Yuna fully intended to finish her pilgrimage even if she got married.
Yuna fully intended to finish her pilgrimage even if she got married.
Originally Posted by Fynn
As I said when you were drafting this I still don't remember Yuna being kidnapped - from what I remember she went along with the Guado plot to take her to Bevelle and play along with the marriage in an attempt to send the unsent Seymour.
Maybe I'm wrong and I need to replay it as, well, it has been 10 years now.
-She's kidnapped by the Al Bhed in Luca
-She's kidnapped by the Al Bhed in the Macalania/Bevelle transition
-She's kidnapped by the Guado for the wedding sequence (I think they do say that she went with them so they'd stop attacking the Al Bhed, but she was still kidnapped, come on).
Yeah I should've been more clear that I meant in relation to the wedding.
Yuna never intended on abandoning her journey to get married to Seymour. She considered marrying him to make the populace happy and then trotting off and completing her journey anyway.
I never understood why people disliked Yuna. I always found her devotion to self-sacrifice a good plot line to go in contrast to Tidus's self-serving plot. I always found that Tidus gets offed at the end and Yuna lives on to be a great irony.
Furthermore as for the kidnapping occurrences, there's an entire plotline in the game based around the Albhed nabbing the Summoner's (male or female) to stop them from sacrificing themselves on their pilgrimage. I'd understand punishing the writer's for including Yuna getting kidnapped a lot of it had nothing to do with a core part of the plot, except it does.
It's actually quite frequent that a strong leading female must sacrifice something after her success. Whilst Yuna isn't sacrificing her life, she does have to give up Tidus as part of defeating Sin. It's almost a punishment to her in some ways for defying the 'traditional' method that was set up by Yu Yevon or whatshisfacefloatyballthingamaboo.Yuna never intended on abandoning her journey to get married to Seymour. She considered marrying him to make the populace happy and then trotting off and completing her journey anyway.
I never understood why people disliked Yuna. I always found her devotion to self-sacrifice a good plot line to go in contrast to Tidus's self-serving plot. I always found that Tidus gets offed at the end and Yuna lives on to be a great irony.
Other notable examples:
Buffy (SPOILER)when she has to kill Angel in order to save the world in Becoming Part II.
Sarah Walker (SPOILER)when she downloads the intersect, wiping her memories to save Chuck.
Noted, I've just written my dissertation on them so they stick out a LOT, but it's a recurring idea.
Still taking issue with your opinion of Beatrix and Steiner, man. They were magnificently handled, most of the time.otentiallyrosetinted:
Steiner is the only character one can compare to Beatrix, in basically every way. In fact, they are pretty much just the opposite gender version of each other. They're both career soldiers, who have dedicated their life and everything they are to serving the Queen and country. They have sacrificed everything else to do so. Then, throughout the course of the game, certain things happen that make them question their priorities, and they go about exploring this potential. Finally, it culminates in an adorable scene in which they decide that it was never worth sacrificing happiness for the sake of duty. They have the same character foundation, they develop in the same way, and they come to the same conclusion.
You remain an awful, awful man.
Yeah, I honestly feel like some of the criticisms are a little weird. So, if a strong, female character falls in love with a male character during a game/book/movie/etc, then it becomes sexist?
Really, I feel by the criteria you're laying out, Lightning is possible the only anti-sexist character in this game.
So a guy with his midriff showing is equivalent to a woman's victory pose being to bend over in her low-cut robes and shaking her cleavage at the camera? I just don't see how you even equate the two. Lulu is on a whole different level of fan service.
Also I didn't go into detail about FFX-2 because I haven't played the game (and, outside this article, have generally refused to acknowledge its existence).
I agree with how Boobies laid it out. From my recollection, she was pretty clearly captured. She ended up choosing not to resist (at some point probably because she planned to try to send Seymour), but the Guado definitely captured her, and the party was definitely trying to rescue her.
I never said she intended to quit, but that was the choice presented to her. After some deliberation, she ended up deciding that she would go on with her pilgrimage regardless, but that was unlikely the choice Seymour intended or how many of the other characters understood the original choice (especially given how dying during the pilgrimage is the desired goal).
It's true that the Al Bhed capturing Yuna is a developed plot point (and, in their mind, not so much "kidnapping" as "saving"). I'm not sure what relevance that has, though. I'm not criticizing Yuna needed saving as kidnappings-for-the-sake-of-kidnappings. My point is that, when you look over FFIV through X as a whole, basically all of the playable characters who ever need saving after being captured are female. It's a trend that's difficult to ignore.I never understood why people disliked Yuna. I always found her devotion to self-sacrifice a good plot line to go in contrast to Tidus's self-serving plot. I always found that Tidus gets offed at the end and Yuna lives on to be a great irony.
Furthermore as for the kidnapping occurrences, there's an entire plotline in the game based around the Albhed nabbing the Summoner's (male or female) to stop them from sacrificing themselves on their pilgrimage. I'd understand punishing the writer's for including Yuna getting kidnapped a lot of it had nothing to do with a core part of the plot, except it does.
And I dislike Yuna as a character because, like Rinoa in FFVIII, she is a flat foil for Tidus to develop around. She starts off as an almost unattainable ideal: perfect, beautiful, and unreachable for Tidus, no matter his desire. The story isn't based on how she grows and changes and she doesn't do much of either; instead, you see how Tidus grows through his relationship with her. Despite how strong Yuna's backstory is and the potential for her character, her significance in the game revolves largely around Tidus.
Of course not. The simple act of having a relationship is not sexist at all. As has been the running theme of this series, context matters. The cold-hearted woman who just needs her Prince Charming to melt her heart is a trope that is difficult to ignore given how flagrantly FF writers had shoved female characters into love interest roles. I'm not trying to point to every little thing and say "that's sexist!" by itself. I'm trying to get you to look at everything as a whole, look at every little piece in the context of everything else surrounding it, and you can make your own judgments whether, in that context, that portrayal of a female character was innocently done or based on sexist stereotypes. In that sense, I think the Beatrix-Steiner relationship is worth considering. In another game in another context, Beatrix wouldn't even be worth mentioning.
Yuna changes and grows a LOT during the game.
I want to say something about FFX-2, and about dresspheres. I think this needs to be said in here. The FFX-2 Dressphere version is based on the Japanese theme of "Magical Girls", where female characters change clothes to stop evil (like Sailor Moon). I'm not going to say it's good or bad, because it is, indeed, a cultural issue and a cultural difference between Western and Eastern. Now, I know it was kind of... well, I don't think we need to talk about how it came off as, though I will introduce the idea that it was a cultural issue.
As far as FFIX goes, Beatrix was a strong female character. You must admit that the scene where Eiko asks Dr. Tot to write the letter to Zidane and it ends up with Beatrix and Steiner and aodhaidhawuidhauidhauidhfeosgsorg, that was the most comedic, fantastic scene in FF9.
Lulu had sex appeal, but she was classy. And what's wrong with a female with sex appeal? I mean Jecht was shirtless and I drooled all over that, and Auron at Luca where there's the FMV, there was male sex appeal there too.
I'm not going to say you're wrong. You did bring up some good points, for sure; however, at the same time, I think you may be hitting some things too hard. I don't think it is sexist to show females with sex appeal unless it's degrading, especially in games where males are shown with sex appeal as well.
TidusCGScreen.jpg <-- Shows a lot of skin and a lot of chest.
Lulu is classy.
Lulu and Yuna both pull curative items out of their boob cracks. xD
Not just the midriff -- that was a poor example. I can think of a more scantily clad male character like Kuja for example as someone already pointed out. Pretty much every main character, male or female in this series is exploited sexually. They know they have to appeal to straight fangirls and gay fanboys as well. While I agree with your argument about Lulu, I always saw her large breasts as more of a symbol of her maternal role in the group rather than it just being about ta ta's.
Also wanted to add this to the discussion: Garnet needed Zidane to help her, but Zidane needed Garnet as well. Where Eiko, Vivi, Freya, Amaranth, Steiner and Quina all failed, it was Garnet who showed Zidane that he was not alone, that he could defy his purpose and fate. I'm not saying gender roles weren't a part of it -- they were, for sure (it was made in 2000, what can you expect?), but yeah, just wanted to add that.
Still of the opinion that you're wrong about Beatrix, and I hope you die.
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