of the game. Which makes sense since the floating continent did feel like a bit of a climax in its own right.

[NeoCracker]

Firstly, Alter the design of the Floating Continent dungeon to do a group dungeon Crawl like the games actual Final Dungeon. One group fights Atma Weapon, one Group takes down Kefka, and one Ghestal.

Ghestal, managing to retreat, in an act of Desperation disrupts the statues, refusing to let go of his ambitions.

Que escape from the floating Continent and the world of Ruin.

As apposed to Kefka's almost flippant and destructive view, Ghestal goes full on Tyrant with his new magical power. So it would be kind of like Fallouts Enclave, but magic.

The Returners are still broken up, and during the second half of the game you will still be searching them out, though various characters will likely still be actively apposing Ghestal's regime, so many of the WoR stories would be altered. (Some would remain unchanged, such as Setzer, Celes, and Edgar).