KHDays Was Xion an afterthought...?

[Xenidal 36]

Was Xion an afterthought... like, after KH2 was made then they were coming up with ideas for 358 Days / 2 and decided to create the Xion character? Or was she planned from the get-go (or at leat planned out before Chain of Memories)?

 

Has this ever been answered through any interviews or anything? If not, what are your thoughts on this?

 

To me, I always got the feeling that she was invented later. She seemed like an unnecessary addition to the overall story of Kingdom Hearts... and the fact that she turned out to be the final boss (as a way to eliminate her so it would make sense that she was never mentioned in KH2) just felt awkward.

[Kinode 3,056]

She is an afterthought, yet my favorite character.

The way they put her in was well done, even with a plot explanation for her not being mentioned.

[Kishira 2,854]

Even during the production of Days, Xion seemed to be an afterthought, Nomura's earlier interviews discribed a completly different Days.

[Akihiko 1,628]

Even being one,she was a good character and she made the sotry better because she makes us understand Roxas's sadness and the fact that she is a part of Sora just like Roxas, it makes us wonder how she will get back and how she will be remembered. Also every character has a trio, and having just Axel and Roxas would be weird.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Golden Ultima

[Kinode 3,056]

...having just Axel and Roxas would be weird.

 

I never thought I'd say this but maybe that would have been a good thing.

I mean I love Xion and all

She's my favorite character.

But you gotta admit just having Roxas and Axel would have made the Yaoi much better.

[XIIISwords 1,059]

I never thought I'd say this but maybe that would have been a good thing.

I mean I love Xion and all

She's my favorite character.

But you gotta admit just having Roxas and Axel would have made the Yaoi much better.

 

facepalm

[Yang 1,859]

But you gotta admit just having Roxas and Axel would have made the Yaoi much better.

 

Maybe that's the reason Xion WAS created.

[Dave 5,715]

Xion was definately something of an afterthought, given how she's not exactly crucial to Sora's main story, but the wonderful thing with how she was integrated is that 358 Days was a self contained story, to an extent. It had it's own complete plot arc of the life and death of Roxas, and within it Xion's own story fits nicely without bleeding into KHII's narrative.

[Kinode 3,056]

Maybe that's the reason Xion WAS created.

 

I really hope Roxas is bi because I ship both Rokushi and Akuroku

[Yang 1,859]

I really hope Roxas is bi because I ship both Rokushi and Akuroku

 

me too

then again, i ship just about anyone, lol.

[replika13 455]

even so, Xion is here in the present and thats fine for me. Even though she kinda replaces Naminé

[hatok 6,413]

Xion is an afterthought.

And, worst, she basically stole the screen time from every other Org Member...

[Col.Random 3,683]

She may be an afterthought, but one with an amazing storyline and the most depressing death T_T

[XIIISwords 1,059]

Yes, Xion was an afterthought, but so to was Days, Ventus and co., and Master Xehanort. How could SE have predicted the popularity of KH?

[Renlover202 3]

I never thought I'd say this but maybe that would have been a good thing.

I mean I love Xion and all

She's my favorite character.

But you gotta admit just having Roxas and Axel would have made the Yaoi much better.

 

You would think so but alot of other people would have a huge problem with it *rolls eyes*

 

me too

then again, i ship just about anyone, lol.

 

i would feel better if he was lol

[Renlover202 3]

I am going to say this really really nicely.

Maybe that's the reason Xion WAS created.

 

 

I am saying this really nicely. Maybe if disney wasn't so prejudiced maybe we wouldn't be in this position now would we?

[Kinode 3,056]

You would think so but alot of other people would have a huge problem with it *rolls eyes*

 

You'd think that if someone has a problem with the fanbase because we each have a right to ship who we want, they'd leave it .-.

[Keyblade Master Xine 196]

Was Xion an afterthought... like, after KH2 was made then they were coming up with ideas for 358 Days / 2 and decided to create the Xion character? Or was she planned from the get-go (or at leat planned out before Chain of Memories)?

 

Has this ever been answered through any interviews or anything? If not, what are your thoughts on this?

 

To me, I always got the feeling that she was invented later. She seemed like an unnecessary addition to the overall story of Kingdom Hearts... and the fact that she turned out to be the final boss (as a way to eliminate her so it would make sense that she was never mentioned in KH2) just felt awkward.

 

This is one of the many reasons I hate Xion and Days. If Nomura would've just focused on Roxas and Axel, it could've been a better story. He just shoehorned in an unimportant and irrelevant character in to a series that already has a bunch of characters he doesn't know what to do with, when we could have gotten character development for some of the other members of the Organization.

[Renlover202 3]

You'd think that if someone has a problem with the fanbase because we each have a right to ship who we want, they'd leave it .-.

 

 

Exactly! Just because people like Xion and Roxas doesn't mean that we have to like it.

 

This is one of the many reasons I hate Xion and Days. If Nomura would've just focused on Roxas and Axel, it could've been a better story. He just shoehorned in an unimportant and irrelevant character in to a series that already has a bunch of characters he doesn't know what to do with, when we could have gotten character development for some of the other members of the Organization.

 

 

Exactly! he should have just axel and roxas alone if anything add namine cause at least i tolerate that. I mean come on the only reason why people ship Roxas and Xion was because she fainted on Roxas.

 

You'd think that if someone has a problem with the fanbase because we each have a right to ship who we want, they'd leave it .-.

 

Maybe i am saying this all wrong. And i am sorry if i did People have just as much equal right to ship anyone they want to.

[khoathkeeper13 429]

But there's that shell in the opening of KH2 that represents her. I'm pretty sure the concept for her was being thought of near the end of KH2's production.

And Xion was the explanation for Sora's memories taking so long to fix, so she does have big plot relevance.

[hatok 6,413]

Yes, Xion was an afterthought, but so to was Days, Ventus and co., and Master Xehanort. How could SE have predicted the popularity of KH?

 

There are several references to Ventus and co, and Master Xehanort in KH2 though.

Xion just sort of... existed...

[Keyblade Master Xine 196]

Xion was definately something of an afterthought, given how she's not exactly crucial to Sora's main story, but the wonderful thing with how she was integrated is that 358 Days was a self contained story, to an extent. It had it's own complete plot arc of the life and death of Roxas, and within it Xion's own story fits nicely without bleeding into KHII's narrative.

 

This is another problem I have with Days. Stories can go 1 of 2 ways: character-based or plot-based. Movie examples I have is The Breakfast Club is character-based while Inception is plot-based. Kingdom Hearts has a plot-based story, and all of the side games while they have their own stories, and BBS added new characters, add to the plot of the series, except Days. Days tried to be like the Breakfast Club of KH, which is not a bad idea, but it didn't work because it added a new character that didn't need to be added, killed her off, then made it so that the other characters didn't remember her to explain why she wasn't mentioned in the other games. I could ramble on and on about why Days suck.

[Dave 5,715]

This is another problem I have with Days. Stories can go 1 of 2 ways: character-based or plot-based. Movie examples I have is The Breakfast Club is character-based while Inception is plot-based. Kingdom Hearts has a plot-based story, and all of the side games while they have their own stories, and BBS added new characters, add to the plot of the series, except Days. Days tried to be like the Breakfast Club of KH, which is not a bad idea, but it didn't work because it added a new character that didn't need to be added, killed her off, then made it so that the other characters didn't remember her to explain why she wasn't mentioned in the other games. I could ramble on and on about why Days suck.

 

I always viewed Days as an appendix game, such as Aragorn's love story with Arwen in Lord of the Rings. It doesn't necessarily add anything to the plot, but it's important for the character's personal life. Really, Days was there to fill in a gap in the narrative space between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, rather than act as plot exposition and addition such as BBS was. It didn't add to the greater plot, but it didn't really have to, considering that its sole purpose was embellishing the tragedy of Roxas.

 

Consider it as being like Crisis Core. Anyone who played FFVII knows exactly what's going to happen, and that the ending is inevitable. But it functions as an embellishment to an element of the story that already exists, rather than altering the whole story or bringing anything truly new to the table.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Dave

[hatok 6,413]

I always viewed Days as an appendix game, such as Aragorn's love story with Arwen in Lord of the Rings. It doesn't necessarily add anything to the plot, but it's important for the character's personal life. Really, Days was there to fill in a gap in the narrative space between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, rather than act as plot exposition and addition such as BBS was. It didn't add to the greater plot, but it didn't really have to, considering that its sole purpose was embellishing the tragedy of Roxas.

 

Consider it as being like Crisis Core. Anyone who played FFVII knows exactly what's going to happen, and that the ending is inevitable. But it functions as an embellishment to an element of the story that already exists, rather than altering the whole story or bringing anything truly new to the table.

 

Crisis Core succeeded in adding meaning to an existing story element, while Days added a new story element and tried to make it meaningful,, which always makes it doubly hard to accomplish either. There was NO plot that needed to be filled about Roxas, his actions in KH2 make perfect sense without days. If Days had been like Crisis Core, it would have attempted to add meaning to KH2 (And KH1 and the other side games) by embellishing the existing characters. Instead, the entire Organization barely gets what could collectively be called a cameo, yet all character development done by Xion is completely undone. So in the end, Days undermined itself very effectively by not using any of its assets.

For example, if we had seen more of Roxas' day to day life, and maybe seen that he had gotten along with the people in the Organization (Much like how Zack got along fine with ShinRa) then the tragedy of his betrayal would have weighed more heavily. Similarly, in Crisis Core, Aerith was an incredibly likable character (at least to me) which made me feel sad since I knew she would end up dying. Not much effort is put into Days to try and elicit a similar response about any of the doomed characters in Days (Stop and think about it, every character besides Riku, Namine, DiZ and Mickey is doomed to die a year after the game begins)

And the thing that really got me was after I had beaten Days and looked back, and realized how cheaply the game had tried to manipulate me into feeling for Xion, and then everything sort of fell apart.

Days, like BBS, seems like a story that could have been great if it didn't feel like a few key plot points strung together, only to have the meat of those plto points never filled in. Both lead to strange stories that, to me at least, felt like there was always something being taken for granted.

[Keyblade Master Xine 196]

I always viewed Days as an appendix game, such as Aragorn's love story with Arwen in Lord of the Rings. It doesn't necessarily add anything to the plot, but it's important for the character's personal life. Really, Days was there to fill in a gap in the narrative space between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, rather than act as plot exposition and addition such as BBS was. It didn't add to the greater plot, but it didn't really have to, considering that its sole purpose was embellishing the tragedy of Roxas.

 

Consider it as being like Crisis Core. Anyone who played FFVII knows exactly what's going to happen, and that the ending is inevitable. But it functions as an embellishment to an element of the story that already exists, rather than altering the whole story or bringing anything truly new to the table.

 

I never watched Lord of the Rings or played Crisis Core.

 

Crisis Core succeeded in adding meaning to an existing story element, while Days added a new story element and tried to make it meaningful,, which always makes it doubly hard to accomplish either. There was NO plot that needed to be filled about Roxas, his actions in KH2 make perfect sense without days. If Days had been like Crisis Core, it would have attempted to add meaning to KH2 (And KH1 and the other side games) by embellishing the existing characters. Instead, the entire Organization barely gets what could collectively be called a cameo, yet all character development done by Xion is completely undone. So in the end, Days undermined itself very effectively by not using any of its assets.

For example, if we had seen more of Roxas' day to day life, and maybe seen that he had gotten along with the people in the Organization (Much like how Zack got along fine with ShinRa) then the tragedy of his betrayal would have weighed more heavily. Similarly, in Crisis Core, Aerith was an incredibly likable character (at least to me) which made me feel sad since I knew she would end up dying. Not much effort is put into Days to try and elicit a similar response about any of the doomed characters in Days (Stop and think about it, every character besides Riku, Namine, DiZ and Mickey is doomed to die a year after the game begins)

And the thing that really got me was after I had beaten Days and looked back, and realized how cheaply the game had tried to manipulate me into feeling for Xion, and then everything sort of fell apart.

Days, like BBS, seems like a story that could have been great if it didn't feel like a few key plot points strung together, only to have the meat of those plto points never filled in. Both lead to strange stories that, to me at least, felt like there was always something being taken for granted.

 

Thank you. This is what I've been trying to say.