SPOILER "Finding Meaning" (from The Canary Calls) has a boatload of Xenoblade references

TL;DR: The secret diary found in The Canary Calls heavily references quotes and themes from the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise (and you should play them because they're great games).

Disclaimer: I am incredibly delirious as of writing this. I have attempted to be as objective as possible, but I may have missed certain ideas or made connections where there are none.

I've recently had the chance to check out the 2.0 Update in full (after a short hiatus), and while I was working on the quest "The Canary Calls" (an incredible experience, by the way) I stumbled upon the secret journal hidden throughout the mines, "Finding Meaning". After excavating the entire place and assembling all eight pages, I noticed a series of recurring references to one of my favorite game series of all time: Xenoblade Chronicles. The rest of this forum post was born of the subsequent mania I went into upon discovering this fact. To make sure this post remains a reasonable viewing length, each quote and explanation will be put under a spoiler bar.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Xenoblade 3 and minor spoilers for Xenoblade 1 & 2. Spoilers will be avoided where possible, but some moments are too important to overlook.

Spoiler: Quote 1: "Happy is the man who can sleep..."

Full Quote: "Happy is the man who can sleep, in the comfort of the smile he sees in death. And yet... What is the man to do who has not been afforded that chance...?"

This is almost a direct paraphrasing of the character Jin's final monologue from the end of Xenoblade 2's DLC story.

From XC2: TGC: "Happy is the man that can sleep in the comfort of the smile he sees then. No, I don’t wish for ‘forever.’ Even just for one moment, it’s enough if it’s with her. And yet, what is the man to do who has not been afforded that chance?"

Even more so, the speaker's writing is in almost the exact same context as what Jin experiences as he delivers his monologue. The author of "Finding Meaning" (most likely Grenot, the pre-2.0 quest-giver) has just experienced the loss of his mother; similarly, Jin has lost his closest companion.

Spoiler: Quote 2: "'When I lost everything...'"

Full Quote: "'When I lost everything, I tried to look towards the future,' [Clight] said... "

While this isn't a direct reference, one of the core themes of the Xenoblade series is moving towards the future (especially in the 3rd game). This line also sets up the future conflict between Grenot's desire to stay in the present and Clight's will to move forward (which is also the core conflict in Xenoblade 3).

Spoiler: Quote 3: "Taking the good with the bad, you know?"

This could absolutely just be a common phrase, but it's also a quote from the protagonist of Xenoblade 2.

From XC2: "Life's about taking the good with the bad, right? So yeah, I like people."

Am I grasping here? Maybe, but it's an important quote to Xenoblade 2's themes overall, so I found it significant enough to mention.

Spoiler: Quote 4: "Yes... The endless now."

Full Quote: "It is a huge task. Anxiety inducing, in fact. I just can't bring myself to face it. And I'm not sure why. I just... want to live a peaceful life. No more problems, no more anxiety, no more fearing the future. This new Thesead can make that happen. Yes... The endless now. Thesead, in stasis, forever frozen in time. Miners forever working to maintain the status quo. As it...should be."

This is a big one. The entire quote here is a massive reference to Xenoblade 3, and more specifically, outlining the ideology of the game's antagonists. This group of villains, known as Moebius, was born out of humanity's collective anxiety toward the future, and they created an unchanging world that exists within a single moment in time. The "endless now" is a concept directly from this game, describing the state of perpetual stasis in which the world is kept by Moebius.

From XC3: "Have you never prayed that time would simply stop? Have you wished the "now" would last forever?"

Spoiler: Quote 5: "...that mudder Clight."

Full Quote: "He did it, that mudder Clight."

This one is much less significant than the other pieces of evidence, but "mudder" is a substitute for expletives used in Xenoblade 3.

Spoiler: Quote 6: "People are born into the passage of fate..."

Full Quote: "People are born into the passage of fate, doomed to float aimlessly in the sea of suffering. Many have tried, but none have ever managed to escape its torrential flow."

There are references to two different Xenoblade games in this excerpt. First, the "passage of fate" is a recurring theme in Xenoblade 1 (and I believe it's the only reference to XC1 in the journal).

From XC1: "Everything in this world is dictated by the passage of fate."
From XC3: "It's a wild ride, this passage of fate." - Mr. Wild Ride

The second part of the quote is a reference to a line from Moebius N in Xenoblade 3.

From XC3: "It is fate. Many have tried, but none have ever managed to escape its flow."

Fate, in general, is an incredibly important concept in Xenoblade.

Spoiler: Quote 7: "...and I AM IT."

Full Quote: "There is only one person meant for this world, and I AM IT."

This is another reference to a line from Moebius N.

From XC3: "There can be but one me, and I AM IT!"

Spoiler: Quote 8: "Two paths, side by side."

Full Quote: "If you persist, then... you may end up like me. Two paths, side by side. Present, and future. One of them is...hopeless. The other is the road I must walk."

The imagery of two paths, each representing present and future, is yet another very important piece of symbolism in Xenoblade 3.

From XC3: "There are two roads set before every individual. The left, the right. What lies down the road you choose? Is it hope, or despair?"

In this case, both the speaker in the diary and the members of Moebius choose to walk down the path which maintains the present.

Spoiler: Quote 9: "Our paths won't cross..."

Full Quote: "The other (road) is the road I must walk. Our paths won't cross. But... Should we, in fact, ever meet up... On that day..."

The final line of "Finding Meaning" is also the final line spoken by Jin in the monologue mentioned in the first quote.

From XC2: TCG: "This is the road I must walk. Our paths won't cross. But... should we, in fact, ever meet again... On that day..."

Yes, the original quote also ends on a cliffhanger.

I can't think of a way to end this. I spent two hours putting this together. I love Xenoblade.

 

Glad someone finally noticed the references! I finished Xenoblade 3 shortly before writing Finding Meaning a year ago, and I was quite inspired by it. Namely the whole thing about Ouroboros and Moebius, with Ouroboros fighting for the future and Moebius desiring the endless now.

I'm not sure how much of the following info is in the actual text, but regardless I'm gonna go ahead and drop some of that deep lore. In Finding Meaning, the journal author is very Moebius-like. He witnessed disastrous event by disastrous event and eventually succumbed to the despair, viewing it as a reality of the world. He sought to protect Thesead from the Colossus rather than face it directly as a result of fear. Thus he rebuilt Thesead and created a "perfect" town, providing safety and stability to those living in it, such as creating more coal mining jobs and employing more coal miners. It's why almost everyone in present-day Thesead is a coal miner, it's due in part to his actions. So essentially his "perfect" Thesead, his own Aionios in a sense, still persists.

Clight, on the other hand, is very Ouroboros-like, opting to face the fear head on. What is he doing now you ask? Well... that's a question for another day. I do have plans to add some post-quest content, where you'll learn more about Clight. Whether or not I'll do it is a question many scientists, even Klaus, can't seem to figure out. But yeah, there's more to Clight other than him being a backstabbing scumbag.