I'm not sure how deep in meaning the somebodies names will be. I mean, I haven't done a whole lot of research, but are the names Lea, Isa, Braig, Dilan and so on all connected to the Nobody or one of his gimmicks?
I doubt that there is much of a deeper meaning since a) the Nobody names came first and the "originals" had to be formed around them and b) the "missing" somebodies of the former Organisation aren't that important anyways.
I don't quite see this polar opposition for the apprentices (matter of fact, I hardly even saw the re-completed apprentices in the first place. All I've got were a couple of lines from Ienzo). Not that seeing Dilan and Aeleus doing something would've been much of a proof of anything anyway, they're so underdeveloped that we have hardly anything to start with.
People assume that a somebody is like his nobody counterpart because this is what has been shown so far, and every Nobody that wasn't one of the anomalies (Roxas, Xemnas, Naminé) seems to be interchangeable with its Somebody. Braig and Xigbar are just as identical as Lea and Axel.
Marluxia was also polite and reserved when he first appeared, and acted like he was Sora's true friend who knew about his missing memories (he used "denouement" unironically in a conversation for Pete's sake).
Lauriam totally reminds me of Marluxia in the way he acts: both act confident yet detatched, and issue orders whilst making them look like the only intended course of action.
Agreed, people were quick on assuming that Ansem's former apprentices "changed sides" and/or suddenly turned good on a few mere snippets shown in DDD with Lea, with only Ienzo playing a sort of infodump machine that doesn't say anything about his current allegiance or intention. Not to forget that Lea can count also as a pretty shady figure until he firmly chooses a side by going to Yen Sid.
One can be calm and appear friendly while still being a scumbag underneath.
That being said I seriously hope that KH 3 doesn't depict them as being in charge of Radiant Garden again as these nutjobs and their experiments on the hearts of citizens (it wasn't
solely Xehanort) shouldn't just be swept under the rug nor should they be trusted.
If Leon and the others just accept them and allow them to be in positions of power they're as stupid as Eraqus was to still trust Xehanort in BBS.
Yea, because
normal Nobodies do have most if not all the memories from their former "somebody"-life so there is a continuation of identity to a degree and "recompleted" somebodies also have the memories from the "Nobody"-phase so there should be an uninterrupted functioning chain of memories.
Roxas, Naminé and Xemnas may be story-wise the most prominent and most connected to the protagonists and antagonists, but they're indeed highly special exceptions and what goes for them does not go for the other (former) Nobodies.
Lea in DDD even verbally states that "Xehanort doesn't count", neither do Roxas and Naminé for that matter.
Tbh we have seen too few of Lauriam so far to make a full assessment, as he had like what, three lines so far?
Yet still I agree that the few glimpses of personality we've seen so far add up with what we have seen of Marluxia.