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pluralsinmedia) wrote2022-06-11 07:18 pm
pluralsinmedia) wrote2022-06-11 07:18 pm
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Xenogears
Somewhat infamous for being a bizarre, complicated, and incredibly dark JRPG, Xenogears also has a plural character.
Only Xenogears and the information that can be found in the game itself will be covered. While it is technically cannon to Xenogears as the intended form of the game, any potential information that Perfect Works may have on this subject will not be used, as it is not within the game itself.
Due to the fact that this is Xenogears, the full spoiler overview will contain heavy subject matter.
Spoiler Free Overview:
Full Spoiler Overview Below Cut:
While there are three systems, two of which are barely mentioned and dont feature enough content to make a solid review of them. These two are antagonists hijacking the bodies of other people, one of which gets one moment of wresting control away, and the other has periodic wresting of control away from the antagonist. It is not entirely clear the manner by which they are possessing others, as budget cuts and time constraints rendered the second half of the game a lot less in-depth than intended. The first of the two seems to be a sentient genetic magic virus that possesses a random woman and largely takes over completely when the previous host dies, and the other is a spirit possessing others to subsist without a body. Only the second one behaves in any level of measurably notable ‘more than one’ way, and this is only at the very end of the game that it is revealed. They will not be reviewed in-depth as there isn’t enough content to do so.
Plural Character: Fei Fong Wong
System type: canonical Dissociative Identity Disorder
Personhood: While each member of the system is given a distinct self-schema and motives and demonstrated to be personlike, characters will frequently consider Fei the only ‘real one’, refer to the other headmates as Fei, and related phenomena. One of the system frequently refers to them all as ‘fake personas’ as well. Its important to keep in mind when grading this media that it was published in 1998, and this is very much a product of its time and was relatively progressive and accurate then, and later works by the author are much better with this, but it could certainly be better when graded to the standards of today. 4/10
Dynamic: Has a unnamed, mostly catatonic fragment that was created recently to deal with the trauma the game throws at Fei, Fei who is the current host, Id who is a persecutor protector and former host who took on the majority of the abuse they suffered and seems to vary in age(in the inner world mostly behaves and looks young and in the outer world looks and behaves like an adult), and the original, who is also a little.
Id loathes the original and refers to him as ‘the coward’ because the original has amnesia for their severe medical abuse and torture but not for the happy memories, and Id can only remember the time of the abuse but not the happy memories. Id is mad the original will not share his memories, and the original dislikes him right back because he is ‘mean’ regarding this. Later, the original stops fronting or paying attention to front completely after accidentally killing their mother with their magic powers, thus forcing Id to become host alone. After ten years of time as host, kidnapped by one of the villains and trained as his assassin, their negligent father catches up to them and fights the kidnapper and Id. It is not explained how, but the game claims Id was ‘sealed inside Fei’ by the father (possible choices feasible in the world include but are not limited to drug-induced programming, Id being so upset and traumatized he split and went dormant on his own and the father just claimed he did it, physical trauma like a knock to the head causing Id to go dormant, and magic) and dropped off the village you start the game with severe wounds. Fei is formed then and has complete amnesia, knowing nothing of his past or his system.
Three years later the game starts, and soon after, Id awakens from dormancy again.
For the majority of the game they have no communication and Fei has full memory blackouts whenever Id fronts, but Fei begins to see flashes of Id and the original talking to him internally and flashes of memory, and this culminates in finally Fei being able to talk to Id and the original and be aware of what the others are doing.
Sometime during the course of the game, Fei unknowingly creates a mostly catatonic fragment in response to the trauma, and only becomes aware of it when he meets the others.
At first they all fight heavily, but over the course of the long conversation in their inner world reconcile.
The dynamic is an in-depth and well-reasoned dysfunctional system, if handwaved in places. Points off for the one proper conversation any of them have at all taking exactly one long and vaguely rushed cutscene explaining most of this section all at once. 8/10
Narrative Sympathy: Its mixed. The narrative sympathizes greatly with Fei, but for the majority of the story Id is considered an enemy and absolute monster and only gets sympathy towards the very end of the game. The original barely has any screentime and the fragment has even less. The game and the characters in the world treat Id like a total monster, and while he did very much kill many many people, many of which were civilian bystanders caught in collateral damage, were retaliatory overkill, or were targets his kidnapper had him kill, he never once attacks the party first and other characters who have done just as horrible atrocities get nice things said about them by others. 4.5/10
Consistency: The narrative for sure doesn’t forget Fei is plural at any point, because its central to the plot. Though it seems to waver about language and personhood a bit, so points off for that. 8/10
Edge: This is extremely edgy. Id is the classic ‘murderous alter’, quite literally, given this is 1998 and there is very little media at that point that featured DID at all. Its possible he is responsible in part for the proliferation of said trope even, but Xenogears flopped so badly that its unlikely to be the case.
It is important, however, to note that the game itself is extremely edgy. Its a game in which has human experimentation, fascism and the horrors of war, systematic violence/oppression, cannibalism, genocide and other horrors at front focus and it does NOT shy away from digging into any of those. This makes the edginess a little less of a problem as its series-appropriate, but it remains still notably edgy due to Id being one of the edgiest characters in the game.
It is worth noting that there is a scene where an ally intentionally negatively triggers Id out to talk to him while pretending to be evil, which is a particular kind of content warning that most content warning listings are unlikely to mention.
Points reduced for the fact that its reasonable for the kind of story they are in, but still a very high score due to Id being the quintessential murderous alter. 8/10
Singlet Nonsense: There is a lot of this. Most of which is such because it is very dated, rather than out of poor research. It seems to be fairly well-researched for 1998 in Japan, actually.
There is strong ‘final fusion is the only way’ campaigning by basically every character who knows about Fei having DID(as this is what was the common view in the field then), which culminates in Fei and his system choosing to fully integrate after the one and only proper conversation they have with each other- this happens extremely unrealistically fast without much proper considering on the notion of living together beforehand, though all of them explicitly consent to it, which is good. The unification itself is rather unrealistic in other ways as well, as Fei essentially remains the same and the others disappear, Fei only gains a bunch of memories from it.
Id has extremely strong superpowers, though these are reasonable for the circumstance as its system-wide but Id was the only one trained to use them properly, and post integration Fei has access to that might too. Id also, however, inexplicably shapeshifts when he fronts (presumably he is tapping into the magic powers to make an illusion that makes him look how he wants, but its never explained why he can do this exactly), which is much less justifiable.
Switching is also heavily dramatized in many of the occurrences, with lots of flashing lights(This game has a MASSIVE epilepsy warning, there is a HUGE amount of flashing going on) and screen cuts and dramatic head clutching and screaming.
While its fairly good for its time, it does also have two particularly egregious instances of misunderstanding DID, the first is that while the game refers to their DID as DID in almost every instance, there is one instance of a character referring to Id as ‘a schizophrenic’ instead of ‘an alter in a DID system’. Its possible this is, as every other usage of a diagnosis is correct, a translation error (made more likely because it was translated by one sleep-deprived guy on a time crunch because the rest of the Square Enix translation team refused to work on the game due to the controversy the dark content and use of religious themes), but it was also common for older media to refer to DID in this way in general so it might not be. We cannot as of writing this locate any fan japanese translation notes that can confirm this either way.
The second is that a character describes one bit of major evidence to the other characters for Fei having DID as instead of any of the other symptoms he is blatantly showing (many mixed dissociative experiences where he is visibly dazed and out of it, obvious confessed identity confusion, the fact that they saw him switch to Id that one time) that Fei had mood swings (ie bipolar symptoms). Which is just full-stop wrong as bipolar and DID are very much not the same. Unless it was a translation goof and intended to mean ‘acts very different in some situations than he usually does due to passive influence’, which there are a few occurrences that seem to be the case with this, thats a pretty big inaccuracy.
While they get some things right, and much of it was good for its time, there is just so much singlet nonsense. 8/10
Possible upsetting tropes present: murderous alter, persecutor headmate suppression, ableism from those around them, superpowered evil side, shapeshifting alter without reasonable cause, unrealistically quick final fusion, final fusion being pushed, intentional negative switch triggering by an ally, general dated psychology and language
Overall series grade: While in 1998 this was relatively well researched and decent, this depiction is incredibly dated now, and there is so much edge. In today’s day its very apparent how understanding has changed. Its important to note that there is strong evidence the creators have kept up with the research to this day and it truly is just a product of its time, as Xenoblade 2, their most recent work, is far more accurate to today’s understanding of plurality. Its likely their depiction in this game was well-meaning and meant to align with the understanding of the times. That said, while its clear they made a good attempt for 1998, the portrayal is bogged down quite heavily by the way they handled Id and the many things that are understood to be incorrect regarding DID now. 5/10
Only Xenogears and the information that can be found in the game itself will be covered. While it is technically cannon to Xenogears as the intended form of the game, any potential information that Perfect Works may have on this subject will not be used, as it is not within the game itself.
Due to the fact that this is Xenogears, the full spoiler overview will contain heavy subject matter.
Spoiler Free Overview:
- Number of canon plural systems: 3
- System types: canonical Dissociative Identity Disorder, malevolent fantasy possession
- Personhood: 4/10
- Dynamic: 8/10
- Narrative Sympathy: 4.5/10
- Consistency: 8/10
- Edge: 8/10
- Singlet Nonsense: 8/10
- Overall series grade: 5/10
Full Spoiler Overview Below Cut:
While there are three systems, two of which are barely mentioned and dont feature enough content to make a solid review of them. These two are antagonists hijacking the bodies of other people, one of which gets one moment of wresting control away, and the other has periodic wresting of control away from the antagonist. It is not entirely clear the manner by which they are possessing others, as budget cuts and time constraints rendered the second half of the game a lot less in-depth than intended. The first of the two seems to be a sentient genetic magic virus that possesses a random woman and largely takes over completely when the previous host dies, and the other is a spirit possessing others to subsist without a body. Only the second one behaves in any level of measurably notable ‘more than one’ way, and this is only at the very end of the game that it is revealed. They will not be reviewed in-depth as there isn’t enough content to do so.
Plural Character: Fei Fong Wong
System type: canonical Dissociative Identity Disorder
Personhood: While each member of the system is given a distinct self-schema and motives and demonstrated to be personlike, characters will frequently consider Fei the only ‘real one’, refer to the other headmates as Fei, and related phenomena. One of the system frequently refers to them all as ‘fake personas’ as well. Its important to keep in mind when grading this media that it was published in 1998, and this is very much a product of its time and was relatively progressive and accurate then, and later works by the author are much better with this, but it could certainly be better when graded to the standards of today. 4/10
Dynamic: Has a unnamed, mostly catatonic fragment that was created recently to deal with the trauma the game throws at Fei, Fei who is the current host, Id who is a persecutor protector and former host who took on the majority of the abuse they suffered and seems to vary in age(in the inner world mostly behaves and looks young and in the outer world looks and behaves like an adult), and the original, who is also a little.
Id loathes the original and refers to him as ‘the coward’ because the original has amnesia for their severe medical abuse and torture but not for the happy memories, and Id can only remember the time of the abuse but not the happy memories. Id is mad the original will not share his memories, and the original dislikes him right back because he is ‘mean’ regarding this. Later, the original stops fronting or paying attention to front completely after accidentally killing their mother with their magic powers, thus forcing Id to become host alone. After ten years of time as host, kidnapped by one of the villains and trained as his assassin, their negligent father catches up to them and fights the kidnapper and Id. It is not explained how, but the game claims Id was ‘sealed inside Fei’ by the father (possible choices feasible in the world include but are not limited to drug-induced programming, Id being so upset and traumatized he split and went dormant on his own and the father just claimed he did it, physical trauma like a knock to the head causing Id to go dormant, and magic) and dropped off the village you start the game with severe wounds. Fei is formed then and has complete amnesia, knowing nothing of his past or his system.
Three years later the game starts, and soon after, Id awakens from dormancy again.
For the majority of the game they have no communication and Fei has full memory blackouts whenever Id fronts, but Fei begins to see flashes of Id and the original talking to him internally and flashes of memory, and this culminates in finally Fei being able to talk to Id and the original and be aware of what the others are doing.
Sometime during the course of the game, Fei unknowingly creates a mostly catatonic fragment in response to the trauma, and only becomes aware of it when he meets the others.
At first they all fight heavily, but over the course of the long conversation in their inner world reconcile.
The dynamic is an in-depth and well-reasoned dysfunctional system, if handwaved in places. Points off for the one proper conversation any of them have at all taking exactly one long and vaguely rushed cutscene explaining most of this section all at once. 8/10
Narrative Sympathy: Its mixed. The narrative sympathizes greatly with Fei, but for the majority of the story Id is considered an enemy and absolute monster and only gets sympathy towards the very end of the game. The original barely has any screentime and the fragment has even less. The game and the characters in the world treat Id like a total monster, and while he did very much kill many many people, many of which were civilian bystanders caught in collateral damage, were retaliatory overkill, or were targets his kidnapper had him kill, he never once attacks the party first and other characters who have done just as horrible atrocities get nice things said about them by others. 4.5/10
Consistency: The narrative for sure doesn’t forget Fei is plural at any point, because its central to the plot. Though it seems to waver about language and personhood a bit, so points off for that. 8/10
Edge: This is extremely edgy. Id is the classic ‘murderous alter’, quite literally, given this is 1998 and there is very little media at that point that featured DID at all. Its possible he is responsible in part for the proliferation of said trope even, but Xenogears flopped so badly that its unlikely to be the case.
It is important, however, to note that the game itself is extremely edgy. Its a game in which has human experimentation, fascism and the horrors of war, systematic violence/oppression, cannibalism, genocide and other horrors at front focus and it does NOT shy away from digging into any of those. This makes the edginess a little less of a problem as its series-appropriate, but it remains still notably edgy due to Id being one of the edgiest characters in the game.
It is worth noting that there is a scene where an ally intentionally negatively triggers Id out to talk to him while pretending to be evil, which is a particular kind of content warning that most content warning listings are unlikely to mention.
Points reduced for the fact that its reasonable for the kind of story they are in, but still a very high score due to Id being the quintessential murderous alter. 8/10
Singlet Nonsense: There is a lot of this. Most of which is such because it is very dated, rather than out of poor research. It seems to be fairly well-researched for 1998 in Japan, actually.
There is strong ‘final fusion is the only way’ campaigning by basically every character who knows about Fei having DID(as this is what was the common view in the field then), which culminates in Fei and his system choosing to fully integrate after the one and only proper conversation they have with each other- this happens extremely unrealistically fast without much proper considering on the notion of living together beforehand, though all of them explicitly consent to it, which is good. The unification itself is rather unrealistic in other ways as well, as Fei essentially remains the same and the others disappear, Fei only gains a bunch of memories from it.
Id has extremely strong superpowers, though these are reasonable for the circumstance as its system-wide but Id was the only one trained to use them properly, and post integration Fei has access to that might too. Id also, however, inexplicably shapeshifts when he fronts (presumably he is tapping into the magic powers to make an illusion that makes him look how he wants, but its never explained why he can do this exactly), which is much less justifiable.
Switching is also heavily dramatized in many of the occurrences, with lots of flashing lights(This game has a MASSIVE epilepsy warning, there is a HUGE amount of flashing going on) and screen cuts and dramatic head clutching and screaming.
While its fairly good for its time, it does also have two particularly egregious instances of misunderstanding DID, the first is that while the game refers to their DID as DID in almost every instance, there is one instance of a character referring to Id as ‘a schizophrenic’ instead of ‘an alter in a DID system’. Its possible this is, as every other usage of a diagnosis is correct, a translation error (made more likely because it was translated by one sleep-deprived guy on a time crunch because the rest of the Square Enix translation team refused to work on the game due to the controversy the dark content and use of religious themes), but it was also common for older media to refer to DID in this way in general so it might not be. We cannot as of writing this locate any fan japanese translation notes that can confirm this either way.
The second is that a character describes one bit of major evidence to the other characters for Fei having DID as instead of any of the other symptoms he is blatantly showing (many mixed dissociative experiences where he is visibly dazed and out of it, obvious confessed identity confusion, the fact that they saw him switch to Id that one time) that Fei had mood swings (ie bipolar symptoms). Which is just full-stop wrong as bipolar and DID are very much not the same. Unless it was a translation goof and intended to mean ‘acts very different in some situations than he usually does due to passive influence’, which there are a few occurrences that seem to be the case with this, thats a pretty big inaccuracy.
While they get some things right, and much of it was good for its time, there is just so much singlet nonsense. 8/10
Possible upsetting tropes present: murderous alter, persecutor headmate suppression, ableism from those around them, superpowered evil side, shapeshifting alter without reasonable cause, unrealistically quick final fusion, final fusion being pushed, intentional negative switch triggering by an ally, general dated psychology and language
Overall series grade: While in 1998 this was relatively well researched and decent, this depiction is incredibly dated now, and there is so much edge. In today’s day its very apparent how understanding has changed. Its important to note that there is strong evidence the creators have kept up with the research to this day and it truly is just a product of its time, as Xenoblade 2, their most recent work, is far more accurate to today’s understanding of plurality. Its likely their depiction in this game was well-meaning and meant to align with the understanding of the times. That said, while its clear they made a good attempt for 1998, the portrayal is bogged down quite heavily by the way they handled Id and the many things that are understood to be incorrect regarding DID now. 5/10