Sort-of serious Final Fantasy poll

[owlmoose]

For some reason, the subject of who the real villain is seems to come up a lot in Final Fantasy discussions. Some of the games are straightforward in that respect (would anyone try to claim that Ultimecia is not the true villain of FFVIII?), but more of them are not. So I say we settle it, "once and for all."

Warning: this poll contains spoilers for Final Fantasies 7, 9, 10, and 12, if you consider the names of characters that might be villainous to be a spoiler.


[Poll #950173]

I've left out the older games, because of those, I've only played FFV, and I remember few of the plot details. If you want to discuss them in comments, feel free.

Comments

[rabbitprint.livejournal.com]

To another degree, it's like this: I approach the games expecting to see different factions, different ideals, different perspectives, so standard definitions become very much discarded for me. Instead, the characters end up becoming judged by my personal standards of 'evil.' And for me, 'evil' is simply focusing more on personal selfish advancement than keeping in mind the larger whole you may be connected to.

But even that definition is generated by a rather practical survival instinct that's demonstrated each day, rather than higher esoteric ideals.

Ultimately, ambition that neglects to think outside its own goals is what I consider destructive to the larger entity, and thereby 'bad'. I just skip straight over any larger questions of cause-and-effect. There are so many factors going on, so many issues and motivations and debateable influences for who might be considered at fault, that I just cut right to the question of, 'who's forgetting the world doesn't exist solely for them?'