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Thoughts on Sin - A Final Fantasy Essay

Posted: 15th March 2013 23:12

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Thoughts on Sin: A Brief Analysis of Relationships to the Past in FFX

Hi guys, I wanted to try something new here. It’s a critical approach to Final Fantasy – in particular, to Sin and the past.

These were inspired by what was, at the time, the recent “Best Villain” thread. Sin often gets left out in this discussion, and so I'd like to share why I think he should at least be considered. There’s a lot more going on here, I believe, than what meets the eye, and definitely more than many of the series villains preceding it. From my initial focus on Sin, I proceed towards an application of this analysis to the overall structure of the game, showing that this interpretation of Sin points us towards and indeed participates harmoniously in what I consider to be the central philosophic structure in the game’s backstory, plot, and characters. Finally, I’ve put this in the Your Creations forum, as it is my own ‘scholarly’ work.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. OH SO MANY SPOILERS.

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Sin is differentiated from all other major villains in the Final Fantasy series in that Sin was initially created not for evil, but for good: as an attempt to preserve Zanarkand's past and protect its remains from certain destruction. Yu Yevon, the great ancient Zanarkand summoner, devised a plan to protect the doomed supercity: the people would become fayths from which Yu Yevon would summon a dream-Zanarkand for them to inhabit eternally. In order to ensure that his efforts (and, thus, his peoples’ dreaming) would never be interrupted by the opposing force (namely, the supercity Bevelle), Yu Yevon also used his power to create a defensive shell in which he could remain secure from any attack, summoning the dream-Zanarkand indefinitely.

Clearly, then, Sin represents something completely different than the standard enemy in the Final Fantasy series and even the RPG genre as a whole. Whereas the standard evil-doer (represented by Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, Barthandelus, etc.) seeks an total obliteration of all things, Sin was actually created for total preservation. Sin is not merely different from the ordinary RPG villain; Sin is its very opposite.

This massive effort on Summoner Yu Yevon’s part, however, spiraled out of his control: His own conscience was consumed by his incredible power of his creation, leaving the superweapon Sin to operate at random, destroying not just threats, as initially intended, but any targets available. The result of Yu Yevon’s mental disintegration, of course, is the Spira that we encounter as players of Final Fantasy X: one in ruins and perpetually ravaged by Sin. This transformation of an initially well-intentioned object into a devastating one shows how power itself corrupts and brings about its own destruction.

In this sense, the teachings of the Yevon religion were quite close to correct in their prognosis of Sin’s advent as the result of excessive dependence on technology. Technological power corrupted its possessors, leading the ancient city of Bevelle turned aggressor on the weaker ancient Zanarkand. Yu Yevon, thinking he could save Zanarkand, tried to answer power with another form of power, but in doing so he fell into the same mistaken logic that had brought Bevelle against Zanarkand in the first place. The result of the great summoner’s efforts, that raw power known as Sin, was self-corrupted just the same as Bevelle was by its overconfidence in its technological prowess, overwhelming its creator and reducing him to nothingness, a true tabula rasa.

Yu Yevon created Sin out of allegiance to a particular view about the past: that it must be protected, defended, and saved from destruction at all costs. The people of ancient Zanarkand, like their great summoner, were driven to support the creation of Sin because they could not bear to see the present become past. Their obsessive, infatuated desire to hold on to it forever, at any cost, led them to place their faith in a plan that required giving themselves over entirely to power. Furthermore, inability to accept the progression of time that was destined to extinguish their city lead them to accept a hollow dream rather than face the reality that their city, their people and their way of life would unavoidably become a thing of the past.

The religion of Yevon, despite semi-correctly predicting the cause of Sin and the resulting Spiral of death, has perpetually failed to adequately deal with the problem. They recognize the past as the source of their problems, but they fail to acknowledge it or remember its source. This outright denial of the past is why the Yevon religion is unable to provide a real solution to the problem of Sin. Instead of examining the past thoroughly and openly, they cling, weakly, to a hope for the future: a hope for the Calm. This hope for the Calm, as the player is often reminded by Yuna and others, is the sole thing keeping the people of Spira going. Their response is thus the opposite of that taken by the citizens of ancient Zanarkand. Whereas the people of ancient Zanarkand clung to their past and became empty dreamers rather than lose it, the people of modern Spira disregard their past and cling only to a misplaced hope for the future. As a result, become equally empty, devoid of any genuine living or happiness.

The result of both (opposite) responses, that of the Yevon religion and ancient Zanarkand, is that the present is neglected. In the case of ancient Zanarkand, its people focus entirely on preserving the immediate past, thereby refusing to look forward. Any attempt to preserve memory without thought for the future necessarily leads to destruction; a nation determined to live in the past cannot survive in the unfolding present. Interestingly, the Yevon religion’s response, while taking the form of an opposite action, ultimately leads to the same result. By refusing to acknowledge the past, they condemn their own future by failing to understand it. Any attempt to deny memory without consideration of the past’s impact on the future necessarily leads to destruction; a nation determined to close their eyes to the past cannot understand how the present is unfolding. This is why the Yevon religion is as incapable of stopping Sin as ancient Zanarkand was of controlling it.

An interesting corollary of this development is that the Yevon religion advocates a position strikingly similar (denial of the past) to the position advocated by the ‘standard’ RPG supervillain (obliteration of the past). The ‘standard’ villain’s actions, while taken against the present, are perhaps better described as taken against what the present has become – which is to say the chain of past events leading up to the present. This similarity between the Yevon religion and the ‘standard’ villain is why the player is inclined to accept the transition of the Yevon religion from good to evil during the course of the story. It is also unsurprisingly, in this light, that the villain representing the ‘standard’ RPG evildoer type, Seymour, is steeped in this theology/philosophy.

This is the context in which Yuna’s pilgrimage begins. Yuna and her guardians (barring, for the moment, Tidus) begin with the Yevon religion’s perspective of the past (unsurprising, given that they have been raised on its teachings): they distrust it and generally do not consider it. They refuse the machina that could at least alleviate some of Spira’s daily hardships, and they, like their parents and their parents’ parents, abstain from even considering an alternative method for dealing with Sin.

Tidus’ story (and Jecht’s before him) follows a different trajectory, one appropriate to his origin – ancient Zanarkand – and the response to the past that city embodies. Throughout the first half of the game, Tidus’ sole mission is to return to his Zanarkand, his home; he too is caught up in his past. Joining the pilgrimage, for him, is merely the most feasible option for encountering someone who may be able to help him in a world utterly foreign to him. He is not unsympathetic towards the people of Spira and Yuna’s aim, but Spira’s present condition and future livelihood are overshadowed by the desire to return to his past. Gradually, we see Tidus become more attached to his new world and new friends, beginning to appreciate his present rather than brood exclusively over his lost Zanarkand.

The love story between Yuna and Tidus hereby takes on a much deeper meaning within the context of this facet of the narrative; it is not merely a coming together of two individuals but the coming together of two methods for interacting with the past, present and future. As the closeness of the two - more directly, their love for one another - grows, they correspondingly evolve away from their mistaken approaches to the past and converge upon a middle ground, where the past is neither ignored nor obsessed over. Tidus learns that there is something immediately in front of him that is, at the least, as deserving of thought as what lies behind him; Yuna learns that there is something immediately in front of her that is, at the least, as deserving of attention as her ultimate objective.

As the couple coalesces, so do their individual understandings of past, present, and future. When the party finally confronts Yunalesca, this middle ground – of both recognizing the past and recognizing the need to move forward from it – is proven essential; it requires an averaging of both Tidus’ overly retrospective viewpoint and Yuna’s lack thereof. The challenge faced in Yunalesca requires that each must learn the other’s method and temper it with their own. Yunalesca is such a significant threat to the party not just because she has incredibly frustrating zombie-inducing attacks but because her revelation disrupts the outlooks of both the Yevon religion and Zanarkand, positions which, while having been significantly worn away over the course of the long pilgrimage, still dominate the party members’ consciousness. Yunalesca’s truths bring both historical perspectives into painful collision with the futility which they each equally engender: look at all these summoners who have lived and died. Burying one’s head in the past can only result in reliving their failure; turning one’s gaze stubbornly away from it can only result in repeating it. Both methods are stagnant and sterile, and it takes Yunalesca’s cruel ultimatum for the party to realize and finalize the party’s transition from the sentinel of the past (Auron) and the epitome of faith (Wakka) towards the blossoming Tidus and Yuna.

The most repeated line in the game, “this is my story,” embodies the party’s commitment to the unfolding present as well, even though the characters don’t properly understand what is meant by these words until the closing sections of the game. It is not ‘that was my story’ or ‘this will be my story’ but instead “this is my story,” one which is not predetermined by ancient events nor mitigated by others to follow.

The consummation of Yuna and Tidus’ love, prefigured at Macalania but only finally and definitely established on board the airship in the game’s final scenes (where “I love you” is spoken for the first and last time in the game), represents the ultimate triumph of this merger of historical perspectives. Tidus knows that he must let go, and Yuna knows that she must allow him to do so – two decisions requiring incredible strength, a strength that neither could have marshaled at the outset of their great journey.

Yuna’s behavior at the end of the game provides the most encompassing synthesis of this idea. While she grieves for Tidus and wishes for him not to go, Yuna recognizes the necessity of moving forward, understanding that she must - symbolically - walk away from the dock where she had been whistling for him in order to give the speech leading Spira forward into the new world. She here corrects Zanarkand’s mistake: she is willing to look beyond the past, even if it hurts. At the same time, however, she also understands the significance of the past. Indeed, the final lines of Yuna’s speech (and the game as a whole) are “never forget them”; she acknowledges the importance of the past within the present and the value of memory to preserve it there. In doing so, she corrects the Yevon religion’s mistake: she is willing to remember the past, both good and bad, for what it really was. It is only armed with these two strengths, no longer opposed but held in tandem, that Spira can take the first rocky steps towards a future of its own determining.

Conclusion
Final Fantasy X, in this light, is a story about how to treat the past; it must neither be over-valued nor under-appreciated if one is to truly live – for life, necessarily, unfolds in the present. This theme, as I believe I have shown, is not only thoroughly established in the game’s backstory but plays itself out through the main events and characters within the main story. Indeed, it is the story of Final Fantasy X.

Postscript
As unfortunate a game as it is in many respects, Final Fantasy X-2 establishes the question of memory perhaps more directly than does its predecessor. The entire search for Tidus, of course, is an attempt to reclaim a lost memory. While this may sound at first a bit like the vain attempt made by ancient Zanarkand and therefore a recession back into that mistaken perspective, it must be noted that the sacrifice of all else which dominated Zanarkand’s attempt to preserve the present from becoming past is very much different from Yuna’s pursuit of the past in the present, because her search requires no such sacrifice and is indeed a journey of self-development as much as it is a journey of reliving her past. In fact, I believe that a suitable thesis for such an argument would be that, in the case of Yuna, the search for her past is really only one aspect of a larger attempt to find herself. Regardless, an interesting comparison could be made between the two games in regard to memory and the past, though such a project is outside of the scope of this brief paper.

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I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts. I tried to keep this short, so hopefully someone will actually read it, but it’s a rather detailed topic tongue.gif I’ve always been interested in trying something like this, a somewhat scholarly-minded approach to elements of story in videogames. Comments and critiques are very welcome... especially since I'm pretty sure I've not edited the majority of this.

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X


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Posted: 16th March 2013 00:01

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I liked this very much - Kudos, DP. At a time when my mental faculties are more at hand, I might construct a full post to properly engage in your theories - but you've made some pretty solid observations. I now really want to replay X so that I can appreciate the depth of the story more with an intellectual approach. It's something I've managed with others in the series, but never tried with X (for which I blame Tidus' voice for prejudicing me, haha).

Have you ever read/heard of the "xxxx and philosophy" series of pop-philosophy books? They usually focus on cult TV programmes, e.g House MD, or The Simpsons. Well, there's one entitled Final Fantasy and philosophy too - based on this, you might enjoy reading it. It's a series of articles exploring the way various philosophical theories are present in FF games.

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Posted: 16th March 2013 08:13

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Quote (Stiltzkin @ 15th March 2013 20:01)

Have you ever read/heard of the "xxxx and philosophy" series of pop-philosophy books? They usually focus on cult TV programmes, e.g House MD, or The Simpsons. Well, there's one entitled Final Fantasy and philosophy too - based on this, you might enjoy reading it. It's a series of articles exploring the way various philosophical theories are present in FF games.

I read an interesting essay on Kefka and Nihilism in that book. Unfortunately, the thing was 30 dollars or something ridiculous, so I only had time to read that one at the bookstore, and likely not thoroughly enough.

First of all: Hannah Arendt would like this on Facebook biggrin.gif .

Moving on:

X is probably my least favorite of the series, so I think I should mention that as a preface to this.

I thought it was a good essay. You proved your point in a lot of places, but I find it strange that you don't relate the essay back to the individual in certain places, where I think it would round things out better.

For instance, you just touch upon the pilgrimage here:

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Yunalesca is such a significant threat to the party not just because she has incredibly frustrating zombie-inducing attacks but because her revelation disrupts the outlooks of both the Yevon religion and Zanarkand, positions which, while having been significantly worn away over the course of the long pilgrimage, still dominate the party members’ consciousness.


And I find this to be significant enough to warrant it's own discussion, or rather, more specifically, the importance of the pilgrimage so far as coming to the correct outlook you were talking about. I think there's some Joseph Campbellesque points to be made about this, which I feel relate to life in general, about the importance of experience and change when the individual wants to achieve harmony with itself.

Naturally, I understand it's somewhat off topic to the work, or else would ruin the brevity you've cultivated.

Also upon reading the first line of the work:
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Sin is differentiated from all other major villains in the Final Fantasy series in that Sin was initially created not for evil, but for good


My first thought was of Jesus, and the rest of your perspectives on Yevon, Zanarkland &c, only made me draw more parallels. Seen from this perspective, one might even be able to write an essay on FFX as a critique of Christianity, which is something I find extremely interesting, and I had not considered before reading this, so well done smile.gif !

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Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way
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Posted: 23rd October 2013 11:55
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nice post, thanks for sharing

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Posted: 23rd October 2013 16:55

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Holy crap i teared up on this it's beautiful and i love it you did an amazing job! Like FFX was my 1st FF and still my favorite and this game in my eyes is still the best. They encorirated many different things with fun and a dark side. like people had used Blitzball to distract them from their depression but when Sin attacked Kilika and totally destroyed it you could actually feel the pain this is a beautiful game complemented by this beautiful essay... again great job

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Posted: 24th October 2013 17:47

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Quote (Death Penalty @ 16th March 2013 00:12)
I’ve always been interested in trying something like this, a somewhat scholarly-minded approach to elements of story in videogames.

That's exactly the same with me, only I've not had the guts. I really enjoyed reading this, especially because you didn't draw much from outside the game, thereby making it accessible to everyone. That was clever. smile.gif

It gave me a lot to think about. It's nice to look back to something and see it in a new light. My impressions of FFX were focused more on the cyclical nature of the world, the relationship between Sin and Tidus, and the wider sociological struggle between progress and stasis. I didn't really think about the personal conflicts between attitudes towards the past and hopes for the future.

If you're interested in a different position... Although I really enjoyed reading your text and looking at the game in this way, I'm not convinced by the thesis. From what I understand, your thesis is that a major (principle?) theme of FFX is that the wrong attitude to the past will have negative repercussions for individual people and societies. I must admit I still don't see it in the game. It's so stupid to criticise whether a theme is apparent or not in something, but hey we're talking about the game so it might be fun.

I didn't get the impression in the game that Yevon and the people of Spira were ignoring the past. Yevon was a corrupt authority who knew the true nature of Sin and were instructed to manipulate people, maintain power, and prevent any threats to Zanarkand. The Calm, to them, was something for the people to look forward to before they returned to Yevon to protect them against Sin. Yevon's attitude was: 'He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.' They control the truth about Sin. I think this is outside of the discussion about attitudes towards the past. I suppose it could be said that Yevon are preventing people from understanding the past, which I'm sure is a bad attitude!

As for the people of Spira. I think the immense physical and psychological threat of Sin was akin to a great war. The day-to-day objective of the people was to survive and wait for the Calm. It wasn't that the game was presenting them as wrong in their attitude to the past, I think they didn't have a choice. I think Yuna falls into this camp. Her motivation is desperation. Similarly, the Crusaders and Al Bhed can't be said to be ignorant of the past. They actively look to recover what they can from it (and use it to fight Sin).

Quote
Yu Yevon created Sin out of allegiance to a particular view about the past: that it must be protected, defended, and saved from destruction at all costs. The people of ancient Zanarkand, like their great summoner, were driven to support the creation of Sin because they could not bear to see the present become past.

The trouble with fitting Zanarkand into the argument is that it's not the past, it's the present for them. For the dream people, they will still look to their past with whatever feelings they had before, so their attitude to the past can't really be criticised. When Yu Yevon created Sin it was as a way of preserving the present, so in the context of Spira and attitudes to the past I don't think it's relevant. From the quote above it seems to be about change: Zanarkand could not come to terms with the changes that were about to happen.

Tidus' attitude to his past life in Zanarkand is hugely relevant, but I think it's mistaken to say that his motivations were affected by a change in his attitude. Tidus was not looking to return to his past, he was looking to return home, regardless of what time it would be. He actually hated his past, enduring a childhood where he was bullied by his father after his mother died. The point at which his obsession with Zanarkand ended was when he saw it in ruins, rather than a moment of catharsis with Yuna. I think Zanarkand represented more than a past for Tidus. It was definitional of him as a person. Without it he actually went through a crisis of identity rather than a longing for something missed.

That's my take on it. There's nothing I like more than a proper discussion of something, especially games!

Quote (Stiltzkin)
Have you ever read/heard of the "xxxx and philosophy" series of pop-philosophy books? They usually focus on cult TV programmes, e.g House MD, or The Simpsons. Well, there's one entitled Final Fantasy and philosophy too - based on this, you might enjoy reading it. It's a series of articles exploring the way various philosophical theories are present in FF games.

I actually had that book! I lost it in my most recent move unfortunately. It was quite good but MogMaster's right, the price is a bit silly. Also I don't think it's big enough at all, or deep enough, with each essay sticking to one point and not really exploring it enough. It's interesting though.

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