Sky Pirate Vaan (Spoilers)

Some spoilers ahead

-At the beginning of the game (and in all the promos) Vaan said he wants to be a sky pirate.

- When he meets up with Balthier and Fran and finds out they're sky pirates, he gets extremely excited about it.

- When Vann first sees Balthiers ship, The Strahl, he's amazed by it and starts asking Balthier questions about the ship. "How fast is she? Can she take the Ifrit?"

So, everything seems to indicate that Vaan does genuinely wants to be a Sky Pirate. He wants to escape from the Empire and live a free life flying the skies.

-However, once you reach Jahara, he seems to contradict himself. As some of you may recall, in Jahara, Vaan opens up to Ashe and talks about his life. He says that the only reason why he made up the dream to become a sky pirate is because of Reks's death.

- Lastly, at the end of the game, Balthier tells Vaan to drive the Strahl. Telling him to do exactly as he taught him. (though I don't recall Balthier ever teaching Vaan how to actually fly the ship) So if he really didn't want to be a sky pirate, why did he ask Balthier to teach him how to operate the ship.

I just wanted to get some opinions on the matter. Do you think Vaan really did want to become a sky pirate, or was it just something to cover up what happened to his brother?

Both

He used that dream to have a hope for a brighter future than just being a "street rat" in Rabanastre. He wanted to go the opposite way from Reks who joined the law (army) since Reks ended up badly.

After many adventures Vaan didn't want to get back to being a "street rat" and still wanted to travel and have adventures and he also got to be the caretaker for the Strahl. So being a pirate was both easy and also allowed him to do what he wanted.

What started as a dream to escape the burdens of a life without hope turned into a career....

Just my 2 cents...

i think renmiri hit it right on the spot