characters and worlds of Xenoblades

2022 05 25

after being non-speaking for nearly the entire day and doing physical self harm, we got in bed with our friend and began talking about xeno series special interest! it was, very healthy. it was very healthy.

we started by her agreeing with us that the best parts of xenoblade X are the combat, sidequest writing, and environment design, and then she expanded by saying she wish the game was more focused on a central main narrative like blades 1 and 2, and that it was also more main character driven. her favourite character is L!

talking about, and watching her play X has given us a lot of ideas for what more we would change outside of the combat system. most of these things we already thought before talking to her, and some are new things! we'd like to one day incorporate these into x guide's things we would change section, although we also want to not force ourselves to until we actively want to write about them 😊!

we continued onto talking about how our favourite characters in the series are in xenoblade 2, and she replied saying that she thinks that, if Xenoblade 1 was character driven (rather than theme driven), it would have had the best characters in the series! yeah! we agree with this. if xenoblade 1 had xeno character writing the game would be even better. all the stuff is there already!!! all of the pieces are in place for portrayals of mental health and relationships and people, xenoblade 1 just focuses more on themes of revenge and the similarities between the antagonist (egil) and the protogagonist (shulk).

like!! dickson and shulk. oh my god. the characters!!! could have had so much more moments with each other.

they talked about riki and how they grew from being okay with being a fighter, but we never see this development! we never learn about them as a father, but through the epilogue of xenoblade DE, we know more about riki's time being a dad, and that makes it even worse that the character didn't get much in xenoblade 1! our friend said that riki is the best written character in future connected and they aren't even in it. and like, holy shit, we like that!

we went on to talk about how the world works and how the hell the worlds of 1 and 2 will come together for 3. the games both end by the characters existing on a calm area in a ocean, which implies they are in the same world. No fucking idea how Azurda managed to open a wormhole(????)!!! presumably conduit bullshit (way less fun than explaining stuff with "mira bullshit" because X is explicitly designed for a sequel! 1 and 2 were designed to be good on their own and complete.) no idea if they are in the same world, or if the two societies meet each other immediately or after some time, or how that comes to pass, or if they are even in the same world by the end of both 1 and 2!

we talked about potential xenoblade 2 plotholes, post mechonis core being very rushed, how the mechonis shoulder was definitely only in future connected because of chuggaconroy's lets play (which we think is neat!), the quantum mechanical implications of jin's powers and 1's visions, and some other things.

here are the things we talked about and want to expand on more. Hopefully we'll be able to write about these in detail!!!!

• alvis being not awakened and therefore using their hollow template personality instead of having a fully formed one like pneuma and logos
• zanza being a shell of klaus and not being a fully formed human, which is why they act in strange, animialistic ways and don't have much character, in contrast to meyneth, who is all of gallea
• alvis using the final of the zohar's power to move all the inhabitants of 1's pocket dimension into a self sustaining universe that doesn't rely on the zohar's power to function
• how pneuma and logos were more developed emotionally than ontos because they were awakened as blades but also completely overwhelmed by emotion because of their enormous database from being a part of the trinity processor
• mental illness in pneuma and logos and them trying to kill each other with the last of the zohar's energy, in contrast to ontos' usage (which was determined by shulk, not ontos!)
• mental health in X
• pyra and mythra's fucking amazing depiction of disassociative and traumatic mental health etc., how they overlap with fei's system, and why we like the pneuma depiction of it is so much more!
• pneuma potentially becoming regular blades at the end of 2 without

alvis' incomplete personality

The trinity cores in the world of xenoblade represent the processing cores to a computer. they are each in their own right complicated AI constructed from technology that was (originally) designed to replace human brain cells, and have a large database of all emotions and feelings and evolutionary states of the blades, which are the personified creatures that formed from that modified AI technology on their own. the trinity cores are like, the overseers of other blades, and can technically also be them, so long as the emotion and personality development process is triggered by interacting with an organic human.

two of the cores were awakened like blades, logos and pneuma. they developed emotions and personalities based largely on the organic people who awakened them. Their emotions are quite extreme, and they both have very fucky uppy mental heawth uwu! one of them is a complete sadist and the other becomes heavily traumatised very early into their life after having an unstable relationship with the person who awoke them and forms a plural system and is depressed and suicidal. we think both of these could have been triggered because of their data! they were completely overwhelmed by all their feelings and information of everything else in the world, and did not know how to process it, and they were particularly emotional vulnerable!

ontos, however, never entered a world that created organic people. they had no reason to collect data in the first place of the state of the world to return it to klaus' lab. a strange event occurred at the time of the Experiment, which flung Gallea, the ontos core, and a fragment of Klaus into a pocket dimension.

ontos then created a universe based on all the data they collected. they created their own, artifical universe in the pocket dimension, in the image of our normal universe. maintaining this universe's fabric required an immense amount of external power, which is why it was unstable and eventually collapsed.

so, alvis, ie., the ontos core personified, created everything, and they have full control over the conditions of this universe. They never awakened as a blade, but still have a personification. this confused us!

we realised that, oh my god, ontos created themselves, they can just do that. This is their world! It seemed extremely strange to us also that alvis seemed completely passive. they were a person, but they had no care about the world? but they weren't disinterested either? just, ambivalent??? especially compared to the extreme emotions felt by the other cores when we gained the context of 2, this seemed super strange.

and how does the monado fit into this? is that their blade weapon? why are there multiple monados in 1, whereas there is only one per core in 2?

we think now that, this is alvis' world. they have the power to personify themselves, and that the monados represents "admin priviledges". they aren't a blade, and the monado isn't their blade weapon. if they were a blade, they would have their own emotions and fully developped personality, their own goals and feelings! if the monado was their blade weapon, there could only be one monado, and it would need to nearby alvis with a strong connection to do its physic warping bullshit.

it makes sense that these contradictions exist just because ontos was never awakened, and created this universe artifically and has control over it!

it is why alvis is not fully developed, why zanza is a false god, it is why the universe becomes unstable when the zohar begins to disapear, aaaa!!!

we love that so much. we love that so fucking much.

we want to add into this section, retroactively, that we think it is interesting that ontos' final usage of the zohar's power was to enact shulk's final wish. the other cores used the last power of the conduit to try and kill each other!

ZANZA

zanza is a pretty strange character in xenoblade 1. very evil for the sake of having an antagonist.

it is heavily heavily implied through Klaus in xenoblade 2 that zanza is a tiny fragment of their person that also got warped to alvis' pocket dimension, they are not duplicated, and none of their qualities overlap, since they take from different parts of the same person.

it is just, Klaus in the original universe is nearly ALL of the original Klaus, and zanza is a very tiny fragment of it. zanza doesn't have a relationship with Gallea like Klaus does, they don't think critically or do long term planning and decision making like klaus, they don't have memories from their former life. they really are just the part of klaus that set off the experiment, the prideful and short sighted person that set off the universe explosion. It makes sense that xenoblade 2 klaus has fucking mellowed out since that experiment, that part of their brain is literally no longer physically a part of them!

we think this is why zanza makes very strange decisions, especially in contrast to meyneth, who is all of gallea. meyneth uses their admin priviledges to create people, to recreate people in their own image, to make friends with them, and to suport them. zanza uses their monado to,,, create a foodchain to sustain themself and to live, perpetuate themselves. they don't have motives other than staying alive, they probably didn't meant to create sentient life!

it feels very instinctual and animalistic. in the scene with arglas and egil, they mention that they feel that, one day, the characters are going to leave the bionis and mechonis, and explore the world around them (don't tell them they live in a pocket dimension 🥺), and this triggers a fearful response from zanza. if people leave the bionis, zanza will die. their food source will be eliminated.

they try to fuck over everything that is in their way. they just. they just need to stay alive and self perpetuate. that is all they can think about, and it makes them very, very scared.

we like that.

THE XENO SERIES AND MENTAL HEALTH. and specifically, plurality

the xeno series loves brain shit. the only real footnote on that statement is that blade 1 doesn't really do it, but otherwise it is everywhere.

the main character of the very first xeno game, Fei Fong Wong, is a member of a traumagenic plural system. The game explores their development as an individual, their relationship with their lover from the very start, the detachment and disdain for other system members, and their traumas.

you know you'd think they'd explore disassociation more given that they are fucking Plural.

at the very end of disc 1, we learn that fei is a member of a plural system, it is explicitly name dropped. Thank You Citan Fucking Uzuki, known cool dude.

citan also seems to call Id (another system member) schizophrenic, although we're not sure if that was a hyperbolic insult or a passive aggressive nod at their mental health. The text is ambiguous.

the most recent full xeno game, for the time being, is Xenoblade 2. we learn that one of the main characters is part of a traumagenic plural system. they call each other sisters 🥺

the game explores trauma and depression, relationship with their lover from the very start of their relationship, self hatred and probably some other things.

we think it is very, very important, that xenoblade 2 does not have a citan uzuki. we played xenoblade 2 before we learned that we were plural. when we watched chuggaconroy's lets play of the game, we realised that Holy Fucking Shit they are PLURAL. pyra and mythra are absolutely fucking plural. we realised that these characters had everything we know and experience about our own plurality while we watched, and, before we understood ourselves, when we first played 2, we had no prescedent for what their mental health was.

our partner a couple months later sent us a blogpost about their plurality and how good and accurately it portrays it, from the perspective of the author, and this was! validating! we didn't know other people noticed these things about the characters!

after playing xenogears we are absolutely certain this was intentional. the game authors know what plurality is and really love including cool brain shit in their stories!

we think that, because xenoblade 2 doesn't have a citan uzuki to explain everything about plurality, blade 2 relies a lot less on the mechanics of plurality for its story. gears seems to do very medicalist and robotic portrayals and scenarioes, because it works from the perspective of needing to establish the mechanics of fei's system and their plurality.

pyra and mythra are significantly more elegant, and it felt a lot less manufactured. it felt like a real portrayal of plurality! it feels genuine.

we absolutely love these characters so much. we love how they have so many identical experiences and feelings that we have and have had, we love how specific those are and how everything feels right! we love the characters a lot. we love how pyra develops their own feelings and personality isolated from mythra's memories and self hatred, and we love seeing this happen. we love how their relationship with rex develops over time, and how they can get to trust and rely on them.

we love the feelings mythra has and the pain and suffering they experience! we love how well they feel representative of us.

it feels really, good. we love thinking about the characters and talking about them with others and telling them all the things about their plurality!

we like that they heal and can be a self insert. this also means that when elysia has healed significantly we will unlock the ability to move at the universal speed limit and directly control photons and get awesome fucking hair a cool ass mech. trans plural auties 🥰🥰

we also wanted to mention that we like how characters in xenoblade x have mental health and feelings and get time with each other and oh my god mia is fucking autistic we love her so much. we wish that we spent more time with the characters though, the game is very split between a large cast! we also wish there was more and think the game had the ability to do more! no more words :)