Or: How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love the Ratsbane

In the build up to the remaster's release, I always find it weird how most people who praise FFXII are like "I love this game, but Balthier/Basch should've been the main character. Vaan's the worst, lol". Ignoring the fact that Ashe is the main character of FFXII's story (the game starts with her wedding/subsequent widowhood and the second and third acts are her trying to gain the means to reclaim her homeland), I find Vaan's role in the story to be... largely inoffensive at worst? Like sure, once they escape Nalbina, he's irrelevant to the plot, and the [few] moments the story tries to make him relevant are really jarring, but... really? I say this having hated Vaan until my most recent playthrough of the game 2 years ago.

Honestly, I like having a more plucky optimistic character to tag along with the otherwise jaded, embittered cast. Vaan's the only character in the party I could believe would take hunts, help lost cockatrices find their owners, help the Chief Stewards out of arranged marriages, and so on. Ashe is obsessed with revenge, Basch lives only to serve her, and the Sky Pirates would've left the game altogether had Ashe not used her wedding ring as payment. If nothing else, Vaan makes sense as the player's avatar for a game so rife with side content.


I think Vaan's strongest aspect as a protagonist is just how radically his life is changed by FFXII. As the player, the first proper dungeon you enter is a sewer as the first step of robbing Dalmasca's national treasures. Vaan's character is vindictive and self-serving. His actions are self-destructive and are born from a sense of helplessness living just above rock bottom of Dalmasca's caste. Even then, what little privilege Vaan has is because he was taken in by an influential shop owner who kowtows to the Empire. In contrast, by the end of the game, Vaan becomes an altruistic top member of Clan Montblanc. Even if you ignore the side content, Vaan still canonically becomes (SPOILER)a budding Sky Pirate, friend to the Dalmascan throne and has enough money to his name to purchase an airship after Balthier and Fran take back the Strahl. I'm also pretty sure there are a couple mandatory quests in which you help people from Archadia, and depending on whether or not FFTA2's Ivalice is canon, he may even have a shirt now! It's a character arc that feels reinforced by the gameplay; with every hunt you slay, every dungeon you explore, every license you buy, Vaan goes from disenfranchised urban youth to capable, seasoned adventurer. If Ashe renouncing violence and choosing diplomacy to regain her throne is the plot of Final Fantasy XII, I'd argue Vaan renouncing thievery and exercising heroism to gain his agency is the heart and soul.

But that's just me. What do the people of EoFF think about FFXII's controversial not-protagonist?