LogFAQs > #959996627

ApherosyLove posted...

Vaan's feeling of having lost Reks in the war is his most important connection to Ashe, who also feels the same way about losing her husband Rasler.

It's also the reason Vaan sees the visions the Occuria place to manipulate Ashe throughout the story, because Reks/Rasler die through similar circumstances and that's why Vaan wants to help Ashe.

They have a whole discussion about it in Jahara.

and how many times outside of that was it brought up in the actual plot to drive the story forward? As a story plot point there should always be that driving force for him wanting to take revenge and to be part of the party. But outside of brief interactions and what you mentioned, its never actually used within the story past his interaction with Basch. I'll use a different example for a moment.

Dragonball Z, slight spoilers. They go to Namek to get the Namekian dragonballs to revive Piccolo thus bringing back Earths dragon balls to their planet. Even when they are introduced to Frieza the original plot point is still there. They are still trying to get the dragonballs to revive Piccolo. That's their original goal.

Vaans story makes no sense from start to finish. He is a street rat, so as a street rat he shouldn't have known Reks was dead in the first place unless it was broadcasted. Secondly, if it was broadcasted, it should have been the driving force for him wanting revenge throughout the entire game. Yes, it gives him a sympathetic edge with Ashe, but that only makes him relatable to her. Which affects her storyline, not his. As a character his struggle for revenge should have been placed much higher up there than it actually was. But as soon as the "main characters" were introduced, it took a back seat for their struggles, while his kind of washed out. To the point that even towards the end of the game, Balthier who up until that point didn't have a point in being in the party other than looking cool and giving sound advice, had more plot going for him than the 1st character we get control of when the main game starts.

I get why people like the game, I just can't stand it. There were so many points where the story could have been written a LOT better than it was. Ashe being introduced via Laguna type flashbacks from FF8, where she is working to restore her kingdom, Vaan having a driving force after the full party had been assembled, and a main villain who actually has screen time, rather than being shoved aside worse than Arthas/Lich King was in WoW: Wrath of the Lich King.

I went on a bit of a rant there, mainly because I love the FF series and JRPGs so much in general. I can forgive a lot of things, but sloppy writing, especially in a JRPG isn't one of them.