Final Fantasy X Analysis (Ep.5): Luca | State of the Arc Podcast
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- In today's episode, we accompany Yuna as she prays at the Kilika Temple, sail to Luca to play in the blitzball tournament, and discuss the infamous laughing scene!
Time Codes:
1. Into (0:00)
2. More thoughts on Lulu's outburst (0:30)
3. Kilika Temple (03:07)
4. Leaving Kilika (22:11)
5. Arriving In Luca and The Blitzball Tournament (49:22)
6. Auron Is Spotted In Luca (57:32)
7. Yuna Gets Kidnapped By The Al Bhed (1:03:53)
8. Auron Arrives/Blitzball Championship (1:23:22)
9. Tidus Confronts Auron (1:32:13)
10. The Infamous Laughing Scene (1:37:35)
11. Responding To Some Comments From Episode 3 (1:49:30)
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Next time, we'll be playing up through the Operation Mi'ihen scene.
Looking forward to it. Cheers 🍻
I can't wait to hear y'alls ruminations on that section.
Maybe y’all can talk
About it in a later episode…
Possible spoilers……
Is FFX a time travel story? Specifically Jecht and Tidus.
And is Auron on new game + mode?
Thats the peak of this game for me. After that section the rest of game honestly falls so flat despite having a very promising premise.
That's one of the best part of the game. Looking forward to it.
Please don't move faster. These episodes are so full of insight. Take your time getting through every little detail that you want!
if you try to use the elevator, tidus even says "go up, go up"
A few thoughts. In an earlier episode you commented on Tidus’s outfit and how it seems kind of random and thrown together. If you watch the opening blitzball game FMV, you can see that the rest of his team is wearing an outfit very similar to his. The main difference is that he has an extra guard on his arm. I would consider his outfit to be the team uniform, and the arm guard is something extra that the captain wears. It isn’t explicitly stated that he is the captain, but it is certainly likely that he is considering that he’s the star player.
You can see the same pattern with Wakka and the Aurochs. They all wear the same uniform, except Wakka has an extra arm/shoulder guard. Jecht also has a very pronounced arm guard, and it is within the realm of possibility that he was also the captain when he played. The arm guard seems to be a symbol of the captain of a Blitzball team. We don’t see the Captain of the Goers with one, but it’s possible that since he isn’t a main character like Wakka, Tidus, and Jecht that he just didn’t get that much detail.
Also, I think I may have an answer to your speculation on the origin of the name “Zanarkand Abes“. You discussed the radio broadcast that plays in the beginning of the game and how it mentions that the two teams are from the A-block and the C-block. I think “Abes” is likely a shortening of the “Zanarkand A-Block team” to “Abes”.
Very interesting!
Talking about symbolism, Auron's name comes from 'aurora', which in latin means 'dawn', and He's the one that brings Tidus (the sun) to the world. kind of cool there,
Another great episode !
I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't believe my ears when Casen quoted my comment on Sin.
Thanks man, it's a real joy to participate to the discussions and delve deeply into these games we love !
Mike, Casen, thank you for the weekly dose of insight and fun !
No particular thing to add on my side for this episode except maybe on a more thematic note. (which maybe appear a bit spoilery, so... Spoiler warning)
To this day, I can still remember the feeling of seeing Anima for the first time. One element that I did not pick up at the time (maybe because of the PS2 image resolution) was the icon hanging on Anima's neck.
When playing the remaster, the details being much more sharper, I definitely got a Christian icon vibe out of it.
It's interesting to keep in mind that for most of the japanese, they don't consider being religious. They have more of a ritual dayly life, rythmed with Shintô, Buddhism and Confucianism mix, but it's not really like what we would call "faith" according to our standards.
I may be wrong about this but I really think the notion of "sacrifice" can be applied to the very design of Anima. A notion that is more represented in the Christian religion rather than in the japanese way of approaching religious thinking.
Of course this is a much more complex topic that can't be summed up in a simple comment.
Can't wait for the next episodes guys !
Great work! One of the high summoners Ohalland was a member of the Killika beasts before defeating sin so blitzball players go to Killika temple to pray, also with crusaders blocking the path to Djose for the operation they had to go to Killika
When Tidus hears the Hymn if the Fayth could one say he started feeling ohmsick
he needed to buff his resistance...
🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻
Yuna’s such a great character. One of FF’s absolute best.
Even though she is a bit meek for a majority of the game, I prefer her in X compared to what I played of X-2. I'm all for cute religious Yuna, not J-Pop fashionista Yuna.
Honestly yeah she kind of is, its hard to not absolutely respect her givin what she's assinged herself to and how selfless she is in her task
I certainly find the laughing scene as endearing. I love it, it really sells Yuna and Tidus to me. Then, when Yuna’s theme kicks in, I tear up every time. I think it’s a beautiful scene.
Some other comments I had:
The scene where Tidus eggs on Kimahri is short, but could serve as another example of his character helping people break out of their cultural traditions. Tidus has seen Kimahri’s bravery and prowess, and knows he doesn’t deserve the other Ronsos’ harassment.
With that theme being discussed today, I think it’s kinda noteworthy that on the Sphere Grid, many of Tidus’s skills on his path are buffing actions like Haste and Cheer, which help other party members take stronger actions quicker than they would have. Kind of cute, at the very least
- "I think we are moving faster now"
- 2h podcast.
It really shows how much you guys like this game. I don't blame you.
To be fair the first act is very narrative heavy
I took the “not taking chances” thing as “we’re not gonna take them at their word that they’ll release Yuna if we throw the match.”
That’s exactly what is meant by that line. I’m not sure how they missed that it seems pretty obvious.
they did mention kilika's temple "main" summoner was a great blitzball player, so people go there to pray for victory, at least i think some npcs say something to that effect.
I thought that the previous summoner that was talked about was the grand summoner Lord Ohalland. My impression was that Donna was the local summoner to the area. Lol, why she didn't help with the summoning where Yuna danced on the water didn't make much sense but it would go a ways to explain her disdain towards her at the temple.
I cant remember his name. But the previous summoner was an apparently extremely skilled blitzball player. And from kilika
@@Wicked061 I think it was the grand summoner Lord Ohalland and I if I am not mistaken Wakka's ultimate weapon was his personal blitz ball.
@@roystansell7640 BINGO thats the name. I just seen your first comment.
I think you guys missed a very obvious point when discussing the laughter scene. Tidus' scream laugh is the culmination of all his conflicting feelings about Jecht, plus he just got told by Auron Jecht is Sin and they're on a mission to end him. The dude is in pain and it comes out in that awkward scream laughter and because you can sense that pain in Tidus is what makes it so uncomfortable.
I agree! Like... It's impossible to comprehend how Tidus is feeling after hearing Sin = Jecht. Especially after Kilika?! Then add in the fact that the only people Tidus knows are on a mission to kill Sin and it looks like he's going too?? AND THEN add in all the Daddy issues he has on top of that and the fact his entire world was snatched away from him maybe less than a week ago... I always read the laugh as... resignation, almost. Like, he's done. He doesn't give a fetch anymore. He's angry and the cute girl is coming to cheer him up but she can't understand how he's feeling and there's no way he can explain it to her, and now she wants him to laugh and he's like "How's this for a laugh"? But it turns out she was right, it does make him feel better.
We really do not deserve Mike and Casen. I love watching these guys for their knowledge and friendly banter and also because as someone who is disabled in more ways I would care to list, it makes me feel like I have friends, like I am right there with them. I guess that is also why I like JRPGs so much. The group dynamic I want to have in real life, but can't.
*Avoiding spoilers*
The laughing scene is not just meaningful from an audience reception standpoint but is also INCREDIBLY REVEALING about Yuna's character. And actually, when we get the *REVEAL* later about Yuna's journey and what will ultimately happen when it's over it flashes back to the laughing scene because Tidus is realizing how little he picked up on during their journey together.
@pimpncereal7279: It actually isn't revealing about Yuna's character at all. It flashes back because they thought that if they acted like the scene wasn't abysmal, then people wouldn't think it was, but it still was an abysmal scene, period.
1:07:40 the part about Lulu putting wakka down in public, but being caring when he passes out after the game, I've had a theory for a while now why:
She Loves Wakka, but doesn't want to admit it to anyone or even herself, because it may look disrespectful to chappu's memory. By putting Wakka down in front of everyone and praising chappu, she's reinforcing that denial. If that makes any sense. I've seen it first hand in real life so that's how I took it anyways.
and we later know they get together in X-2 so there's that.
Ahhh. That would make sense actually,perhaps so.
Loving the attention to detail of this play through, this could easily end up being a 20 part series
I think the anthropological concepts of the *etic* and *emic* are relevant to your discussion of Tidus' outsider perspective! These refer to the two main perspectives of ethnographic research: 1) the "insider" perspective (i.e., emic), which includes all of the beliefs and behaviors of those who belong to the culture of interest, and 2) the "outsider" perspective (i.e., etic), which usually applies to the anthropologist/ethnographer that seeks to understand the culture. It's essential to consider both perspectives when conducting this research.
For example, the research must take the emic perspective into account since without it the researcher's own culture can cloud their understanding, which can result in a harmful ethnocentric account of the culture. But, as you said, the members of any culture are blind to all sorts of things as well--the figurative water that they swim in. They often take the origin or reason for a practice for granted. That's where the etic perspective can be equally important to understand the reasons, functions, or whatever that underlie the traditions, beliefs, and behaviors in a given culture.
The admittedly weird names are actually a shortening of *phonetic* and *phonemic*, since sounds (i.e., phonetics) are understandable by outsiders, but specific groups of sounds (i.e., phonemes) are only understandable to those who speak the language.
I can't believe that there are still people out there who don't understand the whole laughing scene.
I also can't believe it. As in, I genuinely think it isn't true.
I understood it, doesn't mean I can't think it's dumb. The FFX laughing scene has become the Donnie Darko of the franchise. Oh, you didn't like Donnie Darko? You obviously didn't 'understand it'.
@@jeffferreira1321 Or maybe it's less than you didn't get it and more like you specifically are just a curmudgeon.
@@jeffferreira1321 I agree, but I think it's bad to use this scene as proof of bad voice acting. There are more legitimate examples throughout the game, but this part is intentionally not supposed to be a genuine laugh, further emphasized by the way they *actually* crack up afterwards.
I fall into "uncomfortable awkward" concerning this scene but it's really a drop in the bucket of an epic game that has dozens of far, FAR more memorable moments.
That rant at the end was great. 🤣 "I am not an idiot!" 🤣
when it comes to the laugh scene there is also a number of people who saw the clip somewhere and never played the game. i remember telling a friend he should try out the hd collection when it was on sale and he didnt want to because he saw how bad the acting was somewhere else and specifically brought up the laughing.
It's one of the more annoying aspects of the way people use the internet. They see a few seconds of something and don't even bother to do any research into anything despite having the entirety of human knowledge at their fingertips. Reminds me of my friend's sister who thinks she can get her financial advice from tiktok clips.
@@maskedbadass6802 It's also one of the more annoying aspects of the way people use the internet that they don't think that economy is important when deciding which part of this entirety of human knowledge at their fingertips to use, and that treating every part of it equally could lead to a huge waste of an opportunity to use the entirety of human knowledge at their fingertips when the most useful bits out there can't stand out because they want to be indiscriminate and thus often aren't used, despite the option to use it being available.
The “we’re not taking any chances” line is in reference to not believing the al bhed would keep their end of the bargain, not to do with any risk.
I think I have a unique perspective on the
*** Spoiler Warning ***
Sin is Jecht plot reveal. I didn’t have a PS2 when this game came out so I missed out on playing it with the majority of fans. One day I was flipping through a magazine and stumbled right into the middle of an article I didn’t realize was about the top 10 JRPG plot twists you didn’t see coming. Well, of course they spoiled Jecht is Sin for me so that reduced my interest in playing this game. Years later, a friend wouldn’t stop talking about how great this game is and the father/son relationship it deals with and I mentioned that I knew about Sin being Jecht. He made it seem as though the game was basically ruined for me so I remained steady on not playing it. When this HD Remaster released I decided to just go ahead and play it since I was on a mission to finish all the FF main games anyway. One thing threw me off. I was very surprised by how soon this is revealed in the story. Everyone made this plot reveal seem like a huge deal, and to me I don’t think it would have made much difference going in blind or not. Sin is still this big almost unknown entity at this point, and so far you’re just fighting its spawn and wondering what it really even is. When Auron just drops that line it feels more like, “Oh … ok, I guess we’re going to kill our dad … again?” and you’re just wondering how his dad became that thing. To me, there is a much MUCH bigger plot reveal later after Mt Gagazet that I won’t mention here for obvious reasons.
Wakka’s bittersweet farewell to blitzball is somewhat undermined by him being recruitable for your team.
Great points on the "Infamous Laughing Scene".
Especially in regards to when awkwardness stops being endearing and becomes uncomfortable because that was always something i had in my head but couldn't put it into words when i saw discussions about the scene.
Good stuff.
That’s really fascinating, that Tidas is the one who brought the “Winning Spirit” to Wakka and Spira at large, but Tidas also discounts the importance of, not only of Yevon, but Blitzball itself.
I thought the way Dona's "Barthello we're leaving line kinda fits her character. The way she forces it all out so quickly, pretty much all in one breath, kind of brings out how exasperated she is with trying to unsuccessfully talk down to this "rabble."
Exactly. On a personal note, I love the English voice acting.
Just found this channel and I gotta say I'm very glad you keep going back to the original, Japanese text from time to time. This is the game that definitely marked my childhood, and in the recent years, playing it with the Japanese dub feels like a whole different experience-Lulu's, and especially Yuna's vocal delivery is so much subtler and full of life.
Haven't seen this brought up yet, but there is a random NPC in either Kilika or Besaid temple that mentions that only 4 people have defeated Sin in 1000 years. There's less specifics on how long the Calm usually lasts, but given the length of Yuna's pilgrimage, I think it's fair to assume that the previous Calm's lasted 100+ years, or that Sin ravaged Spira for 200+ years per cycle. In one case, this is an extraordinarily short Calm between Braska's Final Summoning and the return of Sin (which is hinted at within the text); or in the other, hordes of summoners are throwing themselves at Sin every cycle for generations on the off chance that it grants Spira a short reprieve.
I actually think the reason Yuna is so famous in this world is because she is probably the first daughter of a High Summoner that has had the misfortune of the opportunity to follow in her father's footsteps. For everyone else (if there were others), Sin has probably not returned in their lifetimes, or at least not within the time they could feasibly carry out a pilgrimage.
There's more I want to bring up with regard to this, but spoilers. Needless to say, it involves the opportunity to end the cycle
Officially (according to the FFX ultimania) it took 600 years for someone (Gandof) to defeat Sin after Yunalesca, 170 more years before Ohalland did, 130 years more for Lady Yocun, then 90 more years until Braska ten years ago. The intervals between each defeat of Sin have been getting shorter but that does not imply that the length of the Calms have ever changed. Another ultimania, not officially translated, actually provides a timeline that puts each Calm at around 1 year each. Before I got any of this information I would have estimated a Calm to last at least 3 or 4 years (to be considered worthwhile) and no more than 8 years (because we know Sin has been active for at least two years before we arrive in Besaid. If Sin could have been banished for as long as a _century_ at a time then people would not be nearly as afraid of it as they are.
To put a point on LuLu. Her character I think the change is post the boss at kilika. She acknowledges Tidus post this enough to tell Wakka hey you should consider joining for Yuna. Same with Khimari who warms us to Tidus post Luca and encouraging him with the Ronso. It is not shown but it is good characterization that Tidus participates and even drops his persona a little bit after this that he was just another blitz ball player, he clearly can fight, and there is more to him that LuLu can see. The stuff with Wakka, the way i interpet it was LuLu does not appreciate the weakness that Wakka has he accepts loss to easily and never pushes him self far enough like Chappu did, like Tidus does. When Wakka goes all out, LuLu sees it and even appreciates him more.
The most epic Thumbnail of all time. Instant click. Well done. :)
I think the explanation for the Luca Goers being there was that one of the previous summoners was a huge blitzball star so it's become tradition for most blitzball teams to make trip to the Kililka temple to pray to him for victory.
They mention that he trained on the temple steps which is part of the reason they all decide to race up the steps in the first place.
"This looks like History in the making" when Auron arrives is so accurate.
History started when he arrived at Zanarkand. Then we have to discover Tidus'new life. No that everything is settled in the new world History can start anew.
The fact that he arrives one more time for a Blitzball game in a pivotal moment for the story to me is a clear sign that Blitzball is more than just a sport in this World.
when I was a kid and the "Infamous Laughing Scene" showed up, i was like "omg so cringe---ugh!!!"
but then 10 years later, I played FFX again and I realized that "ah! it was supposed to be like that"
and I'm a voice actor (in Indonesia) so I can understand that the laugh is 'supposed to be like that' , and it is a very good acting 😄
ah by the way, what a nice podcast! cant wait for the next episode~
High Summoner Ohalland was a blitzball player. He played for the Kilika Beasts. Since they have such a reverence for summoners who defeated Sin, Ohalland became a legend in Blitzball. When you pray in Kilika Temple, Wakka says "Lord Ohalland guide our feet". He is praying for Ohallands blessing to play well in the blitzball tournament. The Luca Goers goad and say they weren't praying for victory, but they were most likely still paying respects if they weren't. Ohalland is just that big of a symbol for Blitzball.
Indeed, each of the Fayth sing the Hymn at their temples. Lulu mentions this during the end of the Macalania segment, and she explains this to Tidus after he asks her who is singing.
I have own this game for 23 years, original and remastered, and have played it countless times, but it is ABSOLUTELY mind-boggling to discover details and tidbits that I have never known about this game 🤯
It is incredible how this game just continues to give and give to this day.
That stuff about the multiple possible readings where Sin carries associations of death/parent/God really is mind-blowing and brings up a pretty fascinating, but easily missed angle to read FFX from: it's extremely Freudian. This is actually pretty true with a lot of JRPGs, though not all of them wear it on their sleeve like Takahashi does. Vagrant story was very Freudian too, the way it runs parallel themes of personal and social/political repression - Ashley explores and struggles with his repressed traumatic memories as he navigates a ruined city and unearths its history, both metaphorically buried by political expedience and literally buried by disaster. Considering Freud's model of the psyche is basically an archaeological one with analysis as excavation, it's kind of amazing this isn't much talked about.
FFX might be even more nakedly Freudian, with Tidus's entire arc working through resolving the oedipal triangle with death-god Jecht (early Freud even speaks of a 'death-wish' toward the father in oedipalization). It almost seems like the game at some point might have been conceived as leaning more heavily on the Freudianism - it tapers off, but early on you get that really flagrant dream sequence at Besaid where Tidus dreams of Yuna and Rikku, and then Jecht appears like the classical castrating father, literally snatching the women away from him and proceeding to berate and humiliate him while he struggles to verbalize the hate he choked down as a small child.
That's almost cartoonishly textbook psychoanalytic, and Tidus, Yuna, and one other major character are arguably defined by complex and traumatic relationships with famous parents, who may mean very different things to the society that venerates them and to their own children.
Maybe this kind of stuff tends to get overlooked because of the saturation of media criticism with pop Jung, but personally I think the more personal, traumatic, individual readings you get from a Freudian or Lacanian angle are always more interesting than the Jungian tendency to standardize and homogenize all kinds of different situations and personalities into universal sets of stock symbols.
Anyway great work though guys, love the podcast. I didn't see Xenogears or Vagrant story when they were actually running, but probably worth mentioning now, if you're at all interested in a really good crash course in fundamental psychoanalytic concepts, I really can't highly enough recommend "Freud and Beyond" by Mitchell and Black. Considering how absolutely rife with Freud and Lacan these games have always been, it definitely opens up a lot of really exciting and different lenses to look at this stuff
i want to know how the Besaid Aurochs managed to beat the god, the legend nimrook without Tidus's jecht or sphere shot lol
Honestly the only way i can possibly see for the narrative is that the Psyches werent trying assuming the Aurochs were going to just throw the match, and by the time they realized this wasnt the case they were down 2 points and honestly as beastly as the psyches defense is their offense is kind of average so they were able to be held at bay till Wakka scored that last lucky shot to win...in terms of mechanics Aurochs hired Biggs for one game
If you look at the match versus the Psyches where the end up winning 3-2 by the end. The final goal Wakka scores is on a goalie who is not Nimrook. I figured the Psyches, being angry at that match, replaced their then current goalie first thing after that match with Nimrook. He is signed for a lot of matches as well, i would say it was only natural given they lost to the then legendarily bad Aurochs.
My SO does group therapy and one of the things she does to break the tension sometimes is to force everyone to fake laugh. It starts out awkward but after a minute or so everyone starts to laugh for real either at each other or themselves. Just like it does here. Is it hard to watch yes because it's not a real laugh but by the end both of them are laughing and smiling so it did it's job
Thanks for not reducing the laugh scene to another lazy meme. You guys are class acts and am really enjoying looking at the game through your eyes :)
The Hooded child appears In a few scenes and is a really interesting character when you look at him after a first playthrough.
I think my favorite one is when Jecht goes missing and Tidus' mom says you'll never get to tell him how much you hate him because he just looms there in the background
Speaking of Tidus's mom I think there's a really good case that based on the scenes we see of her that she's a super inattentive mother and that Jecht despite being kind of a jerk was attentive and interested in teaching his son things. In almost all of her scenes she's wholly latched onto Jecht or longing for Jecht and the one time she actually speaks to Tidus directly (without Jecht nearby) its about Jecht's disappearance.
Basically I think Jecht loved Tidus but was kind of an A hole which I find relatable
I agree about Jecht and his love for his son. I can understand an emotionally stunted father just wanting his son to think he's cool, and to be bad at interacting emotionally.
I think Jecht came off as this awesome dad to Yuna because he knew he would never see Tidus again, and since she wasn't trying to be like him, she never saw him as this shadow looming over her life that Tidus saw him as.
Agreed. I don't recall Tidus' mom ever interacting with Tidus during his flashbacks. While Jecht certainly came across as arrogant, he interacted with Tidus a lot and did seem to care for him if you read between the lines.
One of my favorite things about FFX is that I has multiple surprise revelations. Through out playing it I was constantly going “wait WHAT!!!” It’s hard to pull surprises like this off once much less multiple times. I firmly believe X has my favorite final fantasy story.
At the 6:40 mark, when you are talking about how Donna makes fun of Yuna for having a lot of guardians, I actually get it. I was trying to find who said the quote, I thought it was Muhammad Ali or Bruce Lee, but someone mentioned something along the lines of “Lions walk alone because they are strong, sheep flock together because they are weak”. Like ya’ll (and me) see it as the logical thing to have as many guardians as possible because we don’t have big egos, but for someone like Donna, it would be a sign of weakness to have a lot of guardians. The strongest creatures in nature tend to not move in packs (Tigers, Bears) because they don’t need protection like pack animals do.
Glad to be in time for the new episode and happy to be a new patreon! Cheers from Argentina.
Thank you!!
My most recent playthrough of X was with my wife a few years ago, and my Blitzball game was similarly epic. Triple overtime victory for the Besaid Aurochs. I jumped up and cheered like I was at an actual sporting event.
I remember the last time I played and won on a buzzer beater, so epic. However, without changing the line up or adding a free agent, about 10-15 games in, it goes from epic to boring, repetitive, and easy. Move forward, shoot and score. Oh look they got a goal, add on three more for the Aurochs. It's amazing how quickly it goes from nail-biting to push some buttons, win
Thank you for sharing the Japanese version of the laugh. I feel better now.
That being said, I am also playing with my wife this time around and we went through all the emotions watching the scene -- from awkward to kind of fun to giggly. Alone, the first playthrough, there was cringe for me. With a friend, the second playthrough, there was more of the endearment they may have intended.
Love the energy and passion that goes into these discussions!!!
The letters used in the summoning circles are part of one of three spiran scripts. This one is the 'Yevon's script' and is inspired by the Shiggon buddhist sect and some busshist occult scripts. there are some letter that aside from the letter meaning itself, represent the elements of fire, water, lightning, ice, light darkness and the first and the last one represent Yevon adn Sin respectedly. that's why they appear in the summoning circles and in the temples.
The different versions of the Hymn of the Fayth, with their corresponding voice types, are absolutely meant to represent how the fayth for each aeon are depicted in the game. Valefor and Shiva are both women, Ifrit and Ixion men. The hymn for Bahamut in the Bevelle temple is sung by a young boy which really makes it obvious.
However, what's interesting is that the fayth that represents Bahamut is the same young boy that watches over Tidus in Zanarkand. Why is this boy the fayth for Bevelle?? Part of me wonders if this was just narrative convenience on the part of the developers, but we can look at the history of Spira to further rationalize the decision:
SPOILERS:
In the lore of FFX, during the ancient Machina War, the city of Zanarkand, facing defeat at the hands of Bevelle, was deliberately sacrificed, the fayth summoned Dream Zanarkand, Sin was created, and the teachings of Yevon spread throughout Spira.
In modern day Spira, Bahamut's Fayth (the young boy) is, over the course of the game, the one who reveals to Tidus the truth about what he and Zanarkand are (a dream), and asks Tidus to put an end to the dream. Essentially, the boy asks Tidus to metaphorically destroy Zanarkand once more. Casting the boy as Bahamut's Fayth could be one way to emphasize the opposing forces which represent Zanarkand's survival and destruction.
yeah, i always thought about this a lot. why is he the fayth of bahamut and not a zanarkand fayth, considering he can enter dream zanarkand. why can he specifically trans-corporaly communicate with people (or dream people at least) and other fayth don't. also why did he take an interest in Tidus in particular before his father even became sin.
@@Windraesa I think jecht moving to spira was an accident and one which almost woke the fayth in a sense. This “accident” or occurrence that broke the usual monotony enabled the fayth to collectively come up with a plan seeing as their own creation (jecht) had become sin and had more control than normal as a result.
“According to Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania fayth can enter Dream Zanarkand for their lack of physical bodies. Fayth can only be seen and heard by people who are either made out of pyreflies (i.e. summoned people/unsent) or those who can summon. All the aeon-fayth frequent Dream Zanarkand and blend in with the citizens to enjoy themselves in the paradise world. All fayth share a common consciousness. This is why the fayth refer to themselves as "we."
After growing tired of a millennium of dreaming the fayth request Tidus, a person who hails from Dream Zanarkand and thus a product of their dream, to destroy Yu Yevon so they can rest. Bahamut's fayth knows Tidus from his trips to Dream Zanarkand, and due to the fayth's shared consciousness, acts as a spokesperson for all the fayth in asking him to kill Yu Yevon to stop the summoning.”
This is a late comment but, I wanted to state how Lulu's costume is so relevant to her personality. The belts don't represent forced constraint, but this kind of idealism of personal restraint. Of holding back, holding up, and the magic of which she is connected to being so connected to the idea of chaos, and the need to keep it from escaping when channeling it. (A theme in much of the FF series, chaos that is.) So her outfit isn't just eye candy, although probably also eye candy to deal with how her personality can put some players against her.
Also, I love that laughing scene. It is the most natural moment of bonding I can recall in any videogame format.
What I like about the laughing scene is that when Tidus does the fake laughter you can hear his conflicting emotions of despair, frustration, etc. Almost sounds like he's cry-laughing. So it's far more endearing to me the older I get.
One important detail about the conversation between Lulu and Wakka at 28:11, is that it implies that many adults from Besaid died 17 years prior (Lulu is 22).
Given the ruins in Besaid, it is likely that Sin attacked the island as Yuna was either recently born or a baby, and that may have given Braska his resolve to start his pilgrimage around 5 or 6 years afterwards, to provide his daughter a Calm childhood. Yuna's mother is also seldom mentioned, go figure.
It is also important that other Summoners mention later that Besaid is often skipped during Pilgrimages, due to how far away it lies from the other temples. Braska, a young Summoner from the edge of Spira, brought the Calm to a young generation of Besaid Islanders who grew without their parents to live a peacuful childhood.
Take note, for the next chapter is about Chappu, Wakka's little brother who chose another path...
Braska is from beville
@@omensoffate True! Though he was casted out for marrying an Albhed and left Yuna in Auron's care in Besaid, who then asked Kimahri to fulfil that.
To follow up on the scene where Yuna tells Tidus that Auron is in Luca, since y’all were asking about it:
Yuna does just kind of randomly run up to Tidus saying something along the lines of “There you are! Sir Auron has been seen in town”, with you being Tidus. This is quickly explained after a cut as Yuna thinking that since Auron was also one of Braska’s guardians, he might know where Jecht is. I think this checks out logically, and works as a fun moment to shock the player a bit, since we haven’t seen Auron since the beginning of the game, and since we’re playing a JRPG, we know that it’s unlikely that two major characters will both be named Auron, meaning there probably one and the same.
I was listening to the podcast in Spotify. I got to the part where you guys were talking about the flashback of the Jecht Shot. I had to see what you guys were talking about! lol
Great episode, you guys!
What a great installment. I learned so much that I've missed in my replays from this discussion.
I always wanted more backstory for the fayth we visit. The trials should've incorporated puzzles that tell the life stories of these people or something.
Ooo I like this idea!
I never really thought about their back story but I would agree that would be tight.
If they ever did a prequel to FFX, I think that would be a nice touch if we had to go through the trials again.
same, we know only of a few unfortunately, and even then we basically know nothing
That could have been interesting, maybe introducing the truth of Tidus earlier and using the backstories of the Fayth to slowly link back to him and give that information out
Definitely never thought about the blitzball tourney that way. Thank you, Jacob Shrum. That actually reinforces one of the aspects of the FFX story I love so much; how much it rhymes with itself throughout.
1:23:50 On the topic of blitzball, you can actually see every player on the field on the minimap, and the "Manual A" control option allows you to maneuver based on the orientation of the minimap (pressing up will always move to the north on the minimap no matter where the camera is). It's not a perfect system by any means since you pretty much have to stare at like 1/16th of the screen the entire match but it's certainly workable. I can't imagine trying to play just by watching the actual game with the camera whipping around all the time like that
Glad you guys were finally able to get this game to win the poll - it's a fun ride.
one comment missed in the past videos is Lulu stating that Chappu wasn't teleported anywhere. He was CRUSHED at the shore.
In Final Fantasy X ultimania, they state that the hymn that is heard in the temples are precisely the Fayth singing it
1:18:30 i love this also. People are taught to be racist, or have one bad encounter and start harboring a grudge. I also believe that racism is a product of environment and deep down people grow and change and should be helped through racism with compassion, instead of just dismissing them and considering them a bad person. I mean don't get me wrong there are people who are just full of hate and won't let themselves be helped but most people are not like that.
@@aaronmason9332 which part do you disagree with
@@aaronmason9332 enters thread, calls the other person a simpleton, refuses to elaborate, leaves.
The thing is calling wakka racist is simply incorrect. It’s more accurate to say he’s xenophobic or just simply prejudiced. This is proven by the fact he doesn’t actually know what the Al bhed look like.
Guys, feel free to stretch this analysis out as far and wide as you want 👍 love listening to it. Still haven't listened to Xenogears final podcasts because I had to pick it back up n get to the end again 🤣🤣🤣🤣
About why the Luca Goers were at Kilika temple : they go to pray sir Ohalland. Ohalland was a champion blitzball player and high summoner. Ohalland played blitzball for the Kilika Beasts before becoming a summoner and going on his pilgrimage to vanquish Sin 230 years before Tidus's arrival in Spira. Ohalland's pilgrimage was successful, and he became the third summoner to bring the Calm. I guess blitzball players all go to Kilika temple before the tournament to pray their "blitzball god".
I’m enjoying these episodes sooo much!! Please keep them going. I played this game so many times but now I’m learning new things about it. I have just bought Final Fantasy ultimania archive.
You guys commentary on Tidus being the outside voice is why he is the perfect main character for this game. I have no idea why people try to argue Yuna as the main character.
Every time I've played this game . . . I've never been able to win Wakka's last match. They play that triumphant music and I may as well be swimming blindfolded. He gives me the thumbs up, and I've failed him.
The infamous laugh is the first example of RUclips Bad Faith argumentation I can remember. People would say "voice acting in FF10 is bad" and just play that bit with no context for the scene, or what kind of direction they probably had. I mean, you CAN criticize the scene, like you guys did today. It's a bit of an obnoxious scene for my tastes. But just saying it's crap and not justifying why . . . well people makes thousands of dollars these days doing just that. Depressing isn't it?
Make sure you use the jecht shot bro , when your playing in the match the best strategy is pass to one of your defenders then when the opposing players get near you just pass it to tidus and swim straight to the goalie , the jecht shot knocks out 2 defenders so it should be an easy goal
I played it today. Won 4-1. Blitzball is really easy as long as you switch to manual a setup and use letty to draw the defenders out of position and pass to tidus in behind. I was 3-0 up at 2 mins it cut to the cutscenes where tidus swaps out for wakka. When wakka appeared it fast forwarded to the 3 minute mark.
Fun Fact: the announcer in Luca is actually the same voice actor for SpongeBob and the Narrator in Powerpuff girls; adding to that he also voices Rin the vendor.
Yeeess, get to watch this today when I'm doing house work, appreciate you boys.
I love this podcast and I'm very happy you guys finally get to cover FFX.
When you guys were talking about Tidus breaking traditions and openly questioning why certain things are the way they are, I was reminded back to a previous FFX discussion video on this channel where Mike calls Tidus the lynchpin (if I recall correctly). I quite like that, and it makes even more sense when you play through the story with the full picture. In the same vein, I feel like Jecht can also work as one, considering he was the one that sort of guided Auron to bring Tidus to Spira... Maybe he was aware that they as outsiders could speed up the process of change and break the cycle.
Thanks for the video, guys! ❤
Just want to chime in to say your cover of Fisherman's Horizon from FF8 is magnificent, as are so many of your other covers.
The way I interpreted the "we're not taking any chances" line is that Lulu has more faith in her and Kimarhi's ability to fight than the Al Bhed's word. In her mind, taking chances would be trusting them, whereas kicking their asses is a sure thing.
Been waiting for this episode all week
I just realised an interesting thing about the awkward laugh scene. Its very similar to a scene in Kingdom Hearts where Sora makes a funny smiling face for Donald and Goofy before they go off on their adventure. Just interesting to see one forgotten mostly but another has been made infamous and memed to death. this could be due to FF10 being more for an adult to teen audience while KH is aimed at Young addult to kids with the disney stuff so maybe its just more accepted from that but idk i felt it was an interesting thing to think about.
nice after a long day of working in the office in fking Narnia I really appreciate these videos when I come back to home
4:00 Luca Goers were at Kilika Temple to pray for victory (same as the Aurochs)
The "shin" reading of the "kami" kanji (神) is also used in ShinRa in FF7 ;) (the Ra, incidentally, is like a silk net. Because the company has "captured" god, so to speak)
Im not a big commenter on RUclips but i feel i have to say this.
Final Fantasy X is my favorite game ever and every once in a while i check youtube to see some new content videos that have come out since the last time i checked.
With a few exceptions im usually left dissapointed. Not this time tho.
I really love your analysis of this game and this is the first time since a long time that i feel like im learning something new about the game.
Please keep this as thoroughly
as it is now, really enjoying it.
Greetings
Nearly a year behind, but I'm finally watching this podcast. Really enjoying how in depth you go, Casen, with the iconography and symbolism. Love FFX, minus the bs you have to go through for the Ultimate weapons. Especially that chocobo balloon popping minigame for Tidus' weapon. Ugh. Mike, you look jacked as hell, dude. Have been loving the new format since y'all started it. Gotta catch up to the SH2 pod.
You said this last week I think, but I am loving how much Casen has been taking the wheel. You're both so skilled with symbolism and potential hidden meanings. I also never put together that you're both musicians! Casen, if by any chance you see this I'd love to know if Eddie Van Halen is also your favorite guitarist since he's the first you thought of lol
Dude he was a legend. Probably Stevie Ray Vaughn was my favorite, I loved that blues stuff. Eddie would be a close second, though. Man, I haven't picked up a guitar in years, though. Mike and I once had the idea of playing an outro to each podcast series with a dual guitar arrangement of a song from each game, but we just got so busy that isn't really feasible anymore. Maybe one day, if the podcast continues to grow!
SRV is incredible too. As much as I love "Pride and Joy", when watching this I realized I won't attempt it for the exact reason you said. And that outro idea is amazing, I hope someday you guys are able to do that. Thanks for sharing!
That little blurb at the end about the misinterpretation on your whole Roman Empire spiel is kinda analogous to the Tidus/Yuna laughing scene I think. For some reason, people thought the laughing was just bad acting, even though it is preceded by Yuna talking about putting on a fake smile and Tidus poorly imitating one when she tells him to and then it is immediately followed by actual laughter. Also, that scene holds more than just an attempt at awkward romantic comedy; in retrospect, we can see that Yuna, fully aware of where her pilgrimage will take her, has taken the time to practice concealing the sadness that the pilgrimage brings so that she can uphold the hope a summoner brings to the people. When Tidus tries to force those same sentiments he ends up cheering up Yuna, reversing her attempts at cheering him up, and like the fool that he is it's all unbeknownst to him because he still has no idea where their journey is supposed to take Yuna.
19:25 I think it’s a bit misapprehension that chanting OM/ AUM could extend one’s life. My understanding is that the intention of that practice is to tune into a frequency of timelessness. Not that the ego can become eternal through the practice, but we can transcend ego by (temporarily) tapping into the Timeless Moment. Love that you brought this up, just wanted to throw in this 2cents :)
Amazing podcast, thanks for the great watch fellas
LMAO! Poor Mike at the end . Just tryin to clear his name 🤣
I read that "abe" means "sun festival" in Ainu. I've only seen it mentioned in one source and repeated elsewhere, so I'm not sure if it's accurate. But it fits that sun theme for Tidus. I'm learning so many cool things about my favorite games. Thank you guys!
Commenting again because I just finished the video. Great podcast as always guys.
To touch upon the parallels of Yuna and tidus again (like I mentioned in episode 3 of this podcast) I'll try to stay away from spoilers in this but
The journey that tidus and Yuna go on together is so interesting because of the whole point of the pilgrimage and the end goal of it. What Yuna goes through and the price she is ultimately willing to pay to give spiras people happiness even for a short while is exactly the price tidus pays to achieve that ultimate goal. Again no spoilers, but for those who know, you know what I'm talking about.
Yuna being reborn as a summoner parallels tidus' rebirth into spira, and whats crazy is that whole parallel.
Tidus playing the fool in a fools journey while Yuna plays the hero. Ultimately they are two sides of the same coin, much like the whole sun and moon motif.
There are so many parallels between tidus and Yuna it's no wonder why they end up together and I would love to hear you two talk about them at the end of the podcast when everything is out in the open.
Keep up the good work guys!
Idk if I commented this already but Mike’s Jecht voice is pretty spot on, and it doesn’t even seem intentional.
Top tier analysis and commentary. Good job!!
I think uncomfortable awkward is good for that scene considering what Yuna knows about where her journey is leading to, and what Tidus just learned of his father.
It's kind of interesting that the same idea with the odd laugh was used in One Piece on Robin's backstory, but it's more gut wrenching there.
A couple of thoughts:
With Yuna's kidnapping, they're "not taking any chances" by playing both sides - so long as Wakka can stall the game, they can always throw the match to satisfy the ransom demand if Lulu can't find and rescue Yuna, but if they can rescue Yuna themselves, that avoids taking the chance that the Al Bhed might not keep their end of the bargain once they win (which is another reason for keeping the game tied up rather than making it a landslide for the Psyches).
One big thing that contributes to the laughter clip's reputation is that it's very easy to take the laughter out of context and present it either as a meme or as a bad-faith argument that the (new to the series) voice acting is bad. If all you know about the scene is the laughter without any further context, then it looks a lot worse than it does in the context of the full scene.
Its important to note, as you did 59:30
It’s important to connect:
You both pointed out that Tidus tried so hard to believe that Spira Jecht and Znkd Jecht are different people.
But as soon as Yuna says “Auron has been sighted in town,” it is the first time in the game anyone from Spira mentioned Auron, and Tidus knew immediately, it must be the same guy.
The move Anima uses to kill the fiends is called "Pain".
one of the best podcasts for one of the best games of all-time, keep up the great work guys!
I think FFX does romance better than any other game in the series, and this is coming from a guy who love VII. VIII's romance honestly didn't work for me at all and isn't in the competition for best FF romance.
Agreed. I got absolutely nothing from VIII’s romance. Zero. I think they learned a lot from that and subsequently nailed that aspect of the story in X.
A note, you can attempt to go back up the elevator at the Kilika Cloister of Trials, Tidus will then say "come on, go up.....UP" but nothing happens, each time you try it. I don't understand why though, since it went back up when the others went down........
Cant get enough of these videos
This is amazing, more people need to know this Podcast