Weeeelll, I'll admit, I think I'd like the pairing even more if those memories were real, because they were very sweet memories, and I would've have liked to see Riku and Kairi interact with her as though they had been her childhood friends too. Sure, we got to see Repliku, but he was barely like the real thing in terms of personality.
Well, novels do kind of give us Namine-Riku interaction.
The thing is, as far as Sora (and therefore myself) is concerned, those Memories
are real. He accepted them enough times for us to get the point - Sora accepted those things having happened between him and Namine; he accepted Namine being that sort of person, and accepted the feelings that Namine being
that sort of person brought.
The whole point at the end of CoM was for them to have their shot at making it real.
Stupid Nomura and Nojima not living up to it... T_T *mumblegrumble*
Namine: we finally meet again!
Sora: uh, wha-
Roxas: LAWL!
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *remote @ tv*
God dammit! *shakes fist @ KH2*
Then again, the fact that it was all a lie brought on all those great scenes, such as Sora asking her to smile, and telling her to do what Marluxia said because he didn't want her to get hurt. That part was made even more meaningful because he knew by then what was really going on.
This. QFT. And anything else indicating I really
really support this.
Namine really was
that special for Sora. I know that in more ways than one she was literally all he had left, but that meant he just had to protect her until she restored his Memories, something she promised to do and he believed her enough to go along with it.
He obviously did a lot more than that.
And if she ended up mind-wiping him completely, why should he have cared, he wouldn't remember having lost anything anyway, and he got to stay an eternity with someone he was willing to do that for back then anyway.
It was a sort of win-win situation for Sora, where either way it meant staying with Namine (going by their Promise from the end of CoM) the person he was fond of enough to make sure would be there even after he effin forgot her T-T
Sora asking her to Smile <3<3<3<3<3<3<3 TnT *explodes*
I'd say you piqued my interest and brought up some good points in your SoNami section of the essay. Then I started playing the game and that really got the train rolling.
I like to think I'm presenting a new point of view about Namine in the essay. It's really easy to label her as the villain but for the most part 90% of the characters we meet are
victims (much like KH1's Riku even). Then we have the wide concepts that
1) She replaced Kairi in Sora's Memories, and
2) Sora's feelings for Namine were based on his feelings of Kairi.
Now, while I'm not ruling out there may have been messing around with Sora's Memories of Kairi and the friendship that was there to serve as a base for her, the fact remains that even if it's true, then it's all but redundant.
Sora's relationship on Namine isn't based on Kairi where it counts. For starters, he acts towards her completely different than he ever acted around Kairi, even when it comes down to saving her. Throw in the fact that the Memories that seem to make the most difference are Memories Kairi
never ever would've fit into, being the
new Memories Namine made, and there having been
Another girl from the get go (and of course the fact KH1 didn't convince me there was anything romantic between SoKai), and you'll see why I don't care much for any and all notions that Namine may have toyed with Sora's Memories of Kairi -
The things that matter the most were Memories of Namine herself, new, fresh ones. And that's what got Sora going, the Promise he made to protect her on the night of the Meteor Shower - when Kairi only just got to the Islands so it couldn't have been a Memory of her.
Speaking of which, I have a question for those of you who played the games in the proper order: Did you think Sora's memories of Namine were real, or did you suspect that something was up?
It wasn't too hard to figure out they weren't. Sora (And "Riku") blurting out about her all but out of the blue, their Memories being messed with on the general level, and of course the Organization Members all but saying it and making Namine make it worse the higher up the Castle Sora went.
Being a Sora-lover to a pretty hard extreme though, I find it really easy to look at things from
his point of view, so when it came down to the question of "why was Sora going through all of it?" it was very simple for me to answer it with "Because he remembers the person most precious to him" without even minding even once that Namine made up those Memories.
It certainly helped Sora himself kept going "NO ROAR MINE BOTH NAMINE THE CHARM AND THE MEMORIES! *waves Keyblade*"
Kind of hard to argue with that kid when he waves his Keyblade at you so determinedly.
Yeah! Someone should find the scan of Sora and Namine crossing their fingers and making the new promise to be friends when Sora woke up!
I so loved that moment T_T
It doesn't even really have to be the scan though, actually; it could be their sprites from the original CoM. I'd wager it's good enough and easier to get.