FFX-3 Speculation and Developments > FFX-3 Speculation and Developments

I'm creeped out by the book, but I think it's actually GOOD. Spoilers ahead

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UltimaGriever:
After reading the novella a few times, I've related some of the information to what's been provided by the games and I'm absolutely creeped out by some stuff, namely Yevon itself and the whole Machina War black-and-white drama.

Zanarkand was never truly a victim. Yu Yevon and Yunalesca brainwashed their (very young) soldiers into fighting. I'm quite sure that they are the "Mage of Zanarkand" and the "Summoner Princess" mentioned in the novel, respectively. This would mean that they exerted an abnormal kind of control over Zanarkand's population, even so that they ALL agreed to become fayth (!!!!!!!!!!) for Dream Zanarkand's summoning. One of Zanarkand's soldiers mentioned that he "had" to fight to "win" the Princess's heart (even though Yunalesca was already married) and that she had kissed him. Yevon and Yunalesca played really dirty to get to win this war.

Zanarkand had machina, too. And, in the beginning of the war, they had machinery even more advanced than Bevelle's. It was only when Bevelle decided to take on the arms race that it won, presumably by the aid of the Bedohls (Al Bhed). Not that Bevelle was innocent either, the Machina War was essentially a holy war in that it only started when the head of Bevelle decreed Yunalesca and Yu Yevon heretics for not following their polytheist doctrine and declaring themselves as gods instead.

The fayth, when created by Yu Yevon's ways, were unable to pass on to afterlife, having their souls trapped in the world of the living for as long as he existed. This method of creating fayth bound their existence to that of Yu Yevon's, and they had to worship him, even though, after so many centuries, they got tired of being unable to just let go and depart to the Farplane. They were forced to sing the Hymn of the Fayth, which is a Japanese anagram meaning unconditional worship to Yu Yevon and keeps the fayth dreaming. I would guess Bevelle found that to be outrageous and vowed to purge Spira from this kind of heathen.

When you enter Yunalesca's room, you hear an off-key chorus of male voices singing the Hymn of the Fayth. I think it could be possible that the other Final Aeon fayths might be the ones singing. They sound like they're in despair, because their souls are kind of trapped there, unable to become aeons because they already were (Sin) but they're not anymore, and even though they're not technically fayths anymore, they can't move on because of their nature as dying as fayths. I don't know if I'm being sufficiently clear, but.. :(

That Yu Yevon was actually able to convince every last citizen of Zanarkand to give their lives up to become fayth for his megalomaniac summoning is enough to get one to think. Nobody can convince everyone 100% of an idea, let alone suggest that everyone commit collective suicide just so I can recreate a memory because we've lost the war either way. Maybe a small sect, but not the entire population of Zanarkand. Considering that Zanarkand was a fairly huge city, it should've had a huge population, and it's widely known that not a single thing would get voted unanimously among a huge populace: someone, even if only 1 person, would disagree upon it. Yet every living citizen of Zanarkand (it's not mentioned if unsents can become fayth - even though Seymour wanted to become one) agreed upon Yu Yevon's decision of turning everybody into fayth, and it's stated in-game that the person must be willing to undergo the ceremony for it to be successful. IMHO Yu Yevon and Yunalesca basically have the entire population under what could be compared to a city-wide Imperius Curse, in that the people cater to their every whim: if someone were told by Yunalesca or Yevon to throw themselves under a train, they would do it without a second thought and without question. It's much worse than the post-war teachings of Yevon, in that some people had the choice of following them or not (namely, the Al Bhed/Auron).

Bevelle's soldiers were not far from that, although. They fiercely believed that their deities existed (much like Orthodox Christians/Muslims) and would kill on the spot anyone who defied their religion. They scouted for people who seemed to be talented in the arts of summoning and took them from their families since they were very little, as early as 4 or 5 years old, to train in special camps. They were bestowed with a god's name thereafter and would be referred to by that name until their deaths. They were basically indoctrinated from the very beginning of understanding the world surrounding them and forced to serve the authorities to the end of their lives. Kush, for instance, seemed like a spoiled brat to Valm in the beginning, but she didn't know better, having been raised that way. They thought they were fighting for their gods. They knew no better than that.

After the war, Bevelle was forced to swallow Yevon's BS and to revere him in order to quell Sin's wrath. Yevon managed to stun Spira's advance for a whole millennium. That's how narcissistic one can get, folks.

ChercheurObscur:
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Yevon had controlled everyone's mind in order to send them to the front or to turn them into fayths ! He was a very powerful mage. He certainly was familiar with pyreflies, I think. And by dint of playing more and more with them, he became a horrible entity.

The funny fact would be Tidus becoming a "new Yu Yevon". It's not absurd when you know that he's a result of will and pyreflies more and more mysterious. We don't even know his condition when he comes back to Spira. I wouldn't mind if Nojima chose this path for Tidus in FFX-3 :P

Danko Kaji:
Okay. I only saw a piece of that whole picture when reading the novel, but this? This is amazing. I can't wait to refer to this properly in my rewrite of the novel. So much UNTAPPED POTENTIAL!!!

UltimaGriever:
The fayth used to say that Yu Yevon was peerless. Would it mean, then, that he had some degree of control over the pyreflies of the living? This would reasonably explain how he sent so many people to the front lines, and how he managed to get the very rest of his people to undergo mass suicide. It's like Kim Jong-un and North Korea, except that there are people who disagree with him - otherwise there wouldn't be any forced labor camps in NK. But no - in-game and novella sources seem to point towards mass brainwashing taking place in Zanarkand.

What I found curious is that the souls that had been Yevon's fayth seem to have a different nature than that of those who were not. Souls of the "normal" (that is, those who hadn't been fayth) dead didn't ever manifest on the Farplane as more than illusions projected by the living's memories (this could be possible in the core of the Farplane, where Auron, Jecht and Braska were heard talking to Yuna during the battle with Vegnagun/Shuyin on X-2), however the souls of the fayth manifested at will and had a consciousness of their own. They could also manifest as the aeons they represented, and, in doing so, they were also tangible. Yevon's way of creating fayth was done in a way that altered the very nature of the soul, in that the person couldn't really die even if it could be freed someday.

Listening to the Hymn of the Fayth and that BGM that plays when you're within Sin/that dream Tidus had in Mt. Gagazet gives me all the creeps possible after realizing all this stuff.  :o

EDIT: I believe Yu Yevon died at some point, but never noticed, because he had to keep up with summoning from hundreds of thousands of fayth AND controlling Sin... The bug-like form was most likely for greater ease in possessing aeons so he could use their pyreflies to form another carcass for Sin, and then he'd throw the previous soul away (presumably to the Farplane or to that room where Yunalesca lurks - when you get it you'll poop bricks).

EDIT 2: When I was a kid I dreamed of living in a city like Zanarkand. I don't anymore. *shudders*

Danko Kaji:
I always wondered whether or not Unsents were capable of Summoning (I mean, do you need to be alive to sustain that unique mental connection? Or is the soul a base requirement?), and then I noticed Belgemine and Ginnem were able to summon their The Magus Sisters and Yojimbo respectively. It's odd that Seymour (and to a certain extent Yunalesca) chose not to summon, unless they couldn't?

Also, while going through Fiend Tales in FFX-2, I learned that a fiend's capable of beckoning a loved one in the Farplane. And if this counts as a hint for future characters, a Flan Azul (a Guado in his past life) had been loyal to Seymour Guado once and still retains that loyalty. In the end of his tale, he still believes Seymour may still exist in the living realm and departed to look for him. There's so much we don't know about the nature of things, especially when it comes to unique exceptions of already common knowledge.

I mean, if we're getting all these different methods of Summoning, what had been the original method and for what purpose? I have a theory Summoning may have been an ancient art that originated from the Guado until humans (or Bevelle) stole their secrets and redeveloped the magic for their own purposes. Knowing Bevelle, it monopolized the secrets of Summoning until Yevon and his daughter fled, thus inevitably causing it to spread and alter once more. The Myst village in FFIV had the Summoning art restricted to their settlement until an imposter King sought to eradicate their people for fear of future threat, and that makes me wonder if something similar happened in FFX many years before Yevon's time.

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