And even tho Aqua lost like all her fights in "KHIII" proper, it DID feel like they kept writing her in the forefront. She was the one to stand with Riku and Sora to protect the others, she was the one who got to reminisce with multiple characters before the final battle and actually have the conversations we were waiting for (Ven only got Lea really, and Aqua herself obviously), and then at the end of the game she was one of the 2 characters Mickey chose to take Xehanort down with till Sora insisted he do it. It really just felt like she was acknowledged as strong but kept from being incredibly successful so the player (Sora) could do more bosses and stuff. Which...is fair, though Aqua is playable in the build as well so I dunno, guess they thought people would be pissed if she didn't have Keyblade transformations and stuff?
I agree she was often framed and treated by other characters as if she were Sora and Riku's equals and one of the strongest fighters among them. Mickey even seemed to think higher of her and her capabilities than of Sora, constantly wanting to team up with her and Riku to do the important fighting, only for Sora to steal the spotlight and go for it instead.
Sadly KH3 while trying to say she's a strong and competent member of the team, fails to actually show her being strong and competent.
It's because this is customary for Kairi that she makes for an effective scapegoat, as she represents the legacy of femme characterization in the series stemming back to the first game. It's easy (and not entirely disingenuous) to attribute her as the weakest throughline and the most consistent narrative liability, especially when KH3 constitutes the first notable appearance she has made in the series since KH2 and thus had a greater mandate to justify her inclusion: expectations were appropriately set high for Kairi, because she had so much to offer and represented a wealth of potential avenues through which her story might return on that investment. So her ultimate treatment reveals (or reminds us of) something about Nomura as a director and writer that is particularly unsavory. That said, I'm in agreement with you: Aqua and Naminé (and Xion, in less immediately apparent ways) are likewise casualties of this legacy as it has been revitalized through Kairi's reappearance in the text, but I think it's harder for people to look at that and accept it because they have had comparatively stronger and more engaging arcs: it's dissonant with the reference points people have for these characters as agents of their own narratives, and so it's more disorienting to acknowledge that Nomura delivered so poorly at the point of incorporating them back into the larger story. It's more comfortable to argue that Kairi is the single flaw that defaces the whole when she's only the point of intersection underscoring all of the bad decisions that went into building and presenting this plot.
I think the issue is also just that all the problems you can have with Aqua and Naminé can also be had with Kairi, Xion I personally have less issue with seeing she didn't get much screen time, but what she got seemed well used imo. The issue with Naminé's big moment being off screen is shared with Kairi. Aqua's problem of never being able to win or show off how competent she is, is also shared with Kairi.
There's probably also the fact that a lot of people were hoping to see Kairi finally get some spotlight as we were lead up to believe in the last two endings setting up KH3.
If you look at 0.2 being part of KH3 like Sora2016 said they do Aqua's portrayal is a bit better, but a lot off the issues do still remain. Like how Vanitas knocked her out was stupid. I get wanting to have a big moment for Ven's return and calling back to BBS, but I think the way they went for it undermines what the scene originally set out to do: Show Aqua as strong (if her dialog is anything to go off of).
Why was the Keyblade War split into mini-fights? Because the game couldn't possibly process a 7 on 13 and have it be epic?
I just finished the Riku and Mickey fights and don't really like them: the 13 Seekers should've at least been showcased leading up to those fights instead of just cramming them all at the end.
Yeah, I feel like we'd have been better served, if there were multiple confrontations in different pairings beforehand and then we got to face them off one after another in the labyrinth instead of just having mini-group fights. That way we'd also get more fights where the other guardians are your party members maybe even including different combos like Ven and Axel, or Kairi and Aqua or my dream team up Sora, Riku and Kairi
The death scenes seemed really weird with the knowledge that another foe was just standing around watching it happen. Like if Larxene dies first, does Marluxia really not know she was just tagging along with him?
I'd have also taken advantage of the playable Riku and Aqua assets so it doesn't feel like Sora needs to be part of taking down each member. Sora didn't have to be there for Replikunort's death nor was he needed for the TAV confrontation.
I also thought this was the worst scene, but I just got to the Mysterious Tower bit before the last battle (one of the few scenes I didn't manage to see prior to release, during the glory days of the spoiler rush which seem so far gone already) and nope, it's the worst. The worst KH scene, bar none. I sat there blank as a brick (occasionally inserting a rye invective) while I watched these so-called characters casually emptying their dramatic coffers of every emotional inference that could be drawn between them in mere seconds' worth of the thinnest exchanges, like word salad without even any dressing on it to give the whole affair a veneer of decency. It was so utterly arbitrary, it wasn't even like they were in the same room talking to each other, it was more like one protagonist would realize they had a plot point to resolve with another protagonist and they were very crassly attempting to give Nomura any excuse to drop the subject and move on without effectively addressing any of the narrative factors that make these encounters meaningful. I think I lost it when Aqua told Kairi they had met once, and that Mickey was there, and Kairi's response was essentially, "I don't really remember that but it sounds like it might have been important."
Yeah as much as I personally liked that scene, there was just too much being cramped into it, that they had to stream line it to it's most basic form. It would have been nice, if these scenes were more evenly spread out through out the game, given more time to breath and for there to be more interactions.
Like. Aqua was the reason Kairi ended up in Destiny Islands. Aqua was the reason Kairi met Sora (and Riku, but Kairi probably doesn't remember meeting him either at this point). Aqua's the reason Kairi can wield a Keyblade.
"That might have been important."
diddly you Nomura.
To be fair Aqua doesn't know Kairi ended up on Destiny Island nor was she herself aware of the fact that she bequeathed Kairi with a Keyblade so there's no way of her bringing it up.
However, if the scene had gotten more time and could have stood on it's own, Kairi could have asked what worked and about what Aqua knew of her past, which would have been interesting, I guess it still could happen at a later point, but having it done when they were having their interaction would have been best.
Yen Sid could have also brought up Aqua and Kairi's Keyblade connection, introducing some new mumbo jumbo connection between those that bequeath Keyblades and those that receive it. This could have served to introduce a new connection between them and maybe make Aqua feel more responsible for Kairi making the failure to keep her save weigh heavy on her at the end.