U.I.C.S. ~ Shania Reid

*U.I.C.S. stands for: Unnecessarily Intensive Character Study*

The Xenoblade series is packed to the gills with incredible characters. There are plenty of awesome heroes and villains across all four entries that are worthy of a spot on this blog. However (and its probably due to recency bias), the character that I’ve chosen for my first Xenoblade U.I.C.S. article is none other than Shania Reid.

Shania is a character who, in my opinion, came out of absolutely nowhere and totally stole the show in the mid-to-late game of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Outside of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the prologue, Shania doesn’t even reappear until over 50 hours of gameplay have passed. And yet, within her relatively short screen time, Shania manages to be unforgettable.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

SHANIA, THE RESERVE CANDIDATE

Shania’s story begins with a little girl, living the best life she possibly can under extreme circumstances. Shania is born in the City, a clandestine safe haven from the horrors of the war between the nations of Agnus and Keves. It’s far from an ideal situation for anyone to grow up in, let alone a child, but the City does provide a modicum of peace and quiet. Shania passes her time hanging out with her father and older sister, Titania, and she loves to paint.

The peace and quiet of the City is a bit of an illusion, however, and it is supported on the backs of the Lost Numbers, a group of soldiers who fight to keep the citizens safe. Conscription is not mandatory, though most teenagers enlist in order to help keep their loved ones safe. In the case of Shania’s family, both her father and Titania enlist. They excel in their roles, and bring both safety and fame to the Reid household.

But, on one undisclosed day, a mission ends in disaster, and Titania is killed.

Shania’s world is rocked, and she finds herself unceremoniously thrust into a world she’s unprepared for. Unlike her sister, Shania spent her childhood more carefree, growing her skills as a painter. With her sister gone, Shania immediately feels the crushing vacuum of her presence. Wanting to step into a new role despite her lack of training and preparation, Shania enlists with the Lost Numbers, and takes Titania’s gun as her weapon of choice.

The issue is that the gun is a foreign object to Shania. No matter how hard she trains and tries desperately to improve, she can’t manage to land consistent shots on even a stationary target. Her stubborn insistence on carrying Titania’s torch keeps her going, even as it becomes painfully obvious to everyone around her that Shania is not cut out for the life of a soldier. Her obstinance is rooted in a desperate desire to fill her sister’s shoes, and not because her heart is truly in it.

Along the way, Shania strikes up a friendship with fellow Lost Numbers recruit, Ghondor Vandham. Ghondor is a fairly boisterous, brash, and often abrasive person, but she also respects an individual’s unique traits and beliefs. Stumbling upon Shania painting a portrait of her father, Ghondor is hugely impressed by her new friend’s talent, commending Shania’s work while questioning why the girl would want to pursue fighting and war when her painting skill is something no one else has. Shania answers that she wants to be seen as a hero, and Ghondor tries to assure her that her artistic ability is just as important.

Shania’s father also stresses a similar point to his daughter when he catches her straining herself trying to shoot targets with Titania’s gun. He gently asks her to lay down the gun, and instead offers her a newly purchased brush as a gift. When Shania tries to defend her training as a necessity, her father reassures her that all he wants from his daughter is for her to be happy pursuing what she actually wants from life. He tells her that he loves her.

Shania genuinely seems to take her father’s words to heart…but then, her father too is killed after a botched mission.

Shania’s resolve hardens further, as another one of the sturdy pillars of emotional support in her life crumbles away.

A glimmer of hope shines in the distance: The Ouroboros Candidates. Through a magic-infused ritual, the six highest-scoring recruits in the Lost Numbers are drafted to become Ouroboros candidates, and the four runner-ups are left as reserve candidates. The high-scoring six are then gifted with incredible power and abilities, and they use those abilities to fight back against the villains of the world and for the peace of the City. The Ouroboros are viewed as champions by the citizens, and are forever immortalized. The reserve candidates, logically, less so, but it is still a renowned feat.

And so, Shania puts her entire being into her combat training. Her friendship with Ghondor fractures, as Shania sees the other girl as the primary obstacle in the way of her success in the scoring test. At the same time, Shania recognizes her own shortcomings. For all that she wants to continue to pursue fighting in the name of Titania and her father, the words of encouragement have had some semblance of an impact on Shania, and she realizes that she is nowhere near strong enough to win.

To that end, she begins modeling herself after Ghondor, hoping that even a shred of Ghondor’s courage and strength will pass onto her during the upcoming combat test. She adopts a cockier and more abrasive personality, mimics Ghondor’s apparel, and even begins styling her hair in a way evocative of Ghondor’s recognizable twin tails. Most notably, she adopts Ghondor’s cestus gauntlets as her secondary weapon, even though her thin frame and slight build prevents her from managing them effectively.

The time comes for the test, and Shania puts every ounce of her ability into it. She pushes through one round after another, as the pool of candidates narrows down to only one hundred. Unfortunately, the final round tests her capability with the gauntlets, and Shania is unable to perform well. Though she has made it to the end of the trial, her abysmal performance in the final round knocks her score down.

Shania ends up ranked eighth in the Ouroboros test, making her a reserve candidate instead of one of the primary team members.

Elated irregardless of her classification as a reserve candidate, Shania runs home to her mother to share the news. However, before she can even begin, her mother demands to know what rank she placed. Conceding that she is eighth place, Shania’s mother immediately bemoans her daughter’s perceived failure, berating her for scoring low and losing to Ghondor (who ranked first). She chides Shania for failing to uphold her family’s honor, and for her efforts being insufficient in living up to the memory of her father and Titania.

Worse still, Shania’s mother has the gall to voice aloud her most cruel and deep-rooted wish: she wishes that Titania was the one still alive.

Distraught, Shania visits Ghondor, desperate for some sort of consolation. To her surprise, instead of words of encouragement and sympathy, Shania finds only derision and scorn from her friend and rival. Ghondor mocks Shania for her performance in the test, blaming Shania’s low scores on her insistence on copying Ghondor herself rather than being original. Chastising Shania for her continually “annoying” behavior, Ghondor storms off, their friendship seemingly irrevocably ruined.

Stunned, Shania stumbles back to her room, where she spots the portrait of her father lying on her desk, alongside all of her brushes and painting tools. Unwilling to confront the memories of her loss, and taunted by the only skill she’s ever received praise for, Shania destroys the portrait in a fit of rage, tearing it to shreds. She snaps all of her brushes in half, and dumps the paint onto the floor.

Shania, in a state of deep turmoil, comes to the realization that everything she’s been trying to fight for was for nothing. She tried to honor the memory of her sister and father by joining the ranks of Ouroboros, only to fail them by placing eighth. She wanted to inspire hope and be viewed as a hero, but can accomplish none of those tasks with being Ouroboros. She wanted to live like her role models and dearly departed family members, but even that wasn’t enough for her mother, and she lost her only friend because of it.

Shania, more alone than ever before, has no idea what to do.

SHANIA, THE TRAITOR

Eventually, Shania intersects with the main party, who up to this point have been trying to locate the City. Alongside Ghondor’s mother, Monica, Shania is sent to retrieve the main party and escort them safely back to the City. Now that the central cast have obtained the power of Ouroboros for themselves (instead of the City candidates, as was originally the plan), Shania and the other soldiers are stuck with (what seems to them as) babysitting duty.

Technically, Shania has seen the main party on several occasions before this official meeting, though the party is wholly unaware of this fact. Monica, upon realizing that an unintended group of soldiers received the blessing of Ouroboros, sends Shania to spy on the main party. She instructs her to follow their exploits, ensure they are using the power of Ouroboros for the right reasons, and to report back to the City on her findings.

These timely reports enable Monica to lead a charge that rescues the main party from the clutches of the villainous Moebius and transport them all safely to the City. Once there, Monica catches the main party up-to-speed on the goings-on of the world, enlightens them to the true purpose of a full life, and points them in the direction of a mission to break City residents (including Ghondor) out of prison. The main party agrees to this mission, and Shania tags along with them, ostensibly as extra support.

With all of that aside, though Shania’s secretive mission from Monica had tremendous impact on her character and future, and influence that Shania kept hidden from everyone else…because it is where she met X.

X, one of the strongest and oldest of all of the villainous Moebius, ambushes Shania during one of her nights tailing the main party. Shania, too stunned to even think about fighting back against one of the City’s sworn enemies, can only stand and listen as X weaves a seductive web of promises. Promises that reach deep into Shania’s soul, appealing to the very root of her deepest desires.

Locking her conversation with X within her heart, Shania returns to her duties as the eighth ranked candidate, ever the loyal soldier of the City.

The mission to break Ghondor out of prison begins well. The main party sneak into the prison through a hidden one-way back door, managing to smuggle their weapons inside. The idea is to spy on the enemy, gather information, and then bust out from inside. Disguising themselves as simple prisoners, Shania and the rest of the main cast flit about the prison, meeting up with Ghondor and eavesdropping on conversations from the guards. Shania refuses to even look Ghondor in the eye, and the sentiment is mutual.

Along the way, Shania does bond with one of the main party members, Sena. She catches Sena in the middle of one of her workouts, and sarcastically quips about the irony of someone with the power of Ouroboros needing to exercise. The unendingly energetic optimist that she is, Sena misses Shania’s sarcasm and meets her with sincerity. Sena explains that she’s doing everything she can to live up to her position on the team, and be a worthwhile member in the eye of her role model, Mio.

In essence, Sena is seeking approval from a role model, and this strikes a heavy cord with Shania, who reacts with distaste at the idea. She tries to shoot down Sena’s enthusiasm, but Sena sees through Shania’s deflection. She realizes that the two of them are extremely similar in terms of their attitudes and motivations.

Eventually, Sena pushes too far, and Shania snaps back at her. Shania questions what the Ouroboros are even fighting for, and if there is even a point to struggling against Moebius and their whims. Sena is shocked by this outburst, and Shania covers for herself by claiming she was just joking, ending the conversation abruptly and wandering off.

On the night before the breakout, Shania finally brings herself to speak to Ghondor, and their conversation goes about as one might predict. The two ex-friends cannot manage even a single cordial moment before they begin trading barbs. Shania remarks that she’s been doing more to help than Ghondor, and Ghondor mocks her attitude and wonders if she’s in this for a medal. The girls storm off in separate directions, their animosity palpable in the very air itself.

The breakout begins the next morning, and all goes according to plan…at the start. The party members unsheathe their weapons and lay waste to the prison guards, letting as many wrongfully imprisoned City folk free as possible. Ghondor assists the main party…although Shania is conspicuously absent. These absence becomes even more pressing when the group of escapees are confronted by a platoon of elite soldiers and two Moebius right outside the prison gate. Their intel had initially suggested that no guards would be expecting this prison break. The only explanation for the platoon and Moebius appearing is if someone leaked the plan.

Ghondor has her suspicions by now, and soon enough the traitor is revealed as Shania, and her betrayal shocks the party members and her ex-friend to their very cores. Shania stands alongside the enemy soldiers and Moebius, a proud smile on her face. At a loss as to why Shania would possibly choose to forsake the mission and her friends, the cornered would-be escapees are left dumbstruck as Shania explains her motivations.

See, in this world, there are two major groups of people. One of those groups are the people of the City, who are normal human beings living lives as normally as could be expected in this war-torn world. They are born, age, and die just like any other normal human being.

On the flipside are those born in the nations of Keves and Agnus. Though they may look human (and at the very core of their souls, they are), they are grown in magical test tubes instead of natural birth. Even more noteworthy is that they only live for ten years. They are born, thrust into training for an endless war, and then die ten years later (if they even make it through enough battles in the first place).

Once someone from Agnus or Keves dies (whether by battle or by making it ten years), they are born again. An exact physical copy is regrown in a test tube and entered back into the cycle of death and rebirth. The reborn soldier retains no memories of their previous lives. It is an endlessly looping and self-sustaining existence of ten-year-long lives of strife.

Shania states her central argument loudly and clearly: why fight so strongly for only a single long life, when you can live endless ten-year lives instead? Thus, she sabotaged the prison escape because it would have aided the main party and Ghondor in getting back to the City and defeating Moebius, who are the ones perpetuating the death and rebirth cycle.

Ghondor immediately attempts to criticize that thesis, and Sena jumps onboard with incredulity as well. Sena wonders how someone could possibly want an artificially shortened life instead of a long and fulfilling one.

Shania reiterates her point, stressing that it isn’t the length of the life that matters to her, but how many lives you are given. She crafts a hypothetical scenario, explaining how living one life is akin to a precarious existence, where at any moment someone could come along and end your story right then and there. As she puts it, the best sort of life is one that at least gives you another go.

Sena tries to explain how the lives that the Agnus and Keves people live is one filled with death, war, and constant fighting. She argues that a life of constant struggling and war is not one worth protecting.

Shania’s counterpoint is that her own life is a constant battle of struggle as well. She argues that existence in the first place is about struggle, sacrifice, and hard choices. A single long life and endless short lives have no difference between them with regards to the hardship one faces. How can a solitary existence thus compare to a future of different endings?

Shania’s explanation renders Sena’s point moot. In response, Sena woefully tries to appeal to Shania, declaring that the two of them are not the same at all. Sena herself has chosen to fight, while Shania is accepting her fate without the will to resist.

Shania’s retort is simple: the freedom of choice is a right afforded only to the powerful.

Shania’s strongest counterargument comes in this final attack on Sena’s rhetoric. Shania reasons that the idea of choice is an illusion, a fantasy granted only to those privileged enough to reach out and take it. For someone like Shania, whose life has fallen into misery despite every single thing she could think to do to save herself, she remains trapped in suffering. Her suffering is even more soul-crushing when she is forced to acknowledge that she only gets one shot at life. She will always be Shania, the disappointment. Shania, the failure.

Thus, it is when X reveals to Shania the truth of the ten-year-long death and rebirth cycle that Shania realizes the true freedom such a life can bring. With no memories preserved between lives, and an infinite number of “re-tries” and “do-overs”, Shania explains that the ten-year cycle is the true epitome of freedom from suffering. As she says, someone can try, fail, and then try again. They might even do better in their next cycle.

The option to escape from oppression and despair exists, in Shania’s eyes, only through the infinite loop of the world Moebius created. She views the Ouroboros as blind fools drunk with power, and unable to see the weight of the world on the shoulders of the weak. Those without power, according to Shania, cannot escape from the shackles of the world. And, with no light at the end of the tunnel awaiting them upon death, the weak can do nothing but wallow in misery before accepting their fate.

Afraid that the weak (and most importantly, Shania herself) will be left behind in the world that the main party are fighting for, Shania took it upon herself to betray the team and see that their vision of the future does not come to pass. Instead, Shania wishes for the entire world, including the City, to become absorbed into the infinite loop that Moebius provides.

Shania’s motivation-driven monologue is a lot to take in, but it’s an absolute joy to watch. Most impressive out of all of this is that Shania’s motivations genuinely, within the construct of this fictional world and its rules, make perfect sense. It is not often that a JRPG antagonist has well-developed, realistic reasons for pursuing their goals or fighting the protagonists (gotta love that ‘god from nowhere’ trope). Shania manages to not only meet the main party’s heroic speech with her own piercing rhetoric, but her ideas poke legitimate holes in the goals of the main party.

Of course, Shania’s innermost motivation is, intrinsically, selfish. Her arguments are measured and sensible, but most of that comes because Shania is speaking from experience. Her life HAS been terrible up until now, and she IS a deeply hurting girl who probably would benefit from the endless cycle of choices and lives. At the same time, her insistence on throwing all of her former comrades and the City at large under the thumb of the Moebius ironically removes the freedom of choice from THEM, revealing that Shania is doing everything she’s doing just to escape her own miserable life.

Regardless, the party is swiftly beaten by the elite soldiers and the Moebius, and they are thrown into prison. Stripped of their weapons, and with their Ouroboros powers sealed by a magical catalyst wielded by X (who is overseeing this entire ordeal), the main party are helpless to escape. They are sentenced to a ritual execution in one month’s time, and nothing they do helps them slip away from this fate. Their hope and optimism slowly dwindles as the day of their death approaches.

Shania visits the main party briefly near the end of their imprisonment. With elation, she reveals that she has already become indoctrinated into the cycle of the world, and now all that awaits is for her to be killed, and she’ll enter into the cycle she so desperately desires. Hardly able to contain her excitement, Shania announces that she’s chosen to die right alongside the main party, fulfilling her dream. She is within inches of escaping the life she hates so thoroughly with every ounce of her being.

Finally, the day of the execution arrives. The main party is led in chains out onto a sunlit balcony, ready to have their lives ended and pushed back into the cycle of death and rebirth they fought so hard to escape. A crowd of mind-controlled spectators await the execution with bated breath, and a trio of Moebius keep guard over the proceedings, X included. Shania, too, stands watch, counting down the minutes until she breaks free from her pitiful existence to find that something more she’s been searching for.

Thankfully for the heroes, several secretive figures have been staging a dramatic turnaround. One of the Moebius turns traitor, having long since been colluding with the resistance against Moebius in preparation for this moment. The traitorous Moebius, M, frees the party members from their shackles and arms them for battle, at the cost of her life. Using the momentum of the counterattack, the party members defeat the other Moebius and brainwashed guards. Shania watches on, a surprisingly smug smile still on her face.

While they are distracted fighting guards, X regains her footing and unleashes the trump card that she’s been saving until this very last moment. From underneath the execution balcony, a gigantic cannon emerges, charging up devastating energy. The stunned heroes, not expecting this final trick, demand to know what the target of the blast is. With sadistic glee, X points the cannon at none other than the City…whose location was SUPPOSED to be a secret known only to its residents.

At the sound of Shania’s unhinged laughter, the party turn to her in horror. Sena’s hope shatters, realizing that Shania has truly sold out the entire population of the City, putting the several hundred people living their squarely in the crosshairs of the Moebius.

Sena yells at Shania, begging to know how she could do such a thing. Shania shouts back at her, reiterating her rhetoric. The City never had to be destroyed, but now that the execution has failed, their continued existence poses a legitimate threat to the world of death and rebirth that Shania dreams of. Once more, she tries to appeal to the party by decrying their “noble pursuit” as a fantasy that leaves the weak and defenseless behind to wither away, as their choices are too far beyond reach.

When the party refuses to concede the point, Shania simply decides to screw it all. Unwilling to let her dream disappear before her eyes, Shania shouts to the heavens. X joins her in a jubilant cry, and the cannon fires.

In just the blink of an eye, the entire City is evaporated in the cannon blast, killing everyone.

OR, it would have, had the turncoat Moebius M not planned for this ahead of time, and warned the residents of the City of the genocide to come. With ample time to prepare, Monica managed to relocate the entire City, which is actually contained within a mobile ship of sorts. Thus, when Shania sold out the City, she only knew its previous location, and not where it had been moved to. The cannon blast did nothing but turn a chunk of a mountainside to ash.

As if on cue, Monica and reinforcements from the City arrive. As they land their ships onto the execution balcony, the main party subdue the rest of the villainous resistance, overcome with joy that their friends and allies from the City are still alive. Recognizing that the fight is over, X teleports out of the area before she can be captured. The frantic, stressful crisis has almost been resolved.

The only one left is Shania.

The main party approach her, with Ghondor taking the lead. Shania, briefly overcome with fear at the acknowledgement of all of her plans crumbling down around her, takes several fearful steps back. As Ghondor walks closer, she shakes her head in disappointment at Shania’s betrayal. She berates her ex-friend for her shortsighted choices, demanding to know what the sense of it all was. She looks at Shania with derision.

Ghondor’s words spur Shania on, though not in the way Ghondor intended. Shania’s anger boils, stamping out her fear with frustration. She yells aggressively at the other girl, stating that the reason behind her betrayal is because of that very same look of derision in Ghondor’s eyes. Shania exclaims that people always look at her that way, like she’s a failure who can’t amount to anything of worth, no matter how hard she tries.

Shania takes another step back, curling in on herself in a soul-crushing display of vulnerability. On the verge of tears, she curses the very world itself, crying out and begging to know why, in every single moment of her life, it is always her standing alone against it all. Ghondor and Sena take another hesitant step closer, preparing to apprehend the girl. In Ghondor’s words, Shania is done.

Ghondor’s words ring in Shania’s mind. Shania begins to chuckle humorlessly, stopping Ghondor and Sena in their tracks. Unbeknownst to them, a final desperate idea has popped into Shania’s mind, and she’s been pushed so far beyond the breaking point that she’s lunging towards that last chance with everything she’s got.

With shaky imprecision, Shania draws her gun on Sena and Ghondor, causing them to freeze in place and brace for a fight. Smiling uneasily, Shania then shifts the gun to herself instead, placing the barrel up against her temple.

Ghondor, for one of the only times in her life, looks truly frightened as she cries out for Shania to stop, and begins sprinting towards her. Sena follows, equally as horrified. They run towards Shania as fast as they can, weapons discarded and arms outstretched.

In the end, the two just aren’t close enough to stop what is about to happen. With a mix of fury and satisfaction, Shania screams out at them that her death now isn’t the end, but merely the beginning of everything she’s been dreaming of.

Shania pulls the trigger, and with her older sister Titania’s own gun, she ends her life.

Ghondor and Sena huddle around Shania’s corpse as it falls limply to the ground, catching her with shocked and disbelieving looks on their faces. Sena meekly wonders how her budding friendship with Shania could have led to this, and Ghondor is fully speechless, a look of regret on her face.

One of the other party members, Noah, stands nearby. Though he could never come to believe in Shania’s ideals that same way she did, he does recognize that this death is, inevitably, exactly what Shania wanted. Not only that, but it was the outcome that Shania chose, of her own free will. She fought past her self-perceived weakness and chose her own ending, fulfilling her dream, and escaping the confines of her pitiful life. She managed to finally make a choice all on her own.

This news unsettles both Ghondor and Sena, but with Shania’s lifeless body sprawled out before them, it is abundantly clear that there is nothing they can do now to change how things have turned out. It’s too late.

The scene fades to black…

SHANIA, THE HOPELESS

In a different world, Shania’s story would have ended here. No matter how twisted or shocking it may be, she had accomplished her goal. She’d fulfilled the purpose she’d set out to achieve, and managed to die within the endlessly looping cycle of death and rebirth. She’d joined the system for the chance, no matter how small, at fighting for a better life. She’d won.

But X had other plans in mind.

Shania regains consciousness, not inside of one of the birthing test tubes of Keves and Agnus that she’d expected, but floating in a pool of water. Not only that, but she’s retained all of her memories, which wasn’t supposed to be part of her rebirth. As she sits up in the water, she feels an overwhelming power coursing through her veins, a power far beyond anything Shania has ever experienced.

She’s been reborn as a Moebius.

X appears in this moment, revealing to Shania that she chose to take the poor girl, reconstruct her body after her death, and revive her as a Moebius. Sensing the desire for revenge deeply rooted in Shania’s psyche, X revived her with the sole purpose of turning her loose on the world and watching the sparks fly. A true sadist to her core, it becomes apparent that X has never once legitimately cared about Shania, and only saw her as someone to entertain herself with.

It dawns on Shania that now, as a Moebius, she is still not within the cycle of death and rebirth she desired with all of her heart. She is STILL Shania the failure, Shania the worthless, Shania the unwanted. Even the final moments of what was supposed to be her previous life, where she finally had the strength and freedom to choose her own path by committing suicide, are rendered useless by the sadistic whims of X.

Even in death, Shania sees that she was a weak, useless failure.

At the same time, her power as a Moebius presents new opportunities not previously available. She now has power, raw unfiltered power surpassing almost all other forces in the world. She is fast, she is strong, and she can even freeze the very world around her, immortalizing her surroundings just like her old paintings she discarded so long ago. She is unbelievably powerful, and that power brings with it an overwhelming sensation of freedom.

With nothing left to hold her back or keep her down, Shania is truly free to do whatever she wants, and she has the strength to back up her choices. Gazing into the reflection of the water at her feet, she sees the hazy image of Ghondor, the girl she aspired to be. As she stares longer, and her power curls around her reborn body, that image changes into one of Shania herself.

In her eyes, Shania is finally strong enough to accept herself as she is.

She sets her sights on the City, teleporting to it using the power of Moebius. Her surprise attack catches the residents off guard, and there is not a thing they can do to resist her assault. Shania walks a straight path through the City, freezing all of the citizens in place with her power, and destroying anything else that is thrown at her, like the tanks of the Lost Numbers.

At the heart of the City, Shania stands before her mother, who is frozen in place, a look of horror on her face. Not a trace of love or pity remains in that expression. Shania hesitates, a conflicted look crossing her face, and she appears on the verge of saying something to her mother, but cannot manage to find the right words. She appears simultaneously spiteful and indifferent.

Luckily for the main party, Monica managed to send out a distress call before being frozen herself. The call reaches Ghondor and the main party, who were away on a mission. rushing back to the City, the group of seven work their way through the frozen masses and ruined machines to try and reach Shania at the City center. Ghondor and Sena are both deep in thought, troubled over Shania’s reappearance.

Before Shania can do anything to her mother, the main party arrive to save the day. Ghondor is distressed at seeing her mother trapped in place.

The main party put themselves between Shania and Monica and the other residents. United in purpose, Sena and Ghondor step up, decrying Shania’s actions and asking what Shania is hoping to achieve through a hostile takeover of the City.

Shania is unperturbed, claiming that she now has the power and freedom to choose, demonstrating her new abilities by freezing the heroes in place. She spreads her arms wide, exclaiming that with her new abilities, she can simply take the world apart at the seams and rebuild it. If fate won’t let her submit herself to the cycle of death and rebirth, then she’ll just create her own happy world from the wreckage of this current one.

The party escape the freezing bonds of Shania’s power through their own Ouroboros abilities, unshackling themselves. The two opposing teams are on equal footing.

Sena cries out in disbelief, wondering how she could have ever believed herself similar to Shania. Sena explains that she too was on a similar path of life to Shania, feeling weak and insecure and burdened by constant struggle and fighting. She found solace in a role model, Mio, and tried to make herself exactly like her. However, Mio let her know that such behavior as that is self-destructive, and forsakes one’s own talents and dreams for the illusion of someone elses.

The lesson Mio imparted to Sena? Be true to yourself.

The words resonate with Shania, but she still fights through acknowledging them by explaining that Sena could never understand what she’s lived through, and that she’s never had the power to choose until now. Sena’s response is that, if Shania so fervently hates the world she lives in and wishes for change, then she should chose to change it. Shania arrogantly says that that is what she is trying to do by taking it apart and rebuilding it in her own hue.

Sena shakes her head, because that isn’t what she means. She’s trying to say that there’s a different way to pursue change. There’s always a different way. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your circumstance is. There’s always a choice.

Shania is struck by this, and momentarily speechless.

Ghondor chimes in, stating that every interaction she’s ever had with Shania was to try and get her to see the same point. She rationalizes that it was folly for Shania to ignore what was obvious, what was staring her in the face all along. Ghondor WAS always the superior soldier, and Shania WAS always just barely scrabbling to keep up and follow along. Ghondor stresses that pursuing a path of life so obviously disparate from Shania’s true calling was folly all along.

Shania snaps, unwilling to confront the harsh truths being served to her by Ghondor and Sena. Morphing into a powered-up form granted to her by her Moebius body, Shania rushes at the group, and they engage in a lengthy and brutal fight with everything hanging in the balance. At the end of the protracted struggle, it is Shania who ends up defeated, losing her powered form and barely able to stand.

Hysterical, Shania screams out, the truth dawning on her that her actions have severed every single last connection she has with anyone in her life. If she fails in winning here and now, then there will truly be no place left for her in the world. Putting everything she has into one last obliterating strike, she rushes at Ghondor.

Ghondor desperately cries out, begging Shania to just stop and realize the message that she’s trying to impart. At the same time, Ghondor is a trained and experience soldier. She can see the desperation in Shania’s eyes, and feel the intensity of Shania’s final attack. She recognizes that Shania is truly putting it all on the line for this, and Ghondor sees that there is no room for hesitation.

Ghondor rushes forward to meet Shania, and the two collide. Ducking under Shania’s wild swing, Ghondor lands a crushing blow with her gauntlets right into Shania’s Moebius core, which acts as a sort of heart in her new body. Ghondor dodges Shania’s final strike, and lands the decisive blow instead.

With a crushing look of sadness on her face, Ghondor shatters Shania’s core.

The young girl stops almost immediately in her tracks, and crumples to the ground, disbelief clear to see on her face. Ghondor cradles her former friend delicately, easing her to the ground and supporting her head, which Shania is too weak to raise herself. She immediately begins fading away into dust, a side-effect of her core being destroyed.

Shania is dying, and she doesn’t have long left. It will all be over soon.

With her final moments, Shania meekly wonders how, even with the power of Moebius, she still failed.

Ghondor gently chides Shania, clarifying that all she’s been trying to tell her this entire time was that war and fighting are not her calling. Ghondor recognized the path of despair Shania was forcing herself onto in the wake of Titania and her father passing away, and Ghondor realized that the choices Shania was making would only destroy her by suppressing her true talent and joy in life. The reason she wanted Shania to stop copying her was because she wanted Shania to understand that her choices in life didn’t only lie in fighting. She wanted Shania to pursue her art, because it was what made her special. It was something uniquely Shania.

Clinging to hopelessness, Shania argues that no one ever truly believed that she would amount to anything in life. Everyone expected her to fight. Without fighting, she was unwanted.

Ghondor, tears in her eyes, looks at Shania firmly and says the words of affirmation Shania has been yearning for for so long: “Shania, you WERE wanted.”

Shania’s eyes widen, and she thinks back on her life.

She recalls the memories of her early friendship with Ghondor, and Ghondor’s supportive words of encouragement with regards to Shania’s artistic talent. She remembers one of the final memories with her father, who gave her the guiding hand in putting down Titania’s gun and picking up a paint brush, because it is what truly made her happy. Shania recognizes that the expectations seemingly placed upon her life were all from herself, born from her suppression of her true hopes and dreams.

Ghondor relates Shania’s struggle to her own name, which she has never been a fan of. However, she refuses to ditch her name, because it is what Monica chose to name her. It’s special. It’s unique to her. No matter where Ghondor may find herself in life, her very name will always serve as a connection back to her mother, back to the City, and back to the very root of her being. Ghondor says that this connection to oneself is the same as Shania and her talent. It is the world that Ghondor is fighting for.

Shania, with her last breath, smiles, and says that the world as Ghondor envisions it sounds like such a nice place.

She closes her eyes as Ghondor tearfully looks on, and she fully fades away into dust.

Later, the main party members hold a funeral for Shania, with Ghondor placing a paint brush on the young girl’s grave. Just then, Shania’s mother appears, scornful that someone is willing to memorialize her daughter, who she views as a loathsome traitor and a disappoint.

Monica springs forward, furious that a mother could ever talk that way about their own daughter. She shoves Shania’s mother back, and the cowardly woman scurries away. In that moment of protective anger, Ghondor sees clearly the love that her own mother feels towards her. That feeling of love is only further enhanced by Monica announcing that, though it isn’t easy, a parent and child, working together, can create a perfect sort of bond between them.

Sena watches on, filled with newfound determination to take the vile Moebius down and prevent an innocent girl like Shania from ever falling victim to a tragedy like this again.

Finally, Ghondor looks towards the sky. Knowing that somewhere out there, Shania is looking down on her, Ghondor vows to uphold the true world that Shania wanted. A world where no one has to be afraid of embracing themselves and living lives faithful to their calling. A world where everyone is free to embody what makes them special.

The scene fades to black, and the book closes on Shania’s life and legacy.

Shania might genuinely be one of the most compelling minor villains I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing in a video game, particularly with consideration to her relatively minimal screen time. She manages the herculean task of ticking every single box that a great antagonist strives for, and avoids practically every pitfall. She’s intimidating, sympathetic, relatable, quotable, and so much more.

Most of all, she’s just so brilliantly written. Good job, Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Good job.

But hey, that’s just my opinion!