I actually think that the game implying Aqua is more of a "caring-liar" and Terra seems to be more a straight-forward person makes it more interesting to me, because that's like the opposite of what their stories are supposed to present them as, and it was at least a try to show us that there's more to them than we see.
I'd also say that Aqua is honestly presented as too "pure" already. She's a kind-hearted, good person, but not the embodiment of perfection like I feel people often display her.
The dialogue is certainly not very well written in this regard, but you can come to that interpretation quite easily once you play a bit further.
Most of my criticism on this point comes from the way the authors seem to be trying to introduce their three characters very quickly and efficiently, and I feel the line fails them in that regard. Here's the problem with Aqua lying to protect Ven: the player can't know she's lying to protect Ven at this stage in the game! You don't learn about Ven's breakdowns until Terra gets to the Badlands, which could be ages from now if you play Terra last! So we can't see Aqua lying as a quick and efficient means of implying her protection of Ven, as it's more long-term if it's anything.
Unfortunately, you can learn that Aqua's lying well before you learn why she's lying: Ven-first players can work out that Ven was dropped off with Eraqus as soon as they get the Letter from Xehanort at the end of the prologue. I know that I did. At this point, Ven players discover that Aqua is a liar, because they've only known her for a few minutes and her lying is one of the only things they've seen her do. That is her characterization to that Ven-first player! And I don't feel that's fair to her character.
Aqua doesn't lie at any other point in the game, not even to protect Ven. In fact she's so foolishly incapable of lying that it's partially responsible for the spat at Radiant Garden that keeps Ven from going home to protection in the first place! Aqua is such a goodie-goodie that obeying the rules is both her classic Heroic Flaw and Idiot Ball specialty the same way that Terra's flaw is Obedience to Authority. I feel like introducing her on a lie, no matter what lie, is teaching Ven-first players the exact wrong thing about Aqua's big character fault.
I also think there's a tiny bonus in having Terra deliver the lie. Let's say you're a Ven-first player, like we're pretending we are for the Retrospective, and it was Terra who lied. You get the Letter from Xehanort and learn Terra was lying just a few minutes later. How do you react? I think there are three ways. You could make a guess and presume that Terra's trying to protect Ven, you could presume that he was simply too young to remember at the time (at least until the game proves you wrong) or you could presume that he's Up to Something. And that's the hidden bonus: a Ven-first player is supposed to be suspicious of Terra! The lie would have become another piece of evidence in the pile. And I think that would have been pretty smooth.
They certainly do introduce them "quickly", but the "efficiently" is absent in its entirety. It is the main problem of BBS that they rushed the whole issue with the TAV trio and made more telling through reports and later (sparse) flashbacks than actual showing in regards of their supposed close-knit relationship.
BBS would really have benefitted from something similar to the "Destiny Islands part" of KH 1, maybe starting the story actually one or two weeks
before the night of the exam and have an actual mission/short story arc in Land of Departure itself.
It's almost as if too much of BBS' actual fleshing-out story landed on the cutting room floor, leaving out too many parts that could truly enrich it and instead focusing solely on Xehanort's "Master plan" and making visual parallels to the other games.
The question is though if it is really such a bad thing that the player doesn't learn the reason yet, as the game description before you get to the character selection screen clearly states that one can only see the full scope of the story when playing all three characters?
If you play Aqua before Terra you also get the flasback with comatose Ventus where she sits at his bedside watching over him way before you get to know the reason why he fell into this coma (the flashback with Terra accidentally "overloading" the kid with a question barrage is also in Terra's story).
The audience gets to see already during the proper Prologue that there is something "wrong" with Ven when they show him on Destiny Islands and the damaged heart station with nearly one quarter missing where he himself states that his heart is "fractured"/injured, so assuming that Aqua's behaviour might have something to do with this fact is not exactly a quantum leap.
The Prologue is also not really about already teaching players about things but to raise impressions, impressions that can and will change once one plays more than one character.
If there is already such a problem with just one line from Aqua, there will be many more to pop up over the course of the whole game due to its admittedly not very narrative-friendly structure.
Yea, IF you play Terra last but you're not supposed to do that. Terra is meant to be played
first, the scenarios for each character were written with Terra's coming first in production, that's also why he's the first in the list on the character selection screen and in Theatermode, so saying that someone who plays another character first is
supposed to feel towards a certain direction regarding another character is a bit thin I think.
The developers certainly didn't had that in mind when developing the storyline as otherwise there would be no need for a recommended order of play.
Even not counting that though, the Prologue does not only consist of Aqua lying but also clearly shows off that she cares for him in her other lines directed towards him.
If a Ven-player only takes away from the Prologue that "Aqua is a liar" and completely disregards the other stuff like her suggesting he take a blanket with him when doozing off outside, affectionally ruffling his hair and the whole Wayfinder-issue I'd say he or she didn't pay enough attention.
I agree on this "tiny bonus" bit in that it would have certainly made for an interesting different take on things, but for it to work the intended order of the story (and its development itself) would have to start with Ventus instead of Terra, which it doesn't.
In the end it really comes down to the murked writing of BBS in general and the not-so-efficient take on how to tell this three-part story
Pretty much my thoughts. I can't believe Aqua lying is meant to be the intended reading when literally it's her one and only lie in the entire series. Even more so it doesn't make sense because it's not something Ventus, if he was a real person, would ever believe because....well unless he thinks Aqua is his mother and Terra or Eraqus are his father then he has to know he comes from somewhere else. Little teenage boys do not simply pop into existence from the ether and Ven is intelligent enough to know that. It would of been a much more logical thing if Aqua had acknowledged the possibility that Ven was remembering something from his lost past. OR if she had hurriedly tried to redirect the conversation to something entirely different like if SHE was the one to respond with something like "Hey Ven have you ever thought of where stars come from" or something then it would work better. As it stands Aqua randomly lies this one single time, it's never once addressed again, and it's a lie that in no way would Ventus be able to believe. The only other way to make this work is if they had some sort of explicit scene showing Eraqus forbidding it or something else to indicate what the heck was with this one completely out of place line.
It has nothing to do with purity and everything to do with the fact it doesn't make sense in the context of the story, the script, nor Aqua's own character when they chose to build her up as someone who doesn't know when to not speak the truth. You basically have to make up scenarios for this line to make any sense, I agree it would of been better for Terra to deliver it if only because the game will establish Terra as someone who hides incredibly critical information about Ven's past from him. (he also hid it from Aqua which is another reason I think that the revelation about Ven's past in Terra's story was an addition, because him not mentioning it to either of them is honestly pretty out of character from the Terra we see being so desperate to protect his friends and being the one who believes "they can handle themselves.")
You speak about "making up scenarios" yet you do exactly the same here with constructing stuff of why Ventus wouldn't be able to believe Aqua in any possible case.
He obviously
does and considering he has only four years worth of memories at all and likely also knows that trying to recall stuff from before causes pain it is not surprising he swallows it like that.
You completely forget that Ventus is actually a trauma-victim in any possible case and you do not risk a backlash by bringing up things that are responsible for said trauma in the first place.
Had Aqua acknowledged the possibility of it being "something from his lost past" or hastily changed the subject it would raise suspicion and could have led to Ventus becoming curious and investigative, something no one at Land of Departure actually wants, or even worse, cause another breakdown if it triggers something.
By casually (and warmly, I might add) waving it away as a dream/nothing to worry about she managed to smoothly settle the issue without attracting any danger.
Is the actual wording good or sensible? Hell no, but that counts for several parts of BBS where the dialogue itself is cringeworthy.
You don't need an "explicit" scene of Eraqus forbidding it to make it work as you can take it out of the context when
playing on.
In the flashback scene during Ventus' arrival Eraqus clearly states that "Ventus cannot tell you anything because he doesn't remember anything.", it is not rocket science to deduce that Terra and Aqua would obviously ask their Master for more information afterwards and Eraqus would instruct them how to handle Ventus once he awakens from his coma so it (hopefully) doesn't happen again.
That's exactly what I mean when I say "everything delivered on a silver platter", you don't need to have everything spoon-fed to you in order to make sense of things. BBS is certainly missing several things that could enrich the setting better and especially go deeper on the TAV trio both as individuals and in their relationship, but this case is not one of them.
You're
supposed to make sense of some things in parts for yourself and make your own interpretations, quoting Nomura himself here.
Being creative and "making up scenarios" is
intentional.
Just saying it doesn't make any sense context-, story-, and character-wise and let it be that is just the easy way out.
Uh what?
There was no "critical information" for both Aqua and Terra to hide from Ven because they didn't know anything beyond the fact of the memory loss and whatever Eraqus filled them in on the trauma/heart injury (who himself only knows whatever lie-filled excuse Xehanort told him).
By the time Terra learns more in the form of Xehanort's white-washed version they're all already in the midst of their journeys and it is
directly before the great falling out at Radiant Garden.
Terra
afterwards not mentioning anything might be "out of character" at first glance, but it really isn't as in regards to Ventus it is yet again the same with not wanting to burden him with anything as in Terra's eyes he's on a quest given by Master Xehanort to eliminate Vanitas anyways so why needlessly cause Ventus worries? He also does insist on him going home with Aqua.
With Aqua it is because he doesn't really trust her anymore believing she's spying on him and both she and Eraqus do not trust
him anymore.
Xehanort revealing a white-washed version of the reasons for Ven's breakdowns and trauma had exactly one purpose and that was Xehanort "keeping up appearances" in his own words and start to gain Terra's trust by playing a remorseful old man who made a horrible error, most likely the same story he also brought up to Eraqus when first bringing Ven to LoD, so I doubt that this was some late-development time extra addition to the storyline.
On the contrary, when looking at the whole package I firmly believe that too much was cut out from BBS in the end rather than added.
