Vaan (Laravan)

This article, Vaan (Laravan), is the creative property of GokaiWhite.

Vaan
Kana	ヴァン
Romaji	Van
Origin	Final Fantasy XII (2006)
Alias	Vaan Ratzbane
Type	Human
Age	18-20
Gender	Male
Home World	Ivalice
Other residences	Rabanastre
Family	unnamed parents (both dead) Reks (brother, dead)
Weapon	Various
Status	Alive
English Voice	Bobby Edner Ameno Kitarou (hypothetical live action) Mena Massoud (Bass and 800m's headcanon)
Japanese Voice	Kouhei Takeda (FFXII and LaraVan) Kensho Ono (other appearances)

Vaan is a street urchin-turned-Sky Pirate from Ivalice, and one of the main protagonists of Laravan's Bizarre Adventure.

Profile

Appearance

Vaan appears the same as he does in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, and by extension, Final Fantasy XII.

Personality

"I only steal from those who steal from others, and only hit those who have hit others." ~ Vaan

Vaan had went from a naive, petty street urchin trying to flee from the memory of his brother's death, to a courageous, loyal, selfless sky pirate, if not as experienced as his comrade Balthier. Having learned the Empire was merely the instrument of his suffering, not the cause, Vaan uses this experience to try and gather as much facts about his enemies and especially their motives as possible, though he can still jump into a situation too soon without much forethought.

He is very kind-spirited and generous-hearted with a strong sense of justice, and sincerely wants to help Lara Croft dismantle Trinity for the sake of peace on Earth, after what the shadowy organization did to her and her loved ones. Also, his ordeals with Princess Ashe seem to have made him more mindful on how to address people of royalty or other forms of high status, such as respectfully asking the Kodaitrons to divulge the true circumstances of their newfound disdain for Earthlings.

Vaan also has a fondness for hot women that he managed keep surprisingly well in check; he attributes the recent resurgence of this trait during his first encounters with Zana and Lara, and his sudden recognizing his own sexual attractiveness as a sign that he's hitting puberty a bit later than most young men like him. Regardless, he remains very friendly to women in general and especially committed to Lara as his newest friend, ally, and love interest to be.

Story

Before Laravan

See also:  

Vaan was born 17-18 years before the start of Final Fantasy XII, and lost both his parents at an early age before ending up in the care of an elderly Bangaa named Migelo. Despite his resentment of the Archadian Empire, which conquered Dalmasca and was responsible for his brother Reks' death, his only means of retribution against them was along the lines of petty theft, until the day he met the Sky Pirates Balthier and Fran, setting the three of them, along with Vaan's childhood friend Penelo, the disgraced former Captain Basch, and the Dalmascan Princess Ashe on an epic journey that saw the corrupt Occuria race losing control over the reins of history, the fall of Vayne Solidor, and the redemption of the Empire.

Beginning of a New Bizarre Adventure

One day, Vaan was accosted by Jaag Arnott, and brought to Zana's base in Egypt, where he met Bass Boratt and Majin800m. Vaan was unsure what to make of his cellmates, but he appealed to their desire to be free again and listened to their personal accounts of how they got thrown in prison. When they were brought outside, the trio enacts a plan to prolong the prison games enough for Bass to disable security throughout the base. Vaan was barely able to get to the final round when Bass reaches the facility's master control room and opens all the doors, which allows him and 800m to assist the prisoners in evacuating the area. Vaan managed to free Lara, but was distraught to learn that Lu Ren was killed by Zana, whom he briefly fights before Lara tells the group of the Kodaitrons, and Bass and 800m leave the base to try and expose Trinity's crimes. Then, using a rocket launcher while riding with Lara in a humvee, Vaan manages to hit Zana's private jet, slowing her and Jaag down in the desert. Lara, blaming herself for Lu's death, orders Vaan to turn back, but he convinces her to let him help her search the Pyramids of the Kodaitrons and bring Jaag and Zana to justice.

Relationships

Lara Croft

Despite knowing not much about her, Vaan is perfectly willing to help Lara out of the goodness in his heart, often risking his life for hers, and sympathizes with her losses, drawing from his and Ashe's own similar tragedies in life. He also wishes to ensure she doesn't descend to the same single-track revenge-lust he and Ashe once had against the Archadian Empire, while at the same time understanding her desire to achieve justice for all of Trinity's victims. Over time, Vaan will also come to develop a warm friendship and deep-seated love for Lara Croft, reinforcing his already genuine commitment to stay by her side to the very end, rather than run from his problems as he once did before.

Bass Boratt

Having never met a sentient alien robot before, Vaan was fascinated with Bass, despite the latter's choice of dialect and the customs of his homeworld being largely unknown to the former. He listened to every word of Bass' account of how he got imprisoned, however exaggerated some of the details were, and it is perhaps because he understands how Vaan had been in a similar situation before, Bass expressed no objections to Vaan wanting to help Lara, Lu Ren, and many others escape the Trinity compound as well.

Majin800m

In a show of having lost much of his naivety, Vaan empathizes with 800m's situation and problems with his father, despite having lost his own parents at an early age. He manages to earn 800m's loyalty and respect by making it to the final match of the prison tournament, whereas 800m couldn't even get past the first tier, and even saved 800m from one of the security guards.

Zana

After seeing him fight in the prison tournament, Zana developed quite the sexual attraction to Vaan and wants him to be her "boy toy". Vaan, however, remains strongly loyal to Lara and reject's Zana's advances at every turn, on account of her murdering Lu Ren, and he shows absolutely no personal animosity to her, not even to the point of wanting to kill her himself.

Jaag Arnott

Despite Jaag's part in Vayne Solidor's ambition, Vaan doesn't begrudge Arnott, at least not nearly as much as he hated the Empire at first. Vaan always manages to keep his cool in spite of Arnott's derogatory insults towards him, Lara, or anybody.

Gameplay

In the fan game, the player controls Vaan or Lara, and the computer controls the other, in a cooperative variant of the Mega Man series' usual gameplay, though the player may actively switch between them at any time. With a License Board system that's not as restrictive as in FFXII, Vaan may use all kinds of equipment and weapons from the start, but the player must still unlock certain panels to acquire skills like double jumping and use the best weapons and equipment.

Vaan gains these techniques from defeating the Kodaitrons, which consume MP.

Kodaitron	Technique Name	Element	MP Cost	Technique Description
Maleborg Jaakuul	Red Spiral	Blood		Non-elemental damage. May reduce an enemy or some bosses' defense.
Thunder Crackadile	Radiant Thunderfall	Lightning		Can activate certain pieces of machinery.
Toxic Skarabax	Toxic Fallout	Poison		Inflicts poison status; Charge it to make the attack inflict more status ailments.
Shalamant Reezod	Pyroclasm	Fire		Launches one or two fireballs; Charge it to use a Giga Attack.
Subzero Skorpius	White Whorl	Ice		May freeze certain enemies. Charge it to use a Giga Attack
Ironhydro Hippokampf	Azure Torrent	Water		May put out flaming areas to make them safe to touch.
Hardrock Ramulus	Earthen Erruption	Earth		Breaks certain walls, and may petrify some enemies.
Cyclonus Hyenado	Windburst	Wind		Enables higher jumps, and may confuse flying enemies.
Botanis Heranoia	Forest Dervish	Plant		May paralyze some enemies, or grant Vaan temporary Haste status.
Aggrav Baalture	Black Hole	Gravity		Magnetizes nearby enemies into a cluster to be attacked simultaneously. May also deal damage proportional to an enemy's max HP.
Teneblight Iburiz	Hamon Wipeout	Darkness/Light		Light up darkened areas. It could blind enemies, and is very effective on undead enemies.
Daltanious Metalleon	Steel Triumvirate	Metal		Summon three revolving blades which can fold into a triangle formation that blocks attacks or reflects projectiles, or stick out to damage enemies on contact.

Alternate Costumes

• Hot Stuff - default outfit, but without the vest.

  

• Stylish Glamour - original outfit based on this fan art, consisting of black jeans, a fishnet tank top, an open black vest, and a necklace.
• Savior of the Universe - the outfit of Flash Gordon in the 1980 movie.
• Hero of Hamunaptra - the outfit of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy(1999).
• Battle Tendency - the outfit of Joseph Joestar in the "Battle Tendency" storyline of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
• Fanelian Prince - the outfit of Van Fanel in The Vision of Escaflowne.
• Drake's Fortune - the outfit of Nathan Drake in the first Uncharted game.
• Prince of Persia - the outfit of Prince Dastan in the 2010 film version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
• Proto IXA - the outfit of Kamen Rider Prototype IXA in Kamen Rider Kiva, sans the helmet.

Musical Themes

Though any of his associated BGMs from FFXII and it's sequel Revenant Wings have yet to be featured in any LaraVan based projects, Vaan has these songs attributed to him:

• Never Surrender by Stan Bush
• Dare by Stan Bush
• Heart's on Fire by John Cafferty
• TOUGH BOY by TOM CAT
• This Love Never Ends by Kouhei Takeda
• HEATS by Masaaki Endoh and Hironobu Kageyama

Trivia

• This marks the first time Kouhei Takeda does his japanese voice since Final Fantasy XII.
• Not only is Vaan humorously compared to, and called Aladdin at times, but some of his abilities are taken from Aladdin's appearance as a party guest in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
• In a display of humor derived from fandom ignorance and misconceptions surrounding Vaan, the Jim Ross-esque prison games commentator calls him a mondegreening amateur space pirate and a Basch cosplayer, the former referencing his japanese voice acting, and the latter referencing when he goes around telling people in Lhusu Square that he is Captain Basch.