I find it funny how Kefka is called a 'brainless' villain. Ehm... Care to name me more than 2 FF villains who weren't mad in the end? Zemus? Mad. Exdeath? Mad. Kefka? Mad. Sephiroth? Insane and mad. Ultimecia? Mad and insane and evil. Kuja? After hearing he's gonna die he goes mad. Garland? Random. Emperor? Backgroundless and evil for the sake of being evil.
The only not-mad villain of the first 9 games that comes to my mind is Xande. That guy wasn't mad, just a bit very displeased by his gift from Noah and decided to do something about it.
Haha... Brainless villains in FF... Like FF has anything else than brainless, mad and insane villains. Now recently with Vayne, however... And I don't know about FF X. But I heard Seymore or what's-his-name wasn't all that sane either.
And about FF V's story, I will always disagree that it had a weak story. And there's nothing wrong with a villain named Exdeath (his official name now, with FFVA), cause he's one of the few villains to actually obtain something. (Like Kefka, he too got his uberpower and terrorized mankind with it like Kefka. Or should I say, Kefka terrorized mankind like Exdeath did? ) V's stroy was an improvement over IV's in certain aspects. Just like FF III's story V's story doesn't always get (actually, never) the credit it deserves. But okay, let's go back on-topic.