HISTORY FROM BEVELLE TO BESAID "Yuna, when you have grown, you will have to find your own path. Do what you must do, the way you want to do it. Doors will always open themselves to those who do. Listen close, Yuna. Your future is yours to make." - High Summoner Braska
Yuna’s childhood was an eventful time, full of sorrow that could have twisted her into something entirely different. Her mother died, yet another casualty of Sin. This led her father, Braska, to take up the summoner’s way of life—and the summoner’s choice to die for a greater cause. Leaving his young daughter in Bevelle, Braska made his pilgrimage and succeeded. What must that have been like? Your father marched away down long roads, he told you goodbye and did his best to explain. Your heart was too young to know or to understand much. Time passed and suddenly your father’s name is on everyone’s lips, his triumphs are being paraded on the streets, but his feet aren’t on the doorstep. Your father isn’t coming home, although his memory is, and a statue many times taller than him will soon be in every temple in Spira. All you will ever see of this hero-father from here on out is his visage in stone. You are an orphan now.
"I stood on the bridge in Bevelle where my father and I had parted. Standing there, alone, I could see the fields where he had fought Sin. Then, you appeared, Kimahri. You said you were looking for the daughter of Braska, remember?" - Yuna
Enter Kimahri, loyalty incarnate. The relationship between Yuna and her unfailing guardian is, to me, something you shouldn’t overlook. I firmly believe that, had Yuna gone through her pilgrimage and accepted Yunalesca’s solution to the problem of Sin, Kimahri would have been the one to die with her. He would probably wouldn’t have had it any other way. And you know what? I doubt any other bond would have been stronger, save perhaps the one between Yuna and Tidus that was founded on a different kind of love. Kimahri took Yuna from Bevelle in the aftermath of Braska’s victory. They traveled to the island of Besaid, where Yuna would grow up far removed from the workings of Yevon that are at the core of Bevelle. She would grow up waking to morning zephyrs and lush woods, the salt air and the salt sea, simplicity and blue sky. She would, with Kimahri, Wakka, Lulu, and Chappu, experience the sort of life Braska wished her to have. And throughout this time in her life, those years in which she was growing up, Kimahri remained. He became father-uncle-brother-best friend. He filled many spaces.The reason for my examination of Yuna’s origins is this: our origins shape the decisions we make later on in life. And I want to know, really know, why she chose that path. What was the final piece that fell into place? Was it the sight of Wakka holding his brother’s broken body? Was it Lulu’s deepening silence in the time after? Was it, in truth, the magnetic pull and the undeniable pressure imposed by her father’s legacy? Was it grief at never knowing the mother she had lost? Was it inspired by Kimahri’s unrelenting support as her protector, this compulsion to protect Spira in turn? In her history, which event set the wheels in motion? I believe, fiercely, that it was all this and more; that it was a desire, born from loving so many and so much, to somehow save them all.
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