So I just finished and I am a little confused... (WHOLE THREAD IS SPOILER)

[Renmiri]

It's the perfect Wisconsin EVERYTHING. The script writers captured the angst and pain undercurrents in such a nice calm place and situation - an adorable husband /wife & kid family in Smallville USA - and showed it very convincingly, nothing feels fake about it. It is a ghastly, gruesome crime, the kind you would expect on NY or LA, not in Podunk, IA. And do you want a less likely "hero" than a fat 9 months pregnant sheriff ? Yet she and the movie comes out perfectly believable. Takes A LOT of writing and acting skills to pull that off!

Now to business...

Writing rules violated on XII
1) We are never told why Vaan tags along with Ashe, why Basch fiercely protects Dalmasca, what resistance leaqder is Ashe that doesn't even know her uncle is on her side, etc..

The opening of the game is all about how Vaan is trying to "help Dalmasca" i... Did you want him to come out say specifically why so you can add it to your "telegraphing the plot" argument ?

Vaan actually says he has no reason twice: "I don't want to just be left behind here" in Bhujerba and later to Balthier's question of "what do you want" he answers "you know..."

I do admire your talent for filling in the blanks for the script writers though

2) A complete stranger to the plot is introduced and never mentioned again (Havharro, Miguelo, Drace...)

Drace (though I regret her role was rather small) ..

Precisely. All those extras had roles that were rather small (Havahro is the Bhujerba resistance leader that meets Vaan). Rikken, Elsa and Raz (the 3 Reddas groupies), Tomaj.... The "rules" say that if you introduce a character you should take time to put him on the story, otherwise you are just disrupting the flow of the narrative and confusing the reader.

On Fargo, they managed to pull it off, introducing a random Japanese friend of the sheriff woman, because they made it a tale about loneliness in big cities. I mean, hitting on an older pregnant woman ? How desperate is that ? It all fit the plot and theme about how big cities and small cities have similar woes deep down, even though it was a random character that was never heard off again. His appearance was the exact "size" to convey that message and exit stage left. Had he shown up again it would just disrupt the story.

On XII we are left wanting more of the characters. The inner struggle within the Empire deserved more than 1 minute cut scene, and so did Reddas friends, the resistance, etc...

3) A protagonist is not the leader yet is the main "action" character (Vaan)

I don't necessarily understand what you mean hear I'm afraid...

Do you want a less likely "hero" than Fargo's fat 9 months pregnant older woman ? Yet it works. when you watch the movie you truly believe she is the one investigating the crime and catching the perps

Vaan OTOH is a dream filled younger brother that could turn out to be a hero easily, yet never quite "works". No one leaves the game with the impression he is the leader of anything, that he was the driving force behind the quests, etc...

Again, the "rules" are to make sure your protagonist is believable as hero or villain, not to make a sidekick your protagonist. Takes a lot of skill to pull it off a believable sidekick protagonist.

IMHO the writers on X did that well. Tidus is a sidekick to Auron and Yuna yet you follow his exploits. You truly believe he is the main character. The narration trick helped a lot but the entire script was very well written in this aspect.

Several plot twists that "redraw" the story

This applies to every JRPG on the market, including FFX

True, but some do it better than others

5) Clichee: Mean cartoonish villain (Vayne), Mad scientist (Dr. Cid), Dumb sidekick (Bergan), Evil twin (Gabi)....

Bergan is your atypical typical fanatical supporter. He believes strongly in Vayne"s methods and ideals and saw the former Emperor as "weak" this is all explained in the Judge meeting where Drace is murdered.

Well, again, the golden rules tell writers to use few or no clichees. And again, some good writers can use 100 clichees and make a masterpiece, while most of us can't manage that. I personally feel XII writers used way too many clichees and it made the story less readable / viewable because of it. The "not so-evil" twin was a good twist but when they added to the rest made it too much IMHO. Felt like eating stale leftovers from way too many stories

On a pure specualtive note: Since Bergan is one of the older Judges, it stands to reason he came from a different era than some of the others. He most likely held this position in the days Vayne killed his brothers and the wars that took Noah and Basch's homeland. He's a hardliner like General McDouglas who lacks the judgement to know when to deal with a situation diplomatically.

I just love how you can fill in the blanks. You should rewrite XII's script someday

]7) Unnecessary, meaningless blood spilling (Resistance ships, almost Rabanastre)

Welcome to the real world... People fight for ideals, homelands, and to protect what's important to them. Our history is a testament to this. It's not "bad writing" when all one has to do is open a history book or even a newspaper and see that it's something that happens everyday

Last time I checked we had no Aeons here The attack on Mt. Bur-Omisace's refugee camp was completely unnecessary to the plot, as were the "mommy, talk to me mommy" heartbreaking NPC dialogs there. It spoiled my enjoyment of that portion of the game, particularly because it is never addressed at the end. Ashe and Larsa never sent relief supplies or anything. Another plot string left untied, raised for the sheer heck of it then abandoned

X had a much darker, bloodier plot. Continuous genocide for 1,000 years ? A land of widows and orphans ? Yet we get to DO something against it and the entire sunny cheery landscape distracts you from the horrible reality the world of Spira faces. On XII the genocide seems like an after thought that no one, not even you, should care about.

8) Ambiguous morals (Occuria are jerks, Dr. Cid is a bad guy but his plight is sympathetic)

Once again, welcome to the real world... Despite what most people think, the world is not "black or white" but just shades of gray...

Ambiguous morals are not really a story writing no-no, in fact most times it leads to stronger storytelling

You are correct. But writing a story with ambiguous morals is harder to get it to work. I feel the XII script writers fell short on it. They presented blacks and whites and left up to you to make it "gray". A better writer would have made a masterpiece with all the nuances of the plot arch. The Occuria being jerks and Cid/ Vayne's alleged quest to free humanity from them was a very creative idea and it was very poorly explored IMHO.

So was the sibling relationship of Vayne and Larsa. Or Gramis change of heart with old age... So many plot openings left untied / unexplored.

IMHO they cut the XII script development in half at SE. You can clearly see many ideas added for later fleshing out that were never finished.