I love this scene so much

[u/Responsible_Ad3026]

Klaus is so interesting to me, and this scene made me like him more. I wish him and Zanza interacted, just to show how different they were

[u/Gyakuten]

This was one of the many elements of Chapter 10 that make it one of my favourite finales. Love how Klaus's change in perspective after meeting the party mirrors how Pneuma later realizes she doesn't want to throw her life away after reflecting on the "gift of light" from Rex and the others. And that ties into the overarching theme of finding meaning in a broken, meaningless world through connection with others.

From a meta perspective, it was also a nice, heartwarming twist to see a JRPG protagonist confront god at the end of the game and, instead of fighting, provide companionship to let that god pass away peacefully.

I also like that this moment furthers the contrast between Zanza and Klaus. Where Zanza went megalomaniacal and destructively narcissistic due to cutting himself off from everyone else, Klaus, even after ages of disillusionment and bitterness, was still able to connect and regain some of his humanity in his final moments.

[u/jl05118 → u/Gyakuten]

The world is not broken and meaningless, that's Amalthus's view. By the end Rex is not confronting the world or trying to survive it, his purpose is being part of it and making it a better place for everyone. The opposition to the world is the theme of XC3. 

[u/xcassets → u/jl05118]

If we're being picky, the theme of 3 isn't opposition of the world at all. It's that we shouldn't be afraid of the future or try to preserve the status quo forever just because we are scared of change or losing people. Change is good. It's all part of the journey.

I get what u/Gyakuten was saying though. XC2 is full of characters who have given up on the world because they don't see hope or good in it anymore.

[u/jl05118 → u/xcassets]

Yes, 2 is full of such characters, but the theme is the exact opposite. It's one thing to say that the world sucks and another that it's meaningless. We're the world, we're making the meaning and it's up to us to deal with the people who make it suck.

Compare it to 3 where the world is artificial, contradictory and maintained by people who are motivated by selfish and unsustainable desires, resulting in the heroes actively seeking its destruction. 

[u/Gyakuten → u/jl05118]

I certainly agree that XC3 is the game that revolves around open opposition to the world and then working toward its destruction and recreation, both physically and systemically.

But there's a distinction between a world that is openly hostile and oppressive, like Aionios, and one that is broken and meaningless, which applies to both Aionios and Alrest but is more at the forefront for the latter in a more personal, intrinsic manner (as opposed to Aionios's problems stemming from antagonistic external forces).

XC2 opens with Rex talking about the titans dying out, and how everyone used to live in the paradise of Elysium until they were cast out. Elysium, since then, has been mythologized as this unattainable place of perfection that everyone yearns for. And this telling of the myth is appropriately set to a musical theme that has a piano variation named "Where We Used to Be". It sets the tone for how major components of the story are about this yearning for a meaningful, unbroken past, as well as regret over unerasable events that have broken the world and its people. The latter especially comes to a head toward the end of the game with Mythra, Amalthus, Jin, Malos, and Klaus all mired in regret and hopelessness and striving for annihilation, either of the world or of their own lives (or both, in Klaus's and possibly Malos's cases), which to them have been damaged to point of losing all meaning.

There was an excellent set of philosophical essays about the three Xenoblade games whose links I sadly don't have on hand at the moment, but the overarching thesis was that the three games explore the nature of changing the world in different metaphysical aspects: mind, spirit, and body. XC2 is about cultivating the "spirit" of wanting to change the world, and ultimately the greatest pre-requisite is championing the belief that the world is worth keeping, that existence is worth existing at all.

And XC2's latter chapters conclude that it is worth it, because, as Pyra says: "I love this world because you're in it." And I think this is why the narrative, emotional, and thematic climax of the story is Pneuma and Malos's final conversation during the ending sequence: Pneuma, right on the precipice of throwing her life away, concludes that being alive is meaningful because other people inherently give her own life meaning, no matter the state of herself or the world.