Yeah, like, Lanz' and Sena's lack of a presence in the plot has less to do with them not physically being there or not having lines -- it's about the way neither of them, I feel, gets a truly satisfying character arc for themselves. This is especially egregious for Sena, who gets basically no development in the main plot, and her attempt to sacrifice herself (which is entirely consistent with her flaws! Don't get me wrong, it was definitely a choice both she and Lanz would make in that situation) is dealt with by Mio going "don't ever do that again!!!". It just felt like the writers got bored with having such a big main cast. Taion and Eunie are less worse off because their arcs individually are quite strong, but they're out of the way early and are more solidly written to be supporting cast.
I have lots of bad things to say about Xenoblade 2, but I found the finale of Indol going to war with everyone a very satisfying raising-of-stakes. Xenoblade 3 was kind of the opposite. After the castles are liberated, the kingdoms stop mattering to the plot. Many mandatory characters, like Valdi, Juniper and Isurd, are literally never mentioned again. They do a really good job developing the main six' collective motivations, first from survival to learning the truth and finally to stopping Moebius and ending the war, it's just extremely graceless about the way everything else you put investment in in the game is completely irrelevant to the ending, which is all about the Lost Numbers, N and M, and Origin. The people of the kingdoms feel weirdly disposable to the plot after entering the City the first time, which stands out when the majority of the sidequest content is so focused on building a mutual aid network and liberating the colonies from the Moebius. A lot of the actual things we do in the game end up feeling incredibly incidental to the plot. The stuff about N and M comes in at the very end of the plot and completely dominates it from that point on, and once they're dealt with, the plot is over.
IDK. I feel like Xenoblade 3 could have used at least two more chapters of main plot that are focused on getting everyone the gang frees ready to help them fight Moebius together, since "learning to work together" is the majority of what actually happens in the game. The ending essentially rendering everything that happens in the game null and void doesn't bother me, but it does bother me that it leaves so many threads hanging, and considers the resolution of Noah's and N's character arcs a suitable culmination for a plot that isn't about any one individual, it's about the collective effort to move forward unto the unknown future even when it scares you. Chapter 6 felt like the midpoint of the journey, narratively, the way the battle at the end of chapter 5 was written was clearly meant to demonstrate our heroes were nowhere near capable of taking Z on yet... and then they solve it essentially by going "no, they were, Noah just didn't have his shit together sufficiently", which was really unsatisfying when the story had been about so much more than just Noah. By the time we got Mio back, with her sudden insight into the way Moebius operate, her new powers, I really thought we were gonna go back and finally free everyone from the term system, and build an army large enough to topple Z's castle in the sky and take back fate for ourselves.
And I admit that's getting into the "how I would fix XC3 narratively", but Noah beating N solves less problems than the game seems to think. Even if we ignore FR and assume that N was the first Consul, the only thing that is really special about him compared to other consuls is that he has the Sword of Origin like Noah. The free colonies are still not capable of fighting Moebius on their own, and everything that has been built up with them, every attempt the people of the kingdoms make towards bettering their own situation and getting out of a survival mindset is rendered irrelevant. It's almost like saving anyone doesn't matter, Z never feels threatened by any of the effort the gang puts in and does nothing to reassert control. We could have just as well left all the Kevesi and Agnians to kill each other to death, for all it mattered, which is a very grim conclusion when "I'm tired of other people's suffering" is what breaks Noah out of the false dichotomy of the kingdoms in the first place.
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(Lmao, god. A whole second essay)
Date: 2023-07-17 06:18 am (UTC)From:Yeah, like, Lanz' and Sena's lack of a presence in the plot has less to do with them not physically being there or not having lines -- it's about the way neither of them, I feel, gets a truly satisfying character arc for themselves. This is especially egregious for Sena, who gets basically no development in the main plot, and her attempt to sacrifice herself (which is entirely consistent with her flaws! Don't get me wrong, it was definitely a choice both she and Lanz would make in that situation) is dealt with by Mio going "don't ever do that again!!!". It just felt like the writers got bored with having such a big main cast. Taion and Eunie are less worse off because their arcs individually are quite strong, but they're out of the way early and are more solidly written to be supporting cast.
I have lots of bad things to say about Xenoblade 2, but I found the finale of Indol going to war with everyone a very satisfying raising-of-stakes. Xenoblade 3 was kind of the opposite. After the castles are liberated, the kingdoms stop mattering to the plot. Many mandatory characters, like Valdi, Juniper and Isurd, are literally never mentioned again. They do a really good job developing the main six' collective motivations, first from survival to learning the truth and finally to stopping Moebius and ending the war, it's just extremely graceless about the way everything else you put investment in in the game is completely irrelevant to the ending, which is all about the Lost Numbers, N and M, and Origin. The people of the kingdoms feel weirdly disposable to the plot after entering the City the first time, which stands out when the majority of the sidequest content is so focused on building a mutual aid network and liberating the colonies from the Moebius. A lot of the actual things we do in the game end up feeling incredibly incidental to the plot. The stuff about N and M comes in at the very end of the plot and completely dominates it from that point on, and once they're dealt with, the plot is over.
IDK. I feel like Xenoblade 3 could have used at least two more chapters of main plot that are focused on getting everyone the gang frees ready to help them fight Moebius together, since "learning to work together" is the majority of what actually happens in the game. The ending essentially rendering everything that happens in the game null and void doesn't bother me, but it does bother me that it leaves so many threads hanging, and considers the resolution of Noah's and N's character arcs a suitable culmination for a plot that isn't about any one individual, it's about the collective effort to move forward unto the unknown future even when it scares you. Chapter 6 felt like the midpoint of the journey, narratively, the way the battle at the end of chapter 5 was written was clearly meant to demonstrate our heroes were nowhere near capable of taking Z on yet... and then they solve it essentially by going "no, they were, Noah just didn't have his shit together sufficiently", which was really unsatisfying when the story had been about so much more than just Noah. By the time we got Mio back, with her sudden insight into the way Moebius operate, her new powers, I really thought we were gonna go back and finally free everyone from the term system, and build an army large enough to topple Z's castle in the sky and take back fate for ourselves.
And I admit that's getting into the "how I would fix XC3 narratively", but Noah beating N solves less problems than the game seems to think. Even if we ignore FR and assume that N was the first Consul, the only thing that is really special about him compared to other consuls is that he has the Sword of Origin like Noah. The free colonies are still not capable of fighting Moebius on their own, and everything that has been built up with them, every attempt the people of the kingdoms make towards bettering their own situation and getting out of a survival mindset is rendered irrelevant. It's almost like saving anyone doesn't matter, Z never feels threatened by any of the effort the gang puts in and does nothing to reassert control. We could have just as well left all the Kevesi and Agnians to kill each other to death, for all it mattered, which is a very grim conclusion when "I'm tired of other people's suffering" is what breaks Noah out of the false dichotomy of the kingdoms in the first place.