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Did you enjoy the character arcs in Kingdom Hearts III?
- Thread starter Somni
- Start date
I kinda hated how Aqua was reduced to a damsel, who constantly needed saving from the boys and not the other way around, she was the one who was doing all the saving in Birth By Sleep.
Which is largely the same as Sora with Kairi and Riku. I guess Sora is the same traditional husband.
Constantly? It had one scene where she defended Ventus to get attacked by Vanitas and it was the trigger to awaken his heart. That's it. That's a exaggeration, honestly.
That moment is really stupid.
But it's not stupid because it happened.
It's stupid because of the way it happened.
Had to be saved by Riku, Sora, and Mickey.
Then tells Sora it's her turn to be strong? or something. Beats Vanitas.
And then... loses in a cutscene so she can be saved again by Ven?
Is killed by the heartless tornado.
Is saved by the Lingering Will.
Is saved by Terra's heartless.
Then tells Sora it's her turn to be strong? or something. Beats Vanitas.
And then... loses in a cutscene so she can be saved again by Ven?
Is killed by the heartless tornado.
Is saved by the Lingering Will.
Is saved by Terra's heartless.
A pointless sacrifice she didn't need to do, and even more annoying when you just literally beat him in a boss fight as Aqua and then bullshit dictates that he wins after the fight is over anyway.
I also hate how she literally just gives in to the darkness yet again, when she stands against the giant storm of heartless in the Final World, compared to Riku who literally takes on the Heartless by himself, and she's supposed to be the experienced Keyblade Master. They never really gave her any awesome moments in this game, she was constantly at the villains mercy for the big boys to save her and it's dumb.
everyone kind of got fucked aside from maybe terra, roxas and xion
actually that's not entirely fair; the sora/goofy/donald relationship was pretty well done. but most of the supporting characters (especially kairi) were handled pretty poorly
actually that's not entirely fair; the sora/goofy/donald relationship was pretty well done. but most of the supporting characters (especially kairi) were handled pretty poorly
Ephemer. He's from KHUX and is one of the five Union leaders mentioned in the secret reports.
Is that mobile game? This series lol. Putting semi important characters in a mobile only game haha.
Man this whole fight is so much smaller scale but it's honestly so much better than 95% of KH3.
It is, yeah.
He's also not the only one from the mobile game appearing in KH3. KHUX is going to play a big role going into the next arc.
So Aqua is basically the same as the majority except for Roxas, Xion and few characters because the same Ventus had to be saved by Aqua and then by Sora and was killed too, Axel had worse and so on. lol
Okay, If you're in this mindset we're not going anywhere, are we?
To be fair, he wasn't really important. That scene could've just as easily just been the ghost of ANY dead keyblade wielder.
What mindset would one have to be in order to see past that she doesn't really get to contribute much? I mean, yeah, I don't care about how Sora is basically the only guy who can fix everything. and ends up beating all the bad guys. But I just can't forgive the fact that the only actual female veteran keyblade wielder gets reduced to a damsel who constantly needs saving, either through weird reckless actions, or giving up easily into despair when she's always been the most reasonable and strongest person as depicted in Birth By Sleep. I don't even mind that she recklessly sacrifices herself to save a friend, I just mind the reasoning for it. The sentiment was a lot stronger in BBS with Terra, here it just feels cheap, especially after she just beat the guy in a boss fight. Even Riku, who also ends up getting backhanded a lot, gets a lot of cool moments compared to Aqua.
It seems to be an inherent thing with largely of the female characters but it's just lame that it was done to Aqua as well.
I think this is a consequence of Aqua's prologue getting cut into a KH3 demo. Cause if you add it into KH3 like it initially was and she looks a lot better than most everyone except Terra, Roxas and Sora.
Sure, I actually dug the Fragmentary Passage, whatever the hell name of it was, demo. But I think at that point I was already tired of her constantly having to sacrifice herself. This is why I hope there will be another game where you play as her but it's probably doubtful as Nomura does like his shonen hero, Sora.
I enjoyed most of them quite a bit, a lot have been a long time coming. KH3 is interesting in that it doesn't need to further most characters arcs much in terms of personal growth: by the beginning of the game most characters are resolved for what's gotta happen. KH3 is a lot of execution more than anything, which I still found to be almost entirely a satisfying cap on a lot arcs.
The series' crowning achievement remains Riku. His story is an excellent redemptive tale about learning to live with your own mistakes and your own trauma, and I appreciate that his position on the light/dark spectrum is allowed to be more nuanced than most characters. They also don't cut corners much with him: his journey back is a continual struggle, but by DDD it's so clear how far he's come.
The series' crowning achievement remains Riku. His story is an excellent redemptive tale about learning to live with your own mistakes and your own trauma, and I appreciate that his position on the light/dark spectrum is allowed to be more nuanced than most characters. They also don't cut corners much with him: his journey back is a continual struggle, but by DDD it's so clear how far he's come.
And the moment when it all goes wrong and Sora just breaks down while Riku is the only one who stands absolutely against their insurmountable threat shows just how far he's come, to a degree that he's more driven and courageous than Sora.
Aqua still was the most reasonable person here.. and she wasn't stronger than Terra in BBS. And like, I think you're forgetting that even in BBS Aqua had to be saved by Ventus against Vanitas and was unconscious for part of the game, much like she was beaten other times as well. But that wasn't just Aqua to be fair, Terra and Ventus had the same on BBS being saved by each other. In KH3, Ventus wasn't more reasonable or had more moments than Aqua and was also saved by her.. and Terra had nothing since he just got and saved by them.
There's a decisively different framing of Aqua getting back attacked unaware from Vanitas and her stupidly blocking his attack with her body.
Yes, and that wasn't the question said. I don't disagree that said scene with her using her body is stupid but it's not like in BBS she didn't experience the same things that she did on KH3, much like Terra and Ventus also did. I rewatched the final battle of the three paths after beating 3 and it's even more clear.
Sure, but context matters.
The Aqua things in KH3 are so jarring because they rely on character stupidity for plot convenience which just makes the character needlessly look bad.
Concurring with what a few users have said, unfortunately: ...what character arcs? :( Sigh. Only the Disney characters have characters arcs with a strong beginning, middle, and end. (Goddamn Buzz has more character development than any of the non-Disney characters!)
I'm ultimately wondering if this is why KH3's story feels so hollow for me. Sora's never gone through much development (with CoM being the exception?), but at least each entry in the series has one prominent character that goes through a transformative arc. KH1 had Riku, CoM had Repliku and Riku, KH2 had Roxas, Axel, and Riku, 358/2 Days had Roxas, Axel, and Xion, BBS had Terra and Ven, DDD had Riku, 0.2 had Aqua. (I still haven't gotten around to Re:coded, so I can't speak for that game.)
0.2 took Aqua on more of an interesting character arc in two hours than anyone got in KH3. The heck.
I'm sympathetic in that KH3 has a large cast of characters to juggle, but every other game gave in the franchise at least one character some form of strong character development, so it's unfortunate KH3 doesn't do this. KH3 was the perfect opportunity to give Kairi a character arc, and she definitely had the beginnings of one (I won't be left behind, I'll help out, etc), but that completely imploded with the ending. Even if long term character development is being set up for Kairi, her development in each game still needs to have self-contained resolution, like how Riku and Roxas' development has brilliantly been handled in the past. Ironically, Rapunzel's arc is what Kairi's could have been - a young woman coming into her own, becoming more and more confident, and wanting to fight for herself and protect the ones she loves.
I would say that Sora had the echoes of a unique character arc in KH3 (from my friends are my power! -> I can't do this by myself -> I need do this alone), but it completely clashes against the 'stronger together' message the game continually pushes, throughout all the Disney worlds in KH3, even in the final battle with all the team-ups. So, yeah, I don't know what to do with a character arc for Sora that fundamentally goes against the main theme of the entire franchise, lol.
Yeah, it's so goddamn weird that the villains are the ones with the character arcs! But I also agree, it's not very satisfying because it's all so brief and at the last moment. If these epiphanies were happening over the course of the game, that would have been great.
Absolutely this! Roxas basically goes through the five stages of grief in the KH2 prologue, it's brutal. Roxas' character arc over the series is one of the best, too, and his changing dynamic with Sora is great: 358/2 Days (understandably resenting and hating Sora) -> KH2 (eventual acceptance of Sora) -> DDD (actively wanting to help and support Sora).
I'm ultimately wondering if this is why KH3's story feels so hollow for me. Sora's never gone through much development (with CoM being the exception?), but at least each entry in the series has one prominent character that goes through a transformative arc. KH1 had Riku, CoM had Repliku and Riku, KH2 had Roxas, Axel, and Riku, 358/2 Days had Roxas, Axel, and Xion, BBS had Terra and Ven, DDD had Riku, 0.2 had Aqua. (I still haven't gotten around to Re:coded, so I can't speak for that game.)
0.2 took Aqua on more of an interesting character arc in two hours than anyone got in KH3. The heck.
I'm sympathetic in that KH3 has a large cast of characters to juggle, but every other game gave in the franchise at least one character some form of strong character development, so it's unfortunate KH3 doesn't do this. KH3 was the perfect opportunity to give Kairi a character arc, and she definitely had the beginnings of one (I won't be left behind, I'll help out, etc), but that completely imploded with the ending. Even if long term character development is being set up for Kairi, her development in each game still needs to have self-contained resolution, like how Riku and Roxas' development has brilliantly been handled in the past. Ironically, Rapunzel's arc is what Kairi's could have been - a young woman coming into her own, becoming more and more confident, and wanting to fight for herself and protect the ones she loves.
I would say that Sora had the echoes of a unique character arc in KH3 (from my friends are my power! -> I can't do this by myself -> I need do this alone), but it completely clashes against the 'stronger together' message the game continually pushes, throughout all the Disney worlds in KH3, even in the final battle with all the team-ups. So, yeah, I don't know what to do with a character arc for Sora that fundamentally goes against the main theme of the entire franchise, lol.
Yeah, it's so goddamn weird that the villains are the ones with the character arcs! But I also agree, it's not very satisfying because it's all so brief and at the last moment. If these epiphanies were happening over the course of the game, that would have been great.
Absolutely this! Roxas basically goes through the five stages of grief in the KH2 prologue, it's brutal. Roxas' character arc over the series is one of the best, too, and his changing dynamic with Sora is great: 358/2 Days (understandably resenting and hating Sora) -> KH2 (eventual acceptance of Sora) -> DDD (actively wanting to help and support Sora).
The BBS crew? Yes. The KH crew? Fuck no and I'm super fucking pissed. I don't know if Nomura
Made me so sad and mad.
has a hardon for tragic loves or what not especially after what happened to Stella and Noctis in XV, but this was supposed to be the closing chapter for Kairi and Sora and you let her get outright murdered in front of him and then don't give them closure?
Terra idiotically got himself strung along by a man who literally looks like Ganondorf's uncle, because Terra couldn't see the forest for the trees that the man he's admiring is clearly evil and has bad intentions in store. On top of getting tricked by Maleficent, another clearly shady looking person. Aqua has to pretty much clean up after him as well as Ventus in Birth By Sleep, so saying that Aqua isn't stronger than Terra is a bit out there.
And I don't really see how Ventus' characterization in KH3 has anything to do with how the writers handled Aqua. It doesn't.
Play the mobile game
There is 1 law.
KH HAS NO SIDE GAMES
That's Ephemera one of the young Keyblade wielders that survived the Keyblade War and became leader of a Keyblade Union
His spirit lent Sora the Keyblades of all his Union
His spirit lent Sora the Keyblades of all his Union
I don't know why you're argumenting about Terra being irresponsible (which I pretty much said) when my argument was there he's stronger than Aqua, which he is even if she's a Master.
And Ventus characterization was me saying that he was also protected by Aqua in the game in different times.
He's not amaizing at it but he's not usually bad it either.
He does fine when he has someone to help.
Like Xion's pretty good because she's Kanemaki's own character edited by Nomura.
Aqua is inoffensive but can get one noteish at times but then that's most of the original KH characters. She's interesting when she's not thinking about Ven or Terra.
Kairi is just.....badly done. Nomura didn't know what to do with her for a long time after KH1. Olette is a better character than Kairi.
Namine and Larxene are Nomura's best females characters though and both come from Chain of Memories. Whoever helped him there needs to come back.
Terra can only be cool when he's not Terra.
Instead of Terra coming back, they should've had the Lingering Will and the Guardian merge.
Then Lingering Will using the Guardian as a Stand should've been the main character of KH 4.
Regarding the arcs, I honestly think O13 took way too much of the screen time here. There was not space for anything else.
Each world was basically an O13 mini storyline, with the intermission Riku and Mickey stuff in-between worlds.
Each world was basically an O13 mini storyline, with the intermission Riku and Mickey stuff in-between worlds.
Aqua was pretty bad ass. She survived the dark world for 10 year, man.
Yes, everyone execept Kairi. I mean, she did nothing besides the
Saving Sora from dying. Xion was handled much better than her
When your major plot points become references to a mobile game on is expected to play for hours upon hours to understand major plot points and character motivations, your game may have jumped the shark somewhat when it comes to storytelling. And that's after the time travel shark jump...
Nah. It was pretty bad. It made me happy at the end because everything ends up how you'd expect (well, not everything......) and it was nice to see everybody happy and chillin, but really it wasn't earned with a lot of characters. It was especially stupid to see how certain characters who didn't deserve extra attention get mini redemption scenes, but characters that deserve more attention don't get fully realized arcs or conclusions. It's a pretty big mess.