Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Fictional Characters: 92

****SPOILERS TO FOLLOW****

92: Auron
Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and voiced by Hideo Ishikawa (Japan) and Matt McKenzie (US) for the video game Final Fantasy X
First Appearance: 2001

Auron is dead. At the start of the game, right when you mean him, Auron is dead. That’s what I love about him. In the world of Final Fantasy X (known as Spira), when someone dies, they must be sent by a summoner (that doesn’t make sense, now, for the first time ever… a summoner… sends something away? Hm). If they aren’t, or they have such strong ties to the world, they remain as an “unsent”, usually a being that takes the form of a monster or enemy in the game. But Auron? He’s too badass. He sticks around to continue to fight the good fight, up until the game’s final moments.

He’s mysterious the whole time, and he’s just as wise and insightful as he is silent about his own past. He accompanies not one, but two members of a family bent on trying to save the world from Sin (hint hint, Sin is evil) and those that wish to aid it in its quest to destroy the world. He is trying to save those he loves and those he cares about the most, but also he is trying to undo his own mistakes, his own failures, and his own bad calls during the last Sin attacks, over ten years prior to this game. Of course, this is the primary reason he hangs out with the living, but he’s also the one that brought the game’s primary (and super lame) protagonist, Tidus, along for the ride. PS: That guy is also dead.

When called to battle, though, this drunkard swings a mean sword. He’s the strongest bladesman in the game and also has some of the best moves (although this is made irrelevant by the fact that you can exploit the living hell out of the leveling system in this game). But its his voice, his dedication, and his actions outside of the games’ trillions of battles that really make the character interesting, and that’s what I’ll always remember him for.

Final Fantasy X is the first game in the franchise to use voice acting and, really, the only one worth mentioning (FFXII is awful and XIII? Super awful). And Auron’s voice actor, Matt, does a real great job of carrying this guy through. The voice acting aspect of the franchise was never really that big a deal for me, but when a game relies on it to tell its story? It can hurt if you don’t have a voice cast to get you through. With Auron’s wise words expertly provided in rich audio rather than simple text, he gets to come off as more wise than he would have in a previous title in the series.

Auron was also one of the few wise cast members to avoid the stink filled bottomless pit of bile that was Final Fantasy X-2, so he also has that going for him. And he shows up in Kingdom Hearts II being just as cool as ever, if not twice as wise (though its unclear which universe he actually comes from).

His passing, his FINAL passing, at the end of the game signifies that his character has come full circle and is finally fulfilled as far as his goals and his mission. Rest in peace,friend, you’ve earned it.

Favorite Portrayal:
While he’s cool in KHII, he doesn’t even come close to how cool he is in FFX. Thank god, though, that they managed to get the same voice actor for his part. It the little things.

Favorite Quote:
Maester Kinoc: Come out. Your sentence has been decided.
Auron: Sentence? Don’t you mean execution?
Maester Kinoc: Really, now, what person would execute a dear friend?
Auron: You would.

Favorite Moment:
His opening moment, when he simply stands atop the spires of Zanarkand and watches the world he now knows crumble around him. You don’t know who this dick is, yet, but his levels of stoicism are to be spoken highly of because, let’s be honest, he’s the coolest dude.
TIE!
Also, when he finally drops his arm out of his coat/sling and jacks up monsters in the first big battle (pictured above). He officially became badass, to me.

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Added September 14, 2016
I need to replay this game. I love Auron and more than I can say. He’s just a real solid badass.