Soo ... the Kingdom Hearts games are often about a struggle between light and darkness, the need to keep both in balance and insists that darkness is not inherently a bad thing. Xehanort especially insists on their balance, that darkness shouldn't be supressed but channeled while characters like Aqua or Eraqus believe that darkness should be fought and represents all evil. Riku found the balance between light and darkness and grew strong through on his journey through dealing with that.
Still I think the game doesn't really hold up its own premise of "darkness is not inherently bad" - nearly everything concerned with darkness is portrayed as being a bad thing. The Realm of Darkness is a dangerous place. Darkness is only tolerable when kept in check or controlled - no one ever had to keep the light in check, the light is always the salvation (like when the door to the RoL opens), the light drives away the darkness and the Seven Hearts are being praised for being pure light. Dark attacks (with the exception of Riku and Terra) are usually by the bad guys. Heck, in the case of Ventus and Vanitas Ventus is portrayed as the good "pure" kid while Vanitas is the bad one, even though he is technically also pure. Mickey wields a keyblade of darkness, but the actual difference between the three types is never really explained so we don't know if there's a bad side to that. If people fall to darkness, they lose themselves (e.g. Aqua) or are tarnished in some way.
Xemnas has a talk with Sora / Riku / Mickey at the end of the second game where Mickey points out that darkness is scary, but later wonders why he even thinks so. Riku then replies it's because of who is lurking in it, so Xemnas questions what other choice they even had, being "turned away by both light and dark". Sora replies with his standard answer in this game "you don't feel anyway, duh" and the topic is basically done.
So, what do I overlook? I'm really willing to believe that darkness is an ambivalent thing, but the games lead me to believe everything coming from the dark side is indeed bad or at least to be watched.
Actually, I would love if they'd bring up a being of pure darkness that is a good noodle, maybe clashing with some actually evil light guy. That would mix up the dynamics between both sides a little.
Still I think the game doesn't really hold up its own premise of "darkness is not inherently bad" - nearly everything concerned with darkness is portrayed as being a bad thing. The Realm of Darkness is a dangerous place. Darkness is only tolerable when kept in check or controlled - no one ever had to keep the light in check, the light is always the salvation (like when the door to the RoL opens), the light drives away the darkness and the Seven Hearts are being praised for being pure light. Dark attacks (with the exception of Riku and Terra) are usually by the bad guys. Heck, in the case of Ventus and Vanitas Ventus is portrayed as the good "pure" kid while Vanitas is the bad one, even though he is technically also pure. Mickey wields a keyblade of darkness, but the actual difference between the three types is never really explained so we don't know if there's a bad side to that. If people fall to darkness, they lose themselves (e.g. Aqua) or are tarnished in some way.
Xemnas has a talk with Sora / Riku / Mickey at the end of the second game where Mickey points out that darkness is scary, but later wonders why he even thinks so. Riku then replies it's because of who is lurking in it, so Xemnas questions what other choice they even had, being "turned away by both light and dark". Sora replies with his standard answer in this game "you don't feel anyway, duh" and the topic is basically done.
So, what do I overlook? I'm really willing to believe that darkness is an ambivalent thing, but the games lead me to believe everything coming from the dark side is indeed bad or at least to be watched.
Actually, I would love if they'd bring up a being of pure darkness that is a good noodle, maybe clashing with some actually evil light guy. That would mix up the dynamics between both sides a little.