Let's Remove Vaan for a Minute.

February 13, 2008, 5:49 PM

Would the story have any kind of significant impact at all? As far as I can see:

+ Penelo would kill the sewer rats and would be the only one to look after Kytes.

That's about the extent of the change in the story, were Vaan to be removed. The creators tried too hard, in my eyes, to make him fit into the story. The entire thought about Reks and avenging his death only lasted until Basch told his story and served no purpose whatsoever - I highly doubt that Vaan was the only person to lose someone to the war. The next most significant part of the story affected by Vaan is when he sees Venat, shown as Reks/Rasler to Vaan and Ashe, respectively. Firstly, why should Vaan have been able to see Reks at all? Balthier could have seen his mother instead, Basch could've seen someone from Nabudis or Fran could've seen one of her sisters. Secondly, what difference did this make to the story? Nothing at all - as I said before, anything that involved Vaan, specifically, was just their way of including an otherwise useless character. There was no suggestion that he had an interest in any of the females in the cast and, to me, that made him both gay and less-than-useless. The plot was actually hindered by him, if you ask me.

Your thoughts on Vaan, please.

February 13, 2008, 8:28 PM

I was expecting something to materialise from him seeing his brother through Venat, but nothing ever did

I seriously doubt the game would be any different if he wasn't in it, not sure how the bit with Reks at the beginning would have worked but saying that I guess that could have been introducing Vossler & Bashe and Reks was just a random guy

There just seemed to be no point in him at all. He wanted to be a sky pirate and thats about it >_> Anyone of the others could have bean the main guy (well, excluding Penelo) I didn't like Vaan all that much

February 13, 2008, 8:32 PM

Personally i think Vaan was annoying as hell and TOTALLY didn't deserve to be the main guy. I think either Balthier or Basch would have been much better in that position. Basch probably more so than Balthier since he has that fallen hero thing going for him.

February 13, 2008, 10:47 PM

Meh, Vaan was kinda the dude that eventually met everyone so they used him as the main char.

Anyone could be the main char, really. I like Balthier, so he gets my vote.

Besides, Vaan was the pure blonde of the group, he HAD to be the main char.

February 14, 2008, 8:50 AM

Even though Vaan was 100 times more likeable than say.. Tidus was in 10, they did absolutely NOTHING with his character, which bothered me a lot. As I've often said.. he was along for the ride, and nothing more.

I still say Fran ought to have been the lead character.. or Ashe.. but that's just me.

February 14, 2008, 9:19 AM

Vaan reminded me of Leo Dicapro for some reason. He just looked like a little pug, his nose is turned up and looks pug like rofl.

But seriosuly, I never warmed to Vaan at all. He just annoyed me, IMO not lead character material in my books.

Baltiher made more of a lead character for me.

February 14, 2008, 4:30 PM

Vaan is the Luke Skywalker of FF12.

'Nuff Said.

February 15, 2008, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~SapphireStar~

Baltiher made more of a lead character for me.

I totally agree with that, Balthier was the only one that really had any kind of interesting back story. They could have made so much out Balthiers past and Dr Cid. It was wholly dissapinting really, and the plot didn't take off til right near the end anyways but Balthier was the only one that seemed interesting from the start. Vaan was justa waste of time

February 15, 2008, 3:08 AM

Yea I think they took the wrong route its almost as if they made all the other characters and then thought 'so where does vaan fit in?' and they got it totally wrong. Balthier as lead would have had a more complete and intricate story, they could have done so much more with it

February 15, 2008, 4:12 AM

With Vaan, they just didn't do anything with him. Almost halfway through the game he fades into the background.

Usually, the main character of a Final Fantasy has something that makes them stand out from the rest of the cast.

Spoilers below!

FFIV- Cecil was from a race that lived on the moon and he was Golbez's brother
FFV- Bartz father was one of the four legendary heros that originally defeated Ex Death
FFVI- Terra was half esper (summon)
FFVII- Cloud was infused with Jenova cells.
FFVIII- Squall has his link to Laguna and He is the one that actually gave Edea the idea for starting SeeD