The way I'd consider Jin is he specifically wants to destroy the world that Amalthus had created as he was the one who was ultimatelty behind Lora's death, he knows not all of humanity is bad, a key example of this would be Mikhail. I think the way Jin views things is revenge against Amalthus for what happened all those years ago and since it's stated that Malos specifically follows Jin's lead, then I believe they're viewing it destroying the world that Amalthus wants, I might have worded things wierd but that's my view.
Yeah, I can get behind that. I see it as Jin misdirecting his hatred for people like Amalthus onto humanity as a whole, or Jin believes the worst part of humanity will always outweigh the good. I'm sure Jin knew deep down that humanity as a whole wasn't bad all along, he just lost hope until hearing Rex' perspective.
I view that Jin hates humanity because they don’t really resist or speak out against Amalthus. He saw over the years what happened to Torna being covered up and most the remains Torna moving to basically a puppet state of the pretorium. In that regard he views humanity following and basically worshipping Amalthus as the acting God of this world as something that is unforgivable in his eyes.
Egil and Amalthus are honestly the strongest ones in my eyes. In a lot of ways their the mirror image of the ideals that the protagonists strive towards. People don't really talk about them as much since they don't have "sexy" designs. Also Shania. She's absurdly well-written despite mostly being part of a side quest.
I like how different characters continually reach out to N (Matthew, M, Mio, Noah, etc) throughout XB 3, so it’s not just a last minute redemption (not to say that’s bad, it’s just N’s progression that’s a very powerful buildup)
Great video as always, I loved the vine boom joke with Malos. I do feel like I was way more convinced why Malos would be number one on the list instead of N. Maybe because of the vine boom joke 😂.
Can't say I am convinced with 5, 4 and 2 though. I don't think I will ever be able to forgive XCX for making me grind a new character after Mr Edgelord's betrayal. At that point my opinion of this game was already very low, with all the Tatsu jokes, the bad audio balance, the minuscule subtitles and the very tone-deaf world building. 5 was just the straw that broke the armu's back and I eventually gave up on the game and watched a LP to see the end. Good thing I did, it definitely wasn't worth it. I understand your defence of Jin, but he still doesn't work for me. He is mad because his gf was kiIIed in a war centuries ago (time to let go, dude), so he decides to join a terorrist group to spread even more misery in this world. Under the orders of the man... who is responsible for his gf's death. Yeah no, he's a lost cause. As for Malos. Yeah, born evil, stays evil. No amount of charisma, good looks, dramatic one-liners and top-tier VA can change that.
@@GerardMenvussait sounds like you mainly played through the main story abnd didnt do much side content in X. I never had a problem with lao being away because we have enough other members of blade to fill in and i could keep up the level of almost everyone. What exactly do you mean with tone-deaf world?
@@GerardMenvussa I also think Jin and Malos are hecka overrated. I also never understood them and therefor never really remembered them the way I remembered Metal Face, Egil, Zanza, Amalthus, N, and Z.
@@mattgezockt2596 Here the problem. How many hundreds of hours would you need to level-up everyone? Life is too short for this much grinding. If you have Elma and Potato-eater in your party (who are mandatory for story progression), you only have 1 slot available. And if you want to switch character, you have to run around town to physically find them. Unlike, you know, every good JRPG ever made where you can just change your party in a menu. Everything in that game is made to get you to commit to one character and never lvl-up the others. And no I did not care for the side content, because most of it was awful. The off-brand Starbux ran out of coffee-beans and I need to find an alien substitute? Yeah, that's just lazily designed padding and it's incredibly tone deaf. Tone deaf as in, humanity is on the verge of extinction, but nobody seems to care. People are sunbathing next to their swimming pull. Driving their off-brand Lamborghini to go to the mall 80m away. If I remember well, you even get a sidequest for dealing with thugs in a backstreet (because of course your spaceship has earth-like backstreets in it). (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ WORLD-BUILDING yay! A gigantic world, but only one mundane looking city. A dozen different main species, but most of them hardly matter. This game just fails as an RPG, on so many levels. It's all so one-dimensional and detached from the main story. Not that the main story is exactly stellar. It treats you like an idiot and overuses the fact you have lost your memory for cheap plot-twists. And eventually, it never lead to anything. And to go back to the topic of the video: if it were not for Lao, X would not have any vilain to actually compete in this list. Does anyone care about any of the bosses in this game? Really?
@@bradford9086 Z would have had the potential to be a very good villain, if he actually did something other than chitchat in cutscenes. Malos at least was active the whole game and therefore felt more like a real threat. I can give him that.
I adore Xenoblade villains SO much. I think they’re absolutely amazing. My top three are Jin, Malos, and N. Jin is just top tier, tragic beyond belief. Malos just so much depth and is fun everytime he’s on screen, I feel like he has so many layers to him. And N is like 3’s Jin, in a way, where I can understand how he faltered and went down the path he did so much.
This was a very well put-together video, so in order to give it a bit of an algorithm boost, here are my personal top 5: 1. Zanza / Klaus: I would consider them one narrative unit and how they contrast with each other in so many ways, while shaping both the settings of their respective games as well as the ideologies that the protagonists have to contend with is just so interesting to me. I can totally see why people might not rate them too highly as individual characters but as parts of one whole they really came together for me by the end of Xenoblade 2. 2. Malos: I agree with everything that you said, but want to add how much I enjoyed the way his character is right on the frontline from the start. To me he seemed like more of a Metal Face type, who is both entertaining and emotionally affecting, because you have to deal with him and his menace a lot but not meant to be deep at all. This made learning that he is not only quite the complex figure with a decent bit of subtle characterization as well as massively important to the story really engrossing. 3. Jin: I dont really have anything to add, except that getting to play through the events of Torn really elevated him emotionally. 4. N: Again, not much to add, he is a great character for pretty much the reasons that you laid out. The performance of the pure spiteful energy he has towards Noah and his clinging to hope during the prison sequence in particular is such a highlight. Maybe he could be higher if Future Redeemed had done a bit more with his character, or if I liked the last 20% of Xenoblade 3 more. He is still good in that part, but by then the game had somewhat worn thin for me and it felt like they really overexplained his appeal instead of driving it home in a more elegant manner. 5. Amalthus: He really closes out the villain trio of Xenoblade 2 for me and there is so much to delve into when it comes how he, Jin and Malos all push each other towards their worst tendencies through their various dynamics. His parallels with Rex are nothing to sneeze at either but what really appeals to me, is how his corruption arc is shown to us piece by piece over the course of both the base game and Torna. It is very thorough by the end but the individual steps leave a decent amount up for interpretation along the way, which is another interesting contrast to the other main villains of the game who remain more vague (mostly in a good way). I also just really really hate him, which is always a good sign for a villain.
The only reason I will never ever like Amalthus is because he's too good of a villain. Every single problem in Alrest is because of him. The blades never turning into titans, Malos and Jin killing countless people, the growing conflicts between More Ardain and Uraya due to more and more dying titan's, the main root of Torna's (The titan) destruction, and the slaughtering of the Tornan refugees. The entire second game wouldn't have a plot without Amalthus and I hate him solely because of that. I'll admit that he's a fantastic villain with a very realistic character for someone who's seen what he has but I'll never bring myself to like the man
Fair honestly, the fact that Amalthus can be so hateable is a sign of him being an effective antagonist. If I lived in Alrest I'd definitely hate the guy too lmao
My favorite part about N is how much of his actions are retroactively changed upon future redeemed’s new context of the events of the destruction of the first city. N destroyed it not to bring M back, but rather to save the world from being destroyed by Alpha, and the majority of the city wasn’t even slain by him, from what we see the only life he takes is Ghondor’s, and even then the camera angle of the scene implies that Ghobdor wasn’t actually stabbed by N but then drove the sword of the end into his chest willingly to try and awaken his Ouroboros power. Z molded N by his trauma of losing Mio, but ultimately made him into the ultimate Consul to oppose Alpha, bringing M back was just an added bonus, meaning N decided to willingly join the faction that he was fighting against just to give the world more time to fight back against Moebius. Remember, N at the end of the day, is Noah, and Noah wouldn’t simply stand by as the world and all its inhabitants are at risk of being obliterated. And Noah wasn’t completely lost when becoming N, he only lost himself after the events of future redeemed cuz of all the insanity. Another part of it that’s really tragic is that N never tells M the truth of what really happened in future redeemed, so all this time the party from 3 was fighting him to save him from his suffering and even then they only knew a fraction of what actually happened. The fact that N never even told M the truth of the destruction of the first city and went along with what she thought also means that N didn’t see himself as deserving of telling M the truth of it all because he doesn’t believe he deserves to be forgiven for what he had done, because chances are M would’ve probably seen things a lot more differently had she known the context of future redeemed’s events. This is also reflected in N’s last worlds to Gondor, where he reluctantly says “the burden is mine alone to bear” showcasing that he can’t bring himself to reveal the full story because he believes only he deserves to shoulder the pain despite the fact that in doing so he only did more harm due to Z’s manipulations. This even makes Noah’s words to Z at the end of the base game take even more meaning, because remember, he fuses with N beforehand, meaning he knows all of his memories, including the true events of the city, and he tells Z that he “gave those 2 an impossible choice” referring to M and N, M in the sense that she was shackled by N’s obsessiveness and had to make the impossible choice to die to wake him up from his trance, and N because all of that insanity came from the impossible choice of either leaving the world to die at the hands of Alpha, or saving the world at the cost of turning yourself and the one you love into part of the enemies you fought to destroy. It’s honestly insanely tragic.
Malos is definitely my top vilian. From the beginning on he was so entertaining. I loved every scene he was on. Honestly didn't mind that he seemed like a pure evil guy. But then before the final boss... Pneuma: "Don't you feel anything? Father's sadness, the world he longed for" Malos: "How could I? This isn't... my role in this world." Legendary. It elevated the gut up to heights for me. The world saw him as a vilian, so he doubled down on it. So many new layers O_O
i don't think jin necessarily wants to destroy the world. he wanted to understand malos, and to understand why malos is the way he is. malos was the indirect reason lora died, but even still, malos was the only person who reached out when no-one else would, and gave him a purpose when he had none. jin was empty, but he genuinely wanted to reason with malos and to have someone whom he could have that could share in his suffering. when someone has nothing, even the slightest connection or purpose is enough, but when jin realized the path malos was taking was wrong, he chose to entrust the future to rex. it's why jin asked for rex's answer, and ultimately accepted it. 'jin never wanted to die, he just wanted to connect with you. he did it because you showed him a path.' - rex during the final boss
Malos respects strength, and he recognized Lora as not only crazy enough to stand against him but he would've been able to tell she and jin had the strongest bond there. He _never_ spoke ill of her. To see jin centuries later in a back alley, dirty, homeless and seemed to be hiding from prying eyes... I think seeing him fall so far compelled him to want start over. He had need of his strength, no blade as strong as jin deserved to be treated so badly that he was living like that. He probably recognized that jin had seen what malos had always been exposed to, but didn't immediately realize jin had never been reborn to a new driver.
Great video, we definitely share a few top villains, as expected. My own Top 5 would be: 1) Jin 2) N 3) Malos 4) Amalthus 5) Metal Face The reason Egil fails to make my list is the one big problem I have with him: he's made out to be this Fallen Hero who was the best of the Machina before being consumed by revenge. In order for me to buy that such a noble character could ever turn so evil, he needs to have undergone such extreme trauma that his actions become understandable, if not defensible. I find that Jin and N comfortably clear this bar - but in Egil's case, you had literally ALL the surviving Machina living through the same tragedy as him, yet none of them devoted themselves to the genocide of multiple intelligent races and an entire world. In fact, EVERY OTHER MACHINA rejects Egil's plans, and a number of them are killed by him because of it. People defend Egil by saying that he was right in the end, Zanza's continued existence spelled doom for all civilizations, and the only way to defeat Zanza was to take away his "fuel" - but we never see Egil ever try to actually warn the people of Bionis about what fate their "God" has in store for them. He may have done, and seen his efforts undone by Zanza's disciples, or it might always have been a hopeless undertaking, but him never being shown attempting something alonge those lines makes it seem like he embraced the genocide option without any real moral qualms. So for the game and the story to attempt to rehabilitate Egil the way it does after his death it does just rings false to me. He's still in the Honorable Mentions-tier, but the disconnect between what the game tells us about his character and what the game actually shows him doing is just a bit too much to swallow for me.
Honestly, I feel Xenoblade is definitely at its peak when it comes to the villains that you can see have been broken in the world. They may have been heroes of their own stories (hell for Jin he literally was), but along the way the powers that be, whether it's the gods, greedy corporations, or the head of a religious organization that took Deus Valting way too far, stomped all over them and caused them to turn. You can see why they feel scarred by the world, you understand what they're going through and you get why they want to hurt people... But you know you gotta stop them so you can build something better, so no one else will be hurt that same way again.
Xenoblade 3 wasn't afraid to bring back old characters, Meliá, Nia, Shulk and rex and even poppi all came back. I wouldn't be surprised if Malos actually really returns in Xenoblade 4, especially because of how popular he is, either as a villain or most likely as a party member, a redemption arc would be amazing
I love the tragic villains in Xeno like Jin and N. What I love about Jin is his villainous motives come inherently from his disdain with how the world is made up. The way blades and drivers are made to be in the world by Klaus is what makes Jin want to kill him and destroy the world. This perfectly mirrors my favorite villain from Xenogears and their reason for wanting to do what they do. Idk if you've played Gears so I won't say who it is but this villain is actually my favorite in the entire Xeno series.
Xenoblade's villains have quickly become some of my favorites in media EVER, but my top 5 from least favorite to favorite would prolly be Amalthus, Z/Moebius as a whole(Z on his own I enjoy but feel like theres potential that could be more explored with if he ever comes back in some way, but the collective of Moebius I adore as a whole), Malos, Jin, then N. Egil could almost be swapped with Amalthus but I like Amalthus's villainy more.
Great video, I’ve been following this series since I was like 12 playing on a trashy potato pc using emulators and it’s really amazing how far we got. For me it’s N > Egil > Jin and Malos > Zanza > Amalthus
I think Malos is my favorite villain hands down. He's not my favorite villain character, but as the villain, he plays the role the best. He fits every level of villainy in the textbook. A one-dimensional evil for evil's sake campy villain? Check. A slightly misunderstood villain who is just doing the only thing he knows how to do? Check. A conflicted villain who questions his own motive or if what he is doing is even his decision? Check. A tragic villain who has a deep underlying self-loathing of himself and what he's done and thinks the only way of escape is to destroy everything including himself? Check.
This is a bit out of context for the video. But ive always theorized something. What happened to mayneth after xenoblade 1. What i mean is... if Klaus was half and half, xenoblade 1 and 2, wouldnt that mean the same happened to mayneth? What if in the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X : DE - We get a DLC that could reveal whats going on? I personally havent been able to play X, but what if Mayneths "Other half" Has something to do with it. And what if that is the reason why origin didnt work in xenoblade 3? Perhaps because we were missing a world? This may be entirely wrong, but I like to think about it.
I never understood Jin or Malos as characters when I first played through the series. After replaying and really analyzing the two... yeah I just don't think they have strong enough reasons to be so evil, unlike better villains that DO make sense like Egil, Amalthus, and N.
Great video! My ranking would be 1.- N 2.- Malos 3.- Jin 4.- Egil 5.- Amalthus I still need to play X, so I don't have any comments there. My honorable mentions are Moebius S, Zanza and Z ( I'm probably one of the few people that really liked Moebius as a whole) Pd: I'm still surprised we don't have a top best boss/final boss fights.
Thanks! Based ranking! And currently I have a ranking Final bosses planned after X definitive edition comes out, just in case the extra content will add a new final boss.
I think the best thing about Malos is that he only became like that because of Amalthus. Unfortunately the game doesn’t do the best job of explaining that.
Not everything in Xenoblade 2 was explained clearly, but Amalthus' influence was touched upon several times at the end of the game. Before the fights against Amalthus and the final boss multiple characters say that Malos is influenced by him, that's on top of some flashbacks that don't explicitly say it but clearly imply it.
1) N 2) Jin 3) Malos 4) Amalthus 5) Egil Last 2 are kind of interchangeable. I love XC2 because it has several villainous parties that really are all very well handled but none of the individual villains are quite on the same level as N. He just steals the show in XC3 while the XC2 villains have to compete with each other for screentime. N is just an absolute menace. Malos has some of the best dialogue in the entire franchise. The "Humans see the divine flame of life and piss over it, they are genius at that." monologue is hilarious but in an entirely serious way.
If Xenosaga were on this list I'd make an argument for Albedo and Margulis to be in the top 5. Also why wasn't Dickson in the honorable mentions. He was like a mentor/father figure to Shulk and him pretending that he didn't have that relationship with Shulk and claiming it was all for Zanza's plan leads to Shulk becoming stronger in the final act. I also like the last scene with him where he acknowledges Shulk's strength and doesn't want him to see him die.
This top 5 seems specifically engineered to make me shake my head N is just a worse Jin with paper thin motivations, carried entirely by his more maniacal portrayal. Egil is just very basic and I didn’t buy his immediate 180 once Shulk throws at him the first friendship bullshit he could think of. Amalthus is the most fucked up villain in the series, and while he isn’t charismatic or likeable, he was never meant to be, definitely better than Lao or Egil at the very least. It’s ok to rightfully put Jin and Malos in the top 2, I feel like people have conditioned themselves to never give XC2 its dues just to avoid potential bias criticism
Hey believe me, I never pass up on a chance to praise Xenoblade 2. I can respect your opinions, I like Egil for his role in the story but he isn't as deep as Jin and Amalthus deserves recognition too. I do think N's motivations are believable. He wants to guarantee an endless future with M and prevent going back to his cycle of suffering, after he killed his son he was basically stuck in a sunken cost fallacy and was in too deep to stop. I'd even say he has stronger and more logical motivations than Jin.
I'm an XC2 slanderer, but even I have to give credit where it's due. XC2 has some of the best villains in the series, they're all great. XC2 has MANY problems but villains are NOT one of them. I wholeheartedly agree with all the villain placements of XC2 villains. While I wish Amalthus made it on here since he's my favorite in XC2, I can respect the decision not to. Malos and Jin are great, too. Just my opinion but Z is a great character in his own right, even though hes not explained very well. Maybe not top 5, but he gets my seal of approval at least, lol.
XC2 does have many flaws, but I'm happy we can both agree on its villains! I wanted to do Amalthus some justice too with the honorable mentions, I completely get why people love him as a villain.
I thought N was a great villain but he wasnt the best to me until Future Redeemed. What really kind of broke him initially with how the City's destruction really went down and how he secretly knew Mio would have hate him for what hes done but he'll carry the burden for both of them. Oh and not to mention....he wields fuckin' Malos! He sets up his own future demise by putting Logos and Pneuma together to really unlock true Ouroboros power. But in true Moebius fashion he only did it to preserve the now with the threat of Ontos/Alpha.
I think Jin is a better villain than Malos, I can't decide if my favorite villain is N or Jin. Can you make a video ranking from worst to best all the Xenoblade protagonists?
To be honest since I saw Jin at 4 I knew I would disagree with every single one after that :P. For me out of the four I know of your top (since I haven't played X yet) I'd go with the following order 4. Malos/Amaltus - For starters I wouldn't separate them since to me they reflect the same theme and shows how an idea shapes the perception of a tool that is for all intents and purpuses an unbiased being at birth. 3. Egil - To be honest I put him before Malos just because I like the cast of 1 more than 2. I think your thoughts were on point for the most part so I won't rethread them. But I did felt him more interesting than Malos, who I didn't even consider as the main boss of the game at any single point until the very end. 2. N - I wish I could put him at 1 since XC3 is by far my fav xeno game, however I think he was hurt by the rest of mobius being a bit cartoonish, so when you meet him, it becomes difficult to connect with him. I think future redeemed made him to be almost on par with Jin but the fact that Jin felt more FLESHED OUT (he he) from the base game gives him that extra edge. 1. Jin: I think that I disagree in calling him cynical. I don't think he is particularly warm, but he's portrayed as a kind soul who felt too much. I think that how much you can connect with him depends on how much you can talk "introvert language". I can see why if you don't get those nuances you might gravitate towards Malos (and vice versa for that matter). I don't find Malos or Rex's personalities appealing for that same reason, but anyway, to me what sealed the deal was the message that a kind and empathetic soul can be brought back from darkness and get a glimpse of hope for the future, if not their own, the future of others. Whilst Malos just embraced that there was no future for him, no redemption for him so even if he questioned his actions, he chose to forego not just his future but denied everyone else's.
1. N 2. Zanza 3. Z 4. Amalthus 5. Metal Face Zanzas and N couldalso swap, i cant decide. For N, i really like his character as a broken man who did mane the "wrong" decisions. For Zanza, the Origin Story and that he is just afraid of Disappearing but at the same time he is a god - its awesome. For Z and the other Moebius, for Moebius there were some memorable ones and i think its really great design that they depict variable emotions in extreme. I never couldnt understand the criticque about them being th worst. And i think X, Y and especially Z are really good characters, i think most people couldnt understand why they seemed so not-humanlike even if its confirmed that they never were human. My first playthroughwas on hard and i didnt grind or used blnus exp so every moebius fight was very hard (and i did them all) so they are rather memorable for me, and we know at the beginning that therebis more to it and that there is Z lurking behind everything. I also loved him as a Final Boss, probably equally to Zanza (for Aion i was a bit dissapointed) Amalthus i do think is creepy since the beginning and he is a really good villain doing irrational things. I think Metal Face is one of the Best first half villain until now. He is hateable, he is mysterious (i played XC1 on the Wii at release with 10 - i didnt think before the revelation of him being mumkhar) I did play 2 like 500 hours over multiple saves but i never connected to jin or malos the same i did to other villains. But yeah, they still great characters, just not my cup of tea
Shania easily in my top 3. I hate her but I hate even more is that she is well written and with motives perfect opposite of the protags. PS: #0 Bana (XC1) no diff
I CALLED This vidéo since the "Wich xeno ending is better" We Kind have à similair Top 1)Malhos(same reasons as you x). That Guy is Just badass while having very good writing). 2)Jin(no hate but. I also take the music thème and the battle. And i found Jin more memorable in both story and battle) 3)N. (I found him memorable but Just less that these 2. N just carries the whole cast of Vilain. For me i honestly barely see him as à vilain. He is just Noah if he did not battle against the Moebius. He would continue to love mio and see her die. And both his battle and music did not leave me à mark comparing to Jin and Malhos that i found terrifing) 4) Eghil(same as the video) 5)I am not putting the X vilain because i did not played it so i think i would just put on Either Zanza or Amalthus.
About Egil: Why do people always say that he was evil because he wanted to destroy the Bionis and kill all homs? I mean, sure, that quite extreme, ngl, but put yourself in Egil's shoes for a second: if you just wait, Zanza will end up coming back to life and kill all homs, high entia, and machina, to create a new world and just repeat. Zanza is a god, you just cannot imagine fighting against it, or at least not win the fight. So your only option is to literally kill all homs to prevent Zanza from coming back to life in the first place, as they're about to die to him anyway. He WAS kinda right. I mean, how could he guess that the right path was that this time for some miraculous reason the vessel of Zanza ends up resisting Zanza's influence (to some extent and it took some time) AND being a third god AND overthrow Zanza AND that Meyneth was still there and helps him AND that this new god was selfless enough to reject his godhood AND that the actual "god" was a CPU from another world... that's A LOT of stuff to guess right for no reason, when all you know is "our god good but dead, other god bad for its people and ours and will come back if his people keep on existing". Again, his method was extreme, but it was the only way, if he didn't do anything, homs would have still gone extinct, and machinas with them, it was just the lesser evil. No way he could have seen the Shulk/Zanza/Alvis plot twist.
Egil didn’t express a shred of remorse, doubt, or resignation at his plan. He clearly demonstrated how little value he holds the Homs in his eyes, despite them hardly doing anything wrong.
@@emblemblade9245 yeah, I agree. But playing devil's advocate here, if you come to the realization that you have to commit actual genocide to save at least a part of the world's life forms and ecosystem, you probably would force yourself (consciously or subconsciously) to dehumanize what you're exterminating, for you not to break mentally even more than what you would have to to do it to begin with. I guess. Idk, I don't recall having to commit mass murder on my own, recently, so I can only assume... Maybe Face Mechons were also some way to keep the homs legacy "alive" even after their extinction, because they can't keep existing, but as machines they can still carry their blood, maybe it was Egil's way to keep a part of... "Homanity"? alive, somehow. Or you could go the other way around and say that Egil being that extreme was in part responisble for pushing Zanza's vessel to the limit, making it easier for it to be fully possessed, and that's also why Egil was able to realize Shulk was able to stand up to Zanza inside him, as all the conditions for Zanza to possess him the most efficiently he could were met, but he still resisted. So his extremem method was in part a reason for him to stop. If he was extreme, but not as much, Egl could have been "no, he CAN possess you, I was too good with your kind, I sould have shown no mercy, break you, and then he would have taken control over you, so if I'm not the one to take you down, who knows if you'll break one day and let Zanza take over or not? We cannot afford to risk it.". Instead, he had nothing to say, and shook his hand. And you can also see that as soon as he sees there might be a way, that Shulk somehow resists Zanza's influence, Egil eagerly accepts to try things differently, seeing how there might be another way to deal with the issue after all, he gladly shakes Shulk's hand. Only to realize that yeah, no, even if Shulk kinda stays himself when wielding the Monado, Zanza still has pretty deep influence on his life and Dickson just shoots him, then Zanza emerge, reborn anew, making this "other path" kinda fail immediately. So in the end he still has to go for "PLAN B: the god DID revive, we mortals have to find a way to kill it or at least seal it again, somehow, or we all go extinct." I think Egil is more of a tragic/fatalistic lesser evil deal, where there can only be one way to "fix" things, but it's a terrible path, and sort of a self sacrifice for him, sacrificing half the world population, and his humanity and family ties with it (way more than half the world population, but the Bionis part, I mean). And then JRPG end game bullshit happens and we kill god, but clearly that's not a realistic option if you aren't the protagonist.
I honestly cannot even see an argument for N being anywhere above 4. N does not have the screen time to beat the Xenoblade 2 villains imo. I will admit Future Redeemed helps a lot but even including that his only two standouts to me are killing ghondor in the flashback and obviously the whole chapter 5 ending and chapter 6 start cutscenes. You say Moebius is fine overall but I think they are the number one issue with the game because they steal away the screen time N should have had to make him a god tier villain instead of one that needs defending or justification for being a great villain. I aint a N hater I still think he is probably number 5 or 4 out of all the villains I just cant think of anyway he is better than characters like Jin who have similar story, similar vibes but significantly more screen time and presence. All the things you praised about him are true I just have an issue with how little screen time he has and how his presence in the story is practically non existent until chapter 5 ending which is also his peak as a character by far.
Well in terms of screentime N does have equal or more than Egil and close to the time Malos has, so if time is your only metric you can justify him for the top 3 at least. But screentime isn't everything. N and Egil still make the most out of all the focus they get. N is also present in the story from chapter 3 (maybe 2 I forgot) onwards, even if it's in the background at first. Jin is a more fleshed out character overall thanks to all his screentime for sure, but personally I like the other villains and what they represent more.
To be frank I hate Lao, like I understand his character and his reasoning but my own personal beliefs make me totally disagree with his actions, this isn't a bad thing just to be clear, the only issue is the scene after Lao's boss fight where Linn and Cross both stop Elma, I wish it was a choice instead, whether to stand and watch or join Linn and the choice would be superfluous as Elma stands down regardless of what you choose but having my Cross make a decision I personally don't agree with really broke the immersion
I would've put in Dirk in honorable mentions. The guy is a complete maniac whose only reason for evil doing is just that he loves killing. A trait like this is quite rare in xenoblade games. He was interesting in a way since we are used to find reason for antagonist actions and we were so focused on finding that on Dirk that we failed to see it was always there in plain sight...well until he literally told us what his "hobby" is.
Idk if I would agree before the FR retcons, but I definitly disagree after them(Even tho they admittedly made him a bit of a "woobie, destroyer of worlds").
#0 Villain: the Jujonis, secretly aiming to destroy Alrest and Bionis for no reason other than memes.
Let's pray that Noponis will rise and defeat Jujonis in Xenoblade 4.
Theaggyu would be proud
The way I'd consider Jin is he specifically wants to destroy the world that Amalthus had created as he was the one who was ultimatelty behind Lora's death, he knows not all of humanity is bad, a key example of this would be Mikhail. I think the way Jin views things is revenge against Amalthus for what happened all those years ago and since it's stated that Malos specifically follows Jin's lead, then I believe they're viewing it destroying the world that Amalthus wants, I might have worded things wierd but that's my view.
Yeah, I can get behind that. I see it as Jin misdirecting his hatred for people like Amalthus onto humanity as a whole, or Jin believes the worst part of humanity will always outweigh the good. I'm sure Jin knew deep down that humanity as a whole wasn't bad all along, he just lost hope until hearing Rex' perspective.
I view that Jin hates humanity because they don’t really resist or speak out against Amalthus. He saw over the years what happened to Torna being covered up and most the remains Torna moving to basically a puppet state of the pretorium. In that regard he views humanity following and basically worshipping Amalthus as the acting God of this world as something that is unforgivable in his eyes.
If Gael’gar isn’t number 1, it’s proof that the world has no taste
Consul L not even in honorable mention. L video.
Egil and Amalthus are honestly the strongest ones in my eyes. In a lot of ways their the mirror image of the ideals that the protagonists strive towards. People don't really talk about them as much since they don't have "sexy" designs.
Also Shania. She's absurdly well-written despite mostly being part of a side quest.
I like how different characters continually reach out to N (Matthew, M, Mio, Noah, etc) throughout XB 3, so it’s not just a last minute redemption (not to say that’s bad, it’s just N’s progression that’s a very powerful buildup)
Great video as always, I loved the vine boom joke with Malos. I do feel like I was way more convinced why Malos would be number one on the list instead of N. Maybe because of the vine boom joke 😂.
Understandable they should have given every villain their own vine boom
Number 3 is definitely amazing. I particularly like the way you explain his situation at 11:56
Can't say I am convinced with 5, 4 and 2 though.
I don't think I will ever be able to forgive XCX for making me grind a new character after Mr Edgelord's betrayal. At that point my opinion of this game was already very low, with all the Tatsu jokes, the bad audio balance, the minuscule subtitles and the very tone-deaf world building. 5 was just the straw that broke the armu's back and I eventually gave up on the game and watched a LP to see the end. Good thing I did, it definitely wasn't worth it.
I understand your defence of Jin, but he still doesn't work for me. He is mad because his gf was kiIIed in a war centuries ago (time to let go, dude), so he decides to join a terorrist group to spread even more misery in this world. Under the orders of the man... who is responsible for his gf's death. Yeah no, he's a lost cause.
As for Malos. Yeah, born evil, stays evil. No amount of charisma, good looks, dramatic one-liners and top-tier VA can change that.
@@GerardMenvussait sounds like you mainly played through the main story abnd didnt do much side content in X. I never had a problem with lao being away because we have enough other members of blade to fill in and i could keep up the level of almost everyone.
What exactly do you mean with tone-deaf world?
@@GerardMenvussa I also think Jin and Malos are hecka overrated. I also never understood them and therefor never really remembered them the way I remembered Metal Face, Egil, Zanza, Amalthus, N, and Z.
@@mattgezockt2596 Here the problem. How many hundreds of hours would you need to level-up everyone? Life is too short for this much grinding.
If you have Elma and Potato-eater in your party (who are mandatory for story progression), you only have 1 slot available. And if you want to switch character, you have to run around town to physically find them. Unlike, you know, every good JRPG ever made where you can just change your party in a menu. Everything in that game is made to get you to commit to one character and never lvl-up the others.
And no I did not care for the side content, because most of it was awful. The off-brand Starbux ran out of coffee-beans and I need to find an alien substitute? Yeah, that's just lazily designed padding and it's incredibly tone deaf.
Tone deaf as in, humanity is on the verge of extinction, but nobody seems to care. People are sunbathing next to their swimming pull. Driving their off-brand Lamborghini to go to the mall 80m away. If I remember well, you even get a sidequest for dealing with thugs in a backstreet (because of course your spaceship has earth-like backstreets in it).
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ WORLD-BUILDING yay!
A gigantic world, but only one mundane looking city. A dozen different main species, but most of them hardly matter. This game just fails as an RPG, on so many levels.
It's all so one-dimensional and detached from the main story. Not that the main story is exactly stellar. It treats you like an idiot and overuses the fact you have lost your memory for cheap plot-twists. And eventually, it never lead to anything.
And to go back to the topic of the video: if it were not for Lao, X would not have any vilain to actually compete in this list. Does anyone care about any of the bosses in this game? Really?
@@bradford9086 Z would have had the potential to be a very good villain, if he actually did something other than chitchat in cutscenes. Malos at least was active the whole game and therefore felt more like a real threat. I can give him that.
I adore Xenoblade villains SO much. I think they’re absolutely amazing.
My top three are Jin, Malos, and N. Jin is just top tier, tragic beyond belief.
Malos just so much depth and is fun everytime he’s on screen, I feel like he has so many layers to him. And N is like 3’s Jin, in a way, where I can understand how he faltered and went down the path he did so much.
This was a very well put-together video, so in order to give it a bit of an algorithm boost, here are my personal top 5:
1. Zanza / Klaus: I would consider them one narrative unit and how they contrast with each other in so many ways, while shaping both the settings of their respective games as well as the ideologies that the protagonists have to contend with is just so interesting to me. I can totally see why people might not rate them too highly as individual characters but as parts of one whole they really came together for me by the end of Xenoblade 2.
2. Malos: I agree with everything that you said, but want to add how much I enjoyed the way his character is right on the frontline from the start. To me he seemed like more of a Metal Face type, who is both entertaining and emotionally affecting, because you have to deal with him and his menace a lot but not meant to be deep at all. This made learning that he is not only quite the complex figure with a decent bit of subtle characterization as well as massively important to the story really engrossing.
3. Jin: I dont really have anything to add, except that getting to play through the events of Torn really elevated him emotionally.
4. N: Again, not much to add, he is a great character for pretty much the reasons that you laid out. The performance of the pure spiteful energy he has towards Noah and his clinging to hope during the prison sequence in particular is such a highlight. Maybe he could be higher if Future Redeemed had done a bit more with his character, or if I liked the last 20% of Xenoblade 3 more. He is still good in that part, but by then the game had somewhat worn thin for me and it felt like they really overexplained his appeal instead of driving it home in a more elegant manner.
5. Amalthus: He really closes out the villain trio of Xenoblade 2 for me and there is so much to delve into when it comes how he, Jin and Malos all push each other towards their worst tendencies through their various dynamics. His parallels with Rex are nothing to sneeze at either but what really appeals to me, is how his corruption arc is shown to us piece by piece over the course of both the base game and Torna. It is very thorough by the end but the individual steps leave a decent amount up for interpretation along the way, which is another interesting contrast to the other main villains of the game who remain more vague (mostly in a good way). I also just really really hate him, which is always a good sign for a villain.
I appreciate the algorithm boost!
I respect the Zanza number 1, makes sense especially if you take Klaus into account.
this video is excellent, malos was Indeed! a great villain
Indeed!
INDEED!
INDEED!!!
Using Klavier Gavin's theme as BGM when describing Malos' charisma fits crazy well
The only reason I will never ever like Amalthus is because he's too good of a villain. Every single problem in Alrest is because of him. The blades never turning into titans, Malos and Jin killing countless people, the growing conflicts between More Ardain and Uraya due to more and more dying titan's, the main root of Torna's (The titan) destruction, and the slaughtering of the Tornan refugees. The entire second game wouldn't have a plot without Amalthus and I hate him solely because of that. I'll admit that he's a fantastic villain with a very realistic character for someone who's seen what he has but I'll never bring myself to like the man
Fair honestly, the fact that Amalthus can be so hateable is a sign of him being an effective antagonist. If I lived in Alrest I'd definitely hate the guy too lmao
I'd add Amalthus here as well ;)) but great list!!
Amalthus is definitely underrated, there were just too many good villains to pick from :')
My favorite part about N is how much of his actions are retroactively changed upon future redeemed’s new context of the events of the destruction of the first city. N destroyed it not to bring M back, but rather to save the world from being destroyed by Alpha, and the majority of the city wasn’t even slain by him, from what we see the only life he takes is Ghondor’s, and even then the camera angle of the scene implies that Ghobdor wasn’t actually stabbed by N but then drove the sword of the end into his chest willingly to try and awaken his Ouroboros power. Z molded N by his trauma of losing Mio, but ultimately made him into the ultimate Consul to oppose Alpha, bringing M back was just an added bonus, meaning N decided to willingly join the faction that he was fighting against just to give the world more time to fight back against Moebius. Remember, N at the end of the day, is Noah, and Noah wouldn’t simply stand by as the world and all its inhabitants are at risk of being obliterated. And Noah wasn’t completely lost when becoming N, he only lost himself after the events of future redeemed cuz of all the insanity. Another part of it that’s really tragic is that N never tells M the truth of what really happened in future redeemed, so all this time the party from 3 was fighting him to save him from his suffering and even then they only knew a fraction of what actually happened. The fact that N never even told M the truth of the destruction of the first city and went along with what she thought also means that N didn’t see himself as deserving of telling M the truth of it all because he doesn’t believe he deserves to be forgiven for what he had done, because chances are M would’ve probably seen things a lot more differently had she known the context of future redeemed’s events. This is also reflected in N’s last worlds to Gondor, where he reluctantly says “the burden is mine alone to bear” showcasing that he can’t bring himself to reveal the full story because he believes only he deserves to shoulder the pain despite the fact that in doing so he only did more harm due to Z’s manipulations. This even makes Noah’s words to Z at the end of the base game take even more meaning, because remember, he fuses with N beforehand, meaning he knows all of his memories, including the true events of the city, and he tells Z that he “gave those 2 an impossible choice” referring to M and N, M in the sense that she was shackled by N’s obsessiveness and had to make the impossible choice to die to wake him up from his trance, and N because all of that insanity came from the impossible choice of either leaving the world to die at the hands of Alpha, or saving the world at the cost of turning yourself and the one you love into part of the enemies you fought to destroy. It’s honestly insanely tragic.
Malos is definitely my top vilian. From the beginning on he was so entertaining. I loved every scene he was on. Honestly didn't mind that he seemed like a pure evil guy. But then before the final boss...
Pneuma: "Don't you feel anything? Father's sadness, the world he longed for"
Malos: "How could I? This isn't... my role in this world."
Legendary. It elevated the gut up to heights for me. The world saw him as a vilian, so he doubled down on it. So many new layers O_O
God I love that line from Malos
i don't think jin necessarily wants to destroy the world. he wanted to understand malos, and to understand why malos is the way he is. malos was the indirect reason lora died, but even still, malos was the only person who reached out when no-one else would, and gave him a purpose when he had none. jin was empty, but he genuinely wanted to reason with malos and to have someone whom he could have that could share in his suffering.
when someone has nothing, even the slightest connection or purpose is enough, but when jin realized the path malos was taking was wrong, he chose to entrust the future to rex. it's why jin asked for rex's answer, and ultimately accepted it.
'jin never wanted to die, he just wanted to connect with you. he did it because you showed him a path.' - rex during the final boss
Malos respects strength, and he recognized Lora as not only crazy enough to stand against him but he would've been able to tell she and jin had the strongest bond there. He _never_ spoke ill of her. To see jin centuries later in a back alley, dirty, homeless and seemed to be hiding from prying eyes... I think seeing him fall so far compelled him to want start over. He had need of his strength, no blade as strong as jin deserved to be treated so badly that he was living like that. He probably recognized that jin had seen what malos had always been exposed to, but didn't immediately realize jin had never been reborn to a new driver.
Honestly, I was expecting Jin to be number 1
Great video, we definitely share a few top villains, as expected. My own Top 5 would be:
1) Jin
2) N
3) Malos
4) Amalthus
5) Metal Face
The reason Egil fails to make my list is the one big problem I have with him: he's made out to be this Fallen Hero who was the best of the Machina before being consumed by revenge. In order for me to buy that such a noble character could ever turn so evil, he needs to have undergone such extreme trauma that his actions become understandable, if not defensible. I find that Jin and N comfortably clear this bar - but in Egil's case, you had literally ALL the surviving Machina living through the same tragedy as him, yet none of them devoted themselves to the genocide of multiple intelligent races and an entire world. In fact, EVERY OTHER MACHINA rejects Egil's plans, and a number of them are killed by him because of it. People defend Egil by saying that he was right in the end, Zanza's continued existence spelled doom for all civilizations, and the only way to defeat Zanza was to take away his "fuel" - but we never see Egil ever try to actually warn the people of Bionis about what fate their "God" has in store for them. He may have done, and seen his efforts undone by Zanza's disciples, or it might always have been a hopeless undertaking, but him never being shown attempting something alonge those lines makes it seem like he embraced the genocide option without any real moral qualms. So for the game and the story to attempt to rehabilitate Egil the way it does after his death it does just rings false to me. He's still in the Honorable Mentions-tier, but the disconnect between what the game tells us about his character and what the game actually shows him doing is just a bit too much to swallow for me.
Honestly, I feel Xenoblade is definitely at its peak when it comes to the villains that you can see have been broken in the world. They may have been heroes of their own stories (hell for Jin he literally was), but along the way the powers that be, whether it's the gods, greedy corporations, or the head of a religious organization that took Deus Valting way too far, stomped all over them and caused them to turn. You can see why they feel scarred by the world, you understand what they're going through and you get why they want to hurt people... But you know you gotta stop them so you can build something better, so no one else will be hurt that same way again.
Shoutout for mentioning Zero Time Dilemma
Let's go I found a Zero Escape fan in my comments!
lol Nice list Malos propably is the best written xenoblade character in general(exclouding xenogears)
Happy New Year to youuu !!!! :3
Xenoblade 3 wasn't afraid to bring back old characters, Meliá, Nia, Shulk and rex and even poppi all came back.
I wouldn't be surprised if Malos actually really returns in Xenoblade 4, especially because of how popular he is, either as a villain or most likely as a party member, a redemption arc would be amazing
I would LOVE to play Malhos
@Rexchuck9968 Yeah, I still get sad sometimes that despite unlocking most members of Torn in Xenoblade 2s NG+, we got no chance to play as Malos.
I love the tragic villains in Xeno like Jin and N. What I love about Jin is his villainous motives come inherently from his disdain with how the world is made up. The way blades and drivers are made to be in the world by Klaus is what makes Jin want to kill him and destroy the world. This perfectly mirrors my favorite villain from Xenogears and their reason for wanting to do what they do. Idk if you've played Gears so I won't say who it is but this villain is actually my favorite in the entire Xeno series.
Xenoblade's villains have quickly become some of my favorites in media EVER, but my top 5 from least favorite to favorite would prolly be Amalthus, Z/Moebius as a whole(Z on his own I enjoy but feel like theres potential that could be more explored with if he ever comes back in some way, but the collective of Moebius I adore as a whole), Malos, Jin, then N. Egil could almost be swapped with Amalthus but I like Amalthus's villainy more.
Great video, I’ve been following this series since I was like 12 playing on a trashy potato pc using emulators and it’s really amazing how far we got.
For me it’s N > Egil > Jin and Malos > Zanza > Amalthus
I think Malos is my favorite villain hands down. He's not my favorite villain character, but as the villain, he plays the role the best. He fits every level of villainy in the textbook. A one-dimensional evil for evil's sake campy villain? Check. A slightly misunderstood villain who is just doing the only thing he knows how to do? Check. A conflicted villain who questions his own motive or if what he is doing is even his decision? Check. A tragic villain who has a deep underlying self-loathing of himself and what he's done and thinks the only way of escape is to destroy everything including himself? Check.
This is a bit out of context for the video. But ive always theorized something. What happened to mayneth after xenoblade 1. What i mean is... if Klaus was half and half, xenoblade 1 and 2, wouldnt that mean the same happened to mayneth? What if in the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X : DE - We get a DLC that could reveal whats going on? I personally havent been able to play X, but what if Mayneths "Other half" Has something to do with it. And what if that is the reason why origin didnt work in xenoblade 3? Perhaps because we were missing a world?
This may be entirely wrong, but I like to think about it.
I would honestly like to know other people's and your thoughts on it.
My personal top 5 for Xeno
1. Jin
2. Malos
3. N
4. Albedo
5. Egil
6 Amalthus (5th if sticking to only blade characters
I never understood Jin or Malos as characters when I first played through the series. After replaying and really analyzing the two... yeah I just don't think they have strong enough reasons to be so evil, unlike better villains that DO make sense like Egil, Amalthus, and N.
Great video!
My ranking would be
1.- N
2.- Malos
3.- Jin
4.- Egil
5.- Amalthus
I still need to play X, so I don't have any comments there.
My honorable mentions are Moebius S, Zanza and Z ( I'm probably one of the few people that really liked Moebius as a whole)
Pd: I'm still surprised we don't have a top best boss/final boss fights.
Thanks!
Based ranking!
And currently I have a ranking Final bosses planned after X definitive edition comes out, just in case the extra content will add a new final boss.
@MaxMonado After writing the comment I thought of that, I can't wait to finally play X. I'll be looking forward to it!
I think the best thing about Malos is that he only became like that because of Amalthus. Unfortunately the game doesn’t do the best job of explaining that.
Not everything in Xenoblade 2 was explained clearly, but Amalthus' influence was touched upon several times at the end of the game.
Before the fights against Amalthus and the final boss multiple characters say that Malos is influenced by him, that's on top of some flashbacks that don't explicitly say it but clearly imply it.
1) N
2) Jin
3) Malos
4) Amalthus
5) Egil
Last 2 are kind of interchangeable. I love XC2 because it has several villainous parties that really are all very well handled but none of the individual villains are quite on the same level as N. He just steals the show in XC3 while the XC2 villains have to compete with each other for screentime. N is just an absolute menace. Malos has some of the best dialogue in the entire franchise. The "Humans see the divine flame of life and piss over it, they are genius at that." monologue is hilarious but in an entirely serious way.
If Xenosaga were on this list I'd make an argument for Albedo and Margulis to be in the top 5.
Also why wasn't Dickson in the honorable mentions. He was like a mentor/father figure to Shulk and him pretending that he didn't have that relationship with Shulk and claiming it was all for Zanza's plan leads to Shulk becoming stronger in the final act. I also like the last scene with him where he acknowledges Shulk's strength and doesn't want him to see him die.
This top 5 seems specifically engineered to make me shake my head
N is just a worse Jin with paper thin motivations, carried entirely by his more maniacal portrayal.
Egil is just very basic and I didn’t buy his immediate 180 once Shulk throws at him the first friendship bullshit he could think of.
Amalthus is the most fucked up villain in the series, and while he isn’t charismatic or likeable, he was never meant to be, definitely better than Lao or Egil at the very least.
It’s ok to rightfully put Jin and Malos in the top 2, I feel like people have conditioned themselves to never give XC2 its dues just to avoid potential bias criticism
Hey believe me, I never pass up on a chance to praise Xenoblade 2. I can respect your opinions, I like Egil for his role in the story but he isn't as deep as Jin and Amalthus deserves recognition too.
I do think N's motivations are believable. He wants to guarantee an endless future with M and prevent going back to his cycle of suffering, after he killed his son he was basically stuck in a sunken cost fallacy and was in too deep to stop. I'd even say he has stronger and more logical motivations than Jin.
Litteraly most of the comments here praises either Malhos or Jin xd
I'm an XC2 slanderer, but even I have to give credit where it's due. XC2 has some of the best villains in the series, they're all great. XC2 has MANY problems but villains are NOT one of them.
I wholeheartedly agree with all the villain placements of XC2 villains. While I wish Amalthus made it on here since he's my favorite in XC2, I can respect the decision not to. Malos and Jin are great, too. Just my opinion but Z is a great character in his own right, even though hes not explained very well. Maybe not top 5, but he gets my seal of approval at least, lol.
XC2 does have many flaws, but I'm happy we can both agree on its villains!
I wanted to do Amalthus some justice too with the honorable mentions, I completely get why people love him as a villain.
Jin should had been top 2 imo
I'd rank them:
1. Malos
2. Jin
3. N
4. Amalthus
5. Zanza
I thought N was a great villain but he wasnt the best to
me until Future Redeemed. What really kind of broke him initially with how the City's destruction really went down and how he secretly knew Mio would have hate him for what hes done but he'll carry the burden for both of them.
Oh and not to mention....he wields fuckin' Malos! He sets up his own future demise by putting Logos and Pneuma together to really unlock true Ouroboros power.
But in true Moebius fashion he only did it to
preserve the now with the threat of Ontos/Alpha.
Maybe the real villains are the enemies we made along the way
If I had a top 5 Xenoblade Villain list… it would probably be this:
1. N
2. Malos
3. Egil
4. Jin
5. Amalthus
I think Jin is a better villain than Malos, I can't decide if my favorite villain is N or Jin.
Can you make a video ranking from worst to best all the Xenoblade protagonists?
To be honest since I saw Jin at 4 I knew I would disagree with every single one after that :P. For me out of the four I know of your top (since I haven't played X yet) I'd go with the following order
4. Malos/Amaltus - For starters I wouldn't separate them since to me they reflect the same theme and shows how an idea shapes the perception of a tool that is for all intents and purpuses an unbiased being at birth.
3. Egil - To be honest I put him before Malos just because I like the cast of 1 more than 2. I think your thoughts were on point for the most part so I won't rethread them. But I did felt him more interesting than Malos, who I didn't even consider as the main boss of the game at any single point until the very end.
2. N - I wish I could put him at 1 since XC3 is by far my fav xeno game, however I think he was hurt by the rest of mobius being a bit cartoonish, so when you meet him, it becomes difficult to connect with him. I think future redeemed made him to be almost on par with Jin but the fact that Jin felt more FLESHED OUT (he he) from the base game gives him that extra edge.
1. Jin: I think that I disagree in calling him cynical. I don't think he is particularly warm, but he's portrayed as a kind soul who felt too much. I think that how much you can connect with him depends on how much you can talk "introvert language". I can see why if you don't get those nuances you might gravitate towards Malos (and vice versa for that matter). I don't find Malos or Rex's personalities appealing for that same reason, but anyway, to me what sealed the deal was the message that a kind and empathetic soul can be brought back from darkness and get a glimpse of hope for the future, if not their own, the future of others. Whilst Malos just embraced that there was no future for him, no redemption for him so even if he questioned his actions, he chose to forego not just his future but denied everyone else's.
My top 5 xenoblade villains
1. Malos
2. N
3. Metal face
4. Egil/Jin
5. Dickson
1 Malos
2 Jin -N (equal)
3 Amalthus
4 Mumkhar
5 Dickson
thats my list
1. N
2. Zanza
3. Z
4. Amalthus
5. Metal Face
Zanzas and N couldalso swap, i cant decide. For N, i really like his character as a broken man who did mane the "wrong" decisions.
For Zanza, the Origin Story and that he is just afraid of Disappearing but at the same time he is a god - its awesome.
For Z and the other Moebius, for Moebius there were some memorable ones and i think its really great design that they depict variable emotions in extreme. I never couldnt understand the criticque about them being th worst. And i think X, Y and especially Z are really good characters, i think most people couldnt understand why they seemed so not-humanlike even if its confirmed that they never were human. My first playthroughwas on hard and i didnt grind or used blnus exp so every moebius fight was very hard (and i did them all) so they are rather memorable for me, and we know at the beginning that therebis more to it and that there is Z lurking behind everything. I also loved him as a Final Boss, probably equally to Zanza (for Aion i was a bit dissapointed)
Amalthus i do think is creepy since the beginning and he is a really good villain doing irrational things.
I think Metal Face is one of the Best first half villain until now. He is hateable, he is mysterious (i played XC1 on the Wii at release with 10 - i didnt think before the revelation of him being mumkhar)
I did play 2 like 500 hours over multiple saves but i never connected to jin or malos the same i did to other villains. But yeah, they still great characters, just not my cup of tea
None of them can beat Nopon archsage they have the power of tasty sausage and are plotting to torment the descendants of noah,shulk,rex, and mio.
Shania easily in my top 3.
I hate her but I hate even more is that she is well written and with motives perfect opposite of the protags.
PS:
#0 Bana (XC1) no diff
I CALLED This vidéo since the "Wich xeno ending is better"
We Kind have à similair Top
1)Malhos(same reasons as you x). That Guy is Just badass while having very good writing).
2)Jin(no hate but. I also take the music thème and the battle. And i found Jin more memorable in both story and battle)
3)N. (I found him memorable but Just less that these 2. N just carries the whole cast of Vilain. For me i honestly barely see him as à vilain. He is just Noah if he did not battle against the Moebius. He would continue to love mio and see her die. And both his battle and music did not leave me à mark comparing to Jin and Malhos that i found terrifing)
4) Eghil(same as the video)
5)I am not putting the X vilain because i did not played it so i think i would just put on
Either Zanza or Amalthus.
About Egil:
Why do people always say that he was evil because he wanted to destroy the Bionis and kill all homs? I mean, sure, that quite extreme, ngl, but put yourself in Egil's shoes for a second: if you just wait, Zanza will end up coming back to life and kill all homs, high entia, and machina, to create a new world and just repeat. Zanza is a god, you just cannot imagine fighting against it, or at least not win the fight. So your only option is to literally kill all homs to prevent Zanza from coming back to life in the first place, as they're about to die to him anyway. He WAS kinda right. I mean, how could he guess that the right path was that this time for some miraculous reason the vessel of Zanza ends up resisting Zanza's influence (to some extent and it took some time) AND being a third god AND overthrow Zanza AND that Meyneth was still there and helps him AND that this new god was selfless enough to reject his godhood AND that the actual "god" was a CPU from another world... that's A LOT of stuff to guess right for no reason, when all you know is "our god good but dead, other god bad for its people and ours and will come back if his people keep on existing". Again, his method was extreme, but it was the only way, if he didn't do anything, homs would have still gone extinct, and machinas with them, it was just the lesser evil. No way he could have seen the Shulk/Zanza/Alvis plot twist.
Egil didn’t express a shred of remorse, doubt, or resignation at his plan. He clearly demonstrated how little value he holds the Homs in his eyes, despite them hardly doing anything wrong.
@@emblemblade9245 yeah, I agree.
But playing devil's advocate here, if you come to the realization that you have to commit actual genocide to save at least a part of the world's life forms and ecosystem, you probably would force yourself (consciously or subconsciously) to dehumanize what you're exterminating, for you not to break mentally even more than what you would have to to do it to begin with. I guess. Idk, I don't recall having to commit mass murder on my own, recently, so I can only assume... Maybe Face Mechons were also some way to keep the homs legacy "alive" even after their extinction, because they can't keep existing, but as machines they can still carry their blood, maybe it was Egil's way to keep a part of... "Homanity"? alive, somehow. Or you could go the other way around and say that Egil being that extreme was in part responisble for pushing Zanza's vessel to the limit, making it easier for it to be fully possessed, and that's also why Egil was able to realize Shulk was able to stand up to Zanza inside him, as all the conditions for Zanza to possess him the most efficiently he could were met, but he still resisted. So his extremem method was in part a reason for him to stop. If he was extreme, but not as much, Egl could have been "no, he CAN possess you, I was too good with your kind, I sould have shown no mercy, break you, and then he would have taken control over you, so if I'm not the one to take you down, who knows if you'll break one day and let Zanza take over or not? We cannot afford to risk it.". Instead, he had nothing to say, and shook his hand.
And you can also see that as soon as he sees there might be a way, that Shulk somehow resists Zanza's influence, Egil eagerly accepts to try things differently, seeing how there might be another way to deal with the issue after all, he gladly shakes Shulk's hand. Only to realize that yeah, no, even if Shulk kinda stays himself when wielding the Monado, Zanza still has pretty deep influence on his life and Dickson just shoots him, then Zanza emerge, reborn anew, making this "other path" kinda fail immediately. So in the end he still has to go for "PLAN B: the god DID revive, we mortals have to find a way to kill it or at least seal it again, somehow, or we all go extinct."
I think Egil is more of a tragic/fatalistic lesser evil deal, where there can only be one way to "fix" things, but it's a terrible path, and sort of a self sacrifice for him, sacrificing half the world population, and his humanity and family ties with it (way more than half the world population, but the Bionis part, I mean). And then JRPG end game bullshit happens and we kill god, but clearly that's not a realistic option if you aren't the protagonist.
I honestly cannot even see an argument for N being anywhere above 4. N does not have the screen time to beat the Xenoblade 2 villains imo. I will admit Future Redeemed helps a lot but even including that his only two standouts to me are killing ghondor in the flashback and obviously the whole chapter 5 ending and chapter 6 start cutscenes. You say Moebius is fine overall but I think they are the number one issue with the game because they steal away the screen time N should have had to make him a god tier villain instead of one that needs defending or justification for being a great villain. I aint a N hater I still think he is probably number 5 or 4 out of all the villains I just cant think of anyway he is better than characters like Jin who have similar story, similar vibes but significantly more screen time and presence. All the things you praised about him are true I just have an issue with how little screen time he has and how his presence in the story is practically non existent until chapter 5 ending which is also his peak as a character by far.
Well in terms of screentime N does have equal or more than Egil and close to the time Malos has, so if time is your only metric you can justify him for the top 3 at least. But screentime isn't everything. N and Egil still make the most out of all the focus they get. N is also present in the story from chapter 3 (maybe 2 I forgot) onwards, even if it's in the background at first.
Jin is a more fleshed out character overall thanks to all his screentime for sure, but personally I like the other villains and what they represent more.
@@MaxMonado I refuse to believe N has anywhere close to the amount of screen time malos has tbh
To be frank I hate Lao, like I understand his character and his reasoning but my own personal beliefs make me totally disagree with his actions, this isn't a bad thing just to be clear, the only issue is the scene after Lao's boss fight where Linn and Cross both stop Elma, I wish it was a choice instead, whether to stand and watch or join Linn and the choice would be superfluous as Elma stands down regardless of what you choose but having my Cross make a decision I personally don't agree with really broke the immersion
I would've put in Dirk in honorable mentions. The guy is a complete maniac whose only reason for evil doing is just that he loves killing. A trait like this is quite rare in xenoblade games. He was interesting in a way since we are used to find reason for antagonist actions and we were so focused on finding that on Dirk that we failed to see it was always there in plain sight...well until he literally told us what his "hobby" is.
Jin is a much better, well-rounded character than N. Come on now.
I literally start the video by saying this is my opinion and then explain for 10 minutes why I like N more. Come on now.
@@MaxMonadothat’s fine, I’m just disagreeing with you. It’s your list.
@@007English007N is a much better, well-rounded character than Jin. Come on now.
@@007English007 could you elaborate why you think like that?
Idk if I would agree before the FR retcons, but I definitly disagree after them(Even tho they admittedly made him a bit of a "woobie, destroyer of worlds").