Originally Posted by
Bolivar
Vaan and Penelo fulfill a classic fantasy archetype: the everyday person who gets to view and react to the scenario on behalf of the reader, the viewer, or in our case, the player. They were well cast and well acted.
In fantasy or any narrative that features a distinctly "other" world, this archetype becomes useful as a means through which the reader, viewer, or player can observe a foreign world. The problem with Vaan and Penelo is not that they fulfill this archetype, it's that beyond the first ten hours of gameplay (and that's being generous), they serve no function in the plot beyond being the characters who walk up to the edge of the Sandsea all googly-eyed in wonder.
Hobbits in Tolkien's
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings serve this same function. In their respective stories, they've never before left the Shire, and so whenever something needs to be explained about the world, it can be done so by the comparatively naive hobbits discussing it with more worldly characters. It's an effective way to explain the world through dialogue instead of huge blocks of expository paragraphs (although Tolkien did that anyway).
The difference is that the hobbits become an important part of the story beyond merely serving as the eyes through which a reader views Middle Earth. But neither Vaan nor Penelo accomplish anything relevant to the story after the party reaches the Sandsea. Had the plot of the game been focused more acutely on characters rather than circumstance, it might have worked better. There might have been opportunity for interesting tension between Vaan and Basch over the death of Reks, a humorous mentor-apprentice relationship between Vaan and Balthier, or a greater focus on the divide between Vaan as a commoner and Ashe as royalty. While all these are teased early in the game, they're largely swept aside before the game even reaches its half way point. Vaan becomes sort of an awkward comic relief as the party's punching bag, but when you've already got Balthier spewing witty on-liners who really needs that? That said, the buck doesn't stop at Vaan and Penelo. Fran is equally inconsequential to the plot beyond her interaction with the other Viera--a role that could have easily been fulfilled by making her a guest party member. Which, now that I've spent so many words ranting about this, reminds me that half of the playable party has nearly no consequence to the story.
What's worse is that they could have accomplished the same goal by playing up different aspects of other characters. For example, they could have used Ashe as the eyes through which the player saw the world. As royalty, it would make sense that while she has heard of a great many places, it would not make sense that she'd traveled the world extensively. Beyond that, she's been in hiding for four years, and likely that involves being holed up and apart from the world at large. Speaking of being holed up, Basch has been in a prison for how many years? Suddenly he's free and has to come to terms with how the world has changed and moved on in his absence. Meanwhile, Balthier--the sky pirate who has traveled the world--easily fulfills the role of the worldly character who can explain things.
The bigger problem is that this archetype has become so used and abused that it is old hat to anyone who engages in fantasy or science fiction genres with any frequency. Quite frankly it's lazy and, to a degree, insulting. Plenty of books, movies, and games with large scope and original worlds avoid using this trope rather successfully. Given that Final Fantasy XII, in particular, is so ambitious in so many other ways, the inclusion of this type of character comes as something of a disappointment.
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