Best Final Fantasy Character Tournament

Alright, here is EoFF's Best Character Tournamnet. It's not a question of strength or even favorite, but the most original, deep, and emotionally powerful characters in the series.

The game is simple. Each round I will have a day-long poll of several characters in which people vote for the characters the think is the best. Not strongest, not most badass, but best a character. You can vote once per match-up. After we go through all the characters, the two highest rated per match-up are randomly thrown in one-on-one matches from then on. (Or one-on-one-on-one if need be.) We eliminate all the characters until we reach one, got it?

Rules
1. Support each vote with reasoning for why that charactr is better. Try to be unbiased and avoid voting for "hot" or "badass" purely out of those prospects. An unlikable character can still be effective!
2. The characters will include playable characters and major villains only. No spin-offs included.
3. You can only vote once per match-up. If you attempt to vote again, you will be banned for the rest of the round. Severe infractions will ban you from the tournament outright.
4. Characters are only from FFIV and up, sans XI and XIV.

The Match-Ups (Determined Randomly)

Group A
Fran (XII)
Rydia (IV)
Cid (VII)
Shadow (VI)

Group B
Quitsis (VIII)
Sazh (XIII)
Bartz (V)
Quina (IX)

Group C
Tidus (X)
Porom (IV)
Kuja (IX)
Setzer (VI)

Group D
Lulu (X)
Vanille (XIII)
Sabin (VI)
FuSoYa (IV)

Group E
Ex-Death (V)
Zidane (IX)
Locke (VI)
Kain (IV)

Group F
Balthier (XII)
Mog (VI)
Selphie (VIII)
Yuffie (VII)

Group G
Vivi (IX)
Terra (VI)
Penelo (XII)
Vincent (VII)

Group H
Tifa (VII)
Cecil (IV)
Gau (VI)
Snow (XIII)

Group I
Sephiroth (VII)
Edge (IV)
Strago (VI)
Rikku (X)

Group J
Edgar (VI)
Garnet (IX)
Auron (X)
Basch (XII)

Group K
Relm (VI)
Lightning (XIII)
Zell (VIII)
Seymour (X)


Group L
Cid (IV)
Cloud (VII)
Eiko (IX)
Galuf (V)

Group M
Kefka (VI)
Hope (XIII)
Yuna (X)
Barret (VII)

Group N
Fang (XIII)
Rinoa (VIII)
Vayne (XII)
Golbez (V)

Group O
Faris (V)
Wakka (X)
Vaan (XII)
Squall (VIII)

Group P
Celes (VI)
Yang (X)
Irvine (VIII)
Aerith (VII)

Group Q
Palom (IV)
Red XIII (VII)
Freya (IX)
Kimahri (X)

Group R
Ashe (XII)
Seifer (VIII)
Steiner (IX)
Reina (V)

Group S
Cyan (VI)
Rosa (IV)
Amarant (IX)
Krile (V)

Alright, let's get this thing started!

Group A
Fran (XII)
Rydia (IV)
Cid (VII)
Shadow (VI)

Get to voting!

Group A

Cid from VII.

I chose Cid because I felt some emotional ties with him through the writing. Rydia probably has had a longer and more interesting journey, but presented through the game more was presented with Cid. His tale of a space engineer who has just completed the building of the spacecraft and his hopes of being among the first men in space is beautiful in presentation. It was a dream of his to see space, but another scientist on board prevented him from seeing that dream, at least at that point of time.

She was making maintenance checks on the lower end near the engines I believe it was while the countdown was going on. He warned to get out because all the checks have already been made and that she would be fried if she stayed, but she replied that she didn't mind.

Cid had to make a choice to take a person's life with the cost of his dream or to save a woman's life and give up his dream. His decision is what made him great.

Group A
Rydia (IV)

Group B
Quistis (VIII)

Group C
Tidus (X)

Group D
Lulu (X)

Group E
Locke (VI)

Group F
Selphie (VIII)

Group G
Penelo (XII)

Group H
Tifa (VII)

Group I
Sephiroth (VII)

Group J
Auron (X)

Group K
Zell (VIII)

Group L
Galuf (V)

Group M
Kefka (VI)

Group N
Rinoa (VIII)

Group O
Squall (VIII)

Group P
Aerith (VII)

Group Q
Red XIII (VII)

Group R
Seifer (VIII)

Group S
Amarant (IX)

I'm going to base my votes on which character from each bracket made their respective games the most enjoyable. No matter how much back story they add to a character the games ultimate goal if for me to enjoy it, so I consider whichever character furthers that the most to be the best. (Though I will try to avoid characters I liked for superficial reasons)


Group A
Cid (VII)
Aside from being really bad ass :D I found him to be a surprisingly deep character underneath the rather shallow personality he tried to put forward.

Group B
Sazh (XIII)
I found Sazh to be amusing, but I don't appreciate him nearly as much as others seem to. Over all I chalk this up to a weak bracket.

Group C
Kuja (IX)
Once again the only character in this bracket who I felt was interesting. Tidus got a lot of screen time but I hated ever minute of it, so I can't say I was interested.

Group D
Sabin (VI)
This is turning into which of these four isn't the weakest character.

Group E
Zidane (IX)
Finally b bracket I actually have to pick for. Though not my favorite, I would say he is the most interesting of the bunch. He actually acts like a real person might, with different and unexpected reactions to different circumstances, instead of completely predictable actions.

Group F
Balthier (XII)
Though I found him interesting to watch on screen Balthier seemed very poorly developed. However, he isn't going up against much here, or in FF12 for that matter.

Group G
Terra (VI)
Battle of the characters with child like innocence. The deciding factor is eventely Vivi's personal insecurities began to wear on me, whereas Terra's didn't for some reason.

Group H
Cecil (IV)
I think Cecil's character change is completely over rated, it wasn't so much a change as an on-off switch. However, he is stacked up against Snow and Tifa, both of who just make no sense to me.

Group I
Sephiroth (VII)
Once again, not much competition. I do like Sephiroth quite a bit as a villain, provided we are going with the original FF7 interpretation of him being manipulated by Jenova. The Ultimania version of him being the bad ass mastermind fanboy's wet dream diminishes him quite a bit in my mind, imo.

Group J
If I voted to would be via a four sided coin.

Group K
Lightning (XIII)
Though I though Lightning was supper cool as a character she doesn't offer much. However, there was no one else in this bracket I would have voted for anyways.

Group L
Cloud (VII)
I don't think I need to explain this.

Group M
Kefka (VI)
It's not often a game creates a villain that I am super excited to see come on stage.

Group N
Golbez (V)
Because I refuse to vote for anyone else in this bracket.

Group O
Faris (V)
See Group N

Group P
Celes (VI)
This is taking too long

Group Q
Freya (IX)

Group R
Ashe (XII)

Group S
Cyan (VI)

Group A
Rydia (IV)


Group B
Bartz (V)


Group C
Setzer (VI)

Group D
Sabin (VI)


Group E
Kain (IV)

Group F
Mog (VI)


Group G
Terra (VI)


Group H
Cecil (IV)


Group I
Sephiroth (VII)

Group J
Basch (XII)

Group K
Lightning (XIII)



Group L
Cloud (VII)

Group M
Kefka (VI)

Group N
Golbez (V)

Group O
Squall (VIII)

Group P
Celes (VI)

Group Q
Kimahri (X)

Group R
Ashe (XII)


Group S
Rosa (IV)

I love how no one can read directions. :roll2

Group A.

This is pretty tough cause its between Shadow and Cid. I'll give it to Shadow cause he was anything but a conventional character. He began the whole trope of "mysterious badass" but more importantly is that he was an interesting character who would abandoned you when you needed him most, and the player had to do some interesting things to get his full backstory. Not to mention he's probably one of the most loved optional characters seeing as he can actually be killed in the story. I'll let other bore you with his actual characterization but personally he's just the most unique cause of the way he works in the game mechanically. In terms of story, I feel Cid and Shadow are about even for me so I had to go by something else to determine this.

I'll pick Shadow, for similar reasons to WK. His backstory is really amazing. And his sacrifice just tops it off.

If I post before WK next group I might be able to write more than that :monster:

EDIT: I'll make up for my lack of post with extra.

I think Fran could have been a really good character, but it just ended up being lackluster. For me, she only rode on Balthier's coattails, when her status as a Viera ((SPOILER)and an outcast one iirc) should have contributed to so much more. But then, that whole game really suffered from underdeveloped characters.

Cid had some nice stuff going on there, but whenever I think of him, I always think of sitting down and drinking the goddamn tea. His dreams of space flight and love-hate with Shera usually takes a while to follow. Which, really, just means it didn't have as much impact/my memory is on the fritz. Either way :monster:

I haven't played enough of IV to really judge Rydia. Losing her village and family is pretty balls, and to work with the guys who did it takes guts, but I have no idea what her deal is, especially as an adult. This will happen for a wide array of characters throughout the series, probably.

Alright , we have a three-way tie for Shadow, Rydia, and Cid. This kind of sucks, so everyone send in your votes! :O