Top 30 Final Fantasy Villains - #25

#25 - Judge Gabranth

(Final Fantasy XII)

The plot of Final Fantasy XII centers around a princess leading a rebellion against an evil empire alongside a young man with dreams of adventure, a dashing rogue and his furry copilot. And if that plot sounds familiar, rest assured that this game does have its Darth Vader analogue in the form of Judge Gabranth.

Born Noah fon Ronsenberg, he and his twin brother Basch lived in the republic of Landis before it was invaded by the Archadian Empire, and though they fought to defend their homeland, it was taken. Basch fled to Dalmasca to help them fight off the empire, but Noah cut his losses, embraced the occupation and, along with his sickly mother, whose maiden name- Gabranth- he adopted, moved to the imperial capital Archades where he joined the military and climbed the ranks until becoming Judge Magister, the highest possible rank.

Gabranth is a very conflicted character. On the one hand, he harbors a hatred of Basch for abandoning him and his mother to fight for Dalmasca, but on the other, he has a deep sense of self-loathing about failing to defend Landis, and feels as though he has lost his honor. Despite this, he is utterly ruthless and occasionally sadistic. Case in point- he disguises himself as Basch to frame him for the murder of Dalmasca’s king, then keeps him imprisoned despite telling the public he was executed and continually visiting him to rub Dalmasca’s state of affairs under the occupation in his face.

While he does experience moments of hesitation in some of the more brutal acts ordered of him, and his better nature does shine through in his work as bodyguard to the innocent, idealistic imperial prince Larsa and he does fight alongside the heroes at one point, he also tries to manipulate the protagonist, Ashe, into starting a war by revealing he killed her father, to appease his own dissatisfaction with the Empire.

He does suffer from his lack of true villainy outside of following the orders of his superiors, and the actual fights against him are rather pitiful. Despite this, what sets him apart are his motivations, his relationship with the main cast, his conflicted loyalties, and his imposing and intimidating figure which propelled him to be the focus of the game’s logo, which I don’t feel he completely deserves, but as far as Darth Vader clones, I’ve seen worse.