No mention of Golbez? I guess Zemus/Zeromus is the real villain, but still, being the prominent villain for 90% of the story deserves some credit.

Golbez is really tragic, losing his father to people that used the magic his father taught them to kill him. Also, losing his mother in childbirth when birthing Cecil really added to the pain Golbez went through. I find Zemus' influence on Golbez to be much more understandable than Kain (both parents dead vs. boo hoo she loves him and not me). After losing his only parent left, I can't exactly blame Golbez for giving into Zemus' thoughts about Cecil being responsible for killing his mother (that's definitely not the case, but I can understand why he'd think that after something that tragic). It's a shame they had to remove that backstory bit in the SNES version, even though that part was written and planned during the time.