Lately, I’ve been writing up stuff regarding the Xenosaga series and, during my review of past material, I’ve been going in circles around a certain issue, and that’s the meaning behind “chaos” and “KOS-MOS”. As in, why the characters were named this way. The element that sparked this question had to do with something included in a certain fan book that came alongside the Xenosaga Special DVD:
Once I started researching whatever they might mean in context, I turned to the Xenosaga Episode I Official Design Materials, given that’s the only sourcebook in the series that tends to dwell on its concepts far more than just giving straight up explanations. chaos’ character page had something to say regarding the meaning behind his name. We basically get the sense that, at least at this point, chaos’ name is a result of the fact that he’s power is capable of causing direct interference with the Imaginary Number Domain in order to erase Gnosis without first pinning them down into the Real Number Domain. As Virgil said, the rules they abide by are too different. chaos abides by those of that other side, which allows him to destroy Gnosis. It’s contrary to “order”, if we understand “order” as the laws of physics as understood by Xenosaga’s humanity, and therefore, chaos here means something that’s contrary to the known order, and shrouded in darkness.
In turn, as for KOS-MOS, from both her entry and the Hilbert Effect’s, we can gather that the KOS-MOS’ designation, at least that’s the official narrative from Vector’s First Division, is that it signifies that KOS-MOS is a system that obeys the rules of order, dealing with all phenomena in a logical and efficient way. And not only that, it can, via the Hilbert Effect, impose the “order” its desginers are familiar with upon the Gnosis (existences who abide by what’s understood as chaos), pushing their logic and order unto them and forcing them to play by the rules of the Real Number Domain.
Yet I found a pre-release (for Episode I) interview with Takahashi, in which he had something interesting to say:
So essentially, even without getting into scenario rewrites, the philosophical meaning behind both names and how exactly they relate to the story was designed not to be too on the nose. However, Takahashi has stated that the meaning behind “Order” and “Chaos”, as complementary existences, has to do with the “Will to Power” and how it’s presented in Xenosaga (regarding the Will to Power, I wrote a pretty long article a few days ago, and checking it out might be worth it for those interested: https://overthinkingmedia468479265.wordpress.com/2023/07/21/something-alien-anothers-will-anothers-world/).
This just convinced me that the character names had a deeper meaning than the one given in the ODM. After all, none of that’s really related to the Will to Power, and they are pretty superficial, at least in my opinion. The meaning doesn’t seem important enough.
All of that only allowed me to think that it has to relate to Anima and Animus, and how they are connected. Namely, the effect each individual power has on human consciousness, on their Will to Power. I’ll use excerpts from the Complete and Perfect Guides here:
Why Anima’s human incarnation would bear the name “chaos” was easy enough to understand IMO. Basically, the power of Anima is one that expunges the Collective Unconscious and forces its dispersal so as to protect the “wider system” from falling apart. It does so in reaction to rather strong Wills to Power that seek to maintain their own personal borders and not to melt together in the Collective Unconscious. Furthermore, Anima reacts in a rather violent way to exposure to people with exceptionally strong wills, who are able to access Anima and become Testaments if they happen to accept a future offer by Wilhelm. It is contact with these wills that also makes the Vessels of Anima progressively awaken.
Coupled with that, the activation of the Failsafe is basically alienated from Yeshua’s own will: it will activate whether he wishes it or not. Truly a “chaotic” power that manifests in response to Willls vying for independence and dispersal, in other words, “chaos”. There’s also the fact that the Vessels themselves quite literally transformed into all sorts of weapon, reacting to the wills of those who could use them, but always in the form of weapons with great capacity for destruction.
Mary’s relation to “order” cames from the same rationale. Animus is the power to control Anima, the ability to instill “order” unto “chaos”. Mary did so when she divided Anima into 12 Vessels. This is straight up enough but, in relation to the Will to Power, I think there’s a good case to be made that Animus’ role, through its control of Anima once the Vessels have awakened and entered oppose phase (from dispersal, to convergence, thanks to the Testaments being opposed phase wills that can interface with Anima), is to use Anima to concentrate these strong Wills to Power that refuse to just join together and lose their individuality in the Collective Unconscious. That is, just as it happens in the ending of Episode III, Animus, using Anima as in intermediary, is a power that can collect and suppress Wills to Power that naturally lean onto “chaos”, forcing “order” upon them by forcing them to join together, although not infallibly so. Be it into Zarathustra or into Nephilim’s own womb:
Hell, you could also say that, by killing Gnosis, KOS-MOS was already impossing “order” on rebellious Wills who just refuse to die.
These are my two cents, what are all your thoughts? Hopefully I’ve made sense of this, but I want to hear all the opinions possible.