Too late and to their sorrow do those who misplace their trust in gods learn their fate.
Why is everyone making proposals for my planned Final Fantasy candidates before me?
What's the Work?[]
Final Fantasy XII is the twelfth installment to the long-running Final Fantasy game series. The continent of Ivalice is in a state of war: the Empires of Rozarria and the hostile Archadia are in a war that threatens the other countries caught in the crossfire. With her kingdom down to its last defenses, Princess Ashelia of Rozarria has created a resistance movement for the other countries to help take out the Archadian Empire before it takes over all of Ivalice.
Except the twist here is that the wicked and tyrannical Emperor of Archadia, Vayne Solidor, is actually affably evil with good intentions. This proposal isn't for him, but one of his soldiers; meet Bergan.
Who is Bergan? What has he done?[]
Bergan is one of the five Archadian Judges, the commanders of the Archadian military, alongside Gabranth, Drace, Ghis, and Zargabaath. While the other Judges have honorable traits or other reasons to be Judges under Emperor Vayne, Bergan seems more interested in power, since he supported Vayne before becoming king only because he shares a similar trait of savoring power over anything else. After the reveal that Vayne killed his father to take the throne is revealed, the other Judges are horrified over this, but Bergan rather praises Vayne for his ruthless means. When Drace accuses Vayne of his action, Bergan gleefully strikes her down and is the only Judge to show no remorse when Gabranth is forced to execute her for treason.
Later, Vayne sends Bergan, Gabranth, and Zargabaath to Mt. Bur-Omisacre to retrieve his younger brother Larsa. While Gabranth and Zargabaath follow their order, Bergan has other plans... as in massacring the ENTIRE village including their religious leader, Anastasis the Gran Kiltias (who is essentially the Pope of Ivalice). What motive did he have to commit such an atrocity? None, he's just a psychotic sadist who enjoys causing violence. When the main party arrives, Bergan had finished his massacre and goes on a rant on manufactured nethicite, an energy source that boosts one's magical abilities to an extreme measure, revealing that a massive amount of it flows inside his body. Venat appears and seemingly controls the corrupt Judge while he battles the heroes. After being defeated, the nethicite in Bergan's body overwhelms and kills him.
Mitigating Factors[]
Only two main issues here that I can explain why they don't excuse his actions. While Bergan is following Vayne's orders, he's only serving Vayne because of his lust for power and ruthless methods to achieve his goals, where the other Judges are only following the law. The massacre on Mt. Bur-Omisacre, however, was all his own idea to assert his strength, and it meant no advantage to the Archadian Empire, he's just a murderous bastard.
Second is the presence of Venat before his boss battle. Before you automatically say no for being brainwashed/controlled to do his bidding, through his rant, Bergan shows a lot of awareness to his recent massacre and shows only sadistic pride to his cruel action. I think Venat was more just spectating the battle, but even if it does "possess" him during the boss battle (probably to boost his already insane power with the nethicite even further), it doesn't excuse his awareness to his crimes.
Heinous Standards[]
So this is definitely where Bergan stands out, as a majority of the villains from Final Fantasy XII are anti-villains or extremists, or both. Let's start with the more serious ones. First is Emperor Vayne; while he causes mass oppression and commits patricide, he has a noble goal that he never goes against, which is to make the world free from the Occurians, the gods of Ivalice that everyone believes are corrupt. He also some protection for his younger brother Larsa. There's also Venat, a rebel Occuria that also wants to free the world from the possession of its kin. Speaking of the Occurians, none of them other than Venat are given clear morality.
Let's also look at the other Judges:
- Gabranth easily doesn't count since he's the equivalent of a tragic villain. He has great remorse for all of his actions and feels no honor has come to his name for serving Vayne. He redeems himself to fight the Vayne/Venat fusion final boss alongside the party and heroically dies knowing that his honor has been served.
- Zargabaath, like Gabranth, shows remorse for all the destruction that he causes and only fights the party because "they are the enemy". When his airship, the Bahamut, is about to crash, he stops the battle and asks the party to help him. He's the only Judge to survive to the end of the game, but the ending shows that he has been redeemed.
- Drace is the least villainous of the Judges, as the only crime she commits is treason against the crown to protect Larsa, who she had grown accustomed to.
- Finally, we have Ghis. He has a more faux affably evil standard, as he briefly loses his composer when Princess Ashe tries to escape from his airship. However, he still shows honor to his kingdom.
Then there's Bergan. Unlike the other Judges, Bergan never shows honor or loyalty to his kingdom, rather only serving it for his power-hungry ego. He also shows off his sadistic enjoyment of violence by brutally massacring an entire village of innocent people on his own orders, an action that nobody else in the game comes close to comparing to, not even the evil overlord.
Verdict[]
He's no Kefka or Zemus, but Bergan does just enough to show that those who misplace their trust in gods learn their fate.
Yes: 3
No: 0
Undecided: 0
Final Score: +3
Verdict: Pure Evil