Before we get started, I want to open this video with a disclaimer in that this particular analysis
will be slightly more different from my other videos, as it does deal with sensitive social
topics such as hate crimes, religion, and bigotry. If these issues may be upsetting to you, feel free
to stop the video and check out my other videos. Outside of that, I hope you enjoy the video.
When you think of Final Fantasy, more than likely you think of either swords,
magic, or protagonists with the good hair. Final Fantasy has been around since 1987 and is one of
the best-selling video game franchises of all time, and although many of the games
are known for their amazing characters, awesome music, and compelling stories,
Final Fantasy has not ever been shy in addressing social topics of today's society, with one game in
particular that focused on a few issues around its main story line. Let's take a look about
the message behind Final Fantasy X, and how it addresses the issues of racism and religion.
Final Fantasy X is about a young man named Tidus, who is a star of the fictional sport of Blitzball
until one night during a game, a monster known as Sin attacks his home of Zanarkand and transports
Tidus to the world of Spira, where Sin also runs rampant. Tidus eventually meets Yuna, a summoner
whose mission is to go on a pilgrimage to stop Sin with the help of Aeons and the final Aeon,
which she will get in the ruins of Zanarkand, as this Zanarkand has been destroyed for 1000 years.
Tidus also meets her guardians Wakka, fellow blitzball player, Lulu, a stoic black mage,
and Kimarhi, Yuna's guardian since she was a young girl. Tidus also runs into Auron,
a friend of his father Jecht who has since passed on and joined Braska, Yuna's father,
10 years ago to bring the Calm, a period of peace which happens when Sin is defeated. Auron was also
watching over Tidus at the request of Jecht and was present when Sin attacked Zanarkand.
They also run into Yuna's last guardian, Rikku, an Al Bhed girl who is Yuna's cousin and who saved
Tidus from the ruins of Baaj Temple when he first landed in Spira. As the journey progresses on,
Tidus learns more about the teachings of Yevon that also tie in to the pilgrimages of summoners,
and midway through the game, the group realizes that Yevon's teachings are hypocritical – for
example, machina (or machines) are forbidden in most cases, especially as use of weaponry,
but the Crusaders, volunteer warriors led by Wen Kinoc who is a Master of Yevon, use the
machina weapons alongside the Al Bhed (a tribe of technologists who use machina and generally
oppose Yevon's teachings), in an effort to stop Sin. They find out the Final Summoning is a lie,
as a guardian is chosen to become the Final Aeon in a ritual that kills the summoner.
Although this ritual destroys the current Sin, the chosen guardian goes on to be the next Sin
and the cycle continues; thus Spira lives up to its name, the spiral of death. On top of that,
the Maesters, or leaders of Yevon, are undead and use the teachings to wield power as they see fit,
even though summoners are taught to send the bodies of those who died to the afterlife so
they don't become fiends, or monsters. Tidus also learns he is a dream of the fayth; fayth
are the souls of people who go under a ritual that remove their souls and seal their bodies in stone
tablets. The fayth lend their strength in the form of Aeons to Summoners. Tidus is from a Dream
Zanarkand, which was ordered into existence after the original Zanarkand was destroyed in a Machina
War. The fayth want Tidus to destroy Sin once and for all, but if he does so, the dreaming will end
and Tidus and Jecht will cease from existence. Tidus initially keeps this from his companions,
but reveals this after their final fight with Sin. Yuna and her guardians find a way inside Sin,
and destroy the current final aeon, free the aeons with Yuna, and destroy Yu Yevon once and for all.
The Eternal Calm is brought, and Spira is finally free from Sin's destruction once and for all.
Before we can really dive fully into the religion of Yevon and why the teachings are so problematic,
we first need to talk about a character who is deeply affected by the teachings from before
Final Fantasy X and up until the end of the game, and that is our orange haired friend Wakka. Wakka
grew up on the island of Besaid with his younger brother Chappu, and fellow orphan Lulu. Their
parents were killed by Sin, so Wakka raised Chappu as more of a parental figure than a brother.
It was at this early age that Wakka became a devout Yevonite, believing if people stuck to
the teachings of Yevon and atoned, their sins would be forgiven and Sin would disappear. By
the age of 13, Wakka began playing for the local Blitzball Team, the Besaid Aurochs, as his brother
also started to learn blitzball. Around this time, Yuna was also brought to the Besaid Island by
Kimahri at the request of Auron, as Yuna's father just defeated Sin and ended his pilgrimage. This
particular period of time takes place 10 years before Final Fantasy X and is the beginning of
"Braska's Calm." Nine years later and one year before the events of Final Fantasy X, Luzzu,
a friend of Chappu's, convinces him to enlist with The Crusaders after declaring his love for Lulu,
and was quoted in saying “Being with your girl is good, but keeping Sin away from her is better.”
Wakka gifted Chappu the sword Brotherhood, but Chappu preferred fighting with an Al Bhed machina.
Chappu died near Djose fighting Sin, and because of this, Wakka began to resent the Al Bhed, as
Yevonites usually viewed them as heretics because of their opposition of the summoner's pilgrimage.
Wakka's prejudice of the Al Bhed is first evidenced when Auron suggests to stop at
Rin's Travel Agency, protesting that it's not only ran by an Al Bhed who doesn't believe in Yevon,
but also at the fact that they kidnapped Yuna during the Bliztball Tournament in Luca.
Yuna and her guardians also witness Maester Seymour giving his blessing to the Crusaders
in the upcoming Operation Mi'ihen; however, Wakka is shocked by this because they are using machina
along with the Al Bhed. When confronting Maester Seymour about it, Seymour responds
with although machina is forbidden, both the Crusaders and Al Bhed wish for peace for Spira,
and to pretend they didn't see machina or hear Seymour say that. Luzzu also confesses to Wakka
not too long after that it was him who convinced him to join the Crusaders. This infuriates Wakka
as he had no knowledge of this; however Lulu did, which furthers his hate for the Al Bhed even more.
While crossing the Moonflow, Wakka tells Tidus to look at the sunken city in the river below
and begins to talk more about why Yevon has a problem with machina. Wakka believes that the city
was sunken below because they tried to defy the law of nature by building a city over the river,
however, Tidus does not believe this is the case. Wakka states that Yevon has taught them that when
people have too much power, they seek to use it (a line that later rings true in a different
context). Yevon allows the use of machina for entertainment purposes, such as the blitzball
stadium and video & audio spheres, but forbids machina used for weaponry. Lulu and Wakka also
talk a little bit about Sin's origin – 1000 years ago, The Machina War took place between Bevelle
and Zanarkand. Bevelle used machina so powerful that they almost destroyed the entire world. Yu
Yevon, a summoner and leader of Zanarkand turned the survivors into fayth to create Dream Zanarkand
and then went on to become the first incarnation of Sin without an aeon at its core. Sin would go
on to destroy cities that relied too heavily on technology or cities that grew too large,
because of its memory of Bevelle wielding machina. After telling this story, Yuna is then kidnapped
by a machina and is saved by Wakka and Tidus. Wakka begins to theorize why Yuna was kidnapped
again, and begins to insult the Al Bhed loudly, not knowing that Yuna herself is half-Al Bhed,
as her father married an Al Bhed woman. One of the biggest ironic moments is shortly after, Tidus is
reunited with Rikku who reveals she was behind the machina, and when the group discovers them,
Tidus introduces her as the person who saved his life, almost giving away her Al Bhed heritage.
Rikku's hidden Al Bhed heritage does not last long, however, as while Yuna is about to be
escorted by Tromell Guado to Macalania Temple, Rikku's brother (who is literally named Brother),
attacks the group with machina to prevent her from reaching the temple. Rikku converses with
her brother after the battle, and Rikku admits to Wakka she was an Al Bhed. Wakka gets into
an argument with Rikku about the teachings of Yevon and about Al Bhed being heathens for using
machina, and it goes around in circles as Wakka is steadfast believing that as soon as people atone
for their sins, Sin will go away, while Rikku says there may be another way instead of having
to rely on summoners. Tidus protests that although Rikku is Al Bhed, he knows she is a good person,
much like Auron when meeting Rikku for the first time didn't care Rikku was an Al Bhed,
as long as she was certain in protecting Yuna and as long as Yuna was OK with it. Matters are
complicated even more when they realize the truth about Seymour in a sphere dropped by Jyscal Guado,
the father of Seymour, trying to escape the Farplane in Guadosalam – two weeks before the
events of Final Fantasy X, Seymour killed Jyscal to succeed him as Maester of Yevon.
Although unsure of his plan, Jyscal details in his sphere that Seymour is using Yevon,
the Guado, and the summoners for his own twisted plan and urges whoever is watching the sphere
to stop Seymour. Wakka is hesitant to fight Seymour, but Auron urges that as a guardian,
they will protect Yuna from anyone, even a Maester of Yevon. After Seymour is killed, Yuna and her
group are branded traitors of Yevon, but Auron encourages to Yuna to go on with her pilgrimage,
stating that the aeons give summoners the power to defeat Sin, not the temple or teachings.
Wakka is still very upset about what has happened and even wants to leave the pilgrimage,
and is even more upset when the group is transported to Bikanel Island, home of the
Al Bhed. Rikku reveals that Yuna must be nearby in Home, a secret place where the Al Bhed gather,
which is also unknown to the outside world as their last Home was destroyed by Sin.
When they reach Home, it is under attack by Guado to wage war on the Al Bhed. It is revealed that
summoners that were kidnapped by the Al Bhed were held in the Summoner's Sanctum of Home for safety.
The group are also introduced to Cid, Rikku's father and Yuna's uncle, and the leader
of the Al Bhed. It is during this attack that Wakka's heart begins to soften for the Al Bhed,
as he tries to comfort Rikku and curses the Guado for attacking the Al Bhed for no reason,
other than to try to kidnap Yuna for what they did to Seymour. Although Yuna was taken by the
Guado before they reached the Sanctum, Rikku also reveals that they know about this Final Summoning
ritual (which everyone knew but Tidus) where the summoner dies when choosing a Final Aeon,
and don't want any more summoners to throw away their life for Sin. After boarding the airship,
Cid reveals they have to blow up Home, and Wakka sheepishly tries to comfort Rikku but
fails in doing so. When they finally locate Yuna in Bevelle, who planned on marrying Seymour in
order to get him to turn himself in (as Seymour was not sent and is now undead, since he is still
attached to Spira), they attack the ceremony until they are forced to stand down. However, with the
help of both Yuna and Rikku, they get away and seek refuge in the temple, where they notice the
temple is using machina. It starts to really sink into Wakka that Yevon's teachings about machina
is hypocritical, and Wakka begins to slowly cast aside not only Yevon's teachings, but his racism
towards the Al Bhed as well. This is also seen in later cut-scenes near the end of the game
where he makes his peace with Cid and Rikku, as with the latter they are on very friendly terms.
As mentioned before, one of the components behind Wakka's beliefs and his prejudice towards the Al
Bhed are the hypocritical teachings of the religion of Yevon. We have to dig a little
deeper behind the initial history of Yevon and its beginnings, and how and why it has a grip
on Spira in the current timeline of Final Fantasy X. As mentioned before,
1000 years ago, the Great Machina War was fought between the cities of Zanarkand and Bevelle,
the latter of which used machina exclusively. The ruler of Zanarkand, Yu Yevon (who was also
a summoner), realized not only that they were losing the war, but the chance of Zanarkand
being erased by history forever. Yevon had the survivors become fayth while he used pyreflies to
create an armor known as Sin. Sin would attack any large city and/or cities with advanced technology,
to keep people from reaching Dream Zanarkand out in the sea. As time passed on, Yu Yevon's
humanity faded as the only thing left for him to do was to give into the instincts of Sin
to keep destroying large & technological cities, and maintain Dream Zanarkand. Because of the first
instinct, he destroyed the original Zanarkand, as the people were now preserved in Dream Zanarkand.
Lady Yunalesca, Yu Yevon's daughter, devised a technique and ritual known as the Final Summoning
to defeat Sin. The Final Aeon, an ultimate summon, is made when the person that the summoner chooses
shares a deep bond with that person – a friend, a family member, or a lover - in Yunalesca's case,
her husband Lord Zaon. The Final Aeon is able to pierce the armor of Yu Yevon and destroy Sin,
but after Sin is defeated, Yu Yevon then takes control of the Final Aeon
and severs the bond between the Final Aeon and the summoner, killing the summoner in the process.
Yu Yevon then uses this aeon to rebuild Sin, but until that time comes, a period of peace without
Sin known as the Calm is born. After Sin came back using Zaon as the armor and ended the first Calm,
machina began to fall out of favor for use as Sin would destroy the machina civilizations. It was at
this point that the religion of Yevon was created based on practices that have seemed to work so
far – the forbidden use of machina that Sin would target, putting the fayth in temples around Spira
so that summoners can use them to defeat Sin, and the promise of Sin being vanquished with the Final
Summoning. However, Yevon started preaching false information through this religion – for one, the
idea that Sin would go away if people atoned for their mistakes. This had no effect as every Calm,
Sin came back, because only those who were in the know of the Yevon religion (more specifically the
Maesters), knew that this was false but used it as a truth to give Spira hope. The other part of
this is although Sin did hate machina, the Al Bhed were used as scapegoats because of their
repeated use of machina and not to mention they worked in the factories that produced the machina
for Bevelle in the machina war, and many were even hunted and executed as Yevon rose to power.
To this day, the Al Bhed are considered outcasts of society due to not only their use for machina,
but because they oppose the truth behind the Final Summoning. As we go back to the current day and
events of Final Fantasy X, the teachings of Yevon are almost law around Spira. Yevonites oppose and
almost suppress any kind of “truth” outside of the beliefs of Yevon, knowing full well that
the teachings are a lie and to their knowledge that Sin is eternal. This becomes a shock for
Yuna and her party especially with how corrupt Yevon's maesters are, as seen with Yuna's trial.
Although it is a summoner's duty to send the dead to the Farplane so they can rest and not
become fiends, Grand Maester Yo Mika, the current leader of Yevon, reveals he is also an unsent.
He reveals that Spira is exactly what its in the name – the spiral of death, and death is the only
thing that is constant in Spira. The atonement won't stop and Sin cannot ever truly be defeated,
and arguing that while summoners gave their lives to fight Sin, it's not ever in vain
because Spira needs to relish in hope more so than despair. There is even a hint of
racism in the upper ranks of Yevon – although non-humans like Seymour Guado (who is half human,
half Guado) and Kelk Ronso were brought in as part of their initiative to unite the races of Spira,
Mika laughs at the shock of Kelk towards Seymour murdering his father, saying “Ever
the Ronso. Hard-headed and hardly useful.” And as mentioned before,
Yevon's teachings justify racism towards the Al Bhed because of their use of machina,
which is ironic considering that the Al Bhed see through the lies of Yevon and their constant
need to throw summoners at Sin to try to stop it. Yuna's defiance against the teachings grows even
more when her group arrives at Zanarkand and learn the real truth about the Final
Summoning from Yunalesca – she also reveals that while the atonement of sins is hope for Spira,
Sin is never-ending no matter what you do. Yuna then states that she chooses no guardian to be
her Aeon, and that the Final Summoning needs to be done away with, and they defeat and send Yunalesca
to the Farplane. When they come back and reveal to Mika that they have finally destroyed Yunalesca,
Mika gives up all hope and cuts his tie to Spira, mentioning Yu Yevon's name before he goes.
This is the clue that they need, as when they visit the Fayth, they reveal that if they can
fight Yu Yevon inside Sin and free the aeons, Yu Yevon will be vulnerable and have no aeon
that it can merge with, destroying Sin once and for all. As they succeed in doing so,
the religion of Yevon is disbanded, as the truth is revealed behind its hypocritical nature.
In my opinion, Final Fantasy X's core theme is what can be a problem with religion. As
time passes, the original meaning and spirituality behind the message can get more diluted and stray
away from its original message. Yevon was used to justify racism and prejudice, even though Bevelle,
the heart of Yevon's religion in Final Fantasy X, was responsible for starting the Machina War with
Zanarkand and used machina to nearly destroy everyone in that city. Because they thought
they were better than the summoners, they were rewarded with the almost-eternal curse of Sin.
Yevon's practice of thought suppression and near brainwashing of the masses is evident in
the current timeline. The maesters of Yevon also use their religion as law and power.
Wakka quotes that the reason Sin appeared is because “when humans have power, they seek to use
it. If you don't step them, they go too far, ya?” Auron says something similar in Guadosalam while
waiting for Maester Seymour to appear - “Those with power use that power. Maesters have power,”
foreshadowing Seymour's plot by marrying Yuna, or his plot to merge with Sin to wield ultimate
power. If Yevon's core beliefs are to lie to the public about the truth behind Sin, use people as
scapegoats and justification for prejudice, then maybe Yevon isn't all what it's cracked up to be.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments below – what was your experience with Final
Fantasy X? If you enjoyed the video, consider sharing it with your friends, giving it a like,
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grow. Thanks for watching, stay beautiful, stay awesome, and we'll catch you around next time.