Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Villains 

It’s hard to take Kefka seriously when he first appears in Final Fantasy VI, given that his first appearance sees him easily fooled and chastising an underling for the fact that there is sand on his boots…

Behind the quippy one liners, however, is a man that is the manifestation of pure evil. He shows his true colours with actions like his honourless poisoning of Doma’s water supply to conquer the Kingdom without a scratch, his murder of General Leo and his widescale slaughter of Espers, planting himself as a figure of hate with zero redeeming qualities.

What sets Kefka apart is that unlike almost every other villain in history, in Final Fantasy or elsewhere, he wins. His madness becomes reality as the world is destroyed at the costs of millions of lives, leaving a ruin reshaped in his image that he is freely able to lord over as an actual deity.

The fact that his actions completely break the will and spirit of the party (leading to massively impactful scenes like Celes’ attempted suicide) is most powerful of all, but this allows heartbreak to turn into heartfulness as one-by-one they become reinvigorated by the need to take him down.

The final quest through Kefka’s tower is a long and arduous one, bookended with an epic battle scored by the iconic ‘Dancing Mad’. Few moments in Final Fantasy history have ever been as monumental or brilliant.