Symbolism in Xenogears. Full of opinion, as usual.

[myaru]

acebullet and I were talking about symbolism in literature on the way back from In-n-Out. (The food from which, by the way, was delicious as usual.) His art class is pretending to be a freshman English class at the moment, and we were reminiscing about the misery of high school English, in which teachers insist we discuss blatant symbolism and overinterpret every little thing.

Naturally, talk of blatant symbolism and over-interpretation led me to think about Xenogears, and various subjects of discussion over the- oh, is it eight years now? I feel so old when I say that.

But wait! This isn't about me making fun of Xeno fandom and my own inane rambling of the past (even though that would also be fun). It's more like... looking back at the symbols in the game that I recall, and trying to decide if any of them are really meaningful. There are certainly times when it isn't - the gears being named after Norse figures, for instance, which I still see no real point to - but there are bits and pieces that can actually be argued for. Of course, as with most symbolism, a lot of them are blatantly obvious. For example:

The emblem of Solaris: the sephirotic tree. I guess Solaris considers itself the path to god. (Really.) You actually can't read much farther than that and still have something that resembles the game.

Anima Relics: you can argue that naming them after the twelve tribes means something if you trace the relics back to the Gazel Ministry, but it starts to get mucked up around that point, and in the end, all you can really say is that the names sound religious (and therefore deep). I had an idea about this a long time ago, and I can't remember it.

Deus: is... god? Well, that's the surface reading, at least. Clearly we (and the characters) were supposed to think of it that way, but the name doesn't encompass the truth about Deus as he relates to the rest of the system, which is more complicated than this word.

Zohar: a difficult one. If you know something about the Zohar, it's blatantly obvious when you read what it tells Fei. If you don't know anything about it, you'll have no clue. Note also that the Zohar is very similar to the Monolith in 2001.

SOL-9000: related to the above, another 2001 reference, but it isn't... well, I guess it is like its namesake.

Soylent System: I'd never heard of Soylent Green when I played Xenogears, but if I had... :P (I still think what Shitan did there was an incredibly assholish move. XD I love him for that.)

I think I have to take back the second part of my judgement re: the Solarian Emblem, because you actually can take it farther, and still have something that resembles the motives of the Gazel Ministry. But like the Zohar, I don't think that's immediately obvious if you don't know anything about the background of the symbol. I'm guessing most people don't, and there's no reason they should know.

I won't really get into it, but as far as I remember, the Gazel were planning to become one with God, or even to sort of become god in their own way. That's actually very interesting. I don't remember exactly what the philosophies are - I think the idea of becoming one is not actually kabbalah at all; maybe Sufi? There is a very clear distinction between God, the unknowable, and what we as humans can actually witness, which is part of what the tree is about. You're supposed to vicariously experience the act of creation, so in a way you become "like" god for that time - at least, you can look at it that way for Xenogears' sake - but you never actually become one.

So in any case, the sephirot are actually an interesting and somewhat accurate representation of the intentions of the leaders of Solaris. (Especially Krelian.) Again, I really don't think this is obvious unless you've done some reading. The game just tells us it's "the path to god" and it doesn't really go much deeper than that. I remember it feeling almost like I was supposed to take it literally.

I could write an article on this for GA too, but I haven't read up on the subject recently. You can tell by my explanation.

After thinking about this stuff, I decided that I thought Nisan's one-winged angels were the most effective "symbol" in the game, because they stood for things both obvious and not. A lot of it is obvious - dialogue tells you that the light or space between their hands represents the path to god, and also that they're unique as a symbol (compared to the symbols of other religions like the Ethos, I guess) because they have defined gender characteristics. After playing the game, they don't have to tell you that the angels symbolize the act of one human helping another and becoming whole, but they do anyway.

Part of what makes them effective is their multitude of meanings in the context of the game. It isn't always subtle, but they represent some of the most important themes in the game (humans gaining independence from god by helping one another; on the other side of the coin, humans joining together to reach god - which you can interpret in a few ways), and they're also representative of Fei and Elly specifically, and everything about their history. The angels have a really emotional function, which something like the instant horror of the Soylent System doesn't really live up to. I don't even like Fei, but his history with Elly throughout the ages did strike a chord, and the angels remind me of it every time I see them. They sort of embody both tragedy and hope.

The Zohar, while deep (and Deus, which gives it a second layer of interesting interpretive possibilities), doesn't really inspire the same kind of feeling. I have no sympathy for Zohar's dilemma. There's nothing in its existence I can relate to. It is - and is supposed to be - a really abstract part of the game that gives the story an underlying feeling of depth, if you follow what it's saying. And if you don't, it's just a bunch of gibberish. It's the one thing that is consistently misunderstood about this game. The Existence's dialogue, which is where all of the juicy information is, confuses people. That's why I don't think it's an effective reference, or symbol, or whatever you want to call these elements of the storyline.

The Nisan angels were easy to relate to and understand, even if you don't agree with their message. And every time you see them they mean something new, at least to me. Their meaning in Nisan's cathedral is completely different to the meaning I get from the image of the angels in Krelian's merkavah.

I once had an idea for a drawing where Krelian, standing on one outstretched hand, was reaching out to nothing - there would have been an empty gap where the second angel was supposed to be. It'll never see the light of day, because the Krelian shrine will never be finished, but that was the image I hoped to use in the layout.

It would've been nice to have all of these ideas back when I cared enough to see them through! But that's the way it is.

Comments

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Symbols are... most effective in small doses. Like digitalis. XD If you clobber the reader/viewer over the head with them, or just pile them on one after another, they can lose their significance to the point of becoming... silly, really. Geez, we remember being so proud for having recognized, or been able to successfully look up, a lot of those Xenogears references. Sometimes I think that's exactly who the game was designed for-- college students who want to feel intelligent and cultured by catching all the references. :3 (Actually, I wonder if Tetsuya Takahashi suffers from pretentious-college-student syndrome himself, although he's past the age where one would really expect it.)

But, uh, looking back at it nowadays, with that seven years of perspective, a lot of the references really seem pointless, silly, and inane. Like the Norse gods thing, or, oh yeah, "Metatron." Personally, I'd really prefer that the scriptwriters come up with a completely new religion with its own internally consistent symbolism than just randomly gack references to Earth religions, if they can't really make it germane to what they've borrowed the reference from.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

...and, on second thought, I actually think that some of those references didn't have any more thought put into them than "HAY GUYS I CAN'T THINK OF A NAME. HAND ME THE MYTHOLOGY DICTIONARY." (Er, I don't know how to say that in Japanese, but... you get the picture.)

[myaru.livejournal.com]

Well, if it helps, I think he might actually say 'HEI GAIZU', at least, because English is cool.

But back to your first reply, I feel the same way about all of that discussion and reference hunting. What was Xenogears fandom, anyway, if not one giant pissing contest? It's funny to think that I felt very knowledgable five or six years ago for being able to point at GA and say, 'Look! I picked out a hundred and twenty references, and I know what they mean!' and now I look back at the reference glossary on the site and cringe.

The game was designed, in my opinion, for people who feel dissatisfied with their religion as well. It plays so much to that - rebelling against corrupt, traditional authorities, rejecting old teachings as lies and making your own way, and all that. It's not all bad, and it's possible to read more into it than that, but it is almost like we're looking at the work of a writer who never really graduated from that stage of... life, I guess.

I think the way one accepts or rejects religion - but not so much whether you actually accept or not - is an issue of maturity, and Xenogears is not written to appeal to someone who thinks deeply and seriously about these issues. It's all about that gut reaction. I mean, look at some of the other stuff he threw in - Soylent, and the hilarious crucifixion. Were these things meant to make us think, or to get a reaction?

... Metatron. Geez. XD That's such a horrid use of it, too.

I think you're right. It would have been better to devise his own religion for the world, and definitely more creative than yanking words and themes right and left. Even the Zohar thing is taken almost verbatim from stuff.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

It plays so much to that - rebelling against corrupt, traditional authorities, rejecting old teachings as lies and making your own way, and all that. It's not all bad, and it's possible to read more into it than that, but it is almost like we're looking at the work of a writer who never really graduated from that stage of... life, I guess.

It really is kind of like... spoonfeeding to that particular kind of teenage angst, isn't it? I mean, I guess it did what it was meant to, in that the target audience did eat it up like candy.

I'd love to know what was really going on in Takahashi's head, or the heads of the rest of the development team, for that matter, just out of sheer curiosity as to what the hell they really thought of it all. Did they think they'd created a masterpiece, or did they see it as a heap of junk they were just glad to finally get out the door?

It's all about that gut reaction. I mean, look at some of the other stuff he threw in - Soylent, and the hilarious crucifixion. Were these things meant to make us think, or to get a reaction?

This kind of harkens back to a conversation I had with draegonhawke on the use of 'cheap intensifiers' in writing-- there are certain themes, ideas, and images that people seem to think will automatically grab the attention, shock, awe, or sympathy of the reader. A lot of fanfiction seems to revolve around them-- things like the idea that adding sexual tension suddenly makes a story ten times as emotionally intense. (Not that it actually does, but the important part is that people think it does.) Similarly, I think religious themes, especially if they're about rebelling against an established religion, are thought to make a work automatically "profound," or "intellectual." But seriously, if I started counting all the times that cheap intensifiers were used in Xenogears, I could go on all day. :\ I figured that the Soylent was just to show us exactly how Evil and Bad Solaris was, and the crucifixion... uh, I have no idea on that, really. XD Except to wonder what they were smoking if they didn't realize that GIANT PINK CHU-CHU HANGING ON CROSS equals INSTANT HUMOR VALUE.

(Not that the idea of crucifying the gears makes sense either-- I mean, it sorta stands to reason that you could just *climb out* of them.)

[myaru.livejournal.com]

I kind of wonder about the team's perception of their work too. Takahashi appears to be the most emotionally involved, I guess - since Xenosaga reaches back to the original story, and he kept saying the new series was Xenogears as "it was meant to be." So it's his story. And Clio's, from what she said. And the core staff that went with them to Namco - were they as involved, or were they just disillusioned with Square for other reasons?

Clio's fit about being taken off the project says to me that she cared about it. She's kind of displayed an attachment to certain characters, at the least. So from the POV of the two creators, the response would probably be more biased than perhaps some of the other staff. (I admit, I'd be insulted if a project I'd been working on since inception was taken out of my hands.)

But, being a writer myself, I can't blame them for that. I'm still writing Golden Sigil long after it should have died because I like the characters, yet I have no illusions that it's a masterpiece.

So anyway, yeah, I wonder too. And speculate a lot, as you can see. :p

Similarly, I think religious themes, especially if they're about rebelling against an established religion, are thought to make a work automatically "profound," or "intellectual."

Like what you said about sexual tension as emotional intensity, this trick probably works for the same reasons. But it's a tool that has a very limited range of effect, since there are wide spectrums on either side of the target audience where a) the "intellectual" stuff will go over the player's head, and b) it'll look pretentious and stupid, because the player on this side of the spectrum has a real education in (insert subject here). There are so many people out there who just don't want to put that much thought into their games, too, and that's equally valid. A game should be about the game, not deep cultural references. If you want that, take a Lit class. They'll do plenty of over-analyzing there.

As an aside, sometimes I wonder if maybe they did realize how stupid Chuchu on the cross was going to look, and they put it in there as a reminder that they shouldn't take themselves too seriously. High hopes here, I know.

Anyway, while Takahashi had a good story, I think calling it "intellectual" might be going a little too far. And maybe it was never meant to be taken that way. I haven't taken a good look at the Japanese Xeno fandom, so I have no idea if they experienced the same crazy phenomena we did. And why would they? Japan used to get games with themes like this more than we do. (I'm told Shin Megami Tensei was messing with fallen angels and demons long before Xenogears came out stateside.)

[yesmyqueen.livejournal.com]

and in the end, all you can really say is that the names sound religious (and therefore deep).

Hahahaha. It came out in '98, didn't it? I was a freshman in high school and man, it was sweet sweet candy to me when everything else was boring and stupid. I guess it sort of seems like a "gateway drug" to religious mysticism. An appetizer, if you will.

I wonder if the gnostic themes throughout the game were the most prevalent...the idea of wanting to get back to being one with God and shunning the "imperfect" physical form in order to do so, and the idea that certain people were closer to "God" than others...hmmmmmmm.

Also, Krelian is the tastiest religious fanatic I can think of.

P.S. I mailed out your perfumes yesterday..sorry it took so long!

[myaru.livejournal.com]

Ha! I was starting my first year of college, and reacted about the same way. I think most of the big fans were around that category. People who were either much younger or older seemed to be a minority, but that's just the way I remember it. Great gateway drug, though. :p It has me studying stuff I never thought would be interesting before the game.

As far as the Gnosticism goes, I didn't even take it that far; or at least, not by that route. Although this is over-simplifying, the point in Gnosticism (as I read it like, six years ago) is not only to transcent physical existence, but also to sidestep what was essentially a "false" god to get to the real thing. To me that was represented in Deus (false god, yet still the creator of humanity) and Zohar (the true, distant god with no comprehensible form). Krelian embodies that idea. Though, your description of it is better than mine, I think.

I love Krelian so much. But anyway.

No problem about the perfume - thank you!

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

(I still think what Shitan did there was an incredibly assholish move. XD I love him for that.)

...Yes. Shitan is such an asshole and I love him for it. XD

[myaru.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder if I would do the same thing. It would be funny in a really morbid way. When I watched the scene again last year I couldn't stop giggling. (Hahaha! Oh Shitan, you're such a bastard, letting them eat Soylent five minutes before showing them what's really in it! I bet Fei conned you into eating something really nasty back in the Lahan days, didn't he, and this is your revenge!)

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

*utterly DIES* Oh god, he so WOULD, TOO. XD XD

[myaru.livejournal.com]

Yeah, him and his weird sense of humor. Is it just me, or do you also imagine him as having a very dark, grim, cynical sense of humor in his Solarian days? :P I mean, look at his history. I would!

Oh right, haha. "Look," I say. Forgot aaaaaaall about that translation job, didn't I?

I think if I revamp even just one character profile on GA, it HAS to be Shitan's. :P It's so bad it's hilarious.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

...which translation job is this? Or do I not want to know? XD

[myaru.livejournal.com]

I so wish I could think of a clever answer. XD

I started on the PW profiles for Shitan and Zephyr right after Anime Expo, because Rey needed some information for a fic she was writing. VP stuff distracted me from the project, and I haven't gotten back to it since. But I really should. That profile on GA really needs to be corrected. Just for my own peace of mind.

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

Correction: A fic I still need to write. I swear when I'm not drowning in assignments I'll work on it. Please to not be killing the Rey. ;_;

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

I imagine Shitan as having a very grim, dark, dry sense of humor anyway. That it would be even more dark, grim, and dry in Solaris just amuses me to no end. Considering what he probably went through as a member of Second Class Solaris, let alone a Second Class in Jugend, it was probably his way of dealing. Short of, you know. Hiding corpses in closets. ♥

[myaru.livejournal.com]

I can almost picture a macabre grin, except that with Shitan, I imagine his humor to be of the more deadpan sort. That is, unless he's playing the part of Doctor Uzuki, whom I believe is almost completely a lie. :P He may have changed since Solaris, yes, but that dark streak is still a mile wide, and the ligher-hearted doctor is still restricted mainly to slim banks on either side, when the mood strikes him.

Of course, because my love is mostly for Krelian, my opinions on Shitan and his character are more inclined to fangirlism, I think. Despite being a "fangirl" for Krelian, I spend more time actually thinking about him in the "deep" sense.

Hahaha, deep.

[reynardfox.livejournal.com]

I have lots of cracktheories on characterisation where Shitan's concerned, really. I spent a lot of time having to pick over that kind of stuff in terms of roleplay, since I had him for a while at Ineffable Game MUX. Oh yeah, and Black Gate MUX, which was really fun, because he didn't even try to uphold the whole "Good Doctor" facade.

Not that he does on TIG, but.

Anyway, yeah. The darkness is never very far from the surface. If you really examine it with a hand-lens, it's creepily accurate that he's classified as the Element of Water. Water is a classic Gothic (that's roots of sci-fi and fantasy, thanks to this class) element. It hints to a danger and darkness lurking just below the surface, and it's never placid just under the glass-like surface... and that describes Shitan so well. It makes me geek-giddy.

...

*geek geek geek* >_>;