I don't think Vaan and Penelo should have been axed, but the game should have followed Ashe's perspective and had Vaan and Penelo be party members you recruit later. A big part of the reason why people dislike them is because even though Vaan does have a narrative point he still feels largely sidelined for most of the game after the party comes together and even if he isn't bad, the other party members feel more interesting and important.Given that the other big protagonists are a Princess, a knight in service to the kingdom, a mercenary with ties to the villains, and an outcast from a foreign land, axing Vaan and Penelo would mean there are 0 Everyman characters in the party.
Once you recognize the secret reason for Vaan's exposure, you will feel ashamed of your words & deeds.Outfits are an important part of a characters perception look at Quiet.
This response was so corny omg.That's a great question Dreamcast. Let's see, the fact that people are posting in this thread and engaging the discussion might prove that yes, people still care.
(Probably could have figured that one out on your own though)
This response was so corny omg.
OT: I've always found Vaan to be pretty inoffensive.
nail on the headAll the complaints/assumptions of him supposedly being designed by committee to appeal to teenage girls rings incredibly hollow when you consider the literal thousands upon thousands of video game characters designed to appeal to teenage boy sensibilities at the exclusion of girls and women. He wasn't, but so fucking what if he was?
Agreed. Zidane had spunk. Vaan just...is.
On-topic: Vaan looks lame, which made me predisposed to dislike him, but I think that Zidane from Final Fantasy IX looks lame, too, but Zidane won me over by being a fun character; Vaan didn't win me over, as I usually just wondered why he was even in the game.
The people that raged against Vaan at the time already formed their opinion based on his outfit alone. Had he looked like he did in Revenant Wings...
...the hate wouldn't even have been half of what it was. Not that there isn't any valid criticism against Vaan but the loudest detractors poisoned the well before the first person could take a sip from it.
Yeah, I think it's down to him being a pretty boy not wearing a shirt.
Yup, when the game released I remember many people using "gay" as a slur to talk about him.I'm sure some people don't like him for being a thin character, or not actually being the protagonist in the game itself.
A lot of the hate though, I think, is because people used to be much more comfortable mocking characters that weren't masculine enough. Probably because it made them uncomfortable, and there was just a lot more toxic masculinity throughout gaming discussion in the aughts. They had him with the exact same design but a white shirt under the vest in the DS sequel, and everyone was like "they fixed it!" so I don't think it was really ever about the costuming as much it was about seeing this character posing like this
and having a visceral reaction to hate it for... some reason. 🤔
The thing I disliked about Vaan was his weird insect carapace chest in the original ps2 game. Otherwise his design is just like medieval fantasy Aladdin, which is what he is.