You know... I've thought about the ending to DDD for years. And for the longest time, I absolutely loved it: I thought it made sense, helped Riku to shine, added a nice bit of drama (though Sora would never be angsty about Riku passing over him, of course), and would lead to Sora growing some.
Now, though... Now I sort of think the whole "Sora not passing" thing is complete bull.
My main issue with it is that it sort of eliminates one of the main things this series tries to standby: that we can accomplish anything with our friends--more than we ever could by ourselves, actually--and getting help from friends isn't a bad thing at all, but rather something that should be endorsed.
DDD sort of takes that idea and tosses it on its head, by saying that Sora isn't "good enough to be a Keyblade Master" because Riku had to go save him, and after Yen Sid himself admitted that he messed up and sent them both into a perilous test.
I just can't help thinking it's completely unfair. Boy, oh boy, should Riku be glad that Yen Sid was judging this attempt of his, and not when he needed to be saved by Mickey from Ansem in CoM, and be healed by him there and all that jazz (among other things).
Or if the test was supposed to be about you doing/figuring out everything by yourself, and staying on the course, then why didn't Riku get dinged for getting information from Joshua? He never would've been able to succeed in his endeavors if Joshua hadn't eluded to the fact that he was in Sora's dreams, after all.
And I know people are going to say that it was really for the fact that Sora didn't have his darkness under control that he didn't pass the exam, but that wasn't what shattered his heart! It was feeling all the pain of Ventus, Roxas, and Xion!
If anyone's to blame here it should be Mickey, for not telling Sora what he learned in Coded.
I get what DDD was trying to do. I really do. And in some ways, I can actually appreciate it and get behind it.
But I think it also went too far, in kind of sacrificing the main themes of this series--and Sora's strength through other people--and saying that it's no longer a good thing in this instance.
...Especially when in all intents and purposes, he should have the title. He's accomplished far more than any actual Keyblade Master we've seen has, I mean.
And it's not like Keyblade Masters are perfect. Even after becoming a Master herself, Aqua made all kinds of mistakes (so did Eraqus, and then there are the atrocities that Xehanort himself has wrought). So it seems kind of silly to me to keep him from getting the title for something so trivial, when even as a Master he'll still be learning--as we all learn with each step of life that we take.
...Basically, I just find the whole Keyblade Master, Keyblade Apprentice, Keyblade Inheritance, Mark of Mastery stuff really faulty, and kind of wish it would be abolished from the series.
Which might end up happening? Because I know a lot of fans blame that system for the way that things are in the KH multiverse. And even Nomura himself didn't seem to be talking too highly of it when speaking about Chi recently.