You'll forgive me if I look at this and see nothing but senseless whining that a series is not as "progressive" as it could be. You are arguing things like if Vexen or Zexion for example were female, not changing anything of their characters at all save for their gender, that the game's story would benefit from it. Which is ludicrous, and by definition sexist. Nobody relates to a character or finds them interesting simply because they are your gender. I'm so tired of this idea that every game made today MUST have equal representation of gender, race and sexuality lest they be labeled racist/sexist/homophobic.
Please stop putting words in people's mouths. Taochan said nothing about the game benefiting if some of the male characters had been female or anything akin to that. Your dragging your baggage in here about how games these days are pressured into being more progressive when no one here is really arguing about that. The conversation in regards to gender roles and gender stereo types in KH has been very matter of fact.
Me personally, I don't see many characters in this series that are so clearly masculine or feminine that they couldn't be filled by either gender, which you can't say about most modern games, not even most RPGs. That means characters are defined by who they are, not what. Seriously, how many characters besides Riku, the brooding antihero, and Kairi, the innocent teenage princess, play stereotypically male/female roles? Sora does not count, because his role as a child protagonist dragged into an epic adventure is a trope that's been done with both male and female characters throughout history. The Organization also does not count save for Xemnas and Lexaeus, since their backstories and personalities are kept pretty neutral. (This is how Marluxia's gender was changed mid-development) Complaining about there not being enough actively-rolled women in the cast is only truly valid when the cast is either a "sausagefest" (IE manly characters doing manly things) or there are literally no female characters at all.
Oh, I beg to differ. One of my main issues with Kairi in particular is that she's a character whose near entire role depends on what she is. She's a princess character to Sora's and Riku's dark and white knight respectively who spends the majority of the series being a DiD. Fortunately though, the issue mostly ends with her.
Namine was literally a princess (witch) in a tower waiting for her hero to save her. She was a DiD as well although I think she was handled a lot better than Kairi. Ultimately though she was a plot device important because Sora thought she was important.
Xion identifies as female but biologically she's questionable. Her entire story revolves around her identity as a "doll" and pushing Roxas' story forward. She was originally going to go crazy and try to kill Roxas, but the staff decided against it because she was written to be pure and they wanted her to remain a good girl until the end.
Aqua is the only one who broke the mold a bit and her popularity actually surprised Nomura. He didn't think she'd be very well received because "she wasn't like the other girls". A big part of her character was that her heart was so pure without actually being devoid of darkness, that she was a potential competent for the X-Blade in the old recipe.
Over all, I think calling KH out on being a sausage fest is actually pretty valid. There are several female characters in the series, but KH typically addresses the large cast in small groups at a time so you'd be lucky to get two main female characters at once. In a cast of over two dozen characters, only seven notable characters are female and four are actual main characters. Per game there are about two to five main male characters and zero to two main female characters. Personally, I count KH as a "sausage fest".
Of course it is also valid if there are no women in the cast that are not being anything but damsels in distress, which USED to be true for KH if you look at Kairi, but as of 3D this is no longer the case, so it's a moot point. I wouldn't classify Namine as a damsel in distress either, and especially not Aqua. That there not being any other female Keyblade wielders is also blatantly untrue given χ. So the only other female characters this really applies to are of course the Princesses of Heart, which again are established Disney characters, as discussed earlier, it would be extremely difficult to have them play a bigger role without violating both their characters and the meddling law.
KH only has four main female characters, half of which usually get stuck in the DiD position. It took seven games and over a decade to get Kairi to where she is and she's still at the bottom of the totem pole. The other three female characters are currently waiting to be saved leaving us with just Kairi for now. Chi isn't even canon as a whole, just certain parts. The only characters that may be canon are the foreseers which would then bring the roster of female characters to six depending on how relevant they become.
If you're satisfied with how the story and characters have played out and see no problems, that's fine. Many people are either unsatisfied with certain aspects or at least see that some things are iffy and want to discus it. What I can't understand is why you're so adamant about getting others to cease because you don't like what's being said. In fact, most of the conversation in this topic isn't even complaining about these issues, just reflecting on what's been done. The OP asked about the purity of male characters in KH and in broad strokes the answer came down to the old idea that females are perceived as "more pure" than males and by extension, males weren't capable of being pure enough. It's not even really speculation, it's an idea present within the series, just not directly addressed.
Again, no one is really complaining or finger-pointing. Just matter of factly pointing out certain tropes within the series to answer the OP that happen to do with gender.
