Theory on Sora's New Outfit

[matteso586 115]

I think that the new outfit is supposed to be a sign of character development. Try not to forget that the franchise is made by Japanese people. And in Japanese tradition, fictional characters shorten their hair, change their hair style, or their appearance. Only when they undergo development in character. Not to mention that there are rumors that Sora will be at least a bit more mature in KH3.

 

Besides, Sora bases what happened on what others say, and rarely tries to understand things for himself. Also he has been overly trusting, and needed a reminder most of the time. And they are no different from the following.

 

• Kairi's heart being inside of him (which was never fully explained), when Sora has been seeing her, and hearing her voice during the whole time. At the Deep Jungle tree house, at Merlin's House, and at the First District after returning from Neverland.
• Not getting that Leon and the gang are just figments of his memory, when Marluxia said that Traverse Town is just an illusion created from his memories.
• "Namine's good luck charm" would have been the first clue that Sora has been receiving false memories. Seeing that nobody wears the same pants for several years. And that it could have been a reminder IF the memories are real. ... Then again, Sora's memories were being corrupted at the time of his first fight with Larxene.
• Sora doesn't get the picture that he unlocked the Underdome.
• After the Battle of a Thousand Heartless, Sora learns about how a slain from the Keyblade releases a captive heart. Which he should have learned by now.
• Sora doesn't understand who Roxas is exactly, until Riku told him. This shows how easily his memory "sleeps".
• For a few moments, Sora mistakes some Realm of Sleep residents as the real thing. Most notably, Jiminy, Tron/Rinzler, and Mickey.
• Speaking of Tron, Sora clearly didn't keep in mind that Space Paranoids is a copy of The Grid.
• When Sora first entered the sleeping Traverse Town, he instantly puts his trust in Neku and look where it got him. Even Neku pointed out that they only just met.
• Pretty much of TWTNW, including the Namine illusion. When he's supposed to remember that she joined with Kairi.

"I don't get it", "What do you mean", that's mostly all he ever says. Hopefully we'll be hearing less of that in KH3. ... And maybe Hades will say "you still don't get it", if he appears in said game.

[Headphone Jack 1,147]

well i think Nomura wanted to keep the KH2 outfit but he was pressured to make a new one. also:

1. Kairi's heart went into Sora during that scene where he finds her in the secret place and she fades into him. I'm pretty sure the instances of Sora seeing and hearing her were her heart resonating within him. At least that's what I've heard.

2. Well to be fair that was the first time he was going through his memories. of course he wouldn't believe right off the bat that everything he is seeing is fake.

3. yea i'll give you that one. maybe he was more focused on it's meaning rather than where it came from though.

4. well not at first. the lock didn't even look like it was tied to anything. just looked like a rock with a keyhole.

5. well i'm sure he knew that but maybe he wasn't aware that the released hearts were helping Organization XIII?

6. Well yea Sora and Roxas only had like...two interactions? And Roxas was always pretty cryptic with his wording. "You make a good other." 

7. Anything from 3D you've got spot on. Sora is noticeably more stupid in this game and that's thanks in part to the writers doing that on purpose.

8. Again...KH3D. Sora's "power of friendship" mindset goes a bit overboard in this game.

9. yea 3D. lol

10. yes. also the fact that Sora suddenly feels like Roxas deserves his own person, despite not feeling that way at the end of KH2

 

i mean overall i hope Sora is less stupid in KH3. 

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

A character doesn't always need to understand everything, but the simple desire to understand is enough. And besides, whether he changes much or not, I think he's well off, provided that he learns from his past mistakes, namely walking right into the enemy's hands. I don't think that trusting nature of his will go away, it seems part of his personality, and it's what has allowed him to make as many friends as he has so far. Taking that away would be like trying to take away Sonic's cocky attitude, it just wouldn't work. Again, if he's a very trusting person but does have a few more wits about him when it comes to suspicious looking characters, that would be just fine. Overall I've been fine with his personality as a whole throughout the series, but I would like a little more of an agreed balance this time around. The first game focused a bit more on him being confused fish out of water, the second game made him a little more hostile towards anyone deemed "the bad guys", and in 3D he kind of regressed to being a little more child-like in awe. Again, he still feels like the same character and I don't have a problem with each of these traits, I'd just like them to more come together rather than being isolated in each game. The most balanced use of Sora's traits that I've seen probably comes from Re:CoM and Re:Coded of all places, he's a little out of his element but he adapts quickly, he is immediately wary and suspicious of the antagonists or at least those who would appear to get in his way, yet is still open and friendly to those in need, he can focus at the task at hand but still find time to be goofy or in awe of new sights around him, and even though he might be playing into an enemy's hands he's fully aware of the risk and at the same time understands the reason that he must keep going.

 

Again, I'm not preferring one "Sora" over the "other", I'm just saying that in terms or stories a few kind of balanced his traits a bit better. He still feels like Sora no matter what game you're in, they never fail with that, it's just that there are a few games where that feels a little more accomplished. As far as any character development for KH3 goes, I certainly hope we see a Sora who best shows all these traits with a little bit of development with each one as well. Would I like a Sora who isn't as gullible? Sure, but I'd still want him to be trusting of others, especially if they need help. Would I like him to be a bit more wary at times when needed? Yes, but I still want to see that child-like goofiness from him from time to time. Would I like him to be more aware of the dangers or risks he's making for himself? Well DUH, but regardless of whatever he chooses to do I want him to acknowledge that he knows himself and he knows why he has to do what he does, which more often than not he tends to do pretty well already. Character development isn't always just a step from one stone to the next (often times that's character changing/replacing), it's both a transition and a compromise. People do change over time, but they don't usually or always loose everything that made them who they are, they just sort of reshuffle and balance out. I guess to take a note from Re:CoM (or rather, a card) it's sort of like adding new cards to the deck. You don't have to get rid of any cards (sometimes you just can't), but you can always add more and reshuffle the order in which they are drawn. Hopefully by KH3 we'll see Sora playing with a bit more balanced of a full deck to make him a great character to follow on the journey ahead.

[matteso586 115]

Headphone Jack: Might I remind you that Sora unknowingly called himself an idiot when he, Donald, and Goofy first see the Underdome?

 

Hero of Light XIV: As for Sora's trusting nature. Someone is going to call him out for that. Maybe a returning character would ask him if Sora is sure he can TRUST Lea. Remember what he (as Axel) did to Kairi?

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Headphone Jack: Might I remind you that Sora unknowingly called himself an idiot when he, Donald, and Goofy first see the Underdome?

 

Hero of Light XIV: As for Sora's trusting nature. Someone is going to call him out for that. Maybe a returning character would ask him if Sora is sure he can TRUST Lea. Remember what he (as Axel) did to Kairi?

 

 

well i think Nomura wanted to keep the KH2 outfit but he was pressured to make a new one. also:

1. Kairi's heart went into Sora during that scene where he finds her in the secret place and she fades into him. I'm pretty sure the instances of Sora seeing and hearing her were her heart resonating within him. At least that's what I've heard.

2. Well to be fair that was the first time he was going through his memories. of course he wouldn't believe right off the bat that everything he is seeing is fake.

3. yea i'll give you that one. maybe he was more focused on it's meaning rather than where it came from though.

4. well not at first. the lock didn't even look like it was tied to anything. just looked like a rock with a keyhole.

5. well i'm sure he knew that but maybe he wasn't aware that the released hearts were helping Organization XIII?

6. Well yea Sora and Roxas only had like...two interactions? And Roxas was always pretty cryptic with his wording. "You make a good other." 

7. Anything from 3D you've got spot on. Sora is noticeably more stupid in this game and that's thanks in part to the writers doing that on purpose.

8. Again...KH3D. Sora's "power of friendship" mindset goes a bit overboard in this game.

9. yea 3D. lol

10. yes. also the fact that Sora suddenly feels like Roxas deserves his own person, despite not feeling that way at the end of KH2

 

i mean overall i hope Sora is less stupid in KH3. 

 

 

Okay, the problem with most of your examples is that they're all told from the perspective of the player. Just because you notice those things or the connections between them doesn't mean that Sora is. Hell, I could look back at my previous semester of school and say that I should have been able to realize that it would have been easier if I just studied more, but it's virtually useless to because it's in hindsight. The events for Sora are going on now as you play them, he isn't going to just wise up and think about every little detail logically, especially when he's clearly not that logical of a person. He goes more on feeling and emotions, that's always been his thing, that's why he is trusting of lots of people. And too late, he's already been called out on that a few times before. Xemnas questions his trust in Riku during their pen-ultimate battle and you even brought up Neku as an example earlier. Doesn't mean that he's bothered by it. Sora doesn't feel "stupider" to me in 3D, he just seems to be more childish in tone, which makes sense as he has been given his younger appearance again, so maybe he just can't help himself. And yes, while a player would easily be able to see memory or dream dopplegangers of other characters and be like "oh, okay, they're not the real things", Sora isn't going to catch onto that that quickly. He's an emotional person, and if he see's his friends he's going to have that emotional kind of reaction. I mean, I know that if I saw somebody who looked like someone I cared about I wouldn't be able to look bast that feeling until I see and realize for myself that they aren't that person. And keep in mind that Sora never got any proof that they weren't the same people beyond their lack of memories from KH1, for the most part they were still the same people, so you have to understand how jarring that is for him. And it's not like Donald and Goofy figured out any quicker either. And for Tron, he realizes that he might not be the same person, but he still has a connection, and KH has shown that connections between people can be enough to transcend any kind of boundaries or obstacles (doesn't matter if that's not things logically work in our world, the KH universe has a reality and rules of its own, we've seen that many times by now), and clearly that was enough to do at least something for Tron/Rinzler right before he fell.

 

And for the whole TWTNW dream sequence, do I really have to reiterate the fact that IT IS A DREAM!? Because how often do you have full control over what happens and how you react in dreams, unless you're a very lucid dreamer? Sora wasn't thinking logically in a dream because in a dream you don't get to think logically most of the time, a lot of the time you're reacting emotionally, and that's even more true for Sora considering the person he is. So the fact that he see's Namine isn't going to make him go "Namine! Oh wait, you're back with Kairi now, neeever miiiind!", because what happened in the real world doesn't matter in a dream, what happens in the dream itself is what is important, and that's all you can focus on. A lot of times dreaming can be considered thinking in tunnel-vision, you can only perceive what's currently happening, usually directly in front of you (which is why you typically loose track of what the environment behind you looks like), so you can only focus on what's currently going on than what led up to it.

 

And with Roxas, come on, give the guy a break. He's only met the guy like 2 times, whatever clues he gets are very vague (people calling him Roxas, seeing a photo, unknowingly crying, a smashed computer, memories that aren't his), and Riku is the only person to straight up tell him exactly who he is. Maybe if he was a logical person he would have been able to piece it together from Saix warning him about Axel wanting to turn him into a Heartless and Axel himself saying he did everything he did just so he could see Roxas again, but the fact is that Sora ISN'T a highly logical person, so he wouldn't bother taking the time to put that together, especially since it isn't the priority at the time (scene with Saix: Sora just wanted to find out what the Org was up to and where Riku and Kairi were, scene with Axel: Axel was fading away and they needed to get to the Org's stronghold). And before you bring up the fact that he forgot he turned into a Heartless in order to create Roxas, he realized it almost as soon as he said it, so he's not as hopeless as you make him out to be. The fact is that everything that happened with Roxas happened while Sora was asleep, so no matter how he thought about things he would never know what the whole deal was until somebody told him.

 

There's two perspectives to every story. There's the perspective that we the audience get, where we see EVERYTHING, and then there's the perspectives of each individual character, which is limited to what they know within the context of the plot. Just because we've seen Roxas' whole life story unfold or we've seen that there are sinister forces at work behind the Mark of Mastery exam doesn't mean that Sora would know what we know until something happens in the story to reveal it to him, and that's typically either the event itself or another character who DOES know explaining it to him. That's just how storytelling works, unless the character is some kind of 4th-wall breaking character they aren't going to know as much as we do as an audience, that's how suspense works.

 

I still think Sora still has some room to grow, mature, and learn from his mistakes, but I don't expect him to become something he isn't, an overly-logical and analyzing person who can see through all forms of lies and deception in the blink of an eye. He just isn't that. He's the emotionally centered goofy kid who focuses on the here and now as being more important than any kind of background noises that are hinting at deeper meanings. Maybe he won't get tricked just as easily next time, maybe he'll catch on to some things a little more when he actually has the right pieces to the puzzle in his mind, but in the end he's still the kind of guy who listens to his heart most of the time. Not to mention he's also an islander, odds are everyone on that island is familiar enough with everyone else that they're all pretty trusting and tight-knit already, so it's no surprise he acts like a country boy in the big city (Nomura even used that analogy at one point). I mean yeah, Riku keeps his wits about him a bit better, but that's ultimately because that's the kind of person HE is.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Hero of Light XIV

[matteso586 115]

First off, yeah, I forgot about that bit with Xemnas. That was on me. Secondly, I never said that Sora could become an overly-logical and analyzing person.

 

Speaking of Xemnas by the way, I wonder who would most likely question Sora's trust in Lea. I assumed that was Roxas talking, but I could be wrong.

Edited December 12, 2015 by matteso586

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

That's basically it. Sora has grown from the 14 year old trying to understand the world to a more grown, mature teenager who now knows what is going on, what he must do, and who the enemy is. His clothes symbolize that growth.

[The Rocky Shoe 169]

Well Sora's new garments better have a reason to replace KH2 story-wise. KH2's clothes had Forms, releasing his potential. What are these new clothes going to do.

[Kalebninja 188]

My theory is... His mom didn't like his kh2 clothes and made him some new ones.