fuyu: (out of my internet!)
Lyssie ([personal profile] fuyu) wrote2006-07-26 11:21 am

Requisite Tidus bitchery

The nephew's playing a new game of FFX, so this is kind of sticking in my head again.

Why, why, why does Tidus get so much shit for being a "whiner"?

Okay, yes. He has father issues out the wazoo, and that does get a little annoying. Keep playing. He has reasons for those, and has considerable character development relating to that.

Yes, the narration is a little annoying. That's because the whole first chunk of the game is a recap. He stops narrating when you get to Zanarkand, I promise.

Screaming outside of Kilika Temple? Well, it's better than just bottling up all his discomfort and letting it eat him inside, right? Or hauling off and hitting someone from all the stress? Saying "I kinda wanna scream" and then doing so and getting on with what you need to be doing is actually a quite healthy way of dealing with the situation.

For the most part, Tidus is just kind of a doofy, optimistic dork who tries hard to make the best of his really crummy situation. Hell, by the time you get to Besaid he's already had half a metric fuckton of shit dropped on him, and yet he resolves to make the best of what he's got and try not to worry. Sure, he doesn't entirely succeed, but that he has the presence of mind to decide that after his city's been attacked, he's been sucked into a new world and had to fight monsters, scrape together camp in an old ruin when he's probably never even spent a night without electricity before, then he gets rescued by people who are suspicious of him and the one friend he can make in that situation tells him that everything he knows was destroyed a thousand years ago, and THEN he gets separated from them... I mean, really, and that's just the beginning of what happens to him. This is culture shock x100.

Again, sure, he has father issues up the ying-yang, but other than that he is remarkably well-adjusted. And he gets better as time progresses and he gets used to Spira, and he even eventually overcomes his issues. He's not a whiner, damn it. T_T

*protective of the dork*

Edit: Some spoilers in the comments. For the... one or two people who might read this post and haven't got that far yet. XD

[identity profile] akatokuro.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I never really understood all the "Tidus is a whiny wanker" comments, either. I remember thinking to myself the first time I played FFX that I was surprised at how well he was coping with the entire situation re: seeing Zanarkand get blown up and being displaced into Spira.
white_aster: (always going home ffx)

[personal profile] white_aster 2006-07-26 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
word. I totally don't get what peoples' problem with Tidus is. I thought he was doofy, yeah, but he got the job done, did what he could, and dealt with everything remarkably well, considering. :pets the dork:

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Word. Tidus is a good kid. (Not sure if Kiwi is reading you actively or not, but she is a big Tidus fan also.) Okay, he freaks out some, and he complains about his lot in life on occasion, and he and his dad really could have used some therapy years ago. But he's incredibly well-adjusted compared to some of Square's heroes in the past, and considering how much crazy shit he goes through.

There's a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" tendency with video game leads, I think -- not unlike the standards by which people judge RL celebrities. You know, a hero who doesn't talk about his problems is brooding, but a hero who does talk about them is whining. (...and if he doesn't have problems, he sure as hell ain't a Square hero.)
white_aster: (always going home ffx)

[personal profile] white_aster 2006-07-26 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. :) They win points for actually convincing me that those two were in love, but not getting TOO sappy about it.

[identity profile] jpegasus.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 07:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I totally agree. I mean, okay, in his own time he's ...what, 18? 18 and a sports player. All tidus knows is blitzball, girls who like him, and probably hanging out. This is his Life.

Then all of a sudden one day a big monster destroys his city and flings him 1000 years into the future where the first things he encounters are a)a really big...fish...that tries to eat him. 2)cold 3)another thing that tries to eat him and 4)a group of strangely dressed people with guns who don't speak his language.

After this he learns enough to know he is not in kansas anymore, almost gets eaten again, some more things where he is completely out of his league, and then he finds out that his daddy-issues daddy is not missing at sea but instead a big monster.
YOU'D BE A LITTLE FREAKED OUT TOO

So no, he's not a whiner. I think he handled it all pretty well, considering.

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, totally. It's a very calm, very understated level of freaking out, in any kind of "real-life trauma" scale. People tend to hold video game characters to a very different standard on these things, I think. >->

...I suspect Zidane probably gets bitched at for not being angsty enough, knowing the way fandom works. *whaps fandom with stick*

Sora, I think, is mostly doing the Disney-hero role in counterpart to Riku, who does the Square half of it. ...then in KH2 Roxas picks up some of the Square burden, so it's shared around a bit more, but yeah. Sora is mostly not burdened with Square's incredible, doomalicious issues. ^^;

also, forgot to say the first time, but the icon for this post is fabulous.

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I get irritated when people bitch about Tifa, too, for similar reasons.

*HEARTS*

No, her behavior wasn't perfect. But that's a factor of being human. And it's certainly no argument for putting Cloud in some yaoi pairing that requires a lot of mental gymnastics to justify. >->

[identity profile] skinship.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
also, forgot to say the first time, but the icon for this post is fabulous.

[butt in] Awwh, thank you! X) [butt out]

[identity profile] skinship.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
...They are not using the same logic as I. For serious, yo. Tidus is the single most un-whiny kid in Japanese games I've ever run across. If anything, he's positively peppy - he's the guy who's always going around saying, "Can we do it? You bet your ass we can! Say it with me, HELL YEAH WE CAN!" Compare that with, say, almost any character in FF8, especially the main character, who uses dots as some kind of emo morse code.

*joins the Dork Protection League*

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
*nod* I really like Sora's Square moments, and I think they're totally Roxas peeking through. I'm replaying right now, and we keep going, "ooh, that was Roxas!" at key moments. But yeah, mostly he's holding up Disney's banner and Riku takes care of angsty Squarehero.

Thank you! It's by [livejournal.com profile] sjen, and is gankable with credit. ^^

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
dots as some kind of emo morse code

HAHAHA YOU WIN.
So awesome.

[identity profile] skinship.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks to your hilarious icon, I now have that brain-melting song playing in my head. XD

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Hahaha, that is so like victory. ^^

[identity profile] laylah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I was kind of always predisposed to like her, because girls that hit things with their fists = totally my type. But man, the more you watch what she goes through, trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Cloud and trying to help him when she clearly doesn't know what he needs -- yeah. ow. love. I think a lot of the reason I came out of AC shipping them so hard is that I want her to be happy, and she's clearly wanted to be able to be with him for a very long time.

[identity profile] isanah.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Weeeerd.

I thought Tidus was a bit of a dork at first, but considering what's happened to him, he's remarkably well-adjusted. And Blitz Ace does a lot of heavy damage, what.

Angsty!Tidus would have made me sad. I can't see him being all emo and crying like those fics I come across.

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