Aerith?

[Mason Stark]

I thought about this a whiiiile ago and I remembered it when I went through Traverse Town in ReCoM the other day. It's quite peculiar and it's never really explained, so... theory/question time? There's also some spoilers for CoM, for those who haven't played it.

Anywho, after you defeat the Guard Armor and talk to the Traverse Town gang, they skip run off, but someone comes back after Sora, Donald, and Goofy turn around. Sora notices Aerith standing there and she warns him to be weary of his memories. An illusion in a room created by a card is talking to Sora and it's NOT part of any sort of set-in-stone storyline that probably came with the card in some way. Odd, right?

At one point, Kairi shows up in one of the rooms with Riku and helps him, but oddly enough, it's not Kairi at all. It's Naminé. Could what Aerith said to Sora be the same sort of thing? Though it might not be possible because she was locked in up in a room and commanded to do nothing more than draw, could Naminé have quickly warned Sora of what was going on through Aerith in Traverse Town?

Naminé might not have felt regret yet, either, or maybe she regretted the whole thing from the start. If it's the former, then illusion!Aerith = Naminé couldn't have happened.

Whatcha think? ^^; I dunno if this was actually confirmed, though, but if it was, please feel free to clear that up.

 

[Ren]

Namine, on several occasions, did try to warn Sora of the danger in Castle Oblivion as she was messing with his memories.

I think it's confirmed, or at least implied, but I'm not too sure. I don't remember much about CoM. :/
But yeah. It would make sense if that was Namine's doing.

 

[Aetheus]

Is Namine also behind how the villains in Riku's story act? For instance, Maleficent, who tells Riku straight to the face that she's a fake. Or maybe these two are just "special"? If Riku remembered Maleficent as an "Almighty witch" and Sora thought of Aerith as "wise and clairvoyant", would the Memory Maleficent and the Memory Aerith be smart enough to figure it own on their own that their fakes?

 

[Sweet Genocide]

Blame Nami.

 

[Smile]

Namine, on several occasions, did try to warn Sora of the danger in Castle Oblivion as she was messing with his memories.

*pats Ren* I have taught you well.

I always thought it to be Nami.
long, thorough ranting about it by me can be found here -
Strawberries and Fairy Wings - The Shadow and Her Light
To surmise -
This isn't the first time a Memory World served as interaction between Sora and Nami, least of all in an attempt to warn Sora.
Traverse Town - Aerith, as you said.
Wonderland - Seeing how that scenario wasn't quite what happened in KH1, it's reasonable to assume it was changed by Nami. The Queen of Hearts represents what would happen to Sora, how he'd believe Memories which never happened and it will be used against him.
The Coliseum - Comparing getting his Memories back to striking a deal with the Devil through Hades and Cloud.
And of course, Halloween Town - where she put it quite simply that True Memories are to be feared.

If she'd have pulled a Riku on him, namely - appeared herself in a way, I think the Org would've known, so she kept it to a minimum and used what she could to warn him.

 

[Organization_42]

What you guys are saying makes perfect sense, and I can't see why else Aerith would say that.

And yet...

Go back and watch the first couple of floors, where we see Namine sketching pictures. Isn't she smiling? And it would make sense for her to be somewhat happy, because as Marluxia said, "It's almost time to meet the hero you've been waiting for." It sounds to me like she wanted Sora to be her knight in shining armor and come save her from the Organization, so much so that she agreed to participate in Marluxia's plan.

But then, everything changed, and by the time Sora was leaving fake Twilight Town, she was expressing deep regret for her actions. Which brings me to my own little theory.

You know the part when Vexen brings Repliku up to the top floors, and Larxene suggests that Namine implant fake memories in him? Repliku absolutely hates the idea and tries to defend himself, only to get attacked by Larxene, and he goes down screaming. Basically, he does NOT like the idea of having his memories altered, and he makes sure that everyone in the room knows it.

Meanwhile, the expression on Namine's face makes it clear that she's horrified by what she sees. That's what made me wonder if maybe, just maybe, this was the moment when she realized that what she was doing was wrong. Sora didn't know what she was doing to him, but Repliku did, and he wanted no part of it. On Floor 8, the next time we see Namine, we can tell how upset she is about what she's doing, and she looks miserable when Larxene talks about getting Sora to forget Kairi and when Repliku shows her the fake charm.

Still, that doesn't explain Aerith, so I can't be sure, but it's a theory that I have.

 

[Smile]

Well, still didn't go by Re:CoM, but even from what I did see, Namine always looked terrified by the notion that Sora was coming. in the original CoM, when Marluxia said her Knight was coming, she seemed all but broken by it.
She was happy when she was drawing, because that's what she loves to do and it gives her the best way in which to pretend without hurting anyone.
Namine is the first person to know what she put Sora through, being the one that actually went into his Heart and rearranged his Memories, but seeing how Sora was already there - it wasn't like she could just tell Marluxia she wasn't going along with it anymore until the bitter end where Sora was right there by her side, giving her the courage she needed to do it.
Even her smiles along the way though always seemed sad to me, like if she was happy at all, it was because she was forcing herself to do so.
So no, I disagree with you on that one.

13/12/08 EDIT:

Ok I just saw the "smile".
I will thus reference you, dearest Org_42, to when Kairi told Sora Riku lost his Heart in KH1, and have you notice that Kairi is smiling too.
When telling Sora Riku lost his Heart and wondering if things would ever be the same.
Game-graphics, nothing more.

Unless, of course - you wanna tell me Kairi was truly smiling too...?