#jecht's sphere

[auronstory]

"Something… a powerful emotion… could have bound him to this world. Such things happen." —Lulu

[hereissomething]

Yuna has a question for u too Auron, guess what it is!

[dayasan]

I completely forgot about that scene at the beginning of FFX inbetween Auron raising Tidus up to Sin and arriving at Baaj Temple, where Tidus hears Jecht's voice and swims to him at Dream's End. He was calling to his son to try and show him what was happening but he didn't understand 🥲

[14kuponuts]

This place pulls at my heartstrings. Not only was it a turning point and sad

but the scenery was pulled right out of FFX’s Macalania Woods. Even down to the damn pyreflies. I spent a lot of time here

I had to put a comparison shot below from FFX (which is the second picture)

I’m gonna spend more time here after DT

[danifart]

i am kind of obsessed with FF10 superbosses having millions upon millions of HP. like who gave you the right

[wndfsh]

a (brief) analysis of toxic masculinity and fatherhood in final fantasy x

something i have always loved about braska is that, although he doesn't have much of a canon personality, in what little we see of him, he is so clearly an extremely supportive and genuine person. in life, he was a loving husband, a good friend, and even from beyond the grave, a supportive father to yuna.

it's interesting to me, then, how much of his personality is in direct contrast to jecht, who, at the start of braska's pilgrimage, is none of those things. but it isn't that he and braska are opposites—when you think about it, they're actually pretty similar—it’s their respective ability/inability to express vulnerability that sets them apart. lemme explain:

in all that we see of braska, he never really seems to not be thinking of his family. jecht, from the very beginning, is shown to be the same way, but it takes him a long time to be able to express it—let alone admit it—without lashing out. braska, on the other hand, has no reservations about displaying his affection for his family, doing so pretty often.

both braska and jecht are famous, braska being a known basphemer and a summoner on pilgrimage, and jecht being a blitzball champion. fittingly, braska doesn't expect special treatment for his status. he’s appreciative and humble, and when the party arrives in besaid, he admires it. jecht, however, insults it for its quaintness, and impatiently demands food. similarly, when they first depart on braska's pilgrimage, he expects fanfare, and the celebrity treatment he received in zanarkand.

unlike braska, who outwardly treasures and humanizes the women in his life, in the nightmare tidus has in besaid, it seems like jecht (although it's obvious from watching cutscenes with his wife in them that they loved one another dearly) outwardly regards them as… almost conquests, mocking tidus for being unable to “get a woman.” he also only really mentions his wife in passing, whereas braska mentions his, and his daughter, quite often.

braska lovingly encourages yuna to choose her own path, and promises to support her wherever she decides to go.

jecht, however... i mean, there's a whole minigame about that, so… y’know.

everything i just described, however, as most figure out when they finish playing through the game, is not the “real” jecht. i said he and braska are similar for a reason; underneath his ego, he, too, possesses the capability to be every bit as genuine and supportive as braska, and there are moments where he almost lets his true feelings surface.

...but, in the end, he doesn't. while he and braska are indeed similar below the surface, he’s practically incapable of allowing himself to be emotionally vulnerable, and that, i believe, is what sets he and braska apart.

he tells auron to turn the sphere recorder off when he gets teary-eyed in luca. in macalania woods, he turns the sphere recorder off after trying to talk to tidus, because he's "no good at these things." tidus's entire life, jecht has ridiculed him for always crying—for showing his emotions. auron tells tidus that jecht loved him—"he just didn't know how to express it, he said."

even in jecht's final moments, he mocks tidus for crying (and even though it isn't genuine, it's still worth noting).

but… why? why is jecht almost allergic to vulnerability? and why isn’t braska? that may be where they differ, sure, but what is it that causes it in the first place?

i think final fantasy x, whether intentional or not, has a lot to say about masculinity. many have noticed this and discussed it at length, and i'd like to contribute my own (admittedly weird and kind of bullshit) two cents on the matter by examining each of them through the lens of jungian psychology (hence why i said it’s kind of bullshit—i’m not believer in jung's theories, i just find psychological archetypes interesting). more specifically, i believe jecht and braska each represent different stages of a jungian archetype known as the anima.

the anima is an archetype that is already present throughout the game’s narrative, anima being the name of seymour’s aeon—a fitting reference, given that anima is seymour’s mother. as it applies here, however, the anima not only represents a man’s perception of women, but it also represents a man's more "feminine" qualities (and while i don't agree with ascribing personality traits to gender, jung and all those other kooky old psychiatrists did, so we'll just have to roll with it for this analysis, unfortunately). more specifically, i think braska embodies a fully integrated anima, whereas jecht embodies a rejected anima.

what does that mean?

integrating one's anima, according to jung, means accepting and embracing the more traditionally feminine aspects of oneself (for instance, the ability to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, etc.), as well as ridding oneself of the guilt associated with doing so. braska, being as shamelessly emotionally available, nurturing, and mature as he is, seems to have achieved just that. even his design borders on androgynous, his large, petaled robes concealing nearly all of his body.

jecht, however, very clearly has not. he rejects anything even remotely traditionally feminine within himself, even at the cost of his relationship with his son. as such, he is egotistical, lacks emotional maturity, and for a large part of braska’s pilgrimage, is incapable of taking responsibility—and, just as braska’s design reflects his relationship with femininity, jecht’s design reflects his own as well, putting his body (and his ego) on full display, emphasizing his muscles and scars.

(obviously, while not every aspect of the anima archetype and its stages of integration apply to jecht and braska, i do think they at least represent the aspects of the theory that affect one's self acceptance and emotional expression.)

as i said before, i think final fantasy x has a lot to say about masculinity—more specifically, toxic masculinity, and how it affects relationships.

the reason i brought up the anima archetype is because it’s relevant to the concept of toxic masculinity; men who aren’t ashamed of expressing traditionally feminine behaviors and characteristics are far less likely to idealize and aspire to toxic, performative masculinity, whereas men who do are more likely to do just that—braska being the former, and jecht being the latter.

jecht’s inability to express vulnerability as a result of how deeply rooted toxic masculinity is in his psyche is a large part of why he and tidus have such a negative relationship. for tidus’s entire life, jecht has ridiculed him for showing emotion (crying) and desiring closeness with him (wanting to learn how to play blitzball)—both of which are things that are often seen in men struggling with toxic masculinity. even ten years after jecht disappeared from zanarkand, tidus is never without that nagging voice in his head, telling him to “stop crying,” or, “you can’t do it, kid.”

similarly, braska’s masculinity also influences his relationship with yuna—unlike jecht, however, braska’s affects their reationship positively. this is because braska, in what little we see of him, is loving, supportive, and unafraid of expressing his emotions. he encourages yuna to live the way she wants to, and reminds her that he will always love her, even from beyond the grave. even ten years after his passing, she still holds him in very high regard, and his undying support is part of what motivates her to forge her own path in life—which is what leads to her and her party defeating yu yevon once and for all.

i don’t really have a conclusion, but i think this interaction between yuna and tidus illustrates just how each of them affected their children:

yuna, for a brief moment, can’t even fathom hating one’s father so, scolding tidus for doing so before she realizes it isn’t that simple. what a tell. braska’s positive impact on yuna helped her to go on to defeat the very source of spira’s suffering. jecht, however, left such a negative impact on tidus that, until he sees jecht change for the better in the sphere recordings he finds around spira, is plagued by his memory until the day he fades away.

[cainballad]

So I recreated the Moonflow in Tiny Glade~ it’s always sunset there~

I based it off this pic aside the 3rd pic which is just a side view shot. The first thing I started with was spot Jecht was laying in the sphere and then the water lolol

I wish we got to see the Moonflow at night but I guess we got such beauty in the Macalania woods~

That was the only time I wanted to smack auron 😂 but of course there are reasons for it so I can’t fault him for saying “NO we aren’t staying”

[silversiren1101]

I beat FFX this weekend! This was my first time playing it (thanks E33 for giving me the kick in the rear to do so) and it was most excellent: a solid 9/10 brought down by some annoying/frustrating things that I can't excuse as being due to the game's age. It holds up remarkably well in so many ways, made me cry several times, and was just overall a blast to experience. I loved every character, the world and art direction, and the clever twists in the writing in an otherwise simple story-- especially regarding the reversals between Tidus and Yuna with keeping secrets and that victory will mean death

Only after I beat it did my partner tell me I was severely underleveled almost the whole game but they were so impressed with how I was doing and curious to see how far I could go that they just never told me LMAO

Attempts on the hardest bosses:

Beat Seymour Flux on the 3rd try (after the 2nd attempt, did my first instance of grinding in the game for about 30 mins and played around with equipment to see what zombieward/proof stuff I could cobble together. Ended up being none and just went at him with patience and a very lucky ending crit from bahamut overdrive)

Beat Yunalesca on the 2nd try, after a massive bitchfest tirade when that first megadeath hit in the 3rd stage that I was not expecting whatsoever and had proudly cured zombie on everyone. She had no idea what hit her after I composed myself and went back in.

Beat Jecht on the 2nd try, after he got such a massively unfair lucky consecutive turn combo going into his 2nd phase where he sword swept the party 2x in a row (even my partner said that was absolute bullshit and I got robbed)

Beat Geosgaeno on the 2nd try, after my partner cheekily didn't tell me at all what to expect and I got insta-karma'd for my over reliance on TKO a good chunk of the game. That led to my second and last grind session where I went to farm petrification grenades to make stoneproof gear for the swimmer crew.

Other than that, no deaths aside from an occasional wipe to some of the most BS random enemies in the game (what the actual fuck are those demonoliths). I did slightly 'cheat' for one fight and it was to pay Yojimbo 20k gil to kill Dark Valefor for me instantly because I do not have the time or patience for FF superbosses but I wanted that damn Jecht sphere.

[jessjustplay]

I finished playing Final Fantasy X (again)

October 22, 2023

Game: Final Fantasy X HD Remaster First Time/Replaying: Replaying Game Time: 40 hours Console: Nintendo Switch Started: December 5, 2022 Finished: October 21, 2023

I finished this game last year in February, but some time in December I got an itch to play it again. At the time of my initial replay, I didn't have a TV so I played the entire thing on my tiny Switch screen. Now that I had somewhere to dock the Switch to, I wanted to re-experience the story again on a big TV!

So yes, I started Final Fantasy X back in December 2022 and it's taken me almost a year to finish it. In my defense, I have been playing a lot of other games! FFX was sort of just a back-burner, in-between-playthroughs type of game.

However, a few days ago I picked it up and could not put it down. Once you get past a particular area (that blasts an annoying announcement on-repeat the ENTIRE time), the game is very fun and picks up speed as the story unravels. I also decided I wasn't going to "do everything" which threw out a lot of that anxiety.

I have a PS4 now, so I thought, "If I'm going to 'do everything' I might as well go for a Platinum trophy!" I'm glad the Switch doesn't have a trophy system because it lets you enjoy the games without worrying about marking tasks off a list, but with how annoying FFX's side-quests are, if you're going to put yourself through that pain, you might as well get some sort of accolade!

I have no idea when I will start my Platinum attempt, but I really would like to try one day. I've played this game SO many times sinc eI was a kid - why not? People on Instagram telling me I should go for an easier Platinum trophy not only annoys me, but also makes me want to do it even more.

SPOILERS START HERE

Anyways, the endgame of this playthrough was really exciting! I told myself I wouldn't be getting an extra aeons or any of the ultimate weapons, so it was nice just walking around, leveling up, and going into boss fight after boss fight.

Normally, I would have Yuna's ultimate weapon and her Break Damage Limit would save the day! But this time I didn't have that and I relied HEAVILY on Bahamut to save our skins.

Seymour #2 took me two attempts, the Zanarkand Guardian was one attempt, the Zanarkand Trials Glyph Monster Dude took me 3 or 4 tries, Yunalesca was one attempt (!), Seymour #3 was one attempt (!!), and Braska's Final Aeon was ALSO one attempt (!!!).

I was surprised I was able to do do the final leg of the endgame in one attempt without dying. Not to mention, whie fighting Braska's Final Aeon, he petrified Wakka and that man disappeared! I was tempted to restart the game but then I thought, "It's not like I'm getting any EXP from this fight!" So I BEAT THE GAME WITH TWO CHARACTERS ONLY. At one point, Lulu and Yuna had less than 200 HP and I was freaking out!

What saving me was summoning Bahamut once, getting LUCKY AF that he didn't die, dismissing him, then using Yuna's overdrive to summon him again. I also used Auron to zombie Jecht and that helped for awhile, and I used Tidus's talk command once and that 100% saved Lulu and Yuna from dying. *THANK GOD*

Here are my final stats:

While I was more critical of the game this time around (more on that in another post), I still enjoyed this game and it will always be special to me! It's interesting though, I used to cry a lot watching the ending of this game, but this time I didn't. It's official - I'm old lol

When you're young, losing the person you "love" seems like the end of the world, but as you get older you learn people come and go. Yuna, you are 17. You will find someone new!!!

I did, however, cry during that one scene watching Yuna's sphere of messages (after beating the Zanarkand guardian boss). IT IS SO SAD!!! 😭 I felt my throat closing up watching that (specifically the Kimahri part). KIMAHRI, YOU'RE THE BEST! I need to write a Kimahri appreciation post.

[gaast]

YEAH I cried a little watching the first Jecht's Sphere and the post-Macalania Sin visions and That Scene in Home. What of it?

[auronstory]

"Jecht said that a lot, too. And every time he said it, it meant trouble for Braska and me."

[ffx-cele]

I have good advice for myself

I was reading my past posts while eating today, and I saw on my PS3 HD version that I said something to the effect of, "I almost forgot Valefor's second overdrive! If I forgot, I'd have to fight Dark Valefor before I could get it again!"

To be honest, I forgot that Valefor has a second overdrive, and I will, in fact, need to defeat Dark Valefor before I can get it. Whoops.

Kilika

After watching the beautiful scenes again, I gathered up all the treasure and went into the forest. I did defeat Ochu fairly easily with Valefor and some fire, and went on up to fight the Sinspawn.

I didn't really have much trouble between Lulu and Valefor, and went on into the temple and got Ifrit. Then, it was onto Luca.

S.S. Winno

I got the Jecht Shot easily!

Luca

After exploring to my heart's content and talking to a lot of people (and gathering treasure chests), I took on Oblitzerator. Lulu had an Overdrive ready to go, so I did some good damage to it as well as started the crane, and then took it out easily after that.

I re-read all of the Blitzball tutorials that I could, and prepared myself for the game. My first round, I got tied 1-1 and couldn't score another goal, so I reset. My second round, I won 1-0 and, while I couldn't hide behind the net since the Goers were so close on my tail, it was still my victory. Also, Auron is really cool.

Mi'ihen Highroad

My previous notes say that I formed Dual Horns here for Ability Spheres, and I kind of wish I did that here in retrospect. I'm severely lacking, and waiting to be able to either get the ability that drops them, or find a monster that does. I did, however, get my two Blue Bullets.

Chocobo Eater wasn't too bad with Ifrit, and I did defeat him instead of knocking him off the cliff. The sheer amount of treasure from my free Chocobo ride was pretty great!

Mushroom Rock

I took some time here to level up a little bit, since it felt like the fiends were outpacing me a little bit. Thanks to reading my notes, I picked up the sword with Counterstrike for Tidus, and the ball with Stonetouch for Wakka. I thought I killed Gatta, but I didn't look up how to do it, and I didn't. Oh, well.

The Sinspawn was a slightly long battle. I used my Aeons and their overdrives and managed to take out the head, and kept the arms at bay while using Lulu and magic to get the body. Defeating the second round was very easy with Seymour.

Djose

I made it to the temple and gathered some items, and then did the Cloister of Trials so that I wouldn't have to do it next time I played, haha. I've got Ixion, so my next destination is the Moonflow.

[pigeonwheel]

Blitzball?...Apologies, could you describe what that is? -Light.

You don't know what Blitzball is?! Man, you live under a rock! Kidding, kidding.

Okay, so, you know how soccer works, right? Yeah. It's kind of like Soccer, but underwater in the Sphere Pool and you can use both your hands and feet on the ball to score and pass and shit. It's a pretty popular sport from where I come from.

Sphere Pool: (there's two kinds, the first one is in Zanarkand.)

Blitzball, obviously not my damn photo.:

-Jecht

[finallyfinishingfinalfantasy]

8th of May, adios a la isla bonita

Let's see if I can remember what happened yesterday, not a whole lot went down to be honest.

We found ourselves on a beautiful little island with my new boyfriend Wakka. We went to a temple of some kind where everyone had the biggest pants of history.

No sign of Rikku, yayyyy.

I feel like I want to write a scholarly essay on the cultural significance of big pants and shoes, and zippers and chains but specifically within the context of Japanese role-playing games.

Is it, like, a futurist thing? I can't get over it.

NOTES

This is bullshit, I can't pet the cat in the Crusader's tent (or whoever's tent)?!

Sweet, you can nap with my boyfriend Wakka!

Flashback: Diego is mad at his Dad?

Diego is such an asshole!

This maze thing with all the spheres is kinda creepy, it sorta gives me Lovecraftian vibes?

Who is that summoner lady? She's so pretty!

Wakka is trying to fuck Diego.

I absolutely hate that narration.

That pretty lady summoned a penis butterfly, and a name! Yuna!

That child in the red pants needs a decking.

Ooh, sharing dreams with Yuna? Is this the beginning of my emotional investment?

Side-note: Yuna is also trying to fuck Diego.

Jecht is such a prick, no wonder Diego hates him.

The jury is out on whether Lulu sucks or not but she is dressed like an absolute psycho.

Fucken wasted that dog thing with my bitchin' new sword.

We're going on an adventure! By boat even!

[froliginal]

Just gonna ramble on abt my thoughts on ffx it’ll be incoherent as usual

I really wish I didn’t play the game sporadically bc I don’t remember a lot of the lore which actually seems pretty interesting. Like I could not tell you what a fayth or aeon is… which is kinda bad I have the memory of a goldfish clearly.

The characters are def a strong point here. I do like the cast although some do become less important story-wise but I feel like that’s pretty common. Rikku’s definitely my favorite character I just love how bubbly and caring she is. I think her introduction to the group was kinda stilted (Tidus just being like I found a stray!) but she carved a place for herself so well that I can overlook that lol. Auron was also a great character, and honestly kinda flipped my expectations bc I thought he would be the most traditional one out of the group bc he had that anything’s fine just continue your pilgrimage attitude, but then you find out that he’s the one that was the most opposed to the final summoning on his journey. Is auron and jecht doomed yaoi? I think he just confirmed that I like mentor characters cuz I think he’s like the 4th or 5th one I liked so far. Tidus and yuna are so precious. I just like to think about how yuna started her journey knowing and accepting that she was going to die, then tidus found out that no he’s going to “die.”

Ik this came out before Xenoblade but the story just reminds me so much of it. The obvious one being tidus’s “alive” state and shulk’s, but the storyline reminded me so much of xc3. Eternal cycle that only creates more death, culture around sending people off, the protagonist’s group basically being the beacon of hope, and the final boss being a concept lol. And the whole machina war and being against the machina??? Bro??? Xc1??? The people of bionis basically hating and fearing machina/mechonis??? Oh and the yu yevon fight was on a giant sword… mechonis sword… hehe

That being said I’m not sure if I want to replay the game. You can tell the game is dated and no I’m not talking abt the graphics I literally play Nintendo games idgaf abt graphics. The UI is unintuitive, personally I didn’t find most of the music to be that great, the battles are kinda slow (this might be a skill issue lol), and the constant random encounters are a pain. You might be like how do you hate wild encounters when I play pokemon but you only encounter them in specific areas and also repels are available pretty early on. I really should have explored and backtracked more because clearly I missed many items which I did think hinder me a bit (I’m sorry kimahri). I’m not really a huge fan of the sphere grid either. I didn’t get any of the celestial weapons and didn’t get anima bc I missed the besaid sphere. And I didn’t know you could backtrack before the ship so uh yeah I got locked out. I also found no jecht spheres lmao.

Although I rlly do like how well they wrote jecht’s relationships bc even without those extra memories, I was still able to understand and feel invested in his relationships with tidus and auron. I think jecht and tidus have an interesting relationship but that’s just bc I like family drama esp ones involving problematic dads. I loved the ending cutscene where tidus sees braska and auron and then high fives jecht.

I think the story will def hit different if I play it again with all this context in mind, but again I’m not sure if I want to at least any time soon 😅

Overall 6.5-7/10

Forgot to add: I hate seymour he had way too much screen time. Thank god we kicked him and the other cockroaches out of power

[damnitglenn]

First celestial weapon

Obtained my first celestial weapon which of course had to be for the goat Auron. Though I probably won’t obtain the other weapons. At least I can say I got my favorite characters weapon.

While playing through and thinking about the game I realized that every character has experience loss or would be in the process of losing someone.

I never viewed how serious this game was until getting more cutscenes from the Jecht spheres and through gameplay. The game deals more on how to live through the grievances of loss.

Now is the time to shape your story! Your fate is in your hands! -Auron

(One of the hardest quotes before fighting yunalesca)