Rank the FF12 Characters!

[Rodney]

This is the eighth of my series of threads and polls, asking all of you for your personal rankings of the characters from each FF game in the numbered games. You can base them on personality, usefulness in gameplay, relevance to the story, general enjoyment of each character, or even frivolous things such as their character themes. Whatever you want to base them on. Also included is a poll on which you can vote for your absolute favorite from each game.

This is my eighth one. It's for FF12! And after ranking from among a very good cast, we've arrived at one that's pretty much just . . . so-so. The rankings were easy for my bottom three, but it was surprisingly tough to determine my top three. Still, like FF5, FF6, and FF10's casts, I didn't really . . . hate anyone in this. (Though I know it's not a favorite game, so everyone else will likely have one or more characters they hate.) I either liked or loved them all. So since I'm again only basing this one completely on personality, this one was a matter of separating those who really interested me, and those who somewhat did.

So here are my rankings:

1. Balthier: Roguish sky pirate. Charming demeanor. Sexy manner of speech. Dashing good looks. Great positivity in spite his own daddy issues. (Tidus, take notes.) This guy's got it all. Balthier charmed me from practically the moment he and Fran basically tried to mug Vaan for his treasure, and then subsequently abducted him when he refused. He had several great lines in the game, many of them funny ones. And even despite his bad-boy side, he had a nicer, deeper side to him. And hey, who couldn't appreciate a hot guy who's partnered with a hot Viera and is still proper enough not to make an unwanted move on her? Makes him even more attractive. (I get they were probably already together, anyway, but still . . .) Also, I admired his cleverness under fire (easily getting himself free from his cuffs on the Leviathan -- or was it the Shiva? -- while Fran was distracting the guards by going Mist-crazy), and I enjoyed the reveal of his connection to Dr. Cid. You get to really look into his character and see exactly why he didn't want to work for the Empire, and why he wanted to be someone unlike the man who raised him. Still, through it all, he maintains a mostly positive attitude I liked. So good for you, Balthier! Top of my list!

2. Penelo: I actually almost put her one spot below this one, as for years, I really thought the next character was my second-favorite character. But as I sat back to think, I realized how much I really liked Penelo (amidst a sea of EoFF members who probably hate her almost irrationally). In a game with stronger personalities, I like that she was the lone island of low-key and laid-back. Actually, she put a spin on the "perky young girl" archetype by actually . . . not being so perky. Or at least cutting back on it. She didn't come as so excitable or energetic like her predecessors, Krile, Relm, Yuffie, Selphie, Eiko, and Rikku. (Though it might've been the lethargic voice that belonged to Cat Taber that gave me that feeling.) Her calmness made her a nice complement to Vaan's youthful energy. And she wins points for one simple line she threw at him: "Try to grow up, please." Also, for one exchange with Basch: "You don't have to worry about me. I'm tougher than I look."/"You are, at that." But quite simply, whenever she was in my party, I found myself playing her as my leader more often than others. Yes I know she had no place in the story. But do I care. Hell no. Not at all. So . . . yeah. Loved Penelo.

3. Fran: Yep. The lovely Viera gets the number-three spot. She almost got number two, and I thought she was my number-two character for years, but I finally realized I loved Penelo a lot more. Still, I loved Fran, too. I loved her accent, her piercing stare that made you unable to tell if she was mad at you or not, and I even liked that she was one of the few characters to use proper English in her. Plus, strong, silent female characters are a rarity, and Fran pulled it off well. Yet, she could also be very vulnerable when it came to the loss she felt toward her sisters and her home in the Woods. Perhaps one of my favorite Fran scenes was her asking Jote to speak to the Wood, telling her that she feared the Wood hated her, and . . . you can hear her trying not to cry. Of course, one of my others was when she didn't beat up Vaan after he asked for her age, which brought about that awkward silence (especially because most women would've done that). Yes, Fran was an exceptionally strong woman with her vulnerabilities. Number three.

4. Ashe: She was exactly the kind of kick-ass, take-charge female character I like seeing. She never made any excuses for what she did. I liked that Ashe knew exactly what she was aiming for and went for it. And it was refreshing to see a woman in charge of the party, for a change. (In FF10, you could make a case for Yuna and Lulu at different points, but I don't think either was ever official.) Also, I went to FF Wiki and read up on more of her backstory leading up to the start of the game. Made me like and appreciate her even more! So . . . Ashe. Number four.

5. Basch: I liked Basch, and he's one of the few strong, silent types in FF games who did it for me, but he's down here at number five because his story kinda . . . ran out very early on. I felt like other than him being the falsely-accused murdered of the king, I really didn't get to learn anything else about him. Oh, except for him having a twin brother who framed him right before becoming a Judge for the Empire. With a bit more drawing out of his character, I can guarantee you that he'd have ranked higher.

6. Vaan: But not to say that I dislike him. As I said, I liked everybody in FF12 to varying degrees. I did like that he was the first designated main character to take a more narrative-type role -- that of a backseat observer. I appreciated the way he and Ashe confided with in other over seeing "Rasler." And I liked the sort of mentor/student relationship he had with Balthier. But I really feel like that other than his sky pirate dreams, nothing else about him really interested me all that much. It also doesn't help that there were times I felt he probably tried a bit too hard to be a hero. I still liked him, but not more than the other five characters. 012 Dissidia did a much better job giving him some actual personality. But FF12 . . . not really. So . . . Vaan's last.

But these are just my rankings. How about everyone else's?

[Hollycat]

This is really hard for me, I like all of them except vaan. I will edit this post later

[Rodney]

I hope so. Holding you to that.

[Fynn]

Fran. It's the voice.

[Laddy]

I've only gone about halfway through this game, but...

1. Balthier-Gideon Emery has the second sexiest voice of all time. Balthier is an excellent character. He's charming, witty, and plays a big role in the story. He was one of the best written characters in any game and he would've been a much, much better protagonist. Also, he relationship with his father was unique and cool.

2. Ashe-To me, she is the true protagonist, although Balthier and Basch would've made fine leads as well. Frankly, I would been fine if the game had only the first three of four characters in this list. Ashe has a cool personality, a fiercely independent woman with a strong personality. She is really the ideal female RPG protagonist.

3. Basch-Basch is awesome. He has an excellent storyline but manages to not follow a Final Fantasy archetype like the top four characters on the list. He is a loyal and good-hearted man, someone heroic and genuinely valiant, a type of character that ceases to exist in the genre without being self-righteous or whiny. Also, he's a good-looking dude.

4. Fran-I like Fran. I thought she was cool. She had a neat personality and her banter with Balthier was amusing and added a new dimension to their characters. She also had a cool subplot with the other Viera, most telling Mjrn.

5. Penelo-Penelo is a pleasant enough character, but I find her to be expendable in many ways. She contributes fairly little in terms to the story compared to Ashe, Balthier, and Basch,and her personality is merely a scaled-down "perky young girl" archetype.

6. Vaan-Who? To me, Vaan symbolizes all that is wrong with modern JRPG's. We have a strong set of characters at the top of this post, all of which are interesting, well-written, and original while still being believable. Vaan exists simply to play a cliche protagonist. He is forgettable and serves no purpose, yet we still have him there so we have your typical RPG lead. He's harmless, but pointless. We have a deep, involving, and interesting narrative in a unique and engaging world that is padded with such a filler of a character. Final Fantasy started RPG trends, but it should also be free from them. We shouldn't have to check off lists in our RPG parties. And Vaan is just another pretty teenager to fill role developers mistakenly think we want.

[Wolf Kanno]

This one was a bit difficult, but here is my list.

1. Basch - Basch is a badass, your first introduction of him is watching him kick the crap out of soldiers left and right and he even pulls off a Quickening to take out an early practivce boss. What I really love about him is his dedication and determination. The man is hell bent on restoring Dalmasca and Lady Ashe to the throne, despite the fact she hates him and treats him like tit for half the game. I mean that is dedication. I felt the evil twin plot line was handled very well, though I did wish the game could have elaborated on their falling out better. Still, Basch is a man who really gets screwed big time in the game and he never lets that get him down, he doesn't whine about it, he just takes and goes on with his quiet stoicism, which just makes him feel stronger than other FF characters.

2. Lady Ashe - Lady Ashe is the first asskicking leading lady in the entire franchise, yeah some people tried (Faris) but none of them got the spot light like Ashe does. Ashe is not meek, she doesn't wait around for the leading man to make decisions for her and she's the one who is really pushing the party along, and who can blame her? She's the second most screwed over character in the cast? Her story is sympathetic and her anger is somewhat justified. What I truly loved about her, is that she's the first main character I've ever seen in any RPG who is willing to use the super powerful McGuffin that everyone is after to get what she wants. Cecil, Terra, Cloud, hell even Squall and Lightning would most likely take the heroic "we must protect this from evil" speil rather than actually not pretend to be high minded individuals and take out the bad guys. Its this struggle for revenge and thinking what is best for her people that makes Ashe the driving force of the plot and such an endearing character.

3. Balthier - He's fun, gets the best lines, has a cool backstory, and is a very sly reference to FFV. What is there not to love? He even kind of breaks the fourth wall alot (something we haven't really seen since FFVI) with his whole "Leading Man" nonsense. It's no wonder the staff began rewriting the script to give him a bigger role. I also like how his story with Cid ends at the Pharos, it felt a bit more real than the usual sobbing and "let me tell you how I really feel real fast because we have time to do tit like that even though the world is going to end". It just felt like the way those two would have chosen to part and feel it speaks volumes of their characters.

4. Fran - Baltheir's dry humor sidekick. Fran has a pretty touching backstory that I only wish had been expanded on a little, I don't even want a full explanantion, just a wordless flashback that gives hint as to why she would leave in exile for her freedom over being part of her Viera heritiage. Fran allows the player to see another cultures point of view of the games modern society and it was pretty nicely done. She's also a real badass and smartass in cutscenes which makes her fun to watch and I love her voice.

5. Vaan - Despite being towards the bottom, I don't have any problems with Vaan, I understand he exists as the player avatar and I appreciate that over the botched writing of Tidus in FFX who fulfilled a similar role. While him getting so much screentime is a bit annoying since it detracts from the better characters, I can appreciate the writiers knowing fans might not like him and filled the game with several "STFU Vaan!" moments. Seriously, the cast treats him like the naive boy that he is and I can respect that. He also had a nice more subtle character growth over other main characters who usually do a 180 in their thought process by the end of the game. Vaan, is definetly a better person by the end, but he still retains a lot of his early self, including his bad traits and I felt that made him feel more real than other characters.

6. Penelo - I feel bad for Penelo because she gets more grief than she deserves, she's actually a fun "big sister" character that hasn't been seen in the series since FFIV for crying out loud. Like Porom, she's the more reserved part of the Vaan/Penelo duo but also, it's apparent she's just as interested in escaping her home and having adventures, she's just the practical one of their team. Her role in the plot is to serve as an allegory about long seated hatred between two social groups can usually be overcome through children who are not tainted by the venomous bias of their parents. Vaan represents that bias whereas Penelo doesn't hold any real animosity for the Archadians and her time spent with Prince Larsa shows her that these people are not the unforgivable evil that Her and Vaan have seen and heard the grownups speak of. She's really central to one of the more subtle but more important themes of FFXII and I feel that makes her a pretty damn good character, she just sadly suffers from the same issues as Rosa and Lenna, she's pretty bland compared to the nutjobs in her party. She still has the most memorable character theme though.

[Rodney]

It's funny that two people have already said they'll fill it in later, but ultimately haven't followed up.

[Hollycat]

1. Penelo & Fran & balthier & basch
I love them all
2. Ashe
3. Reks
5. Vaan

[Rodney]

Anyone else have anything to offer? Seriously?

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I would post in your FFX and XIII threads, but I swore never to step into either of those godforsaken forums. You probably wouldn't like my answers anyway, as FFXIII would be just Sahz and then the rest of the cast could die in a fire.

[Rodney]

It's not even a matter of liking your answers or someone else's. I just wanna see more answers.

[Quindiana Jones]

My reasons are almost identical to WKs. I'd put Balthier and Fran in first and second place, because I'm an enormous fangirl, but it would otherwise remain untouched.

[ReloadPsi]

1: Balthier

2-6: Everyone else, tied, because I don't dislike a single one of them.

[Hollycat]

1: Balthier

2-6: Everyone else, tied, because I don't dislike a single one of them.

Whatabout Reks?

[Jinx]

Rogue Tomato was my favourite character.