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Legacy

It's often fun to compare characters, and it's fairly easy to do so. After all, Kefka has some common villain traits, from the evil laugh down to the snarky one-liners. So how does he hold up against other villains? Please note that there will be spoilers in all of the below sections.

Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth

I'm sure you all saw this coming a thousand miles off. After all, as a Final Fantasy villain, it stands to reason Kefka should be compared with others of that line, and especially the most famous of them all and the one who stole all his popularity. (I can dream, right...?)

Anyway, Sephiroth is quite similiar to Kefka, from his whole destroy-the-world M.O. to his screwed-up-by-science past. Sephiroth, however, is given the tragic backstory Kefka never got. Sephiroth's descent into madness and its immediate results (read: Nibelheim) are thoroughly detailed, which makes him a tragic villain. He may have gone mad and tried to destroy the world, but it wasn't exactly his goal in life. In fact, as Crisis Core shows, he was actually quite sane (albeit cold and detached) before the whole Nibelheim thing. I'd actually say it's more Hojo's fault for all of his mad science — Sephiroth just became the villain as a result. (With some Jenova thrown in, but that alien always confused me.)

Overall, though, Sephiroth does have some interesting similiarities to Kefka, as I mentioned. Plus the fact that their final forms are both shirtless (very important) and bear a number of similarities in their attacks. There's only one other thing I have to say on the matter:

"Dancing Mad" trumps "One-Winged Angel" any day of the week.

Final Fantasy I - V: Final Bosses

Put simply, there are two things the final bosses of Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy V have in common, and that's a total lack of personality and megalomania. Even in the more story-oriented games like II and IV, the villains in the main story of the game are only pawns of the true villain, who rarely interacts with the main party. That's the role Kefka has for the first half of the game, at least until he overthrows Gesthal and takes over the world. My point is, he's the first Final Fantasy villain to have more involvement in the overall plot (and a personality to boot).

Tales of Phantasia: Dhaos

I can never pass up a ToP reference, after all. For those of you are not obsessed fans of the game like me and/or have never heard of or played it, Dhaos is the time-travelling villain the heroes must defeat to save their world. For most of the game, his intentions (other than destroying all those who try to use magitech and/or oppose him) are unknown. It's only after he's vanquished that the party discovers he was only trying to save his world from ruin by getting an important object from theirs. (A little heads up would've been nice, Dhaos.)

For the most part, he's remarkably similiar to Kefka in that he seeks  total destruction, since he believes he needs to get rid of humanity in order to get the item he needs. But unlike Kefka, he actually has a motive for what he does, except for that it is discovered too late. It's an interesting look at the villain stereotype — if anything, he's an anti-villain — and shows what Kefka easily could have been if he had a noble purpose behind his actions.

The Dark Knight: the Joker

Not your usual comparison, but one I think holds some water. The Joker in the 2008 film The Dark Knight is a villain who, like Kefka, is so lacking in humanity he could be called nothing more than a monster. The Joker himself tells his "tragic tale" but differently every time, which to me devalues the story. Basically, the Joker is a character who seeks chaos for the sake of chaos, and needs no further incentive. And, of course, his physical appearance — that of a mad clown — is certainly similiar to Kefka. (Please note that my knowledge of the character is entirely based on the film, so please forgive any inaccuracies due to my lack of Batman knowledge.)

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