Why Sora

[SepulchralFox 0]

Besides the obvious of "it's the plot" why does Sora have to be the one to save everyone in KH 2?

Why not just let Roxas alone and Riku or Kairi take up the mantle and save him. I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

[SoraDaxjer28 263]

Everyone's hearts are connected directly to Sora's in one way or another.  It is true that he was not chosen by the Keyblade.  Instead, the weapon chose him because of friends and how they are all interconnected through him.

I admit, I did not fully comprehend it myself until I played "'Kingdom Hearts 3D:  Dream Drop Distance'" back in 2012.

 

[FadedSparkle 18]

Diz/Ansem the Wise answers that quite directly during the Roxas prologue. Roxas is only half of Sora. He wouldn't be strong enough to take the Organization down by himself. And we saw that proven over and over again Days (of course there's a little flexibility in that Roxas wasn't supposed to view them as enemies in that game, but when you consider who doesn't get taken out at Castle Oblivion in Chain of Memories by Sora and Riku there are quite a few members left of the Organization that would be easily able to put Roxas down if he did manage to go and attempt to put an end to them like he'd chosen to do in the aftermath of Xion's death).

Riku was still going through a crisis of self worth and identity of self which would have distracted him from eliminating the remaining members of the Organization, and it is questionable whether he'd be in the correct frame of mind and in tune with his own power enough to fell Xemnas by himself if he did make it through the ones that remain after Chain of Memories and Days.

I'm not even remotely going to entertain Kairi for this; Kairi who first handles a keyblade in KH2 and only manages to take down a tiny number of heartless. In fairness to Kairi if the original trilogy (maybe I should a quadrility since Days is set in tandem with Chain of Memories) wasn't so focused on the journeys and character arcs of Sora and Riku the developers definitely could've factored her into the final battle.

It wasn't until Birth By Sleep that they insisted keyblade wielders are meant to be trained so she could definitely have been thrown into the fight and learning on the fly. Something like giving her light magic (natural expansion on her role as a Princess of Heart), healing magic, and beginner spells plus basic keyblade combos.

And her choosing not to stay on the sidelines and actually fight Xemnas with Sora and Riku instead of getting forced out of the equation with the others would've fed into her earlier bravery throughout the game (even if she wasn't ever in any true danger, from her own point of view she had no way of knowing that she'd be safe from harm on the other side of the portal she follows Pluto into, and no way of knowing for certain that her friends would come for her when she ended up kidnapped by first Axel and then Saix).

But suffice it to say she's too much of a newbie on the battlefield at this particular point to have been able to fill Sora's assigned role in the grand scheme of things. And as a princess of heart she might've ended up getting used even more blatantly than she canonically was in the Organization's schemes. Whether things could've gotten done (especially smoothly) if it was a combination of Riku, Roxas, and Kairi is questionable as well.

We hear Xemnas trying to cause Sora and Riku to turn on each other when he fights them, he'd have likely tried this in more ways than just verbal with the trio of Riku, Roxas, and Kairi and he might have succeeded if they were not able to stay focused on the goal. When you consider the negative history between Riku and Roxas one has to wonder if they'd be able to get along for the mission long enough at this point in the series. Sure they'd have the likes of Kairi and Namine to diffuse the situation if they didn't, but there's no guarantee they'd completely succeed in diffusing it.

Likewise we can throw Mickey into the equation here and take note of how even having a great deal of experience doesn't guarantee success. He comes with the opposite reasons for why it can't be him to why it can't be Kairi. Mickey is an experienced wielder, but potentially over invested in the goal emotionally to the point of it being a detriment to have him as an ally. We see that over and over again in KH2 during his appearances in it.

He wants to keep the promise he made to Riku in Days to help Sora, Donald, and Goofy but he's got so much emotional baggage on his shoulders from events that would only fully be explored and become evident in Birth By Sleep that he ends up being a pretty poor ally regardless of how badass he is.

If they didn't ax Mickey from the final battle it would only make sense narratively for him to do something in the fight that ultimately resulted in Xemnas getting the upper hand temporarily and Sora and Riku having to save him. If he was suddenly calm and collected enough for the fight to go smoothly I would be calling gameplay and narrative dissonance after completing the game and having time to analyze it.

Something else of note though is the fact that Ansem the Wise is confident that if anyone can finish this mission it will be Sora, but everyone else is helping both behind the scenes and in the open along the way. Almost half of the Organization is taken down in Chain of Memories by Sora and Riku with the help of Namine, Mickey, and Diz (plus Axel), Riku, Mickey, Namine, and Diz work on restoring Sora's memories and keeping the Organizations meddling within the worlds from causing too much harm, and then in KH2 itself all of the aforementioned characters help out the newly whole again Sora, Donald, and Goofy, on top of Kairi getting mixed into the equation throughout the story. Sora may be the chosen hero, but he's not the only hero.

PS: There's poetic justice to Diz/Ansem the Wise choosing Sora over Roxas as the hero in his apology to Roxas right before his sacrifice in the final act. But even Roxas goes on to acknowledge in Dream Drop Distance that it really does have to be Sora, so... -shrug emoji- I guess.