OPEN SPOILERS FOR FFX. It's an old game, but here's fair warning!
Legendary guardian? I was just a boy. A boy about your age, actually. I wanted to change the world, too. But I changed nothing. That is my story.
Final Fantasy X is an interesting game. Often considered the last great Final Fantasy Square made (notice I said often, not always, so calm down, XII-lovers, X-haters, and otherwise) it set out to tell a riveting story with very specific themes and motifs, in a much more cinematic way than we had ever seen before. Relationships were a big part of the game's story.
If you call to mind the word "relationship" when thinking about Final Fantasy X, you would probably call to mind a number of characters.
Tidus and his blossoming love with Yuna.
Tidus and his tumultuous father issues with Jecht.
Wakka and his prejudice against Al-Bhed in general, and overcoming the loss of his brother Chappu.
Yuna and Rikku, cousins from different worlds.
But one you might not call to mind immediately is Tidus and Auron, or at least not in the way I'm thinking. For most of the game, these two have a very clear mentor/student relationship, with Auron acting as the world-wizened soul who teaches Tidus what he needs to know and guides him in the right direction.
But when I think of these two, I like to start at the beginning. We see a younger Auron accompanying Braska and Jecht during several flashbacks in the game.
Before I get into how young Auron relates to Tidus, we should look at how this trio's dynamic worked. There was Braska, the calm, wise, and responsible centerpiece of their journey. There was Auron, his steadfast friend and guardian with a strong sense of justice. Then there was Jecht, the headstrong and arrogant sidekick who gradually matured and became someone much better than he was. Braska kept them in line, Jecht had a can-do attitude, and Auron put doing the right thing above all else.
When you look at these three, they are obvious predecessors to the party you control in the main game. Braska is very much a proto-Yuna. So that would make Jecht a proto-Tidus, and Auron basically a proto-Auron, as he's still there... right?
I don't think so. Other than being an outcast, if you look at the group's behavior and how they interact with each other, the young Auron is much more like Tidus than Jecht.
He places Braska's safety above all else. He wants to see Sin defeated. He's hot-tempered and easy to provoke when things don't go as planned or when they don't go the way he thinks they should. He even thinks of Jecht in a similar way to Tidus - a worthless drunken blowhard. This is all very, very similar to how Tidus wants to protect Yuna, how he blows a gasket when things go south, how he thinks lowly of Jecht, and how he can't accept the bleak reality of Spira.
Young Auron ends up discovering the truth of Sin and its endless reincarnations, ends up discovering the truth of the sacrifice necessary to temporarily defeat him, ends up discovering the truth of the Yevon religion and Yevon and Yunalesca's lies. He protests, unable to accept it, unable to reconcile his sense of righteousness and justice with these truths. He takes up arms against Yunalesca because of this, and dies. Jecht sacrifices himself to become Braska's final Aeon, and all of Auron's protests are for naught. Braska dies, Jecht becomes the new incarnation of Sin. Auron is forced to live with this as an unsent, becoming reclusive, brooding, barely speaking unless he has to and dropping his headstrong nature for a somber and reserved one.
Auron is who Tidus would have become had he failed in his journey.
And when we watch the older Auron guide Tidus throughout his own journey, we can see how he's placed all of his youthful idealism in him. How he realizes that his time is up, he failed. But Tidus still has a chance, so he puts everything he has into guiding him towards his old goals, even if it means cheating death for over a decade. This is doubly effective because it brings the redemption of Jecht full circle. Auron initially distrusted Jecht and considered him worthless, but grew to see him as a close friend and a comrade. Then, in the end, he places all of his hopes in his son.
And when Tidus does eventually defeat Sin, Auron can finally feel like he's righted all the wrongs he failed to do while he was alive, and also completes Jecht's redemption story.
Auron is as much a father to Tidus as Jecht was, or at least a really, really cool uncle.
It's a relationship you can't fully understand the depths of until a replay, once you know everything about Spira and Auron's past.
It's as beautiful as any romance or fatherly redemption, and an underlooked part of the game, I think.
Let me begin with a disclaimer; I am no comic book fan. I have not seen every superhero movie. I have definitely missed quite a few of the DC movies. I never saw Wonder Woman, Man of Steel, or Batman vs. Superman, having them exist to me only in terms of what I've heard others say or how they've been ingrained in the public consciousness.
However, I do enjoy a good one.
Aquaman was amazing.
The DC movie universe is a special beast. Some of its movies range from lauded (Wonder Woman) to mediocre (Justice League) to laughed at for being terrible (Batman vs. Superman). Again, I know some of these only through their critical reception or hearsay. But it's obvious that their reception has been mixed, even to a casual fan like myself.
It's clear that they're chasing the cinematic universe Marvel's set up, but it's also clear that DC hasn't been quite as successful. DC's take on comics - at least in their films - is darker, grittier, more hardcore. It's a direct response to Marvel's camp and feelgood quips. Or at least, it's meant to be. The execution often falls flat. I often hear Suicide Squad cited as a good music video, but a bad movie. So the aesthetic and intended vibe is there, and people can see that, but it doesn't always follow through into the writing or the direction.
Aquaman is everything the DC universe has wanted to be from the beginning.
What follows could be considered spoilers, although I won't spoil the outcome of any events in the movie, only the general outline of things. Still, if you want to go in blind, don't read further!
First, the narrative.
The narrative is hardly the thing that's at the forefront of the typical superhero moviegoer's mind. It's nice if there's a decent story to be told, but nobody ever really expects more than that. Aquaman is no literary masterpiece, but there is a classic tale to be told here, one that borrows from Arthurian legend of all places.
Let me make one thing clear. The metaphors towards King Arthur are heavy handed and very obvious. There is no attempt at nuance in their representation. Aquaman's name is Arthur. He is named Arthur by his parents because of the legendary king who brought peace to Camelot. There's an added bit about a Hurricane Arthur hitting their home around the same time they're naming him (get it, he's Aquaman and he's a water hero), but the symbolism is pretty much thrown at your face like a brick.
That doesn't make it ineffective or poorly utilized.
We see Arthur grow up as the half-human son of a lighthouse keeper and Queen Atlanta of Atlantis, who I can only describe as Galadriel from Lord of the Rings with a big ass trident and water powers. Which is interesting, because the other Atlantians have like, space age plasma guns and shit instead of swords and tridents. But I'll get to that later.
Early on in his life, his mother is ambushed by said Atlantians. She manages to fend them off like the badass the writers want to portray her as, but decides by her own will to leave her human husband and go back to Atlantis. She fled the kingdom to escape an arranged marriage, and stayed on the surface because she found true love, but comes to the realization that she must go back and accept this marriage if her true loved ones are to remain safe. And so she makes the noble sacrifice of leaving her family.
First of all, it's great that the badass in this situation is the wife, the queen and not the king. It's great that she shows agency and capability from the beginning. I think we need more awesome warrior women in movies, if you ask me.
Anyway, she goes back to Atlantis and has another son with arranged marriage guy named Orm.
Orm is the traditional, super whitewashed, blonde Aquaman we're used to. Right to the throne, son of the king, Atlantian by nature and capable of fighting on water and on land. He even looks like the old school Aquaman. His one goal is to rule all seven kingdoms of the sea, or what's left of them.
Arthur, meanwhile, is played by Jason Momoa, so he's not any of those things except capable of fighting. He drinks a lot, makes quips at people, lives for himself and likes to have a good time. He has long flowing black locks and a devil may care attitude. He could care less about ruling Atlantis, let alone the other kingdoms.
Oh yeah, Orm is also a psycho who wants to wage war on the surface and subjugate the earth. That's why Arthur eventually ends up deciding he has to claim the throne to Atlantis, despite not wanting to at first.
And so the crux of the movie is set in place. Tradition vs. change. Lineage vs. inherent worth. Accepting responsibility for one's place in life.
Those are all portrayed through the conflict between Arthur and Orm. Brother vs. brother is the central theme of the movie, and all other themes and motifs flow from there.
I fucking love this. There's something about a good brotherly conflict that's intensely appealing on an innate level, especially if the antagonist brother is evil, and especially if the antagonist brother is set up to be more capable and in control than the hero brother. Which he is, here.
Brotherly rivalry is classic for a reason.
Behind this conflict is a surprising amount of really cool world building.
The history of this aquatic world is fascinating. The ancient Atlantis that existed above the sea, why it fell, how it fractured into seven kingdoms, how some of those kingdoms fell and others changed and, in the end, only a few were left. How there was an ancient super-king who wielded (what was essentially) a holy trident and ruled the unified Atlantis.
The Atlantians and their offshoots are supremely technologically advanced. They basically wear cool water-themed spacesuits and shoot plasma and wield plasma swords and whips and the like. They have robots and spacecrafts and cities that glow beneath the waves, rife with technology the surface can only dream of.
Each remaining kingdom is explored and plays a role in the story. They're not just background fluff. There's the main kingdom, ruled by Orm. There's the other still human looking kingdom, ruled by red-haired guy. There's a kingdom that became more fishlike and turned to philosophy and academics instead of warfare. There's a kingdom that fell to ruin and became lost in the Sahara desert. There's a kingdom that devolved into mindless monsters. And then there's a... weird crab people kingdom.
Red-hair is named King Nereus, but you'd be hard pressed to remember this if you know nothing about Aquaman characters going in.
You see them all. Every last one plays a large role in the story, even the one that no longer exists. Even red-hair's kingdom feels distinctly different from Orm's traditional Atlantis, and his citizens look different and carry different styles of weapons and ride different vehicles.
I realize that the story is pulling from Arthurian legend, but the way the high fantasy backdrop blends into the modern superhero story is seamless, unexpected, and awesome. It gives the plot a feeling of legitimacy and wonder that goes far beyond campy space villains. It feels like a journey to learn about a lost past, a journey to explore what became of that past, what has happened since then, what went wrong and how to fix it.
Arthur's journey of self-discovery, his journey to defeat his brother and visit the other kingdoms and find the lost trident of the old king, is made extremely enjoyable not only because we are sold on him as a character through Momoa's great acting and the unique take on an established character, but because of the world that he inhabits.
The art direction in this movie is... man.
It's fucking amazing.
When I think of Atlantis, I think of something like this.
The movie fully embraced the DC universe's heavier aesthetic, however. And we were given this.
The luminous cities, the advanced armor, the character design, the vehicles, the weapons, the set pieces of giant tidal waves and huge krakens and battles between underwater armies all feel fully realized and fully unique. They also feel colorful and vibrant and alive, all while adhering to DC's "heavier" feel. It adapts to the new style without compromising the color of the classic style. A job well done on the part of the artists and special effects teams.
I especially love how everything underwater glows with the natural glow you'd see in the depths of the ocean, from the flora and fauna down there. Even the tech in the vehicles looks like that, like a jellyfish all lit up or the end of an anglerfish's lantern. It feels advanced and organic.
If I were to describe the art style in one word, it would be fusion. A fusion of old and new, natural and technical, industrial and organic.
I wish I could touch on the weapon design in this movie in more detail, but seeing as how it just came out, there aren't many ways to capture footage of the arsenals you see the characters in this movie carrying. Aside from the trident(s) the major players wield, everyone else is wielding some sort of Star Wars shit. And it looks way cooler than most Star Wars shit, because it's adhering to an aquatic theme that ends up looking extremely unique.
I'll have to come back and do a post on the fight choreography and weapon design once it's easier to grab pictures of it, because words alone can't do it justice. There's everything from sword fights to aquatic trident-battles with combatants zipping through the water to plasma whips to water-based superpowers to people riding sea creatures to futuristic guns that convert water into plasma. This movie has a lot of fight scenes, and they never, ever feel stale because each one introduces a new form of combat, often in ways you weren't expecting at all.
There's one particular scene with wine bottles that floored me.
The soundtrack was equally amazing.
This isn't even my favorite track, but it shows the fusion between old and new, the heroic anthem mixed with the industrial beats of the modern age, the spirit of a hero not being lost with said fusion, only enhanced. A King Arthur for a new age, in a place where nobody expected to find one. But one that works regardless.
The only other DC movies I've seen are Suicide Squad and Justice League. This one felt like it came from an entirely different franchise. It was coherently written, had naturally flowing dialogue, underlying themes and motifs that resonated with me, and a hero's journey that was simultaneously traditional and modern.
