Kefka

[Tonberry_King]

I know people say Sephiroth is the most overrated FF villain, but Kefka comes up pretty close. Sephiroth had a much more detailed backstory and killed off a main character. He also blew up Saturn and Jupiter, as well as the sun during the final battle. Kefka was a lot more evil and villainous, but he gets too much credit. Ghestahl was the one who did most of the work. Kefka just waited for the right opportunity to overthrow him all Star Wars-ish. He also didn't even really destroy the world; the Warring Triad did. Anyone coulda moved a bunch statues. Heck, Shadow did it at the end of the Floating Continent.

Not to mention he freaks out at the sight of his own blood. And he is surprised that there is sand on his boots when they're WALKING THROUGH THE FREAKING DESERT.

[blackmage_nuke]

He also didn't even really destroy the world; the Warring Triad did.

People dont kill people, guns kill people?

Anyway what kefka lacked in Physical strength he made up for in cunning which he used to gain strength.

[The Man]

Sephiroth had a much more detailed backstory

Too bad it's entirely clichéd.

and killed off a main character.

So does Kefka indirectly if you don't save Shadow on the Floating Continent.

Ghestahl was the one who did most of the work. Kefka

Ghastla didn't poison Doma, resulting in the deaths of Cayenne's family. Ghastla didn't explicitly say that the deaths of hundreds of people at once gave him pleasure. Ghastla didn't kill off General Leo. Ghastla didn't mass-murder the espers at Thamasa. Ghastla didn't destroy towns at a whim with the Light of Judgement. Ghastla may have been the one who built up the empire, but he certainly wasn't the one responsible for the most villainous actions in the game.

He also didn't even really destroy the world; the Warring Triad did.

Er no, Kefka moving the statues is what destroyed the world. If Kefka hadn't moved them, they wouldn't have done a damn thing. So basically what blackmage said.

Anyone coulda moved a bunch statues.

But not anyone would've. Ghastla, who you just implied was the real villain in the game, explicitly told Kefka not to.

Heck, Shadow did it at the end of the Floating Continent.

Yes, to prevent the devastation from getting even worse than it would've been if they were more out of balance.

Not to mention he freaks out at the sight of his own blood. And he is surprised that there is sand on his boots when they're WALKING THROUGH THE FREAKING DESERT.

So? Those things are just comical. Not everything about a villain has to make him a badass.

[VeloZer0]

So? Those things are just comical. Not everything about a villain has to make him a badass.

The comical side to his character is one of the things that makes him so endearing to players. It wasn't just that he destroyed the world, it was that destroying the world was just a big joke to him.

Sephiroth had a much more detailed backstory

Though true, the way Kefka is developed he doesn't need a back story. We are not meant to identify or emphasize with him in the least. I don't see how fleshing out his past would have added to the game in the least.

He also blew up Saturn and Jupiter, as well as the sun during the final battle.

You can't think that has any relevance other than being a cool battle effect.

[Vyk]

Because there are SIX Jupiters, and Saturns, and Suns. That dude was freaking addicted to that spell. And I totally agree with everyone else. Kefka is a(n evil clown) pimp

[ljkkjlcm9]

Both Cid's death and General Leo's death especially, had way more of an impact on me than Aeris. General Leo it was like... SWEET, this guy's move is AWESOME... WTF he just killed him... not possible!

And unlike majority of FF games where the villian you think is in charge is being controlled, which essentially Sephiroth is by Jenova... Kefka in fact KILLED the person that was suppose to be controlling him.

THE JACKEL

[The Crystal]

Ghastla didn't poison Doma, resulting in the deaths of Cayenne's family. Ghastla didn't explicitly say that the deaths of hundreds of people at once gave him pleasure. Ghastla didn't kill off General Leo. Ghastla didn't mass-murder the espers at Thamasa. Ghastla didn't destroy towns at a whim with the Light of Judgement. Ghastla may have been the one who built up the empire, but he certainly wasn't the one responsible for the most villainous actions in the game.

I think that what Tonberry_King is saying, is that Ghestal was the one ordering Kefka to do many of the things he did.

And unlike majority of FF games where the villian you think is in charge is being controlled, which essentially Sephiroth is by Jenova...

No.
Play the game again, and read the official materials released by Square.

[The Man]

There's no evidence whatsoever that Ghastla ordered Kefka to do any of the things I mentioned, except for mass-murdering the Espers.

And the Ultimania may say Sephiroth controlled Jenova, but Sephiroth's actions wound up serving exactly the agenda Jenova wanted to push forward anyway so it doesn't really matter.

[The Crystal]

There's no evidence whatsoever that Ghastla ordered Kefka to do any of the things I mentioned, except for mass-murdering the Espers.

Yes, but Kefka was able to reach the Espers and kill them in Thamasa, and reach the Warring Triad in the Floating Continent to push them out of alignment, only because he was following Ghestal's plan. Not his own.

Ghestal basically lead him to the Espers and the Triad.

And the Ultimania may say Sephiroth controlled Jenova, but Sephiroth's actions wound up serving exactly the agenda Jenova wanted to push forward anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Jenova's 'agenda' was "DESTROY, KILL, DESTROY MORE, INFECT AND KILL EVEN MORE!"

Sephiroth's agenda however, was "Merge with the Lifestream of the planet and become a god to rule over every soul."

Pretty different agendas if you ask me.

[VeloZer0]

Or his plan involved using Gestahl from the beginning.

[Wolf Kanno]

I know people say Sephiroth is the most overrated FF villain,

He's only overrated so far as saying he's the best villain. I would argue that Kuja is a much better villain, as Sephy is basically a Golbez/Zemus knockoff who uses mind control and an overly complicated plan that comes off a bit far fetched in the long run to have actually worked. It still makes for a good story but I don't feel Sephy really treaded any new territory here.

but Kefka comes up pretty close.

I'll agree on the idea of saying Kefka is the "best" villain. Once again, I would say Kuja is pretty damn underrated by some fans.

Sephiroth had a much more detailed backstory

Yes, but all it really served to do was give him an unnecessary sympathy (considering Nomura says Sephy is pure evil and should not be considered a sympathetic villain) its more of a over-bloated backstory that gives a Freudian excuse for his insanity. Despite its detail, it doesn't change the fact that Sephy's personality is still pretty much an "I R EVIL" character with no redeemable qualities, he's just evil.

and killed off a main character.

Just like Ex-Death... Golbez should get some minor points, as his actions indirectly led Tellah to his own demise and he did die in battle with Golbez... half a point at least.

He also blew up Saturn and Jupiter, as well as the sun during the final battle.

Which he can do over and over again. Its superflous special effects, Ultimecia has an attack that has her slam four planets into the party at once, doesn't change the fact Aura/Limit Breaks= WIN.

Kefka was a lot more evil and villainous, but he gets too much credit.

Well, we agree on one thing.

Gestahl was the one who did most of the work.

Like what? Yeah he caught the original espers that led to Kefka's power and he created the plan to snatch the Warring Triad while Kefka was keeping the party and espers busy in Thamasa but overall, I think you are giving Gestahl more credit than he deserves.

Kefka just waited for the right opportunity to overthrow him all Star Wars-ish.

It was partly dumb luck that Kefka succeeded too. Technically, by this logic Kefka is great villain cause he made Ghestahl do all the work and he got all the benefits, which is hardly new in the FF series starting in 16-bit era and continuing on to the PS1 generation.

Yet, I would say Kefka did no such thing, as he killed the Emperor mostly for denying him his urge to kill Celes and then trying to kill him for messing with the statues. Of anything, Gestahl used Kefka to reach his goals cause there was no way he could have succeeded without a cut throat sociopath like Kefka being his right arm man. Gestahl just suffered the fate of irony as he used his little psychopath to obtain a means of god-like power and then when he goes to dispose of him, his "flunky" ends up unlocking the secrets of godhood and kills him instead. Its pretty funny actually.

He also didn't even really destroy the world; the Warring Triad did. Anyone coulda moved a bunch statues. Heck, Shadow did it at the end of the Floating Continent.

Just like Sephiroth really didn't destroy Midgard or release the WEAPONS cause that was all the work of the Black Materia and Meteor. Considering Sephy is technically dead (and his soul purged by the Lifestream til the retcon in AC) you can't really say he did all that just cause he put it all into motion. Also, anyone could have used the Black Materia had they also been in the right circumstances. Obviously, no one would agree to this.

As The Man said, the weapon is the Warring Triad but its Kefka's will and actions that caused this, Kefka purposely moved the Warring Triad to cause the devastation so we can still safely say Kefka destroyed the world with his actions.

Also, Shadow failed to stop Kefka and all though anyone could have used it, no one was willing to do it except Kefka. Gestahl said earlier that tampering with their balance could result in the destruction of the planet. So Kefka knew what he was doing and no one was able to stop him from doing so. Also, by staying within the Warring Triads, Kefka was virtually unstoppable. I would assume he probably tried to make Shadow "well done" to get him to back off from interfering.

Not to mention he freaks out at the sight of his own blood.

Just like Sephy is so surprised Cloud can lift him after being impaled that he let's him toss him into the Mako Reactor.

If you pay attention to Kefka's dialogue, you notice quickly he already has a god-complex and thinks he's superior to everything. Having a lower being spill your blood would be something that would catch you by surprise and make you decide to go super psycho on everything. Let's face it, Kefka is on his last straw.

And he is surprised that there is sand on his boots when they're WALKING THROUGH THE FREAKING DESERT.

This scene is actually commented on by Kitase ( director and scenario
writer) in which he added that scene to give Kefka an entrance with more personality and to show the player that Kefka has a few screws loose.

There's no evidence whatsoever that Ghastla ordered Kefka to do any of the things I mentioned, except for mass-murdering the Espers.

Yes, but Kefka was able to reach the Espers and kill them in Thamasa, and reach the Warring Triad in the Floating Continent to push them out of alignment, only because he was following Ghestal's plan. Not his own.

Ghestal basically lead him to the Espers and the Triad.

So not having an elaborate Xanatos Gambit automatically makes you less of a bad guy? By whose authority?

Once again, I feel you guys are giving Gestahl far too much credit, considering he orders his forces to track down Terra in the first half of the game tells me that Gestahl didn't have some far reaching plan, rather he just made lemonade out of the lemons he was given.

You also forget that Kefka mentions restoring the Warring Triad in the Magitech Research Facility, after gloating about becoming more powerful no less, and for a lackey to just jump in front of his "boss" try to take his power to kill a few shmups who just got a lucky hit off of him kinda says he doesn't really respect the Emperor and that's the thing here. Kefka's not really a lackey cause he doesn't respect his boss, in fact much of his dialogue suggests he thinks of himself as an equal to the Emperor; and why wouldn't he? Seeing as how Gestahl needs Kefka to accomplish his goals. This argument acts like Kefka could have been anybody but really it required a powerful and somewhat competent individual with no morality to get any of his plans done.

The other problem here is that this argument assumes VI fans think Kefka masterminded everything, he didn't. I don't think anyone is arguing that Kefka had some elaborate plan to become a god, rather he took advantage of a good thing. What does make Kefka a great viallin is the mass destruction and death he causes as well as the fact he revels in it. None of the other FF villains do this.

Kefka enjoys murdering and destroying, he may have been given the orders to kill the espers and conquer Doma but its seems pretty clear that wiping out the population of Doma was not part of the plan and I doubt Gestahl told Kefka to torch Thamasa and get all those troops killed in the process, since he wiped out his own men in the battle against the Espers. I also doubt killing Leo was part of the whole deal seeing as how Gestahl was willing to forgive Celes and let her rejoin his ranks. I also doubt that Kefka going to Figaro Castle was suppose to involve him trying to burn down the castle and show the world the Empire will even destroy their allies. Politically speaking, Kefka was a huge liability and one that Gestahl felt outlived its usefulness once he openly overstepped his authority in front of him.

Kefka is a great villain because he's likable. He has great dialogue and he's not beneath stooping to humor unlike all the other FF villains who have to be super serious all the time. Yet, despite this likability, Kefka is pretty much an irredeemable bastard who kills for his personal pleasure and his very methods of murder are far crueler and more graphic than other villains of his time. Kefka specifically preys on the weak and spends his time as a god torturing the inhabitants of a nearly dead world all for his own amusement. Then he does something else that makes him different from other FF villains, he gets a very philosophical personality change at the very end. When the party meets Kefka again, he's not sitting here just reveling in the destruction, rather he's grown bored of his daily routine and in his own god-like mind decides that life is meaningless because its just a cycle of destruction in his world. I wonder if villains like Mateus, Ex-Death, Sephiroth, and Ultimecia would have come to a similar conclusion had their plans panned out.

Also, just to kinda show that a lot of the villains need dumb luck to accomplish there goals, the entire plot of VII and Sephiroth's goals and plans only come into fruition because Cloud threw him into the Mako Reactor. All because of some silly dumb luck. Sephy never would have learned about Meteor, the truth about Jenova, nor would he have grown strong enough to mind control people unless the Compilation retcon all that as well in their ever continuing goal to make sure that VII fans are right by making Sephy the strongest villain ever!!! Basically, all of Sephiroth's accomplishments in VII are the thanks to Cloud throwing him into the reactor after he was too stupid to let go of his own sword.

[The Crystal]

VeloZer0 and Wolf Kanno...

The difference here, is that the other FF villains who used other people to achieve their goals, influenced or manipulated them. For example, Zemus used mind-control on Golbez, Kuja did something that changed the nice Brahne to the crazy evil Brahne(as stated by Garnet herself), Ultimecia took over Galbadia and started giving the orders, etc.
Kefka however, did nothing to influence/control/convince/manipulate Ghestal. The emperor was already after the Espers and the Triad anyway, Kefka just needed to wait.

It's true that Kefka killed lots of people, but in the end, what lead him to the Espers and the Triad(and his supposed 'victory' that so many people praise him for) was Ghestal's cunning. After all, it was Ghestal who thought about imprisioning Kefka to trick the Returners in helping him, it was Ghestal's idea to let the Returners lead the empire to the Gate and open it for him(Kefka was the one following the Returners and waiting them to open the Gate, but Kefka himself said this was the emperor's plan), etc.

But then we have people who think like this:

Anyway what kefka lacked in Physical strength he made up for in cunning which he used to gain strength.

...When in truth, he only needed patience, fake loyalty, and cruelty + bloodlust to do the things Ghestal ordered him to do.
There was no real cunning from Kefka.

And that lead me to...

So not having an elaborate Xanatos Gambit automatically makes you less of a bad guy? By whose authority?

It's not about being a good bad guy(lol) or not, but to who we have to give the credit for Kefka's 'success'.
The credit goes to Ghestal's cunning, or maybe to the emperor's cunning and Kefka's twisted personality that permited him doing the horrible things he did(and some dumb luck), but the credit doesn't go to Kefka alone. And that's exactly what FFVI's fanbase ignores.

[Wolf Kanno]

My problem here The Crystal is that you are arguing that Gestahl could have accomplished all this on his own despite being a 72 year old man with an empire that is actually filled with people who are against the war. I just don't see that happening. Gestahl needed a sociopathic right hand man to succeed, as far as I am concerned, Gestahl needs Kefka's bloodthirsty nature as much as Kefka needs Gestahl plans.

Hell, Gestahl's only plan that worked in the game was tricking Terra and Locke into indirectly opening the Sealed Gate by having them lead Kefka to the rogue Espers and letting him slaughter the whole bunch of them; which caused the gate to open when their comrades poured out to avenge them. Funny, that the only plan that works is because the Emperor relies on a powerful brute like Kefka to get the job done, as usual. We're ignoring the fact that Kefka killed his own allies and torched Thamasa for good measure; which I highly doubt was also a part of the plan.

My point is that Gestahl is not some mastermind with a Xanatos Gambit that any one of his flunkies could have done. He's smart but most of his plans actually fail in the story and the few that succeed only work because of Kefka, so trying to discredit Kefka by making Gestahl into a more competent villain really doesn't work cause most of Gestahl's plans fail except the one. Even the plan that worked only allowed Gestahl to feel godlike for 15 minutes before he got scorched and tossed off the proverbial mountain by his "flunky" he refused to keep on a short leash.

Considering he kept Kefka around even after he accomplished his plan to obtain the Statues, shows even he wasn't using Kefka and actually did see him as a loyal follower who has a bad habit of overstepping his authority and a penchant for mass murder and collateral damage. So I feel you are giving Gestahl more credit than he deserves in an attempt to discredit Kefka as a whole.

Which is made more amusing by the fact I mentioned three times thatKefka had no plans to overthrow the Emperor nor was he using him; cause frankly, the story never even implies this. Rather I feel he works as a villain cause his evil resume is far longer and crueler than most of the FF villains. Kefka was a true force of chaos and destruction and despite Gestahl being the brains of the outfit, Kefka left his mark more than the emperor did in the first half of the title. Taking Gestahl's plan and going out of his way to add a higher body count and more property damage than any sane person would have allowed, I feel Kefka pretty much tops most of the villains in terms of being just an evil bastard.

I agree that Kefka was not some genius mastermind who masterminded becoming a god, but I don't agree that this means he's any less of a villain as most of his evil actions in the game are purely his own (destruction, murder, and mayhem) and its these qualities that make him a great villain. That and his usual awesomness

[The Man]

There's no evidence whatsoever that Ghastla ordered Kefka to do any of the things I mentioned, except for mass-murdering the Espers.

Yes, but Kefka was able to reach the Espers and kill them in Thamasa, and reach the Warring Triad in the Floating Continent to push them out of alignment, only because he was following Ghestal's plan. Not his own.

Ghestal basically lead him to the Espers and the Triad.

So? Just because Ghastla's lust for power furthered Kefka's goals doesn't mean Ghastla's lust for power caused Kefka's goals. In the very same post you argue that Sephiroth and Jenova had different goals while completely ignoring the fact that Kefka and Ghastla also had different goals which, unlike Sephiroth and Jenova's, were mutually exclusive.

And the Ultimania may say Sephiroth controlled Jenova, but Sephiroth's actions wound up serving exactly the agenda Jenova wanted to push forward anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Jenova's 'agenda' was "DESTROY, KILL, DESTROY MORE, INFECT AND KILL EVEN MORE!"

Sephiroth's agenda however, was "Merge with the Lifestream of the planet and become a god to rule over every soul."

You forgot to add "...after killing everyone on the planet with Meteor." Derp.

Sephiroth may have had more of an agenda than Jenova, but his actions still furthered Jenova's agenda. Jenova doesn't give a damn what happens after everyone's dead, she just cares that everyone dies. Kefka's actions, by contrast, were directly destructive to Ghastla's agenda. Ghastla wanted to rule over the existing world. Can't do that if everyone's dead.

In addition, everything Wolf Kanno said, except that I would argue that Kuja is more or less Kefka's equal as a villain rather than his better. I still prefer Kefka because of his sense of humour though.

[Eagle299]

I'm in the camp of fans who say that VII is the best of the series. VI is my close second favorite, though. However, Sephiroth, as badass as he was, and he was extremely badass, you spend the first half of the game following his path of destruction across the planet, he is only my second favorite FF villain. Kefka takes the number 1 spot in my book. Why is this? Because of the way he delights in every little bit of pain, suffering and death he can inflict on the people he encounters. All the while dressed as the court jester. He's an evil clown. He's what you'd get if you gave magic powers to the Joker. Yeah, he runs the first few times you fight him. But how often does the Clown Prince of Crime stand and fight Batman?

I play alot of video games. But to this day, Kefka remains my favorite video game villain.