Maechen
Rumors flew in Bevelle about Sin's sudden appearance. They said that the people of Zanarkand became the fayth, that they had called Sin. And that the man responsible...was none other than the summoner Yevon, ruler of Zanarkand! Yes, the lord father of Lady Yunalesca. On the eve of Zanarkand's destruction, Lady Yunalesca... had fled to safety with her husband, Zaon. Later, the two used the Final Summoning to defeat Sin. Yet the people of Bevelle still feared Yu Yevon. It was to quell his wrath that they revered him, and first spread his teachings. And so were born the temples of Yevon.
I suppose it's possible Yunalesca had planned it that way from the start! A fair trade, she defeats Sin in exchange for her lord father's honor."
Now most people see the negatives of the Yevon faith: lies, deceit, corruption.
Those are all certainly undeniable and ugly blotches on the face of the religion but it was not all bad.
FFX-2 really helps to show the positives of Spira’s fundamentalist reign.
For a millennium Yevon ran Spira and for a millennium Sin ravaged the world. People lived in fear of Sin and to help conquer that fear, and to find hope, they believed in Yevon. Yevon rewarded the people with peace of mind and general order in their everyday lives.
It wasn’t that they deliberately lied about Sin being permanently gone eventually - they sincerely believed the Final Summoning was the only method to defeat Sin. Everyone from Mika to Seymour to Yunalesca echo that the Final Summoning was the only way to defeat Sin and that it being gone would result in the destruction of everything.
Mika himself says:
Mika
"Spira has lost its only hope. Destruction is inevitable.
Yu Yevon's spiral of death will consume us all.
I have no desire to watch Spira die."
At which point he apparently jus tgives up on life and fades off to the Farplane (he’s in the Via Infinito but that whole thing was a plothole).
It’s clear to me that Yevon did not do what it did out of malicious intent but out of being wrong int their beliefs.
Now moving on, the Yevon religion was supposedly first founded by the leaders of Bevelle to spread Yevon’s teachings in hopes of quelling his wrath (Sin). These teachings kept the peace for a millennium, keeping everyone (‘cept the minority Al Bhed) united and at peace.
Another good result of this was respect and reverance for people who deserve it, something very much lacking in the post-Yevon world.
Looking at X-2, we see what happens when Yevon collapsed. Two factions break out on the edge of civil war, there are criminals and bandits running all over Spira and holy place sand people are totally desecrated.
The sheer lack of respect for the Calm Lands and Zanarkand, two locations where scores of the bravest heroes ever on this planet were killed and look what they turn it into: amusement parks and tourist traps.
Really though, I’m losing my flare and I can’t make a thought or write after it goes out so I’m finished for now.
Thoughts?