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The mysterious 14th member on the back of the box is the hook, something new to draw people in and give an intriguing mystery. It's just marketing, because you know stuff like "Watch Roxas daily life as he grows up" or "Watch Axel destroy every friendship he loves and holds dear so he ends up the soft mess you see in KH2" don't quite have the same ring or appeal to it.
Oh I don't but I can very safely point out that this is a blatant double standard. Because Axel has more screen time, has more scenes about him or directly influenced by him, and often has had as many characters explicitly mention him as Xion does. Whenever Axel's not on screen Roxas and Xion are just as likely to wonder about his presence as they are when any one of their trio is missing. Whenever Axel's not on screen we'll either hear about what he's up to in the shadows or the game will kindly make sure to show us what he is doing. Of the trio Xion has arguably the least of everything you listed.
Let's see....who was the reason Larxene directly confronted Sora both times, who gave Vexen the card that contained the memories of Sora and Riku's home and instilled the idea to make repliku think he was the real Riku, who killed Vexen, who released Namine ruining Marluxia's entire plot, who baited Zexion into attacking Riku in hopes he would be finished off then used repliku to do the dirty deed, and in the process whose plan screwed with Repliku fragile sense of identity and causing him to go into a spiraling suicidal depression that made him go confront Riku. If you answered Axel you win the flaming cookie.
I swear I'm not lying, when writing the story early on they were planning to make Axel the figure who guided Sora through CO but instead opted for Roxas. I'll have to do some digging to see if it's somewhere else since originally it came from HEARTSTATION which doesn't exist anymore but thankfully someone found it interesting enough to quote onto gamefaqs at least. Had to google "gamefaqs Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Axel" to find this.
Originally, the true identity of the black-coated person who appears in Castle Oblivion was not ‘????’ (Roxas), but someone else. Though their name has the same number of characters as Roxas and the second character is ‘ku’.
Note: In Japanese, Roxas’ name reads like Ro-ku-sa-su and Axel’s like A-ku-se-ru, implying that the other character was Axel.
Axel is also connected to Roxas and Sora. Not only has he actually met and interacted with Sora but he saved him, willingly let Namine take him away from the castle, and apparently had a pretty good idea on where Sora was taken to with Namine since he had precisely zero trouble finding Xion when he knew she was running away to him. His meeting with Sora heavily influenced him and is where he first discovered he gained emotions, and then for the rest of story he sits above Roxas and Xion having tons of information on Sora he never shares. Axel is also majorly connected to Roxas, he might not be a replica/memory vampire but he shaped Roxas's entire life. He instilled Roxas's daily routine, he gave focus to the lesson Roxas learned in the worlds and imparted his own albeit flawed knowledge, he came up with all their plans, he managed Saix and regularly lied to him allowing Roxas to lead a fragile but happy life, he had an immense amount of power over Roxas and basically molded Roxas into the person you see. Not to mention the future connections/influence he has on both in KH2 that were already established.
Right Xion made Roxas leave the organization...even though you know long after Xion left Roxas still remained and kept doing stuff for them. It has nothing to do with the fact that Roxas discovered that Axel had been lying to him about major things in his life, it has nothing to do with the fact he gave Axel one more chance to be honest with him, it has nothing to do with the emotional breakdown he had begging Axel for answers that Axel refused to give. It has nothing to do with the fact that Roxas outright claims that the only reason he's been staying in the organization is because he had someone there for him, and now that he can't trust Axel he is leaving because he knows someone else out there must have the answers who is willing to tell him. Xion's role in all this was to make Roxas doubt his own existence and give something that was important that Roxas knew for a fact he had been lying about. She alone wasn't enough to make him leave, her role is important because you need to have a pretty shaking revelation about your existence to believe that finding the answer to what you are prioritizes...being alive at all. But the only reason it leads to anything, the only reason it escalates to what it does, is Axel.
Last I check the source of the conflict was Axel, Saix, and to a lesser extent Xemnas's machinations. The organization heads created conflict by pitting Roxas and Xion against one another, creating Xion, and cooking up the CO plan. Saix created conflict by constantly creating problems for each individual member of RAX. Whenever Xion tried to leave who was there to force her back but Axel. Whenever the organization tried to clip one of them solving the problem who is there but Axel. Who was it that lied and hid information from them to the point that Roxas and Xion had to run away to find answers in the first place, it's Axel. Hell why does the final battle between Roxas and Xion have to happen? Because Axel beat up Xion and dragged her back to the organization before she could join with Sora forcing her to seek out Roxas to kill her. Mind you it's because of that fight Roxas then woke the power to dual wield and tried to do a suicide attack on the organization resulting in Riku jumping in to capture him. But yes Xion making Roxas throw a keyblade is SO MUCH more influential than like the person who caused this entire series of events. He could have solved all their issues, he could have answered all their questions, he could have let the organization do their plans, or he could have let Xion do what she needed to. Instead he stood in everyone's ways all for his own selfish happiness, anything that would threaten or risk losing that happiness was something that had to be stopped. Even if doing so caused nothing but constantly escalating conflicts to the point of no return.
Axel's side plot with Saix was directly responsible for why 4 of the 5 organization members you meet at that the start of the game are dead. Axel killing Vexen in particular is directly responsible for why the replica program went completely off the rails and there was no one to fix Xion when she started to over exceed the intended plans for her. Axel's constant tug and pull with Saix is largely arguing over Roxas and Xion and influencing their actions. Because Axel was largely playing the good boy for Saix he was able to manipulate Saix, pick his brain for answers, and that is why he could do things like convince Saix to let Roxas and Xion to work together when she lost her keyblade. When Saix tries to get rid of one of them and Axel tries to use his inside knowledge to prevent this which is why he was able to stop the assassination attempt. Axel and Saix's B-story is its own contained story, affect the A-plot, and affects the greater plot of the series as a whole.
Oh and on the subject of the title it doesn't refer to any one group. Nomura said while the obvious answer people might come to is Roxas and Xion, that's not the only correct answer. It can just as equally refer to Roxas and Sora, Roxas and Axel, Axel and Saix, Roxas and Riku, etc.... (the Days movie credits actually highlights this really well as it constantly shows people in groups of 2) as to who Nomura views it as referring to he wouldn't say. He only cryptically mentioned that the ending of the game might make you rethink who the two are and a lot of people took that as meaning that the title refers to Roxas and Ventus. Which would make sense since the biggest stand out moment of that is when Roxas first brings out his second keyblade which we know belongs to Ventus, and they did in fact share that entire game together.
Also just to be clear I love Axel, I love how his character has grown, I love pretty much everything they've done with the character. I'm just saying that if there is a character who was making the plot about them then it's Axel. And if someone had actual excess screen time/game presence they could cut down it was Axel who already had CoM, KH2, and would go on to later have DDD.
I mean all I'm saying is if you remove Xion there is absolutely no reason what so ever that anything in Days will change beyond giving Axel and Roxas more screen time than they already have. There is nothing about Xion's presence that prevented them from focusing on other members. She's a scapegoat for a problem that has so very little to do with her and everything to do with Nomura/the writer's lack of care for fleshing out minor characters...or even most major ones for that matter.
Oh I don't but I can very safely point out that this is a blatant double standard. Because Axel has more screen time, has more scenes about him or directly influenced by him, and often has had as many characters explicitly mention him as Xion does. Whenever Axel's not on screen Roxas and Xion are just as likely to wonder about his presence as they are when any one of their trio is missing. Whenever Axel's not on screen we'll either hear about what he's up to in the shadows or the game will kindly make sure to show us what he is doing. Of the trio Xion has arguably the least of everything you listed.
Let's see....who was the reason Larxene directly confronted Sora both times, who gave Vexen the card that contained the memories of Sora and Riku's home and instilled the idea to make repliku think he was the real Riku, who killed Vexen, who released Namine ruining Marluxia's entire plot, who baited Zexion into attacking Riku in hopes he would be finished off then used repliku to do the dirty deed, and in the process whose plan screwed with Repliku fragile sense of identity and causing him to go into a spiraling suicidal depression that made him go confront Riku. If you answered Axel you win the flaming cookie.
I swear I'm not lying, when writing the story early on they were planning to make Axel the figure who guided Sora through CO but instead opted for Roxas. I'll have to do some digging to see if it's somewhere else since originally it came from HEARTSTATION which doesn't exist anymore but thankfully someone found it interesting enough to quote onto gamefaqs at least. Had to google "gamefaqs Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Axel" to find this.
Originally, the true identity of the black-coated person who appears in Castle Oblivion was not ‘????’ (Roxas), but someone else. Though their name has the same number of characters as Roxas and the second character is ‘ku’.
Note: In Japanese, Roxas’ name reads like Ro-ku-sa-su and Axel’s like A-ku-se-ru, implying that the other character was Axel.
I disagree with the notion that Axel was the black hole of Days. He was a main character with an established friendship with Roxas so of course he was going to be there. Xion has way more influence in the overall story since she's connected to Roxas and Sora, she influenced Roxas to leave the Organization, she was the source of the conflict most of the time, etc. And Axel and Saix's fight was just in the background, it had nothing to do with the main plot regarding Roxas and Xion. The whole game wasn't about how they were fighting and such.
The game focused heavily on Xion way more than Axel. The title itself (three five eight days over two) refers to both Roxas and Xion, not Axel.
Axel is also connected to Roxas and Sora. Not only has he actually met and interacted with Sora but he saved him, willingly let Namine take him away from the castle, and apparently had a pretty good idea on where Sora was taken to with Namine since he had precisely zero trouble finding Xion when he knew she was running away to him. His meeting with Sora heavily influenced him and is where he first discovered he gained emotions, and then for the rest of story he sits above Roxas and Xion having tons of information on Sora he never shares. Axel is also majorly connected to Roxas, he might not be a replica/memory vampire but he shaped Roxas's entire life. He instilled Roxas's daily routine, he gave focus to the lesson Roxas learned in the worlds and imparted his own albeit flawed knowledge, he came up with all their plans, he managed Saix and regularly lied to him allowing Roxas to lead a fragile but happy life, he had an immense amount of power over Roxas and basically molded Roxas into the person you see. Not to mention the future connections/influence he has on both in KH2 that were already established.
Right Xion made Roxas leave the organization...even though you know long after Xion left Roxas still remained and kept doing stuff for them. It has nothing to do with the fact that Roxas discovered that Axel had been lying to him about major things in his life, it has nothing to do with the fact he gave Axel one more chance to be honest with him, it has nothing to do with the emotional breakdown he had begging Axel for answers that Axel refused to give. It has nothing to do with the fact that Roxas outright claims that the only reason he's been staying in the organization is because he had someone there for him, and now that he can't trust Axel he is leaving because he knows someone else out there must have the answers who is willing to tell him. Xion's role in all this was to make Roxas doubt his own existence and give something that was important that Roxas knew for a fact he had been lying about. She alone wasn't enough to make him leave, her role is important because you need to have a pretty shaking revelation about your existence to believe that finding the answer to what you are prioritizes...being alive at all. But the only reason it leads to anything, the only reason it escalates to what it does, is Axel.
Last I check the source of the conflict was Axel, Saix, and to a lesser extent Xemnas's machinations. The organization heads created conflict by pitting Roxas and Xion against one another, creating Xion, and cooking up the CO plan. Saix created conflict by constantly creating problems for each individual member of RAX. Whenever Xion tried to leave who was there to force her back but Axel. Whenever the organization tried to clip one of them solving the problem who is there but Axel. Who was it that lied and hid information from them to the point that Roxas and Xion had to run away to find answers in the first place, it's Axel. Hell why does the final battle between Roxas and Xion have to happen? Because Axel beat up Xion and dragged her back to the organization before she could join with Sora forcing her to seek out Roxas to kill her. Mind you it's because of that fight Roxas then woke the power to dual wield and tried to do a suicide attack on the organization resulting in Riku jumping in to capture him. But yes Xion making Roxas throw a keyblade is SO MUCH more influential than like the person who caused this entire series of events. He could have solved all their issues, he could have answered all their questions, he could have let the organization do their plans, or he could have let Xion do what she needed to. Instead he stood in everyone's ways all for his own selfish happiness, anything that would threaten or risk losing that happiness was something that had to be stopped. Even if doing so caused nothing but constantly escalating conflicts to the point of no return.
Axel's side plot with Saix was directly responsible for why 4 of the 5 organization members you meet at that the start of the game are dead. Axel killing Vexen in particular is directly responsible for why the replica program went completely off the rails and there was no one to fix Xion when she started to over exceed the intended plans for her. Axel's constant tug and pull with Saix is largely arguing over Roxas and Xion and influencing their actions. Because Axel was largely playing the good boy for Saix he was able to manipulate Saix, pick his brain for answers, and that is why he could do things like convince Saix to let Roxas and Xion to work together when she lost her keyblade. When Saix tries to get rid of one of them and Axel tries to use his inside knowledge to prevent this which is why he was able to stop the assassination attempt. Axel and Saix's B-story is its own contained story, affect the A-plot, and affects the greater plot of the series as a whole.
Oh and on the subject of the title it doesn't refer to any one group. Nomura said while the obvious answer people might come to is Roxas and Xion, that's not the only correct answer. It can just as equally refer to Roxas and Sora, Roxas and Axel, Axel and Saix, Roxas and Riku, etc.... (the Days movie credits actually highlights this really well as it constantly shows people in groups of 2) as to who Nomura views it as referring to he wouldn't say. He only cryptically mentioned that the ending of the game might make you rethink who the two are and a lot of people took that as meaning that the title refers to Roxas and Ventus. Which would make sense since the biggest stand out moment of that is when Roxas first brings out his second keyblade which we know belongs to Ventus, and they did in fact share that entire game together.
Also just to be clear I love Axel, I love how his character has grown, I love pretty much everything they've done with the character. I'm just saying that if there is a character who was making the plot about them then it's Axel. And if someone had actual excess screen time/game presence they could cut down it was Axel who already had CoM, KH2, and would go on to later have DDD.
I mean all I'm saying is if you remove Xion there is absolutely no reason what so ever that anything in Days will change beyond giving Axel and Roxas more screen time than they already have. There is nothing about Xion's presence that prevented them from focusing on other members. She's a scapegoat for a problem that has so very little to do with her and everything to do with Nomura/the writer's lack of care for fleshing out minor characters...or even most major ones for that matter.
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