| “ | Why create, when it will only be destroyed? Why cling to life, knowing that you have to die? | „ |
| ~ Kefka expressing his nihilism. |
| “ | Read my lips - mercy is for wimps! There's a reason "oppose" rhymes with "dispose"... If they get in your way, kill them! | „ |
| ~ Kefka Palazzo |
| “ | Life... Dreams... Hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all! | „ |
| ~ Kefka Palazzo's famous monologue. |
Kefka Palazzo (spelled as Cefca Palazzo in the Japanese version), also known as Lord Kefka and Master Kefka, is the main antagonist of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VI (known as Final Fantasy III on the SNES and Wii and the secondary antagonist of Dissidia Final Fantasy).He is the former court mage of Emperor Gestahl of the Gestahlian Empire, who plots to become the God of Magic and destroy all life and meaning in the universe. He is also the leader of his namesake secret society known as the Cult of Kefka.
He was voiced by Shigeru Chiba in Japanese language spin-offs, who also voices Professor Hojo in the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy, and Dave Wittenberg in English language spin-offs, the latter of whom also voiced Lee Sampson.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- While he has many funny lines and comedic moments, these do not detract him from his heinous actions and are taken incredibly seriously while maintaining a dark comedy, and they mostly only highlight how sadistic and twisted he is.
- Although he was a subject of the experiments by the Gesthalian Empire, nothing implies he was forced against his will. Furthermore, he maintained his moral agency and would become a weapon of mass destruction and grows to take pride in having magic powers to cause chaos. Additionally, he is only claimed to not "be the same" due to the imperfections in the experiments by a single side character in a one off line in FF6 itself. Meaning it is an informed attribute at the very most. Demonstrating that there is no in-universe evidence Kefka is truly insane.
- Before the beginning of the story, he placed a slave crown on Terra Branford's head and had her kill fifty of his cannon-fodder soldiers as a demonstration.
- Shortly after this, he and Gestahl have her and two soldiers attack Narshe. Most of the victims in the excessive numbers being killed during the “exhibition” purely out of Kefka’s own sadism.
Final Fantasy VI[]
- He is so cruel to his soldiers that they express considerably more hatred for him than they do his boss, despite the latter never chastising him for his inhuman cruelty.
- In addition to being cruel to his soldiers, Kefka encourages them to kill anything and anyone who stands in their way by saying this quote, "Read my lips. Mercy is for wimps! There’s reason why ‘dispose’ rhymes with ‘oppose.’ If they get in your way, KILL THEM!"
- Set ablaze Figaro Castle, which could have killed many people, to make clear his demand that Edgar hand over Terra to him.
- Poisons the water supply of the Kingdom of Doma against direct orders, doing so purely out of cruelty. This causes the death of several soldiers, the king, and even Cyan's wife and son.
- The situation up to that point: General Leo has Doma Castle besieged, and is likely to win in just a matter of time with minimal casualties. Sometime after Kefka arrives, Leo is summoned back to Vector to meet with the Emperor. Now there's no one to stop Kefka from dumping deadly poison into the Doma River, killing everyone in the castle; men, women, children, and imperial P.O.W.'s that he knew full well were still trapped inside.
- The kicker here, which cements this act as Kefka gleefully tapdancing and cackling his way across the Moral Event Horizon, is that the Empire was going to win anyway. There was absolutely no possible justification for this other than Kefka wanting to hear "the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison."
- The situation up to that point: General Leo has Doma Castle besieged, and is likely to win in just a matter of time with minimal casualties. Sometime after Kefka arrives, Leo is summoned back to Vector to meet with the Emperor. Now there's no one to stop Kefka from dumping deadly poison into the Doma River, killing everyone in the castle; men, women, children, and imperial P.O.W.'s that he knew full well were still trapped inside.
- He not only experiments on Espers and Humans for his own ends, but he also kicks some of the Espers into garbage chute and claims himself to be a god in one scene.
- Absorbs various Espers after his raid on Thamasa.
- He orders his men to destroy the village and then sadistically kills General Leo, taunting him for his kindness and saying he was a pawn.
- He assists Emperor Gestahl in seizing the power of the Warring Triad, intending to later betray and murder Emperor Gestahl so he could use that power to destroy almost the entire world.
- Before Kefka betrays Emperor Gestahl, he incites Celes to return to the Gestahlian Empire unharmed by giving her a sword for her to kill all her friends and hatefully berates and belittles Celes when she refuses and stabs him, giving him the idea for destruction.
- No matter how much Emperor Gestahl deserves to die for attempting to create a fascist world where a superior race with magi-tech would dominate all other beings, this action along with disturbing the balance of the Warring Triad were the exact reasons why there are new monsters in his tower and Kefka blows up the whole world and potentially causes the death of Shadow.
- While building his tower, he begins to develop nihilistic ideas, believing that life has no meaning, and decides to destroy all concepts of love, hope and dreams. Regardless of how bad his life started, in no means is Kefka right about destroying the rest of the world.
- Kefka shows absolutely no care, concern and grief to those who are loyal to him, other than nihilism.
- After he becomes the God of Magic, an organization called the Cult of Kefka is formed, and they were have likely been tasked by Kefka to reshape the universe in his own his image, according to them. So whatever heinous sacrifices and crimes the cult committed also falls under Kefka's shoulders, even if they are off-screen or never mentioned.
- He rules the world with an iron fist, massacring countless lives using the Light of Judgment across the world.
- When the heroes confront him and explain what they found in the broken world he created, he fires another ray of Light of Judgement. He later outlines that he will vow to destroy everything and create a "monument to non-existence”, indicating that he will destroy all of reality, which may result in the murder of an incalculable amount of lives.
- He says that once he is done there will be nothing left for anybody to enjoy in life. To make matter worse, when one of the party members states that life would go on and that there will always be people and dreams, he shouts in response "NO! I will hunt them down forever; I'll destroy them all!! Destroy....Destroy.....DESTROY!!!!!!!" This shows Kefka at his peak point of Chaotic Evil. After another person vows to stop Kefka from hurting anymore innocent people he giggles and replies with the quote "But what is the point in destruction if none of your so-called ‘precious’ lives are lost." and then does it again, showing all the more evilness inside him.
- The god statues are basically an insult to many people wanting to find meaning in the broken world he created.
- Kefka's final form seems to resemble an angel that is supposed to help humanity, but he puts his right hand aside and his left hand that rejects their pleas of help and later goes far to proving his nihilism by saying this quote when the heroes confront him for real this time; "Life...Dreams...Hope...Where do they come from and where do they go? These things...I'M GOING TO DESTROY, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" Kefka eventually gets a well-deserved defeat in the final battle.
- Even after his death, nobody is able to use magic ever again and this proven through the shattering of the Magicites. This means that he has wrecked reality simply because he felt like it and was also influenced by his own nihilism.
Trivia[]
- He is often considered to be "The Joker of Final Fantasy" by his fans, which Final Fantasy: Dissidia shows Square Enix's awareness of by giving him a distinctly Joker-esque voice in the game's English dub.
- Kefka Palazzo is the only Final Fantasy VI Pure Evil.
- Considering all his actions and goal to immerse the world into despair, Kefka Palazzo is one of the most evil villains not only in Final Fantasy series, but in history of fiction in general even compare to other Pure Evils.
- Kefka inspired Dimentio from Super Paper Mario, who is also a funny, chaotic, and sadistic jester who tried to destroy the multiverse.
External Links[]
- Kefka Palazzo on the Villains Wiki
- Kefka Palazzo on the Final Fantasy Wiki
- Kefka Palazzo on the VS Battles Wiki
- Kefka Palazzo on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Kefka Palazoo on the Main Light Horse Wiki
- Kefka Palazzo on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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