The living madness that is Kefka

Let’s talk about someone special now. About a very unique villain. The most insane, the creepiest villain. A villain known, feared, and hated for his infamous laughter – a sound that still makes my skin crawl! A laughter that makes me want to kick him where the sun doesn’t shine.

From what I’ve seen, no other FF villain can be labelled as "a crazy madman". FF villains tend to be cool, calculating people, their greatest pleasure lies in elegantly manipulating people. They might have their moments when they get angry, scared, or let out a joyous laughter at the sight of their enemies near defeat. But while doing so, they still manage to preserve a certain… grace. They don’t go jumping and yelling and whining around.

Kefka does. In the very beginning of Final Fantasy VI he yells at a soldier because there’s sand on his boot. He went so mad about such a small matter, I just didn’t believe that this comical guy would become the game’s main villain. I thought he’d simply be some kind of comic relief! Make a bit of noise and cause rolling of eyes and cracking of smiles, and then somewhen fall off a cliff or be killed by the (calm, cool) main villain. Or get hit on the head and think he’s a telephone for the rest of his life. Something like this. Something crazy and weird.

He’s just different. Kefka doesn’t even come with a proper reason for destroying the world. The wish to simply rule it would be unoriginal, but classic. Kefka doesn’t want to rule, he wants to destroy. He could have anything you ever needed in life. With his godlike abilities that he gains in the middle of the game, he could have made people serve him, worship him. But he just sits there and destroying stuff, because destruction is all he wants, all he enjoys.

The reason why Kefka is this twisted and insane is never given as far as I know. Childhood trauma, victim of cruel experiments or trying to achieve a higher goal – none of this is given.
With Kefka we get someone who is evil without a cause, a true monster.

I don’t know about you, but it was impossible at least for me to feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for this guy. I am the kind of person who can forgive a villain anything, feel pity for him, as soon as it’s mentioned that he had a terrible childhood or anything else. Without such background explanations, and without any hint at goodness in Kefka’s character, it was finally possible for me to hate this guy properly. It was possible for me to fight him without regret, and feel thoroughly happy after having defeated him, without having to feel sorry he had to die, or something like this.

Kefka – a guy you can kill without regret. That’s how a villain should be like. Someone you hate, a repulsive, cruel, sadistic creature, someone you’re happy when he’s gone!

And thus I conclude that Kefka is an amazing kind of villain. Maybe the right kind of villain, but certainly an underused kind. There’s the kind you ignore, like Exdeath, and other boring "Hi, I’m going to destroy the world now, me, your average world-destroying villain!". There’s the kind you don’t want to kill, a kind that seems to rule the FF series, in my view. There are always reasons in a villain why you should feel sorry for him. Kuja. Oh, Kuja.
Kefka is the kind you hate with all your heart. It’s the right kind of motivation before a battle: "I’m going to kill him, kill him good! And I hope I’ll have to hear his disgusting laughter never again!!"
It’s probably what the characters were thinking before the final battle. Nice to have the player think the same.

Which kind of villain is better, you decide. I know I don’t enjoy guys like Kefka as much as other villains. But hey, a villain is not there to be enjoyed, is he? You’re not supposed to drool at the controller while goggling at the screen.

Although it’s so much fun. 🙁

Kefka had a very, very strong reason for his cause. He truly believed he was beyond everyone else on the planet and was willing to go any distance to suppress life and stop people from living as they wanted and to live as he wanted them to live.

He also turned on his "ally", Emperor Gestahl. That’s true villainry for you. You think the big Empire’s the one you’ve gotta defeat, then Kefka does it for you and flattens the world.

In terms of chaotic scenes, the one in the middle of FF6 takes the cake. Sure, X-Death levelled a few towns, Kefka completely reshapes the entire world. Awesome stuff.

Kefka is definitely my favorite Villian of all time. Not just cause FF6 is my favorite game of all time. just cause Kefka was a very unique villian. The things he did, he was truly a madman.

His laughed really pisses me off everytime I hear it. When he does it, it just drives you insane, and makes you want to kill him even more

Kefka is the baddest mo fo of all the FF villans…his laugh does annoy me a little but after fighting him is make your skin crawl. He is a solid villian with a very VERY mean streak…An evil Clown…almost as scary as Stephen King’s IT!

Mackah

In the PSX remake of the game can you all remember the FMV with him in it? His eyes just look dead, theres like no one hoe, hes kinda like dead inside. Even though id hate to admit it Sephiroth is highly over rated. The Villian on FFVIII(whats her face) was really involved with the story line much, in FFIX(Kuja) now he was just weird and girlish, FFX(Yu Yevon/Sin) wasnt really what i like in a boss, FFX-2(Suyin) again didnt have much to do with the Storyline. FFIV(zeromus) can really remeber much about him), FFV(X-Death) he is cool but i still find Kefka one of the best villians ever.

Just as a side note…. My Top 3 Villians- 1.Kefka
2.X-Death
3.Sephiroth

The only villian that can stay original but new.

Most of the original storyline of final fantasy would be that the "Evil villian will take over the world" or "The enemy is evil and will take over the world" but if you change that with blind madness of what he is doing? you get a new breed of villian.

Instead of having line such as "The pesky humans, we shall kill them all" kefka will give brand new lines to a villan, he does not intend to destroy the world, nor does he see that his power is evil, giving the lines of "What im doing isnt wrong" and such..

Did you guys notice that they changed his laugh slightly for the Playstation remake? not a lot, but it was… different.
o_0

Kefka is an evil evil villian however the WORST and i MEAN the worst villian ever has 2 b Seymour in ffx!!!!!!!!!

Everytn bout his makes u hate him so badly!!!!
And u cant say dat he isnt d worst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Wynne3c2a
Kefka is an evil evil villian however the WORST and i MEAN the worst villian ever has 2 b Seymour in ffx!!!!!!!!!

Everytn bout his makes u hate him so badly!!!!
And <B> u cant say dat he isnt d worst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! </B>

I can say dat he isn’t d worst!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst playing Final Fantasy VI on my PSX, I noticed that the scenery, scenarios and the characters reminded me of what occured in biblical times. And Kefka was Lucifer.

Yes. The greatest FF character of all time. Kefka.

And don’t forget, Kefka was the only villian that succeeded in destroying the world 😮

Kefka, I hate that villian! His laugh annoyed the hell outta me:mad:! All he ever thought about was destroying people’s dream and goal’s and I hate people like that :mad:! He’s the worst FF villain ever! Sephiroth’s my favorite villian!

But TifaGirl, that’s the point. He’s a villain. You’re supposed to hate him. You are supposed to want to destroy him. In Final Fantasy, villains nowadays tend to have at least one trace that makes them be liked. That makes you feel sorry for them. Kuja had it, Seymour had some of it somewhere, Sephiroth had a tiny bit of it, but Kefka had none.
Kefka is the enemy you could really fight, a villain you really wanted to defeat and kill. Someone you hated. You share the hatred that the playable characters feel towards the enemy. A "good villain" is not at all a "likeable character". The contrary. It’s problematic to have a too nice, likeable, understandable villain. 😉

Oh…..Okay. I guess I wouldn’t know because I never started out with the Final Fantasy classics back then. I only started playing FF6 more recently. You are right, Kefka was the villian I just wanted to destroy. I did have some sympathy for Sephiroth though, he really destroyed for revenge of the Cetra. I had some sympathy for him after he found out he was kind of made. He felt like a freak afterwards. However, I never had any sympathy for Seymor though, I found his intentions simialar to Kefka’s. I had some sympathy to Kuja. You got a good point altogether Misao.

Kefka is the absolute greatest vilian of all time. Villians these days do not have that certain something that Kefka does. Wheter its Sephiroth, Seymour, X-Death, Kuja, Ultimecia, Chaos, Emperor or Zeromus they still are not as great as Kefke. He shall remain as the greatest villian forever!!

Rather long winded IMO.

and no Hitler/Kefka comparisons? 🙁

kefka was worth than hitler and did anybody else think that 6 has the best graphics there not 3d or nothin but they r breathtaking (hey look my breaths been taken)

i know its corny but i dont kare

Price of a Pheniox Down- 500GP
Hiring Shaadow only to have him ditch you- 3000GP
Watching Kefka blast the shit out of people- priceless

Originally posted by Johnny
Rather long winded IMO.

and no Hitler/Kefka comparisons? 🙁
I don’t believe in comparing everyone to Hitler in order to express that I really really thing he is evil. Besides, I don’t really see any parallels,

And long-winded? Let’s just say I didn’t just want to write "KEFKA ROX HES EVIL LOLZ", but try a different kind of posts. Posts that you have to read. 🙁

Maybee I don’t like Kefka because of his anoying laugh.

I say his laugh just adds to his image.

one thing that i found out from talking to townspeople somewhere (it might have been Vector) was that Kefka was the Cid’s first experiment with giving humans the powers of espers. one of the towns people said that something snapped in Kefka and he went mad. Celes had the same thing happen to her but she didn’t go mad.

Kefka was a nice villain i liked him he was evrything u wanted from 1 he was rude , idiotic and had a very annoting laff the only bad part i think is tht he looked like a freak i mean who wear tht much make-up? plus he was weak as hell Safer seph. put up a better fight.

I do so thourgly agree. Kefka was the most bas-ass’ed villain i have ever seen in an RPG let alone an FFhis dima castle scene nade me hate him, and the wholt judgement ray thing made me despise him.

I really liked Kefka as a villain. I thought that he was the worst possible person, and that if anyone like him ever did exist and rise to power, I’d shit my pants. He didn’t care about a damn thing. He destroyed the world, but oh well. All he wanted to do was destroy. And he dressed like a clown to top it off. He was a lunatic! I thought he made a really great villain.

When you feel sorry for the villain, it just adds a whole other dimension to that character. S/he’s more human, and harder to hate because well… you empathize. For me, it takes away from the whole "Villain" concept. I liked that Kefka had no saving grace. It made killing him feel so satisfying. When you have to kill someone you feel sorry for, you kind of feel like an asshole. 😉 And then who’s the villain?

Kefka, what is there to be said that hasn’t already been said? He was a great villian I also think that he is one of the best, if not the best villian from a Final Fantasy game. His attitude, his apperance, his comical lines, and his insanity, all rolled up into one little evil person simply known as Kefa. In other words I liked Kefka alot as a villian, he made me hate him, but I couldn’t wait to see him on the screen again mainly because I wanted to throw down and take him out, this like many of you have said makes him a great villian and I think the same.

Originally posted by MiseryEight
Kefka, what is there to be said that hasn’t already been said?

true, very very true. Goes to show his popularity as a villain

ummm kefka was cids first experiment and he did go SO crazy that hes a shell of former shell
and THAT and that alone is what makes you wanna kill him you kill him out of pity which is SO weird that i went to the psychiatrists office with a videotape of the scenes involving kefka to check if i was insane
the results were………
inconclusive *UFO music plays*

The thing that makes him the best villian, is that he actually acts like a villian. There are bad guys…and then there are villians.

He is the Angel of Death. He kills without a thought or a care. I mean this guy is just insane! We watch him poison the towns water supply, and a main characters family die right before his eyes! This guy is crazy! And he LAUGHS about it!

When I ask my friends, whose the greatest villian of all games you’ve played? We all come to the same conclusion: Kefka.

Originally posted by Kefka: Ultimate Evil

He is the Angel of Death. He kills without a thought or a care. I mean this guy is just insane! We watch him poison the towns water supply, and a main characters family die right before his eyes! This guy is crazy! And he LAUGHS about it!

OMG U SPOILED IT FOR ME TT….

no im lying