Final Fantasy VI/Characters

A character sheet for Final Fantasy VI, originally released for the SNES in North America as Final Fantasy III. If you're looking for the characters from the actual Final Fantasy III, see Final Fantasy III.

Everyone
"Kefka Palazzo: Bleh! You people make me sick! You sound like the chapters from a self-help book!"
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Most notably Terra, from Amano-artwork blonde to in-game green (and back to blonde everywhere else). Other characters had their hair turned into warm grey color (amusingly, Relm's portrait shows her original blonde hair color).
 * Desperation Attack: As a precursor to the Limit Break that made a proper debut as a battle mechanic in the next game, everyone except Gau and Umaro has one super-strong attack they may perform randomly while in critical health.
 * Patrick Stewart Speech: The Whole party minus the optional ones give one to Kefka when he tells the party that life is meaningless. Suffice to say, He is not amused.


 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Kefka believes that life is meaningless because everything you create will eventually be destroyed, and eventually, you will die. Terra then states that the sum of one's life isn't what important: it's the day-to-day concerns, the personal triumphs, the celebration of life and love, and being able to experience the joy that every day of your life can bring.
 * Stone Wall:
 * Terra and Celes have access to the best equipment in the game. When placed in the back row, both of them become nigh-unkillable.
 * Gau and Mog have access to the Snow Muffler, which bar-none has the highest defense stats in the game. Their helmet and shield can be subpar and they'll still get the max defense stat allowed, at which point most normal attacks do only a single point of damage.
 * Even without the Snow Muffler, Gau's Magic Pot Rage is this: has a chance to cast Curaga on itself every turn, healing a lot of HP, and is immune to all status ailments and elemental attacks.

Heroes
Note: while this game has Loads and Loads of Characters in its Ensemble Cast, Terra is considered to be the central protagonist. They're listed in (roughly) the order you get to acquire them.

Terra/Tina Branford
ティナ・ブランフォード Tina Buranfōdo

""A mysterious young woman, controlled by The Empire, and born with The Gift of magic...""


 * Ace Pilot: Terra has access to more attacks in the Magitek Armor in addition of standard three elemental beams and one healing move. In the Game Boy Advance version, her class name is Magitek Elite.
 * Action Girl
 * Action Mom:.
 * Audience Surrogate: For much of the first half of the game, barring her lengthy absence at one point.
 * Badass Abnormal
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: Her Esper form.
 * Berserk Button: Don't try to harm the children or her True Companions in her presence.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Used in conjunction with the Mind Control Device, albeit very briefly at the beginning of the game.
 * Break the Cutie: Ever since she was a newborn, she had to suffer under enslavement to the Gestahlian Empire. First, she was pretty much raised in a loveless environment. Then, Kefka basically places a mind control device on her against her will, causing her to be forced to fry several Imperial troops alive under his command (50 soldiers, to be precise).
 * Catch a Falling Star: In the ending when escaping Kefka's Tower, Terra's magical powers cease to exist, making her fall. The rest of the party uses the Cool Airship to catch her.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Her Esper form follows this trope... on a good day.
 * Detached Sleeves: She sports them in Amano's artwork.
 * Determinator: As soon as she recovers from whatever emotional trauma she was experiencing (amnesia and the power leak caused by emotional confusion), she becomes like this.
 * Doomed Hometown: She was born in the alternate realm of the Espers, so it's more like Doomed Homeworld.
 * Dub Name Change: From Tina to Terra, so it would still sound "exotic" to Western players.
 * Easy Amnesia: By way of a Mind Control Device.
 * Fantastic Nuke: Storywise, Terra can be considered as one. Gameplay-wise, she is the only one who can learn the Ultima spell simply by leveling up. Of course, by the time she learns it, the entire party will probably know how to do it from using the Ragnarok magicite.
 * Fantastic Racism: Terra's "mixed" lineage, her feelings about it, the historical treatment of espers and the reaction to her existence all have shades of this.
 * Flashback Nightmare: When she falls down the cave and is knocked out, she undergoes a terrifying flashback revealing that she was placed under mind control via a hypno trinket by Kefka, forced against her will to burn fifty Imperial Troopers alive, and being present for Emperor Gestahl's war speech.
 * Go Mad from the Revelation: Let's just say that she didn't take the revelation about her heritage very well. She gets better.
 * Gorgeous Gorgon: While there are no otherwise repulsive features, in Amano's artwork, her Esper form is depicted as quite... feral. It makes sense, as she is only half-Esper, and her father Maduin resembles the Gigas monster from Final Fantasy V, which is very human-looking.
 * Green Eyes: Her sprite, though it's hard to tell. Her Final Fantasy Anthology renders show them in full.
 * Hair of Gold: In Amano's artwork.
 * The Hero: According to Word of God, the game wasn't meant to have a main character as the entire cast was given time to shine, but the plot revolves around her for the first half of the game. If you skip recruiting her in the World of Ruin, she still rushes to the final dungeon to take part in the ending sequence. She's effectively become the face of the game due to Dissidia.
 * Heroic BSOD: Early in Act 1, when it's brought up to her for the first time that she may not be human.
 * Hot Chick with a Sword
 * How Do I Shot Web?: How do I controlled my Esper side?
 * Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad
 * Hypno Trinket: The specific method behind her initial Brainwashed and Crazy state.
 * Impairment Shot: Gets quite a few of these in beginning due to amnesia, headache, exhaustion and blunt head trauma before she passes out.
 * Magic Knight
 * Mama Bear: Threaten her, enslave her, or try to kill her and she'll shrug it off. But if you have the bright idea to threaten her and attack her True Companions, well... I hope you like fire.
 * Meaningful Name: Her English name is Latin for "Earth". Also, her Japanese name Tina was picked for more reasons than simply because it was an exotic name in Japan than in the West: Tina is the shortened version of Christiana, which is the feminine form of "Christian", and is also the name of an early saint who was tormented by her pagan father. Similar to that early saint, Terra was tormented by the Empire when they took her as a child.
 * Mind Control Device: Forced to wear the Slave Crown.
 * My Name Is ???: In the beginning.
 * Mysterious Waif
 * Mystical Waif
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Terra has a pendant which only appears as a key item and is only mentioned once in the story.
 * Parental Abandonment: Her father is captured and her mother is killed.
 * Phlebotinum Rebel
 * Playing with Fire: Terra's default spells are fire element spells.
 * Power Glows: Some Fanon holds that this is actually the explanation for the Barbie Doll Anatomy: the glow is so bright, it obscures her clothes (thus, she's still clothed and wouldn't be showing that anatomy). Amano's artwork has it as a case of Fur Bikini.
 * The Power of Love: In the World of Ruin,.
 * Promotion to Parent
 * Put on a Bus: After the battle in Narshe and her transformation into an Esper, Terra flies away as her powers go out of control. When her friends find her in Zozo, they discover that she still needs some time to get her head together. The Bus Came Back when the other Returners revisit Zozo after rescuing the Espers from Vector. Terra's regained her memories and made peace with who she is, and she rejoins the party.
 * Reluctant Warrior: Isn't much up to fighting in the World of Ruin during her Character Development. Wasn't all that keen on the idea in the World of Balance either.
 * Required Party Member: For the Esper Gate.
 * Sorry I'm Late: Terra.
 * Super Mode: Morph/Trance: it doubles her magical and physical damage, doubles her heals, and halves all the magic damage she takes (unless they are barrier-piercing spells). This ability is called the Boss Killer with good reason.
 * Sword Beam: Her Riot Blade Desperation Attack.
 * Team Mom: It doesn't quite show until later. This also naturally implies another trope is waiting in the wings at any time.
 * Ten-Minute Retirement: All characters experience this to some degree in the World of Ruin, but Terra's is the most prominent.
 * Took a Level in Badass: After she returns in the World of Ruin, not only is she more confident in who she is, but her Morph meter depletes at a much slower rate.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?: A big issue for Terra. Espers are not naturally emotional creatures, y'see; which leads to her powers being sapped to pretty much nothing while she struggles with learning how to love in the second half of the game. That, as well as the fact that her brief enslavement to the slave crown also rendered her temporarily incapable of feeling emotions after breaking free of it.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Her in-game appearance has green hair.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?: A big issue for Terra. Espers are not naturally emotional creatures, y'see; which leads to her powers being sapped to pretty much nothing while she struggles with learning how to love in the second half of the game. That, as well as the fact that her brief enslavement to the slave crown also rendered her temporarily incapable of feeling emotions after breaking free of it.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Her in-game appearance has green hair.

Locke/Lock Cole
ロック・コール Rokku Kōru

""Treasure hunter and trail-worn traveller, searching the world over for relics of the past...""


 * Bad Bad Acting: His improvised on the spot acting after he, his comrades and Ultros unintentionally hijack the Opera.
 * Berserk Button: Don't call him a thief!
 * Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word
 * Bodyguard Crush: Locke swears to protect Celes because she reminds him of Rachel: he eventually falls in love with her.
 * Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: All it takes is a spin (during battle).
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: See below.
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: In this case, he'll rip your lungs out if you keep calling him a thief (Ted Woolsey translation only).
 * Dressing as the Enemy: During his escape from South Figaro, Locke does this by stealing his enemy's clothes... during combat.
 * Dude, She's Like, A CORPSE!: His fixation on.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: The reason behind it is tragic.
 * Failure Knight: Played straight with Rachel. He couldn't save her from her accident and he wasn't in Kohlingen when The Empire attacked and killed her..
 * Gentleman Treasure Hunter: Locke is a TREASURE HUNTER, but I'll be damned if he isn't the nicest one you'll ever meet.
 * Iconic Item: His bandana.
 * I Let Gwen Stacy Die
 * Insistent Terminology: Locke doesn't call himself a "thief". He prefers (with threats of bodily harm) to be referred to as a "treasure hunter".
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: He isn't fooling anybody with his Treasure Hunter speech.
 * The Lancer: To Terra. He accompanies her during two fair stretches of the game, and when she's Put on a Bus, Locke effectively takes over as the leader of the group until she comes back, one segment during that time revealing his backstory at last.
 * Loveable Rogue
 * Love Hurts: Locke can't forgive himself for what happened to Rachel.
 * Meaningful Name/Gratuitous German: Lock Cole comes from a town called Kohlingen, which is roughly equivalent to a town name like "Coalton".
 * Mugged for Disguise: When Locke is trapped in South Figaro after the Empire takes over, he can steal the clothes from merchants and imperial soldiers to disguise himself as one of them. Somehow, this works flawlessly.
 * My Greatest Failure: Rachel's accident and death.
 * My Greatest Second Chance:.
 * Required Party Member: With Celes after Zozo.
 * Spell My Name with an "S"
 * Take My Hand: During the ending, Locke does this to Celes.

Edgar Roni Figaro
エドガー・ロニ・フィガロ Edogā Roni Figaro

""The young king of Figaro Castle, ally to the Empire, and a master designer of machinery...""

""Here's hoping you're still around in eight years, kid.""
 * Anchors Away: His Air Anchor tool, which may insta-kill an enemy.
 * Annoying Arrows: Averted; the auto-crossbow is a very good tool.
 * As Many X as There Are Y: When Kefka inquires about Terra, Edgar responds, "There are more girls in here than grains of sand out there; I can't possibly keep track of them all!". His castle is in the middle of a desert.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Automatic Crossbows: His first (and arguably his most useful, before they become obsolete) tool.
 * Blade on a Stick: With the Dragoon equipment, spears and pikes become his most powerful weapons later in the game.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: OK, he's incredibly weird, he'll hit on any female of age, and his icon depicts him with a goofy grin, but he created several advanced machines (including a castle that can submerge into the ground and emerge hundreds of miles away) and is a very good ruler.
 * Chainsaw Good: Edgar can use a chainsaw that sometimes kills the enemy in one hit.
 * The Chains of Commanding: After their father's death, Edgar and Sabin were to co-rule. Both wanted out, but at the same time didn't want to plunge the kingdom into chaos their absence would cause. So they settled it with the coin toss. Edgar, being the protective brother he is, rigged the toss with a double-headed coin so it landed in Sabin's favor.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Or at least he tries to be...
 * Cultured Badass
 * Dirty Old Man: Kind of. He's not actually old, but he has some banter with Relm Arrowny (depending on the translation) to this effect. Relm is ten years old and probably young enough to be his daughter.
 * It's worth noting that his actual dialogue is extremely cynical, as it's delivered just after a huge Player Punch. He more or less is saying that he hopes Relm isn't dead by the time she's of marriageable age, which is a distinct possibility:

"Edgar (regarding Relm): Not even a lady yet... Here's hoping you're still around in eight years, kid."
 * Disc One Nuke: Edgar is easily the strongest member of your team when you get him, thanks to his Auto Crossbow ability which attacks all enemies for more damage than normal attacks will do, so no cost to MP or anything. However, once you get to Zozo and learn magic, its power wanes in comparison to the HP of enemies.
 * The Dutiful Son: Edgar willingly stayed behind to rule over Figaro when Sabin became so desperate to strike out on his own. Edgar eventually settled the matter with a rigged coin toss that allowed Sabin to leave with a clear conscience.
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Guile Hero: All of his greatest moments involve outwitting someone rather than defeating them through strength. His own twin doesn't always know what he's up to.
 * Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: A random effect with the chainsaw.
 * Insists on Paying: If you have him at the head of your party while in Figaro Castle, the shopkeepers there will refuse to take any payment. Edgar insists ("Look, don't you have a family to feed?"), and the player gets a nice discount as a compromise.
 * The Jailbait Wait:


 * King Incognito: Well, sort of. "Gerad", heh heh.
 * Mighty Glacier: He can give and take a lot of punishment, particularly since he tends to stay in the back row, but he's also very slow.
 * Modest Royalty
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Appears to be his Modus Operandi for keeping the empire from getting suspicious about his activities.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: As Bandit Chief Gerad, who looks identical to Edgar but with a Palette Swap: how the hell didn't the thieves recognize him? Celes even lampshades this, noting that Edgar was the one who threw most of them in jail in the first place.
 * Rain of Arrows: It IS an automatic crossbow after all.
 * Reluctant Ruler: He didn't particularly want to become the king.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is the king of Figaro, and one of your most versatile and most valuable party members.
 * Significant Anagram: "Gerad" in the English version; his alias is "Geoff" in the Japanese version.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: A possible subversion. He's known as a flirt to his subjects (and the children want to marry him), but his banter to Terra and Celes is not reciprocated. If one pays attention though, he only attempts it once as a kind of greeting and treats them normally from then on.
 * Something Only They Would Say: When in his "Gerad" disguise, he tries to get rid of Celes while saying "My Lady". Celes responds that only Edgar would address her that way, and after a moment of silence, he declares that "My Lady" is a fairly common way of addressing someone. In the GBA translation, he refers to Celes as a "beautiful lady", saying that it's common courtesy to be polite to ladies.
 * Status Buff Dispel: Edgar's Debilitator tool adds an elemental weakness to an enemy. Being completely random, you could easily end up with a fire-spitting dragon that's suddenly weak to fire, and you could reuse it until an enemy was weak to every element.
 * This Is a Drill: Edgar's toolset includes one massive power drill, complete with safety helmet.
 * With This Herring: The King of Figaro has joined the party! That means lots of resources right? Wrong. At least the shops give you a discount. Somewhat justified in that he spends most of the game on the run, or with his kingdom in shambles.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: It comes off when he talks to Sabin in the throne room.

Sabin/Macías "Mash" Rene Figaro
マッシュ・レネ・フィガロ Masshu Rene Figaro

""Edgar's twin brother, who traded the throne for his own freedom...""

"Sabin: Thou art such a pain in the...! Confound it all! I'm starting to talk like you!"
 * Action Commands: His Blitz/Deathblow attacks require controller inputs, but you can't use them until you've actually learned them in-game.
 * Animal Battle Aura: Tiger Break.
 * Badass: As Spoony put it: MOTHERFUCKER SUPLEXED A TRAIN! The programmers forgot to make Phantom Train immune to Suplexes... See Charles Atlas Superpower below.
 * Badass Beard: In some Amano artwork. He's clean-shaven in the in-game sprites, portraits and CG art though.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk
 * The Bear: Sabin refers to himself as a bear during the cutscene on Mt. Kolts. Considering what being a Bear refers to in the real world, this is Hilarious in Hindsight, even if intentional. Depending on the artist, Sabin certainly has more of the body type for it, with Amano tending towards the hairier with Badass Beard and CG art tending towards the smoother and beardless. None of this necessarily means Sabin is actually gay (it's still entirely possible he's not), but that he's a "bear" with a fittingly bearish body type. This, along with the fact that he's one of the only adult male main cast (along with Strago) who is never shown expressing any kind of interest in women, has brought him more Fan Yay by far than any other male character in the game.
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: The dude can suplex a train, and manages to hold up a collapsing burning building for several minutes during a sequence later in the game. The former's a bug. The latter is canon and is vital to the story.
 * Defector From Decadence: In a manner of speaking.
 * Dub Name Change: From Mash to Sabin, to give him a royal-sounding name (although—little-known fact—Mash is in fact a short form for the none-too-common name 'Macias').
 * Duel Boss: After Vargas blows everyone except Sabin away, it becomes Sabin vs. Vargas.
 * Got Me Doing It: After having a hard time trying to instruct Cyan on how to operate the Magitek armor:

"Sabin: Oh, for...! Thou art getting to be quite a pain in the-- Great, now I'm even starting to talk like you!"
 * In the GBA version:

"Sabin: "I told you before... My name is NOT 'Mr. Thou'!""
 * Holy Hand Grenade: Sabin's Aura Bolt Blitz does Holy elemental damage.
 * Informed Deformity: After a flashback to Edgar and Sabin as children, the person telling the story comments that at that time Sabin was small - even smaller than Edgar. However, the flashback used the same sprites as the rest of the game, when Sabin is a very large bodybuilder.
 * Insists on Paying
 * Kamehame Hadoken: Aura Bolt/Cannon.
 * Ki Attacks
 * Lightning Bruiser: At higher levels, you can make him so powerful as to render his Blitzes useless. He's the strongest and one of the fastest characters in the game.
 * At a high level with two high-end weapons and the Genji Glove and Master's Scroll and he becomes a borderline Game Breaker that can take down Kefka in a few turns.
 * Load-Bearing Hero: Two examples: When he holds up the collapsing house so that Celes can save the child trapped inside, and during the ending, when he saves his brother from some collapsing junk.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood:


 * Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs
 * Razor Wind: One of his Blitzes.
 * Rebel Prince
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something
 * Shirtless Scene: Occasionally, in official artwork and CGI animation. He'd be a Walking Shirtless Scene except for the fact that he does often wear a shirt (and his game sprites are always sporting one).
 * Shout-Out: He's a walking shoutout to fighting games in general.
 * The first Blitz you learn is a picture perfect Zanretsuken, right down to the input command.
 * Guess what the input for Aura Cannon is? Quarter-circle forward + A.
 * Some Dexterity Required: Sabin's Blitz techniques, while freed from many variables in Fighting Games, still require pulling off Street Fighter-esque input commands. However, the game is much more lenient, and not only can commands be given one button press at a time, but the more difficult ones (even the 360-motion Bum Rush/Phantom Rush) can be performed with easy and simplified button presses.
 * Sorry I'm Late: Shows up when the party fights Vargas.
 * Supernatural Martial Arts
 * Time to Unlock More True Potential: The Bum/Phantom Rush Blitz/Battle Dance Death Blow.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: In the FMV.
 * Wolverine Claws: His Weapon of Choice.
 * You Shouldn't Know This Already: Some of the blitzes Sabin learns.

Celes Chere
セリス・シェール Serisu Shēru

""Product of genetic engineering, battle-hardened Magitek Knight with a spirit as pure as snow...""

""I'm a general, not some love-starved twit!""
 * Action Girl: She was an Imperial General, you know.
 * The Aloner: The possibility of being the last living person in the world after is not a pretty thought.
 * An Ice Person: Her default spells are all ice-oriented.
 * Anti-Magic: Her Runic/Seal ability.
 * The Atoner: Joins the Returners partially out of a desire to atone for her crimes as a member of the Imperial army. Her most specific described war atrocity was the burning of Maranda.
 * Audience Surrogate: Celes assumes this role for the second half of the game, though it gradually gives way as she is rejoined with more of her friends. In the ending, she becomes the viewpoint character again for the most part, and and expresses the most concern over Terra's disappearance. She, Edgar and Setzer are the only characters you must have to finish the game.
 * Badass Abnormal: Albeit made this way artificially.
 * Barrier Warrior: See above.
 * Broken Bird
 * Capulet Counterpart: Exceedingly so.
 * The Chick: As far as the storyline goes, not necessarily gameplay... in both the positive and negative aspects. She's the "heart" that pulls the group back together in the World of Ruin. She also spends much of her spotlight in the game pining over Locke. She also doesn't act very much like someone who was once one of the Empire's top three generals, although one of the others didn't turn out to be very stable either.
 * Concert Climax: She is a Replacement Singer for the opera and the target of Ultros' 4-ton anvil.
 * Convenient Coma: Celes was in a coma during the first year in the World of Ruin.
 * Dark Reprise: The Aria that Celes sings during the opera is repeated in her character theme/leitmotif... the night before Terra, Locke, Shadow, Celes and Leo parts to Thamasa from the Albrook port, when Locke is trying to apologize to Celes for thinking that she was a traitor during the confrontation with Kefka in the Magitek Lab. It plays again when.
 * Defector From Decadence: Committed treason when she realized that Kefka planned on poisoning Doma's water supply.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Joins the party with a very cold attitude, and then Locke gradually defrosts her. After the halfway point of the game, Celes becomes much more friendly towards the rest of the party and is altogether more optimistic and hopeful, to the point where she eventually becomes their unifying force.
 * Despair Event Horizon: After Celes wakes up from a year long coma to realize that the world really was destroyed, she's stranded on a deserted island with Cid, and everyone she knew is probably dead, the last event that completely destroys any lingering sense of hope is and leads to her.
 * Detached Sleeves: The Amano artwork.
 * She survives it though. It can actually be avoided altogether.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in the background of one of Terra's flashbacks long before she appears in the main game.
 * Emergency Impersonation: Celes has to impersonate Maria so you can find a way onto Setzer's airship.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Her Desperation Move.
 * Foil: To Terra. Their spell lists are even mirror images, Celes focusing on Ice and defensive status spells while Terra has Fire and offensive status spells.
 * Hair of Gold: In both the artwork and her sprites.
 * Heel Face Mole: Suggested by Kefka.
 * Heel Face Turn: Before the game begins, Celes burns Maranda to the ground: she's the reason that everyone is rebuilding the town when you visit. After Locke rescues her in Figaro, Celes joins the Returners.
 * High Heel Face Turn
 * Hot Chick with a Sword: Her above-mentioned Runic ability even requires a sword to work (it's disabled with any other weapon).
 * Identical Stranger: Celes and Maria.
 * I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Twice.
 * I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Twice.


 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness
 * Lady of War: She's entirely capable of being a melee character and succeeding quite well at it.
 * Leotard of Power: Her in-game sprite.
 * Lonely at the Top: Her character description in the GBA retranslation screams this when it says, "None have ever truly known the woman beneath the general's guise..."
 * Love Hurts:.
 * Magic Knight: She's one of two characters that can naturally learn magic and her special skill Runic Blade will absorb any spell cast during a battle.
 * Memento MacGuffin: Finding Locke's bandana tied around a seagull is what gives her the hope to get off of the solitary island and start searching for her friends after her . It appears again in the ending.
 * The Mole: Subverted: Although Kefka implies that she was a double agent to the Returners, she actually did defect to the Returners, proving her loyalty by teleporting Kefka away before he could attack.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Celes may have had the noble intention of trying to prove her loyalty to the Returners even when Gestahl and Kefka told her to kill them to redeem herself for her betraying the Empire, but stabbing Kefka was a very bad move, as . Either that, or she should have decapitated him.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: It's CELL-iss, not Ce-LESS.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Worn when she was in the opera.
 * Please Wake Up:.
 * The Power of Love:, Celes will see a pigeon on the beach with a blue bandanna wrapped around its wound. Celes recognizes it as Locke's bandanna and knows that he must be alive. Knowing that Locke is out there somewhere is enough motivation for Celes to leave Solitary Island and find her friends.
 * Putting the Band Back Together: In the second half of the game.
 * Required Party Member: With Locke after Zozo.
 * Second Love: For Locke.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: When she poses as Maria. Leading to an amusing moment of Locke staring at her bosom. Particularly funny, consider that, as mentioned above, her normal in-game costume is a Leotard of Power, and therefore not terribly modest.
 * Sparkling Stream of Tears: Twice, after.
 * Statuesque Stunner: Skirts the line at 5'8".
 * Super Soldier
 * Tyke Bomb: The Empire infused Celes with magic at a young age, much like was done to Kefka, except it didn't cause mental instability in Celes since by that time the process had been refined. Kids have better mental rebound as well.
 * Useless Useful Ability: Runic absorbs magic cast by enemies and party members alike, and by the time the enemies you face use magic enough to warrant its use, you're relying on magic heavily too. However, stick Celes in a party of characters who don't need magic to deal heavy damage, add in, say, Mog or Strago so they can use healing attacks with their special skills, and Runic will render a lot of enemies impotent.
 * Visible Silence: Her attitude towards Locke after the events in the Magitek Labs.
 * Wink Ding: After she got on Setzer's Airship.
 * Younger Than They Look: Celes is only 18 years old at the start of the game, and 19 years old when she wakes up on Solitary Island.

"Shadow"
シャドウ Shadou

""He owes allegiance to no one, and will do anything for money. He comes and goes like the wind...""

"Shadow: "There are people in this world who have chosen to kill their own emotions. Remember that.""
 * Badass Ninja: Including many of the abilities that usually come along with that class in the series, such as throwing weapons.
 * Blood Knight: When you defeat him in the Colosseum, your party asks him what he's doing there, and he explains that fighting is the only thing he knows how to do. He eventually agrees to join the Returners, mostly so he can put his skills up to the ultimate challenge. The reason for this isn't revealed until much later, and then only to the player.
 * Canine Companion: Interceptor.
 * Counter Attack: Interceptor will occasionally block and counter attacks from enemies.
 * Dark and Troubled Past:.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: He wears all black, and is hinted to kill for money, but overall, he's not half-bad.
 * Death Seeker:.
 * Defeat Means Playable: In the World of Ruin.
 * The Drifter: In the World of Balance, sans the Floating Continent, Shadow can leave the party at set points in the story, or after he's earned enough money to earn his hiring fee.
 * Flashback Nightmare: Shadow is haunted by his inability to put his friend, Baram, out of his misery.
 * Game Breaking Bug: "Interceptor" is considered a permanent status effect for Shadow, and unfortunately, this makes it vulnerable to the infamous Rippler glitch. If an enemy snatches up Shadow's status and is then killed, kiss his beloved pooch good-bye outside of story sequences.
 * Guest Star Party Member: He'll join your party at a few points throughout the first half of the game, but will decide to leave either through random chance after an enemy encounter or at designated points in the plot (he signs up permanently later on though).
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate:.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
 * Interface Spoiler:.
 * Ironic Echo: More evident in the GBA translation, in which Edgar claims that Shadow would kill his best friend for the right price. As mentioned above, however, he couldn't.
 * I Work Alone: After the Fire incident in Thamasa, Shadow tells the rest of the party that he will look for the espers by his own way.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Not outright stated (at least until possibly a 1995 interview with Squaresoft), but his dreams heavily imply that.
 * A Man and His Dog: With Interceptor.
 * Mercy Kill:.
 * Morality Pet: Shadow's devotion to his dog Interceptor is one of the chief things that humanizes him.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname:.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran:.
 * Shoo the Dog:.
 * The Stoic: Shadow hardly says anything during the game and very rarely, if ever, shows any emotion.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname:.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran:.
 * Shoo the Dog:.
 * The Stoic: Shadow hardly says anything during the game and very rarely, if ever, shows any emotion.
 * The Stoic: Shadow hardly says anything during the game and very rarely, if ever, shows any emotion.


 * Temporary Scrappy: He's an obligatory party member on the Floating Continent, which features the most powerful monsters in the game up to that point. However he's never been a part of the party since Zozo so he hasn't had time to learn magic. Unless you go out of your way to teach him some before going to Thamasa during the very short sequence he joins up prior he's going to have no magic, and if you didn't know he was going to reappear you probably don't have equipment for him to wear either.
 * Troubled but Cute: If you're not immediately scared off by him.
 * Wild Card

Cyan/Cayenne Garamonde
カイエン・ガラモンド Kaien Garamondo

""Faithful retainer to his family's liege, with the courage and strength of a hundred men...""


 * Awesome but Impractical: Cyan's Sword Techs may seem impressive, but it takes so long for the gauge to fill up that it isn't really worth it; by the time the Sword Tech gauge fills up, your other three characters will likely have been standing around for a good 3–4 seconds when they could have been told to do something else. "Psycho Cyan" on the other hand...
 * Badass Grandpa This man had the sheer balls to take on the whole Imperial Army at Doma... AND WAS WINNING!
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind:.
 * Chick Magnet: To Cyan's own chagrin, especially considering he was recently widowed.
 * The Comically Serious
 * Cool Old Guy: He's 50.
 * Counter Attack: One of his Sword Techs.
 * Covert Pervert: If you look in Cyan's secret box at Mt. Zozo when Cyan isn't in the party, you can find several books, among them Machinery for Dunces, A Pictorial Guide to Machines, Everything about Machines, Machines for the Mechinically Disinclined, and Bushido in the Bedroom.
 * Crutch Character: Borderline example: his later Sword Techs/Bushido requires very long waiting, leaving the party at enemy's mercy. This can be avoided by making Cyan go last, and by the time other party members finished their attacks, Cyan is ready to kickass, and since Final Fantasy VI is the starting point in a series when attacks have noticeably longer animations... You still have to delay your whole team in order to make him go last, though, and you'll still usually be slowing your team down if you go after the high-level Bushidos. That said, if you put him in the same party as Gau, Mog or Umaro, they can still attack while Cyan is charging. In addition, Cyan's Level 1 Bushido attack, which can be activated as soon as you select it, is quite powerful, capable of piercing defense, and can get you through a lot of early battles on its own.
 * Cultured Warrior: He's very skilled at making hand-crafted silk flowers, and he's also a talented poet.
 * Dead Family
 * Dead Person Impersonation: Writes letters and sends flowers to the girlfriend of the dead soldier he met in Mobliz to make her happy.
 * Doomed Hometown: He's one of the few survivors after Kefka poisons Doma's water supply.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai
 * Failure Knight: He is one of only two known survivors of Doma Castle. Even his wife and child die when Kefka poisons the river (the other on-screen survivor is an unnamed soldier who together with Cyan is searching the castle for more survivors; he is never seen or mentioned again after Cyan discovers his dead family and goes berserk).
 * It's All My Fault: He blames himself for not stopping Kefka from poisoning the river, even though there's no way he could have known the bastard was going to do it. Wrexsoul and the Dream Stooges cheerfully exploit his guilt.
 * Japanese Honorifics: He speaks using lingo reserved for samurai, including heavy use of "de gozaru", in the original script.
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice: Not as exaggerated as other examples of this trope, but there it is.
 * Mighty Glacier: Cyan is one of the slowest characters in the game. His Bushido is one of the slowest attacks in the game. Cyan can take a lot of damage. His Bushido can do a lot of damage.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Many pronounce it See-anne or Sai-anne, but it's pronounced Kai-en.
 * Old Retainer
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The death of his wife and son, not to mention his entire kingdom, sends him into one, as he charges toward the Imperial camp.
 * Samurai
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran
 * Single-Stroke Battle: His ultimate Sword Technique.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Due to the character limit.
 * The Strength of Ten Men
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: About his aversion to machines.
 * Walking Techbane: He is NOT good with machines. He tries to learn more about how to use them over the course of the game though.
 * Watching Troy Burn
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Cyan's dialogue, originally written in what is sometimes called the "samurai dialect" of Japanese, extensively uses "thee" and "thou" even where grammatically inappropriate. Other characters make fun of him for it. Thankfully, they fixed this in the retranslation, and his Early Modern English is much more grammatically correct.

Gau
ガウ Gau

""Draped in monster hides, eyes shining with intelligence, a youth surviving against all odds...""


 * Badass Adorable: Being able to survive in a fierce wilderness and kick the ass of monsters bigger than you since you were barely old enough to walk should qualify anyone as this.
 * Bare Your Midriff
 * The Berserker: When Rage is initiated, although unlike the Berserker status in the series, he has a 50-50 chance of either physically attacking, or using the special move related to the specific "Rage" he's using.
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Death by Childbirth: The reason his father went mad and abandoned him on the Veldt.
 * Difficult but Awesome
 * Disc One Nuke: Several of Gau's rages use abilities for free that are ordinarily not available until later; for example, using Rhinox allows you to use Reraise, for no MP cost, in the World of Balance.
 * Ditto Fighter
 * Does Not Like Shoes: To tell the truth, he doesn't like civilized clothing in general as he finds it cumbersome and uncomfortable. Hence why his best "armor" is the Snow Scarf.
 * Fairy Battle: This is how Sabin and Cyan recruit him.
 * Hulk Speak
 * Innocent Fanservice Girl: Some Amano concept art showed him naked (but not showing parts). This would have been entirely logical for a Wild Child in Real Life. The in-game graphics and the more well-known art show Gau wearing his more familiar animal skin clothes.
 * Insistent Terminology: MR. THOU!
 * Lethal Joke Character: He's completely uncontrollable and all of the Rages he actually starts with suck, which makes many players dislike him. If you train and equip him correctly though, he can be extremely effective.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Perhaps to make up for his uncontrollable nature and inability to equip weapons, Gau has all-around great stats.
 * Makeover Montage
 * Mega Manning: His Rages: one for almost every enemy in the game.
 * Nature Hero
 * Offing the Offspring: His father, went mad by grief of losing his wife, threw his own son to the Veldt.
 * Parental Abandonment
 * Raised by Wolves
 * Twenty Bear Asses: His Rages. Collecting them all is no easy feat.
 * Verbal Tic Name: Gau is actually a Japanese onomatopoeia for roaring.
 * Wild Child: Deconstructed, as the game actually looks into the rather terrible circumstances that would produce one.
 * Wild Hair: Obligatory.

Setzer Gabbiani
セッツァー・ギャッビアーニ Settsā Gyabbiāni

""A blackjack-playing, world-traveling, casino-dwelling free spirit...""


 * Badass Longcoat
 * Catch Phrase: "My life is a chip in your pile. Ante up!"
 * Cool Airship: The Blackjack..
 * Critical Failure: 7-7-Bar, you're dead.
 * The Dandy
 * Death Dealer: Setzer can obtain a set of cards called "Trump Cards", which have a small chance of landing a One-Hit Kill.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: How he spend his time in his Heroic BSOD.
 * Flechette Storm: His cards. Give him a specific relic and you got a Gil Toss ability where he throws money.
 * The Gambler: He's a firm believer of luck and will gamble everything, even his own life. Not to mention that he will never use under-handedly trick in his gamble other than skill, making his cameo in Kingdom Hearts II Out of Character. This got Take That and Lampshade Hanging in a same statement in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face is covered in scars from many gamble seasons went wrong.
 * Heroic Albino: There's still some debate over whether his character is actually albino, or just has really, really light blond hair.
 * Heroic BSOD: In World of Ruin, he seemed like had lose hope after 'losing his wings'. Only after Celes gave him an ear of World of Cardboard Speech, he finally unearthed.
 * Improbable Piloting Skills: This man caught a falling person with his bow of his airship. A zeppelin-shaped airship.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Cards, Darts and Dice.
 * Purple Eyes
 * Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Setzer's Slot command can pull this off in two ways. One is to get 7-7-Bar on the machine, which kills the entire party. The other is getting three bars to trigger a random Esper summon. If the game randomly decides to summon Crusader when your party is still weak, you'll be wiped out.
 * Sky Pirate
 * Summon Magic: Two of his Slots results. Three bars brings up a random Esper, while three silver dragons will always summon Bahamut.
 * Take My Hand: Does this to Terra and to Celes in the massive ending scene.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy

Strago/Stragus Magus
ストラゴス・マゴス Sutoragosu Magosu

""An elderly gentleman, pure of heart, and learned in the ways of monsters...""


 * Badass Grandpa
 * Can't Catch Up: By the time you recruit him, the World of Balance is almost done, and you get him for an hour or two before you move on to the Floating Continent. As a result, you'll have a hard time teaching him even the most basic spells, and in the World of Ruin, he'll be lagging behind everyone else still learning them while they've moved on to the World of Ruin Espers and their end-game magic.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Eccentric Mentor
 * Elite Tweak: Having problems learning some Lores? Use other's characters' abilities to make the process easier: Gau and Relm can use many Lores, and even Setzer can use one if you're very lucky with (or rigged) his Slots.
 * Face Heel Turn: He joins the Cult of Kefka in despair, believing Relm was killed in the World of Ruin. He snaps out of it once he sees she's alive.
 * Glass Cannon: If you equip him right, he can do a lot of damage, but as you might expect, he can't take a whole lot of punishment.
 * Go to Your Room
 * Heroic BSOD/Despair Event Horizon: It is strongly implied that the reason he joined the Cult of Kefka was because he felt he had nothing left due to believing that Relm Arrowny had died in the end of the world. Thankfully, when Relm reveals her survival, he quits the Cult ASAP.
 * Mega Manning: As a Blue Mage, he learns Lore skills by watching someone else use them. As mentioned in Elite Tweak, this includes player characters, meaning that he can Mega Manning someone else's Mega Manning.
 * Miniature Senior Citizens
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: except for the hat (as far as sprites are concerned).
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Due to the character limit.
 * Squishy Wizard

Relm Arrowny
リルム・アローニィ Rirumu Arōnī

""In her pictures she captures everything: forests, water, light, the very essence of life...""


 * Art Attacker: Relm has the "Sketch" ability which lets her use the target monster's special abilities.
 * Art Initiates Life: Her Sketch ability: she will draw the copy of the enemy to attack other enemies. She also frequently threatens to do the same to Strago if she doesn't get her way.
 * Badass Adorable: She's a cute little girl who can paint a portrait of you that kicks your ass!
 * The Beast Master
 * Bratty Half-Pint
 * Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: Her theme has this in the official remakes.
 * Glass Cannon: Like her grandfather, Relm is a powerful magic-user. However, whereas Strago was so old he had a hard time taking blows, Relm is so young she has a hard time taking blows.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Painting brushes.
 * The Jailbait Wait: Joked with by Edgar.
 * Kid With the Remote Control: The Fake Moustache relic allows her to control monsters.
 * Lethal Joke Character: Relm doesn't have very good Strength or weapon options, and Sketch is mostly useless. But she has the highest base Magic stat in the party (even though she doesn't initially know any spells), and her equipment spread also provides her with a lot of magic-boosting options. So with a bit of training and Esper use, she can become very useful.
 * Little Miss Badass
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Shadow can equip Relm's memento of her late mother... and she actually gets along with Interceptor... It was confirmed in a 1995 interview with Squaresoft, as well as in the GBA remake for Final Fantasy VI.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: She has none of it when Strago said to leave him.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Rilm, not Realm.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Memento Ring, which protects from Instant Death.
 * Parental Abandonment: Relm's mother is said to be dead in the inventory description of her Orphan's Plot Trinket, her father, on the other hand, is never directly mentioned. Indirectly, . The developers confirmed this in an interview..
 * The Pen Is Mightier: Statistically not, but what she draws with it is possibly mightier depending on the subject.
 * Puppet Master
 * Raised by Grandparents
 * Running Gag: Her threats to Strago about "painting his picture". See Art Imitates Life above.
 * Squishy Wizard
 * Tagalong Kid
 * Useless Useful Spell: The Sketch algorithm falls into this for two reasons: first, it has the monster's stats, rather than Relm's. Secondly, any elemental or status attack will be likely nullified or even absorbed (there is one exception). There's one very specific instance in which Sketch is useful. If used on the Wirey Dragons (tough, hard hitting monsters with good defense and no weaknesses to exploit), it casts Cyclonic and burns 90% of their health.
 * Whatevermancy: In the Japanese and GBA version, Relm is a "Pictomancer".
 * Useless Useful Spell: The Sketch algorithm falls into this for two reasons: first, it has the monster's stats, rather than Relm's. Secondly, any elemental or status attack will be likely nullified or even absorbed (there is one exception). There's one very specific instance in which Sketch is useful. If used on the Wirey Dragons (tough, hard hitting monsters with good defense and no weaknesses to exploit), it casts Cyclonic and burns 90% of their health.
 * Whatevermancy: In the Japanese and GBA version, Relm is a "Pictomancer".

Mog
モグ Mogu

""Human-loving, fast-talking, street-smart, SLAM-dancing Moogle...""


 * Badass Adorable
 * Blade on a Stick: Mog primarily uses pikes, but his other Moogle companions use claws, swords, boomerangs, chakrams, etc.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Mog is your guide during an early part of the game where the main characters are separated into three groups, and he explains that you must pick a group in order to progress the story.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: He's one of the Moogles who help Locke protect an unconscious Terra from the Imperial soldiers trying to capture her near the beginning of the game.
 * Cute Bruiser: With proper Esper stat training and the right equipment, Mog can slaughter enemies.
 * Dance Battler
 * Flat Character: Has only a few lines of dialogue in the whole game, none of which indicate much of a personality, is the only non-secret party memeber without a World of Ruin sidequest, and to top it all off, he doesn't even have a unique sprite, looking just like every other Moogle in the game.
 * "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Between Mog and Lone Wolf. Choose Mog and you get yourself an Optional Party Member. Choose Lone Wolf, and you will get a Gold Hairpin which halves MP cost.
 * Geo Effects: How he learns his dances. Also used in said dances.
 * Last of His Kind: The very last Moogle in the Final Fantasy VI world.
 * Killer Rabbit: In the World of Balance, Mog's dances are wicked strong. In the World of Ruin, Mog makes for a great Dragoon Knight.
 * Lost Forever: The Water Harmony dance can only be learned in the World of Balance via the Serpent Trench or the Lete River in the original game. The GBA version adds one last chance to get it if you acquire him in the World of Ruin and take him into the optional boss battle with Leviathan, but if you don't, it's Lost Forever for good.
 * Magic Dance
 * Optional Party Member: Aside from a brief appearance at the beginning of the game, Mog won't join your party during the main storyline of the World of Balance; you have to go slightly out of your way and complete a side quest in order to recruit him (see "Friend or Idol?" Decision above).
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter
 * Uplifted Animal: Learned to speak the Human language through a series of psychic dreams with Ramuh.
 * Verbal Tic: Mog (and all other Moogles) end their sentences with "kupo", kupo!
 * You Can Talk: The Party's reaction when he is formally introduced, as the other Moogles in Final Fantasy VI just say "kupo".

Umaro
ウーマロ Ūmaro

""Admirer of bone-carvings, as strong as a gigas, a sasquatch pal with muscle!""


 * An Ice Person: If Umaro has the Blizzard Orb equipped, he will sometimes attack the enemies with an ice storm.
 * Badass
 * The Berserker
 * Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti
 * Carry a Big Stick: Umaro's favorite weapon is a huge club carved from behemoth bone.
 * Cursed with Awesome: Sometimes Umaro's uncontrollable nature is a blessing in disguise. He completely ignores the restrictions on attacking in the Fanatics' Tower, he can still attack while Cyan is charging his Bushidos, and he'll never do anything stupid in the Coliseum.
 * Dumb Muscle: Umaro's muscles are as thick and hard as the mountain stone. So is his head.
 * Fastball Special: When Umaro has the Rage Ring equipped. Guess who plays the role of the fastball... Sometimes he'll even throw himself.
 * Hulk Speak: He only has a couple lines of dialogue, but he speaks worse than Gau!
 * Lightning Bruiser: He's one of the physically strongest characters in the entire series, and he's surprisingly fast to boot.
 * Not Completely Useless: His uncontrollable nature makes him a surprisingly good choice for the Coliseum, and he's completely unaffected by the Fanatics' Tower's restrictions on attacking.
 * Optional Party Member
 * Secret Character
 * Younger than He Looks: Word of God is that Umaro is four years old. Though it was actually four years since Mog had him start counting, so it's unknown if this is his true age.

Gogo
ゴゴ Gogo

""Shrouded in odd clothing, ...is this a man...? ...a woman...? ...or should we ask...?""


 * Ambiguous Gender: In game. A party member's sex is actually coded in for some unused shop code and lists him as male, but this code seems to have been dropped fairly early.
 * Continuity Nod: To Final Fantasy V boss Gogo and to the Mimic class in general.
 * Fragile Speedster: Gogo's Speed stat is the only one that doesn't absolutely suck, and really can't take many hits either.
 * Heroic Mime: Literally.
 * Master of None: Gogo can learn just about every skill that's normally accessible to your characters. Unfortunately, Gogo'll never do any of them as good as the originals.
 * Mega Manning: A variant in that Gogo typically steals the abilities of the other heroes, rather than Gogo's enemies. Anything the other Returners can do, Gogo can do too... just not as well because of Gogo's terrible stats. Gogo also specifically imitates what the other active party members can do: if equipping magic from the menu, Gogo can only cast a spell learned by someone else currently in the party.
 * Optional Party Member
 * Powers as Programs: Gogo can equip almost any other character's special ability (except Terra's Trance and Shadow's Throw )), and does need to equip appropriately to use some of them though. This includes equipping appropriate relics to use altered abilities, like Mug or Gil Rain.
 * Secret Character

Banon/Bannan
バナン Banan

"Leader of the Returners."


 * Badass Preacher: His class in the GBA version is "Oracle", and he heals the party by praying.
 * Escort Mission: Oddly, one of the few easy ones (since you can control him, leaving no room for Leeroy Jenkins behavior).
 * Guest Star Party Member
 * La Résistance
 * The Medic: His special ability is to heal everyone for free.
 * Spell My Name with an "S"
 * Supporting Leader: He's the leader of the Returners and thus the driving force in the war on the Empire, but aside from the trip with him to Narshe, he's working in the background while the player pursues various leads on how to gain an edge in the struggle.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You: If Banon falls in battle, it's a Game Over. Very irritating for many players who probably shouted "Why can't I use a Phoenix Down on him!?".
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: . Word of God states you're supposed to use your imagination.

General Leo Cristophe
レオ・クリストフ Reo Kurisutofu

"An elite soldier in the Vector Imperial Army."


 * Ambiguously Brown: He's actually supposed to be black. Although you can blame the sprites for making him look more caucasian and, in the status artwork, tan at best (plus, the fact that his hair is blonde).
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Badass Normal: Unlike other generals, he doesn't have any magic powers. Why? Because he refused the magical infusion process when offered.
 * Darkskinned Blonde: In the artwork.
 * Defector From Decadence: Just before he dies.
 * Duel Boss: Leo vs. Kefka.
 * Due to the Dead
 * A Father to His Men
 * Guest Star Party Member: The brief scene in Thamasa where he's the only party member, the awesomeness of which led to the Urban Legend of Zelda in the Trivia tab.
 * Hero Antagonist
 * Killed Off for Real: Despite what the Urban Legend of Zelda might say.
 * My Country, Right or Wrong: He's a great guy, but his Evil Empire comes first.
 * Nice to the Waiter: How do we know from his first appearance that General Leo is an Anti-Villain? He tells an Imperial he's not going to attack Doma again because it'll cause too many casualties on both sides, and doesn't want his men throwing their lives away. That, and he actually speaks to Kefka like a person, as opposed to the heroes and other Imperials who speak about him like the Monster Clown he really is.
 * Redemption Equals Death
 * Sacrificial Lion
 * Weapon Tombstone
 * What a Senseless Waste of Human Life
 * Worthy Opponent: He is the consummate worthy opponent—as the characters say "He could be my friend, if he weren't my enemy...".
 * You're Insane!: His Famous Last Words in the GBA translation.

????? (The Ghost)
"A spectre encountered aboard the Phantom Train, for some reason he wants to come with the party but bows out before they get to the front of the train."


 * Ambiguous Gender: The Super NES release referred to the Ghost as an "it", but the Advance remake uses male terminology. Unused code refers to the ghosts are male, but the code was dropped fairly early on.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: No equipment and an ability Too Awesome to Use, but when you do use it (preferably against a strong miniboss on the train), it performs a Heroic Sacrifice to instantly kill the target.
 * The Faceless: In his sprite, his portrait has a face, but not a very human one.
 * Guest Star Party Member
 * Loophole Abuse: Since you can only use the Ghost during a time when you don't fight any bosses, they didn't bother giving the bosses in the main game resistance to Possess, so even enemies immune to instant death will perish.
 * No Name Given
 * One Hit KO: Possess kills any enemy instantly.
 * Taking You with Me: But kills the Ghost and removes it from the party.

Biggs and Wedge
"Two soldiers sent with Terra to attack Narshe, they're promptly destroyed when Valigarmanda stirs."


 * Killed Off for Real
 * Legacy Character: The first appearance of the duo, now another beloved staple of the series.
 * Red Shirts
 * Those Two Guys

Cid Del Norte Marquez
シド・デル・ノルテ・マルケズ Shido Deru Norute Marukezu

"Head scientist of the empire and the caretaker of Celes. Only gets one overlooked airship scene this time."


 * The Caretaker: Cid to Celes.
 * Defector From Decadence: At the banquet, he counts himself as a Returner.
 * Engineer Exploited For Evil
 * Expy: There's always a Cid in a Final Fantasy game.
 * Promotion to Parent: On Solitary Island, Celes says that Cid is her "granddad" and she his granddaughter.
 * Promotion to Parent: On Solitary Island, Celes says that Cid is her "granddad" and she his granddaughter.

Arvis/Jun
ジュン Jun

"A key Returner operative living in Narshe."


 * Dub Name Change: Possibly because his original name was oddly Japanese.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Arvis is the Returner to go to in Narshe, and tags along with Banon when the Returners travel to Vector for peace negotiations with the Empire. Arvis is resourceful, but he isn't a combatant.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: This trope applies to Arvis in exactly the same way it applies to Banon. See Banon's entry above.

Duncan Harcourt
ダンカン・ハーコート Dankan Hākōto

"A martial arts master living near Figaro, he's Sabin and Vargas's mentor."


 * Badass Grandpa
 * Guide Dang It:.
 * The Mentor
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard
 * Old Master
 * Palette Swap: Of Banon.
 * Palette Swap: Of Banon.

Darill
ダリル Dariru

"Setzer's rival, she's the captain of the Falcon, or was until it crashed."


 * Cool Airship
 * Deadpan Snarker: Has shades.
 * Gender Blender Name
 * Love Interest: Though not outright stated, she and Setzer were clearly close enough for this to be possible.
 * Posthumous Character
 * The Rival: To Setzer.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Daril, Daryl, Darril, Darryl?

Siegfried
ジークフリード Jīkufurīto

"A travelling swordsman who pops up periodically."


 * Badass Cape
 * Bonus Boss: Bet a Megalixir in the Coliseum to face him in a proper fight. He's moderately strong on his own, but the Duel Boss nature of the Coliseum combined with the fact you can't control your character bumps him up to end-game difficulty, usually requiring a One Hit KO build to beat him before he does the same.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Who is this guy? What does he want? Is he a friend or an enemy? How does he know Ultros? It doesn't help that apparently there's an imposter Siegfried running around, so each time you encounter him who knows if it's the real thing or not.
 * The Rival: To Ultros.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: In the World of Ruin, you find him trailing Gerad and the thieves into Figaro Castle. Once you get through the cave though, he vanishes, and it's never revealed what he was doing there.

Maduin and Madeline
マディン　と　マドリーヌ Madin to Madorīnu

"Terra's parents, Maduin was the guardian of the gateway to the Esper World. Somehow, Madeline found her way there, and the two fell in love and had a child to see if their two races could truly co-exist."


 * Beast and Beauty
 * Dub Name Change/Meaningful Name: In fitting with Terra being The Messiah, in the Super NES translation Madeline was called "Madonna", as in the virgin mother. Suddenly, the G-Rated Sex takes on a new meaning, doesn't it?
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: Maduin's Magicite teaches Fira, Blizzara and Thundara. Maduin's summon attack, however, is Non-Elemental.
 * G-Rated Sex: How they conceive Terra: they fly around the screen in trails of sparkles, and the sparkles come together to form baby Terra.
 * Interspecies Romance
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Maduin has green-silver hair. Now you know where Terra got it from.

Kefka/Cefca Palazzo
ケフカ・パラッツォ Kefuka Parattso

"The main antagonist of the game who arguably steals the show, to the point that he's the only character in the game who has his own Wikipedia page."

"Kefka: "Life... dreams... hope... Where'd they come from? And where are they headed? These things... I am going to destroy!" (hysterical insane laughter)"
 * 0% Approval Rating: All of the Imperial soldiers (or at least the ones in General Leo's camp near Doma) often complained about Kefka, with at least one soldier threatening to quit the military if Kefka was even allowed to become general in Leo's stead. And for good reason: he had fifty of their finest soldiers burned to a crisp via a mind-controlled Terra, and when poisoning Doma, he is also fully aware that any Imperial captives being held at Doma would die of the poison and does it anyways, stating that its their fault they got captured in the first place.
 * Apocalypse How: Causes Class 1, and it is hinted that a year later, it's gotten up to Class 4 and is on the verge of Class 5 with animals dying out and humans struggling to survive. Then the party ticks him off, and he decides to go for Class X, if not a Class Z, going by his statement of "I'm going to destroy everything! I'll create my own Empire of Death/I'll create a monument to non-existence!".
 * Ax Crazy: All the way.
 * Badass Abnormal: Was this even before becoming a god.
 * Badass Boast:

"Kefka: "Life... dreams... hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go...? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all!" (hysterical insane laughter)"
 * Alternatively:

"Kefka: The end comes... Beyond chaos..."
 * There's also his line when charging Goner/Forsaken:
 * SNES/PSX version:

"Kefka: The end draws near..."
 * In the GBA remake:

"Kefka: Hee-hee! Nothing beats the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison! Uwee-hee-hee! (dumps poison in Doma's water supply)"
 * Bad Boss: Especially when compared to General Leo.
 * Beware the Silly Ones: Despite his clownish appearance and comical behavior, he is still a very dangerous character and a grave threat.
 * Big Bad
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Sort of. Several of the main characters/NPCs have blonde hair (at least in the Amano artwork), just as Kefka does.
 * Bright Is Not Good: Kefka wears an outfit with many vivid colors and different patterns on it.
 * The Caligula
 * Classic Villain
 * Court Mage: Edgar refers to him as such.
 * Creepy Circus Music: His leitmotif is combination of this and the pseudo-military march song.
 * Dark Chick: By the Five-Bad Band dynamics, Kefka is more of this than the dragon.
 * Death From Above: After his ascent to godhood, Kekfa used his Light of Judgment to deal this to anyone who dared oppose him.
 * The Dragon: Kefka fills this role before he murders Gestahl and becomes the Big Bad.
 * Dragon Ascendant
 * Dragon-in-Chief: Even before he overthrows Gestahl, Kefka's the one who actually confronts the party most of the time, while Gestahl is more of a distant Evil Overlord.
 * Dragon with an Agenda: Gestahl wanted to rule the world. Kefka had a different idea.
 * Dramatic Irony: Kefka spends a full year causing destruction, but life continued and people still carried on hope for the future. In the end, while Kefka snaps at the party that their lives are meaningless and worthless, his life is the one that has truly become devoid of meaning and worth, because he cast off such things trying to deprive others of them.
 * Drunk on the Dark Side: If you're not quite sure how strong Kefka is at any given point of the game, don't worry, he'll be happy to show you.
 * Dystopia Justifies the Means: Kefka's intention is to create a world full of suffering because it amuses him.
 * Epic Flail: In his earlier boss fights, has a Morningstar equipped.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Even with their homes burned, mutated monsters roaming the world, friends and loved ones dead, and the world a charred husk, the people of the world including the party find the strength to keep living and look for hope for the future. Kefka is at first confused by this, then goes to enraged because it doesn't make sense to him.
 * Evil Chancellor: Technically, being the Court Mage and all.
 * Evil Counterpart: To both Terra and Celes in different ways.
 * Like Terra, Kefka was used as an Imperial experiment and has no friends or family and no real joy in his life. While Terra learned to control her powers and found love, Kefka's powers came at the cost of his sanity and he turned to destruction to give his life meaning.
 * Like Celes, Kefka is an Imperial general with great magical power. While Celes has held onto her humanity and principles, Kefka's madness stripped away his, if he had any to begin with.
 * Evil Is Burning Hot: He talks a great deal about burning things.
 * Evil Laugh: Kefka's "Uwee-hee-hee!": the only vocalized character sound in the entire game. Or at least the only one that isn't Terra's inhuman scream when Tritoch forces her to confront her true nature.
 * Evil Sorcerer
 * Expy: Of The Joker. The English localizers of Dissidia apparently noticed this, seeing how they had Dave Wittenberg voice the character in a very similar manner to Mark Hamill's characterization of The Joker.
 * For the Evulz: A good 90% or so of Kefka's actions throughout the game can only be explained as such.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts the game as a court jester lackey of Gestahl and by the end of the game rules the world as a god.
 * Genius Bruiser: Kefka's very strong in magic, and is probably tall given his height in Dissidia, yet he is also a pretty good manipulator as well as implied to be technologically skilled (piloting and maintaining Magitek armors, single-handedly manning two cranes in Vector to prevent the Returners' airship from escaping, and presumably inventing Terra's slave crown).
 * Genocide Backfire: Poisoning of Doma, which resulted in very angry Cyan. In his case, it wasn't really out of fear or hatred of the Domians as much as feeling it is a good kick to do something like that.
 * A God Am I: Notably the first (though hardly the last) Final Fantasy villain to seek out godhood, and one of the few to achieve it when he absorbs the power of the Warring Triad.
 * Gone Horribly Right: Ultimately, they did succeed in making Kefka a super-powered magic-user capable of destroying their enemies. He just decided to move on to everything else too.
 * Gone Horribly Wrong: The Empire wanted to create a new breed of super-powered Magic Knights, but with the process not yet perfected, it drove Kefka insane.
 * Good Wings, Evil Wings: Has four angelic wings and two demonic wings. However, they seem to be inconsistent on this: in his Anthology render, Kefka has six angelic wings, and in Dissidia, has two demonic wings, and his four angelic wings are treated more like they're fused together so he has just two large wings instead.
 * The Hyena: His pre-recorded sound byte of a cackle is his calling card.
 * Ignored Epiphany: When the party explains to Kefka that no matter what he does life will go on and people will always find reasons to keep living, he lowers his head, turns around slowly... then spins back around and delivers his famous Shut Up, Kirk comeback.
 * Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Kefka could be considered Square's first shot across the bow at cosplayers.
 * It Got Worse: No matter how bad things are, he will always try to make it worse. Just take his destruction of the world: it wasn't enough for Kefka to murder countless innocents, rip apart the continents and unleash mutated monsters on the people, he had to spend his time afterwards blasting the ashes of civilization when he got bored.
 * Japanese Pronouns: Frequently used Boku/Bokuchin in reference to himself, which gives some significant hints at his maturity level and mindset.
 * The Jester: Kefka's overall appearance is similar to that of a Tyrolean Jester, and similar to the trope, it also led to him not being suspected of being as much of a threat until it was far too late.
 * Just Between You and Me: Kefka, while maniacally reveling about the power he gained in the Magitek Research Facility, is overheard by the Returners, where he also expresses his intent to revive the Warring Triad. It's subverted because despite being overheard by the heroes, he still succeeds in his plan anyways.
 * Kick the Dog: To everyone else, such as his poisoning of Doma, his murder of General Leo (and his also casting an illusion of Gestahl "admitting" to Leo that he tricked him into having him collect more Espers and magicite for no reason outside of adding insult to injury), his attempted torchings of Figaro and Thamasa, his having Terra burn fifty soldiers under his employ alive, and finally his destruction of the world and his frequently using the light of judgment on the world.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Figuratively and literally, to Gestahl.
 * Knight of Cerebus: To the entire series. The villains of the first five games didn't have very deep characterizations or motivations beyond being Evil Overlords who wanted to take over or destroy the world. Kefka had the same goal of world destruction/domination, but he was clearly having fun causing death and chaos along the way just because he could, and when it came time for him to make his plan to destroy the world, he succeeded, and the game picked up After the End with the player exploring a dead husk of the world they once knew.
 * Know When to Fold'Em: Variation. It's strongly implied that he was holding back his power significantly when confronted at the Imperial Camp by Sabin and Shadow, and was running away because he didn't want any distractions from dumping poison into Doma.
 * Lack of Empathy
 * Large Ham: He clearly enjoys himself and provides hilarious lines along the way. "Ahem! There's SAND in my boots!"
 * Laughably Evil: He does horrific, violent, inhumane things, but he just has so much fun through it all it's hard to watch his antics and not be amused.
 * Laughing Mad: Trope Namer.
 * Leave No Survivors
 * Leitmotif: Kefka's eponymous theme starts out light and bouncy with string and wind instruments, then descends into a loud flurry of drumbeats and cymbol clashes. Which is a good indication of how Kefka himself goes as the game progresses. It's sampled twice in "Dancing Mad", the final boss theme.
 * Light Is Not Good: Kefka has a weapon called the Light of Judgment that he uses to destroy towns that oppose him, and in the final battle, he turns into an angelic-looking creature. Also provides the trope image. Heck, even before becoming the God of Magic, he basically resembled a very colorful clown, was blond and blue/green eyed, and wore white makeup, and was also heavily implied to have pyromaniacal tendencies (e.g. forcing Terra to torch his own soldiers alive, attempting to burn Figaro Castle, having his troops burn Thamasa, was implied to have caused a lot of fires when misaligning the Warring Triad, not to mention the whole Light of Judgment thing). His God of Magic form also mixes this with Dark Is Evil, as he possesses a pair of bat wings as well as looking more fierce and demonic overall in his god form.
 * Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating Kefka not only causes his tower to collapse, but seems to herald the rebirth of the planet's ecosystem.
 * Loves the Sound of Screaming: When he poisons Doma. Also a Star Wars Shout-Out.
 * Loves the Sound of Screaming: When he poisons Doma. Also a Star Wars Shout-Out.

"Kefka Palazzo: Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life knowing that they must someday die? Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?"
 * Mad God: He seems a bit less insane than before when you confront him at the end of the game, but he's still way off the deep end.
 * Mad Scientist: Probably, seeing how it was heavily implied that he was the one who invented Terra's Slave Crown.
 * Meaningful Name: Aside from his first name bearing similarity to Franz Kafka, Kefka's last name, Palazzo, is Italian in origin that means palace, mansion, and/or castle, and also sounds very similar to Basque pailazo, Catalan pallasso, Greek paliatsos, Italian pagliaccio, Portuguese palhaço, Spanish payaso and Turkish palyaço, which all translate to "clown", and his appearance pretty much makes it clear that the similar names are very fitting.
 * Mind Over Matter: He was seen levitating two of the Returners with Telekinesis when . It's unknown how he got them, although it's heavily implied to be when.
 * Minor Injury Overreaction: After Celes, he starts screaming about blood as well as either shouting insults while lying down at Celes or screaming "I Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate You!", depending on the translation. However, in his case, it may just be more showcasing of his insanity.
 * Monster Clown: His in-game overworld sprite doesn't look like one (aside from probably the red splotches below the eyes), but he acts like it. In the Amano artwork and the cutscenes added in the PlayStation version, he does look like one. Also, his Fan Nickname is "The Psycho Clown".
 * Noblewoman's Laugh: His laugh sound effect, at least in the SNES version, sounds like this.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: How he.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: While he really starts being this only after destroying the world, you still gotta admit that when taking everything else that Kefka was into consideration, this REALLY wasn't something that boded well for the World of Balance... OR the World of Ruin for that matter.

"Kefka: What's the fun in destruction if no precious lives are lost?"
 * Not So Harmless: Sort of.
 * Omnicidal Maniac:


 * One-Winged Angel: Technically, six winged angel.
 * Orcus on His Throne: To his credit though, he probably doesn't even need to move from his chamber to destroy the party, but where's the fun in that?
 * Phlebotinum Rebel
 * Pietà Plagiarism: The third tier of the final battle... And when you see Kefka in place of Jesus on the pietà, you simply have to face the facts: the world is fucked, and if you want a savior, you'll have to be the one yourself.
 * Poison Is Evil: Poisons Doma and uses the Poison and Bio spells in battle.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: In the Japanese version, Kefka uses the first-person pronoun "bokuchin" which is primarily used by young boys, when joking around or trying to act sweet.
 * Psycho Prototype: Kefka seems to cover a lot of insanity tropes, doesn't he? He was the first Magitek Knight ever produced, but the experimental process, due to it not being perfected yet, snapped his mind.
 * Psycho Supporter: Until he takes over that is.
 * Puss in Boots
 * Put the Laughter In Slaughter
 * Put Them All Out of My Misery: There's no doubt Kefka tries to make everyone's lives as empty and meaningless as he thinks they are. However, in keeping with Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds nudges described further down, his declaration to destroy the very emotions of hope and love comes off as him deciding that if he can't feel those emotions, then no one else will.
 * Pyromaniac: He seems to love setting things on fire, seeing how most of his atrocities involve fire somehow.
 * Razor Wings: His God form is fond of the physical attack Havoc Wing, his A.I. script allowing him the potential to use it every single turn, and later in the battle use it twice in a row.
 * Sanity Slippage: Kefka slides down the hill of sanity rather nicely throughout the game. At the beginning, he seems to be just doing his job, but, well, It Got Worse. One moment of mention is on the Floating Continent where despite all the power he's gained, Celes manages to trick him and actually stab him with a sword and draw his own blood. The moment he completely loses it is just before the last battle, after the heroes have given their self-help book speech.
 * Shut Up, Kirk: His famous rebuttal at the end of the game.
 * Slasher Smile: He's a sprite with No Mouth much of the time, but you just know he's sporting one of these. Dissidia tells us that he definitely is.
 * The Sociopath
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The peaceful segment in the fourth part of "Dancing Mad".
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Lampshaded in the newer translation, which has one guard in Figaro Castle mention a fringe cult that spells his name with "C"s and not "K"s.
 * The Starscream: Careful reading of Kefka's lines during the game reveals that he has a major problem with being a servant, and by the time of Thamasa he's not even hiding that he's taking power for himself instead of Gestahl.
 * Starter Villain: Serves this role before becoming a Dragon Ascendant. Kefka is the face of the Empire for the first quarter of the game or so, and the battle with him at Narshe is effectively the climax of that portion of the game. Afterwards, Terra transforms, the party heads to Zozo, and attentions turn to the Empire and the Espers. Kefka is still prominent, but he doesn't take center stage again until the Floating Continent.
 * Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: With more emphasis on Temper Tantrum. When the party tells him that all his destruction and chaos has failed to wipe out life and people are rebuilding and still have hope, Kefka snaps and goes on a berserk rampage, deciding that he simply hasn't gone far enough yet.
 * Super Move Portrait Attack: Pops up during the Goner/Forsaken move.
 * Super Soldier: The prototype actually. You know what that means.
 * Team Rocket Wins: Kefka is a laughable threat until.
 * Took a Level in Badass: It's jarring to see him go from running away from a lone Sabin (granted, Shadow could be there as well) through an entire camp full of his army and having to run away with his tail between his legs from the collective party, to kicking the party's collective asses twice, then killing the best soldier in the Empire, without using any magic, and a small army of Espers on his own that were able to thrash the Capital City of the Empire. And that's just the start of the madness. It was strongly implied, however, that he was holding back his overall power when Sabin was fighting him, most likely because he wanted to poison Doma as soon as possible and didn't want any distractions from that goal.
 * Villain Exit Stage Left: Early in the story, he either runs away, is left in the dust, or is blown away.
 * Villainous Breakdown: The entire game follows Kefka slowly but surely sliding even deeper into complete madness than he already is. He's actually kinda normal, if still evil and cackling, when you first meet him in Figaro. But by the end of the game...
 * Villainous Harlequin: If not for Terra's flashback, this would have been the first impression of him.
 * Villains Never Lie: After the party reaches the part of the Magitek Factory where espers are being held in captivity, Kefka enters and declares that Celes was a mole. Locke believes him, forcing Celes to perform a non-lethal variant of a Heroic Sacrifice to save Locke.
 * We Have Reserves: This is Kefka's general approach to warfare. He broke the siege of Doma Castle by poisoning the water supply, killing everyone inside... including women, children and even some Imperial soldiers that were being kept as prisoners of war.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
 * When you first sneak into Vector, if you can get all the way up to the Cafe where all the Imperial soldiers are hanging out, one man will tell you what he knows of Kefka's backstory. Oddly, just hearing the broad outline and filling in the rest with your imagination is almost scarier than knowing the details.
 * In addition, it's only at the end of the game that Kefka's nihilism and contempt for life become apparent, possibly because becoming the God of Magic and spending a year burning the burnt husk of a dead world gave him time to reflect on things.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Perhaps one of the darkest interpretations of all, evidence in the original game and Dissidia suggests it isn't so much Kefka not seeing the value of love and hope as it is he actually can't understand them anymore, his mind is just too far gone, and destruction is all he has to bring meaning to his life with everything else stripped away from him.

Emperor Gestahl/Ghastra


ガストラ Gasutora

"Leader of the Empire with grand ambitions and a batshit-insane Dragon."


 * Bodyguard Betrayal: Gestahl appears with Kefka thoroughly on his side on the Floating Continent. And then Kefka must show them the meaning of power...
 * Big Bad: In the World of Balance, though Kefka is established as the Dragon-in-Chief in that portion.
 * Disc One Final Boss: One of the first bosses to invoke this trope, but the technology of the time (cartridge) made it less opaque. Still, when the player is confronting Gestahl, one can't help but think the game is a little short.
 * Disney Villain Death: Kind of, he was zapped by the Warring Triad at Kefka's command, and is later kicked off the edge of the Floating Continent by Kefka.
 * Dub Name Change
 * The Emperor
 * Even Evil Has Standards: He desired to rule the world, but when Kefka decided to demand that the Warring Triad expose their true power, he attempts to stop Kefka, feeling that it was going too far. In addition, when Kefka murders General Leo, he claims that he'll simply report that he disposed of a traitor as an excuse for murdering him, implying that Gestahl would not have approved of Kefka killing General Leo, even though he manipulated the latter, unless there was good reason.
 * Evil Old Folks
 * Evil Overlord
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Gestahl meets his doom at the hands of his genetically altered Super Soldier.
 * Karmic Death: It's very fitting that Emperor Gestahl dies at the hands of Kefka after he was responsible for having Kefka infused with magical powers, and had him Promoted to Scapegoat when things started going wrong. Add additional karmic points for the fact that Kefka kills him using the power of the Warring Triad, the very things he has pursued all of this time.
 * Military Brat: According to the Final Fantasy VI timeline, Gestahl was from a well-off military family. It's also strongly implied that his father was heavily involved in a large coup that resulted in Vector becoming an Empire.
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: Let's see... He's an amazingly charismatic dictator attempting to conquer the world, his troops are obliquely compared to Nazi stormtroopers in a reference to a scene from Star Wars, his troops use the "Nazi arm-raise salute", he keeps Espers in a, and... oh, he wanted to create a "master race" by breeding Celes and Kefka. His characterization is also quite similar to Mussolini and his Facism movement, especially when taking into account the fact that he was essentially trying to resurrect an old empire of Magic.
 * No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: After the Espers razed Vector, Gestahl seemingly has a change of heart (or at least realizes that after the Esper attack he has no chance against the Returners), asks for the ceasefire, invites the party to the dinner party, blames everything on Kefka, asks the party to find the espers and negotiate with them to prevent another War of the Magi. The party doesn't fall for it, but they play along since they really need to convince the Espers not to destroy everything. And they leave behind lots of people to uncover the plans.
 * Obviously Evil
 * Pragmatic Villainy: In the SNES version, at least, Emperor Gestahl tries to stop Kefka from doing something that will cause The End of the World as We Know It because he wants to rule the world, not blow it up. Kefka kills him. In the GBA version, his final words were "The world will now experience true fear..." before being kicked off by Kefka, implying that it was closer to Even Evil Has Standards.
 * Redemption Equals Death: Possibly, seeing how his final actions were attempting to stop Kefka from destroying the world.
 * This Cannot Be!: His reaction to his Worf Barrage.
 * The Unfought: Kefka zaps him before you get the chance.
 * While Rome Burns: Organizing that feast when Vector is still burning.
 * The Worf Barrage: His magic barrage against Kefka.

The Warring Triad
"Three ancient gods that effectively created magic as it is now known, they created the Espers in the crossfire of their feuding but turned themselves to stone when they realized the struggle was destroying the world. They are named Demon, Fiend and Goddess."


 * An Axe to Grind: Demon.
 * Barrier Gods: Their alignment keeps their own powers in check. Move them out of alignment and the imbalance of power drastically reshapes the known world.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: This is the reason they are serving Kefka in Act 2.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Demon is red, Fiend is primarily blue, Goddess wears blue but bears a gold crest.
 * Cosmic Keystones
 * Dub Name Change: Demon and Fiend were renamed Poltergeist and Doom in the Super NES release.
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: Demon is Fire, Fiend is Ice, and Goddess is Lightning.
 * God Is Evil: Though their backstory reveals they realized the havoc they were causing and stopped, by the time you find them in Kefka's Tower they're clearly on his side and fight you. Heck, thanks to, they barely even qualify as gods by that point.
 * Good Wings, Evil Wings: Demon has angel wings, Fiend has demon wings.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: Demon drops the Radiant Lance, Fiend drops the Mutsunokami, and Goddess drops the Excalibur. In the original Super NES release, the former two were the strongest weapons of their kind. Excalibur was outclassed by the Ultima Weapon, Ragnarok and Illumina, but getting the latter two meant passing up the Ragnarok Magicite that taught Ultima.
 * Lost Forever: Hope those of you aiming for One Hundred Percent Completion brought Strago to fight Fiend because he's the only enemy in the entire game who knows the Force Field Lore.
 * Averted in the Advance port where you can fight Fiend again... if you feel like dragging Strago through the Soul Shrine.
 * MacGuffin
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Fiend.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: This is the reason why they sealed themselves as statues in the first place.
 * Shout-Out: The rest of the series contains subtle references to them, such as three statues in Kuja's palace resembling them, and Yunalesca resembling Goddess in her second form.
 * Signature Move: Tyrfing for Demon, Fiendish Rage and Force Field for Fiend, and Overcast for Goddess. Quasar is not exclusive to Goddess, but it is likely she'll be the first enemy you see using it.
 * Stripperiffic: Goddess
 * Taken for Granite

The Eight Dragons
"Eight ancient and powerful dragons sealed in the earth, they were unleashed when Kefka moved the Warring Triad out of alignment. They reappear in the Advance bonus dungeon Dragons' Den with their boss Kaiser Dragon."

""Humans and your insatiable greed... Your lust for power leads always to a lust for blood... This place is a sanctuary for wayward souls... What business have you filthy creatures here? You slaughter my brethren, and befoul their rest with the profanity of your continued existence... You should not have come here. In the name of all dragonkind, I shall grant you the death you desire. I am the dealer of destruction... I am the font from which fear springs... I am Kaiser... And your time is at an end.""
 * Actually Four Mooks: The reborn Ice Dragon appears as a group of four, but their sprites overlay on top of each other so you can't pick out a specific one to target.
 * Anti-Magic: The reborn Gold Dragon in Dragons' Den absorbs all magic.
 * Loophole Abuse: Turns out Wave Cannon and Plasma aren't classified as magic. Fortunately, you can do the same with Strago's Lores.
 * Badass Boast: Kaiser Dragon's greeting to the party when the player finds him.


 * Barrier Change Boss: Kaiser Dragon.
 * The Berserker: The reborn Earth Dragon eventually enters an Unstoppable Rage and starts attacking you four times every turn.
 * Bonus Boss: Technically all of them are optional encounters.
 * Boss Rush: In the Soul Shrine in the Advance release, their eight reborn incarnations plus Kaiser Dragon are the final opponents.
 * Bragging Rights Reward: Congratulations, you defeated Kaiser Dragon and won the Diabolos Magicite! Pretty pointless now since all that's left is the Soul Shrine and aside from the HP boost as a level up bonus, Diabolos won't be much help there. And even then, it's not like other Espers don't also have HP boosts as bonuses...
 * Cast From Lifespan: The reborn Red Dragon will eventually expire once it puts all its energy into blasting you with the most powerful attacks it can, including Ultima.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Aside from the black and grey Storm Dragon and green Skull Dragon, the Eight Dragons are colored pretty much just as you'd guess given their elemental typings as listed below. And even with those two the coloring fits.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Earth Dragon's earth-elemental attacks can be avoided by casting Float. He has an attack to neutralize Float. Meanwhile, he himself is floating, and the reborn dragon absorbs earth, so his earth attacks that hit enemies and allies alike don't hurt him.
 * Blue Dragon's A.I. script has it scan for party members with status buffs, then it inflicts itself with status ailments and uses Rippler to swap its status ailments and buffs with yours.
 * The reborn Red Dragon will use Ultima to deal a Total Party Kill, then a final Flare in case you case ReRaise on anyone.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: The Gold Dragon may absorb all magic, but its weakness is water, and it turns out Flood is one of the few spells that can't be absorbed, not to mention Strago's water-elemental Lores.
 * Dem Bones: The name "Skull Dragon" should be a clue.
 * Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Gold, Earth and Ice Dragon are palette swaps of dinosaur-type enemies.
 * Dummied Out: Kaiser Dragon is actually a reimagining of "CzarDragon", a Bonus Boss found in the coding of the original Super NES release, but never implemented in the game. Various text in the Super NES release also alludes that a rematch with the Eight Dragons was also planned and would have used the gimmicks of their reborn selves.
 * Elemental Powers:
 * Playing with Fire: Red Dragon.
 * Making a Splash: Blue Dragon.
 * An Ice Person: Ice Dragon.
 * Holy Hand Grenade: Holy Dragon.
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Earth Dragon.
 * Universal Poison: Skull Dragon.
 * Blow You Away: Storm Dragon.
 * Shock and Awe: Gold Dragon.
 * All Your Powers Combined: Kaiser Dragon.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: They all have elemental weaknesses except for Holy Dragon.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: They all guard powerful weapons in the original game, though usually not the strongest of their types. Their reborn incarnations, however, do drop the strongest weapons.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Red and Holy Dragon are the only ones to be a Palette Swap of another one of the Eight Dragons, the other six use their own sprites among the group and thus their appearance vary wildly.
 * Power-Up Letdown:
 * The reborn Blue Dragon is pretty much the same as the original, just higher stats. Its "gimmick" is just that it inflicts more status ailments on itself when using Rippler as described above, but it still only does that if you use your own status buffs.
 * If you brought along Celes to fight Red Dragon, she can use Runic to absorb all of its spells.
 * Signature Move: They all get one in the Dragons' Den, aside from Earth Dragon and Storm Dragon who had theirs originally.
 * Red Dragon: Red Fang and Eraser.
 * Blue Dragon: Blue Fang.
 * Ice Dragon: Freeze.
 * Holy Dragon: Heavenly Wrath.
 * Earth Dragon: Honed Tusk.
 * Storm Dragon: Leaf Swirl and Wing Saber.
 * Skull Dragon: Apparition and Fear.
 * Gold Dragon: Mighty Claw.
 * Kaiser Dragon: Last Breath.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Their reborn incarnations in Dragons' Den are far higher tiers than the originals.

Ultros/Orthros


オルトロス Orutorosu

"A recurring octopus boss with a fondness for bad jokes. Sometimes seen with his dumb monster partner, a wind beast named Chupon/Typhon. For more info on his appearances in spin-offs, see the Recurring Character sheet."


 * Boss Banter
 * Braggart Boss
 * Breakout Character: He's just this side of Gilgamesh, having become a recurring boss in the series, but isn't as popular or widespread.
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods
 * Evil Duo: With Chupon.
 * Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Where does Ultros come from? Why does he hate the party so much to pursue them around the world attacking them? Why did he even attack them in the first place? Mysteries that will likely never be solved.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang
 * Harmless Villain: His battles in Final Fantasy VI were never all that difficult to begin with, and was never as formidable as his more rarely-seen friend Typhon. In the World of Ruin, Ultros is forced to work indefinitely as a receptionist to pay off his crippling debts. You can see him and speak to him as often as you please, but his role as a villain has ended.
 * Inconsistent Dub: Appears in Final Fantasy V Advance as a Bonus Boss named Orthros. Then Final Fantasy VI Advance came along and went back to Ultros.
 * Jerkass: Ultros is this in spades. While he is the game's Comic Relief, he's also downright mean. He attacks your party several times throughout the game for no reason other than just because. In the battle against him in Crescent Mountain, he mouths off to Relm, a little girl who just wanted to paint his picture. This causes the party to stop fighting and berate Ultros for making a little girl cry! He eventually caves in. Of course, Relm had ulterior motives for painting his picture, but Ultros didn't know that and still reacted badly to it.
 * Kansai Regional Accent: How he speaks in original Japanese.
 * Large Ham
 * Laughably Evil: Uwehehehe! Look at him! He's a receptionist!
 * Spell My Name with an "S"
 * Took a Level in Badass: In the third battle with him, after a period of time, he'll gain powerful elemental spells and will become much stronger, and can even pull off a Total Party Kill if you aren't careful.

Vargas Harcourt
バルガス・ハーコート Barugasu Hākōto

"Rival of Sabin, that trained with the same master, his father Duncan."


 * Deceptive Disciple
 * Evil Counterpart: To Sabin, as a fellow pupil to Duncan, but Vargas prizes power over discipline and honor.
 * A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil
 * Rival Turned Evil
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: His antagonism towards Sabin is based on the fact that his father Duncan chose Sabin to be his successor instead of him, even though Sabin claims otherwise.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: He appears very early on, and is never seen nor heard from again afterward. Even immediately after the battle, it's unknown if he died or if he just ran away. His unique "death" animation makes it all the more ambiguous. They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character? Looks like we'll never know...

Ramuh
"An Esper living in the human realm, he calls Terra to him when her powers awaken."


 * Ascended Extra: Unless you happened to be Bahamut or Odin, before this game, you didn't get a lot of character exploration if you were a summon, and Ramuh was no exception. This time, aside from Valigarmanda/Tritoch and Maduin, Ramuh could be considered the most plot-important Esper in the game.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Turns himself into Magicite to grant the party his power to help save the other Espers.
 * The Mentor: Has shades.
 * Mr. Exposition
 * My Greatest Failure: He isn't very proud that he fled the Empire and survived while his friends are still trapped in their Magitek facility.

The Elder
"The leader of the Esper Realm."


 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 * Good Wings, Evil Wings
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Casts a binding spell to sweep the Empire out of the Esper realm, but he's so old, it's implied he lost his life.
 * Senseless Sacrifice: But by the time he does it, the Empire has already captured enough Espers to begin their campaign and keep it going for 20 years.

Valigarmanda/Tritoch
"The frozen Esper excavated in Narshe that kickstarts the plot of the game."


 * Aborted Arc: Once the Returners try to wake it up, they forget about it for the rest of the game. Justified seeing as how trying to do that turned out to be a really bad idea the first time.
 * And I Must Scream: It still has some sense of awareness when inside the ice, able to defend itself with magic in the World of Ruin.
 * Dub Name Change: In the SNES release as Tritoch. Let's be real here: "Valigarmanda" was never going to fit.
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: Teaches Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga, and uses a tri-elemental attack when called into battle.
 * Giant Flyer
 * MacGuffin
 * Meaningful Name: The Dub Name Change. See Fire, Ice, Lightning above.
 * Sealed Badass in a Can: One of the most powerful Espers in the game once you thaw it.