Concerning Y'shtola and the Live Letter

[Bright-Flower]

From what I recall Thancred was 'always' a rogue but the bard/gladiator things were covers and he didn't reveal what he could really do until that fight.

[Floortank]

They moved Y'shtola into a position of relevance by changing her into a Witch. White Mage is less relevant to Shadowbringers than Black Mage.

[Leaf_Dragoon]

Not to mention Thancred was a bard (lowercase b), a Gladiator, a Rogue, and now a Gunbreaker. But he still uses skills like the Ninja teleport as a trust.

Urianger uses Aetherial Manipulation as an AST as well.

NPCs just don't conform to our class system.

Thancred was a Gladiator for in-game purposes only & was never stated to be such a thing. This is because until 2.3 knifes & daggers were associate with Gladiators. He was never seen using a gladiator stance and was just shown using their throwing knife skill from 1.0.

[Iscah]

Thancred was a Gladiator for in-game purposes only & was never stated to be such a thing. This is because until 2.3 knifes & daggers were associate with Gladiators. He was never seen using a gladiator stance and was just shown using their throwing knife skill from 1.0.

He did occasionally use gladiator stance though - in the early-game battle for the Ul'dahn storyline, and in the first part of the cutscene where he officially switches to rogue.

We just never got many opportunities to see him in battle instances during ARR.

[Anonymoose]

It's an artifact of the Old Ways.

1.0 was FFXI backwards. You had a "Physical Level" which went up regardless of what class you were using, and then a "Class Rank" which which meant you were better wielding a certain weapon and thus had more skills available with that weapon. That's why all the classes just mean "Weapon User." (Archer=Bow User / Pugilist=Fist User / etc.) Gladiator just means "blade user" and everyone who used a blade at all was a gladiator. Daggers were blades, Thancred had a dagger, Thancred was a gladiator.

You can even see him using GLA skills in Ul'dah LV1 to LV15.

[BlakeWolfe]

Closest thing to Thancred in 1.0 acting similarly to our current Rogue classe would be during the 'Futures Perfect' bout between the Archons and Gaius, complete with a Death Blossom like maneuver:

https://youtu.be/CqV84_rKfxU?t=391