Part 7: Smile, Smile, Smile

Last time we made our way to Luca, Blitzball capital of Spira, where Waffles made a fool of himself in front of several cameras, met a blue-haired creeper, misplaced Yuna, found Yuna, and managed not to play any blitzball.

But wait! Who is this mystery guy coming up the stairs!!

Clearly he’s not here for the blitzball. I wonder if he knows what’s about to happen? Or maybe he just came here looking for Waffles, after having seen him on the spherecam in the café, facepalmed, and decided to come collect him before he can cause any more damage.

Rude.

It’s pretty hard to win against the Goers in this match, even with the Jecht Shot, because at this point their starts are so much higher than yours. (They fall behind at higher levels, and once you can assemble your own team everyone else is pretty much left behind in the dust. Er, bubbles.)

The best strategy is to try to keep them from scoring in the first round until Tidus levels up at halftime and can finally USE the Jecht Shot. (Yes, the Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes is only level 2. I guess Wakka was right when he said that a team living in the luxury of Old Zanarkand would be pretty soft!) Then you have to try to get the ball to Tidus at all cost and score as many goals as you can in the next three minutes before you lose him.

Of course, at this low level, you are still pretty much at the mercy of a bunch of random numbers and there is more luck than skill involved.

But I got lucky. :)

The Enter-Your-Name feature gets really amusing during blitzball. On the playthrough where I finally got Wakka’s Celestial Weapon and really good at blitzball, I had named him “This Guy,” which was constantly hilarious. “So-and-So passes to This Guy!” “This Guy shoots!” “This Guy fumbles the ball!”

All twelve of them.

" . . . it really was the Aurochs' and Wakka's show, after all."

Even though he just pulled the score even, he realizes this isn’t his game, or his world. He’s disappointed that the crowds aren’t cheering for him, but he graciously trades places with Wakka to let him and his team have their moment.

And they did!

Then the pain of Wakka’s broken ribs catches up with him, because apparently Yuna was sitting on her hands the entire time instead of doing any white magic. (Or maybe there’s some kind of anti-magic forcefield around the locker rooms to prevent cheating, I dunno.)

For some reason nobody rushes out with first aid, but Waffles goes out alone to check on him. (Where are the referees? The other Aurochs? The commentators? Why is nobody noticing this?)

And then somebody somehow unseen manages to let a bunch of giant fangy fish into the sphere pool.  (Spoilers: it was Seymour.) I assume it has something to do with pyreflies. While escaping Macalania Temple later on we see even normal Guado guards able to conjure fiends out of thin air, so a Guado summoner probably has an even better grasp of this. But I am still not sure how he managed to let a bunch of monsters loose in the stadium without anyone noticing.

Where were you guys??

What’s happening is that monsters are erupting from everywhere, but fortunately for everyone involved (except, of course, the monsters) this happens:


(You know he means business when he bothers to take his arm out of his sleeve.) Whatever, giant monsterface. He’s seen worse than you.

This scene echoes his first appearance, where Auron strolled calmly through the chaos while everyone else was running around in a tizzy.  I really like the audible sharpness of the blade as the camera passes over it, haha.

Waffles and Wakka catch up with him, but the fiends are too many for the three of them to handle. Conveniently (a little too conveniently), Seymour arrives and takes in the situation.

Fiends on the rampage? Never fear! This looks like a job for . . .

. . . some kind of hellborn . . . 

. . . many-armed, bespiked, betusked, befanged . . .

. . . mummified fish monstrosity in a Venus flytrap.

This is a face that will surely inspire confidence in the people!

Let’s park here and talk about Anima for a moment, because her design is loaded with symbolism.

Her design evokes imprisonment much more clearly than the other aeons. Her chains are more prominent, her arms are bound to her by bandages, and, unlike the other aeons, she is fixed in place, unable to move. The chain around her neck is held in place by the clasp of a pair of cyanotic arms, suggesting an embrace that is both loving and constricting to the point of strangulation. Seymour’s mother, being the fayth of his Final Aeon, confined herself to her fate and this form out of love.

I’ve wondered if Anima as an aeon has always looked so nightmarish, or if the pain of seeing what her son has become, coupled with Seymour’s anger against the world (since the aeon is the merging of the fayth and the summoner), transformed her over time, but I think it must be the former. There are elements of Anima visible in her fayth statue (although perhaps that also changes over time, containing a living soul) and, overall, her design seems to be representative of her grief and guilt over her son. His mixed parentage doomed him to a life of fitting in nowhere, shunned by both men and Guado, and she gave her soul to become his fayth when he was still a child, despite his pleas for her to stay with him. She may have even been the one who pushed him and trained him to become a summoner at such a young age, in the hope that he could redeem himself in the eyes of the Spiran people by defeating Sin.

In Catholic mythology, the Anima Sola, or “Lonely Soul,” is an image of a soul in purgatory, represented by a penitent woman, chained and surrounded by flames. (The word for “soul” is a feminine noun in Latin; in contrast to “animus” the masculine noun for “mind.”) The notion of purgatory is distinct from hell as it is a place or state of temporary suffering and purification through fire. (The root etymology of the word is purgare, which can mean “to cleanse,” “to purify,” or “to exonerate.”) What is being cleansed from the soul in purgatory? Why, sin, of course! Once the soul is free of sin via personal atonement or the prayers of the living on its behalf, it attains the purity to ascend to heaven.

Images of Animae Solae are used on prayer cards, generally containing a prayer to be said on behalf of the soul in purgatory. If you look closely at Anima, you’ll see that she is wearing one around her neck, with an image of her own fayth in chains and flames, but also a halo like a saint, symbolizing her martyrdom as the chains symbolize her guilt. The serrated edges of the wing-like structures around her, which contain her summoning glyph on the inside, also conjure the image of her being surrounded in flames.

Like many of the Ci’eth in FFXIII, Anima’s eyes are covered. Her bottom half has straps or bandages over its empty eye sockets, and her top half has bandages over its whole face, with only one eye visible through a bloody rent.

Anima’s special instant-death attack is simply called “Pain,” and it’s clear from her demeanor and general appearance that the pain is to herself. Even her normal attacks seem to cause her torment, underlining her theme of atonement through suffering and the manifestation of emotional pain as physical pain. I would hypothesize, based on comments made by Yuna and the bond between fayth and summoner that creates the aeon, that this causes the summoner pain as well.

His scheme here of course was to win the faith and trust of the people by saving everyone from the fiend attack (which, unbeknownst to them, he started).  Being bound to him, Anima has to do as he commands, but check out that Mom Glare there.  She knows he's up to no good and she does not approve of the way he is misusing his aeon for personal gain.

The people of Spira are more amazed and impressed than disturbed by this display. I guess there are a few aeons that have a kind of sinister design, Ifrit especially has an infernal theme going on, but wow you guys. You’d think someone would take a clue from this that something might be up with their new Maester.

(There’s a Guado girl in the middle there. I wonder if it’s the Seymour fangirl from outside the café.)

(By “Crystal Cup” we apparently mean “Giant Unicorn Horn.”)

There seems to be some disconnect between gameplay healing and story healing. We do see people walking around with scars, missing limbs, or other injuries so I suppose white magic and potions have their limits. As soon as we touch a save sphere he’ll be fine, though. ;)

Wakka bestows the Crystal Alicorn upon his teammates and then leaves. After all that, he doesn’t even get to see the celebration back on Besaid

This dialogue doesn’t change if you lose the tournament but it’s more meaningful if you win. But it’s also kind of worse because he wanted to win the tournament for Chappu. Who said that if the Aurochs won, he was going to propose to Lulu. Who is standing right there. Under her own personal raincloud.

Although Yuna hands it out to everyone she comes across, guardianship is actually a big deal, analogous to knighthood. I think this may be the only time we hear one of her guardians other than Auron addressed by their title. (They’re all friends, so it would seem silly and pretentious for them to address each other like that, but there are no random NPCs in the street who are like “Well met, Sir Waffles,” either.) But Yuna calls him “Sir Wakka” here to make it official, knighting him. I don’t think we ever find out what the honorific for female guardians is but I assume it is “Dame” or “Madame.” Possibly “Lady,” but that is also used for female summoners and denotes a higher rank. (Even though “dame” is just French for “lady.”)

He gets all up in her face to ask this for some reason haha. If you cover up the caption it’s like “COME AT ME, BRO.”

Meanwhile Yuna is over here whurbling to herself about Seymour’s aeon and feeling insignificant about how much more powerful a summoner he is. Good news, Yuna! You can have one too. All you need to do is go to Zanarkand, decide which one of your friends is your favorite, and ask them to die. Then you too can walk away with your very own soul-wracked hellbeast.


Meanwhile meanwhile, Auron has drawn Waffles away to the privacy of this crate-walled dock so they can have a talk. Probably because he is well aware of Waffles’ reputation as a crybaby.

“Gettin’ swallowed by Sin, ending up here in Spira! Not being able to go back to Zanarkand – everything, everything!”

Instead of answering, Auron just starts to laugh, which is pretty unsettling. As usual, he knows far more than he’s letting on. But all Waffles knows it that the last time he saw Auron, he grabbed him by the overalls and flung him aboard the Space Whale Express on a one-way trip to the middle of nowhere. Since then he’s been stranded, cold, hungry, almost eaten, prodded with weapons, forced into indentured servitude, bonked with blitzballs, scolded, pushed around, glowered at, made fun of, and dragged around with very little idea of what is going on or why. And the one guy who can give him answers isn’t giving him any.

 

 (No answer.)

Tidus confirms that he is, in fact, the same guy who knew both his own father and Yuna’s, which he claims must be impossible. Auron, without offering any explanation for why it’s not impossible, or how he managed to do this, simply says that it isn’t and that the three of them defeated Sin ten years ago, after which he went to Zanarkand to watch over young Waffles, per Jecht’s request.

Despite his troubled relationship with Jecht, and his repeated assertion that the only thing he has to say to him is that he hates him, he looks genuinely hopeful at the thought that his father might still be alive.

. . . Auron replies, evasively. “He is no longer human. But then . . . I felt something of Jecht, there in that shell, couldn’t you? You must have felt him when you came in contact with Sin.”

After dropping this bombshell, Auron, with a certain lack of tact, bluntly tells him that too bad, it's the truth, now time to get going. Waffles is just like “You can’t make me!” and Auron is like “Well, fine. Stay here then.” Then Waffles has a meltdown like a little kid who is tired but doesn’t want to be told to go to bed. He knows he has to go with Auron whether he wants to or not, because Auron is withholding all the backstory.

Auron just kind of stands awkwardly to the side and waits for it to be over.  But he's more gentle with him afterwards.

“So you’re pretty much doomed, kiddo.”

Random encounters: they can happen ANYWHERE!!

Yeah, funny thing about that . . .

“Is it because they don’t have a red balloon?”


Back at the exit, the summoner party hasn’t managed to hit the road yet because they’re still discussing Waffles. He is the protagonist, after all.

Yuna is still completely earnest about Zanarkand. These two seem to be gently humoring her by this point while inwardly wishing she would talk about something else.

She knows she has to get going but she doesn’t want to leave Waffles behind, even though he has no reason to come with them anymore, so she's looking for a reason to stall.

Fortunately for her, Auron turns up right then, trailing him along like a dog that doesn’t want to go to the vet.

Auron merits the Yevon bow.

He requests to become Yuna’s guardian, flabbergasting everyone. Yuna and Wakka stammeringly accept, but Lulu, with a greater propensity for critical thinking than the other two, questions why the legendary guardian would want to attach himself to this ragtag group of failers. Given, Wakka did just captain the winning team of the blitzball tournament, but that is pretty much their only claim to glory right now. (And it's something that depends on the player.) Otherwise, Yuna has been a summoner for less than a week and her only well-known asset is that her father is famous. Kimahri is an outcast from his tribe. Lulu herself has already attended two failed pilgrimages.

(Little does she know that that they have that much in common; although Braska’s pilgrimage was a success, Auron lost his summoner, too, and since they could not end the cycle of Sin, and he died trying to avenge Braska and Jecht against Yunalesca, he also regards himself as a failure. So he fits right in!)

Auron tells her that it’s something he promised Braska, and I am really annoyed that we never see Kimahri during this entire conversation. They never even give any indication that they’ve met before, and the whole reason Kimahri is guarding Yuna is because Auron asked him to. Ten years ago, when Kimahri found Auron on Mt. Gagazet dying from the wounds he sustained in his fight with Yunalesca, Auron transferred his promise to Braska to bring Yuna to Besaid in the event of his death (having presumably already arranged for Auron to look after her) to him. And Kimahri did. And he stayed with her, when she asked him not to leave, forever. All of that was supposed to be Auron’s responsibility.

Tidus realizes he's part of the pilgrimage for real now and is going to have to start acting like it. This has to be pretty jarring for him, since Auron’s been treating him like a little kid and then suddenly shoves him into a very adult position of responsibility.

“This one I promised Jecht,” says Auron.

Braska and Jecht didn’t coordinate this very well. Knowing that they were going to die, they both asked Auron to look after their kids, despite that their kids were living in separate worlds at the time. So he decided to go with Tidus and I guess just hope that the random Ronso he sent in search of Yuna was a good chaperone. As far as I know, he never came back to Spira until Jecht came to Dream Zanarkand at the beginning of the game, so he never went back to check and see if she made it to Besaid, or even if Kimahri ever found her.

Logically, the best way to uphold both promises would have been to bring young Waffles to Besaid too after his mother died and arranged to have them raised together where he could keep an eye on both of them. Which would have been really cute, but would probably have derailed the whole plot somehow. At least he has them together now.

“Is Sir Jecht alive?” asks Yuna.

Tidus pointedly looks the other way as Auron glibly lies to Yuna. (Or at least omits some essential facts.) He didn’t spare Tidus’s feelings from the blunt truth but he’s strategically shielding Yuna from it for now.

She seems not to realize the discrepancy between his saying that he doesn’t know if he’s still alive and then assuring her that they’ll meet.

I love how he assesses the entire group and then appropriately identifies Lulu as the bastion of competence here. Apparently he doesn’t trust Yuna, the summoner, with her own travel plans. 

Because real guardians never make mistakes. Uh . . .

Lulu’s fears that Waffles would become a permanent fixture of the pilgrimage have been realized and now she has to account for the variables of two extra guardians.

Maybe they should start making this excuse for Yuna, since she’s the one who’s been telling anyone who will listen about the Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes recently.

Yuna notices that Waffles is looking a little blue and endeavors to cheer him up, resulting in the game’s most infamous scene.

And then she smiles.
 

Now we know to look more closely at every scene of Yuna smiling and wonder if she is sincerely happy, or if she is wearing a mask to hide her breaking heart. Hint: it’s frequently the latter.

She encourages Waffles to show off his latent powers of smile as well.

Results are sub-par.
 

 You’ve all seen this, but pictures alone really cannot convey the full effect.


Reportedly, the worst thing that can happen to you during this game is that right at this moment, someone who has had no prior experience with the game walks into the room and you have to try to explain what the fluff you are playing. (Parents who don’t get video games, roommate who thinks Final Fantasy is dumb, girlfriend you are trying hard to impress, etc.) But I can only imagine that having someone walk in on you and having to explain the scene in X-2 where Yuna is giving Leblanc a massage is a BILLION TIMES WORSE.

A lot of haters try to hold up this scene as an example of terrible voice acting but it’s supposed to be terrible. It’s supposed to be awkward and silly. The laughing is supposed to sound stilted and forced, because it is. 

These guys probably didn’t even hear the conversation that led up to this. All they know is that all of a sudden Waffles stood up and started doing his best seagull impression for all of Luca. But frankly, this is kind of par for the course for Waffles.

I DO WHAT I WANT, THOR.

Yuna, realizing the hole she has dug Waffles into, decides there’s nothing else to do but jump in it with him, and they seagull together.

"And I really can't count on Lulu or Kimahri there."

Cutiefaces.

I like the sentiment that she is ready and willing to come rescue him as well, if needed. (In essence, the catalyst for X-2, since she thought from Rikku’s sphere that he was in prison on her behalf, although that plot gets derailed awfully quickly.)

Then they turn around and suddenly remember that they had an audience.

(At least three of them just clamped their lips together to prevent any even accidental smiling.)

It was too hard to cap with the map over it but Waffles gives Yuna a casual “let’s go” pat on the shoulder as they run off, like he would a teammate. It’s a really cute gesture, and shows that, past the awkward flailing of their blossoming romantic overtures towards each other, they’re becoming friends.

Next time: little talks.