In BBS they had some reason for going to Ansem's castle that wasn't revealed. I will put that less to suddenly being there and more that it was explained too late.
They have alluded to something between the two of them several times. Their back and forth in Days, and in BbS when they talk about a mission they're on and look at the castle.
Except as someone mentioned, that had nothing to do with Subject X, since she appeared after BBS and in a time when Xehanort was within the castle. Furthermore, ample time was given to indirectly or directly mention her via 358/2 Days, BBS, and DDD if she really was ever a thing. But fact of the matter is she was
never a thing. Like Xion. And Nomura decided by KHIII that it was going to be about Subject X despite a long window of opportunity to
present this in a more believable way and with some actual basis other than something ambiguous that Isa and Lea were sneaking in the castle for. Which could have been
anything. That tends to be how Nomura works if he wants to insert whatever comes to his mind - see if there's a gap he left and implant it without any previous references. Then the players are left to simply accept them.
It's even more daunting when Ansem and Ansem SoD suddenly talk about her existence as if it was so important when they never paid attention to it in legit...what, KHII, 358/2 Days, and DDD. That's three games.
The entire abrupt inclusion of her from the tendrils of Nothingness, and the way it mattered to both of them and Isa, should have had acknowledgement before if she was really
that big of a deal. Especially if it supposedly affected Isa
that badly that we had to sit through him being a simp over this girl as he disappears in what was a weak attempt at a "redemption arc".
Well he was dead for most of those and while it is out of nowhere it kind of makes sense that he wants to take his suffering and make it work for him.
He wasn't "dead", he was inside Sora. He flashes over him twice in KHIII when he gets emotionally triggered within him (i.e. the only times we see he gives a damn about HPO and Naminé in the game before he got TRIOed off). It doesn't make sense that he appeared in DDD, got an entire game to himself in 358/2 Days, and appeared post-merge with Sora in TWTNW in KHII. Including the KHII:FM scene on the clock tower with Axel. Once more, ample, ample, ample time to mention
anything about this Sigil that he comes out with from left field that he had never thought about, mentioned, or cared for.
At all. None of them. There's no excuse.
Hell, how does Roxas even
know anything at all? When did he suddenly know that you can reclaim the Sigil? How did he know he needed Sora's help as if he understood what to do? How did he know anything about the replica process and who was behind it in general? What, did he get filled in on that .01 millisecond it took for him to shoot out of Sora's chest and storm the Keyblade Graveyard right after?
You can't answer those questions because there isn't an official explanation. KH fans just brainstorm possible ones to fill in the blatant holes Nomura leaves with his terrible narrative work. No build ups, no basis, nothing. Which is what's being done now. Why not just accept that it was random and sudden instead of working to find some sort of defense for it?
It's
nonsensical, it's random, and whether or not it makes sense in context, it was never there as anything of value and importance throughout the
entirety of Roxas' journey and appearances before KHIII. Not even. Before Re:Mind.
..Chain of Memories. He had promised to protect her, first because of her memory powers but later by his own will. I don't know if you would classify their relationship as "strong" but he decided to keep his promise to her once again.
The responses to this just strengthens my argument further. It's about Riku Replica,
not about Naminé. The issue stands that Nomura tries not only to paint Riku Replica's end as sweet and touching when it shouldn't be (he's the result of an utter mind screw that ends with him denying his individuality and leads to him choosing to die), he tries to make it look
mutual instead of one-sided when there's no build up to that
whatsoever.
Let's look at Naminé. Girl brainwashes him, under duress, certainly, but he's still brainwashed by her, literally short circuits his brain accidentally because he was going to attack
Sora, and aside from an admittance of guilt and regret that she was the cause of his hurt, there's nothing else there for this "strong connection". But I guess brainwashing someone equates to a "strong connection"...who knew. Post-CoM? Where did she mention him? When was he important? Where is the basis for what Nomura stated? There was Days, KHII, Coded/Re:Coded...where is this connection he speaks of.
In fact, how did Sora even know about Riku and Riku Replica in the first place to say anything to Naminé at all about the situation in the Final World if it occurs later on? Lol. It's simply... incomprehensible. Characters just have random knowledge about things they shouldn't have knowledge of. Sora should have just shut up and only stuck with "it's not true". He lists all these characters that miss her, yet the game (coughnomuracough) doesn't follow up on that
at all and she never interacts with anyone to prove his statements. Except Sora himself. And Riku. But Riku forgot she existed until Riku Replica was, "yo, dude, she exists, make sure she returns bruh". Then Riku does a Pikachu surprised face.
In my view, their special connection is shown in CoM. IIRC Naminé removes the false memories she had implanted in the replica, shattering his heart. However, he wakes up, driven by his desire to protect her, even though the feeling initially came from the false memories. It's a bit messed up but clearly there's is a powerful connection there (though Naminé reciprocating is new, I could understand her having affection for him after that).
Naminé never removed those false memories. It took Sora a pod and months to fully recover his real memories and to fix him. Naminé isn't able to take an hour, let alone a day, to reverse the brainwashing she had done to Riku Replica. The guy was still deluded into false events that didn't happen and weren't his, along with a faux promise to protect her that she placed in there. He held unto it because he had nothing else to hold unto. He only knew they were fake memories because he realized they were when told.
Yeah, the whole Subject X thing was ridiculous. My statement is more towards saying that memory wipe can't be used as a convenient excuse every time, rather than saying the Subject X route is better or anything.
The better route for DR would have been properly setting up those characters beforehand, but if that wasn't possible then...just don't include them? It's not like the relationship between Eraqus and Xehanort was over-explored and dry, there was still plenty to uncover just between the two of them.
And imo Nomura's writing has always been miles better between duos than trios, Sora-Riku being a glaring example.
Yeah, I know it was about the memory wipe. But what I'm saying is that Nomura doesn't care about covering up his tracks with that anymore, as we see with Subject X. So I don't think it's anything to be too concerned about. Eraqus and Xehanort are dead already. The only possible role this group of characters will have with the current cast is either through metaphysical relation or being descendants of KHUx characters. Unless one of them is Luxu, MoM, or Kairi's grandmother, which goes back to the aforementioned point.
As for Nomura, I would correct this and say he only knows how to do a duo of
male friendships.
But he certainly can do a big cast with strong interrelations, as KHUx showed, because they are not tethered by a trio. They can explore out of that zone. Notice how
none of the characters have been excluded from one another. Sans Elrena. I still don't know what the purpose of her is, as much as I love Larxene.
Funny thing about this, my mind thought "princess of heart hax" for a moment.
Except the princesses themselves explicitly state in KH1FM that while they can hold back darkness, this "strange new force"(the in-between/nothingness) is something they have no power over.
I thought the same thing and came to the same conclusion. I think we were supposed to be impressed and marvel at how badass she is or something, lol. No matter how forced it was. Having wielders with more experience jobbing to show that she's not useless is not how you fix a character, Nomura.