What do you think of Sora's Character?

[itsroxas 1]

What do you guys think of Sora's character as a whole? Lots of people keep saying that until now he's been bland and boring with no major development compared to the other characters in the series. Some people say because he didn't have any sad backstory like the others. What do you guys think about his character? Is it true? Does he really need to be more interesting as others say?

Edited June 1, 2016 by Roxas_58644

[Trece the Xam ( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀) 3,859]

He has had developement. He started as a curious boy who didn't really trust who he saw that couldn't be trusted and was careful with what he was doing and ended as a dull ordinary boy that made friends with someone who doesn't take his headphones off at all just to not listen to people around him.

[Felixx 6,646]

Sora is my favorite character, that should say enough

 

I like him just the way he is. Funny, always happy, kind, he cares about his friends, and got a strong heart. That makes him my favorite one

[matteso586 115]

I see him as a doormat that rarely tries to understands things for himself. And like Terra, he doesn't know how to handle strangers. If KHIII includes the world of Frozen, I bet Anna's relationship with Hans (someone she just met) will remind Sora of himself.

[Emrys 3,192]

Hes kinda naive and easy to trick because of how easily trusting he is. I hope they change that.

[Headphone Jack 1,147]

i thought his character was alright in the first couple of games but recently he's become more stupid. i liked how Sora wasn't another mopey/emo JRPG protagonist and instead kept things upbeat for the most part. SE just took that personality too far in DDD and now he's just painfully dumb.

[Shimmy 458]

I quite like Sora. He doesn't get the drastic character development that Riku goes through because he's already likable;  he's a good person with a few flaws and I hope it stays that way.

 

That being said I wouldn't be disinclined to further development to his character. I'm always down for character development. Although if people are saying that Sora is a flat character when Kairi still has yet to have any actual development I'm going to laugh. Just my two cents anyways.  

[Kaweebo 3,617]

He's great when the writing team allows him to be. 

[Dravoo 39]

I think he's fine even if the writing can make him better or worse in each title. I didn't like his more shounen or goofy persona in KH2 but I didn't mind these aspects in DDD too bad since they were toned down. He was more of a "normal boy" in KH1 and kinda felt more like it. He felt most developed or had more thought put into him in 1 writing wise seems like.

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

I like Sora. He has been a bit on the immature side for quite some time up until the end of his Mark of Mastery exam. I am glad he will be more mature come KH3.

[Kalebninja 188]

His writing needs some serious overhaul,I just flat out disliked him in KH3D.

[Organization member XV 49]

Sora has always been an amazing character for me. Sure, he was a bit annoying in kh3D, but maybe it's because he was dreaming? I dunno, I can be pretty weird in my dreams to...

 

But other than kh3D, Sora has always been a character that has had a special place in my memories of gaming.

[VisitJoan 2,713]

Nothing really sticks out about Sora's character to me.  I mean he's a great protagonist, don't get me wrong, but compared to some of the others, he's just... there.  Although he did have that big moment when he freed his own heart to release Kairi's and I think he might get much more devlopment in KH3 with the whole housing Ven's heart thing.

Edited June 1, 2016 by VisitJoan

[Dio Brando 5,810]

He had a decent development in KH1 and Chain of Memories at first.....but afterwards he  got regressed to basically the generic shonen troupe of the courageous but stupid hero on top of being a gary-stu

Edited June 1, 2016 by Smash Mega Koopa

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

I think he's fine and that's that for me. I honestly don't get the point of diving too deep into this, everyone keeps saying that he's too kiddish or too gullible, but that's part of who he is. He's a guy who acts with his heart first, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It might cause him to ignore logic sometimes (like ignoring everything to find Namine, despite having not "remembering" who she was before entering Castle Oblivion), but it also allows for him to make strong choices and take a stand in the most trying of situations (volunteering to let Namine destroy his heart, claiming he would still be able to stop Marluxia no matter what). He makes mistakes, and big deal, no one is innocent of that. Riku is a much more solid character when it comes to logic, sure, but he's made just as many mistakes as Sora, even if they were for different reasons. The good guys fall into the bad guys traps not because they are weak or foolish, but because the traps were made so well. Dream Drop Distance always seems to be the most brought up argument about Sora's personality here, namely about why he just keeps going down the path the Organization wants him to despite knowing that they must be involved in some way. The answer to that is simple, HE HAD NO CHOICE. It's not like a journey through dreams is exactly linear or clear, where ever he ended up and the events he experienced were just what he had to deal with in his own way, just as it's always been. You can't expect a largely emotion-driven character to suddenly start taking every situation on in a logical manner. This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to the dream he was trapped in in The World That Never Was. Instead of being a person who has entered the realm of sleep from the waking world, Sora is traveling through this dream as someone who fell asleep into it. He's experiencing his dream in real time, as a dream. And just how much logic do your dreams have exactly? Almost none, and the same applies here. Reality has distorted and twisted buildings with mismatched features, characters who shouldn't exist have suddenly started reappearing, the sky was freaking raining Soras for crying out loud! This is probably the most dream-like dream world in the entire game, and as such Sora's experience as a dreamer only makes more sense. Sora's appearance is constantly shifting, as real people do inside dreams (you have no "true" persona or gender in your dreams), and whatever he was doing previously instantly becomes forgotten to focus on what is occurring in front of him right then and there. The concerns of falling into a trap aren't as big of a concern when he's being lured by things that his heart is reacting heavily too, Riku's voice is even fairly faint, despite his best efforts to steer Sora away from danger. By the time he's brought out of his sleep to face Xemnas he's already fueled by so much emotional fire over what he just realized about the hearts of the Nobodies that he was going to fight for what he knew was right regardless of if he knew it would drain him or not. That's just the guy he's always been, the kind who fights for what he believes in, heedless of his own peril. As for how "kiddish" he has been in the other worlds of that game, screw all that, he's been away from action and adventure for a real long time, I think he's earned running around a carnival or festival or two and having a blast doing it! What, you expect a person to act in a calm and orderly demeanor as soon as they enter DisneyLand or something? Now THAT doesn't make any sense.

 

If I'm going to be honest here, 3D Sora felt more authentic to me than KH2 Sora did. He still acted largely how you would expect him to, but the way how he just was so quick to antagonize the Nobodies like that, it just didn't come off right. He's a guy who sees the good in someone first, it just doesn't feel natural to see him so quick to jump to hatred like that. Maybe I can kind of look past that by saying that he was already given the impression by Yen Sid that they were lying about what they felt and were just trying to trick and manipulate him at every step of the way, but it still felt like he was just trying to pull off that kind of bravado in an attempt to not be tricked, despite the fact that they still manipulate him in the right ways anyway. That's where it felt like Sora trying to be more "Sora-y" without it feeling as authentic half the time for me, not in 3D. That's not to say it ruins the character for me entirely in that game though, he still shows off who he really is lots of times in that game, and there are a lot of time where his emotional responses, be it sheer joy or rage and contempt, do actually feel warranted and true to who he is. Guess the extended extra year of having to find Riku and the King with no leads and then having to save Kairi again may have been starting to weigh on him a bit, and a lot does happen in that game, so I guess I can kind of understand the more emotional leaps he makes, but again, the unconditional contempt for any Organization member that appeared before him was the only instance that threw me off, and even that got rectified when the few who did deserve sympathy actually got that from Sora before they disappeared..

 

So really, even though I feel Sora can sometimes be nudged a tiny bit to one extreme or another with each game, I don't ever feel like he's unauthentic in any game he appears in, least of all in 3D. Sora's a kid at heart so he's going to act like a kid at times (or have we all seriously just forgotten Ansem the Wise's big speech at the end of 3D? Because, you know, that was kind of what he was talking about, Sora seeing the world through the heart of a child. Just saying.), that doesn't mean he's devoid of logic entirely, he's skeptical when it feels right for him to be skeptical, and it never overstays it's welcome cause he still follows what his heart tells him is right, and that's how he's always been driven, since every game from KH1 to KH 3D. Sora is Sora and I wouldn't have him any other way. Period.

[Niko Collins 83]

I like to believe that Sora is the embodiment of childhood innocence and wonder. Sure he grows up as the games go by and that's to be expected. Sora has his flaws ;like the rest of us (ie. he's too nice and can sometimes be a bit bubble-headed), but that makes him different from the other people around him. Sora shows that you can be a nice guy and still kick tons of ass too! Not all bad asses are gritty!

Edited June 1, 2016 by Niko Collins

[AzureAce 544]

He is way too happy for his own good. They were doing so well with development, he was showing emotions other than happiness in CoM/Re: CoM, then they got to KHII and firetrucked it up again. He really needs to show his maturity in KHIII, or really, as much as I love him, he's a lost cause of a character. 

[GroovingOnUp 163]

Favorite character but i'm still looking forward to a more mature Sora in KH3.

[ShadowKeyblade 219]

He was great in 1, both in terms of character development and personality, but after that he's remained pretty static as a character. CoM did good by him, but since he kinda lost that experience I guess that's a bit irrelevant... KH2 was alright from a personality standpoint, but he did seem a little dumb at points, when his character was never dumb previously. So began his transformation into shounen archetype. Coded... I'd say that's a love hate. I love his character interactions with Donald, Goofy, and Riku, but he still has that dumbness from previously. DDD Sora was just bad. He was dumb, naive, and there was too much heart light friendship in his everyday conversation. Hoping they go more towards KH1 Sora, or at least KH2 Sora in KH3, since he's supposed to "mature" or whatever.

[Firaga 5,947]

Again with this, seriously? Leave Sora alone, already! DX

 

Alright, I'm going to summarize what would initially be a longer post about my stance because I'm already dealing with a similar subject in another thread.

 

Sora is not a typical protagonist and he doesn't develop like a typical protagonist would. He doesn't develop like Riku, and although I believe he hasn't developed as much as Riku, again, he has his own unique beats of development in it of itself.

 

First off, I'd like to address that KH1 Sora is my least favorite incarnation of him. No, he's not more intelligent than he is in later installments, he's bland. He's boring. He barely has a personality and serves as more of an avatar for the player and the only beats he hits feel like he's just a soundbox repeating back  the game's themes and messages for the player to absorb. That doesn't make you more intelligent, it makes you look like you're barely a character to begin with.

 

COM and onwards, however, he actually gains personality. He still retains his default brand of optimism and cheerfulness but is then challenged with obstacles that allow him to both adapt and show more layers of his person but also be able to overcome his obstacles and remain optimistic, something that does take a good amount of intelligence and maturity to do because it shows personal strength to be able to do something like that other than just sit around and brood, and is something he never would have learned in the original game because the only thing he cared about was finding Riku and Kairi.

 

I'd also like to emphasize that just because a character is predominantly happy doesn't mean they have a lack of intelligence. Why do people think this? Are we so full of repressed anxiety and cynicism that we can't stand to have a fictional character be happier than we are and so we mock them for it? Hell, Sora is more mature than half the people I've met in high school.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Firaga Sensei

[Elfdemon_ 695]

I think him being such an ordinary boy is what makes him such an interesting and special character. While everyone else is unique and powerful and can be seen as "chosen ones", he's just an ordinary boy who happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the Keyblade. He's powerful and strong because of his unique and special friends. His friends are his power, and he's theirs.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Elfdemon_

[Movies798 1,357]

I really like Sora, especially in Kingdom Hearts 1, Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2. I like his heroic and friendly personality and his relationship with his friends, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey. He can be a bit naive and gullible sometimes, but I love that he has a strong sense of justice, knowing what's right and wrong, and I love that he's willing to sacrifice for his friends and never gives up them, like Kairi and Riku for example. I do like that he can express his anger, especially towards his enemies like the Organization 13 in Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 2, showing me that Sora is not just a happy-go-lucky kid. In my opinion, I like Sora the best in Kingdom Hearts 2 because during my experiences while I was playing the game, I find Sora a little more mature than he was in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, he was understanding his surroundings and understanding his situations while he was on his second quest. I love that he's still willing to find Riku and I love that he forgave Riku after what happen in Kingdom Hearts because he knows that Riku learn his lesson, and they decided to rekindle their friendship and put the past behind them. And yeah I hate what Nomura did to Sora in Dream Drop Distance, I understand that Sora went back in time one year before Destiny Island was swallow by the darkness to start his Mark of Mastery exam, but damn Sora wasn't this dumb in Kingdom Hearts 1. Lucky for me that Sora will be more mature in Kingdom Hearts 3. But yeah I still like Sora.

[Firaga 5,947]

I think him being such a bland an ordinary boy is what makes him such an interesting and special character. While everyone else is unique and powerful and can be seen as "chosen ones", he's just an ordinary boy who happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the Keyblade. He's powerful and strong because of his unique and special friends. His friends are his power, and he's theirs.

 

You could just say "ordinary" instead of "bland and ordinary". As I just attested, bland invokes negative connotations.

[Elfdemon_ 695]

You could just say "ordinary" instead of "bland and ordinary". As I just attested, bland invokes negative connotations.

 

True, yeah. It's contradictory. I'll edit my post and remove it.

[Autophobia 25]

i used to really dislike him. mainly because he just seemed so goofy and such in a few of the earlier games from what i've heard , and, well..he's not Roxas (358/2 days was the first kh game i've ever played and is my favorite other than kh ii, but i have yet to play it) - but now since i've started to play com and started to play recoded again after ages of not doing so, he's started to grow on me.

Edited June 2, 2016 by spikd_telecaster