Originally posted here on 2022-07-01.
It’s a good time to be a FFX fan who plays FF mobile games, because not only have I spent many hours over the past few days playing WotV in an earnest attempt at maxing ✨My Boy✨, but also over in DFFOO it’s finally time for BRASKA!!! Or, I guess not, as apparently he’s still not playable yet, even though the events of the chapter literally make reference to him fighting alongside Jecht and Auron … looks like I’ll have to wait another week.
Normally I pay no attention at all to the story in this game and skip all the cutscenes as expediently as possible. Obviously this time I watched them all; it’s interesting to see how Dissidia expands on the lore in the original games in such a careful way, not adding anything too substantial but nonetheless extrapolating from what’s there in such a way as to at least make players think they’re getting some kind of new content. This stuff is clearly not canon, as far as the original games go, so I’m in the happy position of being able to pick and choose which parts of it will be of use to me in fic writing. There are certainly a few interesting bits to think about.
Yuna: I lived here since I was seven years old.
… er … trying to reconcile this with the laws of grammar … I mean, surely “since” should be used with the perfect, i.e. “I have lived here since I was seven years old.” Maybe they’re trying to go with “I started living here when I was seven years old, and I don’t live here anymore.” Which, ok, but that would surely be more elegant with something like “I came to live here when I was seven years old.”
More seriously, there’s a lot of talk of Sir This and Sir That in this chapter for obvious reasons (nothing but respect for my king etc. etc.) – except it’s spelt as Ser every time. Um? I’m fairly certain this isn’t Game of Thrones, and more significantly, the previous chapters all spell it correctly, so this is suddenly just hugely inconsistent. Do translations get fixed in updates in this thing? Because this seems like a fairly major error, tbh. I know they sometimes update the in-battle text, but I hope there’s some kind of late-stage quality control for the story scenes as well.
Anyway, that’s enough language griping so now here’s some waffling about what actually goes on.
Wakka: I hope Vidina isn’t too lonely …
Lulu: Hehe, you finally sound like a father. You needn’t worry – he's a resilient child.
Firstly, the perennial question of “what point in canon were these lads extracted from”; secondly, is Lulu really that happy to have left her probably still newborn-ish baby on his own? Absolute madness.
Tidus: You know, I wonder if Auron and my old man have been here too.
Wakka: Now that you mention it, I think they might’ve! This place is important to them, too, ya?
Lilisette: Let’s look for them!
Yuna: I’m a little worried about them, though …
Tidus: Why’s that?
Yuna: Besaid is full of happy memories for us, but … for them, it was a stop on a journey full of hardship.
I mean, yeah, Auron was clearly pretty sad at this point in the journey, but Jecht didn’t seem to be too concerned by much more than how hungry he was. My fic-conceptualisation of this stage of Braska’s pilgrimage is as a sort of bittersweet Arcadian Interlude, the last chance the three of them had for a fairly carefree time before they turned around and began the real journey towards Zanarkand.
Honestly, I fucking love how the first person to meet Braska is Enna Kros. I very much appreciate her, not just because she’s very attractive (Although She Is), but also because of her weird fascination with drinks. She just wants some of that “exotic juice”. What an icon.
Braska is extremely apologetic and as always, this is about 80% of his personality.
“???”: Do you perhaps …?
Enna Kros: Oh, it appears someone was here before me. I’m not bothering you, am I?
“???”: No, no, not at all, but …
Enna Kros: Oh, you want to ask me something? No problem! Ask away!
“???”: Well, you see … I’m looking for a girl.
Enna Kros: A girl? Care to elaborate?
“???”: Ah … that … on second thought, I can’t imagine why she’d be here. My apologies for the imposition.
Enna Kros: I just have to will it, and a glass of exotic juice will be in my hands!
Oh man, she’s so great.
An interesting bit of Braska monologue:
“???”: No … if I start doubting myself before even attempting to move forward, then I never will. I’ll begin my search, even if I know in my heart it will bear no fruit. And if I do end up meeting her, it will be worth it. She’s more important than life itself.
I think the first part of this is a reference to Braska’s attitude towards his pilgrimage. It would have been very easy for him to doubt himself when everyone else clearly did, given his reminder to Auron before they left Bevelle that “nobody expects us to succeed”. And I do think he did struggle with this – particularly in conjunction with my theory that Braska’s main motivation for becoming a summoner was that he was depressed and wanted his life to end – but almost paradoxically, knowing he would be able to achieve that and do something beneficial for Spira was what gave him the determination to pursue the pilgrimage. Like, I am very convinced that he was not in a good place, but at the same time he was totally unshakeable in his desire to see it through.
Enna Kros: The rules prevent me from helping you out, but I know you’ll find who you’re looking for.
Again, I normally skip all these cutscenes and so I don’t really know the specifics of what this is referring to, but this is weirdly similar to my Theory of Unsent Auron that I’ve already harped on about on other people’s journals. I mean, it’s quite clearly a lazy plothole filler, but at least I’m using the same lazy plothole fillers as whoever’s writing this, lol.
Just in case there was ever any doubt about how hungry Jecht was in that scene:
Auron: Besaid Village is where Yuna grew up. Braska asked me to bring her here once everything was over.
Jecht: He asked you!? I didn’t hear anything about that!
That’s how hungry he was.
Not sure how to feel about the bit that immediately follows:
Auron: Well, I couldn’t do it on my own, so I ended up asking Kimahri to escort her here in my stead.
Jecht: Heh, looks like neither of us can be counted on, eh?
Auron: Indeed. He did what I could not.
I mean, Jecht being casually cruel to Auron is in a way very in character, but on the other hand, Auron is Very Cut Up about this and Jecht surely knows that. I feel like by this nebulous point in the game, where Jecht has already become the Final Aeon (and then somehow transformed back into himself on a mostly permanent basis, whatever), he has become a thoughtful enough person to not be like “lol, Auron, you didn’t even properly follow through on the promise you made to the love of your life your best friend, you shitbag”.
As questionable moments go, though, I think this bit is worse:
Jecht: It was pretty intimidating meeting you in that prison in Bevelle.
Auron: You were unruly and suspicious. We couldn’t let you get near Braska.
Jecht: Hehe, Braska … he really took good care of me. I was wandering around Spira aimlessly till I ended up in that prison. He helped me out – saw that I was worth something. And he was the first one to confront me for what I did.
Ok, so I have a question about pretty much every single one of these sentences. Firstly, is “intimidating” really the right word to describe how Jecht felt about Auron? Based on their early interactions in the spheres it very much seems like if either found the other intimidating, it was Auron reacting that way to Jecht, not the other way around. “We couldn’t let you get near Braska” is also weird – so Auron had to, idk, physically restrain Jecht from getting too close to Braska? Again, what we see in the game really doesn’t imply that at all. And then … “I was just wandering around Spira aimlessly” – so wait, how long had Jecht been in Spira? Did he randomly complete a whole pilgrimage’s worth of travelling on his own before My Boys came to take him on a real one? Did they get to Besaid and then Jecht was like, “oh, I was here last month, lol”? Finally: “confront me for what I did”? What is this referring to – Jecht’s mistreatment of Tidus? I mean, I don’t think there’s another “what I did” that can be compared, so I guess it has to be that. I always assumed Auron would have been the one to take him to task for it, but maybe I’ll see if I can successfully recalibrate that one in my brain.
This line though, 💖💕💘
Auron: He took me in, lost as I was, and allowed me to be his guardian. That’s the kind of person he was.
mmmm that’s the stuff. “Lost as I was”!! Auron!!
Auron: … I’m sorry you two had to be sacrifices.
Jecht: Huh? What’s this all of a sudden?
Auron: And that’s not all I should apologize for. I bet everything on summoning the final aeon, but it didn't fix anything. Forgive me!
Jecht: Hey now, no need to get all dramatic. It's not like I don’t have apologies to make … I was the one who became Sin after the final summoning, after all.
I’ll admit that I am very 😍 in reaction to Auron Being Emotional, but this section is equally puzzling. It’s pretty clear in the game that Auron very much did not want Braska to summon the Final Aeon (also, this is the correct capitalisation, right?). The only way I can get this to fit into canon is if I assume that Auron had a sort of change of heart after Jecht had already become the fayth, and then suddenly became extremely optimistic that Braska would achieve some kind of not-like-the-other-girls Final Summoning and, idk, not die? – but even then … I’m not buying it.
I love how Jecht just yells “I just saw him over there!” and runs off. What a drama queen.
Yuna: Yes, but the true purpose of the pilgrimage is to deepen the bonds between a summoner and their guardians.
Oh! This is interesting – this really is the true purpose of the pilgrimage, i.e. what Yevon doesn’t want you to know. See, summoners are told they have to get all the non-final aeons before being able to retrieve the Final Aeon, but once they actually get to Zanarkand all there is is an old man who just asks to see their eyes, and it seems like the aeons themselves don’t actually matter at all. So the idea that you have to grab all the other aeons first is actually yet another of Yevon’s lies. That does make a lot of sense.
It’s kind of hilarious how Tidus routinely addresses Jecht as “old man”, and when I say routinely, I mean literally all the time.
Ok so:
Jecht: Maybe there was a future where you would have lived here with Braska.
Yuna: Huh?
Jecht: Then we wouldn’t have had to go on that terrible pilgrimage. Sorry about that …
I mean, firstly, plug for that one canon divergence fic I wrote last month amirite, but also, trying to get my head around how this is supposed to have worked chronologically. So Braska and Yuna would already have moved to Besaid? Unless, and hear me out here, this is another slight mistranslation and it would have been closer to the mark to say something like “then we would have been able to put an end to that terrible pilgrimage”. Because see below:
Onion Knight: Hey, why don’t you try telling us about this place? You still have some memories of it, right?
Auron: I do. This is where Braska asked me to take care of Yuna. I sometimes think if I had refused him … maybe he would have turned back so he could take care of her himself.
Ok, ok, so, the idea is that the boys would have completed the first half of the pilgrimage, and then Auron would have refused to bring Yuna to Besaid, and then Braska would have been like “ok, fine, I’ll do it myself” and just moved there with her instead and just been content to abandon the pilgrimage? Again, I am very much not buying it. Also, Auron, you spent the whole pilgrimage trying to think of ways to save Braska and you never thought of something as simple as this, get it together.
Bartz: But you knew what the journey was for all along, right? Would Braska really have turned back after coming all this way?
Auron: Hmph, I’m sure he would’ve. I suppose it's more clear when you've had some space. Braska was stubborn. More stubborn than me, if you can believe it.
I find this part a bit mangled – so Auron thinks that because Braska had come a certain distance on his pilgrimage, he’d have suddenly been perfectly happy to call the rest of it off if Auron had blackmailed him with the threat of, er, not taking care of Yuna? And what has this got to do with his being stubborn – surely that implies the opposite. Although I do love that last bit: Jecht is stubborn, Auron is so stubborn, and Braska is so stubborn. Perfect.
Part eight, aka everyone simping for Auron. Mood 👌
Also, love this random callout to Zack’s jealousy of his SOLDIER superiors:
Kimahri: Bonds of three run deep. No one else can get between them.
Zack: Yeah, but …!
Lol, he’s very offended.
I find it interesting that Jecht gives his rationale for giving up drinking after he attacked the shoopuf as “I couldn’t risk Braska’s reputation coming to harm”. I was expecting something more like “I’d realised how important the pilgrimage was”. Maybe that’s something worth thinking about. (Also, again with the inconsistent capitalisation here … Yuna and Tidus say Shoopuf, while Jecht, more sensibly, says shoopuf.)
There’s an awkwardly shoopuffed shoehorned-in “right thing to do” in Tidus’ dialogue here.
And then the big reveal:
Tidus: And it’s not like I don’t understand how you feel. I know that Yuna’s father … he was your first friend, right?
Jecht: … Might’ve been. (Yeah, I guess so. He was a good one.)
Ok, so this is fascinating. Again, not quite how I saw it – I think, actually, I have trouble imagining anyone becoming friends with Braska while he’s on his pilgrimage, mostly because Braska seems very saintly and untouchable and also Ready For Death. Jecht and Auron became friends, definitely, although it would have been a very gradual process. But I can see that Braska would have taken to Jecht much more quickly – it’s just the idea of him actually becoming friends with Jecht – idk. I can see it, I just need to adjust how I’m viewing the situation a bit, I think. And the idea that Jecht didn’t have friends in Zanarkand because he was too much of a celebrity is also very 👀 to me – definitely something worth thinking about.
Just some more gratuitous Auron Being Emotional:
Seymour: The salvation of death is not a gift I can give in this world. So I’ll do the next best thing.
Yuna: Is that why you tried to trick us before? Is that why you said my father was here?
Auron: He said that …!?
Jecht: You heartless bastard!
Seymour: Hehehe … as if you have the right to criticize me. How is this any different than your transformation into Sin?
Auron: They’re nothing alike! Jecht didn’t choose to do that! It was the only way! The only way to protect Spira! Braska knew what had to be done. I won’t let you sully their memory!
My boy! Please!
Ok, so Braska turns up and it’s all very no homo as expected. “Braska, is that really you?” says Auron coolly. This bit, though:
Braska: You really have grown up. You look just as your mother did when I met her. You’ve become quite an impressive woman.
Um … Braska, this is a bit much. Especially when the “impressive woman” … well, I thought he was referring to, you know, destroying Sin for good and all that, but then we find out he doesn’t even know about that stuff yet. So … she’s impressive because she looks like your wife? Braska, stop being creepy! Stop looking at women like that and find a nice guardian to pair off with!
On the other hand, this is cute:
Tidus: I’m happy for you, Yuna. I … I really am!
Jecht: Don’t tell me you’re gonna start crying!
Tidus: Shut … shut up!
I also appreciate Seymour’s very melodramatic angst:
Seymour: (Why is it only Lady Yuna who gets back what she’s lost? Why is only she allowed to smile so? Is it because she’s the daughter of the High Summoner? Is that why I’m forbidden such happiness?)
Auron does his big apology to Braska and Braska is obviously like “lol what are you apologising for”, and all that is Good Shit; and then this bit:
Auron: Braska …
Braska: Haha … I noticed you stopped calling me “Lord” …
Auron: Huh!? I … well, that …
Braska: And you’ve aged. I believe Jecht and I look younger than you do now.
Jecht: You’ve got that right. He’s become an old man.
Auron: I don’t wanna hear it, Jecht.
Not sure “wanna” is quite right for Auron despite his famously inconsistent linguistic register, but idk, that whole exchange is cute and Auron losing his cool in front of Braska is absolutely what I like to see.
More banter between my boys:
Jecht: These types of monsters fall fastest if you hit 'em head-on!
Auron: Don’t rush ahead like an idiot.
Braska: We needn’t worry about him, Auron. Let Jecht do as he will.
Jecht: See! Braska knows how to let me do my thing!
Braska: That way, Jecht can take the worst of the hits.
Auron: Heh … of course.
Jecht: H-hey!
Tidus: Psh. How embarrassing.
Tidus, omg.
Yuna says “I’ve never seen my father like this!”, which is kind of weird because she hasn’t seen him at all since she was seven years old, but also fits my theory that Jecht’s behaviour on the pilgrimage made Braska noticeably less unhappy than he had been for some time. And then, as if that wasn’t enough:
Auron: Now that Braska’s here, I’m not going to let you take all of the credit.
Are you … showing off in front of him? Is that what this is, Auron? (um, adorable)
Then this fucking entire battle dialogue:
Jecht: Now then, time for a beating, delivered by yours truly!
Braska: Auron, please back Jecht up. I’ll support you from here.
Auron: Got it. When should I …?
Braska: You know when. The same as always.
Auron: Hmph. Just like the good old days, huh?
These guys! So much love!! I have no idea what they’re referring to but I just love the idea that Auron has, like, a special no-need-to-mention-it-by-name battle technique that he uses … only when he’s with Braska? Man I love them.
(Both Jecht and Auron were in my party at this point, because they’re the characters I have maxed obviously, so it seemed even more odd that Braska isn’t actually playable yet.)
Braska summons Valefor, which is presumably his strongest aeon given the context. Because he completed his journey in the other direction from Yuna, in my opinion, Bahamut is the least powerful of his aeons but perhaps the one he’s most attached to, which maybe explains why it’s Bahamut’s fayth that ends up guiding Tidus. My hypothesis is that each of the fayth gives the summoner a little more power when they see the summoner is already in possession of previous aeons: so Yuna’s version of Valefor is fairly weak as it’s her first one, while Braska already has four of them when he meets Valefor’s fayth, so she gives him her full power.
Can we, ahem, just end with some more Auron Being Emotional:
Auron: (Braska must be beyond happy to finally converse with his daughter fully grown … they’re reunited at last!)
Kimahri: Auron brought everyone together. Kimahri escorted Yuna, but only because Auron asked. Forgive self, Auron. Kimahri think that for the best.
Auron: Kimahri …!
Auron …! Auron!! 😭