TieryasXu

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Final Fantasy has some great villains. Sephiroth, Sin, and Kefka come to mind. But for every embodiment of evil, there are the villains who are so driven by ambition, they lose sight of common-sense. When I say, “dumb,” for the list, I don’t mean they’re badly designed or even dumb ideas for characters. Some of these characters are pretty amazing and prove integral to the plot, their inclusion a necessary piece. But their “lack of vision” causes them to get seriously messed up or in some cases, killed. View these as cautionary moral tales. Spoilers abound!!!

1. Emperor Gestahl (FF6)
You have to question the intelligence of anyone who trusts Kefka. Kefka is twisted, maniacal, and thoroughly evil. Gestahl, born to a powerful military family, helped create the Empire. He seeks to harness MagiTek and the Espers, and while ambitious, it’s easy to understand his motives. But when he sees Kefka is out of control and wants to move the statues, he realizes that the world will be destroyed. He confronts Kefka and battles him, thinking his powers are enough. Too little, too late. Eventually, he is struck down by thunder from the Warring Triad and Kefka throws him off the side of the Floating Continent. He trusted Kefka, even suggested Kefka mate with Celes, then was destroyed by the very man he empowered. Keeps your friends close, keep your e– wait wait, scratch that, keep him away at all costs!

2. Seifer (FF8)
A man who was once a fellow SeeD, this guy takes more whoopings than almost any other FF villain except Seymour (who I’ll get to). Lackey of Ultimecia, he gets beaten at the Timber TV station, at Deling City, in the Galbadian Garden Invasion, and near the end of the game. Add incompetence to the list. What is his ultimate goal? To prove he’s better than Squall? He already has Rinoa’s attention affection. Even if he isn’t the brightest guy among the FF villains, I’ll give him the fact that he’s persistent and he did give Squall that nasty scar.

3. Queen Brahne (FF9)
She is the queen of Alexandria and mother of Garnet (though they look nothing alike and I wonder if Garnet will look similar when she grows up). After the death of her husband, she falls under the influence of Kuja, conquering kingdom after kingdoom. She then tries to destroy Kuja using Bahamut. Kuja turns the tables on her and eliminates the entire fleet while killing the queen in the process. The whole time, I felt terrible for Garnet who has to see everything she cherishes destroyed. Queen Brahne’s greed made her stupid and blind. She’s not the first one to succumb to its influence. She won’t be the last.

4. Seymour (FF10)
Here’s another character who takes multiple beatings but doesn’t know when to stay down. The maester of the Church of Yevon, his plan is to end suffering by terminating all life in Spira. For a guy seeking world-annihilation, he spends an awful amount of time on his hair. He also wants to marry Yuna (cough cough!) for the “good of the people.” By the time Tidus and company figure out he’s up to no good, they give him a mortal beatdown. Little did they know death would only make him even more stubborn, literally haunting them through their journey towards Zanarkand. You see Seymour several more times before he gets absorbed into Sin and finally dispatched by Yuna. If he’d have just let go of this, “Let’s destroy the whole world business,” he probably would have married Yuna and enjoyed his reign over all of Spira. Instead, fear and his desire to “save the people” destroyed him.

5. Don Corneo (FF7)
He mistakes Cloud for a girl. Need I say more?