The badguys and well.... Kuja

[Starships]

Note this contains FFIX & Dissidia 012 spoilers.

When debating who's the best villain within the Final Fantasy series; Kuja is always counted as a badguy. But compared to the likes of Kefka, Paramecia, Garland, Seymour and Sephiroth etc is he really a villain ?

Yeah sure he does some terrible and disgusting things; but he's the only Final Fantasy so called- villain that has actually APOLOGIZED for all this wrong- doings. He helps Zidane and the crew from being crushed from the Lifa tree and he tells Zidane on his death- bed that he was sorry and if he had realized what life truly meant he would of done things differently. Imo Kuja is not really a villain per say but more of a rebel.

He hates Garland for creating him and putting Zidane in front of him. Zidane was meant to be the "dark angel " destroying Gaia. So he dumps Zidane and does Zidane's job; basically giving Garland the finger. In fact I believe that all the wrong doings that Kuja did was to basically- yeah was Kuja flipping the bird to Garland.

Unlike Kefka and Paramecia who destroyed the world and took over heaven & hell. I can't picture them ever apologizing ever. Kefka loved destroying the world and he gained pleasure in causing death and sorrow to the world. In Dissidia 012 Kefka couldn't have people getting along. It was chaos, death and all things nasty and that's it.

Even villains that you could put in the ''misunderstood " box with Kuja. I can't picture them saying sorry either. Seymour, Sephiroth, Genesis. They went bad and I don't think that they could ever stop or realize that they're doing bad. They couldn't care less. There is Kuja who tried to help Zidane & Crew in Dissidia 012 and freed Terra from her slave clown so she wouldn't be Kefka's puppet anymore and gave Cloud advice.

Even though Kuja does some nasty things I don't think he should be counted as a "villain" like Kefka or Sephiroth.

Thoughts ?

 

[ryanphoenix]

---SPOILERS BELOW (Particularly FF4)---




Well, they did the whole "bad guy turned good" in FF4 with Golbez. Throughout the whole game, Golbez is the main villain. It isn't until the very end (before the final dungeon) that he switches side to help you take down Zemus/Zeromus in the end. And he is also placed on the bad guys' side in the Dissidia games. So, he is pretty well in the same boat as Kuja.

 

[Shaissa]

I see your point, but in the end Kuja did do the terrible things, no matters if he said sorry about it or not, So yes I see him as a villain through and through, Kuja made the Black Mages, helped the Alexandria destroy two other countries, took over summons to kill things, used everyone around him, and even if he did it only cause he didn't understand things, the truth is he still did them.

 

[The_Reaper]

Note this contains FFIX & Dissidia 012 spoilers.

When debating who's the best villain within the Final Fantasy series; Kuja is always counted as a badguy. But compared to the likes of Kefka, Paramecia, Garland, Seymour and Sephiroth etc is he really a villain ?

Yeah sure he does some terrible and disgusting things; but he's the only Final Fantasy so called- villain that has actually APOLOGIZED for all this wrong- doings. He helps Zidane and the crew from being crushed from the Lifa tree and he tells Zidane on his death- bed that he was sorry and if he had realized what life truly meant he would of done things differently. Imo Kuja is not really a villain per say but more of a rebel.

He hates Garland for creating him and putting Zidane in front of him. Zidane was meant to be the "dark angel " destroying Gaia. So he dumps Zidane and does Zidane's job; basically giving Garland the finger. In fact I believe that all the wrong doings that Kuja did was to basically- yeah was Kuja flipping the bird to Garland.

Unlike Kefka and Paramecia who destroyed the world and took over heaven & hell. I can't picture them ever apologizing ever. Kefka loved destroying the world and he gained pleasure in causing death and sorrow to the world. In Dissidia 012 Kefka couldn't have people getting along. It was chaos, death and all things nasty and that's it.

Even villains that you could put in the ''misunderstood " box with Kuja. I can't picture them saying sorry either. Seymour, Sephiroth, Genesis. They went bad and I don't think that they could ever stop or realize that they're doing bad. They couldn't care less. There is Kuja who tried to help Zidane & Crew in Dissidia 012 and freed Terra from her slave clown so she wouldn't be Kefka's puppet anymore and gave Cloud advice.

Even though Kuja does some nasty things I don't think he should be counted as a "villain" like Kefka or Sephiroth.

Thoughts ?

I've never thought of him in this way, this is very interesting. Thanks for sharing this with us. After reading this, I see Kuja in a different light. It's kinda like he helped Zidane and the rest of the heroes in an effort to earn redemption and he hopefully one day wants to be forgiven by not only Zidane but everyone he did wrong against. That's how I see it.

 

[Apricots]

Even if he had a turnaround, the fact remains that Kuja manipulated events heavily, took advantage of countless people and cost just as many people their lives, and was a key figure in Gaia's current state (which is near-complete ruin). He also managed to find his way to the Crystal, and as the game implied, destroyed it with Ultima, ending all life (thus the battle with Necron -- death itself).

He may have not been the most "traditionally evil", but he was among the most successful villains in FF history.

 

[PhoenyxAngel]

I still consider him a villain even if he apologized. Just like I still consider Shuyin a villain even though we're meant to sympathize with him. If they do horrible things, even if they get redeemed in the end, they are still considered villains. Maybe not on the same scale as the likes of Kefka, The Emperor, Sephiroth, Seymour, etc. But they're still villains none the less.

The only one I could possibly consider to be a victim, and not a real villain, is Golbez for the reasons Ryanphoenix said.

 

[Lirael]

Interesting post @_Rabbit! I really enjoyed reading through the responses too.

After reading everyone's post, I would argue that Kuja is a villain, but he's not evil like Sephiroth, Genesis, Kefka, Adel, Seymour, Barthandalus etc. I agree that these characters are twisted and would not apologise, so Kuja does stand out as a little different. He does terrible things - his actions are evil - but in the end, he seeks redepmtion.

However, he's not quite like Shuyin and Caius, whose actions are influenced by love, fear and a desire to protect another.

If we create an evil scale for all of the FF villains, I think Kuja lies somewhere between Seymour and Shuyin.

 

[Zidane23]

You keep saying " i can't imagine so and so apologizing" however that is what made Kuja's apology so surpising because I couldn't believe he aplogized. Sephiroth is a sympathetic more than Kuja in my opionion. Kuja saying sorry on his death bed might mean he actually has a heart but it sure wasn't there through out the game. You take Kuja too lightly the guy destroyed one world and then went to another world and destroyed that too. Sephiroth burnt a villiage but Hojo (the real villain you didn't even mention) is the one that gathered up all the survivors and experimented on them until they died. I don't put Kuja quite at pure evil with Hojo and Kefka but if it wasn't for that apology I would actually consider and Hojo and Kefka sit at the top of pure evil in Final Fantasy. The other person you mentioned Seymour isn't as bad as Kuja. All he did was wipe out the Ronso Kuja did things like that as an everyday exercise.