Never Forget Them.

[rionaleonhart]

I picked up my neglected Final Fantasy X replay and finished it at last!

Even though I never actually played it at her house, I associate this game so strongly with visiting my grandmother when I was a teenager. I remember daydreaming about it in her garden.



I feel there's scope for fanfiction about Tidus in Zanarkand before the game, dealing with the fact that he's literally living in someone else's dream. Is his life weird in ways he's never thought to question? When Auron travels to Zanarkand, does he suddenly find himself dealing with a world that runs on dream logic? (Maybe the fayth are just dreaming a perfect non-dreamlike replica of Zanarkand, but that's less fun.)

What is Auron's goal? What does he want? How does he envision Yuna's journey ending? Has he resigned himself to taking Braska's daughter to her death, or does he think there's a chance she'll overturn the current system? (By killing Sin, or just by killing Yunalesca, preventing summoners from sacrificing themselves but dooming the world to eternal Sin?) Does he conceal things from her in the hope that her determination will be greater if she discovers 'one of your guardians will have to sacrifice themselves' on the threshold of completing her pilgrimage? Who are you, Auron?

I would love to know what's going on inside Auron as he watches Yunalesca tell Yuna she'll have to choose a guardian to kill her. Absolute agony, probably. He's been here for this speech before, and it cost him everything.

I'd forgotten Auron tries to attack the illusion of his younger self. It's the most emotion we ever see the older Auron openly display.

Yuna increasingly falling apart as she has to kill her aeons one by one is heartrending.

Also heartrending: Yuna standing on the dock and whistling for Tidus after he's gone. Poor girl.

It never really hit me before, but Tidus doesn't tell the others he's going to disappear until right before the final battle, and the first Yuna knows of Auron being dead is when she realises she's sending him. Yuna was braced to lose her aeons, but she didn't know she was about to lose those two. I can see her struggling with a lot of survivor's guilt, particularly as she always thought she would be the one to die in Sin's defeat.

I'd really like to see more interaction between Yuna and Auron. I'm so curious to know Auron's thoughts and feelings about her, both as a person and as Braska's daughter.

Looking back over this entry, I realise I have a lot of questions about Auron's thoughts and feelings in general. He's so guarded!



I always spend hours getting Auron, Yuna and Rikku's ultimate weapons and training them up to do comical amounts of damage, complaining all the time about how tedious it is, and then I go all surprised-Pikachu when I kill all the final bosses in two hits. 'Grinding is a pain' and 'there's no challenge in the final fights' have exactly the same solution, but will I ever learn? Absolutely not.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

I feel there's scope for fanfiction about Tidus in Zanarkand before the game, dealing with the fact that he's literally living in someone else's dream. Is his life weird in ways he's never thought to question?

Oh, that is fascinatingly weird!

'Grinding is a pain' and 'there's no challenge in the final fights' have exactly the same solution, but will I ever learn? Absolutely not.

Yeah, I was going to say, there are ways of solving both of those things.

[rionaleonhart]

I can't believe I played this game twenty years ago and didn't think about its potential for weird 'what's real?' fanfiction until now. (Possibly because I first played it before I experienced Silent Hill 2 and Life on Mars, which may be responsible for my taste for weird 'what's real?' stories in the first place.)

[necrophilia]

The fact that you bring up Auron's dodgy unclear motivations is so delightful to me; I'm actually working on an entry that asks whether he's a bad person or a poorly written character. We really don't get any clear answers regarding what he is doing! It's very weird.

I can see her struggling with a lot of survivor's guilt, particularly as she always thought she would be the one to die in Sin's defeat.

We see this come to fruition in FFX-2 in one of my favourite moments!

[rionaleonhart]

I'm excited to read this Auron entry! I enjoy him as a character, but I never really realised before how unclear his goals are.

I should really replay Final Fantasy X-2! It's been so long. Every so often I try to start a replay and then drop it immediately. I think I'm intimidated by all the sidequests and full completion requirements; maybe I just need to forget about those and focus on playing through the story.

[lassarina]

Firmly endorse just playing the story and the sidequests that speak to you. (Personally, I actively dislike the "true" ending which is what the completion gets you, but in the remaster you can get there with I think 90% instead of the full 100, which is good.)

[rionaleonhart]

Don't apologise! I'm always up for hearing people's Final Fantasy thoughts.

Auron had promised Jecht he would look after Tidus in Zanarkand, but he didn’t initially plan to bring Tidus to Spira; as he says, he never intended to return until he “saw it in Sin’s eyes”.

I went 'wait, I don't remember this' and checked a script, and, sure enough:

'Ten years ago... I honored Jecht's last words, and travelled to Zanarkand. I planned to stay there, watching over you. But when Sin attacked Zanarkand that day, I changed my mind. Outside the dream world, life can be harsh - even cruel. But it is life. He wanted you to have a shot at life. I saw it in Sin's eyes. That's why I brought you here, to Spira.'

This is so interesting! Why is it an easily missable piece of optional dialogue? I never realised Auron expected to stay in Zanarkand permanently; I thought he was planning all along to eventually return to Spira and bring Tidus with him. Thank you so much for bringing my attention to this; I can't believe it's escaped my notice for two decades.

he feels like he doesn’t have the right to influence the actions of the pilgrimage because by rights he shouldn’t be walking around in Spira at all.

I really like this idea, actually! It fits very well with his final line being 'This is your world now.'

Good luck completing everyone's sphere grid! I've never gone that far, but I do like to train Yuna up to the point where she can lightly bop an enemy with her staff and do forty thousand points of damage.

[(Anonymous)]

I've always thought Auron was cool as hell, but there is definitely room to answer a lot of questions about him. Also, why does he choose to confide in Tidus, but not in Yuna? Dumping it all on him where he has nobody to share it with is kind of cruel. Does he realise that? In fact possibly the most curious thing about Auron is his current appearance since he looks considerably aged from his appeared in Braska's pilgrimage. Do the dead age in Spira? He was dead between the times, he should not look that aged.

I find it interesting how playing FF games as an adult rather than as a young child can influence your views in general. I'm currently replaying FF12 and was thinking about this in regards to the "I will not play puppet to Vayne" line from Ashe. FF12 is very political, and a lot of it soared over me when I was younger as I've never taken an interest. I assume that line is supposed to reference a puppet state? When I was younger I took it as more of a "I won't be his entertainment" kind of deal since I didn't know the term. I'm sure there are lots more examples!

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

Also, why does he choose to confide in Tidus, but not in Yuna?

I've been wondering this as well! I'd be so interested to see a version of Final Fantasy X where Auron opens up to Yuna more. They have the potential to interact so interestingly, and it could make sense for Auron to be honest around both Jecht's child and Braska's child.

Auron's apparent age is definitely a mystery! Honestly, even if he'd lived, he shouldn't look as old as he does; he'd only be thirty-five. You age very badly if you're dead, apparently.

I find it interesting how playing FF games as an adult rather than as a young child can influence your views in general.

It's definitely interesting! I first played Final Fantasy VIII at the age of thirteen, and going back to play it when I was older than the characters and could fully appreciate how young they were was a very different experience.

[lassarina]

YUNA'S FACE WHEN YOU FIGHT THE AEONS. it hurts me so much. I love her and I want to cuddle her ;;

'Grinding is a pain' and 'there's no challenge in the final fights' have exactly the same solution, but will I ever learn? Absolutely not. Excuse you Riona I did not ask to be called out in the middle of the parlour with my first, middle, AND last names, thank you very much.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad she survives Sin's defeat, but it costs her a lot. Poor Yuna.

In response to your FFX-2 comment:

Personally, I actively dislike the "true" ending

High-five! I hugely prefer the ending where Tidus doesn't come back, so at least I don't have to worry about the requirements for his return, but I still get intimidated by how easy it is to miss out on things if you progress the story.

[lassarina]

Yeah, I had A Lot of feelings about the "True" ending when I played FFX-2 for moogle_university and just. Ugh. It feels like it robs Yuna of everything she's worked for over two games and all her growth for the sake of romance uwu~

[owlmoose]

Needing to work through my thoughts and feelings about Auron is one of the two main things that brought me into fandom and got me writing fic in the first place (the other was falling really hard for the Paine/Nooj ship, the first OTP I ever wrote fic about), so obviously I am very here for this conversation. :) What drove him when he was a young man, what's the truth of his relationship with Kinoc (another character by whom I am fascinated), what are his true motivations throughout the pilgrimage and his thoughts at the end. I am pretty convinced that he joined the party at least in part because he hoped that Yuna would turn on Yunalesca and Yevon and find a way to break the cycle, but he didn't want to push too hard because he thought she needed to discover the truth for herself.

Life in the dream Zanarkand is also a super interesting question, although one I haven't spent as much time on in my own writing. But there are good fics out there on the topic. I don't have any recs to hand at the moment but I'll share them when I can.

[rionaleonhart]

Needing to work through my thoughts and feelings about Auron is one of the two main things that brought me into fandom and got me writing fic in the first place

I love this! It makes sense; there's a lot to dig into there. Fanworks flourish wherever there are unanswered questions, and there are so many of them surrounding Auron. I like your interpretation!

I really need to replay Final Fantasy X-2; Paine/Nooj hadn't occurred to me, and it'd be interesting to go back and see what their dynamic was like. I remember enjoying the Crimson Squad.