The entire Xenoblade Chronicles series is known for moments that become memorable to many, and with it being the most publicly-known entry, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 may just be the most memetic game in the series yet.
Pre-Release/Nintendo Direct
- With the announcement of the game, many fans expressed their excitement towards getting mauled by Territorial Rotbart for the third timenote or fourth, if you count Hayreddin, the Territorial and that dying at the hands of the giant Killer Gorilla in the early game is an essential part of any Xenoblade experience. This got ramped up even more when the second trailer showed the party fighting a low-level enemy (in what is presumably an early-game area) with a familiar red Gogol lurking in the distance.
- Monolith seems to be in on the joke, because successive game footage they've released since then has featured the Gogol at closer and closer distances each time.
- "He's not called Territorial Rotbart? Literally unplayable, pre-order cancelled."Explanation A joke made by people who found out that the Gogol is actually called Jingoistic Gigantus in this game, due to the name change making some meme-loving fans a little bit annoyed. Some take this in another direction, claiming that Jingoistic Gigantus is just the scientific name of Territorial Rothbart and that it's Taion's fault, based off a campfire conversation of his about Armus.
- Xenoblade FatesExplanation With Keves, a nation associated with dark colors, at war with Agnus, a nation associated with light colors and a distinct Wutai aesthetic, in the reveal trailer, people drew comparisons to a previous game by Nintendo which also had a near-identical premise.
- People watching the reveal trailer and recognizing it as Xenoblade not by the art style, but by the main characters' British accents.
- Pointing out Sena's American Valley Girl accent and how out-of place it sounds next to the British Accents of her teammates (most of which are English, with her best friend Mio having a Welsh accent in the same family).
- Is that a rainbow? Reyn confirmed!Explanation The presence of rainbows in early prerelease screenshots and footage led to many fans jokingly declaring that Reyn would definitely be appearing in the game, due to his memetic line of "You can't have a rainbow without Reyn, baby!"
- The reveal of the Ouroboros forms has led some fans to joke that the game's final fight will have all the party members fuse into a single Ouroboros known as the "Xenoblade". Some have even compared the idea to the Thrash Machine from Deltarune, to the point of "speculating" that the final boss fight will have an Unexpected Gameplay Change to a fighting game.
- "Engage the Counterattack"Explanation The second trailer theme
(titled "The Weight of Life") has been affectionately given this name, after similar themes from Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 2 called "Engage the Enemy" and "Counterattack", respectively, them being the "Prepare the tissues" themes from their games, and this theme likely being of the same type. - "Xenoblade 3 is only 8 minutes long?"Explanation No sooner did Nintendo Everything tweet the latest 8-minute trailer did folks begin joking how Xenoblade 3 was only going to be 8 minutes long. This is because the relevant tweet forgot to say it was the trailer that was 8 minutes. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when it's revealed that Aionios is a world frozen in time, meaning that with time flowing normally, the game is even shorter than that, as most of the game's story (and all of the actual gameplay) took place within a minute.
Post-Release General/Unsorted
- "Who wants to know how babies are made"?Explanation This line said by Hollis, the City's doctor, told to the party after they learn about the existence of babies, has been taken as Narm Charm material for how impactful, yet out-of-the-blue it is. The fact that the entire party raises their hands after the fact has led fans to create some... different interpretations.
- As always, quotes that get repeated a lot are a ripe source of memesnote (character-specific quotes have been moved under their respective character's heading):
- "The enemy's broken away from me!"Explanation An overly common line said when a tank has lost aggro (it has multiple variations, with this particular one being spoken by Lanz). Coupled with how most repetitive quotes are assigned to tanks, this one has led fans to headcanon that tanks are desperate to be conversation hogs, and use this specific line as a warning shot to them getting ready to go off.
- "Oreo!"Explanation A Mondegreen of "Aureole", one of the Signifier's combat arts. And since the whole main party can use it, this led some fans to assume that the frosted cookie is their common Trademark Favorite Food.
- ”Cheers, you’re gay!” Explanation A Mondegreen of Eunie’s “cheers, you’re a gem”- something she says when she’s healed or has aggro taken off her. Expect to hear this one quite often.
- Fans of the game have started to adopt some of its more colorful Pardon My Klingon curse words, such as "spark" and "snuff", as ironic swears.
- Tactical Points memes.Explanation Tactical Points during chain attacks serve both as a means of increasing the Party Gauge and as a Gameplay and Story Integration measure of a character's overall intelligence. While the values for the main characters are pretty self-explanatory, the ones various Heroes gets makes them a ripe source of jokes for the fandom. For example Ghondor matching Taion at 35 TP has led to memes about her secretly being a genius, while Nia matching Lanz and Sena at 15 TP has led to jokes making fun of her for being The Ditz and bringing up her hotheadedness from the original game, and Triton having the lowest of all characters at 10 TP has caused him to be seen as a bit of a Memetic Loser. Likewise it gets used for jokes about poster activity; for example, "galaxy brained" being treated as the equivalent of 40/35 TP, or an obvious mistake being described as "15 TP-brained".
- Chapter 5Explanation (SPOILERS) Chapter 5 (specifically the end of it) is infamous for its massive Wham Episode and heavy Tear Jerker cutscenes which lead to many memes of people crossing the Despair Event Horizon due to the chapter, having the number 5 be a Trauma Button, people who haven't completed Chapter 5 being absolutely terrified of what's going to happen, etc.
- Gigachad RexExplanation (SPOILERS) A photo of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 cast in the ending shows that Rex eventually had children with Pyra, Mythra, and Nia. Even more surprising in hindsight is that all the babies in the image look to be the same age, meaning that Rex may have even taken all three girls at the same time. Add to it Rex's more Hunky appearance, and the comparisons were quick to follow. The photo of older Rex with his wives and children became a meme of itself before release due to the sheer shock value of Rex going through Marry Them All with the image's notoriety drowning out other leaks. The meme only intensified once the Story Expansion DLC teaser was shown, which confirmed that Rex was not only the mentor of Founder Cassini, but looked even manlier than before, now sporting a stubble and wielding both Aegis Swords.
- He really did mean all of them!Explanation (SPOILERS) A memetic reference to Rex's infamous "I love you, and all you guys!" in the second game as a response to Nia's confession, reimagined as meaning he really did love everyone. Some even go as far as adding every single party member in Xenoblade 2 as part of Rex's harem, including Zeke, Tora, Dromarch, and even Gramps.
- It's all canonExplanation (SPOILERS) Again regarding the meme above, fans have also joked that all the Rule 34 of the characters, particularly ones of Nia joining the others, is canonical to the series.
- A very productive nightExplanation (SPOILERS) Fans were quick to point out that all of Rex's children all look the same age, with the implication being that Pyra, Mythra, and Nia all became pregnant in a very small window of time, which then spiralled into a joke that they all became pregnant on the same night.
- Family reunion.Explanation (SPOILERS) The Story Expansion DLC of 3 seemingly has Shulk and Rex going up against Alvis. Given that Alvis is the "brother" of Pyra, Mythra, and Malos, fans have made jokes about Alvis turning evil because Rex had sex with his sisters, or because Rex killed Malos. Fans have also extended this to the "Mio's Family" memes (see below), as Alvis would be her uncle/step-uncle if Mio really is Rex's daughter. And that's not even going into how Shulk himself was supposed to be the vessel for Zanza, the father of Alvis, Pyra/Mythra, and Malos, which adds a whole new level of complexity to the dynamic.
- May cause cancer and reproductive harm.Explanation The Special Edition box has a Prop 65 warning in California for some obscure reason, possibly to dissuade someone from eating the artbook because the ink is carcinogenic. This led to jokes about how Monolith wants to give fans the full Kevesi/Agnian experience with shortened lifespans and no sex, or that Nia had a hand in making the Special Edition because of what she did to Malos in the previous game.
- Colony 15's quest for booty!Explanation Lhukavu from the Pirate-themed Colony 15 at one point says "Booty is booty. If you can't tell good booty when you see it, then we're done here." Naturally, some fans took this as an excuse to bring in their preferred Mr. or Ms. Fanservice to show off a different kind of booty.
- Nopon ArchshulkExplanation (SPOILERS) The Nopon Archsage in this game's Challenge Mode DLC is voiced by Adam Howden in English, leading fans to semi-jokingly speculate that he's actually Shulk taking the form of a Nopon in order to survive the over 1000 year span between his game and this one, similar to pre-release theories about Riku being Rex in Nopon form instead.
- Flute GuyExplanation During The Game Awards 2022 orchestral performance for the Game of the Year nominees, fans were amazed by the performance of Pedro Eustache, who not only gave it his all performing the flute sections of "The Weight of Life" but also switched instruments mid-performance, making it a highlight for the fans after the disappointment of the game receiving no awards.
- Alvis is a liar.Explanation With the game revolving around the Forever War between Keves and Agnus, people began mocking Alvis' parting words from the original Xenoblade that, "all life will walk towards the future, hand in hand," and joking that he lied. The meme was mostly forgotten about after the game came out, but came back with a vengeance after the DLC teased Alvis not only returning, but returning seemingly as an antagonist.
- "Tell me why!"Explanation Shulk's exclamation to Alvis at the start of the Wave 4 DLC trailer, while reflective of Shulk's constantly inquisitive nature, was picked up by the fandom for its specific choice of words to memetically make Shulk a fan of the Backstreet Boys, with some fans even applying the lyrics of "I Want It That Way" to the tragedies that have plagued Shulk and Rex's lives prior to the events of 3.
Character-Specific Memes
Noah
- Noah being the son of Flynn from Shin Megami Tensei IV (due to the blatant similarities of their character art in terms of hairstyle, pose, and even sword placement) and other red-jacketed video game protagonists, with the most commonly joked-about ones being Rean Schwarzer from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, Tatsuya Suou from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes (who also wields a Laser Blade to boot).
- Six NoahsExplanation A joke about the auto-translate for the Xenoblade Japanese twitter, which consistently mistranslates the phrase "Noah-tachi," roughly meaning "Noah and company" as "Six Noahs" instead. Naturally, fans are enthusiastically joking about their excitement at playing six Noahs, exacerbated when the class-change system was revealed. The June Nintendo Direct paid homage to the meme by putting all six main party members in Noah's class to demonstrate class changing. Became Harsher in Hindsight with the reveal that N is a Fallen Hero version of Noah. And also Hilarious in Hindsight considering Noah's VA Harry McEntire's streams of the game, where technically everyone is Noah.
- "Let's go someplace else."Explanation A quote from Noah, said whenever the current sidequest objective is switched out, has been embraced by the fandom as the repetitive quote of the game, succeeding "You'll pay for your insolence" and "Think you can take me? Don't forget me". It has also become a default response in the fandom to anything particularly bizarre or cringeworthy.
- "Right, Taion?/そうだろ, タイオン?"Explanation Yet another extremely common post-battle quote; the full line being, "I'd say we were moving in sync. Right, Taion?" While its delivery in the dub is low-key enough to be largely overlooked by the Western fandom, the Japanese fanbase has turned it into a humorous Verbal Tic to cap off any thoughts of theirs about the game.
- Smashing Flame Clocks in Xenoblade 3 be likeExplanation A popular fan edit features SpongeBob as Noah and Squidward as a Consul, with Noah showing off just how much of a hassle it is to smash all the Flame Clocks in the game due to how many there actually are. Some comments on the video even compare it to fighting Consul Y.
- Noah x MiyabiExplanation (SPOILERS) A Reddit post showing Noah and Miyabi, Mio's previous off-seer friend and Hero that joins late in the main game, with Mio sitting by herself. There's also a second screenshot that shows Miyabi edited over Mio kissing Noah at the ending, adding more fuel to the joke's fire about Mio following her parents' footsteps. At a darker perspective, not counting the creation of a new ship between Noah and Miyabi, comments have also tailored N's quotes to Mio, portraying her as the despairing self-entitled Yandere who bemoans losing Noah while taking a vengeful stance against Miyabi, calling her "long shadow" and all in this seeming AU. Another post has made some more skillful edits of Miyabi replacing Mio in scenes with Noah, including Miyabi being the mother of their child and long-haired Miyabi.
- Lucky Seven is like, really sharp. Like, legit, it is really, really sharp, dude.Explanation (SPOILERS) Comparing this game's "Xenoblade" with its predecessors, which were both swords of legend that were known to be wielded by heroes and allowed its chosen wielder to peer into the future. By comparison, Lucky Seven was forged by seven mortal Ultimate Blacksmiths, admittedly using Unobtanium that came from Origin and its biggest power is being very sharp. That said, it's sharp enough to be the only thing in all of Aionios that can destroy Flame Clocks, and can even tear through the fabric of reality.
- Noah Ripping His ShirtExplanation Noah's outfits for the Zephyr and Lost Vanguard classes are rather form-fitting, especially around his chest area. This lead to the fandom joking about Noah accidentally ripping his shirts. Fanart of this is usually accompanied by a turned-on Mio.
- Noah's name for Lucky Seven.Explanation Noah considers himself not so good at naming things, so whatever he was originally going to rename Lucky Seven to is left as a Riddle for the Ages, with the only clue being that it was "something [he] missed." Of course, this meant fans could fill in the blank with various lousy names for a sword, like "Mio," or "the Xenoblade."
- "...All right then, you only live once. Let's give this a go!"Explanation(SPOILERS) Noah says this during Ino's questline. Not only were fans taken aback by the usually level-headed Noah spelling out the acronym for YOLO, but as the party learns over the main story, most people don't only live once in Aionios, and because of Ino's status as a DLC character, Noah can say this line at any point in the main story, even when he should really know better.
- I will teach this Nopon to play the flute.Explanation Because the game is just as sidequest-heavy as its predecessors despite Mio having only three months to live, some fans like to depict Noah as obsessed with helping random NPCs and Colonies while Mio tearfully begs him to get back to the main story. This particular example refers to the optional quest "Serene Melody," where you indeed teach See-Mee-Mee to play the flute, which you would expect to take at least a year or two.
Mio
- WOTAHExplanation A phonetic rendition of the very heavily Welsh-accented way in which Mio pronounces the term "water", which was shown off in the Direct trailer. Expect fans to spell all instances of "water" as "wotah" to reflect the European dub. This also got extends to other instances of characters saying "water" in strong accents, such as Eunie and Taion in Chapter 3, or even past games, like Melia's Summon Aqua being described as "Wotah, the source of all life!"
- Mio the WitchExplanation Some fans were quick to note that Mio's English voice actress, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, also voiced another beloved video game character in 2022 — Ranni the Witch from Elden Ring. This follows in the footsteps of the other Xenoblade games sharing some of their UK-based voice actors with the FromSoftware library, most notably with Blake Ritson (Alvis) having roles in all three Dark Souls games.
- One Punch MioExplanation Before the boss fight with O & P in chapter 4, Mio punches P in her face and sends the both of them flying. Her doing this while not interlinked and yet still sending them back a good 15m despite O & P's interlinked form being around 6m tall has spawned a number of jokes comparing her to Saitama. Furthering this, a visual bug makes it so that when characters are wearing certain class outfits (Like Fiona's) the weapons for Martial Artist disappear and the characters attack enemies with their fists. Videos showing this off are often littered with jokes about Mio punching O & P.
- Mio's FamilyExplanation (SPOILERS) With the assumption that Mio is Nia's daughter, people realised that not only would Rex be her father, but Pyra and Mythra were also her mothers, with jokes being made about Noah trying to get the approval of them all or them being a massive Dysfunctional Family. Nia tends to be characterized as fairly accepting, Pyra as the one to perform an If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her... speech, while Rex and Mythra are more flexible, with the former usually being either an Overprotective Dad or Bumbling Dad while the latter is Mio's Doting Parent. Some people extend the joke even further, including Malos and Alvis as her uncles, and that's not even getting into Zanza and his connection to Shulk, Meyneth, Dickson, etc, or her potential siblings by Pyra and Mythra
- Mio and ponytails.Explanation (SPOILERS) Dovetailing with the "Rex is Mio's father" theory, fans were quick to notice that Mio seems to have inherited Rex's already-memetic taste in hairstyles, thanks to Noah (and maybe Sena too, if you interpret their relationship that way). Cue fan art depicting other characters with ponytails and Mio being attracted to them (to Noah's irritation), or giving Mio herself a ponytail as a third option to her choice between short hair and long hair in Chapter 6, as well as jokes that the real reason M left N was because he stopped tying his hair back.
- Mio's D-rank in Noponic ChampionExplanation (SPOILERS) Mio's Class rank for DLC Hero Ino is at the lowest among the Ouroboros, being D-rank, despite Noponic Champion functioning as a similar role as an evasive tank to her Zephyr class. Even more ironic since Ino openly brings up the Blade and Driver dynamic from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when Mio is suggested to be a Flesh Eater Blade herself. Fans have joked that her low rank in Ino's Class, and thereby lack of compatibility, is attributed to having secret jealousy towards Ino for monopolizing Noah's attention throughout her Hero and Ascension Quests, and often depict Mio seething in awkward silence whenever Ino gushes about having a destined bond with Noah.
- I'm getting Mio vibes from her.Explanation (SPOILERS) After someone on Reddit posted that a picture of Y'shtola from Final Fantasy XIV reminded them of Mio (and garnered some mockery because Cat Girls were hardly invented by or exclusive to Xenoblade), it set off a snowclone of similar posts with pictures ranging from characters within the series that have a good reason to look like Mio (like Nia, Consul M, or even Mio's own official art) to a real-life cat in a wig, with responses often supporting the silly comparisons and mock-disbelieving the reasonable ones.
Eunie
- Eunie's Cockney accent, brash attitude, foul mouth, and expressive face have made her one of the biggest Fountain of Memes in the game.
- "Hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something a bit meatier."Explanation Another repetitive quote in the game, being played the most common of the post-battle quotes. Has also been compared to other similarly infamous quotes from previous games, like "Let's press on and on and on" and even the highly-vaunted "Don't forget me!". Often memed on by treating it as a form of Accidental Innuendo Ho Yay. Even funnier, the Japanese version of the line gets similar treatment on the other side of the Pacific, with its own Stupid Statement Dance Mixes and even the party's voice actors themselves cracking jokes about it.
- Shocked EunieExplanation Fans have found Eunie's open-mouth Reaction Shot after Mio saves her from Juniper's ambush to be unexpectedly funny out-of-context, especially when juxtaposed before-and-after style with an earlier, more-relaxed shot of her talking with Mio's group, in which her face is almost at the same angle.
- Eunie the BusExplanation One of Eunie's oft-repeated lines when you switch to her has her declare "Yes, Eunie's the boss", but due to her heavy Cockney accent it comes out sounding like "Eunie's the bus". Cue lots of memes, edits, and fanart of Eunie as a literal bus.
- Eunie puns.Explanation Eunie is already a huge Fountain of Memes, so expect the comments section of any post about her to be filled with puns on her name, such as praising the "Eunie-que" content or declaring it to be her "Eunie-verse" now.
- The scenes of Eunie saying "So how do you cope" and "And this is why you can't make friends" are popular choices of reaction images when someone expresses an unpopular opinion.
- "What about babies? You guys got any babies?"Explanation Eunie bluntly asks Rozana and Gray this question during the latter's Ascension Quest after finding out they're married, as Eunie's still new to the concept of children even after having The Talk with the doctor in Chapter 5. Fans have made it so that Eunie asks this question to anyone she meets who is or was married, even when the answer would be incredibly awkward.
Taion
- Looking cool, Taion!Explanation Upon reveal, a lot of people thought that Taion bore a resemblance to Joker from Persona 5, with a fair amount of fanart featuring one of them in the other's shoes getting made. It doesn't hurt that Eunie's default outfit is close to Morgana's color scheme and she's also associated with busses like the latter (see her section above).
- In addition to Joker, some fans see Taion as a combination of Akhos/H.B. due to his glasses, messy brown hair, and being a Genius Bruiser.
- Taion is a bottomExplanation With the reveal of the Ouroboros forms, many noticed that Taion and Eunie's fusion was the only one with predominantly female characteristics which led people to believe Eunie had more influence over the form, resulting in jokes that Taion is the more submissive of the two, with all that entails. It became Hilarious in Hindsight when the June Nintendo Direct revealed that the fusions can shift forms depending on who's in control, so Eunie really does have more influence in that form — and that they are very much a Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy pairing, with Taion having a general sense of submissiveness to more extroverted personalities as a part of who he is.
- Taion is the main heroine of 3.Explanation Taion's character development throughout the game proved to be very different from what people expected based on early impressions, much to the surprised delight of the Japanese fanbase, who found his personality traits to be unexpectedly Moe and more in line with traditional JRPG heroines, particularly Mythra, than the more tomboyish female party members. The whiplash has caused many of them to dub him the true heroine of the game over Mio. That the announcement of swimsuit DLC for the game caused his name to trend on Twitter over any of the female party members (due to a combination of the reveal of his Core Crystal, the unexpectedness of Taion showing more skin than Lanz, and memes about his swimsuit looking "uncool" like his scarf) caused even more jokes of this nature.
- Taion's Deadpan Snarker retorts are common fodder for reaction images, particularly his "I refuse to be baited" lines. His "Based on what?" responses are also popular due to their association with the existing "Based? Based on what?" meme in addition to his The Comically Serious personality.
Lanz
- "And I was the MVP. You were all thinking it!"Explanation The super common post-battle quote said by Lanz. Fans use it to portray Lanz as a Memetic Badass who is always the MVP.
- "Woahhhh, I got a rare doodah right here!"Explanation Yet another common line said by Lanz, whenever he picks a rare collectible up. Fans either latch on to him using the word "doodah" or photoshop Lanz's face onto Link's body and adds the quote to a classic Zelda Item Get! pose.
- "I used my thinking muscles for this one!"Explanation Another quote from Lanz, used when you select his Order in Chain Attacks. "Thinking muscles" has taken off as a memetic phrase in the community, with people using it to rib on his and Sena's characterization as the party's Dumb Muscle.
- "CHECK OUT THIS SICK NEW SKILL"Explanation Another quote from Lanz, used when you unlock another one of his skills.
- You're a right muppet, Lanz!Explanation Eunie called Lanz a muppet twice in the game (a common British insult meaning "idiot"). To non-British ear, this insult seems odd compared to Eunie's other pseudo-swears, because even though Aionios does have a connection to our Earth (through Alrest), any cultural connection between them and The Muppets should have been destroyed several times over by now. As a result, fans wasted no time redrawing Lanz as an actual muppet or even with Kermit the Frog's head.
- "Every day's a training day!"Explanation Lanz (and Sena, although the quote is Lanz's) will occasionally do a set of squats when idling, regardless of what's going on around them. This can result in silly situations like one of them being a Moment Killer if the player is trying to set up a romantic scene for two of the other party members like Noah and Mio, or even accidentally teabagging a husk that needs to be sent off.
Sena
- "I'm the girl with the gall!"Explanation Like the above post-combat quote, except said by Sena and very frequently misheard by the player. Memes commonly involve replacing "gall" with other soundalike words, such as portraying Sena as being friends with seagulls, Charles De Gaulle, or historic Gauls. Its Japanese equivalent, "セナ本当に強い (Sena really is strong!)" is similarly memed, with "本当に強い" being a Fan Nickname of sorts for Sena.
- "YIPPEE!"Explanation Another common Sena exclamation that occurs when her order is picked during a Chain Attack, used to show her bubbly side but which often gets crossed over with existing memes to depict Sena as the Yippee Creature or the German Cola Kid.
- Biffteen.Explanation In one of the Colony 0 sidequests, Sena is asked to give everyone in Colony 0 an actual name like how she gave one to Segiri (combining their numbers with an attribute/trait of theirs). While most of the names are pretty inconsequential, No. 15 is given the name "Biffteen" much to his chagrin, resulting in many jokes about Sena's choice of name for him.
Riku and Manana
- Riku the Nopon has prompted jokes about how his ushanka looks like Rex's hair and how must therefore essentially be Rex as a Nopon, as well as Kingdom Hearts jokes because he shares his name with the series' deuteragonist. It doesn't hurt that his partner Manana has a red-and-white color scheme like both Kairi and Pyra (in one of her beta designs), either.
- Riku the manly Nopon/Chadapon RikuExplanation Riku's English voice was revealed in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct, and turned out to be quite deep, in contrast to him being a Ridiculously Cute Critter like all Nopon, and in comparison to his child-like Japanese voice. Cue jokes about Riku being "the manliest of Nopons", and comparisons to the gigachad meme.
- Further Explanation (SPOILERS) Made Hilarious in Hindsight when considering both the comparison to Rex and the Gigachad meme considering Rex does end up getting together with Pyra, Mythra, and Nia, and he looks older and hunkier too. In other words, it's Rex that becomes the gigachad. This has combined with the following Gigachad theory into joke theories that Riku looks the way he does because Rex had sex with a Nopon woman and is his father. Another joke theory is that because Riku is Kevesi, he comes from an alternate timeline where Shulk was the Gigachad and married Fiora, Melia, and Alvis, with Riku being his son with the latter.
- "Riku just Riku, common variety Nopon."Explanation Riku says this in a very evasive response to Noah asking who Riku really is, given how he seems to know so much about everything, especially concerning Lucky Seven. In discussions about how mysterious Riku is and questions about his role, expect this line to come up and for people to jokingly object to others that imply he is somehow lying.
- Manana is a con artist.Explanation For the first month or so after the game's release, Manana's cooking mechanic, which is supposed to boost things like enemy drop rates and experience gain, didn't actually do anything due to a glitch. This prompted numerous jokes that Manana was using her cooking as a ruse to scam the party out of their Nopon Coins.
Other Heroes
- "Oh my god! They killed Vandham! You bastards!"Explanation That man with the pompadour who died in chapter one? That's Vandham. Who died within the chapter he was introduced in the previous game — causing people to joke that he is this world's version of Kenny.
- Sometimes adding some Dull Surprise to it. "Oh my god, they killed Vandham." "They killed Vandham?!" "Yep, killed Vandham. They're bastards."
- Comparing the character to Watanabe's father from Live A Live, which released a week earlier and ends up getting killed in every timeline.
- They/Them AgnussyExplanation Zeon's Ascension Quest features a very notable moment in which his Commander Contrarian of a lancer Kite becomes infatuated with Juniper, the Agnian commander of the Colony Tau who is also nonbinary and either Gormotti or a feline-looking Blade, I.E. a cat person. Up until this point, Kite had been notably hostile towards the idea of working with Agnians, but him becoming weak over Juniper, as well as the exaggerated manner in which he dashes towards them upon their first meeting, has become a very memed-about moment from the game. A secondary joke is Kite being a Butt-Monkey who looks on in despair while Juniper is much more interested in Zeon.
- "There you are! You monsters!"Explanation Ethel's reaction to when she sees Ouroboros as inhuman monsters has been used as a meme template, with Ethel's illusions of the party being replaced with whatever the memer feels like insulting.
- Valdi's Got the ChalkExplanation With his Japanese name being "Rudy" and being an Adorably Precocious Child with a knack for creation, jokes were made about Valdi secretly being Rudy Tabootie from ChalkZone. Some fans took it a step further by envisioning Valdi's Mini-Levnises as Zoners, particularly seeing Mechafriend as Snap.
- Teach the Tank EngineExplanation It was already a meme in the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fandom to call Malos a Thomas & Friends character due to the absurdity of how his voice actor, David Menkin, had previously done voice work for Thomas, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ups the ante by having Teach, the commanding officer of Colony Gamma and one of the game's recruitable Heroes, be voiced by Martin Sherman, who was the voice of Thomas himself. This revelation caused jokes to immediately arise about Teach's secret identity not being Oleg, but rather Thomas; not helped by the blue skin of Indolines pairing with Thomas' blue paint job.
- Jerma IsurdExplanation Fans noted that Isurd somewhat resembles the very popular Twitch streamer Jerma, which led to various edits of them as each other or videos of Isurd quoting various Jerma memes. Fans then went ballistic after noticing one of his lines about Nimue mentions her "living among us", since the game has become inexorably linked to Jerma due to the memes.
- Triton where he shouldn't be.Explanation Triton is a recruitable Hero who just so happens to be a reformed member of Moebius — and very obviously so, as he still wears his armor even after becoming recruitable. Therefore, it's become something of a Running Gag among players to have him in their party during key story events where his presence wouldn't make sense, such as the prison break sequence or the Final Boss.
- Ino, we need to cook.Explanation In the last stretch of Ino's Ascension Quest, her friend from the Nopon Caravan, Sunny, suggests that they take down the Nopon Eater with the highly-potent OP Pollen Orbs. Considering that Pollen Orbs had been the Xenoblade equivalent to narcotics in the first game and Torna ~ The Golden Country, and that Sunny says that he secretly wants to dig into his Pollen Orb stash sometimes, as well as saying, "Let's get cooking," when he goes to make the OP Pollen Orbs, fans jokingly considered this subplot to be an homage to Breaking Bad, comparing Sunny to Walter White and Ino to Jesse Pinkman. Some fans went one step beyond and compared Cheerio, Sunny's girlfriend, to Skyler White.
- "IT'S MWAMBIN' TIME!"Explanation Mwamba's name is seen as Inherently Funny Words and just similar-sounding enough to "Morb" that a lot of fans who genuinely liked him as a character carried the memes over, along with sometimes treating him as a Memetic Badass.
Moebius
- "IT'S MOEBIN' TIME!"Explanation When it was found out that the enemy faction is called Moebius who can transform into the titular forms, many fans quickly appropriated the "IT'S MORBIN' TIME" meme.
Consul D
- Mr. Wil D. RideExplanation Before his name or affiliation was even revealed, D appeared in the very first trailer for the game and uttered his signature quote from Chapter 2, "It's a wild ride, this passage of fate." Fans quickly gave him the memetic Fan Nickname of "Mr. Wild Ride". When he was revealed to be named D in a later trailer, this was amended to "Wil D. Ride".
- Blackblaze Duck: Master of Quack FuExplanation When D is defeated for good and in full This Cannot Be! mode. He declares, "I'm Blackblaze Dirk!" but his English voice actor makes it sound more like "Blackblaze Duck." The duck jokes immediately flew from there.
- D wants headExplanation Near the end of the game it is revealed that D was a Serial Killer before he became Moebius, and he liked to collect the heads of his victims. This lead to jokes about someone misunderstanding what D means when he says he wants head, to D's face being superimposed into the "No head?" Vine.
Consul N
- You can't spell NTR without N.Explanation (SPOILERS) Chapter 5 of the game has a climax that reveals that N is a past version of Noah that lost faith in himself and instead turned himself and his version of Mio (M) into Moebius to live an eternal life together. However, by the time of the present, N has degenerated into a Yandere who makes M utterly miserable and ignores her wants, to the point she pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to merge her memories with the present Mio and save her from her Homecoming. Discovering the switch causes N to have a massive Villainous Breakdown where he rants in denial that his Mio would ever leave him to save a different Noah, and leads to the present Mio and Noah becoming more obviously romantic, with Mio later revealing M was sick of N's increasingly selfish and possessive attitude. Fans were quick to portray M and Mio as Sympathetic Adulterers and mock N thoroughly for his entitled behavior and getting his wife (sorta) stolen by himself, with more than a bit of Catharsis Factor for the horrific way he nearly murdered the present Mio to torment Noah. Any discussion about N will eventually have a comment about him being an Emasculated Cuckold to himself.
- N moment.Explanation (SPOILERS) A few of Noah's animations while camping portray him as mildly but noticeably uncomfortable when Mio interacts with someone other than him, like when she's doing Sena or Eunie's hair or playing the flute with Miyabi. Since N is Noah with these tendencies amplified to unhealthy levels, some fans like to portray Noah as struggling not to lapse into N's persona during these scenes, or alternately embracing it and launching into one of N's post-Villainous Breakdown tirades, like the "My long shadow" speech below. This also gets used when fans (either as themselves or through Noah or N) express being overprotective of Mio.
- My long shadow...Explanation (SPOILERS) A line taken from N’s Villainous Breakdown at the beginning of Chapter 6 spoken to Noah after he "steals" Mio from him (read: gets our Mio back after she consensually hijacks M's body). ("Noah, my long shadow, you have stolen [Mio] away from me"). Fans ended up using the line as a default response to whenever someone gets cucked (usually) by another post/meme (Some examples here)
Z
- "It's because it amuses me!"/Z-PostingExplanation Ironically, despite the lukewarm reception to his character, Z's explanation for why he makes Aionios a hellhole gets rounds in the fanbase. Additionally, the Dunkey drama around Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has some fans exclaim that they're really in an "endless now", due to how much drama invited previous discussions around 2, despite 2 being five years old and 3 being a markedly different game.
- "You will taste 'dis pear!"Explanation Z bears a slight resemblance to Sephiroth and has "You will taste despair!" as one of his combat lines, making it easy to import the "'dis pear" meme from that series to this one. Especially funny considering the bug in the initial release that made food have almost no effect.
- Blushy-Crushy Z/Moe-biusExplanation (SPOILERS) Since Tora was implied to be involved in Origin's construction, some fans like to joke about Nia having to watch him closely to keep his and his family's... signature touches out of the project, or that some of them got in anyway, like Z having a cutesy maid mode like Poppi or being a new incarnation of Rosa (with XC2 Chairman Bana as one of his "Consulpons").
The Queens of Keves and Agnus (Melia and Nia)
- The leaders of the two opposing factions apparently being Melia and Nia caused many jokes from fans about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 being about fans of the first two games constantly fighting. There have also been jokes that they're so upset at being turned down by Shulk and Rex that they just decided to become full on incels and start a war. This one becomes hilarious after The Reveal that Nia did end up with Rex after all and had a kid with him, a kid suggested to be Mio.
- The ruthless Queen of Agnus, everybody!Explanation While some players of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 expected Nia to appear in some capacity in a game set in the distant future, thanks to her Flesh Eater nature prolonging her lifespan, nobody expected the implications of her becoming a world leader and counterpart to Melia of all people, much less an antagonist. Hence, Nia's more comedic moments from her game of origin (like the "One-Eyed Monster" incident, clinging onto Pyra in Tantal, and sheepishly admitting to being scared of Vandham, not to mention her potty mouth in general) are cast in an ironic light by who she would possibly end up becoming. This is justified, though; while the real Nia is the same as ever, the android replacing her is a ruthless tyrant. When the party meets the real Nia, the game plays this very concept for laughs, having her constantly fail at hiding her crude personality behind a graceful, demure royal facade.
- "Poor Melia" made a return from the first game when the ending revealed that not only was Nia able to be in a poly relationship with Rex, but Poppi (a friend from her time) was also still around. Comparing that situation to Melia being alone, spending millennia captured by Z, and her only memento of her friends being Shulk's Monado REX, people began to repeat the phrase once again.
- Queen of Keves/Queen Elizabeth II memesExplanation (SPOILERS) With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II shortly after the game's release, many jokes have been made (tasteful or otherwise) mixing her up with the Queen of Keves and thinking that Queen Melia is the one who died, to the point that "Melia" was trending on Twitter shortly after her death. Some even went as far as to joke that Queen Elizabeth II herself was a robotic impostor, much like the Melia we see for the first half of the game, and that the real Queen is hidden in stasis somewhere (such as under Buckingham Palace), or that Big Ben is a giant Flame Clock. One particular video features Walter White and Jesse Pinkman fighting the real-life Queen in a parody of the Queen of Keves boss battle, only to get curbstomped and for the credits to roll.
- "Something smells exquisite."Explanation (SPOILERS) Most Heroes will express their desire to eat whenever you pass by a canteen, even if you already have a meal effect underway. Despite being a postgame Hero, Melia's line of "Something smells exquisite" has become the most infamous example of this, and anyone who uses her on their team is bound to have it drilled into their heads. Oddly, her counterpart Nia is one of the few Heroes who doesn't do this, instead only having an uncommon exchange with Mio where they talk about what she wants to eat.
- Hit the sax, Melia!Explanation (SPOILERS) Melia's unique battle theme as a Hero is "Brilliant Wings", a jazzy saxophone remix of "Time to Fight! (Bionis' Shoulder)". The song was near-instantly praised by the fandom and spawned various memes of Melia or other characters going all-out playing the sax.
