FNG

For the purposes of this analysis, I first need to explain the ritual of seppuku, barring a few minor details that are irrelevant to this analysis:

In simple terms, a samurai, sitting in a kneeling position, took a blade to his lower abdomen and disemboweled himself with a horizontal slice. Then, a kaishakunin—an attendant of the rite—beheaded the samurai from behind, performing kaishaku, in the interest of preventing prolonged suffering. There are a few important details I left out that will be important later.’

It’s no secret that Auron is, for all intents and purposes, a samurai (and a rōnin after death). His design was based heavily on the late Toshiro Mifune, he wields a katana, one of his overdrives is called Bushido—even Auron’s status as an unsent is symbolic of his status as a samurai. An excerpt from Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai states:

“And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead.”

Auron is a samurai, and many of his behaviors and moves are references to either samurai media or real world samurai history.

That said, I believe the circumstances of Auron’s death and state of un-death as an unsent tie heavily into his status as a samurai. More importantly, I believe one scene in particular mirrors seppuku.

Honor is one of the primary tenets of Bushidō, the samurai moral code; to dishonor oneself was, for a samurai, worse than death. Many dishonored samurai committed suicide as a means of regaining it.

It’s no secret Auron feels an incredible amount of self-loathing and shame about his inability to prevent Braska and Jecht from dying. His struggle to find another way for them to defeat Sin without the Final Summoning was an emotional one, and upon failure, he, with no regard for himself, crossed the Calm Lands, climbed up and down Mt. Gagazet, and stormed Yunalesca in Zanarkand in an attempt to honor their deaths, losing his life in the process. This alone functions as an indirect form of suicide, living up to the ideals of Bushidō (namely, “death before dishonor”).

Additionally, there’s reason to believe Auron saw Braska as his master. I don’t think he refers to Braska as Lord Braska in the English dub by any mistake or whim of the localizers; historically, samurai fought in service of a lord. That said, here’s another relevant excerpt from Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai.

“Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon (…) committing seppuku at the death of one’s master.”

Earlier, I mentioned that I left out a few details regarding seppuku, and now I can finally explain what all of this has been leading up to.

Before having a kaishakunin in attendance became the standard, samurai would either endure the pain of bleeding to death, or remove the blade from his belly and slice his throat. Or, more commonly, he would fall onto his blade from a standing position, piercing himself in the heart as he fell.

This scene is the exact moment Auron lost everything. Braska and Jecht had gone off to die, and he had been unable to stop them. This is the moment he lost not only his master, but his honor.

I believe it is a metaphor for the agony and intent of seppuku.

As the ritual evolved, becoming institutionalized as a form of punishment, in many cases, it became completely unnecessary for the samurai to stab himself; simply reaching for the blade would trigger kaishaku. That said, notice the framing of the last shot; you can see present Auron unsheathing his blade as his past self falls into a kneeling position.

In this shot, Auron lashes out at the vision of his past self, swinging his blade in a swift, lethal motion that would have beheaded him, much like kaishaku.

I believe this shot is a metaphor for the physical aspect of seppuku: the agony of dishonor, and the mercy and swiftness of the beheading that follows.

…But he didn’t.

He couldn’t behead himself. No matter how hard he swung his blade, he could not end his own agony. And, historically, failing to properly carry out kaishaku held consequences as well, according to Tsunetomo:

“From ages past it has been considered an ill-omen by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. (…) Further, if one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace.”

“And the cycle went on.”

This scene, as a whole, is, in my opinion, symbolic of Auron’s feelings of dishonor, guilt, and suicidality. Indeed, this scene is an abstract depiction of an attempt at seppuku; of Auron’s desire to regain his honor.

…But these urges do not define him. They are merely his darkest.

Despite their intensity, he manages to overcome the urge to die and be free of pain, choosing instead to live and fight his sorrow.

Yunalesca may have given Spira a false hope to cling to, but I believe Auron found real hope. Whether it’s hope in the new generation, hope in the resilience of Spira’s denizens, or hope in the possibility of finding another way to defeat Sin and honor the fallen in ways that don’t involve dying, I don’t know.