Macalania Woods
-O’aka is here. He even asks me if his prices are too high, too low, or just right. I say “just right.” They’re ok.
-Found next volume of Al Bhed Primer. I’m an Al Bhed Cbaygan.
-The woods here are extra sparkly.
-Auron stops. “It is here… somewhere.” Uh… Auron? You okay buddy?
-He hacks a path through the crystalline trees.
-It’s a spring. Quite pretty. OH!!! This is a spring of what trees are made of. Absorbs memories.
-And attracts fiends. Boss time.
Spherimorph.
-Rikku stole a Turbo Ether.
-It’s watery. Maybe Ixion will help.
-Yes! Ixion was a good choice. It casts Thunder, and Ixion absorbs that. However, I just use regular attacks. Don’t want to use Aerospark, since Lulu’s Bio successfully poisoned it and I don’t want to negate that.
-Victory! It sorta melts.
“Obtained Jecht’s sphere.” WAIT WHAT. Like, his will?
-Aha. Jecht left it here 10 years ago. That’s how Auron knew to come to this place.
-omg young auron
-There’s Lord Braska too. They’re about to depart on the pilgrimage it looks like.
-The music is somehow jauntier than I would’ve expected. Like we’re moseying into the ol’ saloon.
-This little home video reel of the pilgrimage shows Auron as the serious guardian and Jecht as the “what’s the hurry, maaaan?” dudebro fucking around.
-Hey, look, future!Jecht is still an asshole. Makes another crack about Tidus crying. Yeah, he tries to follow it up with “I guess I’d understand, but there’s a time to stop crying and move on!” Still don’t like you. At all.
At the end: “Anyways… I believe in you. Be good.” Clearly working on some sort of redemption arc here. On trying to be the dad that was fierce and not good at showing love and just wanted his son to grow up tough or something.
-Jecht took all these videos to show to Tidus when he returned to Zanarkand. The pilgrimage changed him though – started taking things more seriously.
-Whatever judgments of Jecht’s failure as a father, Tidus can relate to Jecht’s journey once he got to Spira. The need to truly commit, to give up hope of going back home to help this world.
-There are Jecht’s Spheres all over Sphere to find. Secrets!
-Auron finally got another overdrive: Shooting Star.
-As we leave, Auron tells Tidus that Jecht loved Tidus, just didn’t know how to express it. Tidus isn’t really sure how to take this. Right there with ya.
And as much as I’m ripping on Jecht, I appreciate that they’re fleshing him out as a character. Note: fleshing him out does NOT necessarily mean apologizing for him or making him sympathetic or saying that Tidus should forgive him.
It just means he’s a fuller person, and it’s really hard for that to be a bad thing.
---
Lake Macalania – Agency
-The landscape becomes snowy.
-Clasko! And his chocobo. He got left behind by the other knights.
-Clasko is kind of great. Gives the chocobo neck scritches when it wants.
-He asks me whether I think he should be a breeder or knight. I go with breeder.
-Yuna is feeling quiet and down in the agency.
-Maechen is here to tell me about Macalania. The lake is always frozen. The temple’s fayth causes this phenomenon. I smell either Shiva or Shiva!Substitute.
TIDUS to YUNA: “Don’t forget to smile, remember?” Hey, Tidus, don’t forget to fuck off, remember? (Like, I get that this was one of their little in-jokey moments, but still not great to say to a woman with the particular concerns and pressures Yuna’s facing.)
-Was gonna play some blitzball. But I’ll hold off until after Macalania Temple.
-Stole Sleeping Powder from a Snow Wolf.
-Trommell meets us. He’s pleasantly surprised that we’ve arrived, and his voice again makes me doubt everything.
-He says that Yuna will likely be allowed to continue journeying even after marriage. I literally doubt every word out of this man’s mouth.
Trommell will take Yuna to Seymour while the party will stay at the agency for now.
-OH SHIT AL BHED ATTACK!! (I’ll bet they’re the ones who took Dona. Or should I say… “Al Bhed, they’re the ones who took Dona!” …sorry)
-Rikku seems to stare them down. One dude from above shouts something that I translate as: “Rikku! Don’t interfere or you _et this!”
-They’re using an anti-magic field against us. Pretty sweet looking piece of machina.
Crawler.
-Well. That didn’t last long. One SplashyBop (overdrive) from Wakka knocked out the negator.
-Its mana beam is a brutal attack.
-Victory!
-Rikku starts talking to one of the Al Bhed. “Yuna is safe! We will ki_n_ her! She is safe!
-The Al Bhed replies: “You do this alone, _i____!”
-OH SHIT I FORGOT THAT WAKKA DIDN’T KNOW RIKKU WAS AL BHED
-That attacker was her brother.
-Wakka gets hostile, but Rikku pushes back. Saying that she and the Al Bhed aren’t against Yevon. They don’t believe Sin came about because of machina usage. (I’m with her.)
RIKKU: “Yevon says this! Yevon says that!”
RIKKU GOING HAM
-This is a really cool argument. Wakka believes faith will make Sin go away, Rikku believes otherwise. That she needs to enact some change.
-I love how supportive Lulu is being here.
-We’re about to hop on some speeder things.
-Lulu and Tidus share a speeder and some conversation.
-Lulu thinks Rikku “is… fun to be with.” That’s pretty light.
-Conversation turns to Wakka’s hatred for the Al Bhed. Comes back to Chappu.
-Oh boy. Lulu doesn’t know about Jecht!Sin either. The central mystery for me is what the deal is with Sin. I don’t think the answer will be anything simple, not the way it was for someone like the boss of Chrono Trigger just falling from the sky.
-I have the chance to backtrack down where we just took the speeder, but I don’t really want to do that right now, especially without Yuna.
-Arrived at Macalania Hall. The man guarding it is VERY hesitant to let Rikku inside.
Auron sticks up for her, vouches for her. We head in.
---
Next time: Macalania.
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