In my opinion, he seriously needed this loss to Xehanort, to show him that he needs to get his act together.

 

I mean, from KH1, up until now, Sora has conquered every challenge he's come across, and saved the worlds from Xehanort multiple times. And because of his big successes, he's pretty much become careless and pretty much an idiot hero.

 

I mean, in KH1, he kinda was a idiot hero, but considering how he spent all his life carefree on the islands having fun with Riku and Kairi, it was to be expected. And by KH2, he finally began to see the error of his previous ways, and was starting to become more mature. But then he defeated Xemnas and the Organization. And then, he laid back and took a break with Riku and Kairi and the DI, for at least month(Meanwhile the almost completely unimportant events of Coded took place) before getting called to save the worlds one last time. Im pretty sure that last success against Xehanort in KH2 went to Sora's head, which is why now in DDD, he's become alot more careless and pretty much reverted back to the idiot hero he was in KH1, which made him more vulnerable. Then when the critical moment came and Sora arrived at TWTNW, Sora didn't think clearly enough, so he went to far into his dream and fell into Xehanort's trap.

 

Because of his actions and carelessness, he almost succumbed to the darkness and became the final vessel, and considering how powerful he is, could've ended up helping Xehanort summon Kingdom Hearts and possibly the end of the worlds.

 

My point is, Sora got lazy due to his constant success, and lost sight of how big a threat Xehanort really is.

 

HE NEEDED TO LOSE TO XEHANORT THIS TIME. Now he has realized how his actions almost caused Xehanort to capture him and possibly summon Kingdom Hearts, so next game, he will probably be more mature and serious about how big of a threat Xehanort is.

Where has Master Xehanort's excessive planning gotten him so far? Nowhere.

 

I expect Sora to win everytime because of protagonist power.

Fair enough. This is a Square Enix game though, i mean, in FF, things don't turn out at all the way that the KH games do. It wouldn't be unlikely for Square to make it so Sora can't win with just protagonist power.

Fair enough. This is a Square Enix game though, i mean, in FF, things don't turn out at all the way that the KH games do. It wouldn't be unlikely for Square to make it so Sora can't win with just protagonist power.

But it's KH not FF. It's meant to have a happy ending because, Disney. Plus it's the end of the Xehanort saga. Which means Xehanort loses. Which mean Sora wins.

Edited May 7, 201312 yr by Xaon

But it's KH no FF. It's meant to have a happy ending because, Disney. Plus it's the end of the Xehanort saga. Which means Xehanort loses. Which mean Sora wins.

Fair enough.

The humbling of Sora to Xehanort to the point where Riku had to bail him out is primary reason I disliked DDD.

 

It more or less flips off the character development of the first game. The brilliant thing about KH1 is that, when they are on the islands, it is made clear that, if the group was to go on an adventure, Riku would be the hero, and Sora would be his sidekick. Riku is faster, stronger, smarter, and Sora's kind of lazy. But then, when bad things actually go down, Riku gives in to Darkness, while Sora hesitates. Sora gets the keyblade because Riku has indulged in his sins, and now Sora is the best man to save the world. The game spends time as Sora develops his skills and goes from being Number 2 to being Number 1, but at no point does he become as arrogant or corrupt as Riku, showing that Sora's heart is in the right place. Sora gets to be top dog because he earned it by being as good as he is.

 

So, DDD. It's revealed that team Xehanort is having a hard time getting to Riku because he's supposedly developed an "immunity to Darkness" and they go after Sora, who goes down hard. This leads to Riku having to dash in and save him from his own crass mistakes. What does this mean?

-Riku has long term benefits for abetting in a plot to destroy the world. He can wield light, darkness, and now has immunity.

-Sora is being punished for being a good person, because it has made him susceptible to Xehanort's plot.

-Riku gets to save Sora, re-affirming himself as the hero, with Sora once again his sidekick.  

 

Not a fan.

The humbling of Sora to Xehanort to the point where Riku had to bail him out is primary reason I disliked DDD.

 

It more or less flips off the character development of the first game. The brilliant thing about KH1 is that, when they are on the islands, it is made clear that, if the group was to go on an adventure, Riku would be the hero, and Sora would be his sidekick. Riku is faster, stronger, smarter, and Sora's kind of lazy. But then, when bad things actually go down, Riku gives in to Darkness, while Sora hesitates. Sora gets the keyblade because Riku has indulged in his sins, and now Sora is the best man to save the world. The game spends time as Sora develops his skills and goes from being Number 2 to being Number 1, but at no point does he become as arrogant or corrupt as Riku, showing that Sora's heart is in the right place. Sora gets to be top dog because he earned it by being as good as he is.

 

So, DDD. It's revealed that team Xehanort is having a hard time getting to Riku because he's supposedly developed an "immunity to Darkness" and they go after Sora, who goes down hard. This leads to Riku having to dash in and save him from his own crass mistakes. What does this mean?

-Riku has long term benefits for abetting in a plot to destroy the world. He can wield light, darkness, and now has immunity.

-Sora is being punished for being a good person, because it has made him susceptible to Xehanort's plot.

-Riku gets to save Sora, re-affirming himself as the hero, with Sora once again his sidekick.  

 

Not a fan.

 

 

While i definitely appreciate your viewpoint on this and can agree with it to a point , I also kinda look at it as also saying that people make mistakes and can learn from and overcome them to become a better person . Also sometimes it takes adversity to really show who a person really is and helps them build themselves. Even the best of people sometimes need to go through hardships to grow as a person .Thats kinda why sometimes bad things happen to good people . But it surely does reveal their character though .

Sora: We dont need no stinking test. Riku and me can handle anything.

 

*couple hours later*

 

Sora: I've been kidnapped.

Edited May 7, 201312 yr by Rob

I think it was sort of a necessary and sobering loss that Sora needed; on the one hand, it's a large part of his character (and a large part of his power) that he runs around being sort of happy-go-lucky; it makes sense in the first game, because he's literally just this kid from an island that has no idea what he's doing, but had the keyblade thrust upon him, and so with that power comes the responsibility to help people out, which he does to the best of his ability, and was eventually strong enough to take out Ansem. On the other hand, he's often reckless and impulsive, and his more good and pure qualities sort of need to be offset by others around him helping him out. It's just reality, and sort of common for characters like him (idk I watch a lot of magical girl anime where the main characters are all-powerful and pure and all, but they would have died in 2 seconds without their friends watching over them).

 

Chain of memories first introduces the idea that following your heart blindly can be dangerous though; if Sora had taken two seconds aside to think through his actions, like Donald and Goofy and Jiminy tried to tell him, he would have noticed how suspicious everything was, and it was also from here on end that Sora essentially survived on luck. He lucked out that Namine turned out to be a good person and felt guilty for her actions; heck, he lucked out that the Organization was basically battling against each other, giving Namine the chance to get away. He's very lucky DiZ came along, whatever you may think of him, because Namine and Riku alone probably wouldn't have been able to watch over Sora properly while he was sleeping. KH2 was almost entirely lucky the organization didn't really want him dead until the end of the game, and lucky that Ansem the Wise came along with a way to destroy the fake kingdom hearts, because Sora and crew (Mickey too) had nothing.

 

Everyone else who's battled Xehanort so far has lost; Eraqus, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, all keyblade masters (well, if Vanitas is at least equal to Aqua and Ventus beat Vanitas, he arguably has master level strength) all ended up in horrible situations due to Xehanort's planning, even if they were able to postpone his plans.

 

Sora noted early in the game that his friends are his power; and even though he's powerful on his own, he is very reliant on others to help him out. He's impulsive and doesn't always think through situations, which is sort of his biggest (perhaps only) weakness. His method is run forward and swing his keyblade at problems until they die, and it has worked so far, but in the long run, not really. Granted, throughout DDD, he thought everything was just part of the test, although perhaps he should have listened to Young Xehanort's words a little more closely; Riku obviously took him more seriously and questioned his purpose more. Once Sora got to TWTNW, though, he stopped thinking through many parts and went on in a very reactionary way. Understandable? Yes. Smart? No. Dangerous? Obviously.

 

Xehanort's a master tactician, and Sora hasn't really found himself up against his cunning in a major way until now; Xehanort loses fights all the time, but he's pretty much winning the war through use of his brain (ie Terra and Aqua managed to beat him in battle, but it was kind of a useless victory that accomplished nothing in the long run). He fooled not only Sora, but Mickey and Yen Sid as well; he's not a force to take lightly by anyone and I think the experience will definitely have Sora more cautious in the future. Not to the level where it ruins his character, and in most respects, Sora will be very much the same, but I think he will. He did have a little arrogance and probably thinks he can beat any problem easily, so I think it was okay for him to get knocked down a few pegs. (Granted, I think he mostly didn't want to take the exam because wtf my memories are getting messed with again no thank you. He seemed fine with it until that detail, and it's understandable he'd fear it). You see very obviously in the end that  Sora hasn't really been changed by this and is happy for Riku, while understanding that he himself still has a bit of ways to go before he's truly a master. 

 

Dear lord look at this essay I haven't posted on this website in forever and its all built up. I'm not even sure if it's all relevant/makes sense.

Edited May 9, 201312 yr by deathrebirthsenshi