Rank the main characters ! ( including spin offs and FFT)

Rank the main characters from best to worst ( or worst to best, if you prefer !)

• Light Warrior Final Fantasy I
• Firion Final Fantasy II
• Onion Knight Final Fantasy III
• Cecil Harvey Final Fantasy IV
• Bartz Klauser Final Fantasy V
• Terra Branford Final Fantasy VI
• Cloud Strife Final Fantasy VII
• Zack Fair Final Fantasy VII : Crisis Core
• Squall Leonhart Final Fantasy VIII
• Laguna Loire Final Fantasy VIII
• Zidane Tribal Final Fantasy IX
• Tidus Final Fantasy X
• Yuna Final Fantasy X-2
• Vaan Final Fantasy XII
• Ramza Beoulve Final Fantasy T
• Marche Radiuju Final Fantasy TA
• Luso Clemens Final Fantasy TA 2
• Benjamin Mystic Quest
• lightning Claire Farron Final Fantasy XIII
• Serah Farron Final Fantasy XIII-2
• Noctis Lucis Caelum Final Fantasy XV
• Anybody else that I missed, feel free to include !

Note: If you don't know a character and/ or haven't played the game that they are from, feel free to ignore them from your list.

Here's mine, from best to worst:

1. Noctis Lucis Caelum
2. Lightning Farron
3. Tidus
4. Zack Fair
5. Terra Branford
6. Cloud Strife
7. Yuna
8. Zidane Tribal
9. Cecil Harvey
10. Serah Farron
11. Bartz Klauser
12. Vaan
13. Ceodore Harvey
14. Laguna Loire
15. Squall Leonhart
16. Firion
17. Warrior of Light
18. Onion Knight

1. Laguna
2. Marche
3. Tidus
4. Ramza
5. Butz
6. Zack
7. Cloud
8. Zidane
9. Lightning
10. Benjamin
11. Fighter
12. Cecil
13. Squall
14. Terra
15. Yuna
16. Noctis
17. Firion
18. Serah
19. Onion Kid
20. Vaan

10) Vaan
9) Cloud Strife
8) Tidus
7) Firion
6) Noctis Lucis Caelum
5) Serah Farron
4) Terra Branford
3) Cecil Harvey
2) Yuna
1) Lightning Farron

1. Laguna
2. Squall
3. Cloud
4. Terra
5. Cecil
6. Zidane
7. Ramza
8. Tidus
9. Butz
10. Lightning
11. Noctis
12. Firion
13. Onion Kid
14. Warrior of Light
15. Yuna.
16 -19 Serah, Marche, Luso, Benjamin - I don't really know these characters, so no particularly order. Just emphasizing that I'm sure they're not as bad as the last guys.
20. Vaan
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99. Namingway in Namingway's Quest: A Final Fantasy Story (probably a thing somewhere in the multiverse).

100. Zack

13. Serah
12. Bartz
11. Squall
10. Vaan
9. Noctis
8. Cecil
7. Tidus
6. Celes (main character for the 2nd half of FF6 at least)
5. Lightning
4. Zack
3. Yuna (FFX version only)
2. Cloud
1. Zidane

I don't even remember any of the characters from the first 3 games, so they just don't exist I guess.

From weakest to best:

Serah Farron - I have nothing against Serah. M only time with her was in the very brief times she showed up in XIII and what I played of the XIII-2 demo. So I don't really have a strong opinion of her one way or the other. For that, she's on the bottom out of default than personal scorn.

Yuna - I hate Yuna. She embodies too many female tropes I can't stand in Japanese media, and while I can chalk up a lot of that to cultural dissonance, it doesn't make her any less irritating. I despised her in FFX when she was a wallflower that the game kept telegraphing to me to love. I learned to hate her when I had to deal with her insufferable wishy washy goody two show persona from X-2.

Luso Clemens - Luso is a wonderful example of a main character created to appease a childish fanbase that missed the bloody point of the previous entries in his franchise. He is a child trapped in a fantasy world and is making the most of it. This also means he lacks any depth or anything that could make him remotely interesting. His existence is largely a counterpart to his predecessor and whereas he's actually someone compelling and controversial, Luso is so inoffensive to be completely forgettable.

Lightning Farron - I've never liked Lightning. While I can't remark on any further character development from the sequels. My time with her in her debut game was enough to make me steer clear of any further development she may have had. I feel what bugs me the most about Lightning is the combination of having an abrasive personality that is coupled with clumsy writing that fails to give her a real poignant arc in her debut title. The other aspect that bugs me is how she feels a bit pandering to a fanbase begging for more strong willed female characters, but instead Lightning is just a lot of bad male main character tropes given to a female character. While controversial to say, I sometimes feel that if Lightning had just been another male pretty dude with the same personality and arc. their standing with the fanbase would be closer to my own thoughts. Course this may have changed with the sequels, but my ignorance of those titles leaves with me with just the one experience though seeing her in crossover media tends to reinforce my opinion.

Light Warriors - It's always hard for me to rank the LW characters because so much of it is based on subjective values and experience. Most would write them off because they're blank slates for the player to fill, but I tend to do well with these types of characters and I don't mind giving them personalities and coming up with fun backstories in my head. Due to that, I can potentially rank these characters above most of the characters on this list because they're tailored for my personal taste, but I feel for the sake of this list, I'm sticking to judging the characters on other people's writing.

Onion Knights - Same deal as above. They get a little more points because they're not complete blank slates in the Famicom original and even get dialogue that jumps from party member to party member to give the impression of a real group with agency. There is also the DS remake which does give them all personalities that are not offensive either, if a bit boring.

Vaan - Really shouldn't be on this list. Vaan is a POV character, but he's not the main character. Once the actual adults show up, he's a background character and source of comic relief at best. His personal story is resolved fairly early as well compared to the rest of the cast. Ashe is really the main character of XII but I already ranted about that in the other thread. With that said, I don't have anything personal against Vaan. I feel he works for what he needs to be and I enjoy his butt-monkey status among the party members. Makes the moment he stops the war with his quick thinking at the end the more amusing as the other cast mates look in disbelief that he managed to come up with a ruse like that.

Tidus - Tidus has slowly been climbing this list. I like the contrast of watching his younger dumber self while listening to his older and wiser self narrate. My issue with him is that like Lightning, I find his early personality to be annoying and unlike some characters on this list, it sticks around way longer than I would care for. I also just don't relate with his father issues despite having a Jecht figure in my life as well. It makes his drama feel silly to me and there is too much value dissonance at play here much like with Yuna.

Benjamin - Benji is amusing. A dumb knight who follows a prophecy that turns out to be a fake and still manages to accomplish it anyway. No real depth here, but he's amusing none the less.

Noctis Lucis Caelum - Noct isn't a bad guy, but among the four man boy band, he's the least personable. I feel when you pull him away from his more colorful entorouge, I find he's pretty bland overall. Mostly a lazy and mopey teenager. It doesn't help that Brotherhood made him seem more interesting, but his main game proper never really explore those hidden depths in a way that was satisfying for me. On the other hand, you sort of need his personality to balance out the rest of his crew.

Firion - This guy mainly ranks up this high because it is too difficult for me to distinguish the personality presented to us versus the rampant fanon that exists around him. Much like the Loto descendants of DQII fame, fan art paints Firion as a much bigger dork than he probably thinks he is, which makes him more lovable.

Cloud Strife - Cloud is a weird scenario of liking the concept and the circumstances of his character, but not liking the end result. I can concede that Cloud is probably one of the more interesting characters in the franchise, but I don't really care for his personality. I honestly like his fake persona a bit more, and even then it's the originals I like more than his remake counterpart that infuses his true Gloom Cloud persona from his childhood into him. Like Noctis, I find Cloud shines best only when he's playing the foil with other characters like Aerith, Barret, or the Turks. On his own, I probably would ignore him if I met him.

Zack Fair - Living up to how he was written, Zack is the anti-Cloud for me. A very likable person whose circumstances are stupid and ridiculous from his solo game. Still, I feel the managed to capture the essence of his character despite adding a bit too many Mary-Sueish elements to his story. I've always liked Zack and found him more intriguing than Cloud, but with that said, Crisis Core can shove it.

Zidane Tribal - I always go back and forth with Zidane. I like him, I just don't care for how he sort of steals the spotlight so much within his game. His personality is a merger of two fan favorites from VI (Locke and Edgar) which makes him likable enough, but I guess I just always got annoyed how his constant hero antics gave less time for more interesting characters in the party. He's still a good character, just not my favorite in IX.

Bartz Kluaser - Good old Bartz. Proof you can have a fun loving character with some hidden depths and still be likable. Bartz wins for being one of the biggest dorks in the series who was being turned into comic fodder long before other more popular characters. I also like the fact that despite being fun, he's also a surprising badass to boot. It's fun watching him goof around in Dissidia only for him to finally show he's more than capable of going toe to toe with FF's finest villains when the chips are down.

Laguna Loire - Laguna is a bit of how I imagine an older Bartz would be. Still funny and a butt monkey, but still has those hidden depths and badass moments. Of anything,. Laguna is a just a far more tragic version of Bartz's archetype and a great foil to his son Squall. I enjoy Laguna's moments in VIII as a sort of break from Squall's moddy introspection. It helps keep the emotional pacing of the story better.

Terra Branford - Depending on the day, Terra can often be one of my favorite characters in the series, but I'm docking her points here because she's not quite a main character for her game like others here and she shares that spotlight with several characters who deserve just as much billing. Still, I feel Terra expanded the type of story telling Cecil brought to the series and I love the fact her resolution is so unique among other characters in the series, especially female ones. Terra always struck me as being asexual, so having her doubts cleared up by maternal instinct was a more unique take at the time.

Cecil Harvey - I love Cecil, and I appreciate the fact he broke the mold for FF protagonists by starting off as a villain before defecting for his conscience. While he has less dialogue than some other characters on this list, and lord knows he fails more than he succeeds in his own game. I appreciate the resolve he shows and how his story almost hits a primal emotional nerve. Not sure if I care for the whole "big brother" trope they've attached to him in more recent memory, especially considering it doesn't make sense within his own story context since he hated Golbez's guts for all the crap he did.

Squall Leonhart - Of all the characters on this list, I relate to Squall the most. I understand him the best because several of his personal issues are things I've dealt with as well. I love the fact we witness two sides of his personality with his actions vs. his internal monologue. Squall for me is one of the most intimate figures in the series because we get to witness so much of his internal issues. What helps here is that unlike say Cloud or Tidus, two other figures with extensive "getting into their head" character development, Squall's issues are more relatable and only slightly have to deal with magical nonsense. I also just enjoy that fact that Squall's sarcastic loner attitude is played up with his rather spastic party members which often creates most of the game's non-Laguna humor.

Marche Raiduju - Marche is a great main character if only due to how controversial they are. He's a simple kid trying to make sense of a weird experience. His biggest trait is that he's the responsible one, and that makes sense considering his younger brother is ill and likely forced Marche to grow up faster in order to help his parents with him. So it's no surprise for me that Marche chose the path he does in TA because he sees Ivalice for what it really is, a Dream Eater Lotus Machine. Whle I can understand how some people may dislike him for not indulging in escapism, I feel the tale he creates is one of the most thought provoking stories in the franchise. Marche is alright in my book.

Ramza Beoulve - The short answer as to why Ramza is ranked so high is due to the fact that he's Cecil with more time spent on giving his character more depth. A man whose moral compass compels him to leave his cushy lifestyle and start a losing campaign to thwart great evil. Ramza's story has more personal and moral implications than Cecil does. This is of course helped by his counterpart Delita who has a sort of shadow story arc that is the inverse of Ramza's. Ramza's story is not necessarily about saving the world or making the world a better place, his story is about saving your own soul in a world of corruption and having the strength of conviction to maintain the moral high ground even if it costs you everything. Ramza is a character to be admired, though not one to be envied...

1. Ramza
2. Ramza, because no one else deserves to be that close
3. Terra
4. Cecil
5. Ashe (if I use Vaan, he'd be 2-3 spots lower)
6. Cloud
7. Zidane
8-10. Lighting, Squall, Noctis (don't care enough to try to sort them, they're kind of equally "meh" to me)
11. Tie: all the generic ones (LWs, Onion Knights)
12-99. Various and increasingly painful forms of torture
100. Tidus and Yuna