petronia

Too under the weather to go out so staying home and gaming, but sororial unit is still at the piano so I'm writing an LJ entry instead. :P In any case I am wending my way toward certain tombs and very iya da about it. With Vagrant Story I would drag my feet when in the overcity unwilling to go back downstairs because overcity Lea Monde is a sleepy little medieval French town that is lovely to wander through, even if it is overrun with the Cardinal's men trying to stick you with pointy objects. Now that I have a proper world map and blue desert skies at my disposal I am doubly IYA DAAAA.

Okay anyhow this is the FFXII-to-date post. I'll start with the characters and hope I'll remember everything else I wanted to say as I go along. :P

Vaan: is not very interesting compared to everyone else. XD He's not really annoying, either - basically he's well-characterized for what he is, i.e. random Rabanastre street kid A. Luke Skywalker, only one doesn't get the sense the plot is going to end up revolving around him. I was just talking with sororial unit who said she thought Vaan existed because the story needed a "main character", by which I think she meant the kind of protagonist easily identifiable as the 15-year-old male target audience placeholder, but Vaan's role feels more complex than that to me. The characters themselves talk about meddling gods, who by all indications have a heavy sense of irony; Vaan is something like the invisible fulcrum of fate, or the pebble that sets off an avalanche. He's there at the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time to bring people and objects together, and then the Cycle turns (in Brust's parlance). Which makes it ironic that Vaan's personal growth is all about struggling against feelings of disenfranchisement, of being victimized by political forces beyond his control.

Penelo: arguably the most random presence in the party, since she's only there because Vaan is, and Vaan's excuse for being there is fairly spurious to begin with. XD I really like Penelo, though, she's just a... likeable person? As opposed to Fran and Ashe, both of whom are forbidding in their own ways. And she's not naive or flaky the way "white mage" type characters can stereotypically be.

The game is not doing the cute het romance drama thing at all - not in the way VIII through X did - on the personal-to-political scale it is tipped way toward the political end. I'm not bothering to rate but if I were Vaan/Penelo would be a C=4 based on the fact that Balthier assumes they're a couple, but Vaan himself is adamant Penelo is just a friend. XD; Apparently this causes my brain to stop the perceived gap by making up het romance ships on its own. WHAT THE HELL, BRAIN. Not to mention the pairings are all obviously D-O-O-M-E-D. I have actually constructed this whole thing about Ashe's childhood and how she wanted to wield a sword like her brothers and didn't want to get married but Rasler won her heart anyway but I am waaaaaaaaaaay too embarrassed to contemplate writing it.

I sort of also like Larsa/Penelo because there is something very David Eddings about it (...in a good way) but that is doomed too because she wouldn't pick him, she'd pick Vaan and they'd run away and be pirates. I HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE.

Balthier and Fran: okay I wonder about Balthier (I keep spelling him as "blather", insert own punchline) because um everyone questions his piratical loyalties but no one ever questions why he has an Arcadian noble accent? Or is it just me? XD;; I mean, I guess the Japanese version didn't have accents and that was just Alexander O. Smith being cleverpants.

As anyone who plays the game can't help noticing, Balthier and Fran are basically Han Solo and Chewbacca, except instead of being tall, furry and meaningfully silent, Fran is oh wait. They have that True Partners thing going, you can tell because the dialogue is always mysteriously more awesome and quotable if the conversation contains both Balthier and Fran as opposed to just one of them.

(Yes, it is Star Wars, except 1) there's nothing wrong with that, it's like complaining a story is actually Shakespeare, 2) I do not think Vaan and Ashe will turn out to be related, 3) I doubly do not think Balthier and Ashe will get together AAHH THE THOUGHT ITSELF IS SPORKWORTHY, 4) there is no Obi Wan Kenobi. Maybe Vaan will turn out to be related to a Judge but I doubt it. ...Actually the last items are all pretty much accounted for by pointing to Basch.)

Basch and Gabranth: I feel the need to lodge a complaint regarding the character names. It's not that I think they're bad, they just have a knack of provoking inappropriate hilarity (in me). Marquis of Ondore? Gabranth? Solidor? Zargabaath? Like bleeding Michael Moorcock is what it is.

Anyhow the more this game progresses the more one realises that Basch and Gabranth are like one of those case studies about twins who were raised apart and when notes are compared it turns out they're in the same profession and have the same number of kids and participated in the same club activities in high school, only on opposite coasts. Or in Gabranth and Basch's particular case, on opposite sides of a war. Uh... sucks to be them? XD; I made sororial unit wail at me because she loves Gabranth and I said I'd eat my hat if he survived past the end of the game. Not that I don't like him either but he'd have to develop a consumptive cough to be more doomed than he is.

Am I the only one who thought the story would be more interesting if Basch really were the one who flipped and killed King Raminas? XD;;; Then again the plot device is so retarded it went beyond retarded into the terrain of possibly awesome. I like how Vaan was like "I, I don't believe you!" and Balthier was like "I do," and as usual Balthier was right because you could believe Basch had done it but you couldn't believe Basch would make up a story along the lines of It Wasn't Me It Was My Evil Twin.

Ashe: the most interesting Final Fantasy heroine since Celes, although not the most likeable. The beauty of it is that she's not supposed to be likeable. Likeability is not on her agenda. Even better - she's not at all pretty. That is I thought she was pretty when I first saw the concept art but in-game she's not. She's pale and her eyes burn, there's no colour to her lips. She's a very angry person with a sword and that's what you notice first.

The story is Ashe's story, but it couldn't have been told from Ashe's point of view, because paradoxically that would have made it too narrow in scope.

Vayne: I am greatly enjoying hating Vayne. XD I hated Seymour in the last one but Vayne is a worthy opponent (FFX was in a way a story without a true villain). When I first played FFVII I was unironically terrified of Sephiroth, there is not much one can really say about Ultimecia, and I didn't hate Kuja - I loved him for being fabulously fabulous. XD Vayne on the other hand... I could work up a tidy bit of hateful rhapsody just on the topic of his hair.

...These character notes seem to get more flippant the further I get down the list. ^^; O and I am incubating one of my inevitable Invisible City Postcards about Ashley Riot at the Muthru Bazaar. Because empires and religions rise and fall, but bazaars last forever.