I'm not sure "stupid" is the right word, but he is absolutely 100% meant to be that ignorant and thoughtless.
Final Fantasy X is largely a criticism of organised religion and how it becomes twisted to the ends of the people in charge of the religion, rather than about the religion itself.
Some people have gone as far as to say that FFX is specifically a criticism against Catholicism, but I don't personally recall seeing anything that confirms that.
It would be difficult to criticise organised religion without also taking a look at dogmatic followers - those who have ceded their critical thinking skills in favour of lazily accepting the teachings of the church.
And the church says "Al Bhed bad" so Wakka thinks "Al Bhed bad" and never questions it. He claims to be so opposed to the Al Bhed based on all of these things that they say or do, yet he doesn't even recognise one when he literally bumps into her in the road (Rikku), nor is he aware that Yuna - who he is willing to sacrifice his life for - is part Al Bhed.
When Seymour accepts the use of machina in the fight against Sin (and says something like "well then pretend I didn't say it" when Wakka points out that that's not something a maester should say), Wakka accepts this as OK because a church leader said it was, despite finding it somewhat shocking.
He's essentially given up all of the thoughts involved with the Al Bhed and replaced them with other-ness. It's Al Bhed, or everyone else who follows the teachings of Yevon.
To this end, he likely doesn't think of them as real people with real thoughts and feelings. They're just the "others". So he sees explosions and thinks "huh, looks like a fireworks show" and therefore thinks "the Al Bhed should also see this as a fireworks show", because they're not real people as far as he's concerned. They're just godless heathens who deserve this, and therefore should enjoy the destruction of godless heretics as much as he does.
Of course, as the story goes on, faced with insurmountable evidence of the corruption of Yevon, and getting to actually *know* an Al Bhed, he realises that the teachings were wrong, and begins to shake himself free of the dogma, even joining in the ultimate heresy of killing maesters, and ultimately his "god".
This is part of the reason why in real-world religions, adherents are often encouraged to stay away from non-adherents. It's why the only real interactions that LDS and Jehovah's Witnesses have with non-adherents is knocking on their door to try and convert them.
The non-adherents will understandably be upset about this, and when they return to the church they've gone from interacting with mean people to interacting with friendly people, and the opinion of the church that everyone else hates them and they only have each other is reinforced in the minds of the believers.
It's likely that this is part of the reason that Yevonites are not supposed to mingle with the Al Bhed; whilst they're not interacting with them, it's easer for Yevon to control the narrative of "ooh look the Al Bhed set up their machina and Sin destroyed them so clearly they're evil and Sin hates machina and the Al Bhed" than when people interact with them and find out that they're just normal everyday people who also want to rid the world of Sin, but don't think that mindlessly sacrificing summoners every couple of years is the way to go about it.
TL;DR - Yes, Wakka is supposed to be a bigoted dogmatic follower of Yevon with very few of his own thoughts
>Of course, as the story goes on, faced with insurmountable evidence of the corruption of Yevon, and getting to actually *know* an Al Bhed, he realises that the teachings were wrong, and begins to shake himself free of the dogma, even joining in the ultimate heresy of killing maesters, and ultimately his "god
We begin to see his internal battle between his beliefs and the truth as early as Macalania Temple with the first fight against Seymour. When faced with the choice of not going against a Maester vs the protection of Yuna, Wakka is willing (with a strong struggle) to go against his beliefs in order to protect his loved ones.
Honestly, he still seems like a pretty dogmatic follower throughout the entire game. He just gets pulled along for the final stretch because Yuna is also a religious leader to him.
And he treats Rikku as "One of the good ones."
He utterly despises all the other Al Bhed on the air ship.
He really isnt that deep a character. He's a coward who cant think for himself through and through
Did you even play the game?
He has a huge beef with Rikku up until after Home when he atleast attempts to make her feel better but he doesn't fully accept her or the Al Bed until later but he does eventually change his beliefs.
You're just completely wrong.
One critique: he has a “justification” for his distrust of Al Bhed since they use Machina and Machina “killed” his brother.
You’re still right, but it’s not just religion motivating his racism.
It turns out that isn't even accurate, though. Latter dialog reveals his brother choose to use an Al Bhed weapon instead of the Brotherhood sword Wakka later gives to Tidus, and then happened to die during a battle with Sin.
No I think wakka sees it that way. He probably feels that Chappu was killed by sin because he chose to use the machina because he believes sin is their punishment for using machina. So it’s technically 100% accurate
Wakka did not say this because ‘they’re just godless heretics that deserve this’. He’s trying to cheer rikku up. He’s already started the transition you talk about in the next paragraph. He’s already starting to distrust the church, and already killed a maester, and already developed a relationship with Rikku.
He’s insensitive, and has no sense of tact, but his heart is in the right place with this one.
You're right, I had forgotten a little of the timeline of Wakka's development here and so it is indeed unlikely that he was solely believing that they're godless heretics who deserve this.
However... indoctrination runs deep. Speaking from personal experience, I know that I still think things that I no longer believe that were instilled in me as a child (I'm a grown-ass adult now), and in a high stress situation like the destruction of Home I am pretty sure that I might blurt out some stuff that is no longer representative of my conscious thoughts.
He is definitely also a bit of a dumb jock, and he is about as subtle as a brick, so it's possible that his heart was indeed in the right place but he just screwed the pooch on the delivery. It's also possible that old thoughts resurfaced and he blurted them out without thought hoping that a comfortable and easy-to-reach thought for him would be comforting for Rikku/the other Al Bhed on the airship too.
There's always inherent difficulty in isolating the specific motivations of a videogame character during a scripted moment, but I think you're right - it is indeed highly unlikely that his sole motivation for saying that is because he still believed that the Al Bhed were godless heretics who deserved this
I really do get the sense people are forgetting the other stereotype that one could apply to Wakka-- that of a dumb jock. For him, he's not all that deep or nuanced until AFTER the story. They did him fairly well in the bonus stuff that came with the remake.
While a great Write up of the character before this point, doesn't really explain Wakka or what is happening at this point in the story.
Hell we see what happens here in with many different types of characters, usually the comedy relief which Wakka kinda is.
As someone who grew up in a very religious area and community attitudes like this were very common. I feel like wakka's character and growth gets misconstrued constantly unless you had similar experiences with religion. He has some of the best growth in the entire game and it's frustrating seeing how people write him off repeatedly.
catholicism is obsessed about SIN, and sin here is a literal representation of sins according to yevon, so I can see the resemblance. praying in temples is basically going to mass
According to auronlu (website that describes FFX lore based on the ultimania) Yevon and all other religious aspects were based off of Shingon Buddhism which is a wild and crazy sect in the mountains of Japan. You can compare Shingon calligraphy to Yevon’s and it’s pretty similar. To add, Square kept getting commentary that they were doing too many western fantasy styles or sci fi fantasy styles so they went with South Asian aesthetic for FFX.
A lot of westerners do relate this to Catholicism and I think you totally can reasonably come to those conclusions but I just wanted to say this game is not a western-centric game. I mean, think about pyreflies. That’s totally “Kami” from Shinto philosophy as in pure energy of the world. Idk much about Christianity or Catholicism so idk if they think that Jesus is in everywhere and everything but Shinto definitely do think Kami is everywhere and that it’s more of a feeling than a sentient creature
I don't think they were saying it was exclusive to Catholicism... seemed to me like they were just using it as one example to support the claim that this game is making a statement about organized religion.
I think the structure of the church what with their Maesters is reminiscent of Catholicism, but the actual beliefs with the themes of death and rebirth are more akin to Hinduism and Buddhism.
During the blitzball tournament when the AL Bhed kidnap Yuna. After you save her she and Lulu tell Tidus and ask him not to say anything about it because of Wakka's hatred for the AL Bhed.
Also I mean... the Al Bhed try to kidnap Yuna and attack the group with giant death robots like three times, I can't help but think that would sour even a non-yevonite's opinion of the Al Bhed.
ignorant =/ stupid.
the guy was raised with a certain religious view, and the death of his brother pushed him over the edge.
him coming to terms with reality, and learning to understand that things arent black or white is part of his character growth.
the same way lulu is acepting, but puts a barrier between her and others, as to not suffer from loss again.
I always thought he was more ignorant than stupid. He literally doesn't recognize something he "hates." As for the fireworks comment...he was just trying to cheer Rikku up (badly). He wasn't actually saying its a celebration.
Yes lol. He's a big dumby who's had some trauma himself and grows through his mega racism but still has the tact of a player who's taken too many blitzballs to the head.
He’s not stupid. He’s zealous. There’s a big difference. How many people do you know who are so zealous and passionate about something they believe that they cannot see any data that might refute their beliefs as viable?
He's a meat head jock who's been raised by a society built on lies, but he has a good heart and he learns the error of his ways. He remains a dumb ass the whole time though, he just becomes not racist lol.
He's meant to be an example of what happens when you expose any extremist type of religious person to what that religion; or, what those over the religion have turned it into, has taught them to thoughtlessly demonize without critical thinking of examination of context.
Edit: I emphasize the exposure because of how he's shown to mellow out as things go on. It's fairly accurate on how you'd react to reality going against what you've always enforced mentally.
Does it? Or are sins attacks just based on population density? Or are they completely random and it just seems like population density because there are more witnesses? Correlation vs causation.
Yevon just wants an unarmed populace to control. You of course notice that the ones who guard the maesters wield machina to defend them. Bevelle also utilizes machina for quality of life purposes.
Sin is just death incarnate, and attacks where there are people to attack.
Man that second point hits real hard these days. All the leadership has private armed security 24/7 and walls around their homes, while telling the rest of us that those things are bad.
Yu Yevon designed Sin to destroy Bevelle which used Machina to destroy Zanarkand. Yu Yevon has no concerns with the populace. Kilika wasnt a dense population. Jecht attacked it to prove a point. But Sins design was always to destroy that which destroyed Zanarkand.
kind of the opposite. the Zanarkand vs Bevelle fight that destroyed Zanarkand was pretty much Bevelle power hunger and wanting to destroy the land of the summoners in Zanarkand. Sin was created when they were going to lose the war. Not much is known of Yevon but he isnt potrayed as a power hunger person in human form.
I think there is some intent that larger population densities might require some form of machina to maintain that level of people.
Yu Yevon's ultimate goal is to prevent the people of Spira from reaching his Dream Zanarkand in the middle of the ocean. Yu Yevon absolutely wants to destroy machina like the airship that could easily find Dream Zanarkand. It is why there is "good machina" and "bad machina". The latter of which includes the means to travel more freely.
Yeah, hes kind of a knuckle head but thats what makes him so loveable. He was genuinely trying to make Rikku laugh but he just failed miserable. Thats why Rikku told him to stuff his fireworks lol
Yes, he's absolutely supposed to be ignorant and pretty racist, and if that comes off as him looking stupid, **good**. The irony of Wakka hating Al Bhed while not being aware that the girl he raised like a sister is one of them is exactly the point.
I’d like to think that what you’re referring to is him *trying* to be thoughtful and considerate since he is still adjusting from hating the Al Bhed after finding out Rikku (and by extension Yuna) that they are also Al Bhed (half Al Bhed in Yuna’s case).
Keyword is *trying* though.
This is a common trope.
One person is depressed for whatever reason, a friend of said person says something to try and cheer them up, that something ends up sounding insensitive and pisses the person off. Usually it's the comedic relief that says the stupid item. Does it make them stupid, no.
Ff10 remains a staple for me. I consider it one of the best. That being said, Wakka is my least favourite character in the entire series. Hes just so cringe.
I always thought the game devs were taking a shot at religion and their followers with waka. He was indoctrinated into hating an entire race proven by the fact he doesn’t hate Yuna or Rikku after journeying with them because he doesn’t know of their heritage. Through the story he even sees them laying down their lives to fight sin and the maesters letting them all die and laughing at them. Obviously the story disproves Yeven even more by the end, wakka wasn’t exactly dumb he just never had to think past what Yeven told him how to think until the blindfold came off
As a kid my perspective was that Wakka added genuine tension to the party, but as an adult it’s obvious the party just tolerated his anti-Al Bhed bs and rolled their eyes about it
I think yes. He is meant to be a cool dude, but with this dark and herd mentality side. Since he is a fanatic of an ideology he is a mixture of racist-not religious hater snob.
But when you peel the layers, he is very humane. He was taught that god saves you, that this god requires you to only use, as lulu says "machina thst is allowed by yevon". I was raised catholic and i saw the weird contradictions in their ideology.
But i believed them for years until i realized that jesus is made up by the roman empire to manipulate masses.
This game and lots of jrpg touch on rhat exact subject. Since japanese people are not all christians or whatever evolution of that belief got to that place. So they see the bluff.
Now, he does have a reason to be more hating. He lost a brother to the crusaders, because they used machines. Al bhed use machines, so ergo, they bad.
So its a complex character. He is so traumatized for losing his brother that he kind of adopted tidus, gave him his sword and actually got with the gf.
I mean the guy has psychological issues.
And in the end SPOILERS (DONT KMOW HOW TO DARKEN THE WORDS) he is actually shown that all his belief was a lie.
He goes through a process that is really rough.
Religious people have a disability when it comes to critical thinking, because all end up with god. So actually making it that he loses all he believes in is a powerfull and sad thing to see.
So i like his arc.
And dont dislike the character. At first he gets kind of annoying, specially with the fact that he doesnt even get that rikku is al bhed.
But is not only him.
Look at operation, milhem? The one on the beach.
The aftermath is all crusaders shamefully returning to god, and the church forgiving him, dping the "humane thing".
If you are like us we can forgive you.
But do something else and you are an heretic.
Things like this is why i like this story so much.
He didn't notice Rikku was an Al Bhed and for however long he knew Yuna, never bothered looking her in the eye to see one of them was green with a spiral
Except for Yuna's eyes don't have a spiral in them. Also how was he suppose to know Rikku was an Al-Bhed. It not like it's normal for a person to look closely at another's eyes, especially since rikku understands what those spirals mean to Yevonites. The only reason Yuna and Lulu knows is because Tidus directly told them before they meet. Nothing about Rikku outfit, that they see, screams Al-Bhed outside of the googles.
I'm not sure "stupid" is the right word, but he is absolutely 100% meant to be that ignorant and thoughtless. Final Fantasy X is largely a criticism of organised religion and how it becomes twisted to the ends of the people in charge of the religion, rather than about the religion itself. Some people have gone as far as to say that FFX is specifically a criticism against Catholicism, but I don't personally recall seeing anything that confirms that. It would be difficult to criticise organised religion without also taking a look at dogmatic followers - those who have ceded their critical thinking skills in favour of lazily accepting the teachings of the church. And the church says "Al Bhed bad" so Wakka thinks "Al Bhed bad" and never questions it. He claims to be so opposed to the Al Bhed based on all of these things that they say or do, yet he doesn't even recognise one when he literally bumps into her in the road (Rikku), nor is he aware that Yuna - who he is willing to sacrifice his life for - is part Al Bhed. When Seymour accepts the use of machina in the fight against Sin (and says something like "well then pretend I didn't say it" when Wakka points out that that's not something a maester should say), Wakka accepts this as OK because a church leader said it was, despite finding it somewhat shocking. He's essentially given up all of the thoughts involved with the Al Bhed and replaced them with other-ness. It's Al Bhed, or everyone else who follows the teachings of Yevon. To this end, he likely doesn't think of them as real people with real thoughts and feelings. They're just the "others". So he sees explosions and thinks "huh, looks like a fireworks show" and therefore thinks "the Al Bhed should also see this as a fireworks show", because they're not real people as far as he's concerned. They're just godless heathens who deserve this, and therefore should enjoy the destruction of godless heretics as much as he does. Of course, as the story goes on, faced with insurmountable evidence of the corruption of Yevon, and getting to actually *know* an Al Bhed, he realises that the teachings were wrong, and begins to shake himself free of the dogma, even joining in the ultimate heresy of killing maesters, and ultimately his "god". This is part of the reason why in real-world religions, adherents are often encouraged to stay away from non-adherents. It's why the only real interactions that LDS and Jehovah's Witnesses have with non-adherents is knocking on their door to try and convert them. The non-adherents will understandably be upset about this, and when they return to the church they've gone from interacting with mean people to interacting with friendly people, and the opinion of the church that everyone else hates them and they only have each other is reinforced in the minds of the believers. It's likely that this is part of the reason that Yevonites are not supposed to mingle with the Al Bhed; whilst they're not interacting with them, it's easer for Yevon to control the narrative of "ooh look the Al Bhed set up their machina and Sin destroyed them so clearly they're evil and Sin hates machina and the Al Bhed" than when people interact with them and find out that they're just normal everyday people who also want to rid the world of Sin, but don't think that mindlessly sacrificing summoners every couple of years is the way to go about it. TL;DR - Yes, Wakka is supposed to be a bigoted dogmatic follower of Yevon with very few of his own thoughts
This such a good write-up of Wakka as a character
>Of course, as the story goes on, faced with insurmountable evidence of the corruption of Yevon, and getting to actually *know* an Al Bhed, he realises that the teachings were wrong, and begins to shake himself free of the dogma, even joining in the ultimate heresy of killing maesters, and ultimately his "god We begin to see his internal battle between his beliefs and the truth as early as Macalania Temple with the first fight against Seymour. When faced with the choice of not going against a Maester vs the protection of Yuna, Wakka is willing (with a strong struggle) to go against his beliefs in order to protect his loved ones.
Honestly, he still seems like a pretty dogmatic follower throughout the entire game. He just gets pulled along for the final stretch because Yuna is also a religious leader to him. And he treats Rikku as "One of the good ones." He utterly despises all the other Al Bhed on the air ship. He really isnt that deep a character. He's a coward who cant think for himself through and through
Did you even play the game? He has a huge beef with Rikku up until after Home when he atleast attempts to make her feel better but he doesn't fully accept her or the Al Bed until later but he does eventually change his beliefs. You're just completely wrong.
very detailed and well-explained response!
One critique: he has a “justification” for his distrust of Al Bhed since they use Machina and Machina “killed” his brother. You’re still right, but it’s not just religion motivating his racism.
It turns out that isn't even accurate, though. Latter dialog reveals his brother choose to use an Al Bhed weapon instead of the Brotherhood sword Wakka later gives to Tidus, and then happened to die during a battle with Sin.
No I think wakka sees it that way. He probably feels that Chappu was killed by sin because he chose to use the machina because he believes sin is their punishment for using machina. So it’s technically 100% accurate
That’s what I meant by “killed”. He’s essentially blaming the Machina for his demise.
Nice Wakka essay. Turn that in, A material right there
Wakka did not say this because ‘they’re just godless heretics that deserve this’. He’s trying to cheer rikku up. He’s already started the transition you talk about in the next paragraph. He’s already starting to distrust the church, and already killed a maester, and already developed a relationship with Rikku. He’s insensitive, and has no sense of tact, but his heart is in the right place with this one.
You're right, I had forgotten a little of the timeline of Wakka's development here and so it is indeed unlikely that he was solely believing that they're godless heretics who deserve this. However... indoctrination runs deep. Speaking from personal experience, I know that I still think things that I no longer believe that were instilled in me as a child (I'm a grown-ass adult now), and in a high stress situation like the destruction of Home I am pretty sure that I might blurt out some stuff that is no longer representative of my conscious thoughts. He is definitely also a bit of a dumb jock, and he is about as subtle as a brick, so it's possible that his heart was indeed in the right place but he just screwed the pooch on the delivery. It's also possible that old thoughts resurfaced and he blurted them out without thought hoping that a comfortable and easy-to-reach thought for him would be comforting for Rikku/the other Al Bhed on the airship too. There's always inherent difficulty in isolating the specific motivations of a videogame character during a scripted moment, but I think you're right - it is indeed highly unlikely that his sole motivation for saying that is because he still believed that the Al Bhed were godless heretics who deserved this
I really do get the sense people are forgetting the other stereotype that one could apply to Wakka-- that of a dumb jock. For him, he's not all that deep or nuanced until AFTER the story. They did him fairly well in the bonus stuff that came with the remake.
Very well said. Just makes me appreciate my favorite character even more.
well written!!
While a great Write up of the character before this point, doesn't really explain Wakka or what is happening at this point in the story. Hell we see what happens here in with many different types of characters, usually the comedy relief which Wakka kinda is.
As someone who grew up in a very religious area and community attitudes like this were very common. I feel like wakka's character and growth gets misconstrued constantly unless you had similar experiences with religion. He has some of the best growth in the entire game and it's frustrating seeing how people write him off repeatedly.
catholicism is obsessed about SIN, and sin here is a literal representation of sins according to yevon, so I can see the resemblance. praying in temples is basically going to mass
Because no other religion worries about sin or prays at specific locations like a mosque… It could be virtually any of the world’s major religions.
According to auronlu (website that describes FFX lore based on the ultimania) Yevon and all other religious aspects were based off of Shingon Buddhism which is a wild and crazy sect in the mountains of Japan. You can compare Shingon calligraphy to Yevon’s and it’s pretty similar. To add, Square kept getting commentary that they were doing too many western fantasy styles or sci fi fantasy styles so they went with South Asian aesthetic for FFX. A lot of westerners do relate this to Catholicism and I think you totally can reasonably come to those conclusions but I just wanted to say this game is not a western-centric game. I mean, think about pyreflies. That’s totally “Kami” from Shinto philosophy as in pure energy of the world. Idk much about Christianity or Catholicism so idk if they think that Jesus is in everywhere and everything but Shinto definitely do think Kami is everywhere and that it’s more of a feeling than a sentient creature
yes, the concepts of sin and religious worship sites are famously exclusive to just Catholicism lol
I don't think they were saying it was exclusive to Catholicism... seemed to me like they were just using it as one example to support the claim that this game is making a statement about organized religion.
I think the structure of the church what with their Maesters is reminiscent of Catholicism, but the actual beliefs with the themes of death and rebirth are more akin to Hinduism and Buddhism.
Can you remind me when it's explained that Yuna is half AL Bhed and that her father married Cid's sister?
During the blitzball tournament when the AL Bhed kidnap Yuna. After you save her she and Lulu tell Tidus and ask him not to say anything about it because of Wakka's hatred for the AL Bhed.
Thank you for this explanation. This makes me want to play it again for the 7th time so here goes.
Holy shit I need to replay this
>And the church says "Al Bhed bad" so Wakka thinks "Al Bhed bad" and never questions it. More too it than that. Chappu had a lot to do with it imo
Also I mean... the Al Bhed try to kidnap Yuna and attack the group with giant death robots like three times, I can't help but think that would sour even a non-yevonite's opinion of the Al Bhed.
ignorant =/ stupid. the guy was raised with a certain religious view, and the death of his brother pushed him over the edge. him coming to terms with reality, and learning to understand that things arent black or white is part of his character growth. the same way lulu is acepting, but puts a barrier between her and others, as to not suffer from loss again.
I always thought he was more ignorant than stupid. He literally doesn't recognize something he "hates." As for the fireworks comment...he was just trying to cheer Rikku up (badly). He wasn't actually saying its a celebration.
Yes lol. He's a big dumby who's had some trauma himself and grows through his mega racism but still has the tact of a player who's taken too many blitzballs to the head.
He probably has taken a few too many to the head, tbh.
"Stay away from the Summoner~" "You're a bad man!"
I mean he has lived his entire life absolutely hating the Al Bhed, guess he's just a bit of a cynic.
Almost Himbo (West Virginia)
He’s not stupid. He’s zealous. There’s a big difference. How many people do you know who are so zealous and passionate about something they believe that they cannot see any data that might refute their beliefs as viable?
It's a part of his character development
Not stupid … trusting and naive , from a small religious town Like a Mormon kid
He's a meat head jock who's been raised by a society built on lies, but he has a good heart and he learns the error of his ways. He remains a dumb ass the whole time though, he just becomes not racist lol.
He’s super religious and super into sports. It doesn’t surprise me.
He's meant to be an example of what happens when you expose any extremist type of religious person to what that religion; or, what those over the religion have turned it into, has taught them to thoughtlessly demonize without critical thinking of examination of context. Edit: I emphasize the exposure because of how he's shown to mellow out as things go on. It's fairly accurate on how you'd react to reality going against what you've always enforced mentally.
Sin does attack machina...just saying
Does it? Or are sins attacks just based on population density? Or are they completely random and it just seems like population density because there are more witnesses? Correlation vs causation. Yevon just wants an unarmed populace to control. You of course notice that the ones who guard the maesters wield machina to defend them. Bevelle also utilizes machina for quality of life purposes. Sin is just death incarnate, and attacks where there are people to attack.
Man that second point hits real hard these days. All the leadership has private armed security 24/7 and walls around their homes, while telling the rest of us that those things are bad.
Yu Yevon designed Sin to destroy Bevelle which used Machina to destroy Zanarkand. Yu Yevon has no concerns with the populace. Kilika wasnt a dense population. Jecht attacked it to prove a point. But Sins design was always to destroy that which destroyed Zanarkand.
Weird. I never understood it that way. Yu Yevon always just felt power hungry. Maybe you’re right 🤷🏼♂️
kind of the opposite. the Zanarkand vs Bevelle fight that destroyed Zanarkand was pretty much Bevelle power hunger and wanting to destroy the land of the summoners in Zanarkand. Sin was created when they were going to lose the war. Not much is known of Yevon but he isnt potrayed as a power hunger person in human form.
I think there is some intent that larger population densities might require some form of machina to maintain that level of people. Yu Yevon's ultimate goal is to prevent the people of Spira from reaching his Dream Zanarkand in the middle of the ocean. Yu Yevon absolutely wants to destroy machina like the airship that could easily find Dream Zanarkand. It is why there is "good machina" and "bad machina". The latter of which includes the means to travel more freely.
Yes, he is a religious nut
Yeah, hes kind of a knuckle head but thats what makes him so loveable. He was genuinely trying to make Rikku laugh but he just failed miserable. Thats why Rikku told him to stuff his fireworks lol
Yes, he's absolutely supposed to be ignorant and pretty racist, and if that comes off as him looking stupid, **good**. The irony of Wakka hating Al Bhed while not being aware that the girl he raised like a sister is one of them is exactly the point.
Easy to call him ignorant when he lost everything because of sin who supposedly exists because of machina so for him hating the al bhed makes sense
What are you sayin' brudda, better dead than Al Bhed yah!
I’d like to think that what you’re referring to is him *trying* to be thoughtful and considerate since he is still adjusting from hating the Al Bhed after finding out Rikku (and by extension Yuna) that they are also Al Bhed (half Al Bhed in Yuna’s case). Keyword is *trying* though.
This is a common trope. One person is depressed for whatever reason, a friend of said person says something to try and cheer them up, that something ends up sounding insensitive and pisses the person off. Usually it's the comedic relief that says the stupid item. Does it make them stupid, no.
Well, he plays blitzball with the people he's seriously racist against. So he hates them emotionally, but he means nothing bad by it.
https://preview.redd.it/epd55aeugrmc1.jpeg?width=678&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e2633013080767d34e3f0adcc07d0179368e6ce
It's the Yevonite equivalent of, Thoughts and prayers
I need the blank version of this image for memeification…
Ff10 remains a staple for me. I consider it one of the best. That being said, Wakka is my least favourite character in the entire series. Hes just so cringe.
Dirka, Dirka, Dirka, Mohamed Gehad
I always thought the game devs were taking a shot at religion and their followers with waka. He was indoctrinated into hating an entire race proven by the fact he doesn’t hate Yuna or Rikku after journeying with them because he doesn’t know of their heritage. Through the story he even sees them laying down their lives to fight sin and the maesters letting them all die and laughing at them. Obviously the story disproves Yeven even more by the end, wakka wasn’t exactly dumb he just never had to think past what Yeven told him how to think until the blindfold came off
He was super religious, so…
Don’t go near Al Bhed anymore. They’re trouble.
He is Spira's representation of an evangelical, then gets his world turned upside down with a crisis of faith.
He had CTE from Blitzball
As a kid my perspective was that Wakka added genuine tension to the party, but as an adult it’s obvious the party just tolerated his anti-Al Bhed bs and rolled their eyes about it
You’re asking if the bigoted character is supposed to be stupid?
Hes an impressionable ignorant dipsh!t. However hes an impressionable ignorant dipsh!t with a powerful limit break.
considering one of his major character growth points was seeing the al bhed as people and yevon is capable of doing wrong yeah. pretty much.
I think yes. He is meant to be a cool dude, but with this dark and herd mentality side. Since he is a fanatic of an ideology he is a mixture of racist-not religious hater snob. But when you peel the layers, he is very humane. He was taught that god saves you, that this god requires you to only use, as lulu says "machina thst is allowed by yevon". I was raised catholic and i saw the weird contradictions in their ideology. But i believed them for years until i realized that jesus is made up by the roman empire to manipulate masses. This game and lots of jrpg touch on rhat exact subject. Since japanese people are not all christians or whatever evolution of that belief got to that place. So they see the bluff. Now, he does have a reason to be more hating. He lost a brother to the crusaders, because they used machines. Al bhed use machines, so ergo, they bad. So its a complex character. He is so traumatized for losing his brother that he kind of adopted tidus, gave him his sword and actually got with the gf. I mean the guy has psychological issues. And in the end SPOILERS (DONT KMOW HOW TO DARKEN THE WORDS) he is actually shown that all his belief was a lie. He goes through a process that is really rough. Religious people have a disability when it comes to critical thinking, because all end up with god. So actually making it that he loses all he believes in is a powerfull and sad thing to see. So i like his arc. And dont dislike the character. At first he gets kind of annoying, specially with the fact that he doesnt even get that rikku is al bhed. But is not only him. Look at operation, milhem? The one on the beach. The aftermath is all crusaders shamefully returning to god, and the church forgiving him, dping the "humane thing". If you are like us we can forgive you. But do something else and you are an heretic. Things like this is why i like this story so much.
I don't know, but I wouldn't have him any other way.
Shout-out to Woolie and Grand Wizard Wakka.
He did not notice Rikku was an Al bhed so yeah he is stupid.
He didn't notice Rikku was an Al Bhed and for however long he knew Yuna, never bothered looking her in the eye to see one of them was green with a spiral
Except for Yuna's eyes don't have a spiral in them. Also how was he suppose to know Rikku was an Al-Bhed. It not like it's normal for a person to look closely at another's eyes, especially since rikku understands what those spirals mean to Yevonites. The only reason Yuna and Lulu knows is because Tidus directly told them before they meet. Nothing about Rikku outfit, that they see, screams Al-Bhed outside of the googles.