#dona { 🎆 } headcanon

[starvingtongue]

Realising now that I haven't actually touched on Dona's feelings towards Yuna on this blog yet and I feel like I should. I've seen a lot of speculation on it over the years (from reddit posts, youtube comments, tv tropes, etc.) and formed my own headcanons regarding over the past couple months too, and I've always thought I've made a note of it somewhere, but browsing through my headcanon tag for Dona, I realise I haven't. Shame on me.

I would like to preface this by saying that I don't think Dona hates Yuna. Dona can be rude, blunt, and upfront to anyone, regardless of who they are. We see this time and time again throughout both X and X-2, that she doesn't give a damn about who you are, what position of power you hold, she's going to treat everybody the same. We see her not saluting to Nooj in X-2, despite him being the leader of the Youth League, we see her not bowing to Yuna when they first meet, despite it probably being the 'correct' thing to do. Formalities like that are not a thing for her. I kinda wish we saw her interacting with more people, especially those within Yevon a little more, to show this a bit better.

But anyway, while she does not hate Yuna, Dona's feelings (and problem) with Yuna stems from Dona's own insecurity, with a possible hint of jealousy, and a view that Yuna gets afforded opportunities that Dona and other summoners don't. We kind of see this through X itself, but if you consider these things from an outsiders perspective (like Dona), it makes a lot more sense. Things such as:

Yuna being Braska's daughter, the child of someone who has already defeated Sin, and has the status that not too many others have. In Dona's eyes, it's afforded Yuna with certain privilages (good or bad) that not too many others have and could possibly make her pilgrimage a lot easier.

She has 6 guardians by the time she defeats Sin (which Dona deems as overly excessive regardless of her own feelings towards Yuna), one of which is Auron. Auron being legendary guardian to Braska, brings more status, privilage, and knowledge to the pilgrimage, which others may not otherwise benefit from.

Yuna is sought out, befriended, and accompanied by Seymour, a Maester of Yevon, which brings certain perks (like getting past the checkpoint at the start of Mushroom Rock, for example), that again, not everyone else is going to benefit from.

All of this combined, and from an outsiders perspective such as Dona's, makes it seem like Yuna's pilgrimage pretty comfortable and somewhat more high status (I don't want to say privilaged again, but I think this is one of the terms I've heard thrown around before when talking about Dona's feelings towards Yuna) than the average pilgrimage is. Dona obviously not right in being this insecure and jealous over the opportunities that Yuna gets afforded, many of which Yuna doesn't get a choice about (and Dona would have no way of knowing about this either), since both are gong on a march to their own deaths, but after seeing Yuna get handed all of these opportunities and been put on such a high pedestal, it's hard not to feel some type of way towards her. Dona sees her as competition, a pretty serious one at that, but not necessarily because of her strength as a summoner, but because Yuna has more opportunities afforded to her that could make her pilgrimage easier than most.

You would think, however, that once Yuna defeats Sin and has that success under her belt, Dona would act out even more towards her, the great High Summoner who lived, but no. While it's not immediately obivous in X-2, I think Dona chills out quite a bit towards Yuna after Sin's gone. She not longer sees Yuna as a rival, as a competitior, to kill Sin. She's chilled out a bit, she can find herself as a person, spend the rest of her days in Kilika with Barthello, and not have to worry about who defeats the giant whale of death first. Her jealously, her insecurity, her feelings of low self worth towards a 17 year old who has a successful former guardian in tow and a Maester interested in her, have mostly disappeared.

I do find it very sad that we never got to see her interact with Isaaru as a comparison. She would 100% still be her bitchy self, but Isaaru's just 'normal' summoner competition compared to Yuna, there's no reason for Dona to be as insecure towards Isaaru as she is towards Yuna.

This type of insecurity is something that a lot of people go through, regardless of if they want to or not, and Dona suffers from it just as much as anyone else would. Does it make it right that she lashes out at Yuna the way she does? Of course not! Dona does a really poor job of hiding this jealousy and insecurity towards Yuna throughout their entire respective pilgrimage. However, it does add another layer of characterisation to Dona that I think a lot of people glance over when they first meet her.

[starvingtongue]

Dona is really, really bad with expressing how she feels to people, good or bad. Albeit, the bad usually comes through a lot stronger than the good. The good things are an expression of vulnerability she's not comfortable with and is something she may have picked up from her parents (more so her mother). She really wants to be better at expressing herself, especially the good things, and she does have a genuine soft spot in there somewhere, but it's hidden by a lot of arrogance, snark, and holding people at arms length. We see a little bit of her practicing what she wants to say to Barthello in the Commspheres, she sends a load of balloons to him in another Commsphere, she helps Yuna and the other Kilikans get past the control border (my reasoning is that so she can finally see Barthello again). I 100% think it's something she starts working on more post X-2, but didn't have the right catalyst to kick start it properly until she kicked Barthello out.

Dona being a lot more guarded regarding her emotions really ramped up in the years leading up to her starting her pilgrimage. She had to come to terms with the fact that she was probably going to die at the end of her journey and started building up her walls to stop herself from caring too deeply. If she could hurt her heart and emotions off at the source, it would hurt everyone less when she died. That's how it works, right?

Her mother was rather stoic, more action orientated over saying she was going to do something, she instilled a love of cooking into Dona that Dona still has today, but it came at the cost of not really expressing how she truly felt very well. She clearly loved Dona's father, but it was her father that would be the one to usually initial the affection. The extent her mother would go to would be a kiss on the cheek, a brush of the hand, maybe hand holding. But her father would always be the one to get her mother into a fit of giggles with affection.

Her love language towards other people is acts of service, she'll make food for them, she'll buy them little gifts if they say they like something (usually behind their back), heck she even went on a pilgrimage to sacrifice herself to defeat Sin (the biggest act of service tbh). She's very much someone who respects actions over words. It took her a while to realise how much like her mother Dona was, something she never thought she'd admit to, but in so mant ways, she appreciates her for it.

[starvingtongue]

just plopping this out there because it's been rattling around my brain for ages, but Dona was a total daddy's girl when her father was alive. he was always the one that made her smile the most, laugh the loudest. he was the one that she ran to when she wanted to show him something really cool or a painting she was proud of. he was the one that would want to shower her with gifts and her mother would have to reign him in with it. some of her fondest memories are with her father.

[starvingtongue]

can you speak about dona's relationship with yevon? how devout would you say she was? how hard was it for her to let go?

Ooo okay, y'know what, I've actually been wanting to touch on this for a while. Ever since I finished watching/listening to State of the Arc's podcast of Final Fantasy X, specifically when they mentioned on how open Dona's outfit is as a summoner compared to the others (I forget what part it is, I'm sorry, but the whole podcast is worth listening to), I've been trying to formulate how best to describe her relationship with Yevon.

Because all the other Summoners we see in X wear very traditional kimono-esque outfits, that cover pretty much their entire body. From Yuna to Isaaru to Belgemine to Ginnem to Zuke to Braska, even if they're not all kimono-esque, they're still very modest compared to Dona's. Heck, even the Warrior Monks were some semblance of Kimono or modest dress. I guess it signifies their devoution to Yevon and their willingness to committ themselves to the faith, and subsequently the pilgrimage, much in the same way a lot of followers of real world religions dress modestly. Nearly all of the clergy, the priests, and the priestesses we see in ffx and ffx-2 are dressed very modestly, like from ankle to knee, some from the chin downwards, with their hair covered. I'm not sure if there might've been a teaching or some sort of scripture in Yevon that asks this of their most devout, and I don't really want to speculate on it too much, but it wouldn't surprise me.

That being said, the only summoners (as far as I know) that don't dress this modestly are Yunalesca and Dona (edited to add Seymour into the mix here as well. His one isn't as loose as Dona's or Yunalesca's, but still fairly open in comparison). Yunalesca performed the final summoning and all that before Yevon was even a thing, so I can understand why she might not have the whole kimono-esque, modesty thing going on, but Dona? Dona was raised on an island with a temple, studied at the temple to become a summoner, presumably followed the teachings and the scriptures (to an extent) up until the end of X, attended classes at the temples, and all that jazz. So what's up?

This isn't to say she isn't devout in some respects, but the Dona we see at the start of X is a lot less devout than a few years prior. However, living on an island such as Kilika, a place that the main village is built on shallow water, has a tendancy to get destroyed or damaged by Sin quite frequently. Dona, as someone who has lived on said island her entire life, has witnessed a lot of death and destruction. Despite her constantly praying at the temple, all of the classes, nearly everyone around her doing the same, Dona had a crisis of faith. Where some people might seek more comfort in their religious practice after so much death and destruction, Dona went the opposite way. All this death, all this destruction, all this pain and suffering and the threat of losing her home over and over again, culminating in the teachings, the scriptures, Yevon itself as a belief system, bringing her less and less comfort as the years went on.

She still trained as a summoner, she still wanted Sin gone, she hated seeing people suffer, losing their loved ones, losing their homes, losing everything, regardless of if they were from Kilika or not. That's why she continued her training, regardless of if her faith was placed in the religon or not. Her decision was for the people, not because of Yevon itself told her too.

All this isn't to say that she isn't devout, to an extent, to the teachings of Yevon. In her own way, she very much is, she helps with sendings, she follows the teachings, but a lot of it is very surface level. She isn't terribly swayed by the teachings, or doesn't take what the priests say to heart too much, she doesn't seem to care that chucking Tidus into the Cloister of Trails in Kilika could land her in as much trouble with Yevon as much as it would Yuna and Co. She has an underlying disinterest, maybe bordering on a lack of conviction, in the teachings by this point. She follows the teachings only because that's what's expected of her as a summoner. She shows herself praying at the temples, liasing with the priests, performing sendings where appropriate, because that's what summoners are expected to do. If anything, she does the bare minimum, that's as far as her faith goes.

She never says outright this however, Dona's not an idiot. She's heard of Braska before he went and killed Sin to become a martyr. She knows her path could easily follow Braska's if she came out and said that, as a summoner, she doesn't truly believe in the teachings much anymore, that that aspect of her being a summoner is mostly performative. She knows that if she came out and said these things and didn't defeat Sin like Braska did, she'd be shunned by the church. Dona's not an idiot, she knows when to keep her mouth shut.

And that's why her robes/kimono-esque/summoner clothing is so open compared to the other summoners we see. Because she feels a lot less tied to the religion than the other summoners. And so, I suppose, when she sees Yevon crumble, it wasn't terribly hard for her to outwardly let go. By the time Yevon crumbles, her attachment to it as a system is like sand falling through her fingers. She wasn't entirely surprised in learning that Yevon was so corrupt, but considering how performative her faith was and looking back on all the evidence, it all made sense.

All the same, it took her a few months to truly accept it, to truly process it all, as I'm sure it would for anybody else, regardless of if they were overly religious or not. The fact that she no longer had any ties to the Fayth and the Aeons didn't help matters, and possibly muddied the waters futher. Yet, despite her feelings by the start of X, Yevon and it's teachings had provided her with some level of comfort growing up. The temples and their incense, the praying at the statues, the praying to the Fayth, the calming voices of the priests and priestesses in times of strife, it all provided her with some comfort when times were hard, when Sin had swept through the village and destroyed parts, when she lost friends and family in Sin's wake.

Yevon's destruction did shake her, but it was the loss of that level of comfort that struck her more. She was able to shake off Yevon, the corrupt parts of it, the prospect of damnation if she didn't follow every little teaching to a fault, silencing any and all that disagreed with Yevon with brute force, the hypocrisy, without too much of a second though. If her faith was a lot stronger, she might've had a harder job of it, but she didn't. We see in X-2, she is very happy to barge her way through the priests and tell them to shut the fuck up, I think by that point, she's truly shaken off Yevon as a while. There wasn't much to shake off, but any devoution she had left is gone by X-2.

[starvingtongue]

Roughly a year after the events of X-2, Dona and Barthello finally get married. It's a small ceremony, nothing fancy, Dona's not one for theatrics. Initially, they invited what was left of both their families, plus a few close friends.

However, despite Dona trying to keep it on the down low as much as possible, the residents of Kilika found out anyway, and throw her a party regardless. It's a relatively small village and word got out from one source or another (looking at you Barthello). I've always pictured Besaid and Kilika celebrating weddings, births, deaths, etc. as a whole community, considering they're quite small. We see it with Yuna obtaining Valefor in Besaid, Wakka introducing Vidina in Besaid, all the families being reunited in Kilika. Weddings, funerals, festivals, births; they're a whole village thing.

Anyways Barthello popped the question not long after the events of X-2, a couple weeks after things had settled down and they'd started getting back into a routine. Dona said yes, but with the caveat that things calmed down a lot more in Kilika before they actually had the ceremony. Being separated from each other because of their opposing political factions truly made them (mainly Dona) realise how much they cared for each other. Realising she'd taken him for granted in the past couple of years helped her properly reconcile with the fact that she really did love him. Barthello's her best friend and she couldn't imagine her life without him, political ideologies be damned.

There had been moments of tenderness, compassion, and love between them before all this, Barthello had been her closest companion for years. He'd been her friend since she was a teenager, agreed to be her Guardian and help her defeat Sin (even at the expense of both their lives), they'd been together romantically for years beforehand. They've been in each others orbit for so long, that Dona had just grown accustomed to him always being there for her. Their split during X-2 truly made her realise just how much she loved and cherished him. She's never been one for overly grand gestures or flowery words of appreciation, it makes her feel awkward and self-conscious. The thought of not being by his side for the rest of her life made her incredibly sad.

[starvingtongue]

some spicy dona headcanons under the cut.

probably to no surprise, but she's usually the one that d.ominates in the bedroom. occasionally she'll like her partner (mainly Barthello) to d.ominate her once in a while, but for the most part, she's the one that's on top. she gets a kick out of being able to ride her partner and having their hands guide the motion she's going in.

likes being picked up, likes being able to wrap her legs around her partner when being picked up, likes her hair being tugged a little.

surprisingly, is mostly a gentle lover. she likes the build-up, the fun of it all, being able to tease her partner. while she does occasionally like it rough and does dominate most of the time, she's likes gentle caresses, a graze of the thigh.

she has a pretty healthy s.ex life a year or so after the events of X. her and Barthello initiate pretty equally, though Dona is 10x more confident with it and communicating her needs. she's encouraged Barthello to be a lot more open and communicative with what he wants out of it too.

not adverse to using toys in the bedroom (though Barthello took some persuading), but is still quite 'vanilla' with the positions she likes. she knows what works for her and gets her off.

not adverse to having s.ex in places other than the bedroom. just don't ask where she's done it in her house in Kilika.

[starvingtongue]

The Aeon that Dona bonded with the most was Ifrit, which probably is no surprise to anyone. Ifrit's Fayth recognised the passionate, yet stubborn woman, with fiery attitude that Dona that is. Despite outward appearances, Ifrit recognised the selflessness that Dona had within her. The steel facade that Dona outwardly presented, the arrogance, the sarcasm, the directness that bordered and crossed into rudeness sometimes, hid a selflessness and passion to protect the people of Spira from Sin.

Dona's passion to protect & bring happiness to the people of Spira, even at the cost of her own life, resonated with him deeply, especially considering he was a former Crusader. Ifrit is the Aeon she misses most, the one that she connected with the most deeply, out of all the Aeons she obtained.

[starvingtongue]

small Dona headcanons

probably goes without saying, but Dona's first aeon was Ifrit. he matches her fiery personality quite well.

following on from this, one of the reasons she's so prickly with Yuna when they first meet is because she's the one that got to do the sending in Kilika, and not Dona. it's incredibly petty of Dona to even be jealous of something like that, but Kilika's her home. she's incredibly protective of it and the only reason she managed to stay safe from Sin's attack & miss doing the subsequent sending was because she was praying to the Fayth at the time. she knew she wouldn't have been much use against Sin, but she could've at least performed the Sending for her home. but no, when she emerged from the temple, the sending was complete by another summoner. though, logically, she knows the reason was because the priests didn't want to disturb her when she was praying, but it felt like a slap in the face.

once befriended, she's incredibly loyal. she'll defend you when you're in trouble, but won't hestitate to call you out on your bull if you're being stupid.

eats a mostly pescatarian diet and absolutely loves spicy food. not a massive lover of sweet things, but does like them occasionally.

[starvingtongue]

dona tag drop

[starvingtongue]

does your muse believe in an afterlife? ( for any muse you'd like )

gonna go ahead and answer this for all of my muses because why the heck not. I also figured that an answer for one of my ffx muses pretty much equates to most of them too.

dona. paine. leblanc. anima. the ffx universe has the farplane, a place where people's spirits go after they die. it's a place where they can visit and conjure up memories of their loved ones (provided they've been sent). if we consider this an afterlife, then all of these characters believes in an afterlife of sorts. Dona obviously helps send people to the Farplane, and Anima would've been sent there by the end of ffx, so they're a little more apt to believe in it than the others.

tromell. same as above, but with the added headcanon that most of the guado are vegetarian, if not vegan, due to their close proximity to the Farplane and them being the keepers of it. he finds it difficult to eat meat when he's helping keep the souls of the dead in the place they should be. like most other guado, he is also keen to the scent of the dead, and that kiiinda rumbles his stomach when it comes to eating meat.

the watcher. doesn't believe in an 'afterlife' perse, as they can't really die in the typical sense. whenever their body stops working (for whatever reason), their soul leaves their body and goes back into the great collective of guardian souls to wait for a new body. they don't really remember this state much, only really coming back into consciousness when they get put into a new body. unless someone destroys their soul while they're in this state, they'll never reach any sort of afterlife (if there is one). they're not terribly spiritual, so don't believe in one, but they've also not really thought about it.

shachath. being the angel of death and an angel, I'd say it's a pretty solid shout that she believes in the afterlife. she helps bring people there after all.

zephyr. used to believe, and still kinda does believe, in the afterlife. when she was alive, and before leaving for the College of Winterhold, she would follow the practices of Arkay when performing funerary rites, she used to help her parents care for the tombs of their dead relatives, ensuring the proper burial rites are still in place. she believes that their spirits would be watching over them and that they've found comfort in the spirit realm. she believed that her spirit would end up with theirs one day, as did he parents.

her belief became a little shaken after becoming a vampire. not because her resolution in the aforementioned things has gone, it's more so that she wonders if her soul will be condemned to a worse fate now that she's a vampire (she's thinking of coldharbour..). she still believes in it, she now just worries that her ancestors are going to be upset and she's not going to be allowed to rest with them as she originally planned. a vampire's body turns to dust when they die, so there'd be little to do the Three Consecrations with. she also doesn't have a companion to tell this to and nobody is going to want to do this for a Vampire. safe to say, she's a little worried for her soul, but she tries not to think about it.

[starvingtongue]

whats the day in the life of dona look like? is her weekday schedule different from her weekend? does she schedule at all or is it more sporadic?

Dona doesn't have a strict day-to-day schedule post (or even during) X-2. The major difference, if you could call it that, between what she does during the weekday and on the weekends is the summoner & leadership duties she's taken on. She's far more likely to see these sorts of duties during the week than on the weekends and she's a firm believer of having time for herself and for Barthello, the latter especially after X-2.

Even the things that are expected on her during the week have a more sporadic nature to them. People don't always come to her with problems they want solving all the time and in a small place like Kilika, problems don't arrive often enough that she feels like she has to sit around waiting for them all day. She deals with things as they arise. She also very much will tell people to leave her alone if she feels like, wants, or needs a personal day. People can put too much pressure on her shoulders to act as a leader, to guide them during their bad days, to help solve their problems and even Dona gets overwhelmed (as I'm sure anyone would).

In terms of what a typical day looks like, she's a mid-morning riser, usually around 9-9:30, and she likes to take a cup of tea or coffee in bed depending on how well she slept. Barthello always ends up bringing her this, he's gotten quite good at knowing how she likes her morning tea or coffee over the years. After this, she'll take her time getting ready, showering, putting on a bit of makeup (usually mascara, eyeshadow, maybe some lipstick), doing her hair, doing a couple of chorse if need be. She'll then go out to see what needs doing around town, there's usually one or two minor things. Sometimes she'll spend the day doing paperwork, or in meetings with people, sorting out problems with the Yevon clergy, or a kerfuffle with the Youth League. She'll always insist on stopping for lunch as well, she'll never skip a meal because of work.

Once she's had enough, the issues have run out, or it starts getting late, she'll put down what she's doing and go home. She's got a very good sense of work-life balance, and people had tried to get her to stay longer, they've always been put in their place the first time they try anything. Barthello will help with buying food and supplies for their house, but she'll pick up anything they need for that day on the way back sometimes too. She really enjoys cooking, so regardless of Barthello's insistance of cooking (especially if she's had a long day), Dona shuts him right up and cooks anyway. She allows him to help sometimes, but she's definitely in charge of the menu. She'll then spend the evening with Barthello, or maybe by herself if she needs a bit of alone time to decompress.

On evenings and weekends, they'll typically do things in each other's company, but not necessarily with each other as well as things together. She'll read, he'll workout, they'll patch up clothes together (Barthello is surprisingly good & patient with a needle and thread), they'll go for walks, they'll listen to music together, they'll go sit on the end of the boardwalk together, go swimming, go to Luca for the day to watch Blitzball, fish sometimes (Barthello's taught her out to be a little more patient with things like fishing), stargazing on the beach. Dona might go shopping by herself while Barthello goes off and does his own thing. They take things a lot slower on the weekends too, often rising and going to sleep later. They'll sometimes surprise each other with breakfast in bed (Barthellow more so than Dona, but that shouldn't be a surprise). Her weekends are often more sporadically planned than her weekdays, which she doesn't mind. With the threat of Sin gone, she can afford to be a bit more relaxed.

[starvingtongue]

sunflower :   what brings your muse the most joy in life ? && violet :   how does your muse respond to betrayal ? ( @ dona )

𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 // Accepting // @meyvn

sunflower :   what brings your muse the most joy in life ?

Barthello. Days with Barthello. Being able to enjoy life, I think. Much like everyone else during Sin's reign of terror, Dona never really got to experience too much joy in her life, though some of it was her own fault for not being so open with certain things or people. Add the fact that she was a summoner on top of that, and she had less time to focus on bringing joy to her own life. There were times when she found small glimpses on joy in cooking, the sunset, listening to the Hymn of the Fayth, watching the sunrise or the sunset, teas, but nothing ever lasted. Similar to most people in Spira, she never really lived much.

But now that she can, she's really gone in on things like cooking (honestly, she really does love to cook, get her to cook a fish curry or stew for you, it's amazing), something she likes to share with other people, but won't openly admit it. Despite their spat in X-2, she really does appreciate her days with Barthello, especially after they confess their feelings to each other. Watchig the sunset with him with a nice cup of tea brings her joy. Sharing the food she cooks with him (and other villagers) brings her joy. Helping out the people of Kilika brings her joy (as much as she hates to admit it). I think the latter of these also gives her a sense of purpose, which is also very important to her.

violet :   how does your muse respond to betrayal ?

honestly? pretty well, though I say that with a caveat as well. Dona's not the type to ruminate over what ifs and could have beens, up until the defeat of Sin, life had always been too short for that sort of thing. she'll move on and continue her life without them. if someone betrays her in any way, that's it, they're done. they're cut out of her life before they can even blink. she won't let them back in again, she's unlikely to trust them again, she'll keep them on the other side of a brick wall for the rest of time. she's not the type to trust easy regardless of if she's been betrayed by someone, but it becomes 10x harder for the betrayer after they've fucked up. she can compartmentalise pretty well after something like this, being able to separate her feelings, thoughts, and emotions out and get over the person being out of her life within a few days.

obviously this depends on how close she is with the person too. if it was someone like Barthello, for example, she'd be a lot more hurt, but I think her reaction would be mostly the same, it would take a lot longer. this probably wouldn't come as much of a surprise, but she wouldn't be one to show how hurt she'd be over someone's betrayal. she finds outward displays of such emotions very embarassing, and tends to keep them hidden from those she's not close to. even then, it can be very hard for her to feel like she can openly show them. but the end results are much the same, she considers them out of her life completely and finds it very difficult to trust them again.

[starvingtongue]

During and after the events of X-2, Dona unintentionally becomes a bit of a leader figure in Kilika and maybe 'mini-mevyn' of Kilika's sub-division of the Youth League. She doesn't ask for it, and for the most part, she doesn't necessarily want it either. She'd be more than happy to completely settle down with Barthello, after the two of them reuniting and making up, and never have to deal with the politics of New Yevon vs the Youth League ever again.

I'm also headcanoning here, much like with my headcanons for Paine, that the Youth League never dissolved for Dona either, post X-2. Instead, Nooj tends to base himself at the main camp in Mushroom Rock Road, and subsequently so do Elma and Lucil. Those that want to move to the base at Kilika can do so, but Nooj makes it clear that there's no pressure to move.

We see throughout the events of X-2 that Dona becomes more and more involved with outright leading things or helping to lead things in Kilika. I think her more outspoken nature and ability to tell Yevon when to shove it means she becomes the unwitting voice of the people much of the time. Examples include:

She's seen trying to get the monks at the temple in Chapter 1 to give up the 'awesome sphere', her history as a former summoner probably gives her some leeway with the monks & people might push her to speak with them initially. Other members of the League might see her as someone that the temple might be more lenient with, might divulge their secrets with, or admit that they've been hiding something. We (the player) know that's not going to happen, Dona probably knows it too.

She's leading a group of people blocking off the rest of Kilika port if you give the sphere to the New Yevon or the Youth League. While she says there's no rest of the weary, it doesn't seem like she turned down the role of keeping things in relative order or from warning people away from the island for a while

She's the one that gets the guards to stand down from the gate to the temple after Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains. The guard complains about not having orders, Dona gives him one, he backs down, and the villagers can see their families.

Literally from her own mouth: "From the moment Nooj disappeared, everyone's been running around in circles. Just look at them. No one knows what to do without someone barking orders at them. They've already started looking for a new leader. In fact, they even asked me. Figured a former summoner would make a perfect leader for the town." [When asked why she doesn't.] "Too busy looking after myself, dear. Of course I'll do what I can to keep things from getting too far out of hand, but…" Again, it seems like even though she said no, the leadership thing partially got placed on her shoulders anyway and she figured Nooj would come back to pick up the mantal eventually. Her naturally more outspoken nature (even if it can be a bit rude sometimes) & her position as a former summoner can mean that the masses look towards her for help and support in times of crisis. I think this might be why she unintentionally becomes the leader of the sub-division of the Youth League that's stationed in Kilika, or at the very least a leader figure in Kilika.

Now when I say unintentionally, I don't think it was ever her goal to become any sort of leadership authority after the events of X. As I've said before, I think she'd be very comfortable with settling down with Barthello and living out the rest of her days as relaxed and as comfortably as she can. There were probably times on Kilika, after she joined the Youth League and while Nooj wasn't around, that people came and asked her for advice on what to do. Her common response was always something along the lines that she didn't know and for them to go ask Nooj. Over time however, especially with the above examples during the events of X-2, the leadership position naturally just fell onto her shoulders anyway. She'll vehemontly deny that she's in any sort of authority position on Kilika, she says it's to keep things running so nothing gets too far out of hand, but she's also not stupid. She knows what she means to the people of Kilika. She'll take on the responsibility if it comes to it, but she doesn't willingly seek it out.

After the events of X-2, and more so a few months down the line, she finds herself spending more time at the new Youth League base in Kilika. It's mostly paperwork, sorting out some debates on sphere locations, putting an end to some silly debate that's gotten out of control within the village. She won't admit she enjoys it, but if you ask Barthello, he knows as well as anyone else that she does. It keeps her entertained, it keeps the village running smoothly, keeps the Youth League in line when Nooj isn't around.

People know not to come to her house asking for advice. They'd get an earful from Dona and well muscled Barthello in their face. They know to come to the Youth League base or catch her around town if she doesn't look too busy. Many people find she's more than willing to help, despite the blunter comments she sometimes makes. Eventually, I think she'd learn to accept whatever responsibility has been shoved upon her shoulders, albeit begrudingly.