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Eraqus isn't getting enough hate?



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Jochira

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Ok, this is something that I feel have been bugging me ever since I 1st played BBS at 2.5, ever since Terra's flashback(?) with Eraqus telling him not to leave any quarter for the darkness. Re-playing BBS at 1.5+2.5 haven't changed this bad feeling I had about Eraqus.

I'm not gonna say that I hate him, but if I was to pick a character that I hate the most: I rather pick Eraqus over Xehanort.

Reason #1: If it wasn't for Terra interfering, Eraqus would've killed Ventus without a second doubt. Why? Because Ventus wanted to learn the truth about himself. If you ask me, killing your own student for wanting to learn something they have the right to know is nothing short of being paranoid.

Reason #2: Eraqus's obsession with the light might be worse than Xehanort's obsession with the darkness. Along with that, while Ansem SOD is weak to the light (cuz of him being a Heartless), Xehanort himself doesn't deny the light. Eraqus, on the other hand, is so afraid of the darkness that he fails to see that he's controlled by his own fear. All this because of what happened in the past, between him and Xehanort. I would even go so far and say that if Eraqus was allowed to live on so would he end up doing even worse damage than Xehanort did, since Xehanort still keeps the balance in mind slightly.

Just my own thoughts (more like ranting?) about Eraqus, feel free to give your own thoughts about Eraqus.
 

Muke

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I honestly just don't even care about him, sometimes I forget he even exists.. He's just so, uh, irrelevant in the grand scheme if things. I dunno, I guess if I had to choose, I'd say that I hate him, simply because most of the things happening in BBS are kind of his fault if you think about it.
 

Alpha Baymax

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You don't need to "hate" a character to accept their flaws. And there's no question that Eraqus has flaws of being intimidated by the darkness to the point where he wants to get rid of it. It's usually the flawed characters that get people most interested in a narrative, because we see a part of ourselves within their faults, or we sympathise with their plight.

I'm a fan of Terra as a character. Yeah, he's makes some clumsy decisions but he's human. If every Kingdom Hearts character was an Aqua or Riku in terms of decision making then that'd make the game more boring in my opinion.
 

kirabook

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Eraqus is kinda a... well, most people either don't care about him at all, or are on the fence about his actions. You won't find too many people defending him from my experience.

Eraqus is cited as an example of a character blinded by light just like characters are blinded by darkness.

It's not that Eraqus was trying to be malicious when he told Terra to never use darkness and how terrible it is. The same idea was probably drilled into his head by his master. And his master's master. It also didn't help that Xehanort, someone who he apparently looked up to and thought of as his brother, 'succumbed' to darkness and threatened to end the world because he was curious about what happens after the apocalypse. A mixture of tradition and Xehanort hardened Eraqus into the guy who raised his blade against a boy.

If Eraqus were to return (which I don't believe he will), he needs to come to understand that darkness itself isn't the problem. Terra is not evil or bad because he has darkness. You didn't raise your keyblade against Ven because of darkness. It's all about what you DO with your power whether it's light or darkness.

It's for this reason I guess I don't completely hate him. I truly don't know how he came to the conclusion that Ventus must die when he could have just protected him (other than because story). Before Eraqus is gone forever, I feel like we'll get an "I understand.", "My mistake.", "I'm so sorry." whereas we will never get such statements from a guy like Xehanort. If Riku and Lea can be redeemed, Eraqus doesn't have as much to make up for in comparison.

(btw, I actually like all the KH characters, such as Xehanort. I mean, I hate him because of what he's done, but I guess I should say, I enjoy them all for their roles within the plot)
 
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DarkosOverlord

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Eh, Eraqus' a character. You hate him or like him according to how you resonate with his reasons and actions, I guess.
But I am a huge Xehanort fan myself, so I agree.
 

Smithee

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Ok, this is something that I feel have been bugging me ever since I 1st played BBS at 2.5, ever since Terra's flashback(?) with Eraqus telling him not to leave any quarter for the darkness. Re-playing BBS at 1.5+2.5 haven't changed this bad feeling I had about Eraqus.

I'm not gonna say that I hate him, but if I was to pick a character that I hate the most: I rather pick Eraqus over Xehanort.

Reason #1: If it wasn't for Terra interfering, Eraqus would've killed Ventus without a second doubt. Why? Because Ventus wanted to learn the truth about himself. If you ask me, killing your own student for wanting to learn something they have the right to know is nothing short of being paranoid.

Reason #2: Eraqus's obsession with the light might be worse than Xehanort's obsession with the darkness. Along with that, while Ansem SOD is weak to the light (cuz of him being a Heartless), Xehanort himself doesn't deny the light. Eraqus, on the other hand, is so afraid of the darkness that he fails to see that he's controlled by his own fear. All this because of what happened in the past, between him and Xehanort. I would even go so far and say that if Eraqus was allowed to live on so would he end up doing even worse damage than Xehanort did, since Xehanort still keeps the balance in mind slightly.

Just my own thoughts (more like ranting?) about Eraqus, feel free to give your own thoughts about Eraqus.

1. Given how MX wants to subject Ven to a fate actually worse than death, I can't blame Ven for agreeing to be mercy-killed by comparison. And last I checked, Eraqus actually regrets it afterward; meanwhile, MX just keeps exploiting Ven after he survives the Vanitas-creation process.

2. MX flat-out says stuff like, "And the last Light within you will die!" -- i.e., exactly what Eraqus says about Darkness. And despite all of MX's talk about "Balance," he's clearly little more than a male Maleficent at the end of the day; YMX aside, MX is just an Unintentionally Unsympathetic failure at being a supposedly well-intentioned villain.
 
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Jochira

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I'm a fan of Terra as a character. Yeah, he's makes some clumsy decisions but he's human. If every Kingdom Hearts character was an Aqua or Riku in terms of decision making then that'd make the game more boring in my opinion.
yeah, I agree with you about Terra. Terra is probably my 2nd fav char in the series and that's mainly cuz I can relate to him almost as much as I can relate to Riku. I guess it's just me that have a hard time getting around close-minded people.
 

Elysium

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I honestly just don't even care about him, sometimes I forget he even exists.. He's just so, uh, irrelevant in the grand scheme if things. I dunno, I guess if I had to choose, I'd say that I hate him, simply because most of the things happening in BBS are kind of his fault if you think about it.
This is how I feel about Eraqus, too. I often forget about him altogether. I remember cheering when Terra "killed" him.

2. MX flat-out says stuff like, "And the last Light within you will die!" -- i.e., exactly what Eraqus says about Darkness. And despite all of MX's talk about "Balance," he's clearly little more than a male Maleficent at the end of the day -- YMX aside, MX is just an Unintentionally Unsympathetic failure at being a supposedly tragic, well-intentioned villain.
So true.
 

Noir

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The only memorable thing about Eraqueez is that he's voiced by Mark Hamill.

That's all I really needed to like him, actually.
Or would have, if I had realised it was him until the final credits showed. I keep forgetting he does other stuff. He needs to slow down so I can keep up. How dare he make a living.
 

Sephiroth0812

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Oh dear, the old Eraqus vs Xehanort discussion how he's supposedly so much worse than Xehanort when the only (admittedly) horrible thing he did (or rather tried to do) was to kill off an innocent child out of desperation in order to deny a maniac hellbent on risking an apocalypse a key part of his current plan.
Unlike Xehanort, he doesn't get any joy out of what in his blinded state he thought was an action without alternatives.

Sure thing, what he tried to do was undoubtly awful and wouldn't have actually stopped Xehanort, just caused a delay in his plans, but unlike Xehanort he actually realizes not far down the road how wrong he was and regrets he ever tried it.
Xehanort stabbed him in the back immediately after so nothing more comes out of his realisation and regret, but that was due to plot demands.

When taking all this into account while I can understand people being uneasy with Eraqus and thinking he went to far (which he himself realizes and regrets!), I am honestly at a loss as to why some people may see him as worse than Xehanort, as when looking at all things that are on the table from the whole series and which we as an audience have a full overview on I would still say that Xehanort is objectively far worse than anything Eraqus intended to do.

Eraqus doesn't deliberately stir up trouble in different worlds.
Eraqus doesn't use others as guinea pigs in some highly questionable "experiments".
Eraqus doesn't try to have people and entire worlds to fall into Darkness.
Eraqus doesn't shatter children's hearts just to create the ingredients for some twisted weapon of doom.
Eraqus doesn't steal other people's bodies as "vessels" or tries to otherwise control them like puppets due to heart infection.
Eraqus doesn't set up schemes to cause an apocalypse.

Xehanort does all this and more so I don't think that Eraqus and Xehanort can be compared on the same level at all and actually doing so would constitute quite a bit of values dissonance.
 

Noir

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Eraqus probably takes munny from the trio's piggybanks whenever they're out. That is my headcanon and officially why I think he's worse than Xehanort and Satan combined.
 

Not Ienzo

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At least he's not as bad as Yen Sid who just sits in his chair and doesn't do much else.

But seriously, I don't think he's as bad as people made him out to be. His fear of the darkness and complete rejection of it did cause problems, but his actions weren't extreme enough to make it feel like he had really gone off the deep end because of it.

Killing an innocent child isn't good by any means, but it would have been better to kill one person than to have Xehanort start a war which could mess up the whole universe. Killing Ven probably wouldn't have prevented the eventual tragedies anyway, but of course Eraqus couldn't have known that.
 

Hakan Xatos

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Killing an innocent child isn't good by any means, but it would have been better to kill one person than to have Xehanort start a war which could mess up the whole universe. Killing Ven probably wouldn't have prevented the eventual tragedies anyway, but of course Eraqus couldn't have known that.
Kind of ironic when you think of it. Considering I heard that Xehanort once said "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" to Eraqus. :p
 

Sephiroth0812

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Killing an innocent child isn't good by any means, but it would have been better to kill one person than to have Xehanort start a war which could mess up the whole universe. Killing Ven probably wouldn't have prevented the eventual tragedies anyway, but of course Eraqus couldn't have known that.

Except that instead of going against an innocent pawn in the whole scheme if Eraqus had truly guts he would go against the actual root of the problem which is Xehanort.
It is the typical idiocy of focusing on symptoms instead of the actual cause of a problem.
 

Pinwheel

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Honestly I found Eraqus's flaws refreshing. He really feels like the one of the very few people in Birth by Sleep who is making lapses in judgement that aren't portrayed as the character being outright completely good or evil. He wasn't thinking clearly but it's very easy to see how he turned out the way he did.
 

DarkosOverlord

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I'd like to add, Eraqus not knowing/foreseeing something is... kinda his fault, honestly.
He's a Master, not to mention the chosen Master to lead his order. He's not in a position where ignorance can be used as an excuse.

It's like the whole shtick of Xehanort being blatantly evil: Terra is more excused in trusting him due to the fact that he was and old and renowed Master and Terra only an apprentice; Eraqus should've seen through his whole act.

Especially considering he literally scarred his face with an almighty aura of Darkness while not even denying it
 

Caxinuld

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It's a shame Eraqus's hatred of darkness didn't motivate him to stop Xehanort after he was scarred by him, he could've saved his apprentices a lot of heartbreak.
 

Sephiroth0812

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Honestly I found Eraqus's flaws refreshing. He really feels like the one of the very few people in Birth by Sleep who is making lapses in judgement that aren't portrayed as the character being outright completely good or evil. He wasn't thinking clearly but it's very easy to see how he turned out the way he did.

Of course was Eraqus acting out of a position of desperation and therefore I am also firmly of the belief that this attempted action of him (while indeed objectively spoken awful/"evil") cannot be equated with the several crimes Xehanort commits while indeed thinking clearly and just not giving a single crap about it or be used in any way to relativize those.
Unlike Xehanort, Eraqus also realized how idiotic and hurtful he had been acting soon afterwards, but any further development that could have come from this was cut short with his removal from the active story curtesy by that very same MX.

Him having those flaws certainly brings some variety to the table and there are indeed several things he could have done better, but in regards to the original OP of this thread I still think that actually comparing Eraqus to Xehanort and/or even lumping them in the same category of being "wrong" or "dangerous" goes quite too far as it overexaggerates Eraqus' flaws while simultaneously playing down and trivializing Xehanort's devious actions and mindset.

I'd like to add, Eraqus not knowing/foreseeing something is... kinda his fault, honestly.
He's a Master, not to mention the chosen Master to lead his order. He's not in a position where ignorance can be used as an excuse.

It's like the whole shtick of Xehanort being blatantly evil: Terra is more excused in trusting him due to the fact that he was and old and renowed Master and Terra only an apprentice; Eraqus should've seen through his whole act.

Especially considering he literally scarred his face with an almighty aura of Darkness while not even denying it

Well, it could be a case of Eraqus willingly turning a "blind eye" and wanting to see/believe there is still something good left in Xehanort and that he abandoned his obsessive ambitions.
It is implied they were rather close once. Possibly a similar situation to Sora and Riku during KH 1 with Eraqus obviously in Sora's shoes.

We do not get to see either what explanation Xehanort gives when he brings Ventus to LoD four years before BBS (and he does manage to spin quite a touching well-acted false account of what happened to Terra in-game) nor Eraqus' actual reaction to what Xehanort tells him.
In Xehanort's letter MX states that Eraqus was apparently very forgiving and in one scene Yen Sid too states "I had hoped, Xehanort, your heart would no longer lead you astray.".
It's as if both Eraqus and Yen Sid were willing to give Xehanort a second or even a third chance and now the whole KH universe is paying dearly for this benevolence.

It is odd though I agree as Eraqus practically gets two instances of Xehanort going off the deep end somewhat, first being himself scarred by a Darkness attack and the second being coming to learn that he literally broke a kid's heart apart and left him with severe mental damage.
Even if Xehanort managed to spin it as a tragical accident-sob story like he did with Terra, Eraqus as one of the big masters should be able to figure there was more behind it.

It's a shame Eraqus's hatred of darkness didn't motivate him to stop Xehanort after he was scarred by him, he could've saved his apprentices a lot of heartbreak.

He could probably have saved the whole universe a lot of grief if he stopped Xehanort when he had the chance and I do think he himself knows or realizes that as he makes such a sort of comment before even turning against Ven in the first place.
Why he wouldn't go and at least try to stop Xehanort now instead of offing Ven I don't know, but that was possibly plot-demanded-stupidity as several things and situations in BBS as a whole were.
 
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