Final Fantasy 10 HD: I just killed Seymour! I guess I'm in the aftergame now!
...joking aside, back to Chronicling stuff! So Macalania Woods provides no plot sans the Bartello stuff which is basically Auron being awesome, and little else. Then we fight Spheriomorph who is as godlike as ever, then we get the Jecht Sphere.
While the first hint of "Jecht cares about Tidus" was in the Farplane, this is the first instance where the game demonstrates the real issue. Farplane, we just saw Jecht thinking of Tidus, but with little context other than "Tidus is starting to second guess himself." Here, we learn the problem is that Jecht did care for Tidus, he just was really bad at expressing that part of himself. Even sitting in front of a camera, he has problems fessing up, and can only finish it by going off the camera, and being a bodiless voice. Opens with Jecht saying "stop crying" which really is a metaphor for "you need to grow up sometime"; this is actually a really neat thing considering a Tidus rant in Zanarkand but I SHOULDN'T BRING THAT UP NOW OH GOD SPOILERS WHAT AM I DOING AAAAH!!!!!
*Camera fuzz*
We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties. Please stand by.*Camera fuzz*
...anyway, at first, it comes off as Jecht just being "man up already" but you see he's trying to pass a message onto Tidus, and ultimately, the theme of it is what he says at the end, being effectively "You're my son, and I believe in you."
Auron does note that Jecht did change throughout the pilgrimage, going from "Is in it just to kill time til he finds a way home" to "is committed to helping Braska at all costs, to the point where even if he could go home, he'd stay behind." Thing to keep in mind though is this Sphere is clearly done early in the Pilgrimage. Remember, they started in Bevelle, the next image is in the frozen lake area, and then the woods, so we can deduce they went Bevelle -> Macalania Temple -> The Woods. This gets the point across that "Jecht cares for his son" wasn't a revelation he came across late in the pilgrimage like you'd expect, it's something he's always felt, and he just never had the words to describe it. The message of course suggests this is about where Jecht starts to resign to the fact that "He can't go back home to Zanarkand" and thus, is making this message in case he never sees Tidus again, and Tidus somehow finds his way there. Sounds Xanatos Roulette like, but then consider Jecht doesn't sound sure of it; he opens it with "If you're watching this, you're probably in Spira too."
Anyway, Auron relays some info to Tidus, most notably that Jecht loved Tidus, and felt bad that he couldn't go home, but despite that would have stayed in Spira because he was that determined to help Braska. Tidus tries to act cool by blowing it off at first (though he does have a narrative in between stating he understands where Jecht was coming from, and illustrates he completely relates to Jecht's situation), but he ends, as Auron is walking off, with "Thanks." That "Thanks" is important because it demonstrates that while Tidus on the outside is still "My old man is a jerk!", internally, he's starting to legitimately take this stuff to heart and accept "maybe he's not as bad as I thought."
Then we get the "Rikku is an Al Bhed!" scene. Tidus doesn't do much special here other than "Rikku's just Rikku, that's all that matters." Basically your typical "He's the good guy, he's gotta always say the right thing!" line; it's completely in character of course, especially since Tidus has no reason to dislike the Al Bhed (heck, they DID save his life initially), but doesn't really expand his character.
Now what does expand here is Rikku vs. Wakka as this is the first moment where they argue. It also demonstrates that Rikku
is not a total moron which is why her dimwitted self in FF10-2 is kind of facepalm inducing. The conversation being basically this:
Wakka: Machina are bad and cause Sin!
Rikku: Proof?
Wakka: Yevon said so!
Rikku: What is Yevon is wrong?
Wakka: HOW CAN YEVON BE WRONG!?
Rikku: So you're just going to do whatever Yevon says, without questioning it?
Wakka: That's right!
Rikku: So how do we stop Sin?
Wakka: We atone for our sins!
And basically circle jerks like that, but Rikku's doing what Tidus was doing the entire game, except there's an actual argument, but that's because there are two key differences:
-Rikku actually knows Spira, Yevon, etc., Tidus is completely ignorant to all this, hence Tidus really can't form an argument, just the innocent perspective and derive his own conclusions. Rikku actually knows what Yevon says to a degree and Spira's history, by contrast, and knows "Uh, yeah, that's not working now is it?"
-Wakka hates Al Bhed, so "HEATHEN DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE"S TALKING ABOUT AND MUST BE GIVEN A LESSON!" and basically sticking finger in his ears to her side because "YEVON IS GREAT!" By contrast, with Tidus, it's more a general "hey man, you just don't know, but that's ok, I'll be your teacher ya?"
In any event, while the game doesn't declare a winner, anyone with half a brain would say Rikku won, simply because she used the Socratic method of "question the other side" and kind of proved Wakka doesn't have an argument other than "Yevon said so."
As far as the Snow Mobile scene, this time I got Lulu. I don't remember what the Rikku variant was like, so I won't discuss that but the Lulu one is neat because Tidus simply prompts Lulu for what she knows, and brings up a fact that Lulu never considered, namely "No one really knows what Sin is." Lulu's response is a fair "No one needs to know, so no one asks, you run or fight." This sequence displays that Lulu is still subjected to the same Yevon brainwashing as Wakka is, but she's capable of being respectful about it (eg not shouting "YEVON IS THE TRUTH!") Ultimately, Tidus doesn't really change Lulu's perspective, but then that's not his point; he simply wanted to learn more, due to the whole "Jecht is Sin" thing, and ultimately Lulu's response is "You really did come from a world where there is no Sin..."
Seymour sequence, mostly just demonstrates Wakka is having an existential crisis as he's forced to stand against everything he believes to protect Yuna and it's making him go crazy (and he's all "I'm sorry Seymour, we don't mean this honest!"), the rest of the Guardians are all "SEYMOUR IS EVIL, PROTECT YUNA!" because...well...he is. When Seymour dies, Tidus tries to raise spirits by going "Hey, it's ok, we'll just explain the situation! Seymour's the bad guy, we'll be fine!" Auron's quick to go "It's not going to be so simple..." and well...yeah, it isn't.
And that's more or less where I ended, because I didn't feel like dealing with the whole "everyone is freezing under the lake" sequence yet. So far, the whiniest characters in the game are Rikku, whose more just typical Hyperactive Impatient Teen whining more so than anything else, and Wakka, whose got the Yevon Zealot + Al Bhed hatred thing going on.
