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Well, while I wouldn't exactly agree that he's gay, I would prefer Reks... Even though you don't know him very long, I really liked him. The problem is, that wouldn't work out as storyline-wise. Plus, you wouldn't have the whole emotional "YOU KILLED MY BROTHER" thing, which I thought was pretty awesome.

Reks was a clear plot device, just like Zack was at FF7. His function was to be liked person who dies and strengthens the emotional attachment to character (fail boat here for most of us). It is also needed for motivation to Vaan stick around and get involved, more personal or noble reason than just a wish to become a sky pirate.

I think Reks would have been very boring character in the end, just because he seemed so righteous and potential hero. Nothing unexpected, too little room for character development. No one would have thought twice about dying older brother-Vaan. Now we have very strong sense that wrong brother died or that Reks didn't deserve his faith. And we take more firm grip of the story. We hope. Think more of it. Put more expectations on Vaan. Emotional binding. You have to play Vaan as main character, no matter how annoying he is. Maybe it helps to think him as point of view and accept what Balthier said.

Failing or incompetent hero is more interesting than one perfect for the part.
Vaan is annoying as hell. That is a fact.

I actually liked Vaan. Sure, he could be a little annoying, but he was a nice guy caught up in things way above his head. I wonder if that was actually the intention behind him, to have Vaan serve as a kind of proxy for the player (like Bella in Twilight xD). It obviously didn't work for most people, though.

Reks... was boring. He was a generic good guy who got unlucky and died. Because he had such a cardboard personality, it's kinda hard to argue a good case for him against Vaan (because by arguing for someone with no real definable personality traits, you're not arguing for anything, but more for the possiblity of anything, or perhaps against what there already is).

I don't think Vaan is supposed to be viewed as a classic main character. The real players in the game are the adults, and Vaan just gives you a different persepctive, like looking though a window. He has no real power and is unimportant (although I personally believe he's the most important, because if he hadn't gone to steal the shard, Balthier and Fran wouldn't have gone into the sewers, and they wouldn't have met Ashe, so the wouldn't have gotten caught and sent to Nalbina, etc, etc), but I think he can see what's going on, and do so more clearly than the others who are in the middle of it.

It's interesting, isn't it, how it worked so well for Twilight, but totally bombed in FFXII. I wonder if it has to do with a difference between the types of people who play video games and the types who read abstinence porn romance novels, or maybe the type of character you want when you're playing a game vs reading abstinence porn a book? Or maybe it's that people like to assume their really nice and normal and secretly bitchy and superior, but not truely average?

YES, I can totally see Vaan in a Hawaiian shirt and camera. And he would be kinda obnoxious in an effort to get pictures. But unlike the terrible american tourist, he never slowed the group down (like, in a strength sense). I never felt like Vaan was too weak, or constantly had to be saved, and I think that was his redeaming trait for me.

I mean, I don't think Vaan is special or even particularly entertaining: Revernt Wings bored me to tears before Balthier showed up again. But I liked the effect playing him gave the game. I think that game would have been totally awesome if you could have played everyone's POV.

'Anything else she does is above and beyond.'
THAT IS WIN. It sums up everything that's fail about Bella (well, not everything, but a lot xD) Yeah, Vaan is not the hero (I've always figured either Ashe or Balthier is the hero, actually - but I'm leaning to Ashe).

Well, you could say he's an ex-capitan who was held in prison for two years while the princess was fighting in a rebellion.

I think it'd be really cool. ^^ Like, for Ashe, you could start around the same time as Vaan, when she's preparing for the coup. And Basch might start when he's kiddnapped in Nalbina at the beginning (with a time gap between there and the prison bit), while Balthier could start the night of the hiest, or something.

And you were. Unbelievably accurate.

I kinda liked how there was no true 'hero'. It made it seem more realistic to me, and (I thought) allowed to the characters to develop a bit more equaly (not the Sqeenix has a problem with character development). Rather, instead of viewing the characters as 'the hero', 'the hero's girl/other main character', 'the hero's best friend', you see the characters as 'Ashe the princess', 'Balthier the pirate', etc.

The guide says it's been two years, and I think they refer to it at various points.

xd That'd be an awesome mini-game. I hate mini-games, but that one sounds fun. It would make Vaan (and Penolo) seem irrelevent, though. I didn't think of that. It be fun, though, to play as Balthier and see what he's doing in Archades when you're hunting for chips (there's actually a guy somewhere who mentions him, so I really do wonder what he was up to...)

OO! I like that idea! that would have been so awesome, like, espetially in Archadia, that would have been interesting to see wheat he was doing