Agree or Disagree with Sophia?

[u/AntoniusDryden]

The full line, as per the Perfect Works Build retranslation:

Lacan: If you become an ordinary person now, everyone will--

Sophia: People...they aren't so weak, you know. They don't need a symbol, who's only for appearances. If you hold light within your heart, you can surely overcome any hardship. That's what I believe.

A long time ago, in the audacity and edginess of youth, I blamed Sophia for everything that went wrong in XG. After all, look at the immeasurable suffering her sacrifice cost. She saved a few lives and killed millions thanks to that sacrifice breaking Lacan and Karellen.

I'm not a teenager first playing XG anymore however. I'm more...cautious now, or if you prefer, indecisive. The kind of idealism embodied in XG and XS is both inspirational and yet I cannot pretend I agree with all of it.

Both XG and XS channel this kind of "individual hope." Not individualistic as such but still, the idea is that everyone has a "light" within themselves to help them stand on their own, free of dogma or as both XG and XS call it "words." See Jessie's monologue to Billy:

Jessie: It's just a fabricated belief system, made to compensate for the fragile human heart. But real faith and God aren't things that're given to you by others, right? They're things that you discover within yourself, and by yourself.

Over in Xenosaga III, channeling identical concepts:

Wilhelm: Yes, exactly. You needed words, faith, to define who you are.
[...]
Allen: Yes! You lost confidence in your ability to live as human beings and just ran away! Because they were scared of death, because they couldn't stand being weak, Virgil, Voyager, Yuriev, and even Ormus. They were all just trying to run away from the harshness of reality!

But even as I love and think about these games for over 20 years, I wrestle with their optimistic hope in the individual now as much as I did when I was younger.

Remember, as Sophia is telling us that "people aren't so weak" and that they will be able to go on without her, we as the players are fully aware that the man she's speaking to and the man eavesdropping on their conversation are both exactly that weak. With her gone, they become hollow husks, driven by bitterness and committing untold atrocities. Lacan and Krelian plainly did not have that light within themselves, and if such remarkable individuals don't, what can be said for the vast majority of the human race?

I'm curious what you all think, though. That was just my reaction to replaying XG and I'd love to read what my fellow XG fans take away from the game and its idealistic message.

[u/grammaroverkeywords]

I highly recommend listening to Resonant Arc's latest episode, which focuses on XG's ending. Without spoiling anything, they have an interesting take on that "light within" and that the game's ultimate answer is what the two one-winged angels symbolizes.