Yu Yevon

Yu Yevon was the leader of ancient Zanarkand in Final Fantasy X. He is Lady Yunalesca's father and the creator of Sin.
A mysterious entity, the only information given about Yu Yevon comes from Bahamut's fayth, Yunalesca, Maechen, and Grand Maester Mika. Yu Yevon's role is that of an impersonal antagonist; while Jecht and Seymour fill the roles of personal antagonists for Tidus and Yuna, Yu Yevon has no personal connection with any of the main cast.
==Profile==
Yu Yevon has no dialogue in his single appearance, so his personality is unknown. Accepting the doom of the original Zanarkand, he set forth in creating and maintaining its memory through the surviving citizens. In some respects, he can be considered a tragic character as he is incapable of stopping what he is doing. Ultimately, Yu Yevon has become indistinguishable from Sin itself.
His appearance is a mystery, as he is never shown in human form. Yu Yevon appears as a bizarre, floating creature with hooks and a glowing emblem of Yevon for a face. The nature of this form is unexplained. It may be that transplanting his soul from each Sin to its successor has diminished or destroyed his true physical form, leaving him in a parasitic, bug-like state. Yu Yevon also may have taken on this form intentionally, perhaps to facilitate his ability to possess aeons. Another possibility is this form is his appearance as a fiend; while unlikely, as he retains the ability to summon Dream Zanarkand, it may be a perverse manifestation not unlike Sin. He also briefly appears as a floating ball of light similar to a pyrefly to signify his ethereal form.
Although the Yevon script is based on Siddham and Sanskrit glyphs or bonji, and Yevon's emblem is the first letter, "A", in the script, if one inspects closely, the emblem can instead appear to be the likeness of a robed person with long flowing sleeves and a large collar with their head in the middle of the "eye". This may be a loose suggestion of what Yu Yevon looked like in life before creating Sin, and is not unlike cameos of Jesus on the cross or Buddha sitting with legs crossed and meditating.
==Story==
One thousand years ago Yu Yevon was the leader of Zanarkand and a powerful summoner. Zanarkand was at war with Bevelle, a strong military power that used mechanical technology to build weapons. Unwilling to let Zanarkand be destroyed, Yu Yevon had the surviving citizens turn themselves into fayth and used them to summon an idealized version of Zanarkand at the peak of its power. Yu Yevon gathered a horde of pyreflies and transformed them into an armor for himself, which became the creature, Sin.
Yu Yevon gave the creature a set of simple instructions: destroy any machina or large settlement to stall technological evolution, and retaliate to all hostility with extreme prejudice. Sin's first act was to destroy the real Zanarkand, and as the armies of Bevelle saw the destruction they retreated, bringing the first news of the great monster. Eventually, a religion was created around Yu Yevon's name, his worshipers not realizing they were praying to the one responsible for Spira's cycle of destruction.
According to the fayth used to summon Dream Zanarkand, Yu Yevon is neither good nor evil. His existence only has one purpose: to maintain Dream Zanarkand while protected by his armor, which is why he is drawn to the Final Aeon when his former armor, Sin, has been destroyed.
Shortly before creating Sin, Yu Yevon informed Yunalesca of his plan and gave her a means of calming the creature. Every time a summoner destroys Sin, the aeon used for the Final Summoning is possessed by Yu Yevon and used to rebuild Sin. The period of time Yu Yevon is rebuilding his armor is known as the Calm.
One thousand years later after Sin has been reborn many times over, Yuna and her guardians pierce its armor and defeat Yu Yevon. This temporarily banishes Sin (it later returns in Final Fantasy X -Will-, ending Yuna's-then Calm) and allows the fayth to cease dreaming.
==Gameplay==
Yu Yevon is the final boss of Final Fantasy X. He is accompanied by two Yu Pagodas. He uses high level magic, but the party is under constant Auto-Life effect provided by the fayth. Yu Yevon lacks magic that disables party's actions in a battle, like Petrify, to counter the Auto-Life.
Every time Yu Yevon possesses one of Yuna's aeons they take on the appearance of the Dark Aeons. This suggests that Braska's Final Aeon looked different before becoming Sin's core.
==Behind the scenes==
The original plot draft for Final Fantasy X indicated that portraits of Yu Yevon were displayed in public places, but this was scrapped in the final version.
Yu Yevon is represented by the letter A in the Yevon script alphabet. This symbol appears on his true body and in multiple places in Spira, sometimes paired with the letter Z, the symbol of Sin, symbolizing the beginning and the end of things.
The nature of him being Final Fantasy X's final boss and recognized as a symbol of dogma and idolatry rather than a living being or deity may refer to the Zen koan and phrase "If you meet Buddha down your path, cut him down"; the koan is often interpreted as refusing excuses through supposed "divine callings" and "finding god" to abandon one's way in life by cowardice, while other interpretations include not being reliant on miracles and divine help when the best course of action is taking action oneself, to even seeing through the guise of evil when it takes form of help that is almost too good to be true, etc.. Mainly, the koan highlights Buddhist beliefs against overt worship and reliance of the divine as the only figures of salvation and deliverance.
==References==
de:Ju-Yevon
es:Yu Yevon
pt-br:Yu Yevon
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy X
Category:Summoners
Category:Antagonists