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I feel like Axel has been three different characters. The Axel we meet in CoM feels bloodthirsty, calculating, and kind of nuts, completely unrepentant about the harm he causes--in fact he seems to get off on it and is having a fun ol' time, and doesn't seem too concerned about how anything turns out. To me, he always felt like the true villain of CoM more than anyone else, only to be dealt with "later."* I really liked that Axel and was interested in where it would go. Cut to KH2 and Axel is a puppy dog with no real bite within 5 minutes. And then Axel in KH3 is almost child-like annoying to me, the way he is in BbS--he reminds me of Hayner, now I think of it. The sort of would-be badass schtick that's a little bit cringe and gets on your nerves combined with maxed out enthusiasm. Days tries to thread the needle between those wildly different characters... It's not bad, but very imperfect. Part of me wishes Axel hadn't changed from what came before; most of the villains in CoM are much better than those that came later, imo. Saix and Xaldin are the only other ones that were on their level, imo. Young Xehanort in 3D, too, although not in 3.SweetYetSalty said:Axel is a weird one. I absolutely love his arc from CoM-KH2-Days, but despise him in everything else as Lea. I liked him in the early games when he wasn't a traditional "good guy" but a gray area character who had his friends and orders but never put any of them above his own desires and survival. It made him unpredictable and interesting to watch. Lea ruined him.
Well he kind of is like three different characters...more then three probably. I will not defend DDD or KH3 "Lea" but I will say something about KH2 Axel. I didn't find him as a "puppy dog" at least no more then KH2 Riku. Axel still does some messed up crap in that game, which again is why I don't call him a "good guy" and the idea of him as a immediate Guardian of Light is very questionable. Axel was still calculating in Days and KH2, he was gonna kill Roxas if he didn't comply with the Organization, and was gonna turn Sora into a Heartless. He's also harsher in his arguments with R-X in the original DS game as opposed to the Days Movie where, yeah he is a puppy. But that's a problem KH suffers from in general when trying to show a reformed villain/anti-hero in a past story. I noticed that with BBS Riku.I feel like Axel has been three different characters. The Axel we meet in CoM feels bloodthirsty, calculating, and kind of nuts, completely unrepentant about the harm he causes--in fact he seems to get off on it and is having a fun ol' time, and doesn't seem too concerned about how anything turns out. To me, he always felt like the true villain of CoM more than anyone else, only to be dealt with "later."* I really liked that Axel and was interested in where it would go. Cut to KH2 and Axel is a puppy dog with no real bite within 5 minutes. And then Axel in KH3 is almost child-like annoying to me, the way he is in BbS--he reminds me of Hayner, now I think of it. The sort of would-be badass schtick that's a little bit cringe and gets on your nerves combined with maxed out enthusiasm. Days tries to thread the needle between those wildly different characters... It's not bad, but very imperfect. Part of me wishes Axel hadn't changed from what came before; most of the villains in CoM are much better than those that came later, imo. Saix and Xaldin are the only other ones that were on their level, imo. Young Xehanort in 3D, too, although not in 3.
* To me, Xigbar is sort of what CoM Axel was simply moved over into a different character. A sort of playful chessmaster villain-behind-the-villain type, who is much older than he seems and has much wider-spanning motives than any of the characters could ever guess. Only Xigbar doesn't really do it for me the way CoM Axel did, maybe it's the voice-acting or the design, IDK. CoM Axel felt more unhinged and out-of-control. Either way, Nomura was clearly thinking of the Brain Foreteller-connected character back in CoM, at least to me, although his approach of not planning ahead lead to some detours and re-routing.