Kefka Palazzo



Kefka Palazzo (ケフカ・パラッツォ) (spelled as Cefca Palazzo in the Japanese version) is the primary antagonist and the final boss of Final Fantasy VI. Kefka acts as Emperor Gestahl's court mage early in the game, carrying out the emperor's orders. However, behind Gestahl's back, Kefka attacks various towns and drains the espers' power meant for Imperial use. This gradual culmination in power leads Kefka to overthrow Gestahl and take control of the Warring Triad, effectively becoming the God of Magic itself.

While previous villains in the Final Fantasy series were distant, cold, ruthless, and bent on their goals, Kefka is loud, short-tempered, maniacal, and destructive. His popularity among Final Fantasy fans as a villain is rivaled only by Sephiroth. Kefka is well-known for his many one-liners, his final appearance as an Angel of Death (which has become something of a tradition in the series), and his sociopathic hatred of virtually everything in existence. His dark humour and jester-like appearance have earned him the nickname "The Psycho Clown" among fans. Kefka's most defining character trait is arguably his laughter, a high-pitched whooping cackle that is heard numerous times throughout the game.

Appearance and Personality
Kefka's appearance is that of an outlandish jester. In his original concept artworks, and in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Kefka wears an outfit composed of primarily red and yellow fabrics, a mismatched jumble of stripes and polka dots. He wears a red and white striped ruffle around his neck and a red cloak with a yellow and red inner lining. In his field sprite in Final Fantasy VI as well as alternate artworks and an alternate costume in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Kefka wears green robes with gold linings and red clothing underneath. Universally, Kefka's face is covered with white make-up, red make-up around the eyes and has white make-up on his hands. He has blond hair tied back into a tight ponytail, accentuated by an extending feather. In his "god" form, Kefka appears as a demonic angel with purple skin and a red loincloth. His limbs are far more muscular than his human form, and he bears six wings -- four light, angelic wings and two dark, bat-like wings (although the Anthologies character model for Kefka's god form seems to replace his dark bat-like wings with light angelic wings). In this form, the only notable resemblance Kefka retains to his human self is his classic ponytail, which is longer, with strands of hair flowing upwards, and the feather that also remains in his hair as a final reminder of Kefka's once-extravagant dress sense. In Dissidia, his appearance is altered slightly, with Kefka also gaining a wide grin resembling a accentuated in purple lip makeup.

In terms of character, Kefka is maniacal, short-tempered, flamboyant, destructive, and cruel. He is completely insane with no regard for human life, and he, in fact, finds amusement in the suffering and death of others. He tends to crack dark jokes at times, also sometimes breaking out into hysterical laughter upon causing death, destruction, and mayhem, and possesses a hatred of virtually everything in the world; Kefka's only joy in life comes from causing death and chaos wherever he can. What begins as simply a disregard and indifference to human life develops into a sinister nihilism - at the end of Final Fantasy VI, Kefka declares the lives of mortals are meaningless and insignificant, and he finds no meaning in things like love and hope that others cherish. As a result, Kefka's goal at this point is to destroy the bonds of existence itself. According to the Final Fantasy VI creation guide, he also has narcissistic traits, often being fascinated with the image in the mirror and often dressing up for mirrors. This is further implied in both Dissidia and Dissidia 012 with Kefka's mirror matches, where Kefka remarks "Oh, who's THAT handsome devil?!" and "Now that's what I call a true work of art!", respectively, when fighting against himself.

Despite his ill intentions towards them, he seems to identify the Returners as "friends", as evidenced by his greeting to the Returners when they confront him atop Kefka's Tower.

In the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy VI and Dissidia, Kefka frequently uses the first-person pronoun "boku-chin" when referring to himself, a pronoun usually reserved for young boys, implying that his maturity and state of mind is comparable to that of a little kid. Other hints at this personality are shown while fighting Terra in Dissidia, where he regards battle as being similar to playtime, such as maniacally telling Terra to play with him while trying to lob spells at her as well as feeling upset when Terra manages to teleport from the attack and throws a tantrum, because he "wanted to play more." In the aftermath of fighting Vaan in Dissidia 012, Kefka excitedly remarks that fighting Vaan was the "most fun he's had in minutes!" Dissidia shows a different view of Kefka's nihilism. Once he is defeated in Shade Impulse, Kefka laments what he sees as the futility of life in a speech mirroring his speech in Final Fantasy VI, and fades with a sad laughter. Afterwards, Terra says that Kefka destroyed as an attempt to fill his broken heart, implying a more sorrowful side to his personality -- that of a man who cannot find any meaning in life other than mindless destruction. This is further reinforced by Firion's opening quote if he is the opponent to Kefka in Dissidia, where Firion mentions to Kefka that he's "never heard... a sadder laugh..." In the Light the Way: Conclusion of the Cycle scenario in Dissidia 012, he also starts repeating the word "Destroy" almost in a mantra, causing Terra to wonder if Kefka was himself tormented.

Early Life
Many details of Kefka's early life are unknown. He is thirty-five years old by the time of the game, and Emperor Gestahl's right-hand man. Kefka is the first experimental Magitek Knight, a procedure that gifted him with incredible magical power, but also shattered his sanity as a side effect of the process not being perfected yet. Kefka became a cruel, destructive madman and eventually acquired a reputation as one of the most dangerous men in the Gestahlian Empire. The exact circumstances are unknown, but sometime prior to the game, Kefka used a Slave Crown to control Terra Branford and, as a test of whether the free-will dampening effects of the crown were effective, had her burn fifty Imperial soldiers alive.

The Empire
Just prior to the events of the game, Kefka sends Terra to Narshe to acquire the frozen esper Valigarmanda, sending Biggs and Wedge with her. The mission fails when Valigarmanda awakens in response to Terra's power, dispatches Biggs and Wedge and damages the Slave Crown, restoring Terra's free will but leaving her with amnesia. In her subsequent attempt to flee from Narshe, Terra's memory is temporarily restored and she remembers Kefka ordering her to kill his own men and enslaving her before she blacks out.

Kefka's first appearance in person is when he comes to Figaro Castle seeking Terra under orders from Gestahl and presumably as part of reconnaissance mission (although he also complains about Figaro's location in the middle of a desert, as well as forcing his soldiers to wipe his boots after sand was on them). King Edgar, who is sheltering Terra in the hopes she will join the Returners against the Empire, conceals her whereabouts. Kefka doesn't believe Edgar and sets the castle on fire. When the castle burrows under the desert, Kefka has his bodyguards attack the fleeing Edgar, Terra and Locke Cole. The trio despatches them and leave Kefka fuming.

Kefka eventually comes to the kingdom of Doma as part of a battalion led by General Leo Cristophe. During this time, a rumor was also going around that Kefka was intending to replace Leo as the general of the Imperial military, to which at least one soldier declared that he'd quit his position if Gestahl ever let Kefka become the head of their military. Although Leo is attempting to win the siege against Doma with minimal casualties, Kefka is secretly plotting to poison the river and kill the entire population of the castle. After Leo is called away by Emperor Gestahl, Kefka takes command of the Imperial forces and orders them to dump the poison, with one of the soldiers being reluctant to use the poison (mostly due to there still being captured imperial personnel within the base). Sabin Rene Figaro and Shadow attempt to stop him, but Kefka flees and dumps the poison himself, killing everyone in the castle except for Cyan Garamonde and a Doma Sentry, as well as maniacally musing to himself about the music of the unified screams of hundreds of voices. Until his ascent to Godhood, this was considered Kefka's worst crime. This also sends Cyan into a deep depression over his guilt, which has potentially disastrous complications for him later in the game. As the Returners reunite at Narshe, Celes Chere warns the others that Kefka has gathered a large force of imperial soldiers and is leading them against the town himself. Kefka orders the troops to kill anyone in their way and leads them to the clifftops above Narshe to claim Valigarmanda. The Returners retreat to the mountains to guard the esper and, after fighting off his troops, confront Kefka in battle. Defeated, Kefka flees, but swears revenge.

Shortly after this, Terra confronts Valigarmanda and is transformed into an esper herself. Tracking her down, the Returners meet the esper Ramuh, who tells them the true source of magic: magicite, an esper's remains, which can teach magic at a much higher concentration than Magitek. Armed with this knowledge, the Returners use Setzer Gabbiani's airship, the Blackjack, to fly to Vector and release the espers imprisoned by the Empire.

Acquisition of Power
Within the Magitek Research Facility, the Returners spy Kefka torturing and beating espers, specifically Shiva and Ifrit. They also overhear Kefka cackling over the power he has gained from the espers in the facility and his plans to restore the Warring Triad. After entering the heart of the facility and retrieving the magicite of the dead espers, the Returners meet Cid, who realises the true source of esper energy. Kefka, overjoyed to learn this, attempts to have Celes, who has betrayed the Empire, hand the pieces of magicite over to him, but Celes spirits them away so the Returners can escape, although not before Kefka causes doubts to the Returners about Celes's loyalty by hinting that she is actually a spy under the employ of the Empire. Kefka appears later in the Imperial Castle, activating two large cranes to attack the Blackjack as the Returners flee the continent.

With Terra aware of her origins as a half-human, half-esper hybrid, she and the Returners go through a cave to the Land of Espers in the hopes of securing their support for an attack on the Empire. Kefka follows and declares that Gestahl has told him to let Terra ally with the Returners in order to have them open the gate. Kefka is subsequently defeated when the espers emerge from the gate. It is unknown how he is returned to Vector, but Gestahl has Kefka imprisoned as a ploy to earn the Returners' trust so they would ally with him to find the escaped espers.

Ascent to Godhood
Gestahl releases Kefka and he is dispatched to Thamasa, where he proceeds to have his soldiers attack both the Returners and General Leo's troops, before killing all the espers and taking their magicite remains. When Kefka orders his troops to burn the town, General Leo steps in and fights Kefka, but he only succeeds in destroying Kefka's illusion and the real Kefka emerges moments later and slays the general. Kefka projects an illusion of Emperor Gestahl who "admits" he set up General Leo to allow the Empire to acquire more espers. Kefka also explains to Leo that he'll just cover up his murder of Leo by claiming he disposed of a traitor. The sealed gate rips open and a second wave of espers flies straight to the hamlet to attack Kefka, but, at this point, Kefka has simply grown too strong and the espers' attacks have no effect (he implies when the espers arrive that his new-found strength was the result of collecting a lot of magicite prior to arriving at Thamasa. ); Kefka easily slays them all with his magic and takes their magicite shards, enhancing his already potent powers even further.

With the sealed gate open, Kefka and Gestahl cross over to the esper world, find the Warring Triad and raise the Floating Continent. When the Returners confront them, he then has Celes attempt to strike the Returners down to prove her loyalty to the Empire. However, Celes ends up stabbing Kefka with the sword instead. Kefka, enraged at this injury, rushes into the field of the Triad and demands they bestow their power upon him, and that they demonstrate their true power. Ignoring the shocked Gestahl's warnings, Kefka has the Triad strike the Emperor down and pitches his body to its doom off the edge of the floating island. Kefka moves the Triad out of alignment, shattering their delicate magical field. Shadow and the Returners narrowly escape, but the damage is done; the Triad awakes from their slumber and the World of Balance shifts into the World of Ruin.

In the aftermath of the Apocalypse, Kefka drains the Triad of their power, turning them into weakened husks and himself into a God. Kefka builds a gigantic tower, fittingly called Kefka's Tower, from the rubble of the world he had destroyed. With more or less the entire world living in fear of him, Kefka rules over the World of Ruin from atop the tower, smiting anyone who dares defy him with the Light of Judgment: a beam of magical energy that can destroy entire towns. A cult eventually rises, worshiping Kefka (likely out of fear more than anything else). During this time, it is unspecified what Kefka spends his time doing, though he implies during his dialogue with the party before the final battle that he created numerous new monsters to fight them and guard his tower should they rise up against him.

Defeat
A year after the Apocalypse, Celes awakes on a deserted island and journeys to reunite the scattered party members, and the reformed Returners assault Kefka's Tower. Battling their way to the summit to confront him, Kefka reveals his goal: in Kefka's view, life is meaningless and insignificant, and everything will only end up being destroyed. The Returners deny his claims by citing how, despite the World being in ruin, they have still managed to find positive things on which to hold on, such as learning what love is. Kefka finds their examples sickening, feeling that they came from a "self-help booklet", and thus decides to destroy everything, even the essence of life itself. The party battles Kefka's final servants and confronts Kefka himself. Upon confronting Kefka in a golden skyscape, Kefka utters one last nihilistic vision about life, dreams, and hope, and laughs maniacally as he states that he'll destroy everything.

In a final battle, Kefka is defeated. However, since Kefka had become the God of Magic, magic vanishes from the world along with Terra's powers. Terra, due to her connection with the children of Mobliz, is spared and becomes a human, but magicite and espers vanish and Kefka's Tower collapses as peace is restored unto the world.

Abilities
Kefka is a rarity among Final Fantasy villains in terms of power; while most other villains are consistently powerful, Kefka's power improves dramatically as the story progresses. He attacks Sabin in the Imperial Camp with a simple Morning Star, and could be injured by any attack (although he remarks after the second battle that he was actually holding back during those two attempts). In Narshe, he knows spells that are strong for that point in the game, but are overall weak in the grand scope of the spell list of the game - his strongest spell at this time is merely Blizzara. Kefka acquires his power slowly, by absorbing the espers' strength. By the time he appears in Thamasa, he is able to project realistic illusions, can single-handedly kill dozens of espers in one blow, and is immune to their powers. He is still vulnerable at this point - Celes stabs him aboard the Floating Continent, and Kefka is shocked and enraged by the sight of his own blood, although he seems more angry than hurt.

Following his taking control over the Warring Triad, Kefka becomes the God of Magic itself and his strength increases exponentially. At this point he is able to exploit the abilities of reality warping and other features including: elemental manipulation, power bestowal, and magical absorption. He also utilises telekinesis, as evidenced when he levitates two of the Returners to demonstrate his power when they arrive to stop him. Now knowing the most powerful magical attacks in the game, including Ultima, Kefka levitates debris from around the world to form his tower, a bizarre patchwork of terrain and rooms. He also uses his "Light of Judgment" to smite those who do not acknowledge his ruling of the world, and at least half a dozen towns are hit by the Light and devastated. Kefka creates various new monsters to guard his tower, including the revived, but weakened, Warring Triad themselves. Kefka also creates a new magical spell called Forsaken, (known as "Goner" in the original U.S. SNES release) his signature attack with a magic power of 220, the highest in the game. However, Forsaken does not ignore defense, limiting its potential power.

In Battle
Kefka fights the party a total of five times during the course of the game, including the final battle. In all of these fights, except for the final one, Kefka flees or uses an illusion of himself to fight. Of the first four fights, only the second is actually winnable - Kefka flees from the first fight after any attack and the third and fourth battles end in cinematic scenes and have no conclusion.

Music and Sound
Kefka's theme is simply titled "Kefka" and plays frequently during the first part of the game and during the party's confrontation with him before the final battle. The theme begins with a light, bouncing beat using wind and string instruments, but eventually the background drumbeats and cymbals become more prominent and the theme becomes louder and more dramatic, perhaps a reflection of Kefka's rise to power or his further descent into insanity.

During the final battle, the piece "Dancing Mad" plays. One of the longest musical scores in the series, depending on how many times each section is repeated, a remix of "Dancing Mad" by The Black Mages runs for just over twelve minutes - other remixes last even longer. The music is divided into four sections, one for each tier of the final battle. The piece also includes remixes of "Kefka's Theme", as well as themes from throughout the game.

In addition to his music, Kefka is well known for his high-pitched trademark cackle. Kefka laughs many times over the course of the game, but usually only cackles prior to large events in the plot. As the game progresses the laughter is remixed slightly, and in the final battle is extended to almost five seconds in length at the start of the battle and the normal laughter is frequently repeated during the rest of the fight. In fact, Kefka's laughter is played just as many times as his musical theme and is certainly recognised just as much by fans. Kefka's trademark cackle is incorporated into the "Dancing Mad" track, and is audible just before the track begins to loop.

Dissidia Final Fantasy


Chaos has summoned a combined force of the ultimate villains of Final Fantasy to gain total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. Kefka is one of these villains and stands as the villain representing Final Fantasy VI, opposing Terra Branford.

Working with Kuja, Exdeath, and the Cloud of Darkness, the goal of the group is to destroy all existence. Kefka attempts to use Terra to further their plans by taking control of her, then appearing to taunt her with the brutality of her abilities and her past servitude to Chaos. He also assists Kuja in his plan to capture Zidane, though he accidentally catches Bartz instead. He then suggests to have Exdeath trick Bartz into giving the trap to Zidane.

His alternate form is a palette swap based on his Final Fantasy VI battle sprite.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Kefka reappears as a Warrior of Chaos in the prequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy alongside all the other characters from the original. In this cycle he acts to sabotage the plans of his allies to betray Chaos, revealing Kuja's treachery to the other Warriors of Chaos and arranging for him to be defeated by Lightning, and manipulating Sephiroth to attack Tifa, prompting Cloud to reveal his true colors when he tries to protect her. He also uses Terra as a weapon of war until Kuja weakens his spell, allowing Terra to resist him and flee Kefka's grasp with Vaan. Kefka serves as one of the participants in the final battle of Scenario 012, fighting Vaan.

Kefka's second alternate outfit gives him green robes with red and gold details, based on an alternate Amano artwork and bearing a slight resemblance to his Final Fantasy VI sprite.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Kefka will appear in the upcoming game as an enemy.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Kefka appears on a trading card in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. He is depicted in his Dissidia artwork.

Dragon Quest &amp; Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable
Kefka appears as a chance card in the game Itadaki Street Portable.

Lord of Vermilion II
Kefka appears as a card belonging to the God Tribe in the sequel to Lord of Vermilion. It features his original Amano artwork. His in-game appearance is identical to his normal appearance in Dissidia Final Fantasy.

Merchandise
A toy based on Kefka's god form has been released in the Final Fantasy Master Creatures series of Final Fantasy toys. It bears the name Cefca Palazzo. It depicts Kefka's final boss form floating above the swirling yellow mists quite like in the final battle.

Etymology and Symbolism
Kefka's last name, "Palazzo", is a common last name among individuals of Italian descent and means "palace", "mansion", or even "castle". The Italian term pagliaccio for clown, bears some possibly intentional resemblance to Kefka's surname and fit his distinctive clothing.

The final battle against Kefka may have been inspired by , an epic poem in which Dante travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. In the Divine Comedy, Hell is where Satan is a demon entrapped up to the waist, Purgatory is a place of suffering and spiritual growth, and Heaven is where Dante meets famous saints. This is reflected by Visage in the first tier, Tiger, Magic, Power and Machine in the second tier, and Rest and Lady in the third tier. Rest and Lady are positioned similarly to, a sculpture of Jesus lying in Mary's lap after he was crucified. After traversing through Heaven Dante meets God, who explains to him the meaning of life. This is reflected in Kefka, who has become the God of Magic and tells the Returners that life is meaningless.

Trivia

 * The word "kefka" means "toothbrush" in Slovakian.
 * Many aspects of the final battle with Kefka are reused in Final Fantasy VII for the battle with Safer∙Sephiroth. Both bosses use Havoc Wing, Heartless Angel, and take on the appearance of angels with dark wings among a backdrop of clouds (an interesting note is that they both gain a number of wings equal to the Final Fantasy game number they are in). Both battles also feature a close-up of the character's face just before they unleash their ultimate attack (Forsaken and Supernova).
 * According to the Final Fantasy VI Ultimania, Kefka was born November 19th, he is 5'6, 106 lb, and his blood type is AB.
 * In the video game, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, there is a dungeon called the "Kefka Burial".
 * In Final Fantasy VII the player can hear a lower, slowed-down version of Kefka's signature laugh if they go to the Ghost Square at the Gold Saucer and inspect a "face" in the corner of the item shop.
 * Kefka's laugh also appears in Square's Chrono Trigger when the player talks to Nolstein Bekkler in Chrono Trigger's Millennial Fair. The player can also hear it from Ozzie.
 * Kefka was named the third greatest villain in a video game by Nintendo Power in their 250th issue.
 * According to Final Fantasy VI writer Yoshinori Kitase, the scene where Kefka has his accompanying soldiers dust off his shoes was ad-libbed into the script, as he felt the original introduction scene was too boring to make completely normal. He wrote it to give the players an early implication that Kefka Palazzo had a few screws missing.
 * In earlier versions of Final Fantasy VI, before the player fights Kefka, he says "Life... hope... dreams? Where do they come from? And where are they going?" This is remarkably similar to the title of one of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Notes and References
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