SHADOW
THE SONGSTRESS LENNE
The slightly overlooked background story of Final Fantasy X-2 is that of a songstress and summoner named Lenne, and a love that transcended death—even time. While the girls are traipsing along in short skirts, brandishing guns, and sporting outfits that are a complete throwback to the 80’s…the fact is that there are two storylines running parallel here, two roads that lie side by side. The space between? A thousand years.

Is Lenne a shadow of Yuna, or is Yuna a shadow of Lenne?

It is made quite obvious that we are meant to observe the similarities between Lenne and Shuyin’s star-crossed love and the one Yuna holds in her heart for Tidus. Both pairs are torn apart. Both pairs are quite possibly doomed to never see one another again. Add to this all the “coincidental” things that tie Yuna to Lenne: they were both summoners, they were both playing crucial parts in a larger scene, they were both willing and able to make a sacrifice. Both lost the one they loved. Both were haunted by it. An immediate emotional line is then drawn, a link that binds them. Yuna’s search for a way to be with Tidus again is not unlike Lenne’s wish to be reunited with Shuyin, to find peace. To be given closure. To seek, to see, and to finally believe…whatever the answer may be. Both women are looking to bridge rifts of impossible depth and dimension. What results is a testament to love and its strength.

Is it faith, and faith alone? Did Lenne, with her last breath, cling to a steadfast belief that was powerful enough to leave an impression, a memory that continued even when her life ended? Did Yuna, watching Tidus fade away, somehow connect to that same unwavering resolution?