The magnificent masterminds of the Final Fantasy franchise:
A man of no consequence, but of great skill and power.
Main Series[]
- Emperor Matteus of Final Fantasy II was arguably the series' first Magnificent Bastard. Capturing the princess was just a ploy to assassinate Firion and the tournament to decide who gets the real princess is just a trap for him when that fails. He manages to take over both Heaven AND Hell. He even has a trap in his castle that leads to the basement, presumably so no one can sneak up on him and assassinate him.
- In Final Fantasy V, Exdeath is a relentless, boastful conqueror from Galuf's world, born from an amalgamation of evil spirits locked within a tree in the Great Forest of Moore. Originally sealed away by the Warriors of Dawn in another world, Exdeath operates from behind his seal to orchestrate his return, eventually tricking the Warriors of Light into setting him free. From there, Exdeath consistently remains one step ahead of the heroes at every turn, nearly killing them all in one fell swoop at one point. In the end, Exdeath summons the Void and uses it to annihilate whatever he pleases, while still taking precautions to stop the heroes from interfering, and while ultimately defeated, he still came deathly close to complete dominion over both worlds.
- Kefka Palazzo of Final Fantasy VI followed in his footsteps, particularly in the English version where it's indicated that he planned to betray Emperor Gesthal and become God of the world from the start, rather than it just being a spur of the moment thing. He was biding his time, all the while dressing and acting like a clown. For this, he is one of the most successful villains in the entire franchise. Fitting for a guy who is the video game industry's equivalent of The Joker in almost every way.
- Final Fantasy VII has two big examples of this trope:
- The Big Bad and Cloud Strife's Arch Enemy himself, Sephiroth. In the past, he the greatest of the Elite SOLDIER unit, until learning he was a genetic experiment utilizing JENOVA. Taking revenge on the town of Nibelheim, Sephiroth fell into The Lifestream and became something far worse. Able to control all JENOVA Cells and influence those injected with them, Sephiroth lured Cloud and AVALANCHE across the land of Gaia, manipulating them into bringing the Black Materia to him, breaking Cloud's mind as revenge for almost killing Sephiroth and personally murdering Aerith, the last Ancient. Erecting a nigh-impregnable barrier around the Northern Crater, Sephiroth summoned Meteor to wound the planet so he could absorb its spirit energy. Defeated but maintaining his consciousness within the Lifestream, Sephiroth created three vessels to find the remains of JENOVA so he could be reborn while simultaneously spreading a sickness to kill people and corrupt the Lifestream little by little. Seeking to use the Planet to travel the stars and find a new world to create life, Sephiroth is one of this franchise's most ambitious and iconic villains.
- Consummate businessman Rufus Shinra spent his vice-presidency funding the activites of an early iteration of AVALANCHE to subvert his father in hopes attaining the position for himself. When Sephiroth murders him and parts of the company in cold blood, a parade is held in the newly inaugurated President Rufus's honor to mark a new era. When the Weapons attack the world to protect the Lifestream, Rufus tries to get rid of them but is caught an explosion. Revealed in Advent Children to have survived, Rufus powers through restrictive circumstances to get his company back on top, including building the city of Edge with a Meteor monument to represent his rise to power and discovering the remains of Jenova to keep for himself. He later implicitly manipulates Cloud to battling Kadaj and the other Remnants of Sephiroth and derives great amusement in easily fooling Kadaj, having kept Jenova's head with him the whole time.
- Final Fantasy IX had both Kuja and Garland, who together orchestrate most of the events behind the game and are usually always one or two steps ahead of the heroes.
- Garland was created by the inhabitants of Terra to fuse their planet with Gaia to ensure its prolonged life. Failing in his first attempt, Garland patiently waits for the planet of Gaia to heal before planting the Iifa Tree to block the souls of the departed from reincarnating, turning the anguished souls into Mist, which causes heightened aggression. This lead to more conflict and wars and therefore more death. Creating Kuja to be his Angel of Death, Garland gave him a hard limit to his lifespan when he considered him a failure, ordered Kuja to destroy the Summoner Village Madain Sari and destroyed the Eidolon Alexander when Kuja tried to enslave it to overthrow Garland. Responsible for just about all of Gaia's ills, Garland redeems himself after death as a spirit guiding and helping Zidane through Memoria, asking him to stop Kuja from destroying reality and declaring he had no regrets.
- Aware he is not trusted and will be disposed of once Garland can afford to be rid of him, Kuja pulls double-duty on his villainy, aiding Queen Brahne in taking over much of Gaia while discretely seeking Eidolons, the one power Kuja believes Garland fears. When Kuja learns of Trance, he shifts focus to acquiring the power for himself and does so. Trance Kuja is strong enough to kill Garland and pushes the playable characters to the brink of death, Kuja sparing them only to contemplate how to kill them to best show his "gratitude" for their help in achieving his Trance. If not for the maddening revelation he will die soon and the subsequent Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum it provoked, Kuja was set to declare himself the ruler of both worlds, and no one would have been able to stand against him. Along the way to this near-victory he manipulates hero and villain alike to pursue his goals, adjusts his plans on the fly to accommodate for setbacks, and never loses his sense of style and charisma.
- Final Fantasy X features these two dubious characters:
- The legendary guardian Sir Auron is a man intending to save Spira from Sin and Yevon after failing to save Braska and Jecht. Actually an Unsent, Auron went to the Dream Zanarkand to watch and train Tidus until the day Jecht would return as Sin, where Auron would take Tidus to the real world amidst the destruction as planned. Forcing himself and Tidus into becoming Yuna's guardians, Auron subtly manipulates and deceives the group into defying Yevon and Yunalesca by exposing to them the corruption of Yevon and hiding vital info about the aftermath of defeating Sin, while being a ruthless protector to Yuna and the Pilgrimage. When his machination works and he manages to get Yuna and Tidus to defy Yunalesca, he helps pave the way to end the Cycle of Sin for good, helping eliminate Yunalesca and Yevon's influence, before guarding them one last time against Jecht and Yu Yevon, happily passing on with his oath finally fulfilled.
- Lady Yunalesca is the first summoner who defeated Sin and the overseer of the sacrificial Final Summoning. Defeating Sin to restore her father's honor by sacrificing herself and turning her husband Zeon into the Final Aeon, Yunalesca now resides in Zanarkand as an Unsent in-charge of carrying out, explaining, and enacting the ritualistic Final Summoning to whomever proves their worth regardless of race and character. Highly protective of the ritual, Yunalesca would strike down anyone who defied it, such as Auron, and later attempted to do the same to the party when they reject it, considering her act to be "mercy" since they know the horrible truth of Sin and the Final Summoning. Having bid her time and set her own courses, Yunalesca can only lament her defeat, believing Spira is doomed without the Final Aeon.
- Final Fantasy XII brings us Vayne Solidor: Cool, calm, smooth, collected, brilliant, and devious, Vayne manages to march in to the land of Dalamasca to depose the king before giving a speech so powerful, even the people who despise him openly cheer. He follows this by organizing a feast to bait the resistance into attack, ready to kill or capture most of them in a trap. Vayne's ultimate goal is to defy the gods themselves, using the material Nethicite to empower himself as the Dynast King of Ivalice and free humanity from the divine Occuria's will, a goal for which no price is too great, even if he has to stain his hands in blood endlessly. Vayne is the very definition of a Magnificent Bastard. If Kefka is the video game industry's equivalent of The Joker, Vayne is their Lionel Luther.
- Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy:
- Galenth Dysley masquerades as the head of Cocoon's Sanctum government and an old, helpless Puppet King of the fal'Cie, but in reality he is Barthandelus, ruler of the Cocoon fal'Cie. Surveiling the heroes from afar to help and hinder them in equal measure, Dysley attempts to groom the group to become Ragnarok and destroy Cocoon, fulfilling his goal to exterminate humanity. At the head of the government and the most powerful fal'Cie in Cocoon, Dysley is constantly on-top of the situation and always has back-up plans ready to deploy when things don't go his way, forcing the party to dance to his tune if they want to keep up with him. Dysley's plans only failed due to a literal act of god when the Goddess Etro intervened — otherwise he got exactly what he wanted, tricking the party into killing him and killing the fal'Cie Orphan, which would have destroyed Cocoon if not for the efforts of Etro, Fang, and Vanille. Dysley demonstrates why humanity both worships and fears the fal'Cie — an arrogant, cruel, manipulative Evil Overlord who sees humans as tools to be used and then discarded when he has no further need of them.
- Caius Ballard is a Guardian tasked with protecting the Seeress and became Paddra legend because of his might. Moved by his honor and tenacity, the goddess Etro awarded the former l'Cie with the Heart of Chaos to make him an immortal warrior to continue his duty forever. Once Caius realizes the curse of immortality, he concocts a plan to destroy of all time, by opening the Door to Souls, so Yeul and indirectly everyone else can no longer experience the pain of mortality. To that end, he tries to kill Etro directly in Valhalla, but when that fails, he sets to collapse Hope's New Coccoon to cause mass destruction, even manipulating a scared Alyssa to put Serah and Noel, his biggest opposition. on a dangerous detour. When that fails as well, Caius has Noel, his Guardian successor he personally groomed, stab the Heart of Chaos. In the end, Caius becomes one of the few series antagonists to completely win.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- Alexander, the Creator, is the mighty primal of the Goblin Illuminati, driven by a desire to create a perfect world. Knowing that his mere existence would destroy Hydaelyn, Alexander orchestrates a Stable Time Loop that ensures that the tragedy leading to both his summoning and eventual end comes to pass, while minimizing his own impact on Eorzea and the flow of time as a whole. With his calculations failing him in regards to the Warrior of Light's future, Alexander judges them worthy of inheriting his dream for a perfect world during a battle with them, sending them back in time to save their past self from a deathtrap. With the defeat of the goblins, Alexander locks himself into stasis to prevent himself from causing further harm, eventually sending Mide and her lover back to the distant past to ensure his own creation while giving them the happy ending they deserve.
- Emet-Selch is one of the Ascians, dedicated to resurrecting their god Zodiark by initiating Rejoinings between the Source and its shards. As one of their most cunning members, Emet-Selch carefully manipulates events to cause Rejoinings through mass destruction and chaos, and will spend decades or even centuries overseeing the execution of his plans. When the Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn prove themselves a repeated thorn in his side, Emet-Selch tells them he thinks they should be his allies and explains that the Ascians are trying to restore the world to the paradise they knew in ancient times. Though he is slain by the Warrior of Light, Emet-Selch's spirit returns to help them on several occasions, and he ultimately comes to accept that the civilization he lost is truly gone. When his spirit finally fades away for good, he does so with a smile, entrusting the legacy of the world to the Warrior of Light and their comrades.
- Gaius van Baelsar is the Legatus of the XIVth Legion of the Garlean Empire and their main military commander during their campaign to conquer Eorzea. Although he champions the right of the strong to rule the weak, he does not approve of reckless genocide and opposes Project Meteor, and discretely aids the Adventurer in sabotaging it. In the wake of the Seventh Umbral Calamity, he recovers the Ultima Weapon and uses it to absorb the primals of the beast tribes, giving him a seemingly unstoppable weapon to subjugate the Eorzean Alliance. When the Ultima Weapon is destroyed, Gaius abandons his rank and armor and becomes a mercenary hunting the Ascians, trying to determine their influence over the Empire and root it out. To this end he even works alongside the Adventurer and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to thwart the Empire's increasingly amoral weapons of war, disgusted that they would stoop to chemical weapons and human experimentation. Though he remains loyal to Garlemald as a nation, Gaius holds to his philosophies and morals rather than be blindly loyal to what they've become.
- Final Fantasy XV has one of the franchises' finest examples in Ardyn Izunia, who ends up getting everything he wanted. Plunging the world into darkness and infesting it with daemons? He does it for 10 years. Ending the line of Lucis? Done. Turning Niflheim into his own giant playground for his daemon experiments? Done. I Cannot Self-Terminate? Mission accomplished. In the Dawn of the Future epilogue novel Ardyn manages to outplay even the gods themselves, sacrificing his life to turn the power of the line of Lucis upon the tyrannical Bahamut. Rejected long ago by the very land he served and saved, Ardyn's endless, witty charm and ability to manipulate events in his own favor make him one of the most memorable villains in the Final Fantasy franchise.
Spinoffs[]
- Final Fantasy Tactics games:
- In a game full of competing Chessmasters and Magnificent Bastards, Delita Hyral finishes the story standing on top of the Gambit Pileup, out-manoeuvring everyone else to become a king by marrying the Damsel in Distress and using the protagonist- his lifelong friend- to do most of the hard work, playing off Ramza's accomplishments to claim his triumphs as Delita's own. Delita betrays those he feels he has to in order to rise to the top, ending by placing himself on the throne. While he soon realizes that he is utterly alone at the top, Delita manages to secure a place for himself on the throne despite his commoner birth in the ruthlessly classist land of Ivalice.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, there's Duke Snakeheart, a somewhat loony Nu Mou Arcanist in Duelhorn that does not care if innocent people get hurt during Duelhorn's attacks as long as the job gets done, wants to do things his way, and even hires your clan at one point to protect him from punishment from his clan members, which he says "...Heh, that went well." after he does avoid it. If that wasn't enough, he reveals himself to be the traitor of Duelhorn, admitting to leaking their plans and turning the girl that Maquis saved into a zombie just for kicks.
- In Vagrant Story, Sydney Lostarrot is a charismatic cult leader secretly cursed with the Blood-Sin tattoo on his back. Kidnapping his younger brother Joshua, the Riskbreaker Ashley Riot is sent after Sydney and Sydney decides to play all the sides after him against one another, luring them into the dark city Lea Monde so he may test them to see who is worthy of inheriting the Blood-Sin to hold the Dark at bay. Believing that any rule or regime must respect human life, Sydney knows only one who has no desire for the Dark can hold its power, deciding to die and pass the power to Ashley, the only worthy successor.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy:
- Emperor Matteus is one of the veterans of Chaos' forces in the cycles of war, but schemes to overthrow the God of Discord. Recognizing potential in the personal relationships between Tidus, Yuna, and Jecht, the Emperor manipulates the three into conflict so he can seize Jecht as his own and have him revived as a Warrior of Chaos in the next cycle of war. His intent in this is to seize the power the goddess Cosmos infused in Jecht, granting the Emperor a Dark Crystal in parallel to the Crystals the Warriors of Cosmos acquire, that has let them survive the death of Cosmos when they would have vanished from the world otherwise. With the power of the Dark Crystal, he intends to allow the heroes to kill Chaos before they vanish from the world, then the Warriors of Chaos will also vanish, leaving the Emperor alive to rule the world alone and unopposed. Considering himself the only being fit to rule existence, the Emperor would betray the Gods of Harmony and Discord alike and let his own allies die to realize his ambitions of ultimate power.
- Golbez is Cecil's brother and was a loyal warrior of Chaos, but when Cecil is summoned in the 12th cycle, he begins acting as a Double Agent for Cosmos. As the 13th cycle begins, Golbez tells her about her plan to create the Crystals she began in the 12th cycle, and he then spends the cycle manipulating the heroes in order to help them along with acquiring the Crystals. He also willingly plays the part of Cecil's Arch Enemy and challenges his beliefs to make him assert himself and prove himself strong enough to earn his own Crystal. He does all of this while being affable and calm towards friend and foe alike, doing anything he must to help Cosmos end the cycles of war and free Cecil from sharing his fate.
- Bravely Default Flying Fairy: Konoe Kikyo, the Ninja, is a quirky, sly, and utterly relentless Eternian assassin tasked with taking out the leaders of the Shieldbearers. Disposing of and disguising herself as the Goodman family housekeeper Nastassja, Kikyo forges invitations to a banquet in Agnès Oblige's name and sends them to Commander Daniel Goodman and Officers Steiner and Neuer. Once they're all gathered, Kikyo locks them inside the house, feigns her own death to prevent suspicion, discretely murders both Steiner and Neuer while pinning the blame on Daniel's wife Eleanor, and nearly manages to kill Daniel as well when he separates himself from the party, only stopped at the last second by Agnès' crew. Despite this merciless cunning, Kikyo is shown to be rather pleasant when off-duty, values her fellow Eternians as friends, and ultimately turns a new leaf come Bravely Second.