I was just thinking about the summoners the other day, because I was talking to my husband about Anima and trying to explain the story behind that aeon (I believe after reading one of your entries).
I was explaining how Seymour's mother becomes his aeon, but then he decides not to defeat Sin and how I thought that was a betrayal (althoguh one also feels sorry for Seymour when in the Zanarkand Ruins you can see how reluctant he was to lose his mother). My husband asked me why she would continue to help him and I couldn't answer that.
It's interesting, though. We've seen the aeons as the 'ghosts' of the people they once were, and Bahamut certainly shows a lot of agency, but your questions about what causes a summoner to fail in the Cloister of Trials cut to the heart of the matter. There is no real way of knowing why a summoner succeeds or fails. I like the idea of rituals involved with the spheres in the puzzles, but if the aeons are judging the summoners then what about Seymour? I suppose his mother might still overlook his evil out of love, but the aeons seem bound as much as the summoners are to follow a prescribed course. Because even if she still cares for Seymour, I find it difficult to believe she'd willingly participate in that 'display' he puts on in the Luca Stadium.
The fayth want to end the cycle of Sin, but it's only Bahamut who actually speaks to and helps Tidus actively. Meanwhile, the aeons still continue to follow summoners. Both Isaaru and Dona are on a very straightforward pilgrimage being assisted by their aeons and presumably on the path to receiving the Final Aeon and continuing the cycle.
I think that the only failed summoners whose stories we know are Lulu's: Father Zuke and Ginnem. Zuke seems to have quit the pilgrimage of his own choice - and he seems to be a bit outcast because of it. At least, he quit in the Calm Lands and that is where the party finds him. It's as if he never left and never contemplated going back home. Lady Ginnem is certainly more complicated though. When the party fights her she summons Yojimbo, so she must have been successful in obtaining that aeon, I suppose? So then how did she become unsent and how did Lulu escape? Could obtaining Yojimbo have killed her?
Anyway, I find it interesting and strange. The aeons seem to still have personality and agency, but not enough to really make choices about which summoners get to wield them or how.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: 2013-09-15 03:46 pm (UTC)I was explaining how Seymour's mother becomes his aeon, but then he decides not to defeat Sin and how I thought that was a betrayal (althoguh one also feels sorry for Seymour when in the Zanarkand Ruins you can see how reluctant he was to lose his mother). My husband asked me why she would continue to help him and I couldn't answer that.
It's interesting, though. We've seen the aeons as the 'ghosts' of the people they once were, and Bahamut certainly shows a lot of agency, but your questions about what causes a summoner to fail in the Cloister of Trials cut to the heart of the matter. There is no real way of knowing why a summoner succeeds or fails. I like the idea of rituals involved with the spheres in the puzzles, but if the aeons are judging the summoners then what about Seymour? I suppose his mother might still overlook his evil out of love, but the aeons seem bound as much as the summoners are to follow a prescribed course. Because even if she still cares for Seymour, I find it difficult to believe she'd willingly participate in that 'display' he puts on in the Luca Stadium.
The fayth want to end the cycle of Sin, but it's only Bahamut who actually speaks to and helps Tidus actively. Meanwhile, the aeons still continue to follow summoners. Both Isaaru and Dona are on a very straightforward pilgrimage being assisted by their aeons and presumably on the path to receiving the Final Aeon and continuing the cycle.
I think that the only failed summoners whose stories we know are Lulu's: Father Zuke and Ginnem. Zuke seems to have quit the pilgrimage of his own choice - and he seems to be a bit outcast because of it. At least, he quit in the Calm Lands and that is where the party finds him. It's as if he never left and never contemplated going back home. Lady Ginnem is certainly more complicated though. When the party fights her she summons Yojimbo, so she must have been successful in obtaining that aeon, I suppose? So then how did she become unsent and how did Lulu escape? Could obtaining Yojimbo have killed her?
Anyway, I find it interesting and strange. The aeons seem to still have personality and agency, but not enough to really make choices about which summoners get to wield them or how.