Kefka: Great Villain or Greatest Villain?

[Sephiroth]

Yeah, yeah, Sephiroth is the 1337est. Villains with personality suxxor, and clowns are scary. We get it.

I doubt you get that because I have not even defended Sephiroth. He was there for comparison. I could have easily used another villain instead.

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Kefka's goal was to obtain more power and devastate the world. It was a complete success. He even ruled over the destroyed world for a year.

No it wasn't, that is just something you want him to be but it was not his goal more than Sephiroth wanted to summon his meteor and discussing this with this FFVI hype will not help you here because people are constantly trying to make Kefka something he wasn't and try to make something a fact they can't do. It was far from a success. Kefka never revealed a master plan about the statues and their destruction being his master plan or anything. He has proven to only be interested in destruction but not that the Warring Triad with its destruction was his ultimate goal. He poisoned a river, he was all "oh, I am all-powerful, I'll restore the statues", actually never showed that he really wanted to betray Gestahl up until the spontaneous and unexpected situation when Celes hurt him and he suddenly began to get mad, get more powers from the Espers, et cetera, but even though he showed he didn't like him in certain situations he never actually showed that part of his intentions was to betray him. Kefka was incalculable because he didn't actually have the statues thing as his master plan as so many people mean. He just did what he wanted. And in the end he revealed that he simply is of destructive nature and wants absolute destruction and THIS is the ultimate goal of a villain. The thing that someone achieves 5 seconds before the final battle and why you need to stop him or 5 seconds after you would lose the final battle. Kefka already has proven he does not think of it as reasonable to build something when everything will fade away and that it is of his nature instead to destroy every single piece of hope. And the final battle very well has shown that he was not satisfied with what he did so that was no more his ultimate goal than Sephiroth summoning his Meteor or Kuja's getting the Trance or X-Death getting the Void as none of them actually had summoning or getting that as final goal and Kefka had his statues also not as final goal. It was something he wanted and something he got but not the last thing and he never made it look like it was as his destruction continued since THAT was his goal. Destruction itself until the end. He succeeded in getting it not more than the others while the rest could not be gotten.

Sephiroth did not succeed. His goal wasn't to summon a meteor. The meteor was just his means of creating a giant wound in the planet(so the lifestream would be forced to gather).

Yes, it was a goal. Exactly the kind of goal you mention for Kefka. A mid-step goal on the way to the actual goal. Kefka = Statues for Destruction of planetary level, Meteor = Wounding Gaia => Using the power absorbed by the Warring Triad to eternally destroy everything without leaving them a chance to actually survive like a bad child that steps on someone's sand castle, Absorbing Lifestream = Becoming the ruler of souls.

X-Death: Mid: Free the void to get its power (achieved), Ultimately: terrorize everything by using that power and banishing those whose face he doesn't like to demonstrate his power (failed midway because of the heroes and because the void absorbed him and controlled his true form, the soul fusion until he was destroyed)
Kefka: Mid: Destroy in general, Restore the statues (spontaneous, he spoke about it but never actually mentioned he would do it that way and acted spontaneously when Celes wounded him), Ultimately: Destroy every single piece of hope, no matter how often it might appear (failed midway because of the heroes)
Sephiroth: Summon a Meteor (to become the ruler of all souls later) (succeeded), Ultimately: Use the impact of the Meteor to absorb the planetary energy that Gaia focusses to become the ruler of all souls (failed, not important however, as Sephiroth a) was able to absorb a great dal of knowledge even before summoning the Meteor when his soul travelled through the lifestream and b) after the ending he made the core of his existence indestructable as long as connected to certain memories so he can return to become more powerful later)
Kuja: Mid: Get the Trance (succeeded), Ultimately: Wants to take everything with him once he finds out he is about to die (at least did it in a way but as everything was restored also failed)
Kuja at least had no mid-step goal that was part of the ultimate goal but simply had his mid-step goal as ultimate goal at first but for the others the mid-step goal was a) a goal and b) a goal that also was a tool of what comes afterwards, their ultimate goal. Kefka never had the intention to stop destruction after he restored the statues so overall destruction of life, hope and all these things was his final goal in the first place and that reflects exactly what his nature is. His "goal he achieved" was nothing more than a tool such as Meteor or the void he got midway to continue with what he also wanted to do, and in his case it was the same thing he did all the time - destroying. Just that he now did in on a greater scale. And that is what he wanted and what he couldn't get in the end. He destroyed sume stuff but couldn't bring endless destruction until everything worth living is gone. This is the whole point of the "no matter how hard you try people will stand up again!" and "then I will destroy it again and again!" conversation. This was Kefka's real goal. Overall destruction until nothing was left.
Et cetera.

His goal was to obtain the god like power(much like Kefka). He was to absorb the lifestream and become godly powerful.

Sephiroth was like Kefka from the very beginning. He already had the Cetra's knowledge meaning the power to cast magic except ancient and sealed ones like Meteor. His ultimate goal was by far greater as he wanted to become the ruler of the source of life and death itself, the ruler of souls in general.

The party defeated him before he could succeed though. Kefka actually obtained the god-like power he was after. Hence why Kefka succeeded and Sephiroth failed.

Except he didn't. Mid-step goals don't count more than other mid-step goals. If the goal someone achieves mid-way is not the final goal for what you fight him in the final battle it is not the ultimate goal. Kuja wanted to get the Trance and he succeeded. That doesn't change the fact that he had a plan after that and which was by far more serious. Kefka was destructive in general. He achieved a tool of destruction but that was not his ultimate goal but simply one of his destruction goals, not actually worth more than poisoining a river which he also wanted or getting Espers or burning down things or anything. He wanted general destruction that would go on and he didn't succeed in doing so. Kefka lost as much as the others did and that he lived on a tower for a year doesn't change that he didn't get what he wanted as his real goal would be something pretty much endless as long he wouldn't destroy everything at once which he probably couldn't but that is something we don't know so it does not need to be counted. You need to learn to pay attention to context or such conversations will lead to nowhere, especially when you repeat as counter-argument to a problematic that does not exist something that was already mentioned by myself.. Kefka and Sephiroth did both succeed equally and no matter how much you hype Kefka he is not more than he is. Therefore, Kefka did not succeed. His statue plan was not his master plan goal, it was a mid-step goal just as summoning the meteor was. In fact the statue thing was even only mentioned once and he never actually did something before he spontaneously reacted to what Celes did to him. You might not like it, but it is the truth.