Emperor Gestahl is the secondary antagonist of Final Fantasy VI. True to his grand title as Emperor, he is the power-hungry and cruel supreme ruler of the Gestahlian Empire.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Wanted to expand his rule and grip across the entire world.
- Has countless people subjected to his heinous Magitek experiments.
- Gestahl’s experiments are made clear to be inhumane and not safe by any means, as his test subjects (including children) suffer life-threatening effects.
- One of Gestahl’s thousands of victims for the early stages of his experiments was none other than Kefka Palazzo himself. From what Gestahl did to Kefka, he is responsible not just for his condition, but also his actions by extension as he proved to be an excellent pawn for the Emperor.
- On top of being responsible for Kefka’s terrible behavior, he fully enables it. He shows this by not only sending Kefka on missions, but also never punishing him for being inhumane to the Soldiers.
- Though despite Gestahl never chastising Kefka on his own inhuman cruelty, the soldiers still express much more hatred for the hateful harlequin than they do his boss.
- Intrudes the Esper World alongside Kefka and some of his soldiers to seize their power, taking several of them in a way that essentially constitutes soul slavery, as they are reduced to incorporeal energy over which he has complete control.
- He also upgrades his cruel experiments with his own introduction of Magicite crystals, which also entrap the weakened spirit of the Espers.
- Sometime while mentoring Kefka, he also showed him how to use this inhumane method to have him exercise it for his own selfish means.
- Cruelly separated Terra from her parents as a baby, knocking out her mother; Madeline, in the process.
- After capturing Terra and acquiring sufficient magic energy from the Espers, Gestahl and Kefka had her subjected to their experiments.
- From this, Terra temporarily loses her memory and consciousness as the result of a Slave Crown he had Kefka place on her.
- Enforces his control across lands by having cities placed under his strict Martial Law and threatening even innocents with death should they resist in any way.
- After he invited the hero party for a Truce feast, (during which Kefka seems to be imprisoned for having poisoned Doma), it was revealed to have all been a ruse. Even Kefka’s imprisonment: as Doma was placed back under Gestahl’s command from the exact intended place of terror.
- In addition, he had also released Kefka to both take out General Leo and have him claim more Espers for him.
- Helps Kefka petrify the Warring Triad to contain their power for their own control.
- When the heroes object on the Floating Continent, Gestahl paralyzes them and orders Celes to kill them with the blade presented by Kefka.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He fails the Heinous Standards to Kefka and Golbez, as the latter was completely willing to kill all life on Earth and he outright objects to the former’s idea of destroying the World and all life instead of them both just ruling it. In addition, even though Gestahl was right to object to Kefka, it's nonetheless a very minor good quality prevention as it merely proves he's not as wantonly cruel as him.
External Links[]
- Emperor Gestahl on the Villains Wiki
- Emperor Gestahl on the Final Fantasy Wiki