After letting the story sit with me for a while it feels wrong. Really weird and just wrong. Nomura obviously cares about the story of the games and I want to believe he didn't just mindlessly put together the ending of the xehanort saga. But what I truly get from how poorly many characters were handled is that Nomura kinda hates them. That he regrets creating them. Mainly Roxas and Kairi. They were done dirty. Lemme explain.
Firstly, kairi. Well, what even is there to say that hasn't been said.
- 0 character development √
- Total disregard for the whole "this time I'll fight" thing √
- kidnapped again to move the plot along √
- death being absolutely meaningless since she comes back before the game even ends √
I'm just done with her. She's nothing. She is the character I dislike the most. There is so much wrong with her portrayal that I can't care anymore. She has no character. She is the most blank, surface level excuse of a character ever. You quite literally can't name one thing that sets her apart from the other female cast. Nothing that makes a memorable character. What's her arc? What motivates her? What weakness does she have? You could probably guess but no matter what you answer to these very basic questions, your answer probably also describes every other main character. She is an absolutely atrocious character and I honestly feel like its weird to disagree with this statement. Nomura had the chance to have her doing something in this game but as I said before, it looks like he doesn't care about her. Its pretty clear that the strong female character of the series is Aqua, she's the one Nomura wants the female audience to identify with. Kairi is a tired plot device that needs to either drastically change or be written off this series already.
And now we get to my big, huge, enormous problem with the characters in this game. Roxas. I honestly believe Nomura despises this dude. It literally feels like he is actively trying to write him off the series altogether. First of all, Roxas had an insanely small amount of screen time. Less than Axel, less than Saix, less than Riku replica, less than demyx. That's embarrassing on its own but when you really think about what he did while on screen, or rather, what he didn't do, it becomes clear that Nomura hates him. Remember in days when Roxas after butchering saix, leaves the organization and ends up killing his best friend, all because of Xemnas? Remember how Roxas tried to track down kingdom hearts and was warned by riku that he would be destroyed by the organization but he WAS NOT scared by that idea at all? How riku was the only reason Roxas never got his fight with his big nemesis, Xemnas? Well Nomura, hating Roxas, chose to completely forget all of that in order to have Roxas instead of fighting , you know, xemnas, have him fighting saix again. Why..just why dude...what does roxas gain as a character from defeating saix again..horrible writing...This time he had help as well, something he didn't need before to slap around saix. Sora was the one that defeated roxas's nemesis. A guy he's already defeated 2 times in the past. Not to mention how much more powerful xemnas's speech surrounding emotions, being human and suffering would be had he said these things to someone like roxas, who, like xemnas, grew out of being a nobody but on the opposite side of the same coin. One of them embraced his feelings and the other tried to run away from them to the very end. That speech would be great if said to Roxas. Cause sora doesn't gain anything from it as it is. But no, nomura wouldn't let Roxas have even the slightest bit of importance to the story. All the foreshadowing about how Roxas would make up the difference when sora needed him had no payoff since he literally did nothing. Also remember how everyone wanted Roxas to meet ven and at the very least have a bit of back and forth with him? Well...I mean...they look at each other...that's enough right...you know..the dudes that look exactly alike and could have some really funny banter..just see each other...that's enough right? See, Nomura knows that people wanted certain battles and moments to exist in the game for some characters. He knew people wanted to see the main characters facing their respective nemesis and Nomura delivered that, only with the characters he cares about. Sora gets his one on one with Xehanort, Aqua with terranort, ven with vanitas, Axel with saix and so on. But when it comes to roxas...well nomura doesn't really care. It looks like he's trying to only keep ven around cause having 2 characters who look the same is apparently too much for him. That's why ven is now tied to the ux story, the story that will move the story past kh3 and Roxas has nothing to do going forward. The one thing he should have done was robbed from him.
This post contains heavy spoilers.
After letting the story sit with me for a while it feels wrong. Really weird and just wrong. Nomura obviously cares about the story of the games and I want to believe he didn't just mindlessly put together the ending of the xehanort saga. But what I truly get from how poorly many characters were handled is that Nomura kinda hates them. That he regrets creating them. Mainly Roxas and Kairi. They were done dirty. Lemme explain.
Firstly, kairi. Well, what even is there to say that hasn't been said.
- 0 character development √
- Total disregard for the whole "this time I'll fight" thing √
- kidnapped again to move the plot along √
- death being absolutely meaningless since she comes back before the game even ends √
I'm just done with her. She's nothing. She is the character I dislike the most. There is so much wrong with her portrayal that I can't care anymore. She has no character. She is the most blank, surface level excuse of a character ever. You quite literally can't name one thing that sets her apart from the other female cast. Nothing that makes a memorable character. What's her arc? What motivates her? What weakness does she have? You could probably guess but no matter what you answer to these very basic questions, your answer probably also describes every other main character. She is an absolutely atrocious character and I honestly feel like its weird to disagree with this statement. Nomura had the chance to have her doing something in this game but as I said before, it looks like he doesn't care about her. Its pretty clear that the strong female character of the series is Aqua, she's the one Nomura wants the female audience to identify with. Kairi is a tired plot device that needs to either drastically change or be written off this series already.
And now we get to my big, huge, enormous problem with the characters in this game. Roxas. I honestly believe Nomura despises this dude. It literally feels like he is actively trying to write him off the series altogether. First of all, Roxas had an insanely small amount of screen time. Less than Axel, less than Saix, less than Riku replica, less than demyx. That's embarrassing on its own but when you really think about what he did while on screen, or rather, what he didn't do, it becomes clear that Nomura hates him. Remember in days when Roxas after butchering saix, leaves the organization and ends up killing his best friend, all because of Xemnas? Remember how Roxas tried to track down kingdom hearts and was warned by riku that he would be destroyed by the organization but he WAS NOT scared by that idea at all? How riku was the only reason Roxas never got his fight with his big nemesis, Xemnas? Well Nomura, hating Roxas, chose to completely forget all of that in order to have Roxas instead of fighting , you know, xemnas, have him fighting saix again. Why..just why dude...what does roxas gain as a character from defeating saix again..horrible writing...This time he had help as well, something he didn't need before to slap around saix. Sora was the one that defeated roxas's nemesis. A guy he's already defeated 2 times in the past. Not to mention how much more powerful xemnas's speech surrounding emotions, being human and suffering would be had he said these things to someone like roxas, who, like xemnas, grew out of being a nobody but on the opposite side of the same coin. One of them embraced his feelings and the other tried to run away from them to the very end. That speech would be great if said to Roxas. Cause sora doesn't gain anything from it as it is. But no, nomura wouldn't let Roxas have even the slightest bit of importance to the story. All the foreshadowing about how Roxas would make up the difference when sora needed him had no payoff since he literally did nothing. Also remember how everyone wanted Roxas to meet ven and at the very least have a bit of back and forth with him? Well...I mean...they look at each other...that's enough right...you know..the dudes that look exactly alike and could have some really funny banter..just see each other...that's enough right? See, Nomura knows that people wanted certain battles and moments to exist in the game for some characters. He knew people wanted to see the main characters facing their respective nemesis and Nomura delivered that, only with the characters he cares about. Sora gets his one on one with Xehanort, Aqua with terranort, ven with vanitas, Axel with saix and so on. But when it comes to roxas...well nomura doesn't really care. It looks like he's trying to only keep ven around cause having 2 characters who look the same is apparently too much for him. That's why ven is now tied to the ux story, the story that will move the story past kh3 and Roxas has nothing to do going forward. The one thing he should have done was robbed from him.