Guardian Angels - Combining The Story With Religious Representations by Noman Nasir

Combining The Story With Religious Representations
by Noman Nasir

I don't know if a lot of you noticed this but there are basically three demons that Fei and his angelic Xenogears have to face of in the game.

Food for thought: This idea of facing three demons does come from a Muslim story that I've heard about. I think this story is also part of Jewish mysticism, but I'm not sure. The story goes like this. God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his son for him. Anyway as much as the prophet loved his child, he loved God more and so he agreed to do it. During his travels on the pilgrimage he was taking to the place where he was going to perform the sacrifice he was visited by Satan on three occasions. Each time the devil tempted him into not following God's will but Abraham refused.

1# Fei is also on a pilgrimage of his own. However, his main goal is to save humanity from destruction. Anyways the first demon that Fei faces is Grahf in True Weltall. This was a very interesting fight indeed. The distinguishing characteristics of Xenogears are its angelic wings which can be thought of as the polar opposite of Grahf's demonic bat like wings. Grahf isn't really Lacan, instead he is the remains of Lacan's negative emotions. So Fei defeating Grahf's and his gear symbolizes a sort of freedom attained by the Contact from both his own dark past and that of his previous incarnation. It could also be interpreted as an internal battle within Fei's heart where his positive side wins.

2# The next demon that Fei faces is of course Deus. There isn't much to be interpreted here. This fight just symbolizes Fei fighting for the right of humans to exist against Deus who can be seen as the angel of the apocalypse (Since many demons were actually former angels, thinking of Deus as a fallen angel does seem to make sense).

3# The last demon that Fei faces is of course my favorite one of all, Urobolus. But before I even start talking about her let's take a moment to examine what is going on here. First of all notice how everyone is naked here, even Krelian. This symbolizes the Garden of Eden in Christian mythology. Krelian was looking for God, and what better place to find him then in the Garden of Eden itself.

Now notice that as soon as Krelian disappears a monstrous creature comes up from below. Even though she has wings we don't see her flying down from above. Instead she comes up from below the water. Demons do come from hell so this isn't that surprising. In the Garden of Eden, Satan was known to have taken the form of a snake. That combined with the fact that this creature has bird like wings (Satan was fallen angel but an angel non the less) can make anyone believe that the person that Fei is fighting is indeed the Devil. However, why does this creature resemble Miang (notice the purple hair) in both characteristic and form? Miang was pretty slithery. She was a deceptive snake that fooled almost everyone around her in order to complete her function. She was also the only one who really represented Deus' will and was really the main villain in the game. Shakhan was just a puppet used by her. Ramsus, Grahf and Krelian had their own tragic reasons for doing what they did. She manipulated Ramsus and brutally killed Elly's father, and through her sinister laughs throughout the game we can tell that she enjoys satisfying her sadistic nature. Also she was the pilot of Opiomorph, which looked almost exactly like Urobolus. When we defeated Opiomorph the gear regenerated itself and then it just disappeared from the game. To me this doesn't make sense. If Miang has something this powerful then why would she get rid of it. I think that the gear combined with Deus just as Miang and Krelian did. This would certainly explain why both Deus and Opiomorph have the same combination of white and red color coding on them. So then the question becomes exactly what is Urobolus? Remember the battle with Maria's father; that�s when we learn that humans and gears can be combined to form one being, which is what had happened to Maria's father unfortunately. So then Urobolus, which seems to be an organic version of Opiomorph, must be the combination of Miang and her gear. However, I don�t think that its just Miang that has combined with Opiomorph. Remember Elly and Miang had become one. After all we don't get to see Elly move until after we beat this thing. Therefore even though her will was moving Deus away from the earth she was still a part of Miang. If that's the case, then Urobolus is creature who, is a combination of, and has the power of Elly, Miang and Opiomorph and maybe even Deus herself/himself/itself.

We know that Xenogears is in the form of an angel, but then we must ask what kind of angel he is. In the previous analysis that I posted I explained how Xenogears and Fei represented or were one of the following: a seraphim which is the highest class of angel, "Jesus Christ", or the "Word of God". And Urobolus since she is the "Great Serpent" a.k.a. Satan, then she has to be the ultimate demon. It makes sense then that these two would be enemies or should I say that anti-existence of each other (If you have played Xenosaga 1 or 2 then you will know what I meant by that last part). With all that�s said and done we must ask ourselves what does Fei's victory over Urobolus symbolize? Simply put, it could represent Elly's freedom from her dark half. Fei had become free of his dark half Id, and now Elly had become free of her dark half Miang. It could also represent mankind's freedom from its creator. Maybe some people can interpret it as justice for what Miang had done to Fei's family. Another speculation may be that it symbolizes Krelian's freedom from Miang's corrupting influence. She was the one who lured him on the side of Deus, and it is only after Urobolus' death that you see Krelian's positive side.

Xenogears and everything in it are copyright Squaresoft. I claim no credit for their work/property. All artwork and stories belong to their respective artists and authors.