zanarkand personified;;
@zanarkandx this is a really cool topic in general so I’m gonna post it normally from *jazz hands* Daddy’s own blog if that’s okay!!
As a place, Zanarkand is Yu Yevon’s priority. He’s guilty of putting it before everything else; his wife understands his laser-focus - she knew of it well before she married him - and she doesn’t find herself unhappy for it, though Yunalesca may have felt sidelined. “Workaholic” doesn’t cover it. His fixation on protecting it and preserving it borders on a romantic obsession. He’s completely inward-facing, and even though he is concerned with the general direction Spira is headed, he wouldn’t do anything to proactively help it out unless called upon with some desperate need. He doesn’t interfere with Spira, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Zanarkand. They aren’t separate; but he clearly prizes the city over the whole. If Spira burned down, it’d be terrible, he’d think, but as long as Zanarkand was okay, he could get on with it. People who know him could easily joke that if Zanarkand were a woman, he’d divorce Nala.
But, I don’t think that’s true at all. Actually, this post zanarkandx did is bang on, in my opinion. As a person, this is pretty much how I’d describe them; the only thing I’d throw in would be that Yu Yevon does love her. But in an odd way. Not like a woman, not quite like family. A bit more like a painter and his long-suffering muse. She’s completely free to disagree, argue, get angry, throw paintwater jars at him -- but he’s always going to say, this is how I have to do this, for your benefit. I wouldn’t be surprised if it felt a bit dehumanising for Zanarkand; he tends toward viewing her a symbol rather than a person, and forgets she has the same capacity for feelings and moods as anyone else. I think he also forgets his place at times. Zanarkand is the everlasting one, the city itself; he is only its temporary leader. Sometimes it must feel more like he thinks she’s a bird in a pretty cage. He needs reminding of her independence at times. It’s not out of a belief that she’s helpless or any of that; it’s just that he really does see himself as being put on this planet to do a job, and that job is making sure she never has to fight for herself.
As a leader, his unfailing devotion to duty did a lot to endear him to his people; that’s why it was fairly easy to implement something as massive and as morbid as the dream plan. His strategies were mostly strongly defensive, but he absolutely would lash out if it seemed like Zanarkand were under any real threat. Bevelle was a real threat, a potentially catastrophic one; so it follows that he would have come up with the most bizarre, unexpected use of Zanarkand’s summoners to protect and preserve her.
