Considering that per Word of God Rex was only incarnated into Aionios for a few years, specifically to combat Alpha, Pyra/Mythra took form in Aionios long before he did. I presume some people missed this detail. There was no abandoning since they had different purposes being there at all, and said purposes meant they had to be apart for a time. Rex was no doubt lonely without them, but he knew in the end it would feel like they had never been apart. Plus, the Bond between Blade and Driver doesn't get broken from being physically distant. It's a spiritual bond too.
Edited by Perentie
Yeah that's what I figured. It's not entirely their choice and besides they favor young people who can fight for the future. The idea that it's a willful betrayal of the themes of 2 sounds more or less like fan projection than an accurate description of what they actually did. In that case, I'm going to remove the entry and cite this Discussion.
It doesn't even make sense to me. I don't understand how you come to the conclusion that their form was "abandoning Rex for another Driver". That feels like an INSANE stretch
<DIE THE DEATH> <SENTENCE TO DEATH> <GREAT EQUALIZER IS THE DEATH>
Oh damn! I missed the detail about Rex being incarnated into Aionios only for a few years. Does anyone have a link? That's a legitimately interesting development. I was always under the impression that Shulk and Rex had been in Aionios since the beginning as The Ageless.
Would there still be an appropriate trope to describe the phenomenon? I feel like the fact that Pyra and Mythra are with someone other than Rex is still something that'd confuse some fans who aren't up to snuff (pardon the pun) on their lore.
Edited by 2HeadedMoonOctopus
And I’m sure it was stated that Nia turned them into an Ouroboros stone to help the City people and later found themselves with Matthew who basically is their step great grandson anyways
It comes from these translations
of an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi from Aionios Moments where he mentions that Alvis summoned the Liberators into Aionios a "few" (relative term) years before Alpha appeared. Shulk and Rex had a finite limit to their lifespans coded into their data, at least until they gained immortality through joining Alvis as the new Trinity Processors, and gave these remnant years to their children.
Admittedly the Liberators timeline thing is pretty complicated and debated by a lot of the fandom since in-game dialogue and info plus the guidebook seem to argue with Takahashi on this. There's a lot of lines that can be interpreted as pointing towards Linka and Panacea aging within Aionios but at a slower rate than usual, with parts of the guidebook agreeing that the Liberators' time on Aionios wasn't that short and that they fought Moebius for a long time before Alpha appeared. Hence why it's such a common assumption that they are The Ageless. As discussed in one of the cleanup threads regarding A's correct pronouns, the guidebook is not always consistent, and Takahashi's plot interpretations, while important, don't always seem to be shared by the other developers who worked on the game. Whenever contradictions emerge, troping statements from the work itself always takes number one priority, with secondary materials like guidebooks at a high but lower priority, and Word of God statements made externally being somewhere in between. So the timeline will probably continue to see a lot of Fan Wank. But nothing about Pyra/Mythra being inside the gauntlet since the beginning of Aionios is contradicted by anything in-game, so we can treat it as a safe fact.
Yeah, but does that widescale backlash actually exist? We don't trope hypotheticals on the YMMV page. The only time I've ever seen such a reaction, it was from a handful of extreme fringe Rex/harem shippers who treated other characters wearing the gauntlet as adultery (which reeks too heavily of the kind of fetish takes that we're not allowed to discuss). Unless you can cite a large-scale backlash to this reveal, it's not valid or tropeworthy.
^That was never stated anywhere. That's just one of several fanon theory people came up with due to the fact that Nia can summon copies of Pyra and Mythra's swords. The only stated fact is that Nia made the Ouroboros Stones using what appears to be shards of Origin metal.
Moreover, regarding the Fiora as Lucky Seven information, I'm wondering if it should even go under Fan-Disliked Explanation. Once the confusion wore off, the general reaction to it tended to lean positive rather than negative, with fans even starting to interpret Fiora as a secret badass.
Edited by AlleyOop
Thankfully I've been spared from seeing such a thing. I've stayed away from the reactionary side of the XC fanbase aside from a few things I saw where they bitched about Juniper's pronouns (including some localization purists who mistakenly tried to claim that they were female in the Japanese version).
Anyway, I meant to ask if there's something to describe the confusion that some people may feel as opposed to disappointment or aversion. Are there any other fans who are puzzled by the fact that Rex is using replica swords (his own Blade, more akin to Eunie's or Sena's weapon than his previous ones) and that the Pneuma core is in Matthew's gauntlets, if not necessarily upset about it? I feel like maybe this and the Fiora/Lucky Seven thing can go under Ass Pull (as, depending on the fan's perspective and knowledge of lore, they can seem contrived or arbitrary) but with a Tropes Are Not Bad disclaimer attached to note that there wasn't a significant backlash to the reveal despite its contrived nature.
Edited by 2HeadedMoonOctopus
Far as I know, I've never seen any fan be confused by the Blades for the same reason nobody was confused that Shulk could summon the Monado REX+ even though the physical copy was already shown to be in Melia's room. Everyone accepted it right off the bat and those who didn't seem to be so rare as to have gone completely unnoticed by the average fan.
There might be some YMMV translation or plot hole tropes that are a better fit. But only for Fiora as Lucky Seven. As we've already established, Pyra/Mythra's presence in the gauntlet was more or less easily accepted compared to the response to Lucky Seven.
Edited by AlleyOop
Well in Shulk's case, the Monado REX+ probably ended up in Melia's possession after his "death".
Severely doubt it. Summoned Blades disappear after a wielder's death and he didn't leave one behind for others to retrieve. As I mentioned above, nearly everyone accepts that Melia held onto the original copy from Bionis and the one Shulk summons is his own personalized copy because of how Aionios works. People who think otherwise are such a tiny minority as to be insignificant, assuming they even exist.
You may possibly be the first person I have ever seen to be confused by this.
Edited by AlleyOop
Also, Melia had already been captured long before the events of Future Redeemed.
Ideal and the Real
Another: Does Rex count as Rescued from the Scrappy Heap? Back then I've seen more than enough hate towards the kid for being a typical Stock Shōnen Hero with a lame design and rather questionable voice acting, and then that photo at the end of 3's base game caused even more division because of things like people not believing that he could ever score with both the Aegises and Nia or something like that. I'm pretty sure someone got into edit wars on the base game's main page about that too. I never hated Rex, but I just found Shulk to be more interesting.
And now here he is, years later, all grown up, and suddenly I've seen so much love and admiration for the guy, myself included. He's older, hunkier, more badass, seemingly pretty open about gender identity and all (with how he explains why A looks the way they do to Shulk), which struck a chord with like, LGBTQ players and stuff. That he's a Game-Breaker in this also helps a lot, and that age hasn't dulled either his combat or his sense of optimism and idealism. He's got a different voice actor, but one that managed to capture the same spirit as his younger self.
For it to count as Rescued from the Scrappy Heap though, he would've had to be universally disliked before (ie The Scrappy), right? Since for as much flak as he got, it's not like he didn't have any fans beforehand. It's just that the turnaround I've seen for the guy is pretty telling.
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It is heartwarming to see how beloved he is now, but yeah, I'd say he was never truly a scrappy. Even most people who weren't fans of his didn't necessarily hate him.
Rex definitely qualifies for Base-Breaking Character, and I have seen Rescued from the Scrappy Heap be considered flexible enough in the past to apply if they go from divisive to more universally-beloved. But if not that, then it might qualify for Character Perception Evolution. For what it's worth, as Perentie points out, the issue wasn't really with Rex as a character.
Xenoblade 2 unfortunately has a very large Periphery Demographic of misogynistic and queerphobic male otaku compared to the other games, and speaking as someone who was merely ambivalent towards Rex for the same reason as xVanitas, while there was definitely a portion who hated him as a character or because they thought he was too "lame" to be a good male power fantasy, a lot of the dislike came from queer folks who thought he was too much of one, and were uncomfortable with the then-popular reading of him as the kind of wish fulfillment typically seen from Stock Light-Novel Hero.
Basically, a lot of people view Rex as a far-right incel power fantasy who successfully tamed three impossibly-beautiful and powerful women into becoming his subservient sexual conquests with little effortnote . The reason 3's ending was so controversial among these folks was that, while it could be read in less nefarious ways, the most common was that the creepy right-wing otakus were right, that Rex was an "alpha male", and also that it had Unfortunate Implications regarding harems with how women are usually treated under polygyny. The Chad Rex meme didn't help here because, while most of the word's sexist undertones had dissipated by then, it did originate as incel slang, and a lot of the jokes about Rex's newfound sexual dominance did push too far into endorsing toxic manosphere beliefs. But again it was never about Rex himself so much as his fanbase and what he represented in a meta sense.
That interpretation of The Picture hasn't fully gone away, but Future Redeemed has done a lot to rehabilitate his image by validating those who chose to read Rex as a symbol of tolerance and progressivism by having him support the same marginalized queer identities that his far-right Misaimed Fandom are intensely bigoted towards, in effect Rex is the complete opposite of what rightwingers claim him to be. I've seen queer people "reclaiming" the Gigachad Rex meme by portraying his support for marginalized queer identities as the reason he's a gigachad, and not him sleeping with multiple women like the fanbase usually presents it.
Edited by AlleyOop
As someone who viewed his polyamorous marriage way more as a fully consensual polygamy between the four and not a harem, you hit the nail hard on the head. Hell, I don't see him as the "chad" that had gone memetic.
Especially since as nice as it was to see Rex getting more love, there was something that just rubbed me the wrong way that the same apparent Periphery Demographic you mentioned who previously gave the character and his fans hell just turned on a dime all because of an older design (and probably the photo), which I remember seeing talked about in a twitter thread, with the same theme of Unfortunate Implications regarding masculinity playing a role.
For the record, I'm someone who liked his character a lot before Future Redeemed, though that's probably apparent from the times I've edited and contributed to entries regarding Rex.
Edited by BriefCasey795
Coming back to this, I've been wondering for a while on if the whole thing about the Misaimed Fandom Alley Oop talked about is worth documenting either under Broken Base or Misaimed Fandom on this page or on the main game's YMMV page. I have noticed on social media that there's definitely been some other Rex fans who liked him since 2 feeling conflicted about those who only started to like Rex after 3 for (shallower?) reasons similar to the Unfortunate Implications mentioned above rather than about him as a character (especially if they previously hated him).
I thought it'd be best to try asking about it first to avoid letting my own experiences cloud an edit and of course staying as nuanced as possible.
Edited by BriefCasey795
My question would be how widespread or prevalent is it? Is it just a vocal minority (if even that) or is it enough to really qualify as a "base" or "fandom"? Hard to tell on the internet of course.
As far as hentai material goes (as that is what you are likely to get into if you start talking about potentially unsavory parts of the fandom), Rex was pretty popular in doujins well before Chronicles 3, and quite a few vanilla, loving ones were made (though he is typically not depicted as some macho harem master). Though perhaps the ones that feature him as losing Pyra/Mythra to random horrible people (I don't look for these but it's difficult to not know they exist) show there is a substantial subset of fans who consider Rex of Chronicles 2 pathetic enough to somehow deserve this (or they didn't even play the game or care about it at all and simply used popular designs for their fetishes).
We don't really trope Unfortunate Implications on the YMMV page anymore, plus it requires concretely-sourced thinkpieces, and this is a fairly niche game. We try to avoid troping Ecchi too much, so any mention of it would have to be in a very broad and general sense.
For what it's worth, Rex has always had a portion of hentai-fixated Misaimed Fandom who loved him because they viewed him as a Gary Stu Escapist Character since 2, including drawing Shotacon doujinshi of him and his three love interests together, long before 3; it's just that 3 opened the floodgates because people saw the picture as a validation of the most lurid and often exploitative doujinshi for better or for worse, with a huge amount of talk about Rex being fixated on his supposed sexual exploits.
I do know there's been a recent push in the fandom as of the last few months to encourage more fanworks of Rex shipping him with Shulk or having him be a Shipper on Deck for Nia and Melia. These ships were always reasonably popular for their own sake but lately they've attracted a lot of ire from what seems to be the hard-right Rex stans who uphold him as an icon of traditional gender roles and are viciously opposed to these ships for Heteronormative Crusader reasons.
The shitstorm over the Nia/Melia ship in particular basically exposed a bunch of very popular Xenoblade 2 artists and Youtubers and their fans as believers of something that can be charitably described as "Nia, Mythra, and Pyra are Rex's chattel property, and it's OK if they have sex with each other as long as it's solely for the purpose of appeasing their husband, but for any of them to genuinely have polyamorous feelings for someone other than him, even if it's just each other, is an infringement on Rex's marital rights and manhood; likewise, shipping Rex and Shulk in any context other than purely joking is an insult to Rex's masculinity and the integrity of the writers' vision".
On the surface it sounds like a case of Ship-to-Ship Combat, but I'm hesitant since a lot of the hate is one-sided and the opposition to these ships seems less like a defensive love of Rex/Harem so much as a hatred of anything queer and non-patriarchal, aka "Gay = No Yay".
Edited by AlleyOop
I can't speak for others, but I more just think it's fair to say it is a betrayal to have people in a marriage have sex with people outside it, especially when they can't even ask permission or discuss it thanks to being sealed up in Origin. And maybe Rex is in some more open arrangement, but it's fair to expect that Shulk and Fiora have a pretty traditional marriage. Shipping Rex and Shulk also feeds into a pet peeve I have of fans denying close male/male friendships, and of twisting canon for the sake of their own fetishes in general (I personally prefer any fan works to be close to or match canon).
I've seen a lot of comments of people on Youtube regarding the confirmed ships and I don't recall any that spoke of the wives as property, most were just happy/surprised that things ended up as they did as they didn't expect them to and they're glad that the poly allowed none of the trio of girls to lose. Course I also haven't sought out much discussion past watching playthroughs and reading comments on them and on here.
And of course, if you know where to look, I wager you can find people ranting and fighting over pretty much anything. Guess it itself becomes YMMV if you think it is prevalent enough an issue to include here.
Edited by Perentie
That's kind of the thing. Saying that M/M shipping is an attack on male frienddship is the way genuine homophobes cloak their bigotry and opposition to queer shipping at all, when they could just ignore it instead of calling these people evil for shipping them.
These are fictional characters. They're not real. We don't know that they're opposed to extramarital relationships anymore than we know they are OK with it (and there's nothing to suggest they never broached the subject offscreen; Fiora even touches upon that subject in an H 2 H in 1). Attacking others as evil or immoral for drawing non-canon ships of characters kissing is ridiculous, especially since there is a massive Double Standard towards queer ships versus het ones.
These same people who were violently opposed to shipping Nia and Melia, were also joking that Rex should fuck Melia to help her get over Shulk (nevermind that she's already established as no longer in love with him anyway, and nevermind that it'd theoretically disrespect his wives just as much as them kissing other women would disrespect him).
Edited by AlleyOop
On the Double Standard we can agree, though I don't recall seeing such jokes (though again, I don't tend to go looking for them).
Those jokes are quite commonplace on Twitter and Reddit, and it's often hard to avoid whenever the subject of Rex comes up. That's why a lot of queer fans are so annoyed. That and all the uncomfortable lolicon/shotacon jokes said people make about the characters.
Also one of the big Youtubers in question who was the loudest about being opposed to M/M and F/F shipping on the grounds of "not canon/offensive to platonic friendships" was caught liking and following openly homophobic Twitter accounts, as well as found to be going out of his way to misgender Juniper even after the character was explicitly confirmed to be nonbinary, to give an idea of how those attitudes are often causally linked and used to mask genuine queerphobia behind a plausible deniability cover.
Edited by AlleyOop
Well uh, I certainly didn't have shipping in mind when I made my last post (although I am curious about these shitstorms that involved artists and YouTubers as I haven't followed the fandom as much due to growing tired of certain aspects of it, but I guess that can be discussed in PMs).
I guess just generally speaking and in simple terms, at least from what I've seen here and there, there just seems to be people who think Rex only became good in 3 because of getting older, ripped, and/or also having 3 wives (which now that I mention can see how it ties into the whole can of worms involving shipping). Then there's longtime Rex fans who think that's shallow of them and still isn't appreciating his entire character or something like that. I'm only going off of twitter since I'm hesitant to gauge reddit after growing tired of previous twitter shitstorms, but perhaps similar comments have been made there too.
Edited by BriefCasey795
I've likewise mostly avoided the social media debates, as I question how relevant they really are to any given fandom as a whole (there are so many people who simply don't engage in or care about those debates that I feel reading them can give a misrepresentation of what most fans think). And people whose playthroughs I've watched have pretty much all thought Rex was at least okay in 2, so I guess I can't contribute much to the discussion on those who only became favorable to him in 3.
I guess it boils down to the matter of people split on whether he was always a good character or not, cause supporters also see his flaws in 2 as intentional flaws for him to grow, and that his older counterpart is an extension of what he was by the end of 2 (not factoring in the whole Misaimed Fandom anyway). I think what some former detractors thought is already documented on the page.
Edited by BriefCasey795
We could downplay it in the trope section, saying he was based break character but when 3 shows up and showing how much he matured, majority did a 180 on his character
I feel Fan-Disliked Explanation isn’t correct either. Looked into it further and Pyra/Mythra didn’t “abandon” Rex to become someone else’s Driver. They became Origin Metal that Nia made into an Ouroboros stone that she handed to the City for their defence against Moebius’
Tea, Coffee and Hot Chocolate
I just read the description of Hype Backlash and nothing on the page suggests there needs to be a "large enough" scale for the example to count, and there is no cleanup effort for the trope.
Plus, it's YMMV so disagreeing isn't a good enough reason to remove.
TV Tropes ruined Faust's life Hide / Show Replies
Those negative reactions are valid, I'm not removing it because I think it shouldn't be on the page, but because I'm not sure if Hype Backlash is the correct place to put them under. Though I think you could make a case for at least part of it fitting under Continuity Lockout in rewritten form (perhaps the comparison to Marvel, which is a little contextless in its current form, might go there too; I assume it's referring to people thinking the game has too much Continuity Porn). There's other tropes, like They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, that these examples might fit better under.
The page description indicates that it's meant for reactions that are negative because of the game's excessively positive reception, but the reasons given for the dislike are the kind sound like the kinds of opinions that would've already been able to exist even if the game was not scored this positively (and I've certainly seen those negative opinions mentioned in the entry but they were generally from people who played it on or near launch). The causal connection between the high score and the reception from those people, if it exists, is not made clear, hence it comes off as "dislikers exist for otherwise highly-regarded work", rather than "dislikers exist for highly-regarded precisely because they feel let down by the hype".
Relatedly, when I see the really high Metacritic score acknowledged as a badge of honor, in my experience it's pointed out frequently enough (sometimes by the same people sharing the score in the first place) that it's partially a result of being a niche product with a much smaller review pool than the other games and that Metacritic scores shouldn't really be taken seriously anyway (IMO they really shouldn't and it's kind of frustrating whenever people use it as proof of anything other than "this kind of opinion exists"). My understanding is that while parts of the fandom may certainly disagree with that Metacritic score, it's not really something that's directly led to disproportionate hype and subsequent disappointment for the game; it's just another example of a work that well-reviewed by critics but not everyone agrees with, which is too People Sit on Chairs by itself.
Edited by AlleyOop
I don't know if you've noticed, but I've noticed increasing backlash to Future Redeeemed because of how much it's praised.
A lot of the backlash stems from the Continuity Porn fans claiming Future Redeemed is what 3 should have been, with some even saying it should have been the base game. You can see how that would annoy people that would otherwise be fine with Future Redeemed.
I'm re-adding Hype Backlash and expanding on this, as i didn't mention it the first time. None of the wall of text was related to the reason you removed my example.
Edited by PresidentBrit TV Tropes ruined Faust's life
I haven't seen that, but in that case, if I'm interpreting it correctly and the bulk of negative responses is from people who preferred the base game of 3, the reaction you described sounds to me more like a classic case of Contested Sequel.
People who love base 3 are more likely to dislike FR or consider it overrated for being base 3's antithesis, while people who were bigger fans of the older games/less keen on base 3 are more likely to enjoy FR more, due to conflicting interests in what they wanted to get from FR.
Given that, would it be OK if I wrote an entry for Contested Sequel or migrated the bulk of the current Hype Backlash entry to it, and rewrote the existing Hype Backlash entry to reflect that?
Edited by AlleyOop
“Salvaged Story: The photo at the end of 3 and how it depicted the cast of 2, particularly Rex, was a major sore spot for a lot of the franchise's significant LGBT Fanbase, since it appeared to walk back 2's extremely heavy implications of a decentralized bisexual Polyamory relationship in favor of depicting it as what appeared to be a straightforward harem focused exclusively on Rex, who is depicted looking like a stereotypical Heteronormative Crusader whereas Pyra, Mythra, and Nia are simultaneously depicted looking like submissive housewives. While the polycule is never addressed during Future Redeemed, and Rex's only confirmed child is with his primary love interest, Rex is shown to be openly supportive of nonbinary gender identities (one of the most publicly marginalized subsets of the LGBTQ community at the time of the game's release), and his subplot with Glimmer emphasizes that any domineering behavior is a case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business, helping to undo a lot of the damage his reputation took with those queer fans”
You think this is stretching it a bit? I mean, some had issues, but not to the point to this I think? Or should it be rephrase?
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I agree, my impression was most fans thought it wishful thinking that any kind of poly relationship would ever be confirmed, hence the widespread shock when they basically confirmed it in 3. The talk of the picture disproving a decentralized polyamory as opposed to a straightforward "harem" seems like reading a lot of extra details into a picture whose main purpose was probably just to show the three had children with Rex. It's a valid viewpoint still, after all this is YMMV and it is speaking of only one subset of the fandom, but maybe it could be toned down somewhat. But then, I think that way about a lot of YMMV stuff, so I may not be the best person to talk about this.
I can confirm that the LGBT-or-not, debated Hide Your Lesbians aspects of it and whether it comes off as misogynistic/homophobic because of that are a large source of continued discourse where I am (widespread enough that the debate reached this site's forums even), and that the reaction to Rex being pro-NB was as good as it was specifically because it was seen as a good indirect course-correction for the picture after this facet of the discourse, but I don't mind the lightened language as I do know I sometimes get bogged down in describing the arguments I encounter too granularly.
Hopefully it's OK if I amend the entry to add back a mention of the LGBT debate if it's short enough?
Edited by AlleyOop
Hmm, maybe. We could add a second paragraph but maybe write it down here and let’s see if it rolls off the tongue well enough to be on the main page
- Salvaged Story: Downplayed. The photo at the end of 3 that shows the second installment's cast drew criticism from some players, as the previous game suggested that Rex and his three love interests all entered an egalitarian bisexual Polyamory relationship together, and while some fans felt it was a nice send-off that confirmed those implications, many took issue with the framing of the photo making Rex appear dominant and his partners submissive, something that's considered out of character for all four, on top of seemingly backpedaling from the bisexual implications in favor of a Rex-centric harem. While the polycule is never addressed during Future Redeemed, minus some references and hints of Rex missing his wives dearly, Rex is shown to have childcare skills and cooking abilities matching close to Pyra, hinting at a more equal partnership dynamic back in Alrest. Rex is also shown to be openly supportive of nonbinary gender identities, winning back many queer fans who felt the picture came off as heterosexist.
Is this good enough?
Edited by AlleyOop
Does disappointment over a recast count as WTH, Casting Agency?
I know people who probably regularly edit these pages saw this coming from a mile away as the resident Rex advocate here, but I do remember seeing some disappointment that Al Weaver didn't return as Rex. This would be a mild example, as while Fergus O'Donnell by no means did a bad job, I think the sentiment people generally had was that they wondered if/felt like Al Weaver could have still made an older Rex work (since Hiro Shimono was able to, and before release, people weren't sure if it was him either), and fans of his performance (despite the issues) also just really wanted him to see him get another chance to shine with how games and appearances after Xenoblade 2's base game had better voice direction.
And well, the really unfortunate part as someone within that crowd is that he might not ever get that now unless a spin-off happens, since this DLC's the apparent send-off to the main series. He did return for Smash but did not get a lot of lines due to Rex not being playable (and because of that there's no telling if Weaver turned down the role or tried to return), so all things considered, he really got dealt a bad hand with how his character is only now getting better public reception.
Edited by BriefCasey795 Hide / Show Replies
From the way the trope is described, it seems to relate to fans questioning why a certain actor gets a role and doesn't seem to fit said role rather than why another actor doesn't get the role. So it seems like it wouldn't fit if the idea is to talk about disappointment over Al Weaver not voice acting Rex in this game. Perhaps there is another trope that fits better?
Hmm, might be possibly too mild to count. A lot of people who wanted Al Weaver still think Fergus O'Donnell did a great job or considered that Al Weaver might not have had a deep enough voice to work, even with better direction, and that it was mostly a thought experiment/what-if.
^^ After browsing Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, I think a mild case of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! might be the best fit? Because I happened to find an entry that heavily echoes what seems to be the case with Rex here:
- Nigel Thornberry is voiced by Jim Meskimen rather than Tim Curry. While this is understandable because Curry's stroke caused him to largely retire from acting, many people feel like only Curry can truly bring Nigel to life, and wouldn't have minded recycled voice clips. That said, Meskimen has been praised for doing a very good impression of Curry and keeping the character's spirit intact.
Cause once again, by no means did Fergus O'Donnell do a bad job. Like Nigel's new VA, O'Donnell did also keep Rex's spirit intact. I just know that there's people out there that still wish Al Weaver came back, as I've heard some people say FR Rex doesn't feel the same at some parts, which I can understand.
Edited by BriefCasey795
Ideal and the Real
Is A's true identity a Captain Obvious Reveal, or is there enough obfuscation that it might not seem so obvious? I kept thinking that there was a connection to Alvis somehow namely that they were some incarnation of Alvis, given the fact that there are no pronouns to refer to A's gender, and that ended up pretty much true, since A is Alpha's conscience, ie Alvis just in a new body, while Alpha took on the appearance of Alvis's old body.
I guess my question is if there were enough players who thought otherwise, like maybe A would have been Alvis's child or something, mostly owing to the fact that the rest of the team consisted of other characters from established lineages and all.
Edited by xVanitas Hide / Show Replies
Hard to say. The way A talks about themself in Chapter 3 the work seems to take it for granted everyone already assumed A was connected to Alvis somehow, and quite a few people correctly guessed A was just Alvis in a new body. That does turn out to be true going by the very last cutscene, but the game does seem to try to obfuscate it in Chapter 3 by implying A is merely half of Alvis, before clarifying the difference and that Alpha is an empty shell while A wholly identifies as the original Alvis.
But yes, a decent number of people assumed A was Alvis's daughter somehow and not just Alvis.
Edited by AlleyOop
Is the "Pyra/Mythra joined Matthew instead of Rex" reveal actually that much of a Fan-Disliked Explanation among Xenoblade fans? The only time I've ever seen it tends to be from, well, the hardcore "Gigachad Rex got a unidrectional harem devoted to him" Memetic Sex God shippers, who are not a good bellwether of general fandom opinion even if we weren't already mostly disallowed from troping them for ROCEJ reasons. Another Discussion was noted here
disputing the validity of this claim.
It's not presented any differently from Fiora/Lucky Seven choosing Noah as her wielder, whose status as an Ass Pull is already something multiple editors regard as specious shoehorning. Shulk brought her along with him for many years and I've almost never seen any complaints about her betraying him/abandoning him over that aside from one notoriously fanatical Shulk/Fiora shipper (though granted he does have the excuse of literally not having his primary sword arm anymore).
Besides, the game implies that Blades are capable of more independence after 2, meaning Pyra and Mythra aren't obligated to follow Rex everywhere. Nia is also shown being able to wield forms of Pyra and Mythra in their absence, which more or less implies she formed a similar bond to them as Rex, but nobody is accusing the story of making them betray her, meaning it sounds more or less like a Vocal Minority complaining about what's ultimately shipping wank.
Edited by AlleyOop Hide / Show Replies