Fridge Brilliance
- In Torna: The Golden Country, many characters point out Mythra's shortcomings, including her arrogance, lack of compassion, abrasiveness, and "creative" cooking. It should come as no surprise that when she creates Pyra, her alter ego, that she is humble, compassionate, gentle, and an excellent cook, all of which rectify the flaws the rest of the party saw in her.
- Mythra getting beaten by Jin at first doesn't seem to make sense, due to her being an Aegis. However Torna: The Golden Country reveals that Jin is the Paragon of Torna which makes him one of the strongest Blades around, then he gets a One-Winged Angel form due to being a Flesh Eater. It's pretty obvious why they needed Pneuma for him at that point. Mythra was also holding back a lot of power due to how much destruction she caused during her Unstoppable Rage against Malos, and she couldn't go use that power because that was tacked onto to Pneuma's sword and her powers, which was sealed in the Spirit Crucible Elpys. While Jin's One-Winged Angel form is very strong, it's nowhere near as powerful as Bloodlusted Mythra, let alone Pneuma.
- In the DLC, the track "Land of Morytha" plays in the inside of the Tornan titan, which serves as the final dungeon. Fitting, since the same music plays when Rex's party arrives at the Tornan titan's corpse by way of Morytha.
- Tornan assets and Tantalese assets:
- In the base game, the flashback cutscene that opens Chapter 5 is completely redone in Torna - The Golden Country with some small but notable changes. Namely, the flashback has Addam hooded but not in the DLC. The out-of-universe explanation is that Monolith didn't have a character model for Addam yet at the time, but the in-universe explanation could easily be that almost 500 years of time has transformed Addam into a mythical figure instead of the all-too-human man he was.
- In addition, in the base game, the soldier that gives Addam the information about Malos's next target is a Tantalese Knight, while in the DLC he is a Tornan soldier. Once again, the out-of-universe explanation is that Monolith was simply reusing an asset as they didn't have any Tornan character models created yet, but in-universe, this is actually an effective example of propagating the Tantalese lie that they are direct descendants of Addam.
- After the first boss fight against Malos, Addam proudly declares to the group that "Torna lives and dies by its people." This explains how in the main game, Jin isn't being inconsistent when he says in Chapter 5 that Mythra sank Torna, and then in Chapter 8 that Amalthus destroyed Torna. In the former he's talking about the Titan itself, while in the latter he's referring to the people/culture that ended when only the Counter Addamites were left in power.
- Compared to the main game, one encounters very few Drivers among the people in Torna - The Golden Country. However, this makes a lot of sense when one recalls that Amalthus has not yet started his core cleansing procedure, which enabled many more people to become drivers than would otherwise be possible (related to this, in the main game one NPC remarks after Indol falls that in future generations Alrest will have to get used to there being far fewer Drivers).
- Jin uses all his arts from the main game here in some capacity except Empty Moment. The attack relies on the super speed he gets from becoming a Flesh Eater. Relating to that move, one of Jin's more famous lines from the game is "No, I don’t wish for 'forever.' Even just for one moment, it’s enough if it’s with her.", her being Lora. However, Lora's dead, so that "one moment" is empty. Hence, Empty Moment.
- During their first fight, '' Malos pays quite a bit of attention to Addam's golden eyes. He does it just to mock his mixed heritage and the consequences, but it also gives new perspective on why in the main game he chastises himself for taking Rex so lightly. That is he realizes at that moment in the main game that Rex's eyes remind him of Addam's, the man who led the effort to stop his previous plan so long ago.
- Mythra berating Rex after Vandham's death makes much more sense when you play the DLC. Not only does the DLC drive home why Mythra never wanted to unseal her full power again, but also, look at what happened to bring it about. Malos killed Vandham; as a result, Rex lost his head and charged Malos, ignoring Vandham's final instructions to retreat, and endangering the team, forcing Mythra to come out. This is exactly what happened to Mythra before she was sealed away: Malos' attack on Auresco that killed Milton caused her to lose control, ignore Adam's orders, sink Torna, and kill Hugo — things for which she has been beating herself up ever since. Thus, Mythra knows full well the consequences of losing control and acting recklessly in a fight, and does not want Rex to face anything like what she went through.
- Hugo is the driver of both Brighid and Aegaeon. Both are tank blades, so their usage makes perfect sense. Since Hugo is Emperor, the best blade types for him would of course be tank blades. Both are essentially bodyguards and can absorb any attacks meant for him.
- Why are Mythra's Field Skills essentially the same between here and the main game? Because she was never returned back to her core crystal, unlike Brighid and Aegaeon, who likely have multiple times over 500 years, not needing Hugo's death to hasten the process. She's still the same blade she ever was, while Brighid and Aegaeon likely underwent a few environmental, memory, and talent resets, their field skills included.
- Mythra's comment to Jin in the base game that she knows what it feels like to lose someone forever and still have to remember them despite being a Blade is referencing Milton and Hugo's deaths.
- The title of Malos' new battle music, "Over Despair and Animus", now takes on new meaning after Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed; Rex states that of the Trinity Processor cores, Logos (Malos) was designed with male programming, Pneuma (Pyra/Mythra) was with female programing, and Ontos (Alvis/Alpha/A) was designed to be a balance of the two. In Jungian psychology, the Animus refers to the masculine side of a woman, much like how Logos is the masculine part of the Trinity Processor, as opposed to the female and agender parts.
Fridge Horror
- Torna - The Golden Country expands a bit on the already-Fridge Horrific cutscene of the baby from the main game, as it shows that Minoth came onto the scene to speak with Amalthus shortly afterward. What happened to the baby isn't directly touched upon, but the fact it's not crying anymore doesn't bode well, and neither does the way Minoth refers to it by saying "was that their child" as if the baby is no longer alive, and the implication that it was this event that caused Minoth to refuse further contact with Amalthus...
- How did Amalthus capture Haze and Mikhail, considering they are inseparable from Jin and Lora? It is very likely that the Indoline attack on Spessia caught everyone off-guard, despite Jin's suspicious look at the forest, and the whole group got separated from each other when the initial shots were fired. With Jin prioritizing Lora's safety, Haze would have tried to escape with Mikhail, but after Lora is fatally wounded and Jin eats her heart, Haze would have reverted into her Core Crystal and left Mikhail defenseless, allowing the Indoline forces to take them both away.
- Consider everything Addam went through: Hugo died protecting him, he failed to control Mythra's power which led to Torna's destruction and the deaths of Milton, his father, and maybe even his pregnant wife along with numerous Tornans, he more or less sent Lora to her death, and sealed Mythra away so her power won't be misused. Addam's eventual disappearance might be explained by him committing suicide soon after founding Fonsett Village.
- It bears repeating: Addam had a pregnant wife. She's mentioned several times in the game, and he's clearly happy with her. There is no mention of her surviving Torna's destruction, and the fact that the Tantalese royal family were able to fake being Addam's descendents implies there was no obvious true line.
- Thanks to the expansion, Pyra's mere existence is Fridge Horror. She only exists because of Mythra's trauma about the destruction of Torna and Milton's death. The reason Pyra didn't want to unleash Mythra in the earlier section of the main game is because she didn't want a repeat of Torna, this time with Rex, one of the main reasons Mythra didn't nuke all of Alrest, in the firing line. No wonder she wants to go to Elysium to die: Mythra lost everything she loved except Rex. Adding on to that, a few of Mythra's standard Arts in Torna are her Blade Arts in the main game. She's holding back to avoid a repeat of Torna.
- In Chapter 8, Mythra tells Rex to not get carried away with Pneuma and her ability to control Artifices at will because that's what destroyed Torna.
- Upon meeting Lora and Jin, Addam comments that since Jin's core crystal (and therefore Jin himself) is stolen property from the Tornan Royal Family, he's technically within his rights to take Jin back into Tornan custody, even if it means killing Lora to separate them. While thankfully Addam finds a way around that by deputizing Lora and inventing a cover story for her to legally continue being Jin's Driver, it bears repeating that in the base game, Jin describes Torna as one of the more progressive nations during its heyday. If they have what is essentially a Slave Capture Law in place, how bad is it for Blades everywhere else?
