FFXII Fic: The Teeth of Serpents (Vayne, Gabranth, Larsa)

[mariagoner]

My first fanfic for the new year and as a new bride and of course it turns out to be hilariously morbid. ;) But in any case, this is for the exquisite and forever supportive lady_venn(I shall contrive a way to hear your voice yet!) and inspired by the wonderfully black-hearted-when-she-needs-to-be lindensphinx.This Vayne seems like the kind of creature she’d dream up

Comments

[mariagoner]

The things that Vayne says and does by the end of the game area little ambiguous but my take on it is that:

a) Vayne challenges Larsa to stand up to him but it was more out of exasperation than anything else. Sort of like the classic big brother "you want me to do something? Make me" sort of deal than anything else. He never really expected that Larsa would betray him by going over to the "enemy's" side. He really did want Larsa to inherit the throne of Archadia... but not when the kid was only 12! I imagine Vayne thought he would rule for a good twenty or so years before he stepped aside.

b) Vayne doesn't expect that Ashe and Company would be able to kick his ridiculously-easy-at-the-end ass either. By the time they managed to defeat him (largely through Larsa's "betrayal" with nethicite, of course), Vayne was limping off in shock and defeat more than anything else.

I've always pictured Vayne as the sort of villain that was done to death by his own cleverness and whose defeat was largely due to his own vanity (get it?) He truly thought he was all but undefeatable... but we all saw how that ended up, yes? ;)