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SPOILERS - The World Within and the 3 mirrors, 3 sets of feelings?



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hemmoheikkinen

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As Aqua enters the World Within in 0.2, a world of mirrors and reflections, 3 mirrors start to spin around her. These mirrors steal Aqua`s reflection and you have to defeat a phantom version of Aqua 3 times in order to retrieve you`r reflection and to move on. While you are proceeding the level, you can hear Aqua`s dark thoughts and doubts being voiced by her phantom self.

Now, I wonder if it has any meaning that there were 3 mirrors that you had to defeat? Like were the doubts and negative emotions something that can be organized into 3 categories, and those were the ones that the mirrors took from her? I have tried to gather most of the lines said by phantom Aqua and up to this point I have heard these:

- "Are you worthy of being an Keyblade Master?"

- "Your bonds of friendship will only tie you down."

- "I will never see the Realm of Light again."

- "I will be trapped here forever."

- "Ven will never wake up"

- " I did not manage to save Terra."

- " The worlds were destroyed by the Darkness."


There might be more. So the categories I can think up with these are something like: failure of saving his friends, depression that she will never get out and see home again, because of these things self doubt is she is even worthy of being a Master and etc....

Of course it is possibly(and probably the more likely reason) that the number of the mirrors was decided because of gameplay factors.

Thoughts?
 

Sephiroth0812

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It is also possible that there are exactly three mirrors/Phantom Aquas because of there being exactly three main failures Aqua blames herself for:

1. The failure to protect Ventus and not being able to help him.
2. The failure to save Terra and prevent Xehanort from wreaking further havoc.
3. The failure to save herself, damning her to helplessness and causing the first two failures to further persist.

When Aqua sees the destroyed worlds she obviously gets the impression that her and Ven's sacrifice was meaningless and the Realm of Light is about to fall nonetheless, indicating that her saving Terra also didn't really work out as intended in the end (which it obviously didn't knowing the events of KH1/CoM/Days and KH 2).
So that pushes her into depression and the lines uttered by the Phantom Aquas may actually be her subconscious thoughts.
It is visible even before the whole mirror episode like in the Ven-coffin scene with her inner monologue that she is struggling hard to keep going and not completely give up.

Furthermore, if we want to remain with "categories" then the three could also symbolize Aqua's perceived failure in her roles.

1. Her failure in the role as a Keyblade Master who is expected to defend the world/universe:
- "Are you worthy of being an Keyblade Master?"
- " The worlds were destroyed by the Darkness."

2. Her failure in the role as a friend since the people she loves most are trapped in very painful fates and she couldn't prevent it:
- "Ven will never wake up"
- " I did not manage to save Terra."

3. Her failure in the role as an independent person, as she apparently cannot right any wrong by herself:
- "Your bonds of friendship will only tie you down."
- "I will never see the Realm of Light again."
- "I will be trapped here forever."

Interestingly, the first statement of the third role is exactly the opposite/antiphode of what she stated beforehand with the illusions of her friends in Castle of Dreams (where she ponders if Terra has appeared to lift her spirits up) and Dwarf Woodlands (where she outright states that it is her thoughts and memories of Ven that keeps her heart strong and the dark away).
 

hemmoheikkinen

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1. Her failure in the role as a Keyblade Master who is expected to defend the world/universe:
- "Are you worthy of being an Keyblade Master?"
- " The worlds were destroyed by the Darkness."

2. Her failure in the role as a friend since the people she loves most are trapped in very painful fates and she couldn't prevent it:
- "Ven will never wake up"
- " I did not manage to save Terra."

3. Her failure in the role as an independent person, as she apparently cannot right any wrong by herself:
- "Your bonds of friendship will only tie you down."
- "I will never see the Realm of Light again."
- "I will be trapped here forever."

These categories are pretty good.

I am not sure if I have heard all of the lines phantom Aqua mutters, there is quite many during the third fight when she separates into at least six clones. Each of them say something different and I like it because it shows how many worries and doubts Aqua has in her head.
Now that I thinking there might be one where she says "I just should fade into the darkness here" which is pretty similar to her feelings during the Epilogue of BBS. So I guess that is the final resolution after those 3 steps/categories?

The World Within was probably my favorite level/sequence since I am sucker for symbolism that deals with mirrors and reflections of characters inner conflicts and doubts.
 

Grono

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While it's probably a moot point, it can also be noted that the unversed themselves have 3 different "Faces" representing different emotions: smiling, sadness, and anger (if I'm correct). The three mirrors could represent three different emotions that Aqua herself could feel at that time. Of course, there's the obvious problem that Aqua clearly wouldn't be smiling in any of her three mirrors, so we're only left with two inherently "negative" emotions to work with.
 
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