Is this hate for Kairi alone upset me?

[kirabook]

Of course, yet it's exactly this "asking for screentime" thing that Nomura can't obviously cater to since there are many fans who want more screentime for characters other than Kairi.
Like, correct me if I'm on a wrong chain of thought here, but when I look at Naminé, Xion, Roxas or Terra their screentime is even worse than Kairi's, with Naminé standing out as the worst.

The Axel fanservice I'm putting more into the bucket of several staff members also being vivid Axel fans. That he even survived the KH 2 Prologue was largely due to Nomura's staff rather than fan intervention.
Indeed, I agree that Kairi doesn't look any better than before and it is certainly a waste, but exactly because it is done like this is why I think that Nomura either does not care about or is not too privy about details what the fans, especially in the western world, want. I mean, you just need to look across several social media or fan sites and you'll notice how different the demands and expectations are so even if Nomura knew, which of these should he give attention to?

Perhaps that was the intention? The other characters are largely just bystanders, but there are several scenes during the finale where all characters supposed to be the "central cast" are standing together with the exception of Kairi and Naminé, yet the scenes are shot as if they're intended that way.

For me, it wasn't about screentime. I mean sure, would've been nice to be able to see Namine way more, but despite her 5 minute screentime, it felt really impactful. I don't know why they made the scene skippable, but Namine actively completely changed the tide of the battle when it was about to repeat itself again. That's amazing.

The Guardian = Terra theory got proven true and at the last second, Terra finally broke free and managed to save his best friends. He even got to see his Master again who finally put trust in him. Xion bought enough time to save Axel and even helped defeat Saix in battle. Same with Roxas who protected Axel, Xion and Sora.

Of course I wanted MORE screentime for them, but in the time they had, I feel like they actively and purposely contributed to the final battles.

When I look at Kairi... she was Sora's light. She saved him by believing in him, but... that feels so passive compared to everyone else who lacked screentime. What couldn't it be, "I grabbed onto your light and kept it from fading away with my power". Does that make sense? The passive vs active thing? Maybe it's just a matter of Kairi never really got to face off against one of the big bads in a personal manner. Even in the fight against Saix who had double kidnapped her previously... there's no weight to their clash.

Then the whole kidnapping thing. Urg. Ok, it's whatever. I wrote a post on if Nomura absolutely needed to have her kidnapped for some dumb reason... he could've STILL made it more interesting than he did.

Spoiler Show

If Nomura absolutely NEEDED Kairi to be kidnapped, at least make it interesting??

What if instead of Xehanort just floating Kairi to her death, he has her in a contained area with him (ala Aqua creating a barrier to hold herself and Vanitas) and he forces Kairi to fight, knowing he’d win. Of course Kairi does lose. She wouldn’t be able to win against freakin’ Xehanort. It’s a totally reasonable conclusion and I don’t think anyone would blame her for that.


But you know what? Kairi is a princess of heart. Why not let her deal a substantial blow in exchange for her life, taking Xehanort down a few pegs for the rest of the game???


Why not give her a Sora sacrifice moment? Or a Riku behind the door moment? She’d turn to Sora with a smile like, “I’ve done what I can. You take care of the rest, Sora.” and she disappears into crystal sparkles and Xehanort gets his 13th key for a price.


Sora would still be upset. Everyone would. But you go into the final battle knowing Kairi is the one that gave you an advantage. The crack in Xehanort’s defenses that Sora needed to ultimately win.


Maybe the reason Xehanort was all weird and divided when you first get to Scala ad Caelum is because Kairi jacked him up real good and he got split into pieces? She would’ve basically given you this big opening and Sora + other characters wouldn’t fail to mention it.

I know fans have different demands of what they want. Some Kairi fans just wanted SoKai (and those are the people I find defending Kairi the most). Some Kairi fans wanted an action packed berserker Kairi with wisecracks and a spunky attitude. There's one these two groups have in common. They simply want "more" Kairi in a "good" way. There's nothing wrong with angst. Even my suggestion above about the kidnapping has plenty of angst. But overall, it's moving Kairi forward. It's advancing her character. It might not fulfill the fans that wanted SoKai completely and it might not fulfill the fans that wanted berserker Kairi completely, but it satifies the end goal of more Kairi and the advancement of her character.

Everything with Kairi felt shallow. She trained to wield the keyblade. So did everyone else. She fought in the final battle. So did everyone else but unlike her, they all got stand out moments. She got the seal Kingdom Hearts with everyone and-oh wait no, she didn't.

When the battle was over and Mickey declared it finished. Everyone nodded their head. Even Riku, Kairi's supposed best friend. It wasn't until Sora freshly reminded them that Kairi got bopped (not that it mattered, no one said anything or protested except Mickey, Donald, and Goofy)

It's just... everything about Kairi in this game feels half assed and I don't understand why when it didn't need to be. Why couldn't everyone be like, "It's time to save Kairi." Why did she need to just float to her death? Why couldn't Kairi have been the deux ex machina against the Demon Storm with her Princess of Light powers or something? All these creative ways to give Kairi at least one real standout moment (that wasn't basically for shipping purposes) and it's not there. I don't think Nomura is incapable of coming up with these ideas because even characters that barely got screentime got to do something important against the bad guys.

I just.... meh. I'm rambling now.

 

[AdrianXXII]

Spoiler Show

If Nomura absolutely NEEDED Kairi to be kidnapped, at least make it interesting??

What if instead of Xehanort just floating Kairi to her death, he has her in a contained area with him (ala Aqua creating a barrier to hold herself and Vanitas) and he forces Kairi to fight, knowing he’d win. Of course Kairi does lose. She wouldn’t be able to win against freakin’ Xehanort. It’s a totally reasonable conclusion and I don’t think anyone would blame her for that.


But you know what? Kairi is a princess of heart. Why not let her deal a substantial blow in exchange for her life, taking Xehanort down a few pegs for the rest of the game???


Why not give her a Sora sacrifice moment? Or a Riku behind the door moment? She’d turn to Sora with a smile like, “I’ve done what I can. You take care of the rest, Sora.” and she disappears into crystal sparkles and Xehanort gets his 13th key for a price.


Sora would still be upset. Everyone would. But you go into the final battle knowing Kairi is the one that gave you an advantage. The crack in Xehanort’s defenses that Sora needed to ultimately win.


Maybe the reason Xehanort was all weird and divided when you first get to Scala ad Caelum is because Kairi jacked him up real good and he got split into pieces? She would’ve basically given you this big opening and Sora + other characters wouldn’t fail to mention it.

I would have really liked it if she'd gone out like this. This would have given her a bit more of a on screen moment to shine

And while I agree with Sephi that fan demands and wishes are a bit all over the place and if Nomura and Square tried to fulfill them all people still wouldn't have been happier and the end product might have been worse. Kairi definitely wasn't the only character short changed and built up to be more meaning full then they ended up being. It just feels like Kairi is the only one that has yet to be spotlighted properly in a game and I wrongfully hoped this might be her chance.

I do hope we can see other characters take the spotlight again and we don't just have Sora focused games moving forward, I quite enjoyed the variety the other "spin-off" games offered.

 

[Nukara]

To be fair most of us long time KH fans have been here before. I don't think there are too many game anyone that likes her character has been able to walk away from, not feeling disappointed.

KH2: Is sidelined for most of the game, only getting minor moments to interact with others. Got kidnapped not once but twice, second time was even off screen. Her reunion with Sora is also rather awkward.
Days: Never shows up outside of Flashbacks from Sora's memories. Though she is mentioned.
BBS: Only ever is seen and interacts with Aqua, and that was all of her screen time.
Coded: Doesn't even get a Data version and isn't really mentioned.
DDD: Isn't in the game until the Secret ending, doesn't really get mentioned.
KH3: All her progress if off screen, her biggest moment saving Sora and by proxy the others, has the shortest fight and gets kidnapped again. Killed off to motivate Sora.

I like her character, but I can't say I'm really happy with how she's been handled. If I wanted to writer her off as a lost cause I would have done so along time ago.

In fact, the embarrassing embraces of Sora and Kairi are justified given that Sora felt guilty for not being able to keep his promise and return Riku to the island.
I'm not trying to justify the almost complete absence of Kairi in KH2, it just wonders why many people are unhappy with this moment.

 

[AdrianXXII]

In fact, the embarrassing embraces of Sora and Kairi are justified given that Sora felt guilty for not being able to keep his promise and return Riku to the island.
I'm not trying to justify the almost complete absence of Kairi in KH2, it just wonders why many people are unhappy with this moment.

It's hard to say why that scene doesn't work for me. It just falls flat for some reason.

But I think it might be because in the scene at Hollow Bastion Sora basically says she more important to him than anything, yet his reaction to reuniting with her doesn't communicate that at all. I feel even, if he's embarrassed for being gone so long and not fulfilled his promise, being able to know she's safe and seeing her again after so long, would have been more emotional, than an awkward basically: "Hey, you're here and alright. Awesome!"
The scene might have just suffered from limited expressions and body language of the low quality models. Maybe if the used the higher quality ones to communicate their emotions while they talked it would have felt less flat?

Especially when juxtaposed to his reaction to Riku. Of course I'm aware that Sora was fearing Riku was dead and he just saw that Kairi was more or less okay, so the worry and tension levels would be different.

 

[Audo]

I think they try to use Sora acting serious/more subdued in his personality as a signifier of this Being An Important Moment. Like the Kairi hug scene in KH2 and the Paopu Scene in KH3, Sora is more serious, more toned down and it's meant to be like This Is Important, but it has a weird side-effect where it comes off more as like "Sora does not like Kairi"/"Sora is uncomfortable". But I don't think that's intentional.

 

[SerDuncan]

Spoiler Show

One of the things I think that gets lost in all this discussion of Kairi, and spotlighting characters and all that, is that this isn't just fans crying about their favorite characters getting shafted... it's simply poor writing. When you have a film, or book, or game that deals with many characters and their interactions and arcs, it's expected that by the end of the saga the major players have gotten a chance to shine. Compare, for example, a film series like the MCU. It's by no means a perfect representation, but in the many films in the series, nearly every one of the introduced superheroes have their moment, their chance to be important. They have arcs with satisfying conclusions, relationships with other characters that get explored. And while there are some characters who fall flat... like Black Widow, it's overwhelmingly positive for most of the cast. That's not true for Kingdom Hearts. After getting the origin story for Sora, Riku and Kairi and then the ensuing sequels, we see absolutely no growth for one of the principal cast members. It'd be like having Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor in the MCU. Except while Iron Man and Cap grow as characters and interact with new people and have their moment in the sun, Thor stays the same spoiled kid he is at the beginning of his first movie. Sure, maybe he gets a new hammer, but the fundamental problem would be that his story doesn't change.

At this point I feel like I'm rambling. Does this analogy even make sense? I dunno. But I really feel like characters like Kairi, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Roxas and Xion got shafted by poor writing and pacing. Some of their returns make zero sense, their arcs don't make any sense because they have no structure and no sense, and many of their scenes contain so little dialogue it doesn't serve to create any sort of emotional reaction. When the trios got reunited, nothing the game did made for feel for or care about these characters we've followed for years through their endless hardships. I only felt teary eyed and happy because of what excellently written games like Days had instilled in me. KH3 didn't earn those emotions.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Spoiler Show

One of the things I think that gets lost in all this discussion of Kairi, and spotlighting characters and all that, is that this isn't just fans crying about their favorite characters getting shafted... it's simply poor writing. When you have a film, or book, or game that deals with many characters and their interactions and arcs, it's expected that by the end of the saga the major players have gotten a chance to shine. Compare, for example, a film series like the MCU. It's by no means a perfect representation, but in the many films in the series, nearly every one of the introduced superheroes have their moment, their chance to be important. They have arcs with satisfying conclusions, relationships with other characters that get explored. And while there are some characters who fall flat... like Black Widow, it's overwhelmingly positive for most of the cast. That's not true for Kingdom Hearts. After getting the origin story for Sora, Riku and Kairi and then the ensuing sequels, we see absolutely no growth for one of the principal cast members. It'd be like having Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor in the MCU. Except while Iron Man and Cap grow as characters and interact with new people and have their moment in the sun, Thor stays the same spoiled kid he is at the beginning of his first movie. Sure, maybe he gets a new hammer, but the fundamental problem would be that his story doesn't change.

At this point I feel like I'm rambling. Does this analogy even make sense? I dunno. But I really feel like characters like Kairi, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Roxas and Xion got shafted by poor writing and pacing. Some of their returns make zero sense, their arcs don't make any sense because they have no structure and no sense, and many of their scenes contain so little dialogue it doesn't serve to create any sort of emotional reaction. When the trios got reunited, nothing the game did made for feel for or care about these characters we've followed for years through their endless hardships. I only felt teary eyed and happy because of what excellently written games like Days had instilled in me. KH3 didn't earn those emotions.

The analogy works.

I'd also say the poor writing shows Nomura somehow believes just having these characters appear is enough, so doesn't bother doing much with them or how they even appear in the first place because in his head those things do not matter.

 

[Audo]

I mean, a lot of that is just incredibly subjective. Y'all might not have been moved by say TAV reuniting, but I played the same game as you and was sobbing my eyes out at that part and was captivated by the way it progressed, the use of music, the callbacks to the past, the revelations, the choreography of the scene, the visuals, etc. And that was stuff KH3 itself had done, not just my feelings carrying over from the past. It totally earned it for me. And I wasn't even that invested in TAV lol.

 

[Ðari]

I've already voiced my dissatisfaction with several parts of KH III that aren't done well including the FF cameos as well, yet I do not expect that just because something is considered to be a staple by the fanbase that it has to be incorporated everytime.

You know, I was kind looking forward to this, but when your making a game it's like you have to determine what the priority or the focus is. Choosing to leave assets of Radiant Garden (and Twilight Town) in the game and showcase none of those characters (FF), tbh, they got their shine and spotlight in more than enough of the games. Bigger question for me ultimately was why there were no Destiny Island, Islanders lol. Like, tf? Not that I missed them, but it drew question marks when they showcase everyone on the beach and you don't see one Islander other than Riku, Kairi and our boy before he fades to dust.

I mean, a lot of that is just incredibly subjective. Y'all might not have been moved by say TAV reuniting, but I played the same game as you and was sobbing my eyes out at that part and was captivated by the way it progressed, the use of music, the callbacks to the past, the revelations, the choreography of the scene, the visuals, etc. And that was stuff KH3 itself had done, not just my feelings carrying over from the past. It totally earned it for me. And I wasn't even that invested in TAV lol.

Holy shit I am actually relieved that I am NOT alone on this.

 

[Face My Fears]

I mean, a lot of that is just incredibly subjective. Y'all might not have been moved by say TAV reuniting, but I played the same game as you and was sobbing my eyes out at that part and was captivated by the way it progressed, the use of music, the callbacks to the past, the revelations, the choreography of the scene, the visuals, etc. And that was stuff KH3 itself had done, not just my feelings carrying over from the past. It totally earned it for me. And I wasn't even that invested in TAV lol.

I completely agree with you. I adore Roxas and Xion, they are two of my favourite characters in all of KH. Their little moment was PERFECT to me. I don't get why people seem to need like a 30 minute long cutscene of the characters together to feel like there was closure. I've said it before, Xion crying and then Roxas/Axel/Xion hugging was more powerful than any long-winded hour long reunion dialogue between them could ever be.

Sora and Kairi sharing the papou fruit was way more powerful than having 30 cutscenes with them together. I don't know if it's just me, but I just get the vibe of KH storytelling to be very minimalist and I like it. Nomura seems to like letting the fans fill in the blanks. I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but I'm fine with it for this series.

People complain about the pacing of KH3 and that it "felt like a movie" because of the number of cutscenes, but now people are complaining that they want MORE cutscenes of characters interacting - which in turn will ruin the pacing even more... OK? Like just imagine how horrible it would be if during the final battle sequence (fighting the darknesses), after Terra/Aqua/Ven were reunited we got a 60 minute long cutscene of them chatting away about how they feel being reunited and what happened with them... all while I'm waiting to go fight the other bosses.

 

[Platinum End]

The only way i see Nomura redeeming himself at this point is that in the next titles, have Kairi playable so i can train her up, then use her to party up with Riku and save Sora! Is that too much to ask for??! If not let her stay on Destiny Islands with Selphie and have her go back to school.

 

[kirabook]

Haven't heard people complaining about it feeling like a movie (except in Frozen and Tangled where it was literally just a retelling), but the pacing was definitely something that could use tweaking. Backloading the main plot to the very end and bringing some characters back so late in the game (namely Aqua and Ven I guess) made things feel a little rushed.

I didn't need 30 minutes worth of cutscenes, but I feel like we could've gotten a second or two for characters to question things (Sora was surprised that Vanitas looked like him, but not why Ven looked like Roxas? Feel like that could've lead to some interested speculation from Sora at the very least).

Would've been nice for Kairi and Riku to get an onscreen conversation here and there. Are insert some more phone call conversations between Sora and Kairi so that their scenes together don't feel so... shallow. (yeah, they just felt shallow for me) Or instead of basically writing a diary to Sora, Kairi actually sent Sora her letters and he read them or now and then or something.

Would've been nice to see Lea and Kairi actually in Radiant Garden, Axel's AND Kairi's original home. Or her trying at all to remember her childhood that she completely ignores even though she seemed somewhat interested back in KH1.

Would've been nice to have some lesser hub worlds, like being able to explore Mysterious Tower. It's only 2 rooms. A few dialogue lines from your party members before the final battle would've been cool.

Basically all this stuff was impossible because no one came together to do stuff until the very very end. The bogus "power of waking" excuse didn't even apply until Ven's rescue.

 

[Face My Fears]

Haven't heard people complaining about it feeling like a movie (except in Frozen and Tangled where it was literally just a retelling), but the pacing was definitely something that could use tweaking. Backloading the main plot to the very end and bringing some characters back so late in the game (namely Aqua and Ven I guess) made things feel a little rushed.

I didn't need 30 minutes worth of cutscenes, but I feel like we could've gotten a second or two for characters to question things (Sora was surprised that Vanitas looked like him, but not why Ven looked like Roxas? Feel like that could've lead to some interested speculation from Sora at the very least).

Would've been nice for Kairi and Riku to get an onscreen conversation here and there. Are insert some more phone call conversations between Sora and Kairi so that their scenes together don't feel so... shallow. (yeah, they just felt shallow for me) Or instead of basically writing a diary to Sora, Kairi actually sent Sora her letters and he read them or now and then or something.

Would've been nice to see Lea and Kairi actually in Radiant Garden, Axel's AND Kairi's original home. Or her trying at all to remember her childhood that she completely ignores even though she seemed somewhat interested back in KH1.

Would've been nice to have some lesser hub worlds, like being able to explore Mysterious Tower. It's only 2 rooms. A few dialogue lines from your party members before the final battle would've been cool.

Basically all this stuff was impossible because no one came together to do stuff until the very very end. The bogus "power of waking" excuse didn't even apply until Ven's rescue.

I felt like Kairi telling Axel about writing to Sora was more powerful than having Kairi blow up Sora's phone while he's out killing heartless. I mean there could have been a cute scene where Sora calls Kairi to check up on her, and Axel picks up and shows that Kairi is busy training and he's like "gotta go!"

I agree that there could have been more, but like you said it was impossible because everyone came together at the end. Which I think was always going to be KH3's biggest issue. All that needed to happen was 13 darknesses and 7 lights - with both sides almost there. I do wish that we got to see Kairi/Axel fighting. I thought they should have included the final battle between Kairi/Axel as a playable moment for Kairi where you have to beat Axel.

They could have done something creative in one of the last worlds (San Fransokyo/The Caribbean) where more Organization members attack Sora at the end of the world (after the main boss is beaten and he says goodbye to the Disney characters), thus putting Sora in peril. The Organization do this because they realize Sora's gained the power of waking. After the attack, we cut to Kairi/Axel's final battle training, where you take control of Kairi. After you beat Axel, Merlin says that Sora is in trouble and he will transport them to help him. You take control of Kairi (with Axel on your team) and you go to the Disney world and fight the Organization member to save Sora.

After that, we see Kairi/Axel going to Yen Sid's tower while Sora and the gang go to the Dark World to save Aqua.

 

[alexis.anagram]

The problem with Kairi is that she embodies all the issues with KH3's writing in one character, so it's easy to make her the scapegoat and selectively evaluate the deficiencies in its plotting as it relates to her when, in actuality, she's a reflection of the whole game as the conceptual graveyard it is. Outside of being literally fridged, Aqua is given the same treatment with few degrees of separation: forced DiD plot in the RoD at Xehanort's hand which causes her to need rescuing, doesn't save Ven (in fact she would have died if Ven didn't rescue her again), doesn't save Terra, never confronts MX nor does she take part in the battle against him. She's a plot device with one role to play and once that done she's placed back on the shelf to be seen and not heard. Even the way Terra frames her as his "light" which guided him back is the exact same as Kairi's relationship to Sora and her single contribution, which is not wrong in and of itself but it's not a particularly clever substitute for the kind of characterization it should be augmenting. I use Aqua as an example because it's so egregious but this reading has applicability to every one of the extended cast with some getting it slightly better than others-- none of them actually affect meaningful change, resolve their own conflicts, or revitalize the narrative with a necessary dynamic.

So the reason Kairi gets singled out so much is either that people can effectively reference her as shorthand for the games faults, or because it serves them to insinuate that they're all contained to Kairi and she epitomizes KH's worst tropes such that everything else looks pretty good by comparison. She does "deserve" it in the sense that she's a character in a fictional story, so her only value is how functional she is relative to that. It's hard to invest in her when she never approaches anything resembling agency or autonomy or growth. I love Kairi as an idea, I loved the potential she had going into KH3. I think what she represents in the actual game is reprehensible, and Nomura lost me on that basis alone, even without delving into the games myriad failures.

 

[Face My Fears]

Nomura should just make a FFX-2 style game for KH3 where it's Aqua/Kairi/Xion on a mission to find Sora. You can switch between the 3 characters in each world. The premise would be that those 3 specifically have to travel together because one is a keyblade master, one is a Princess of Heart, and one is connected to Sora. They don't find him, however they come across Maleficent/Pete, Disney villains, and Xigbar (Luxu) and find a way to bring Sora back... however Riku is the only one who can do it (IE use darkness).

 

[Askelon]

I felt like Kairi telling Axel about writing to Sora was more powerful than having Kairi blow up Sora's phone while he's out killing heartless.

That part was cute and really make me like her character. . . at the strat of the game at least. Sora is also not innocent, when he went to see Merlin he didn't even ask anything about her and just hop in a book.

 

[Face My Fears]

That part was cute and really make me like her character. . . at the strat of the game at least. Sora is also not innocent, when he went to see Merlin he didn't even ask anything about her and just hop in a book.

I think the whole writing thing is an interesting aspect of Kairi's character that is overlooked. She's clearly a writer. She wrote that letter to Sora that basically saved him and Riku from the Realm of Darkness in KH2. I find it interesting that Kairi's a writer and Namine draws. Maybe Xion sculpts?

I completely forgot that Sora didn't ask about Kairi and jumped into the 100 Acre Wood. Maybe he just knew that she could handle the training?

 

[SerDuncan]

I completely agree with you. I adore Roxas and Xion, they are two of my favourite characters in all of KH. Their little moment was PERFECT to me. I don't get why people seem to need like a 30 minute long cutscene of the characters together to feel like there was closure. I've said it before, Xion crying and then Roxas/Axel/Xion hugging was more powerful than any long-winded hour long reunion dialogue between them could ever be.

Sora and Kairi sharing the papou fruit was way more powerful than having 30 cutscenes with them together. I don't know if it's just me, but I just get the vibe of KH storytelling to be very minimalist and I like it. Nomura seems to like letting the fans fill in the blanks. I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but I'm fine with it for this series.

People complain about the pacing of KH3 and that it "felt like a movie" because of the number of cutscenes, but now people are complaining that they want MORE cutscenes of characters interacting - which in turn will ruin the pacing even more... OK? Like just imagine how horrible it would be if during the final battle sequence (fighting the darknesses), after Terra/Aqua/Ven were reunited we got a 60 minute long cutscene of them chatting away about how they feel being reunited and what happened with them... all while I'm waiting to go fight the other bosses.

It's not that I want 30 minutes of cutscene. Honestly, I thought that the amount of cutscenes throughout the game felt fine. I love JRPGs and visual novels and the like so having tons of cutscenes is nothing new for me. My problem is that I felt nearly over half the cutscenes were irrelevant. Obviously, as Audo said this is all subjective. And I'm not trying to say that objectively the story was bad. I think that from a critical writing perspective, it was poor. When you look at how character arcs should be written, there's each element to think about. The buildup the crisis, the resolution, etc. And for these trios... we spend so much more time on every single other part of their arc than the conclusion. For example: I love the sea salt trio. My favorite trio out there. When they were reunited, I felt happy, and got teary eyed. But it's because I loved them from Days, not by what their reunion did, or what they did in KH3. In KH3, the sea salt trio got 8 minutes to reunite... but we'd had 3 hours of buildup (plus gameplay and other cutscenes) in Days, and another 2 hours of Roxas plot throughout KH2, not including gameplay. We also have sequences in Dream Drop, RE:coded and 0.2 that deal with them. So after (rounding a lot, of course) approximately 5 and half hours of buildup (plus gameplay) and another 10-15 minutes of buildup in their own game... having only 8 minutes of a reunion is simply not acceptable storytelling. If we had a more compelling renunion, an explanation of Roxas' return, either earlier in the story, or whatever, it could have been better. Instead, our falling action and our climax for the sea salt trio is around 4% of their entire arc. I just can't accept that. Opperative word being I, of course, ahaha. XD

I think that the best way to fix the horrible pacing... would be to spread things out. Let us recue Aqua after the first run of worlds. Then before we visit Pirates, we save Ven. That way the two have time to recuperate and the ending doesn't feel so rushed. How about we save Roxas during the Twlight Town bit, but he needs time to reflect before he's willing to work with Sora and the gang. There's so many better ways to spread out the cutscenes instead of rapid fire. Imagine if these were character deaths in a tv show instead. We just wouldn't care about each individual death, because they'd be too quick one after another. I think that if we fought the Organization at Disney worlds instead of in a cluster fuck boss rush, where the cutscenes already feel forced and awkward, these long reunions would feel way more organic. Imagine, if you would, that we saved Aqua and Ven before we go to say... I dunno, Frozen world. We could have Aqua and Ven realize that Terra is still inside Terranort there, and make the cutscenes in the graveyard feel better.

It's certainyl not a cultural thing, because games like Chrono Trigger does this sort of show don't tell way better than KH. KH just doesn't have a lot of show don't tell moments throughout the series... it's usually dialogue that really shows off the story (except for a few key scenes, including Roxas and Xion at the end of Days). But some of the most impactful series moments are dialogue. "Sora, we don't have to be afraid of the darkness!" "Go on, you just keep on running... but I'll always be there to bring you back!" " This might be a good place to find some ingredients!" you understand. I can understand why that Papou fruit moment might be meaningful because... guess what? early Papou fruit moments were one of KH1s only visual moments, with Sora and Kairi carving into the cave. There's also a difference between minimalism, and having scenes that simply don't make sense. Xion's reappearance, Roxas' reappearance... these can both be explained by fans reaching and digging to find an explanation. But for all we know, tthe real answer is something totally different. Nomura doesn't explain stuff not because he wants fans to fill it in... but because he simply doesn't care about why it happens. He just likes the flash, and not the substance.

That's all it is for me. After so much build up... the reason we care is not because their reunion is well written: it's because we love those characters from when they had good writing. I just saw How to Train your Dragon 3 today, and I felt the same way. It wasn't that the movie was amazing and made me cry because it had such good storytelling (it was still p good anyways). It's because I cared about the characters from when they had good writing. (The new Star Wars films are the same way)

 

[Deleted member 246005]

Nomura should just make a FFX-2 style game for KH3 where it's Aqua/Kairi/Xion on a mission to find Sora. You can switch between the 3 characters in each world. The premise would be that those 3 specifically have to travel together because one is a keyblade master, one is a Princess of Heart, and one is connected to Sora. They don't find him, however they come across Maleficent/Pete, Disney villains, and Xigbar (Luxu) and find a way to bring Sora back... however Riku is the only one who can do it (IE use darkness).

That would be fun.

Maybe add Namine as the chronicler?

I think the whole writing thing is an interesting aspect of Kairi's character that is overlooked. She's clearly a writer. She wrote that letter to Sora that basically saved him and Riku from the Realm of Darkness in KH2. I find it interesting that Kairi's a writer and Namine draws. Maybe Xion sculpts?

I completely forgot that Sora didn't ask about Kairi and jumped into the 100 Acre Wood. Maybe he just knew that she could handle the training?

I was hoping Xion could get an interest in science and study under Ansem the Wise. It would be a good redemption arc for them and help Xion stand out from the others.

People tend to overlook it because it feels less like a hobby. It serves a utilitarian concern as everyone still writes letters/emails outside of wanting to be a writer.

It would be cool if Writing becomes her element like how Moon is Saix/Isa's etc. Kinda like-
https://www.deviantart.com/sarehptar/art/Rhexsa-Sareh-77505050

 

[Askelon]

I think the whole writing thing is an interesting aspect of Kairi's character that is overlooked. She's clearly a writer. She wrote that letter to Sora that basically saved him and Riku from the Realm of Darkness in KH2. I find it interesting that Kairi's a writer and Namine draws. Maybe Xion sculpts?

I completely forgot that Sora didn't ask about Kairi and jumped into the 100 Acre Wood. Maybe he just knew that she could handle the training?

That's an interesting power. . . if she ever got that kind of development. Maybe it's another letter of her that will bring Sora back.

The problem is not that she could handle it or not. Before they gather at Yen Sid's tower she just got 2 cutscenes i think which make her absent for a long portion of the game. Sora not even mentioning her during his travel doesn't help with that either.