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While "Tee-dus" is busy whining his way through most of FFX, Auron is
the quintissential badass that guides Tidus through his journey.
Auron's role in the beginning of FFX is to simply introduce Tidus to
his story, but as the game progresses, you realize that FFX is every
much Auron's story as it is Tidus's. In a game that features some
horrible voice acting, a storyline that doesn't get interesting until
the game is 65% complete, and nonexistant difficulty, Auron is the glue
that holds everything together. Auron keeps players interested in a
game that would otherwise be very dull by most standards. Even the
people that loathe FFX love Auron.
Auron is more than a simple badass with a big sword. He has a brilliant
story to go along with his character. The main story in FFX revolves
around Sin. Only the Final Aeon can kill it, and only a Summoner can
call the Aeon forth. But there is more to it than simply walking up to
Sin and casting a spell. A Summoner must go on a pilgrimidge across
Spira, pray at every temple, and collect every Aeon. The journey ends
at Zanarkand, in which the Summoner contracts the Final Aeon. It seems
simple enough, but Spira is a world in which nothing in what it seems.
Auron was a guardian for Lord Braska, a Summoner who defeated Sin
before the events of FFX were ever set into motion. But because Sin
always gets resurrected, Auron has returned to aide the Summoner Yuna
in her quest to do the same. Auron is very aloof towards the party, and
oftentimes chooses to neglect telling everyone anything. But
oftentimes, it is what's left unsaid that makes an amazing character,
and Auron is the perfect example of this.
He also kicks ass in battle to boot. He is by far the strongest
character in the party, which is golden for those of us fond of the
Attack command. He remains the central physical damage dealer until
very late in the game, so not only is Auron a good character both in
and out of battle, but he also sees a lot of use. There used to be a
heated debate about who the most popular character in FFX was, but over
time, Auron has proven himself worthy of the title despite not even
being the main character of the game.
"Outside the dram world, life can be harsh -- even cruel, but it is life." -Auron
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Win-Loss Record
8-5
Summer 2003 Contest
East Division - 8 Seed
Eastern First Round --- Defeated (9)Tails, 70199 [64.47%] - 38685 [35.53%]
Eastern Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1)Cloud, 31470 [27.80%] - 81716 [72.20%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 20th Place [27.80%]
Summer 2004 Contest
Midgar Division - 3 Seed
Midgar First Round --- Defeated (14)Scorpion, 58404 [64.85%] - 31660 [35.15%]
Midgar Quarterfinal --- Defeated (6)Ness, 53602 [65.04%] - 28806 [34.96%]
Midgar Semifinal --- Lost to (2)Sephiroth, 26356 [32.30%] - 55252 [67.70%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 20th Place [27.38%]
Auron isn't the strongest character out
there, but he is a character who can and will hold in own in any match
he is involved in. 2003 could have been a decent year for him, but
thanks to some horrible underseeding, Auron ran smack into Cloud's
championship buzz saw after his solid win against Tails. In 2004, Auron
got a seed worthy of his strength, and he did not disappoint. He didn't
blow away Scorpion or Ness, but he managed very solid victories against
them before bowing out against the other Final Fantasy 7 powerhouse,
Sephiroth. Auron remained extremely consistant in his two contest
appearances and thanks to an upcoming cameo in Kingdom Hearts 2, Auron
has nowhere to go but up. Auron may never be able to take down the
contest elites, but you'll never see him go down to characters like
Donkey Kong or KOS-MOS, either. Auron is a solid character with a
static, Sweet 16 type of strength. The only way to really keep Auron
down is to snub him from the contest altogether, a la Aeris.
Summer 2005 Contest
Zebes Division - 2 Seed
Zebes Round 1 --- Defeated (7) Big Boss, 67639 [71.47%] - 27000 [28.53%]
Zebes Semifinal --- Lost to (3) Ganondorf, 45514 [45.90%] - 53655 [54.10%]
Extrapolated Strength --- 22nd Place [28.30%]
Auron over Ganon was a very sexy upset pick pre-contest, for many
reasons -- the biggest of them all was how close Tidus came to Ganon in
2003 and the fact that many felt that Auron was stronger than Tidus.
Ganon possibly being overrated by the Spring 2005 stats was another
good reason, though it didn't take long for Ganon to come out and
dominate Auron in that match after Auron's impressive first round
performance.
With this said, Auron isn't nearly as weak as the Summer 2005 stats
suggest due to Samus/Ganon being left unadjusted. Auron is likely still
a force in these things, and he's capable of beating many of the
characters that placed ahead of him. Summer 2006 ContestTime Division - 3 Seed Time Round 1 --- Defeated (6) Alucard, 74808 [64.40%] - 41537 [35.60%] Time Semifinal --- Defeated (7) Sub-Zero, 80252 [59.63%] - 54325 [40.37%] Time Final --- Lost to (1) Crono, 56865 [45.50%] - 68115 [54.50%] Extrapolated Strength --- 16th Place [37.82%] Another contest, another ho-hum predictable path for Auron. I still hold out hope in a Final Fantasy X-Zero and a huge Auron boost one day <_< Summer 2007 Contest
Division 2 - Group 3
Division 2 Round 1 --- 1st place, 64543 [43.26%] - Shadow the Hedgehog, 39185 [26.26%] - Pyramid Head, 24148 [16.18%] - Chris Redfield, 21339 [14.30%] Division 2 Round 2 --- 1st place, 48423 [35.83%] - Ryu, 35350 [26.16%] - Bowser, 32529 [24.07%] - Shadow the Hedgehog, 18842 [13.94%] Division 2 Finals --- 3rd place, 26021 [18.16%] - Cloud Strife, 71041 [49.59%] - Ryu, 29007 [20.25%] - Marcus Fenix, 17188 [12.00%] Horribly predictable. That has described Auron's entire contest career. The thing that irritates me most about his predictable path this year is that this format benefits him greatly. After all, Auron is a massive fan favorite, and that was obvious from his first two matches. He dominated his first round match, even with a decent midcarder in Shadow there. Then he got more than a third of the vote with two very strong characters, Ryu and Bowser, in the poll as well. That speaks volumes about his fan favorite status. But then Auron was stuck in a dead end in this division because Cloud was in it, too. The prospect of SFF from the site's second strongest character did not bode well for him, though he still performed admirably despite that. Maybe one of these days he'll have a contest path that's actually debatable. Auron is a character who should not be wasted in these contests, that's for sure. -Ulti
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