So, uh, Kefka. Just Crazy?(SPOILERS!!)

[Omni-Odin]

Please someone answer me here. This is actually my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VI and I am really enjoying it, but........what's up with Kefka. All I here is how he is just one of the best villains ever. So far, I'm in the WoR and I'm just retrieving all my characters, but it dawned on me that Kefka had no real backstory. All I know is that he was working for Emporer Gestahl and he's power-crazy. He kills an entire kingdom with poison, he looks to get magicite and espers for Gestahl, and then he's just like, "Oh!! I want it. Gestahl must die!!" Am I on cue here or did I miss something. This isn't an attack on Final Fantasy VI, but I just wanted some incite. Thanks for your answers!

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The only explanation of Kefka's backstory beyond "he's one of the Emperor's generals" is offered up by a townsperson in Vector. If you're in the World of Ruin, you've already missed it.

Basically it amounts to the fact that Kefka was a magicite-infused soldier like Celes, except he was the first person to ever receive the treatment. And since it was still an imperfect, experimental operation at that point, he came out of it less than sane.

But really, Kefka's greatness doesn't come from his motivation so much as it comes from his actions.

[Zeromus_X]

kefka's just insane. (as a result of what was said above) thats why hes one of the coolest ff villians ever! (if not the coolest.)

[Captain Maxx Power]

'E's out of 'is blooming 'ead!

[Slothy]

But really, Kefka's greatness doesn't come from his motivation so much as it comes from his actions.

Agreed. How many other villians actually succeeded in destroying the world and attaining god like power?

[Omni-Odin]

Sin, Kuja, Ultimecia. But yes, thanks for your feedback. Now I know why Kefka's crazy. If you didn't tell me, I don't know how my outcome of this game would have been. Thanks for your input.

[boys from the dwarf]

people like him because hes the only villain that succeeds in tearing the world apart.

[ThroneofDravaris]

Kefka was undoubtedly superior to all of the FF villains up until that point (I actually prefer X-Death and Golbez, but whatever…). However, while his antics were entertaining and sadistic, he is ultimately surpassed by later antagonists. Kefka’s 2-D qualities work rather well in FFVI, but IMO the more complex villains such as Kuja, Seymour and Sephiroth win out.

Then again, the Deus Ex Machina villains such as Neo X-Death, Zeromus and Necron completely own these guys as well, so meh…

[boys from the dwarf]

comparing in power and a lot of other aspects how is kefka superior to enimies like kuja for example when (SPOILER)kuja trances his power tears apaart and entire planet.

[Masamune·1600]

Judging villains by their apparent power is a really stupid way to evaluate the storyline quality of a villain, anyway.

[Ishin Ookami]

Yeh, kefka was just crazy. A friend of mine summed it up when he said "If you ever gave the joker god like powers, you'd end up with kefka". Which is why he is far superior to sephiroth. Yes, the joker does have a background story, and its rather "meh". The real appeal of both characters character is his charisma and psychotic genious. Out of all the villains in the batman and final fantasy universe, they are the worst not because they're the most powerful, not because they have the most high tech gear, not because of the cool origin, but because they are the smartest, and most evil sunuvabitch's you ever met.

Standout moments with kefka would be the utter genocide of the esper race, the reather cold blooded and pointless murder of leo, the poisoning of the doma castle river, and my personnal favorite: Kefka's fight with the emperor. Complete with kefka pretending he was scared with each attack.

oooh, almost got me that time

Whew, that was close. I Thought I was dead for sure

A little to the left, your almost there!

Muahahahaha

Yah, kefka was just the coolest. Sephiroth might have been cool if he had half kefka's fashion sense, (Evil clown getup vs V-neck leather = Evil clown wins hands down) and a portion of kefka's charisma and competence

[The Man]

Kefka's actions may have been surpassed by those of later villains, but none of them in the FF series did it with as much style. (Roger Bacon of Shadow Hearts and Luca Blight of Suikoden II are the only ones I've encountered who have comparable style, actually).

of the FF villains, Kuja is the one who comes closest to matching Kefka, but he doesn't have brilliant lines like "You sound like chapters from a self-help booklet," so Kefka still wins.

[ThroneofDravaris]

Many would disagree, but I would consider that Kuja’s line ‘Why should the world exist without me? That wouldn’t be fair!’, completely blows that one out of the water…

Of course, there is little doubt that many of Kuja’s lines were inspired by Kefka’s bizarre comments.

[Reine]

Son of a submariner!

[Memoria]

Lines like "But what fun is destruction if no precious lives are lost?", "You sound like chapters from a self-help booklet", and "There's nothing like the sound of thousands of voices screaming in unison" sum up just what Kefka is and how much we like him.

It's my personal theory that Kefka and Celes are related somehow, but too bad the game never gives much depth. However, we don't need too much depth to our beloved villain, really. At least it doesn't end up getting totally misunderstood like Sephiroth's. He's got his fans because of what he does. Doma Castle, for instance. Just messing with the statues shows he's positively insane.

I mean, come on. Sephiroth tried to slam Meteor into the planet. But Kefka actually blew the damn thing up!! No, it didn't explode, but we don't have anymore grass on the planet. And we got to keep a decent overworld theme. And he's dressed as a clown!! That all makes him evil. And it makes him a damn good villain.

My point is... Kefka, you're amazing and we love you.