#riku had an entirely different outfit under his own organization coat so who knows what xigbar has under there

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - Braig / Xigbar

[nadziejastar]

Why I Wish the Sea-Salt Trio Had Not Been Reformed

"Kingdom Hearts is not too realistic, but I do want my players to grasp a sense of reality from it as well. For example, I'm sure you had friends when you were young, a good group of friends, but as you grow older things change and it doesn't always stay the same.” — Nomura

I don't dislike what the sea-salt trio added to the story, nor do I think it shouldn't have been created in the first place. But I do think that reuniting these three had a detrimental effect on the story. It felt very forced and it also took away a bit of the sense of realism that past KH titles had.

Nomura stated in a recent Q&A that he was very hesitant to revive Roxas and Xion, up until the very end. He originally had come up with a scenario where they did not return. But due to the fans’ opinions being so strong, he felt like he had no choice but to bring them back. Here is why I think he was so hesitant to resurrect them, and why I wish he had gone with his original story route instead.

“Kairi, who was a tomboy in KHI, became a little bit more mature in KHII. She changed a lot outwardly since at that age girls grow a lot faster than boys, but her lively personality didn't fundamentally change. Enough that 'with Riku and Sora gone, right now Kairi is the strongest person on Destiny Islands' is an actual premise. I like the scene in KHI, when she watches the sunset with Sora, and tells him not to change. I thought it showed very well her anxiety and loneliness over how as we get older we find a distance growing between us and our close friends.” — Nomura

Xion was Kairi the way Sora remembered her. In essence, she was the young Kairi from KH1. But that girl doesn’t exist anymore. The real Kairi is different now. She’s matured physically as well as emotionally. With Sora and Riku gone, she became the strongest one in her friend group. She spent the last year waiting, worrying, and being lonely. Kairi gets a new outfit and cuts her hair in KH3, symbolizing that she has changed even more.

Lea has also changed. He may not have a new outfit, but (at first) he has reclaimed his old name. He is no longer “Axel” but fully human, and he is trying to go back to being the person he used to be before joining the Organization. It was interesting to see a more emotional Lea interact with an older Kairi, while still maintaining the same chemistry he had with Xion. Their relationship was the same in some ways, but it was also different. Kairi related to Lea on a more adult level and it felt like their relationship had evolved beyond 358/2 Days. 

“It’s a place of lies Naminé made from his own memories, but, maybe, that’s the real Roxas. Not clad in a black coat, but playing with friends his own age, laughing, eating ice-cream, wandering around—like Sora.”  — Axel

The interesting and realistic conflict between Axel and Roxas from KH2 was also completely swept under the rug and left unaddressed. As Roxas matured, he wanted to know who he was as a human and live his own life. And more than anything else, he wanted to be a normal kid with friends his own age. That was why he left Axel’s side. It was the entire premise behind his summer vacation prologue in KH2. 

The real Roxas was the boy in the data Twilight Town, not the boy in the black robe. And the real Roxas had forgotten about Axel and made other friends. The Roxas that Axel knew was long gone. A lot of fans saw Axel’s obsession with Roxas in KH2 as a display of close friendship or maybe even true love. But I don’t think it was ever Nomura’s intention to depict it that way. I think he viewed Axel as a broken person who was unable to cope with his loneliness. His emotional dependence on Roxas was a character flaw, not something we were meant to romanticize.

“I was afraid of that... Everyone grows up—and grown-ups always forget. First you'll forget what it feels like to be young, and then you'll forget about me.” — Peter Pan

In KH3, Lea assumed that Roxas was Ventus, the same person he met way back when he was a kid. In KH3D, he went looking for Isa, not Roxas. While he was training, he never mentioned anything about bringing Roxas back. He had apparently accepted that Roxas, his “best friend” in the black coat, wasn’t coming back. He was looking forward to reuniting with Ventus instead. 

“Way back when I was a kid, I met this other weird kid. Somehow we became fast friends. Never saw him again— nearly forgot about him, too. Then I met Roxas. Couldn’t believe it. The two of ’em were identical. Oh, I didn’t tell Roxas. Didn’t want him to go vanishing on me, too. The kid’s name was Ventus. He’s one of the lost Keyblade wielders we’re looking for. Think he’s still got me memorized?”  — Lea

Their friendship would be different from how it was before. Ventus had his own best friends from his human life. But that was okay. It didn’t mean he’d forget about him or that he’d disappear from his life for good. Lea seemed like he had grown beyond his KH2 self in this scene, like he had faced some of his fears and become stronger and more mature. And that progress was undone later on, once he realized Ventus didn’t remember him and the whole “bring Roxas back” subplot became his sole focus once again.

“Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It's a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don't feel like it anymore. It's strange, but I'm content with just missing what's gone. I'm not the one who changed. You did.”  — Axel

In the next cutscene, Axel acted rather strangely. He made a point of telling Saix that he wanted to bring everyone back, but especially Roxas, even pointing his ice cream at him for additional emphasis. Then Saix mentions his lack of tear marks. Axel looks away, then claims he doesn’t need them anymore. But his response doesn’t sound very convincing. Why did Nomura write the scene this way?

I think it was the most subtle way he could depict it, but his intentions all along were to show that Axel’s obsession with Roxas in KH2 had less to do with how close they were, and more to do with his relationship with Isa. Axel wanted to prove to Saix, and also to himself, that he had a new best friend now and he didn’t need Isa as much as he did when he they were kids. He’s not a crybaby and he’s outgrown those upside-down tears. His behavior was very childish. As if to deliberately signify character regression.

As soon as the sea-salt trio reunited, everything instantly went back to how it was in 358/2 Days, despite how much all the characters had changed since then. In fact, the Roxas and Xion in KH3 were literally time-travelling from the past. Xion was always a past version of Kairi anyways, so her presence clashed with the real Kairi. Roxas was back in the black coat again, implying that this Roxas was essentially the one from before the prologue of KH2. And Lea went back to being called “Axel”, a name he had left behind in KH3D, specifically in preparation for the reunification of the sea-salt trio. It was hard for me to feel happy because the trio felt like such a relic of the past. The resolution felt disingenuous and almost sickeningly sweet.