BEFORE BbS came out, were most people like, "Oh cool! We've never had a female character fighter before I immediately love her!" Sure. It was exciting, even though I remember some fanboys being mad she had short hair most people were excited by this change of pace. We didn't know her yet, so it certainly drummed up some interest given the lack of them before. But is that what the fandom is now 10 years later? Does this represent her fans post-BbS to present? No, it really doesn't. Time has moved and so have peoples opinions.
Yes and no, “yes”, I said she is 65% popular cause of her character and she deserves her popularity, “No”, the 35% rest is cause people like her more cause she is a strong female character, if aqua was a male (only 65% without the 35% female assets) then she is below Ventus and tied with terra or slightly below terra in terms of popularity, imo she isn’t as interesting since she didn’t have story of her own until final ep, secret ep, and 0.2
To boil down her popularity (and its ups and down) to "she's female" is simply unfair and in my opinion, wrong.
no one think it’s fair, I do not mind her being popular, but not like this if anything it’s the fanboys fault for overrating any Character that has breasts
She's fun to play. She has a significant amount of screen time compared to most keyblade heroes. Her struggle with internal demons is a little different than most of her friends who suffer from external demons. She has a cute little connection to the main character (Sora, however surface level that connection ended up being).
1. all three of them had unique playstyle and story, Ventus he’s fun play too, Terra can be seen as fun for tank fans and heavy hitter type of players (his only issue is the dodge) aqua is fun to play but honestly to each their own I enjoyed Ventus the most,
2. As for most (significant?) screen time I believe Ventus is the one who got most screen time if we include all kh games
3. also all three had their struggles:
“Aqua with her inner demons”
“terra with his darkness and wanting his master to accept him, plus the betrayal he faced from Eraqus and Xehanort”
“Ventus with his damaged heart and his other half Vanitas, (we honestly don’t know much about Ventus yet) each has their own struggles”
4. all three of them had connection with Sora tho,
Ventus was the strongest, he didn’t meet Sora but their hearts certainly connected and that’s powerful
Aqua second, she actually met him and talked to him
Terra weakest, since he didn’t have much interaction or connection with Sora As much as Ventus and aqua
She's the Sora/Riku. She's the Roxas. She's the defacto "main" of her trio (but definitely less so, TAV is pretty even imo). It's a no brainer why she ended up standing out. If "Aqua" were "Aquo" and everything was the same... then yes. He'd still be popular because he's the "main" of his trio. Aqua is (basically) Sora and Riku slapped into one page with a gender switch so of course he'd still be popular if it were a guy. (I love the fact that Sora was almost her protege and their similarities and everything??? It continues to this day it's awesome). Are we gonna to pretend this fandom doesn't go goo goo gaga over pretty much ever dude in this series? People even like VEXEN. It's INCREDIBLE that Aqua gained any popularity during a time when every KH community was drowning in yaoi.
Sorry but I don’t see her as the main of her trio, the game only started focusing on her and actually made her important only when her friends were out of the picture, tbh at first I thought Ventus was the main one since you start the game with him and his connection to sora, but from what I saw bbs trio seems to not have 1 specific main, they are all equally main characters, Ofc most point at aqua but real talk now that her friends are back they are back as being 3 mains, to tell the truth that’s what I liked about the bbs trio that all three of them are equally important, also no I don’t see her as Sora/riku or Roxas she gives me a different vibe of character she feels like her own character and not male this or male that at least that’s what I think now after long thinking, as for male yaoi and blah stuff there’s difference, yaoi is about shipping the character, it has nothing to do with overrating a male character, people just ship any character they see together cause there are more males then female in kh simple, heck people ship any girl with any boy they see together, they even ship kh characters with Disney characters, terra x Cinderella, Sora x rapunzle, you see what I mean? Also no if she was a guy then I don’t see her being this popular, like I said she is 65% if she was a male, the rest 35% is being a female character that can fight
When 0.2 was releasing, people were excited to play Aqua and see what happened with her story, not how moe and kawaii she was. 0.2 would've gotten the same amount of hype (if not more) if it were Riku, Sora, or Mickey in her place. People side eyed the random customization added to the game and then made memes that that's how she coped with her overwhelming depression.
hmm really? Cause from the reaction trailers I saw of 0.2 most words spoken of reactors and comments is saw are...
OMG Aqua my Wifu
Aqua best girl she is soo Hot!
Terranort & Ven-Vanitas don’t touch my bitch aqua!
Aqua smile is the most pure best “girl”
Aqua is a goddess!
Aqua why are you soo Pretty and perfect?
Aqua is flawless, beautiful, best “girl!”
aqua my wife I will save you that’s a promise!
Huh I could go on and on but it’s a bit cringe to read all the love letters she got... moving on.
People were looking forward to seeing her rescued in KH3 not cause she was a cute waifu uwu, but Aqua was the only one that could save Ven and possibly save Terra. (These two points being partially why people were disappointed with her in KH3, she didn't get to do those things) People wanted to see them together and happy again after all they suffered at the hands of Xehanort.
Yes Aqua was the key to saving them, and all three suffered greatly under xehanort, but that wasn’t the only thing fans were disappointed on, they wanted riku to save terra, and wanted terra to finish xehanort off since he suffered the most at his hands, but eh I’m ok with the results even if they weren’t perfect
People have a reason to care about what's happening with her character and a reason to root for her. Will there be fans who only like her cause she's a girl? Sure. There are people who play this game because the like Disney and nothing else. Are we going to pretend like they're the target demographic or majority of the fanbase, or acknowledge they're just a subset/minority of people within the fandom? Are we really going to pretend like every girl in this series was hated or treated badly until Aqua came along with her cool movies and intricate story with her pals to change the tides?
Well I’m aware the fans who like her form being a strong female character are minorities, that’s why I said she is 65% popular cause of her character, while the rest 35% are those who ofc love her but cause she is a girl
Who you like more personally or find more interesting is your choice, but your choice is subjective. So is mine. I love all three characters and I pretty much hate comparing them against one another because for me personally, it's all or nothing. Putting down and trying to downplay one of them just to boost up another sucks.
I wasn’t putting aqua down I said many times this is not a hate topic towards aqua and I don’t hate her just isa mediocre character, a great awesome character but definitely not the best I said that a lot, I never said she was a terrible character or worst character,
that’s my view on Aqua as a character.