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The Sora/Roxas duel
So for the longest time I've been thinking about the duel between Sora and Roxas. There were a number of lines in it that confused me, a number of epiphanies reached that slid off me, and I know I've heard these same things debated by other people. It was a scene that holds a lot of very vague and unspecified context. I think I've figured it out.
They fight this duel on the stained glass from Roxas's Dive into the Heart sequences. (By the way, how symbolic is it that Roxas's Dive into the Heart sequence are ALL of SORA and SORA'S friends? In Sora's Dive into the Heart in KH1, the stained glass pillars were from different fairy tales.) Sora wants to know who Roxas is, is he Riku; Roxas says that he defeated a Riku once and Sora flips out.
Then Roxas says, "Why did he choose you?"
There's been a lot of debate over that. Why did WHO choose Sora?
The prevailing theory is DiZ/Ansem the Wise, because, uh, he's a he, and clearly chose Sora over Roxas. I have never bought into that theory for the following reasons--
A) Roxas has utterly no reason to care about whether or not DiZ wants to take him to prom. Frankly, I think Roxas, especially Nobody!Roxas, the determined hardcore Roxas that Sora is quite clearly fighting in this sequence, would sneer at anyone who suggested that he SHOULD care if DiZ wants him to be the one he manipulates or not.
B) I'm pretty sure he also HATED DiZ very much at the end of the prologue. If he ever changes that opinion -- because really, it's one thing to kill someone, and another thing entirely to fuck with their heads and rewrite their personalities and memories and then break their will to fight and then have someone else eat them to further your bastard plans; I'm sure Roxas agrees with me -- it could only be after DiZ apologizes to him right before his own death. So not yet!
C) Roxas has even less reason to think that DiZ would ever have chosen him, even if Roxas had wanted to be chosen. DiZ made extremely clear to Roxas in Twilight Town that heis totally crazy has a very deep and unreasonable grudge against Nobodies, that they don't have a right to live and aren't to be treated like human beings because they aren't. I can't imagine that Roxas got told that he doesn't have a right to exist and is still confused about why DiZ didn't want to crown him Best Keyblade Hero Ever. The angsty self-loathing question he would have been asking in this situation should have been "Why wasn't I good enough?" or "Why are you innately superior?" and not "Why did he choose you over me?" He already knows why.
There have been some other theories tossed around. (I thought Xemnas was a likely theory, because canon suggests that once Xemnas realized that Roxas couldn't use the keyblades the same way Sora could, he also wanted Sora to eat Roxas so Xemnas could use him for his grand harvest.)
But Jason thought that maybe Roxas was referring to the keyblade.
For those of you going "the keyblade is a dude lawl", Japanese has what I like to call the Pronoun Beast? They love to let their pronouns be mysterious and unspecified. Roxas did not use a pronoun in this question. "Tell me! The reason you were the one who was chosen..."
I am now like 99.9% certain that Roxas was referring to the keyblade.
Because when he left the Organization he said, "Why did the keyblade choose me? I have to know." And he does know now -- the keyblade chose him because he's Sora's Nobody, in other words, because the keyblade chose SORA.
But it doesn't answer his question. He still wants to know why. What is it that makes the keyblade find him/them exceptional?
The question just becomes, "Why did the keyblade choose you."
The duel progresses. They both go flying into the air, Sora comes down, Roxas kind of hovers. And he says, "...I see. That's why."
So what was his sudden epiphany about the reason why the keyblade chose Sora?
Sora is standing, very noticeably, on the part of the stained glass that's directly over the headshots of his friends. Between Riku and Kairi, below Donald and Goofy. The camera kind of zooms in and plays with the view. When Roxas descends from his hover, the action scenes that follow are all looking down, they focus on their feet, and on the headshots of Sora's friends below his feet.
The keyblade chose Sora because his strength, his light, his heart, is tied up in his friends.
And we know this because it happened in the first game.
Flashback: Sora gets to Hollow Bastion. Riku takes his keyblade. It was meant to be MINE. Donald and Goofy promised Mickey that they would follow the keyblade master, so they ditch him and go party at Riku's. Sora is left with the Beast and a wooden sword.
Confrontation with Riku and his new buddies. Sora is going to attempt to fight with his pitiful wooden sword. Riku take a swing -- and Goofy saves him. He and Donald will disobey the king if they have to. But how will you fight without a weapon, Riku wants to know, and Sora says, I don't need the keyblade, my heart is a better weapon. I don't need the keyblade because my friends are the source of my power.
And the keyblade vanishes from Riku's hand and reappears in Sora's.
Roxas has the memory of this (we saw him get the memory of Sora calling out "My friends are my power!") and he recognizes that this is what Sora had that drew the keyblade to him.
Now he knows. ...I'm sure I had a more profound ending for this ramble, but I've forgotten it and I should SO BE IN BED.
Totally abusing this for my AU game where Roxas-eats-Sora, la! Namine and Axel may not have hearts, but they are certainly the source of everything he's become.
Almost everything.
Sora: Don't be afraid, Roxas. Don't ever be afraid. You're still the one who will open the door.
♥♥
It's such an interesting sequence. *squee*
They fight this duel on the stained glass from Roxas's Dive into the Heart sequences. (By the way, how symbolic is it that Roxas's Dive into the Heart sequence are ALL of SORA and SORA'S friends? In Sora's Dive into the Heart in KH1, the stained glass pillars were from different fairy tales.) Sora wants to know who Roxas is, is he Riku; Roxas says that he defeated a Riku once and Sora flips out.
Then Roxas says, "Why did he choose you?"
There's been a lot of debate over that. Why did WHO choose Sora?
The prevailing theory is DiZ/Ansem the Wise, because, uh, he's a he, and clearly chose Sora over Roxas. I have never bought into that theory for the following reasons--
A) Roxas has utterly no reason to care about whether or not DiZ wants to take him to prom. Frankly, I think Roxas, especially Nobody!Roxas, the determined hardcore Roxas that Sora is quite clearly fighting in this sequence, would sneer at anyone who suggested that he SHOULD care if DiZ wants him to be the one he manipulates or not.
B) I'm pretty sure he also HATED DiZ very much at the end of the prologue. If he ever changes that opinion -- because really, it's one thing to kill someone, and another thing entirely to fuck with their heads and rewrite their personalities and memories and then break their will to fight and then have someone else eat them to further your bastard plans; I'm sure Roxas agrees with me -- it could only be after DiZ apologizes to him right before his own death. So not yet!
C) Roxas has even less reason to think that DiZ would ever have chosen him, even if Roxas had wanted to be chosen. DiZ made extremely clear to Roxas in Twilight Town that he
There have been some other theories tossed around. (I thought Xemnas was a likely theory, because canon suggests that once Xemnas realized that Roxas couldn't use the keyblades the same way Sora could, he also wanted Sora to eat Roxas so Xemnas could use him for his grand harvest.)
But Jason thought that maybe Roxas was referring to the keyblade.
For those of you going "the keyblade is a dude lawl", Japanese has what I like to call the Pronoun Beast? They love to let their pronouns be mysterious and unspecified. Roxas did not use a pronoun in this question. "Tell me! The reason you were the one who was chosen..."
I am now like 99.9% certain that Roxas was referring to the keyblade.
Because when he left the Organization he said, "Why did the keyblade choose me? I have to know." And he does know now -- the keyblade chose him because he's Sora's Nobody, in other words, because the keyblade chose SORA.
But it doesn't answer his question. He still wants to know why. What is it that makes the keyblade find him/them exceptional?
The question just becomes, "Why did the keyblade choose you."
The duel progresses. They both go flying into the air, Sora comes down, Roxas kind of hovers. And he says, "...I see. That's why."
So what was his sudden epiphany about the reason why the keyblade chose Sora?
Sora is standing, very noticeably, on the part of the stained glass that's directly over the headshots of his friends. Between Riku and Kairi, below Donald and Goofy. The camera kind of zooms in and plays with the view. When Roxas descends from his hover, the action scenes that follow are all looking down, they focus on their feet, and on the headshots of Sora's friends below his feet.
The keyblade chose Sora because his strength, his light, his heart, is tied up in his friends.
And we know this because it happened in the first game.
Flashback: Sora gets to Hollow Bastion. Riku takes his keyblade. It was meant to be MINE. Donald and Goofy promised Mickey that they would follow the keyblade master, so they ditch him and go party at Riku's. Sora is left with the Beast and a wooden sword.
Confrontation with Riku and his new buddies. Sora is going to attempt to fight with his pitiful wooden sword. Riku take a swing -- and Goofy saves him. He and Donald will disobey the king if they have to. But how will you fight without a weapon, Riku wants to know, and Sora says, I don't need the keyblade, my heart is a better weapon. I don't need the keyblade because my friends are the source of my power.
And the keyblade vanishes from Riku's hand and reappears in Sora's.
Roxas has the memory of this (we saw him get the memory of Sora calling out "My friends are my power!") and he recognizes that this is what Sora had that drew the keyblade to him.
Now he knows. ...I'm sure I had a more profound ending for this ramble, but I've forgotten it and I should SO BE IN BED.
Totally abusing this for my AU game where Roxas-eats-Sora, la! Namine and Axel may not have hearts, but they are certainly the source of everything he's become.
Almost everything.
Sora: Don't be afraid, Roxas. Don't ever be afraid. You're still the one who will open the door.
♥♥
It's such an interesting sequence. *squee*
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I also always wondered that, considering the timing of the scene, if it had to do with Axel's choice to sacrifice himself for Sora.
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Because I am a loser.
I feel that it must have something to do with Axel's sacrifice. In a way, that's probably part of what helps Roxas come to this realization, because it's part of what he is: Axel dies for the keyblade master and the question becomes that much MORE important, that much MORE personal, because Axel was his
totally platonic malefriend and Roxas has to know WHY. That, and being back on his own territory, is part of why Roxas found the strength to drag Sora into his own heart and duel him -- and it reinforces the same epiphany that Roxas makes. It's his devotion to his friends that makes Sora desirable to the keyblade, and after Axel's death, Roxas understands that strength.I love pulling character analysis out of my ass and hypothesizing based on fangirl wishes why do you ask.no subject
Dude, I've spent hours of my life I'm never going to get back trying to make the timelines of the two Dark Cloud games mesh.YES. Exactly. Because suddenly not only did Roxas have the strength to face Sora, he was able to control the Samurai again.
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I haven't beaten the game yet, but I'm working on it! ^____^ I'm about nine hours into KH1. It is much fun.
How're your teeth? *peels you grapes like a good harem girl*
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Dude, I noticed that just yesterday, about the Samurai, and you don't KNOW how many kinds of fangirl I was. Geeking out. The fact that he could be a part of Sora and still command the Samurai-- that they would still obey-- gah! My imaginary Nobody master-servant relationships pwn me.
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The teeth are all nice and neat and non-infected! It's fantastic. There was like no swelling at all. ♥♥
I did, however, buy a milkshake today and realize belatedly that my dentist told me nightmare stories about painful Dry Sockets developing from using a straw in the two weeks following the surgery...
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, if only for Riku sticking his Keyblade in Larxene's mouth.Uh, I have no idea. XD
I think I may have yelled something when I noticed the Samurai. XD It's just one of those things you don't really notice the first time around!
Dark Cloud = win. In a very dorky way.
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...and BIG. XD
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ALSO: how to apply (http://cfud-scrapbook.livejournal.com/2999.html#cutid2).
/shameless whore
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*wibbles over who to apply for*
*wibbles over whether or not to apply*
But it would totally be KH. XD
Are those Marluxia's panties, by any chance? *killed with a rose to the head*no subject
..goooooood. >D
I've always assumed they were! Considering it's Camp canon that Marluxia wears women's underwear.no subject
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You see, I thought the subject of that line was actually Riku, because in the previous line, Roxas is all "oh Riku? you mean the one I defeated? loll". It's not logical, but it was what came to mind. It looks dubious and shaky on hindsight, and I'd wish they'd just stuck to the original because this translation just fudges the issue.
Maybe Squeenix thought there wasn't enough ghei in the American version? (I swear the Japanese modeled Sora and his lines after a schoolgirl's, and Sora and Riku's seiyuus have this amazing chemistry...)
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