Villain-Off Quarter-Final #1: Kefka Palazzo vs. Delita Heiral

Alex Fuller

We come to knockout stages, where the remaining eight villains face off in one-on-one matches until we have a winner!

Each match has five points up for grabs. Three of these points come from individual staff members' votes, with the other two coming from the on-site reader votes. With reader votes these two points will assigned to be winner provided they earn at least 52% of the vote. If neither villain attains 52% or higher, then the two reader points will be split between them.

This match is Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI) vs. Delita Heiral (Final Fantasy Tactics). The reader vote will be open until 6:55pm EST on Wednesday May 18, 2016. Staff members can cast their votes at any time, but if possible should wait at least a day until doing so that readers and other staff members can lay out their arguments first. Everyone (staff and readers) is welcome to debate for or against either side.

Staff Voters:
Wheels
SweetieAshe
Gaijin
(Backup voter - Corvak)

Azalus

I can't vote for Delita here, Kefka is simply too accomplished as a villain, where Delita barely registers as a villain to me.

Anna Marie Privitere

I'm not sure two different villains could be put together. Kefka is EEEEEEVIL in a way that's totally one dimensional. It's not that he doesn't have nuance to that evilness (much of which has come from auxiliary games such as the Dissidia titles), but there's no justifying his behaviour. He's just bad bad bad. Delita on the other hand has a lot of grey areas. He's been very wronged. His sister was killed because it was more convenient for her to be dead than alive. He's motivated to do what he feels is the right thing, even when doing the "right thing" involved bad actions. Particularly in the PSP remake, you really get to see flashes of what Delita could have been like had he been born into a lordly family, or if the world just hadn't wronged him so often. Delita evokes sympathy (and maybe empathy) - he's a sad sack you can kind of relate to, especially when you find out

Spoiler:

he's been used the whole time as a puppet for Evil Jesus

.

But there's no way to sympathize with Kefka; he doesn't have any redeeming qualities. Everyone loves to hate him!

Ocelot

I'm boosting Delita in this one. I cared about him like I rarely care for RPG antagonists. I really wanted him and Ramza to be able to come to terms. :(

Cassandra Ramos

While I played Kefka's game and not Delita, I want to root for the underdog here.

smacd

deleted.

Wheels

Deltia is certainly a great one, and I do enjoy a good shades of grey villain.

BUT... there's something to be said for the classic villain that wants nothing more than to watch the world burn. There's no reasoning with Kefka. He's a particularly special brand of jerk. The moments before the final confrontation are especially memorable. You find Kefka, in a castle basically made out of ruined bits of the world, laughing like a mad man and blowing stuff up for no particular reason. Insanity is a frightening concept, which is why the villains that embody it best are so compelling.

Kefka is the clear vote for me

TheAnimeMan

Well Kefka to me would definately be the vote. Cause he wasn't born crazy as the game implies a few things that actually made him go crazy.

Spoiler:

The game outright states that Kefka was the First M-Tek Soldier created and due the process being unrefined something broke inside him which is what I equate to being him going coo-coo on the crazy train to nutsberg.

scorpio_7

Without a doubt Kefka is the better villain.

I don't get the notion of voting for underdogs or against a franchise (just because) in this type of contest. It's about being a villain, and Kefka without a doubt accomplishes this.

Unless I am misunderstanding what this contest is actually about. Are we picking an anti-hero or antagonist? Or a true villain?

Delita is merely antagonistic to the prescribed hero, with a different point of view (which to some may seem heroic), barely a villain in any notion.

smacd

deleted.

RealityChecked

Sorry, Delita. I liked your game. I thought you were a solid, tragic, villain. But you're no Kefka.

Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God.

Wheels

RealityChecked wrote: »

Sorry, Delita. I liked your game. I thought you were a solid, tragic, villain. But you're no Kefka.

Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God.

Suddenly wish posts had a like button

DarkRPGMaster

Wheels wrote: »

RealityChecked wrote: »

Sorry, Delita. I liked your game. I thought you were a solid, tragic, villain. But you're no Kefka.

Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God.

Suddenly wish posts had a like button

Same, best quote.

Michael Baker

On the one hand, Delita is definitely presented better as a fleshed out, three-dimensional character. As mentioned above, that doesn't always make the best villain, though he's certainly a better antagonist than Kefka would be for a heavily political story like Final Fantasy Tactics. It's simply too easy to imagine him being the hero, if only we'd gone down the other leg of the Trousers of Time.

It doesn't help that Kefka's brand of crazy is so fun to write about, either.

bulmasan

Delita is more of a "wow, that didn't work like I thought it would" character than a true villain. Kefka? Kefka's insane. In a really, really bad way.

SweetieAshe

I'm pretty much in agreement with most everyone here. As much as I love Delita as someone who just runs counter to Ramza, almost mirror-like in fact, since I'm pretty sure Ramza was just as pissed off at the nobles as Delita was (maybe even like the Chaotic Good to Ramza's Lawful Good?), Kefka trumps him in the "love to hate" department. If there was anyone in Tactics that had that kind of feeling to them, it was more the overarching group of the church as opposed to one specific character. Either that or Zalbag because screw that mission. :p

Kefka sets goals and acts upon them. He didn't wait for orders before poisoning Doma. He took glee in seeing the Espers suffer. And he didn't think twice before moving the Statues to create the world in his own way. Plus, who else has lines like "Wait he says... Do I look like a waiter?!" The Woolsey translation made Kefka such a memorable character even outside of his henious acts.

My vote goes for Kefka in this round.

cldmstrsn

I have never really seen Delita as a "bad" guy. He was just trying to change things up and I definitely sympathize with him but when you put him up against Kefka its not even a contest. Kefka is immeasurably worse.

Alex Fuller

Reader Vote Results:

Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI) - 75.90%
Delita Heiral (Final Fantasy Tactics) - 24.10%

Meaning Kefka earns both of the readers points, which coupled with the staff votes makes him the winner.