rionaleonhart | You Know What They Say About The Leading Man.

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You Know What They Say About The Leading Man.

Well, I've finally managed to finish Final Fantasy XII, and I'm having trouble coming up with some thoughts on it that aren't just 'BALTHIER! HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS.' I already want to play through it again, purely for Balthier (and Fran, because she is also awesome and they're always together and I love their partnership madly). I wish there were a 'Super-Easy Mode (For Obsessive Balthier Fans)', in which I could play through the entire game ridiculously quickly, just for the scenes with Balthier in them, and skip all the places in which Balthier doesn't have any lines. IT WOULD BE THE BEST GAME EVER.

Right. Um. Thoughts that aren't squeeing about Balthier and/or pairing him up with Fran/Ashe/the Strahl (he's surprisingly heterosexual in my mind for a man with rainbow jewellery, although that's apparently not going to stop me pairing him up with an airship. Actually, that's a heterosexual pairing, too; he refers to the Strahl as 'she', doesn't he? IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE). Hmmm.

Well, I was worried for a while that I wouldn't really like XII, but ~~BALTHIER MADE IT AWESOME~~ I fell in love with it a little when I realised that, although it has a huge sweeping political plot, it also has a soul. Towards the end, you start to get the impression that the team really are friends (although it's a pity that wasn't made clearer before; there was so much focus on the politics that it seemed to forget to show that our little group of individuals was becoming closer), and I love the silly sidequests and interactions with NPCs: I love it when you're doing favours for completely irrelevant characters to get chops, and when you get the opportunity to read a Moogle's diary, and when you help a Cockatrice get across the river to meet its friend. (Of course, the problem with meeting adorable frightened Cockatrices and a wolf that is the best of friends with a little boy is that you start to feel guilty when you kill the creatures out in the wild. WELL, I DO, AT LEAST. STOP LAUGHING.)

And... no, it's no use. I'm just going to end up squeeing about Balthier again. BEST CHARACTER EVER, YOU GUYS. He's absolutely right: Vaan (who I did somewhat come around to eventually, but who rather suffers in my esteem due to, er, not being Balthier) may be the player's character, but he is the leading man.

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...I don't think that even my flying Sim of win can compete with that.

I find myself wondering if we're ever going to see a pairing from you again in which both parties are fully animate...

I don't support that many person/inanimate object pairings! Look, there's Balthier/Strahl, and Jeremy Clarkson/Bugatti Veyron, and Jeremy Clarkson/Ford GT, and Doctor/TARDIS, and I did have rather inappropriate thoughts when the Doctor said 'I love my sonic screwdriver!', and I did once write Jeremy Clarkson/Hyundai Accent hatesex, and Kaylee/Serenity does rather appeal from what little I've seen of Firefly, but... well... SHUT UP.

...

Maaaan xDD It really comes to something when I feel left out because all my pairings are between people of vaguely the same species. "I don't ship any person/object. My imagination's so boring."

...

You are starting to worry that your pairings are too normal? You?

Yes. See what you've done?

(It occurs to me that the lack of inflection inherent in LJ posts could've made the above sound a bit nasty. I assure you that I meant only to be flippant. and, um, slightly concerned for the general sanity of all methods of transport.)

Hi! Just wanted to re-iterate that you are utterly, adorably INSANE. That is all!

You're not the only one gushing over Balthier. Did you notice how, during the ending segment on the Bahamut, the other cast members were so caught up in Balthier's safety that they completely neglected to acknowledge that Fran was there too? Heheh.

Balthier/Strahl is probably-- well, maybe not more reasonable than Doctor Cid/Venat, but oddly enough is probably less likely to warrant strange looks from fellow fans.

There's a pretty big fandom for Basch/Balthier, apparently. The two most attractive lead males? That's the only suitable explanation I can see. I'd criticise, but my characters had this weird habit of dying in such an order that only Fran and Penelo would be left on screen, and my brain insisted on making up conversation between them, and....

the other cast members were so caught up in Balthier's safety that they completely neglected to acknowledge that Fran was there too?

It is true! Balthier was the only one who actually cared about Fran! CARE ABOUT FRAN, YOU BASTARDS; I CAN UNDERSTAND BEING DISTRACTED BY THE BRILLIANCE THAT IS BALTHIER, BUT IT IS NOT AN EXCUSE. Never mind, Fran; the cast member who really matters loves you, and he Carried You Heroically through an exploding airship. Which was awesome.

...is... is Doctor Cid/Venat a popular pairing in the fandom? It, er, actually makes a lot of sense or at least could be really interesting, now that I think about it.

It certainly makes more sense to me than Basch/Balthier? It's popular? The idea never occurred to me. Ever. How much do they interact? Balthier mocks him for his 'evil twin' story, and, er, I cannot recall a single other occasion on which they exchanged words.

my characters had this weird habit of dying in such an order that only Fran and Penelo would be left on screen, and my brain insisted on making up conversation between them, and...

Hee! Oh, I love you for this. Inventing your own canon purely because of how the gameplay goes is hilariously brilliant.

I know, right? It's a good thing Balthier/Fran is such a good pairing, or else I might well have been terribly frightfully offended. And darn it, now I think I need an icon for them. Dash it all...

Doctor Cid/Venat is not popular, so far as I can see. Not at all. Which is quite the shame, as I do genuinely think that Dr. Cid, Venat and I suppose by proxy Vayne, I do believe they probably had the most entertaining motives. Or rather, at times, I sort of forgot what the main characters motives were supposed to actually be, which is I would feel something of a bad sign.

But anyway, Venat was incredibly interesting, and possibly the hero of the story from my perspective. Almost makes me wonder if I'm missing something here, hahaha.

As for Basch/Balthier, umm... no, it didn't really occur to me, either. As for interaction, I remember Basch expressing dismay to Ashe that they had brought the likes of Balthier to a sacred place (some tomb or another, there are frankly too many sacred places in this game for me to recall which one. Fairly early in the game, though). As for the fandom, these sentences were the first thing I stumbled on when I decided to take a look, and some of them are actually quite good! But, alas, much like your Jack/Ianto essay yesterday, I prefer a little more substance before I start shipping a pairing, you know?

So this being said, let's ignore what I said about Fran/Penelo a moment ago. cough.

due to, er, not being Balthier

lulz.

I haven't beaten it yet (need to buy it!) and I actually can't remember how far I got. But Balthier = <3 Truly. I love him beyond words.

And he's really hetero in my mind, too. It's like. EW, VAAN. EW, BASCH. Okay, not 'ew, basch' so much as 'lulz, mocked for your evil twin story'.

Yes, you do need to carry on playing it! Then we can have glorious fun discussing the awesomeness of Certain Sky Pirates! AND ALSO THE FRUSTRATINGNESS OF CERTAIN LOCATIONS. CERTAIN LOCATIONS CALLED GIRUVEGAN.

Hahahahaha. I can't remember where I got to, damnit, but I did randomly decide to go get a 100+ chain in the Yam-Nensa Sandsea. For the hell of it (and marginal experience). Raithwall's Tomb was HELLA DIFFICULT, y/n?

Um. I think my guys are like, lvl 27-ish. I can't remember. I've done the finding Myrn bit, I remember that. Vaan was like. "How old did you say you were again?" @ Fran and Balthier was just like. "Nice, Vaan." lulz. <3

Oh, Raithwall's Tomb is an absolute bastard of a location. Largely because the moment you come out the game WHISKS YOU OFF TO A HORRIBLE BOSS FIGHT, so you have to train the characters, and because you can't get out of the tomb without being thrown into the boss fight you can't train anywhere else. I would be happy never to see the blasted place again.

Hee! Oh, Vaan. (I do think he's a bit too similar to Tidus for a game so soon after Final Fantasy X.)

BUT BASCH. *ducks* XD

Though I have not yet written for FFXII (MATTER OF TIME, says me brain), I could give you a brief explanation of why I ship Basch/Balthier. ...though this reason may just be 'Basch needs sex. A lot. Give it to him NOW.'

I do love Balthier and his silliness and his voice and his earrings and stuff, but I ended up falling in love with Basch because I am demented like that. He was supposed to be the main character and then they decided that 32 is ON THE EVE OF DEATH or something and they needed Vaan and Balthier to assure everyone that this game isn't about THE MIDDLE AGED.

I thought Basch seemed remarkably youthful for a Final Fantasy character in his thirties! Perhaps the developers are learning! (Auron was about thirty-five, wasn't he? Thirty-five and greying.) And Basch would have made more sense as a main character, really, because Vaan was just tagging along for the hell of it. Basch certainly dominated the story during the final few battles.

I would love to hear an explanation of Basch/Balthier! I'm always interested in the justifications for pairings I can't see.

It's kind of sad when the guy who has been hanging out in a prison on the brink of death for a couple of years is more youthful than the uh...dead guy. Well, I suppose that might make some sense. Poor, poor Auron.

Vossler also looks appropriately middle aged, and, of course, so does Judge Evil Twin. Hell, even good ole Doctor Cid gets treated fairly. Next thing you know, the old people will be wanting equal voting rights!

I think the reason I was drawn to Basch/Balthier is because it's that Order vs. Chaos thing that always intrigues me. Basch is all about Honor, Duty, Getting Slapped And Taking it Like a Man, Stoic Suffering, The Passion of the Basch, etc. And Balthier is just 'I'm just here for the booze and plunder'. Trying to line up those two dynamics, seeing how they interact and push and pull against one another, is fun.

I think Balthier would be able to coax some dearly needed good humor out of Basch. And Basch is an interesting person, and Balthier's ADD could probably deal with someone Interesting.

Some of it may be that I love the characters of FFXII because I see the main party as a small family. Basch is the father/wiser older brother figure to Vaan and Penelo, and Balthier is the crazy uncle who Wiser Older Brother occasionally has to roll his eyes at. It's a balance of personalities.

Also, Fran would approve of Basch. And we can't go around having Fran lending out her man bitch to people she doesn't approve of.

...I realize I make no sense.

I was incredibly surprised by Cid, really. 'What? A Final Fantasy character in his late fifties? I didn't think anyone lived that long in the world of Final Fantasy! And he doesn't look a million years old!'

Ooh, I never thought about the personality-contrast. That does make it more interesting! And the idea of the party as a little family is absolutely charming and makes me very happy.

I am not strangely attracted to Dr. Cid. At all. Go away. *Innocent whistling*

The fact that XII has two Cids and they're complete opposites amuses the hell out of me. I even like Al-Cid, because I think he may be sufficiently nutty.

Now, Balthier/Vaan I don't really get, at least not on Balthier's end. Then again, I don't seem to ship Vaan/anybody. Penelo's too busy robbing the cradle, etc. Basch/Vaan really kind of creeps me out, but I've seen it done well all of once. ...hell, I've seen it done all of once, and I'll admit that's by an author that could make anything work, and has.

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You Know What They Say About The Leading Man.

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