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[MATGSY]

TT being slower doesn't work with all the renovations that occurred like Scrooge's restaurant or the tram garage becoming a movie theater. If anything that suggests time moving faster.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

TT being slower doesn't work with all the renovations that occurred like Scrooge's restaurant or the tram garage becoming a movie theater. If anything that suggests time moving faster.

You would think, but I think we are meant to have believed that some of that stuff was always there but due to hardware limitations it never showed up. That or they have really, really good contractors hahaha

There are other things like the outdoor theater area and the cat lady retiring that clearly indicate some amount of time has passed, but Sora’s comments were pretty clearly meant to show that it hasn’t been any time at all since Sora left and came back in HPO’s POV.

 

[Hedginka]

Whether or not it's weird doesn't matter. Riku/Aqua is Riku getting with the hot lady he met when was 5. It's like the equivalent of marrying the teacher you had a crush on before learning what a crush even was. What a lad!

As for Terra's he into prim and proper blondes, so he'll be okay.

 

[Face My Fears]

You would think, but I think we are meant to have believed that some of that stuff was always there but due to hardware limitations it never showed up. That or they have really, really good contractors hahaha

There are other things like the outdoor theater area and the cat lady retiring that clearly indicate some amount of time has passed, but Sora’s comments were pretty clearly meant to show that it hasn’t been any time at all since Sora left and came back in HPO’s POV.

Really? I thought that it must have been at least a few months. The comment about how skateboarding was a fad made it seem like the kids were doing it during the summer vacation and stopped by winter (which I assume is when Sora returns). Also, Seifer going on his journey couldn't happen (logically) until another school break unless he has parents as great as Sora's.

I ship Riku/Aqua mainly because their personalities seem to be very compatible. They're both the "mature" ones of their trios. They're also the only keyblade masters of their trios. Also, they become a mess when someone flirts with them. I didn't really think about the age thing because age (especially for main characters) is so abstract and hard to determine. Also, Riku met Aqua for maybe 5 minutes at most. He clearly forgot all about her (from her visit). Have they ever mentioned whether Riku remembers Terra giving him the keyblade? Because if Riku doesn't remember that, then he definitely wouldn't remember Aqua.

 

[*TwilightNight*]

But Riku already has Naminé

No, he doesn’t. Why do people still believe this?

Even playing devil's advocate here and ignoring Nomura actively debunking it, when has the guy shown romantic interest in Naminè in 8+ games? He had more going on with Xion than Naminè. Guy barely spare a thought about her in KHIII until Riku Replica reminded him she exists. Which brings me to--

Really? I thought that it must have been at least a few months. The comment about how skateboarding was a fad made it seem like the kids were doing it during the summer vacation and stopped by winter (which I assume is when Sora returns). Also, Seifer going on his journey couldn't happen (logically) until another school break unless he has parents as great as Sora's.

I ship Riku/Aqua mainly because their personalities seem to be very compatible. They're both the "mature" ones of their trios. They're also the only keyblade masters of their trios. Also, they become a mess when someone flirts with them. I didn't really think about the age thing because age (especially for main characters) is so abstract and hard to determine. Also, Riku met Aqua for maybe 5 minutes at most. He clearly forgot all about her (from her visit). Have they ever mentioned whether Riku remembers Terra giving him the keyblade? Because if Riku doesn't remember that, then he definitely wouldn't remember Aqua.

Riku and Aqua had good chemistry when they interacted in KHIII I think. Do I think it'll happen? No. The most possible would be Terra or unknown character she gets with in the future. But there was never any grooming or intensive interactions involved. They met and talked for less than three minutes ten years ago and bowed out. The Riku she sees and is getting to know now is completely different. So I don't find it weird.

Anyway, Riku just screams single to me. His priorities are elsewhere currently. He's not looking for nor does he need romance to be fulfilled.

 

[Sign]

He clearly forgot all about her (from her visit). Have they ever mentioned whether Riku remembers Terra giving him the keyblade? Because if Riku doesn't remember that, then he definitely wouldn't remember Aqua.

Riku is the only one among SRK who remembers Terra and Aqua. That was confirmed in the BBS Ultimania and acknowledged multiple times in DDD and KH3+ReMind.

 

[Elysium]

Really? I thought that it must have been at least a few months. The comment about how skateboarding was a fad made it seem like the kids were doing it during the summer vacation and stopped by winter (which I assume is when Sora returns). Also, Seifer going on his journey couldn't happen (logically) until another school break unless he has parents as great as Sora's.

I ship Riku/Aqua mainly because their personalities seem to be very compatible. They're both the "mature" ones of their trios. They're also the only keyblade masters of their trios. Also, they become a mess when someone flirts with them. I didn't really think about the age thing because age (especially for main characters) is so abstract and hard to determine. Also, Riku met Aqua for maybe 5 minutes at most. He clearly forgot all about her (from her visit). Have they ever mentioned whether Riku remembers Terra giving him the keyblade? Because if Riku doesn't remember that, then he definitely wouldn't remember Aqua.

It sort of amazes me the way the fandom finds a way for something to be "wrong" with everything. I do not think of Aqua as some secret 40 year-old in a teenager's body... If you thought of it that way, wouldn't it be sort of weird for 40+ TAV to be hanging around with a bunch of teenagers, playing frisby or whatever, on the beach at the end of KH3 altogether? Even taking shipping out of the equation, that alone would be creepy. If you want to think of her that age, then I guess it wouldn't be weird to ship her with Ansem the Wise, since they're in the same age range? lmao I definitely don't think we're intended to think of them that way and I don't.

Come to think of it, Donald & Goofy are like 70 years old and hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. How problematic. Nevermind all those Sora/Donald fics over the years--now there's another strange dimension to them.

No, he doesn’t. Why do people still believe this?

I had that same reaction, but decided to keep it to myself at the time, lol.

 

[Face My Fears]

It sort of amazes me the way the fandom finds a way for something to be "wrong" with everything. I do not think of Aqua as some secret 40 year-old in a teenager's body... If you thought of it that way, wouldn't it be sort of weird for 40+ TAV to be hanging around with a bunch of teenagers, playing frisby or whatever, on the beach at the end of KH3 altogether? Even taking shipping out of the equation, that alone would be creepy. If you want to think of her that age, then I guess it wouldn't be weird to ship her with Ansem the Wise, since they're in the same age range? lmao I definitely don't think we're intended to think of them that way and I don't.

Come to think of it, Donald & Goofy are like 70 years old and hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. How problematic. Nevermind all those Sora/Donald fics over the years--now there's another strange dimension to them.


I had that same reaction, but decided to keep it to myself at the time, lol.

Exactly. I think calling Riku/Aqua forbidden or some sort of crime is crazy. Time itself is hard to judge in the KH world, so how can anyone know the ages of characters that have been through the strangest of circumstances? Aqua was in the Realm of Darkness for 10 years, but doesn't age a bit physically - there's no way to tell how she perceived that length of time (did it feel like 1 year?) or let alone what happened to her body physically in that time (did he eat/drink water?) Terra's body was thrown around for 10 years (turned into a heartless/nobody, then "recompleted" into ??? then killed again) to ultimately return exactly as he was 10 years prior.

And the replicas... if Roxas were to date Lea, would that mean Lea is dating some sort of artificial vessel? Human/living doll relationship? Let alone Roxas being only 2 years old. You can even argue that his mental state isn't mature enough to handle a relationship yet, let alone with someone older like Lea - since he didn't even understand basic things like friendship... which Lea taught him. Is that grooming?

I think examining the relationships and the characters involved so in-depth is problematic. Can't we all just agree that Nomura meant for all the trios and Namine to be teenagers - regardless of whatever crazy things occurred? That's my impression anyway.

 

[Elysium]

With Axel / Roxas, I do agree with the age gap ruining it post-BbS (or was it Days that we got his official age?), although I didn't think it was bad back when KH2 was first out. I still say Axel was never intended to be as old as he was made to be, and Nomura retroactively aged him up to make sense of him fitting into BbS's timeframe. I don't hate the shippers from back when, I blame Nomura's on-the-fly writing for that one happening.

And I can understand where others are coming from in regards to the squickiness of TAV having briefly met Riku and Sora in BbS even though I definitely don't think of Aqua as being old in the present (I think of Aqua as having been in a place where there is no time and that it was like a year for her). I have no idea what the Ultimanias might say about the realm of darkness and the way time works there, and honestly I don't care, but I get why some ships are not for everyone. I don't see Aqua/Riku as a ship that's innately wrong though.

 

[Sign]

With Axel / Roxas, I do agree with the age gap ruining it post-BbS (or was it Days that we got his official age?), although I didn't think it was bad back when KH2 was first out. I still say Axel was never intended to be as old as he was made to be, and Nomura retroactively aged him up to make sense of him fitting into BbS's timeframe. I don't hate the shippers from back when, I blame Nomura's on-the-fly writing for that one happening.

Iirc neither game gave us his official age, but the one-two punch of seeing Axel show Roxas the ways of the world in Days right after he was born (like Face My Fears said, can be read as grooming) and that he's around Ven's age during BBS was enough to turn most everyone away from the ship.

 

[palizinhas]

Days and BBS also had Axel and Saix's relationship being revealed, which caused a lot of people to jump ship.

 

[pastel.goblin]

Possibly unpopular opinion but I always found Akuroku a bit ick. It was one of THE ships back in the day but like, Axel is so obviously a grown man (I guess you can be reeeally generous and say he's 18/19 but that's still kinda :\ ) At the end of the day it's just fiction, but their beginnings in Days just added to the ick for me personally aha

 

[palizinhas]

Yeah, I always read Axel as an adult, even before I played BBS. KH always has its teenagers pretty short and adults really tall, and Axel is just SO tall, even when compared to tallest teenager Riku. He could have been just a really tall teenager, but beyond being friends with a 15 year old that wasn't the impression I got, especially considering CoM Axel.

 

[Zackarix]

Axel didn't have a precise age in CoM or KH2, but aside from being friends with a teen there's no reason to to think he's not an adult. He's treated like a peer by the rest of O13 and unlike Ienzo/Zexion nobody remarks on his young age. Fans just estimated Axel's age to be as young as possible because it made a popular ship more acceptable.

No, he doesn’t. Why do people still believe this?

Even playing devil's advocate here and ignoring Nomura actively debunking it, when has the guy shown romantic interest in Naminè in 8+ games? He had more going on with Xion than Naminè. Guy barely spare a thought about her in KHIII until Riku Replica reminded him she exists.

The same reason most "sister ships" exist: convenience. If Namine is now Riku's love interest that means that Roxas is free to hook up with your preferred alternate love interest of choice. The status of the actual relationship is irrelevant because the main purpose is to keep Namine out of the dating pool.

 

[Face My Fears]

Um, I love Riku/Namine as a ship not because it's some weird way of getting Riku with Sora (through Namine) or some kind of ploy to keep Namine from Roxas. I just think their interactions were interesting and I saw some chemistry there. Unlike the other females that Riku interacted with (like Shiki), it came across that Riku/Namine had a deeper connection. Maybe it was just because in KH2 Riku/Namine's roles were so mysterious it just appeared as if there was a deeper connection, but that's just how I processed it. I kinda saw it as both of them trying to redeem themselves for what they did to Sora and bonding through that... but then Namine wants to help Roxas and changes the plan by doing what she wants. Now I want to see cutscenes of what Riku/Namine/Ansem The Wise were doing while Sora was sleeping.

Regarding Axel/Roxas - I never wanted this ship. I was never interested in this ship and now that people are writing it, I never actually registered that Axel was an adult and so friendly with Roxas. Yikes. When I played CoM/KH2, I got the vibe that Axel was older - maybe 25 at least. When I played Days and all future games, I got the vibe that Axel was younger lol. So did Nomura age Axel up to fit into Radiant Garden in BbS, then de-age him so he fit in with the trios better?

But I don't think the Axel/Roxas ship is the same as Aqua/Riku. I only say this because Aqua was in the Realm of Darkness, so time moves differently there. Also, Riku lived 15-16 years of actual life and is about the same age as Aqua was when she was plunged into the Realm of Darkness. Axel/Roxas would literally be someone that's at least 21 coming onto someone who was just born... and even if you consider Roxas a teen, he's still a teen.

Anyway, I'm moving on from that topic. I'll just list my ships:

Sora/Kairi - I finally got a HD close-up hand holding and papou fruit sharing after more than a decade
Riku/Namine - I have no idea why Nomura went out of his way to debunk this from the KH3 ending (and what Sora said in The Final World). Possibly because he has a love interest for Riku in Quadratum (watch it be the girl from Verum Rex).

 

[Elysium]

Well, Roxas is 15-ish and Axel became 23-ish with BbS--we don't have to resort to the fake, histrionic arguments like "Roxas is only 1 year old!!" since the former age difference alone would've been enough to make it a problem. And, besides, what most forget when they go for the OTT reach of the latter argument in their base attempt to shame shippers of the past is that they forget that the same argument of age being removed when someone becomes a Nobody could also be applied to Axel. Is he, what, 3 or 4 years old in Nobody years in that case? If you think a Nobody's age begins from the moment they're "born" as a Nobody, the age difference between Axel and Roxas would actually be lower than if you went by their actual age (which is whatever age their somebodies were when the Nobodies were created onwards).

And Axel's taking Roxas under his wing could only be seen as grooming if the person writing the ship is deliberately reading the ship as some kind of predator-prey relationship...and why would any shipper do that? It's certainly not a canon interpretation since the idea of romantic subtext between any characters in this franchise is complete fantasy altogether on the part of all shippers, since SoKai is the only thing that is canon. Why would someone in the past who was writing Axel/Roxas fanfiction deliberately fantasize a relationship where Axel is "grooming" his "prey"? Maybe look at it logically instead of trying to fish out a way to demonize strangers you don't like in the worst light possible. I know there have been some here before who have done that to the Axel/Roxas ship mostly because it's obvious they don't like that there was once a popular pairing that challenged their own fantasy (usually Roxas/Namine). And you can see it in the borderline homophobic language they used to describe the challenging pairing; those types of toxic fans are just as sick as the smears they spew. If you don't think SoKai shippers would do the same thing to SoRiku shippers if Nomura retroactively aged Riku up 5 years, you'd have to be blind to the way the shipping world works. Or lying.

 

[Zackarix]

Well, Roxas is 15-ish and Axel became 23-ish with BbS--we don't have to resort to the fake, histrionic arguments like "Roxas is only 1 year old!!" since the former age difference alone would've been enough to make it a problem. And, besides, what most forget when they go for the OTT reach of the latter argument in their base attempt to shame shippers of the past is that they forget that the same argument of age being removed when someone becomes a Nobody could also be applied to Axel. Is he, what, 3 or 4 years old in Nobody years in that case? If you think a Nobody's age begins from the moment they're "born" as a Nobody, the age difference between Axel and Roxas would actually be lower than if you went by their actual age (which is whatever age their somebodies were when the Nobodies were created onwards).

I know that fans of the ship would object to people bringing up the age gap, but the age estimates you're throwing out here are pretty much exactly what I described in being as young as possible to make the ship more acceptable. If Axel was 23 in KH2 that would make Lea 12 in BbS. Not impossible, but most people came away with the impression that he was in his mid-teens. And where on Earth are you getting the idea that Axel became a Nobody only 3 or 4 years before Roxas did? He lost his heart at the same time as or shortly after Ansem's apprentices did, around a year after BbS. Maybe there's a bit of wiggle room because we don't have precise dates, but not much because Ienzo's child model is still in use. So even if we're using Nobody ages there's still a 9 year age gap.

 

[Absent]

This thread did not pass the vibe check. I do not claim this energy.

Skates away in my torn Hot Topic black jean with a matching All American Rejects shirt.

 

[Clue.Less]

Any good Roxas/Hayner fics out there? There aren't many about this ship on AO3

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

My solution to AkuRoku is to age Roxas up or age Axel down in any stories where they are romantically involved, or strictly write Roxas as having a one-sided crush.

In the end they are fictional characters and people can do what they want with them and I won’t tell people to not ship something.

But 15/23 is still grooming because one is an adult with more awareness of the situation and the other is a minor.

If they were both adults but with the same age difference of 8 years, whatever. Fine. But a minor and an adult is a No from me.

Any good Roxas/Hayner fics out there? There aren't many about this ship on AO3

FFN might have more as it was popular when that site was still a hotspot.