Why do people say that Yuna is spineless?

Rydia

Rydia

Throwing rocks at emo kids
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Why is it that people complain that Yuna is spineless? I don't see her that way at all.

First of all, it was her choice to become a summoner and sacrifice herself for the good of Spira. No one forced her. In fact, Wakka and Lulu did not want her to become a summoner, and she had to convince them that that was what she was going to do. Doesn't sound like a spineless person to me.

Second, she didn't look like someone that did not have a back bone when she let herself fall over the balcony at the wedding.

People say that she is too quiet and shy and she lets people walk all over her. So anyone that doesn't talk constantly or isn't a bitch to everyone they meet is some how spineless? I didn't see anyone walk all over her either or see her as shy. When everyone was being a bit of a douche to Tidus, she was actually kind to him.

Also, she made the choice to go along with destroying Sin instead of just following the religion of Spira.

She's probably one of my favorite FF characters because she came off as a strong person with out being stereotypical. :) I thought she was ridiculous in X2 and lost a few brain cells in those two years.
 
Really, Yuna made no choices through the game - she did exactly what was expected of her by the people. It was her legacy to become a Summoner, so she did just that. If Yuna had possessed any backbone, she would have refused and found her own way to do things. She didn't reject the religion of Spira, she complied with it. She was heavily reliant on her companions - more so than any other FF protagonist before her, in my opinion - and, really, jumping off the balcony and defying Seymour was the only courageous act that she did in the entire game. It was quite out-of-character for her, actually. If Tidus hadn't of been in the party, I would say it is almost a certainty that she would have died at the end of it. He is the one who pushed her that extra mile, she didn't show the initiative herself.

I wouldn't say Yuna was spineless, more that she was meek. She has no real will of her own through the majority of the game. What could be called acts of courage on her part are, if you look at them from a slightly different perspective, really acts of compliance to meet with expectations others have of her.
 
^^ But she didn't have to become a Summoner did she? Even if it was expected of her it didn't mean that she had to?

I know I would have friggin' dodged that bullet if I could, though she decided to do what was right and put her own life on the line.

In my eyes that's courageous.

I do understand where you're coming from though Martel, I just don't completely agree with it.

Yuna is my favourite female lead out of all the Final Fantasy games. She's very reserved and although she may seem like she doesn't really show initiative near the end of the game, she still went through with it and was willing to risk her life. I mean no doubt she would have been a little scared and might have needed a little breather in order to stay focused. Anyone in her position would have been a little distracted. She could have easily just said, 'Screw this, someone else can do it.'

She's very strong willed and was determined to do the right thing by the people of Spira. That's my opinion though. <3
 
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I love Yuna. She is caring, loving, strong willed and is stunning :-) I love brunette lead heroines, woopie! Dont have to be blonde to save the world!! Anyhoo, I think some people dislike Yunnie cause she isnt an action chick. Shes like a little flower in apperance, but deep down she can bloody summon monsters for crying out loud!!! What wimp does that???
 
Yuna choosing to be a summoner is really the most courageous thing I have seen from a female protagonist yet in the series. She knew that she will face all sorts of dangers during the pilgrimage. She knew that she would die as well as lose one of her guardians for the Final Summoning. As Kandy said, no one forced her to be one. Yes, her father was a summoner - does that necessarily mean the offspring has to be one as well?

What I love about Yuna is that she genuinely cared about Spira with all her heart. Despite knowing her fate, she set out against the wishes of others like Lulu to secure happiness for the people. She could have just stayed in Besaid and wait for someone else to do it. To have it in the heart to be a summoner is the biggest show of courage from her.

She does make decisions during the story. She decided to take on Seymour, to undergo a marriage in an attempt to send him by surprise. At first she may seem passive and meek, but later on you do see her challenging the Maesters.
 
.Swift said:
Yuna choosing to be a summoner is really the most courageous thing I have seen from a female protagonist yet in the series. She knew that she will face all sorts of dangers during the pilgrimage. She knew that she would die as well as lose one of her guardians for the Final Summoning.
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She technically did not know that. That's what made her end the tradition of the Final Summoning. Knowing that one of her guardians would be sacrificed for it. Knowing that they'd bring The Calm, but it wouldn't break the cycle. That guardian would come back as the next Sin. Yuna was never aware of that until after meeting Yunalesca and speaking to her and learning the truth of the Final Summoning. Just thought I'd point that out.

As for Yuna being spineless? That makes me laugh. The girl is giving up HER life, going on a dangerous pilgrimage knowing that she could possibly die ON the pilgrimage, and also knowing the entire time from the time she began to train as a summoner that she was going to her death. She might've been following the teachings of Yevon, but still. Yuna was going to her death so she could save Spira. Even if for just a short while and for so long believing (because of Yevon's teachings) that if she fought and defeated Sin and they atoned for their sins that Sin may never come back. Knowing that chance was there, Yuna was still brave enough to throw herself forward into the dangers of the pilgrimage, fighting fiends and such. That hardly makes the girl spineless.

She relied on her guardians to help keep her alive until she made it to Zanarkand to gather the aeon for the Final Summoning. That alone doesn't make her NOT have a backbone. You always hear and see of summoners who died while on their pilgrimage because their guardians couldn't help protect them. I'd like to see those who call Yuna spineless get out there and fight what she's had to fight with even less guardians than what she had and then let's see if they wanna say the girl has no backbone. :mokken: Appearances can be deceiving sure, but don't judge her on what she looks like. She may look small and meek but as the Kelk Ronso said she has a will that towers over the tallest peak of Gagazet. A girl with a will like that definitely shouldn't be classified as spineless, IMO.
 
Whose dissing my Yuna!? :thehell:

She chose to become a summoner, knowing what would be expected of her. She set out on her pilgrimage to save the world, if only for a little time, from Sin. The journey ended up changing her for the better and after she found out the truth about Yevon, she did gain the will to go and find her own path to save the world she cared about.

She changed a lot during her pilgrimage and became a stronger woman. And spineless is a weird word to describe her, imo. She had access to terrible creatures that at her command could destroy monsters in an instant. In my opinion, she was a very strong woman who believed that she could do some good for the world and people she cared about, even at the disagreement of some of those said people.

And she gave a very powerful speech at the end of the game that showed what a powerful woman she had become.
 
Ok good people agree with me XD. Yeah I've seen plenty of Yuna bashing. People take one look at her at the begining of the game and decide that she is some weak little girl not worth their time. Why is that? She's quiet and shy, and she's the white mage.

Then they love her in X2 because she's so much stronger... yeah she became a little 12 year old that had too much sugar. X Yuna pwns all.

I also love in the game that she chose saving Spira over Tidus. How often do we see that from video game lovers? It's nice to see someone that doesn't trade over the world for the hot person they met a short while ago.
 
Yuna's VA* sounded meek throughout the game, which didn't suit her character. This is really evident in her speech to Yunalesca - she's supposed to sound righteous, confident, assured in her beliefs, but because of the voice inflection she comes off as weak, almost whispering. In addition, I feel that her self-sacrifice ploy was overplayed, to the point where it felt gimmicky. I wouldn't call her spineless though.

I also take issue with the whole marriage proposal and everyone except Tidus's reactions to it - what, you're just going to let someone you hold as close as a sibling marry some douchebag she barely knows for political reasons at the expense of her happiness and dignity (what little of it is left before she kicks the bucket at the end)? Really? - but that's a different topic.

*EDIT: I mean her English VA. I've never heard the JP version.
 
so is this counted in X-2 'cause if i did half the things she did in that game i would take offense at being called spineless
 
I do think that Yuna's voice actress did not do a very good job with her. It was like she was trying to convey Yuna as a sweet innocent girl, but failed and ended up making her sound like she was always about to pass out every time she spoke to due lack of oxygen from talking :(

I wasn't fond of Tidus's voice actor either. I didn't like how nerdy he sounded through most of the game when he was supposed to be an athlete. It made me feel that the other characters were just being jackasses half the time.
 
She's naive, but strong. Auron said it himself. End of argument. Why? Because Auron fricking rocks, that's why, and what he says, goes.

Really, she came up with a long term and long distance plan of deceiving Seymour in order to kill him. Then came up with another plan to send him. Both all by herself, in her head. Then became the person more than any one else (Even Tidus, despite appearances) that wanted to really just get rid of him in any way possible.

Yes, I know her VA wasn't the greatest in the world. And it was definitely below average and expectations.

But... spineless? I dunno man.

I say, look at real life. Are all the people who stood up to the Roman Catholic church in 1500-1800 spineless? Yuna does essentially the same thing.
 
GBJoker said:
She's naive, but strong. Auron said it himself. End of argument. Why? Because Auron fricking rocks, that's why, and what he says, goes.
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Indeed!

But in all seriousness, I've encountered this attitude a couple of times on the internet and cannot understand it at all, to the point I question whether someone with this stance really played the game. I guess because she's sweet and soft spoken and physically weak people make their assumptions. But really, when you can command creatures the size of buses to do your bidding, isn't hitting people a bit superfluous?

Throughout the game Yuna makes one difficult, self sacrificing decision after another. She chooses to become a summoner. She chooses to go on pilgrimage. Even though her father did the exact same thing, that doesn't mean she had to, and that doesn't make the decision any less noble. She may have felt some pressure to become a summoner, but if she did, it was mostly from herself. Her father wasn't there to pressure her, nor was anyone who knew him. Did the people of Besaid even know that she was Braska's daughter when she first came there? Even if she did become a summoner because of the pressure, I can't see that meeting people's expectations makes a person any less brave, particularly when those expectations are veryhigh.

She married Seymour, and even though that was a very stupid thing to do for the reasons she did it, well, that's Yuna's big flaw, she's naive, it makes her more realistic and relatable. That was gutsy, dumb, but gutsy.

And if Yuna's flaw is 'meeting expectations' there's one really big incident where she didn't do that. She went against her religion, her upbringing, and the plan she had for her life, and destroyed all possibility of anyone ever performing the final summoning again, all in order to make herself an outcast and try something that had never been done before. If she had failed, she and all her guardians would have died in vain and in infamy. Yes, she was under pressure from Auron and Tidus and Rikku to do it, but being influenced by people you love and/or respect isn't a weakness. Which brings me back to my first point. How does following in her father's footsteps make her weak, exactly?
 
While I do see the vailidy behind the argument of Yuna being spineless, I didn't see her as spineless when I had played the game.

She did follow the set path of becoming a summoner, and it seemed like she was only doing it because apparently, she had no other choice. The people of Spira would feel like she was defying her duty by not becoming a summoner.

Although, if I recall correctly, in one of Braska's spheres, he had told her that he would be happy with her choices in life no matter what she did. You could say that she was becoming a summoner to please her father. However, once you take what he said into consideration, she could have chosen whatever path she wanted to.

I agree with the point brought up with her having a plan to defeat Seymour. She came up with it all on her own, and was going to carry out the plan with or without her guardians. That certainly does not make the girl spineless.
 
I do understand where people might consider Yuna spineless but, imma disagree.
I mean, if you think about it, Yuna became a summoner under her own choice. She didn't follow any one's orders and no one told her 'you have to do it.' She chose to become one. I mean I understand where people say she was pressured into it because of her father and i get that but, really (like Ari said) Braska wouldn't care.

She's smart and kind. I mean I hear some say she's a pushover but really, she seems like she can stand on her own two feet to me. Like Joker dude said about Seymour, that was all her. No one else. If you think about it she really has a heart too, she wants to bring the calm for not just becoming 'famous' but because it'd make all of Spira happy. That's very kind, brave and I look up to her for that and hold high respect for Yuna in X.

She's very strong too. I mean, she never once said throughout her adventure said that she wanted to quit. She never backed down and even before she knew about the "alternate" instead of her killing sin and
sacrificing herself.
I like Yunie :mokken:
 
In a religious world where people are only given the knowledge and ways to do things when they only suit a small number of people, your choices are limited and yuna chose the most noble way she could to do what she could for the greater good.

The fact that it was based on false truths does not matter in this context in a different world with true freedom she would have chosen to do a similar thing but without all the manipulation that Yevon had put into the world to force people to sacrifice themselves for a lie.

So yuna is not spineless, she was just doing what she felt was right and you wouldnt accuse her of doing it for her ego would you "the right thing for the wrong reason as they say"....
 
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The only thing that annoyed me with Yuna was her speech patterns in the game...she kind of talks then pauses before starting again sometimes, other then that, I liked her overall.

She's one of those heroines who was discreet about things and cared of her friends (she never thought of them as guardians).

She also tried to not talk about the outcome at the end which made her very brave and even in a lot of cases selfless.
 
SapphireStar said:
I love brunette lead heroines, woopie! Dont have to be blonde to save the world!!
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I'd like to know akshually, just how many blonde heroines we have in FF, because iirc the brunettes really out weight the blondes.

...infact 7-10 are all brunettes.

Rydia said:
Then they love her in X2 because she's so much stronger... yeah she became a little 12 year old that had too much sugar. X Yuna pwns all.
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I loved Yuna in X-2, not because she was stronger persay, but because she had new resolve. Sure, she won the war, but now she's off the win the battle as well. She was... a bit of a strain to deal with at times, made worse by Rikku as well...

But she really is a treat to listen to at the end, when everyone gathers at Vegnagun and she begins talking about how to defeat Shuyin. It's a real good bit that helps her grow as a character, I think.


I also love in the game that she chose saving Spira over Tidus. How often do we see that from video game lovers? It's nice to see someone that doesn't trade over the world for the hot person they met a short while ago.
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Yeah but that just makes for a good dramatic ending.. -sniffle- anybody got a tissue?
 
To anyone who thinks Yuna is spineless:

"Maester Seymour...I trust my guardians with my life, but they are also my friends. I will not stand by & watch them get hurt. I will fight you, too!"

You don't need a sword as big as your body to be a strong character. I think Yuna & Aerith get underestimated a lot simply because they're the White Mage Love Interest.
 
I actually didn't take her seriously when she said that line, because her VA was so0o0o0o0o "I'm a big girl, but still small in the inside."

I blame Hedy.
 
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