The infamous scene was very likely meant to showcase the incredible speed Xehanort is known for, with multiple things happening almost simultaneously.
However, due to bad use of slow motion effects, only taking out Ven and Axel, and such, it looks as though Terranort is taking forever to hit people and everyone's just standing around letting it happen.
Basically, the proper version of the scene would have been Terranort going all Vergil and destroying everybody within a matter of seconds with them just barely managing to stop him.
See.. even this explanation is hard for to swallow because at several points during this sequence, we see characters move, talk, and react in real time. Riku and Mickey visibly
choose to reach out but not do anything, while Donald and Goofy go into action.
Another thing is how, in gameplay, Terranort actually isn't that fast at all. His running speed, combat speed, dashes, etc., are all comparable to Terra's through and through. This is consistent in both his BBS and KH3 boss fight mechanics. And it's also rather telling that he suddenly goes from knocking Ventus (who's supposed to be incredibly fast) unconscious instantly and flicking Sora aside like he's nothing, to later being outmatched by Sora, Aqua, and Ventus despite having Vanitas by his side.
The
only demonstrated ability he has that might potentially give him the edge over Terra's base speed is his teleportation, but it's not like other characters there, namely Aqua, couldn't teleport as well, or haven't already dealt with such maneuvers in the past. Moreover, when Anti-Aqua charged at Riku so fast he barely summoned his Keyblade, Sora appeared to block the blow...
instantly. Why didn't he do that stop Terranort from attacking Ven, Lea, and especially Kairi (where Sora, despite having more than enough time, opted to be a meat shield rather than block with his Keyblade)? Or why didn't Kairi even
attempt to defend herself despite Terranort charging at her
twice (after already being successfully interrupted once by Lea) in a very heavily telegraphed manner? Even with her inexperience, it's illogical for her to not at least summon her Keyblade.
All of this, to me, points to the issues surrounding this scene having just as much to do with poor writing as it does with it's execution.
MX: So anyway, after you all fight the GoL to the bitter end-
Other SoDs: Screw that, we ain't dying for your cause.......again!
MX: Well we could just go get the Princesses. We did learn who all the new ones were, right?
Other SoD: ....................
MX: Ugh, fine. I'll just have 1 of the other mes & a bunch of Shadow heartless go get their hearts then it that makes you ingrates feel better.
Other SoD: But aren't they really good at fighting heartless at this point?
MX: Look, it'll be a *bleep*ton of Shadows. A Shadnado! It'll be so big SyFy will make a movie about it!
Terranort: Bad news guys, they killed the Shadnado with the power of whales.
MX: Well at least we tried. Now get back to dying the rest of ya.
Other SoD: *Bleep*
This isn't even far off from how it felt in my head. It's not like Xehanort cares one bit what happens to his vessels just so long as they fight, so whatever resistance there was with fighting the GoL
must have come from the other Seekers, right? But then one has to wonder why Xehanort would go so far out of his way to oblige in the first place. Especially when he
should know there are several traitors or potential traitors in his group.
I can believe Goofy can block a attack that Axel/Lea can't.
That's quite an interesting take. I'm actually curious, were you basing this off visible/stated feats, or is it closer to speculation? I'm not sure I recall a distinguishment being made between the durability of a human and a humanoid Nobody. Like, why exactly would there be a difference when Nobodies are canonically just those same bodies left behind?
In regards to Lea/Axel's ability to block powerful attacks, he seemed to block Marluxia's blast with relatively little difficulty. And while that's already pretty impressive, I'm not sure if we can say where his upward threshold would be. Same with Goofy, at least as far as I can tell.