-Tidus, unconscious on a beach.
-That temple music comes back as Tidus surveys the corpse-strewn sand.
-In a really fantastic touch, the game provides each of these corpses with epithets. “Reclining, breathless.” “Instant, painless, death.” Etc.
-lol I just realized I’m an inhuman monster. Out of habit, I was pressing the “sign to a blitzball contract” button on each of the corpses. Wtf coldrun.
-Gatta.
-Sin turns to leave.
Squall sees this and screams, “Don’t you run away from me!” This is heartbreaking. Starts chasing after Sin.
-Up above, Yuna is panicking, saying she’ll try summoning something. Seymour stops her – her powers are too weak to do anything.
-She starts casting a summon, when Seymour yells out, “You can’t!”
-Oh god, Tidus is swimming underwater after Sin. This seems like a bad idea.
-Whoa. Wtf is this. Ghost dream world?
-I JUST SAW LUZZU’S GHOST WALK BY. This must be the world spirits dwell in before being Sent.
-That stealthy kid appears. He’s not translucent like the others.
-Looks at the camera, shakes his head, and a blitzball appears to hurl at the screen. Some kind of Tidus dream sequence perhaps?
-Flashback. Jecht being his normal asshole self, and Tidus distant.
-Christ. Jecht is an alcoholic. Tidus asks him to stop drinking, and Jecht says “tomorrow,” and proceeds to taunt his crying son.
-Tidus wakes up again, unconscious on a beach. As usual.
TIDUS: “People die, and Yuna dances. When will she stop dancing? When will it stop?” Brava, Yuna, for performing the sending after experiencing such trauma. Oof.
-Auron is here, commenting how many “stories ended here today.” But not Tidus’.
-omg. Just noticed I don’t have the two Lv1 Key Spheres I thought I had, but rather 7 of them. I can be way freer with them than I had been.
-HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.
-I DIDN’T EVEN THINK OF THIS. THIS WAS A PURGING OF THOSE WHO DID NOT FOLLOW YEVON, AND THE MAESTERS USED SIN TO DO IT. Maesters, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to hell.
-Kinoc doesn’t admit to it, but I trust Auron on this.
-Seymour comes by and tries to buck up a terrified and overwhelmed Yuna.
¬SEYMOUR: “Yuna, take me as your pillar of strength. As Yunalesca had her lord Zaon.” I need context on that referenced relationship before I can know whether this is just saying “see me as a role model” or whether he’s propositioning her. Probably the former.
-She doesn’t really respond. No context for now.
-Auron said Jecht!Sin came here for Tidus. Uh. I thought it was for the Sinspawn. If Tidus weren’t here, he wouldn’t have come? That’s pretty fucked up, Jecht!Sin.
-Oh. He showed up here because he wants Tidus to stop him. How do you know? I wonder if we’ll get a flashback at some point to when Jecht turns into Sin. Also, I’ve gotten the sense that it’s the summoners who stop Sin. Or maybe the summoners can only stop Sin temporarily, and it’ll take a Prophesied Chosen One of Some Sort to actually end Sin.
-A Crusader here believe his organization is done for. Should have listened to the teachings of Yevon, in his words. Fuck the Maesters.
-O’aka is here. Just selling items, not weapons and armor now.
---
On With the Pilgrimage! Djose Highroad
-Kimahri spoke! To say how it’s Yuna’s role to be cheerful in dark times, and Tidus should try not to focus on it.
-LOLOL KIMAHRI’S SMILE ATTEMPT
Not that Tidus can talk. His false smile attempt was… unsuccessful.
-Some of the surviving Crusaders are heading for succor to the Djose temple. They may not be allowed in. Excommunicated, after all.
-Found Al Bhed Primer vol. XI. G->K.
-I still haven’t swapped over to the shorter Aeon summoning option. It doesn’t happen that often, and there’s something charming about how sweet Yuna is to the aeons. How Ifrit places her on his shoulder, and how Valefor nuzzles her.
-Good. The Djose monks are out here helping the Crusaders.
-Lulu gives us a preview of what’s next. Down the Moonflow to the Guado city of Guadosalam, then across the Thunder Plains to the temple of Macalania.
-We reach a crossroads, but I can’t go left. The Djose Temple is right, and that’s my only option right now.
-The party moves on, but Auron stays a bit back with Tidus. Auron warns Tidus not to tell Yuna about Sin and Jecht, but not for the reason I was expecting. I thought he’d fear that she’d be distracted by the knowledge given how much she respected Jecht, and might hold off when it came time to kill Sin.
But no. Auron says he fears if Yuna knew, she’d distance herself from Tidus. More and more, this makes me believe that Tidus’s role is as Yuna’s knight, some sort of prime/alpha guardian. Like the role Squall played for Sorceress Rinoa in FFVIII.
-Heh. Turns out that Auron told Tidus in the first place for the same reason I thought he didn’t tell Yuna. Didn’t want him to find out at a critical moment, become emotional, and fail in his duty in some way.
---
Djose – Pilgrimage Road
-The ground shook. Everyone seems pretty calm though, so it’s not Sin returning.
-Awww! Little Momos running around!
-Lucil survived, thank goodness. Only one chocobo made it.
-Every survivor seems to believe that they got what they deserved for abandoning the teachings of Yevon, and I HATE IT because that’s exactly what Kinoc (and probably Seymour) wanted.
-We reach the temple itself and the earth shakes again. I’ll bet the Fayth inside is Titan.
-The music is playful. A bit like the duck theme from “Peter and the Wolf.”
-OK THAT’S FUCKING COOL. The rock surrounding the temple zaps with electricity and releases, like a protective shield opening up.
Changing my guess to it being Ramuh.
-This is the “Lightning Mushroom Rock.” Uh oh. It only opens when a summoner addresses the Fayth. Signs point to Dona.
-A new fiend is coming up judging by the tutorial board here. Ochu. It unleashes a flurry of status attacks that I’m not at all ready for and wipes me out.
My new least favorite enemy. If this is an Ochu, I’d hate to see FFX’s take on Malboro.
-Gatta is here, outside the temple. He’s a mess. Cannot remotely deal with what he saw in the Sin attack, and I do not at all blame him. Luzzu’s dead. Gatta plans to head back to Besaid.
CLASKO: “No matter what we do next, we’re going to do it for Yevon, that’s for sure!”
FHDSJKLFHDSJKLFHLFHDLSK
---
Djose Temple
-A dude comes to meet us, and he’s wearing some sweet-looking garb.
-Isaaru. A summoner. Not Dona. We also meet Pace and Maroda, his guardians. He’s always looked up to Yuna’s father, Lord Braska, from when he was a kid.
-Isaaru wants to make this a race to defeat Sin. I mean, ok. Seems a bit like a thing you wouldn’t want to “race” to, but he appears good-natured enough.
-He’s going down where we came from. Towards Kilika, then Besaid.
-Oh God. I can’t. A chocobo knight is here, mourning his dead chocobo companion, and I can’t.
---
Next time: to the Djose Fayth.
