Yuna
Becoming a summoner, surviving her duty, vanquishing Sin and bringing
forth an "Eternal Calm", putting down malicious, 1000 year-old spirits, all the while acting as a role model for Spira's people
Meet Yuna as she was then- 17 years old and revered all across Spira; held in high regard with the other known handful of summoners who just may one day save the world.
She did it twice in a period of two years.
Final Fantasy X isn't solely
focused on demure, gentle Yuna, but moreso upon her journey that more or less begins when she meets a strange, amnesiac wanderer named Tidus.
The truth is, Tidus was actually pulled from a dream-city called Zanarkand, that was reportedly destroyed 1000 years before Yuna's time. Their
adventure takes them through a maze of religious fervour, historical lies and the repressed, almost-smothered desperation to break away from
the path laid before them. Beside Tidus, Yuna embraces her grim duty fully, and eventually recognizes their deep, kindred spirited friendship
as a small, deepening love shortly after meeting him. What Tidus didn't know was that Yuna's need to feel alive only rekindled because she was
by his side-and that ultimately, she was walking a path of death and sacrifice only for the good of her people.
Let us start her tale from the beginning, which began with her father,a notable and honoured Summoner, as the Spiran people called them. Braska was not only a Summoner though, but a HIGH Summoner, hislife taken when he willingly challenged the menace plaguing the lands every 10 years- his death and victory granted Spira a short time of peace and quietness, and Braska became a legend and a man to be worshipped from then on. As the monster, a giant, un-thinking beast called Sin, was doomed to return and haunt Spira once more, Yuna followed in her beloved father's footsteps. She recieved her Summoner training in the sleepy village of Besaid as the years slowly crept past. Aided by the friends she saw as siblings (and they in turn eventually officially swore to protect her as Guardians) Yuna grew up with the love and respect of the villagers, blossoming into a mature and kind young woman recognized for her gentle and calm disposition; un-challenging and eager to please, even. Draped in a single gown of white, yellow and purplish hues, Yuna was a vision of loveliness and angelic features, easily recognized in a crowd of those dressed less conservative.
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She was like that when she stood underneath
the night sky in the center of Besaid, the first evening she was looked upon as a full-fledged Summoner. She left those quiet shores shortly
after, armed with the knowledge that her future trainings- should she survive long enough to receive them- would bring her to certain death.
And that was okay. Yuna's Guardians (Auron, Wakka, Lulu, Rikku and Kimahri- Tidus didn't know until much later)pledged themselves to help Yuna
achieve her dismal victory. Yuna knew that the life of a Summoner (and one of her Guardians) had to be given during the rite of the Final
Summoning- a ritual and calling so powerful, that it is an ensured fatality- the Summoner will lose their life in the process of engaging in
the last stages of battle with the eternal Sin, and set it to rest for a period known as "The Calm", by the Spiran people.
Setting off from Besaid (her journey known as a "Pilgrimage") to acquire new, powerful beings- called Aeons -to aid her in her quest, Yuna periodically kept a video diary of her personal and spiritual journey, which was known only to herself. Formerly a girl driven by the quiet hope of bringing calmness to the innocents who so fiercely loved her, Yuna saw herself grow into a real person, with real hopes and fears, constantly hidden behind a mask of youthfulness and tranquility. Shedding the shell that merely wanted the best for those around her, Yuna found herself wanting more than a peaceful existence for the people she would leave behind- no longer was such a precious exchange of life for the good of the Yevonite Church of Spira. In time, Yuna and her Guardians realized that it was wrong to periodically sacrifice a Summoner's life for a temporary cease fire, especially when the nature of her duty was discovered by Tidus, late in her journey. Aided by the friendship of her Guardians, and nurtured by the passion of first love Yuna found herself leaving a path of acceptance and tolerance. Discarding a belief that was held so dear by many Summoners before her, Yuna ultimately rejected her fate and the plight of the world as it had been for so long. She would not die with a being that would return years later to inflict more pain and fear upon the world.
Yuna visited every temple housing an Aeon in Spira and kept on, as her power and support from the people and her friends only increased. Often shy and hesitant at first, Yuna was comforted by the fierce love her companions showed towards her, and very often made the un-rewarding decision to please those that idolized her, rather than to fully experience a moment of quiet and peace for herself. The amount of eyes and pressure focused in her direction, as well as her renewed sense of identity, led Yuna to run away from an arrange marriage (to which she agreed would bring hope and celebration to Spira) and subsequently, an all too continuous life of hardships and routine.
She opened her heart to Tidus, freely, under the moonlight in the springs in Macalania Woods. To her surprise, she received the same flow of love that so quietly emanated from her in waves since meeting him. Their relationship was one of unspoken trust and understanding, friendship further solidifying with every interaction.
Touched by a love that rushed in to fill the void of sadness that had accompanied her on her Summoner Pilgrimage, Yuna shared a sweet waterdance with Tidus in the dark of night, experimenting with newfound romantic, uncertainty and contentment. As with many passionate bonds and relationships, their delirium was short-lived once Yuna's "destiny" to die, came to light, much later on. Tidus and the rest of the Guardians similarly supported Yuna's rejected conscious decision to die and, and spurred on her need to end the bloodshed and loss of life associated only with confronting Sin. Yuna decided that she would only die in her fight in an effort to cease the carnage and Yevonite traditions that had laid waste to Spira for the past 1000 years. In the final moments of her duty as a staff-wielding Summoner, Yuna confronted the cause of Sin's ability to "will" itself to life over and over for so long- and consequently was forced to dance her final dance, by continuously calling upon the precious magical beings of Aeons that had helped her fight, throughout her Pilgrimage. One by one, she and her Guardians destroyed them, as the Aeons' wills became possessed by the evil hiding within the armor of Sin- Yu Yevon. Yuna laid them to rest as their energies hovered and disapated- Yuna survived her encounter with Spira's plague, but tragedy got the best of her once more when she witnessed Tidus quickly disappearing with what she had destroyed. The boy was made up of the same dream-like matter that had brought his city of Zanarkand and the creation of the Aeons to eternal life. The destruction of Spira's 1000 year old traditions, beliefs and the devil fuelling Sin was putting those dreams and beings, hopes and people to rest. Tidus was the one fated to slide into the oblivion that held so many other tired, sleeping souls who had generated his dream-city for so long.
Yuna watched him go with silent horror and uncharacteristic defeat and astonishment washed over her small, pale face. The last of his being disappearing, Tidus walked past Yuna (or rather, through) in utter despair and sadness. Un-responsive when she admitted that she loved him, Tidus threw himself into the Farplane with the rest of his people and those that died before him.
She faced a renewed, rejoicing world with a frozen heart that would perhaps take two more years to thaw into something more real and hopeful. Saddened by the loss of the religion that guided the familiar world that she grew up in, Yuna addressed Spira with an eerie, calm composure most likely comprised of shock, disbelief and a dull sort of happiness for her people. The ex-Summoner stood as Spira's savior, and more symbolically, its own Guardian, and remained quiet about the wounds that festered in her lonely heart. In time though, Yuna would be meant to take up a journey of self-discovery, as she begged the people before her not to forget those lost in the struggle that had haunted their lands for 1000 years.
"Never forget them." ~Yuna