History Characters / FinalfantasyXII

* {{Expy}}: Fitting with Balthier being an Expy of Han Solo, Ba'Gamnan is his Boba Fett, allying with the Empire to track him down.

* {{Superboss}}: In the ''Zodiac'' version's Trial mode, where all five of them are fought in a battle that's just as hard as ''Yiazmat'', if not more.

* MultiMeleeMaster: Noted to be a master of weapons. Not that you can tell from [[InformedAbility her stats]].
* NoSenseOfHumor: Averted. Despite being TheStoic, TheFairFolk, and a Really700YearsOld all rolled into one, she can be quite humorous, in a sly, blunt way.

* StatuesqueStunner: Although not as tall as she appears at first glance because of her ears and stilettos. In reality, she's slightly taller than Balthier, which still puts her over six feet.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: But more amiable than usual for the trope. She's just very quiet.

* WrenchWench: She is noted to be as handy with a wrench as she is with a sword, of course, comes up [[spoiler:in the ending where she and Balthier stay behind to fix Bahamut's glossair rings]].

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: When she does eventually return to visit the Viera village, it's implied they miss her, but Fran holds this opinion; She can no longer hear "the Green Word", i.e. the voice of the forest. Even though her fellows insist the forest wants her to stay, she doesn't believe it. She's made her choice and must live with it, for better or worse.

* JackOfAllStats: In the Zodiac Age versions of the game where sheds her MasterOfNone status by gaining the highest Vitality score and her large amount of innate skills let her usefulness shine with the JobSystem.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: She presents it to Ashe if you take a wrong turn into the [[BleakLevel Necrohol of Nabudis]], asking her if she would do to Archadia what happened to Nabradia.

* FlatCharacter: She had little characterization in the main game other than being Vaan's maybe LoveInterest and her OddFriendship with Larsa. This is fixed in subsequent games, where she serves as a {{Foil}} to Vaan. A lot of this is due to ExecutiveMeddling. One of the two writers of the game, Daisuke Watanabe, has said that Penelo is his favorite character mainly due to a lot of content he wrote around her that ended up on the cutting room floor in development.

* TheHeart: The sweet and loving member of the group, and the her's LoveInterest.

* LethalChef: Initially her cooking was dreadful but she improves to TeamChef over the course of ''Revenant Wings''.

* OddFriendship: With Larsa. She's a Dalmascan commoner just getting by, while he's an Archadian prince being groomed to lead an entire nation. This is actually important, as their ability to become friends shows that Dalmasca and Archades's empire and people may be able to get along. They still communicate regularly through letters and remain, close friends, even after the first game has ended.

* PluckyGirl: Defies the tradition of a long line of Franchise/FinalFantasy {{Genki Girl}}s for a more subdued but still somewhat perky characterization.

* BigBad: A top contender to the title of most central and important antagonist, though there are others.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * HeroProtagonist: In ''Revenant Wings''.

* OlderThanTheyLook: She appears to be a young woman, but she's old enough that she left home fifty years prior to the story. [[JustifiedTrope Viera's age far slower than humans]], so she's probably young by Viera standards anyway. It's unclear whether it's any indication, but she gets somewhat offended when Vaan asks for her age.

* MythologyGag: The names of the prominent members of Clan Centurio; Kjrn, Ma'kenroh, Emet and Monid where Clan Nutsy's founding clan members in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''. Unfortunately in the English version of ''Tactics Advance'' these names are randomized so the reference is mostly LostInTranslation.

* PromotedToPlayable: Montblanc in ''Tactics Advance'' and ''A2'', Hurdy in ''A2'', and Sorbet for ''Dive II Hunt: The Adventures of Sorbet''.

* WomenAreWiser: She plays this role for Vaan, being more level-headed and cautious to Vaan's sometimes reckless impulses.

* GeniusBruiser: Formerly being a respected War Hero he knew a lot of powerful people in Dalmascan Politics, and was privy to quite a lot of the inner workings of Government and Diplomacy. Once she begins to trust him again Ashe regularly asks his council on matters of Statecraft.

* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: At the climax of the game, he briefly impersonates Gabranth using Strahl's voice changer to call for a ceasefire between Archadia and the Resistance. He later impersonates him permanently when he moves to Archades to become a Judge Magister.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/feolthanos_3449.png]]

* DudeLooksLikeALady: Larsa's hair, clothes, and voice fall just enough on the feminine side of androgynous that most players (in the West, at least) assume he's a woman when he's first encountered in the game. Trope does not apply in-universe, though; all the characters know he is male straight away. Meanwhile, many players only realize when the characters suddenly start referring to Larsa as "Vayne's brother" and go, "Wait, Larsa's a ''guy?''"

* CrutchCharacter: It's worth putting off getting to Mt. Bur-Omisace and losing Larsa in the party, because he's an invaluable supporter. Besides the fact that Guest Party members are always a good thing for the fourth swordarm, Larsa's infinite supply of Potions make a lot of the optional parts of the game much easier. He's also got the Telekinesis Technick, allowing him to attack flying enemies physically, while your party members will be relying on ranged weapons and magick. In the ''Zodiac'' versions he loses his infinite healing items (Guest characters now use items from the normal inventory), but he instead picks up Cura, Bubble, and status-healing spells, so he's still effective.

* CatchPhrase: "I play the leading man, who else?"

* CatchPhrase: "The reins of history, back in the hands of man." It explains his basic motivation in ten words.

* {{Expy}}: She is to Balthier what Chewbacca is to Han Solo (although obviously a ''[[CuteMonsterGirl vastly]]'' different interpretation).

* {{Expy}}:
** A [[LadyOfWar key figure]] for LaResistance and a [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething lady of royal bloodline trying to reclaim her power in order to fight a massive empire]]. While Ashe and Vaan are not siblings like Leia and Luke, she still brings the image of the other princess-turned-Resistance leader to mind.
** A fallen princess, the last surviving scion of a deposed dynasty who is amassing a power base so she can claim her right as queen, taking over the reins from her deceased husband, is helped in her endeavor by the dangerously powerful nethicites, and is prophesied to become the messianic Dynast-King? Replace nethicites with dragons, and Dynast-King with Azor Ahai, and you get [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Daenerys Targaryen]].