(no subject)
Final Fantasy villains! Yes! I was going to talk about this like a week ago!
Okay so. Let's go in (some semblance of) order here.
Also: SPOILARZ!!!
Kefka. I was prepared to dislike him before my FFVI playthrough simply because so many people were like "best villain evar". But then I played through it. And completely besides his fantastic maniacal giggle (which by itself is awesome), I found Kefka to have a lot of depth. He's just completely thoroughly evil... but I found that he uses crazy maniac evil as a facade to mask his total despair and desperation. It was an interesting take on the taking-over-the-world story - Kefka's motivations for doing so.
Sephiroth. Don't get me wrong, I like Sephiroth. But I don't think he fits into the "best villain evar" category, either. Yes, he's evil. ...Sort of. But not on the scale that Kefka was. Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet, true, but because his mind snapped from realizing that he's not just like everyone else. And he has mommy issues. Honestly, I think he'd be scarier without the mommy issues. It's hard to take a villain seriously who's carting his mother around all the time, amirite?
Ultimecia. One of the more interesting things about Ultimecia's character is that she manipulates everything from behind the scenes. Rarely does the player have any sort of interaction with her. I've come to expect, mainly through Hollywood, that anytime a female is in a position of power/authority she's all in your face about it, I MUST BE FRONT AND CENTER, YOU CANNOT IGNORE ME FOR I AM FEMALE. Her motivations seem to be a twisted take on self-preservation - Ulti doesn't want to die, so she sets forth this grandiose plan so she'll never die. It's an interesting idea.
Kuja. I've grown quite fond of Kuja. It doesn't hurt that FFIX is (one of) my favorite FF games. Kuja is interesting. Like Kefka, he uses theatrics and insanity to mask his despair. When confronted by his own mortality, Kuja kind of goes berserk - a kind of "if I'm going to die I'm taking everyone else with me!" kind of thing. Despair is a powerful motivator, and in this case it motivates Kuja toward destruction. Frankly, I'm not quite sure why Kuja strikes me as the most interesting, deepest FF villain... but that's my opinion :)
Seymour. Seymour grates on me. Maybe, like Yuna, it's his voice actor that pisses me off. (Sorry, shiromonogatari, I know how much you love Yuna, but her voice actress... ugh.) But even with the voice actor dislike aside, he's just not that interesting to me. The idea of him trying to become Sin to 'free' Spira from the spiral of death and hate and all is interesting, and it could have been amazing, but Seymour... I just don't like him.
Vayne. Vayne is one cold-hearted SOB. He's brilliant, cold, astonishingly manipulative, planning everything down to a T. But he always seemed kind of... I dunno, hollow to me. Maybe it's just bad writing, not telling the story as well as they could have. I understand his motivations, but it just seemed like he wasn't in the same league as other FF villains, as far as evil goes. Not that a villain/antagonist has to be evil (see next point on the list), but if you're going to kill your own father and commit atrocities, you should at least seem a little evil.
Delita. I think a lot of people would hesitate to put Delita on this list - in FFT wasn't it the Lucavi that were the main villains? - but as antagonist I think he counts. And let me just say this: Delita is not evil. Delita, like Vayne, is one cold-hearted SOB. Far better of a manipulator than Vayne (if they went head-to-head, Delita would win, hands down). But not evil. Definitely one of my favorite villains/antagonists.
hmm umm. That might be all. Is that all, shiromonogatari?
Okay so. Let's go in (some semblance of) order here.
Also: SPOILARZ!!!
Kefka. I was prepared to dislike him before my FFVI playthrough simply because so many people were like "best villain evar". But then I played through it. And completely besides his fantastic maniacal giggle (which by itself is awesome), I found Kefka to have a lot of depth. He's just completely thoroughly evil... but I found that he uses crazy maniac evil as a facade to mask his total despair and desperation. It was an interesting take on the taking-over-the-world story - Kefka's motivations for doing so.
Sephiroth. Don't get me wrong, I like Sephiroth. But I don't think he fits into the "best villain evar" category, either. Yes, he's evil. ...Sort of. But not on the scale that Kefka was. Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet, true, but because his mind snapped from realizing that he's not just like everyone else. And he has mommy issues. Honestly, I think he'd be scarier without the mommy issues. It's hard to take a villain seriously who's carting his mother around all the time, amirite?
Ultimecia. One of the more interesting things about Ultimecia's character is that she manipulates everything from behind the scenes. Rarely does the player have any sort of interaction with her. I've come to expect, mainly through Hollywood, that anytime a female is in a position of power/authority she's all in your face about it, I MUST BE FRONT AND CENTER, YOU CANNOT IGNORE ME FOR I AM FEMALE. Her motivations seem to be a twisted take on self-preservation - Ulti doesn't want to die, so she sets forth this grandiose plan so she'll never die. It's an interesting idea.
Kuja. I've grown quite fond of Kuja. It doesn't hurt that FFIX is (one of) my favorite FF games. Kuja is interesting. Like Kefka, he uses theatrics and insanity to mask his despair. When confronted by his own mortality, Kuja kind of goes berserk - a kind of "if I'm going to die I'm taking everyone else with me!" kind of thing. Despair is a powerful motivator, and in this case it motivates Kuja toward destruction. Frankly, I'm not quite sure why Kuja strikes me as the most interesting, deepest FF villain... but that's my opinion :)
Seymour. Seymour grates on me. Maybe, like Yuna, it's his voice actor that pisses me off. (Sorry, shiromonogatari, I know how much you love Yuna, but her voice actress... ugh.) But even with the voice actor dislike aside, he's just not that interesting to me. The idea of him trying to become Sin to 'free' Spira from the spiral of death and hate and all is interesting, and it could have been amazing, but Seymour... I just don't like him.
Vayne. Vayne is one cold-hearted SOB. He's brilliant, cold, astonishingly manipulative, planning everything down to a T. But he always seemed kind of... I dunno, hollow to me. Maybe it's just bad writing, not telling the story as well as they could have. I understand his motivations, but it just seemed like he wasn't in the same league as other FF villains, as far as evil goes. Not that a villain/antagonist has to be evil (see next point on the list), but if you're going to kill your own father and commit atrocities, you should at least seem a little evil.
Delita. I think a lot of people would hesitate to put Delita on this list - in FFT wasn't it the Lucavi that were the main villains? - but as antagonist I think he counts. And let me just say this: Delita is not evil. Delita, like Vayne, is one cold-hearted SOB. Far better of a manipulator than Vayne (if they went head-to-head, Delita would win, hands down). But not evil. Definitely one of my favorite villains/antagonists.
hmm umm. That might be all. Is that all, shiromonogatari?