The Top 11 Video Game Villains- Number 11

Video games have a wide variety of villains. Some want to conquer the world (of course!), some want to destroy it. Some are in it for revenge against the protagonist, some are in it for the money. Some villains want to watch the world burn, others want the world on its knees. Some see themselves as the heroes of their own stories, others know damn well they are evil. Some villains are simply average Joes and Janes with a little too much power on their hands; others are forces of nature. During the month of July, we will explore the top 11 video game villains. Why top 11? Because I like to go one step beyond, Because I'm ripping off Doug Walker. Again...

We kick things off with the 11th best villain in video games. This villain from the Golden Age of the JRPG needs little introduction. He is an icon of gaming, known through most video game circles, and is considered by many in Gamefaqs one of the greatest villains of all time. For that, it is no surprise to see this villain on this list. This monster clown has entertained millions of gamers world wide, inspired many a fanart, fanfic, and cosplay. I speak, of course, of Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy 6.

Artwork of Kefka, taken from the Final Fantasy Wiki.

The player first sees Kefka in a flashback, commanding Terra to use her Magitek Armor to incinerate a few Imperial soldiers. This alone tells us some very important facts about Kefka: he's an authority figure, and he has no regard for the lives of his soldiers. That's half of what the player needs to know about Kefka; the other half comes later, when Kefka phisically appears in the game for the first time. As he's leading his soldiers towards Figaro Castle, Kefka stops so his soldiers can wipe the sand off his shoes...in the middle of the desert. In two short appearances, Kefka shows himself to be a horrid leader, a buffoon, and a sadistic monster. He later burns Figaro Castle, but the king, Edgar, outsmarts him by activating the mechanism that allows the castle to burrow underground.

But it is his next appearance that solidifies Kefka's true character. A few hours later (real world, not in game), Kefka is following General Leo's battalion in the siege of Doma Castle. Leo wants to conquer Doma the old fashioned way: through battle. Kefka, however, has other ideas. As soon as Leo is made to leave, Kefka takes to the local water supply and poisons it, killing everyone in the castle, enemy and allied prisoner alike. Only one man survives this massacre: Cyan, retainer to the King of Doma. But when he and the party confront Kefka, what does he do? He runs. He doesn't even put up anything close to a decent fight; he may attack once, and then run like a coward.

When Kefka appears next he's leading a group of soldiers towards Narshe, hoping to get the Esper located there. For those not in the know, the Esper is a mystical creature that possesses powerful magics, and the Empire wants them to conquer the world (of course!). Anyway, does Kefka lead the charge? Nope, he points in the direction and lets his soldiers do the dirty work. Once the main characters finish off ALL the soldiers, they face Kefka himself, who provides an admittedly better boss battle than before, but still nothing worth sweating over. Once defeated, Kefka, yet again, runs.

Kefka isn't seen again until much later, when the party infiltrates the capital of the Empire, Vector. There, they spy Kefka gleefully torturing Espers and talking about restoring "the statues." This becomes very important later. Though Kefka attempts to stop the party from escaping Vector, he fails.

The party does not encounter Kefka again until much later, this time behind bars. When the Espers returned to the world, they waged a battle against the Empire, leaving its capital in cinders. Kefka was placed behind bars supposedly for bad leadership and crimes against humanity by the Emperor himself.

Sadly, later still, when it seems like peace between the Espers and humans could be achieved, Kefka arrives, freed by the Emperor himself, and starts killing the Espers, turning them into Magicite, special crystals that hold the powers of the Espers. After that, Kefka betrays his emperor, and takes the statues of the Warring Goddesses, a trio of statues which magically keep the world balanced, and moves them, destroying their careful sync and setting the world into chaos.

Absorbing the powers of the statues, Kefka becomes a god of destruction, and with his powers he brings the world to ruin. Forests burn, towns are destroyed, and many lives are lost. Within a year, half the world is already dead, and the other half is just waiting for death. Kefka otherwise disappears from the plot until the final confrontation against him as the game's last, arguably hardest and most memorable boss.

Who is Kefka? He's a monster. Plain and simple, he's a monster, a devil in human flesh. Not once does he give the impression that he is, or ever was, a rational human being. A single throw away line by a random NPC suggests his madness is the result of a science experiment gone awry, but that only explains his actions, not excuse them. 

The man is a murderer of the highest degree. To him, human lives are worthless, to be thrown away like an old toy. He cares for nobody, has no morals, or any redeeming qualities, He's just insane, and the world, objectively, would have been better off if he had died earlier in his life.

Kefka was Heath Ledger's Joker fourteen years before said character made his big screen debut. He was a psychopath, a rabid dog in dire need of being put down. He was a lunatic. He wanted to watch the world burn.

There are a few things that make Kefka a memorable character, mostly his laugh. But what makes Kefka stand out from a writing point of view is the fact that, for all intents and purposes, he was half an inch away from the finish line. He destroyed the world he knew; what was left of the world was slowly dying anyway. He took what was a beautiful, peaceful world and he filled it with death and destruction. Dragons and demons flew the skies, the earth was decaying, and people were dying left and right.

The game has a subtle theme, and it's love. Each of the main characters has someone to love, or is motivated by love. Kefka, on the other hand, loves nothing. He is devoid of any love; no one loves him, and he loves nobody. But who can love a devil, and how can a monster love? This, however, is a topic I'm saving for a future blog entry.

Kefka represents madness in its purest, most destructive form. Kefka is psychopathy made flesh, and that is what makes him such an effective villain. For this reason, he is the eleventh greatest video game villain.

The summary:

Name: Kefka Palazzo

Type of Villain: The Psychopath, The God Complex, The Caligula

Greatest Crime: Destroying the entire world

Current Status: Dead.