Nikolai Balthasar was a brilliant scientist from Shevat who was kidnapped and forced into creating Gears for the nefarious Solaris. Solaris was dead set on creating the most advanced mechs on the planet, and Nikolai’s genius in the field of neurological research was unrivaled. With his coerced assistance, Solaris was able to produce inhumane Gears that “swallowed” a person and their consciousness whole, creating a Gear without lag or human error. And, in the end, after losing his wife and life to Solaris, Nikolai became an unwilling victim of his own creation, and was bonded to the Gear Achtzehn.
Achtzehn was a formidable beast of a Gear. Fused with a Nikolai who seemed to lose all empathy for humanity, it was a monster set to destroy the whole of Nikolai’s former home. Fei and his friends stood up to Achtzehn, but it utilized an Anti-Gear Psycho Jammer that disabled all Gears controlled by traditional pilots. This left Maria, Nikolai’s daughter, and the Gear he had created for her, Seibzehn, the only Gears that could stand against this massive threat.
Oh, and there was Chu-Chu, too.
The scripture is… okay… A host of theologians have all but deemed this portion of “history” as… apocryphal. If taken literally, one is to believe that before humanity was ever on this world, there were creatures known as Dotesque Chu-Chupolin. These beings were intelligent, had their own culture, lived in the woods, and, most importantly, were larger than houses. However, those wily so and sos at Solaris found them to be a (gigantic) nuisance, so they installed limiters on the chus, causing them to shrink down to stuffed-animal size. But apparently Fei’s dad (?) was a researcher on these creatures, and he escaped with some chus (?) that had their limiters removed (?), and one of these chus became the companion/pet (?) of Margie. Margie was in Shevat when Achtzehn attacked, and this “Chu-Chu” grew to enormous size to fight alongside Maria.
And, look, despite how many artists love depicting a giant, pink puffball hanging on the cross, you do not need to believe in the “literal” history of the Chu-Chu to understand the parable here. Chu-Chu was little more than a teddy bear, and Maria was a traumatized teenager of barely 13 (standing in the shadow of a queen that was supposedly 522). They both banded together and repelled a man who had grown into a scientist that could no longer distinguish friend from foe. The “wise, learned man” was defeated by the meekest and most inexperienced defenders around. Whether Chu-Chu could become titanic is immaterial to the fact that this creature somehow assisted in saving people. It is meant to draw a metaphoric parallel between those that think they cannot succeed, and a similarly unsophisticated organism saving the day.
Chu-Chu and Maria worked together to be the heroes of Shevat. You can be a hero, too. That’s the moral. You do not need a mammoth rabbit-mouse thing to reinforce that concept.
Even Worse Streams presents Xenogears
Night 10
Original Stream Night: April 6, 2021
Night of Quistis Trepe
Random Stream Notes
- Welcome back to Xenogears! There are not glorious HD squats here.
- We immediately compare Final Fantasy Amano illustrations to Aqua Teen Hunger Force gags regarding pianos and MP3 conversions.
- Hey, remember The Granstream Saga? It is better than Chu-chu Land.
- Would you like a discussion of the comic strip BC thanks to Sega CD title BC Racers?
Please enjoy as I check a FAQ to figure out what the heck I am supposed to do to activate the next bit. Talk to a rocking chair?- We meet Queen Zephyr while we discuss how gachas should be illegal.
- Citan’s family is here. Grandia 3 includes your mom in a JRPG. These things are marginally related.
- Elly has been voted off the island as Maria joins the party. … Oh wait we kept Elly. Sorry, Billy.
- As we skulk through tunnels with Maria, talk of Final Fantasy 9 leads to talk of SaGa Frontier and Asellus being gay as heck.
- We discuss Breath of Fire 2, Oddworld, and other games that have influenced our views in weird ways.
- And Kishi arrives while we are still trying to find our way through these stupid tunnels.
- “Snowpiercer was in fact inspired by Xenogears.”
- I assume my Gears are going to survive the onslaught, but save anyway. This is good planning!
- Kishi brings up their notes for helping the fact that my Gears are a miserable failure.
“If you want to save fuel…” “Nope!”- After two or three game overs, I finally decide to upgrade my Gears. This may have been the issue!
- Now we can actually make progress. And, yes, despite my objections on the stream, this is uploaded without editing my many losses.
- “I wiggle in the air to assert dominance.”
- We are all, obviously, excited by Chu-Chu finally attaining maximum power.
- Kishi is quiet during the Chu/Giant Robot fight due to really liking the music involved. I can’t blame ‘em.
- Chu-Chu notes her pure heart as we close.
Next time on Xenogears: Remember Bart? Sure you do! He’s back! In Omni-Form!
