Auron's Matchmaking in FFX

[dagas_isa]

Written as a follow up to this post, particularly solitaryjane's question about Auron being a matchmaker.

He is. It's not necessarily obvious, and he's not forcing either Tidus or Yuna into feeling something they don't feel, but he's definitely working behind the scenes to bring them together.

Scene One: This isn't really matchmaking as much as it is Auron solving a problem of Yuna's regarding Tidus. We already know that Yuna wants Tidus to be her guardian. We also know from Lulu and Wakka's discussion on the ship to Luca that Yuna feels she cannot ask Tidus to be her guardian. Since at this point in the game, Tidus is simply with them to go to Luca, play Blitzball for Wakka's team, and then find someone he knows, Luca would be the point at which they would have separated if not for Auron's appearance and his insistence that Tidus becomes a guardian as well. Thus, Yuna gets Tidus as a guardian without her having to ask him, or make any reference to Jecht.

Scene Two: Djose Highroad just before they separate off the main path and head to the temple. Here Auron tells Tidus to not tell Yuna about Jecht being Sin. His reasoning: "You know her... She
would...distance herself from you. We do not want that." This time he's clearly interested in Tidus and Yuna remaining close and at the very least Yuna's attachment to Tidus.

Scene Three: Macalania Woods before the first Seymour battle. Auron gives some advice to Tidus about Yuna's character and then tells Tidus to "Stand by her, always." Part of it is probably concern for Yuna's safety, but it also seems like Auron is prompting Tidus to stay near Yuna, not just as a guardian, but emotionally as well.

It's not blatant, but it's definitely there as an undercurrent to the Auron and Tidus reactions.

As for Auron's motivations, I'm sure there are as many explainations for what he does as there are Auron fans, and they'll probably differ depening on whether they like Tidus and/or Yuna, or whether they're Auron/Braska/Jecht type shippers, or really anything.

The one that suits my personal characterization best is that Auron's own promises and plans to set things right require that Tidus and Yuna feel close bonds with each other. He can't tell anyone what happens with the Final Summoning, but he knows what waits for them at the end. He's also the person in Braska's party who is reluctant to see Braska go through with the Final Summoning. More than anyone else, Auron knows what needs to happen in order to end Sin's rebirth cycle. Or he doesn't know how to end it exactly, but he knows that it starts with killing Yunalesca and ending the Final Summoning. And to get someone like Yuna to willingly discard the tradition requires that someone close to her influence her choice and makes her question her beliefs.

Or it could just be one final way that Auron looks out for Tidus and Yuna by helping them be together.

Thoughts about this?

Comments

[cygna-hime.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I also noticed this (especially the "distance herself from you" line), and came up with my own theory as to Auron's motivations.

Auron wants to end the summoner-guardian-Sin cycle more than anyone, because he is the only marginally-sane person in the world who knows how useless it is. In order for the cycle to end, a summoner who had reached Zanarkand must reject Yunalesca. That's the only thing no summoner has ever done. Naturally, when Auron shows back up in Spira and finds (what he no doubt suspected) that Yuna has become a summoner, and also that, luckily for him and his agenda, she and Tidus have met, Auron decides that Yuna will be that summoner. Possibly as a form of atonement for having failed her father, possibly because otherwise she would die, possibly for some more obscure reason, but he definitely goes out of his way to make Yuna be the one.

Not only does Auron encourage Tidus to get close to her, but he also ensures that Yuna continue her pilgrimage. Unlike all her other guardians, Auron never suggests that she turn back. He doesn't want, or doesn't only want, to protect Yuna; he wants Yuna to reach Zanarkand alive and strong enough to fight Yunalesca.

Tidus is, in a way, Auron's mouthpiece to persuade Yuna to break with tradition. He is the one to advance the arguments that had convinced Auron ten years before. He is the one to argue with her over and over, the one who almost persuades her to quit her pilgrimage after they escape from Bevelle. He is, moreover, the only one of the other guardians who truly believes that there is another way. Tidus is the outsider, the unbiased one, and thus the one whose conclusions matter the most. Auron also conceals from Yuna as long as possible the nature of Sin and the Final Summoning, so that it will be a greater shock when she finally finds out.

I think Auron counts on the shock of finding out that most of what she believed in was wrong, combined with her affection for Tidus and belief in him, to bring Yuna to the point of defying tradition. That's his aim, throughout the story: to break the cycle, as he said he would.

[shahrizai.livejournal.com]

Auron as matchmaker automatically makes me think of this (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2703258/1/) fic.

[dagas-isa.livejournal.com]

That's probably about as close to canon as any explanation can I get, I think. I didn't notice so much on my first playthrough, but going throught it again, I definitely see Auron's moving things behind the scenes.

I've never heard it put quite that way, but Tidus as Auron's mouthpiece seems to be the right way to explain what goes on with Auron's plan to make things end differently at Zanarkand.

I see this part of the journey as his going through and 're-doing' the pilgrimage the right way. Particularly when he makes the comment to Wakka about wanting to change the world, but changing nothing. So now he gets the opportunity to do things over with Yuna and co. and this time he uses his knowledge to help other people change the world.

[dagas-isa.livejournal.com]

I'm not really a fan of Aurikku, but it looks well written enough to check it out. Thanks for the link.