Again as I said learning she was a replica was a shock but she got over it fairly quickly, she never let that dissuade her into thinking what she feels is fake. Had that been the only thing then she would have gone on living fine instead of suffering a moral quandary. But then Riku came along very shortly after and told her not only is she a replica but a replica who is hurting his friend Sora by existing. That's what Xion cared about, that's what Xion was torn over for all of days, and still at the end of the day she was willing to leave Sora asleep forever because she wanted to be with her friends and knew her friends needed her. That's part of what made Xion's character so wonderful, a realistic and understandable bit of selfishness (a trait Roxas and Axel also have) instead of being willing to throw her life away for the greater good at dimes notice like Sora could. Coming back as a replica isn't going to hurt anyone, it's not going to hurt her, it's not going to have any of the negatives it initially had because all those negatives came from Sora's disconnected memories.
We definitely played different games here.
What she thought of her feelings aren't in question here nor her acceptance of her nature only that her nature caused her turmoil for the knowledge of what it did to Sora and Roxas. Bringing her back as she was only restores that issue she she was originally a puppet made to copy their abilities.
All those negative effects came from Sora's disconnected memories
and her nature as a replica. She was siphoning strength even before Sora's memories were disconnected and was designed to do so. (which is why all her first missions while Axel was at Castle Oblivion was with Roxas, to begin the siphoning) (or why she began to speak or have a face when hanging with Roxas)
Sora's memory issue only fed this phenomenon more which is why you see it spike 20 or so days into the game when Sora finally goes into sleep.
What made her endearing, which is a subjective matter from person to person, isn't an issue here either. The fact is her being a replica was an issue to her friends and to innocent people. She was a replica made to replicate something and she was going to function in such a manner regardless of whether Sora's memories got messed with or not. Her tie to this replication being through Roxas.
Anyway I'm not saying her coming back as human ruin it but I think it weakens the message. You can't really say a puppet has its own right to live and have a normal life when in order for them to live and have a normal life you had to make them human. Also it sends a message that if you are born different then the only way to live happily is to remove what makes you different and I don't like that.
Man that's exactly what your saying. Read your above post, you feel her being human would completely cheapen all the things you like about her when it honestly wouldn't harm anything in the slightest since what's important is she gets to live happy.
Her coming back human would hurt about as much as you think her coming back a replica would.
Memories are literal power in this series. You lose your memories like have them actually ripped out of your heart and you physically lose the power they contain. That's why Sora didn't just simply forget his abilities he completely lost all the strength he had gained in KH1 putting him back to lv1. I mean memories are quite literally bits and pieces of a person's heart. Fuse someone's memories into you and you will gain the powers and abilities of that person that is contained in those memories. Though it should be noted there is a difference between having someone else's memories inside you and having them fused into your heart. Like a car part just sitting it inside of the car won't actually give the car the benefits of that part, you have to install it into the car for it work. That's not a feature unique to any one being it's a universal constant, memories have the same effect on appearance as well. Nobodies and Replica just take it a step farther in that they can manifest things from memories alone. Riku has memories of his power to summon the keyblade but still requires a literal keyblade to do it. Xion has part of Sora's memories giving her the ability to wield the keyblade and then can just create a copy of the keyblade from those memories at any time.
No one said memories aren't integral but your completely taking it out of context as well. Not
all powers are tied to memories. Do you think Sora will still have the power to seal keyholes if he loses the keyblade despite remembering he could with it for example? Do you think someone would be free of the negative effects of dark corridors once they've returned human?
No nothing of the sort. Only heartless, Riku and the PoH are entirely free of corrosive effects of dark corridors and only the keyblade has the power to seal or open keyholes and so on.
What your talking about is powers or magic specific to a persons memory to perform them. For example is Sora forgot the keyblade he wouldn't be able to summon his or if Riku forgot darkness he wouldn't be able to utilize it.
Xions' power however wasn't anything like that. It wasn't a conscious ability nor was it an ability she could control at all. It was something built into her and her replica body. She was made to function that way and thats how she was.
After all if it was an ability she had control over in any sense of the matter. Dont ya think she'd have just stopped siphoning to keep Sora and Roxas safe?
Just because she remembers she siphoned or copied abilities doesn't mean she'll have that power once shes brought back because it's not a power tied to her memory of being able to control or conjure it, it was a factor of her biology. The false keyblade was merely a manifestation of this ability as was her varying appearance from person to person.
Your confusing memories for being the source of all power when power has many sources, especially with weapons and biology.
Like Rikus newfound ability of "darkness resistence" that makes him worthless to Xehanort. Riku didn't even know he was till pointed out. Rikus' heart got that way due to his journey and time with darkness.
Or more simple examples being guns or knives. These have the power to cut and shoot people but the people themselves dont' despite remembering they did such things with these weapons.
Or if you want more in-universe examples ya got heartless with their varying forms and powers of darkness which only they can use because they are heartless to begin with. These abilities dont carry over to the human once reformed just like not everything of the nobody carries back over.
Xion was made, as a tool/puppet, to copy abilities. It was her bodies function. Not a special power tied to her heart, memory or spells she can recall or invoke through memory.
For gameplay I respectively disagree, in the scope of this series a copy bot character has a ridiculous amount of potential they wouldn't have in other games where they could only had a small selection of powers to copy and in games where the combat isn't exactly what I'd call deep. WIth Xion we could potentially for example have someone who can fight with the speed of Ventus, wields Xemnas's ethereal blades, and enhances them with Riku's power of darkness and Lea's power of fire as just an example. It's also not only a way to let us get combinations of abilities we never would be able to normally though. It's a way to let us experience playing as characters we also wouldn't get to normally control by letting us copy and use their fight style.
Now your arguing something with no real answer. To me no matter how you explain it the copying mechanic is something among many heroes and nothing I see here makes it unique or cool to me for her to have. She'd basically be a KH Ditto, or mega man or whatever others you can name with copying themes. =/ (and to be respectfully blunt I find a character way WAY less interesting when all they do is copy others)
It's one of those agree to disagree moments.
Finally I'm arguing that Xion never shows any distaste or dislike for the keyblade. Not even post-all the heavy stuff going down never is she wishing that she didn't have the keyblade, trying to get rid of it, looking at it with disdain. There is nothing at all to assert that Xion has any negative feelings toward the keyblade and thus no reason to believe she'd want to get rid of it. Meanwhile she spent a good half of her life treasuring the thing, getting angry at the mere mention of someone calling it fake, wanted to become a professional with it, and so on. It's not even like ditching it would solve the heartless problem, they are infesting everywhere regardless if she has it or not. Instead it would ust leave her without the one weapon that can actually get rid of the suckers for good.
Your completely ignoring the fact she quit caring or even thinking about the weapon once she learned that it and she was indeed fake. She hated it being called fake before because it was an insult on her person and she trained with it before because she knew without it her existence would mean nothing to the Organization and thus she'd be seen as useless and terminated.
Everything your arguing about her keyblade merely ties into the fact that having it guarantees her existence is safe and with meaning within the organization. This is no longer a factor however as she has her friends and a chance to live her life as she sees fit and with her and her friends giving that life meaning.
(the entire mission of helping her to regain a keyblade was directly tied into her express fear of being deemed useless by the Organization and stated so by her own person)
In short her keyblade honestly serves her no other purpose. Also ditching the keyblade does help because they are drawn to wielders specifically and more urgently as explained in KH1. While they attack anyone and spread their numbers are dwindled thanks to Sora and if KH2 showed us anything the heartless only seemed prevalent in a world in which a villain was taking action. For her to ditch it would get her a safer passage than it would for Sora who carries it and draws heartless to his person more easily as a result.
----
Man I'm gonna save you time here. I've had enough of these debates to lose faith in this series and I can tell you now this is an agree to disagree issue. I dont care enough about the series to argue it much longer and nothing your saying sounds convincing to me and I can tell nothing I say is doing the same for you.
Hmm...I worry my post comes on too strong or mean or something...I can never tell. My bluntness is why I try to avoid long topics these days. *sighs* Oh well just trust me when I say no hostility intended. Dx