How Do Shulk's Visions Work | Xenoblade Explained

Appreciate you all watching!
Shulk's Visions are a crucial part of the Xenoblade story but how do they actually work? In this video, I cover that exact topic and explain how Shulk is able to see the future and how the ability works. We also discuss the differences of Shulk's ability compared to a traditional precognition ability as well as the strengths and weakness' for it. Hope you all enjoy 😊

If you all enjoy this style of content then leave a comment below letting me know and put your own questions down there as well. At some point I will make sure to get round to them if this series does well. ALSO let me know if you'd like a spoiler warning on future episodes of this series as I'm not sure if its really necessary, but lemme know anyway 😁

Instagram:- JBInstafreak

0:00 Intro
0:34 Can Shulk See The Future?
1:55 What About After He Loses The Monado?
2:30 What Are The Differences With His Ability?
3:54 What Are The Advantages & Disadvantages?
6:13 Outro

Songs In Order:

Copyright Disclaimer, Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

[dirkbechtold]

I'd say Shulk's ability to foresee the future is an analogue to Laplace's Demon. This principle says that if you know the exact position and the momentum of every particle in the universe, you can calculate what will happen and thus see the future. If ether is more or less what the Xenoblade universes consist of, that would mean if Shulk can see the position and the momentum of the ether particles, he can predict the future.

[stavros]

Awesome, I love when science theories from our life are referenced in a fictional world, it makes the future sight concept more appealing. This is the exact description Mythra gives to rex about foresight, it being a prediction rather than fate, which may explain that Shulk bonded with Alvis and could thus still gain a foresight ability even after Zanza left his body

[angeldude]

Shulk is a demon!
Specifically Laplace's demon. Laplace's demon is a hypothetical entity that can know the precise properties of every particle in the universe and then extrapolate that data to predict the future. In Shulk's case, the particles in question are ether, which acts as a fundamental building block of their world.

[sLasHeRxXx]

Works like Spider Senses except he sees whats gonna happen if he dont do something

[presion]

I don't look at them as seeing the future I do as "hey Fiora will die if you don't do anything about it", it's basically a warning to me so you could decide if you want Fiora to die and not do anything about it in my previous example

[RudiMyDear]

Soul Read works by reading the mind; it's not a form of Foresight, it's just a matter of reading the opponent's intent, both conscious and subconcious.
Alright, there's a lot to unpack here: Long story short, most of this Video is wrong.

Shulk's Foresight works by the same principle as the other's Foresight, by reading the "Pre-established Harmony" by means of reading the Ether, this is done using the Monado. This part you got Correct. The part about, Shulk's foresight being but one of many possibilities and thus it is malleable is *Kind of* Correct, but the way you've interpreted it is absolutely not correct: What Shulk is reading again, is not limitless possibilities which allows him to prepare for all possible futures, but rather the only possibility that presently exists; Because Shulk exists outside of *that* future; *that* future can be changed, which is something that in itself was already pre-established in the grand scheme of things. Besides the fact you could figure this out by reading through Leibniz's works and correlating it to the Xeno titles; Shulk himself actually brings attention to this harsher reality in Future Connected when talking about this very idea to Melia, that *Maybe he wasn't changing the Passage of Fate at all.*

As for how Shulk continued to see the future after he lost the Monado; you already answered that: not in this video, but in the one regarding the end of Xenoblade 1, how he became a God. Simply put; Shulk didn't lose *his* Monado. At this point I should honestly just go back to the beginning of the explanation instead of trying to explain it all backwards like I've been doing, because lord if this isn't absurdly difficult.

Let's assign some "Terms" to some "Concepts"

The Monado - The Monado conceptually represents the idea of "That which represents Monad". Monad of which has many actual definitions *Too many, actually* and they're all ridiculously confusing; for the purposes of this, we will only focus on 2 of those Definitions, because those are the ideas which are most relevant to Xeno (Technically it's actually 3, but the last one's mostly just a funny referential nerd joke, which sort of doesn't mean anything in this whole essay)

The Monado (Christ) - This is Alvis; he's just Valentinian Gnosticism's variant on Jesus Christ; he doesn't matter to this essay so I'm going to ignore him for now, but remember: He is actually, literally, Sexy Jesus, and that's a fact.

The Monado (Swords) - These are the Monado Blades used by people throughout the Game, such as Zanza's Monado, Meyneth's Monado, or Shulk's Monado. These are representations of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's version of "Monad" which comes from the Monadology. Contrary to what most people believe though, These Monados aren't necessarily rare in any capacity, in fact they're the exact opposite: for every single 'thing' which exists has a Monad. What a 'Monad' is in the Monadology is basically a Variable, which then can be categorized generally into 1 of 3 Tiers, these Tiers of which correspond to varying levels of 'Sentience' I'll probably explain what said tiers are properly later assuming I'm ever prompted to write another Metaphysics/Philosophy essay in the comments section of this channel again, but it doesn't matter too much for now. The main points for now are that Monads which are among those 3 Tiers also exist within something called "The Pre-Established Harmony" (A name directly referenced, word for word, in Xenoblade 1 as well), while there is also a type of Monad which exists outside the "Pre-Established Harmony". The Monad which exists outside the Harmony is just generally referred to as "The Outlier Variable" or because it is untethered to the "Pre-Established Harmony" it can also be interpreted as "God". Now that we've gotten to this point; go back to your "How Shulk became a God" Video; and remember what you speculated there. The abilities available and the extent of which said abilities is can be used is a direct reflection of the Tier of the Monad that an individual "Monado" represents, for example Pyra can only use the abilities available to a Tier 1: being the Sword itself; Mythra and Malos can use *either* the abilities of the abilities of a Tier 2-- but not both at once, being either Foresight OR Monado Arts; Pneuma, can use the abilities of Tier 3, which means she can use both Foresight and Monado Arts, but her usage of one of the 2 is very limited, while her usage of the other is mostly complete. There's some important reasons for this; remember that the nature of the Monado Swords are representations of 'Sentience' of the source of the Monad. So the capabilities of the Monados are reflective of the Mental abilities of the Owner of the Monado-- Not the wielder but rather the one who the Monado comes from. OK... cool uh, yeah put that into the context of what you speculated about the "Becoming God" video, and uh, I think you can start getting at least a vague Idea of where the Vision stuff goes. so what Outliers end up having is full force "Laplace's Demon" type Foresight, where what Tiers 2 and 3 have are standard prediction-esque Foresight. Shulk of course is an Outlier which means he has the "Laplace's Demon" variant, but that holds true for all the people who use Foresight in Xenoblade 1. The majority of the game Shulk's Visions are actually just Zanza's that he's being given, with 1 exception in Arc 1, and a few exceptions in Arc 2; the Arc 1 exception is in Makna Forest where Shulk sees a Vision of Melia and the party fighting Lorithia, which we know can't come from Zanza because he didn't see anything after Mechonis Core in his own words, and it can't come from Shulk because he hasn't yet developed the ability to use Foresight himself. Shulk does have a point where it's outright stated he gains the ability, during the journey towards Agniratha and against Jade Face, Shulk begins to foresee Jade Face's attacks without Actual Visions and then afterwards falls unconscious for a bit, and Alvis then confirms "You have obtained the ability to Glimpse the Future". This Glimpse is Shulk's Own Foresight, which is reading through the Actual Ether Wavelength, and naturally being done so through his own Monado.

Yada yada, I gotta poopoo; maybe I'll come back to this later I am also very tired though.

[mohamedfr]

i think its mainly bcz of alvis he put some powers in shulk to revive him and since he is the monado it can be possible

[linkalot]

I thought the reason shulk could see the future was because zanza was inhabiting his body and not the explanation Alvis gave at ose tower?

[JustJulyo]

Wasn't it Zanza showing these future possibilities to ensure his escape?