Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Ending Explained 

“Im telling you guys, i have a catgirl girlfriend from another universe!” I feel you, Noah.

I still can't get over Nia's photo during the end credits. Rex probably had the happiest ending of any protagonist in history.

Poppi is the gate keeper of my emotions. Having her pop out of that machine on loop and suddenly tears are streaming out of my face.

I do hope the DLC is an epilogue rather than a prequel around the founders. Would love to see the gang find a way to reunite and potentially work alongside Rex and Shulk

One thing I'd like to say is that we know from Mio's side story that an off-seer's melody resonates with people's emotions and can affect people's memories, even if they should be "scoured clean." Noah hearing Mio's song in the post credits scene could definitely be him recalling something about his time in Aionios, he seems like he recognizes the tune as he smiles and walks off towards it, rather than joining his friends. That could be the song resonating with feelings and experiences they all went through in the back of his mind or something.

43:26 I can think of a way this might go. Mio: "MOM! Please call Queen Melia and ask her to put Noah on the line! PLEASE!" Nia: "Alright, alright! Sheesh." *Nia calls Melia and Melia sends out a search party to track down Noah* Then she finds him and puts him on the line. Then Noah and Mio can talk to each other again through the light communicator thingy :)

I'm just saying, Z was really sitting comfy for a long time for a reason. The only way for him to feasibly lose is from Ouroboros, which requires strong emotions from people from both universe. That strong emotion leads to a desire for those 2 to stay together, which is just what Z and Moebius in general are. Pretty safe plan, to beat him you have to give in to him in a way.

Honestly this makes me feel so much better about the ending. I'm so happy Noah and Mio will finally get the chance to be together properly. Excellent analysis as always, bro.

I think it’s also worth pointing out that Feature Connected shows the start of the worlds’ merge. It’s a story about an interdimensional rift involving Black Fog, after all, and it’s likely that Klaus’s “gift” at the end of 2 involved starting the reunification process. Klaus probably didn’t realize that his way of accomplishing this would destroy both worlds, but he isn’t exactly known for being responsible when it comes to messing with reality. If all of that turns out to be true, then XC3 taking place 25 years after FC is perfectly reasonable. The merge started all the way back in FC, but it wasn’t enough of a problem for either party to be concerned, or for Nia and Melia to communicate, until ~10-15 years later after Mio and Noah had both been born.

I would like to imagine that in my headcanon, that the catalyst for them starting work on bridging the worlds, is Eunie finding the tea book Taion made while looking for fortune clovers and knowing it is for her... basically a physical memory of their time in Aionios, proving that those memories where not just a dream.

“I see you peacefully, you’re in your dreams” might refer to Mio back in her world as at the end of the game she thanks Noah for making her dreams come true.

I think it's worth noting that Noah's memories are probably a bit more than "in the back of his mind" - we see with Miyabi that the off-seeing melodies can bring back people's memories assuming they had strong emotions tied to them. With Crys it seems reasonable to assume the reason he was disappointed with the cycle was because whenever he becomes an off-seer he recalls the original form of homecoming. So it seems likely to me that Noah's memories were "sent on" to his original self a lot more concretely. It's not something in the background, but more like he was woken up.

No matter if prologue or epilogue, I do hope we see Mio‘s perspective of the worlds colliding in the DLC. Though her contacting her queen would probably be quite a bit easier for her than Noah.

I personally believe that the heroes of each game make up a triumvirate.The biggest triumvirate in modern religion also happens to line up perfectly with the stories of the series, the Hindu Triumvirate, and these parallels could be worth considering. The Bionis is dying in Xenoblade 1. Our entire journey is, in essence, the death throes of the dying world. Zanza intends to recreate the world, to revive the Bionis. But, in defeating Zanza and becoming the world's new God, Shulk gains that power, and takes on the mantle of Brahma, the God of Creation. Alrest is a decaying world, and will soon fall to ruin. But, rather than curse the world and vow to destroy it to create something new, Rex wants to simply solve the problem, to find more land, to protect the world. And, in defeating Malos, refuting his conclusion that the world should end, Rex (albeit only because of Klaus) takes on the mantle of Krishna, the God of Preservation. Lastly, Aionios. Aionios is a world that is not dying. It is an endless world. But it is not boundless. It is not a good world. It is a world of endless strife. And so, we vow to end the world. And, in defeating Z, that is exactly what we do, and Noah takes on the mantle of Shiva, the Benevolent God of Destruction, as we tear down this rotten world, and allow the worlds to be set to rights by Origin, which Shulk had a hand in the creation of, allowing the cycle to continue anew, as it should.

Mio being Nia's and Rex's daughter is quite insane actually. Kind of explains the power of the punch against the Moebius after the Ethel and Cammuravi Scene in Chapter 4. Honestly this is a video i needed. Thanks Luxin

Who else cried?

I love the way Luxin says “simply invent inter-dimensional travel”

I fucking love this series. Just the mere possibility of Noah and mio interlinking across worlds gives me chills 😭

EPILOGUE DLC WITH LANZ AND TAION GETTING THEIR HIGH FIVE IM BEGGING YOU MONOLITH SOFT

The ending broke me. I just lost my cat (who was my best friend) 3 weeks ago. Had to have him put down. This game helped prop me up with Noah and Mio being off-seers. I felt like I was an off-seer for my Rascal Buddy. But when they start running towards each other at the end, gaining no ground... I couldn't hold any long. I miss my friend, but this game helped me to understand that I can't stay in the endless now; that I have more love to give and more lives to enrich.

‘I don’t know if Noah watches Mio sleep’ Dude is part N. Of course he does.

"We'll throw Kyrie in there. 'Cause Kyrie is sort of the 'Joran' for the Agnus trio." * sad Miyabi noises *

Thank you so much for making this video Luxin, it helped to fill in a lot of gaps that I had missed on my playthough. I'm a lot more hopful for the future now.

Agreed on most of the points you made Luxin, just want to add something: 1) About making a "gate" between the worlds, in the Japanese version of the game, the Conduit is actually call a Gate. Which leads me to my second point 2) I don't think the world merging is something out of Klaus doing, but rather the disappearance of the Conduit. By being activated by Klaus, it actually split Earth into two inter connected worlds: being xc1 and xc2, and it keep them separated and stable. Without the Gate, the worlds would collide, trying to become one again. It's not an accident, the worlds are actively trying to unify into one whole earth like it once was, so I think they won't go their separate way after passing through each other like the video had speculated. Imo, they will instead try to collapse onto one another again to become one. So Origin is only a method of buying more time. => So not only will making a gate between the worlds a vital way for xc3 casts to reunite, it is also the only way to permanently solve the issue of the annihilation events. With that said, that's my theory for the upcoming DLC / future of the franchise

It would have been interesting if Noah got some visible scars along his knuckles from his month of trying to get out of the prison and much like Ashera, they would effectively become scars on his soul. Sometime around him being 18-19, he would experience phantom pains and all of the emotions he felt at the time. This could have been how he finally fully remembers Mio after the recreation of the worlds.

An intersting thing I thought about is how, when compared to the keves squad, the way the agnus squad met is super disjointed. While Eunie, Lanz, Noah, and Joran were all together since childhood in both worlds, Mio, Sena, Taion, and Miyabi all met at other times. So it would be interesting to see where they all were before the worlds merged

I think the real reason N and M had to sacrifice themselves is, while they are born of regret, by defeating N, both literally and philosophically, N was given hope. He took his despair, his regret, his fear, and used it to fuel his hope for a better tomorrow. M was like that after she swapped places with Mio, as well. They are still moebius, they are still based on that regret that Z is a conglomeration of, but by taking that a step further and also emodying the hope of Noah and Mio, they became anathema to Moebius. Their very existence refutes Z's entire existence. So, when they join with Z, that is what kills him.

Damn, the idea that the soldiers of Aionios are all children in the generation that comes _after_ XC1 and 2 really helps explain why the races all look how they do. I was so confused as to why, without exception, all of the Machina in the game have hair and standard human body shapes, and why all the blade-y are also pretty "standard-human" looking. They're all half "regular" human. The merging of societies on the Bionis and Mechonis resulted in a lot of half Homs, half Machina children, and presumably, in Alrest, something occurred that allowed blades to have children with humans, perhaps linked to some sort of effort to make blades able to live independently from drivers. It would also partly explain why some of the High Entia's wings are so tiny, they're from a generation with even more mixed ancestry than the survivors from XC1.

Going back and watching Nia’s explanations in 6/7 in the event theater really helped me get a better sense but I was still confused exactly how the Origin reboot works even after that so I am taking in as many interpretations as I can and appreciate them all.

I do hope, that Ashera doesn‘t regain her neck pain.

I just need to be real: I lost track of EVERYTHING in the ending, when I saw The Picture™.

44:27 you are forgetting that I left her in the world tree collecting data when it fell so maybe she didn’t make it 💀

I needed this. I was so certain that the end goal was to fuse the worlds together, and the ending left me hollow because they split again. Obviously I misunderstood Nia's explanation of what Origin was meant to do, but she also says "The worlds yearned for each other." This implied to me that no matter what they did to prevent the worlds from colliding, it would happen eventually, and knowing that they made a way for this inevitable catastrophe to work out in their favor. I was fine with a bittersweet ending, I was just upset that I got the bitter when it looked like I was only getting the sweet because of my flawed understanding. I do still think this could have been more clearly explained.

29:25 Noah does watch Mio sleep. In fact, every parry member has watched every other party member sleep because that's how standing guard works

12:27 The only thing I'm confused by is where Triton is. But my current headcanon is that he's wondering if the worlds separating will affect the Gyaark population

Yeah I got the sense that the post-game side quests maybe were initially intended to be part of chapter 7 but it was maybe too bloated with hero/ascension quests already and worked as a nice bonus, especially when they are both going on about their friendship with the cast at the ends of their quests when you’ve spent like maybe 1 hour in-game with them at that point

Must be sad being Noah after the ending. Trying to explain mio to his friends is basically just like "I have a girlfriend but she’s at a different school"

This ending took me a while to really enjoy my first time seeing it because it felt super melancholic but I absolutely love how simplistic the post credits scene is. It is such a well executed vision for how the endless now ending feels like. I also like that it gives closure of everything after the post-credits scene with Mio's flute playing. SO good

Luxin just wrote Chapter 8. Thank you for the beautiful retelling of the story and the path towards the future. I really hope DLC caps this off, it HAS too!

45:00 I truly hope that we'll get to see it in the DLC. Not really a fan of stories where a happy ending is implied. I NEED to see it happen with my own eyes. I don't think it would happen in a flashback in a future game because Takahashi stated that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was the end of the Klaus saga, so if that's true, any future Xenoblade title shouldn't be connected to 1, 2, or 3. But, hey, this is the same guy who told us that 2 wouldn't have any direct connection to 1. So we should take his words with a grain of salt lol

A really great explanation to the ending and showing that it’s really not as bittersweet as people thought it was. I do want to say I thought the ending scene where Noah hears a flute playing was implied to be Mio playing. I’m just basing this off the beginning of the melody which sounds a lot like the one he plays for Crys. It sort of just fits more in line with Mio’s final diary entry basically stating she’s forgetting how he looks but promises to not fully forget him, remembering him through the melody he always played.

While I understand why the postgame quests can only be accessed in the postgame, I really feel like it would have made a little more sense if Our Welsh Lady of the Bannana's quest had been in the main game. Can I just say I love how her dress is a mixture of her jumpsuit and Mythra's Dress? 10:38 That's actually pretty similar to the Lifehold in Xenoblade X isn't it? Taion and Sena are probably definitely Princess Mio's retainers/Best friends. 31:40 Hopefully Ashera, who's definitely Dunban's Daughter, won't have to deal with the whole thing where she always remembers getting her head cut off. Because that, and the physical scar from that, is a thing that apparently persists throughout her lives and get's really bad as she approaches Homecoming.

After I finished the game I was desperate to see them back together, but after a while, I realised that I don't really have to see it because it is absolutely certain, that they will meet again. To quote Klaus, "It is fated to happen, it cannot but happen..." We have to consider that after all, Xenoblade is still a Japanese series, even if it seems this is often forgotten or ignored by Western fans. It is (or was at least till XC2) still mainly targeted at the Japanese market as seen in the budget calculation by estimated Japanese sales only. And while Takahashi sure takes a lot of inspirations from myths and legends all over the world, for the understanding of the ending, we have to see the Japanese / Far Eastern legends, especially the Legend of the Red Threat of Fate. Those who are bound by it are destined for each other, they will meet through space and time, no matter what lies between them. In this light, the red thread both Mio and Noah have in their hair is more than a fancy accessory but a clear sign of them and the two worlds meeting again and getting a happy ending.

That was a pretty amazing video. I personally thought the Noah's first and final scenes were in the exact same moment but I didn't understand how right on the nose Origin worked. It literally put the people back as they were at the point of collision none the wiser, wow. I said it in another video and I will say it here too. Noah and Mio are probably one of the best examples of "soul mates." No matter how many incarnations Noah and Mio went through they always found eachother, and in atleast one case started a family with what little time they had. Which by your summary is going to happen again because Noah and Mio's kid was also a soul in Origin that was just born in Aioneos like the people of the City.

I know it’s silly adding a spoiler warning on a video that says “Ending explained” but I have to personally thank you for including it anyway. I was watching a video on Sherlock Holmes and RU-vid auto play automatically started this one somehow and didn’t realize what video was playing. So thank you for being considerate in the respect of allowing everyone to experience the end for themselves :)

Isn‘t the Joran of the Agnes trio more Miyabi? I mean, she is the friend who was lost on Mio‘s side

Great video! Sums up most of my thoughts on the ending as well. One thing though is I do think this maybe downplays how much they might remember a bit, especially since we know that Miyabi got her 100% of he past life memories back that she had the previous cycle. I think even if most people are foggy on the details, their will be a way for them to remember in more exact details via flute playing and weird Origin shenanigans like Miyabi did.

in the Xenoblade 3 artbook, there's a design for child Mio that was not used in game.

Thank you for doing this video, it makes the context of the ending much clearer for me and now i have a much more optimistic outlook on it. I didn't even realise how confused I was about the ending until I watched this.

I know it's almost a meme at this point but all the Moebius, Origin and N and M emotional power type stuff really is so much like Xenogears. I feel like I understood the ending and it hit harder thanks to playing Xenogears while waiting for XC3.

“If you don’t think the ending of XC3 is a happy ending you don’t understand the ending” No, it’s still sad that the party is separated lmao. I also hope that one of the dlc is based after the events of the main game and they are reunited.

I like how you treat Melia and Nia on Zoom like elderly queens discussing pre-boomer stuff.

Man you made me cry at that theory about Noah interlinking to see Mio again. I have high hopes for the final DLC scenario, it could be such a banger to have both worlds meet again.

Nia and Melia having Zoom calls across dimensions is so funny and cool in a way.

Thank you so much for making this video ^_^ I know so many people that have such bizarre takes/opinions/understandings of the ending, a deep dive like this prom a prominent xeno youtuber is exactly what was needed I caught most of it on my first run, and knew what to expect of the ending in that regard / understood what it was going for, but I will absolutely admit that rewatching Nia's origin explanation (and seeing her postgame scenes after the ending) really helped clarify it further Thanks again for making this, can't wait to see more XC3 content from you in the future! (Also i just realized that by creating Origin, Tora basically did what Klaus couldn't and im losing my mind over it)

You hit it on the head once again my dude, always love watching you Xeno content. This vid really helped clarify and even recontextualize a lot of things. Well done as always!

When you were talking about Ethel and the ending cutscene, I just wanted to point out that they did leave my boy Triton out from what I've seen. Not like that really changes the fact that making different cutscenes depending on who you have unlocked would still be a ridiculous ask, I just thought it was interesting.

Fantastic video, Luxin! It's so good to have you back, man! I've been damn near as excited to hear your thoughts on the game as I was to play it myself! They really did a hell of a job with this one, and I'm so excited to see what comes with all the DLC. I finally beat the game at 180 hours, and now I have like 10 ascension quests and who knows how many other side quests left.

God DAMN have I missed this content between game release and two days ago when I finically finished the game

I feel like after Origin successfully worked, the Xenoblade 1 planet would end up in the main universe, maybe orbiting around Earth, rather than going back to the other dimension. My interpretation is that the reason the worlds were colliding in the first place is because without the conduit's power, the Xenoblade 1 world couldn't be supported anymore, which is something Origin definitely couldn't undo. This wouldn't be a big difference, but if we get an epilogue, I'm expecting to see the two planets in the same sky, like what is shown in that one ending scene.

I didn't wonder why N and M had to sacrifice themselves, I wonder why it had to look like a background from the first season of Pokémon. That scene hurty eyes

I've been waiting for this lets goooo!

I guess my main question now is how Nia managed to become queen and put in charge of interdimensional communication if the game only takes place a few decades after XC2 when there are much more qualified and willing people to have such an important role. Nia being queen was honestly one of the biggest indicators for an insane timeskip because 1) her immortality is so ridiculous as effectively a self-contained ouroborus with Nia's power passively sustaining her sister indefinitely, and said sister sustaining Nia indefinitely in return, and 2) the most likely way I can see Nia getting that kind of position is just from hanging out with Tantalese and Ardainian royalty long enough that _multiple_ monarchs pass by in her company and she's just been around so long that she manages to get most of the duties normally assigned to the monarchs. Nia doesn't seem like she'd have any interest assuming a leadership role unless she was the only option, which at the end of Xenoblade 2 is definitely not the case.

Have been looking forward to this video for so long now Thank you for making so good videos explaining my favourite series of all time

My view was that "time" didn't stop really, but that Origin was used successfully, but recreated the 2 worlds overlapping in the way they did according to Z's desire

This makes the ending so much better than it already was, thank you

oh you know whats a cute read into this that i just thought of? the ending song is a song Noah wrote in the post game before they somehow get the worlds back together and when they do Mio is the one singing it and thats why its a female vocalist

You helped clear a few things up for me and also helped me to notice things I never noticed before. Thank you for this video :)

I was hoping you'd make a video on this, cuz there are so many different interpretations from people with regards to the ending here, and it's kinda frustrating considering how important it is to the overall lore & story & future of the series.

This game was a masterpiece, the ending was very emotional. This game reminds me of the beauty there is in the world.

in the final pre credits cutscene, its implied that even the ink and paper of taions recipe book would disappear from eunie when the worlds separated if it was made of materials from the xenoblade 2 world, so noah still having mios flute once the worlds have separated is interesting, although maybe it would've disappeared once they separated further

Well, I guess you can say these really were the Xenoblade Chronicles all along.

See this is why I'm in disagreement that chapter 6 and 7 felt rush and that the plot was a let down. A lot of these things I was able to pick up on, especially with the ending. I was kind of surprised at how many people didn't seem to understand the ending or thought it was sad once I got back on the internet.

The most important question that Xenoblade 3 brought up, why does N and M’s child look like Niall/Hugo?

Great work with this video. I only wish it was out sooner since it would have saved me a lot of grief when trying to explain the ending to the many streamers that just didn’t seem to get the ending and thus were not nearly as emotionally invested in it as they should have been. Also, I think Miyabi better fits as the Agnian equivalent to Joran, being a healer class that struggles with actual combat and is more suited to the arts, as well has having a tragic death that got them mixed up with Moebius.

Thanks for this video! I was a bit confused and heartbroken at the ending. This really helped clear things up and confirm some things that I thought might true.

38:50 I thought it to be a coincidence but to back this up, while we don’t know the exact length of time XC1 and XC2 took, The fall of Zanza and the fall of Aion line up to a T since it Klaus died with Zanza before Rex could get to Elysium, Alrest probably would have been screwed. Figured it was worth pointing out

Thank you Luxin for explaining it, i have waited for weeks.

FINALY A LUXIN VIDEO. I've been very exited for the XC3 luxin content to start rolling out.

Great video, touches on mostly facts stated throughout the game, and your head cannon actually makes sense.

10-20 years is the age to be included into the flame clock system. Takahashi mentions those ages specifically in an interview

The ending was way more beautiful than I could initially have imagined. I'm literally blown away.

This video was wonderful. Thank you so much for putting this all together! ❤

Right in time for dinner man! Been looking forward to this for quite a while now.

I just had to pause and comment when I saw this part again but man how great are Eunie’s facial expressions when she’s talking to Taion at the end? If you want a great example of why the games went to this art style, point to that.

noah disappearing at the end to interlink with mio is the most head canon thing I've ever heard. Cool theory tho lol

Waiting for your analysis for years. God, it's all worth it. There are still millions of questions I have. Looking forward to your future videos.

Wow, this helped explain a lot. Thanks Luxin.

I still feel like the vagueness of the ending we have is great. It leaves room for people to speculate what happens next, while going in line with the story's theme of the future being uncertain. We don't know for sure that the worlds will merge, but people still have hope that it'll turn out differently this time, and that people can finally walk hand in hand together. I know quite a few people who dislike how vague the ending is, but personally I just feel like it's the best way to close the story.

I like how the first game was a fight against religion (the final boss being a god), the second was a fight against science (Aion being a huge mech and Malos being a supercomputer), and the third game is a figgt against humanity (Z being the embodiment of human fear of the future)

That was incredibly useful, with the DLC out now this has provided a great refresher and lots of stuff i missed! Looks like you were spot on

Noah literally disappears at the end of the post-credit scene. If they require some machine, it's to pry him out of Alrest since he disappears after being guided by a Kevessian offseeing tune and there's one person left who should even recall it.

Let the lore dump begin.

Firstly amazing video, you clear up and explain a ton of important points for the ending. I will say I do still take issue with how the city/Nopon traders etc are dealt with and how the ending impacts the community aspect of the game. So the lattermost point could def be amazing if your theory that people will remember holds weight, if everyone from Aonios begins to remember, all the community building, a massive part of XC3's side-quests and story will hold more weight again, even if they aren't in the same situation. People like Kite and Juniper will remember each-other and the experiences the party led them through and will create relationships again, it'd give everything a reason again while still erasing "technically" what happened. Now the city stuff bothers me on a few levels, 1. the weight behind the fact that they are essentially committing genocide on tons of generations of people isn't really made a big or really any deal out of, in fact the ending handwaves this big decision away. While it's correct to assume they can be reborn 1000's of years down the line, this'd be almost impossible practically, for one we're veering very closely into pre-determinalism, a concept XC1's entire plot was against, it'd mean every generation of people for 1000's of years, is pre-dermined for their couples and furthermore will remember each-other, this doesn't even take into consideration the wildly different circumstances this new world would have outside of Aonios, all it takes is one disease, one misplacement or accident etc to throw 100's of generations off course. 2nd. I think we can safely assume no one but the Queens and Party had any say in this or assumed it'd do this, throughout the game there are many people talking about their plans post Moebius, asking the party to continue and win so they can hold celebrations or next years city homecoming, none of this would make sense if these people knew they were walking towards oblivion. I don't blame the party for this course of action, Aonios was a doomed world, but this whole point, the genocide of 1000's of generations of people on the vague, tiny chance they might be reincarnated is given the weight of a wet fart and that's not something the game should've treated so likely and in fact is possibly an amazing missed opportunity for another faction of "villains", opposing the party perhaps one wishing to control rather then outright destroy Moebius. I think overall the ending has the possibility to be very special, the best in Xenoblade history, but a lot of this rides on there being a good epilogue to me, which I think given the games themes, the overt hints and even the three swords for the dlc hints at heavily. It's also the perfect place for a more fanservice or crossover style dlc, with Aonios and the new cast fully realized, they can now delve deep into 1 and 2 as well to give people the crossover that some people were(imo unjustly) looking for.

Not sure if it has been brought up yet but the special edition artbook preview had art of young Mio in it in a dress that never appears in the game. Assuming this is not concept art then I do think that there is a possibility the dlc we are getting is going to be an epilogue because this young Mio could be the one Noah is following in the ending playing the flute. I'm sure Luxin pointed it out in a previous video somewhere too but that dress looks a lot like Nephilim's in Xenosaga. So what I think is that this is just like Abel and Nephilim in Xenosaga which is also a Fei and Elly reference too. Again, I'm not entirely sure if this art even matters but it is there and strangely unused in the game. Maybe the artbook has some other stuff so I can't wait to get mine.

You're probably already working on a lot upcoming content at the moment but I'd definitely suggest looking into how Moebius could be considered an allegory for depression while Ouroboros represents overcoming that depression and moving forward. I feel like there's a lot of context clues that definitely prove a connection.

Can’t wait to see Ghondor be the protagonist of Xenoblade 4

What timing!!! I beat the game earlier today and i swear, I have not cried like THAT in a while

I loved this video and I love your theory. It filled my heart with joy I really hope we get to see this ourselves but even if we don’t I’m happy thinking of this future

I already loved the ending, but this video helped fill in pieces that I didn't know I needed to be put together. I think the ending would've made sense to more people if we had a chance to see Noah remembering something from the world before Aionis unless I'm missing something that couldn't allow that.