The Genius of Xenoblade
Sep. 25th, 2012 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkI usually don't play video games for the stories. When I bought Xenoblade Chronicles (which, by the way, is superb and any Wii owner is doing themselves a disservice by not buying it), I expected a straightforward story, hopefully not as convoluted as FFXIII, which would allow me to gawk at the pretty scenery and huge explorable areas.
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
As a fantasy fan, I'm used to the idea of Chosen One goes to defeat the Obviously Evil Bad Guys on an Epic Quest. It's practically the archetypal fantasy plot.
Xenoblade...turned out to be a deconstruction of that story.
We have protagonist Shulk living on the organic/nature-tastic god Bionis, when evil Mechon from the opposing god Mechonis invade, kill people, and run off. Shulk becomes the only person who can wield the super Weapon of Mass Destruction, the Monado, and sets off on a quest to rid the world of the Mechon once and for all.
...And the amazing thing is, this only describes the first half of the plot.
As it turns out, the Mechon are being controlled by Egil, one of the surviving Machina, who were the original inhabitants of Mechonis and are a peaceful, sentient species. The Machina capital was wiped out by the Bionis, who sought to destroy the Mechonis after years of cooperation, and Egil was bent on revenge for the annihilation of his people. Along the way, Shulk learns he's not the Chosen One, but rather a conveniently-chosen avatar for the Big Bad who happened to be in the right place at the right time. So the story becomes more of a tragedy and a story about defying fate and having the freedom to choose, rather than, as I originally thought, a story about Good vs. Evil or Nature Trumphs Science/Machinery.
And I loved it.
I wish more fantasy books did something like this--embraced a well-known trope while ultimately deconstructing it and creating something even more awesome in its place. We're beyond the era of The Lord of the Rings, in which such plots may have been considered novel; and we should move beyond the notion that what fantasy needs instead is an injection of violence, gore, and terrible things happening.
Boy, was I in for a surprise.
As a fantasy fan, I'm used to the idea of Chosen One goes to defeat the Obviously Evil Bad Guys on an Epic Quest. It's practically the archetypal fantasy plot.
Xenoblade...turned out to be a deconstruction of that story.
We have protagonist Shulk living on the organic/nature-tastic god Bionis, when evil Mechon from the opposing god Mechonis invade, kill people, and run off. Shulk becomes the only person who can wield the super Weapon of Mass Destruction, the Monado, and sets off on a quest to rid the world of the Mechon once and for all.
...And the amazing thing is, this only describes the first half of the plot.
As it turns out, the Mechon are being controlled by Egil, one of the surviving Machina, who were the original inhabitants of Mechonis and are a peaceful, sentient species. The Machina capital was wiped out by the Bionis, who sought to destroy the Mechonis after years of cooperation, and Egil was bent on revenge for the annihilation of his people. Along the way, Shulk learns he's not the Chosen One, but rather a conveniently-chosen avatar for the Big Bad who happened to be in the right place at the right time. So the story becomes more of a tragedy and a story about defying fate and having the freedom to choose, rather than, as I originally thought, a story about Good vs. Evil or Nature Trumphs Science/Machinery.
And I loved it.
I wish more fantasy books did something like this--embraced a well-known trope while ultimately deconstructing it and creating something even more awesome in its place. We're beyond the era of The Lord of the Rings, in which such plots may have been considered novel; and we should move beyond the notion that what fantasy needs instead is an injection of violence, gore, and terrible things happening.
