This Is a Bangaa Appreciation Post

[rynling]

Every now and then, someone asks me what I think of XII’s portrayal of the viera.
http://livvyplaysfinalfantasy.tumblr.com/post/55999684383/every-now-and-then-someone-asks-me-what-i-think

We also see that while XII’s viera NPCs all look pretty much the same, they are all very much unique in their thoughts and behaviors. Some are contemplative, some are brash. Some are hunters, some forsake battle completely. No two viera NPCs are the same, something that cannot be said of XII’s bangaa, seeq, or nu mou. In terms of personality, the viera receive better representation than most of Ivalice’s other races.

I personally take issue with the notion that Fran, Jote, and Mjrn can’t be “strong female characters” because their designs contain fanservice. Their plot arc is one of the greatest stories of love and sacrifice in the game, and they make up one of the best portrayals of a sisterly relationship in the Final Fantasy series.

I understand the need to acknowledge problematic elements in fictional media, but there’s a huge difference between acknowledging problematic elements in female characters and telling other people what they are and are not allowed to like.
 

These are good points all around, but as an ardent bangaa appreciator *sweats nervously* I'd like to argue that there's actually a lot of diversity in the bangaa characters as well. Although I assume most people don't think they're hot don't notice, there's a wide range of visual designs used for bangaa NPCs; although, unlike humes, we never see any bangaa children or older bangaa (except Migelo, of course). Like the humes, the bangaa NPC have a range of personalities and occupations. Ba'Gamnan and his crew are mercenaries, and the Hunt Club on the Phon Coast is run by four bangaa, but otherwise the bangaa are merchants and traders and architects and day laborers and clerks, just as humes are. A bangaa in Nalbina tells Vaan that the Archadian army only accepts hume recruits, and there are no bangaa on the streets or in the shops of Archades, but there's a one-to-one ratio of bangaa to hume NPCs in Rabanastre, Bhujerba, and various other areas, and nothing except their appearance indicates that they're bangaa. Bangaa work together with and hang out with humes and seeq and moogles in groups and in pairs, and this is a part of the visual and social landscape of the game that is never addressed or commented on by anyone.

One of my favorite bangaa characters (besides Migelo) is Barrong, who posts the bill for the "Creature Collector" hunt. He's hanging out in an alley next to the entrance to Aerodrome in Nalbina and muttering to himself, and the player is meant to think that he's a creeper until he explains what he's doing. He's working on an illustrated bestiary, he says, but he wants the book he's creating to be different and special, so he's hiring hunters to track down creatures he's heard rumors about. He's afraid that people will make fun of him, though, so he wants to keep his pet project a secret. When Vaan returns to report that the hunt was successful, Barrong gets really excited and asks all sorts of questions - which none of the other bill petitioners ever do, oddly. At the end of the conversation, Jovy (a seeq who was friends with Vaan's older brother Reks) comes by and wishes Barrong luck, telling him that his bestiary will be wonderful when it's done. Since completing the bestiary in the Clan Primer is always my main goal in FFXII, and since I love bestiaries in general, I am right there with Barrong, and I appreciate that he's willing to be proactive and collaborate with people to achieve his artistic dreams even despite being really shy.

I also appreciate Rimzat, the Arcadian grad student who was sent to Rabanastre to to study the sandstorms of the Dalmascan Westersands. Apparently he can't get anyone to help him not because he's a bangaa, but rather because he has an Arcadian accent. Ultimately he has to go back home when his funding runs out, and I'm like, I know that feel friend.

I also appreciate how there is a convention among Japanese artists to draw bangaa with two dicks. FFXII dōjinshi were the first place I encountered that trope, and I have been a fan ever since.

Comments

[auronlu]

I forgotten some of these NPCs and I obviously have to replay the game. I love the FFRK games that have recurring NPCs with their own mini arcs, backstories, or lives going on in the background that have nothing to do with the main characters. It makes the "save the world" trope a lot more meaningful to me, because we've actually gotten to know the world and its people.

I'm glad that the Bangaa have an advocate. I hadn't realize they were quite that many of them. They really are as varied as the humes.

Are there ever any signs that some of them have reached the upper echelons of the societies in which they live? Booth Bhujerba and Dalmasca have a few of whatever the Gran Kiltias is as advisors to their leaders, but it looks to me like Bangaa, like Seeq and Moogles, may be limited to middle/merchant class or lower class with humes occupying positions of power.

It is interesting that several FF games present worlds with multiple species of sentient races -- which I guess goes right back to its "D&D solitaire" roots -- but for the most part, they are just integrated into society, without addressing "race relations". Some of them get their own enclaves/settlements, and the game may touch on their culture, but there are often others (like the little beaky guys and musicians in FFX) that are just part of town populations, and we don't know anything about their culture, assuming they even have any culture that is separate from the society where they live. (As you astutely noted, that one Bangaa is treated differently because he is Archadian, not because he is Bangaa.)

[raisedbymoogles]

...you know, I was kind of waiting for the Switch rerelease of Zodiac Age to dive back into XII, but reading this I'm so tempted to go dig up my old PS2 version and have a whack at it. XD

[rynling]

Late response, but I wanted to say - I just dug up my old PS2 copy of FFXII to access a specific save file, and the remastered HD version is so much better. It's my admittedly subjective opinion that an HD remaster didn't really do anything to improve FFX, but FFXII shines like a jewel in HD. I've completely in love with the game, and I think I'm going to buy the Switch version as well. If nothing else, it's going to be interesting to play FFXII on a handheld console.

[raisedbymoogles]

I'll definitely hold out for the Switch version, then. :D