Thancred is a Bard? *6.4 minor spoiler I guess?*

[ZephyrMenodora]

I just finished the 2nd quest for patch 6.4. The summary in the completed tab says that Thancred is a bard.

Wasn't Thancred always a Rogue? Sure he grew to be a protective Gunbreaker, but his personality is still "charming Rogue" and he has dialogue about returning to the shadows.

Just took me aback he was summarized as a bard and wondered if I missed something?

[SaitoHikari]

My assumption is that he simply calls himself one, but he's more like a common minstrel, not an archer or bow-trained practitioner of the Bard tradition that was recently revived in Gridania.

IIRC he did call himself a bard (or someone else referred to him as one) during the Thanalan introduction for characters that began the game with one of the jobs there.

[ZephyrMenodora]

My assumption is that he simply calls himself one, but he's more like a common minstrel, not an archer or bow-trained practitioner of the Bard tradition that was recently revived in Gridania.

IIRC he did call himself a bard (or someone else referred to him as one) during the Thanalan introduction for characters that began the game with one of the jobs there.

Thanks for the info - I started in Gridania so never saw this dialogue. I just recalled he was a Rogue in ARR and eventually became Gunbreaker. I never saw him really storytell or play the bard-type, even outside of in-game class so it took me for quite the surprise. Instead he's always doing infiltrations and info-gathering more attune to a rogue, which matched his class.

[WhiteArchmage]

It's the same rationale for Ishgardian Astrologians and Sharlayan Astroloyans, or sages in the regular sense and... Sharlayan Sages. So he's a bard in the traditional sense that he's a wanderer who plays songs (though none that we ever see on-screen), not a Bard that plays songs in battle aided by a bow-harp

[Elkanah]

Someone had a similar issue with him not being a bard (back in 2016)

He is actually a bard insomuch as he wanders around quoting poetry and singing songs and swooning the ladies and has been referred to as such even way back in FFXIV version 1.0... but he is not the combat ARC based BRD Job the player has access to. Gameplay-wise Thancred starts out as a GLA before gaining ROG and NIN skills.

So it's not a mistake, it's a little quirk of the storyline that you need a little willing suspension of disbelief for (the reason why they didn't just make him the actual BRD Job in the first place is because Thancred is a character who was first introduced in FFXIV 1.0 where the BRD Job did not originally exist but was planned to be eventually added in a totally different way to how it was implemented late in 1.0's life, thus making Thancred an anomaly).

Also you need to remember that the description for the BRD Job on the Lodestone actually states there are two versions of it, the tavern dwelling entertainer, and the ARCs who started singing songs in the middle of battle to inspire morale in their fellow soldiers:


From this alone, it's easy to see then that Thancred is the former, the player's Job is the later. Simple really.

[Enkidoh]

Haha And there I was just about to state that, so you saved me having to! Thanks! ^^

[ZephyrMenodora]

Funny the same issue came up but way back in 2016! Has there been moments in game where Thancred is portrayed as a bard? His sweet talking women (or attempts to) felt mostly like the "charming rogue" to me. Did he recite poetry or song in game anywhere?

Since becoming a Rogue he seemed to mostly be in charged with stealth and/or infiltration missions, but I didn't really see him storytell or sing or anything to gather info to eavesdrop as an entertainer of any sort. In all my interactions with him in game, I just never saw "bard" even in a storytelling manner of the word as opposed to in-game class.

Maybe others can share what I am missing. I think I also just watched DnD movie with Chris Pine as a bard, which seemed on point. Or bards in other RPGs like the Dragon Age series where they could be used as spies or also espianage but with a whole other characterization and politicking I didn't really see in Thancred.

[Cleretic]

Thancred is a lower-case bard, not an upper-case Bard. Which mostly means that, like every amateur musician you've ever met that looks like Thancred, he's less about the music and more about the ladies that like it. He probably plays a really good Wonderwall, by which I mean he can strum that central guitar line while eyeing all the girls in the room.

I'm literally not kidding; from what I gather, Thancred is a 'bard' mostly as a cover for traveling around and schmoozing to get intel.

[Alleluia]

Well I want him and G’raha to sing now. Add in the Myths of the Realm songs and FFXIV really is turning into a musical. lol

[Turnintino]

Thanks for the info - I started in Gridania so never saw this dialogue. I just recalled he was a Rogue in ARR and eventually became Gunbreaker. I never saw him really storytell or play the bard-type, even outside of in-game class so it took me for quite the surprise. Instead he's always doing infiltrations and info-gathering more attune to a rogue, which matched his class.

I recently replayed ARR and HW, and I can attest that he's referred to as a "bard" both by himself and other characters throughout both stories -- albeit sparingly, and rarely in mandatory dialogue. So it's easy to miss, but was still a consistent through-line for his character in that sense, even though we see very little evidence of it beyond that. But it's as Cleretic said; even in the instances I'm referring to, it's usually presented as a thinly veiled euphemism, or just generally tongue-in-cheek. Y'shtola, in particular, refers to him as such almost exclusively in a sarcastic or mocking tone lol (affectionately, of course).

In terms of gameplay, ironically, he'd been treated as a GLD up to the addition of ROG -- at which point, we only see him use the class's skill-set in cutscenes. But now, with the more recent addition of Trusts to HW content, the xpac where (at least on a surface level) he was at his most Rogue-ish, he's once again treated/classified as a tank. From a narrative perspective, I suppose he only picked up ROG techniques to aid in his espionage, but I agree that he's always felt more like a Rogue than anything else, so both his narrative identity as a bard (euphemistic or not) and his gameplay utility as a tank has always felt a little at odds with what's actually been conveyed to the player, imo.