So how will the protectrs of light operate. Will they organize themselves the way Xheanort is orchestrating the dark side. Will they be assighned to protect a princess
They may surely as hell organize themselves, probably also with additional allies like Donald and Goofy and Yen Sid as their "base operator" keeping an eye on the broader picture.
Assigning one protector to each Princess may seem reasonable at first, puts the seven on a severe tactical disadvantage though as they then give the 13 darknesses the initiative and have to wait for them to make a move, not to mention the thirteen can then pick them off one by one, incapacitating (without truly defeating them) the protector and cause the heart of assigned Princess to be lost to make the universe unstable. If all seven pure hearts of the Princesses are lost, the Realm of Light will be flooded by Darkness according to Yen Sid, so Kairi actually learning to fight and having a Keyblade might be exactly the one thing Xehanort does not expect, that by being able to hold her own against the thirteen Kairi can "sustain" the RoL with her heart even if the hearts of the other Princesses are temporarily lost, buying the seven protectors and their allies enough time to win back the hearts of the other Princesses and destroy the thirteen darknesses for good together with Xehanort.
This is what I was imagining would happen. But then that brings up the whole case of Kairi, will she protect herself or will she not be one of the protectors? Though I feel like she will be.
I don't know if that would really help their cause since they would only invite Xehanort's new Org to attack by staying this much on the defensive and only react instead of acting. Depending on how many additional allies they have (and how much of a difference they may make) they might also be still outnumbered by the enemy.
On a strategic layer it would probably better to concentrate the Princesses in one place with a suitable defense force (probably with Kairi as trained warrior as the leader) while the protectors move out to actively seek and destroy the 13 darknesses before they cause too much damage, maybe even picking them off one by one, laying Xehanort's entire plans to waste. ;P
That she'll be capable of defending herself now is a no-brainer, especially if she receives speed training in a time-pocket like Lea did.
If she's also a protector or not we'll see, Nomura definitely pointed her out as a candidate.
Well it wont hurt her to be able to protect her self in genreal, depending on her position when we see her next she may or may not need someon to watch her back.
That she will be without much further theorizing needed, and "someone" to watch her back or, let's say, support her can also be easily archived considering we may get more allies than just the seven protectors. Anyone not being a protector who's capable of doing something (like Lea, Roxas, Xion, Donald and Goofy for example, Ansem the Wise not really, lol) could be assigned to have an additional watch over her, since her heart is one of the seven friggin' pillars that support the whole current world order she is either way more important than her role up to now shows us.
Dude's a bastard.
Since we didn't get a protagonist that was legitimately a Nobody my pickings were kind of slim. Xion's a replica, no one knows what the Hell Namine is, and the closest we got was Axel who played the tritagonist and got the least insight.
Well we can agree that KH2 was sloppily written at least. And translated. KH2 probably had the worst translation in the entire series, changing the meaning of somethings entirely and making things more confusing. Like the dreaded "Why did he choose you!?" line (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻.
I suppose it's a matter of perspective. Perhaps "fate worse than death" is a bit over dramatic. It was KH2 it self that made going back to you're Somebody not as bad as first perceived since Roxas and Namine learned that going back to Sora and Kairi didn't mean they ceased to exist. That's not to say his situation isn't with out its faults. Roxas's story was one of semi tragedy were he didn't truly get what he wanted but once he got to were he was he found that it was so bad. Axel was sad because he might have not seen Roxas ever again, or at least for a really long time, but they cling on to the hope that they would "see each other in the next life". Roxas had to exist through someone else but he figured that Sora didn't "make a bad other" and was content with being with Namine, via, Sora and Kairi when ever they were together. He adapted, as you do. Which I thought was a good lesson. When things don't turn out like you wanted sometimes you find that you're new situation isn't as bad as you'd thought it'd be and you find new ways to become happy. Though it depends on how you interpret it.
Now what is this tirade about "rights" and being born weird. You're misunderstanding me again aren't you? I'm talking about the state of a Nobody. The drama of being a Nobody is that without a heart, they don't "exist" and will eventually fade into nothingness. We feel for our favorite Nobodies because we know that they're incomplete beings who can't feel and could fade away into nothing unless they fight to make them selves whole again but it's the whole "well, hearts grow back" concept that dampens the impact. For instance, Saix mourned for his lost heart and played Xemnas's bitch for a while but now thinking back on it his efforts don't mean as much because hearts grow back. Same with most of the rest of the Org. Obviously, they still have their connection to Xehanort but it just seems like they wasted their time and I care a little less about their situation.
It makes more sense for Vanitas to look like Ven. Like I said before, the logic behind it isn't complicated, and it's not something I have some huge grip about, it's just when you have someone that's the embodiment of someone's darkness you'd think that they would look like the person whom the darkness was ripped out of. I mean, one would think that Ven would be Vanitas's primary source for his appearance while Sora should be a "secondary" influence. How did Sora's connection to Ven somehow over ride Ven's connection to Vanitas in terms of appearance? Why would it?
But as I also said before, it's ultimately moot because canonically Sora and Ven look similar so Vanitas and Ven are supposed to look similar as well, one way or another.
While that may be true, you forget that in the end it doesn't matter what "type" of being one is because it was already said that anything that lives
can have/gain a heart way before DDD ever came to be. Already way back in Chain of Memories Sora pointed that out:
Sora in CoM said:
Sora: Wait! Who cares if someone created you? You are you and nobody else. You have your own heart inside you. Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. They're special!
Even disregarding the fact that he said the same words Roxas later uses against Riku and his words here are directed at Repliku, they can also be easily directed at Xion, Naminé, Roxas, heck even
Vanitas without ever becoming false.
Data-Sora in Coded was also able to grow a heart on his own, while it hasn't been
outright said (as in delivered on a silver platter) it is heavily implied by Donald, Goofy and Mickey
in-game, not just in Nomura's interviews.
That hearts can be formed has also been shown in BBS, with Ven's heart reforming due to Aqua's and Terra's care after Sora saved him over 4 years and Vanitas also having a newborn heart on his own (created out of a part of Ven's, yes, but it evolved, too).
So this is surely also a matter of perspective, but in all honesty, I was not surprised the slightest when I discovered something like this was revealed in Dream Drop Distance since for me, foreshadowing, hints and logic already pointed in that direction way before.
Indeed, that we can agree completely upon. KH2's writing and the translation had some severe shortcomings.
Of course it's also a matter of perspective, the others, like Axel, Zexion, Lexaeus etc. also didn't cease to exist because they are eventually reborn as their original selves after they vanished, Roxas, Naminé and Xion are special and they (so far)
aren't reborn because they are different form their original selves and have their
own self. They cannot be reborn as their original selves because the original selves are already around.
Roxas' "semi"-tragedy can pretty much become a full one as well once one realizes he really was for nothing to blame on the whole situation. While one may point fingers at DiZ, Riku and Naminé (especially her since she caused the whole mess about Sora's memories and was apparently too stupid to fix them without having Roxas and Xion disappear), that would be also too shortsighted as it was altogether a whole tragic scenario brought about by Xemnas, and by extension, Xehanort's plans.
It's indeed a case of interpretation though as Roxas' "new situation" isn't really a situation at all since all he's "doing" is sleeping inside Sora's heart. There aren't "new ways" because he cannot even
act or influence anything.
Ah, now I think we're at the core of things since I never bought this "drama" of being a Nobody. The fact that Nobodies have no hearts at first is not contradicted anywhere, and that they all eventually fade into nothingness has never been that much of a hassle since when the Heartless is defeated they are reborn as their original form. It has also been said that Nobodies can become whole again, but it has never been confirmed that the "possibility" provided by Xemnas (which we now learned was a lie to begin with) is the only one to reach that goal.
I somehow also get the vibe you count the "hearts grow back"-issue as something that happens automatically and in every case, from what I read of it from both Xemnas' and Ansem's explanations this isn't the case, there are conditions that need to be fulfilled in order for a new heart bud to "sprout" and the actual growth has to be encouraged by constantly connecting and interacting with people and to actually experience and
feel the light and environment.
I actually can't believe that I might be the only one who found it weird in KH2 and Days that Xigbar, Xemnas, Saix (and even Xaldin to a degree) reacted fiercely and dismissing with a stern "you can't feel!" whenever another member seemed to show more emotion. Not to forget that it was stated in CoM that memories are stored inside the heart, so where did the non-special Nobodies store their memories? Only the strongest hearts create a human-shaped Nobody, human appearance is also shaped partly by the heart, so the heart that was lost must have had left at least
something behind which allowed the Nobody to store memories and keep the human form. I originally theorized this leftover thing might have been a "heart-imprint" stamped onto the soul which also holds the consciousness of the Nobody, and now I see I wasn't
that off. JustSnilloc also had a similar theory I remember.
Saix's reaction in KH2 is questionable either way since in Days he seemed to be pretty much into Xemnas' and Xigbar's plans and was the only one seen attending their more "secret" meetings.
Of course they "wasted their time" on most of their "supposed" goal, but that serves to drive home the point that they were used by Xehanort even more, not to mention if some of them really started to develop hearts the excuse for rabid Org fans that they can't be held accountable for their crimes against the worlds becomes totally moot.
Ah, just for the sake of simplicity I presume then, like with Pit and Dark Pit in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Yeah, ok, that's probably just not Nomura's style I guess and the offical explanation does make sense after all, so I don't really mind.
I find it funny that we have went from Guardians of Light, to cartoony Keyblades, and now to the existence of some chracters and their content with their existence as well as why Vanitas doesn't look like Ven. I think we have kinda strayed from the original point of this thread lol.
I would like to put my two cents in about the Ven and Vanitas appearance thing. The only explanation I can think of would be are of Ven's heart that Sora's heart "repairs" is the part that Vanitas "took" and since he repaired that part of the heart which was Vanitas' section, he ended up looking like an evil Sora. That sounds kinda dumb and maybe even more complicated than it already wasn't lol.
That happens often when you get into an interesting discussion, lol.
On the contrary, what you describe, only slightly differently worded, is the
official explanation given by Nomura, lol.