Characters/People don't always have to be badass, be positive, be able to pull through any situation without going down, understand everything instantly, etc.
I understand this. I don't need every character in every RPG to be the epitome of cool. I'm one of the few people who stand up for Vaan! And, you know, Spiderman was a nerd, Frodo Baggins was a simple hobbit of the shire and even John Conner was a mouthy brat in T2. Not only do characters not always have to be cool and badass but simply being cool and badass does not instantly make you a good character. Neo from the Matrix movies is a terribly dull and uninteresting character despite being tradionally "cool".


One thing though. I feel that Tidus, on a protagonist level, does his job very, very well.
I fully agree that Tidus does his job well at being ignorant of Spiras culture which helps the player to learn their new surrounding naturally through Tidus. But he doesn't need to be stupid to be ignorant. He doesn't need to be bad at conducting his behaviour in a new place to make him stand out as an outsider.

And if this works as a valid defense for Tidus, it should also be true for Vaan. We view the world through Vaans eyes. We watch things happen as he does. Everything we learn to understand about Ivalice is what Vaan learns too because we are sharing the same experience. The devs even constantly remind you of this by having Vaan try to be involved in a scene and being told to "not interupt" as if to say "You're not actually involved, sit there and watch". Vaan does his intended job well.

@the above poster
I'm rushed for time so can't reply right this second, but since you've made the effort for a detailed post, I will reply when I have a few minutes spare to do so