Dissidia Final Fantasy/Characters/Warriors of Chaos

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A character sheet for the Warriors of Chaos from Dissidia Final Fantasy and its prequel.

See also:

Original Line-Up

Garland

"We will never come to accept one another. We shall always be in conflict!"

"The eternal darkness will transcend time to face its rival once more." -- Wheel of Darkness

Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi (Japanese), Christopher Sabat (English)

—Fighting Style: Nemesis

The villain from the original Final Fantasy. His Backstory states he was once a famous hero, but that changed when he kidnapped a princess. This doesn't affect much of the plot, though, and Garland comes just as a dedicated warrior on Chaos' side. Indeed, Dissidia spends a great deal of time giving new elements to Garland's backstory.

General Tropes

  • Adaptational Badass: Garland ascends from being the first (and weakest) boss in series history to a total Badass. He will knock you all down.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Garland and by proxy, Chaos gets a lot more Character Depth in Dissidia, almost to the point that you'll forget the origin story given for him by the first game.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Garland's entire character is based around this one.
  • Blood Knight: Battle dominates his entire character. Fitting, as he sees the cycle of battle to be his only purpose.

"Only death shall pardon me from my sword."

    • In fact, in Prologus, Garland, after he and the Emperor are defeated by the Warrior of Light and Lightning, expresses disappointment not at their losing against them, but at how short the battle turned out to be.
  • The Corrupter: Originally Chaos didn't want to war with Cosmos, since she looked like his mother. Guess who coaxed him to get over that?
  • Deadpan Snarker

Garland: "Am I to be a prisoner of these stupid plans again?"

  • Despair Event Horizon: See also Go Mad from the Revelation below, it's heavily implied that the entire reason Garland is such a Blood Knight is because he has lost any and all hope of escape from his endless cycle of dying and being reborn to fight again. He decided to go with it and figured if his entire existence is going to center around fighting, he might as well learn to enjoy it. And so he did. Undoubtedly made worse by the fact that, according to Dissidia's backstory, he helped start the whole thing. Though it should be noted that he only did so AFTER Cid ordered him to do so.
  • The Dragon: To Chaos, naturally. Garland is both the final villain to be defeated by his heroic counterpart in the Destiny Odyssey storylines, and the final villain to be defeated before the heroes face Chaos in Shade Impulse. In fact, after all the other villains break up to follow their own plans, Garland is the only one still loyal to Chaos.
    • The Heavy: Chaos acts more as a distant authority figure while Garland is the one directly leading the other Warriors of Chaos into battle.
  • Enigmatic Minion
  • Fallen Hero
  • Mythology Gag: His weapon's four alternate forms refer to the Four Fiends from his original game (axe = Lich, twin swords = Marilith, chain whip = Kraken, and lance = Tiamat), and his five Sample Voice quotes speak the Fiends' and Chaos' names. All his HP Attacks are also all attacks he uses when he is Chaos for the final battle of the original game.
    • In addition, he is both the first and last boss in Warrior of Light's Destiny Odyssey.
    • In further addition, think of how many attacks Wall Rush (knock) the target downwards?
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: It's never stated outright, but all the dialogue in cutscenes implies that the only reason Garland is so devoted to battle and violence is that he's lost all hope for everything else thanks to the Groundhog Day Loop he's stuck in.
  • Large Ham
  • Took a Level in Badass: A far higher tier than his original incarnation.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

  • Cool Sword: Cool enough to encompass the following tropes:
    • BFS: The largest one by far, and to add further emphasis to it, Garland towers over most the cast (only Golbez, Exdeath, and Chaos are comparable to him, though it's hard to tell how big he is compared to them since he's usually hunched over, but even so when he is he's as tall most of the normal sized characters).
    • Mix-and-Match Weapon: His sword automatically shifts into different forms when he attacks, one form for each of the Four Fiends from the original Final Fantasy.
    • Reverse Grip
    • Sword Drag: Constantly, leaving a trail of sparks and a drag line in the floor behind him.
  • Elemental Powers/Spell Blade: As another reference to the Four Fiends as well as Chaos from the original game, Garland's HP Attacks represent the four elements, Water, Air, Earth, Fire. Furthermore, the elements correspond to his sword's different forms: Tsunami uses the whip-flail form, Earthquake uses the axe form, Blaze uses the twin swords, and Cyclone uses the lance form. He picks up Flare and Thundaga in Dissidia 012, though Thundaga is a Bravery attack.
  • EX Mode: Class Change!

"Warrior's soul!"

    • Garland's armor becomes shiny and his cape becomes white, in reference to what he likely looked like when he was still a loyal Cornelian knight. In addition to Regen, Garland's EX Mode gives him access to the following ability:
      • Indomitable Resolve: In EX Mode, Garland's attacks cannot be interrupted by the opponent's Brave attacks, letting him dodge attacks in situations a character otherwise couldn't and stop the opponent's attacks with an attack of his own.
    • In addition, Class Change gives Garland access to his EX Burst: Soul of Chaos.

"Know your limits!"

    • Garland smashes the enemy before rearing back and charging himself with the power of Chaos. Once he's done, he performs a combination attack on the enemy, hitting them with all four special forms of his sword in order before finishing the burst with a swipe from the BFS shape of his blade.

"Can you stand this!? Miserable insect..."

  • Implacable Man: In his EX-Mode, Bravery attacks and the Bravery-damage portions of some HP attacks cannot interrupt his own attacks once he begins the animation.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Garland's level 100 exclusive weapon, Gigant Axe, gives the highest attack bonus of all the weapons in the game.
  • Magic Knight: His HP attacks are Full-Contact Magic initiated with his sword.
  • Mighty Glacier: He's essentially the Cloud of the villains—he moves and attacks so slow it can be hard to land a hit, but when he does connect, you'll feel it.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer BFS: Thanks to its shape-shifting though, it's all he needs.

Design and Costume Tropes

  • Art Evolution: Garland was one of the toughest characters for Tetsuya Nomura to design, given that he only had Garland's battle sprites to work off of. He described it like designing a completely original character, but he had to maintain the sense it was still the Garland fans knew.
  • Cool Mask
  • Good Costume Switch: Strange as it may sound. His EX Mode changes his costume to have a white cape, apparently reminiscent of how he looked when he was a loyal Cornelian knight.
  • Tin Tyrant: Original flavor version, although his characterization is more similar to a Blood Knight.

In Dissidia

In this story, he opposes the Warrior of Light. However, he often goes along with the plans of the other villains purely for their own sake—he does not truly with to follow their plans blindly, however. He informs Kuja of some of the nature behind the conflict to drive him past his despair, for example.

  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Garland doesn't take it well when Warrior of Light claims he pities him, and worse when he claims he'll save him.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: Garland knows a lot of things Chaos doesn't, such as the fact that the entire cycle of war is supposed to temper Chaos into the ultimate weapon of destruction, or that Garland himself IS Chaos, or at least is going to become Chaos..
  • Resigned to the Call: He sort of makes this a point during his encounters with Warrior of Light, that embracing the cycle of conflict is all that there’s left for them, so they should enjoy it to the fullest.
  • Would Hit a Girl

Garland (to Terra): "Expect no chivalry here, woman!"

In Duodecim

In this tale, his role remains much the same as Dissidia. Appearing in Prologus, he gets very few battles in the storyline of 012 itself.

  • Even Evil Has Standards: He does not trust The Emperor trying to convert Jecht to their side, as he suspects that the Emperor has other motives. He does.
  • Final Boss: Of the 012 scenario, against Lightning.
  • Flat What: In response to the Emperor's request to bring Jecht to Chaos' side.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Implied in his pre-battle quote when facing Feral Chaos, due to their aforementioned connection which would possibly leave him killed as a result of killing him:

Garland: I shall put you to sleep in the name of the Great Will!

    • Also a bit of a heartstring tugger, since the Great Will in question is Cid, Chaos's father
  • Our Demons Are Different: In his 3P costume.
  • Pet the Dog: The reason why he serves Chaos is not simply because the Great Will ordered him to, but because he sympathizes with Chaos for being trapped in a realm for circumstances beyond his control.
  • Properly Paranoid: When he learns that The Emperor intends to convert Jecht to their side, he reacts with suspicion, and openly disagrees with The Emperor. The Emperor accuses Garland of jealousy, and claims he's only trying to bring about the war's conclusion for Chaos' end; Chaos then allows him to be converted. Turns out, Garland was very sound in his suspicion that The Emperor had an ulterior motive in converting Jecht.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out on Shantotto for trying to destroy one of the gateways, as well as getting herself trapped in World B's rift.


The Emperor

"You should have disposed of your fantasy and accepted me as master."

"Without conquering one's virtue and desires, thou shall fall into darkness." -- Lust for Power

Voiced by: Kenyuu Horiuchi (Japanese), Christopher Corey Smith (English)

—Fighting Style: Trap Master

The leader of the Palamecian Empire from Final Fantasy II, dedicated to Taking Over The World. He was killed by the heroes, but took over hell itself and came back. It Got Worse in the remakes, where it's revealed that his soul split in half; the lighter (and still evil) half of his soul goes on to take over heaven.

General Tropes

  • A God Am I: As mentioned, is the Emperor of Hell and possibly Heaven. And his ultimate plan is to usurp Chaos and Cosmos and take over all existence for himself.
  • The Chessmaster: Is the mastermind behind the game's plot, which involves the heroes and a couple of the villains being Unwitting Pawns. And he pulls it off magnificently.
    • Look no further than his interactions with Tidus, Jecht, and Yuna -- he arranged for Tidus to fight Jecht, and when Jecht transfers his light to Tidus, the Emperor has Jecht made a Warrior of Chaos so he can manifest a Crystal of darkness for him in the next cycle. An official quest for the game implies that his plans for Jecht weren't Xanatos Speed Chess, but instead he was planning to convert Jecht all along once he learned their relationship. Thus, Tidus's Heroic Sacrifice to inspire Jecht to do the same was apparently All According to Plan.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: His master plan about defeating Cosmos was also intended to backstab his own allies and even his boss, Chaos, so that he could rule what was left of existence.
  • Dimension Lord: His goal is to become one.
  • The Emperor: The clue is in the name.
  • Evil Laugh: Does an impressive one when he begins charging up Starfall, for good reason too if he pulls it off. Also ends his imperfect Cyclone EX Burst with it.
  • Evil Sorcerer
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Sort of. As revealed in the Japanese-exclusive novelization of Final Fantasy II, he actually does have a name, Mateus Palamecia. However it has never been actually used to refer to him directly in any game, instead being used as a Mythology Gag reference, such as naming his Infinity Plus One Staff "Mateus' Malice" and naming the Ivalice summon based on him "Mateus."
  • Faux Affably Evil: He's quite formal and well-spoken, even when insulting you and declaring his intent to conquer all existence.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: He wants to kill off all his allies and usurp Chaos and Cosmos as rulers of the universe.
  • Kneel Before Zod

(facing Feral Chaos) "Fallen god, kneel before me!"
(in Light to All epilogue) "Grovel before my UNRIVALED POWER!"

" UUNNGAAAHHHHH!" (" UBOAAAAAAAAAA!" in the Japanese version.)

  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Got the mannerisms, personality, and attitude down pat. The looks still need work.
  • Malevolent Architecture: His home stage, Pandemonium, is a tight maze full of cramped corridors with a bottomless pit in the middle. Perfect for some traps. In the Omega version spikes also routinely pop out of the group to pierce the fighters and knock them into the air.
  • Never Say "Die": A rather odd invoking. The Emperor says "I've come back from the afterworld," rather pointedly avoiding saying "hell" when a quote later in the exact same storyline refers to him as "an emissary resurrected from hell".
    • Even later, he tells the warriors that he will return again, "From the depths of Hell, to this world once more..."
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had the Emperor not concocted that plan to have the Warriors of Cosmos gain the crystals and kill off Chaos as well as Cosmos while ensuring his own survival and have Chaos' faction win the standard way, the consequences in the long term would have ben far worse than how the 13th Cycle ended, if Scenario 000 in Duodecim is anything to go by.
  • Power Floats: Both floats instead of walking and telekinetically manipulates the staff in battle in addition to holding it.
  • Shout-Out: His character design bears some resemblance to the Goblin King Jareth from Labyrinth, who was played by David Bowie. Apparently, the English localizers noticed this, as Christopher Corey Smith, The Emperor's English VA, voiced him in a very similar fashion to Jareth.
    • Also, his third outfit in Dissidia 012, Violet Robes, bears a rather uncanny resemblance to Maleficent...
  • Slouch of Villainy: He does an impressive one as a Victory Pose. He’s also seen doing one on his throne at Pandemonium's Top Floor.
  • Sorcerous Overlord
  • Sore Loser
  • The Starscream: The ultimate result of his plan is for everyone, including the gods, to die while he survives and rules over what's left of existence. Ironically, considering what would have happened to Chaos had the cycles actually continued without Chaos' death, it almost seems as though the Emperor was unintentionally doing Chaos a favor by having him killed.

Emperor: You need only focus on your duty. I shall be the author of this tale's end.

      • The Emperor probably intended for Chaos to take that statement as a vow that he'll be the one to usher in Cosmos' defeat and end the war in victory for them, not an admission that he's working against him.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"My reign is absolute!"

"Suffer! All is mine to command!"

"Lowly worm!"

  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Every character except Ultimecia, Kuja, and Shantotto has at least one attack that will cause the Emperor's homing Flare to start chasing him instead. Fortunately for the people who main the Emperor, he is included in that as well. In fact, if the opponent reflects the Emperor's Flare, he can fire out a second Flare (normally only one can be out at a time) and then re-reflect the reflected Flare to get two Flares chasing the opponent, allowing him to turn this trope back on his opponents if they try it on him.
  • Instant Runes: Though not the only character to use them, the Emperor is particularly notable for how the runes he creates when casting Starfall slowly grow in size and complexity as the attack charges.
  • Magic Staff: Most notably the only villain to carry a casting tool.
  • Mythology Gag: A very subtle one with Flare. Wondering why his ground Flare is blue when everyone else's Flare spells are orange? While the Flare spell has always animated as an orange/red spell in the rest of the series, in Final Fantasy II it had blue fire for its animation.
    • Also, in his EX Burst he surrounds himself and his opponent with a cyclone. In Final Fantasy II, the first battle with him takes place in a fortress hidden within a giant cyclone that he controls.
  • Painfully-Slow Projectile: Flare.
  • Playing with Fire: Flare.
  • Shock and Awe: Thunder Crest. His mines appear to be lightning-based too. And his Dreary Cell spell in Duodecim.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: The Emperor has one of the smallest unique movesets in the game, between that and the playstyle required by a trap specialist, you're going to be seeing the same moves often.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Emperor's traps allow the player numerous chances to sit back with a Slasher Smile as the opponent is hit with no chance of escape. Conjure a Thunder Crest and watch the opponent writhe around while you dash away and charge up Starfall, or sit and watch Flare sloooowly travel towards them as they lay stunned. Summon Starfall and land and watch your opponent be driven into the ground a few feet in front of you, then send out a Thunder Crest to stun them before they even get up, setting them up for another hit.
    • Likewise playing against the Emperor. Even the most mild-mannered of hero players may let slip a Psychotic Smirk after watching the Emperor get stuck in and hopefully killed by his own traps.

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

Scheming to achieve his own goals, the Emperor is, perhaps, one of the masterminds behind the Chaos faction's plans along with his ally, Ultimecia. As later shown in Duodecim, he's in this for the long haul: his ultimate goal is to have Cosmos defeated, then survive past Chaos' death and become the sole ruler of the entire world. Don't be fooled by his looks: he didn't become an Emperor by being a fool.

  • Back from the Dead: Invokes this trope in Shade Impulse, though he uses the phrase "back from the afterworld"
  • Even Evil Has Standards: It is implied in his opening quote if fighting against Kefka that he intends to send Kefka to Hell to punish him for his actions.

Emperor: "A taste of Hell may be just what you need."

  • Foe Yay: With Firion. And (if you squint) with Terra, shown from his Encounter Phrase:

To Terra: [chuckles] "Why don't you let me control you?"

To Squall: "Such a lofty ego."

  • I Take Offense to That Last One: His insulted reaction to Garland comparing the Emperor to Kefka in terms of scheming, specifically because Kefka's a nihilist whereas he believes in wanting to start the future anew.
  • Minion Shipping: With Ultimecia, due to their alliance in the story mode.
  • Pitiful Insects: He likes using this insult—one of his victory quotes is even: "An insect, defeat an Emperor?" The heroes are happy to remind him of it after kicking his ass.

The Emperor: "Who are you?"
Firion: "Just a swarm of insects."

Garland: "The clown is just as scheming as you are."

Emperor: "You would compare me to that gibbering nihilist? No, I have a goal: to escape the ultimate end... and build the future anew."

  • Worthy Opponent: Played with his character-specific Encounter phrases against the witches.

To Ultimecia: "Let us crown the true master."
To Shantotto: "It is an honor, milady."

    • And then inverted in one of his victory quotes.

The Emperor: "You are an unworthy opponent."

In Duodecim

In this game, we have an opportunity to see how long the Emperor's invested in this. His plan in the first game was apparently formulated on the spur of the moment: Tidus' Taking the Bullet moment leads to Jecht becoming a vacant vessel. The Emperor realises this and brings him over to Chaos' side for the thirteenth cycle...

  • Arch Enemy: To Yuna, and by proxy Tidus and Jecht. He's actually just as much their Arch Enemy as he is Firion's.
  • Expy: A convoluted example. The character Seymour in Final Fantasy X is an Expy of the Emperor, being similar in story roles, characterization, and even in appearance. Then, in Duodecim, the Emperor's similarities to Seymour are played up for his appearance in Yuna's chapter and even using his final battle theme during his fight against Yuna in her chapter as well—thus, making the original an expy of the expy!
  • Good Wings, Evil Wings: His new DLC costume is the "Light" Emperor from Soul of Rebirth, giving him a set of angelic wings.
  • Graceful Loser: One of his defeat quotes has him feeling that the reason why he lost is because he may have "enjoyed it too much".
  • Light Is Not Good: His 4th costume, available as DLC, is the angelic form of the "Light Emperor" from Soul Rebirth. Now, while he may be shiny, and light-based, and angelic, he's still evil. He took over Raquia, AKA Heaven, when he died.
  • Professional Butt-Kisser: He really knew how to kiss up to Chaos in order to get him to make Jecht one of his warriors.


The Cloud Of Darkness

"A lone heart will not change the world... What awaits when you awake is always -- nothing but despair."

"Light fells the darkness, while darkness swallows the light; all return to nothing." -- Roaming Clouds

Voiced by: Masako Ikeda (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

—Fighting Style: Bane Of Life

The being that appears upon the perturbing between light and darkness to pull the world into the Void. In Final Fantasy III, she's the main antagonist resurrected after a very long time. In her Dissidia incarnation, her objective of pulling everything into the Void practically describes all of her character. She's said to hover like a cloud, and fights with powerful magic and tentacles coming from her body. Perplexingly, she's supposed to be sexless.

General Tropes

Squall: "I have no fear."
Kuja: "You don't scare me one bit!"

  • Breakout Villain: Xande? Who's that?
  • The Brute: A rare femaleish example.
  • Circling Monologue: During her exchange with Onion Knight at the end of his Destiny Odyssey.
  • Dark Is Evil
  • Eldritch Abomination: Of the Humanoid Abomination type.
  • I Am Legion: Does a very good job of making her even more imposing than she already is.
  • Immortality: She's practically a force of nature.
  • Intrigued by Humanity: Defeated by Onion Knight during Shade Impulse, she admires his determination to press forward despite her beliefs that they cannot change fate. Retreating back into the Void, Cloud of Darkness comments that humans are fascinating.
    • She also exhibits a curious interest in Laguna due to his remarks about the nature of his loyalty to Cosmos and (more importantly) his will to fight the Manikins, what is essentially a suicide mission as well as a very peculiar manner of death for one to resign themselves to.
  • No Biological Sex: In lieu of this, she takes the form of a nearly-naked woman. Onion Knight and Golbez refer to Cloud of Darkness as a "she", and Zidane plays this up right before he fights her.

Zidane: "Well, she is a lady... I guess?"

    • She might well be genderless... just not sexless. Aside from the fact that the two are not the same, it can make a bit of sense if you think about the fact that nature does not have a gender, but is usually represented as a female/mother because it goes well with the idea that nature created, or "birthed" the aspects of itself. CoD is the opposite of nature/existence, so you might well argue that she birthed the void.
  • Older Than They Look: Some of the characters (namely Kefka) imply that the Cloud of Darkness is well over millions of years old, or at the very least well over thousands of years old:

Kefka: Get lost, fossil. (Dissidia)
Kefka: Let's bury this ancient relic back into the ground. (Duodecim)

  • Omnicidal Maniac: It's her schtick.
  • Power Floats: Besides one scene in her battle with Onion Knight in Destiny Odyssey and her recovery animation, Cloud of Darkness is always hovering in the air.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Given the source material as well as her description in Dissidia, Cloud of Darkness is apparently 1,000 years old. This makes her among the oldest of the Warriors of Chaos, beaten out only by Garland/Chaos.
  • Royal We: Both the main female body and each tentacle has a mind of its own. She speaks on behalf of all of them. However, Cloud of Darkness does refer to herself as "me" when facing Cloud, Squall, and the Warrior of Light.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

  • Casting a Shadow: Her various lasers and other projectile attacks are darkness-based.
  • Cherry Tapping: She starts off with all her Brave Attacks, so every move she learns from then is a HP Attack, of which she has many. Which means that of all the characters, she's more focused upon destroying HP directly rather than Breaking the opponent first. She's quite capable of destroying the opponent's HP in chunks one piece at a time.
  • Combat Tentacles: What she uses for her only two Brave Attacks. And for... forget it.
  • EX Mode: Flood of Darkness!

"My spirit seethes!"

    • Cloud of Darkness takes a slimmer, green-skinned form, identical to how she appears in her original game. In addition to Regen, Cloud of Darkness's EX Burst gives her the following ability:
      • [Null] Particle Beam: Cloud of Darkness can cancel the recovery time after using any attack by performing an HP attack. This allows her to spam her various HP attacks at unprecedented speeds.
    • In addition, Flood of Darkness gives Cloud of Darkness access to her EX Burst: Ultra Particle Beam.

"True darkness!"

    • Cloud of Darkness hovers in front of her enemy, slowly charging her particle beam to 120%. Once done, she fires a positively enormous Particle Beam attack at the enemy.

"Unleash the shadows!" (Evil Laugh)

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

Perhaps notably, she may be the villain with the smallest role in the game. She's not running any schemes, and only appears as the Onion Knight's foe because, well, he has to have someone to oppose him. She's fought a total of twice in the entire story line, whereas most villains have at least three or more battles.

  • Armor-Piercing Question: She hammers Onion with several after Terra loses control of her powers, fights Onion Knight, and subsequently teleports away. The second time she tries it (before her duel with Onion Knight in Destiny Odyssey), it doesn't work, as he's regained his resolve thanks to Cosmos and Golbez.
  • Number of the Beast: During her story mode battle with the Onion Knight, she is equipped with four blue gems which give her a base bravery of 666 for the fight.
  • Out of Focus: She didn't get a lot of screentime in Dissidia outside of Destiny Odyssey III, appearing in only one cutscene, one dialogue scene, and being fought in Shade Impulse while most other villains are fought twice over the Destiny Odysseys. In Dissidia 012, she plays a fairly larger role.

In Duodecim

With a new game comes an expanded role. She doesn't get many more battles in this game, but she primarily opposes Laguna; she gives him vital information, which ends up being rather instrumental as the story continues.

  • Even Evil Has Standards: It's implied in the 13th cycle that she told Laguna about the Manikins and where they came from because she wanted him to close the portal, displeased their presence was upsetting the balance of the war.
    • Also implied in her intro quote if playing as Kefka and fighting against her in Dissidia.

Cloud of Darkness: "We won't allow you your sordid cries."

  • Good Costume Switch: Her new alt outfit in Dissidia 012 gives her a white cape with light blue and lavender colored body coverings, in essence making her into the long-rumored "Cloud of Light". Not very "good", though. Even when she's predominantly made of light, she's still the enemy of all life.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: As noted above, she ends up telling Laguna how to seal away the rift. She ended up having to pay for that gambit shortly after their battle when Kefka executes her for it. As a result, she doesn't even remember that Terra was under Kefka's control because warriors who lose instantly lose their memories upon being revived for the next cycle, barring being killed by a Manikin.
  • Male Gaze: Which leads to Laguna getting a leg cramp.
  • Reluctant Warrior: Her 012 Museum profile states that she did not like the Gods fighting amongst themselves, and thus, she didn't like their war.
  • Ship Tease: In Duodecim, with Laguna, of all people, multiple times.
  • You Have Failed Me...: See Laser-Guided Amnesia.


Golbez

"You're naive, Cecil. Even knowing betrayal and despair, you would depend on the whims of others?"

"Accept hatred and regret as you proceed forth. All paths lead to the future." -- Lone Heart

Voiced by: Takeshi Kaga (Japanese), Peter Beckman (English)

—Fighting Style: Thaumaturge

Cecil's older brother, and a major antagonist from Final Fantasy IV. Nevertheless, his role in the story could hardly be considered antagonistic. Appears instead of the real ultimate foe in Final Fantasy IV, Zemus/Zeromus.

General Tropes

  • Affably Evil: Emphasis on affable; if Golbez's EX Burst fails to defeat the enemy, he'll muse, "Impressive". Unlike Kuja, who is somewhat sardonic and sarcastic with his compliments, Golbez's praise is 100% sincere.
  • Anti-Villain: He's actually trying to help the heroes win, but serves Chaos under the belief his past as a villain makes him unsuited to serving Cosmos. He also engages in actions that, while intended to contribute towards Cosmos' victory, are morally ambiguous -- for example, guess who arranged for Kain to kill off his comrades so they'd survive to the next cycle in 012.
  • The Atoner: Subverted. He doesn't believe he deserves redemption, but Cecil thinks otherwise.
    • His quote when facing Feral Chaos has Golbez state that he shall atone for him.

Golbez: "I shall atone for your hatred."

"I've no one to blame but myself."
"I must learn my limitations."
"Bested by my arrogance."

  • Heel Face Turn: Although arguably he was never really on the villains' side.
  • Informed Ability: According to The After Years, he's left-handed, but shows no preferences for either hand in battle.
  • Power Floats: The only time he's ever seen not floating is during cutscenes and when using Nightglow.
  • Reverse Mole: More or less.
  • Warrior Therapist: He councils almost as many heroes as Cosmos does for crying out loud! In the case of Onion Knight, it takes advice from both of them before he gets the guts to face the Cloud of Darkness. He even comes across as more insightful than Cosmos when speaking to her over the risk of her upcoming Thanatos Gambit. His warning, that her warriors will not be revived if her gambit fails, has the goddess second-guessing herself for a moment. According to 012, he was even the one who gave Cosmos the idea for said plan inbetween the 12th and 13th cycles.
    • This trope becomes very apparent when one listens to Golbez's victory quotes, some of which are advice and warnings directed at his fallen foe.

"Your loss can strengthen you."
"Weakness is the greatest sin."
"There will be always be somebody better than you."
"You are still too naive."

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"Creature of shadows!"

    • Golbez summons his Pet Dragon from Final Fantasy IV and merges it onto one of his Shoulders of Doom. In addition to Regen, Golbez's EX Mode gives him access to the following ability:
      • Black Fang. By pressing and holding R+Square, Golbez begins the un-godly long charging for the Shadow Dragon's signature attack. If the attack is successfully charged and launched, the enemy suffers an unblockable, undodgeable One Hit Brave Break, crippling them and giving Golbez plenty of Brave to work with.
    • In addition, Summon Shadow Dragon gives Golbez access to his EX Burst: Twin Moons.

"Guide my inner shadow, Light and Dark above..."

    • Golbez traps the enemy with the Shadow Dragon's Binding Cold attack and begins charging a spell. Perfect execution results in him rising into the air and casting his ultimate spell: Twin Meteor.

"Transcend the stars!" or "(Dragon: Give your power to Meteor!) Very well."

  • Full-Contact Magic: It's what makes him so effective, as the hand motions he uses to command his energy waves and attack drones can also damage the enemy in addition to the magic part. Thus he can hit at close and long range.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Gravity System, Float System, and Ambush System. Has Sector Ray in Dissidia 012.
  • Genius Bruiser
  • Gravity Master: Gravity Force.
  • Magic Knight: He's an interesting example, preferring to batter you with his hands rather than using a weapon, but he's still equal parts physical and magical.
  • Mythology Gag: There is an alternate version of his Twin Meteor EX Burst (itself the attack used by him and Fusoya to defeat Zemus) where his Shadow Dragon tells him to "give your power to Meteor" just like Fusoya did. Like in the original game, Golbez replies, "Very well." (or, "Iidesutomo!" in Japanese).
  • Reverse Shrapnel: Genesis Rock
  • Shock and Awe: Makes liberal use of an Agony Beam resembling Force Lightning.
  • Villain Teleportation: His fighting style makes liberal use of this; his jumps are even teleports.

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

While cold and strict, he honestly wants to help Cecil to obtain his crystal.

  • Four Is Death: Inverted; he's the only one on Chaos' side who doesn't end up dying, unless Sephiroth's last words are to be believed.
  • Manipulative Bastard/Guile Hero: In keeping with his penchant for such from Final Fantasy IV, he plays a lot of head games with Cecil to challenge his resolve in order to bring out his true feelings, and also plays a part in nudging Firion and Onion Knight along their paths.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Subverted. Golbez, in fact, is the only Warrior of Chaos to not bite the bullet, which instead leads to him Walking the Earth (see below).
    • Played fully straight if the person fighting Golbez isn't Cecil, given his pre-battle and post-battle quotes.
    • Actually, that might not necessarily be the case. It's strongly implied from certain conversations between certain character's final battles that none of the villains die. They have merely been defeated and are then returned to the worlds they came from.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang
  • Stealth Mentor
  • Walking the Earth: After their battle in Shade Impulse, Golbez decides to do this until he feels that he can join Cecil in the light. Not that he already hasn't...

In Dissidia 012

Though appearing in few scenes, Golbez still holds a key role in the development of the cycles.


Exdeath

"Embrace the stillness of eternity."

"The true Void lies nowhere. Only the power of life exists." -- Power of the Void

Voiced by: Tarō Ishida (Japanese), Gerald C. Rivers (English)

—Fighting Style: Entropic Adversary

The warlock from Final Fantasy V born from a mass of evil spirits sealed in a tree that became sentient. He controls the power of the Void. With a background similar to Cloud of Darkness, he wishes to absorb everything into nothingness, even himself, so that nothing at all exists anymore.

General Tropes

  • Breakout Character: He was one of the more overlooked villains before, but with his obssession with the Void, Lethal Joke Character status and Large Ham tendencies, he went memetic after Dissidia and is now very popular, something Square-Enix notes in Dissidia012 as covered under Ascended Meme on the main page.
  • Composite Character: He has the motivations of Neo Exdeath (normal Exdeath very much did not want to erase himself) but his own personality.
  • Driven to Suicide: Apparently this is Exdeath post transformation into Neo Exdeath, because not only does he retain Neo Exdeath's desire to return existance into the Void, but the desire to see himself erased, as well.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Exdeath is actually an amalgamated consciousness made up of monsters sealed in a tree, wrapped in an armored shell. Like the Cloud of Darkness, it's not entirely clear whether the consciousness running the whole thing is an embodiment of the Void, or its herald.
    • Technically, he's neither. Just a blasphemous legion of evil that just so happened to gain, and master, the power of nothingness. Because that's what everyone wants: an Omnicidal Maniac who can erase existance with a thought.
  • Large Ham: With a name like that, it's practically required.
  • The Man Behind the Monsters: Released the Manikins from the Void to use as minions and seems to be the one who controls them, as he's the only one shown summoning them in cutscenes.
  • Mondegreen: Two bullet points for English versions, and three for Japanese misheard as English.
    • Delta Attack: "Get the fruit!" ("Death approaches!")
    • Almagest: "Naive Weekly!" ("Naive weakling!")
    • The laws of the universe mean nothing!: "To the asylum beyond!" ("To the silent beyond!")
    • Neo Almgest: "Embrace the sins of eternity." ("Embrace the stillness of eternity.")
      • High Block: "Tasty arrow!"
      • Vacuum Wave: "You're a-comin' to me!"
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast
  • Omnicidal Maniac: When Golbez questions what his true ambitions are, he coyly, yet blatantly, hints that he has his own way of ending the conflict of the gods; killing everyone.
  • Stealth Pun: His unlockable TURTLE!/KAME! line. Not only is it a nod to Ghido, but it's also a play on the concept of turtling, a game term referring to forgoing offense in favor of superior defense. A strategy that Exdeath excels in.
  • Title Drop: Got one in the Japanese version with his defeat quote, "Is this my final fantasy?". Then, Woolseyism struck and changed it to "Will I end like a mirage?".
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Let's see. There's Exdeath, ExDeath, Ex-Death, X-Death...
    • And if his Ivalice appearances count, Exodus.
      • Let's not forget the translation from the OVAs, "Exodeeze".
  • When Trees Attack: His EX Mode skirt is colored to resemble his tree face. Did we mention that when he dashes it sounds wooden?

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"Supreme power!"

    • Exdeath takes on his penultimate form; the fusion of tree and humanoid that he uses in the final battle (except in his new 3rd alternate costume, where his appearance more closely resembles the humanoid body at the apex of Neo Exdeath). In addition to Regen, Exdeath's EX Mode gives him access to the following ability:
      • Speed Guard: Exdeath's guards execute faster and have reduced cooldown. In addition, he has more counterattack options after a successful block.
    • In addition, Power of the Void gives Exdeath access to his EX Burst: The Laws Of The Universe Mean Nothing!

"To the silent beyond!" or "TURTLE!"

      • As a nice nod to his relationship with his old minion, Exdeath using his EX Burst on Gilgamesh gives an extra two text boxes during the attack input taken straight from Final Fantasy V's script;

"You worthless fool!" "Fall to the depths of the Rift!"

    • Exdeath surrounds himself and the enemy with the power of the Void as he drains the power to nothing. Perfect execution results in Neo Almagest, where he traps the enemy in a rapidly shinking portal to the Void, which he finally crushes between his hands as the screen goes dark and the music fades.

"Embrace the stillness of eternity..."

  • Flying Weapon: His sword.
  • Instant Runes: Delta Attack and High Block. They also pop up under him during Reverse Polarity, his teleportation spell.
  • Joke Character/Lethal Joke Character: He's amazingly slow, has almost no combos, an extremely difficult to master list of brave attacks, and easy to predict HP attacks. He's by far the easiest computer opponent in the game (this actually makes him ideal for power leveling, as even a measly level 1 player can kill a maxed out level 100 Exdeath with the right summon set up, or he can just be Cherry Tapped to death). But if you're a talented enough player to master Exdeath's counter attack based BP moves, you can devastate your opponents in a flash.
    • He recieved several buffs in Duodecim, however, including a MUCH smarter AI. Players expecting the derpy Exdeath from the first game are going to be in for a nasty surprise when they discover that AI Exdeath suddenly learned to block-and-counter, and WILL hit you with Maelstrom if you try to run off and grab an EX Core.
  • Magic Knight: Carries a sword, but much like Terra relies moreso on magic. He instead uses the sword via telekinesis to focus his magic.
  • Stone Wall: Except for his teleport attack, Exdeath moves approximately at the speed of tree. His attacks aren't that fast either.
    • Lightning Bruiser: When he does one of his famous counters after a block, however, his attacks are much stronger and lightning-fast, as well as having an increased critical hit ratio for attacking a staggered opponent.
  • Power of the Void: Trope Namer.
  • The Slow Walk: Slowest in the game—Ultimecia is the second-slowest character, and in an excercise done to determine how fast each character was by having them walk across the World of Darkness arena, Exdeath still took almost three times as long as her to make it across.
  • Villain Teleportation: Reverse Polarity.
    • Teleport Spam: Since he won't be walking anywhere if the player plans to get there before their opponent rage quits from boredom, expect to see it a lot.
    • Tele Frag: If he teleports directly to the opponent's location, he damages them.

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

Ex-Death’s role in the first game is similar to most villains, standing out only in that he has the least personal relationship with his personal foe, Bartz, and a little more relevance given near the end of the story, arguably to serve as exposition. Ultimately, he cares little for the war between the gods, since he believes blindly in that it will all ultimately lead everything into nothingness.

  • Face Death with Dignity: When he's killed the final time in Shade Impulse, he revels in the feeling of dissolving to nothingness, and faces his death standing tall, laughing deep and long.
  • Genre Savvy/Brilliant but Lazy: Nothing gets past him in Dissidia's plot. He knows what his cohorts are planning, especially the fact that Golbez is a traitor, he sees right through Onion Knight's attempt to avoid fighting him, and he knows exactly how the cycle of conflict will end if it goes on the way it has been. The only thing keeping him from being more of a threat is that he simply doesn't care, as he believes his ultimate objective is inevitable and guaranteed by the conflict, so there's no need to do anything. Even in regards to Golbez, all he does is taunt Golbez that he knows what's up. He considers executing Golbez for it, but when Cecil makes that more trouble than it's worth, he foregoes that plan.
  • My Void Is Better Than Yours: When facing Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath tells her that her Void is nothing more than a pale imitation. Which is ironic coming from the legion of evil tree spirits. Makes you think HE might be the imitation.

Exdeath: "The Void you desire is false."

Exdeath: (to Onion Knight and Terra) "I come out here to kill the time, and what do I find but a woman and child!"

    • Justified Trope in that Exdeath believes that regardless of how events turn out, all outcomes will eventually lead to the Void consuming all of existence. This is why he seems to aimlessly wander around throughout the various cycles of the conflict, even deciding to play along with Kuja's schemes in Dissidia. So, in his mind, he wins either way, and has no reason to really do anything.

In Dissidia 012

In Duodecim, Ex-Death takes the role of Kain’s personal foe, chasing him around while the Dragoon tries to hide away his allies for the next cycle. Ultimately, they confront one another as Kain tries to buy time for Lightning and the others, and is ultimately defeated and killed right there, realizing too late Golbez had betrayed him.

BWO-HO-HA-HA-HA!

  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: An Official Quest shows Kain's actions after his encounter with Lightning -- turns out the only reason he didn't kill her off then was because he didn't want Exdeath following him back to where he was keeping the fallen heroes safe. If Exdeath and Garland hadn't shown up, Kain and Lightning would have kept fighting and one of them probably eventually killed the other, and from there the entire plot of the game unravels.

Kefka Palazzo

"Hopes aren't worth dirt! I'm going to destroy everything!"

"The past is filled with pain and suffering, but all is well if you have fun living." -- Fanatic's Leer

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)

—Fighting Style: Mad Mage

The insane sorcerer who, after gaining power by absorbing the strength of the Warring Triad, became even more sadistic and nihilistic than he was even after his magitek infusion during Final Fantasy VI. His personality hardly holds much sanity, resulting on the other villains not taking him seriously, but instead trying to use him for their convenience, since his two main motivations are simply his desire to destroy all that is, and his desire to bring Terra back onto the side of Chaos, so that she can help him achieve his first motivation.

General Tropes

  • A God Am I: His EX Mode is his "god of magic" form.
  • Ax Crazy: Anyone who has played his original game shouldn't be surprised by this.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: As above. See Not-So-Harmless Villain.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: He winks and laughs at the player, hums the victory fanfare sometimes when he wins against a stronger opponent, and points out that the Onion Knight is a stand-in for Locke ("imitation hero", as he put it).
  • Creepy Crossdresser: He is the only male character besides Cloud able to equip ribbons and female exclusive equipment.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Some of his pre-battle taunts can be interpretated as he having the hots for Firion, Terra, and himself.
    • Actually, he meant something different to Firion. The line in Japanese is something like "You must be sweltering!" It is intended to be rather like Jecht's line to Gabranth "Aren't you hot in that thing?"
  • Distracted by My Own Sexy: His Mirror Match quote is a minor case of this.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: "Why create when it will only be destroyed? Why cling to life, knowing that you have to die?"
  • Evil Laugh: It's his trademark.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: If his intro quotes during his mirror matches are anything to go by, he certainly is a narcissist in terms of looking at himself in the mirror and loving his reflection.
  • Girly Run: The way Kefka runs... well, it really didn't seem like how a guy would run.
  • Glasgow Grin: Kefka's normal form sports the Heath Ledger's Joker variation. In his EX mode, however, he sports a genuine one.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Sort of: Because he constantly has a smile made on him (see Glasgow Grin or Slasher Smile), even when he's defeated, he is still smiling, although his reaction indicates that he's feeling the exact opposite emotion for losing.
  • Guttural Growler: When being threatening.
  • Hypocritical Humor: He claims Sephiroth is "just another sadist with a god complex... like THAT's something special!" This pretty much describes Kefka perfectly (and he probably knows it). Also counts as a form of Lampshade Hanging, because most major Final Fantasy villains want to become a god, destroy everything, or both. It's par for the course, really.
    • Also, in Duodecim, his intro quote to Laguna Loire is "Would you look at this clown?" Err, Kefka, you really need to look at yourself in the mirror.
  • The Hyena
  • The Jester: Appearances aside, he has no qualms of mocking his fellow Warriors of Chaos compatriots in addition to the Warriors of Cosmos. He even lampshades the trope when fighting the Emperor in Duodecim:

Kefka Palazzo: Look at who I get to mess with next!

  • Lack of Empathy: Hoo boy, is he lacking in it. In the first Dissidia, he frequently taunts Terra for her beat down on Onion Knight, as well as her apparently being "destruction incarnate" and the possibility of her enjoying hurting Onion Knight, and taunts and laughs at the heroes after Cosmos was killed by Chaos, and then he taunts Terra with information relating to their role in Cosmos' death, and then retracts it as soon as he learns that she actually wants to know. In Dissidia 012, he cruelly mocks Kuja's loss, not to mention taunting Terra for renouncing her destructive nature.
  • Large Ham: See his page quote.
  • Laughably Evil: He acts like a complete clown at times (fitting, given the fact that he resembles one). Also, when about to fight an opponent, his opening action is to turn around, bend over with his head turned to face the enemy, and slapping his own butt at the enemy, essentially telling them to "kiss [Kefka's] butt"
  • Laughing Mad: It's his trademark... Seriously, he named the trope!
    • It's also strongly implied in the first Dissidia that, similar to Laughing Octopus, his manic laughter is the only way he could express himself, even when the actual emotion he is feeling is significantly different than his laughter suggests.
  • Meta Guy: Makes several Aside Glances (though the way Kefka does it it ends up more like a Jump Scare), occasionally hums the Victory Fanfare when he wins, and hangs many a lampshade. An interesting way to think of Kefka is that he's fully aware about the video game he and the others are in and likes to troll them with his knowledge of the cliches they embody.

About Sephiroth: "He's just another sadist with a god complex, like THAT'S something special!"

About Squall: "You sure are talkative, in your head!"

About Vaan: "And here I thought you were just another prepubescent pretty-boy."

About Kuja: "He and his black thong are going to regret this!

  • Monster Clown: But this time it's more obvious than ever! Uwee hee hee!
  • Mundane Utility: Power Floats, of course, but he's fond of laying down and lounging on the air itself during some cutscenes. Who knows if he's just miming being "at rest" or is actually reclining, depending on how much power it takes to float.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: The actual motivation behind Kefka's all-consuming desire to destroy everything is his firm belief that nothing in life matters or has any value. Any time you get a glimpse underneath the Ax Crazy Monster Clown personality, the hints of how much this drives everything he does are almost Tear Jerkers.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Don't let the clown make-up and constant joking around fool you - -Kefka is just as cruel, sinister and powerful as any other villain, and though he focused on Terra in Dissidia, in Dissidia 012 he's just as manipulative and sneaky as the rest too.
    • In Dissidia 012, according to the museum profile for the Cloud of Darkness, the reason she doesn't remember Kefka using Terra as a pawn in the 13th cycle is because Kefka killed her in the 12th when he found out she told Laguna how to stop the flow of Manikins. Yes, Kefka, the guy who cracks a fart joke, pulls a You Have Failed Me... on the Anthropomorphic Personification of the realm of nothingness!
      • That is also retconned into the dialog for the 13th cycle; at some point Kefka complains about the purification of traitors who give vital information to the enemy. Apparently Kefka didn't expect the Cloud of Darkness to be around again and is pissed at Shinryu for it.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: While not really stupid, Kefka is far more devious and cunning than his behavior would indicate. Most obvious in Dissidia 012, where he's cackling and joking around with Kuja about him failing to kill Zidane and his friends, then once Kuja leaves mutters he knows Kuja let them go on purpose and starts plotting how to make him pay for it.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Emphasis on "omnicidal". And emphasis on "maniac".
  • Power Gives You Wings: Sprouts four of them in his EX Mode. He can also sprout them as a combat move, "Havoc Wing", in which he flips over and shoots them out of his back, attempting to impale his enemy at close range.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Let's just say that what he says when activating the Light of Judgment has him very literally lusting for destruction.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: This is especially evident in this quote:

Kefka: "LET THE PARTY BEGIN!"
(Terra teleports seconds before the Ultima balls hit her)
Kefka: "Hm? Was that it? I wanna play more~!"

    • Also his reaction after fighting Vaan, before realizing that Vaan also took Terra with him.

Kefka: "Incredible! That's the most fun I've had in minutes!"

    • Also in the Japanese versions of the games, he uses the pronoun "boku", which is usually used by young boys.
  • Sad Clown: It is implied shortly after his defeat in Shade Impulse that his main motivation for lusting after destruction and reason for being consumed by nihilism was because of a broken heart. Firion reinforces the trope with his pre-battle quote when facing Kefka.

Firion: "I've never heard... a sadder laugh..."

    • Kefka himself even refers to his heart in his battle encounter with Zidane in Duodecim:

Kefka: "Gimmie back my heart, please?"

  • Shout-Out: Dave Wittenberg's performance as Kefka sounds similar to Mark Hamill's characterization of The Joker.
  • Slasher Smile: His even resembles Heath Ledger's characterization of the Joker from the Dark Knight (IE, resembling a glasgow smile).
  • This Cannot Be!: "Inconceivable!"
  • Throw It In: A lot of Kefka's lines and quirks can be traced back to Shigeru Chiba, who ab-libbed a lot during recording sessions.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

  • Confusion Fu: His fighting style is appropriately summed up as "Mad Mage". Though Genre Savvy players will know better, the main idea behind Kefka's attacks is that they don't hit where you're supposed to expect them to. Instead, they zigzag to hit from a different direction than where he fired them, or they stop randomly when firing before moving again a second later to screw up your dodge timing.
  • Dance Battler: When using Zap-Trap Thundaga, he spins around as if dancing and clapping as the heavens rain thunderbolts, while also shouting maniacally "Dance, Dance!" Presumably, the reason he does this is due to his severe insanity.
  • EX Mode: Power of Destruction!

"Watch this!"

    • Kefka takes on his God of Magic form from the end of Final Fantasy VI. He loses his makeup and garish clothes in exchange for purple skin and two pairs of wings (presumably changed from the original six wings for ease of character modeling. The head-feather is still in style, though). In addition to Regen, Kefka's EX Mode gives him access to the following abilities:
      • Glide: Kefka uses those wings to great effect, and gains the power to fly around the stage.
      • Exhilarating Magic: All of Kefka's spells become even crazier. Some of his spells fire more projectiles at a time, others track opponents better, and some change the timing of their firing to screw with the opponent's dodge attempts.
    • In addition, Power of Destruction gives Kefka access to his EX Burst: Warring Triad.

"Be careful! Watch this!"..."

"It's filling me up! "It's filling me up!" (smiting light from above) That was titillating."

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

In the first game, Kefka's primary goal is to seize control of Terra and use her power to further his plans to destroy all existence. To this end, he uses a Puppeteer's Wheel[1] to take over her mind and use her to attack Onion Knight, then taunts her about her destructive abilities that make her better suited to serving evil than good.

  • Actor Allusion: Kefka, upon meeting with Terra for the first (onscreen) time, implies that she was a bloodthirsty monster beforehand. When he realizes that she doesn't remember, he reveals this information in such a way that causes her great trauma. Lastly, although unintentional, he takes a kid upon his escape (more specifically, the kid fought him), just like Raditz did with Goku in the beginning of the Vegeta saga. Both Raditz and Kefka are voiced in the Japanese version by Shigeru Chiba.
    • Also, Kefka's antagonism of Terra is somewhat similar to Emperor Pilaf's antagonism of Bulma, and overall acts like an insane overgrown kid just like Pilaf. Pilaf is also voiced by Chiba.
    • There's one regarding Dave Wittenberg as well: During the battle with Terra, Kefka briefly makes a crazed face (specifically while chortling while flying high-speed towards the camera after the third attempt at bombing Terra with various Ultima balls) as he flies towards the screen. Another one of Dave Wittenberg's characters, Yazoo, gives a very similar facial expression at one point in Advent Children.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: In-universe, Terra (story mode) and Firion (via intro quote) took pity in regards to Kefka.
    • Also in Light The Way Conclusion in the story pre-battle exchange, where, while Kefka is undergoing a mantra of shouting "Destroy!" in a repetitive fashion, Terra wonders whether Kefka is himself feeling tormented.
  • Driven to Suicide: Implied with his blowing himself up after being defeated in Shade Impulse. The Dissidia 012 bio even listed him as self-destructing, feeling that at least would make him feel better.
  • Just Between You and Me: Notably averted in Shade Impulse:

Kefka: "Oh, I know! You want to be destroyed by me, right? Of course! After what you did to Cosmos, who wouldn't want to follow?"
Terra: "Tell me, what is it that you know?"
Kefka: "You wanna hear? Do you? In that case... I'm not telling!~"
Terra: "Stop fooling around!"
Kefka: "(Sorry, ma'am.) Come on! What does it matter anymore?!" (laughs hysterically)

  • In Love with Your Carnage: Towards Terra (as seen in their cutscenes), and the main reason he wants to brainwash her back to the side of Chaos. He also shows this towards Shantotto ("Now you've got what it takes to destroy the world!")
  • Mad Bomber: Kefka has shades of this in Dissida. For one thing, during his fight with Terra in Destiny Odyssey, Kefka is seen laughing maniacally when he is lobbing explosive orbs (implied to be his Ultima spell) at Terra both during their first onscreen encounter (when he fires some spells at her while claiming that there's another enemy for her to destroy) as well as during their fight, especially when they are exploding. He then fires the same spell at Terra shortly before their battle in "Shade Impulse", with him laughing as it is exploding. Also, when he is using the Ultima spell during gameplay, shortly after it detonates, he starts cackling.
  • Oh Crap: Kefka's expression when he sees the Cloud of Darkness attempt to blast away Terra and Onion Knight with her particle beam (seen for a split second).
  • Pragmatic Villainy: When the Cloud of Darkness had the chance of killing Terra (and presumably Onion Knight) with an energy attack, Kefka put down CoD's hand, because he wants to make sure Terra returns to Chaos' side, feeling that she still has some use (that, as well as him and CoD having different methods of carrying out destruction: She wanted to destroy Terra outright, Kefka simply wants to "have some fun" while destroying things.)
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Well, it wasn't much of a speech, but Kefka's opening line to the Emperor (which qualified as a Mythology Gag to what he said to Gestahl after he ended up fried by the Warring Triad) qualifies as such.

Kefka Palazzo: You are less than worthless!!

  • Shadow Archetype: To Terra.
  • Stalker with a Crush: His obsession with Terra borders on this.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Probably suffers from this prior to fighting Terra in Shade Impulse, if the pre-battle exchange in Light The Way part III of Dissidia 012 is anything to go by.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Terra believes that the reason why Kefka was so insane and hell-bent on the destruction of everything was because of a "broken heart". And then there's this:

Kefka: "Why create when it will only be destroyed? Why cling to life, knowing that you have to die? None of it will have meant anything once you do."

In Duodecim

Kefka is still concerned with Terra primarily; in this game he has full control over her (initially) and puts her to work fighting. However, he's also in prime form as a villain otherwise, manipulating enemy and ally alike into fighting, either For the Evulz, or for the sake of the Emperor's scheme.

Vaan: "We'll finish this next time! For now, I'm just gonna take the girl! Catch ya later!"
Kefka: (waving) "Yeah, it's been a pleasure! Wait, you're, you, you're you w-w... WHAT!?"

  • Evil Mentor: He gives Kuja advice and assistance on capturing the heroes, but he does this to keep Kuja on track with the fake memories he implanted him with between the 12th and 13th cycles. And so he could get those fake memories into Kuja's head in the first place, he arranged for him to fight Lightning, then stood back and not only watched him die, but also proceeded to mock him.
  • Expy: The Joker mannerisms aside (see Shout-Out), he effectively acts as a stand-in for Vayne to fit with Vaan being his designated opponent. His Ax Crazy mannerisms are toned down and he spends much of the twelfth cycle manipulating the other warriors against each other from afar much as Vayne did. Vaan even fights him on the Sky Fortress Bahamut, the site of XII's final battle with Vayne.
  • Just Between You and Me: Similar to the first Dissidia (as well as Duodecim's "Light the Way"), its averted: When Lightning expresses disgust at Kefka's watching back and mocking Kuja's death, he implies that he might end up returning soon from the dead. When Lightning asks how he could not be dead, however, Kefka then refuses to get into that subject, and also implies that Lightning would just "forget" even if he did bother to go to the trouble of explaining it.[2] Lightning is understandably confused afterwards.
  • Kick the Dog: He mocks Kuja when the latter is defeated/killed by Lightning. Honestly, it's really no wonder why Kuja would hate him.

Kefka: Oopsie! Someone went and lost, didn't he? (Kefka approaches a keeling Kuja) You know what they say about second place: Completely pathetic! (Kuja fades away in clouds of darkness) Meh. Don't sweat it, a little thing like that's not gonna be the end of you. Should be the end of that rebellious phase of yours, though! The next time you fight, it will be study time! (mimes writing) All over again!

  • Manipulative Bastard: Not only does he screw with Kuja's plans to motivate him to be more evil, he also plants the idea to attack Tifa in Sephiroth's head, just so he could send Cloud after him with the intent for this to motivate Cloud's Heel Face Turn and eventual death. He did this simply because he did not like the idea of the two of them choosing to sit out the war.
  • Mythology Gag: The song that plays during the battle against Kefka in Prologus is "Esper Battle" from Final Fantasy XII. Fans of the series will note that the theme is fitting as Kefka himself tried to exploit the espers in his game for power before eventually settling for turning them into magicite.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Gets very close with Kuja, leaning on his shoulders and getting right up in his face several times.
  • Toilet Humor: Kefka, when overhearing Cloud and Kuja's heart to heart talk, mockingly remarks that it gives him gas, complete with a farting sound.
  • You Have Failed Me...: He executes the Cloud of Darkness after learning that they gave away information to Laguna about the door to the Rift.


Sephiroth

"Accept it. I am the one who guides you -- forever."

"The truth can be cruel at times, but whether they can accept that truth is up to them." -- Life of the Planet

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), George Newbern (English)

—Fighting Style: Focused Blade

A powerful former member of SOLDIER from Final Fantasy VII. When he learned about his origins, as the result of an experiment called the Jenova Project, Sephiroth attempted to become a god by absorbing the world's life energy into himself.

General Tropes

Firion: "You make me shiver. What are you?!"

(to Shantotto): "A former hero? Please..."
(to Cloud of Darkness): "Another washed-up monster..."

    • Of course, this is also noted by both his allies and enemies:

Garland: "Show me what a 'hero' can do!"
The Emperor: "A hero, toyed with by fate?"

Squall: "No one needs a hero from the past..."

  • Lampshade Hanging: After the boss battle with him during Warrior's story mode, Sephiroth says that he is going to go do what he is obligated to do, i.e. torment and battle Cloud. He seems aware of the fact that most of his appearances since his original game more or less center around just that.

Sephiroth: "The time has come. I must face him and fulfill my obligation."

  • Loners Are Freaks: He's sorta treated like this by The Emperor and Ultimecia, due to his refusal to join their alliance.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • One-Winged Angel: Averted, surprisingly enough considering he's the Trope Namer. Sephiroth's OWA form would require a completely different character model, due to how inhuman it is, rather than just a new skin, and that would have forced the game to stop and load every time he activated it (which is strange considering how most of the other villains' EX forms were based on their legitimate One Winged Angel forms). He does have his one black wing from Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts though, making the trope be applied literally.
  • Punch Clock Villain: While all the other villains have some clear goal of domination, absolute destruction, or something alike, Sephiroth doesn't care at all for any of this, nor the outcome of the battle of the gods. His only shown interest is in fighting Cloud and Tifa to recover his lost memories, and once he has them his focus turns to the nature of the cycle and his own existence within it.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes.

"It's time..."

    • Just as he did in the climax of the original game and Advent Children, Sephiroth fuses with even more Jenova cells and increases his power, gaining a single black wing in the process. In addition to Regen, Sephiroth's EX Mode gives him the following abilities:
      • Glide: Seems one wing is almost as good as six. Sephiroth is able to fly around the stage.
      • Heartless Angel: Holding R+Square beings the charge for Sephiroth's signature move. When it goes off correctly, it causes an instant, unblockable attack which results in bringing the opponent's Brave To One.
    • In addition, Reunion gives Sephiroth access to his EX Burst: Supernova.

"I bring you despair!"

"Ruination to all!"

  • Flash Step: Oblivion, Fervent Blow, Godspeed, and Heaven's Light.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Oblivion.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Not that he's the only one, but he gets a special mention for his gratuitous use of the tropes list under the next one.
  • Jack of All Stats: He isn't a particularly bad character, he moves and attacks at a decent clip and packs a fair punch. He just lacks the pure power and/or speed of others, and has little combo potential.
  • Simultaneous Blade Spam: All of his melee attacks hit far more times than you actually see his sword swing. Oblivion is probably the best example, where he dashes past the opponent and only hits them with the Masamune once, but they get hit eleven times.
  • Sword Beam/Razor Wind: The undisputed king. Fervent Blow and Godspeed fire several sword beams, while Reaper, Transience, and Sudden Cruelty leave bands of energy after the actual swings that hit more times.
  • Too Slow: When using Reaper and Godspeed, though as he's The Stoic it's underplayed compared to other instances of the trope.

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

  • A God I Am: Lampshaded by Kefka. Like the other villains, Sephiroth decides to implement his plot from his original game in order to survive after Cosmos' death. It was cut out of Duodecium in favor of focusing on his rivalry with Cloud, but several of his quotes in both games allude to this.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Invoked In-universe by Cecil Harvey. See Tragic Monster.
  • Audience Surrogate: Similar to LOVELESS and his reaction to it in Crisis Core, Sephiroth basically speaks for all people who don't view Kefka favorably with his pre-battle quote to Kefka being a simple "You're annoying." Made even more poignant in the Japanese version, where Kefka is basically a scrappy.
  • Blood Knight: Sephiroth implies when attempting to pull a Not So Different speech on the Warrior of Light during the 13th Cycle that the closest thing to a "motivation" for Sephiroth to participate in the conflict is that he enjoys fighting. Kefka also claims that he pretty much was made for the battlefield during the 12th Cycle when trying to manipulate Sephiroth into luring Cloud to be killed by Sephiroth in addition to Sephiroth killing Tifa.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When the Emperor attempted to recruit Sephiroth into his and Ultimecia's plot to rule existance, he refuses. Considering how their "plan" basically involved killing off every single one of their own allies as well as their enemies to ensure that the Emperor managed to rule existance in the place of Cosmos and Chaos, it almost seems like Sephiroth was subtly giving his displeasure in that sort of plan in retrospect.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: How he tries to hammer home the fact that Cloud is his Unwitting Pawn. Cloud turns it around on him ("You're the one who won't let go!"), but Sephiroth doesn't seem to be fazed in the slightest.
  • Tragic Monster: If playing as Sephiroth against Cecil Harvey, Harvey will say that there "is sorrow in [Sephiroth's] wintery eyes", indicating that, despite his statements, Sephiroth does actually feel some melancholy about something.
  • Warrior Poet: With his desire to become a god toned down, Sephiroth's main goal (besides messing with Cloud) seems to be to muse over the nature of life and his lost memories to himself and occasionally Garland.

In Duodecim

  • Mirror Match: His suicide is represented by this in an official quest.
  • Not In This For The God's Dispute: Apparently, Sephiroth does not actually care about the actual outcome of the conflict between Cosmos and Chaos, and only participated in the conflict in the first place to regain his memories.
  • Properly Paranoid: Hinted at in the original game and confirmed in Dissidia 012, in the twelfth cycle he suspected that he might actually be an enhanced Manikin that was implanted with the real Sephiroth's memories. He killed himself to test this theory, and when he was resurrected in the thirteenth cycle he knew that he was the real deal. However, it turns out that the Warrior of Light, Cosmos, and Chaos are precisely that themselves, so his suspicions were well-founded.
  • Warrior Therapist: Strangely enough, in the Prologus demo for Dissidia Duodecim, he actually lectures the Warrior of Light and Lightning after they beat him about their holding back too much of their power, and even almost encourages them to go full out and actually kill him next time, namely because there wouldn't have been a point to them existing in the current state of the world if they didn't do that. Then again, Cloud does hint that most of the Warriors of Chaos were holding back their power.


Ultimecia

"Foolish boy. Everything is an illusion. Your hopes, your friends -- Your life itself -- shall fade."

"Everyone wishes they could change the past." -- Gears of Time

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese), Tasia Valenza (English)

Fighting Style: Sorceress Fusileer

An incredibly powerful sorceress who controls time and can attack with weapon-shaped long range energy attacks, aside from casting time-honored spells. In Final Fantasy VIII, she attempted to compress time, creating a world where past, present, and future would become one, and in Dissidia, she's plotting the same thing, although with a much more ambiguous view about it.

General Tropes

Apocalypse: "There is no butter for this plane. Your bed awaits."
Actually: "There is no running from this pain. Regret awaits."

    • Pretty much purely an intentional mishearing, coined in the wake of all the other mondegreens.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Taking the concept of destroying everything and applying it to the entire spacetime continuum. Welcome to Time Compression.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Technically true for the Warriors of Chaos, since the Cloud of Darkness has No Biological Sex.
  • Vain Sorceress: Hinted at by Kefka Palazzo's pre-battle quote in Dissidia 012.

Kefka Palazzo: Using time to get rid of those wrinkles?

  • The Vamp: That evening gown should have been your first clue.

Design and Costume Tropes

"You are bold for one so young."

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

  • The Archmage
  • An Axe to Grind: A Knight's Axe to be precise.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Unlike the likes of Sephy's Heartless Angel, Golbez's Black Fang, and the Emperor's Starfall, Ultimecia can't stop Time Crush once the player begins to charge it up, so she's completely helpless to dodge or block if the opponent gets to her. On the other hand, it's a lot of fun to trap your opponent by perfectly timing consecutive Time Crushes to keep them paralyzed indefinitely, preferably while a summon, like, say, Tiamat or Ultima Weapon, charges up its effect. This only applies to the original Dissidia, as Duodecim allows Ultimecia to cancel out of Time Crush.
  • Beam Spam: She does with magical projectiles what Squall and Laguna do with their sword and guns.
  • Charged Attack: All her Bravery attacks can be charged by holding the button instead of pressing or tapping it, changing their effects. Can also charge Shockwave Pulsar and Great Attractor.
  • Colony Drop: Fires a miniature version of the Final Fantasy VIII planet when using Great Attractor.
  • Dark Action Girl/Dark Chick
  • EX Mode: Junction Griever!

"Come, Griever!"

    • Continuing to fly in the face of the Junction System's rules, Ultimecia merges with the "Ultimate GF", Griever. In addition to Regen, Ultimecia's EX Mode gives her access to the following ability:
      • Time Crush: Holding R+Square beings the charge for Ultimecia's special attack. If she is allowed to get it off, she freezes the enemy in place with a call of "Time!" This creates an irresistible opportunity for an HP Attack.
    • In addition, Junction Griever gives Ultimecia access to her EX Burst: Time Compression.

"Time! Playtime is over!"

"Eternal sleep..." (Evil Laugh)

In Dissidia

  • Cry for the Devil: Many of Ultimecia's lines throughout the game imply that the real driving reason behind her wanting to compress time to a single point is her longing to return to the innocent days of her childhood, the last time she was truly happy.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Disguises herself as Cosmos to convince Squall to travel on his own and leave Zidane and Bartz behind.
  • Shout-Out/Take That: Ultimecia's exclusive weapons are named after some of Rinoa's weapons from Final Fantasy VIII. More than likely, this is a nod to the Jossed (albeit still popular) theory that Ultimecia was a Bad Future incarnation of Rinoa. Likewise, her "Shall we dance?" line to Squall is a variation of what Rinoa said to Squall prior to their first meeting at a ballroom dance.
  • Take Your Time: Ultimecia tells Squall to do this when they meet face-to-face and he isn't ready to face her yet.

In Duodecim

  • Actually a Doombot: Tifa soundly kicks Ultimecia, only for Ultimecia to shatter into crystal—it was actually a Manikin.
  • Flanderization: Subjected to a particularly brutal example of it in Duodecim - every line she had in Dissidia regarding her deeper motivation to return to the innocence of her youth is removed in favor of making her focused solely on compressing time and becoming omnipotent in that way. What's worse is this is a Mythology Gag ; the same thing happened in the Japanese to English port of FFVIII. That's right: someone on the writing team actually thought removing personality from a character was not only a good idea, but such a good idea it deserved a callback.
  • Designated Girl Fight: She's Tifa's designated story mode rival, the only time in the story where two female warriors fight.
  • Pet the Dog: Her intro quote to Terra if the player is fighting as Terra, possibly:

Ultimecia: It's okay to cry.


Kuja

"As one who shares your fate, I simply had to see how your heart would break upon realizing how powerless you truly are."

"Everything must disappear to truly forget the truth. To do that, the world must disappear as well." -- God of Destruction

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese), JD Cullum (English)

—Fighting Style: Graceful Glider

A confident and prideful mage who is quite jealous of Zidane for some reason. In Final Fantasy IX, he was quite a Manipulative Bastard and succeeded in attaining tremendous power.

General Tropes

  • Affably Evil: Despite being quite a prick most of the time, he will actually compliment you (though somewhat sarcastically) on successfully pulling off an attack on him in battle ("That wasn't bad at all!") Possibly a reference to when Bahamut managed to give him a minor injury in Final Fantasy IX. He was surprised when he realised that he'd received a small cut and commended the dragon for actually managing to hurt him.
  • The Fighting Narcissist
  • Large Ham: Perhaps the largest in the game. He's obsessed with theater and makes a habit out of weaving faux-Shakespearean speech into his sentences. Even the few sentences where he doesn't do that get pretty hammy.

"As one who shares your fate, I simply had to see how your heart would break upon realizing how powerless you truly are."
"Your friends will get hurt, and there is nothing you can do. Like a bird trapped in a cage, you can only listen as they scream in terror..."

  • Mythology Gag: Most, if not all, of Kuja's battle relate to his theatrical and dramatic nature (see Large Ham) from his respective game. For example, when battling Terra, Kuja refers to her as "a poor bird without wings," similar to how he refers to Garnet as a "canary".
  • Relationship Voice Actor: See Bartz's entry.
  • Sissy Villain
  • Small Name, Big Ego: He considers himself superior to all of his allies, despite Garland telling him they are all slaves of the cycle of battle.
  • Spanner in the Works: The reason Cloud and Tidus have a Big Damn Hero moment is because Kuja told them Firion was about to fall into the Emperor's trap.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Invoked, or at least attempted, he considers himself the best of the villains and tries to prove himself their better. His battle quotes also reflect that in his opinion he's the only one that matters.

"Now for my one-man show!"

  • Sore Loser: Probably the sorest of them all do to his narcissism.

Design and Costume Tropes

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"Here's your invitation!"

    • Yes, the third practitioner of Trance. Kuja swaps his man-thong for the equivalent Fur Bikini (not making much of a difference in the creepiness level, honestly), via his game's answer to the Limit Break, and powers up. In addition to Regen, Kuja's EX Mode gives him access to the following abilities:
      • Super Glide: Kuja is the only character who can Glide outside of EX Mode, so it would follow that his EX Mode gives him an even better Glide. Super Glide can keep him airborne pretty much indefinitely.
      • Auto Magic: The Holy/Flare spellballs that surround and follow him will automatically perform special attacks while he's gliding, jumping, or landing.
    • In addition, Trance gives Kuja access to his EX Burst: Final Requiem.

"Curtain rise!"

    • Kuja sits back and conducts as the spell-balls he controls drop Flare Star spells on the enemy, followed by Seraphic Stars, as the image of the planet Terra overpowers the planet Gaia. For the final strike, Kuja commands the spell-balls to drop rapid-fire Ultima spells on the enemy, obliterating them with the ultimate magic.

"Here comes the finale!"

  • The Fighting Narcissist: Remember, his name is two letters away from kujaku, the Japanese word for "peacock", an animal noted for its flamboyant nature and beautiful appearance.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Seraphic Star, also combines Holy and Flare for his Brave attacks.
  • Musical Assassin: He doesn't use any instruments, but much of his gameplay makes reference to music.
  • Non-Elemental: Ultima.
  • Playing with Fire: Flare Star.
  • Power Floats: He's not called the "Graceful Glider" for nothing—while the others disregard gravity, Kuja is actively giving it both middle fingers. The only time he ever physically touches anything, much less the ground, is if his opponent introduces him to it the hard way.
  • Squishy Wizard: He does a lot of damage and moves at a fair speed, but his Bravery attacks are easy to block.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: His EX Burst. His Flare attacks also manifest mostly as explosions.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Every attack he has is some variation of Flare, Holy and/or Ultima.

In Dissidia

Letting his arrogance lead him to believe himself superior to all of the other antagonists - which causes a degree of unrest among them - he targets Zidane both for the sake of revenge, and to demostrate his power.

In Duodecim

During the twelth cycle, Kuja was indecisive about his role in the conflict, believing his actions would have no consequences. Surprisingly enough, he considers assisting the Warriors of Cosmos... but some may not agree with this...

  • Anti-Villain: He plain didn't want to take part in the war. Unfortunately for both him and Zidane, Kefka took care of that.
  • The Chew Toy: As described briefly in the above spoiler, the prequel may have developed his character better, but in-universe things got worse than ever.
  • Fake Memories: The reason he's so much more reserved and affable in the 12th cycle compared to the 13th is because Kefka arranged for him to die in the 12th, then tweaked his memories so he hated Zidane and would willingly fight him in the next round.
    • If Kefka's choice of words when gloating about planning to do this is any indication, this isn't even the first time it's happened.
  • Heel Face Turn: Tried to do it and failed miserably.
  • The Mole: For Chaos' team, no less. As he was actually planing to betray them, yet... Kefka's intervention cornered Kuja and forced him to betray Zidane.
  • Pet the Dog: Aside from his interactions with Zidane, Bartz and Squall, Kuja is the one who breaks Kefka's spell on Terra, because her servitude to Kefka reminded him of himself.
    • This unfortunately ended up ironically leading to a Kick the Dog moment for Kuja when he attacks Terra in an official quest and denounces dreams as nothing more than being fake.
  • Reluctant Warrior: He is extremely reluctant in fighting his rival, Zidane during the 12th cycle.
  • Shaggy Dog Story: Pretty much everything that happens to Kuja on the twelth cycle is tragic.
  • Trailers Always Lie: Twice over. The first trailers showed Kuja talking to Zidane and being referred to as a Cosmos warrior, and another scene showed him talking to Cloud, so at that time it was easy to believe he was called by Cosmos in this game. Then later trailers revealed Cloud was on Chaos' side in Dissidia 012 and showed Zidane accusing Kuja of betraying him, making it seem Kuja was just tricking them by pretending to by a good guy. The truth is somewhere in the middle--he really did try to help Zidane and his friends but was caught in the act, and he made out like betraying them was the plan all along to save his own skin and theirs.
  • Vocal Evolution: JD Cullum improved noticeably between Dissidia and Dissidia 012.


Jecht

"Pesky little runt. Who do you take after?"

"Unrefined love can cause misunderstandings. It's okay... your love will shine through." -- Medal of Honor

Voiced by: Masuo Amada (Japanese), Gregg Berger (English)

—Fighting Style: Brutal Blitzer

Tidus' father and a famed blitzball player, a sport which also becomes part of his fighting style. In Final Fantasy X, he became the Final Aeon that defeated Sin, but eventually became Sin because of that. In Dissidia, his reasons for siding with Chaos tend to express a more good attitude rather than evil intentions.

As hinted in the first game, Jecht is sided with Cosmos in Dissidia 012. The game will reveal how he ended up in Chaos' side.

General Tropes

  • Abusive Parents
  • Archnemesis Dad: Although it's not nearly as spiteful and hate-filled as the relationship was in X. In fact, his dynamic with Tidus in Dissidia more closely mirrors the climax and resolution of X, where the two finally part on more promising terms.
  • Badass: Arguably the most badass member of Chaos' team, and that's some steep competition.

"There's no shame in losin' to me."
"I got no such thing as limits."
"That's what they call skill!"
(during his EX Burst) "This is my show!"

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"I get to fight the best fighter in the world!"

  • Barehanded Blade Block: His normal block uses his sword and is only good for normal-strength Bravery Atttacks, but his Jecht Block uses the back of his hand and staggers enemies out of HP attacks (though he also staggers, preventing a counterattack).
  • BFS
    • One-Handed Zweihander: While his manual preference is to punch, kick and tackle he only ever uses both hands to swing his sword for one attack.
  • Charged Attack: All his offensive attacks except for Jecht Beam can be charged up for greater range, tracking and/or power.
  • Colony Drop/Death From Above: Ultimate Jecht Shot has him catch a meteor which he jumps up and throws down on the opponent's head. His EX Burst is basically his version of Tidus' Blitz Ace, but with an even bigger meteor in place of a blitzball.
  • Difficult but Awesome: Nothing on Sir "DURR HURR HURR!", but he's definitely second in this regard. His attacks require extremely precise timing of buttom presses to pull off properly, but if you do get the hang of him Jecht has some of the best combos in the game, all of which link to HP attacks and have Wall Rush to pile on the damage even more. He's also got Jecht Block which blocks almost any attack, he has lots of CP for support abilities because he has a comparatively small moveset, and though he's definitely not the fastest character, Jecht is pretty speedy in comparison to other heavy hitters.
    • Awesome Yet Practical: As an Assist, the AI of course times his combos perfectly. Not only does he do a lot of damage, but he comes out fast and does Wall Rush to set up for further combos, and his combos are so long that it's possible to attack the opponent in unison with Jecht to pile on even more damage.
  • Elemental Punch/Spell Blade: Fire to be specific.
  • EX Mode: Final Aeon!

"Let's do this!"

    • Jecht assumes the monstrous form he takes in his Final Boss fight in Final Fantasy X, that of Braska's Final Aeon, though he's human sized as opposed to being a giant. In addition to Regen, Jecht's EX Mode gives him access to the following ability:
      • Full Combo: Even if Jecht misses on the first attack, he can continue to execute his combo-based attacks as if he had hit.
    • In addition, Final Aeon gives Jecht access to his EX Burst: Blitz King.

"You were just out of luck! Come on, come on, come on, come on! This is my show!"

"One more! WHOOOAAAHH YEEAAHHH!"

Design and Costume Tropes

In Dissidia

As Tidus' opponent on the side of Chaos, Jecht has no interest in villainy and is implied to just be fighting so he and Tidus can go home when the war is over.

Jecht: "... The past ain't important. I just wanna know if doing this'll put the world back as it was."
Golbez: "If it does... will you be satisfied? Will you blindly follow that man's words until the moment he betrays you?"

In Duodecim

This time Jecht is one the side of good, and is Yuna's Guardian during their quest. His son, meanwhile, has been brainwashed to the side of Chaos, and the rivalry is alive and well.

  • Continuity Snarl: During the 12th cycle, Jecht's portrait in dialogue boxes still shows his crest of spikes over the shoulder, which he doesn't have in the 12th cycle because he's in his third outfit which has no spikes.
    • A meta example, in Dissidia Jecht's original outfit was a red and orange palette swap, while in Dissidia 012 he swaps it out in favor of an outfit based on his original Final Fantasy X model. However, when you win Arcade mode as him you're still treated to a "Congratulations" screen showing him in the red and orange outfit, despite the fact it otherwise doesn't exist in the game anymore. Newer players will only be confused.
  • Dramatic Irony: It turns out that in Duodecim, Tidus has been Brainwashed and Jecht calls his son out for being stupid enough to be manipulated. Of course, by the time the game ends...
  • Face Heel Turn: He's revealed to have been one of Cosmos' Warriors during the previous clash between Cosmos and Chaos. The Dissidia 012 trailer implies that his Face Heel Turn was not a willing one or even a knowing one (he was unconscious when the Emperor delivered him to Chaos).
  • Heroic Sacrifice/Senseless Sacrifice: Jecht ended up using up most of his light energy to heal Tidus, who got in the way of the Emperor's attack on Yuna, in order to save Tidus. Unfortunately for him, this also in a way backfires because shortly after losing consciousness, the Emperor ends up having Chaos Brainwashed Jecht into their ranks.

Gabranth

"There is no future for the bystander, as there is naught he can defend."

"Faithfully fulfill your role, even if mistaken. That is the definition of a professional." -- Gates of Judgement

Voiced by: Akio Ohtsuka (Japanese), Keith Ferguson (English)

Fighting Style: EXecutioner

Judge Magister Gabranth is one of five elite generals who command the armies of the Archadian Empire. As a military intelligence specialist, Gabranth is privy to information that could shake the land of Ivalice to its foundation. He shares a hidden, tragic past with one of the heroes, Basch Von Rosenburg. In Dissidia, Gabranth can only fight effectively in EX Mode—his Brave attacks are slow and weak, and his HP attack charges his EX Bar and does no damage. However, once in EX Mode he becomes a nigh unstoppable force of destruction.

General Tropes

  • Animal Motifs: The stray dog.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: His fighting style revolves entirely around his EX mode. And in Final Fantasy XII, it's noted that Archadian Judges are "more like executioners". So his fighting style is called EXecutioner, emphasis on the EX.
  • Evil Counterpart and Evil Twin: Basch's twin brother who fights for the Empire (or did), and uses more violent versions of Basch's Quickenings. Also dons Basch's armor for his alt. costume in Dissidia 012 as he did when impersonating him in the original game.
  • Fake Brit
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner
  • Mythology Gag: Gabranth's pose at the end of his EX Burst is the exact same pose he appears in on the title screen of Final Fantasy XII. It's also used at battle start (though with helmet off), after using Hatred, and after winning a battle. His standing pose during EX Mode is the pose from his Bestiary entry.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Having lost contact with Michael Rogers (Gabranth's actual voice actor from Final Fantasy XII), Square-Enix set for having him voiced by Keith Ferguson (the voice of Basch, Gabranth's twin brother, from the same game). Regrettably, this game suffers because of this. Keith seems to be trying his best to make Gabranth sound British, but can't seem to settle on what kind of British accent he should have.

"HATRED IS WOT DROIVES ME!"

    • To clarify, Ferguson often slides between what sounds like "posh" British (the proper accent for the Arcadian Empire) and what sounds like Cockney.
    • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: In Dissidia 012 Ferguson heavily toned down the accent. The result is that when he does it right he sounds much better, but sometimes it's too subtle, at which point Gabranth pretty much sounds exactly like Basch.
  • The Other Darrin: As said above, Gabranth's original VA (Michael Rogers) was replaced by Keith Ferguson (the voice of Gabranth's twin brother) due to Square Enix losing contact with Rogers.
  • The Power of Hate
  • Took a Level in Badass: Besides the obvious powering up in EX Mode, in Dissidia 012 the developers make his EX Charge charge his EX gauge INSANELY FAST. Even though EX Mode lasts a lot shorter and weaker in 012, the new EX Charge charge speed doesn't just make up for it, it still EXecutes everything.
  • Shout-Out: Gabranth's Quickenings, as stated above, are all just replicas of his brother Basch's Quickenings, just with different names: Basch had Fulminating Darkness, Ruin Impendent, and Flame Purge. The animations also differ slightly—Fulminating Darkness is blue-green, Fulminating Oblivion is red-orange, etc.
  • Token Good Teammate: On the side of Chaos, but disliked by most of his comrades for his heroic qualities. Also, its hinted that he desires to defeat Cosmos simply to end the war and has no ulterior motives in doing so.
  • Unstoppable Rage: HATRED IS WHAT WOT DROIVES ME! Yup, that's right, if love and friendship aren't working for you, apparently hatred works just fine in their place.

Gameplay and Combat Tropes

"Hatred is what drives me!"

    • Gabranth places his helm on his head and separates his weapon into two swords. He also glows with a blood-red light: a sign of excessive mist exposure. In addition to Regen, Gabranth's EX Mode gives him the following ability:
      • Stray's Tenacity: Gabranth in EX Mode basically goes from "Nobody who can't even deal HP damage" to absolute monster. He moves faster, he recovers HP, and he gains a completely new set of attacks. His Brave attacks are long, fast and powerful, and his HP attacks are varied between the long and short-range, and either way are hard to avoid
      • Jamming: In Duodecim Gabranth also has the ability to prevent enemies from gaining the stage bravery pool when he suffers an EX Break.
    • In addition, Mist gives Gabranth access to his EX Burst: Quickening.

"By my sword!"

"Know this pain! Hnngh! Hnngh! Hrrrgghh! Take your last breath! Surrender now to oblivion!"

  • Lightning Bruiser: While in EX Mode he's one of the fastest characters in the game, and his attacks are on-par with the heavy hitters like Garland and Cloud in terms of power, but they come out a lot faster.
    • Glass Cannon: They may not get the Stage Bravery for it, but getting hit by an opponent's Assist still drains his EX Gauge to empty and knocks him out of EX Mode, where he's almost helpless. Thankfully, entering EX Mode drains the opponent's Assist bar, so you have something of a reprieve at the start.
  • Sphere of Destruction: Hatred
  • Spin Attack: Circle of Judgment and Vortex of Judgment.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: Vortex of Judgment can deflect lesser magical Bravery attacks.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Guilt.
  • Sword Beam: Innocence.
  • Turns Red: A literal invoking, he gains a red aura while in EX Mode.

Design and Costume Tropes

  • Badass Cape
  • Black Knight
  • Mask of Power: See the description of his EX Mode above. Normally, Gabranth is pitiful. So pitiful, in fact, that he can't even whittle away your HP under normal circumstances. However, once he does power up... oh boy... Gabranth turns into a nigh-unstoppable force of nature. He gets so badass he can out-muscle Chaos easily while in EX Mode—his combos are just as long and powerful as Chaos', he attacks just as quickly, and in the small arena his HP attacks are just as difficult to avoid.
    • His character profile in Dissidia 012 states that Gabranth's true power is unlocked when he dons his helmet, confirming that the helmet isn't just an aesthetic change to show his EX Mode, it really is the source of his strength. Doubles as a Mythology Gag for players familiar with his characterization in Final Fantasy XII.
      • Begs the question of why does he even take it off, then.
  • Tin Tyrant

In Dissidia

  • The Atoner: Seems to regret his past failures and mistakes and wants to make up for them, but doesn't make much progress.
  • I Shall Taunt You: As part of making sure the player isn't about to give up so easily.
  • Secret Character
  • Threshold Guardians: He guards the place the losers of the war get tossed. Earning your way back to the battlefield (and thus life) means fighting your way past him.

In Duodecim

  • Advertised Extra: Featured just as prominently in promotional materials as any other character, but ended up taking on an even smaller role than before--Dissidia at least displayed his storyline in the menu, in Duodecim the Gateway that approximates it is optional and out of the way to find, and outside that he just gets a single scene in the Reports.
    • Some Official Quests feature him however. It turns out that he rebelled against his mission, when he fought Shantotto again and she couldn't remember him, and didn't want to fight anymore. He thus resolves to escape the cycles, and is even willing to fight Chaos if he must. After a fight with Garland, he tries to kill himself, but this coupled with his defiance gets him sent into the Rift until he once again submits to the will of the gods and wants to fight again. He also fights Vaan when the latter stumbles into the Rift during one of the cycles. His attempted suicide is reflected upon by The Emperor and Garland once the former witnesses Sephiroth's suicide, speculating why Gabranth's failed while Sephiroth's succeeded.
  • Anti-Villain: He's trying to end the cycles of war like so many others. It just so happens he prefers to take on Cosmos to do it instead.
    • Edges towards Designated Villain—attacking Cosmos is the only villainous action we see him do, and it's understable why he goes after her when you think his alternative for ending the war was to challenge Chaos. And, considering his opponent guarding Cosmos is Shantotto...
  • Took a Level in Badass: In Dissidia when fought in his storyline he wasn't too impressive, having weak boosters and some accessories to improve his EX Mode duration, but he still had to charge up his gauge and could be killed before that happened. In Dissidia 012 though they gave him the Puppeteer's Wheel, five "EX Mode" boosters, a Hyper Ring and an Attractorb. The result is that he enters battle with a full EX Gauge, will likely remain in EX Mode for the entire fight, has a nice buff to his base damage, and will constantly be absorbing all the EX Force in the arena so you can't get it for yourself. About all you can do is charge your Assist Gauge to try and EX Break him to force him out of EX Mode—assuming before you challenged him you didn't kill your Assist on the board to get access to the two chests they were guarding. Oops.
  1. ↑ Fans of Final Fantasy VI will recognize this as that game's Slave Crown, only with a more literal translation.
  2. ↑ Warriors who ended up having fallen in the previous cycle, regardless of the person's allegiance, will end up having their memories erased as part of their revival.
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