Spoiler The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Postgame & Spoiler Discussion Thread

[Jannyish]

Nah. I spoilt the broad strokes for myself a while back.

The main Xeno 3 thread basically had a couple of pages insinuating as to the quality of the ending, so I figured I should just jump in and see what's occurring - so as to soften any potential blow.

It's my fault for caving of course. But I won't lie, having numerous posts essentially go "hmm, not sure about the ending, but I'll take it to the spoiler thread" did my absolute head in.

Makes sense. you'd probably want to know how bad it is and make your own decision if it's bad enough to make you quit the game (or bad at all, cause opinions exist).

In that case, move along, pretend I didn't say anything

 

[Arynio]

Really interesting debate on the whole time-stopping topic. Thank you guys for sharing all your different views.

I disagree with so many of the takes here, that quoting and replying to all of them would take too much time. So i'll just give my basic thoughts.

1. Absolutely loved the game. I went in completely spoiler free and only saw the reveal trailer. I was probably one of the few people hoping the game wouldn't have too much fan service. For the longest time I was worried this was going to be some Secret Wars style "epic crossover" and the story would suffer from having to please everyone in the fanbase. Thankfully the game is not this, and the original story of the main cast was excellent. There is so much character development and it was special watching the characters grow up and overcome their trauma and grief. Parts of the story hit hard for me because I've found myself thinking how scared I am of the future or how I wish I could freeze time and live in one specific moment of my life before experiencing some traumatic event that effected me personally. It's so refreshing to see Takahashi turn that legitimate anxiety into the premise of an entire game. I am REALLY HAPPY that the focus of this story is on Noah, Mio and their friends. It makes the ending heart wrenching to endure because you feel so deeply for the characters. Legit the first time I've ever cried in any of these games. It's refreshing to see an ending to a JRPG that is just bittersweet. I felt that Pyra/Mythra coming back in the last game was huge cop out and delegitimized their sacrificial moment. It's nice to see Monolith Soft go "no, things won't end perfectly this time and that's ok."

2. On that note Takahashi is still a master of incorporating religious subtext into his games. Noah is the main protagonist. Origin is basically the Ark he needs to win control over in order to move on into the future. Ouroboros forms are literally male and female creatures coming together to save humanity and preserve the future. Also, it is telling that in a world where everyone has short lifespans and are in constant war with each other, their one goal in life is to reach their "homecoming" to become one with the religious (and later revealed to be false) idol that governs their lives.

3. Adding on to this. I think they did enough with the ten year life cycle. Maybe it's because I'm older, but I really don't know how to put into words just how cruel and evil the ten year life cycle is. I know that Takahashi reads a lot of psychology texts so I think this helped characterize the ten year system. The characters in this world live from the ages of 10-20. Long enough for them to experience life and for it to "feel" like it's a long time, but not long enough to comprehend just how little that time is. There is plenty of research that shows younger people perceive time "longer" and how they learn and interact with the world. Ages 10-20 are formative years where you live long enough to accept and indulge in wreckless behavior, but you don't quite get to the age where you start to care deeply about the future. You perhaps maybe fall in love for the first time, etc. The game goes far out of its way to establish the inherit cruelty of the ten year cycle and how absolutely messed up it is.

4. I think that the very loose connections to the prior games are necessary. One the main themes of this game is synthesis and coming together in order to fight for the greater good. Every single aspect of this game needs to draw from the prior two games in order to make sense in the now (pun intended). The battle system is quite literally synthesizing the combat from the prior two games, down to the UI symbols used for arts and their charging mechanics. And of course, the strongest combat form is literally two beings that are representative of the prior games coming together to empower themselves. It makes complete sense that the land itself, the actual geographic locations we explore, are also a synthesis of locations from the prior games. In fact, many of the areas in this game are hybrids of two prior Xeno areas put together. You have the Urayan tunnels are blended Tephra cave. The sea area is literally Leftheria and Eryth Sea put together. I don't know why people are complaining about the "geography" not "doing more." To me, the actual world of the game isn't as important as the story of the main cast. Instead, geography serves to give the game the synthesized aesthetic that every facet of the game is trying to convey. And it comes off in a way that wouldn't be off putting to a first timer of the series while still remaining interesting enough for series vets to pick up on the references.

5. I think some stuff could be explained better (like what exactly is Z, how did he first appear, how did people react to them, More details on Mobius). Some things can be inferred, for example, Origin is clearly using the core crystal system from Xenoblade 2. In the grand scheme of things we don't need to know how it was built and knowing that info wouldn't affect the story they were trying to tell. Hell, the name Aionios is clearly named after Aion and Bionis, the super computer from Xeno 2 and well, earth from Xeno 1. But overall, the main story of the game felt definitive and conclusive. We may not know exactly where Z came from, but we understand his motivation as an antagonist. We understand N's grief and trauma and why he decided to become Mobius, and personally, I love how Noah doesn't condemn him and acknowledges he was simply "unlucky." He was a victim of a series of bad circumstances out of his control and Noah just so happens to be in the era where things go perfectly right. There is no predetermined fight or divine intervention. This fits in perfectly with games overall theme of seizing the present and "the now." The game highlights that there are two ways to do this, the unhealthy, anxiety driven mobious way, and the healthy, optimistic and empathetic Noah way.

6. On that note Xenoblade 1 was about changing your future, Xenoblade 2 was about overcoming the mistakes of the past, and Xenoblade 3 is about living life to the fullest in the present. Again, the blended middle ground of the prior themes of the series.

Thank you for this post. It describes several good aspects from the game which I also loved. I agree with most of what you wrote here. Not about Origin's origin, though.

No, this is just flat wrong. The entire premise is based around the fact that humans were messing with a power from dimensions beyond our control, and playing god. The result was a massive annihilation of earth and the monkey paw of a "new universe" that didn't turn out the way the scientist expected. There's nothing "nonsensical" about it.

This type of premise is a tried and true story that's been told in the sci-fi genre forever. You're basically saying 2001: A Space Odyssey doesn't make sense because it involves a monolith that acts as a gateway to higher dimensions, and that's just too unrealistic.

You're falling into the same trap of confusing a "fantasy element" with "nonsense". Just because something doesn't exist in real life doesn't mean it's absolved of having to make sense at all.

Like I said in my previous comment, the only challenge I ever seem to get on my criticism of 3's story is "well, 1 and 2 were just as bad!" which is frankly bullshit.

Edit: what annoys me about this type of response (of which you're not the first to give me) is it's the same mindset of people who respond to criticism of the Star Wars movies with "it's just a kids movie about space wizards!" which is disingenuous and limits discussion.

I couldn't agree more with this post even if I tried.

I completely buy Origin as something that could be constructed using the technology from the worlds of Xeno 1 and 2. The only glaring issue would be finding an energy source that could rival the conduit, and I think the game gives you an answer to that question. The energy that powers up origin is the energy created at the moment of both universes colliding. The energy from the universes coming together could be a strong enough catalyst that rivals even the conduit. So at the time of “impact” both halves fuse together and use the immense amount of energy generated to power up origin and “reboots” the universes. In game, the Black fog is basically a manifestation of this energy and we know how even a small amount of it is incredibly powerful.

Seems like not many years have passed since the end of XC and XC2 judging by Nia's picture and her mentioning she'll go back to them. Do you honestly buy that in that short span (or even 100 years for the sake of arguments) the people who couldn't even fly themselves to the top of the world tree can not only store souls inside an evolution of core crystals (this could be kind of believable, I guess), but recreate an entire planet atom by atom, placing everything and everyone in the exact place they were before, as if they just made a backup of the world, and also conveniently out of reach from the other world? Because I don't, at all.

Moreover, if they had the knowledge and ability to build that... Couldn't they build instead something which simply repels the two worlds, which sounds way way less crazy (within the crazy fictional magic-science scale) than what they instead went for?

You said it better than I could. There are a ton of unanswered questions across all three games that ultimately aren't necessary for appreciating the story being told. Which at the end of the day these games care more about the primary cast of characters more than anything else IMO. For the purposes of Noah and company's story, origin doesn't matter other than they need to regain control of it.

And on that note I firmly believe something made the conduit. Perhaps it was an alien race or something. I don't believe it's just some godly artifact. Takahashi, if anything, has strongly suggested across his entire body of work artifacts like the Zohar or the conduit are created by "something." And these entities don't consider themselves "gods." So if aliens or inter dimensional beings can make the conduit then origin is just as plausible an invention. Again, it's freaking scifi fantasy so I'm not going to think too much about it.

EDIT: Also, the conduit was not even present in the original Xeno 1 cutscene. That was pretty much retconned in Xeno 2. Which means if you played the original game first you wouldn't have even known there was perpetual energy device with infinite energy that served as the catalyst for creating the Xeno 1 world. You would have only seen some scientists on a space station doing something really dumb. I find that less believable than the worlds of Xeno 1 and 2 pooling their resources together to create Origin tbh.

I can't agree with this at all. Even if underexplained, in Xeno 1 those scientists doing "dumb" stuff could be accepted because we had no context on that world, their knowledge, their technology, etc. The game is basically telling you that you have to believe they could do it, and you can like it or not, but there's no logical (in-universe) reason for you to doubt it.

As for the Conduit, we can't assume it's just people who built it. Yes, it could be people millions of years into the future who sent it back. It could be an alien race with far greater capabilities than people from XC1/XC2. It could be the Wave Existence itself. We don't know, and that's precisely the reason why it works, just as it worked in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as Bellydrum suitably mentioned.

In XC3 it's who? Tora, Nia, Shulk, Vanea and co.? In the span of a few years? To me it's so absurd, and not comparable at all.

If it helps, I agree. I think you're asking for explanations that make sense, and the fact that they don't exist is exactly what's your criticism of the game.

You're right in saying the conduit is more believable. Because it's source is unknown, so we don't know how advanced whoever made it is. Maybe if we knew, it's existence would make total sense. But for Origin, we KNOW those two worlds who were involved in creating it and we KNOW their technological capabilities, so it makes sense to question how exactly they made something like Origin with what they had. Or, alternatively, what they invented/discovered between the end of their respective games and the beginning of this game, that DID make it possible. The Conduit is not retconning anything because we never knew anything about the place it came from. Origin came from a place we know about so we should understand how they made it.

People can argue that "it's not important to the story" all they want, but that doesn't erase the fact that if you think more than 2 seconds about it, the logic behind it falls apart.

Here is a real life parallel, please humor me: How exactly planes work is not important to my personal story in life (since they only play a minor role in my story). But if I asked, someone could explain to me how planes work. Because they do make sense. Do I need to know for my life to make sense? No. But the world my life takes place in would make no sense if reality decided that planes "just work, stop thinking about it, there is no explanation".

Anyways, bottom line is: I was confused throughout all three Xenoblade Chronicles games. I was like "??? - what how???" so often. And Xenoblade 1 and 2 gave me a real sense of satisfaction when they answered ALL of that confusion in a coherent way that made sense by the end of the game. Xenoblade 3 left me with so many open questions, so many, that I doubt a story dlc could answer them all. It makes all the moments of confusion feel hollow because the answer to my confusion is just "there is no answer", which is about as unsatisfying as it can get.

I still like Xenoblade 3, don't get me wrong. Characters, music, world design, combat the overall premise, side content, stuff like that makes up for the lackluster explanations in the story department. But as a Trails fan who watched people hammer down hard on how they resolved the Cold Steel Arc (not going into detail here for spoiler reasons), it baffles me how people can praise this at the same time because in my book, this makes a lot less sense than anything that happened in Cold Steel.

Very good post. I agree with everything (except for the Cold Steel parallels, simply because I haven't played those so I wouldn't know).

 

[fantomena]

I finished the game today and felt unsatisfied about the game, I don't know why really, but I think it has something to do with the story and the characters the game introduced.

I've played and finished all of the Xenoblade games, the systems, the combat et.c are great in Xenoblade 3, but I liked 2 and X more. Feel like the story in 2 grasped me a lot more, like I still think about the game today. I honestly mostly didn't find the story and characters in 3 interesting.

 

[TurtleRock]

I feel like I'm being gaslit that my criticisms of and dissatisfaction with the game's premise is unjustified and invalid when I feel like I'm staring at it in the face... like, I can't be the only one who feels like it's asking too much to believe that Tora and friends made The Conduit Mk. II just because "the Conduit is unexplained", right?

You can feel that way but I think it’s pretty funny how you keep going on and on about how you shouldn’t be dismissive and wave things off as “lol it’s sci fi who cares” when you’re doing just that to other people’s interpretations of the story. All your pushback in this thread is basically "I don't believe that's plausible so I reject it" and "well that's nice but it isn't explicitly stated in text so I also reject it." Sorry, but that isn't going to lead to a good discussion either. At that point we're going down a rabbit hole that there's no clawing out of.

Also Tora is probably an interdimensional being because he replicated the literal tech of a god. He's lowkey the smartest guy across all these games. I buy that he made origin and i'll just leave it at that.

 

[DecoReturns]

i don’t have many issue with the lack of explanations for a lot of stuff cause I found a decent of Xenoblade 1 and 2 explanations being rather dumb.

Hell, I wouldn’t want to give my take on Xenoblade 1’s story and lore lol. Let’s just say, Not a fan. Even if I really enjoyed the game.

Of course. There’s always the need of wanting a explanations. Don’t think everything needs one. I got my questions. Like Black Fog being my biggest “what is it exactly?”

 

[DecoReturns]

It was all Nia’s fault and then things went out of control.

 

[TurtleRock]

Seems like not many years have passed since the end of XC and XC2 judging by Nia's picture and her mentioning she'll go back to them. Do you honestly buy that in that short span (or even 100 years for the sake of arguments) the people who couldn't even fly themselves to the top of the world tree can not only store souls inside an evolution of core crystals (this could be kind of believable, I guess), but recreate an entire planet atom by atom, placing everything and everyone in the exact place they were before, as if they just made a backup of the world, and also conveniently out of reach from the other world? Because I don't, at all.

Did you guys forget Xeno 2? You couldn't fly to the top of the world tree because it was protected by Ophion. Anyone who tried to get near it was destroyed by a robotic snake. As soon as Rex and crew take it down there is literally a giant battle right near it.

And yes I do buy it because core crystal technology can remake anything. Origin is filled with them. And whether you like Tora or not, the dude replicated tech from a literal god on his own.

And it's not like Xeno 1 world isn't filled with smart people and a giant metal robot filled with tech they couldn't salvage. Not to mention an entire population of robot people. We know that Shulk can rebuild a god sword. Alcomoth is a floating city built by High Entia. Tech is fairly advanced. Now imagine if an entire separate universe started sharing their info with you.

Anyway, not asking you to suddenly buy that two worlds can make origin. But what I am saying is that it's not this super unplausible thing you guys are making it out to be.

 

[TurtleRock]

The black fog and annihilation events seem to be the real world consequences of the worlds “canceling each other out” and being “plus and minus” as Nia says.

We saw a little of this in Future Connected which would be the first signs of the intersection drawing near.

So why wouldn’t it still be happening in Aionios which is what is leftover from those worlds?

In every scenario the black flog would still annihilate the world because the Black flog event is about matter from two different universes coming together. The game is so heavy handed in explaining and showing this that I'm genuinely baffled people are still confused. Moreover, Black flog works no matter what your interpretation of the world is.

If the world is in the process of colliding and got mixed together, matter from both worlds existing in the same pocket dimension is going to cause Black flog.

If origin stopped itself from rebooting the world and is stuck in stasis post collision, the "incomplete" or "random" bits of the world that were created in Aionios would still contain matter from both universes and lead to Black fog.

If the world is frozen or extremely slowed down at the exact moment of impact, well matter from both universes are present and you're going to get Black fog.

Essentially, matter from both worlds cannot exist in the same space time reality. It always leads to Black fog no matter what. It doesn't matter if the universes are colliding, frozen, rebuilt, etc. So yeah, you're 100% right that Aionios is pretty much destined to get Black flog, no matter what your interpretation of it is.

So many people here are accusing the game of incoherent storytelling but my opinion, it's pretty damn impressive that something like Black flog works across multiple interpretations and readings of just what exactly Aionios is. That to me is an example of excellent storytelling, because it's hard to come up with concepts that somehow work with multiple people's headcannon. It's the type of storytelling I enjoy in the souls games. I guess that's why the "unanswered questions" don't bother me at all.

 

[LonkFromPA]

These lyrics snuffin work

 

[BradenAndEggs]

Why is the last bit of the universe collision taking 1000+ years to complete, as if in slow motion.

This part:

Nia implies Z(Origin) is keeping what’s left of the worlds from annihilating each other completely.

Z is using Origin to make it take longer.

I can interrupt two watermelons smashing into each other and grab both sides with my hands and prevent the watermelons from completely destroying each other without stopping or manipulating time. I just grab the melons and hold them in stasis.

Z is using Origin tech to metaphorically “grab both sides of the collision with his hands” and slow the collision down. Nia says “the worlds became still by the will of moebius.” Z is using the same tech to manipulate what is left (Aionios). That’s why the end of the collision is taking longer. Humanity is afraid that Origin won’t work.

We see it’s fruitless though because annihilation events still happen.

That’s what I got from Nia’s lines in the game.

Who knows, in a couple years they might release a model kit with expanded context printed on the box like they did with XC2. Then everyone will be having fun together again.

Or maybe it will be more confusing and it will lead to more irritation…

 

[Jannyish]

I find it fascinating that there are so many interpretations of what the heck is happening in this game exactly.

Some may think of that as a good thing, and it would be if this was an ongoing story where we're not supposed to have all the answers yet. I mean I still encourage the discussion and find it to be interesting in and of itself to see others' readings and perspectives. But I don’t think it's anything impressive to have a FINISHED* story that leaves so many questions open that fans can basically wite fanfics in their head about what is the actual truth.

That's just my opinion though. I think there are very different opinions in this thread, not just on the plot of the game itself, but also on what constitutes a good story and/or good writing. And that's fine. It'd be boring if we were all the same. It's about agreeing to disagree.

*I know it's not actually finished, the story DLC exists. I doubt they can answer all the questions but I do want them to prove me wrong. I promise I'll change my tune on this game then. And everyone who wants to come to Germany for it gets a free coffee, just hit me up.

 

[TurtleRock]

I can't agree with this at all. Even if underexplained, in Xeno 1 those scientists doing "dumb" stuff could be accepted because we had no context on that world, their knowledge, their technology, etc. The game is basically telling you that you have to believe they could do it, and you can like it or not, but there's no logical (in-universe) reason for you to doubt it.

As for the Conduit, we can't assume it's just people who built it. Yes, it could be people millions of years into the future who sent it back. It could be an alien race with far greater capabilities than people from XC1/XC2. It could be the Wave Existence itself. We don't know, and that's precisely the reason why it works, just as it worked in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as Bellydrum suitably mentioned.

In XC3 it's who? Tora, Nia, Shulk, Vanea and co.? In the span of a few years? To me it's so absurd, and not comparable at all.

The game is doing the same exact same thing in terms of plot. People from a prior form of the world created something that leads to the current state of reality. For the purposes of storytelling they are the same exact plot device.

The only difference is you subjectively believe that they couldn't have done it. Which is just a rejection of the facts the game gives you. And you base this on your belief that they simply couldn't build something like this by drawing on your analysis from the prior two games. But suspension of belief is essential to any form of storytelling. I can easily say that in Xeno 1 I refuse to believe that scientists from "our earth" could build a device that could recreate the universe. And I can base this analysis on the state of the world IRL because that's what's supposed to be represented. I think Takahashi was even aware of this, which is why the conduit comes in as a big ol retcon in Xeno 2. The conduit in Xeno 2 is used more so to explain why Klaus survived and has god like power in Xeno 2 than it does to explain the original universe creating event. It’s essentially just a cop out from having to give too much details on Klaus because we can just say “eh it’s the conduit” and leave it at that.


I get why you would think it's not plausible for the Xeno 1 and 2 worlds to create Origin. My response to this is that the game also doesn't give us any reason to not believe it. We are not given any context of how the worlds of Xeno 1 and 2 developed in terms of technology. So the belief that they couldn't get Origin created is based on your own assumptions. But in game, we are not given any reason to doubt they built it, because at the end of the day Origin actually exists. It was built. As you said, you have to believe they could do it.

On that note, if someone started Xeno 3 and didn't play Xeno 1 and Xeno 2, they would be in the same exact scenario someone who played Xeno 1 and Xeno 2 would be. The game says this person (or in the case of Xeno 3 a prior civilization) did something that led to the current state of the world. They have to believe it.

I wonder if people would be more "accepting" if they hadn't given any context at all to who built origin. If this was a generic non Xenoblade game and this explanation came up I seriously doubt people would be pushing so hard against it. I also can't help but wonder if they had explicitly said it was Shulk who made origin that people would have been more accepting of it as an explanation. Too many of the criticisms of Origin just come off as Xeno 2/Tora hate.

 

[Selarmor]

This part:



Z is using Origin to make it take longer.

I can interrupt two watermelons smashing into each other and grab both sides with my hands and prevent the watermelons from completely destroying each other without stopping or manipulating time. I just grab the melons and hold them in stasis.

Z is using Origin tech to metaphorically “grab both sides of the collision with his hands” and slow the collision down. Nia says “the worlds became still by the will of moebius.” Z is using the same tech to manipulate what is left (Aionios). That’s why the end of the collision is taking longer. Humanity is afraid that Origin won’t work.

We see it’s fruitless though because annihilation events still happen.

That’s what I got from Nia’s lines in the game.

Who knows, in a couple years they might release a model kit with expanded context printed on the box like they did with XC2. Then everyone will be having fun together again.

Or maybe it will be more confusing and it will lead to more irritation…

If the watermelon is the universe, as in the entirety of matter and spacetime, and you've halted it, then you've effectively stopped time. Yes, Z's purpose and what he did was stop the convergence, but stopping the convergence is pretty much equivalent to stopping time.

At least there's a limit to this in that Z needed to setup the endless cycle of gathering life in order to power the means by which he's keeping the convergence halted. That shows there are some limits to what Origin is capable of doing.

 

[chocolate_supra]

After a second playthrough

I'm sorry what

 

[Deleted member 2]

I get why you would think it's not plausible for the Xeno 1 and 2 worlds to create Origin. My response to this is that the game also doesn't give us any reason to not believe it. We are not given any context of how the worlds of Xeno 1 and 2 developed in terms of technology.

My eyes almost crossed reading this. I'm sorry but I'm done debating with you, we clearly have completely different ideas of what makes good storytelling.

 

[EtherPenguin]

Has anyone else done the Colony 0 quest where you recover a painting? I was curious if there were theories on the seven children in the painting. My first thought was that they were the kids of 1's party as they look similar to them. The clothes look a little old fashion, not too different from Dunban's, though FC implied fashion was going in a modern-looking direction.

But what I thought was weird is that two children (the smallest and the tallest) have snow-white hair. If these are the children of 1's cast then you'd think the ones with white hair would be Melia's kids. But they don't have wings. Other Entia-homs children have shorter wings and the hair starts to turn normal colors as seen with the Entia in 3. Losing the wings completely but keeping the silver/white hair doesn't match up so the kids don't really match up.

 

[Thunder84]

If the watermelon is the universe, as in the entirety of matter and spacetime, and you've halted it, then you've effectively stopped time. Yes, Z's purpose and what he did was stop the convergence, but stopping the convergence is pretty much equivalent to stopping time.

Better example would probably be a pair of very strong magnets. You can hold them apart, but no matter how hard you try, they’ll continue pulling towards each other, until they eventually meet. You can’t hold them apart forever.

That’s how I interpreted the annihilation events. Each one is the “magnets” pulling ever so closer together.

 

[Deleted member 2]

This part:



Z is using Origin to make it take longer.

I can interrupt two watermelons smashing into each other and grab both sides with my hands and prevent the watermelons from completely destroying each other without stopping or manipulating time. I just grab the melons and hold them in stasis.

Z is using Origin tech to metaphorically “grab both sides of the collision with his hands” and slow the collision down. Nia says “the worlds became still by the will of moebius.” Z is using the same tech to manipulate what is left (Aionios). That’s why the end of the collision is taking longer. Humanity is afraid that Origin won’t work.

We see it’s fruitless though because annihilation events still happen.

That’s what I got from Nia’s lines in the game.

Who knows, in a couple years they might release a model kit with expanded context printed on the box like they did with XC2. Then everyone will be having fun together again.

Or maybe it will be more confusing and it will lead to more irritation…

I'm sorry, but you're describing halting time.

Consider this and you'll understand why.

To your analogy, if you "grabbed both ends of the watermelon to slow their collision", you've nearly entirely removed their momentum toward one another such that when you let go, they will NOT speed back up to their original state and finish slamming into each other.

What Z did was "pause" the collision, where if he his "play" again, the collision would finish. This is describing stoping time.

I mean, look. Even if he wasn't stopping time. The fact that Origin can do that is pretty much an ass-pull. I can only take so much "a wizard did it" before I've suspended too much belief.


This is why I feel like I'm being tricked or something. I feel like some of you are trying to convince me I'm wrong in my criticism, but using arguments that make absolutely zero sense to me.

 

[Seven]

That's an interesting interpretation. Preventing the recreated people from moving forward in what way?

What I mean is that by forcing the people of Aionios into a state of constant war with strict limitations on them like the ten-term lifespan and flame clocks he is preventing them from developing any kind of culture and history. In essence he is "freezing" time by stopping any advancements outside of those he can use to further entrench his stagnated world.

I promise you, and I don't know how much harder I can express it, but I'm really not.

I'm trying to get believable and tonally consistent answers that are satisfying.

As for Origin vs. Conduit, "Tora and friends made it, I don't know, use your imagination" does not do it for me in the same way as "an enormous monolith was discovered deep in the sands of Kenya, which proved to be an anomalous interdimentional gateway which accessed unlimited energy, which naturally led to global disputes and a last-ditch effort to save humanity, which led to disaster, which led to an eternal attempt for repentance from the scientist who caused it, which led to a new Earth called Alrest"

To be fair, almost everything you're written about the Conduit here is never mentioned in either XC or XC2. The only things we know about the Conduit in-game is that it was a multi-dimensional gate that Klaus attempts to control during a losing war and accidently rips the universe in two. Likewise the only things we know about Origin is that it was a last-ditch effort by the people of those two universes to find a way to live beyond the inevitable destruction looming over their heads.

It doesn't matter how Tora and the two worlds made it, what matters is that it was an enormous project made through the cooperation of two distinct worlds to stave off complete universal extinction.

Seems like not many years have passed since the end of XC and XC2 judging by Nia's picture and her mentioning she'll go back to them. Do you honestly buy that in that short span (or even 100 years for the sake of arguments) the people who couldn't even fly themselves to the top of the world tree can not only store souls inside an evolution of core crystals (this could be kind of believable, I guess), but recreate an entire planet atom by atom, placing everything and everyone in the exact place they were before, as if they just made a backup of the world, and also conveniently out of reach from the other world? Because I don't, at all.

Technology advances at a rapid rate, a lot of the tech we have today would have been unimaginable 100 years ago. Hell, I'm sure if you told people 20 years ago what we have today they wouldn't believe it. So I don't think it's too much of a stretch that two distinctive worlds that are pretty advanced on their own wouldn't be able to further their technology through interaction; especially when complete annihilation is on the horizon.

Moreover, if they had the knowledge and ability to build that... Couldn't they build instead something which simply repels the two worlds, which sounds way way less crazy (within the crazy fictional magic-science scale) than what they instead went for?

the collision of the two universes was inevitable, they were like two halves of one whole with the only things keeping them separated being Klaus and the Conduit.

 

[TurtleRock]

My eyes almost crossed reading this. I'm sorry but I'm done debating with you, we clearly have completely different ideas of what makes good storytelling.

The only thing I was saying was that it doesn't make much sense to have hang ups on whether or not the Xeno 1 and 2 world could create origin, because according to the game, they did it successfully. Whether you actually believe they could do it is your prerogative. But in game, Origin was successfully built. They pulled it off.

Anyway, you're being awfully aggressive about this. I can't believe an admin on this site is making this thread feel completely unwelcoming to debate, analysis and interpretation of a scifi fantasy video game. Personally, I'm done posting in this thread period.

 

[Deleted member 2]

What I mean is that by forcing the people of Aionios into a state of constant war with strict limitations on them like the ten-term lifespan and flame clocks he is preventing them from developing any kind of culture and history. In essence he is "freezing" time by stopping any advancements outside of those he can use to further entrench his stagnated world.

Then what was stopping the collision from happening?

To be fair, almost everything you're written about the Conduit here is never mentioned in either XC or XC2.

an enormous monolith was discovered deep in the sands of Kenya, which proved to be an anomalous interdimentional gateway which accessed unlimited energy, which naturally led to global disputes and a last-ditch effort to save humanity, which led to disaster, which led to an eternal attempt for repentance from the scientist who caused it, which led to a new Earth called Alrest

The bolder part above is the only part that is not mentioned in the text of XC1 or 2. It was mentioned on the box of the Siren figurine and considered canon, but effectively doesn't change my point when removed.

The only things we know about the Conduit in-game is that it was a multi-dimensional gate that Klaus attempts to control during a losing war and accidently rips the universe in two.

We know that it was not man-made, and it's an anomalous power that had no business being in the hands of humans. This was like the entire premise of XC1 and 2.

Likewise the only things we know about Origin is that it was a last-ditch effort by the people of those two universes to find a way to live beyond the inevitable destruction looming over their heads.

It doesn't matter how Tora and the two worlds made it, what matters is that it was an enormous project made through the cooperation of two distinct worlds to stave off complete universal extinction.

My entire subjective point, which several people continue to debate me on for some reason, is that this jumps way outside the realm of in-universe believability. I don't know why some of you keep taking It upon yourselves to debate me on this, especially since I'm far from the first or last person to have these problems with the game.

 

[Deleted member 2]

The only thing I was saying was that it doesn't make much sense to have hang ups on whether or not the Xeno 1 and 2 world could create origin, because according to the game, they did it successfully. Whether you actually believe they could do it is your prerogative. But in game, Origin was successfully built. They pulled it off.

Anyway, you're being awfully aggressive about this. I can't believe an admin on this site is making this thread feel completely unwelcoming to debate, analysis and interpretation of a scifi fantasy video game. Personally, I'm done posting in this thread period.

Sorry for coming across as aggressive, but to be fair, the entire reason why I'm speaking with several of you over a series of posts is because you've chosen to debate my negative opinion of the game's premise.

Please notice that I have not come out of the woodwork and tried to convince someone who likes the game why they're wrong.

 

[Tye]

I’m with @bellydrum on this when it comes to the matter of in-universe believability. I don’t wanna judge the game too much yet since we still have DLC on the way, plus we could get further explanations not only from that but from other sources as well like interviews, the art book, etc., but as of right now the manner in which XC3 wrapped up—leaving so many questions unanswered or unclear—is distinctly different from my experiences with both XC and XC2. Of course, there’s XCX, but even that was different because unlike XC3, the main story took a bit of a backseat there and there were no explicit ties to previous Xenoblade games at the time, which wasn’t the case with XC3, so the expectations are different there. Plus XCX seemingly sets up for a future sequel to provide the many questions that game raises, while XC3 has no possibility of such a thing (unless the DLC is going to fill that role) given that it’s supposed to be the finale of a trilogy story arc. Also, XCX’s mysteries spark wonder—what’s up with this planet??—while XC3’s questions are just kinda frustrating, at least to me. As others have already explained better here, there’s a difference between unanswered questions regarding the exact nature of these mysterious, extradimensional anomalies like the Conduit and Mira, and something like Origin, which is supposedly on par with those former anomalies in its abilities, yet it’s seemingly not something of mysterious, extradimensional origin but instead created by characters and worlds we’re already familiar with—which raises the question of how??

 

[BradenAndEggs]

I'm sorry, but you're describing halting time.

Consider this and you'll understand why.

To your analogy, if you "grabbed both ends of the watermelon to slow their collision", you've nearly entirely removed their momentum toward one another such that when you let go, they will NOT speed back up to their original state and finish slamming into each other.

What Z did was "pause" the collision, where if he his "play" again, the collision would finish. This is describing stoping time.

I mean, look. Even if he wasn't stopping time. The fact that Origin can do that is pretty much an ass-pull. I can only take so much "a wizard did it" before I've suspended too much belief.


This is why I feel like I'm being tricked or something. I feel like some of you are trying to convince me I'm wrong in my criticism, but using arguments that make absolutely zero sense to me.

I mean if I grabbed both ends of the half destroyed watermelons I “paused” the collision but didn’t stop time. You can walk up and talk to me holding the watermelons, it can start raining, the watermelons will start rotting, etc.

I can see where you are coming from though.

A lot of this requires you “buy into” the capabilities of Origin and if you can’t I don’t think the story will ever work for you.

For what it’s worth, we seem to be absolutely on the same page with how Xenoblade 2 offers superior storytelling logic and exposition.

I think where we differ is I don’t think 3’s story is that much lower quality than 2’s. It definitely is lower quality though.

I love them all though. I can’t wait for the “new game dust” to settle in a few years and for everyone to have fun discussing the series together again.

 

[Seven]

Then what was stopping the collision from happening?

Nothing was stopping the collision from happening. It already happened and eveything we see after the opening cutscene is taking place post-collision.

The bolder part above is the only part that is not mentioned in the text of XC1 or 2. It was mentioned on the box of the Siren figurine and considered canon, but effectively doesn't change my point when removed.

My point is that you are over-simplifying the reason for creating Origin by using this exaggerated explaination for the Conduit that is just a re-telling of the backstory of XC and XC2. In the end we know nothing about the Conduit outside of the fact that it was a multi-dimensional power that broke the universe in two. Likewise we know nothing about Origin outside of the fact that it was a last-ditch effort to save the lives of the people of two doomed universes.

We know that it was not man-made, and it's an anomalous power that had no business being in the hands of humans. This was like the entire premise of XC1 and 2.

I never said the Conduit was man-made.

My entire subjective point, which several people continue to debate me on for some reason, is that this jumps way outside the realm of in-universe believability. I don't know why some of you keep taking It upon yourselves to debate me on this, especially since I'm far from the first or last person to have these problems with the game.

The issue is that you are framing your own subjective points as fact and when anyone brings up a theory you don't agree with you try to poke holes in it. Then whenever they defend their views you call them unreasonable and paint them as being aggressive. If you don't want people to debate you then just state that your views are not up for debate so we know to move on and not bother.

 

[Brewster123]

All of the previous games in the Xeno series offered pretty in-depth explanations as to how their technology worked and operating. Not absolutely everything was answered, but enough was that the gaps seems pretty easy to dismiss. Even the Zohar/Conduit's broad functions can be pieced together from Perfect Works and Xenosaga. Xenoblade 3, unlike previous games, isn't really focused on fleshing out its world, its history, and its technology. In fact, by virtue of its premise, its world doesn't really have much culture and practically no history. While I ultimately think this was the right descision for the character-driven story that XC3 was going for, its direct connection to XC1 and XC2 leads to the game raising questions and expectations that it isn't really concerned with answering. This is why some people (myself included) have trouble buying into the premise of Origin and some of XC3's other elements. We've been trained to expect answers by past games; it is how we get invested into these games and buy into their worlds and characters. Since this game (as it stands now atleast) isn't really interested in giving answers, it feels disappointing relative to past games in those respects and affects my overall enjoyment.

 

[SiG]

While everyone debates as to whether the ending/end boss was any good or not…

I will say right now that everything else that had been leading to them confronting Mobeus before Origin had been superb. I also think most of the story and world building, not to mention impact, has been tucked away in the sidequests. In fact, I think it’s best to approch this game in the same vein as Mass Effect: It’s easy to breeze through the entire main story ina span of a few hours, but to do so would be missing the point.

I personally liked how they delivered Zeon’s sidequest of trying to turn Colony 9 from a nomadic warfaring outfit to an agrarian one: It wasn’t as simple as the whole Colony learning to grow spuds. You had to realize that the folks at Colony 9 didn’t have a single clue about even basic planting, so it never occurs to them to bury their planted crops until Colony Tau interviens. (I also enjoy it when another Hero ends up in another’s side-story.)

But the thing that really sticks with me is how in this side-quest, you get to really see the struggle that Colony 9 faces just trying to adopt to this new lifestyle: some chain of command mutinies, plant diseases, monsters wrecking their plantation…It’s not sunshine and roses as you’d assume from something like Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s side-quest.

 

[Thunder84]

While everyone debates as to whether the ending/end boss was any good or not…

I will say right now that everything else that had been leading to them confronting Mobeus before Origin had been superb. I also think most of the story and world building, not to mention impact, has been tucked away in the sidequests. In fact, I think it’s best to approch this game in the same vein as Mass Effect: It’s easy to breeze through the entire main story ina span of a few hours, but to do so would be missing the point.

I personally liked how they delivered Zeon’s sidequest of trying to turn Colony 9 from a nomadic warfaring outfit to an agrarian one: It wasn’t as simple as the whole Colony learning to grow spuds. You had to realize that the folks at Colony 9 didn’t have a single clue about even basic planting, so it never occurs to them to bury their planted crops until Colony Tau interviens. (I also enjoy it when another Hero ends up in another’s side-story.)

But the thing that really sticks with me is how in this side-quest, you get to really see the struggle that Colony 9 faces just trying to adopt to this new lifestyle: some chain of command mutinies, plant diseases, monsters wrecking their plantation…It’s not sunshine and roses as you’d assume from something like Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s side-quest.

Stuff like this only makes the inability to level down even more mind boggling. The game was clearly designed with side content in mind, yet punishes the player in the process with pitiful CP gains if you’re overleveled.

 

[chocolate_supra]

I will say, I'm very much looking forward to doing another playthrough on new game plus and just blowing through the story without being drawn away by quests and heroes. I think I'll enjoy the story a lot more experiencing it straight through, without the anxiety of feeling I must seek out quests/places so I don't miss them. Plus the hints and details about the goings-on in Aionios might make more sense now that I know where it all leads, rather than playing through the game half-confused waiting for specific explanations that don't come.

What's weird is I used to be this way with a lot of movies. I'd get so excited watching trailers and pre-release stuff that I almost couldn't enjoy or be immersed in a movie during my first viewing because I was looking for all the things I was assuming to be there, or watching for areas/events I recognized from the trailer. A second viewing often cleared my head and then I could enjoy it.

I hope the trilogy gets patches for Drake, to give me an excuse to go through the whole thing again.

 

[Brewster123]

Stuff like this only makes the inability to level down even more mind boggling. The game was clearly designed with side content in mind, yet punishes the player in the process with pitiful CP gains if you’re overleveled.

Yeah, this, combined with the ineffectiveness of cooking, really skews class progression if you're doing side content.

 

[Deleted member 2181]

On that note, if someone started Xeno 3 and didn't play Xeno 1 and Xeno 2, they would be in the same exact scenario someone who played Xeno 1 and Xeno 2 would be.

Except no, they wouldn't.
Xenoblade 1 is an experiment gone awry, a chain reaction that causes the destruction of one universe and the creation of a new one. There is no intentionality on the part of any of the characters in the game. Klaus didn't intend to create a universe where he's a big horned creature with people living on him.
Xenoblade 2 is what I thought Origin was supposed to be: A centuries (millennia?) long quest to rebuild a dead civilisation using their stored data to drive evolution.
Note: In 2, we know that the power being used here is essentially divine in nature. It wasn't built by man. The fact that it isn't manmade is explicit even in the limited frame of the game itself: The Conduit is an enigma to the people harnessing it. It was not designed.

In Xenoblade 3, we're expected to believe that Origin can take a save state of the entire universe (well, two universes) and then reboot them exactly at the time of the snapshot?
Apparently that's what people are telling me in this thread, and I have to say, maybe the reason I didn't interpret things that way is because that is just unfathomable to me.

Consider this:
In the opening cutscene of the game, and then in the post-credits sequence: Are the stars in the sky in the same place?
Think about what that would mean.

Here's two issues with the PREMISE:
One is the ability to create a save state in the first place. It requires the device to be omniscient.
Second is the ability to not just create a universe, but to create one with every single particle in exactly the right place, in contrast with the more organic process in the previous games.

Here's an issue I have with the MEANING:
I mean, like, with that kind of technology and power, nothing means anything anymore. Life, death, whatever, it's all just data that can be recreated at will. There's no consequences. If you don't like the way the universe is headed, why not end it and start a new one. You'll be dead, but the other you won't even notice anything happened. Noah died, and then died again thousands of times, but here he is as a kid, so it's fine.
Very strange for a game that initially set itself up to confront finality.
And before it's suggested: No, that's not the same with 2 and core crystals. The original humanity who served as the source data for those crystals are gone, and only faint echoes of them remain. They died, and it meant something that they died, because they never came back and did not appear to come back.

 

[Deleted member 2551]

It was all Nia’s fault and then things went out of control.

I'd fight a suicide mission alone if Nia ordered me to.

 

[Deleted member 2181]

In terms of questions, answers and intepretations:
I love ambiguity. It's like my favourite thing. Lost was mentioned in this thread: Probably my favourite show tied with The Leftovers.
I like things vague.

But I don't feel that's what's happening here.
It doesn't feel like they've posed a bunch of vague questions and instructed us to find our own answers. It feels like they've given us the answers, or at least a sketch of them, and we're expected to understand exactly what it all means. Except it doesn't make any damn sense!
There's stuff here that hinges on a single word like "reboot". I'm told reboot in this context means recreating two universes. And like, oh, that's what it means?? Because it could also mean what Klaus was trying to do in Xenoblade 2, right? At least in insolation.

I'm critical of wordy exposition, but it's wild to me that this game spent so much dialogue throughout its runtime going, "wow, so, like, the consuls are bad and the war is a sham huh??" to make sure we really get that the consuls are bad and the war is a sham, and yet the very nature of the universe and the events that occur are glanced over with figurative language.
You know,
"Our two worlds are still young, if in passing they do each other harm they cannot but carry on"
That's one sentence! For fucks sake!!

 

[Notsowise]

Even though I loved the game, the end is easily the worst end for a jRPG since FF8.
Nothing makes sense.
The dlc needs to address everything people pointed on the thread. Start with the purple fog please. It’s just there? Why?

What I take from the end after reading the internet for a couple of hours is that…


The two worlds got destroyed.
When Origin was supposed to rewrite both universes, the bad character of humanity made a new been called Z.

It was afraid of what would happen in the new worlds and decided to stop their creation. That’s when the time stopped.

When you beat Z, it shows the new universes apart and separated. But Noa and the others seems to have an unconscious memory of their lives in aionios.

But that’s my theory. I hate when I finish a game and everyone has their own theory about what they have seen. I really hate that.

Other thing that called my attention.
Did you guys want to play a shmup game and the end with the battle ships? The really missed an opportunity there.

 

[SiG]

Stuff like this only makes the inability to level down even more mind boggling. The game was clearly designed with side content in mind, yet punishes the player in the process with pitiful CP gains if you’re overleveled.

Thankfully you can level down once you cleared the game. In fact, they encourage you to play your game clear save just to access certain side-quests that are only available to you afterwards.

 

[Notsowise]

I find it fascinating that there are so many interpretations of what the heck is happening in this game exactly.

Some may think of that as a good thing, and it would be if this was an ongoing story where we're not supposed to have all the answers yet. I mean I still encourage the discussion and find it to be interesting in and of itself to see others' readings and perspectives. But I don’t think it's anything impressive to have a FINISHED* story that leaves so many questions open that fans can basically wite fanfics in their head about what is the actual truth.

That's just my opinion though. I think there are very different opinions in this thread, not just on the plot of the game itself, but also on what constitutes a good story and/or good writing. And that's fine. It'd be boring if we were all the same. It's about agreeing to disagree.

*I know it's not actually finished, the story DLC exists. I doubt they can answer all the questions but I do want them to prove me wrong. I promise I'll change my tune on this game then. And everyone who wants to come to Germany for it gets a free coffee, just hit me up.

Even though I didn’t like what they did with Las of Us 2, we can agree that the 1st game did an amazing open ended finale.

It’s just like the movie Inception.

Xenoblade 3 is final fantasy 8. No one knows what they have just played.

 

[Thunder84]

Thankfully you can level down once you cleared the game. In fact, they encourage you to play your game clear save just to access certain side-quests that are only available to you afterwards.

I’m well aware, but that still doesn’t forgive the decision to leave it out of the main campaign.

 

[SiG]

I’m well aware, but that still doesn’t forgive the decision to leave it out of the main campaign.

Many people are going say that for most of the side-quest content, sadly.

As for Expansion Pass updates, I'm starting to think the next Hero will be unlockable within the Origin area. Simply put, the Origin section feels like the most rushed and boring section in the entire game, and more could've been done with it. There aren't even the same set of moments of pause like Machina City was in Xenoblade Chroinicles 1. It really feels like the moment which the game drags its feet to the finish line.

Adding a Hero quest there and related Origin-area subquests would open opportunities to further explain the origin of...well Origin in general. There's just so much unexplained that needs explaining, and starting with Origin and the Mobeus (how they are transformed) would be a good start.

Then there's the whole "black fog" mechanic. I'm pretty sure something is suppose to happen when there's black fog present in an area. A Hero can also be introduced that also gives you the ability to nullify the effects of said black fog.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Adding a Hero quest there and related Origin-area subquests would open opportunities to further explain the origin of...well Origin in general. There's just so much unexplained that needs explaining, and starting with Origin and the Mobeus (how they are transformed) would be a good start.

Then there's the whole "black fog" mechanic. I'm pretty sure something is suppose to happen when there's black fog present in an area. A Hero can also be introduced that also gives you the ability to nullify the effects of said black fog.

Oh dang, I didn't even think of this.

I've been hung up on the possibility of the "story DLC" being a Torna-sized story expansion that'd fill in a lot of lore blanks, but I didn't even consider the DLC heroes coming with new story quests that could fill in lore.

 

[DecoReturns]

Still one of the funniest looking bosses.

Beating up a little kid lol. Also i rewatched the chapter 1 scene and he does appear in the first consul meeting when he defuses from D. Pretty cool detail. I thought they missed that. But nope. There he was

 

[Apopheniac]

I'm kinda surprised they didn't do a thing in a black fog area where an annihilation event occurs after a certain plot beat and you can go back to find a new path opened through the chasm. Would've been a slam dunk for gameplay/story integration. There's the landslide in Aetia during Melia's quest but that wasn't caused by random annihilation

 

[Sadist]

Final Fantasy VIII is a whole different can of worms. I mean, the amount of stupid tales from your ass they pulled in that game is a trainwreck in slow motion. Compared to XB 3, this game is rather tame in terms of story.

I completed the game a few hours ago and my head is still pretty full. I completed the game after 97 hours, almost all hero ascension quests done and I’ve seen a lot of Aionios. Don’t know where to rank it compared to the earlier games, that will happen in due time. As for the game itself…

I’m still struggling what Z/Origin actually was. Yes a desire created by a collective, but I’m still somewhat perplexed on how it came to be. Melia and Nia created Origin, an ark of sorts, and the memories of souls started to revolt, a desire to continue to live in that moment and that created Z?

The bad guys in general weren’t very deep anyway, although that seems to be the point, the simplicity of it all. Bit Saturday cartoon like, not a bad thing really. Some of them worked better because of it. Like the psychotic D, despite its marginal backstory I liked the minimal approach and he’s just a wackjob.

The main cast and the heroes (and their respective quests) have been very enjoyable. Euni and Mio are the standouts. The former because of her attitude and the latter in regards to her kindness and that big fake out in chapter five. That was some good stuff. The only cast member feeling underdeveloped was poor Sena. I like her, but she’s kind of there. Noah is a typical XB hero, Lanz the comic relief together with Euni and even Taion grew on me. Of all the heroes I did not care for Ghondor. What an annoying character.

As for the ending.. that stings
Hoping

• Melia looking fondly at that sword got a grin out of me.
• Poppy still being online is both great and sad. The others
• Yeah yeah, that photo; let me start by saying there is a lot wrong with that pic; especially when you try to explain this. However, I can’t help but see Rex sitting in a chair, sweating nervously when three pregnant ladies are yelling at him. “But you said you only loved me” Nope

 

[Mr.Fletcher]

Origin is like the Godwin’s Law of XC3 discussion. It all comes back to Origin…

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Am I the only person who's just utterly ambivalent towards the Origin debate?

Like, I don't particularly care about the mechanics of it all. My personal gripes with the ending and climax are more about how it doesn't really feel super emotionally satisfying, especially compared to the previous games

 

[chocolate_supra]

• However, I can’t help but see Rex sitting in a chair, sweating nervously when three pregnant ladies are yelling at him. “But you said you only loved me”

To be fair, he pretty clearly stated that he loved her, and all those guys.

sorry, I know, I'm not trying to defend it

 

[EtherPenguin]

Did they ever say what off-seeing actually did? Did it just get rid of the husks?

 

[BradenAndEggs]

Did they ever say what off-seeing actually did? Did it just get rid of the husks?

Nothing. It’s another system of control for the soldiers to get past feelings of grief and keep fighting.

Taion discusses this after Isurd’s colony thing and Noah begins to suspect this when motes still rise from the mud puppets.

 

[Tye]

Gotta say, a lot of the response I’ve seen towards the photo with Rex and co. has been borderline (or even outright) polyphobic, which is super uncool. Not trying to single out the latest comments about it in this thread ‘cause I’ve seen worse here, not just in this thread but in the other XC3 thread too, not to mention elsewhere on the internet. But it’s just sad—and as a polyamorous person myself, kinda hurtful—to see people respond to one of the rare instances of polyamory in video games (presented in a positive/neutral and serious way, not just as a joke or fanservice) with “what the fuck” or calling it “gross” or whatever.

Like, it’s totally valid to have issues with how it’s presented or not like it for specific reasons or whatever, but if that’s the case then explain that, because otherwise when you say stuff like “I want it erased from my mind and eyes” it just comes across as at the mere thought of Rex having multiple partners and choosing to have kids with them being disgusting to you, which…I shouldn’t have to point out how awful that sounds. Absolutely nothing wrong with healthy and consensual polyamorous relationships, and it’s really fucking depressing how polyamory is still so heavily stigmatized.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Gotta say, a lot of the response I’ve seen towards the photo with Rex and co. has been borderline (or even outright) polyphobic, which is super uncool. Not trying to single out the latest comments about it in this thread ‘cause I’ve seen worse here, not just in this thread but in the other XC3 thread too, not to mention elsewhere on the internet. But it’s just sad—and as a polyamorous person myself, kinda hurtful—to see people respond to one of the rare instances of polyamory in video games (presented in a positive/neutral and serious way, not just as a joke or fanservice) with “what the fuck” or calling it “gross” or whatever.

Like, it’s totally valid to have issues with how it’s presented or not like it for specific reasons or whatever, but if that’s the case then explain that, because otherwise when you say stuff like “I want it erased from my mind and eyes” it just comes across as at the mere thought of Rex having multiple partners and choosing to have kids with them being disgusting to you, which…I shouldn’t have to point out how awful that sounds. Absolutely nothing wrong with healthy and consensual polyamorous relationships, and it’s really fucking depressing how polyamory is still so heavily stigmatized.

I've seen that a lot too.

 

[Tye]

I've seen that a lot too.

I’m sure, it’s everywhere. =/ It’s frustrating too, because if the photo in question was instead showing, say, a monogamous queer couple—let’s pretend Rex ditched the girls and got with Zeke or something, lol—and people were posting the same kind of responses towards that, they’d no doubt be called out for their homophobia by other users and maybe even be banned or at least warned for it on a forum like this one. But in this case, because polyamory still doesn’t have the same kind of public acceptance that “standard” queer people/relationships do, the polyphobia runs rampant and unchecked. It’s just…very upsetting and depressing, to say the least. =/