I have always loved KH mostly for the story. The gameplay is fun, but I'm no expert. I can't beat the secret bosses. I'm not out to get trophies or fight 'cool bosses' or anything. We can agree to disagree whether this is good or not for Aqua's character, but I find this turn not only predictable and reasonable. but fascinating.
One moment you say you're just following the themes of the series and use it to explain why Aqua shouldn't fall to darkness. I bring up patterns, themes, and other characters who've been through similar situations and how it makes sense for her to end up like this, but it's suddenly unoriginal, repetitive, and bad writing?
The norting thing I'm 50/50 on. That was the only surprise for me really. I want her NOT to be norted because of all the extra stuff that goes along with that, but time will tell. But I see the norting and the darkness as two separate things here.
Aqua is not like everyone else (Riku, Sora, Terra, Xehanort, etc etc). Yeah, they've gotten a lick of darkness here and there, but Aqua is neck deep in it. I've always been interested in how the dark realm works and how it affects people. We know you endlessly fight heartless (BbS Secret Episode). We know it can eat at your memories (Ansem the Wise). We saw a few more pureblood heartless and the veiny organic theme continues throughout which I find curious. We know it sucks overall, but that's about it.
But through Aqua's journey in 0.2, we see more than ever. The darkness distorts the worlds and breaks them down. It almost freezes the worlds in time at the exact moment it fell into darkness (same for people too if Aqua is any indication). The darkness can mimic you, and not only in a dark shadowy form like we've seen heartless shaped Sora or heartless shaped Roxas or whatever. It can literally mimic your appearance, your abilities, and even your own thoughts and feelings use it to try and drag you down further. Phantom Aqua, though we may never see it again, was pretty awesome lore and story wise. (I wouldn't dare to try and fight Zodiac Aqua).
One of the most interesting theories I've seen lately is Aqua is becoming just like those Darklings/Black Costumes we saw in UX. As you can tell by my signature, I actually like those things because of what they might be. Fallen Keyblade wielders who technically haven't been classified as heartless yet, have they? (within the game I mean, I don't really remember) I'm more interested in this possibility (the darkness literally sticking to her like a disease and crawling up her skin) than her being norted.
What really happens to someone like Aqua when they're trapped down there? People like Ansem eventually fade away and lose themselves (and pretty quickly too compared to Aqua). If a princess of heart were thrown down there, maybe nothing would affect them (or hey, maybe it COULD, but the themes don't support that idea). But a formidable person like Aqua... well, if she's becoming one of those darkling things and is completely independent of Xehanort's schemes (because it'd have nothing to do with him), ooof, I think that's interesting.
But I suppose it's just personal preference. I don't see this as a duplicate of any one else's story even if the themes are similar.
One moment you say you're just following the themes of the series and use it to explain why Aqua shouldn't fall to darkness. I bring up patterns, themes, and other characters who've been through similar situations and how it makes sense for her to end up like this, but it's suddenly unoriginal, repetitive, and bad writing?
The norting thing I'm 50/50 on. That was the only surprise for me really. I want her NOT to be norted because of all the extra stuff that goes along with that, but time will tell. But I see the norting and the darkness as two separate things here.
Aqua is not like everyone else (Riku, Sora, Terra, Xehanort, etc etc). Yeah, they've gotten a lick of darkness here and there, but Aqua is neck deep in it. I've always been interested in how the dark realm works and how it affects people. We know you endlessly fight heartless (BbS Secret Episode). We know it can eat at your memories (Ansem the Wise). We saw a few more pureblood heartless and the veiny organic theme continues throughout which I find curious. We know it sucks overall, but that's about it.
But through Aqua's journey in 0.2, we see more than ever. The darkness distorts the worlds and breaks them down. It almost freezes the worlds in time at the exact moment it fell into darkness (same for people too if Aqua is any indication). The darkness can mimic you, and not only in a dark shadowy form like we've seen heartless shaped Sora or heartless shaped Roxas or whatever. It can literally mimic your appearance, your abilities, and even your own thoughts and feelings use it to try and drag you down further. Phantom Aqua, though we may never see it again, was pretty awesome lore and story wise. (I wouldn't dare to try and fight Zodiac Aqua).
One of the most interesting theories I've seen lately is Aqua is becoming just like those Darklings/Black Costumes we saw in UX. As you can tell by my signature, I actually like those things because of what they might be. Fallen Keyblade wielders who technically haven't been classified as heartless yet, have they? (within the game I mean, I don't really remember) I'm more interested in this possibility (the darkness literally sticking to her like a disease and crawling up her skin) than her being norted.
What really happens to someone like Aqua when they're trapped down there? People like Ansem eventually fade away and lose themselves (and pretty quickly too compared to Aqua). If a princess of heart were thrown down there, maybe nothing would affect them (or hey, maybe it COULD, but the themes don't support that idea). But a formidable person like Aqua... well, if she's becoming one of those darkling things and is completely independent of Xehanort's schemes (because it'd have nothing to do with him), ooof, I think that's interesting.
But I suppose it's just personal preference. I don't see this as a duplicate of any one else's story even if the themes are similar.