I'm curious to know if anyone who liked Yuna in X actually likes what she becomes in X-2. 

 

Yuna is one of my favorite characters: she willingly takes the weight of the world on her shoulders, knowing full well that she must die in order to succeed in her mission, but will do it because she wants to give the world some degree of peace for once in their lives. That level of humanity and caring is probably unsurpassed in FF. She's apologetic to a fault, but she's not dumb: when she sees that there's something up with Seymour and friends, she is strong enough to be able to overcome her extreme sense of duty and to do something to right the wrongs, while still maintaining the positive personality traits that made her likable to begin with.  

 

Then, in X-2, that all sort of gets pushed to the side. She becomes something of a thief/treasure hunter who's really only concerned about gaining wealth, and her use of a gun seems questionable. Granted, a deadly weapon is a deadly weapon and a sword would have the same effect in the end, but somehow, the image of the Yuna we knew in X pointing a gun at anyone just doesn't seem right. Not to mention the obvious level of fanservice seems to make it so that her character doesn't matter so much as her aesthetic appeal, which is a great crime to do to a character that was so well written to begin with.

 

Does anyone else feel this way?

I feel like they took what Yuna was and just stepped all over her. I don't like what she became in X-2. It was like she turned into a bad Charlie's Angel rip off. The transition of her character really made no sense.

I look at it as she's finally living for herself instead of everyone else, which she deserves the right to do after saving the world from Sin forever. And let's not forget that her real motivation for becoming a treasure hunter was to find someone important to her. As long as she found him I don't thing she would have cared if she wound up dirt poor.

 

As for the costume and use of a gun (a machina weapon) I see it as her abandoning the precepts of a failed religion built on lies and doing her own thing.

And we can see by her adopting Rikku's mannerisms that even she is not sure how exactly she fits into Spira's new way of life.

 

I did like how compassionate she was in X but it made me sad to see a young woman attempting to throw away her life so that the world can enjoy just a few years of peace before someone else has to step up to sacrifice themselves. I may have felt differently if her death would have stopped Sin permanently but as we learned, the Final Summoning was ultimately futile.

 

Personally I think she earned the right to be a little selfish.

It wouldn't make sense for her to have stayed the same over those two years as all of Spira changed too, but not to the extent she did. Although her motives in x2 were personal it wasn't at all selfish as you make it sound in her becoming a "thief/treasure hunter who is really only concerned about gaining wealth." She is a sphere hunter hoping to one day reunite with Tidus. I vaguely remember her being quite modest in x2 as do I her getting a bit more sassy.

 

I'd be curious playing through ffx with a mod making yuna wear her gunner outfit from x2 or vice versa her x outfit in x2 to see if it makes much a difference but I doubt that would ever happen.

Edited May 9, 201312 yr by keystrike

I look at it as she's finally living for herself instead of everyone else, which she deserves the right to do after saving the world from Sin forever. And let's not forget that her real motivation for becoming a treasure hunter was to find someone important to her. As long as she found him I don't thing she would have cared if she wound up dirt poor.

 

As for the costume and use of a gun (a machina weapon) I see it as her abandoning the precepts of a failed religion built on lies and doing her own thing.

And we can see by her adopting Rikku's mannerisms that even she is not sure how exactly she fits into Spira's new way of life.

 

I did like how compassionate she was in X but it made me sad to see a young woman attempting to throw away her life so that the world can enjoy just a few years of peace before someone else has to step up to sacrifice themselves. I may have felt differently if her death would have stopped Sin permanently but as we learned, the Final Summoning was ultimately futile.

 

Personally I think she earned the right to be a little selfish.

I agree completly.

I know many people have a problem with her costume and I too thought at first that they could have chosen a different costume but in my opinion it just shows the contrast better.

I did say WTF when I saw Yuna. Of course, she has nothing to do with the big threat gone, so it made sense.

I don't think Yuna becoming what she is is as unreasonable as one might expect.  First off, no, I don't care much for the presentation of X-2!Yuna, either.  I never gravitated to overly skimpy outfits in the first place, but the fact the skimpiness and gun-wielding was on, well, Yuna, didn't sit well with me.  However, it didn't bother me enough to turn me off from the whole idea, especially when you consider where Yuna stood after the end of X.

 

Remember, Yuna is a girl who, for years, has revolved her life around a single goal: give your life to stop Sin.  She was totally prepared to do it, but after flipping the bird to the system when she found out how rigged it was, she wound up accomplishing only one half of that goal.  It's unlikely Yuna gave any thought to her life beyond a certain point, and it was only Tidus that made her consider it.  So, she stopped Sin and brought peace to Spira.  Now what?

 

If I recall, in X's ending, Yuna was pretty aimless in what she wanted to do.  Then Rikku comes along with a sphere showing an image of someone who looked like (and to Yuna, might have actually been) Tidus.  Yuna decides she wants to find him... and then Rikku tells Yuna she needs a makeover.  While Yuna agrees, it shows her new image wasn't completely her idea.

 

Yuna was trying to make a new purpose for herself.  The Sphere Hunter thing started because people wanted to know more about Spira's past--monetary gain just happened to be an extra draw for a lot of people.  Yuna gets to live for herself now, doing and going where she pleases, but still helping people out.  Yes, she's a thief and a treasure hunter, but many of her missions also involve helping the people of Spira rebuild their lives, from the major (the Youth Leage vs New Yevon conflict) to the minor (escort missions that just so happen to have rewards involved).  While the presentation is different, that core aspect of Yuna--helping everyone--has not changed.  A major theme of X-2 is rebuilding oneself after obtaining freedom.  Sometimes that rebuilding is for the better, for the worse, or just different.

I understand what they were TRYING to do.  Things in Spira were changing drastically after the defeat of Yu Yevon.  New beliefs were rising up.  New ideas, new cultures, etc.  Before this, there was either the followers of Yu Yevon, or the Al Bhed.  When people began to see what was happening with the high levels of Yu Yevon during the protagonist clash with Sin, and afterwards when Sin was defeated with methods other than the Final Summoning, most people began to realize that they were living under a lifestyle that might have not been accurate.

 

I suppose the developers of FF X-2 were trying to display this change through Yuna's personality.  I honestly think they changed her far too much.  I haven't actually played FF X-2 to it's full extent, but I never liked what I saw.  The change threw Yuna off of the young summoner that we learned to admire in FF X.  SOME change would have been good with her, but I couldn't tell you what.  I just know that I don't enjoy her personality in it. 

 

Edit: (Wow, some people have a better understanding of this whole thing than I do, )

Edited May 9, 201312 yr by Keyblader

They made a great character just to throw it away. 

Yeah It was a crime what they did to her personality in X-2, it's just not right, I kind of admired her in FFX, it really disappointed me.