Kefka's place in the Empire *Spoilerisms*

I know that Celes and Leo are Imperial Generals, under direct command from Gestahl himself. But what about Kefka? Is Kefka even an officer? Is he even a soldier? He doesn't seem like it. He seems to be some kind of diplomat. Like an ambassador, or maybe like, an advisor to the Emperor or something. He is sent to Figaro to ask about Terra, and is not expected to enter combat. He is escorted by soldiers who seem to be in his charge, but he doesn't ever fight. He becomes violent later in the game, but as long as he is loyal to the Empire, his place seems clouded. The scene at the Imperial Camp outside Doma indicates that Kefka is subordinate to Leo, even though he defies Leo's orders. But Kefka does lead a group of soldiers into Narshe to catch Terra when you arrive there with Bannon. Or was Kefka there to investigate the Esper? Maybe Gestahl sent his ambassor/advisor to investigate the frozen Esper, sent a few Magitek dudes to escort him, and they just happened to run into the whole crew on the way up the mountain. He's obviously very learned in the ways of magic, probably more so than Leo or Celes.

Another interesting thing is this. Gestahl says that Kefka and Celes were given life to serve him. I can buy that. They were both given the gift of magic at a young age. And when you encounter Kefka, you know he's this jerk off and you just wanna kill him. But to Celes, he's probably almost like a brother. They probably have known each other their whole lives. They probably didn't get along very much, but they've both been raised in the Empire, probably alongside one another, sharing the same education and training, until Celes went the path of a Soldier while Kefka became an advisor/diplomat (assuming that's the case).

And Edgar and Kefka had a long relationship before the game started too. He was aware that it was probably Kefka who was coming to see him. Which leads me to believe that Kefka was Gestahl's ambassador to Figaro.

So yeah, there's that.

Actually was a general as well. Probably a fairly normal lad until the magitek infusion which turned him crazy.

Also, Kefka a diplomat?? Please don't tell me you're serious. The words "Kefka", and "Diplomat" should never be mentioned in the same sentence without inserting the words "is not a" between them.

He is the hand and the ear of the Emperor, doing any "offical" scouting missions and respresentation of the Emperor. Kefka is not in any way a suboordinate, but since Leo is a General, his authroity in actions on the field of battle overrule Kefka's orders, until Leo leaves, which puts Kefka in charge. The men respect Leo more than Kefka, and they follow Leo's orders, as the order of the Emperor. Also, Kefka is genocidal. The soldiers are not.

Celes and Kefka are very different ages. Kefka came first, and Celes came many years after the initial test. I find it very unlikely that Celes ever formed a bond with Kefka, especially as to her demeanor towards Locke at the beginning of the game, which is cold, unresponsive, and cynical. If this were her first reaction to Kefka, then I would highly doubt she could ever have become friend with the clown.

You are correct about the ambassador part, but that is often the case, as Kefka is the only person who represents Gestahl outside of battle. Edgar would not have been surprised, and they probably met each other before, but not in any unoffical capacity.

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Originally Posted by valentine

Actually was a general as well. Probably a fairly normal lad until the magitek infusion which turned him crazy.

Also, Kefka a diplomat?? Please don't tell me you're serious. The words "Kefka", and "Diplomat" should never be mentioned in the same sentence without inserting the words "is not a" between them.

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I didn't mean that Kefka is a diplomatic kind of guy. I mean that he is sent out as a diplomat/ambassador for Gestahl.

I don't think he was a general. He's never called "General Kefka". You hear "General Leo" all the time, and you hear of Celes being an imperial general. But Kefka isn't ever called a general or a military officer of any sort which leads me to believe that he functions as ambassador or an advisor, of sorts.

Kefka is a general, he's one of the Emperor's four generals. (Which decrease over time xD) Tina, Leo, Celes, and Kefka. Although like Tavrobel said, he doesn't do anything fighting-wise until later in the game, he does ambassador-like jobs for the emperor from what we see most of the time. :cat:

Also, if you think about it, Kefka never demonstrates much fighting aptitude until after the three statues are discovered. They say in the game that Kefka's mind snapped one day and hasn't been right since. It could be that the Emperor didn't want him to learn anything battle related because of his unbalanced state in hopes to keep in under control.

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Originally Posted by Flying Mullet

Also, if you think about it, Kefka never demonstrates much fighting aptitude until after the three statues are discovered. They say in the game that Kefka's mind snapped one day and hasn't been right since. It could be that the Emperor didn't want him to learn anything battle related because of his unbalanced state in hopes to keep in under control.

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Actually he shows his fighting skill before that in that one town you get Strago. He attacks and fights off the espers and kills leo.

kefka is also a little weiner who can't fight that well

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Originally Posted by Zeromus_X

Kefka is a general, he's one of the Emperor's four generals. (Which decrease over time xD) Tina, Leo, Celes, and Kefka.

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Tina was never a general in any way. She didnt have the mental capacity while under the control of the slave crown, and was ordered around by Biggs and Wedge after that. Considering that she had to have the crown put on in the first place, it's doubtful that she was ever a loyal general.

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Originally Posted by corncracker

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Originally Posted by Flying Mullet

Also, if you think about it, Kefka never demonstrates much fighting aptitude until after the three statues are discovered. They say in the game that Kefka's mind snapped one day and hasn't been right since. It could be that the Emperor didn't want him to learn anything battle related because of his unbalanced state in hopes to keep in under control.

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Actually he shows his fighting skill before that in that one town you get Strago. He attacks and fights off the espers and kills leo.

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I almost mentioned this but I wanted to see if anyone brought it up. ;)

Yeah, he captured the espers, but he just used techniques he learned while extracting magic from espers, not real fighting techniques. As for Leo, yeah, he kinda battled, but more realistically he made an image of the Emperor and stabbed Leo in the back. Either that or you could argue that Kefka is slipping out of the Emperor's grasp at this point with the taste of power he's getting from the espers he's capturing.

True, but I'd assume since he underwent the magitech experiments himself he probably had some power already and a bit of experience, so I'd think he was pretty tough to begin with. And sneaky underhanded tactics like the leo fight still count as skill.

When you fight Kefka you see that his strength is fairly lacking in the physical attack department. He's pretty reliant upon his magical ability to see him through.

I'd say he was something akin to the emperor's voice, he went out and told people what to do in place of the emperor. An ambassador/diplomat role, in other words.

He may have simply been the first to volunteer for the experiments in order to gain power or recognition. There's really no telling what he was doing beforehand. He could have simply been a citizen of Vector, or maybe a high ranking official. We just cant know.

I, personally, would think he was a random, patriotic volunteer, possibly a low ranking soldier. Mainly because I dont see the Empire wanting to risk one of their important people on a process that could easily backfire (and did). I see Kefka as having risen to favor with the Emporer after this, not before.

But again, that's all just speculation.

And I fully agree with all the assumptions of ambassador.

@Abominatrix: Well, yeah, I guess that's true. I just always thought of her as one of the Emperor's people because she was standing with the other generals at that near the beginning scene when he does his speech in her flashback. But now that I think about it, yeah, that definitely makes sense. :cat:

I agree with Void. I always thought of him as some sort of mouthpiece. He could walk around with some authority, and he obviously had control over the soldiers ("There's SAND on my boots!"), but I never thought of him having an official rank.

Now that I think about it, he WAS probably just a civillian that underwent the Magitek experiment. Once he turned crazy, Gestahl probably wanted to keep him close. You wouldn't want a dangerous maniac running around in your empire, would you?

I believe Tina was there as a representation of power, especially considering the speech. She was their key to massive power, even moreso than the Magitek Knights.

As far as Ghestahl not wanting a maniac running around, he just could have had him killed. I think it was more likely that he saw a maniac as useful, one he could use and one who was dedicated to the Empire and the quest for power. I think a lot of people in the Empire would've balked at some of the worse things the Emporer wanted them to do, but Kefka not only did them, he did them with pleasure.

I thought they did refer to him as General Kefka once.

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Originally Posted by Neel with a Spicy Buffalo Chicken Melt

I thought they did refer to him as General Kefka once.

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So did I, and lets not forget he led the attack against Narshe.

Kefka was NOT a general. Ever. He was some kind of lower-ranking officer. So he had command over soldiers but Leo had command over him. As such, he was in charge of dispatches, so yes, he served as a kind of ambassador to Figaro. He obviously has been there many times before, because the one who welcomes him in Figaro says: "Sir Kefka! Today what in the world...."
Immediately after that, Edgar calls him "Magitek　warrior (魔導士 madoushi , in the original. I'm not sure how this could be translated so I'll go along with Woosley.) at the service of Emperor Gastra", which means that probably his role involved being under Gastra's direct command.

When you sneak into the Empire camp with Shadow and Mash/Sabin pretty early in the game, you overhear two soldiers saying that Kefka is planning to have Leo slain and to become general in his place. So you get to know for sure that he was not a general; as far as we know only Celes and Leo were called as that (shougun). Kefka never becomes a General because when he finally kills Leo he immediately goes on to being a demigod thanks to the power of the Three Warrior Gods, and destroys the world right away.

Finally, Kefka and Celes are both madoushi, Magitek warriors, infused with the power of Magic at an early age. The difference is that Kefca was infused before Celes and the technique wasn't perfected yet, so something snapped inside his mind. Cid himself explains you this when you meet him at the banquet in Vector.
On the Floating Continent, Gastra tells Celes: "Come here. You alone are special. I'll give Kefka and you the mission of spawning a new breed in order to create Gastra's Magitek Empire!" So you understand they were exactly the same kind of being.
Yes, Celes did know Kefka from before the game. In the slave circlet flashback scene, we can see Celes, Tina and Cid next to Gastra being acclaimed by the soldiers. However, we are never told how they were going along before the game. Probably not well at all, since Celes, when the soldiers torture her right before you save her, says something about the wrong methods of the Empire, methids that we know Kefka fully approves of.

P.S. Sorry if this contains mistakes, I did not have the time to revise it.

Edit: All of this is taken from the Japanese script. Not Woosley's.

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So did I, and lets not forget he led the attack against Narshe.

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On the contrary, a soldier does once say "If he becomes a general, I'm going home", which indicates that he is not a general.

And I don't know that the move against Narshe was an attack. It was more of an investigation and an attempt to retrieve the esper there. You'd send more people if it was an actual invasion/attack. You wouldn't send Kefka and a handful of troops. Look at the preparation they went to before attacking Doma. They set up a huge base outside the castle, planned for a while, and then attacked.

I'm pretty sure they were in the middle of a siege at Doma. They didnt wait it out because they could, they did so because they had to, possibly even after failed attempts to take the castle. Doma has a very easily defended castle, and taking it would be no small task.

And though the events at Narshe were not an attack on the town, they were clearly going in with the expectation of battle.