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

A rant and a half

[heybitchmove.livejournal.com]

I will say this: they are all villains, in some sense. That is, all the characters listed here are antagonists, and cause great grief/harm to the rest of the world. However, being the marshmallow that I am, I have the annoying habit of supporting everyone's point of view at the same time. I can see that every villain here has a motive, and although these motives are not necessarily "noble" by any means, a lot of them were influenced by circumstances beyond their control.

Sephiroth, for instance, seemed to be an Ok guy at some point. It wasn't until after the Nibleheim incident that he went bonkers and tried to kill everything. True, Garland was manipulative and cruel, but in the end, wasn't Kuja as well? As for Vayne...well, I haven't quite figured him out yet. But most people see that Venat was the one manipulate both Vayne and Cid. On the other hand, Venat was rebelling against the other Occuria, who IMO weren't very nice to begin with. Were they not just as manipluative and power-hungry? I mean, trying to control all of human history is pretty unfair for everyone else, dont you think?

So, in the end, I find it hard to partake in this poll, as every person here is a villain, for one reason or another. And where the manipulation ends and the true villain-ism starts is sometimes difficult to distinguish.

I decided that Hojo was the true villain of FFVII, because although Jenova started this whole mess, Hojo and Sephiroth merely used her/its cells to cause destruction. Yu Yevon, I think, was the driving force in FFX, even though he created Sin to "save his beloved Zanarkand," he still kept the destruction gong for 1000 years.
As for FFXII...I'm still stuck on this one. XD

But none of this really even makes sense to me, and I'll probably change my mind by morning. IMO, everyone here has a very good point, so WE'RE ALL RIGHT......Right? Maybe?

Re: A rant and a half

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Everyone I listed in this poll is certainly an antagonist. I actually don't think any of these are easy choices, which is what makes this an interesting exercise. :) That's why I put that "once and for all" in quotes -- most of these, you aren't going to find any one "correct" or "true" answer. It depends on perspective, a lot.