Never Forget Them: Kimahri and Yuna
Welcome back to another edition of Never Forget Them! I am super excited about this edition, as it involves both of my favourite characters from Final Fantasy X! Come on and join me on this pilgrimage of friendship where we explore some of the most important aspects of the Yuna and Kimahri relationship. I hope you enjoy!
Kimahri The Caretaker
To fully understand the relationship between Kimahri and Yuna, we need to dig a bit deeper than what is just shown in the game, and explore Kimahri's backstory a little more. You see, Kimahri, a runt Ronso, was having some troubles in his village. Because he was much smaller than most of the other Ronso, and he was picked on for it. When he refused to admit defeat to Biran after not being able to best the alpha Ronso, Biran broke off Kimahri's horn. This led to great shame for Kimahri, and he left Mt. Gagazet.
Outside of Bevelle, Kimahri discovered a younger, dying Auron. Auron asked Kimahri to find Yuna and to bring her to Besaid, a place where she could grow up peacefully. Despite never having met this man before who was asking him such a huge favour, Kimahri had no qualms and went to find the young Yuna and do as he was asked. Once safely in Besaid, Yuna pleaded to Kimahri to remain with her, and so he did.Yuna
"Sometimes we don't understand him either. Kimahri doesn't talk much anyway. But he has protected me since I was a child!"
As we can see from this, Kimahri, being the generous and helpful Ronso that he is, has been with Yuna since she was young. Better yet, he's been with her since a time when she was very vulnerable. Her father had just died defeating Sin and she was mostly alone in the world. Kimahri took care of her for a long time and helped her become the person we all know and love.
The Guardian-Summoner Relationship
An important part of this story is the Summoner Yuna and her Guardians. Guardians are the ones tasked with protecting the summoner as they complete their pilgrimage to defeat Sin. It would make sense that Kimahri would be among those guardians, not to mention he was actually her first one.
Although as Kimahri sadly takes a back seat for most of the story, so we don't get to see as many scenes with him. But we can see from his interactions how much Yuna means to him and how much Kimahri means to her. While we don't see them grabbing a coffee together and chillin at home with some movies, we can still tell how much she trusts him and how much they care for one another. In fact, our first meeting with Yuna shows Kimahri catching her before she falls. He may not be the best conversationalist, but he sure does his job as Guardian. He protects her when the ship is tilting over, he is willing to sacrifice his life to delay Seymour for her escape, and he willingly does anything he can to keep her from harm.
Yuna The SupporterKimahri
"In dark times she must be. She must shine bright. Now are dark times. Yuna tries hard."
We're going to dive in to Final Fantasy X-2 for this last entry. Sin has been defeated, Kimahri has become Elder, and Yuna puts on some short shorts. All is well with the world. Well not really, there is some crazy dude who looks like Tidus bent on destroying the world with an evil Machina. But you know, aside from that everything is good. Now it's time for Yuna to support Kimahri in his affairs.
Kimahri is having some issues with some of the youths (it's always those darn youths ) either running away or planning mass genocide. Darn teenagers and their genocide. Yuna, having received the aid of Kimahri on her journey, is now more than willing to help Kimahri on his. She finds the missing children and helps to calm down the raging Ronso. She's also there to offer words of encouragement for Kimahri when he begins to doubt himself, because she never once doubted him. To me, this shows that a friendship is a two-way street and how two friends need to support and believe in each other, no matter their paths in life.
Kimahri
"Kimahri trust Yuna. Kimahri not worry."
I think Yuna and Kimahri are both great and caring people and they deserve to have the relationship they do. And while I think it could have been explore more in game, it didn't take a lot of words shown between them for us to understand how much they care about each other. So what did you think of this friendship? Was it one of your favourites? Would you have liked to see more of it? Let us know in the comments!