LogFAQs > #946885571

3. Wiegraf Folles
Oh Wiegraf, I had such high hopes for you. I expected Ramza to join your side at first, even. A morally grey character from the start, Wiegraf could easily be framed as the hero of Act 1. His motives are obviously good, but much like Ramza his tactics and ideas do come under question from those around him, and unfortunately he was dealt an unwinnable hand from the start. He is willing to die fighting for his cause, but those he wants to protect just want food, water and survival. He sees the bigger picture of wanting respect, dignity and to fight for equality, but his position is simply too desperate to make that viable.
Like Cid and Gafgarion before him, the 50 year war lingers large over Wiegraf's presence, and when we meet him he already seems past his peak. But his principles are paramount to him, at least until his sister and all the commoners he tried to protect die horribly. As with Delita's similar situation this triggers a permanent shift in him, but his is much darker than even Delita's. When we see him again in Chapter 3 after such a long time, clad in church knight garb, my heart sank. This game has no shortage of tragedies and death, but seeing Wiegraf having fundamentally abandoned his ideals in the pursuit of power is heartbreaking. He still cares for humanity until his (first) death, but his flame has long since been doused. The stone robs him of his humanity for good and transforms him into a demon, though knowing now about the stone's other powers it's a shame he couldn't use its powers for good, which I guess would've likely happened if he died in Chapter 1 instead with the stone.
By the time Ramza meets Wiegraf in Riovanes he has been corrupted into someone with a dark twisted inverse version of his past ideals. His shift with each encounter from having ideals, to having abandoned them, to resenting and lashing out against all of humanity, is done very well. Someone earlier in the topic mentioned this, but Wiegraf's dialogues with Ramza are among the best in the game. He can challenge him on a level not even Delita can, and his eloquence and intelligence shows just what a shame it is that society doomed him to being nothing based solely on the station of his birth. There are a lot of parallels between Wiegraf and Delita, whose journeys kind of follow the same philosophical lines.
I wish we'd seen him in chapter 2 somewhere, though I know that his absence there is what makes his inevitable return hit harder. His fight is the hardest in the game, and you could argue that whole sequence is the peak of the narrative and indeed the game. The game would be notably worse without Wiegraf's presence, and in many other games he would be #1 for me. A fav for sure.

2. Ramza Beoulve
In a game packed with compelling antagonists, the lead could have easily been forgotten entirely. It's a testament to Ramza's complex personality and development that he stands with the best in this game.
At the beginning of the story he's pretty passive towards his social superiors; grimacing at being complimented for killing thieves, going along with orders and even largely sitting there and taking whatever abuse is hurled at him by the many bandits he massacres. When he disobeys an order he is very contrite and doesn't try defending himself. He begins to question his role and his own ignorance pretty seriously, and witnessing his best friend's anguish is probably what pushes him away from the Beoulve comforts, even before Teta's death. Even here you can see his leadership qualities, honour and morals, but when everything around him and his vision of the world falls apart he... flees.
In many stories, throwing off the shackles of his name would be the singular turning point for the hero, and his moral purity from that point would carry him through any burdens. That kind of happens here, but Ramza continues to grow and question himself as his principles are challenged by Gafgarion and others around him, and as a result of this forced introspection his values solidify and strengthen into hard ideals. Throughout the game from this point he gradually grows more and more confident in his arguments, and by Chapter 3 he's lecturing more than he's being lectured. His sense of right and wrong, though shifting, always remains at the core of any decision he makes. He just has a compulsion to help anyone around him, and happens to fall into the leader role without really trying (like any good FF protagonist!).
I like how varied his relationships are with each member of his family, and just like true families even when they're on opposite sides of war there's still a casual intimacy there, as seen when Ramza visits Zalbag and Alma. Unfortunately the final confrontation with Dycedarg is pretty underwhelming as I've already said, I don't know if it was intentional to show how Ramza has moved past him but it's weird there's no proper dialogue scene there between the two of them (the only lines Ramza has in that sequence before Dyce's death are 'Zalbag!' twice).
Later in the story Ramza just goes along with each new absurd evil demon plot development, and my main critique here I guess is that he doesn't feel like he has much internal conflict after a certain point. I get that he knows who he is and what he stands for by then, but there's just not much going on with him internally in the final act. The one interesting relationship that remains is with Delita, but their last scene together is in the church long before the end of the narrative, and as the rest of his party is silent there's not much else left.
Ramza and Delita's relationship is of course central to the entire game and transcends either character, the contrast between them and their strained friendship is the primary example of the game's themes. Ramza by default gets the less interesting angle later in the game, being the pure good hero and his journey leading him more towards fantasy and away from the (IMO) more interesting political side of the story.

Fun fact: Here's Ramza's five final lines in the game:
What have you done to Alma!?
Alma!!
Alma!!
Alma!!
Alma!! Are you ok!?

His arc seems to end before the narrative does, and that's probably why he's not #1 for me. But he is still a great protagonist and character, and hey these are just my gut instinct rankings/writeups right after finishing the game so who knows what my opinion will be in a week/month/year.

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