STRENGTH
HOPE IN ALL THINGS.
(My ramblings on Yuna are coming to an end. Now comes the last essay, my final argument in her favor. If I haven’t convinced you by the end of this tribute, well, I suppose I fail at life.)

How do you define strength? How do you put into words the true meaning of power, might, or endurance? Is it physical or mental? Is it spiritual or emotional? I believe there are infinite amounts of ways in which a person can be strong, and I see many ways in which Yuna is among the strongest you will ever find. She was orphaned by Sin, chose to defeat Sin, and then succeeded. She watched her one love fade away, was forced to acknowledge that he may be lost to her forever. She returned home a hero and savior, forever to be famous and remembered in the hearts of the people. She chose to live with that honor, and also the pressures accompanying that honor. She picked her life up and helped others sort out their own, and even after all the death and destruction she had witnessed…even after the treachery and lies and deceit in the ranks of Yevon, the chaos that she had a hand in revealing and a century-old conspiracy that she tore down at last…Yuna still found hope in her heart. You see her whistling on the pier under a peerless blue sky. You see the tears roll down her cheeks as Luca stadium explodes in cheers and celebration, and you know that in her heart she is remembering it all, that she is missing someone and something. But her hope never once wavered, and the light of it never flickered. I believe her true strength is hope…the ability to keep it shining, to tend it well and never let it die. With hope, Yuna set sail from Besaid, made it all the way up the snowy paths of Gagazet. She stood among the ruins of Zanarkand and used that hope, that true and unbroken hope, to keep her feet going until the final stand. That hope was resilient enough to face down the most fearsome of enemies.

I admire her strength, which is quiet and unassuming but there nonetheless. I admire her courage, which is not bold and reckless, but still a force to be reckoned with. But most of all, I admire her heart…which never did stop believing. Yuna never did stop hoping. And with that hope alone, she kept going. She saw it through to the very end.