A good father should always be a role model for his children, showing them right from wrong and encouraging them to be the best version of themselves they can be, but in the world of Final Fantasy, this isn't always the case. Whether they have a particular reason to spite their child, or they just simply don't care about them at all, there's been a handful of pretty awful fathers that have appeared throughout the series, and although some come to eventually redeem themselves, it's still hard to excuse their previous actions.

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The majority of the time, this relates to a parent of a particular party member, but there have even been some dads who have shown up randomly throughout the games that are a little less relevant to the wider story, but who still demonstrate that they're not exactly being a good family member. Here's an honest look at some of the worst fathers ever seen in the Final Fantasy games, and why they're considered so bad in the eyes of many fans.

7 Sazh Katzroy

Sazh's Negligence At The Euride Gorge Allowed Dajh To Become Branded As A Dangerous L'Cie

Admittedly, Sazh does make up for his mistakes by the end of Final Fantasy 13 when he manages to save his son Dajh from becoming a Cieth, but the whole reason he even became a L'Cie in the first place is largely down to Sazh's bad parenting. As part of a day trip, Sazh decides to bring Dajh face to face with a Fal'Cie, a giant mechanic structure that is viewed as being incredibly dangerous by the population, because of its ability to brand someone as a L'Cie, which are enemies of Cocoon.

While trying to buy a Chocobo toy for his son, Sazh leaves Dajh completely unsupervised, which results in him wandering towards the Fal'Cie and becoming branded, where he's then taken into custody by PSICOM soldiers. Sazh deals with an immense amount of grief and sadness throughout the game, and after a lot of work, he does eventually reunite with his son, but it was ultimately his negligence that caused the whole fiasco that could have otherwise been prevented.

6 Bartholomew Estheim

Bartholomew Makes No Effort To Find His Wife Or Son After They Disappear

After Hope witnesses the tragic death of his mother at the beginning of Final Fantasy 13, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge on Snow, the man whom he sees as the culprit. Throughout his journey, Hope grows to become a much more confident and capable person, despite being so young. What seems incredibly baffling is that, although his wife and son hadn't returned to him for days, Bartholomew, Hope's father, did absolutely nothing about it.

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In fact, by the time Hope reaches him in Palumpolum, Bartholomew has seemingly been sitting in his house just waiting for someone to visit him. What's more, he even acts cold towards Hope when he first visits, along with showing a reluctance to take in the other L'Cie. He eventually comes to recognize that, despite being branded, they're all still human and deserve to be protected, but it still feels as though he could have done a lot more to help Hope in his time of need earlier on in the game.

5 Jecht

Jecht's Constant Yelling And Crude Remarks Completely Destroy Tidus' Self-Confidence

While Jecht didn't exactly hate Tidus, his way of trying to interact with him was incredibly harmful to his son, as seen in the numerous flashbacks where Tidus can be seen crying or getting angry due to his father's actions and words. In truth, Jecht wanted to toughen Tidus up and attempted to make him more experienced at Blitzball so that the two could eventually compete together, but this ultimately made him very cruel and dismissive towards the boy, and his alcoholism certainly didn't help the matter.

While it's clear that Jecht was thrust into the position of being a father without really knowing how to go about it, he never tried to change the way he interacted with Tidus, which ultimately harmed his son's mental state and self-confidence. Jecht is an incredibly complex character who possesses a lot of faults, but he definitely could have made a bigger effort to improve his relationship with Tidus rather than just mocking and yelling at him all the time.

4 Shadow

Shadow Ran Out On His Baby Girl, And He Almost Let Her Die In A House Fire Later Down The Line

Shadow is a mercenary whom the player will run into during the first few hours of Final Fantasy 6, and he makes it very clear from the moment he appears that he's only interested in getting paid for his services, and doesn't hold any personal connections to those around him. While not much is known about him initially, players can learn more through his flashbacks that play when resting at an inn, and it turns out that Shadow once actually had a family of his own in the village of Thamasa.

However, feeling that his dangerous occupation would harm them, Shadow walked out on his wife and baby girl and even took the family dog with him. Later in the story, Shadow's daughter, now known as Relm, was caught up in a house fire, and despite Locke and Terra rushing to her aid, Shadow simply stayed in bed, only rushing to her aid when he noticed that his dog was also caught up in the incident. Admittedly, he may not have recognized her due to her being a little older than when he last saw her, but leaving one's child to fight for themselves in the middle of a burning building isn't exactly going to earn him any father of the year awards.

3 Doctor Cid Bunansa

Cid's Obsession With Nethicite Made Him A Cold And Ignorant Father To His Three Sons

This character was the first Cid in the entire series to be a villain, and it's fair to say that Square Enix pulled no punches in presenting him as a truly evil piece of work. While Cid was once believed to have been a caring and considerate father to his three sons, this started to change when he eventually stumbled upon a precious stone of the gods, known as Nethicite.

His obsession with the stone eventually starts to affect his sanity, resulting in him becoming much less involved with his sons, and when he does eventually see Balthier later in Final Fantasy 12, he begs him to join in on his maniacal plan of destroying the world. Cid is often considered to be one of the best-written characters in the game, especially since his once-good intentions to save the world and humanity at large eventually led to his ultimate demise and self-destruction, which also resulted in him harming many others in the process, including his children.

2 Folmarv Tengille

Folmarv Willingly Uses His Children As Tools To Achieve His Ultimate Objective

Folmarv is as ruthless and unforgiving as a parent can be, constantly using his children throughout the story of Final Fantasy Tactics to help serve his master, Ultima. For example, after he sends his son, Orbonne, to acquire a precious stone that is needed to resurrect Ultima, the boy loses it on his way back after getting thrown in a dungeon, prompting Folmarv to slash him across the face, and the fact that he does this so nonchalantly implies that this isn't the first time he's punished his child this way.

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When he's threatened with being exposed by the Duke, Folmarv even goes as far as to massacre everyone in the room to make sure nothing of the sort happens, with his son being one of his unfortunate victims. His daughter, Meliadoul, also doesn't fare much better, with her father constantly trying to apprehend her, and being seen as nothing more than a pawn in his little game.

1 Hojo

Hojo Began Performing Twisted Experiments On His Child Before It Was Even Born

After being partly involved in causing the death of Vincent's father, Lucrecia eventually parted ways from Vincent, and for some bizarre reason, entered into a relationship with the maniacal and disturbing Shinra scientist known as Hojo. It wasn't long before Lucrecia became pregnant with Hojo's child, and being concerned with nothing more than scientific progress and experimentation, he offered up his unborn child to the Jenova Project, injecting it with specific Jenova cells in the hopes of creating a super soldier.

What came as a result of this experimentation was Sephiroth, an incredibly powerful child whom Shinra would gradually mold into the ultimate warrior in their army. However, as time went on, and Sephiroth eventually came to learn the truth of his existence, he rejected who he was, and became obsessed with wanting to destroy the world through the use of the Black Materia, kicking off the events of Final Fantasy 7. Hojo's complete disregard for his child and lack of empathy only make him even more despicable as a father, especially since it's implied that the only reason he even decided to have a child was purely for the sake of his sick and twisted research.

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