Who should have been the one to save Aqua instead of Sora?

[Iscreamer1 100]

At lot of people feel that Mickey or Riku should have been the one to save Aqua instead of Sora, mostly because Mickey has a stronger connection to her than Sora, which makes it more impactful. Riku’s reasons are because he is a master and that he relates to Aqua in some scales. So who would you pick in the event that you decide to rewrite Kingdom Hearts III to meet your standards?

[ocean's rage 772]

neither. the games made it clear that sora was the one who would save everyone

[Iscreamer1 100]

18 minutes ago, ocean's rage said:

neither. the games made it clear that sora was the one who would save everyone

The Killer Critic and several others might have a different opinion on that matter complete with an explanation as to why Riku and Mickey are better options.

[ocean's rage 772]

2 hours ago, Iscreamer1 said:

The Killer Critic and several others might have a different opinion on that matter complete with an explanation as to why Riku and Mickey are better options.

they might have a different opinions on what the games told us?

[DestinysUnion 23]

Personally speaking, I don't mind the fact that Sora saved her, Blank Points and the 0.2 both told us he would. My disappointment is really just how KH3 handled that plot.

As a heads-up for anyone who really likes this plot as is, and may be sensitive to hearing a negative opinion on it, maybe don't read my comment any further. I'll be nice, but I don't want to chance ruining the scene for anyone. I already feel like the bad guy for saying the KH novels aren't canon. lol

My problem is that Sora's and Aqua's interaction just felt very shallow to me. Early in KH3 they build up this plot point where Aqua can only be reached by someone she is very close to, and not even Mickey can help her here. This really sets-up a potential plot where Sora is able to reach Aqua either due to his strong connections to everyone, or because he possesses Ven's heart. Unfortunately, it felt like it never really considered either idea.

I know this may be a nitpick on my end, as I'm aware KH3 had a lot of content to include and had to cut some corners, especially with their limited disc space, but I'm disappointed by the way Sora actually never cared about her in the game, up until he took her hand. Mickey, Riku, and Donald, all have points in the game where they express concern for the well-being of Aqua, Terra, and/or Ven. Sora, however, never expresses compassion for any of them, until after he saves Aqua. There are two times when Sora speaks up about saving her, but both of these are implied to be Ven's feelings, whether it's Ven's actual words or Sora reacting to his heart. There is a scene in the gummi ship where Sora has an outburst, saying they need to go to the Realm of Darkness, but the reasoning he gives is purely for manpower to combat the growing threat. This is very out-of-character for him, and generally makes him feel cold towards their situations.

Then there's the part where Sora enters the RoD. When he sees Aqua, he really expresses nothing. He doesn't look surprised to see her, or confused about her transformation. He doesn't look concerned for her, and never even tries to speak with her. His only thought here seems to be saving Riku and Mickey, and you have to wonder if he's even aware of who he is fighting. He probably knows, but there's really no indication. After this, you just battle her. This is fine, I mean, it's a game, and that's what we do. But any personal feelings here feel like they're entirely atmospheric and based on the player's attachment to Aqua, while Sora is just kinda here and has no personal stake in the matter.

Again, this may be a nitpick, but I don't understand why it was established that she could only be saved by someone close to her, and then you have her rescued by someone who felt so detached from her throughout this particular game. I understand her situation changed once she was no longer trapped within the water, but it felt like a back step. It really would've helped if they added anything to connect them in KH3, even just highlighting Sora frowning when he heard they couldn't find her, or him including her in his reasons to want to go to the RoD. It just felt like they decided long ago that Sora would save Aqua, but by KH3 they kinda forgot to really build towards that point until it was already time to save her.

A little off-topic here, but I'll be forward with you: we're very big BbS trio fans. We adore them, and we wish Terra and Ven could've been involved in Aqua's rescue somehow, especially since they got her this far through the RoD. But our personal feelings aside, KH3 built on its own the idea that Ven would help rescue her. I'm not at all saying Ven should've just rescued her while Sora sat on the sidelines, but as I mentioned above, early game they established the idea that Aqua would have to be reached by someone very close to her, and in the same scene, Ven reacts within Sora. This happens twice, yet Ven is never indicated to actually help once they're in the RoD. It really gave the impression that Sora would be able to reach her since he carries Ven's heart, and would've been a good excuse for Sora himself to rescue her. Ven could've served as Sora's pathway to Aqua, but once he met with her, Sora himself could've done the actual saving.

Maybe those scenes where Ven spoke up were only meant to tell you that he was ready to wake, but it feels like a missed opportunity or even a dropped plot line. 

Sorry for the rant. I really do like KH3 and I think it's a great game, but I still feel a little disappointed with some of its story decisions.

[FadedSparkle 18]

The thing of it is the secret episode of Birth By Sleep set things up for Sora to be the one who'd rescue everyone before DDD made Riku a Keyblade Master and 0.2's ending set Riku and Mickey off on the mission to specifically save Aqua. Then KH3 spent all that time having Riku and Mickey try to save her only for Sora to show up and do it in the end (after having Riku make a badass speech about not needing her sorrow and such because he had his own and doing a clear hero's walk towards her and even engaging in a battle with her that proceeded to be interrupted in the dumbest way possible with "press Triangle to Sora"). The whole thing made Riku and Mickey look like such chumps and honestly up until KH3 these two are some of the best written characters in the series. Sora still was going to have his moments as the hero in that yes Aqua is the only one who knows where Ven is, but his heart is in Sora and Sora ultimately needs to return it to him. Plus the whole thing with Roxas and Xion needing their hearts back from him too.

It's less a matter of the games set us up for Sora to save everyone and more a matter of the narrative of the games refusing to make the changes that made sense after it had set up a different course from the one laid out in the Birth By Sleep secret episode in DDD and the ending of 0.2 and throughout KH3. And these times where the writers don't want to change the narrative accordingly apply to other things as well, not least of which is Kairi who is her own massive can of worms, but then they do a pretty good job of conditioning us not to expect anything of Kairi just from her KH3 character design (why cutesyfy her so much if she's supposed to be a warrior now? I admit to initially not catching on because historically I enjoy JRPGs where the cute ones are the most dangerous I.E the 'Tales of' Series, but it was sort of a huge red flag in retrospect) and the way we never see her and Axel actually training (another red flag).

For me I would've even forgiven the game for Riku and Mickey not saving her by themselves if we played as Riku for the battle with Mickey and Sora as his party members. Just give Anti-Aqua another 20 health bars and we'd have been fine Squeenix. After that let Aqua beat Vanitas' face into the ground in the battle she wins in fight but loses in cutscene and Sora return Ven's heart in a way that doesn't include the Power of Waking being a 'power that sleeps' which was also dumb with a capital D.

PS: I can't submit a vote for the poll because the options are lacking "Both" as a choice.

Edited April 14, 2022 by FadedSparkle

[Double OKP 171]

4 hours ago, DestinysUnion said:

I know this may be a nitpick on my end, as I'm aware KH3 had a lot of content to include and had to cut some corners, especially with their limited disc space, but I'm disappointed by the way Sora actually never cared about her in the game, up until he took her hand.

I think there was too much going on in KH3 that they didn't really do the interactions that great or they didn't have time for it, but there were also moments that weren't exactly necessary, which they could've omitted, such as the part when Riku, in half-awe, asks Sora how [he got to the RoD]. Sora will have explained that to the others later offscreen anyway, and it's awkward for Riku (him being a Keyblade Master and all) to be asking that in the current situation, completely off-guard, when his friend Mickey is injured and Anti-Aqua could strike at any moment (literally she's just standing on the water idly; that's something that KH3 did a lot, leaving characters standing there doing nothing/eerily staring at the present interaction, which wasn't good because it made everything seem slow and unrealistic, and honestly made me cringe at times). If they had omitted such parts, they might have been able to add something with Sora worrying about Aqua.

There definitely is a lack of Sora caring about Aqua, which I don't necessarily like either. The times when he burst out that he wanted to save Aqua and go to the RoD was because of Ven's will, so that doesn't count for Sora himself. Yes, there is the fact that he doesn't know her at all; he's only heard of her from Mickey's letter, and he doesn't remember meeting her when he was a little kid at Destiny Islands. If that was it, then I'd understand why he didn't really express any concern; but it isn't. In Blank Points, Sora is determined to save Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, as he says, "I am who I am...because of them." In that scene, Sora's clearly concerned about them. But in KH3...well, like you said, he's just neutral until he saves Aqua. And even with Terra, he doesn't express much.

This isn't the only part where there's a lack of concern between characters. When Kairi is kidnapped and struck by Xehanort, Axel....appears to not care, which is strange, considering how we see the two bond in the Secret Forest while training. Like, why show them form a friendship if Axel is not going to care about his friend in the end? 

I think the main reason why these things didn't happen, though, is because there was already enough content in this game, which is why I'm not going to whine about it. Sure, it would've been nice to see those kinds of interactions, but the team had been working on this game for so long, and this game had far more good stuff than bad, so I can't really complain.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Double OKP

[ocean's rage 772]

10 hours ago, DestinysUnion said:

I already feel like the bad guy for saying the KH novels aren't canon. lol

 

you souldnt feel like the bad guy for that one. it wouldnt make any sense for the novels to be canon