The Most Tragic Villain

[Wolf Kanno]

FF villains range in origin, but nothing makes a baddie more memorable than the tragic circumstances that lead to their start of darkness. So which villains would you consider to be tragic?

[Karifean]

None of the mainline villains really come to mind. My reading of her makes me want to say Ultimecia, but as a character she doesn't get the spotlight of FF VIII enough to really inspire much sympathy. Zemus, Exdeath, Kefka, Sephiroth, Kuja, Vayne, all not villains I'd call tragic.

I guess much as neither of the two are actually effective villains, Yu Yevon and Seymour come the closest. Yevon and the fayth I doubt grasped the full implications of their plan when they enacted it, they just wanted to save the home they loved, but when the full price for that wish became clear I'm sure they wanted out. And Seymour is an utterly broken man basically wanting to force all of Spira into a mass group suicide, and his arc could've been actually effective if he wasn't resignated to being "that asshole that keeps getting in the way of the party" and actually challenged the party's worldviews in some way. Fucking hell.

Really, just from what I heard, Delita sounds like way more of a tragic 'villain' than any of these.

Almost forgot about Caius Ballad. I guess he's near the level of Seymour, i.e. not really much of an effective villain, but he does have an element of tragedy to him.

[WarZidane]

Being a tree's pretty tragic.

But serious answer, FF15's villain. Ardyn was just completely screwed over by people he trusted and saved.

[Lord Golbez]

Kuja's pretty tragic, given his origin. Not really my favorite though. I'll agree that Delita fits the mold of the tragic hero best, though I generally don't consider spinoffs when these questions arise.

Being a tree is pathetic, not tragic. Both in the classical and modern sense of the terms. :p

[maybee]

Kuja because he sort of "wakes up " and realizes how toxic and cruel he was being, but it was far too late...

[Fynn]

Delita...?

[Wolf Kanno]

I'd say Xande, Delita, Shadowlord, and Ardyn come the closest. Caius as well but I still have issues with his character, he comes across as too much of a Bleach Villain for my taste in the powers department.

[Jessweeee♪]

Jecht. I mean, he basically should have been Randy Marsh in that episode where he fights other dads at little league. Just chillin' for the rest of his days, getting wasted at tailgate parties, being a walking Jimmy Buffet song. But he got roped into fighting a huge whale and then he became the huge whale and was all "fuck, kid get over here and kill me already I don't want to be a whale anymore please just kill me."