A few realizations concerning one Maester Seymour Guado...

[letterblade]

So I've been replaying FFX. (This is why I've been relatively absent from the interwebs; I basically work, whether on job or unpacking, come home, game, and go to sleep. Most of the way through this replay, so I might exist again soon. Couch slug!*) And I noticed a batch of shit I didn't the last two times.

(Seriously. This is part of why I LOVE THAT GAME. Every time through you notice more things that just add up into another layer of WRONG.)

So. Seymour.

Somehow I just hadn't put together, in my two previous runs, that Seymour had been on this whole becoming Sin thing since the start. He's the first person to ever mention Yunalesca and Zaon, when he basically propositions Yuna for the first time--let me be the Zaon to your namesake and so forth. Which, put in context of things we learn muuuuuch later on, means he wants to be her fayth for the Final Summoning. He wants to go to Zanarkand with her, get Yunalesca to do her thing, die, kill Yuna, and become Sin.

So. I guess that was mostly me missing stuff.

(Why Yuna, I've always wondered. I think the name really is a big part of it; to his mind, it's like she's a little bit of Yunalesca incarnate. And, yeah, she's pretty and talented. And she's also the daughter of Lord Braska, the child of a famous man. And it's funny, I never really noticed that before either--everyone in this game who wasn't orphaned young by Sin (Lulu, Wakka, honestly I've always assumed Auron; it's not like this is uncommon) is the child of a famous man or a leader. Tidus, son of the star blitzer; Yuna, daughter of the High Summoner; Seymour, son of the man who converted the Guado; Rikku, daughter of the leader of the Al Bhed. But that's beside the point.)

I also had always kind of wondered why we got a random flashback of Seymour as a kid in the dome in Zanarkand. I mean, surely he hadn't been there when he was little? But then, this time through, I realized, oh shit, he had.

His own mother. Took him to Zanarkand when he was knee-high to a grasshopper. He looks, what, ten, maybe? Walking through the dead lands. Freezing on Gagazet, stumbling past the cliffs thick with fayth, thick with frozen, dreaming corpses. Into the dome so thick with pyreflies that he's breathing souls, up to meet Yunalesca. To learn exactly what the Final Summoning is, that everything Yevon has to offer--everything his father worked so hard to bring his people--is a cold comfort and a lie. To watch his own mother killed and locked in a statue. Asked to perform the Final Summoning and defeat Sin when he was just a child.

I mean, it's not like he wasn't already seriously messed, and his mother too. But damn.

She, too, must have thought that he could somehow magically survive it. Survive for the people to accept him for his heroism. Or--something. There are a few holes in it, in how the characters are falling into place in my head.

But.

There's that severe sense of deja-vu, when you're talking with Yunalesca, all this stuff about death being so awesome and so forth, because you've heard it all from Seymour. But I think Seymour heard it all from her, when he was a little boy. And fell madly in love with her, in a stupid, broken little boy way, and ten years later smarms all over a much better woman who shares her name.

What happened from there, is what I don't quite know. Did he not attempt the Final Summoning--fearing to die, even given all that? Deciding even then that he wanted to become Sin instead, himself, wasting his mother's sacrifice? Did he try it, but fail? The essence of the Final Summoning is a bond between two people, Yunalesca said; and much as she's a crazy bitch, I believe that entirely, because she knows her summoning, and because it makes a fucklot of sense. The light of that bond is strong enough to defeat Sin, she says. But the bond between Seymour and his mother--not light, not true, not honest at all. Just messed, messed, messed.

There's also the question of how Anima (as far as I know, we don't know her original name) knew about Yunalesca and the true nature of the Final Summoning and all that. And I've got a theory about that now. The Guado live by the Farplane. Always have. And they're a very insular people, and until Anima's own lifetime, completely free of the Yevonite lies; the Guado take care of Guado affairs. They have a vast wealth of knowledge at their disposal--because I've always kind of had it in my head that the dead people out there do talk occasionally, do wander up and tell their stories, and there are visitors who remember them. The Guado have first-hand accounts of Spira's entire history. And any High Summoner would know these things.

And Anima heard. Maybe not from Jyscal, maybe from somebody else. Maybe just hanging out in the Farplane herself.

Dear lord, that family is so, so screwed up. Now I'm wanting to write fic. So much fic, so little time.

The other, completely unrelated thing that I noticed this time through? So...much...Al Bhed...fetish gear. I mean, I'd noticed Rin's big honkin' bondage collar before, but hadn't really paid attention to Rikku's crotch strap in her jumpsuit early on, or the assorted gas masks. Kinda feeds into my vague theory of crazy Al Bhed orgies.

Though, in a way, that's carrying the this-world assumption into Spira that the religious establishment is going to be sexually conservative. Which, at least to a certain extent, is infeasible, because the religious establishment is going to want people to BREED LIKE RABBITS to keep up with Sin. No religious taboos on (hetero, reproducing) sex, no celibacy for officials or monks; hell, Auron was disgraced for NOT taking a wife. (Which feeds into my "he's so hard gay" theory, which only gets set aside for Auron/Lulu, because auronlu is a foul temptress.)

Anyway. Seymour is a messed, MESSED man, and the more I think about it, the more I wish they'd gone into it a little more.

* Cyn used to give me so much crap about doing this. But I think it's relatively normal obsessive gamer behavior. Right? Bueller?

Comments

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

If you look closely at Anima, you'll see HUMAN ARMS wrapped around her own neck. She wears a pendant like a cameo of a Catholic saint. It's an icon of Seymour's Mom. Like many characters in FFX, she is blind in one eye, having given up the other for knowledge. (cf: Auron, Lulu).

Screencaps of Anima (http://bluelaguna.net/fmvshots/ffx/5049/6.php)

I came across the Anima Sola (http://www.luckymojo.com/animasola.html), a Catholic figure, the "Lonely Soul."

When you encounter the flashback of Seymour and his mother in Zanarkand, she says, "I don't have much time left. Use me to defeat Sin." At that point she had evidently offered herself for the Final Summoning. So Anima is a Final Summoning Aeon, which explains why it's so buff.

I reconstruct the past as follows:

1. Jyscal married Seymour's mom and converted the Guado to Yevon.
2. Seymour was tormented as a half-breed child.
3. Jyscal bowed to the disapproval of his people and banished Seymour and his mom to Baaj, a remote island with a ruined temple. From other flashbacks, we see the temple and hall were in much better shape when they were living there -- could there have been old scrolls, or even a Fayth from which Seymour's Mom learned about the pilgrimage?
4. While Seymour's still a boy, he and his Mom trek to Zanarkand. She sacrifices herself so that he can defeat Sin and thus win recognition and acceptance from Spira (as Braska did).
5. Seymour DOESN'T use his mother to defeat Sin. We see him crying and blubbering, so maybe he was simply a scared little kid and not ready to be High Summoner.
6. (This from a priest at Macalania) Seymour returns to Macalania Temple and becomes an acolyte. Possibly, he earned people's respect because he'd become a summoner. Or possibly, Jyscal felt remorse that his wife was dead.
7. At some point he must've trapped his mother's spirit in the Chamber of the Fayth at Baaj Temple.
8. Seymour rises quickly through the ranks and becomes High Priest.
9. Seymour kills Papa and becomes Maester, possibly with Mika's tacit approval.

Frustratingly, if you address the ghost of Seymour's mother, she blames herself for everything Seymour's done. No! Your husband imprisoned you, your son betrayed and uses you as a weapon!
______


While we're on geekitude, let me wax worshipful of Lulu. At first I didn't much like her as the token T&A, until I realized she was smart, a mother bear, and the unofficial leader until Auron showed up. (Even then, his "what's our itinerary?" to her five seconds after arriving suggests he's figured out who's the brains of this organization).

Lulu didn't want Yuna to become a summoner. When she couldn't change Yuna's mind, she went on two prior pilgrimages, trying to take out Sin BEFORE Yuna finished her training, or at least gain the experience needed to guard her. That was deep devotion on Lulu's part, especially since she and Chappu were lovers at the time. (Unfortunately, I think Lulu's first pilgrimage may have been the reason he signed up to be a Crusader... the timing fits.)

Lulu is fiercely protective of Yuna but doesn't stifle her. She serves as confidante, support, and advisor. (E.g. Yuna comes to her after the Sending and asks, "did I do okay?") Nor does Lulu underestimate Yuna. When they rescue Yuna from the Al Bhed, Lulu doesn't scold or fuss, she just says confidently, "I hope you hurt them." And in X-2 -- one of the few parts I liked -- while Wakka scolds Yuna for taking off on her own, Lulu says fondly: "I'm not there, so you can spread your wings, hm? Sounds like fun!"

__

My theory which I'm trying to work into a Lulu/Yuna fanfic is that homosexuality is frowned on by Yevon as non-reproductive, but guardians/summoners get their sins forgiven (both Auron and Braska were disgraced before Braska beat Sin). One of the other flashbacks we see is Summoner Yocun and her female guardian, who had a strong enough bond with her to be a successful Final Summons.

However, while I'm inclined to think Auron had a desperate crush on Braska, it looked to me like Braska was gently deflecting him. "L-lord BRASKA *squeak*!" "Auron, I'm honored that you care for me so..."

[damarie.livejournal.com]

GAH! Now I want to go play FFX some more. And I have no time. :(