NATURE
SOFT HEART, WILL OF STEEL
Soft heart, will of steel. Yuna’s kindness and compassion know no bounds– it seems as though there isn’t a cruel bone in her body. One would expect such kindness to become a weakness; you would expect this girl to lay down and let others use her spine for a doormat. However, Yuna’s kindness walks hand in hand with an unbreakable will. She stands, head held high, even as the foundations of her life crumble and her beliefs erode before her eyes. She does not give up or give in for anything. It isn’t what one could call ’stubborn’, or even just plain determination. Yuna is simply strong in ways that many are not. She can bring herself to resist even when hope is flagging and the situation seems desperate. What results is a quiet defiance, a killing-with-kindness.

There are only two ways in which Yuna’s empathy strikes a dissonant chord. One is her desire to please and appease. She would go out of her way to ease suffering or save her companions from grave dangers. She would undertake the task in their stead. You might say she has a watered-down Hero Complex; a tendency to leap in the way when others are in peril, a reflex that sends her rushing headlong into that peril with little regard for her own well-being. It is a beautifully selfish selflessness.

Why is Yuna this way? Why is she possessed of such shining kindness? Yuna feels the pain of the world on a higher level. She is finely tuned to suffering, hears the cries of the people for peace. She knows their thirst for life. When there is sorrow, Yuna knows it; it resonates with something inside her, and she can’t help wanting to silence it, or heal it somehow. That is what she is: a healer. Gentle as a flower, and yet without the flower’s fragility.