FFX Ultimania Bio: Auron

[Ed. Note: originally posted on GameFAQs’ now-defunct FFX forums by user pmog here (broken link): http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/2000008-final-fantasy-x-storyline/21477330?page=2]

Auron’s Story

The following is my translation of “Auron’s Story” from the FFX SUG. I have tried to make it as accurate as possible in spirit to the original. However, there are a number of liberties taken with grammar and style, in trying to manipulate the original Japanese into something relatively coherent in English (hopefully a successful attempt!).

THE MAN WHO HAS THE LAST TURN

The legendary guardian – whenever he is called by that title, Auron feels the revival of bitter emotions contained within him. Whenever he is looked upon with gazes of respect and admiration, he can’t help but want to cry out. He is overcome by the urge to want to yell that they’re mistaken and reveal the whole truth.

The fame that was given to him is all due to the fact that he served as Summoner Braska’s guardian. It was because Braska defeated Sin and became high summoner that Auron is held in high regard as the brave soul who protected Spira’s hero throughout his pilgrimage and fulfilled his duty as an excellent guardian.

However, it isn’t the case that he wanted all that adulation. Auron became Braska’s guardian because he was drawn in by Braska’s character above all else, and because he approved of Braska’s honest intention to vanquish the sorrow of the people of Spira, terrorised by Sin.

They went on a pilgrimage to try and change a world that was tormented by pain. Braska, a summoner who chose the ascetic path of obtaining the Final Summoning, even while he incurred the Temples’ displeasure for wedding an Al Bhed. Auron, a warrior monk who strayed from a successful career path by refusing a marriage proposal that assured him of a future promotion, but had no relation whatsoever to Yevon’s teachings. And Jecht, who accompanied them on their journey with the dream of returning his hometown but nevertheless, gave it up to instead harden his strong resolve to fight Sin in the end.

However, the pilgrimage that these three had risked their lives for wasn’t able to change anything after all. Sin was certainly defeated by Braska’s Final Summoning, and the people of Spira were wild with joy over the arrival of a Calm after 90 long years. Braska had his statue enshrined in the temples as high summoner, and the people forgot all their sorrows, elated with the brief period of peace. They were intoxicated with the all too short celebrations that took place before Sin returned.

And then, just as everyone had known it would, Sin was reborn. The Calm passed on like a dream, and Spira was once again shrouded in unjust death and profound sorrow. Everything returned back to the way it was. No matter how many sacrifices were made, the vicious cycle was only mercilessly repeated…

A world where nothing changed. A pilgrimage where they weren’t able to change anything. Whenever he looks back on how he could not stop Braska or Jecht no matter how hard he tried, Auron is overcome by feelings of intense self-reproach and regret that tear him apart. Thanks to that pilgrimage, being called the greatest guardian ever and gaining the public’s respect was an agony that was hard to bear.

If it was possible, he’d want to do that pilgrimage all over again once more. That defiant pilgrimage where he, along with Braska and Jecht, would bring about a liberating change; one unbound by the conventional wisdom of Yevon’s teachings.

But those dreams weren’t realised. Summoner Braska’s pilgrimage ended, and so did Auron’s story. Unable to vanquish sorrow from its source and only able to let the people to turn their gazes from it temporarily, much like how it had been until then, the curtain closed on the legendary guardian’s futile story.

Now, Auron was like an actor remaining in the wings of the stage where his turn had ended long before. A figure who could have left that place whenever he liked – if anything, he was forced to leave. What ties him to the scene of the battle are his feelings, which simply can’t accept the conclusion of his story, and the promises that he must fulfill to both his friends. A tenacious will that does not wish for the young men and women, who will inherit the next age, to meet the last scene of the play following the same worthless script as he had done – that will is what bends all rules and principles to allow Auron to stay on.

Jecht and Braska had each left behind their children.

Tidus and Yuna. These two people, who live in completely different worlds, were indirectly introduced to each other by Auron 10 years later. It wasn’t as though he had planned out everything beforehand. But just as if they had been guided towards their destinies by the blood flowing through their veins, Tidus and Yuna are to walk the same paths their fathers did. Yuna became a summoner, with all the expectation of being Braska’s daughter placed upon her. And Tidus, who drifted ashore onto Besaid that same day, ended up journeying with Yuna. Auron was the one who later pushed him into officially becoming a guardian, but the tides of fate had already been settled before then.

Auron didn’t intend to let Yuna repeat the same mistakes as him and his friends. But at the same time, he understands all too painfully how much resolve summoners possess in order to face their pilgrimage. It isn’t a journey which an outsider – even Auron, who knows everything – can vainly keep them from doing.

If he tells her everything he knows, perhaps he can make Yuna stop at once, by her own volition. Or maybe she will no longer be able to go on as she has before. Except Auron knows. For Yuna, who loves Braska and has inherited his will, the happiness of the people of Spira is her life’s purpose and her dream. Even if Auron tells her about his own pilgrimage where they weren’t able to change anything, it would be meaningless to her. If Yuna doesn’t learn about the truth about this world with her own eyes, and moreover, doesn’t pass judgement on it herself, then a real life will not begin for the girl whom Braska entrusted Auron with.

That was also the case for Tidus. For the boy who, like Jecht, went on pilgrimage without knowing anything about Spira, the truth that Auron knows is perhaps harsh and severe, like a potent medicine. In the place where he had lived for 17 years, there were always only easy choices for him to make. However, Jecht didn’t wish for his son to live that way. A life where he would experience its harsh realities one by one, and could begin to passionately express his own views about them. If there was something Auron could give Tidus, surely it was just leading him into this world in order to weave his own story. Into the prologue of a story with no regrets, which Auron wasn’t able to achieve.

Thus, Auron devotes himself to playing a supporting role, a prompter. The leading roles on this pilgrimage belong to Yuna and Tidus, with the young men and women trying to protect Yuna as the actively serving guardians. Auron only assists them in moving the story forward. By no means does he try to force the script of his design onto them. For that is the essence of the pilgrimage – discovering the truth about Spira and deciding whether or not to rewrite the story is a privilege reserved only for those in the process of their journey.

And at the moment when the director of that endlessly spiralling story, which Auron now wants to spit on, appears on the stage, he simply takes charge of his past leading role which had been cast off. In order to tell the young actors with him that now is the time to make a choice. In order to clearly show them the opportunity that he himself had missed.

The young leading man, whom he had intended to watch over, prepared the play’s climax for the retiring actor as well. And the best script where he could truly become the legendary guardian.

THE END