an article by Neosmith
The Song of Nephilim (SON from here on in) is by far the best chapter of Episode I. After all the stalling, all the needless digressions Episode I had indulged in as of late, SON arrives to really kick things in high gear and provide genuine narrative momentum. There are a lot of elements that work here - a storyline with clear-cut stakes, a genuine sense of purpose to what our characters are doing, a lack of emphasis on esoteric terminology, some well-paced action beats, as well as the genuinely cool concept of the SON itself, buyoyed by Yatsunori Misuda’s superb and haunting music score. Though Yuki Kaijura did an excellent job at remixing the theme for Episodes 2 and 3, I find that Mitsuda’s original rendition of the Nephilim theme is still the better of the two.
(B.t.w. I have never been able to pinpoint the inspiration for the SON theme itself, but I have found that it bears a strong semblance to Ennio Morricone’s score for Fists in the Pocket, the 1965 debut by Marco Bellochio.
Arguably, one the biggest feats of the chapter is its catapulting of Jr. to the forefront of the plot. One can already see the genesis of Jr. becoming the main protagonist of Episode 2, as the ageless telekinetic red-haired URTV assumes the team leader role and proactively pursues his goal of rescuing Momo, directly influencing the development of the narrative in the process. Jr. has great screen presence and charisma, as well as truly understandable and relatable motives, something that makes him register as a much more likeable and sympathetic hero than cipher-mode Shion Uzuki, who as usual, has nothing of consequence to contribute to the story’s progression. Everyone else is there to pretty much follow his lead, and this approach works like gangbusters.
One can see Soraya Saga’s fingerprints all over this chapter, which makes sense, since the focus is back on her triumvirate of characters - Jr., Ziggy and Momo. This chapter also firmly establishes Jr. as the first hero in the story to have an antagonist with whom he shares a close personal connection, an element that has been sorely lacking up to now. No longer do we have to wade through tedious and completely impersonal political intrigue - the relationship between Jr. and Albedo immediately imbues the proceedings with much needed drama and tension, rendering the cutscenes considerably more interesting to watch.
Once Albedo kidnaps Momo and unleashes his full on bat-shit insanity, we realize that Momo is now in actual, life-threatening danger, trapped in a dark dungeon-like lair with a psychopathic cross between Roy Batty and The Joker. Albedo’s soliloquies, though full of grandiloquence, are pulled off with panache and come off as truly creepy and unsettling, as there’s no telling as to what the guy will actually do to his little “peche”. Xenosaga in this instance finally manages to give the audience a reason to care about what’s happening to the characters and what they are doing, which I don’t find has happened since the Hyperspace chase.
Yet for all its highs points, SON still possesses a number of flaws that plagued earlier chapters, such as preposterous character actions and some truly ludicrous plot twists.
Case in point: the events leading up to Momo’s re-kidnapping.
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So, you know what it does and that it’s a UTIC weapon, right?
A quick recap: Albedo activates Song of Nephilim, the Song attracts Gnosis, who then attack the Kukai Foundation, the main characters decide to help evacuate the Foundation, then Momo stays behind and Albedo gets her.
More in detail: The Song begins to play and Chaos, Jr., Gaignun, as well as Wilhelm and Scarlet Cloak hear it, who identify it as the Song of Nephilim and display knowledge of what its effects are. Once the Gnosis begin to invade the Foundation, Mary and Shelley begin to evacuate the citizens. Most of the main characters appear on the bridge, including Chaos, who was only moments ago seen onboard the Elsa (although it’s likely his appearance here is due to an offscreen time gap.)
KOS-MOS activates the Hilbert Effect, materializing the Gnosis but some have already made it inside the Foundation.
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Hey Chaos, how did you get here from the Elsa so quickly? And what makes you think you can call the shots?
Suddenly, Chaos, who has absolutely no authority on the Foundation, decides to take charge and proclaim that the main characters must help evacuate all the citizens and get them onboard the shuttles that will take them to the Durandal. He states: If we don’t do something, the Gnosis are going to take over the entire metropolis.
Instead of anybody in the main cast rebuffing Chaos and telling him he has no right to make such a call or at least declining to go with him, everyone miraculously complies with his demand. The question that immediately comes to mind is: why?
Why should any of the main characters at this moment decide to willingly go into a Gnosis-infested battle field and help with the evacuations? Why do they want to risk their lives in such a manner? What makes them want to do this? What makes them qualified to do this?
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Shion, for your safety, it is best that you stay here aboard the Durandal.
Shouldn’t Jr. have his own special forces, who are capable of evacuating civilians? Why doesn’t Jr. demand that anyone stay on the Durandal where it’s safe? The only one who actually has any legitimate reason to do this is KOS-MOS, because she is a specifically designed Anti-Gnosis weapon. Everyone else’s actions are completely unmotivated and unreasonable. This whole point is especially problematic when you consider the fact that inexplicably, nobody tells Momo that her helping with the evacuations is a bad idea.
There are several reasons for this:
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Momo, dear, why on Earth would you want to do that? Do you want to get yourself killed?
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Actually, now that I think about it, maybe we should ask your Mom first.
At least Ziggy and Jr. should know this and logically, they wouldn’t under any circumstances allow her to come to potential harm or danger. So the fact that Ziggy never even protests Momo’s decision is completely at odds with his characterization as a logical and rational character.
Even worse though is once the Evacuation has been nearly completed and the shuttles are about to leave for the Durandal, Momo decides to stay behind ALL ALONE in the Foundation. While more and more Gnosis are materializing everywhere around it.
And NONE of the other main characters realize the simple fact that it is utterly moronic to leave the most wanted and sought after person in their party without any protection whatsoever in the middle of a war zone. It is almost as if they want something bad to happen to her. So of course Albedo will come in and snatch Momo.
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I’m sure you’ll be okay. But if you meet any tall, white fellas who look just like Jr. and want you to come with them, tell them you’re not supposed to talk to strangers.
It’s not like he has to overcome any obstacles - Momo is just out there for the taking and the plot makes it unbelievably easy and convenient for Albedo by having the main characters make utterly stupid decisions without realizing it.
One might wonder how exactly it is that nobody noticed Albedo’s massive white mech penetrate the Foundation’s geodesic structure or how precisely he knew where Momo would be, but that’s beside the point. What the hell was Ziggy thinking? Doesn’t this go against his mission of getting Momo to Second Miltia?
You might also wonder just why it is that Albedo continues his Gnosis-summoning scheme now that he has abducted Momo. Because if his goal has been to procure Momo and get the Y-Data out of her, I don’t see why he doesn’t just leave on the SON and gate jump to another location before the Federation et all figure out where he is. Wouldn’t that guarantee that nobody would interrupt his session with his belle peche and that he could procure the Data without risk? But conveniently, this never occurs to Albedo, sparing the main cast any real trouble of finding and pursuing the SON.
One possible explanation is that Albedo wants to lure Jr. to the SON, so they can have a family reunion and there are lines of dialogue that corroborate this, such as Albedo’s “They’re earlier than I expected”. But at the same time, this decision on his part doesn’t come across as credible, given that he has no way of guaranteeing that Jr. actually comes to him. If he wants to ensure Jr.’s arrival at SON, why not actually communicate with him, explain how to get there and tell him to come there alone, else Momo dies? Or why he doesn’t simply flee the crime scene to ensure he gets the data, then use Momo later as bait to lure Jr.? In any case, if his priority is the Y-Data, Albedo makes a pretty boneheaded decision of sticking around.
Once our team does figure out where Momo is thanks to Jr.’s magic earring, it is interesting to see how everyone reacts. Note that nobody takes responsibility for Momo’s disappearance, as in none of the main characters blame himself or herself for what happened to her, even though they rightfully should, since they left her all alone.
Ziggy decides to go and rescue her via shuttle. He and Jr. then have an argument about how to rescue her, with Ziggy advocating logic and reason and cold rationality. Now, I like this scene. This is a scene that feels like a Soraya Saga scene, where you have true conflict between the characters stemming from who they are, where they do not act simply for the convenience of the plot, as they have so many time over in the past. Ziggy is supposed to be a rational and emotionless character and his behavior here is true to who he is.
At the same time this scene belies Ziggy’s behavior earlier - where was all his logic and objectivity when he allowed Momo to walk into a battlefield and then left her there without supervision? Then you also have Gaignun and Jr. making all sorts of connections between U-TIC, Albedo and SON finally. Yet why did it not occur to them earlier that U-TIC was using the Gnosis and coming after Momo when they first realized that the SON was playing? It’s clearly established that they know of SON’s ability to summon Gnosis.
Whatever the case is, the main characters decide to head out to rescue Momo. Here I must question as to why the main characters use the Elsa to reach the SON. Obviously the Elsa already has some established characters on it and it’s been the mode of transportation per choice thus far, but I cannot reason as to why of all the ships that the Kukai Foundation and the Federation must have at its disposal the main characters would take a freighter ship out into a war zone.
I would understand if all the Foundation’s battleships were out fighting and the Elsa was the one ship that remained capable of taking the main characters out there, but this is not established in the story. Plus, one might ask as to why Jr. decides to go to the SON with only the 5 or 6 of his friends to accompany him. Whatever happened to all the Durandal’s soldiers/marines? Shouldn’t Jr. form a boarding party to assault the SON in case it has enemy personnel on the inside? He already did that with the U-TIC Battleship.
Furthermore, why would Matthews and his crew want to go out into the fray? What’s in it for them? Why do they risk their lives without so much as a complaint? Wouldn’t Matthews at least need some convincing? When did he become the main cast’s chauffeur without any of his own agency? This illustrates the problem of the Elsa characters - at this point in the story, they are little more than plot devices designed to transport the main characters from place to place. They are willing to do whatever the plot calls for without any personal reason or motivation.
[insert picture] Isn’t anyone remotely curious at this point as to why Shion wants them to circle around the top when they all should be concerned with finding Momo as quickly as possible?
Consider the scene where Shion for some reason asks Tony to circle around the top of the SON. Here you have a perfect opportunity for Tony to express his own agency and refuse her demand - he could tell her they don’t have time, that going up there is dangerous because of the firefight. He could and should demand to know why she wants him to circle around the top. He could and should ask his Captain at this point as to what to do, because Matthews is in charge of the Elsa still. Yet Tony never does any of this and instead just quickly complies with Shion’s demand.
So, the main characters board the SON, intent on saving Momo. And quite conveniently, in the small docking station that they enter the SON, they find Momo right away, just sitting on the ground. What nobody knows is that this ‘Momo’ is really the Kirchwasser in disguise (so I will refer to her sometimes as ‘Fauxmo’ for convenience.) This brings us to the most problematic part of this chapter - the Kirchwasser.
Let us pause for a second and consider why the main characters arrive here - they have come to the SON to rescue Momo. So why the moment that they find Fauxmo, do they not bring her to the Elsa and have Matthews escort her back to the Durandal to keep her out of harm’s way? Why instead do they decide to bring a catatonic/vegetable Momo with them on their trek to confront Albedo? They again decide to bring Momo into a dangerous situation, when they should be trying to get her away from it. Wouldn’t that be the exact opposite of rescuing her?
[insert picture] Wait, you and Gaignun are telepaths? Really?
Jr. assumes that Albedo has stolen Momo’s consciousness and decides to make him pay, as well as make Momo whole again. So everyone sort of resolves to go confront Albedo and somehow restore Momo’s consciousness or something like that.
Why aren’t any of the main characters even wondering why Albedo would conveniently leave her out there for them to find? And if Albedo had in fact stolen Momo’s consciousness, wouldn’t she be braindead and/or incapable of walking around? How exactly does Jr. hope to ‘make her whole again’ anyway? Is he going to rip her consciousness out of Albedo and plug it back into Momo?
Not to mention the fact that when discussing the ‘spiritual link reversal’, Jr. casually states that he and Gaignun are capable of telepathic communication. For some reason, nobody else reacts to this news, despite the fact that this should be the first time they’ve heard about it. Added to which, I don’t understand why Jr. states this, when he and Gaignun are ostensibly trying to keep knowledge of their abilities under wraps from the public, as they live under assumed identities.
The Kirschwasser, written in the Mystery Motive mode so prominent in Episode 1, as a whole also really fails to register as a character. For the majority of the game, whenever we see the Kirchwasser, she just walks around like a Zombie with wide-open eyes and never really talks or participates in the story. When Jr. finds her as Fauxmo, without performing any scans or tests or whatever, he ‘deduces’ (or rather makes a leap of logic without any real evidence, such as tests or analysis) that her consciousness has been stolen. So does that mean Albedo had mindwiped the Kirschwasser? This doesn’t seem to be the case, as she freely ‘shares’ memory with Momo and later proves capable of speech. So, if she’s not mindwiped, why does she behave like a Zombie at certain points and a non-Zombie at others?
The game doesn’t explore her relationship with Albedo before she’s killed off and the entire explanation about how and why she would follow Albedo that she delivers to Momo doesn’t at all explain all the various actions she undertakes throughout the story. Consider the fact that Albedo murders all the other Kirchwassers - why exactly does Number 97 continue to associate herself with the man who freely murders her sisters?
Furthermore, what is ultimately the point of the Kirchwasser shapeshifting into Momo and hanging out with the main party? This in no way impacts the direction of the story. The main characters still set out to find and confront Albedo, and Fauxmo while in their midst never does anything to prevent them from accomplishing their task. So really, what was she supposed to achieve by temporarily assuming Momo’s guise anyhow?
Plus how is it that the Kirschwasser shapeshifts in the first place? Unless Albedo knows how to cast illusions or she possesses never-before-seen tech, I can’t really see how this is possible. In addition, several of the main characters, such as KOS-MOS and Ziggurat 8, should be capable of scanning and analyzing Momo - is her shapeshifting or illusion-casting so strong that it somehow prevents complex systems from determining she’s not Momo and not mindwiped?
[insert picture] Wait, KOS-MOS is with the main characters? How and when did she get aboard the SON? Wasn’t she out in space the last time we saw her?
If one thinks about it really, the Kirchwasser Momo mimicry’s only function then is to allow the player to retain Momo as a party member during the in-game events, which would otherwise be impossible due to the demands of the plot. This is peculiar, however, given that the game didn’t mind making KOS-MOS inaccessible for the majority of the Kukai Foundation events when KOS-MOS was in stasis aboard the Elsa. Thus I assume that this Fauxmo thing was done because when Episode II was split up into two, the developers must’ve thought it would’ve been wrong to not allow the players to control Momo during the penultimate chapter of the game. But from a plot standpoint, the whole Fauxmo situation really makes no sense and neither does the Kirschwasser’s character. And so, we make it to the central reactor/chamber of the SON, where Jr. confronts Albedo. Inasmuch as I love the Jr./Albedo dynamic here, I will say that the showdown sequence overall is a truly mixed bag, largely due to the ridiculous and unintentionally funny actions of the other characters. I am referring to the fact that for some reason pretty much everyone other than Jr. turns into a statue. Jr. and Albedo talk… for a long time, while Ziggy, Chaos, Shion and KOS-MOS just stand around, watch and sometimes comment on the action.
I understand that Albedo technically doesn’t have any personal connections with any of the other party members here, but it really begs the question of what the point of bringing everyone other than Jr. into the chamber really is, when all they do is stand around like a bunch of stage actors waiting until the spotlight hits them, so they can move. Aren’t they supposed to be actual, believable characters and not some greek chorus? Shouldn’t KOS-MOS and Ziggy with their enhanced speed and strength have tried to snatch Momo away from Albedo by now? Couldn’t Chaos use his magic powers to whisk her out Albedo’s grasp?
This is especially egregious in that when the Kirchwasser grabs Jr. and shapeshifts back into her natural form, nobody lifts a finger to help Jr. out. It is rather strange to see this - there are four other party members, who just allow Jr. to get choked by a shapeshifting Kirchwasser. Couldn’t Ziggy or Chaos grab her and pull her away? There’s more than enough time for that.
And note that despite the momentary confusion, none of the other characters really react to the Kirchwasser at all, showing zero concern that the Momo they’ve been walking around with is a fake, nor that that is even possible. Once Jr. blows her away, everyone again directs their attention to watching Jr. and Albedo talk, as if nothing happened.
What exactly was the point of this charade anyway? If the Kirchwasser’s working with Albedo, why reveal herself now? Why not retain her Momo skin and confuse the main characters, making them unsure as to which Momo is which, for instance?
As a side note, I have to say that while the Kirchwasser’s actions here make no sense, I do believe her line about wanting ‘the part of me that’s inside you’ is a direct reference to the fate of Sakura Mizrahi. According to the DS Version of the story, as far as I recall, Sakura’s consciousness apparently became trapped inside Jr., which would correspond to the part inside him. Given that the Kirchwassers wanted to become Sakura and/or Momo, this would explain the rather vague line of dialogue.
Anyway, finally Jr. gets angry enough to unleash his telekinetic wave at Albedo, who meanwhile peruses Momo’s memories, including one of Joachim Mizrahi, leading him to realize… something. Again, we have a bunch of vague and portentously unspecific dialogue regarding something and events coming together - just as Albedo realizes this vague something, Jr.’s wave knocks him out. Now, here I must interject a personal theory - it would seem that judging from these scenes and some other evidence in the complete guides to Xenosaga that in fact, the Y-Data was originally going to have a lot more to do with foretelling the future and the coming of Shion and KOS-MOS.
Mizrahi’s vague line “You’re going to meet them” to Momo, along with Shion and KOS-MOS’ images in the Y-Data and Albedo’s suspicious looks at them during this and a later Proto Merkabah (PM) scene evince this as so.
We then cut to a scene where Albedo flies out into space and explores the Y-Data. Now, I have only now realized that Albedo’s exploration of the Y-Data here is actually is a flashback to his earlier attempt to open it when he was probing Momo. This makes sense, as the Y-Data is still by all accounts inside Momo.
This scene raises a few interesting points. First, there is the implication that Y-Data could actually be sentient, as she/it replies: “I do not exist for your pleasure.” Second is again the implication that Mizrahi and possibly Kevin as his Assistant had foreknowledge of the future and of the coming of Shion and KOS-MOS. Some might recall earlier there was a POV shot from Albedo’s perspective, where he for some reason suspiciously looked at the two of them. This flashback somewhat explains that shot, as Albedo had apparently seen the Y-Data’s protection as having images of KOS-MOS and Nude Shion.
The ODM in fact elaborates on this point, though provides no conclusive answers (http://odm.xenotensei.com/translations/pg133.txt)
Quote: * Protection Trap There is a protective wall, which is accompanied by a visual image that appears in front of the person who decides to decipher the Y-data. That image materializes, becoming KOS-MOS and the figure of Shion of the present.
Who is the person who orchestrated that? It can be considered that it was Professor Joachim Mizrahi, or whichever character who was acting as his assistant. However, even if it was whichever of the two of them, because the protection was applied 14 years ago, it cannot be explained why Shion appeared as her grown-up self of the present and not herself of approximately when she was very young. From this, it is considered that an existence or skill that can transcend time and space, as if being able to know Shion's future form at some point in the past, had been intervening, with whatever design, in the aforementioned existence called the Protection Program, which rejects illegal access to the top-secret information.
Albedo, who saw the image of this protection trap, laughed: "I see, so that's what it means." Also, Virgil, who had been restored to being a "cloaked man" after his death, also in the same way, for whatever reason, understood that image. However, the reason for that is unknown. End quote
Of course, both points would be forgotten about as well, at least in the future installments of the series. This indicates the Y-Data and its protection were meant to have a larger role in the grand scheme of things further down the line and were meant to directly connect to KOS-MOS and Shion, but it was probably determined at some point that pursuing these storylines would be unfeasible. Personally, I find that dropping these plot points was a wise idea, as they really open up a whole new can of worms in addition to all the other unanswered questions in Xenosaga.