#roxas was worried he was gonna be doomed to just being in someone else's shadow

[storm-driver]

had a very wild kh-related dream last night that was like a post-kh3 kinda setting where roxas, sora and ven all were laying out on the beach near each other. a lil distance between them, sora and ven were laying in the sun, but roxas was in the shade beneath something. and ven woke up to drag roxas into the sun, who yelled at him to stop, but ven just laughed while roxas was forced to be dragged into the light.

edit: ive been told this means im the ceo of roxas and ven, idk what to do with this information

[nadziejastar]

What are your honest thoughts on Roxas, Namine, Xion, as well as the Riku Replica, collectively and individually, and how their narratives was handled throughout the Dark Seeker saga, as well as within Kingdom Hearts III itself?

Roxas

— Is it possible that Roxas has a heart?It is thought that it could be Ventus’ heart. In KHII FM there were clues to him having a heart, and in Days we saw Roxas crying proof that he could have a heart. As was said in Question 1, he has taken a lot of himself from Ventus. But perhaps when Sora and Roxas were separated, Ventus’ heart stayed in Roxas.

My opinion on Roxas is based on the notion that he was born with Ventus’s heart, which is what Nomura said way back when the original BBS came out. This is a very simple idea. I liked it. It made perfect sense to me. On the other hand, Roxas and Ventus being totally separate entities makes no sense to me. Never has. It over-complicates an already convoluted story. That’s my biggest issue with Roxas as a character. Not his personality.

Roxas: What makes you so sure? I have a right to know who I am! How did I get here? Why am I special? Where did I learn to use the Keyblade? I deserve those answers!

Axel: Roxas…

Roxas: Are you gonna tell me or not? Axel… Who am I?

I liked Roxas’s personality and his character arc. He wanted to know who he was. He didn’t want to be a Nobody or a shadow of someone else. Axel knew he had a connection to Ventus, not just Sora. I think Roxas would have been happy to learn that he was his own person in a previous life, and not truly the Nobody of Sora. Roxas having Ventus’s heart was a nice twist, IMO. And it explained why Ven and Lea had a special connection in BBS. It was also a nice way to justify Roxas coming back, without having to be stuck as Sora’s Nobody who lives inside of a Replica body. Which is weird.

DiZ: You should share some of that hatred with Sora. He’s far too nice for his own good.

Roxas: No! My heart belongs to me!

As for how Roxas’s character arc was handled in the DSS, I thought it was mostly good (until KH3). Roxas was always adamant that he had his own heart. He wasn’t Sora. He wasn’t as nice as Sora. He had a lot more anger and pain.

Roxas: Sora will find the answer we’re looking for. I know he will.Because, he’s me.

After Sora defeated him in TWTNW, Roxas seemed to accept that he was really Sora.

Roxas: My role was to see if you were ready to take ownership of the hurt inside you. And now that role is done. Nothing left for me to do but…go away.

Sora: Go home?

Roxas: I don’t know if I have one, but…there’s a place I’d like to be.

But he still had pain that needed to be healed.

Roxas: There are so many hearts that are connected to yours. You’re me, so you can feel what I felt.

Sora: No. Roxas, you’re you. We’re not the same. I wanted to tell you that. That you deserve as much as I do to be your own person.

Roxas: Sora, see? That’s why it has to be you.

Sora had a gut feeling that Roxas wasn’t really him. He was unique. He deserved to be his own person. I agree. I think Sora had an intuitive sense that Ventus’s heart was inside of him. I don’t think KH3D proved that Roxas needed to comeback separately from Ventus. Just that Ventus needed to be revived with all of Roxas’s memories and character development. Bringing Roxas back in KH3 made no sense to me. It was confusing and convoluted, and took the focus off of rescuing Ventus.

It would have made FAR more sense if Sora simply focused on bringing Ventus back, and Ventus had the same personality as Roxas. I don’t see the point of having Ventus and Roxas coexist. I see BBS Ventus as simply a lesser-developed version of KH2′s Roxas. If you focus on too many characters, as KH3 did, you don’t have time to develop the existing ones. And KH3 had very little in the way of satisfying development for anybody. The plot was more concerned with coming up with some contrived way to bring everybody back quickly. But the bonds between everyone felt cheapened.

Xion

— Though he’s a member of Organization XIII, Axel is shown in the end of KH Re:coded in the memories of “pain”…

Since healing the necessary “pain” of Axel’s is different than with other people, if he is revived he will take a form like Xehanort’s. In the end of the story, Namine says, “Those whose memories are sleeping inside Sora need relief.” In the KH BbS secret cutscene “Blank Points”, certain characters call out to Sora, however in that scene Axel is the only one who appears and doesn’t say Sora’s name out loud.

Nomura implied that not everyone who needed to be saved needed to take a physical form. Nowhere in Re:Coded or KH3D did it say that Xion’s heart was sleeping inside of Sora. Her memories were, though. Sora needed to call these painful memories to the surface and heal the pain associated with them. That’s what needed to happen with Xion.

— Does Xion have anything to do with Birth by Sleep?

I think although many people want Xion to come back once more, I’m afraid to say that it’s difficult.

I believe that by returning her memories to Kairi, that would have healed Xion’s pain. Kairi would develop a much deeper bond with Lea and Ventus as a result. Kairi would receive better character development and there’d be less individual characters to hog all the screen time. This would have told a better story in KH3. I don’t believe Xion should have come back and I think bringing her back ruined a lot of the emotional impact her story had in 358/2 Days.

Naminé

Naminé: Don’t worry. You might forget about me…but with our promise, I can come back.

Sora: A promise is a promise.

Naminé: Yes. One day the light—it will be ours, and it will bring us together. Til then—I’ll be in your heart.

Sora: Right. Forgotten—but not lost.

Unlike with Roxas, Naminé seemed to always be aware that she was a figment of Kairi. I think she was exactly what she said she was: Kairi’s shadow. Kairi had no darkness in her heart, but Naminé embodied some of Kairi’s repressed feelings. Like her loneliness after being left behind. She was a more introverted and melancholy version of Kairi.

Axel: Go where? It’s not like we have homes to return to. We don’t exist, remember?

Naminé: Yes, it’s true. We may not have homes. But there is someplace I want to go… And someone I want to see…

Axel: Same here.

Roxas was also originally conceived as Sora’s shadow. A more introverted and melancholy version of Sora. The main thing that separated the two was that Naminé didn’t develop a strong identity of her own. The games always focused on her connection with Sora and Roxas, and barely anyone else.

Naminé: I always though Nobodies were doomed to fade back into darkness…

Roxas: Yeah, but you and I didn’t. We got to meet our original selves.

Naminé: So, we can be together again!

Roxas actually had bonds he formed with people that had no connection whatsoever to Sora. Axel, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Unlike Naminé, it felt convincing that he had his own heart and wasn’t just a figment of Sora. After she was born, Naminé spent most of her time drawing pictures of the people from Sora’s memory. That was it. She really did feel like a figment of Kairi to me. Roxas was out living his life forming deep connections with new people. That’s what made them feel so different. So, I thought the ending of KH2 felt satisfying for Naminé. She’d be happy just being with Roxas every day. On the other hand, I don’t think Roxas would have been happy just being with Naminé.

Sora: Hey, Riku?

Riku: Yeah?

Sora: I wanted to thank Naminé, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Not until everything was back to the way it was before.

Riku: Don’t worry. We’ll make that happen. Once this is over, you can thank her all you want.

Sora: Yeah!

Most of the extra scenes with Naminé focused on her finally being thanked.

Naminé: I may be gone, but my promises to him are forever. And anyway…I owe this much. For all the…all those people that I hurt.

Sora: So what happens to YOU–the one that’s right here?

Naminé: I’m really just data made to pass along a message. I shouldn’t…exist right now in this journal at all. And now, the record of me will disappear. But when you pass my message on to the other Sora, just remember to tell him the things that you’ve seen…and that you’ve felt. If you do that, then we’ll be at rest–her, and me too.

Sora: Along with everybody connected to Sora… Naminé, you got it. Oh yeah!

Naminé: Hm?

Sora: I almost forgot. I have a message for you, too. Thank you.

That seemed to be her main unresolved plot. I’ll be honest. I thought Naminé was flat. She didn’t have much depth to her. More focus was placed on her powers than on her bonds. In Days, she was focused on repairing Sora’s memories while Roxas was growing closer to Xion and Axel. In KH2, she was still focused on repairing Sora’s memories, while Roxas enjoyed his summer vacation with HPO. Re:Coded, she was simply the messenger for Mickey to learn about TAV. In KH3, she was the one who brought the Lingering Will to the Keyblade Graveyard. 

Her own personal friendships always took a backseat to her memory abilities. Naminé was just underdeveloped as a character. Even Xion had her bond with Roxas and Axel. Roxas had Hayner, Pence Olette, and Axel. Naminé had barely any personal connection to anyone besides Sora and Roxas. Sora didn’t even remember her. She did have a bond with Riku, but it didn’t get as much attention as her bond with Sora or Roxas.

Sora: Naminé, is that you? Wait! Naminé! I’ve got a message for you. I meant to tell you once this was all over.

Even in KH3D, it seemed like Naminé just wanted to be remembered by Sora and she would have been happy reintegrating back into Kairi. She never asserted her uniqueness from Kairi the way Roxas did with Sora. There was no hint that she had unspoken feelings for Riku, either. She wanted to be with the Roxas she remembered. I don’t think she needed to come back. She didn’t have enough personal bonds with other characters to justify it.

I don’t even know where all of the stuff with her and Riku came from. Now all of a sudden Riku’s the most special person to her and there’s apparently some kind of romance between them? Uh, okay. It was probably something Nomura came up with because she was so flat and had so few personal bonds of her own and he needed something for her to do once she was back. Roxas and Sora had their hands full with the other Kairis. But Riku was still single, lol.

Riku Replica

Riku Replica: So…it’s over. Hmph. Death doesn’t frighten me. Good riddance to a phony life. My heart was never real. I’m sure even what I’m feeling now is probably all fake.

Riku: What are you feeling?

Riku Replica: What happens when a fake dies—one like me? Where will my heart go? Does it disappear?

Riku: It’ll go somewhere. Maybe to the same place as mine.

Riku Replica: Tsk. A faithful replica until the very end. That’s…okay.

Naminé and the Riku Replica were cut from the same cloth, IMO. They were both shadows of other characters. Naminé’s heart went back to Kairi at the end, and Riku Replica’s heart went back to Riku. I never saw that as a sad ending that needed to be reversed. It’s no different than Shadow Aqua going back to Aqua after her defeat. Even Riku Replica said the world already has Riku, so it didn’t need him. Also, if Riku Replica’s feelings can live on through the real Riku, I don’t see why Xion’s couldn’t live on through Kairi. Why should Xion come back but not Riku Replica?

Riku: That was my…my dark side. I gave in to the darkness once. And ever since, it’s chased me around in one form or another. The Seeker of Darkness who stole my body…a puppet replica of the shadows in my heart…and now, I’m facing me.

IMO, neither of them needed to come back. Riku Replica was simply Riku’s dark side. Not his own character.

Riku: You’re Ansem! Why are you here?

Ansem: Your best friend is never far.

Ansem: So sad. The cost of yielding to the darkness.

Riku: You could write a book about that.

Ansem: But I embraced the darkness–and unless you hurry up and learn to do the same, your story will end just like his.

Riku: I walk the road to dawn!

Ansem: Still afraid of the dark, I see.

Riku obviously had an unresolved plot line with his dark side.

Riku: After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to wield the Keyblade? Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now. There’s no point in trying to hold the darkness back.

Ansem: At last, you see clearly.

Riku: You know…when I look at you…there’s this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I’d keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world…was ‘cause of him.

He should have had some resolution to his character arc where he confronts his dark side. His arc with “Ansem” was clearly not over and there should have been way more story explanation for how he got his new Keyblade in KH3. Not “oh my old one just broke”. Um, no. His old Way to Dawn had some secret meaning behind it, involving his connection with “Ansem”/Terra.

Riku: Can’t use this Keyblade anymore. Might as well leave it here…in case the other me needs it.

I didn’t like the way Riku Replica was handled in KH3. Instead of the focus being on Riku confronting his dark side and finally finishing his extremely long journey to battle his inner darkness, it focused on a random romance between him and Naminé. I don’t like the Riku/Naminé pairing because it’s based on the Riku/Kairi pairing, which was rooted in possessiveness and jealousy. I never liked the Riku/Sora/Kairi love triangle in KH1 to begin with.