Fridge / Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Fridge is for post-viewing discussion, so all spoilers are unmarked.

Fridge Brilliance

• Takahashi wrote that special care was taken with the Xenoblade 3 soundtrack to include flutes in the main melody. In Xenoblade 2, flutes featured prominently in both of Uraya's overworld themes; the same titan whose remains are in Xenoblade 3's title screen. With the knowledge that this scene was planned when Xenoblade 2 had just started development, it seems like the importance of flute music has been Foreshadowed as far back as the previous game.
• Soldiers from Keves and Agnus have motifs that reflect their respective home realities. From Keves, there are Homs (Noah), Machina (Lanz) and High Entia (Eunie). From Agnus, there are Blade Eater/human (Taion), Flesh Eater/Gormotti (Mio) and Blade (Sena). Keves originates from Bionis/Mechonis from Xenoblade 1 and Agnians originate from Alrest from Xenoblade 2. Additionally from both, there are Nopon, which exist in both worlds.
• Colors:
  • Keves wears black, Agnus wears white and the Consul wears red. In chess, red is the most common color to replace white or black in a set and the Consuls are both the ones playing both sides against each other and the true enemy.
  • Keves has a mostly Western theme, while Agnus has a mostly Eastern theme. Keves also uses mostly black, while Agnus uses mostly white. These are, respectively, the proper mourning colors for Western and Eastern cultures. Considering that basically the only culture that Keves and Agnus are allowed to have at all revolves entirely around Due to the Dead, this was almost certainly intentional.
• Shape motifs:
  • The shape language present in the Kevesi and Agnian nations: Keves contains more circular motifs while Agnus is themed more around triangular/polygonal shapes. In combat, Kevesi arts are shown with the round gauge while Agnian arts have a diamond shape.
  • Though these are just features inherited from the previous games, the relevance of the shape motifs could be coincidentally linked to how each faction's art is charged: the circular Kevesi art icons charge with a fixed timer, as rounded shapes can have associations with passiveness - or in this case, patience. On the other hand, the more edged Agnian art icons need more effort to charge as it requires successful hits from the character's auto-attacks. You could argue that this fits with triangular shapes connoting more energetic and direct motifs, since the player needs to put more effort into charging those arts.
  • Might be a stretch, but the same shape associations from each nation are shared with the central swords of the previous Xenoblade games they are themed after: Keves with the more rounded Monado from Xenoblade 1, and Agnus with the sharper Aegis sword from Xenoblade 2.
• Only Agnian classes have access to Daze and Launch Master Arts while Kevesi classes have access to Burst and Smash Master Art. This could be an allusion to the amount of steps in a combo from their respective games, as Xenoblade 1 stopped at Daze, hence why they would have Master Arts for the third step in the combo. Xenoblade 2 expanded its combos to four steps, giving them Master Arts for the fourth step in the combo.
• Why is Triton able to become a Token Good Teammate amongst Moebius? While Moebius as a whole is greatly hedonistic, hedonism doesn't necessarily need to manifest in the more sadistic forms displayed by most of the other Consuls, and Triton's thirst for adventure and fighting monsters is far more benign compared to D's Serial Killing or Y being an Evilutionary Biologist. Since he still goes by (presumably) his name from before he joined the group instead of going by "T", it also implies on some level he still considers himself part of humanity rather than above it like most of the other Moebius members do.
  • In the same vein, the main reason why he's not targeted by the rest of Moebius for deciding to ally with Ouroboros is because they're so obsessed with the passage of fate, their apathy and/or dislike for one another to begin with, and their own indulgences that they simply can't be bothered as long as their own "fun" isn't directly messed with.
• Of course Nia didn't die when she was skewered through the heart by D. She never got reborn after the worlds merged, so her body operates on the same rules as Xenoblade's 2's Blades, who only die if their Core Crystal is broken and can regenerate from any other injury. D of course had no way of knowing this and thus tried to kill her as if she were a normal person. Course since her Core Crystal is near her heart Nia still notes she would have been in real danger if the hit had been aimed a bit differently.
• The game uses swears like "shit", "arse" (or "ass" for some of them), "bitch", and "piss", but instead of "fuck", we have "snuff" and "spark". Obviously, a Doylist explanation is to keep the game rated T, but an In-Universe explanation emerges when it becomes clear that Kevesi and Agnians don’t have sex, but are grown in pods. Of course they wouldn’t say "fuck" when the particular activity that word describes is wholly unknown to them.
  • Furthermore the swear-replacers seem to have etymological relevance in the context of Xenoblade 3's plot, especially when you think about everyone's lives revolving around Flame Clocks. For example, "snuff" could be to snuff out a flame, and "spark" could be to light a fire. "Ashes" is also used at times throughout the game.
  • There is one exception to this rule. J calls Ouroboros bastards during his Motive Rant in the Cloudkeep. He only uses it because he knows what a bastard is, which makes sense as Moebius are privy to information about sex and heritage. Nia also calls D a bastard, but she has lived for longer than Aionios has existed.
• The Colony 9 bathhouse scene in the first chapter seems to not have a lot of reason for being there at all. It may come as a surprise that there's no typical perverse hijinks that usually come with a bathing scene in a JRPG, especially considering the mixed gender nature of the bath. However, this all makes sense when you realize that soldiers of Keves and Agnus have no concept of sexuality at all.
  • Furthermore, the Flame Clocks suppressing feelings of love and sexuality makes their subjects into better soldiers. A soldier that feels empathy, love, and attraction isn't going to kill others as easily and may start to question why they're even doing it in the first place.
• Aside from using the Class section interface to determine which party member has the highest growths in, signified by a S rank, the designated Class Inheritors to their Heroes tend to show how the respective Inheritor helps a Hero grow in their initial recruitment quests by having the most significant interaction throughout. Not necessarily the most interaction, but the most meaningful.
  • For Ethel's initial recruitment, although all three Kevesi Ouroboros knew and admired her from the past, Noah is made to be her Class Inheritor. One significant reason being that aside from Mio, Ethel was stated to be the only other person to notice how special Noah's sword is.
  • For Valdi, he is shown to be getting along a bit more with Lanz, while Lanz himself provided the most encouragement for building Levnises for purposes aside from senseless fighting during his recruitment quest.
  • Zeon has a similar case to Ethel due to having history with Noah, Lanz, and Eunie. In his case, Noah is the one to get through to him that despite events of him becoming Ouroboros and the subsequent desertion causing problems for Colony 9, they can still be friends despite things never returning to the way they used to be.
  • Teach has Mio designated as his Class Inheritor for a number of probable reasons. Aside from having been the Commander of the Agnian Ouroboros trio, Teach most likely considers Mio to be his best student, whose dedication to fight against the Consuls and Moebius proved enough to earn passing remarks in his trial.
  • Riku and Manana naming Sena as their Class Inheritor may be due to Sena having the most empathy and support towards their actions during their Hero Quest. The Class Rankings also seem to indicate how well their relationship with the Nopon are, with Noah being A due to his history with Riku, Mio and Taion being B, Eunie at C, and Lanz at D due to how frequently he tends to butt heads with either of them.
  • Eunie takes the most issue when it came to Gray initially attacking them, leading her to have the most consistently significant reactions with the terse-talking agent of the City.
  • Taion is a given for Isurd from their history, on top of their considerable tactical prowess, when Taion was previously in Colony Lambda.
  • Noah breaks Juniper out their initial fatalist mindset and convinces them to find new meaning in life to help Colony Tau grow.
  • While Lanz is established to be Ashera's biggest fan among the Ouroboros, Eunie has the most interactions with her, involving her calling out Ashera's bloodlust and suicidal tendencies at nearly every turn.
  • Alexandria and Taion are shown butting heads over strategy, with him considering her too reckless and Alexandria thinking of Taion as too set in his ways.
  • While Monica interacts with all of the party equally, she and Eunie have meaningful conversations on the nature of humanity and legacy, which is why Eunie is her Class Inheritor.
  • Lanz is shown to be protective of Fiona during her quest, and is dealing with similar trauma as she is, what with both of them struggling to cope with a former friend joining Moebius. She's also shown taking Lanz's philosophy that there's a difference between being ready to die, and actively trying to get yourself killed, to heart.
  • In contrast to his supportive friendship with Fiona, Lanz openly butts heads with Triton, initially out of skepticism due to the latter being a Consul and part of Moebius. Though after a number of competitive challenges during the Hero Quest, Lanz and Triton have something akin to a fire-forged friendship by the end.
  • Ghondor and Sena get along the best amongst the main party, and they both have complicated relationships with Shania.
  • Mio being Miyabi's Class Inheritor is fairly straightforward due to their history, particularly Mio learning what it means to be an off-seer from her.
  • Although Ouroboros didn't have much interaction with Cammuravi aside from witnessing his previous incarnation's duel to the death with the previous Ethel, it is Taion who helps his latest incarnation realize that there was more to their life than fighting, and is the one who suggests that he move to the City after his rebirth.
  • Sena was the most proactive in giving No. 7 Segiri her own identity, as well as eventually helping her and Colony 0 stand on their own as individual humans with help from the other Ouroboros.
  • While Mio is Nia's Class Inheritor because of their implied family connection, Noah is Melia's because he likely reminds her a lot of Shulk, and also because she created his Sword of the End.
  • While not a leader nor involved with the Keves-Agnus war, Ino names Noah as her Class Inheritor. However, as the proclaimed "Champon" of the Nopon, Ino's recognition and fame among the Nopon is on par of a respected commander. Additionally, just as Noah provided significant help to the Heroes he inherits from, his take on helping Ino is becoming her Driver despite their combined might only showing in cutscenes and not in actual gameplay.
  • Out of the Ouroboros, Masha takes a particular liking to Mio and names her as her Class Inheritor. At first, she states that Mio has potential as a model. However, she's also the head of House Cassini, whose statue in the Founders' Memorial Hall is represented by Founder Cassini's mentor, Rex. As Mio is implied to be the daughter of both Rex and Nia, Masha might see her family's mentor (and philosophical influencer) in Mio.
  • The main characters' starting classes all follow a similar pattern. Each has an A rank with their Ouroboros partner's class (who they share thoughts and memories with), a B rank with the other two of their nation (who they have fought alongside for awhile), and a C or D rank with the last two. Sena's happy-go-lucky personality allows her to get along with the rest of the party, hence why she has none of these classes at D rank, while Taion had joined the company of Mio & Sena (and possibly Manana) later, making him a bit more aloof towards Noah and Lanz, with their classes at D rank for him.
• Most of Noah's D-rank classes (Incursor, Thaumaturge, and Seraph) also have a theme behind them; they all come from commanders with a reputation for sacrificing their troops to achieve a larger goal. Obviously someone who places a high value on human life like Noah is going to have a harder time picking out the useful parts of their philosophy rather than adopting it wholesale like someone else would. Noah might even see it as a bit too close to a Consul's mindset (specifically N's) for comfort.
• The boss music for Consul M is a unique remix of the Moebius battle theme that heavily features the flute that plays in other battle themes. Later, it is revealed that not only is M working against Moebius, but shortly before their battle, she and Mio swapped bodies. In truth, it was an indicator that you have been fighting Mio the whole time.
  • Another hint that Mio and M had switched bodies is how "Mio" is oddly resigned to her fate. Besides the fact that Mio has been silently dreading her Homecoming, the party would no doubt be in danger once she passes too. The Reveal explains two things in hindsight: why "Mio" was so content at dying (M had been wanting to die for centuries) and the meaning behind her speech to Noah (knowing that N could not be convinced to let her move on, M's parting words may have been a way to get Noah to learn to live without her and thus avoid making the same choice to become Moebius as his past counterpart has).
  • It also explains why M was able to mimic the fighting styles of the people she possessed. Mio's Ouroboros powers let her master their classes.
• Toward the end of Chapter 5, when the party is locked up for a month, Mio is kept in a separate cell from the others. The reason becomes clear when we learn that those who reach their Homecoming are Killed Off for Real, with no reincarnation: Moebius didn't want Mio’s friends Mercy Killing her so at least she'd reincarnate.
  • It was also likely intended to further torment them. By placing her in the cell next door instead of across, the party were unable to see her for the entire month they were locked up, only hearing her voice.
• During the ending Eunie refers to Taion as her "fourth best bud". While it can come off as simply her trying to troll him for one last time at first glance, Eunie calling Taion that gains greater significance when you remember her belief in Fourtune Clovers. She's essentially calling Taion her lucky charm.
• Ethel's Cleavage Window seems random. Sure, the soldiers have No Nudity Taboo, but they aren't trying to intentionally show skin, they just wear whatever is practical to fight in. An extra hole in the chest area provides no benefit. However, her life tattoo is on her cleavage. Generally speaking, the soldiers prefer to wear clothes so that the tattoo is visible. Ethel isn't trying to be sexy, she's just displaying her tattoo. Eunie likely does the same for similar reasons.
• The base TP for all playable characters and the Heroes during a Chain Attack appear to correlate to how intelligent and well-versed in battle tactics they have proved to be from cutscenes and interactions. For example, Isurd has the highest base TP of 40, having been established as the most brilliant tactician in Aionios. Meanwhile, Triton has the lowest base TP of 10, possibly referring to his senility. There are also unique cases when reading on how a Hero affects a Chain Attack, such as with Valdi, who starts at a base TP of 20, gains 50 TP if facing a Machine foe, referencing his aptitude as a mechanic. Teach's and Fiona's unique Chain Attack ability boosts everybody else's TP when selected, reflecting on Teach playing an instructor role and Fiona being a supportive student, respectively. Nia's 15 TP seems oddly low for her, considering her role in creating Origin, but when you think about her personality and how she acts when fighting it makes perfect sense: she's much more aggressive and impulsive in battle, and while she's capable of feats of intelligence in non-combat situations, when she's fighting someone, she clearly prefers the same "let's just beat 'em up" approach that Lanz and Sena favor, hence why her TP is at their level.
  • Within Ouroboros, Taion is the established tactician with a base of 35, shortly below Isurd and the experienced Monica. He is also notably tied with Ghondor, who despite her foul mouth and rough personality is the top candidate for Ouroboros in the City. Noah follows at 30 as he is shown to be very perceptive of his surroundings in general. One example of this is from his battle with Mio, in which he was able to read and predict her movements just by knowing the Agnian off-seer melody alone. Mio and Eunie are next at a base of 25, displaying neither outstanding moments of brilliance nor stupidity. Though since Eunie does state that she takes her education seriously, she could have been on the same level as Noah if her emotions didn't overcloud her judgment. Then there's Lanz and Sena, both at a base of 15, with both preferring to focus more on brawn than brain.
• Monica and Ghondor joining the party for the final battle seems random until you remember that they're Guernica's family. The Vandhams kicked off this journey, and so they'll also see it to the end too.
  • The Future Redeemed DLC amplified this further by introducing us to the Vandham founder, Matthew. Not only are they carrying on Guernica's spirit, but Matthew's (and by extension, grandfather Ghondor and great-grandparents N & M)as well.
• Monica and Ghondor being classified as Agnian heroes while Gray is classified as a Kevesi one seems arbitrarily, until you consider the possibility of Guernica being descended from the Vandham of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, who was an Urayan from Alrest who had the same voice and a similar appearance. This is also alluded to in the positions of their irises; The Vandhams have their iris in their left eye, while Gray has his iris in his right. In Nia's Ascension Quest, she all but confirms this, saying she's paid attention to Ghondor because she remembers the original Vandham's effect on her own journey.
• Poppi being stashed away with Nia may seem arbitrary. However, considering that Origin contained a large number of Core Crystals with the implied intent to rebuild the world much the same way they built Alrest, Poppi is notably neither a Blade nor a living being, so who knows what her odds are of getting transferred over correctly? It's only sensible for Nia to physically bring her over.
• Guernica Vandham has a "Eureka!" Moment when he realizes that Ouroboros needed to consist of people from both Agnus and Keves and activates the Egg then and there, telling the team that their uniting is what Moebius truly fears instead of just Ouroboros alone. In hindsight, had the Candidates from the City been made Ouroboros, they would have failed due to being complete strangers to both nations since they didn't have a common point with them to eventually bring them all together against Moebius in the end.
• In most settings, both Real Life and otherwise, including the prior Xenoblade games, countries are generally contiguous, all in one place. However, in Aionios, Agnus and Keves are made entirely of exclaves and enclaves, all mixed up. This serves the purpose of the Forever War: With no heartland, there is no place where Kevesi or Agnians are safe from attack, reinforcing the idea that everyone has to fight.
• Sena’s outfits tend to show the most skin of all characters, which is appropriate considering that she’s a female Alrest Blade, and female Blades largely served as Ms. Fanservice in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
• N making the decision to join Moebius and resurrect M may be heavily influenced by the fact that the incarnation that made the decision no doubt had the longest and most intimate time with her, seeing as they had a child. He was also the incarnation that lived the longest past her death, as the other versions of Noah died not too long after Mio.
• N and M's son apparently does not have a mark, and does not have the lifespan of the Kevesi and Agnians, seeing as he was able to have a family of his own. This makes sense, as he would not be registered into Origin. It also explains why Moebius keeps the nations apart and inhibits their romantic and sexual drives, as well as why the City, despite having people descended from the Founders which include a Kevesi and an Agnian, also do not have marks.
• Sort of mixed with Fridge Tear Jerker, but if Mio really is Rex and Nia's child in the ending photo, then she was probably born in Leftheria, where the picture was taken. That region became the Erythia Sea in Aionios, where Agnus Castle is now. Mio's (or rather, M's) Homecoming really was a homecoming for her, even if she wasn't aware of it.
• Taion knows a lot about Aionios and its colonies for someone with a limited lifespan. When he casually reveals that the Survey Branch he works for doubles as Agnus's spy network in Isurd's Ascension Quest, it makes sense why he knows so much about places he hasn't visited and people he hasn't met before.
• Lanz's predilection for learning Healer classes seems a little odd at first for someone who is typically depicted in cutscenes as a Mighty Glacier. But he's someone with a strong Big Brother Instinct who has deep insecurities over his inability to protect and save others, and what better way to do that than to back them up as a White Mage or Support Party Member? Also, while his healing stat is the lowest of the party, there's also practical benefits to having him as the healer, since his higher HP stat makes him a little more likely to survive being targeted by enemies long enough to get the rest of the party back up to speed.
  • The only two Healer classes Lanz has below-average ranks in are Tactician and Strategos. This makes perfect sense when you consider Lanz is characterized as being very Book Dumb with only 15 TP in Chain Attacks, while both classes are associated with characters who have very high TP values and are known in the story for their intelligence and learnedness.
• Sena and Lanz's Ouroboroses learning attacks named after Pyra and Mythra's Blade Specials (Flame Nova and Ray of Punishment respectively) makes a lot of sense given their arcs about learning to overcome their self-sacrificial impulses and Lanz's Survivor's Guilt, making them spiritual inheritors of these characters' legacies.
• The symbols of Ouroboros and Moebius both represent infinity. The serpent eating its own tail represents infinity as cycle of creation and destruction; the serpent eats its own tail, ending one's existence to give way to a new one. In some traditions, the Ouroboros also represents unity, the serpent's head and tail being two worlds united. The Mobius strip represents infinity as an endless cycle with no escape, capable of sustaining itself and only sustaining itself. It will last forever, but will never change.
• When you take a look at Eunie's inherited classes, you see that two of them are Tanks and the last is an Attacker gearing her more towards physical damage than towards healing. Also, the sparring match against Garvel's team shows her acting more as a long range shooter than the Combat Medic we see nowadays, and we see that at least one of her previous incarnations was the best sharpshooter in Colony 18 prior to its destruction by D. It is therefore very likely she took up healing duties following Joran's death, either as her way to remember him or as a way to fill the void in her group. One side quest even mentions that when it comes to medical knowledge outside of healing arts that Eunie only learned enough to get by for the role, and that it hadn't been the focus of most of her training.
• The upgraded name for Noah's Veiled Sword, Truthsinger, is quite fitting as through cutting down the Flame Clocks and playing his off-seer flute, Noah is singing truth against the lies of the Consuls.
• Why does Taion have the highest Dexterity (Accuracy) stat among the party? Because he's the only one wearing glasses to see things clearly with, naturally.
• Despite everyone being classified as just "human", there's some very clearly inhuman parts about any of the soldiers on either the Agnian or Kevesi side. No one bats an eye at the fact that Eunie has wings on her head or that Mio has cat ears. Makes sense though, both sides are just an amalgamation of the inhabitants of the Bionis and Alrest, just warped and twisted into becoming Child Soldiers, of course none of them would even think much about the differences between the two, and they also usually don't even live long enough to think otherwise. It also makes the trip to the City for Ouroboros that much more eye opening— they see people in a way they never have before, ranging from seeing the miracle of child birth, to seeing people visibly age and get older. It's also implied multiple times that being connected to a Flame Clock instills some sort of perception filter that keeps the people from recognizing the physical differences as being at all notable.
• It takes until the eve of Mio's Homecoming for Mio to finally use Noah's name. She admits it's because she thought that if she did, she would be admitting her feelings for him and subsequently break her heart. Later, we learn that since Mio and M switched bodies, this was M saying this, though Mio carried the same sentiment. But in hindsight, this fact relates to N and M's relationship: namely, that they never use each other's real names. Even when N is speaking about Mio directly, it's always "the girl." The only time he uses her name before The Reveal is to mock Noah ("your Mio", which also serves as an ironic echo to M saying "my Noah"). N and M not using each other's names were Foreshadowing to their emotionally-distant relationship, and in N's case, an example of how N doesn't even treat her like a person.
  • The use of initials for all the Consuls in Moebius is also a good way to show how they have distanced themselves from their humanity. In X, Y, and Z's case, it's because they were never human to begin with. It's telling that when Moebius S and J die as themselves, their original names are used.
  • Combine that with Mio's plea that M wanted N to "Go back to the name Noah" and "call her by the name Mio;" she wanted him to break away from Moebius' dehumanization and dissociation from humanity and return to the fight against Moebius once more.
• Why does M, who is actually Mio, say "my Noah" when talking to the "current" Noah? Because he is essentially what she wanted N to be, the kind of person she really loved and wanted to spend her life with. N, meanwhile, makes a clear distinction between the two Mios when he says "your Mio" to Noah, and even after the reveal that Mio inherited M's memories doesn't even think of treating her as (essentially) M's reincarnation, instead wanting to "go back". This gets taken further with the reveal that "our" Noah and Mio were born from the hopes and dreams their Evil Counterparts cast off upon becoming Moebius: while M is their Token Good Teammate who helps the heroes succeed where she and N failed, N is driven by little except his obsession with M and actively tries to kill Noah who reminds him of his failures.
• The Eastern aesthetic of Agnus is reflective of the fact that the Wutai-inspired Tornans in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 worshipped Blades, who all had distinctly Japanese names in the original script. With almost the entire army being made up of Blades, it makes sense that their culture would follow suit.
• Why do we have Jingoistic Gigantus instead of Territorial Rotbart as in the previous two games? Because Territorial Rotbart was part of parallel universes created by Klaus, and Jingoistic Gigantus is a descendant.
• Lucky Seven:
  • Lucky Seven's true name, "Sword of the End," and its title when using Noah and Mio's Ouroboros transformation, "Origin Blade," both speak to its connection to the original game. The "Monad" from which "Monado" is derived is the idea of a single original substance. And Alvis proclaims, "I am Monado. I was here at the beginning. And I will proclaim the end." Lucky Seven's two alternate titles speak to the fact that it is the game's equivalent to the Monado.
  • Lucky Seven's two alternate titles also set it up as an inverse to the Monado - It was there at the end (created, like the rest of Origin, at the coming destruction of Bionis and Alrest) and will proclaim the beginning (by slaying Z and allowing the two worlds to be reborn.)
  • Noah easily blocking the Lambda Ferronis' laser with his blade's gauntlet form seems like a pretty big case of Ass Pull on the surface until you remember that it's been serving as a container for the game's Infinity +1 Sword Lucky Seven. That weapon can cut through basically everything in the setting once drawn, and yet Noah's blade serves as a sheath without any issue. It's literally the genuinely immovable object to Lucky Seven's otherwise unstoppable force, so blocking anything short of that is basically child's play.
  • If you target a human enemy with Lucky Seven out, Noah will flip to the dull edge because he doesn't want to kill anyone. If you target Moebius, however, he'll still use the sharp edge, because he does want to kill them.
• The core of Origin is positively littered with thousands of massive Core Crystals, which has profound implications for the otherwise unaddressed logistics of how it functions.
  • It's implied that humanity's existence was preserved and recorded using Core Crystal technology, which also explains why everyone is capable of generating Blades. Everyone is functionally some kind of Flesh Eater. Likewise, Z, as the administrator of Origin, functions similar to a Master Driver. It's why he can give and remove powers at will, as technically all human lives within Aionios are his Blades.
  • Origin is essentially an enormous artificial Titan, given that 2 established Titans as amalgamates of sufficient amounts of data in the form of Core Crystals. Tora being the head architect for Alrest's half of Origin is a completely logical development given that Titans are evolved Blades, and he was the one who invented Artificial Blades in the first place.
• From whom an Ouroboros member inherits a class follows a theme with that character:
  • Noah inherits classes from commanders and leaders who explicitly struggle with how the Keves-Agnian conflict and the Flame Clock system affects their ability to protect their people: Ethel is very much My Country, Right or Wrong and departs the party and Colony 4 to report to Keves Castle directly; Zeon is the Keves trio's friend-turned-commander of Colony 9, having branded them traitors for becoming Ouroboros and later dealing with the consequences of Colony 9 turning traitor themselves; Juniper commands a colony that has elected itself out of the Flame Clock system and similarly struggles with the consequences of such; and finally, Melia is the real Queen of Keves, but was captured and sealed while Moebius used her name and status to create the Forever War to begin with. The outstanding exception is DLC Hero, Ino, who is not a conventional leader, names Noah as her Driver when she sees him utilizing the Class change function from his Iris during a cutscene, and was directed to stay out of human affairs, which includes the Keves-Agnus war; however, Ino's reputation as the "Champon" of the Nopon puts her on par with that of a respected commander.
  • Mio inherits classes from people whom she shares a deep personal connection: her commander and mentor Teach, her closest friend Miyabi, and the true queen she admires (and maybe mother) Nia. At first, the DLC Hero, Masha, seems to be an exception on account of being from the City. That is, until you learn she is the head of House Cassini, whose founder was a pupil of Rex, Mio's likely father with Nia.
  • Eunie inherits classes from characters whom personality or lifestyle clashes with hers: namely Gray and his standoffish personality and Ashera and her Blood Knight lifestyle. The Full Metal Jacket class is a class that uses firearms, which also relates to Eunie's natural talent as a sharpshooter. The exception is Lost Vanguard from Monica, who instead helps her understand the nature of her life better and helps Eunie accept herself, essentially helping Eunie stop clashing with her past lives memories.
  • Taion inherits classes from exceptionally intelligent people: Isurd, his former commander and the Hero with by far the highest base TP at 40; Alexandria, who forcibly took command of her colony and figured out the nature of the war before most other characters; and Cammuravi, who was immortalized as a brilliant strategist and warrior.
  • Lanz inherits classes from Heroes that fit his personality. He inherits classes from Valdi and Fiona, young Heroes with healer classes, to play on his naturally protective instincts as well as his connection to Joran, who was a child and a healer when he died. While Triton doesn't fit this part of his character, he fits another part: Lanz's Butt-Monkey status, often getting poked fun at by the rest of Ouroboros on account of Lanz's Dumb Muscle moments and his brash, boisterous nature. Much like Lanz, Triton is treated pretty much the same by his crew, with all of them usually getting fed up with his antics.
  • Sena is the only party member to only inherit classes that fit her role of Attacker, befitting her straightforward nature. The Heroes she inherits from are also all girls her age or younger (while Yumsmith is both Manana and Riku's class, as an Agnian, Sena's appearance in the class takes after Manana).
• Ino's class is Noponic Defender, and it's an Agnian Defender class. From a gameplay perspective, this is meant to give Agnians another Defender class to play with (as, other than Mio's Zephyr class, they only have just the one in Lost Vanguard), but it also makes sense story wise. As the Agnians hail from Alrest, Ino brings to mind Poppi, created by the Nopon mechanic Tora. She even has an Inoswap skill tree mechanic as an equivalent to Poppi's Poppiswap.
  • The Noponic Defender has the only non-Ouroboros Break art that doesn't require it to be executed on an enemy's side. Either it's due to attacker classes requiring flanking maneuvers to execute combos (and the Noponic Defender being a Defender class), or a reference to how this requirement was never present in the world of Alrest.
• Colony 4 being demoted to Dirt rank because Ethel spared Cammuravi seems like a strange choice on paper given that it means Cammuravi can return to the frontlines, allowing them to have a powerful soldier that would continue fighting. The reveal later that Colonies that reach Gold get harvested, and that Homecoming is basically what allows one to be Killed Off for Real, explains why they would do so: Ethel was a powerful tool to have, sure, but she also was on the verge of perhaps the single strongest Colony at the time being ripe for the taking. Ethel sparing Cammuravi not only prevents Colony 4 from getting their Flame Clock to max, thus making them not able to truly reach Gold and be harvested by Moebius, but it also throws a wrench in the Forever War, since Cammuravi surviving means he cannot be reborn yet, making it possible he could survive long enough to reach his Homecoming rather than die in the field.
• Why was Taion so hesitant to get in the water with the rest of the party in Chapter 2? It wasn't just about being vigilant like he claimed it to be, it's because diving in like that is a legitimate Trauma Button for him due to bringing back memories of Nimue's death. For Gameplay and Story Segregation and pragmatic reasons he'll still swim if necessary, but not any more than that. Likewise his swimsuit costume is more appropriate for hanging around on the beach than actually getting in the water to reflect that fact. Mio's wellness check on him in Erythia might initially seem like an implication of him being seasick, but was more likely her expressing understanding and concern over the risk of being seaborne as a possible PTSD trigger for him. And Eunie throwing him into a spring at the end of Isurd's Ascension Quest despite his initial reluctance to get in might have been her way of helping him overcome this issue.
  • It's also quite the Ironic Fear, given that Taion grew up in a Colony completely surrounded by water, his Tactician class has abilities named after water phenomena, and the mentor whose death broke him has a name that references water in both English and Japanese^note Her Japanese name "Nami" means "wave", and her English name Nimue references The Lady of the Lake.
  • Taion's very weapon also has some ironic significance related to water, given that the purpose of katashiro in traditional Shinto rituals is to absorb a target's misfortune and be placed in a stream or some other kind of running water to "wash away one's sins", cleansing the target of impurities.
• Colony Mu is pronounced as "mew" or "moo" in-universe, so it makes sense Mu is the colony with the Armu-raising minigame.
• Isurd is implied to be a light element Blade. His colony is named after the Greek letter used to indicate the wavelength of light.
• By the time you sail the Eryithea Sea, everyone in Ouroboros will be wearing their eyepatches, to prevent Moebius from tracking them. No wonder then that Triton, ironically being one of Moebius, takes such a liking to them— not just for their strength and kindness, but they're all wearing eyepatches like a typical pirate would too.
• When people (and creatures) in Aionios die, they often disintegrate and fade in a blue light, much like how Blades fade when they die. Also like Blades, they are reborn with no surface memories of their past life, though the experiences and feelings remain.
• Characters often say something to the effect of "We owe our lives to the Queen", something meant to be seen as a lie to uphold the conflict between both sides. However, the late game reveals about Origin make this Metaphorically True: It was because of the Queens these people exist at all since they were stored within Origin to ensure they survived the two worlds attempt to recombine. So in a sense, yes, all the people from Keves and Agnus owe their lives to the Queens.
• Keves and Agnus each have their own salute (holding up a fist for Keves and placing their hand over their heart for Agnus), which makes sense as they are two different factions. They may seem arbitrary but the Agnes salute has a clear reason behind it, that's where Nia's core crystal is.
• Ghondor has a surprisingly high TP at 35, which is the same as Taion's. While she came first place among her cohort for the Ouroboros exam, getting herself captured by Agnus isn't exactly a high TP move. However, it makes more sense when you realise she was directly involved in M's Batman Gambit and might have gotten herself captured on purpose.
• If you take the game's release date (July 30th, 2022) as the day the game officially begins, then add three months, then Mio's Homecoming (and in a way her birthday) would fall in late October. That's just a few days (or even 1 day depending on how you measure months) from Halloween and All Saint's Day, which in our world marks a time for remembering the dead, especially saints, martyrs, and the faithfully departed. If any holiday in our world would still hold significance in Aionios (especially for an Off-Seer), that would be it.
  • There was even a (partial) solar eclipse on October 25th of that year. Quite the coincidence, no?
• Z caps off the franchise villains who represent future, past, and present.
  • Zanza represented a dark future. He used visions and prophecies to manipulate the world, all to perpetuate what is essentially a massive farming project—preparing food for the future. He is defeated by Shulk using his prophecy powers against him, breaking free to the future.
  • Malos represented the dark past. Not only is every single one of his allies obsessed with getting revenge for something that happened in the past, real or imagined, but he relies entirely on ancient weapons, from the last Torna warship to the Artifices themselves. He is defeated by his sisters taking control of those weapons themselves and then destroying most of them so that the world can move on.
  • Z represented a dark present, humanity's horrible wish for an "Endless Now." He trapped the world in a Forever War ruled by immortals, everything as close to perpetual and unchanging as he can make it. He is defeated by six of those soldiers he trapped rising up, inspiring nearly everyone else to do the same, breaking the shackles of the present and agreeing to move forward.
• Gold-rank Colonies being immediately harvested by Moebius serves another purpose aside from them having rich life energy - it also allows them to get rid of any colony that's too good at fighting to the point it'd uneven the balance of power in the war. They kill off their best soldiers the moment one side might look like they have an advantage to keep the war locked in a stalemate forever.
• Z being The Heartless who doesn't even do much for most of the game seems at odds with how much of a Crapsack World Aionios is compared to the original twin worlds. What kind of people would wish for that, even out of fear of unknown future? But a lot of aspects of Aionios can be read as a Be Careful What You Wish For version of humanity's wishes, filtered through a computer:
  1. The most useful resource is life energy, a natural, endlessly renewable resource that is easily available... as long as one is fine with killing.
  2. Everyone basically has Resurrective Immortality and eternal youth. Sure, they only live for a decade at a time, and that's if they're lucky, but that's an expected consequence, no?
  3. Everyone is aware exactly how long they're going to live, and there are even convenient marks to show one's remaining lifespan. No one has to worry about randomly being struck down by disease.
  4. There's no Fantastic Racism because nobody knows what race even is (and it doesn't really matter anyway since everyone is born from pods).
  5. No concept of family or romantic attraction prevents scenarios like Star-Crossed Lovers and such. Ironically, Noah managing to get into one of those anyway is what allowed Z to get him on his side, essentially kickstarting the plot of the game by allowing the "current" Noah to be born.
  6. In the real world, a common source of dread is not knowing what you're meant to do with your life. In Aionios, you know exactly what you're meant to do: Fight the enemy, honor the Queens. Simple and straightforward.
• Nia, who is from Alrest, made the Ouroboros Stones, which are an evolution of the Driver/Blade bonds; the space where the Ouroboros exist while Interlinked is even the same shade of yellow as a Level 4 combo. Meanwhile Melia, who is from the Bionis, made the Sword of the End, which is an evolution of the replica Monado, able to cut through anything in the world; its ability to transform its sheathe into armor even brings to mind the Monado's transformation mechanics.
• It is mentioned that Agnian off-seers sometimes work in pairs, a custom that doesn't appear to exist on the Kevesi side beyond the mentor/student relationships such as the one Noah had with Crys. This seems to be a random plot point included for the sake of explaining why Mio was so quick to bond with Noah... until you realize the composition of the Agnian army: many of them have traits indicating that, if their pre-Aionios selves weren't outright Blades, they might have had Blade ancestry. The original Alrestian Blades were Guardian Entity type beings who required a Driver to exist in their normal form, with an equal relationship between the two producing stronger powers.
  (Mio in particular is an interesting example, as she is visibly a Flesh Eater Blade; those could both function as regular Blades and bond with other Blades as their Drivers.)
• Moebius Interlink ability seems like a case of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, as only two pairs of them ever do this, with one pair accidentally self-destructing when their Interlink overheats (foreshadowing the eventual fate of the second pair). But the majority of the Moebius don't particularly care about each other, with only a few choosing to work together in the first place, and as seen with D and J some of them wouldn't even mind pulling a Taking You with Me on their partner under the right circumstances. They simply can't trust each other enough to Interlink in the first place. It also says a lot that the one pair you'd expect to Interlink at some point, N and M, never actually does that, given that M wants to be free from Moebius.
• It might be surprising to many, but Nia marrying Rex despite being with Pyra and Mythra isn't that out of character for either four:
  • While he may have seemingly misunderstood Nia's Love Confession, Rex did later realize what she meant and wished to talk about it. While we didn't know how he felt at the time, Rex was aware of Nia's feelings and felt bad if he crushed her heart (with Nia seemingly doesn't mind it and was just happy to be loved.)
  • Pyra being okay with Nia joining in their relationship isn't that far off. Pyra, back in their game, didn't mind Rex having more than one Blade (as she stated, "the more the merrier"), showing that Pyra isn't the jealous type and would not have minded Nia being apart of their family. Even in the New Game Plus Title Scene shows that Pyra was the first one to welcome Nia into their group before Rex does. Similarly to Mythra, Pyra didn't mind Mythra being in love with Rex, so why would she be jealous of Nia.
  • Mythra wouldn't be the jealous type either because she was fine with Pyra being in love with Rex (helps that the two shared the same body previously), and Mythra most likely went along with it.
  • Nia being fine in this relationship structure make sense as she was seemingly part of a royal family before the main series, and they often have this kind of family structure. Not to mention she had strong connection with Pyra and Mythra during their game series, so there was most likely not much jealousy during the relationship. That is also not to mention the amount of Ship Tease Nia had for Pyra and Mythra, especially during the New Game Plus title screen where she can push Rex out of the way and hold Pyra and Mythra's hand instead.
• While Zeon's Ascension Quest might be That One Sidequest due to its immense tedium, it's also a perfect display of just how difficult it would actually be for a society who spent their entire lives under the Flame Clock system to transition to a new way of life, and how difficult farming can be in general.
• Why is the instrument of choice a flute? Because they're small, easy to make and easy to carry. Perfect for people who are expected to fight on the battlefield and then perform their duties immediately after.
• Noah and Mio have blue and gold eyes, respectively. These are the same colors used to represent the Bionis/Mechonis and Alrest in the explanation of the two worlds colliding. Their story also parallels the story of the worlds; they seemed drawn to each other over their lifetimes (just like the twin worlds), their love turned toxic and they trapped themselves in the Endless Now over their fears of the future (just like how the people's fears created Z and Aionios), and it only ends when they finally accept that they have to let nature take its course.
• Fitting the Arc Number of 7, the protagonist Noah is the seventh Noah we know of. While there are implied to be countless other incarnations, we only explicitly see seven:
  1. The child Noah from XC1's world shown in the beginning and end.
  2. The Noah that died on the battlefield to Z.
  3. The Noah that died inside Origin (also to Z).
  4. The Noah that ran away & died with Mio in the snow.
  5. The Noah that had a child with Mio.
  6. Moebius N (given that N was given the memories of all of his past lives, he was essentially a different person from the 5th Noah, who we know died anyway so N could also be considered a reincarnation of sorts of Noah 5).
  7. Noah the protagonist.
• The three protagonists of the series are, technically, all related (despite being in different universes). Shulk, as Zanza's chosen host body, is technically Klaus. Rex married Pyra and Mythra, Klaus' daughters, meaning he's technically Shulk's son in law. And a past Noah married Mio, who is (probably) Rex's daughter, making him Rex's son in law if you count past lives.
• Melia and Nia have good reason to believe their worlds will be merged together safely in the future, after all the people of the City are "future lives" according to Melia, and Ghondor takes it as fact she will be born eventually. But for that to happen, characters who are the result of people from Alrest and Bionis having children together will presumably need to meet again. House Vandham itself consists of descendants of an incarnation of Noah and Mio. So the original Noah and Mio would likely have to meet and have children for Monica and later Ghondor to be born once time starts up again.
• Both Consul D and N mention the "passage of fate" by name, despite that only being used in the first Xenoblade Chronicles game in reference to Zanza. Future Redeemed reveals that Origin was built around the Ontos core - and its previous incarnation was Alvis, from whom Zanza drew his power from as the Bionis. Suddenly, the Moebius using that term doesn't feel so out of place after all.
• Ino's mysterious knowledge of how Drivers work in the traditional Alrestian ways makes a lot more sense with Future Redeemed revealing that those who are not tied to the Flame Clock and lifespan tattoo systems are able to retain their memories of the old world. It's implied that all Nopon are like this, and being a Nopon creation, either Ino was imported into Aionios just as she was, or her creator Oosoo was able to just tell her all about it with knowledge from the old world.
• Many of the generic sidequests you complete for the various colonies eventually lead to colonies and their leaders forming friendships with the other side. For example, Fiona and Triton, Alexandria and Valdi, Ashera and Teach, Zion and Juniper are from the opposite armies, but learn to overcome their differences and unite against the Consuls as a sign of a better way to live. Future Redeemed reveals that there is a purpose to this, as Moebius and the eternal war are fueled by the two worlds' residual fear of the Origin experiment failing, whereas the will to live in harmony with each other is the driving force necessary for the two worlds to merge properly. In the end, thanks to the party's efforts, the latter is what wins out and allows the worlds to safely recombine as one.
• The reveal that Ouroboros is powered by Pneuma explains why all successful Ouroboros candidates have the exclusive ability to change and learn others' classes. While Blades work a little differently inside Aionios, essentially they're all become Master Drivers.
• Speaking of which, in the base game, it was implied that the Ouroboros Stones, which gave off a mysterious green glow, were created by Nia somehow, presumably off of Blade/Driver technology. Future Redeemed reveals that Ouroboros in general is ultimately powered by the Pneuma core itself. A mentions that the Trinity Processor Cores ultimately require an avatar/Driver to channel their abilities, so most likely Pneuma was given to Nia for safekeeping. It also explains why she has their two swords manifest behind her in addition to her own. As a Flesh Eater, she has the abilities to function as Pyra and Mythra's Driver within Aionios.
  • Amusingly, this potentially drives the implied Ho Yay between Nia and the Aegises even further. The second game states that Drivers and Blades share their heart and soul, a relationship that was always ripe for romantic tension, and was confirmed to lead to at least one child between Rex and the Aegises. One of could argue that letting Nia become their Driver over Rex indicates that they also loved her the same way.
• Lucky Seven and other weapons made with Origin metal or a connection with Origin are able to cut through anything. Recall two things: that the Annihilation Events are the result of Keves and Agnus matter coming into contact for too long (which is why parts of Aionios will randomly explode, and why Interlinking for too long also causes an explosion); and that Origin itself is made from the metal of the two worlds. It is, in essence, always Interlinked. With that in mind, weapons made from Origin are basically Annihilation Events of themselves.
• Pay close attention to the flashback in which Z tells N to destroy the City for his first act as Moebius. N is the one who is explicitly heard saying Z's demands of him, as Z is only seen telling him to do so, with his specific order never being heard by the audience. While used for dramatic effect in 3, Future Redeemed reveals an even bigger reason as to why the flashback is presented in this way: Alpha intended to transport the people of the City away while leaving Aionios to be destroyed, and Z was explaining this to N as the reason why he wanted the City destroyed. This was a detail that Consul M was never made aware of, meaning that the truth behind why the City was attacked is kept hidden from both the other characters and the audience.
• The soldiers are born at age ten and die ten years later, on what would be their twentieth birthday. Up until 2022, 20 was when people were considered legal adults in Japan; this is emphasized in the City quest where children prove themselves as adults on their twentieth birthday. This really emphasizes that they are all child soldiers, and it's impossible for any of them to be real adults. A little bit of the symbolism is lost in Western countries or to Japanese players born afterward, where the age of majority has been 18, although that also has the effect of creating new symbolism; the protagonists, being a group of 18-year-olds and one 19-year old, has just reached the threshold at which they are formally allowed to participate in political decision-making.
  • This also recontextualizes Z as being specifically the fear of growing up and suddenly having to find your own place in the world. Note that a lot of colonies-based sidequests are all about Ouroboros helping the newly-liberated Kevesi and Agnians strive without their Moebius supervisors and figure out what to do with their lives now that they no longer have to fight. And on the series-wide scale, the story is ultimately about the two worlds born as a result of Klaus's experiment struggling to find a way to survive without their creator.
• Noah's final confrontation with N doesn't quite go into the exact reasons why it was possible for Noah to turn out to be the Morally Superior Copy beyond The Power of Friendship and all the different people he interacted with, given that he has been shown to still be susceptible to the same doubts and desires that made N into a villain in the first place, but comparing the two reveals quite a few details that may have influenced this outcome:
  1. Flashbacks in Chapter 6 suggest that Noah and Mio used to meet a lot earlier into their lifespans than the current pair did, as several of their incarnations were more clearly a couple, with the last one even having a child together during what's implied to be around two years before Mio died. The current Mio, however, is already mere months away from her Homecoming when she meets Noah.
  2. The above difference also means that, rather than spending a significant portion of time together in the City, our Noah and Mio mostly hang out with their old companions. Noah in particular is accompanied by friends who have been with him literally since he was born, and he is already in his ninth term.
  3. Noah being an off-seer is another huge factor. On one hand, it's a way for him to freely channel his Warrior Poet side in a manner that doesn't conflict with the fighting. On the other hand, it's shown that he chose this job in an attempt to understand what people feel in their last moments, giving him a much more philosophical attitude towards death.
  4. As Future Redeemed demonstrates, Ouroboros Interlinks weren't a thing until after the original Noah joined Moebius as Consul N. Considering Interlinks provide some access to one's partner's thoughts and memories, this allows for better mutual understanding between the new Noah and Mio.
  • In all, essentially Noah didn't have the opportunity to become completely dependent on Mio, had better outlets for his doubts and feelings, and what bond he did have with Mio was much more understanding on both sides... which are the components of any healthy relationship.
• Noah's Veiled Sword is clearly designed to resemble the Monado and the red Aegis Sword, which on the surface seems to just be a nod to the past games, since the weapon is just his normal Blade altered by Riku, and Noah seemingly painted it red even before it was modified to contain Lucky Seven (implicitly along with the Pneuma Core). But in Future Redeemed, Noah's original-incarnation-turned-villain Moebius N is seen fighting alongside Shulk and Rex (plus A with their own Monado), and it's heavily implied that the events of the prequel somehow contributed to Noah being born into the Aionios cycle separately from N centuries later. Perhaps teaming up with the legendary heroes left an impression.
• The Pyra and Mythra Aegis Sword amiibo skins for the Swordfighter class merely seem like the easiest possible implementation of such a feature, despite the irony of being used by a Kevesi class rather than an Agnian one. However, it's thematically appropriate and even canonically plausible (not counting the similar Monado skin) when you consider that Pyra and Mythra incarnated in Aionios as the object that would become the Veiled Sword (Matthew's Ouroboros Gauntlets), and that it contains the Pneuma core.
• The reveal in the artbook that Lucky Seven is Fiora adds another layer of significance to Noah being Ethel's class inheritor; Ethel's combat style is based heavily on Fiora's, and Capable Hands lets Noah use Lucky Seven almost at will when the class is mastered. By using Flash Fencer, Noah is unknowingly channeling the woman who became Lucky Seven, which explains why the class is so compatible with it.

Fridge Horror

• With the revelation that those soldiers who make Homecoming are released from Aionios' cycle of reincarnation, previous incarnations of our protagonists have most likely died violently in far more ways than just the one flashback we see of Eunie being murdered by D.
• Comments about the Intersection and Origin—namely that Mio may be Rex and Nia's child and that Tora had a hand in creating Origin, imply that the cast of both games were still alive when the Intersection happened. As we see in the opening, Noah, Lanz, Eunie, and Joran were alive at that time as well, the implication being that everyone in that moment were reincarnated into Aionios. Finally, we know that Melia and Nia lived out well over a millennium between then and the present-day (though dormant for most of it). But what happened to the rest of the cast? Why were they not put into the cycle like Noah and co. were? Perhaps they were refused rebirth by Z specifically because they were aware and capable enough to stop him?
• N and M had a child together. However, they were still Kevesi and Agnian, so they died after their term was up. Their son looks no older than around 2 or 3 when M dies. They definitely had a child together at a very young age. Speaking of which, N left his very young son in a forest all alone. It must have not been easy for him to get back to the Lost Numbers.
• Anyone born from a pod who has a child is going to orphan them at age five at the very latest.
• The more you think about the Forever War, the more you realize how nightmarishly genius the whole system was:
  • The soldiers only living ten years means that Moebius doesn't have much to worry about. Anyone potentially problematic would probably die before being able to do any real damage.
  • The Flame Clocks ensure that no soldier on either side would even think of mercy as an option. If you lose a fight, you're going to be killed for your life energy, and you need to kill just to live. Even Noah can't afford to show enemies mercy until after being freed from the Clock. This only further fans the hatred from both sides and prevents them from fighting a common enemy.
  • While Homecoming offers a peaceful death that all soldiers aim for, in reality it is a carrot on a stick meant to give them a goal while simultaneously distracting them from the hopelessness of their situation. They either die in battle or die on a stage in front of a Queen, but they all die regardless.
• At the end of the game, the only hero not present to watch Origin do its thing is Triton. As a Moebius, he likely relied upon Z, and might have died shortly after him.
  • Since Joran appears in the ending despite not only becoming Moebius but also dying as one (which is supposed to take you out of the cycle completely), Triton might be fine, just reborn without his Moebius powers. However, this opens up the possibility that some of the nastier Moebius like Dirk (who was dangerous enough even without powers) were also reborn, and are now free to cause trouble all over again.
• Fridge tearjerker really, but Lanz and Sena are very lucky that X canceled their Interlink when she did. While they probably would have killed N in the ensuing Annihilation, their actions nearly threw a huge wrench in M and Mio's plan to help the whole party survive, partly because it hinges on N deciding to force them to watch "Mio's" homecoming as a sick joke, but also simply due to the fact that Lanz and Sena wouldn't live to see the plan play out, with the added bonus of freeing Agnus Castle altogether rather than leaving it in enemy hands. Additionally, watching "Mio" cry out desperately for them to stop is already heartbreaking on its own, but with knowledge that M is at the helm at that time, you realize that she's also breaking down over the fact that her attempt to stealthily help the party reach a Golden Ending is about to go horribly wrong.
  • Additionally, consider that it is N and M's spirits who deal the final blow to Z in the end. If N died by Annihilation Event instead of being absorbed by Noah later on, they might have not been able to stop Z from resetting Aionios back to a blank slate.
• The already heartbreaking scenes leading up to Mio's Homecoming take on a great deal of bonus sadness once you know the twist. Throughout the whole ordeal, Noah & Co. progressively and quite audibly give in to despair while in the cell next to hers - but this "Mio" was M all along, meaning that she knew the real Mio was safe the whole time posing as her, that she likely had Mio's memories of Noah and the others and understood perfectly how they feel... and couldn't say anything because it would've ruined the already risky plan. M may have been a Death Seeker content with getting Killed Off for Real, but there's no way any of that was a pleasant experience.
• Eunie rains Death from Above in certain cutscenes and at the end of Taion's Ouroboros Order. She may have been subconsciously influenced by D's attack on Colony 18 in her past life, and D realises he's met her past incarnation when she uses that move on him at Keves Castle. Do the other characters subconsciously copy the moves that killed them in past lives?
• Despite the newly reborn Kevesi and Agnian soldiers losing memories of their previous lives, it is shown that particularly strong experiences manage to persist between rebirths, and the most vivid ones naturally tend to be the bad ones. Ashera goes insane and kills herself whenever she recalls her previous deaths (which ironically keeps her in the cycle), while Eunie displays PTSD symptoms around the Moebius who killed her previous incarnation. Even Noah, despite being somehow reincarnated separately from N, is implied to still have some residual memories he isn't actively aware of^note As shown by him being one of the characters to realize just how much of a Crapsack World Aionios is (even before he became an off-seer, let alone Ouroboros), his apparent preference for relying on his intuition, and especially his behavior during his first encounter with Mio (who he doesn't outright recognize but still feels something is off). At the end of the game, it's hinted via the original Noah that while the twin worlds are successfully reset, some traces of the events that happened in Aionios might still exist in the characters' memories. Would that suggest a possibility of people actually remembering the whole "pointlessly dying over and over again" thing despite it "technically" only lasting for a moment?
• More a Fridge Tearjerker, but since Future Redeemed confirms that the Vandham family are the surviving descendants of the child Noah and Mio had in one of their lifecycles before becoming Moebius, then not only did the current Noah and Mio have to watch one of them die in front of them without realizing that (also notice Noah's unusually intense reaction to Guernica getting grabbed by D), Noah also witnessed the entire new City being destroyed again by Shania (before Ghondor shows up, revealing that Mio warned them beforehand). One can only hope that whatever children the two end up having after the world is reset can live peacefully.
• Post-Future Redeemed, Noah taking in all of N's memories and not having an existential breakdown at finding out about Alpha and their true nature, along with viewing the entire final fight against them, must've taken some serious discipline.
  • Not only that, but N being part of the final Interlink that defeated Alpha means that Noah might not have just inherited N's memories, but may have gotten some of the Founders' memories as well, possibly including Shulk and Rex's. If so, it's a wonder he didn't have a brain overload right then and there (though N having centuries to process those memories himself might have helped).
• Shania's story. She's a talented artist, but is consistently neglected and insulted by her mother for not being "like her father". In spite of Ghondor and her father encouraging Shania to pursue her true artistic gifts, Shania still struggles desperately to become the sort of person her mother wants, before eventually giving in to despair and betraying the city to Moebius, in hopes of getting a better go of it when she's reborn in the next cycle... And then she becomes Moebius. And her specially given ability? Freezing people in motion: locking them in place, alive and aware, but unable to act as their life force is devoured... Being able to freeze your subjects in place... Wouldn't that be an absolutely perfect ability for an artist? She even says of the frozen scene before her "I could just paint it now..."
• The mysterious orange-red glow emanating from the clouds surrounding Origin resembles the color of Alvis/Ontos' Core Crystal, providing early hints at their involvement in the story and the formation of Aionios, just as Pneuma's sea-green and Logos' violet Power Glows are also major foreshadowing for their own roles in the plot.
• Consul D tells Ouroboros that he was a Serial Killer before he became Moebius, with flashbacks showing him kill his fellow Agnians. This makes his Interlinking with J, who was shown to have been killed by his own side in his past lives, more screwed up.

Fridge Logic

On the headscratchers page.