#like. ffviii was my first and so remains near and dear to my heart

[andromeda3116]

I'm yelling and shouting over your post about FFXII. Ashe's single mindedness, and how her revenge was meant to be used by powers beyond her, has always stuck with me. And she realized it and relented!

Not gonna get into Vaan at this time of night on a Sunday, but I did like their scenes together, where she's allowed to be a bit righteous, very angry, and this little kid looks at her like, "okay, but what if no?".

like, i adore how it's handled -- your rage is entirely justified, but it makes you easy to manipulate. because it does! the occuria absolutely play to her righteous fury and try to mold her into their puppet! but they handle it without ever suggesting that ashe is wrong to be angry. it's just that she has to let it go for the sake of her people and her future.

it's very similar to scar's arc in fma:b -- you cannot forgive, but you must learn to abide. to move on.

i liked how they played vaan with and against ashe because vaan realizes much earlier that his anger has left him adrift, and if he wants to have a future, he has to let it go and move on. but the moment at the pharos when gabranth says that the dead demand justice, and he and ashe look at each other and they both breathe out, as they both realize what vaan says a few moments later: what would it change? no amount of vengeance will bring the dead back to life. there is no amount of violence they could bring to the empire that would un-kill their loved ones. it would just be more blood on an already blood-soaked battlefield.

that scene at the pharos is one of my favorite video game cutscenes of all time, when ashe cuts through "rasler's" ghost, i am no false saint for you to use!, how she talks about the dalmasca she wanted back, and sighs as she drops the sword, letting it settle on her shoulders. it's both a triumph and a surrender, as she realizes that she has to let this chance for ultimate power go, that the price tag -- of being the puppet of the occuria, to her people's detriment -- would be too high.

ffxii has some flaws -- i feel like the story lost its focus around the draklor laboratory and never quite regained it, i feel like penelo and fran were under-utilized, and i have strong feelings about how bahamut should have been an esper rather than an airship -- but it has such a great, meaty plot and fantastic characters, amazing gameplay and sidequests, and frankly i could forgive every flaw of the story for the sake of ashe's character arc alone. i cannot stress enough how phenomenally rare it is to have a female character allowed to have such burning fury within her, without judgment or condescension. she is such an amazing character, i adore her.