The meaning of the Xenoverse (A.C’s analysis)

[A.C]

I was originally going to post this analysis somewhere on my site, but with the staff of XenoTen and myself being busy it might take a bit of time until we get the site up, and by posting it here I figured I'd get some feedback on it.

(This thread will of course have spoilers for Xenogears and Xenosaga, but then I believe this "Pandimensional Existence" sub forum is a spoiler centric forum in the first place, so expect nothing less.)

The meaning of the Xenoverse (A.C’s analysis)

This is my personal attempt at deconstructing the universe that Tetsuya Takahashi has created and share the way I’ve come to view it all. This analysis could probably use some more polish as my views on the Xenoverse are still evolving, but for now I’ll try to make it short and to the point. First, the Xenoverse is composed of three major parts (or “story arcs”) and they all represent different ideologies and aims at adressing problems facing individuals and society. According to the Xenosaga Official Design Materials, Mr. Takahashi has a strong interest in the areas of ideology, philosophy and religion so these are reflected within these stories. The 3 main parts of the Xenoverse are as follows:

Part 1: Cosmo War
Part 2: The world of Fei (Lost Jerusalem in Xenosaga)
Part 3: Terminal point of the universe

We can further divide these 3 parts into 3 ideological and psychological themes:

Part 1: Nietzschean (Wilhelm) Self-Preservational ideal – The Transcended man
Part 2: Organized Religion/Christian (KOS-MOS) Social ideal – God’s lambs and union (order)
Part 3: Buddhist (chaos) and Sexual (Intimate) ideal – Dependent arising

The third part is purely hypothetical at this stage since the final story arc has yet to be unveiled in any form, but I will get into my reasons for speculating on this theme later as I examine each story arc in order. But first some insight into the mastermind behind the series - Tetsuya Takahashi:

"As a child, in the middle of a meeting with the chief priest of a Buddhist temple near my home, I began having vague doubts myself on, "What is religion?" That's when I started having an interest in religion and I did research by reading various books. With religion there are many different denominations and there are many people who believe them. These people suffer from an ideological virus. The status quo is to turn away from the virus portion, and ever since I was a student it was something I wasn't able to comprehend. I wanted to incorporate all those matters in this game. For [the Xenoverse] I chose a large-scale motif of Christianity, the most ubiquitous religion. I thought that by choosing a Christian motif it would have historical weight and we would be able to mix in and blend anything associated with Christianity.

I digested thoughts about [things like] the actual path of how religion came about and felt that I wanted to present those doubts I had as a child. I think there must be some young people who have the same kind of doubts, and this would be a part that they could respond to."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

"I'm what you could call not very insistent regarding life, in that there's a part of me that doesn't care if I die. Especially when I was still single. Now, because I was able to start a family and have children, I can't just die anytime. Feelings about death can vary because of things like positions in society, individual ideologies, or your own surroundings. I thought it would be nice to give each character that part of 'life and death' that exists in every person."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

"I know that in real life, if Tetsuya Takahashi spoke directly to a bunch of young people they would never accept the message.  So I use the story and the characters I've created to act as my spokespeople."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

"I have this ideal of how carefree it would be to just ignore social matters and live like a child who doesn't think too deeply about things."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)


Finally, Tetsuya Takahashi and the Xeno staff uses the Enneagram of Personality to create/write their characters. Enneagram personality analysis is all over the character pages in the Xenosaga Official Design Materials. Don Riso, co-founder of the Enneagram Institute in Stone Ridge, N.Y., author of several best-selling books on the subject (and a former Jesuit) believes the Enneagram can enable people to break free of their illusions about themselves and the world, as well as become slightly less anxious and suspicious human beings. Human beings are on automatic pilot much of the time, and as a result we do not see ourselves. We often don't see the aspects of our personalities that are self-destructive, that threaten our relationships, our happiness and even the welfare of the world. The Enneagram is a guide to self-observation.

“To me, reality is spiritual. If God is real, God is by definition the most real thing there is. He is the "really real," and spirituality refers to an awareness and experience of that level of reality. The world of illusion, in which we live, is not "the really real.” We think we are awake and that we're dealing with reality, but we are not. Instead, we are dealing with mental constructs: our projections, our reactivity, our fears -- all kinds of things in our mental world.

In my opinion, the big problem with religion these days is that people are not taught how to have spiritual experiences. If they did, then they might not need organized religion anymore.”
- Don Riso

“The spiritual tradition that have influenced me the most is Buddhism, absolutely. I would say that my spirituality is fairly nondenominational.”
- Don Riso

I also thought this remark by Yasunori Mitsuda was interesting:

"[What I think of Mr. Takahashi] is hard to put into words, but I really feel that there's a hidden anger inside him. Like, "Why the hell don't they realize this?!"  That anger has been poured into this game, and people who resonate with it will be sucked in. My impression was that I sensed he was very similar to me. He's probably a dark person too, Mr. Takahashi (Laughs) But he's diligent."
- Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

I will continue to quote and reference back to these and other quotes during my analysis, but I want to make sure people who play Xenogears and Xenosaga know this beforehand since it explains a great deal and you’ll also have a better understanding of where I’m coming from with my analysis. So with that out of the way I will now proceed with analysing the story.

[A.C]

The first story arc: ‘Nietzschean’ (or Tetsuya Takahashi’s counter-Nietzsche)

"Mankind has colonized the first habitable planet beyond Earth, Neo Jerusalem. Using it as a base point, it continues to further expand its development. However, this development was purely scientific, lacking any 'spiritual' development whatsoever."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~)

The first part of the Xenoverse (the period of interstellar war) represents a dystopian “Nietzschean” future for mankind. The era calendar name was reformed into the Nietzschean "T.C." (Transcend Christ) to further reflect this allusion to a Nietzschean future that Xenosaga and Xenogears Episode I envisions.

"You want, if possible - and there is no more insane "if possible" - to abolish suffering. And we? It really seems that we would rather have it higher and worse than ever. Well-being as you understand it - that is no goal, that seems to us an end, a state that soon makes man ridiculous and contemptible - that makes his destruction desirable. The discipline of suffering, of great suffering - do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of man so far?"
- Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)

"The greater the suffering, the more exciting the drama."
- Wilhelm (Xenosaga Episode II: Beyond Good and Evil)

The first arc pits human heroes against the transcended man – Wilhelm, who himself is a gratuitous reference to the german philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Wilhelm is even designated the same E-type as Nietzsche; the Enneatype 5 (Observer) and he believes in the “will to power” in each human being. The Human/Realian relationship is seemingly an allegory for the Master/Slave dynamic that Nietzsche often talks about in his writings, and Febronia, a half human/half Realian character, has even taken care of a church where Realians can find “peace” similar to the Judeo-Christian slaves who turned their faiths towards God in what Nietzsche refers to as a “Slave-morality”. But as a result of this Nietzschean ideology, mankind must face an increasing spiritual crisis as a result when the underlying structure of the universe is starting to decay and collapse. This is brought about by the Gnosis - the symptom of the crisis, who, themselves, represent this “will to power”, the “transcended” men and women, who refuse to go quietly into the Collective. Cherenkov's character, who becomes a Gnosis, was more than likely written specifically as an example of the "will to power":

“The people you’ve encountered in your lifetime are not people at all. They’re less than human – mere sacks of flesh and bone. Only upon the realization of self-will, can a person truly be called a man… You chose to reject the false light, refused to succumb to their lies… That’s why you never faltered, even after all the personality reconditioning."
- Margulis (Xenosaga Episode I: The Will to Power)

Cherenkov’s wife can further be seen as an example of the “transcended human” who is not about to let anyone’s “abnormal DNA” live on to the next generation. The Xenosaga ODM also specifically said that she had no real interest in intimacy, saying she could get all the love she needed through the Net. This brings me to the 3 Instinctual Variants as recognized by the Enneagram personality analysis. These instincts are the most primitive portions of our being; they are that in us which is most akin to the other animals and they are affected by our fixations in ways that follow predictable patterns, in ways that are susceptible to analysis and description. These are:

Self-Preservational (instinct attuned to the protection of the self, to its needs, health, comforts, security, and stability.)

Sexual (instinct focused on attraction and excitement, or, what, apart from the self, seems to promise to expand and intensify life. The life of the self is found in the life of the other.)

Social (instinct focused on the group, hierarchy, status, the big picture; it essentially focuses on connecting to that which is larger than the self.)

In each human being one of the three instincts becomes preferred and over-utilized. It kind of mixes with the second most preferred instinct, while the third remains generally undeveloped. The “instinctual stacking” of the Enneagram personality analysis refers to this pattern. The dominant instinct can be described as a “weakness which looks like a strength.”

Cherenkov’s wife is clearly a Self-Preservational Variant. Her stacking is sp/so with sx (sexual) being completely undeveloped. When the sexual instinct is least developed the personality can lack a certain charisma and momentum. Such personalities often do not form truly intimate relationships as they don’t feel driven to do so, and consequently, their personal relationships can suffer from a lack of attention. As there are aspects of ourselves which we can only see when in close relationship to others, those whose sexual instinct remains undeveloped might find it difficult to cultivate some forms of self-awareness.

“For love? Ridiculous. That has no value.”
-Wilhelm

We can further examine this characteristic by looking at Wilhelm himself, who, sitting comfortably in his office (resembling Nietzsche’s hermit mountaintop cave), is another prime example of Self-Preservational Variant with an undeveloped sexual instinct - and neither did Nietzsche himself have a romantic perspective on intimacy:

“Man shall be educated for war, and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly”
- Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

With this in mind, I have found that Self-Preservation instinct seems to be closely related to Takahashi’s impression of the Nietzschean ideology.Those individuals who are dominated by the instinct for self-preservation often have a grounded or practical quality; they frequently develop a high degree of self-sufficiency, discipline and maturity. Many self-preservational variants devote themselves to programs for self-improvement and, of all the variants are probably the most “focused.” All of these qualities can clearly be beneficial, but when the personality is unbalanced, a dominant self-preservational instinct can manifest in an obsessive concern with questions of health, such as a focus on diet or exercise (or preserving perfect DNA) which might be punitive or otherwise excessive. In fact, as life exist only briefly (thus safety being an illusion), worry in general, of whatever sort, is a frequent manifestation of a dominant instinct for self-preservation. Cherenkov, a Self-Preservational type 1, is seen being frequently anxious during the game and his wish in life is to leave behind a legacy.

“I'm not going to die. Not now, not ever.”
- Yuriev

Dr. Dmitri Yuriev is another example of the Self-Preservation Variant, who is determined to position himself in God’s realm where he believes he will no longer be affected by the ultimate negation of existence – the collapse of the universe, and Wilhelm comments that he is “a truly fascinating human being”. Fear of death appears to be the primal motivation for Self-Preservation types.

“You humans are hopeless. It's times like this when you should be working together.”
- Canaan

“As long as people have self-preservation instincts, there will always be conflicts. The consciousness that makes us who we are is an inseparable part of life. Only death awaits people who abandon their human nature.”
- Helmer (Xenosaga Episode III: Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

Now, recall how Takahashi described himself: "I'm what you could call not very insistent regarding life, in that there's a part of me that doesn't care if I die" and "I have this ideal of how carefree it would be to just ignore social matters and live like a child who doesn't think too deeply about things." From these quotes it becomes clear that Takahashi probably isn’t a Self-Preservation type. In fact, I would type him as having an almost undeveloped instinct for Self-Preservation if that really is his ideal.

When the instinct for self-preservation is last in the instinctual stacking, the individual will often be somewhat ungrounded or seemingly “immature.” Such individuals often have a hard time focusing on issues such as financial security or the commitment to the development of practical skills. Sometimes, issues of health are ignored. With Takahashi’s sudden bold move of starting MonolithSoft for the purpose of creating a ‘niche’ series like Xenosaga he does come across as slightly impractical, but then again he is backed by people who may be competent. (Actually, if he was Self-Preservational he would most likely never have allowed anyone else to direct his franchise.)

“I'm going to go off topic, but my family was always full of intense competitiveness.  That's why I start to run away before I can realize it myself. Personally, I'm tired of running, but I'm always running before I know it.”
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

Well, that quote speaks for itself doesn’t it? I’m not sure about Takahashi’s E-type, but I have him typed as either a 5 or a 7. Only a 5 or 7 could keep all of those technical terms, besides the plot, in his head. I lean more towards 5 though, since he describes himself as being more of a “doom and gloom kind of guy” and not much of an outdoorsman. His instinctual stacking is either sx/so or so/sx.

“Kindness is something I don't want or need
The sunshine would just dissolve me into light
Give me a pain as pleasing as your sight
So I can feel you all the day and night
And keep me from fading away”
- Pain (Lyrics by Tetsuya Takahashi)

These lyrics totally scream “Sexual Variant”. (In fact I absolutely love that part of the song and I’m sx/sp.) These lyrics sound like a Sexual Variant’s take on the whole Nietzschean ideal of “great suffering”. This song, in particular, used to bug the hell out of me because it was so esoteric and didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, except being a vague reference to a quote by KOS-MOS (“Will feeling pain make me complete?”) and I didn’t know what to make of it. But after investigating and learning more about the design of Xenosaga, its characters, and its author, it becomes very clear that it references the Sexual Variant perspective on suffering. Therefore I don’t think the song “Pain” is about any specific character, but instead, like I said, is a Sexual Variant take on the Nietzschean ideal of suffering.

A Sexual Variant take on another one of Nietzsche’s ideals, the “Eternal Recurrence”, can be seen in this quote:

“The days I spent with him. Feelings of warmth... I want to stay like this forever. Even if I were to be born again... Over and over... Over and over...”
- Shion (Xenosaga Episode III: Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

Now, I’m aware that the script for Episode III was by Erina Hashimoto, but Takahashi is still credited as author. For this reason I will still quote Episode III every now and then even if it does not completely reflect the original intent of the author.

"If I had to choose [any characters that I think have an ideal compromise towards death] I think it would probably be Shion and Albedo."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

It would seem that the characters in the game, that Takahashi is most sympathetic towards, are Shion and Albedo. What do these two characters have in common? Yes, both are Sexual Variants with an undeveloped self-preservation instinct. Takahashi goes on to comment on Albedo:

[A.C]

“Albedo has thoughts about how to solve death and where one goes after death. They're emotions everyone has at one point.  I hope people will have those thoughts again. I would be especially happy if younger players got that message.”

The only thing I can recall where Albedo expressed any thought about solving death was his comment on the “higher dimension”, something very similar to the ideal of Krelian in Xenogears. Krelian was not only based on Takahashi’s favourite character from Childhood’s End, but he was in fact also a Sexual Variant. With this in mind it wouldn’t surprise me if Takahashi’s stacking is sx/so – the same as these 3 characters. Krelian is also type 5, which I believe Takahashi to be, so he might’ve put a lot of himself into ‘Karellen’, and from what I understand he was also a fan of Bart (created by Soraya Saga), another sx/so character, and it appears that when Takahashi wrote Virgil he based Virgil’s character on Bart – even giving him the same voice actor; Seki Tomokazu. (I believe Bart may even be a reincarnation of Virgil.)

Sexual Variants generally have romantic longings and by extension, the sexual instinct can manifest in a desire for intensity of many different sorts, but the primary manifestation will generally be a concern with finding the ideal partner, as the sexual types tend to feel somehow incomplete or unfinished without a relationship to ground them. They often bring a certain passion and experimentalism to their lives; they are generally willing to take risks in order to attain their ideals (again using Takahashi’s bold move to form MonolithSoft in order to create a game he believed in as an example) and are also usually willing to sacrifice for those who matter most to them (like Bart and Virgil does); they have an expanded sense of what constitutes the self and tend to merge with those they love (Krelian literally merges with Elly). On the down side however, Sexual Variants tend to struggle with issues of neediness and dependency, as they tend to feel that they need relationships in order to reclaim lost or inaccessible portions of the self (like Shion does). In addition, the merging tendency, when taken to extremes (as with Albedo), can lead to an inability to protect important boundaries. And the desire for intensity of experience can lead sexual types to take unnecessary risks, to be somewhat impatient and to grow bored or frustrated with mundane reality. When the overall personality is unbalanced, thrill seeking or self-medication sometimes enter the picture, and can lead to various forms of addiction.

So, now that Takahashi’s sympathy being with Shion and Albedo is pretty much confirmed, let’s examine these characters. Albedo contemplates and criticizes the drive for self-preservation several times:

“The human race, fearful in its weakness, built this world in a futile attempt to elude the abyss they call mortality. Culture…civilization…all delusions created by a powerless race, and of little use, like a barren woman.”

“A consciousness desperately struggling to stay alive. Such a pitiful sight. This is unseemly, Rubedo.”

“When I temporarily linked with U-DO, I climbed the ladder of evolution and saw the leaning tower of culture that humans have struggled to construct. It's not even a tower, really. It's a scaffold of rotting wood, built with meager knowledge and pitiful tools! But a nice guy would tell them the truth, would he not? Hello! You've got it all wrong!”
- Albedo

I guess these quotes would be cases where Takahashi is using the characters he’s created, acting as his spokespeople, along with channelling his "Why the hell don't they realize this?!” anger that Mitsuda commented on. Here Takahashi is promoting two characters who represent the opposite of the Nietzschean ideal of “superhuman”, “great suffering” and “eternal recurrence”.

“In order to keep the Dimensional Universe from being denied, the one who must choose Eternal Recurrence is one who accepts every pain. Those who wish to change the past cannot implement true Eternal Recurrence. Accepting every past that occurred in reality, without denying any of it, will lead to affirmation. This truly is the strength of the transcended man. And so, the transcended man imposes on all people the repeating of a Hell-like history. It has been the only means so far that can be done for the sake of protecting the Dimensional Universe.”
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

Despite a past filled with suffering, the Gnosis – the people of this era who have died as “Overmen”, comes to wish for days long past. They wish for the “Eternal Recurrence”, the very ideal of the Overman. In contrast to this ideal, Shion and Albedo does not accept every pain, Albedo does not want to be immortal, and they do not care for the eternal repeating of their suffering:

“An undying body that can't help but continue to suffer, thirst, and struggle with a wish that can't come true. Eventually, he [Albedo] came to wish for annihilation even more than the eternal longing. He couldn't let go of his ultimate wish to unite with Rubedo. He didn't care one way or the other about Wilhelm's expectations or Eternal Recurrence.”

“Her [Shion’s] actions are instinctive. They have no consistency, nor steady footing, nor are they even logical. She is at her own mercy, as are her surroundings. Unable to affirm the past, Shion is unable to come to accept a past so full of anger, hate, and helpless feelings. And so, due to being touched by a past that she didn't want to see, she ends up suspending her thoughts. She completely stops thinking. Because of that, she speaks the words, "I don't understand," countless times. And so, she surrenders judgment to the manifestation of emotion, or to anyone other than herself, and she tries to cling to it.”
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

What Takahashi is promoting is not the Overman, but instead natural human beings who are very much weak and whom may even be destined to die. Also, a vital part of Wilhelm’s plan involved Shion calling out Abel’s Ark. In other words, Wilhelm, the transcended man, was dependent on the fact that Shion would not accept her past, thus freaking out and awakening Abel’s Ark, in order to accomplish his superhuman solution. The Overmen are ultimately faced with being overcome with loneliness and fading away because of their rejection, strength, and self-preservation.

“How I envy you…”
- Andrew Cherenkov

Seeking salvation, the Overmen choose instead to return everything to the beginning. Even in this situation they will not accept their weakness. Despite that, Cherenkov does at one point express an envy at those humans who do not reject others. The words; “I envy you (two)” have a great thematical meaning in the Xenoverse, and appears to be running through all three story arcs.

Virgil, after accepting the transcended ideal of Eternal Recurrance and becoming a Testament, criticizes the protagonists for “rejecting” the world they have lived in. He is different from Cherenkov, who rejected the world, in that he accepts the world.

“Virgil said, "I accept Eternal Recurrence precisely because I accept everything." Febronia replied, "We don't deny those things either; we simply want to believe the possibility of the future that is born from disorder," And then, Virgil, who had spouted words condemning Febronia who had died, leaving him behind -- he, who wasn't able to save her -- was gently embraced by Febronia. "I want to free you from that curse," she said. And then, Virgil knew -- his own true wish. To accept everything, together with Febronia, and affirm the past with true meaning.”
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

The true wish of Virgil, a Sexual Variant, is to move forward in order to give the past meaning. If it repeats, it has no meaning. To acquire meaning in the moment and in relationships is the desire of a Sexual Variant, and so he finally abandons the Self-Preservational desire of simply preserving the universe, especially if it holds no meaning other than preserving the universe for the sake of preservation.

Another Sexual Variant, Kevin, is presented as a “fool” (as had been implied by his ODM profile) in that he tries to force his own logic on to the world. Kevin is sx/sp, so his Self-Preservational desire is stronger than that of the sx/so’s like Shion, Virgil, Albedo, etc…

“Listen, you need to understand how the world works. For humans to live we have to conquer, and destroy, and eat other organisms. That’s the most basic function of an organic being. I’m sorry, Shion, but there’s no point to what you’re doing.”

“Placing one against another and fighting is a defining aspect of human beings. Resisting it is unnatural.”
- Young Kevin

Being Social last in the stacking, Kevin feels that it is acceptable to throw away this world if it will give him a preserved world along with Shion. When the Social instinct is least developed, the individual is going to find it difficult to see why it is important to form social connections or to cultivate multiple relationships. This, in turn, can lead to a certain amount of social isolation. They find interdependence difficult and dependence on others barely tolerable. But all human beings are interdependent, and sometimes, dependent - when they are, for instance, young, weak, sick, old or dying. Those whose Social instinct remains undeveloped are trying to attain a type of independence and self-sufficiency which is not possible for human beings. This “false independence” almost certainly leads to unnecessary suffering and impoverishment of experience. This is Kevin’s folly. Kevin could have gotten his intimate wish with Shion, if only he wasn’t so fixated upon self-sufficiency, trying to rise above his humanity, and forcing his own logic on to the world.

“No one…has the ability to lead others to the truth. Our powers are... too limited. Only those who possess…divine power can accomplish that.”
- Young Kevin

To Kevin, the flowers that Young Shion planted represented this futility of human beings. They would eventually be destroyed, and only those who aim for divine power, a “will to power”, can escape this fate. But the message Takahashi seems to convey here, with Young Shion, is that while the existence of flowers may be temporary, they will at least make people happy while they’re there, and even if it is their fate to disappear entirely, it is not something to be sad about. Reality is indeed harsh, but human beings can plant new seeds, human beings can stop trying to act selfish and come together, but first they have to admit that they are weak, and there is nothing to gain from running away from that.

“You lost confidence in your ability to live as human beings and just ran away! Because they were scared of death, because they couldn’t stand being weak, Virgil, Voyager, Yuriev, and even Ormus. They were all just trying to run away from the harshness of reality! The power of the Testaments? All you’re doing is using that tremendous power to run away!”
- Allen

Only at the end does Kevin’s dominant instinct win out over his secondary Self-Pres one and he does what he should have done all along and aids Shion and the protagonists.

Now, Wilhelm is something entirely different of course. Unlike the weak humans who are using their power to “run away”, Wilhelm is neither running away, nor is he, in fact, weak. Wilhelm truly is a superhuman, a god, and his solution is pretty sound. He even makes a good argument that the “preciousness of limited life” and “beauty of death”, which Shion and the protagonists represents, can be seen as a kind of “narcissism” that weak human beings resort to in order to justify themselves, while lacking all the perspective that Wilhelm has gathered over the millennia. But then again, only Wilhelm, is a truly “transcended man”, and he ultimately helps Shion and our protagonists, because, as a true Nietzschean, he somewhere deep down wished for human beings to finally evolve past the point of needing him, and progress into the future by their own will. In other words, the superhuman, Wilhelm, gives into the “human” perspective of our protagonists, which is the only ideal conclusion that any true “transcended” or enlightened human being will eventually arrive at.

“Jin, now I think I understand what Wilhelm wanted to do, just a little bit better. His methods may have been wrong, but now, I think I understand the logic behind his reasons. Living the same life over and over again, but living those lives without any regrets is what really matters. That's probably what the ideal vision of being human is all about. However, we humans are really not that strong. And we know that we can't live like that. We're creatures that are much more flawed, weak, and smaller than that. We hurt others, we lie to ourselves, we hate, we blame others, we regret, but, even if we are weak, and even if it is our fate to disappear entirely. I think the will to change the future is still an important one. We must try to change the things around us, little by little. Even if it is one step at a time, And even if everything is already pre-determined, it's not something for us to be sad about. No. On the contrary, the future is overflowing with hope. And we have infinite paths to choose from. Isn't that right? chaos? KOS-MOS?”
- Shion

Now, while the first story arc is mainly focused on Nietzschean ideology, there are two more ideologies present; Christianity and Buddhism. These two ideologies get their own focus in the second and third story arc respectively, but we can already begin to see that Buddhism is favoured by the protagonists; the Elsa crew, who make Buddhist prayers in times of danger (specifically pointed out in the ODM), and Jin Uzuki, with his reverence for ancient traditions. There is a very stark contrast between Jin and Margulis in the story, with Margulis representing some blend between Nietzschean ideology and Christian doctrine.

“You get the sense that the character is a real scoundrel, but some of Margulis' dialogue is very pointed. I have the feeling that the scriptwriter (Director Takahashi, that is) is using his words to send a message to modern corporations, but am I the only one who thinks so? (laughs)”
- Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenosaga Original Soundtrack Liner Notes)

Margulis does indeed come across as very modern, despite his religious doctrine, representing Nietzschean aspects of the world and its ever-changing circumstances while Jin was obviously representing the classical aspects of civilization, specifically Buddhism. After Margulis has lost everything he believed in, in order to justify himself, he holds on to past actions and ultimately performs hara-kiri (which was censored in the NA version), thus committing one of the oldest acts of Japanese civilization in order to ensure his sense of honor.

“Although defeated in the end, Margulis laughed triumphantly. In him was not one bit of regret. Because the man before his eyes knew the proof of his own existence.”
- The Truth of Xenosaga (Xenosaga III Complete Guide)

It would appear that if anything, Takahashi is the most sympathetic towards Buddhism, as the protagonists ultimately reject the transcended man, while the “Christian” faith, or organized religions, are presented as blind fools.

“Pellegri didn't know the truth, and she threw away her life believing only the narrowed view of information reflected with her faith.”
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

That said it appears Wilhelm’s arc may not be entirely over. He is still watching over the universe according to the Perfect Guide. Although I don’t see a return to the heavy focus on Nietzschean ideology in the following arcs, it will no doubt be present within some characters as different ideologies continues to be tossed around.

“While his methods differed from Shion's, Wilhelm undoubtedly sought to save the world just the same. Or perhaps what he truly wanted was a revolution in mankind's consciousness, brought about by the cyclical recurrence of time.”
- Xenosaga III database

In the end Takahashi, just like Buddhism, puts an emphasis on Altruism and the intrinsic worth of each human being, and this is ultimately the message of the Xenoverse. His main sympathy towards Wilhelm’s actions is the fact that they were ultimately completely altruistic, which is reflected in this passage:

“Although many people seek a glorious dream during their short lifetimes, wish for a life that is full of glitz, and utilize their surroundings to gain economic strength and authority, Wilhelm acted thinking only to save the world from crisis. His actions of forming the root of every organization and spinning society and history from behind the scenes were completely altruistic. For thousands of years of history, many people's quiet everyday lives had to change into blood-smeared nightmares. Politics were spun; economics was controlled, and civilization was utilized. There was even so much hateful and cursed words raised that it was incalculable. And Wilhelm, clearly conscious of the aim for Eternal Recurrence, recognizes that history such as this will once again repeat. In order to repeat a blood-smeared history, history will continue to be stained in blood. Because, if the world that wants to cover its eyes is not affirmed, the very world itself will completely vanish. Only someone who possesses an unwavering resolve is able to accomplish that; it was a superhuman choice. That blood-stained choice cannot be judged by such things as the laws that differ according to nation, nor by morals that change according to era, nor by the standard of values that sway within an individual heart; it was something beyond good and evil. Therefore, he couldn't speak his own thoughts. That's because wishing for understanding is a desire for oneself to be given acceptance. He resigned even desire such as that. It was only just to save the world from the threat of annihilation.”
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

Well, I believe I've already given you a mouthful with these posts, so I'll hold off on posting my analysis on the second story arc for a bit or else it will be too much to read.

Feel free to comment, or ask questions if there's something you don't understand. I tried to be as clear as possible but I did skim over some bits to make it short and thematic. If you want to argue against any idea I brought up, or my interpretation of Nietzschean philosophy, etc, then that's welcome too.

[xnor]

I am brought out of lurk mode (I visit from time to time to see if anything fun goes on, and in the futile hope of hearing actual Xeno news) to say one thing:

Fucking awesome. A+.

[Abel The Contact]

Wow, A.C, that was a really interesting read. You've definitely done your homework with your insight on Ennegrams and Nietzsche.

Bravo on your indepth analysis! 

Definitely looking forward to your future musings 

[A.C]

The second story arc: ‘Organized Religion’ (or Tetsuya Takahashi’s counter-JudeoChristianity)

"The rejecting consciousnesses that had become Gnosis went through the domain shift to Lost Jerusalem together with Nephilim, chaos, and Abel. There, they will perhaps build up a new civilization. The Gnosified consciousnesses-- in other words, the strong souls that tend to refuse to go quietly into the Collective Unconscious-- they are turned into existences of the real domain and begin to live as people."
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

The second part of the Xenoverse (future Lost Jerusalem, Fei’s world) represents a dystopian “Christian” (or heavy emphasis on organized religion/Social society) future for mankind. The name for the ‘new mankind’ is christened “Ahnenerbe” to further reflect this allusion to an extremely hierarchal, orderly (borderline fascist) future that Xenogears Episode II~V envisions.

"Humanity, now the third Ahnenerbe, is about to meet its end as a species."
- ‘Zeboim civilization’ (Xenogears: Perfect Works)

'Ahnenerbe' means "Ancestral Heritage" in German, and in Xenogears it may refer to that which is inherited from the Animus after each stage of the new mankind is reset. It also refers to the Contact (Abel) and appears to be, however it may be applied, the wish of chaos for the future of humanity. Perhaps "Ancestral Heritage" can also be considered an allusion to “God’s chosen people” (Israelites) since the Ahnenerbe, at least in the beginning, were meant to merge with Deus (“God”).

"Cursed, untouchable one, who prevent the prayers of God's beloved children...
Get... Destroy... Burn with God's fire..."
- Gazel (Alternate translation)

Before I proceed I feel that I must go into the relationship between Xenogears and Xenosaga here, since the following analysis will concern both, and share my view on the matter.

Basically, I view ‘Gears as being "Xenoverse 1.0" while ‘Saga is "Xenoverse 2.0". Because of this, Xenogears isn’t directly attached to Xenosaga, but thematically, they would probably have been similar. It would take place on future Lost Jerusalem (rather than the unknown planet that is Fei's world) but involve a cast very similar to that of Xenogears. This is kind of supported by the familiar faces in Xenosaga's first arc, as well as the fact that Takahashi had already finished writing the second arc before Episode I was even released. If it was completely different from Xenogears then I assume writing it would've taken longer.

I would guess reincarnations of Abel and Nephilim are taking leading roles in Xenosaga's second arc, with a reincarnation of Jin taking on a mentor role for Abel under supervision of chaos who assumes the role of Emperor, etc.

In Xenogears the Eldridge ship was an allusion to Garden of Eden (Machanon) and the fall of man (You Shall Be as Gods.) In Xenosaga, on the other hand, we have the real deal; extremely ancient Lemuria (Mu) on Lost Jerusalem. Lemuria is thought to be the basis for the stories of the Garden of Eden (which is why the Eldridge never appeared in Xenosaga I guess) and the one who caused the fall of man in Lemuria was the original form of KOS-MOS, whose password is "Ye Shall Be as Gods." The original form of KOS-MOS was not Mary Magdalene, since she and Yeshua took their current forms during the time of the Messiah, so her original form was most likely “Hawwa”, which is another name for Eve – the Great Mother, and it is possible that she gave birth to humanity. I could easily see the “opening movie” of a new arc be about extremely ancient Lemuria being twice up heaved in one night, while “Raziel’s Tree” (the actualized form of Lemegeton) is seen during the disaster, as well as the phrase “Ye Shall Be As Gods”, and then, being denied by U-DO, the land of Lemuria (Machanon) sinks to the bottom of the sea (along with DIABOLOS – Prototype Omega units created by these Ancients.) Then move on to 10,000 years after the end of Episode III.

As for what happened directly after Episode III ended; the power of Animus was passed down to a new generation, and arriving on Earth, I assume Nephilim used it to bear several beings. These would be the ancestors of the Ahnenerbe, and chaos would’ve been resurrected as ‘Emperor Cain’ – the “brother” of Abel, and he begins to be worshiped as the advent of God among the people.

"He [chaos] still exists as the universe's failsafe. Because of his fate ordained by God--or perhaps because people struggling against their own fates desire his existence--his future form still lies within the chaotic darkness."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga III database)

Let’s talk about the future form of chaos for a moment. Those who have read previous posts I’ve made will know that I believe Emperor Cain to be the future form of chaos. Whether this idea would’ve been repeated in Xenosaga’s second arc or not, I strongly believe that Cain was “Xenoverse 1.0’s” version of chaos. Takahashi has said that chaos is a “key character” that would’ve been present in all 3 arcs, but not necessarily existing in the same “form.” It’s highly unlikely then, that an early version of the concept for chaos wouldn’t already have existed in Xenogears (especially since the power of Anima and Animus was already conceptualized), and Emperor Cain fits the bill.

"Distinguished by his transparent eyes and silver hair."
- Tetsuya Takahashi on ‘chaos’

"Asking for a silver skeleton we came to feel that the gold part would work just as well."
- Tetsuya Takahashi on ‘Emperor Cain’

Cain has all the characteristics of chaos. Both are very old characters who possess 'absolute power' and cannot be killed by a mere human. Both want to believe in Humankind to choose their own future while not knowing the proper action to take themselves. Both have a personality corresponding to type 9 of the Enneagram (Social Variant) which explains why Cain offered his own undying body as use for experiments to aid mankind and brought Krelian under his wing in order to save human beings. He also never had any real desire to merge mankind with Deus. Although we never see Cain's face, it is described by Takahashi to have a style of beauty (but different from Ramsus, who’s appearance was influenced by him merging with Solarian Kahran Becker), and both characters have the same eye color. Both characters are also close friends with the 'Dr. Uzuki' character in their respective story arc. Also, the Goetia Key (misspelled 'Gaetia Key') that only Cain and the Gazel can use seems to be a solid form of Lemegeton. Both Lemegeton and 'Goetia' are references to the same book (the 'Lesser Key of Solomon') so they are most likely related. Finally, Cain decides to entrust the future to Fei, and chaos (at the end of Episode III) left the possibility of a future in the hands of Abel.

"chaos regained his former powers through KOS-MOS's awakening, and left the possibility of a future in the hands of Abel-- U-DO that chose to remain in this lower dimension."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga III database)

However, as we saw in Xenogears, the thinking of Abel becomes a hindrance to chaos (Cain). Cain, because he was venerated among the people, used this to manipulate their will, and head towards the resurrection of Deus – the god that was capable of ‘spiritual union’. Abel desired only the freedom of the people to live according to their own will. But as the universe is heading for destruction, chaos (Cain), does not feel the thinking of Abel is an option at this stage, regrettable as it may be for him.

"'Ahnenerbe'... You don't still believe that, do you? That is merely an illusion. Not even an ideal."
- Gazel

But as the present time draws near, chaos (Cain) has put his trust into the judgement of Hyuga (a reincarnation of his old friend Jin Uzuki), and ultimately decides once more to entrust the future to the Contact (Abel) as stated in PW:

"Citan determines that Fei as Ahnenerbe will be able to rescue humanity. From this determination, Cain also decides to entrust all to the Contact."

"The meaning of Ahnenerbe is “the coming man of God who will lead the people born of this world to a new land."

Most people have noticed that there’s already a connection between Deus and KOS-MOS in the stories, and a return to the land of Lemuria in esoteric thinking is a return to the “Divine feminine”, and Deus was also referred to as “Mother God”.

"It’s important to choose a female form when it’s going to be a creator or protector."
- Kevin

Although we don’t know if KOS-MOS is going to play out as a Deus/Miang type creator, I will apply the thematic Deus-like role to KOS-MOS. Thus the “revival of Deus” may simply be referring to something having to do with Lemuria and the original form of KOS-MOS in Xenosaga. But that’s not important anyways since I’m going to use an analysis of Xenogears as the basis for the second story arc.

"'The Shepherds, -Abel-, took control over the surface dwelling -Lambs-... possessing the right to give life and death unto them as they see fit...'"
- Elly

Unlike the Nietzschean ideology, the Christian ideology and “herd mentality” is a social one. But in order to hold their actions together as a unity, man needs to be weak (slaves) thus needing the illusion of the subject (God) to save them. Reducing mankind to slaves (Lambs) is what Solaris does, for the purpose of controlling the masses, and this makes the Lambs long for union with God.

"In order to give meaning and significance to this meaningless, dark life, an existence of light that shines on our lives becomes necessary.  That is a thought that is the general concept of God.  By being illuminated with that light meaning is born into life and one can run from the nothingness and despair.  Death is given meaning and accepting it is no longer nihilistic.  This gives birth to the tranquility of the heart.

Consequently, in order to protect this tranquility of the heart, it becomes possible to conduct a war without fearing death.  Sacrificing one's life in order to protect the existence that grants one the tranquility of the heart becomes a magnificent act.  In an unstable life without meaning it is proper to accept a death with meaning. To someone who believes in a single, absolute existence, accepting other gods is unforgivable.  If one is a person who knows religion as the metaphor of confrontation between the world and oneself, one realizes that this confrontation is only the difference of individual tastes but if one hopes to take the metaphor as reality one cannot recognize this difference.  This is because if one recognizes it, the world one believes in will crumble."
- Xenosaga Official Design Materials

The Social solution is connecting to that which is larger than the self; God:

"It is much easier to be given a place to belong than to make one yourself. Being given one's place, frees one from any risks. Misfortunes may be blamed on others. Do you know why people can not exist alone but only under some bigger concept such as a group or country? People need a place to go to be themselves... The more stable it is the more effective it is. The Ministry gives them such a place. Under total surveillance, there is no need to bear the risk of maintaining one's own individuality. They simply live under the delusion of being an 'individual'. What could be easier? Facts are facts so let's just accept them. It will be easier for all of us. Resistance is futile. It only makes things painful."
- Citan

Before I proceed with the Social instinct, a comparison between Xenosaga’s Realians and Xenogears’ Ahnenerbe may be in order. Perhaps chaos, Nephilim and the first generation of Animus (the Gazel) will make use of some artificial means to mass produce new human beings. How else are the Gnosis going to quickly become “people” and start a new civilization? Maybe the Zohar is capable of creating humans in Xenosaga as well, since Perfect Works hints that the Zohar was responsible for the creation of Earth’s initial population? My guess is that the second story arc fuses humanity with Realian biology to create a ‘controllable race’ that is capable of spiritual union.

"All things fear their own death. But Realians are strongly connected to each other by their subconscious. They never reject each other. Even if their body disappears, they are still connected at the subconscious level. That’s what makes them different from people."
- Young Kevin

Social Variants:

Individuals whose social instinct is dominant need to feel a sense of “belonging.” They need to feel as though they have found a place in the group; they need to feel as though they are making their own contributions. Individuals whose social instinct is first tend to be the warmest of the subtypes. Social subtypes are the most likely to feel a sense of social responsibility to the needs of the group and to work to serve those needs. In less balanced personalities, this can lead to a need to conform to the standards of the group in order to achieve acceptance. Social subtypes can sometimes fail to focus on the needs of the self as they are searching for their identity in terms of the larger whole.

In the case of Emperor Cain I would say that he started out as a less balanced person, since he needed to conform to the standards of the group in order to achieve acceptance. The standard of the reborn “Gnosis” are strength, and so for chaos it may have been necessary to place himself above them at first, becoming an Emperor (the highest in the hierarchy) and used this to manipulate their will at the cost of his relationship with Abel.

"Yes, the -Gospel-.
We are the people expelled from paradise and forced to live on the cruel surface of the earth.
We who fill this land will once again return to the presence of God in paradise and live there eternally. That is the -Time- of the -Gospel-. That -Time- is at hand. We, the Gazel, must find God's resting place by then and resurrect him. That is our final prayer... Our final prayer to escape from the -Fate- that was determined at our genesis."
- Emperor

This is the only time the Emperor ever talks about the “Time of the Gospel”, and thus this enigmatic “Fate” that they needed to resurrect Deus for - in order to escape it – is never answered in the game. This “Fate” is, in fact, the collapse of the universe that was brought about by the condition of the original human race and its Nietzschean way of existing in the first story arc (Cosmo War), thus by merging this new mankind (Ahnenerbe) with Mother God and accepting this spiritual union and merging with God, mankind will become “God’s parts that will live forever”. This is the view of the Ministry and Miang in the game according to PW’s ‘After Word’.

"The -Time- of the -Gospel-
Remember those words spoken by Cain? This was explained as the fate of humans meant to resurrect Deus, but there are other factors in regards to the true meaning of those words:
-Why must Deus take the long time of 10,000 years to revive itself?
-Why was there a time limit on this?
-Why did the result destroy human beings?
And in regards to these riddles the aim was not shown. In addition, the individuals associated with this phenomenon had different perspectives.

The Gazel Ministry's interpretation is "If God is kept from being resurrected, human beings will also be destroyed..." And this is the meaning of their existence who were born to be parts for Deus; God's parts that would live forever. Meaning, if the resurrection would fail, they would also die. If not erased by Krelian, their lives as Animus, etc, would in truth ultimately merge many humans as parts with "God" on the way, thus "recieving life". With this approach they would avoid their interpreted "Doomsday".
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Excerpt from ‘After Word’, Xenogears: Perfect Works)

The time limit was already established by chaos in Xenosaga:

"At best, this universe will last another few tens of thousands of years before it perishes."
- chaos (Xenosaga III)

Now, while we get quite a bit of development on Cain (either through the game or PW) we don’t get a whole lot on Miang’s (Deus’) reasons for resurrection and merging mankind with herself.

"If God is not resurrected, human beings are destroyed" and "If God is resurrected, humans beings are destroyed" both is the -Time of the Gospel-. Humans who merge to become parts gain 'life' and those who do not wish this union are destroyed as punishment by God and it's parts that defends it. There is no contradiction between the Gazel Ministry's view and what Miang (Elly) said."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Excerpt from ‘After Word’, Xenogears: Perfect Works)

As can be examined, from this and other quotes, the ultimate objective appears to be a form of ‘spiritual union’ of mankind in “God”.

"Zohar will continuously supply power to the Deus System and the Merkabah until the target planet and its populace are suppressed, with all opposing forces either destroyed or absorbed. After having completely suppressed a target planet, the Merkabah will continue on to another planet and once there, resume its subversive mission-absorbing organic matter and growing at the same time. In theory, the Deus System can continue its subversive mission and can grow indefinitely, resulting in an unstoppable, ultimate weapon."
- Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~

In Xenosaga Episode I, we saw how the Merkabah, one of the ‘Artifacts of God’ that are making up the “Deus system”, is absorbing the spirits of people (Gnosis) and fusing them within the reactor (union) and creates a being very similar to the Deus we see in Xenogears. In fact, while the Gnosis are “rejecting souls”, the ‘Aeons’, or Angels, that are born from Deus, are the forms of the souls of people who have accepted the spiritual union as “parts for God”, and, lacking free will (as pointed out by PW), the Angels hand out "God’s punishment" to those (Gnosis/Transcended men) who reject this union. They are, quite literally, “God’s army” who will fight against humans who reject union with God during the days of Armageddon (The Time of the Gospel) when the universe runs the risk of collapsing.

This is Miang’s solution, a Social Variant ideal, in stark contrast with Wilhelm’s Self-Preservation ideal.
However, chaos (Cain) was different:

"Cain believed the fate as parts for Deus chained Humankind, therefore he was against the Ministry's wish to resurrect "God" and desired instead to free Humankind from the binding of "God". To him, Citan and the others represented a possible 'new kind' of humans and he knew the odds were high that they wouldn't mutate once Deus is resurrected. From the very first years Cain had secretly wished for humans to break the "curse of the System" and was freed from it himself.

Fei and the others destroyed "God". Not only destroying the flesh of God, but the ability to cause spiritual union and the fate of Humankind was freed from those bonds and reborn."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (After Word, Xenogears: Perfect Works)

[A.C]

Now, let’s examine the characters:

Both Cain and chaos are Social Nines, a personality type that is described as "Participation", while Miang and Mary M. are Social Twos, a personality type that is described as "Ambition, devotee". Fits pretty well doesn’t it? Trying to ascend to the realm of God in ancient times sounds pretty ambitious for Mary, and Cain/chaos are mostly going along with others rather than actually taking charge, or having any ambition of their own. Thus “Social Variants.”

A small note on Miang here; I’m aware that she claims to be “programmed” to act in her way, but if it wasn’t for that quote you could easily take her for human. Her behaviour is textbook ‘Social Two’; Social, caring, warm, manipulative, and becoming cruel and cold when stressed (Two goes to Eight.) Grahf also said that she was beginning to break free of her programming, and the Elly-Miang version who claims to be “programmed” could easily be Miang temporarily reverting back to her basic “program” after freshly awakening in Elly.

Cain’s Nine-ness wasn’t obvious at first, until I finally read his translated profile, etc, in PW. Then it became clear, and it makes a lot of sense, since Abel (Fei) is a 9, and Cain is the “brother” of Abel. Both are Nines. Now I wish to go into the concept of reincarnation for a moment. A characters personality (or E-type) does not change in the Xenoverse, not even when they die. This is stressed in the Xenosaga Official Design Materials:

"According to Enneagram personality analysis, The Man in the Red Cloak seems to
exhibit a Type 5 personality type on the surface. [...]

* Personality Succession

In order to understand, Virgil can be looked at as an example - he was changed
into a Cloaked Man, but his personality was not altered.

In other words, if the Man in the Red Cloak was once a human, it is possible in
this case, that at that time, he would have been considered a Type 5
personality."
-Xenosaga Official Design Materials

This explains why The Contact and the "Antitype", as well as other reincarnated characters, always have the same core personality. There are three things that I look for to establish if a character is a "reincarnation" of another character. These are the combination of Enneatype+Instinctual variant, Japanese Voice actor (or Name of the character) + similar look.

To use an example; Jin and Citan are both Enneatype 6 (Social Variant) and both characters are voiced by Hideyuki Tanaka. In addition to this they look almost identical.

In the case of a character that does not have a VA in XG we can instead look at their names. For example; the character Hammer in Xenogears, while being a mutated Demi-human, does in fact have the same Enneagram type as the Hammer in Xenosaga. Thus it's logical to conclude that they are the same character and that Hammer is a reincarnation of Hammer. Of course, Great Joe, Mai, and Vanderkam are reincarnated into Big Joe, Maria, and Vanderkaum respectively.

Now I know what many Xeno fans are thinking; that the two series are not directly attached and thus they can only be seen as "cameos", and Takahashi himself said that "other characters are more like self-parodies" and Xenogears fans shouldn’t overreact. But these days I prefer to go with what another Xenogears fan recently said to me in that readers, not writers, construct fictions. Writers merely guide us through a narrative, while our minds do the rest. In my mind the “cameos” are reincarnations, regardless of what Takahashi said in old interviews, as I find that idea more compelling. So that’s how I roll from now on.

Like we saw at the end of Episode III the Animus was passed down to a new generation, in Xenogears Cain entrusted the future to the Contact, and chaos entrusted the future to Abel.

Thus Mary (an E2) pass down her role to Nephilim (another E2), and
Cain/chaos (an E9) passed down his role to The Contact (another E9.)

Why would Nephilim and Abel be suitable to lead and save humanity? Is there really any big difference between the first generation (chaos and Mary) and the second (Fei and Elly)? Actually, there is. Mary and chaos (or Miang and Cain) are Social Variants, while Fei and Elly are Sexual Variants.

While the personality of a Social Nine like chaos or Cain is described as “Participation”, the personality of a Sexual Nine like Fei and Abel are described as "Union".

To be more specific, a Social Nine tends to be idealistic and is often supportive of causes, acting as the "social glue" in many organizations and groups. But in the midst of social activity, Social Nines remain strangely unaware of and unaffected by the problems of others. They are drawn to situations in which they feel they can belong, but they also internally hold themselves apart - usually by emotionally distancing themselves from others while maintaining an outward friendliness. This is why, when it comes to an ideal solution of union, or a “perfect society”, Cain/chaos cannot pull it off, and he ultimately entrusts the future to Fei instead.

As a Sexual Nine, Fei/Abel wants to be at one with the world, with beauty, with nature, and his general affect is one of gentleness, ease, and flow, and he seeks these qualities in others and in the environment. Sexual Nines also tends to be highly sensual, enjoying tastes, textures, sensations, and being more imaginative than Social Nines, having elements of gentle whimsy and heroic fantasy. They see the world in magical terms, investing even ordinary objects with a warm glow, are often artistic, and they seemingly take in the world with a wide-eyed wonder and have a characteristic child-like aura about them. Sounds a lot like the ideal living that Takahashi mentioned if you ask me.

So chaos (Cain) entrusts the future to Fei, and throughout the story of Xenogears we see the emerging of the main theme that humans are like Angels with only one wing each, and in order to fly they are dependent upon one another.

"According to a legend handed down in Nisan... God could have created humans perfectly...
But then, humans would not have helped each other... So that is what these great single-winged angels symbolizes... In order to fly, they are dependent on one another."
- Margie

"On further inspection, the left angel looks somewhat masculine... while the right one looks somewhat feminine. Now that is an unusual feature, is it not? Usually these depictions are not gender-specific. But these angels are clearly distinguishable as having opposing genders."
- Citan

Citan makes a comment on the appearance of the angels as having opposing genders, something resembling a Sexual Variant ideal. Since this teaching was conceptualized by Sophia (Elly), a Sexual Variant, this was probably intentional on the part of the developers. This is the difference in the thinking of Elly and Fei, from the thinking of Mary/Miang and chaos/Cain.

Miang and Cain represents the big ‘whole’, while Elly and Fei represents the ‘small two’ of all pieces.

"Probably deep inside, I'm not really trying to help. Somehow, I get the feeling that all I've done I did because I wanted to be needed. That if I did something for them... then maybe, I'd have a place to belong... There's a side of me that comforts itself like that. That doesn't mean I don't want to help. But, that doesn't mean I really want to help either. It might not be 'nothing', but it sure isn't the 'whole' either."
- Fei
 
"It's OK not to feel 'whole'. Even if you only feel partly complete, if you repeat that enough, eventually it'll be 'whole'. A part... is better than zero."
- Elly

Now, while Cain and Miang are the God-like supervisors of humanity in opposition to each other in the second story arc, just like chaos and Wilhelm were the God-like supervisors of humanity in opposition to each other in the first, the ultimate “solution maker” in gears is actually Krelian.

Krelian, unlike the other antagonists (Grahf, Miang, Cain, Wilhelm), is not a "god", but actually a mere human being. If Wilhelm represented the Nietzschean superhuman ideal, then Krelian appears to represent the opposite. We get development on Krelian’s character during the first story arc in the form of his alter-ego; Richard, who is presented as a religious zealot, blinded by his fate, having gone slightly insane from witnessing his older sister die in an accident at a very young age, and appearing in the games as nothing but a minor character, a subordinate to Pellegri, who doesn’t even get any screen time (apart from Xenosaga I-II on the DS.) Here, we already learn of his instinct, a Sexual Variant, who is panicked over the thought that his companion, Hermann, may die and leave him behind. This is also the core of Krelian’s character. After Richard dies and reincarnates, he is reborn as ‘Krelian’ and his life starts out the same way, a young man with a bad temperament, who lost his mother the year he was born, and who works for religious organizations as an assassin. But then something happens; his heart is healed by Elly, and after that he decides to become her follower, pouring all his attachment onto her (even more so than he did Hermann in the previous life), and takes up reading, research, and molecular engineering as a result.

Krelian is the lowly human 'Lamb', the mere gritty slave, who has no one else to put his faith in but God, and after losing Sophia, completely loses his faith and decides that if God does not exist, then he will create God with his own hands. Krelian’s motive is ultimately to take humankind to the ‘land of God’ so that no human will experience sadness or loss ever again.

"When Sophia died because of Shevat’s betrayal, Krelian despaired of both "God (belief)" and human beings. The teaching of Sophia that ‘faith grows from within’, changed in him to the belief that "If God doesn’t exist, I’ll create it with my own hands!"

"All can be known about the Deus System from the data of the ‘Tree of Raziel.’ When Fei and the others get this data from Raziel during the story, they are unable to get any further information concerning Zohar because of interference by Krelian. Most likely the data concerning Zohar, the entity of the ‘Wave Existence’ must be contained there in some form. Krelian analyzes this information and wonders if contact with the will of a higher “God” than Deus might not be possible. The thought to ‘create God’ that resulted from the death of Sophia was realized in the plan to resurrect Deus. However, having discovered within it the presence of the ‘Wave Existence’, Krelian’s own god was not Deus, but the ‘Wave Existence’ he had uncovered. And so, knowing he would need to resurrect Deus so as to enable the Wave Existence to return to its own higher dimension, he determined not to “resurrect God”, but to “go to the place of God".
- Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~

In the end Krelian attains that which the religious man seeks; union with God and joining God as an angel. He is the first and only character to ever reach God’s domain, something so many men have sought before without success. However, it came at the cost of his own humanity, and in the end his final words to Fei and Elly are “I envy you two.” Maybe the message Takahashi is trying to convey here is that people of faith should be careful in their wish for union with an uncertain God, because in the end, if you pursue it vehemently and forcing it upon others, it may cost you the joy of simply living with your fellow human beings, and you may never be able to take it back.

"The only one who could have forgiven me... was God."
- Krelian

While the second story arc is mainly focused on Christian (or organized religion) ideology, the other two ideologies are also still present. The Nietzschean theme can initially be found among our protagonists this time:

"Your friends won't come and help us?"
- Fei

"It'd be a waste of time waiting. They probably won't come. We believe in a liberal upbringing.
They'll think we can escape by ourselves."
- Bart

Bart and his crew seem to have embraced the Nietzschean way of thinking. This isn’t surprising, given that Bart may be a reincarnation of Virgil, who had a strong ‘will to power’ in the first arc, and the humans on the planet are all (presumably) reincarnations of the Gnosis who tended to reject others and be independent. Another example is Ramsus and the Elements who wish to create an "ideal nation" based on similar Nietzschean values.

"What the Gazel do or whatever happens to the Lambs, are not my concerns. Each of us have our own obligations to fulfill. We don't have time to deal with affairs concerning you weak and inferior people."
- Dominia

"People must be able to stand on their own in any circumstances they are in. Overprotection only stunts the will to be independent. This stunts the growth of the people of the world. We've experienced that first hand. Live by one's own strength, stand on one's own feet! It's sad but true that the weak will be weeded out... But we cannot look back. That is the providence of human existence."
- Kelvena

In the game Egalitarianism fights and wins out over meritocracy. A reviewer once pointed out that this is an annoying contradiction, since the game appears to say one thing, and then do the opposite. The protagonists themselves come out on top because they are strong, while the weak are assimilated into Deus, all the while our protagonists are preaching that all people are "the same human beings" and nobody should be forsaken. Indeed, the ideal of Sophia/Nisan and the ideal of Deus’ "spiritual union" are actually pretty similar to each other and very much counter-Nietzschean.

"People are people. Nothing more or less. I admit that there are the weak and the powerless. But that's no reason for us to forsake them. We are all the same human beings."
- Billy

"Power and ability have nothing to do with it. It was pure coincidence we didn't mutate."
- Fei

The idea that our protagonists didn’t mutate simply because of luck is hard to swallow, especially since we know they have high ether response and can access the power of Anima. These are all special traits. But this is where we have a real contradiction, since Miang was constantly resetting humanity in order to promote the strongest humans and make them “worthy parts” for God, it would seem that the heroes ultimately come out on top because of Miang and Deus, and not because of their own strength.

I suppose, in this contradiction to a contradiction, we can find the counter-contradiction. If the goal is “spiritual union”, then death is merely part of the process. After all, reincarnation is an intrinsic part of the Xenoverse. In other words, Deus and Miang are using the Nietzschean ideal of promoting the strongest humans in order for Deus to be strong enough to participate in the coming battle during Armageddon. If Deus is destroyed by the remnants of the original race, or disassembled once more, then the collapse of the Dimensional universe is certain. Although the ultimate goal is union, a Nietzschean perspective is still applied to it, and this is the difference between our protagonists and Deus.

"The 'Church' used the two sweet fruits of 'faith' and 'technology' well to skillfully manipulate global affairs and people's zeal. Thus, they manipulated the ignorant masses to repeatedly continue their pointless wars. These intentionally perpetuated wars caused much psychological discord. But faith in 'God'... salvation... was used as a cushion to soften the blow. It was a well thought-out system."
- Verlaine

On the other hand, while some Nietzschean elements can still be found in our protagonists, if only by virtue of them being stronger, they clearly don’t refer to this in an ideological sense.

"Some things only the weak can feel... But weakness does not make them servile. It's because they are weak, that they can develop kindness... and never look down on people. That is where real human interaction comes from. Everyone has weaknesses. Even you did at first. Your weakness drew you to each other... And made you grow strong. Never forget those feelings. When you all lived together side by side..."
- Elly

The ideology that Elly has is the strongest one thus far, and clearly the most sound. I think it is the closest to Buddhism - a practice focused on ethical conduct and altruism, so the author’s sympathy is once more with Buddhism rather than Nietzschean or Christian ideology. Buddhism is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. Physical exercise is another point of Buddhism, as seen with Fei and Shion’s martial art, as well as wisdom and enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. It does seem like the Nietzschean and Christian elements found in the Xenoverse mainly serve to illustrate the points that Takahashi attempts to refute.

But then Takahashi isn’t unsympathetic towards a belief in God either, but mainly the idea of people forcing their belief and “salvation” onto others, something that unfortunately tends to happen when a person is both a person of faith and a Social Variant.

"That fabricated faith was just a worldly system for compensating those people with fragile souls. But, faith and God aren't things which are given to you from others, right? They are things you have to discover within yourself, and by yourself. Things that cannot be put into words, things that cannot be expressed... Isn't that what God is all about? 'Question not thy god, for thy god doth not respond.' "
- Jessie

One more arc to go...

[Abel The Contact]

This is really great stuff A.C! It's nice that you don't outright try to connect the two games directly, but offer facets of both to explain things more thoroughly.

It was cool to read about Cain and chaos having the same Ennegram types too 

Very much looking forward to your final thoughts 

[A.C]

The final story arc: ‘Buddhist’ (or Tetsuya Takahashi’s... solution?)

"While the time directly after Episode 5 is pivotal, at this point in time [1998] it remains a completely undeveloped Episode. It is only known to be the terminal point of the Xenogears universe, and from now on the revealing of information is held back."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenogears: Perfect Works~The Real Thing~)


"[Xenosaga] will be presented through a series of episodes encompassing the beginning to the end of the universe."

"There will be six episodes planned in all, all of which are divided into three major parts.
I already have the story plotted until the middle of episode five in my mind, but certain ideas may be perceived as old-fashioned as time goes, so we'll try to be flexible to changes."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Interview with Gamespot, 2001)

The third and final arc, known only to be the “Terminal point of the universe”, is an enigma. The final story arc, just like the other ones, needs some sort of conflict. Buddhism is too ‘tame’ and, of all religions, has the greatest record for peace and morality. Considering its size it has a wonderfully surprising record. War, intolerant killing, torture, ignorance, monopolisation and coercion are hardly present in Buddhist societies so compared with other powerful religions, Buddhism is saintly.

And while a clear connection between Nietzsche/Self-Preservation and Christianity/Social Variant can be seen, there isn’t any clear connection between Buddhism and Sexual Variant. Of course, the final story arc doesn’t need to have a Buddhist focus, there are plenty of other ideologies that the final story arc could (and probably would) borrow from.

Another enigma is who would be the main antagonist or “solution maker” this time? Wilhelm fit the first arc because he was a Self-Pres Variant, and KOS-MOS/Deus/Miang fits the second arc since she’s a Social Variant, but who would fit the third arc?

At first glance there seems to be a neat pattern to the structure of the Xenoverse in that there are 3 arcs, 3 “gods” of the lower domain, 3 instinctual variants, and 3 major ideologies that it borrows from.

But chaos does not completely fit into the third arc. While his name (chaos) is supposedly based on some sort of Buddhist doctrine (which I haven’t found yet), and thus fits into the Buddhist theme, he is not a Sexual Variant. However, chaos did leave the future in the hands of the Contact, who is a Sexual Variant, so it’s more likely that Abel, as the 4th "god" in the lower domain, will be the “solution maker” in the last arc. Which means the Xenoverse overview would be better described like this:

Part 1: Nietzschean (Wilhelm) Self-Preservational ideal – The Transcended man
Part 2: Organized Religion (KOS-MOS (& chaos)) Social ideal – God’s lambs and union
Part 3: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (the Contact) and Sexual (Intimate) ideal – ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

The problem is how do they turn the Contact into an antagonist without turning him into Grahf again? Also, what would be chaos' role in this arc? We know him and "KOS-MOS" was meant to be in all three, and I’m sure Wilhelm would show up as well in some form.

"U-DO wants to know. Everything about you. Everything about this world. I want to know. What am I? Who will define me? That’s right. I’m alone. Only that song heals me."
- Abel

"That’s right, he is the only one who heals me. What I want is—"
- Shion

What about Shion? How will she and the rest of the survivors of Episode III fare? Will Shion reunite with “KOS-MOS”? If Xenogears is anything to go by, then didn’t she get thrown into the higher dimension along with Krelian? What happened with Deus/Miang anyway? Takahasi said “the time directly after Episode 5 is pivotal” but it sounds like the final story arc would take place thousands of years after Fei’s arc too. Each story arc builds upon a long back story, so I figure the “pivotal part” that happens directly after the second story arc might serve as the opening movie for the final story arc, before it moves on XXXX years into the future.

"[The] Urashima effect will undoubtedly affect Shion and the party who are searching for Lost Jerusalem aboard the light-speed cruising Elsa. The Elsa crew will come to count a different flow of time from both the Dammerung, which travels at normal speed, and Lost Jerusalem. After several years, what kind of phenomenon might they encounter?"
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

If the second arc of Xenosaga is anything like Xenogears then what about these guys? If we are to see any reunion between Shion and KOS-MOS then it would, at best, happen in the ending of the “Xenogears remake”, or in the opening movie of the final story arc… except Mary/Urobolus was last seen in the path of sephiroth, and chaos, who was destined to live until the end of time, had just been assassinated by his “copy”. Shion might recognize Citan as her brother though, but will he remember her from a previous life?

Is Ramsus now destined to live until the end of time instead of chaos? What about chaos and his third and final form? Ignoring the concepts of certain ideologies and looking at it from a purely dramatic, or character based narrative there certainly is a whole lot of stuff they can still tell. Will Fei and Elly continue to reincarnate (of course they will), will they stay on “Earth” or move out into space once more? Will Krelian return?

"Look at these birds. They have forgotten how to fly during the long history of evolution. We humans are the same. We threw away our broken wings, and forgot how to fly... But I doubt it will end like this. We’ll remember the sky again, someday. Running into the deep, vast blue sky forever... The day will come again."
- Man in Shevat

"It's something I've already decided. I go to walk with God. Even if there is no place left for me upon my return."
- Krelian

What about all the children? The first arc mainly had artificial children, but Gears was packed with them. Nephilim, Abel and Richard moved on to become main characters, so will we see Midori or Primera take up leading roles in the final arc?

Nietzsche didn’t only criticize Christianity but he also criticized Buddhism in his writing. According to Nietzsche, Buddhism prescribes a surrender into nothingness that can only be actualized by extinction of the will. However, Buddhism isn’t actually about a surrender into nothingness. In fact, according to Buddhism, there is no true "nothingness" and "will" is merely an illusion that keeps one from truly recognizing reality.

To Nietzsche an ideal response to existence was affirmation of the illusion by becoming the creator of it, by accepting the groundlessness of his own 'truths' and yet maintaining them and continually creating them - wanting to create them over and over again (as opposed to wanting to escape the cycle.)

This was kind of Takahashi’s response to Nietzsche in the first story arc, but could he have some issues with Buddhism too? After all, Buddhism is not suited to specialized cultures where life, work, pleasure, relationships, entertainment, spirituality, are all in different boxes. Buddhism actually contains much more in the way of superstition, ritual and dogma than Western Buddhists like to see. The same dilemma faces Buddhists that faces Christians: Why is it that there are any beings at all that are not in a perfect state if the goal is perfection and overcoming your flawed humanity? If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why isn't everyone in Heaven? If there is no self, by what mechanism do "drops" of the ocean come to think of themselves as being individual?

In Xenosaga - U-DO, “God himself”, wanted to feel a connection to flawed humans and remain in the imperfect world. In Xenogears the Wave Existence (God) wanted for all humans to return to the higher dimension and be filled with it’s ‘love’ (if we are to believe Krelian’s words.) Perhaps “God” does not understand the meaning of the universe either. God is God and humans are humans. Maybe it is what they were meant to be.

"Perhaps I'll cause a shift and shove this whole dimension into a high-order domain. Don't be afraid. We low-dimension creatures will move en masse to a higher plane! It'll be glorious! The true eternal chain! The fulfillment of that which we lacked! The evolution of mankind and the evolution of the very world itself that watches over us!"
- Albedo

Albedo’s solution does sound pretty Buddhist in many ways, so is that how ‘Hashi intends to end it after all? Two characters he has seemingly been sympathetic towards have been on about it for two arcs now. Is the third one it?

Buddhism isn’t perfect by any means as it has some inhumane dismissal of suffering. In Buddhism, suffering is the status-quo of life and in popular Buddhism a person suffers now for their transgressions in previous lives. It explains away present evil as an unavoidable circumstance that we are better to accept than to combat. The poor, the powerless and the diseased are therefore assumed to owe their misfortune to moral transgressions in past lives, no matter how virtuously they may strive to improve their condition in this life. This mystification is applied also to whole peoples and nations. Karmic resolution is a harmful concept with negative affects on society, especially on the weak and unfortunate.

As with many ideologies, Buddhist psychology only suits a particular type of person. Buddhist practices are not a universal solution to social ills or spiritual problems, but a certain type of solution catering for only certain types of person. For a religion that makes universalistic claims about the enlightenment of all beings, it is stuck with a mythology about Indian, Chinese and Eastern-style sages, teachers and students; when it is only a certain portion of humanity that can exist in those roles. The rest do not fit into the Buddhist mould, and Buddhist advise and counsel is therefore counterproductive.

Buddhism caters for those who are already on a higher level, just like scholarly Christianity suits the intelligent and elitist Nietzschean suits the naturally strong and mature. Thus, a potential for conflict and criticism does indeed exist, and I hope Takahashi doesn’t attempt to sugar-coat Buddhism into looking any better than it actually is. But then again, none of the protagonists, apart from Jin, as been referred to as Buddhist, so perhaps it’ll never become a focus.

As for a Sexual Variant solution...

"Nephilim sensed the desire of Abel's will-- to remain in the lower domain, to want to feel a connection to all people, and to want to see beyond the changes brought about by human consciousness."
- The Truth of Xenosaga (Xenosaga III Complete Guide)

While Abel (The Contact) is a Sexual Nine, a personality type described as "Union" (thus wanting to feel a connection to all people), the other Sexual types are a little edgier with descriptions like "Heat, jealousy", "Aggression, seduction", "Competition, hate", "Suggestibility" and "Possessiveness". Sexual types are the "craziest" of the personality types so there is no shortage of the amount of drama they could pull from those alone. Albedo almost stole the show in Xenosaga after all.

So if The Contact were to possibly play a more passive role, like Cain did, with things going out of hand in his "new land", then someone like Emeralda might make an interesting "solution maker" instead. In fact, Emeralda is a Sexual Four, a personality type described as "Competition, hate", and I imagine a being made by superior nano-technology is going to stick around for awhile. Maybe with her artistic and creative mind she’ll form a new Utopia of some sort. Humanity originally came from a “Garden of Eden” type place, so a solution might be to revert back in to something similar. She is also the only E4 I’ve managed to find in the entire Xenoverse so some more development on her character would be much welcomed, and maybe introduce some more Fours. All the Sexual Variants have someone else that makes them ‘complete’; Shion-Kevin, Virgil-Febronia, Albedo-Rubedo, Krelian-Sophia, Fei-Elly, etc. So who is, or will be Emeralda’s ‘other half’ that she will attempt to merge with?

A female "solution maker" would be refreshing for once (if we don’t count Miang/Mary) and Emeralda was created by Kim to be an ‘Angel of Hope’ after all.

"Through the moebius-like circle of cause and effect, the universe is facing dispersal. Thus, the universe's collapse has already become unavoidable. This is the very reason that the Failsafe is trying to run."
- Xenosaga III Perfect Guide

What does Takahashi mean when he refers to the finale as the “end of the universe”? Will he have the balls to simply blow it up or literally end all existence - perhaps to make a point that all suffering that resulted from trying to escape death and destruction was meaningless in the grander whole? Or will he turn it into some kind of new ‘Genesis’ like the religious texts he derives from promises?

"The many messages in the game are also reflections of my own life.  Having said that, I am a selfish human being and when I'm creating I only say what I want to say."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Xenosaga Official Design Materials)

Although the characters are certainly well-written and the stories are well-researched, I can’t help but feel that Takahashi have a bit of a volatile streak in him, so who knows how this will ultimately end, but both the Xenosaga ending and the Gears ending have been considered a bit “corny” by people and we all know how much ‘Hashi and MSI likes to reference cinema and Anime in the series. We all remember this scene from Xenosaga Episode I:



And this one from the ending of Episode III:
 


So why don’t we just roll with it all the way and prepare ourselves for the inevitable...

Ladies and gentlemen, the finale and ending of Episode 6:



"Happy birthday dear children! Happy birthday to you!"

[B.K.]

And this one from the ending of Episode III:
 

I think that scene in Episode III was based on 2001 instead. We know he was inspired by 2001, so it was probably more inspired by that than some random anime.

[A.C]

I think that scene in Episode III was based on 2001 instead. We know he was inspired by 2001, so it was probably more inspired by that than some random anime.

Yeah I know, the end of my analysis was not to be taken seriously. =)

But all those screenshots are from Ideon: Be Invoked, an anime by Yoshiyuki Tomino (the creator of Gundam) which obviously referenced 2001 with that shot as well and I wouldn't be surprised if Takahashi watched this Anime in the 80s, especially since we know he's both a fan of cinema (Be Invoked was a movie like The End of Evangelion and Eva director Anno says this Anime was an influence) and 'Hashi has been into mecha anime for a long time.

"I'm of an older generation who grew up with classic giant robot anime by Nippon Sunrise (e.g. Raideen, Gundam, and Votoms). Besides the guy who enthusiastically created gear/AMWS/AGWS/ES mecha is more Takahashi than me. (His room is filled with vintage Chogokin Toys.)"
- Soraya Saga

In fact, while Be Invoked isn't all that similar to Evangelion (despite Anno stating it was an influence) it is pretty similar to Xenosaga III in that there are two "alien races" fighting eachother, even though it's painfully obvious they are both the same human beings that share a common origin, and at the end all of them die and their spirits are brought to Earth which begins a new "genesis" - complete with a shot that references 2001: A Space Odyssey.