SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FULL XENOBLADE TRILOGY
FOREWORD
Since finishing Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I’ve spoken to some friends and seen dissatisfaction with how the game ends. Some friends found that the ending undermines what the plot strives to achieve, or found that it comes out of nowhere.
I’d like to throw my hat into the proverbial ring on this topic, because I disagree with the idea that its ending was poor or that it contrasts with the themes of the game.
(Note: This is being written before the full Expansion Pass has been released. The final expansion is told to be a new story, one that could potentially exist after the end of the main campaign a la Future Connected. However, this campaign has not been released, and will not be speculated upon.)
PART 1: XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 1 — FATE
To understand Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s ending, it is important to look back at the themes of the previous two games. The topics these games tackle feeds into the story of Aionios, and will help to grasp what it is that made the end of Xenoblade 3.
Firstly is Xenoblade Chronicles, the game that set this entire story in motion. To say that Xenoblade Chronicles fixates on fate and destiny would be both an understatement and a disservice, as there is far more to be understood with the story told.
Largely, yes, Xenoblade Chronicles focuses on fate, destiny, and pre-ordained futures. Fighting against one’s pre-written destiny is the primary focus, put into the words, “The future is ours to decide!”
However, that’s not the only force at play. It is not entirely about future and fate, but also about control and individual purpose.
Zanza, the primary antagonist in this story, desires to rebuild the world where he is its king unforgotten. He wishes to take control of this universe he’s crafted back from the homs, high entia, nopon, and machina. However, of course, the life of the Bionis and Mechonis are not dolls in his dollhouse, and they fight back against him.
Not just for their futures, but for their free will and their lives. They fight for the present they live in, and the past that has brought them here.
PART 2: XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2 — FREEDOM
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 builds on this in more subtle ways, with themes focusing on war and attempting to solve an incredibly complex conflict that was always going to happen. As land becomes uninhabitable, as the titans continue to die off, Rex is given a motive to seek out the mystical Elysium, a land that stretches far beyond the backs of any titan, and a solution to this problem of disappearing land.
Of course, his faith in Elysium is based only on the words of one girl, and many do not believe in his mission. The antagonists that stand in his way, however, do not strive to stop him. The forces that push against Rex are not in efforts to stop his mission for the peak of the World Tree and Elysium, but for something different:
Control and desolation.
Amalthus wishes to become a god and hold the powers of the Architect in his hand, as Zanza did. He wishes to control all of Alrest and dispose of all that is worthless, tarnished, and impure, so that it may finally live up to his expectations of humanity, expectations that were long since dashed away by witnessing unending war and bloodshed. It is an effort that is fruitless, driven by a coexisting hatred for the world and a faith in the Architect’s vision for what the world should be.
Malos feeds off of this, however his desires are also tainted by his destructive abilities and hatred for Amalthus. In an attempt to destroy Amalthus, he seeks to end all life on Alrest so that there is nothing left for Amalthus to control, to purify. Malos in and of himself is vying for his own control, his own individuality apart from Amalthus, and this drive is later pushed to its brink by Jin’s hatred for the dependent relationship blades have with their drivers, unable to exist without and beyond the life of another.
Amalthus fights for control. Malos and Jin fight for individuality.
Rex, in contrast, fights for freedom.
PART 3: THE EFFORTS OF THESE HEROES
Within their stories, Shulk and Rex fight endlessly not for themselves. Their efforts are pushed towards the freedom of others around them, those that cannot fight back. While Shulk’s push is Fiora’s death, and Rex’s is to honor the wishes of Pyra, they inevitably fall into line to fight on for the lives of those who cannot.
In Future Connected, it is shown that Shulk’s efforts paid off, and how he continues to fight alongside Melia. It can be assumed the same is said for Rex, though there is no evidence for this.
Shulk makes clear in the story of Future Connected that he did not kill Zanza so that another could destroy the futures they fought for, but so that he could continue to fight, and so that others could continue to fight on as well.
PART 4: XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 3 — LIFE AND DEATH
Here, we come into the story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Aionios. It is revealed late in the game that the world of Aionios came about after Melia and Nia made contact with one another, and discovered that their realms were set to converge. They built a device known as Origin that was designed to weather the destruction that would come with the convergence, and would rebuild the worlds and allow life to continue onward after.
However, this goes horribly wrong, and Origin fails to activate. The fear of death and change manifests into Moebius and Z, and Z takes control of Origin and sets Aionios into an eternity of frozen time, where the nations representing the two worlds Agnus and Keves would fight on in an unending war to allow this eternal moment to persist.
Cue Ouroboros, and our protagonists Noah and Mio. They are initially driven to fight to free the world from the control of Moebius. Unlike in the previous two games, the antagonist has already assumed control of the world, and it is up to the protagonists to take it back, and to end this unending war.
Soon, however, they learn the truth of the world, and their focus shifts. It becomes less about fighting for freedom from Moebius, and more about fighting for an end to the eternity and into the future.
To some, this rings similarly as Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, fighting for the lives that cannot. However, hidden in subtext, it becomes clear what it actually is Noah and Mio are fighting for: the sacrifices made by Rex and Shulk.
PART 5: IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO END LIKE THIS
When Ouroboros learns of the truth of Aionios, their fight becomes not for Aionios, but for the worlds of Alrest and the Bionis and Mechonis.
All the life that exists within Aionios is the same life brought from its progenitors — barring those of the City and those snuffed out at Homecoming — living in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Every human, nopon, beast, plant, and speck of dirt came from Alrest and Bionis.
Therefore, it should be clear that Noah, Mio, and the others of Ouroboros are fighting so that those lives brought in from Alrest and Bionis may continue, so that the sacrifices made by Rex and Shulk — while Ouroboros are unaware of their existence — may not go in vain. They fight so that the lives they led prior to the convergence may continue on unfettered, and they sacrifice the memories made to do so.
While it is not spoken aloud, these characters understand that their lives are not truly their own. The lives they are living, the memories they are making, they are not their own lives, but rather fabricated existences forged to be compatible with the endless now.
It is shown briefly in Eunie’s knowledge of her previous death, and in the characters learning that, even when they die, they do not truly cease to exist. It is backed up by Ethel and Cammuravi fighting to the death, despite there being no necessity for it. Their deaths are impermanent, and they realize this.
To die on the battlefield of Aionios is not a sacrifice. It is not a loss. It means nothing. So Ouroboros fights on so that one’s life and death may actually mean something beyond their ten years.
FINAL REMARKS
I will not pretend that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 does a good job of outlining this. I myself felt unsatisfied with the ending, however in retrospect, I know that I would not have felt truly satisfied if it ended with these characters living happily ever after. I inevitably would have questioned what became of the lives imported by Origin, and what their sacrifice meant, and I am sure I would have written about a divergence not dissimilar to how Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ends.
Additionally, I will also not pretend that Z’s true form is not unsatisfying in the least, however I cannot fathom how it might have been.
In closing, I still truly believe Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a brilliant end to this trilogy. It gives our characters an open ending, where the story may be over, but the lives of the characters are not, and we can trust in that. Perhaps the DLC story to come will expand upon this, but a small part of me hopes it does not.
Still. One cannot truly know what becomes of Aionios, Alrest, and Bionis, and I think it’s better that way.
