I just recently caught up with the whole Xeno series (minus Xenoblade 3) and wanted to talk about it a little. The last thing I finished was Xenosaga itself up to 3. Since I've known this series for a while I as many others have noticed that there's a lot of common character tropes present. I kinda wanted to sort through who these are in Xenosaga since I've just caught up but since it has so many characters compared to the other entries due to the scope I'd like to ask others for their thoughts.
- There's Elly or as i like to call it the Xenogirl, the female deuteragonist who carries a massive burden and usually possesses 2 selves (KOS-MOS in XS).
- The wise swordsman (Jin in XS).
- The really vague person who knows more than they let on (chaos in XS but arguably others).
- Ramsus who is the rival of sorts who has fundamental insecurities over themselves and their identity (This one I'm not too sure on for XS due to the amount of villains. It could be Albedo due to his unnatural birth and life. It could be Margulis due to his rival status and existential crisis. Despite not being a big villain Cherenkov also rubs me this way)
- The Karellan who tends to be a religious figure driven by faith and seek a certain order usually in oblivion that tend to cause most of the narrative problems. Definitively Wilhelm in XS.
- Small robot girl (MOMO).
The one archetype other than ramsus that I'm most aware of that confuses me is the Grahf. It is very obvious to me who the Grahf archetype is in all the games except for in Saga so far. Grahfs tend to suffer immense tragedy and gain a skewed view on the world itself and proceed to take out their anger on said world instead of on the true source of their sadness. Eventually they realize this and atone in sacrifice.
At first I figured it would be Albedo. He does fit some of this. Especially in 3 when he does perform a sacrifice of sorts. But he is removed from the plot rather early for one of his archetype. And I feel his motivations are a little more emotional and abstract than most in a way. Yuriev reminds me of one but he's mostly just insane and never redeems himself in any way so I can scratch him for sure. After much thought and beating the games my current opinion is that it might be Kevin Winnicot as much as I'd rather it be Albedo. And it could be which is why I'm asking. Or even someone else. Kevin experienced tragedy, became nihilistic and took it out on the world. He even is rooted in love as other Grahfs are. And he lasts closer to the end of the story as is typical and tries to redeem himself. The only caveat would be the fact that he isn't even presented as an antagonist for most of the story until about halfway into 3. He isn't present much at all in fact. Most of the time they're around from the beginning. But it's not a hard rule.
Any thoughts? who would saga's grahf be. And what are other tropes you've noticed that I may have forgotten here. Sorry if the post is too long.
- There's Elly or as i like to call it the Xenogirl, the female deuteragonist who carries a massive burden and usually possesses 2 selves (KOS-MOS in XS).
- The wise swordsman (Jin in XS).
- The really vague person who knows more than they let on (chaos in XS but arguably others).
- Ramsus who is the rival of sorts who has fundamental insecurities over themselves and their identity (This one I'm not too sure on for XS due to the amount of villains. It could be Albedo due to his unnatural birth and life. It could be Margulis due to his rival status and existential crisis. Despite not being a big villain Cherenkov also rubs me this way)
- The Karellan who tends to be a religious figure driven by faith and seek a certain order usually in oblivion that tend to cause most of the narrative problems. Definitively Wilhelm in XS.
- Small robot girl (MOMO).
The one archetype other than ramsus that I'm most aware of that confuses me is the Grahf. It is very obvious to me who the Grahf archetype is in all the games except for in Saga so far. Grahfs tend to suffer immense tragedy and gain a skewed view on the world itself and proceed to take out their anger on said world instead of on the true source of their sadness. Eventually they realize this and atone in sacrifice.
At first I figured it would be Albedo. He does fit some of this. Especially in 3 when he does perform a sacrifice of sorts. But he is removed from the plot rather early for one of his archetype. And I feel his motivations are a little more emotional and abstract than most in a way. Yuriev reminds me of one but he's mostly just insane and never redeems himself in any way so I can scratch him for sure. After much thought and beating the games my current opinion is that it might be Kevin Winnicot as much as I'd rather it be Albedo. And it could be which is why I'm asking. Or even someone else. Kevin experienced tragedy, became nihilistic and took it out on the world. He even is rooted in love as other Grahfs are. And he lasts closer to the end of the story as is typical and tries to redeem himself. The only caveat would be the fact that he isn't even presented as an antagonist for most of the story until about halfway into 3. He isn't present much at all in fact. Most of the time they're around from the beginning. But it's not a hard rule.
Any thoughts? who would saga's grahf be. And what are other tropes you've noticed that I may have forgotten here. Sorry if the post is too long.
