I had an feeling Namine was behind the brainwashing in KHII. It got even stronger when I played trough KHII last year and remembered that she goes to meet Roxas several times during the prologue.
It would have been cool if the % in Replikus rewriting sequence would have been the same that appears in KHII.
I think it`s kinda funny that to the outside the KH-series might seem to be a cute thing with Disney characters in it, but in reality it`s full of people suffering from existential identity crisis, caused by intense brainwashing and stealing of identity and individuality.
it was sad to see how much guilt Namine has to deal with. The things she did were kinda nasty, but she was in a tricky situation. Loneliness, and mean people around you can make people do nasty things.
I was so glad when I saw her smiling in Re: Coded thou. That made my day.
Thinking about all the people Namine had to hurt during the memory mess, I think she might feel as guilty as Riku.
It was really fascinating to see this side of Riku. While playing KH1, I got the feeling that he was jealous of Sora, and it was interesting to see him really show and ponder about it the novels.
I think it also shows beautifully in KHII how afraid he was to meet Sora and Kairi after all the things he had done. It would be really cool if the KHII or Days novel dives more inside Riku`s head, and into his mind seat during that time.
If she was, it was definitely a mirror situation to the issue with Repliku in CoM.
In the first case, Marluxia, Vexen and the Organisation were forcing her to do it and in the second it was DiZ.
Her contacting Roxas several times (in defiance of DiZ's explict orders no less) can certainly be partly motivated by lingering feelings of guilt.
That's probably mainly because a) the Disney characters and environments often being very colorful and lighthearted blurring impressions somewhat and b) most of the suffering and pain caused in the KH series is mental/spiritual rather than physical, which may fly over people's heads.
People frequently cite the KH series as a whole as "not dark and mature enough" because there aren't any fountains of blood, chopped off limbs flying around and permanent gruesome deaths dealt left and right, yet KH's Darkness is there in a more subtle, but I'd also say more terrifying way as much of the "dark" stuff in KH deals with things that are possibly fates worse than "death".
This is one of the reasons why Naminé is one of my favorite characters. The things she does to other characters, Sora most prominently, but Repliku and Roxas are definitely in the same victim-"league" when we compare everything, are when looked at by themselves completely horrible and have a certain "Xehanort would approve"-stamp on them as toying with other characters' memories and hearts, brainwashing them to turn them into puppets or drive them to do something specific is
exactly what
Xehanort does as well.
Sora called Xehanort out on treating "hearts like bottles on a shelf" and in essence, when looking
just at the actions themselves, Naminé does the same.
The main difference is though that Xehanort does all this willingly, on his own behalf without any slice of remorse, while Naminé is strongarmed/forced/blackmailed into it and absolutely loathes to have to do it.
This fact may also explain why Naminé herself is less overt and adamant on insisting to be her own person like i.e. Roxas was, because she most likely does not believe she
deserves it with all the pain she has caused, just like Riku for a while thought he didn't deserve to face Sora & Kairi head on and remained in the shadows for most of KH 2 out of shame and self-loathing.
This snippet from Days when she speaks with Riku also shows it more or less subtly:
Riku: So what's the solution?
Naminé: If I try to just jump in and rearrange her memory...then I risk Sora waking up to find out that nobody remembers him anymore. I can't do that to him. It's too late either way. His awakening will have to be delayed.
I never imagined Sora's Nobody and the other one would fight so hard to be their own people. Unfortunately, the only real solution...is for them both to go away.
She makes a small pause in the last sentence before presenting the "solution" because she knows fully well that in order to keep her promise to undo the damage she did to Sora, she will have to
create more damage to other people connected to Sora.
She acknowledges how much both Roxas and Xion struggle to become their own persons, which most likely made the whole thing even harder for her to swallow, which also shows clearly in the quote from Re: Coded posted earlier.
Well, Riku outright
admitted at the end of KH II that he was jealous of Sora, so that's that.
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Reflecting on your own faults and admitting you were the one in the wrong is really difficult and few people manage to do as such thoroughly, which is one of the most interesting and positive aspects about Riku as a character.
It is also a good thing that the awful things he did were not swept under the rug so easily and frequently remained as a reminder, to himself and to us at the audience. Had this whole arc been closed too early, people would certainly have labeled Riku a karma houdini who was easily forgiven for his crimes. Another thing to take note of is the consequences of Riku's actions were still a strong plot point for drama in his own arc despite the actual situation being already remedied. The Destiny Islands (and the people living in it) were restored at the end of KH 1, yet the act of destroying it once still greatly affected Riku regardless of the restoration and gave way to that powerful scene with Zexion.
Ansem the Wise also has a similar arc, although less detailed and focused than Riku's, which is probably also why Ansem still has much more haters around than Riku does.