#Xemnas redemption

[allykakamatsu]

A Face Thought Lost Forever

There isn't anything like a reunion inside the heart. DW about Isa he's more than a little spooked but they'll make up-

More info under cut cause while you can view this on it's own it is part of the KH X GI AU:

Also please support me on ko-fi here

So yeah, good old Mansex Xemnas is part of the Au as well! I'll make a full character profile on him later, but for now I'll just explain what the hell is going on here.

Long story short Terra (he's also here I'll do more info on him later as well but I'm struggling to come up with a design for him) is on team Dainsleif and is helping him out so the gang runs into him every now and again, however after one of the Dainsleif quests he comes back in pain saying that his heart feels like it’s calling out to someone so the gang decides to dive into his Heart to help. (Haven't decided when all of this takes place yet admittedly, but all that matters is that it's post Inazuma Archon Quest.)

Once they're inside the gang does some digging, and find to their shock and horror Mr Seeker of Darkness himself Ansem, who reveals since old man Nort is gone for good when he died he jut went back to Terra cause he's technically his Heartless. He also reveals he’s not the one the gang is looking for as he’s decently happy to just vibe inside Terra but he’s willing to help the gang look, but before they can start searching again they realise Isa is missing.

See, while that infodump was going on, Isa heard someone calling to him, or more specifically Saix, and felt drawn to it so he went to a deeper part of Terra's Heart, only to find that Ansem wasn't the only one here, so was Xemnas, resulting in some... complicated feelings on both ends. There's also a boss down here to help these two start to work the mess that happened between them out but I have a drawing planned for that so I'll save that for then.

[displacer-beasts]

Love the fact that it is Ansem's voice that wakes Riku in the darkness, and provides him the key that leads him to Castle Oblivion + escape.

I keep thinking about their reunion in KH3. Ansem SoD's "What a journey you and I have had" and Riku's "Its strange. I think I'm going to miss you."

It would be so simple for it to be like, "you're the one who corrupted me to darkness, I hate you" but it's not. It's messy and complicated and I think they both do end up caring about each other in a way that's difficult for either to explain.

[korothearchdragonofchaos]

@khoc-week Day 7: Future

And here we come to the end of the legend of the yin and yang. Alas, all tales must come to an end. Luckily for these girls, they got their deserved happily ever afters! Here I drew the girls, their beloveds, and their firstborns!

With the help of Koroblynx’s new power and experience in bringing balance, Xemnas and Ansem were given a second chance without the influence and ideals of Xehanort. If it wasn't for that little boundary strongly believing in redemption, they wouldn't have gotten that chance. It was a bumpy road ahead full of struggle, but the twins got used to turning over to the side of peace eventually, and they finally could experience what they couldn't before, and express those feelings of gratitude to the ones who stood there beside them even during their days of evil.

Xemnas would go on to father two children, Liam I'm the picture, and a daughter later on named Esther. Ansem would too start a family, Amber giving birth to the pictured Lita first, and later a little boy named Thanatos

[complete-idiot-inc]

I'm gonna assume your issues with Melody of Memory are the same as mine (why a recap game? There are videos on youtube for that!), but I'm actually curious about what you dislike in 3D. Personally, I'm not a fan of Sora's story in that game and Dream Eater system is terrible. Also, the world lineup could be way better, i'd rather if Tron: Legacy had been used for KH3 instead due to the graphical fidelity.

In regards to Org. members, I think Vexen should've been included among the thirteen, since his whole character is basically "amoral scientist". Also Xaldin, who according to his Org. profile saw the Heart as a weakness.

Going down the list of games.

Hoo boy 3D, I don’t find myself disliking either story, it’s more the story overall and some of the creative decisions. Like why is the entire game technically set during KH1 because Time Travel? Riku’s version of the World That Never Was is real, why does he keep his Dream Eaters and sleeping world appearance? Also I wish they did what they planned on in development and actually differentiated the routes Sora & Riku took more, Sora was supposed to return to Space Paranoids, hence Xemnas’ confusing line about The Grid being what Ansem the Wise copied to make Hollow Bastion OS when they look NOTHING alike. Also they decided against using Treasure Planet, that would’ve been awesome!

Yes, absolutely Xaldin should’ve returned and Vexen should’ve been a proper seeker. But that raises a problem, who would they replace? My answer, Luxord & Saïx. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Luxord and like Saïx, but Re:Mind establishes that Luxord is from the realm of fiction, how could he have came back? As for Saïx, I think his whole redemption arc could be handled better if he didn’t join Xehanort and instead joined Ienzo & Aeleus in rescuing Roxas and Xion, and of course bring up the Subject X stuff more often in dialogue.

Lastly, the reason I dislike Melody of Memory isn’t strictly because it’s a recap, if anything I’d expect a KH rhythm game to be part recap. No, what I dislike is that A. It’s canon and B. How they made it canon. Like, it’s Kairi diving through her heart, and somehow she has memories of all the games and the highlights of them? How does she know about the parts she wasn’t there for? Oh a “ghost” of Xehanort, who explicitly says he is made of Kairi’s memories, somehow knows Sora is in the Quadratum and points Kairi in that direction? And then there’s the ending, which I only say that going alone into a dimension previously considered theoretical at best is a stupid decision and that Riku is smart enough to know that’s a stupid decision.

[spammynegrutou]

As much as I, um, dislike Lea, I think it's so cute how Saïx brought Roxas and Xion back specifically for him.

He made sure that Lea still had friends just in case he perished indefinitely. He was willing to lose himself into darkness forever for Lea, but before that, he hatched a plan with Vexen and Demyx to make sure Roxas and Xion got their bodies back. Like wow babe you really brought back my favs.

And in the Re:mind DLC, he kept reminding (😏) Xion who she was which ultimately made her lose it. Probably made her gain back all those memories she had, and forced her to remember who she was and what her purpose was. Even when he didn't get the whole deal about Xion, he still wanted her around Lea.

He had the most subtle redemption arc in KH3, and his shit was more believable than what the fuck Xehanort had going on 😒

I still feel like they should've shot that nigga Xehanort dead in his face.

But yeah, like sure he didn't apologize (apologies in Japanese games are like,, non-existent), but he did it in his own way.

Like "Hey, I was mean to y'all before and you hated me, but I need you to be there for Lea... So he doesn't cry like a bitch. K thanks. Here's y'all's bodies back."

And Roxas saying something along the lines of "I owe my return to many" and "The people's hearts you think you've won over aren't really on your side" to Xemnas, like sure he could've been talking about the BULK of the real OG13, but his keyblade was pointed DIRECTLY at Saïx.

Ugh it was so subtle.

Anyways, love KH3. Good game :)

Also I love my husband 🥰🥰😘😘

[white-bird-et-al]

The writing bug has caught up with me again!

Tune in for some bittersweet Isa/Lea, Lea/Roxas and Isa/Xemnas shenanigans. Including possible polyamory and a lot of redemption coming up. Currently at 8k words, will probably update even more tonight :)

[briefobservationdreamer]

Kingdom Hearts Redemption Arcs: Isa/Saïx

To begin with, there are a few things to consider about Saïx when looking at his actions in the original Organisation. Firstly, he became a Nobody when he was a teenager, before critical parts of his psyche had fully matured, and because he was heavily groomed and gaslit into believing he couldn’t ever feel emotions while he remained a Nobody (more so than any other member), this guaranteed that this part of him would remain stunted. Secondly, he was suffering an unbearable amount of pain at the time that he clearly could not cope with and had to deal with inwardly on his own, but due to Xemnas’ gaslighting likely didn’t have the self-awareness or emotional intelligence at the time to understand what he was feeling and realise he was deceiving himself. Thirdly, he had been possessed by Xehanort for at least a good while before the events of Days and 2, possibly for years, and unlike Xigbar he was not even aware of it, let alone consensual of it. The details are very unclear as to how exactly this affected him, all we can know is that he became a much colder, crueller person who was still driven by Isa’s personal motivations and capable of consciously working against Xemnas. These things don’t lessen the pain he caused, but they are so intertwined with him that it is impossible to separate him from these influences to clearly determine how reasonable it is to expect self-control or for him to be any different, and therefore how much responsibility he has over his actions, let alone how much atonement he must do. Of all the atoners, his situation is easily the woolliest.

As for his actions, Saïx is a character with very clear reasoning and consistent motivations he never truly wavers from, so it’s fairly easy to understand why he did everything that he did.

The Castle Oblivion situation is a very tricky one, since we don’t know for sure how much of what happened came from Xemnas, Saïx or Axel’s own initiative. All we know is that Saïx gave Axel orders to eliminate some traitors that were sent to Castle Oblivion, which ended up being Marluxia and Larxene. However, since the founding members of the Organisation are either complicit in or directly responsible for keeping Saïx and Axel captive there since they were children, the plot against them can be justified as an act of self-defence. The only apprentice Isa is shown interacting with since the end of the original Organisation is Even/Vexen, and the two would have had to work out any differences for cooperation to be possible in their plot to betray Xehanort in KH3.

Taking Kairi away from Axel, imprisoning her and using her to antagonise Sora was all done on Xemnas’ orders as part of the plot to control Sora and have him complete Kingdom Hearts, and it is made very clear that openly defying Xemnas is tantamount to death. His final scenes in 2 imply that he never even really wanted to toy with Sora in the first place, he would much rather take his revenge on him in proxy of Roxas for taking his best and only friend away and instigating events that ruined his life (more on this in a bit). Isa has yet to properly interact with Sora or Kairi post recompletion, and so has not had any opportunity yet to apologise and personally make it up to them beyond his contribution to Xehanort’s defeat in 3.

Manipulating Roxas and Xion into killing each other was definitely messed up, but again was done under orders from Xemnas once it became clear the two couldn’t co-exist due to Xion’s out-of-control powers. Neither of which was Saïx’s fault. The pair can’t really blame him too much and say he shouldn’t have done it without expecting him to at least risk getting dusked or destroyed for them. It doesn’t make their situation any better, but it is understandable that Saïx would choose goals and a friend he sacrificed everything for over a decade over a couple of kids he didn’t even know and one of which he thought wasn’t a real person, accepting their fates as unfortunate and unavoidable collateral. 

Making Axel choose between a friendship with him and a friendship with Roxas and Xion was also complicated. While he was definitely trying to get Axel to choose him, Saïx wasn’t the source of this conflict, the situation itself was. Axel couldn’t help earn Xemnas’ trust and carry out Saïx’s plans to take control of the Organisation, find Subject X and get their lives back while he was deliberately defying Xemnas to protect Roxas and Xion. Jealousy was at play here, but Saïx was also laying out a cold hard truth that their interests were mutually exclusive, and by nobody’s fault. If we’re also including their confrontation in the manga when Axel tries to rescue Kairi, I fault Axel more than Saix here. Not only was Saïx at his most possessed here, he was also in Berserk form with limited awareness and memory, driven only by a desire to take out anything considered a threat, and Axel put Saïx’s life at risk the moment he turned his back on him and put him in a kill-or-be-killed situation.

Lastly, the main one people think of, his unnecessarily cruel treatment of Roxas and Xion. This is the only one not motivated at least partly by some form of preservation or ulterior motive. One big point to get out of the way is the fact that Saïx was fully aware of Xion’s nature from the get-go and she only ever looked like the white featureless animated mannequin Vexen showed him in the lab, no more human-looking than a Dusk, just dressed up in a black coat, and was likely under the impression from Vexen that she was merely an imitation of life. It’s understandable that perceptions like this would influence his treatment, though it was still a horrible way to treat someone regardless.

Sadly there is much more to it than that. His main reason for this is lashing out from suffering a colossal betrayal from Axel. He was forced to watch the three form bonds of friendship and get their hearts and humanity back while his own friendship with Axel crumbled and he remained empty, when out of all the organisation members, Saïx was the most desperate to get those things back. The only friend he had - and a friend he constantly risked his neck for - ditched and replaced him when he needed him most. Despite warning Axel that their interests were mutually exclusive, Axel still chose to abandon Saïx and an entire decade’s worth of goals Saïx had sacrificed everything for and did nothing to stop their destruction until it was almost too late, all to protect Roxas and Xion. He lost everything he still had and cared about in the name of the trio’s friendship, and he became a hollow broken man and a brainwashed slave trapped under the command of an abuser he hated with almost no hope of escape or happiness. To make things worse, at no point does he ever understand why his life has gone so horribly wrong. His treatment of Roxas and Xion was reprehensible, completely undeserved and unfair regardless of how much control he had and unjustified for as much control he did have (to Roxas and Xion at least, feelings of rage and betrayal towards Axel is completely justified), but I am sadly not surprised in the least that this was enough to drive him beyond breaking point.

What he did to make it up to the three though is something that often gets overlooked because of how subtly it was implied in game (and possibly some wilful ignorance and denial from Saïx haters), though Re:Mind helps a lot with this. As soon as he became more himself, he self-reflected, recontextualised his actions through his original values, felt remorse for what he did, put all his rage and jealousy and pain and pride aside, admitted his flaws and vulnerabilities, corrected toxic behaviour and saved the people he hurt. The idea to have Vexen and Demyx create and deliver the replicas for Roxas and Xion was his. He planned to bring back Roxas and Xion, betray Xehanort and orchestrate his defeat to save the world and craft the brightest future, and he risked his life to make that a reality. There is literally nothing more he could have done for them by this point in the story. The only thing I can fault with this is that it could have perhaps been made a bit clearer, an official apology is still owed and it wouldn’t have taken much effort to briefly add one during his “death” scene even if there is still a lot of talking out to do, though Isa is a man who speaks with actions more than words, and his actions spoke loud and clear. Overall, a great redemption that I can only fault for not getting quite enough spotlight.

(Interestingly his story has a lot of parallels with Riku, but with some critical differences. Riku was manipulated and possessed for a few weeks altogether, Saïx went through years of it, and secondly Riku turned against Sora after mistakenly believing Sora would abandon him and Kairi, while Saïx was absolutely abandoned by Axel when Axel turned against him.)  

[scalacaelumxx]

Who are your top 3 favorite KH characters? ✨

I'm going to try not to ramble on this forever but thank you so much for sending this ask in! I apologize in advance for the can of worms you have opened.

Vidar (Spoilers for Dark Road incoming) Probably the least surprising thing, but currently Vidar is my top favorite. I'm fairly new to the mobile games, and full disclosure, I did not like him when I first saw him. Eraqus was so upset by Vor leaving (even though it was her own choice) that I genuinely felt for him, and therefor didn't approve of Vidar "taking" her away. But continuing the story and learning that he and his friends were so close to achieving what they had been training for for years, only for it to end in the death of not one of his friends, but four of them. And he can't bring himself to strike down what caused their deaths, because Baldr is just a kid and he (presuming that one line was about Hoder) can't bear to face her if something happened to him after she died trying to protect him His character is interesting, he's got a killer design, you can tell how much he cared about his friends, and the tragedy of risking everything to save someone for your friend, only to die by that person's hand trying to protect the friends you have left. I could talk about him for 22 hours a day.

Saix/Isa I know I don't post about him a lot, but Saix (or Isa) has been one of my favorite characters since my friend introduced me to Kingdom Hearts when I was a kid. If it wasn't for Vidar, he'd still be in the top spot! There's just something about how ruthless he was in kh2 and Days. How brutally honest and blunt his deliveries were, and how his boss fight involves catching you off guard with mechanics that don't seem to suit what you've seen of him until you really look at it and realize it does. His relationship with Axel is hilarious on surface level and depressing when you go deeper. His relationship of being Xemnas' right-hand man (next to Xigbar) while also plotting to betray him is so intriguing. And then seeing those sharp eyes and the barbed words and the ruthlessness in him and seeing those compared to the kid who made fun of his best friend and wanted to explore places he wasn't supposed to be in and help someone he had just met is heartbreaking. I loved his redemption in kh3, subtle in the background as it was, and I'm hoping to see more of him trying to be a better person and make it up to Roxas and Xion in 4.

Zexion/Ienzo This one caught me so off guard. I had gotten back into the fandom after a long while and was replaying through the old games to get caught up and Zexion blindsided me in Re:CoM. He was secretive and quiet, but really held no animosity towards Sora or Riku. Which, compared to the rest of the Organization in the castle, stood out a lot. Considering this, he really didn't deserve the death he got, which is still pretty brutal for a Kingdom Hearts death. Then he comes back and immediately throws everything he has into helping the heroes. They were more of a means to an end before, rather than true enemies, and despite their reservations about him he has no problems spending all of his time and resources into helping them stop Xehanort. He was just a kid when he helped start the fall of Radiant Garden but he still feels so guilty and wants to atone so badly. Plus you get extra angst in the "didn't have a heart for 10 odd years and now suddenly has one and is feeling" department.

Runner ups include: Baldr, Vali, Xaldin/Dilan, Vexen/Even, and Terra!

[khtrinityftw]

Something done so well in the KH Trinity is the balance between the dramatic stakes and the personal stakes. You feel both perfectly.

In Kingdom Hearts, the personal stakes are that Sora wants to be reunited with Kairi and Riku while Donald and Goofy want to be reunited with their king. It all comes to a head at Hollow Bastion, where everything appears lost for Sora: Kairi appears lifeless and held captive, Riku is full-on evil and stands against him, and even Donald and Goofy abandon him in order to follow their missing king's instructions. But he presses onward, ultimately able to overcome and reverse all this. Of course, even then the personal stakes are unable to be completely fulfilled, as Sora, Donald and Goofy is still apart from their loved ones in the end. That's why this is a trilogy!

The dramatic stakes, meanwhile, are the universe being consumed by darkness as the Heartless spread across worlds and destroy them one by one, all while searching for the Seven Princesses of Heart that can grant the villains controlling them a pathway to ultimate power. It progresses until we reach the final battle, where Ansem's darkness has manifested an enormous Heartless warship ready to break down the door to Kingdom Hearts. And even if Kingdom Hearts is actually light despite what Ansem believes, that light would easily be consumed by the warship's darkness, which is why Sora, Donald and Goofy must take it down....and then afterwards, once the door is open, seal it shut before the Heartless from the Realm of Darkness swarm into the Realm of Light and fulfill Ansem's vision for him. This music alone is enough to sell how massive the stakes are here.

In Chain of Memories, the personal and dramatic stakes are tied together the closest of any game because it's the same possibility: Sora losing himself. Bad for the universe, bad for him and his friends. Riku lacks any real dramatic stakes in his story, but the personal stakes are very clear: achieve redemption or be forever damned?

And in Kingdom Hearts II, we escalate so that not only are Sora, Donald and Goofy seeking to reunite with their closest friends, but all of the other friends they made during their first go-round are being threatened by the forces of evil, exemplified best in the "But Leon and the others are friends too!" scene at the game's midway point.

The dramatic stakes are now not a progressing apocalypse in full view, but an insidious conspiracy in the shadows that uses deception and manipulation to progress until an apocalypse can be unleashed upon the universe all at once when Xemnas absorbs the power of Kingdom Hearts to become a deity. When Ansem the Wise thwarts this plan by blowing Kingdom Hearts wide open, Xemnas still merges with its remains in order to manifest a mighty flying battle fortress that he can sail through space in, attacking all worlds and absorbing all the hearts he needs to complete his ascension to godhood. Like in the first game, Sora, Donald and Goofy bring down this monstrosity and save the universe. But then, Sora and Riku get separated from everyone as a back-up generator made up of power from Kingdom Hearts resurrects Xemnas, who now just wants them dead so that he can go forth to show the universe that if he can't rule over it then he will destroy it, reducing world after world to utter nothingness.

And even after these dramatic stakes are resolved with Xemnas' final defeat, the personal stakes linger as it looks like Sora and Riku are trapped in the Realm of Darkness, unable to return to their loved ones in the Realm of Light and doomed to fade away. And it's this fake-out, how it looks like another cliffhanger ending is coming, that makes the happy ending Kairi's message in a bottle brings all the more joyous and satisfying. It's narrative pay-off done to perfection.

In the series beyond the KH Trinity, we've either gotten sufficient dramatic stakes (Coded, Birth by Sleep), sufficient personal stakes (358/2 Days, 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage), or neither as the story fails at both (Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts III). Nothing on this level ever again, which I doubt is going to change.

[nicedracula]

If Xemnas ever had a redemption arc, how would you feel about it? I find it unfair that everyone but him got to come back from the dead. Btw I love how you draw him and xigbar.

I feel like kh is the kind of thing where like. As long as it's whole-hearted with its whimsy and sincerity, it can get away with a lot. At least to me haha...I'd love to see a weird, silly redemption arc for him and the other Norts, especially cause we got the rest of the RG crew got to come back. And then I can make weirder fics/comics about it if it does happen...

[allykakamatsu]

KH X GI Gacha Screen and Character Profile Double Feature, 1/1 Day edition

"To be honest, I don't know too much about him but at the same time it's like I know everything. I guess it makes sense, he's kind of like Roxas and Naminé, technically he's my Nobody but outside factors made him more of his own person. Still, now that he's back and trying to do better, I just hope that he's able to find something resembling a normal life, and I think I can trust you guys to take care of that when I'm not here." -Terra talking to the main group.

Name: Xemnas

Title: Heart of Nothingness

Former Superior of the original Organisation XIII

Vision: Electro

Consternation: Inanis

[psychicdragoncoffee]

This is the Kingdom Hearts fic that I am currently working on.

The plot revolves around Xemnas being stuck in Terra after the war. Terra and a few others want to allow him to have another chance while there are some people who don't want to see Xemnas revived.

Xemnas will have to go through redemption before anyone would be willing to accept him.

[atomic-taco-muffin]

Xehanort finding redemption and happiness au:

Kâlé: *hops down from the tree behind eraqus* you called dad?

Eraqus: yes kâlé I believe this is for you *holds out a letter*

Kâlé: huh? *Opens it and reads it* holy cow my biological father is alive..?

Eraqus: yes and he lives at king Xemnas' castle

Eraqus: I won’t pressure you

[ultraericthered]

I agree that Lea was weaksauce in KH3 (boy do I ever) and that Saix's redemption and reconcilliation with him was weak and needed a lot more work and focus for it to feel right. But you still missed some details if you say Isa's apology was insincere and that "he did absolute shit to redeem himself". The weak writing didn't make it clear enough but Saix was doing the same thing he sent Axel to do in CoM - playing double agent to secretly derail things for someone (in this case Master Xehanort) from within the Organization.

From the KH Wiki:

After the meeting, Saïx departs to collect Vexen for their needs. Upon convincing Even to revert back into Vexen, the two return to the stone pillars at the Keyblade Graveyard, where Saïx states his surprise that Vexen was willing to rejoin, but welcomed him into their ranks nonetheless. Secretly however, the two would begin to work together to atone for their misdeeds in the past. As Saïx is one of the chosen he is unable openly work against the Organization as a result, Vexen recruits Demyx who is also benched to work on his behalf as no one would suspect him of defecting, although Demyx is reluctant at first he is convinced to do so when Vexen reveals that Saïx was the one who came up with the plan and he is good a recon which would help them in their plan. As a result, Demyx delivers a replica body to Ienzo at Radiant Garden.

Saïx soon regroups with a hooded Xion and later Xemnas in a part of the Twist of Isolation, where they would be confronted by Lea and Kairi. During the exchange of words between the two groups, Saïx would subtly attempt to remind Xion of her past by calling Lea "Axel" and putting extra impact on Roxas's name when brought up.

Plus, I really don't think Lea should be one to never forgive Isa given how many terrible things Axel did of his own accord that he has never had to answer for. Leaving Saix to rot would create too much of a glaring double standard, so I think they took the preferable option.

Was Lea really weaker in KH3 than in KH2, where he obsessed over a 15 year old boy to the point he couldn't live without him and lost to DUSKS?

lol Yes. In KH2 he did not lose to Dusks. That robs him of his entire sacrifice in that scene. Bit miffed that’s how you twisted it, but i can explain it if you want. Sorry for the length.

STORY TIME: The Dusks were too many for SORA, Goofy, Donald and AXEL combined. If you wanna call Sora weak that’s your prerogative. Sora had taken on an entire army of Heartless earlier in the same game and hadn’t given up. Somehow he was gonna DIE with the number of low-rank Nobodies around (because they were in the passage way between worlds in Darkness? i think that was the reason they were powerful? been a while). The only way Axel saw to save Sora, and Roxas by proxy, was to unleash all of his power. It took his existence to wipe out countless Dusks in their own realm. Silly, Axel killed HIMSELF to save everyone. (Can rework that cringey line to say “No one axes Axel except Axel.”)  Sora/Roxas and companions would be alive and still have all their strength left to stop the Org and save Kairi. That’s not “lost to Dusks.”

Also, loving someone that much isn’t a weakness. Idk how edgy you wanna sound. He didn’t lose any 15yo (i find it odd your phrasing makes it sound like his age makes it stupid), he lost his Very. Best. Friend. (via Nomura quote: “the best of friends.”) His friend left him, yes, but then his friend was kidnapped and turned prisoner with all memories wiped by some Bondage asshole, then reabsorbed into another 15yo boy’s heart. Axel was never going to see the one person who made him feel like he had a heart. The one person in all the worlds he could–Axel’s words–care about. If you’re numb for years and someone comes along to make you FEEL again, you naturally want to keep them around. If you had one friend and one friend only, and to you it looked like they’d been kidnapped and tortured, i assume you’d do whatever you could to get them back home. If that person was everything you ever cared about and now you’d never see them again… Axel didn’t have a reason to exist if existing meant being heartless again. No one to talk to, to smile with, to fight next to, to peacefully chill with as he took in sunsets. His life to save ANY PART of Roxas left alive was a worthy trade in his mind. Sora sure appreciated it.

Now i get to spill salt on how KH3 wrote Lea! Look at this mopey damn loser, my guy. He has nothing to do all day except sit (always sitting) sadly, talking like he’s on Valium (i think even Flynn as bored), sighing about what he doesn’t have. I admit it’s a good showing of depression if that’s what they were going for, but this was AXEL. We’d seen Axel sad but then we saw Axel DO something about it. WITHOUT A HEART (or without a full one) he was more dedicated to action than we ever saw Lea in kh3. Even in 3D, Lea woke up and immediately hauled ass to join the cause, having the balls to summon a keyblade first try just thinking about saving his friend. That’s the Axel and therefore i guess the Lea we know. 

In KH3 Nomura had him benched supposedly training without ever showing us training, then when he finally does fight he loses to a stiff wind. Wtf? If a heart makes you strong, you’d imagine he’d be stronger than Axel ever was. Now he’s losing consciousness, getting his weakass keyblade broken, and JUST KNEELING THERE WAITING TO DIE. 

The kneeling is what really got me. He’s wounded? Okay. But in like 2 minutes he’s gonna stand up perfectly fine and only cradle his right arm a bit. So he’s not THAT wounded, but Nomura still has him rooted to the gd ground both when he’s about to die AND WHEN SORA AND XION ARE IN DANGER. What does Nomura have this Dollar Store Axel do? Weakly grab onto one of Xemnas’s boots. Friends are gonna die and all Lea thinks to do is “guess i can sorta inconvenience Xemnas with my han–ah, no, he stepped on my hand now i got nothing.” WEAK AS SHIT. DISGRACEFUL. DISHONOR ON EVERYBODY.

Axel in that same situation would at least use magic. If Axel is inside Lea than by all rules he should have his powerful fire magic. Lea wouldn’t even poof one flame to help? BOI. Make a wall of fire between Xemnas/Saix and the heroes! When he grabs Xem’s boot, light his ass on fire! Try to Vexen him! At least melt his boot to the ground! Summon a chakram and shove the points into his ass! WEAK.

Lea is so weak he rushes to forgive Saix who tried to kill him and his friends moments before. You’ll notice Roxas, Xion and Sora not giving one fuck. Saix only apologizes because his bitch self is dying again and Lea somehow thinks this is a sincere apology. Lea is so weak he lets Saix/Isa hang out with his friends that the crusty smurf tried to kill and made their lives, including Axel’s, hell besides. This monotone Xemnas fanboy who did absolute shit to redeem himself gets to live happily ever after like he’s just one of the guys who got hangry a couple times. NO. WEAK. Axel would burn his wig off and tell him if he suddenly wants friends so badly he can go find some of his Nobody dogs.

There is no comparison and i hope Nomura has nightmares featuring my sternly frowning face. Peace.

[venacoeurva]

Meme redraw to celebrate finding the pressure curve I was using after I accidentally reset it babyyy

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[captainbobbin]

"You get used to it."