Why do people hate Tidus? >_>

[Miko]

I dunno you guys, I read through the posts back in 2009-10 and I'd wager some of them would possibly write them a little differently. Tidus was 17 years old, and I don't know about the rest of you.. but me at 17 years old was pretty annoying. Maybe not Tidus annoying, but I said and did stuff that was ignorant and selfish. I don't think Tidus was meant to be likeable the first part of the game and I think they did a good job as portraying him as an arrogant young adult that was very misguided. I didn't like the beginning Tidus, but I was okay with end Tidus as he grew over the entire game.

The reason why I think Tidus is a sociopath is because of his blatant lack of respect for Spira's social norms and laws, in addition to him showing virtually no guilt or shame whatsoever for his petty actions. Sure, he managed to successfully free Spira from the lies and prejudices of Yevon, yet at the same time, basically turned everyone in Spira (Yuna included) into sociopaths themselves, as from that point on, Spira had no social norms for its people to conform to, which in turn lead to all of the various tension and hubbub we see get panned out in X-2, along with the formation of New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction in the wake of said tension and hubbub.

I'm gonna be honest, I haven't played FFX in a long time and admittedly am fuzzy on some details, but I think I disagree with most of this. I don't think Tidus had an actual 'blatant lack of respect' for Spira and their customs. I do think, though, that he did do things that were disrespectful for reasons that he thought was rational. For example, at the beginning of the game when he ignores customs and goes in to save Yuna, despite not being her guardian, because he believes she is in danger. I think an example of blatant disrespect would be him walking in there just because he wanted to. To me this seems like something just an ignorant 17 year old, whom was just tossed into a new land, a new culture and essentially a new religion, would do. Dude was in culture shock and honestly some adults would probably act in the same way. I definitely disagree with coining him and everyone else as sociopaths though.

But again, it's been a while so maybe I'm missing something that should be pointed out!

Sure, he managed to successfully free Spira from the lies and prejudices of Yevon, yet at the same time, basically turned everyone in Spira (Yuna included) into sociopaths themselves, as from that point on, Spira had no social norms for its people to conform to, which in turn lead to all of the various tension and hubbub we see get panned out in X-2, along with the formation of New Yevon, the Youth League, and the Machine Faction in the wake of said tension and hubbub.

I don't think this was a strictly Tidus decision though? Personally I think breaking the cycle was vastly more important than the alternative, but would make for an interesting topic in another thread.

As far as Tidus being a toxic person I can't say I exactly see that either. I think we are all capable of saying/doing toxic things, but comparing Tidus' character to an actual manipulative toxic person is like comparing night & day in my opinion. I can't say much about Yuna however as I haven't completed FFX-2 or listened to the audio drama/novella.



Anyway, I can't say Tidus is my favorite character but I didn't mind him either. His character development was a bit rocky at times but TBH so was is mine, so

 

[The Witch]

Another angle is "why do people like Zack and hate Tidus"? I think it honestly comes down to two things: Tidus' annoying voice and the fact that he's not as "hot" as people want. I mean, his personality is identical to Zack, but people love Zack and hate him instead. It's weird.

 

[Dionysos]

There are some really interesting takes on Tidus here.

I don’t believe that Tidus messed up the planet. He messed up Yevon good and proper, but the people were being led to the slaughter by Yevon so he did them a favour.

It is true that the planet suffered complications in the wake of Yevon’s collapse since there weren’t really any systems in place to replace it. People also had their entire belief system shattered. Such a culture shock would bring with it a lack of purpose, a rise in depression, and so on.

So perhaps the way that Tidus et al shattered Yevon into oblivion could have been handled better, but it needed to happen. And fast.
Their hands were forced towards the end. Not only were they facing the injustice of having to sacrifice Yuna to maintain the lie (something they declined to do by killing Yunalesca and breaking the cycle), but Seymour wished to end everything by becoming the next Sin. They had to stop him, so they also had to stop Yevon while they were poking around in there. They had a chance to kill the kaiju which had been terrorising Spira for good, so they certainly had to seize that opportunity.

Tidus himself? He's young and playful and also a Blitzball star back at home. His father vanished in his formative years and his mother fell into a depression. Tidus probably had to learn to become cheerful and goofy in order to survive. Behind that laugh is an abundance of pain.

Imagine being a guy like that. You meet with an alcoholic family friend just as a giant whale ruins your Blitzball victory and starts to destroy your town. You fight your way over a bridge trusting your mysterious companion only for him to grab you by the collar, talk to the whale asking for its consent before you are sucked into its ass. You wake up on what must seem like a different planet entirely. You soon discover that actually you have been transported into a Planet of the Apes style scenario as the Zanarkand you knew has been destroyed for millennia. Everything you thought you knew about yourself no longer makes any sense. You are alone and scared but also find the people extraordinarily peculiar. Backwards, even, in their thinking.

This is the position Tidus finds himself in. I'm sure plenty of 17 year old dudes could have been much more irritating than him. I think he handled himself quite well, all considered.

 

[blakstang98]

The post about Tidus being a sociopath is being very heavy-handed, and for the wrong reasons. While I agree that people should assimilate with the culture they've moved into, he did ask the right questions. I think asking why they send summoners to slaughter is a pretty good question, and it was part ignorance (which is his teenage side) and part grown-up. He took a rebellious stance, but questioning why summoners are getting killed and how that's really a good thing, is a good question, right? Sure, someone like Wakka is basically brainwashed by the religion and rationalizes it because he's a blind believer. And Yuna felt it was in Spira's best interest that she sacrifice herself to 10 years of a Sin-less world, while noble, didn't have good enough rationale, which made her basically blind too. Yeah, Tidus was called childish because he wanted to keep Yuna from dying and he wanted to take Sin out. There was no answer for that before hand because the questions weren't asked. You call it sociopathic, I call it independence. Yes, there are social constructs that may be in place in a culture that you shouldn't try to change, but I think we can all agree, someone dying for 10 years of peace, just to repeat it, isn't one anyone should just blindly follow.

And being a dork and having a punchable face, may make a person annoying, but isn't hate a strong way to describe that? If you harp on anything, being whiny might be more accurate, but doesn't make him sociopathic.

 

[Starships]

If you are not a professional, maybe it's best not to throw around the word Sociopath ?! Just a suggestion.

And yes, why do people ADORE Zack Fair, but then turn around and say that Tidus is whiny? Too strange.

Same boat as hating Snow and then turning around and worshipping Balthier.