DUTY
HER PILGRIMAGE & ITS GOAL
There are other summoners traveling the treacherous road to Zanarkand, all seeking to end Sin’s terror and yet unwittingly perpetuate it at the same time. Yuna’s pilgrimage is different. And while past summoners and their guardians all loved one another, were tied to each other by bonds that only death could break, somehow they still lacked something. Braska, Jecht, Auron—they were the truest of friends, and yet when the time came, when they stood poised on the brink of that final choice, still they did not break the cycle. Braska’s life drained away, became the vitality of a new Sin. Jecht became a monster, the very enemy they had come miles and miles to defeat. They succumbed to the pressure. What makes Yuna’s pilgrimage so different? Why does she choose life over death? Yunalesca watches as Lulu offers herself as the Final Summoning, as Yuna stares with wide eyes and searches frantically for another answer, just as countless other summoners and guardians have in the past. But this time, another way is chosen.

The goal of Yuna’s pilgrimage is to defeat Sin once and for all. It will not be accomplished through faith alone, and repentance without action is equally insufficient. What time has proven tried and true will no longer be enough. I think the catalyst here is Auron. If Auron had not been left behind, watching Braska and Jecht give their lives for a hopeless cause…if he had not challenged Yunalesca and failed…if his soul had found peace rather than unfinished business…I think the outcome may have been different. There would be no one to bring Tidus from the Dream Zanarkand into the Spira of a thousand years after. None would have borne witness to the real reasoning behind the traditions and the venerated beliefs. Auron, I think, gave that necessary push.

In choosing not to fight death with further death, Yuna succeeded in ending a centuries-old tragedy. Finally, Spira was freed—Spira, at last, could live.