Line #33 NightmareFuel/FinalFantasyX


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animaffx.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Keep in mind, this thing is Seymour's mother.]]
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4	'''As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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6	%% Do not add Fridge Horror.
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9	* The entire Yevonite religion for the people of Spira is one long exercise in ReligiousHorror and Existential Horror. Basically, the church is run by nihilistic ghosts who use dogma and assassination to keep the masses ignorant, blindly obedient, and prejudiced against any who would incite change or technological progress like the Al Bhed and serve Sin, the religion's equivalent of Satan bent on ritually destroying Spira that's being controlled by the braindead disembodied spirit of Yu Yevon, the religion's equivalent of Jesus. The church officials ritually send summoners and their pals on a pointless pilgrimage where they are to serve as a HumanSacrifice to temporarily delay Sin until it resurfaces again. The church also lies to followers by assuring that blind obedience to its teachings will allow Sin to disappear for good. This practice has been going on for a while and no one but the protagonists seem to care as long as it gives people a sense of false hope. Disturbingly stated by Maester Mika:
10	-->'''Mika:''' Men die. Beasts die. Trees die. Even continents perish. Only the power of death truly commands in Spira. Resisting its power is futile.
11	** Worse still: the summoner has to pick one of their own guardians - their friends - to become the Final Aeon, meant to defeat Sin. This would be bad enough - the summoner is sacrificing both themselves and their friend to try and defeat Sin for good - but it's worse than what the summoner themselves even knows. Not only is their own death meaningless, but their friend will not die after fighting Sin as the Final Aeon: they will become ''the next Sin'' and the cycle of death will continue until another summoner is ready to fight Sin, summoning another Final Aeon and perpetuating the system all over again. Yuna was potentially fully prepared to summon the Final Aeon and die, possibly even after knowing it was futile, but the thought of sacrificing a friend to become the new Sin pushes her to break the cycle for good. If she had gone through with summoning the Final Aeon, both she and her father Braska would have ultimately died for pretty much nothing except a very brief Calm where there is no Sin...until Sin returns again.
12	* Yunalesca's profoundly creepy OneWingedAngel, where her ''hair'' of all things has the ability to manifest into a gigantic, Medusa-like head, complete with [[HellIsThatNoise a horrible wail]].
13	* [[http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/d/d3/FFX2-Anima.png Anima, who is also depicted above]]. Just... every last thing about her. A massive, twisted humanoid giant, chained and hideous. Its appearance is disquieting, but the real nightmare fuel comes when you learn what Anima is: Seymour's mother, who gave herself as Seymour's aeon because she saw no other way to redeem Seymour in the world's eyes -- and later, when Seymour made his FaceHeelTurn, she couldn't stop him from using her as a weapon. Now look at Anima again, and see the pain and helplessness in her face... and then watch her [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbJJCZQ3hso Overdrive]], and see her '''anger...'''
14	** Seymour summoning her in Luca. When she kills the monsters in the arena, ''she's crying tears of blood!'' Her mannerisms are also pretty heart-rending in a disturbing sort of way.
15	** Speaking of Anima: Baaj Temple, the abandoned, ruined temple you can find her at, and also which Tidus ends up at after being removed from Zanarkand early on in the game. [[NothingIsScarier Creepy music and absolutely no one present]] save for the resident Fayth (the aforementioned mother of Seymour) as well as Geosgaeno, which terrorizes Tidus at the beginning of the game and nearly succeeds in [[SwallowedWhole swallowing him]]. Geosgaeno later comes back as an OptionalBoss and it can succeed at swallowing a character, with lethal results to the victim or possibly ''the entire party''.
16	* Watching Crusaders get reduced to black particles at Operation Mi'ihen is extremely disturbing. Then Tidus does their autopsies if you examine the bodies.
17	* Once you finally get inside Sin, there's a cutscene where the characters marvel at how surprisingly beautiful it looks in there... then suddenly it turns dark, an EvilLaugh is heard and you see a brief-but-horrible extreme closeup of Seymour, complete with GiantEyeOfDoom.
18	* In the Bikanel Desert, one of the random-encounter enemies is the Sand Worm, a massive worm with only its huge gaping maw for a face. It can prepare an attack sequence where it [[SwallowedWhole swallows a party member whole]] and spits them out for massive damage.
19	* Tidus being forced to watch as Yuna, the woman he loves, is forced to marry the BigBad Seymour. She receives a forceful deep kiss from him that may as well constitute ''molestation''.
20	* All of the Dark Aeons are terrifying, if only because many of thm serve as ''massive'' {{Beef Gate}}s that block you from returning to certain areas. But of note is Dark Ifrit, whose summoner can be found on Bikanel Island. The summoner poses as a concerned Al Bhed mother looking for her child, and brings him to a cliff...where Dark Ifrit is clawing along the wall, as if prepared to strike Tidus. He follows the apparent mother further, who tells him to look over a particular sand dune...and then the "mother" sheds ''his'' disguise with a PsychoticSmirk on his face as Tidus is confronted by the malevolent Aeon. Then there's the cutscene after the fight: The hostile summoner runs for his life...and a Sandragora spawns out of a pit he's running towards. The screen [[SmashToBlack smashes to black]] as the monster [[GoryDiscretionShot apparently devours him]] with a SickeningCrunch Sure, [[KarmicDeath he had it coming]] after tricking you into fighting such a horrifying {{Superboss}}, but still...what a way to go.
21	* Only happy people and those who accept death (read: are looking forward to it) actually die in Spira. And considering how unhappy this place is, it is statistically likely that you will become a mindless blood-thirsty monster that wants nothing more than to rip apart your friends and loved ones. And your only chance at avoiding this fate? Being close enough to one of the very small handful of summoners at the time of your passing. Of course, you could be one of the few who becomes an unsent. And whilst that may seem like a relative upgrade, they obsessively follow the ''unfinished business'' rule of being a ghost. Your free will, your hopes, your dreams... all traded to pursue a single goal for the rest of time. And many of them eventually display severe mental degregation to the point that they are basically a fiend in human form such as Lady Ginnem. Somehow ''Final Fantasy'' managed to take something that already gives people nightmares and make it even worse.

Context NightmareFuel / FinalFantasyX