Jiro's Journey

[Jiro]

Aeons are an interesting area. FFX introduces us to summons as playable battle party members, which also raises some implications about their nature. I expect to cover Aeons in far more detail later once we delve into their nature a bit more, but here are some thoughts so far.

Excluding the other party members in battle is obviously based on the fact that keeping them in would be unbalanced and completely destroy Yuna's functionality as a battle member. The narrative implication of this, though, is that Aeons are dangerous and Yuna needs concentration to focus attacks on the right enemies. This is not supported by the idea that she would summon Valefor in Besaid village though, so I'm not sure what to think.

That'll have to do for the moment as I got somewhere to be, but food for thought. If anybody has any other thoughts or suggestions, please drop them here. I'm curious to hear your ideas.

[Psychotic]

A few posts back (but then you are multi-post spamming so it's okay if I respond to it!) on Wakka, I totally agree. The game goes to great lengths to push you against Yevon and sympathise with the Al Bhed and unfortunately Wakka holds the opposite views. However given the absolute tragedies that he has endured - he's lost everyone he loves! - is it any wonder that he feels this way? These are some deeply entrenched views and it takes a lot for him to overcome them and challenge them towards the end of the game.

[Karifean]

The morning of the journey.

Kimahri had felt slight animosity towards the skinny, feeble-looking boy, who had broken the precepts and gotten close to Yuna. If a weakling stayed by her side, it would only get in the way of Yuna's pilgrimage. Kimahri has decided that if this young man, said to be affected by Sin's toxin, doesn't even possess fangs for fighting, then Kimahri will not let him hang around Yuna any longer.

Kimahri will come to realise before long that his prejudice is somewhat similar to the view of his tribe, which had looked down on his own small stature.

I forgot where exactly it's from, and it's freely translated by someone on GameFAQs, but there you go. Pretty sure it's official material though.

I agree with pretty much everything in your evaluation of Wakka's character. Btw, to my knowledge there were no FFX-2 spoilers in there.

[Jiro]

The morning of the journey.

Kimahri had felt slight animosity towards the skinny, feeble-looking boy, who had broken the precepts and gotten close to Yuna. If a weakling stayed by her side, it would only get in the way of Yuna's pilgrimage. Kimahri has decided that if this young man, said to be affected by Sin's toxin, doesn't even possess fangs for fighting, then Kimahri will not let him hang around Yuna any longer.

Kimahri will come to realise before long that his prejudice is somewhat similar to the view of his tribe, which had looked down on his own small stature.

I forgot where exactly it's from, and it's freely translated by someone on GameFAQs, but there you go. Pretty sure it's official material though.

I agree with pretty much everything in your evaluation of Wakka's character. Btw, to my knowledge there were no FFX-2 spoilers in there.

I couldn't quite remember what is revealed in X-2 and what is mentioned early in FFX and what comes about later. But thank you for the info on Kimahri! Interesting characterisation. A lot of Kimahri's exposition is implicit which makes him kind of underrated as a character.

A few posts back (but then you are multi-post spamming so it's okay if I respond to it!) on Wakka, I totally agree. The game goes to great lengths to push you against Yevon and sympathise with the Al Bhed and unfortunately Wakka holds the opposite views. However given the absolute tragedies that he has endured - he's lost everyone he loves! - is it any wonder that he feels this way? These are some deeply entrenched views and it takes a lot for him to overcome them and challenge them towards the end of the game.

It's curious that Yevon, or at least the upper echelons of Yevon, are instantly vilified. Obviously there are spoilers if I discuss exactly why, but even early on there is a strong push against Yevon and Wakka seems a little backwards. I don't know if it's because Tidus is our viewpoint character or if Square Enix were lazy in creating layers and complexity and some, y'know, suspense when it comes to Yevon. I really love Wakka as a character though; he's one of those severely underrated characters like Barret (and others but I can't think of them right now ).

(also sorry for the multiposts but it's easier for me if I try to keep them shorter and focus on smaller ideas or sections)

[Psychotic]

I think he and Barret (Maybe Steiner too? Edgar perhaps?) suffer from Early Party Syndrome whereby they form the crux of the initial party and we meet them not long after we meet our hero, our heroine, and so on, and obviously getting to know them and what their deal is inevitably takes priority over those there to make up the numbers early on.

[Jinx]

FFX-2/ChappuI always giggled that later in the game (not sure what chapter) you find a sphere that Chappu made the day he left to fight with the Crusaders. He says to Wakka, "I dunno if you remember me saying I found a sphere of mom and dad...but I was totally lying, bro!" What an odd memory to make a video about so many years later. xD What a neat little bowed package as well!

[Pumpkin]

I think he and Barret (Maybe Steiner too? Edgar perhaps?) suffer from Early Party Syndrome whereby they form the crux of the initial party and we meet them not long after we meet our hero, our heroine, and so on, and obviously getting to know them and what their deal is inevitably takes priority over those there to make up the numbers early on.

This is sometimes the case, but I think a lot of those characters get pretty solid development. Barret isn't the center of the story for very long, though, which is true, but I did enjoy his story when he had it. You also get early joiners like Vivi who consistently have story throughout, and so does Steiner in a smaller way. Steiner has one of my favorite developments in the series.

You don't always get to know them as quickly because they're overshadowed by the 2 main characters. but sometimes that's good for spreading out the story I think

[Jinx]

I actually think that FFX does a really good job of keeping all of the characters relevant throughout the entire game. Probably the two least relevant characters are Kimahri and Lulu, and even they each have their own dungeon/area and have pretty solid ties to Yuna/the world/the story.

[Sephex]

And caught up again. As Psychotic pointed out, I thought the write up on what drives Wakka was very well said. It was one of those aspects of the game that I was aware of, but it was more of a background thought for me until I read what Jiro wrote. I actually felt great pity and sadness thinking about Wakka's situation, and I am glad it was pointed out to me. I feel that it can also serve as a reminder to not judge peoples reactions to situations so harshly, as they might have a solid reason behind them, even if it is flawed.