Quote Originally Posted by Nakor TheBlue Rider
a hero has to have that kind of past.

its one of the rules when writing a hero role.

you learn that in like grade 11 or 12 english.

Of course the Protagonist of a Final Fantasy wouldnt necisarly HAVE to be a Hero.

in fact it'd be fun to play a protagonist in an FF who had thier own dark and possibly evil reasons for going after that "Ancient sword" or "All Powerful Summoning Magic"

or even one who said "screw saving those innocents, i look out for number one"
No, he doesn't. Heroes in other types of media don't always have to have dark pasts. If you have ever read Discworld, very few main characters in those books have dark pasts, and they're some of the best books you'll ever read, and you can sympathise with the characters just as much as a character who has a 'dark and mysterious past.' It has come to the rather silly point where people with 'dark and mysterious pasts' aren't 'mysterious' at all, they're bland and predictable. You may argue that Discworld is a comedy book, but it has stories that would be able to run along just as well if it didn't have any humour attached to it.
You don't learn anything about narrative, you pick it up and make your own opinions about it. I'd rather take the view of someone who has been writing for twenty years rather than an national curriculum.