Final Fantasy 10 has an unbelievably random connection to oranges in Japan

Japanese gamers on social media suddenly started talking about Final Fantasy X again. The cause? A diagram showing the anatomy of an orange. Huh? 

The link between oranges and Final Fantasy X is pretty obscure. Turns out that the white inner layer of an orange’s skin is called albedo. In Japanese, this is written just like Al Bhed (アルベド) , the name of a minority in Final Fantasy X’s world of Spira. Branded heretics by Spira’s predominant Yevon religion for their use of machina technology, the Al Bhed are shunned by many people whom you meet in the game.  

At the start of Final Fantasy X, one of the characters in your party, the cheerful Blitzball player Wakka, hates the Al-Bhed with a passion (however, later events and revelations cause him to change his views).  

This unexpected connection between Al-Bhed and oranges prompted many pithy comments from Japanese users. “So, oranges are anti-Yevon,” one user quipped. Fans also paraphrased Wakka’s angry lines about Al-Bhed from the game, but made them specifically about oranges: “You guys are using forbidden oranges! What about the Teachings, the Teachings?!” 

Others imagined how Wakka would react to finding out that oranges are connected to the Al Bhed. The whole thing even prompted the creation of a fan video in which FFX main character Tidus moans about being hungry and decides to eat an orange, only to get an angry reaction from Wakka because oranges are forbidden by Yevon. It finishes with Wakka angrily throwing the orange like a Blitzball, only for it to bounce back and hit him, causing him to disintegrate in a very zesty way.  

Albedo means white or whiteness in Latin, so it’s clear how that part of the orange got its name. Interestingly, popular, sexy Overlord character Albedo is also named after this Latin word. Now we just have to wait for Overlord fans to discover the fruit connection and start making some juicy orange-themed fanart of Albedo. 

Strangely, this is not the first time game fandoms and oranges have collided- the creator of Danganronpa recently acknowledged the infamous Hajime Hinata vs orange juice meme…