Random meta thought...

[auronlu]

• Final Fantasy VII is a party of people who lie to themselves to get by.
  
• Final Fantasy X is a party of people who find different ways to deal with grief and loss.

...inspired by pondering Mintywolf's current FFX Playthrough.

We were talking about the scene between Auron and Tidus on the docks when Auron tells T. the truth about his father, T. loses it and blames everything on Auron, and Auron starts laughing.

I noted that Auron has a certain sympathy for Tidus precisely because Auron himself used to be very high-strung. The only ways he knows to deal with grief are to get angry (which he used to do), weep (which is what Tidus does) or laugh (which is what Auron does now).

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

FFXII is a party cast of people who confront the lies they tell about themselves, lies born from different ways of dealing with grief and loss? ;)

[auronlu]

Heh. That works.



Although I suspect this is one of those posts I'll look back at tomorrow and shake my head, because it only seemed clever at the time.

[zen_monk]

It's kinda like how in FFX everyone knows the full stakes of their lifestyle so they use everything they can to cope with that reality. It's like an existence where there's continual grief and loss at a much grander scale than the usual life passing on to death. Though, I suppose especially recently since whatever kind of life before Braska's pilgrimage could've been more... sustained, in a way, but people feeling that anxiety that any minute now Sin is going to rise up again.

I feel in FFVII, it's just that people are at a point where they put themselves through apathy because it's a slower death even though everywhere around them there's threat of decay and trauma. AVALANCHE knew about it, but even they sometimes lie to themselves via their moral obligation. It's kinda like no one really knows how the world works, and the ones who do just try to live as much as they can before the eventual devastation.

[samuraiter]

One more reason why Auron is awesome. He chose to grow up.

[mintywolf]

Yes. :D And in X the party of people deal with their grief and loss, for the most part, by covering it up and hiding it, even from themselves.

In addition to what you said about Auron, Tidus repeatedly emphasizes that his only feelings towards his father are anger and hatred to keep his grief over his loss at bay. Yuna has trained herself to hide her sadness by smiling. Wakka shrugs it off and says "Well, stuff happens. Best not to worry," to keep himself from dwelling on the loss of his brother. Lulu keeps her past sorrows carefully buried, and conceals her grief by lashing out in anger when they're uncovered. Rikku "keeps her memories inside," and puts on a cheerful front for everyone even though she's troubled. And Kimahri keeps ALL of his emotions concealed from everyone.

[auronlu]

Summed up all of them better than I could've put it.

Also, in some ways, Auron is using evasive non-answers to avoid talking about his own pain. Of course, it's in service to the story, so that Tidus can discover the truth in stages, but it's also a coping mechanism. (We see Auron completely lose it when faced with the raw image of his past failure to stop Braska and Jecht.)

tongue in cheek

[flonnebonne]

Final Fantasy IV is a party of future kings and other important people who have nothing better to do with their time than fly to the mooooon in a whale.

Final Fantasy V is a party of generally well-adjusted if strange people dealing with their problems in generally positive if strange ways!

Final Fantasy VI is, like FFX, a party of people who find different ways to deal with grief and loss.

Final Fantasy VIII is a party of TEENAGERS.

Final Fantasy IX is...huh, I am stumped on this one. Maybe they are also generally well-adjusted if strange people dealing with their problems in generally positive if strange ways!

Re: tongue in cheek

[auronlu]

FFVIII was my first Final Fantasy, and I affectionately dubbed it "The Legion of Sulky Teenagers." That game is most enjoyable if you take the player-role of a fond, patient and amused teacher who knows that high school students are dealing with life's shit for the first time and it's SO HARD.

Associating FFIX with FFV will help me enjoy it more. I hit the frog thing and the rat (oh, I shame myself for not properly appreciating Freya the first time around) and the random annoying assassin-whatsit in red with the coral growing on his head and I had no idea why they were with the party at ALL.

Re: tongue in cheek

[flonnebonne]

Yep, IX (and more recently Dissidia) make zero sense without some history with FF. I admit I have never been able to like Amarant or Quina, but I could at least see where they were coming from (Amarant = Shadow's descendant, Quina = the usual blue mage + "cute" animal? sidekick) so they didn't bother me too much. And I liked Freya from the getgo. Dragoons = automatically more fun during battle, and she was our first female one. :D