Just did one of my semi-regular dememe searches for “auron” and it turns out someone asked a question about Braska’s pilgrimage on a post that just closed tonight … I’m thrilled to see people who aren’t me discussing FFX in the year of our lord etc., but disappointed that I just missed the post rolling over without being able to reply (tbh probably good for them that I didn’t have the chance to expound on every single one of my beliefs about the topic). This is something I wanted to note down my thoughts on at some point anyway, so I might as well do it now and feel like I’m talking about something vaguely relevant in contemporary fandom discourse (lol as if).
The question was about how Yuna gets to know Jecht before/during Braska’s pilgrimage. Braska clearly didn’t take her with him so it can’t have happened on the road, but she has a couple of lines in the game that imply she was well acquainted with Jecht:
Yuna: You know that team?
Tidus: Putting people down … they’re as bad as my old man!
Yuna: But Sir Jecht was a kind and gentle man!
and:
Yuna: I do believe your Zanarkand exists. I really do, you know.
Tidus: How come?
Yuna: Sir Jecht used to always tell me stories. It’d be great to see your home someday.
As I see it, there are three ways Yuna could have got to know Jecht:
Braska and his guardians presumably headed south first, then back northward towards Zanarkand, so they could have gone through Bevelle or at least passed very close to it on the return journey. It’s conceivable that they could have stopped off in the city for a while, and Yuna could have spent time with Jecht then. This could fit with the impression of him as a “kind and gentle man”: if he’d already spent time on the pilgrimage, come to understand its importance, and given up drinking/generally turned over a new leaf, he presumably would have been nicer than Tidus remembered him. This may very well be the sensible option but I don’t think it’s necessarily that great for fic writing purposes – it kind of ruins the momentum that the pilgrimage is building up. In my WIP Braska thinks seeing Yuna at this point will be too emotionally damaging for both of them, and Auron also wants to avoid Bevelle for Reasons, so they stay away (and I consequently don’t need to include several chapters about the boys twiddling their thumbs in Bevelle for several days/weeks).
Option two: Jecht spent time with Braska before the pilgrimage. When Braska comes to release him from the prison, he says “I soon leave on a pilgrimage, to Zanarkand” – in my WIP I’m interpreting that as, er, “tomorrow soon”, but again this is partly done so I don’t have to include a load of filler chapters. So perhaps after Jecht is released Braska still has preparations to make, and so Jecht maybe stays with him and Yuna for a while (assuming Yuna is living with Braska at this point, which could also be a point of contention). I think for this option to be feasible Auron would need not to be around – he’s so prickly with Jecht in the spheres from early in the pilgrimage that it seems pretty clear they haven’t spent much time together yet – and I do think it would be odd for Auron not to be there while Braska is making his final preparations, so that’s what casts doubt on this option for me, as well as it causing a similar but less pronounced loss of momentum from a fic writing perspective.
Wild card: what if Yuna doesn’t physically spend that time with Jecht? This is the option I’ve gone for in my WIP, so I don’t waste space making everyone wait around in Bevelle. We know the lads have a sphere recording device with them: my interpretation is that Braska intended it to be used for taking regular spheres for Yuna in order to make himself feel slightly less guilty about leaving her behind. Let’s say he takes one every evening and sends them to her in the post, until they get to the Calm Lands travel agency and the limit of human civilisation (you may dispute the idea that Spira has post, but I will only accept fictional universes with well-funded, non-privatised public services, please and thank you). I’m sure Auron would let Braska take the spheres in peace, but Jecht would definitely be muscling in on them, and maybe, without Auron there to make remarks, that’s where he tells long rambling stories about his Zanarkand – so despite not actually spending much time in his company, Yuna feels like she gets to know him quite well.
The perception of Jecht as “a kind and gentle man” could also be influenced by general beliefs among the Spiran population. We know there’s a sort of folk memory of Auron and a myth that’s been created around him as the “legendary guardian”, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest there could also be common beliefs about Jecht. So, conceivably, if Yuna characterises Jecht that way, it doesn’t necessarily mean she knew him personally (although the other line provides firmer evidence).
Bonus question: did Yuna know Auron at this stage? In the sphere she records for her guardians, she says this:
Sir Auron, Kimahri told me: when my father wanted me taken from Bevelle to Besaid – it was you who told Kimahri, right? I had always wanted to meet you someday. I am truly glad that I had that chance.
The use of “meet you” rather than e.g. “meet you again” really makes it sound as if they hadn’t been acquainted before, unless this is a result of awkwardness in the expression (or inaccuracies in the translation, but I prefer considering this kind of thing from an entirely in-world perspective). This may suggest that Auron and Braska didn’t know each other that well before the pilgrimage, or perhaps that if they did, Auron was convinced that it wasn’t his place to get in the way of Braska and Yuna’s relationship. (In the WIP I’ve gone for the latter interpretation, mostly because I’m pushing the “Auron has been pining after Braska for a very long time” agenda.)
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final fantasy ten: meta