Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Villains 

Sometimes the best villains are not physical or superhuman threats, but chessmasters, who manipulate events from behind the scenes without getting directly involved. Final Fantasy Tactics’ Delita is the ultimate embodiment of such a character, as the death of his sister Tietra sets him down a path where he unleashes havoc upon Ivalice, choreographing proceedings in his favour without anybody realising.

It could be argued that Delita isn’t a true villain, given that he bears no ill will towards Ramza and only opposes him when their objectives aren’t aligned, subtly supporting him more often than not in instances such as his execution of a fake Orlandeau (which allows the real one to join Ramza’s fight). The sheer amount of chaos and deaths that can be attributed to him as he exploits the conflict between the Orders of the Northern and Southern Skies and the Church of Glabados for his own vengeance, however, is staggering.

Cold, calculating and never truly satisfied, Delita’s stabbing at the hands of Ovelia (who he’d committed all of his atrocities in the name of) in the game’s final scene epitomises the pointlessness of everything that has come before. His pondering of whether Ramza’s life was ultimately more fulfilling leaving things on a bleak and nihilistic note.