Vayne Solidor Character Analysis Final Fantasy XII
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- Опубліковано 22 лют 2019
- Let’s discuss Vayne.
This is an excerpt from my full Final Fantasy XII review available here: • Final Fantasy XII Revi...
Subscribe and keep up to date with my latest game discourses. This excerpt from my Game Discourses piece, looks more thoroughly at the character of Vayne.
© Square Enix - All game footage has been used in accordance with its terms of licence. The content in this video has been compiled in accordance with fair use/fair dealing criteria.
#finalfantasy12 #finalfantasy #gamediscourses - Ігри
Yeah, that's kinda the reason why Vayne is my favorite FF villain. He feels like an actual person with an inner life and who you could meet and have a nice conversation with, but also someone who's very manipulative and totally ruthless and amoral in the pursuit of power. He's believable, in a way pretty much every other FF villain isn't.
I believe it boils down to one thing: He is sane
Being sane is not something you would use to describe most Final Fantasy villains.
Kefka is a nutjob, Sephiroth lost his mind over all the experiments and Hojo's manipulation, Ultimecia is part-crazy, part-cryptic. etc etc. There's mostly two types of villains: the crazies (Kefka) and the symbols (Yu Yevon).
Vayne, however, is sane. He's 100% sane. He keeps his sanity throughout the course of the story and everything he does is something that he does in full control of his mind and body. His scheming is cruel, but he does not do it without a purpose.
It's not just power against power, Vayne is not the thing that separates peace and the apocalypse. His plan has nothing to do with world destruction. It's about a battle of ideology.
Vayne's only skill that he excels at is not his strength, because he isn't strong. Someone could go and kill him if they had the chance. Or that he is unpredictable because of his mental instability, since he is sane. His skill is that he is an extremely great politician. And being a great politician is the highest form of power you could achieve in Ivalice.
Most of all, Vayne did it all for a conviction that actually has a lot of merits. He wanted to create his own legacy for himself and all of mankind. For a man like him who was born into a family of doers who knows how to wield power and make history theirs to realize that this history has been preordained by a divine race is the biggest betrayal of all. His whole identity is put into question, and he has come to hate where he comes from and what he was fated to do.
Vayne's only way to create his own legacy is to destroy the legacy he comes from. Man-made power, man-made legacy, man-made history. Instead of being lambs guided by would-be gods, they would become the shepherds of their own destiny. That is what Vayne wants. This freedom is worth any sacrifice, because he believes in the ability of mankind to guide themselves into a brighter future.
Vayne was written as his own character with his own story. He wasn't made to only exist through the eyes of the party. He was made to stand on his own. He goes through his own journey alongside the party. He does it separately, but concurrently. Which is why you see many cutscenes about Vayne that doesn't concern the party at all. He evolves progressively as he watches his plan that he thought up years ago going along or fail. He adjusts, goes through failures, evolves as you go along. But Vayne is not just the antagonist, he is the protagonist of his own story. Even more fitting for someone whose true purpose is to become the only actor of his life. Which means the conflict between him and the party is not about how they have to save the world, but how different they are at an ideological level. One sought freedom from the overseers of mankind, the others sought freedom from the oppression and misery they suffered by the hands of another man. In the end they both won. And they were both right.
Yeah you nailed those observations. He does feel like he has his own history, agenda and humanity rather than being composed as an obstacle for the party to overcome. And as you point out, most of his dialogues aren't to discuss the party, or even to build him as an antagonist with an 'evil plan' as such, but rather his cutscenes build his character and communicate his worldview, which I think was a brilliant and quite unique direction to take the central antagonist. Thanks for your thoughts.
Thank you! Finally someone else that sees exactly what I did! Vayne is far more complex than the vast majority of FF characters in general let alone antagonists!
Very well said, sir. I find Vayne to be the most thought provoking villain of the series but he's over shadowed buu Sephiroth and Kefka simply due to nostalgia. He and Ardyn are perhaps the best villains of the franchise since you can either sympathize or agree with them.
Yes, absolutely agree about Ardyn and Vayne. It's more thought provoking to have an antagonist you can empathise with or understand from a certain perspective, rather than an arbitrary evil.. although arbitrary evil is great too when it's done well, Kefka is a good example.
I could understand and even sympathise with ardyn as his story reveals that at heart he never was a bad guy by his own volition.
Vayne on the other hand ? There's no room for sympathy whatsoever.
Dude was a piece of shit who only cared about the hegemony of his tyrannical reign regardless of the way to attain it.
Even if it meant slaughtering his own kin.
I liked Caius from 13-2
Like you I saw Vayne as a bit of both, but I always got the impression he always intended to die passing rule to Larsa.
He understood that his blood stained hands would never allow there to be peace so he passed his rule to his innocent brothers care. This would allow for less resentment between Arcadia and Rabenasca.
It has been a while since I played the game,but he always spoke in an antagonistic way to the party, but when he was alone with Vanet at the end vanet entended to die with vayne.
Weather he lived or died his plan would have been achieved.
sadly if u Read the manga version of him, He's ain't Lelouch
Most of the FF games are about the main charters in a power struggle vs a god of the world or someone becoming a god, what I love about FFXII is that it changes that theme into more of a political power struggle instead of a religious struggle, I just find it unique in the way they handled the story in this game
Yeah exactly, it was a refreshing and human approach, I really enjoyed it too :)
Vayne never tried to kill his brother. even his last order to Gabranth was "Gabranth, you will defend my brother."
I look forward to you making a character analysis video of Larsa...and the other guest characters as well!
A note about Vayne killing his father: It's heavily implied in their last scene together, that his father understands what Vayne has to do in order to seize control from a bickering senat. Also, he was always depicted as sick. He accepts this with the words "And so house Solidor lives on", trusting that it is Vayne who will get his hands dirty, so Larsa does not have to later down the line. That same line is muttered by Vayne after Gabranth kills Drace, while he gently puts his fathers hand into a more dignified position.
Thank you Redcoat, I appreciate the effort and research you put into your videos!
I wish you would get more viewers and subscribers. :(
Thank you :)
Love your videos. Keep it up. Forever please.
:D
I've always had this heacanon that Vayne was just clearing the way for Larsa to rule without having any sort of major obstacles that would limit or harm him. His actions always gave me the impression that the game was setting that up a la Lelouch from Code Geass.
I can see that argument for sure
"And so House Solidor lives on..."
this is excellent Vayne is my favorit villain and this video explains exactly way
Thanks. And yeah Vayne is a great villain :)
This is great. If you look on my profile you will see Vayne as well. He is very cool.
Absolutely fantastic analysis of perhaps one of my favorite villains of any video gave I've played. FF12 is the only one of the series that I've played, and even though I've played many other video games, seen many movies, and read even more books, it was Vayne who came to my mind at first when I decided to try my hand and DMing for D&D and wanted to create a BBEG. There's an element of elegance about him as he weaves death, politics, and desire together.
Thanks for the analysis comparing him to previous Roman emperors. You've earned both a like and sub, friend. I look forward to watching your other videos!
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. Agree about the appeal of Vayne and it's cool it's influenced your DM roles. That ruthless political intelligence that leaves you questioning whether the characters bad or acting for some greater good really interests me too.
I thought Venat was pretty great.
I think Vayne is just seeking power and uses the disarming chivalry of his family to get it. I see the pursuit of the dynasty king as not his main motive and something that fell in his lap from Dr Cid. It dovetailed somewhat with his desires so he just runs with it.
Vayne is one of my favorite villains because of how subtly he uses his power or rather his influence because he never actually commits any evil deeds himself but rather manipulates his circumstances where the result he wants is the only option available.
Agree, he could come away from most situations with his hands clean but has orchestrated everything. It's rare to get such a politically-centric villain in FF which I think is why I like him so much too
Uggh I am torn. For some reason I just can’t get myself into 12’s story, however I will admit that Vayne has to be one of my favorite villains in game history. It’s been forever since I have played 12, I am sorely torn about buying the game once again and trying it once more. I was either in my late twenties or early thirties I played maybe I would enjoy the story around more enjoyable this time.
Vayne is probably the most compelling villain in FF history who simply does not get the recognition because he isn't as "flashy" and tropey like the other villains. Unfortunate really as Vayne tells us you don't need a tragic backstory or excessive character design to make a great villain
He is top 5 villains for me, but ff12 is my favourite so there is that bias
O shit anime palpatine