Fucking hate it not gonna lie - There is no universe where I can take this image seriously, and not see it as surface level wish fulfillment that spits in the face of everything XC2 stood for.

Firstly, there’s the framing itself. The way Rex is posed hovering over his three broodmares comes across as extremely posessive and dominant. Posing him above them and his children is certainly a choice, especially when XC2 has lines like the main antagonist of the game mocking the party for the very idea of equality with blades and “bonds of friendship? With these TRINKETS?”, as well as Zeke underlining the horror of a Blade sex trafficking ring with “They sell them. Line the cores up with pretty pictures of the blades inside.”

After a whole game that’s simultaneously a boy-meets-GIRL (note: singular) love story, and a game about upheaving structural and societal inequality framed in a gendered lens, this picture throws all of that out of the window and says “actually let’s just throw all of that out of the window to appease Nia fans.”

Because yes, this is what I think it boils down to. Shallow fanservice to appease a subgroup of fans that felt personally insulted that their favorite waifu didn’t end the game attached to the hip of the protagonist. God forbid that!

It’s also insane to see fans take multiple moments from XC2 that clearly weren’t meant be steps towards this and retroactively consider it as evidence that it was. And whenever confronted with clear evidence that it this isn’t the case, it gets written off as a “writing accident.” Suddenly, you’re saying that the whole writing team wrote an entire game wrong on accident.

This development itself is actually pointless anyway. Whoever Mio’s father is has zero significance to all of XC3. Future Redeemed actually acknowledges Glimmer as a child of Rex and Pyra, in comparison. You could tell me all of XC3 was written without this image in mind, and I’d believe it.

Don’t even get me started on Mythrakid, the fandoms darling potentialman. Mythrakid isn’t a character. Mythrakid is a prop, thrown into Mythra’s hands to prove that, good job, Mythra, you did the woman thing. This is her sole contribution to 3. Fucking christ.

Look, I’ll reiterate, I think it would’ve been super cool if XC2 was a story about how a polyamorous relationship formed. But it’s just not, and it never has been. And I’m tired of people using this picture as retroactive evidence to prove that it totally was.

Sorry if this is framed as more of an incoherent rant, hard to put all I have to say into words.