Re: New information on Kingdom Hearts X[chi] Back Cover & 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage
I can kind of understand him not recognizing Terra-Xehanort when he first saw him upon visiting Ansem the Wise for the reasons that Mickey only knew of Xehanort as an old man up until that point and also because Mickey never actually sees Terra in BBS.
But once Xehanort began causing trouble with the heartless and nobodies Mickey should have connected at least some of the dots that Master Xehanort and Terra-Xehanort were at least connected in some way. And besides Mickey, Yen Sid, a man who knew Xehanort for a long time, should have figured it out.
And then Mickey forgetting Xehanort's name later on in KH2 is just silly.
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Well when you put it that way I feel bad for Mickey. I just always thought that Mickey would want to ask Sora and Riku to help him search for TAV. I don't expect him to have known about the connections between TAV and SRK, but I figured Mickey would be happy to get some help in finding his friends since he's been unable to do it for a decade +.
But what about Goofy & Donald? They saw and spoke with Ven back in BBS yet when they saw the picture of Roxas in KH2, surely that should have triggered their memories of Ven and then they should have told Mickey that Roxas looked like Ven.
Re:Coded just seemed like something that could be summed up at some point in KH3D. It also doesn't make sense that Mickey would let Sora dive into the Realm a Sleep, a place connected to the darkness, when Data-Namine told him that Sora's connection to TAV and RAX could damage his heart if he isn't ready for it. Even more so we learn in KH3D that Sleep and Memories are tied together, which gives even more reason why Mickey shouldn't have let Sora enter the realm of sleep. I think it would have made more sense for Sora & Riku to go the Realm of Sleep to unlock the sleeping keyholes and while they're doing that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy could have been trying to unlock Namine's message in the journal. Once Mickey learns about Sora's connections to TAV and how these connections could damage him, then Mickey could have returned to Yen Sid's tower to tell Yen Sid to pull Sora out of the Realm of Sleep which would lead into the conversation about Xehanort getting involved in Sora and Riku's Exam.
True, and in BBS Mickey also only sees the original
Master Xehanort from far away as he helps Aqua fighting against the Vanitas-possessed Ventus. He never actually comes face to face with MX before DDD.
But do we know that Mickey actually had the information about it being
Xehanort who caused the trouble with the Heartless and Nobodies? At first, everyone was believing that Ansem had gone off the deep end and caused all this. During Chain of Memories, Mickey continues to call Ansem SoD just "Ansem", which means that he didn't have the information he gives Sora, Donald and Goofy about the "Ansem" from KH 1 being an impostor from the get-go. Somewhere in the time between CoM and KH 2 Mickey must have learned that the "Ansem" doing the experiments and causing all this ruckus wasn't the real Ansem, which jump-started his quest to find the real Ansem which he is pursuing during much of KH 2 itself.
KH 2 said:
Goofy: Uh, I'm kinda confused. If he's a fake, then what happened to the real Ansem?
Mickey: Well, that's just what I'm tryin' to figure out.
Ansem the Wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans, and what's been happening to the worlds.
I'm pretty sure he'll give us some help. Ya know, I came close to finding him once...
Since he met Terra-Xehanort only once in Ansem's study though for a few minutes (which was also at least 9 years ago), he didn't realize the "fake Ansem" was the Heartless of Xehanort until he saw Xemnas' face, which triggered the memory from this meeting years ago.
Just like Axel/Lea didn't remember Ventus after a single meeting ten years ago, Mickey didn't remember his meeting with Xehanort from nine years ago until a trigger awakened that memory. And unlike Axel/Lea, who's memories of Ventus were
not triggered when looking at Roxas, Mickey's memory did trigger.
It's okay, many people seem to overlook this aspect of Mickey in the KH series, but his failure to save Terra, Aqua and Ven is really something that's nagging him. Sora and Riku have many problems and tasks of their own and Mickey being Mickey didn't want to burden them with something that he feels is
his duty to tackle. In this vein Mickey is a little similar to Riku in that he wants to do most things alone if possible and don't bother others with it. You'll also notice that during DDD whenever he was going to move out he was initally set on going alone. Donald and Goofy had to
insist to accompany him more than once.
Eh, we're speaking of
Donald and Goofy here. Both their memory isn't really the best and even more importantly is it the same situation as with Lea/Axel. Lea/Axel, Donald and Goofy all met and spoke with Ventus, but by the time of KH II that was eleven years later, and just like Lea/Axel didn't trigger the memory (and he had Roxas in person sitting beside him instead of a photo), Donald and Goofy also did not.
Mickey on the other hand met with Ven several times and they bonded quite a bit, so Mickey had not only
more memories of Ven, him triggering the memory of Xehanort when seeing Xemnas also implies that he has a better cognitive ability in regards to faces than Donald, Goofy and Lea/Axel do which certainly helped when he first saw Roxas in the memories shown during Coded.
I guess this is also one of the reasons why in all games where Roxas was available as a physical person it was paid attention to that he and Mickey never met in person.
That's entirely correct. It doesn't make sense this way, which is why I assume that Nomura did it this way in order to yet again make it more "surprising".
In Re: Coded Mickey promised the Data-Naminé that he would inform the other Sora about her findings
and her warning. Yet he didn't do so in the letter nor did he in the briefings made before Yen Sid started the exam. They didn't expect Xehanort to interfere with the exam, so it is possible that Mickey planned to fill Sora in after the exam, but it nonetheless is true that it was an oversight on Mickey's part which put unneccessary danger on Sora.
What makes this so head-banging-against-wall-worthy is indeed that the plan Xehanort, Xemnas and Xigbar used to make Sora fall into their trap involved
exactly the dangers Data-Naminé warned about. Had Mickey filled in Sora beforehand and he
knew about Ventus, Roxas and the other hearts inside him as well as the connections to Terra and Aqua, Xemnas' and Young Xehanort's mind games would have not had such an impact on Sora at all.
The scenario you propose is actually the best of both worlds as this would not only give the whole warning of Data-Naminé more impact overall, having the plot of Coded and DDD running parallel to each other would also have not let Mickey look like he's somewhat irresponsible by not filling Sora in on something this important. He simply wouldn't have known yet.
Heck, even Maleficent's new story arc with the Datascape could have been more effective with this scenario, as instead of the "Forces of Darkness growing stronger" as an explanation as to why Maleficent could enter Disney Castle, she could simply have followed Mickey, Donald and Goofy when they left the Datascape again and then have the scene we see in DDD with Lea entering shortly after.
Now I somewhat wish they would have done it the way you describe. It's much more coherent without really changing something substantial. Ok, the substantial thing changed would be that Mickey didn't write the letter at the end of Coded which would then be read by SRK in the last scene of KH 2, but that letter could be simply changed to Yen Sid/Mickey inviting Sora and Riku to take the MoM (as Yen Sid knows that Xehanort will return without anything found out by Mickey during Coded).
Sora, Riku and Kairi then arrive at the Mysterious Tower and things play out like in DDD, except that Kairi will be there to witness the exam as well and Yen Sid will inform Mickey that Jiminy has found a strange message in one of the Journals he never wrote, starting the plot of Coded parallel to the one of DDD.
Not sure where to put this, but GameXeplain did a discussion video about KH2.8:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWKiIGIjI4
These guys seem to pretty hard-core fans, and it is always nice to see people how now a lot of stuff about the series. Also, KHInsider mentioned a couple of times in this video!

Ben Diskin is also a friend of one of the guys talking in the video, and he played BBS for the first time trough the 2.5 version. He played it with Ben if I remember correctly.
Heh, I can see it, Ben Diskin is getting into the series due to his voice work, lol.
Gotta say, I would've liked this scenario better.
This scenario is miles better than the official one and it would forego many inconsistencies of the official version.
Also, let's not forget that KH2 was Roxa's introduction. Considering he IS a major character, I don't think a cliffnote summary would've sufficed. Because of that, I seem to be one of the few people that appreciates KH2's prologue!
Incognito is not talking about Roxas' role in KH 2, but about Days.
Just like Coded could be "summed up" in DDD (or run parallel with it as Mr. Megaverse so brilliantly proposed), the same can be said about Days.
The core story about "Roxas' reasons why he left the Organisation", his friendship with Axel etc. could have been easily "summed up" by expanding KH 2 a little with some additional flashbacks which show more of Roxas' time in the Organisation.
It would also have the advantage of showing the Organisation as a whole more and make them better fleshed out villains and characters in KH 2 itself.
The only disadvantages of this approach would be that there would be no playable Roxas beyond the KH 2 prologue and that there would most likely be no Xion (although this might be seen by quite a chunk of the fanbase as not so much of a disadvantage).