Yotsuyu, the irredeemable monster

[Shuuchi]

Yotsuyu’s story is probably the most tear jerking story in ffxiv pre-shadowbringers.

As many would say, monster are not born, they are made.
I have seen many people say how Yotsuyu did nothing wrong and she was justified in the things she did.

However, I wish to challenge the narrative.



Yotsuyu’s past was sad indeed, and feeling sorry for her is a perfectly normal reaction.
But we are who we choose to be, and Yotsuyu chose to embrace her monstrosity when she threw her lot in with Zenos.

Wielding her twisted sense of “justice”, Yotsuyu victimized others using her own victimhood.
Tormenting her countrymen and mistreating her subordinate, Yotsuyu was like a child, tearing the wings off of a butterfly.

After she lost her memories, we saw Tsuyu.
Through childlike innocence, a picture was presented to us, making us believe that if she was allowed to grow up normally, Yotsuyu would not have become a monster.

But such an interpretation is highly unfair and serves to do naught but cloud our judgement.
Tsuyu was essentially a little kid.
We do not know how Yotsuyu would have turned out, as it never happened, nor will it ever happen.
We only know that she became a monster and fully embraced it.
Twice.

Despite all the love she received as Tsuyu, Yotsuyu, when faced with the unarmed old couple, chose to murder her “parents” when she could have simply walked away.
And at the end, instead of answering for her crimes and facing justice, Yotsuyu chose to wreak as much havoc as possible.
But she was stopped before she could cause any real damage, and essentially ended up committing suicide via WoL.



Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a similar story was taking place.
Fordola, a reference to the Indians who sided with the British in hopes to one day see their country set free, was also presented with a second chance.

Unlike Yotsuyu, who, after receiving a chance to redeem herself, chose to become a monster once more, Fordola sought for answers whilst acknowledging and bearing the burdens of her past actions.

Yotsuyu, with her deranged and depraved mind, only wished to watch the world burn.
In a way, she’s not too dissimilar to the Joker.
And I don’t think I have to explain why sharing the same beliefs as the Joker is a bad sign.



In conclusion, it is natural to feel sorry for Yotsuyu.
But do not (edit) sympathize with her, for she is an irredeemable monster.

[dreamfisher]

If you want to excise any and all nuance from her story, sure.
Fate may have created an irredeemable monster of Yotsuyu and certainly denied her the strength to be a better person, but I can still empathise with a rabid dog while putting it down.
Yotsuyu's is a tragic tale of someone who was beyond saving.

I also don't think it's fair to compare Fordola's vengeful anger and determination to Yotsuyu's all-consuming hatred.
The two stories start differently, unfold in different ways, and will inevitably end in differing ways.

[Steelbreaker25]

Feeling sorry for someone and showing empathy are literally the same thing. But you can empathize with someone without condoning their behavior, which is the core of the actual issue.

Despite all the love she received as Tsuyu, Yotsuyu, when faced with the unarmed old couple, chose to murder her “parents” when she could have simply walked away.
And at the end, instead of answering for her crimes and facing justice, Yotsuyu chose to wreak as much havoc as possible.
But she was stopped before she could cause any real damage, and essentially ended up committing suicide via WoL.

This is actually not true. Only Gosetsu was really fully on her side. Hien, Yugiri, and the Scions were largely suspicious of her, and they kept her sequestered because the Domans hated her. She also regained her memories before she murdered her parents, and was about to commit suicide, but she was confronted by her parents who immediately started verbally abusing her and threatening to sell her into prostitution. Also throw in Asahi's manipulations during this.

And I'd like to where you've seen many people saying she did nothing wrong. I mean, I don't doubt there's some, in the same vein that there are people who unironically think Thanos had an altruistic plan or that the Galactic Empire was a peaceful, lawful organization, but I haven't seen widespread whitewashing of her behavior.

[Fenral]

Oh, goodie. People are coming back to the game in droves to offer up their own hot takes on plot details from years ago.

The entire point of her story is that you should empathize with her. She could have had a normal life, and the people of Doma were responsible for how she turned out. Even though what they did can't be undone, future generations (i.e. Isse) can still strive to do better, but only by directly confronting the wrongs of their forbears.

The idea that some people are just born monsters is old-fashioned, has been discredited for centuries, borders on thought-terminating cliche, and is historically peddled by people who are afraid themselves of being seen as anything other than a natural-born paragons of objective virtue, because they're afraid to acknowledge that the potential for evil lives inside all of us. Which, if I must remind the audience, has been a recurring theme in the Final Fantasy series from the very first game.

So it's not wrong to look inside yourself, think about the things in your own life that helped you form your own ideas of right and wrong, ask yourself if you might have done the same thing in her place, and maybe even say yes, you would.

[StriderShinryu]

Yotsuyu, to me, is one of the bigger victims of the story organization in SB. Because they decided to tell so much story across so many places in SB they just didn't have enough time to actually dive deeply into every character that deserved it so Yotsuyu ended up feeling much more like a stereotypical comic book villain than she had to. In many ways her story is not all that different from that of Emet and Elidibus, though certainly less cosmic and more deeply personal, but she just wasn't given the focus they were.

[thegreatonemal]

She was created by Doman society. Everyone knew what she was going through and no one stepped in to help her. There was only one person who attempted to help her and its not Gosetsu. It's that guy from the echo flashback when she was a kid.

[WhiteArchmage]

She also serves as a cautionary tale to Hien, as an example of what Doma WAS and what it created; and it created the instrument of their own subjugation. So Tsuyu's childlike innocence shows Hien that she wasn't born evil, it was Kaien's Doma that made her and centuries of "traditions", and now he has to figure out if he wants to keep those or prevent the next Yotsuyu from rising.

[thegreatonemal]

She also serves as a cautionary tale to Hien, as an example of what Doma WAS and what it created; and it created the instrument of their own subjugation. So Tsuyu's childlike innocence shows Hien that she wasn't born evil, it was Kaien's Doma that made her and centuries of "traditions", and now he has to figure out if he wants to keep those or prevent the next Yotsuyu from rising.

Which he didn't learn as most Domans are trying to get back to how they were before the Empire came.

[Steelbreaker25]

Which he didn't learn as most Domans are trying to get back to how they were before the Empire came.

Trying to rebuild their society is not the same thing as re-instituting the elements that produced Yotsuyu. There's elements of culture that are problematic, like inherent, systemic sexism, classism, or racism, but there's also tons of culture that are harmless, like the arts, food, clothing, industry, and education.

[thegreatonemal]

Trying to rebuild their society is not the same thing as re-instituting the elements that produced Yotsuyu. There's elements of culture that are problematic, like inherent, systemic sexism, classism, or racism, but there's also tons of culture that are harmless, like the arts, food, clothing, industry, and education.

It doesn't look like they are moving towards any of that. They've addressed none of it, unlike Ala Mihgo which is facing those issues head on. We get one line of Gosetsu alluding to it when he talks about whose feet do these sins lie at and that's it.