- Joined
- Jan 8, 2010
- Messages
- 53
I feel that your analysis of the Days trio was rather well balanced and I enjoyed reading it. However, I have to disagree with many points of your BBS piece.
I feel that you didn't do the characters as much justice, and I analyze their emotions and interactions very differently.
For starters, at the beginning of the game (and with other flashback scenes as supplements) it is . clear that Ven and Terra ARE the closer of the three. Terra is almost like his mentor and role-model. I always caught the drift that Terra and Aqua had a very sibling relationship with Ven in that she was his big sister, he was the big brother. And you are right, Aqua DOES point out that the other two have a close relationship. She even reveals a little of her jealousy at that fact in her journey through the Coliseum, saying how envious how close relationship between boys can be. However, I think for the most part you are downsizing Aqua's feelings about everything and everyone's feelings about her. She has extremely high confidence in Terra at the start of the game, and is clearly worried about him during the whole scene that Eraqus is telling her the "secrets of the Keyblade master" (she is completely unfocused).
While there were not nearly as many direct, obvious statements of "you are my best friend. I care about you" there are so many clear signs present in the game about how deeply the three friends feel about each other. And, these feelings constantly shift and warp throughout the game.
You also complained of the trio's seemingly baffling ease of believing villains over years-old friends. I disagree with this. In Aqua's case, again, she did not instantly believe Maleficent, as you seemed to put it. She was confused and baffled by her statements but she still believed in her friend--she FOUGHT Maleficent, didn't she? More or less the continual statements of "Terra did this" and "Terra did that" just raised doubts, vs. losing all faith in her friend. I believe that her "confrontation" of Terra at Radiant Gardens was less of a "you are being evil" than "could you please explain what has been happening? I am worried about you." However, Terra, being a bit touchy with that at the moment, reacted to her statement badly, thinking she was judging him (How would you feel if you had say, applied to the same college as your friend but they got accepted and not you, and then for the next year before applying again you spent your time doing some part-time jobs but your friend was constantly following you around making sure that what you were doing would look good on your next application. It would be unmistakably frustrating, even if that friend really just had good intentions at heart.) Ven, who is a bit younger and, again, who looks up to Terra like a role model instantly throws out any bad rumors against Terra is blatant lies (something that, if you forget AQUA told him to do.) is shocked at the thought that Aqua has any doubts about him and attacks her.
Really, I see Aqua as the victim in that entire exchange because of her constant being torn with what her Master's wishes were, and her FRIENDSHIP, which clearly was hurting her at the obvious length she stood there looking sadly at the way they had both run off.
As far as Ven goes with your "rejected puppy" statement, at first I also had trouble understanding his logic in his sudden journey to find "new friends" but after thinking further I realized that his situation is actually very understandable. He felt rejected that neither of his friends listened to him, which probably was very depressing for someone like him who really only had his friends (since his past was a huge ??? at the time). When you fall into a depressed state like that you kind of lose the logic function for a lot of things, and it took a while but eventually Ven snapped back into it and realized how silly he was being. It was also a sign that he was growing up, and moving past being childishly peeved at being told off by his "big sister" and "big brother".
Again, all three of them had clear signs of trust and faith in each other at the start of the game. What isn't spoken in actual dialogue is more than made up for in numerous indirect gestures. You said you didn't need a whole slew of "ice cream scenes" to prove a friendship, but you haven't seemed able to pick up on the hints that there WERE these scenes, we just weren't witnesses to them.
All three friends have their own insecurities of their relationships, which comes to a clash at Radiant Gardens, and then each of them reflects on it, rectifies it (or at least makes an attempt to) and in the end all three meet again with much stronger ties than they had at even the beginning.
I wont get into all of them, it isn't necessary.
BBS is NOT a story about three close friends who fall apart. It is a story about three close friends who have a falling out because of a clash of their varying insecurities, but with their own inner reflection based off of their PAST EXPERIENCES mixed with new lessons taught along the way by the people they meet, they pull the pieces of their friendship together and strengthen it--but end up losing everything anyway because their luck just wasn't good enough (and apparently fate wasn't on their side). That is where the real tragedy of BBS lies.
To summarize, I believe you have wholly underestimated the relationships between the characters.
Terra + Ven: Clearly have a very strong relationship from start to finish. You have seen this too with the multitudes of flashbacks etc. No need to dwell on this.
Terra + Aqua: Very strong relationship that gets rocky, but their interaction and relationship I actually find the most intriguing. Aqua at first is very concerned with her friends' battle with the darkness, and gives way a little to doubt, but in the very end has extreme trust and dedication to protecting her friend and saving him. As an aside, I seriously question if you paid attention to the ending of the Secret Episode. Aqua's unwavering belief in Terra is firm and obvious, even to the point where she almost gets strangled to death because of it. That, and you know, the whole sacrificing herself for him thing-- no biggie. Terra's view on Aqua is a bit harder to read, but I feel like at the start of the game he resented her for being too close a monitor, probably feeling pestered and more than likely when he sees her he is reminded of his personal failure which is probably driving him crazy. However, in the end he admits to her "she was right" and realizes her overarching concern for him--not overarching distrust.
Aqua + Ven: Aqua at first treats him child-like, watching over him like an older sister. Ven doesn't seem to mind that at the beginning it seems, until he realizes that he is ready to break out of that bubble and gain independence. Again, as I mentioned earlier, he has a very clear phase of inner maturity after which he interacts with both Aqua and Terra differently. He no longer requires their "guardianship" and instead seeks out to protect them as well. He breaks through being completely frozen-solid to save Aqua, so obviously she isn't just "an odd addition...to raise the head count" for Ven. Aqua also even acknowledges Ven's new-found independence in the very start of the Secret Episode when she, in contrast to telling Ven where to go, listens to HIS decision of where HE wants to go. I found that to be a very touching moment because it reveals her understanding of his character and the new bond between them (If you recall I find this almost akin to the ending of Kh2 with Riku's "Sora, you lead" line). In the end, Aqua very clearly has a strong desire to save and protect her friends. The fact that she was going to guard Ven's body for all eternity if necessary. I am a little hurt that you summed up her interactions as just "bossing and yelling at everyone." She clearly cares very deeply for all of them throughout the entire game and I find her to be one of the most sincere characters with her feelings.
Last word: Yes, BBS has less direct character-to-character interaction but it really isn't necessary, frankly. You can pick up on so much emotional tension between all three of them without a direct scene, and I believe many if not all of their issues are entirely relateable. Heck, I related to almost all of them at multiple points during the game. Something huge WAS lost at the end of the game. The three of them had such a huge, gleaming potential for wonderful times together with a new, stronger friendship, but it was ripped away from them. There is huge contrast to the tragedy, you just have to look a little bit deeper to find it.
Please put more effort into your final review!! I feel that you made a lot of general statements that could easily be disproved by very specific scenes in the game so I am not sure where you are getting half of your ideas from. Again, while I enjoyed the Days one, this particular analysis of the BBS characters felt rushed and one-sided, like you had only really paid attention to Terra's point of view and almost completely ignored Aqua's feelings entirely.
(as one last aside, I realize my personal analysis on the "true feelings" of the characters is not, obviously, the solid truth since it is also just my opinion so please no body attack me because I read a character wrong 0_o...).
I feel that you didn't do the characters as much justice, and I analyze their emotions and interactions very differently.
For starters, at the beginning of the game (and with other flashback scenes as supplements) it is . clear that Ven and Terra ARE the closer of the three. Terra is almost like his mentor and role-model. I always caught the drift that Terra and Aqua had a very sibling relationship with Ven in that she was his big sister, he was the big brother. And you are right, Aqua DOES point out that the other two have a close relationship. She even reveals a little of her jealousy at that fact in her journey through the Coliseum, saying how envious how close relationship between boys can be. However, I think for the most part you are downsizing Aqua's feelings about everything and everyone's feelings about her. She has extremely high confidence in Terra at the start of the game, and is clearly worried about him during the whole scene that Eraqus is telling her the "secrets of the Keyblade master" (she is completely unfocused).
While there were not nearly as many direct, obvious statements of "you are my best friend. I care about you" there are so many clear signs present in the game about how deeply the three friends feel about each other. And, these feelings constantly shift and warp throughout the game.
You also complained of the trio's seemingly baffling ease of believing villains over years-old friends. I disagree with this. In Aqua's case, again, she did not instantly believe Maleficent, as you seemed to put it. She was confused and baffled by her statements but she still believed in her friend--she FOUGHT Maleficent, didn't she? More or less the continual statements of "Terra did this" and "Terra did that" just raised doubts, vs. losing all faith in her friend. I believe that her "confrontation" of Terra at Radiant Gardens was less of a "you are being evil" than "could you please explain what has been happening? I am worried about you." However, Terra, being a bit touchy with that at the moment, reacted to her statement badly, thinking she was judging him (How would you feel if you had say, applied to the same college as your friend but they got accepted and not you, and then for the next year before applying again you spent your time doing some part-time jobs but your friend was constantly following you around making sure that what you were doing would look good on your next application. It would be unmistakably frustrating, even if that friend really just had good intentions at heart.) Ven, who is a bit younger and, again, who looks up to Terra like a role model instantly throws out any bad rumors against Terra is blatant lies (something that, if you forget AQUA told him to do.) is shocked at the thought that Aqua has any doubts about him and attacks her.
Really, I see Aqua as the victim in that entire exchange because of her constant being torn with what her Master's wishes were, and her FRIENDSHIP, which clearly was hurting her at the obvious length she stood there looking sadly at the way they had both run off.
As far as Ven goes with your "rejected puppy" statement, at first I also had trouble understanding his logic in his sudden journey to find "new friends" but after thinking further I realized that his situation is actually very understandable. He felt rejected that neither of his friends listened to him, which probably was very depressing for someone like him who really only had his friends (since his past was a huge ??? at the time). When you fall into a depressed state like that you kind of lose the logic function for a lot of things, and it took a while but eventually Ven snapped back into it and realized how silly he was being. It was also a sign that he was growing up, and moving past being childishly peeved at being told off by his "big sister" and "big brother".
Again, all three of them had clear signs of trust and faith in each other at the start of the game. What isn't spoken in actual dialogue is more than made up for in numerous indirect gestures. You said you didn't need a whole slew of "ice cream scenes" to prove a friendship, but you haven't seemed able to pick up on the hints that there WERE these scenes, we just weren't witnesses to them.
All three friends have their own insecurities of their relationships, which comes to a clash at Radiant Gardens, and then each of them reflects on it, rectifies it (or at least makes an attempt to) and in the end all three meet again with much stronger ties than they had at even the beginning.
I wont get into all of them, it isn't necessary.
BBS is NOT a story about three close friends who fall apart. It is a story about three close friends who have a falling out because of a clash of their varying insecurities, but with their own inner reflection based off of their PAST EXPERIENCES mixed with new lessons taught along the way by the people they meet, they pull the pieces of their friendship together and strengthen it--but end up losing everything anyway because their luck just wasn't good enough (and apparently fate wasn't on their side). That is where the real tragedy of BBS lies.
To summarize, I believe you have wholly underestimated the relationships between the characters.
Terra + Ven: Clearly have a very strong relationship from start to finish. You have seen this too with the multitudes of flashbacks etc. No need to dwell on this.
Terra + Aqua: Very strong relationship that gets rocky, but their interaction and relationship I actually find the most intriguing. Aqua at first is very concerned with her friends' battle with the darkness, and gives way a little to doubt, but in the very end has extreme trust and dedication to protecting her friend and saving him. As an aside, I seriously question if you paid attention to the ending of the Secret Episode. Aqua's unwavering belief in Terra is firm and obvious, even to the point where she almost gets strangled to death because of it. That, and you know, the whole sacrificing herself for him thing-- no biggie. Terra's view on Aqua is a bit harder to read, but I feel like at the start of the game he resented her for being too close a monitor, probably feeling pestered and more than likely when he sees her he is reminded of his personal failure which is probably driving him crazy. However, in the end he admits to her "she was right" and realizes her overarching concern for him--not overarching distrust.
Aqua + Ven: Aqua at first treats him child-like, watching over him like an older sister. Ven doesn't seem to mind that at the beginning it seems, until he realizes that he is ready to break out of that bubble and gain independence. Again, as I mentioned earlier, he has a very clear phase of inner maturity after which he interacts with both Aqua and Terra differently. He no longer requires their "guardianship" and instead seeks out to protect them as well. He breaks through being completely frozen-solid to save Aqua, so obviously she isn't just "an odd addition...to raise the head count" for Ven. Aqua also even acknowledges Ven's new-found independence in the very start of the Secret Episode when she, in contrast to telling Ven where to go, listens to HIS decision of where HE wants to go. I found that to be a very touching moment because it reveals her understanding of his character and the new bond between them (If you recall I find this almost akin to the ending of Kh2 with Riku's "Sora, you lead" line). In the end, Aqua very clearly has a strong desire to save and protect her friends. The fact that she was going to guard Ven's body for all eternity if necessary. I am a little hurt that you summed up her interactions as just "bossing and yelling at everyone." She clearly cares very deeply for all of them throughout the entire game and I find her to be one of the most sincere characters with her feelings.
Last word: Yes, BBS has less direct character-to-character interaction but it really isn't necessary, frankly. You can pick up on so much emotional tension between all three of them without a direct scene, and I believe many if not all of their issues are entirely relateable. Heck, I related to almost all of them at multiple points during the game. Something huge WAS lost at the end of the game. The three of them had such a huge, gleaming potential for wonderful times together with a new, stronger friendship, but it was ripped away from them. There is huge contrast to the tragedy, you just have to look a little bit deeper to find it.
Please put more effort into your final review!! I feel that you made a lot of general statements that could easily be disproved by very specific scenes in the game so I am not sure where you are getting half of your ideas from. Again, while I enjoyed the Days one, this particular analysis of the BBS characters felt rushed and one-sided, like you had only really paid attention to Terra's point of view and almost completely ignored Aqua's feelings entirely.
(as one last aside, I realize my personal analysis on the "true feelings" of the characters is not, obviously, the solid truth since it is also just my opinion so please no body attack me because I read a character wrong 0_o...).
