Aqua Quotes

[Sephiroth0812]

But Aqua never saw Vanitas' face, right?

Correct, as far as our current level of information is, only two people ever saw Vanitas' face and those are Ventus and Master Xehanort.

 

[Luminary]

So...one thing that was getting at me was what could possibly drive Aqua to give in to the darkness. It is obvious from the quotes that she has a lot of doubts, and it seems likely that picking at those would eventually cause her to unravel.

But one thing that got me to thinking was actually the fact that from Blank Points we know that she considers Sora and Riku to be the hope in saving the world. She knows they are both out there, trying to protect the light (either by saving them herself or hearing about it via Ansem). I would think that Aqua is banking a lot of her remaining shreds of hope on those two.

Here's the problem: she is kind of ignorant about a lot of what's been happening out in the world (not her fault, but...yeah). I mean, would she even know what a Nobody is? Or even know about Replicas? What if Xehanort tricks her out by showing her Vanitas and Repliku and somehow convinces her that he already got the two of them on his side so there is literally no hope left for her. (Granted, we have no idea if Repliku is even on Team Nort but this is just a crazy theory anyway)

But Aqua never saw Vanitas' face, right? She wouldn't know that he isn't Sora necessarily and she would have no idea there is a replica Riku running around still using the darkness (I assume). If he convinces her about that, she might just throw in the towel, especially if he offers her a chance to get out of the darkness finally.

I mean, depending on their acting skills if you have a body double why not try to use it, right?

This really isn’t too far-fetched. He did use Terra to try to trick Aqua before. I wouldn’t put something like this past him.

Another thing I’m considering is that Xehanort norted her simply as a stepping stone to Ven’s location but didn’t actually make her part of the Organization, leaving her in the Realm of Darkness to suffer in her new affliction. So she is a Xehanort vessel, but he dumped her knowing that her light would be too strong to serve as a Seeker of Darkness.

 

[Ven_Roxas]

I’m confused as to why people are saying Mickey and Yen Sid took too long. They didnt know Aqua was in the RoD until right befor KH1. Since they left her there, they had to deal with Xemnas and now the return of Xehanort. It’s not like they just say around and ignored her. They were busy saving/helping Sora and Riku save the worlds and RoL.

 

[Clockwork]

So here is a thought...maybe Aqua was Norted in BBS but simply had the memory of it erased?

I think that's a cool idea, but I think there's a more obvious place where it could have happened, right before Destiny Island.

She was conveniently exhausted to unconsciousness for a prolonged period of time in Neverland, right after she fought Vanitas. He's not there anymore when she wakes up, so logically either he recovered first, or Xehanort retrieved him. In either case, why would she have been just left alone? (And thereafter she gained access to a command style inspired by Vanitas' moveset, which, gameplay element or not, has always been kind of inexplicable).

I'd also like to reiterate, whatever happened, I highly doubt Aqua fell to darkness willingly.

She was being hollowed out and consumed by a nightmare shadow realm for 10-12 years though, so I could see there being a slim possibility that possession-by-evil-wizard may have started to look like an appealing alternative after years of losing ground. At least Xehanort possession is something that can be fought?

 

[AmaryllisMoth]

She was conveniently exhausted to unconsciousness for a prolonged period of time in Neverland, right after she fought Vanitas.

That part always bothered me as well. The first time I played the game I was like, what, did Vanitas just run off and leave her there? Why? It's not like he is some super noble dude who is like "ah, I can't take advantage of my enemy because she bested me in battle!". I also absolutely hate "forced" fainting after fights, especially when the fight goes super smooth and you don't take any damage and then your character flops over like it was super hard aaaanyway. (grumbles)

He's not there anymore when she wakes up, so logically either he recovered first, or Xehanort retrieved him. In either case, why would she have been just left alone?

But all things considered, Vanitas was probably just testing again to see if she would make a suitable stand-in for Ven and was relatively confident her power was up to snuff so he decided to leave it there and meandered off afterwards (since it wouldn't make sense to incapacitate his back-up candidate). I think that's what he said he was doing all those times he confronted her, anyway.

But IF they bring up the plot point in the future that she was forcibly Norted without her knowledge I would probably be looking to this point as well as a more likely time for it to have happened.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

But all things considered, Vanitas was probably just testing again to see if she would make a suitable stand-in for Ven and was relatively confident her power was up to snuff so he decided to leave it there and meandered off afterwards (since it wouldn't make sense to incapacitate his back-up candidate). I think that's what he said he was doing all those times he confronted her, anyway.

Except that it doesn't add up when we speak about the Neverland fight because right before it Vanitas speaks about how Ven is "powerful enough now and has "outgrown" this silly toy" which refers to the wooden Keyblade of Terra which he then destroys, adding "just like I've outgrown my need for you".

This heavily points towards Vanitas no longer needing Aqua as a backup and means he was fighting to kill in Neverland against her.

Aqua winning the fight but passing out, yet Vanitas recovering from his own unconsciousness earlier and then not doing a killing blow is out-of-character for him.

So it is not out of the question that something might have happened there.

 

[Megavoltage]

I always imagined that Vanitas woke first but before he could do anything to Aqua he noticed Peter Pan on the way and he was too damaged for another confrontation. So he quickly escaped knowing he'd have another chance to kill Aqua at the Keyblade Graveyard, he wasn't in a rush to finish her here, and now that his grudge against her was even greater he'd probably want to savor her misery by making her watch him take over Ventus instead of just a quick kill.

Hey, what if something happened to Vanitas? I don't know what, just throwing out a random idea. If someone showed up and scared him off or talked him out of it because of some convoluted master plan that needed the heroine alive for later.

 

[AmaryllisMoth]

Aqua winning the fight but passing out, yet Vanitas recovering from his own unconsciousness earlier and then not doing a killing blow is out-of-character for him.

Yeah, that's what I was saying. See:

...did Vanitas just run off and leave her there? Why? It's not like he is some super noble dude who is like "ah, I can't take advantage of my enemy because she bested me in battle!"

I agree that it would be extremely out of character for him to just...run off.

My suggestions about him leaving her there because she was supposed to be a back-up was me just trying to theorize possible story reasons for this discrepancy other than that Aqua was norted here or that Vanitas suddenly had a change of heart. However, I hadn't actually gone back and checked the cutscene (and haven't seen it in a long time) so I agree that, having re-watched it now, that Vanitas does kind of dismiss this possibility of needing her any more and the fight is staged as more of a cleaning up loose ends kind of conflict.

But maybe it is possible that MX still considered Aqua a viable back-up at the time, though, and intervened here?

It just seems so...odd. I do really hope they give us some reason for why she fainted here because it has honestly always bugged me.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

That Master Xehanort intervened or, as Megavoltage says, something happened to Vanitas is of course always a possibility.

Even if Vanitas is shown to go against Xehanort's orders sometimes, when the old coot is actually present I doubt he dares to go out of line mainly because there's a definite power difference between them and knowing Xehanort he probably makes sure Vanitas "knows his place" at all times.

 

[Hirokey123]

You know I never really read that scene as Vanitas running off, I always figured Master Xehanort went and picked up Vanitas or that maybe Vanitas limped away by weakly summoning a few Unversed to help him hobble him off. I don't think I ever believed he was in a state well enough to fight after Aqua knocked him out cold like that. At best I could see him struggling to stand up, picking up his keyblade, then basically hobbling himself back through a corridor of darkness to go rest and recover proper.

 

[TruestSyn]

That's it guys, we've figured it all out. Yen Sid and Mickey are the real villains for letting such a precious little cinnamon roll be trapped in such an evil and corruptible environment for so long. With Nomura's feelings towards Xehanort, Sora will sympathize with the villain in the end and strike Mickey down, the Gummi ship will do a missile strike against the mysterious tower and they will all be free from the tyrannical rule of the mouse and wizard.

 

[kirabook]

It sounds like you're taking the criticism of Yen Sid and Mickey (that existed before this or 0.2) a little too serious ma dude.

I don't blame either of them for not knowing Aqua's whereabouts prior to Mickey finding her in the RoD. They had no idea. But upon Mickey learning she was down there... he probably should have put WAY more effort into getting her out as soon as possible. The RoD is an extremely dangerous place. Mickey knows this. Yen Sid certainly knows this.

Yes, there were other things going on at the time, but surely they could have been working out a way to get into the RoD and find Aqua much much sooner. Mickey actually was busy, but Yen Sid? He's not doing anything...

I am looking forward to Aqua's twisted feelings and ripping them apart (with words). Mickey already feels guilty, but man, he's going to feel so much worse. I think Mickey might end up being the one who works hardest to make sure Aqua can be saved (by that, I mean bring everyone together who can help her, come up with what to say and the plan, etc etc)

As for Yen Sid, I kinda wish he were less involved in the plot to be honest. He's Yen Sid, but he's being written like a fool. Surely such an all powerful wizard would at least match Xehanort's intelligence, but Yen Sid always seems to be 10 steps behind.

 

[Fatal Mode]

You know I never really read that scene as Vanitas running off, I always figured Master Xehanort went and picked up Vanitas or that maybe Vanitas limped away by weakly summoning a few Unversed to help him hobble him off. I don't think I ever believed he was in a state well enough to fight after Aqua knocked him out cold like that. At best I could see him struggling to stand up, picking up his keyblade, then basically hobbling himself back through a corridor of darkness to go rest and recover proper.

I thought Xehanort's whole deal was for Terra to feel hopelessness during their final confrontation that he couldn't save either of his friends. I'm assuming he intended for Aqua to survive until that point.

 

[mazicrow]

Does anybody remember when Aqua says "Power is born within the heart, when the time is right you just need to look inside yourself, and you'll find it there" Trying to find it in the Birth by Sleep cutscenes but came up with no luck :frown: